I've been nominated for one of the Top 25 Large Family Blogs over at Circle of Moms.
Click on the badge to vote for me!
Click on the badge to vote for me!
Showing posts with label Blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blogging. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
I'm a finalist over at Power of Moms for the "Best of the Blogs" about Deliberate Motherhood.
I'm pleased, flattered, and excited, to be chosen out of SO many wonderful blogs. In fact, I think I look like this about it:
(only not as young and cute)Please vote for me if you think my blog:
- Is uplifting and motivating but also real
- Offers lots of meaningful and replicable ideas
- Helps moms process and learn from the experiences of motherhood
And if you are just visiting for the first time, here's a sampling of posts you might enjoy:
Our Collective Memory Loss
On Finding Time
On Finding Balance, Part One, Part Two, and Part Three
Life with Your Hands Full (an interview on Living a Big Story)
Thursday, October 22, 2009
From Jacki:
And I thought about writing about all the things I don't have time for, like keeping my house as clean as I want or organizing the garage or trying new recipes. But then I realized the answer to how I find time to blog and read is simple: It's important to me. And the reason I don't clean out or become a master chef is the opposite: It's not important to me.
I think we all have amazing abilities to fit in what's most important to us. Sometimes we look at another person with a talent different than our own and think, "Well, if I just wasn't so busy . . ." or "How in the world does she find time to do that?" I admire my friends who are always cooking up something new and exciting in their kitchen, for example, and it's tempting to say it's because I'm too busy that I don't do that, but really, it's because I've chosen to focus my efforts on other things. Other friends are amazing with sewing or decorating or celebrating holidays or photography or hosting parties or other wonderful things. Me? I dabble in Photoshop, love to write, and devour books.
Through the years, I have had to give up some of my hobbies or find ways to simplify them. For example, I used to make hardbound books that included scrapbook pages with tons of journaling and all the best pictures. Now, I simply take this blog, my weekly emails, and throw them in a book, adding a few scrapbook pages and lots of the best pictures. The goal of keeping my family history and especially the family stories preserved is met, but it takes less time. I used to sew a lot but I don't anymore. I'm still grateful I have the skills to do it and I hope that somewhere in the distance I might take time for it again, but it's not important enough to me to fit it in now.
Reading is something that's always been as natural as breathing to me, and I do it anytime I have a moment free. I usually have four or five books I'm reading at a time and I tend to leave them around the house. So there's always something close by to read. I read the newspaper after I feed the kids breakfast. If I don't get through it then, I read again after I feed the kids lunch. If I'm still not done, I'll often sit down with a snack after the kids go to bed and finish it then. I know newspapers are a dying breed, and it makes me sad. There's something so satisfying about getting my world, national, and local news every day in print. I hope I never have to change to reading it on the internet.
I try to keep a book or a magazine in my purse so I can steal a few moments to read. I'm a fast reader, and I read the Ensign, National Geographic, Reader's Digest, and the Smithsonian every month as well as mostly non-fiction books. I gave up reading most fiction when my oldest was a baby because I realized I have no self-control when there is a good story involved. I find myself staying up way too late at night to see how something ends or find it's way too easy to read instead of getting the housework done. If I'm reading a fiction book, I almost always finish it within a day or two. With non-fiction, I usually find it easy to put it down after a few pages or a chapter and it doesn't bother me if it takes a month or more to finish.
As for falling asleep, I actually find it hard to sleep unless I read before I go to bed. I try to go to bed around 9:00 so I have time to read the scriptures for a half an hour or so as well as whatever else I'm currently reading. I'll often read for an hour or two before I shut off the light and fall asleep. I enjoy having new ideas and experiences to think about and ponder while I go to sleep. In fact, I think those moments when I settle in and wait for sleep to come are some of my best ones of the day, maybe because I have my thoughts all to myself with only sweet sleep to interrupt.
I really enjoy blogging and I thrive on the opportunity to formulate my thoughts and come up with the right words to express my feelings. Frankly, it's also nice to know I'm interacting with adults -- after talking to kids all day, it's nice to interact in some measure with other mothers.
I get a little thrill knowing that someone's reading my words and it feels wonderful to get comments (insert shameful begging here: I really, really like those comments!).
Most important to me are the times when I've felt like I've been able to be of help and encouragement to others with this blog. It feels great to know that my experiences might lift others.
To find the time for it, I like to hop on the computer for a few minutes here and there during the day, but usually (until morning sickness took over!), I use the time in the evenings after the kids have gone to bed and DH is working to update my blog or read and comment on other people's. I am pretty vigilant about making sure I don't allow the computer to take over my life. I installed TimeTracker on Firefox at the beginning of the year and I keep an eye on how long I'm using the internet, because I know there are lots of other important things I also need to fit into my life.
What are your hobbies and talents? What do you always make time for, no matter how busy you are?
I'm curious how you fit time to blog and read?!! And how do you read without falling asleep (not from a boring book, but because you must be tired!)?At first I was going to answer this question by talking about time management or priorities. We don't have television, for instance, so I don't get sucked in to watching it. I've mostly put aside my design work and sewing and I don't scrapbook very often anymore, leaving more time for reading and blogging.
And I thought about writing about all the things I don't have time for, like keeping my house as clean as I want or organizing the garage or trying new recipes. But then I realized the answer to how I find time to blog and read is simple: It's important to me. And the reason I don't clean out or become a master chef is the opposite: It's not important to me.
I think we all have amazing abilities to fit in what's most important to us. Sometimes we look at another person with a talent different than our own and think, "Well, if I just wasn't so busy . . ." or "How in the world does she find time to do that?" I admire my friends who are always cooking up something new and exciting in their kitchen, for example, and it's tempting to say it's because I'm too busy that I don't do that, but really, it's because I've chosen to focus my efforts on other things. Other friends are amazing with sewing or decorating or celebrating holidays or photography or hosting parties or other wonderful things. Me? I dabble in Photoshop, love to write, and devour books.
Through the years, I have had to give up some of my hobbies or find ways to simplify them. For example, I used to make hardbound books that included scrapbook pages with tons of journaling and all the best pictures. Now, I simply take this blog, my weekly emails, and throw them in a book, adding a few scrapbook pages and lots of the best pictures. The goal of keeping my family history and especially the family stories preserved is met, but it takes less time. I used to sew a lot but I don't anymore. I'm still grateful I have the skills to do it and I hope that somewhere in the distance I might take time for it again, but it's not important enough to me to fit it in now.
Reading is something that's always been as natural as breathing to me, and I do it anytime I have a moment free. I usually have four or five books I'm reading at a time and I tend to leave them around the house. So there's always something close by to read. I read the newspaper after I feed the kids breakfast. If I don't get through it then, I read again after I feed the kids lunch. If I'm still not done, I'll often sit down with a snack after the kids go to bed and finish it then. I know newspapers are a dying breed, and it makes me sad. There's something so satisfying about getting my world, national, and local news every day in print. I hope I never have to change to reading it on the internet.
I try to keep a book or a magazine in my purse so I can steal a few moments to read. I'm a fast reader, and I read the Ensign, National Geographic, Reader's Digest, and the Smithsonian every month as well as mostly non-fiction books. I gave up reading most fiction when my oldest was a baby because I realized I have no self-control when there is a good story involved. I find myself staying up way too late at night to see how something ends or find it's way too easy to read instead of getting the housework done. If I'm reading a fiction book, I almost always finish it within a day or two. With non-fiction, I usually find it easy to put it down after a few pages or a chapter and it doesn't bother me if it takes a month or more to finish.
As for falling asleep, I actually find it hard to sleep unless I read before I go to bed. I try to go to bed around 9:00 so I have time to read the scriptures for a half an hour or so as well as whatever else I'm currently reading. I'll often read for an hour or two before I shut off the light and fall asleep. I enjoy having new ideas and experiences to think about and ponder while I go to sleep. In fact, I think those moments when I settle in and wait for sleep to come are some of my best ones of the day, maybe because I have my thoughts all to myself with only sweet sleep to interrupt.
I really enjoy blogging and I thrive on the opportunity to formulate my thoughts and come up with the right words to express my feelings. Frankly, it's also nice to know I'm interacting with adults -- after talking to kids all day, it's nice to interact in some measure with other mothers.
I get a little thrill knowing that someone's reading my words and it feels wonderful to get comments (insert shameful begging here: I really, really like those comments!).
Most important to me are the times when I've felt like I've been able to be of help and encouragement to others with this blog. It feels great to know that my experiences might lift others.
To find the time for it, I like to hop on the computer for a few minutes here and there during the day, but usually (until morning sickness took over!), I use the time in the evenings after the kids have gone to bed and DH is working to update my blog or read and comment on other people's. I am pretty vigilant about making sure I don't allow the computer to take over my life. I installed TimeTracker on Firefox at the beginning of the year and I keep an eye on how long I'm using the internet, because I know there are lots of other important things I also need to fit into my life.
What are your hobbies and talents? What do you always make time for, no matter how busy you are?
Friday, June 5, 2009
A few days before our trip to Arizona, I got an email from a blogging friend. I'd emailed her several weeks before and she finally found my email and replied. She mentioned she was from Peoria, so I emailed back and told her we'd be staying in her town the next week. She emailed me back asking me if we'd be staying at the Cibola Vista Resort, because that one was near her house and next to the building they met at for Church.Of all the places for her to live and for us to be going! It had to be more than coincidence that we'd become friends and that those emails had been sent right then. She immediately invited us to come to dinner (I would have protested except she said the magic words, "yes, I know you have seven kids," and therefore my best excuse was taken) and we arranged to attend Church in her ward the next two Sundays. (Ironically, when we were taking our kids to Primary after Sacrament meeting, who should we meet but an old friend from our college ward! Small world, isn't it?)
Dinner was wonderful. Lori and her family had set up a wonderful buffet with lots of choices and the kids were fairly well behaved. Even timid Eliza was off and running around after dinner, blowing bubbles with Lori's daughter Michelle. And we had excellent chocolate chip cookies for dessert, so my kids are her friends for life. Her husband told us about a path to take hiking near our resort and DH took the oldest two on a sunset hike there later in the week. Kathryn and Kristen attend BYU, which is in our neck of the woods, so we look forward to seeing this family again and perhaps returning the dinner favor.
If that were all of the story, I'd end this post by saying how neat it was that we were able to meet up and that it was amazing.
But there's more. Lori tells it better than I can, so here's what happened in her words:
I love to travel, but I do not like having to stay in a hotel on Sunday where our only option for food is to eat out. We always attend church and each time I silently pray a family in the ward we are visiting will invite us to their home for dinner, as my husband’s family often did for tourists while they were living in Mexico City. So far, however, no one has answered my prayer.
But, for some reason that thought was on my mind last Wednesday when it occurred to me that we live near a new resort and it is possible families on vacation there might attend our sacrament meeting services. I decided that if I learned of any who were visiting I would be sure to invite them over for Sunday dinner.
As I thought about it however, I decided it would be helpful if I could get a prompting in advance so I could be sure to have enough food on hand to feed extra people. And so I said a prayer and explained my desire to feed those who might be traveling and asked for a prompting when they might come so I could prepare.
A few hours later I received a comment on my blog from a blog friend, Lisa, asking if I had received her email. I hadn’t, as I never check the email address (before now :-) listed with my blog. So I got on to read her email and discovered another one sent May 5 from a blog friend, Christina. In Christina’s email she asked a question and while responding, I randomly told her what town I lived in. I didn’t know why I included that at the time, I just did it.
Christina quickly wrote back telling me she and her family would be in my town that very weekend staying at the resort near our home. And so I invited her, and her family to dinner. I was so amazed and thrilled how my prayer was answered so quickly and in such a fun way. If Lisa hadn’t asked about her email I would never have checked that email address and found Christina’s note. If I hadn’t randomly included the name of the town we live in, she would not have told me they were visiting near us this weekend. And they would have come to our ward, and left, and since I was attending another ward during our SS and RS, I would have never met them and been able to have them over for dinner at our house. And I would have missed out on meeting a very sweet blog friend.
I love it when prayers are answered like that! It is always such a comfort to me to know our prayers are both heard and answered.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
It took me a few tries with various tutorials, some of which were complete failures, to find a way to hide the snake pictures after a "Read more" link below (I didn't want people TOO grossed out by my blog). For those who are interested in trying to install a hack like this on your blog, here's the tutorial I used.
And a while back, I went from a two-column blogger to a three-column layout using this tutorial. I also tried several other tutorials with no success.
Neither fix is particularly easy, but there you go.
And a while back, I went from a two-column blogger to a three-column layout using this tutorial. I also tried several other tutorials with no success.
Neither fix is particularly easy, but there you go.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
I grew up watching the Cosby show. We'd use our VCR (remember those?) to record the episodes and watch them over and over. In one episode, Claire and her friend are constantly speaking in Spanish. Cliff watches intently, understanding nothing. When they look at him with raised eyebrows, he says, "Just listening for my name." I was reminded of that recently as I've thought about the things you learn when your neighbors are bloggers.
Two years ago, I didn't know anyone in real life who blogged, except me. Then I moved. Six months later, Kacy moved in next door to me. And she was a blogger. A REAL one -- you know, the kind that gets a hundred comments on her truly funny posts. So I searched for her blog. I found it and lurked there for a while, "just listening for my name" so to speak. But I felt guilty peeking in on her without her knowing it, so I confessed my spying to her and started to leave comments and enjoy her blog.
But I think it's probably a challenge to her knowing her neighbor reads her blog. She can't post about all the weird things we do because she knows I'm watching. I'm sure she's shown great restraint, but even still, every once in a while I hear my name. For instance, I recently learned that one of my kids dials their number on my cell phone and then they listen in on what's going on at my house. She claims she didn't hear anything interesting, but I wonder.
Last June, the house on the other side of me sold, this time to a wonderful gal named Meradith. She had a beautiful baby girl just a few weeks before Harmony was born. She sent out an email announcement with a link to her blog for pictures, so I started reading, listening for my name, and struck gold when I began reading through some of her older posts.
Meradith had dedicated a whole post to her new crazy neighbor, and she didn't even know I knew about it. I even got to hear what her friends thought of me (or her description of me) by reading the comments section. It was great. It was like listening to someone talking about you in front of your back. I thought about keeping quiet and lurking in the shadows to see what else she might say about me, but I started to feel guilty, so I posted a comment. Now poor Meradith knows I'm watching her, "just listening for my name!"
So, my blogging friends, be careful what you say about your new neighbor – she might be secretly lurking on your blog.
Two years ago, I didn't know anyone in real life who blogged, except me. Then I moved. Six months later, Kacy moved in next door to me. And she was a blogger. A REAL one -- you know, the kind that gets a hundred comments on her truly funny posts. So I searched for her blog. I found it and lurked there for a while, "just listening for my name" so to speak. But I felt guilty peeking in on her without her knowing it, so I confessed my spying to her and started to leave comments and enjoy her blog.
But I think it's probably a challenge to her knowing her neighbor reads her blog. She can't post about all the weird things we do because she knows I'm watching. I'm sure she's shown great restraint, but even still, every once in a while I hear my name. For instance, I recently learned that one of my kids dials their number on my cell phone and then they listen in on what's going on at my house. She claims she didn't hear anything interesting, but I wonder.
Last June, the house on the other side of me sold, this time to a wonderful gal named Meradith. She had a beautiful baby girl just a few weeks before Harmony was born. She sent out an email announcement with a link to her blog for pictures, so I started reading, listening for my name, and struck gold when I began reading through some of her older posts.
Meradith had dedicated a whole post to her new crazy neighbor, and she didn't even know I knew about it. I even got to hear what her friends thought of me (or her description of me) by reading the comments section. It was great. It was like listening to someone talking about you in front of your back. I thought about keeping quiet and lurking in the shadows to see what else she might say about me, but I started to feel guilty, so I posted a comment. Now poor Meradith knows I'm watching her, "just listening for my name!"
So, my blogging friends, be careful what you say about your new neighbor – she might be secretly lurking on your blog.
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