Observant Z Recommends readers may have noticed that Polliwogged, our blog dedicated to all things baby, and Gardenaut, our gardening and outdoors blog, disappeared from our top-level navigation and ZRecs home page feed, and, more pointedly, that they stopped posting new content a couple of weeks ago. We have decided to refocus our blogging energies as well as our financial resources, and have learned that managing six blogs was stretching both of these thinner than we'd like.

Big thanks to Emily, who also blogs at Boutique Cafe; Sara, the fabulous baby product reviewer who also runs the fabulous online cloth diaper shop Diaper Daisy; Jenn, our deals and bargains blogger who dishes at her parenting blog TBFKAOP (The Baby Formerly Known As Optimus Prime); our craft blogger Trisha, who blogs at Sweet 'n' Sassy Girls and also sells nursing covers; and Leigh, who contributed frugal and DIY tips when she wasn't busy saving the nation's forests. All of these talented women contributed their time and energy to be a part of the blog and we are honored that they chose to do so.

Reviews of baby gear will will move back to the mother ship, Z Recommends. We promise to review some baby stuff, and will be mining our own database of bloggers on PRIZEY to seek reviewers for some very cool stuff. (Have you joined PRIZEY and opted in to our PR matchmaking program? We help PR representatives find truly relevant bloggers to review products, all in the name of reducing spammy PR pitches.)

For the latest sales and discounts on baby stuff, we recommend Baby Cheapskate.

We have also really enjoyed working with all of the bloggers at Gardenaut, and guess what? Most of them have agreed to continue posting about gardening and the outdoors on an irregular basis on The Tranquil Parent! Given that TTP is a green, health, safety, and happiness blog, we thought a few gardening posts sprinkled in here and there would be pretty awesome. So thanks to all of the bloggers who have offered to continue contributing there, and thanks too to those who have decided to step down but provided some great posts over the past ten months.

About the good news

We're closing down these two blogs because we need to refocus our energies on the parts of ZRecs that are closest to our core mission. That means there is a lot of good news to come, and soon. We'll be tackling some projects we've been dreaming about for a while, and expanding our efforts in areas that we hope you agree makes fundamental sense with what ZRecs is all about - sharing information and advice to help you and your family be healthy, harmonious, creative, and engaged with the world in those special years we get to share with our growing children.

We'll announce each project or topic as we're ready to launch it, but we can tell you this right now: We will not be starting more new blogs. We're consolidating, refocusing, honing in, and leveraging. We've learned a lot in the past year or so about time management, prioritization, and the importance of focusing your personal energy as well as your resources on your core mission, and we hope the results speak for themselves.