Over the break, I spent a great deal of time planning for 2012. Part of this was undertaking in depth analysis of the survey I did before Christmas. The feedback was amazing and I am very appreciative of the time you spent completing it for me.

It has given me so much information and ideas for what I can and need to do in 2012. I did read every comment left, but as there were almost 600 responses, naturally there were some conflicting points of view, for example:

• Some requested more recipes meat and veg style, while another reader felt too many recipes contained meat.
• A number of readers asked for more cute party recipes, while another reader felt that there were too many sweet recipes.
• Lots of people like the step by step photos, while another didn’t.
• Many loved the Melbourne focused posts, while others wanted me to focus on other cities in Australia occasionally.

My reason for showing these examples is so you can understand that is not going to be possible for me to act on every single suggestion. However all of the suggestions have made me think more carefully as I put together the content plan for the blog for 2012, and where I have been able to I have tried to take the suggestions on board.

There was also feedback that was pretty unanimous, things like:

• More info how I approach the day to day basics of our family life.
• More about time management and achieving “balance”.
• More info on organising paper work and clutter in general.
• More info on menu planning.
• More post on routines for kids and mum.
• More posts on “mum” and finding time to do the things you want to do.

You will see this type of info being published more frequently through out the year.

Changes for 2012

The feedback also confirmed something I sort of new already – the navigation of the blog really could be better. Better defined categories, easier to use search facility and better recipe index where some of the key areas highlighted as needing improvement. And I agree!

So a new blog design is my first big project for 2012. It will take a little time, as there is 4 years worth of posts and the first couple of years I didn’t tag them correctly, so I will set about working on that, while my clever designers help me give the blog a complete make over. I am very excited about this!

In terms of posts, I will have some new regular features for 2012 that I will be introducing over the next few weeks aimed to cover the areas you are most interested in reading about.

The Planning With Kids Menu Planner App is closer to release and we are hoping to have it available in the next month. I am also working on some other useful products that will help make getting organised with a young family much easier.

I am really excited about implementing the changes that have come from the survey and some new ideas I have been keen to start on. Thank you again for taking the time to help me work on making Planning With Kids an even more useful resource to parents.

{Image – I just love this photo. I took it just before Christmas in the gardens at Melbourne Museum. Someone was setting up for a work Christmas party. They were getting ready to party. I feel a bit like that with the blog this year – I can feel it is going to be a great year!}

Current Sponsors:

• Bright Star Kids' Name Labels - Super Cute & Durable Name Labels
• Byk KIds Bikes - The first ergonomically designed Kids Bikes

Planning With Kids In 2012 is a post from: Planning With Kids

Over the last month I have worked pretty furiously with a lovely group of Melbourne Bloggers – Kathy, Kate, Marita, Amanda and Shae on a Community Blogging Christmas Event.

The idea behind Community Blogging is bloggers supporting and working with not for profit organisations in the local community. For our first event, we held a Christmas catch up for Melbourne Bloggers and asked some brands to come along and be a part of it. The difference with this blogging event was that instead of the bloggers receiving products from the brands involved, they agreed to donate the product to two amazing community groups:

Thanks to the kind donations of the sponsors of this event, the community groups received/will receive:

• Cash donations
• Household cleaning products
• Self care products
• Toys
• Craft supplies
• DVDs
• Toothbrushes

The Sponsors

The event was held at the Victorian Archives Centre in North Melbourne. It was a gorgeous venue and we would like to thank:

• Public Records Office Victoria – for allowing us to use the venue without charge.
• Cafe 99 – who have a cafe at the venue and provided excellent catering at great rates for us.

There were three key sponsors who made it possible for us to host the event:

PECAN FAN

Yes that is me in the middle of the Pecan, having some fun with Shae. Pecan Fan gave generous cash donations to each organisation. You can find great recipes and all sorts of fun trivia on the I’m A Pecan Fan facebook page.

ECOSTORE

EcoSTORE have a beautiful range of natural skincare and green cleaning products. You can pick up their products easily at Woolworths stores around the country.

EcoSTORE has such a great company ethos. They are a family company run out of New Zealand, where they have a carbon neutral factory and they already contribute to their local community in New Zealand through the Fairground Foundation. The Fairground Foundation is a charitable organisation that is funded by ecostore profits to promote sustainability through ‘on-the-ground’ action. You can find out more about what the foundation does here.

KIDS BUSINESS

Christie Nicholas is the author of “The Mum Who Roared” and also the founder of Kids Business. Kids Business is a Marketing & Public Relations company that is famous for their fab Bloggers Brunches, where they connect brands and bloggers.

An underlying philosophy Christie has had across the projects she has worked on is inspiring mums to love and look after themselves. In 2012 Kids Business is launching a project where they will sponsor a series of posts written by mums who blog. The post are not brand driven, but are posts that will inspire the bloggers community to be happy with themselves, take care of themselves and acknowledge their achievements. I think this is a great way to then be able to pay it forward to groups in your community who need support.

Thanks also to Colorific who donated craft supplies to St Kilda Mums:

Maclean Mums who donated toothpaste to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre:

Bundaberg Drinks who supplied the drinks from their cafe range for the event:

The Community Organisations

ST KILDA MUMS

I loved listening to Jessica from St Kilda Mums speak with such passion about her local community. It was very inspiring and Jessica made such sense when she said “We need Werribee mums, Box Hill mums, Richmond mums”. Locality works! If you think this is something you would like to do, St Kilda Mums are happy to share all their processes and info they have to help you set up your group locally.

You can email Jessica at stkildamums@gmail.com and can keep up to date with their work via their facebook page.

ASYLUM SEEKER RESOURCE CENTRE

We heard about the grass roots origins of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) from Robyn. The ASRC started as a student project by Kon Karapanagiotidis over 10 years ago. It is now Australia’s leading asylum seeker organization, providing support and advice for those seeking asylum in Australia.

Robyn spoke passionately about the people the ASRC support and it was quite emotional. A beautiful example given by Robyn, about the wonderful level of support they receive from the community, was about the Sunshine West Primary School. The school donated 100% of the funds raised from their school fete – $3000 to the ASRC. So amazing!

My favourite quote from Robyn was:

If you treat people well you will bring out the best in them.

Everyone is welcome to vist the ASRC and they have four Volunteer Information Sessions through out the year. The sessions have finished for this year, but you can check in on their volunteers page for updates here.

Or if you cannot donate time at the moment, I have mentioned previously on the blog, you can donate food and other essential items via Survival Network of the ASRC.

The Bloggers

{Kyrstie, Norlin, Toushka, Shae and Laney}

And thanks to the bloggers who came along at this crazy busy time of year. You can see more photos of bloggers and the event over on flickr.

Special thanks to Kate from Picklebums who took all the photos you will see on flickr and that I have used in this post (with the exception of the Colorific photo). Kate also created our Community Blogging logo – she is very talented.

There was such a great spirit to the event and we were very appreciative to those bloggers who couldn’t make it but tweeted and retweeted on the #blog4community hashtag. It trended on the evening which was a fab effort.

We are currently seeking ideas and support on how we can do more Community Blogging in 2012 – please head to the Get Involved page if you would like to be a part of it!

Current Sponsors:

• Bright Star Kids' Name Labels - Super Cute & Durable Name Labels
• Byk KIds Bikes - The first ergonomically designed Kids Bikes

Community Blogging Christmas Event is a post from: Planning With Kids

Since coming back from my trip to Blog World Expo I have had so many ideas about what I would like to do here on Planning With Kids. But before I begin, I wanted to get your thoughts on the blog and I have a created a survey to find out!

I know it is a busy time of year, so I have created the survey using mainly drop down menus, so it is quick for you to complete.

As a thank you for completing the survey at the end you receive a web address to go to, where you can download the free Planning With Kids Christmas Sweet Treats Recipe Booklet. The booklet contains 10 favourite sweet treat recipes to make for the festive season. Having them all compiled in one printable booklet, makes it easy to refer to.

The table of contents highlights the recipes I have included:

You can take the survey right here on the blog:

Or if you are reading on a mobile device it might be easier to complete the survey here.

Where ever you complete the survey, I will be very appreciative. I want to make Planning With Kids as useful and user friendly as possible. Your input will help me do this.

Thanks for reading Planning With Kids and I am really excited about the next evolution in the blog’s growth.

Current Sponsors:

• Bright Star Kids' Name Labels - Super Cute & Durable Name Labels
• Byk KIds Bikes - The first ergonomically designed Kids Bikes

A Survey and A Free Christmas Sweet Treats Recipe Booklet is a post from: Planning With Kids