Category Archives: Blogging

Blogiversary winner and miscellany

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When I posted my one year blog anniversary post, I was hoping for lots of “hellos” and “happy blogiversary” and such, and I thank you all for those — but what I hadn’t anticipated and was very surprised and touched about were the very kind, warm words of encouragement. I even got a little teary a time or two. Thanks so much — your words ministered to my heart.

I was also very surprised to hear from some readers whom I did not know were readers! Thanks for taking the time to comment and let me know you’re there!

I just used the Custom Random Number Generator to draw a  the number of one of the comments to win the prize I was offering of a copy of Daily Light on the Daily Path and the CD A Quiet Heart, and got #19: Laurel Wreath! That’s especially exciting because I discovered Laurel’s one year anniversary was the day after mine — I told her I thought she was a blogging pro and had been at it much longer than I had!

Now to assorted miscellany:

If you knit or crochet or use wool in any way or just like cute designs,  go to this post and scroll down to the “Cuts of Lamb” t-shirt at the bottom of the post. Darling!

I feel all jumbled today. My morning started out with a partial message from one of our credit card companies about possible fraudulent usage. My youngest son had answered the phone just after waking up and didn’t quite get the message — it was a recorded call, and he handed it to my oldest son, who wrote down the last four numbers of the credit card they were referencing, so at least I knew which company to contact.

  • Here’s your free consumer safety tip for the day: when I get a call or especially an e-mail about problems with an account I never use the phone number they give me. I get out my account information and call the customer service number from there. I tend to be a little overcautious about possible scam phone calls, but we have gotten a few over the years, so it’s better to play it safe. With e-mails in particular, it can look very legitimate, but the link they have you click on to enter your personal information can be a false one designed to get unwary consumers to give out their personal account information to someone who then uses it for their own gain. This process is called “phishing.”

My husband handles all the bill paying, so I had to go dig around in his files for the account information, had to call him for the user ID and password to get into the account online before I called customer service, got a window saying because I was on a different computer I needed a verification code, went through that process, got the code in an e-mail at his account, tried it 3 or 4 times without it working, then got a window saying that the user ID and password were now inactive (I’m sure due to the multiple unsuccessful attempts to log on) and giving me a customer service phone number to call. So I called the number, waited on hold for really not too long, and got a very nice lady who gave me a new activication code and waited while to see if it worked for me, then transferred me to the division that asks about possible fraudulent purchases. Between the two ladies they asked me half a dozen or more security questions to verify that this was indeed my account, and then we finally got to the purchase in question. It was an online game my husband had authorized my sons to purchase, and they had entered the wrong expiration date for the card. So I OKed that, and she said everything was all clear.

Going through all of that just left my brain all jumbled, and the fact that at that point it was about 10:30 in the morning and I hadn’t yet had a shower or gotten dressed or had devotions or breakfast just left me feeling all out of sorts and even more jumbled mentally. But I am glad that it is hard to get into an account online and they they check out suspicious charges — it does make me feel secure about the safety of our account. And I reminded myself that all of the other usual morning routines would get done — just in a different order and a little later than usual.

I had to confess that when I called my husband, I was hoping he’d say he’d handle it. 🙂 But he was working, and it turns out it’s good I did anyway, because he didn’t remember the purchase in question, so that would have prolonged the whole process even more.

One other bit of miscellaneous news, probably not important or noticeable to anyone but me… I did a little reorganizing of my sidebar. It was way too long and messy. I organized some of the graphics near the bottom into types — before then I had just been putting each new one in at the bottom or at random. Plus I deleted the list of blogs on the Family Friendly Blogroll…which probably means I will be removed, as many most of those blogrolls require you to keep the blogroll on your site in order for your blog to be on it. I don’t have a problem with that except that the free WordPress blogs don’t allow any kind of javascript which is usually in the code needed to list the blogroll. This is old news to some bloggers, but new to others — it’s set up that way so that as new blogs are added or old ones deleted, your blogroll is automatically updated. Plus most of them have a little drop-down window so that you can click on it and see the list of blogs registered with that blogroll. The code for that doesn’t work with the free WP blogs, either, so in order to be listed I had to include the whole list of blogs listed with the Family Friendly blogroll and then update it manually. That long, long list had been bugging me ever since I put it up, and that’s why I didn’t list my blog with other blogrolls — my sidebar would have gone on for miles. I know that’s a great way to get your blog “out there” and gain a little more blog traffic, but I just couldn’t stand the long sidebar any more, so I deleted all the individual blog names and just left the link to the blogroll. It seems to me like that should be enough to remain on, but if the powers that be deem otherwise, I understand. It will just have to be that way unless I switch to a blog host that will accept the code.

My own personal blogroll isn’t really up to date, either. Since I started using Bloglines, I’ve been updating the blogs I read there rather than here. I have 95 blogs listed there, though, and I don’t want another long list on my sidebar (all of them don’t post every day, else I’d be in trouble and have to pare down the list. Some are even retired, but I keep the link there in case they come back). I put in a request to WP for a dropdown menu for the blogroll like they have for Categories, but no response yet. I think there’s a way to make a link so that when someone clicks on a blogroll, they go to my list at Bloglines — I may check into that. I love having a blogroll to recommend other good blogs — I just don’t want to have such a lengthy list on my sidebar.

Well, I am not doing so well with making shorter posts, am I? I’m off to e-mail Laurel and visit the blogs of some of the commenters on my blogiversary post.

Happy Monday!

My one year blogging anniversary!

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I don’t remember quite when I started reading blogs. But after some time I began to think about starting my own. I wrestled through a lot of questions: Is it safe? Will some stalker find me or my children? Would anybody be interested in what I have to say? Would it be a wise use of time? After considering it for a long time, I felt that it would be a good use of time and it could be done safely. I had been wanting to do more writing and felt blogging would be good practice and discipline. Writing for an audience (hopefully!) would help me be thoughtful and careful with my words. And blogging would be an avenue to be a blessing to others, to share things the Lord had taught me, to encourage other women along the way.

And besides all that, it looked like a lot of fun!

So with the technical help of my son, I plunged in a year ago today.

Besides all of the the above reasons for blogging, I have found a wonderful blogging community out there! I am so glad to have “met” so many of you online!

To celebrate my blogging anniversary, I want to do a few things. First, I finally wrote a “100 things about me” post. I had seen and enjoyed these on other blogs and decided to join in. I had wanted to post that here and then after a couple of days put it in the upper right hand corner. But WordPress calls this a “Post” and those things “Pages,” and after I post a post there is no way to change it into a page — I’d just have to copy and paste the text into a page, then I’d lose the comments here. So, I’ll just post it as a page under the “About me” section. You can click here to read it, but I won’t be offended if you don’t. 🙂

Secondly, I’d really like to see if some of the folks who read would leave me a comment here. 🙂 I am so thankful for those who comment regularly! You make my day! My blog stats tell me that on a “normal” day when there is not an interactive meme like the photo hunt or Works for Me Wednesday or that kind of thing, I have 100-150 or so readers. I’d love to hear from some of you so that I know someone besides spam bots are out there. 🙂

Thirdly, to say thank you to my readers, I want to have another give-away. I will draw from the names of those who leave comments on this post between now and Monday morning at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time and give one person a couple of prizes. One is something I have mentioned many times on my blog, a copy of the devotional book Daily Light on the Daily Path. It is composed totally of Scripture verses, usually centered around one topic for each day. I like to use it to begin my devotional times, but there are some days — Sundays and unusually busy days — when that day’s reading may be all I do. Yet so many times the Lord has given me just what I needed for the day, and something thinking through the list of verses and trying to figure out why the compiler grouped them together has shed light on what they mean. This book has been in publication for decades and had been a blessing to many. I first read of it in missionary biographies.

When I was reorganizing my CDs the other day, I discovered that I had two copies of one of my favorite CDs, A Quiet Heart by Soundforth. I think I have posted the words to most of the songs on it at various times! I would like to give the extra copy, though it has been opened and used, to someone else so it can bless them.

Again, I’ll be sending both of these to one person whose name I’ll draw from the comments on this post. I will be glad to ship them anywhere. If you are not interested in these — perhaps you already have them (though you could always pass these on to someone else) — please just let me know in the comments, but do stop in to say hi and help me celebrate!

Just for fun, few stats: my blog stats tell me that in the past year I have had 664 posts 😳 , 5,866 comments (most of those from the interactive memes) and 17,004 spam comments (thankfully WordPress has an excellent spam catcher!) My most-viewed posts, besides the Dog Days of Summer give-aways, are Chicken Tenderloins and More Chicken Tenderloin Recipes, One of THE best things to do with leftover ham, Encouragement for mothers of young children, and When there is no hunger for God’s Word. I think it’s funny that recipe posts are getting the most views when I don’t consider myself that great a cook, especially next to some of the others out there!

Besides continuing on with my other reasons for blogging, I do have two goals for the coming year: to try to write shorter posts (I know I am way too wordy), and to try to use “smilies” less and convey the sentiment through words instead.

Here’s to another great year!

Sites to see in Blogville

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One of the funniest things I’ve read in a long time is from Clint, newly back in the States missionary from Venezuela and husband of Jungle Mom, on The Most Elusive and Dangerous Prey. I was going to post couple of tidbits, but I don’t want to spoil it. Go read it — you’ll have fun. 🙂 Not in Kansas Anymore!!! is pretty funny, too.

If you love crafty eye candy, you need to see the Bits and Pieces Collages Swap entries at Every Day is a Holiday. They’re just darling. I saw when she first announced the swap, but it was a busy time, so I didn’t sign up to participate. But I love looking at what the others did. I really want to do something like that some time.

Mrs. B. at Cherish the Home has a very sobering and convicting post of a woman’s testimony concerning mistakes she made in her marriage which left her Alone.

There are lots of special things happening in Blogville over the next several days.

Mary at Owlhaven is sponsoring a meme on Friday, July 20, called My Childhood Home. She says, “I’d like you all to consider writing about your childhood home. It doesn’t matter how big or small it was. All the memories don’t have to be picture-perfect. If you moved a lot, it’s fine to pick one favorite house. What I want to hear are details that were important to you as a child: your secret hideout under the stairs, the single-paned picture window you licked and froze your tongue to one winter morning, the backyard tree you climbed, the way your mother washed your hair in the kitchen sink every Saturday night, or any other strong indelible memory you have.” She’ll put up a Mr. Linky on Friday so that anyone who wants to participate can write a post on their blog and put the link on that post. More details are here.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at PhotobucketShannon at Rocks In My Dryer is hosting a Dog Days of Summer Bloggy Giveaway. There are so many blogs giving away various things, she thought it would be fun to have a carnival of sorts for various bloggers to host give-aways all at the same time and place. She writes, “You can hold a drawing at your blog for whatever you want. It doesn’t have to be big, or expensive, or even new. It can be something you made. Or something you found on sale. Or something you’ve used (a book, maybe?) and want to pass on to others. A purse? Jewelry? A gift card? The ideas are endless. If you’re feeling extra creative, choose an item that is significant to your own blog.” She’ll put up a Mr. Linky on her site Monday, July 23 and bloggers who want to give away something can link up any time that week until Friday. Then drawings for all the prizes will be drawn Friday, July 27. Guidelines are here. You have to be a blogger to give something, but you don’t have to have a blog to enter the contests on the sites you’re interested in.

GiBee at Kisses of Sunshine is hosting a cupcake contest: details are here.

bannertopper.jpg

payitforward-small.jpgOverwhelmed With Joy is starting a monthly book give away called “Pay It Forward,” in which she’ll give away a book a month and then ask the recipient to give it away when she’s done with it. There are a lot of other bloggers giving away books linked at her site, too. Details are here.

Whew! It seems like there were some others I was going to mention, but that’s probably enough for now. 🙂

An award!

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Janeen at Our Story is a sweet lady who writes about her life and family. They have had to deal with a lot of severe allergies in her children. I don’t know how she keeps up with all that’s involved. It would be a challenge! She graciously awarded me the “Rockin’ Girl Blogger Award,” saying, “The title of Barbara’s blog is accurate. Her blog is about her life, her family, her religion. It’s written with love and faith. It’s a joy to read.”

Update: Tamara at Training Hearts also gave me this award for the Wordless Wednesday picture below.

Update: Alice at “Hello, My Name Is Alice” also nominated me, saying, “I am glad to have found a godly Christian woman who blogs thoughtfully. She dispenses doses of Bible verses I found to be comforting and timely. Thanks for your wonderful entries, Barbara!” That’s so sweet, Alice. I do want to be a blessing and I’m glad you think I am.

Thanks so much, Janeen and Tamara! I don’t think I’ve ever been called “rockin'” before. 🙂 Just for fun I looked it up at dictionary.com and found these definitions:

1. To move back and forth or from side to side, especially gently or rhythmically. Yep, did that with my guys when they were little in a rocking chair. I miss that sometimes.

2. To sway violently, as from a blow or shock. Yes, I’ve been rocked by news that way sometimes.

3. To be washed and panned in a cradle or in a rocker. Used of ores. Washed, yes, panned, no. 🙂

4. Music To play or dance to rock ‘n’ roll. Mmm, nope, not a rock fan.

I also looked it up in the Urban Dictionary and found one definition was “something that’s really cool!”

It’s nice that someone thinks I’m cool!

I’m supposed to pass this on but I think most everyone I know who might like it already has it. 🙂

A present! For me!

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I got a note from Everyday Mommy this morning saying she had felt a little inspiration and made a blog header for me. Wow, I was so surprised!

I wasn’t sure if I could use it because WordPress only allows a little bit of customization on its free blogs. When I first uploaded it, it came through beautifully, but the words from WordPress’s theme were still over the top. Then I remembered Owlhaven also used WordPress and had a cute design from Everyday Mommy, so I went over to see what theme she used, made the switch — and it came out beautifully! (Thanks, Owlhaven, for inadvertently helping. 🙂 I was going to e-mail you, then realized I could just scroll down and see what theme you used.)

I love it. It is very much “me.” It’s so nice to have my blog a little more personalized. Thank you, Everyday Mommy!

My blogging story

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Chilihead at Don’t Try This At Home is sponsoring an opportunity for bloggers to tell about how and why they got started blogging. She has a “Mr. Linky” up so folks can post the link back to their own blogging story.

She asks these questions:

How did you start blogging?

I think I first starting noticing blogs through a couple of Christian message forums where people would link to their personal blogs in their posts. When I first heard of blogging, I think I thought it was kind of weird to write personal thoughts out for all the world to see. 🙂 But as I began to discover more and more, I found some really enlightening thoughts, some devotional, some funny, some instructive. As I found blogs I liked, I’d look at other blogs on their blogroll — it’s easy to get hooked. 🙂 I began to think about starting my own, then finally got my oldest son (my in-house computer consultant) to help me set it up. That was almost a year ago.

Did you intend to be a blog w/a following? If so, how did you go about it?

Well — that question feels a little awkward to me. I think of celebrities as people with a following, and I didn’t set out to be a celebrity. And I’m not one 🙂 And I don’t know if I have a “following.” But writing of any type is a form of communication, and it’s nice to know that you have indeed communicated something, that someone is reading, even nicer when someone responds.

I think you get more readers by getting “out there” — reading and commenting on other blogs (though the sole reason for doing that shouldn’t be just to get noticed or get readers; rather it should be genuine comments on the person’s post), joining the Family Friendly blogroll, participating in some of the weekly interactive memes.

What do you hope to achieve or accomplish with your blog? Have you been successful? If not, do you have a plan to achieve those goals?

I’ve mentioned this before on a meme or two about blogging, but I want first of all to be used of the Lord. I want to share His truth and encourage people to read and heed His Word and get to know Him better. I want to be an encouragement to other women. I want to be able to be a help and testimony to people with transverse myelitis and other trials. I want to improve my writing by writing. I want to have fun. 🙂 I think I have accomplished a little in all those areas and hope to continue to.

Has the focus of your blog changed since you started blogging? How?

I don’t know if I have really had a focus besides just posting my “stray thoughts,” and I’ve pondered whether I should have a more specific focus. Some blogs are wonderfully humorous, even when making poignant points; some are deeply devotional. I’m kind of a hodgepodge.

What do you know now that you wish you’d known when you started?

Well, it takes a while to learn how to make links, post pictures, embed vidoes, etc. It’s all kind of overwhelming at first, but I’ve learned along the way.

Do you make money with your blog?

No. I feel honored that anyone would come by to read anything I have to say. I would feel strange trying to make money off my readers just for coming by and reading. But I have read different perspectives on this, and I have come to understand there are many valid reasons for making money from a blog. I don’t feel I should do so just now, though I might change my mind in the future. If I ever change to a paid blog host (this one is free) I might need to do something like ads to pay for it.

I think if I wanted to try and make money online, I think I’d go to a website rather than a blog and make a business of it.

Does your immediate or extended family know about your blog? If so, do they read it? If not, why?

I sent an e-mail to family members who have e-mail and mentioned it on on Christmas letter, but that’s all I’ll do. I don’t want to push it or seem self-promotional. My husband reads it occasionally and I think my two oldest sons check it out sometimes, but if anyone else reads it, they haven’t let me know.

What two pieces of advice would you give to a new blogger?

1) Be natural: don’t try to copy someone else’s style. Just be yourself.

And 2) Keep it in perspective. It’s too easy to let it take too much of your day and energy. Don’t let blogging about life get in the way of actually living.

Chilihead didn’t ask this question, but I am adding it for myself and anyone else who’d like to answer it:

Have you encountered any surprises in blogging?

I knew there was a “blogging community” but I didn’t realize how much fun it would be to be a part of it. I’ve enjoyed the friends I have made “out there” and I have been amazed at how bloggers can come together to pray someone through something or even contribute monetarily to help a fellow blogger through a serious need.

Overall I have very much enjoyed my almost-year of blogging!

(Do leave a comment and let me know you stopped by! 🙂 )

Time Travel Tuesday — Blog Beginning Edition

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I just saw at Barb’s a weekly meme started by My Life as Annie called Time Travel Tuesday. I hadn’t seen it before, but apparently each week Annie suggests a particular time in our lives that we go back and write about. Sounds like fun!

This week the instructions are to go back to our first blog post, post it again, and tell how we got started blogging.

I think I first heard about blogging through my oldest son. He had a blog, but it wasn’t terribly interactive; it was more of a place to record his thoughts. Then I used to be on the Crosswalk forums a lot, and they have their own “Blog Town” there, but it was in the same format as the rest of their forums and didn’t have a place for comments there at the blogs — bloggers had to start a separate thread in another part of the forums to interact with others.

I can’t remember how I first discovered blogs as I know them now — probably as a link from something else I read. I discovered a few that I enjoyed reading regularly. Gradually the idea began to dawn to begin one of my own. One of my main purposes was to try to be a testimony to others with transverse myelitis: some on the subscriber list I’m on for that frown at much mention of God, so I thought I would have more freedom to share about Him with others on my own turf. Plus, though I am not one of the “aged” women of Titus 2, I hoped that I could encourage other ladies in their Biblical roles. And I have entertained some thoughts of trying to do more writing, and blogging sounded like good exercise in that regard.

Here is my first post, less than a year ago:

About me

Thursday, July 27th, 2006I am a Christian 40-something stay-at-home mom. By Christian I mean someone who is born again by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior from sin. I thank God for His patience and grace as He leads me along day by day.

I have been married to my wonderful husband, Jim, for 26 years. We have three boys whom we love dearly and who keep us on our toes….and on our knees.

I enjoy reading, writing, decorating, some crafts when there is time. I have enough projects I’d like to do and things I’d like to learn to keep me busy for the next 50 years or so. -)

I had been thinking about starting a blog for some time, and blest with son’s posts about why she blogs convinced me. (I’m glad to be able to stretch my brain by learning new things, but I am new to this, so forgive me if links and things aren’t entirely smooth yet.) While this blog is a home to my “stray thoughts,” I hope it will be a blessing to those who stop by.

I have found blogging to be good exercise in writing: I often think about better ways to phrase my sentences. I have learned to be cautious in expressing myself, knowing that readers may take my words any number of ways. I think, I hope I have been some encouragement to others. I have been blessed to hear from some with TM. What I have been surprised about, though, is discovering the blogging community at large. I had been blessed, instructed, inspired, challenged, and encouraged by the bloggers I knew in the beginning, but that was just the tip of the iceberg! Then to see the way the blogosphere pulls together to pray each other through crises and even help financially has been a lesson in Christian love in action.

I think I’m still finding my voice and my place. I’m not naturally as humorous as some or as poignant as others. I’ve struggled, as many others have written, with wanting response and affirmation and reminding myself that when I started this I gave it to the Lord and asked Him to use it as He saw fit, whether I ever knew how He used it or not. I’ve struggled with balance in not spending too much of my day in blogging and reading others’ blogs.

But overall I’m glad I found the blogosphere and glad to be a part of it.

Click on the graphic above to participate in Time Travel Tuesday.

 

 

Why I blog

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Erica at Butterfly Kisses tagged me for this meme in which we’re to list 5 reasons why we blog. Thanks for thinking of me, Erica! 🙂

1. I hope the Lord can use it as a ministry to encourage other Christian women and to be a light to those who do not yet know Christ as Savior.

2. Always, or at least often, in the back of my mind I have wanted to write, and the best way to learn to write well is to write, I’m told. What the Lord might do with that desire, I don’t know, but I do know that writing frequently in a blog has helped to sharpen my thinking and my expression and caused me to brush up on a few grammatical rules. 🙂

3. I am on an e-mail subscriber list for people with transverse myelitis, and it has been a great support system through the years. Now I am at the point of being able to encourage new folks there. But in general if I talk about the Lord very much, it’s frowned upon by some in the group. I wanted a place to be able to express myself freely in that regard. I’ve been so thankful that my blog stats frequently show that some search involving TM has led people to my blog, and I hope they found something here that’s helpful.

4. I can think things through when I write about them. Just the process of putting thoughts in writing helps me focus, sort, prioritize, draw conclusions, etc.

5. I’ve enjoyed “meeting” and interacting with other bloggers.

I think I’ll tag Kim, Susan, and Bet — and as always, if you don’t have time, I won’t be offended. 🙂 And if you’ve already done this, please forgive me — I have seen it here and there but can’t remember where.

My interview is up on the “5 Minutes For Mom” site

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I’ve been interviewed over at “5 Minutes for Mom”.

If you’ve never seen 5 Minutes for Mom, it’s a site that helps promote mom blogs and mom-owned webstores. The owners are sisters who run an educational toy store and want to help other mom sites get free advertising.