Another wild and crazy year has gone by. Despite frustrating algorithm changes across all of social media, somehow I’m still surviving in this little corner of the blogging world! I’m always grateful to be able to share life with you all, to catch up on the year past and chat a bit about 2020.
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Photo Credit: A&C Photography
Mom Rewritten: The Blog – A Little More of ME
If you’ve seen my Instagram feed lately, one of my goals last year was to bring more of me to Mom Rewritten. There’s something cool about learning more about friends online and I want to bring my personality into each of my posts. I hope you enjoy getting a little bit of my life brought to your feed!
Simple Living and Positive Parenting
As the mom of four (now aged 3 to 16), I’m moving through parenting at many different levels! Naturally what I’m doing at home works its way into my blog posts as well. I love sharing what I’ve learned and what’s worked for me in case it can work for you too!
I potty trained my toddler early in the year and collected tons of ideas on what worked (and what didn’t work!) into this post about Practical Potty Training Tips.
This was one of my most searched-for posts and I rewrote with additional content and a new printable. If you have a tween, you might like using this Preteen Routine Daily Checklist Printable.
As my daughter has moved from toddler to preschooler, we’ve struggled at home with mood swings and I gathered helpful ideas into this post about How to Stop a Tantrum with Toddlers and Preschoolers.
- Just like traveling with young kids, teen travel also requires preparation. This post about Travel with Teens – Tips for Taking Teens on Vacation can help!
Healthy Living
After a relaxing summer, I was ready to tackle my fitness and healthy living goals in fall of 2019. I started daily exercise again and partnered with weight loss powerhouse Jenny Craig to bring several blog posts about my journey. I’m still in the midst of my program and feeling stronger than ever before. Can’t wait to close it out strong and meet my goals!
Local Living in Southern California
I love being a SoCal native and exploring my own backyard. We had the chance to do a few new things with the family this year in the way of travel and I enjoyed sharing my tips with my readers.
- Our first trip to Universal Studios Hollywood with my kids helped me know how to write this post for newbies.
- Another new experience, we enjoyed a day at Aquatica San Diego Water Park. Summer 2020 will be the final year for this water park, which will be revamped into a Sesame Place theme park/water park.
- I partnered with Hyatt Place to bring this Southern California Family Vacation Travel Guide to the blog.
Disneyland With Kids
In 2017, I become co-owner of the Disneyland With Kids Facebook group with 3 fellow travel bloggers. Our highly engaged group now has over 20,000 followers!
We made plans to be together in the parks for opening day of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge which was beyond exciting. To be at the grand opening of a new Land was amazing enough but to be there with like-minded friends was so much better.
In addition to the group, we also took a giant leap into the world of podcasting. For a woman who’s not entirely confident with speaking, this is definitely a departure for me. But it’s been fantastic to stretch and grow alongside women business owners who support, encourage and trust in my abilities. I hope that you’ll listen to our 30 minute Disneyland with Kids podcast! Download, leave comments and reviews, we so appreciate it.
Disney, Disney and More Disney!
Disneyland and Walt Disney World travel continues to be a big traffic draw on my site. While I am still covering other travel locations, Disney posts will still be a big part of Mom Rewritten. I have been thankful and grateful to be able to partner with Disney and hope that my insight on family travel can help you plan your trips!
Disneyland
There was an awesome amount of new things happening at the Disneyland Resort this year and I was delighted to participate in them. With the number of times I’ve been at the parks this year, I decided to upgrade to a Flex Annual Pass!
Snow White DisneyBound outfit is just at home in Star Wars Land!
- My preschooler and I took on the Disneyland California Food and Wine Festival for the first time.
- I was so excited to be able to cover the media opening and grand opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland. I’ve since been able to visit multiple times since and have written a complete guide with a perspective for taking toddlers and preschoolers.
- My family was invited to attend the opening night of the inaugural Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party. What a unique addition to the Halloween festivities!
Walt Disney World
Before attending a wedding in Missouri, I was able to convince my husband of a side trip to Orlando this past spring. It was his first time in Florida and we enjoyed a few days at Disney World. A trip highlight was brunch at Disney Springs’ Raglan Road.
The spring visit also allowed me to update this post about Epcot Flower and Garden Festival with Kids.
Irish dance lessons for kids
I also continued my partnership with the travel agency Get Away Today, meeting with them several times at the Disneyland resort over 2019. If you have any Disney vacation plans, consider using my link (they even offer cruise travel bookings, one of my bucket list items!)
Traveling Mom
In 2019, my work at TravelingMom continued, even after they changed the site and amended operations. Niches (including my “day trips” moniker) were removed and writing assignments are now handled differently. I also took on a job, running the Pinterest account. Sadly the annual Disney World retreats ended.
I’m very proud of the work I’ve contributed to TMOM this year, including this Ultimate Guide to Travel with Babies and Toddlers and How to Plan the Perfect Family Beach Vacation.
The beaches in La Jolla are gorgeous
Blogging Conferences
Blogging conferences are so much more than just sitting in a room, learning from the speaker. That’s always a great way to build knowledge but even better is learning from those around me! Conferring with my favorite bloggers and getting true hands on advice about my blogging business is the best.
In spring, I was one of the speakers at the inaugural AWEsome Retreat, a conference just for theme park travel bloggers! Leslie Harvey of Trips with Tykes and I spoke about choosing the best topics to write on and how to get them seen with ideal SEO practices. It was a wonderful experience and my first speaking engagement, wahoo!!
I was also able to attend several more of the single-day FLOCK Presents conferences. Always nicely run and tons of helpful and relevant information. Looking forward to the next event in San Diego this March!
My Number One Viewed Post for 2019
This post about Waiting in Line at Disney was my #1 post for 2019. This was a post originally written in 2016 that I updated this year. Yay for learning more about SEO and keywords, Google recognized this post and drove plenty of traffic!
My most popular brand new post for 2019 was Universal Studios Hollywood for First Timers.
Hogwarts Castle in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
Sponsored Work
Product reviews and sponsored posts will only show up on my site when they reflect my personal views and opinions. These are going to be products that I use and love at home. You can trust that I’m not encouraging anything against my beliefs or the pillars of my site. These were some of my favorite sponsored post reviews:
- This post about Sick Day Activities for Adults was popular for me on Pinterest, cracking the top 10 for most popular posts on my site.
- Ever wanted to know more about Renting Disney Vacation Club Points? This post explains how that works and why it can save you money on a Disney vacation.
- Tips for Hosting a Preschool Disney Party on a Budget was fun to write and organize, using a box of supplies from Disney to create the party. Naturally it was one of the hottest days of the year but the kids still had a wonderful party!
Partnerships and Affiliates
Affiliate linking is one way I’m able to recoup some of the cost of running my business. I make a modest income and it’s an easy and no cost way you can support bloggers! Thank you to anyone who has clicked and purchased through my affiliate links.
- With New Year’s resolutions, this post for Easy Decluttering Tips for Cleaning and Organizing Your Home is helpful and inspiring (Amazon links).
- This Dinnerly Review, updated in 2019 continues to be a popular search term.
- With ShopDisney and Etsy as affiliates, I updated this post about Cute Clothes to Wear at Disney.
Minnie and Minnie Me T-shirts from Etsy (Photo Credit: Disney PhotoPass)
Mom Rewritten Newsletter
I did so well in 2018, sending a monthly letter that was a extension of my site. Unfortunately in 2019 my newsletter fell by the wayside and I think I only sent one the entire year! If you haven’t signed up to receive them, I’d love for you to register. I’d like to get better about sending one out each month, starting with January!
If you’d like to take a look back at my blog over the years, here are my other year-end reviews:
Looking Forward To 2020
I always want to extend a huge THANK YOU to my readers and subscribers! Engagement is key for me, both as a human and as a business owner. I appreciate the connections so keep commenting and reaching out! Please continue to share my posts, repin on Pinterest, retweet on Twitter and like on Instagram. This is my small business and I always thank you for helping me grow.
Looking ahead to 2020, I have a few things to look forward to sharing with you:
Growth in multiple areas – My family and I are planning a big move early in the year. We’ll be staying in the San Diego area but moving to a larger house in a more rural area. We’re looking forward to the extra space that the new house will allow!
With the change of address, I’m looking to expand my blog presence as well. Considering adding a new site that will incorporate more of the lifestyle side including food and craft posts. Some of my favorite recipe posts, like Summer Pasta Salad Recipe would move to the new site and I’ll be creating new and exciting ideas there that don’t convey as well here.
Naturally I’d LOVE to have your support on the new site and will let you know more details as soon as I have something to share.
AWEsome Retreat Mastermind – The second AWEsome Retreat is an invitation-only mastermind, more intimate than the conference held in 2019. I am sooo looking forward to learning alongside other writers about theme park travel writing. And staying at the Courtyard Anaheim for the first time!
More Disney Travel – I’m still catching up on the Avengers and Marvel series of movies but a new Land at Disney parks is always something to cheer about! Looking forward to learning all there is to know about Avengers Campus and sharing with you.
Blessings to all in the new year and cheers for what’s to come in 2020.