A belated Happy New Year folks, and welcome back to the #ItsOK Linky!
I hope you all had a good one and that it’s not been too depressing getting back into the swing of things. It feels like a lifetime ago already, doesn’t it? I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t looking forward to playing the whole chicken-type ‘can I shower before the babies wake up’ game for the pre-school run now the Other Half is back to working away. But it feels like that week I had back-up is a distant memory.
And don’t even talk to me about new year diets. We STILL have so much naughty food in the house and there’s no way I can be good until I’ve scoffed the lot. Tonight I plan to start on the After Eights.
Anyway, thank you for joining us again if you’re a regular. If you’re a newbie – welcome, and if you have no idea what you’re doing, you’re in good company with me.
Onto the linky!
It feels like AGES ago since the last Linky, so I’ll remind you that my lovely co-hosts are Kate from The Mum Conundrum, Carly from Mom of Two Little Girls, and Nicole from Tales from Mamaville.
Carly is taking a short break from blogging at the mo, so this week we are joined again by Jacqui from One Messy Mama who is going to be a guest co-host. Hurrah for Jacqui!
I hosted the last Linky before Christmas and chose the fabulous Earning My Mum Badge’s post Five Things You Didn’t Know About Parenting. And Probably Would Prefer Not to! as this week’s Featured Blogger. Congratulations lovely, you can grab your badge here. And thank you for sharing.
The #ItsOK Linky
Instructions: Select all code above, copy it and paste it inside your blog post as HTML
Hey, ‘It’s okay!’
If you’re a first timer to the linky, find out all about it here. We’re basically saying it’s okay to not be okay sometimes – particularly when it comes to parenting.
It’s okay to serve up Bernard Matthews’ turkey dinosaurs and waffles at least once (maybe twice?) a week because you know it’s one of the few things guaranteed they’ll eat. It’s okay to leave your 18 month old twins in their cots with a bottle of milk and some books in the morning whilst you slap on some foundation and wash your fringe (no time for the rest of my hair these days) – or maybe have an extra 20 minutes snooze. And it’s perfectly okay that you’ve just bought a Kindle Fire to stop all three boys fighting over the iPad! Screen time, what screen time?
The rules
We’re all pretty chilled out here at #ItsOK, but for the linky to work we have a few rules:
1.) You can add ONE of your posts to the link-up – any post you like, as long as it’s on a real life parenting theme and you haven’t posted it on the #ItsOK linky before.
2.) Before you add your post to the link-up, make sure you pop the linky badge, using the html below, on your post. It’s not as scary as it looks, honest. Even I managed to do it! Copy the code from this page, then open a new browser tab, go to your site and navigate to the post you want to share on your site. Go into ‘edit page’, change the view (in the top right hand corner of the writing area on WordPress) from ‘visual’ to ‘text’.
Scroll to the bottom of the text, and paste the code in there. If you change your view back to ‘visual’ again you’ll see the linky badge in all it’s glory at the bottom of your post. Ta-dah!!
The #ItsOK Linky
Instructions: Select all code above, copy it and paste it inside your blog post as HTML
3.) Make sure to comment on the host’s post, the post before yours, and one of your choice.
4.) The linky will run every Tuesday morning at 7am until Thursday evening at 11.55pm.
5.) Tweet us (@twinstantrums @TheMumConundrum @MamavilleTales @onemessymama4 ) with the URL to your post. Make sure you include the hashtag #ItsOK so that we know you’re tweeting us your linky post, and not just telling us about your random day… Remember this step – if you don’t tweet us, it’s tricky for us to share.
6.) Jacqui is hosting this week so will comment on all your posts, and they will be retweeted and shared on Facebook. If your post is featured as one of our favourites then you are very welcome to display our lovely ‘#ItsOK Featured Blogger’ badge on your sidebar.
7.) Come and join our lovely Facebook group, and we’ll share your posts on there, as well as on the #ItsOK Facebook page – pop over to like and follow us where we’ll share the best posts from each week’s linky too.
8.) Are you on Pinterest? Come on over and follow our #ItsOK board, we’ll share your posts and you can plunder all the super-useful/funny/interesting reads and finds we amass too.
Keeping it real
The #ItsOK linky is all about celebrating real-life parenting. Please link up with posts on this theme ONLY. We’re not too keen on random sponsored posts. We’re all about Mum (and Dad) life, warts and all.
Even I can follow these rules, so it can’t be that difficult! Any problems, just give us a shout.
It’s a great way of finding other blogs to read, and realising somehow or other we’re all in the same boat – and #ItsOK!
Happy linking!