i'm in the midst of a blogging debate with myself.
should i blog for the public?
should i blog for family and friends?
how much privacy should i have?
i've been toying around with a bunch of different options, so i have a lot of "inactive-ish" blogs while i figure out what level of privacy i want to have.
thanks for understanding.
So yeah. I updated the look. What do you think? The other color scheme was probably more spring-y, but I needed something fresh. I really like the crispness of the white "life as a mama" against the header...
Any comments? I'd love to hear what you think!
I personally like the layout, so it didn't change, but suggestions would be embraced with open arms. :)
Wow... seriously, it feels like we just took down our Christmas tree. That liturgical year sneaks up on me everytime...
This year I've decided to try something new. Each week, I'm going to add something to my Lenten practices, whether that be making another sacrifice or adding something to my routine. That way, by the end of Lent, it should be pretty intense, and should really make me aware of what's happening.
I'm not sure what each week is going to look like yet, but this week (and then for all the remaining weeks), we'll be returning to our practice of a daily Rosary. We are normally horrible with this, and many months can go between our family Rosaries. I have to say, with Peanut around, it's a lot harder. Last night, she just wouldn't go to sleep (darn those late afternoon inadvertent naps when she just falls asleep on the floor!)... and so we ended up going to bed, turning out the lights, and praying in the dark, hoping that the repetition combined with the dark and cuddling with Mama in bed would put her to sleep. Basically, she just flipped out. Mister got to lead the prayers while I was on containment duty - she was more spastic than I've ever seen her! (Of course, she fell asleep moments after it was done. Darn kid!)
So. Daily Rosary. Next week, I'm going to return to my daily gym routine. Oof. This is one that knocks me right in my lazy patootie. So we're starting out with spiritual and physical discipline. Who knows what's coming next??
On a completly unrelated note, I'm very busy with my project for the Baby a Baby swap - and can I say that I am thrilled with the way it looks? My craft night buddies are loving it, too...
Just wanted to post something, and when I pulled up my blog, the first thought was "gosh, I really like that." Let's see how long I leave the basic layout the same - I can tweak widgets and stuff, but I'm really liking this! I have a tendency to be fickle with things that are easily changed, though...
How many of you do this? I finally added myself to my Google Reader, so that when I get all my blog updates (and I read 53 other blogs...), I get my life as a mama updates sent as well. I have to say, it's kinda weird. Let's see. Why is it weird? Well, for one thing, I have a tendency to think of all other bloggers as pros and myself as just an amateur - and I also forget that most of them are just moms who, in the words of my mother, "pull their pants on one leg at a time." Not that some of you have to pull your own pants on. You have scads of adoring minions who do that for you. And follow you around with makeup, so you always look perfect... But when I see my words in the same format as everyone else's, it makes mine look just as authentic. Which is kinda cool.
On the other hand, I never fail to get halfway through the post and go "wait, this sounds familiar," before realizing that it's mine. I am such a doofus. And no, it didn't take halfway through my eleventy-first post to get it! I'm not THAT slow!
i feel super popular! i've never had 140 comments on a post before! maybe i should give away a box of books more often. although when i gave away starbucks, only you faithful few entered... shannon's really good for getting us to bounce around other blogs, isn't she?
although i have to say i breezed through most blogs, just looking at the one post. i did add a few to google reader, but it's nice to know that there's a post at shannon's that lists over 500 different blogs for me to check out one of these days!
now if you'll pardon me, Peanut just laid down for a nap. that sounds like such an excellent idea that i might go do the same. brilliant. a nap in the middle of the day. let's hope she keeps up this habit for... oh... the next eighteen years!
So after the craziness of this weekend and yesterday (I spent the day with my nieces and sister-in-law), I declared today to be a quiet day...
Peanut has slept most of the day (lucky her!) and I have alternated between entering contests through the Dog Days and reading Harry Potter. I had promised Mister I'd stay behind him, so I let him get 350 pages ahead of me, and snuggled down today with a cup of chocolate-raspberry coffee and the book... I'm now about 250 pages in, but am rationing it... 30 pages here, go enter a few more contests, clean something, then back to the book...
I'm having a GREAT day. Contests and an engrossing book? What more could a girl want?
Hello all, and welcome to my little corner of the blogosphere called life as a mama...
If you stay for more than a few minutes, it might become obvious that I looove to read. I think most bloggers probably do, since we're all about words - our own, others, etc.
My giveaway for this is a box of books. All sorts of books. Some Christian fiction, some just regular fiction - but all sorts of things to tempt your reading palate. It so far includes six seven nine fourteen books, but that number will only grow!
Because books are so heavy, I'm afraid that this contest will only be open to citizens of the good ol' US of A, but I welcome all internationals to just leave me a comment anyway!
Have a great one, and I'll be stopping by your blog sometime this week! In case you're completely confused, click on the cute little puppy to take you to a whole lot of goodness....
Edited To Add: Seems like a lot of people have decided to make books their prize. If I win a book at another contest, it will be up to my winner if they want to receive their prize right away, or if they'd rather wait for the book I won to get here, and then have it included in their package... And of course, all of Shannon's guidelines are to be followed here...
EDITED AGAIN: Comments will close Friday morning at 8:00 Central Time. The drawing will be that morning - it'll take me a while to sort through all of these comments and get that done... I'll let you know by about 10:00 am.
So. I've been really absent from here lately. I've developed into a lazy-meme-oriented blogger. And here I am to pass along a couple of thoughts, and pretty much disappear for the rest of the weekend.
We are having a party on Sunday to welcome a friend to town - she got her undergrad / grad degrees with me while i was getting mine, and then went off to medical school while i worked and got married. now that she's beginning her residency, we are both thrilled that she ended up in the same town as i live! she's already just slipped easily into my group of friends, but we wanted to give her a formal welcome to town. but my brother and sister-in-law (who just moved from 9 hours away to 1 1/2 hours away!!!!!) are using it as an excuse to come down, and some friends from ohio decided to come back to town for it, too!!
So basically my place is the happening place for my group of friends this weekend. And thankfully it's going to be fairly cool and seasonable for the next few days, so the massive amounts of frisbee playing will at least not cause heatstroke.
Because the Mister and I are dorks, we decided to make the "official" reason for the party a celebration of National Ice Cream Appreciation Month. Welcoming my doctor-friend is just a bonus! So we're having a great big sundae bar for dessert! Mmmm.... Ice cream.
On an unrelated note, what do you think about Harry Potter? I didn't get into them until the first three books were written, but I have to say I've definitely enjoyed the rest, ordering books 6 and 7 from amazon.com so that I could read them on the first day they were in print. Mister doesn't read a lot of fiction, so he was content to watch the movies - until Goblet of Fire came out. At that point in time, he was convinced that these were really good stories and was sick of me saying "oh, but they left out so much good stuff!" and then between audio cds for the car and reading some in print, he polished off #s 3-6 in a very short time. Needless to say, we were looking forward to tomorrow as a "try to get stuff done while passing the book back and forth" day, but we're spending it with friends and family instead.
I read insanely quickly - I just re-read book 5 in probably about 4 or 5 hours. That's really fast. So it's not really fair to my normal-paced husband... because otherwise I'd be bursting with excitement wanting to tell him what happened a few hundred pages past where he is. Because of this, I promised him that I will only at any point read up to where he is. No further. I want to be able to share the discovery with him, and will hold myself back. This is gonna be tricky, but I love him more than I love these books, of COURSE!
I do have to say that I'm making these for snacks for the next few days, just so that we feel like a tiny bit connected to the Potterexcitement... but we're not going nuts!
When I come back from the weekend, look forward to the Dog Days of Summer! I have a fun giveaway for you - it's definitely something I've enjoyed and want to share with one of you...
so the new banner is up, and the color scheme is in place, but now i get to play with the background - won't just be a solid color - and perhaps even some pretty decorations for the widgets on the right....
but thanks to heather for the colors!
life's been pretty slow here since we got home from vacation. i got pinkeye and a weird virus that's going around, then passed it off to Mister. just the virus. so far, i've managed to keep the pinkeye all to myself!! good for Peanut, who is 95% breastfed, and is receiving all the antibodies that i'm sending her - she hasn't even remotely acted sick lately. just teething. and that's bad enough! but she's so cute with her one little tooth on the bottom... although she started biting for fun today. little booger. :) i love her anyway... just need to train her out of this phase!
hope all is well with you...
so i am TOTALLY procrastinating. i have so much work to do around here, and to get ready for vacation soon. we're going to texas. when you live in central illinois, you think it's hot in the summertime. so we're going to texas for vacation just so we can realize how good we have it.
honestly, though, we're going to dallas for a wedding and san antonio for some r&r. sounds like fun to me!!
i threw my back out yesterday... don't really know how, but i'm propped up on pillows on my bed right now with the laptop warming my thighs. i know it's warm out, but the AC is just so delightful that the warmth of the laptop is appreciated. so instead of working (which i should be doing - and also involves the laptop), i'm tweaking my blog design. here's the result of 10 minutes of work. it's "aight, dawg" in the words of Randy Jackson, but it has a ways to go. wish me luck! any ideas?
so my design is cool. not fabulous, but i like it. it's simplistic.
BUT. everyday mommy is giving away a design for mother's day. i'm swooning. she does GREAT work. that would make me feel a little more like a grownup blogger, and not the baby blogger that i really still am... :)
go check out boomama's post about being southern... the comments are hys-TER-ical. no joke.
i'm SO not southern. although i did work at a piggly wiggly for a few years - but it was in wisconsin, so i don't think that really counts, does it?
I'm sure all of you already know about Heather, the blogger who's just recently been diagnosed with a brain tumor. She's also a blog designer, who's done some amazing work out there... you've probably seen it, if you didn't have her design yours!
The ever gracious BooMama is having a benefit for Heather tomorrow, April 18. Please head over to her blog, read the post about Heather's situation, and then donate $1, $5, $25, etc... to help offset the insane medical bills that she'll be racking up.
Thank you, bloggity friends.
here's a little reminder to go vote in the blogger's choice awards...
and a quick rundown of the votes i've cast so far:
best blog about blogging - blogging basics 101
best blog design - everyday mommy
best blog of all time - antique mommy
best humor blog - boo mama
best parenting blog - rocks in my dryer, enter the circus
best shopping blog - want not
hottest mommy blog - the domestic diva
(edited to add boo mama!)
so you know how i said in my last post that i was really trying to step out there and design my own blog? maddie, from girliebits, out of the sweetness of her heart, sent me this incredible banner. me and the gimp were able to do some fun stuff, but nothing approaching this coolness.
THANK YOU, MADDIE!
isn't it beautiful? now go check out her website...
(all you poor people reading this through google reader, etc, are missing out on the prettiness that is now my blog.)
so while i had a beautiful blog design before, i didn't do it myself. i had found it on a fabulous website called girliebits, and i had adapted it a little bit.
but i wasn't content with that. i wanted to learn how to really do it... so i started playing around and reading source code for lots and lots of blogs. this is my first attempt at really playing with it on my own. it's still based off of minima, as many blogs seem to be, but in the upcoming weeks, watch for this to be tweaked and tweaked until i get it just the way i want it. while i loved the way this used to look, i felt like i was cheating. who knows, i may end up having something very similar to that design, but i'll be proud that i came up with it on my own as opposed to using someone else's design.
in honor of my twelfth post, what do you think of my new design? isn't it cool? i now belong to the vast realms of bloggers who don't just use the blogger templates. they boast that they have OVER THIRTY designs, but most of them are just color variations of another one. not so cool. mine's cool.
DH is off at work (I know, it's Saturday, but he goes in a lot on weekends to get ahead), and Peanut is asleep in the swing (for her current snotty state, the swing is much more comfy), so I was supposed to be doing my writing for 4marks that I do on a regular basis, but got sucked into the goodness that is the Ultimate Blog Party. I'm only letting myself visit ten blogs at a time, but those "times" are running into each other!
How do you veteran bloggers keep from getting completely sucked in?
