Bloggy Happenings

Posted on January 18, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Wow! I found two upcoming fun events around the blogosphere in my Bloglines this morning.

Everyday Mommy is hosting the First Annual Hidden Treasure Blog Awards the first week in February. She writes:

The rules are:

Your mission is to scour the mommy blogosphere for hidden treasure. Read through archives, visit new blogs and find that well-written gem. This can come from a favorite blog which you already read or a blog you’ve discovered during the treasure hunt. But, the idea is to find well-written posts which are off the beaten path.

The categories are: Children & Family, Faith, Marriage, Motherhood, Homemaking, Humor, Current Events and Life. No profanity, questionable or offensive material is permitted.

Click on the button to the left or the link above for more details as to how and when to submit entries.

Susan and Janice at 5 Minutes For Mom are hosting “The Ultimate Blog Party” the first week in March and even offerings prizes. 🙂 Click on the button to read more about it.

Blog Meme

Posted on January 11, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Janeen at Our Story tagged me for this blog meme.

1. Do you like the looks and content of your blog?

Overall, yes. I don’t have the skills to really personalize it, and WordPress (at least the free version) doesn’t allow for much personalization, anyway. And I don’t think my husband would go for a paid site and paying someone for a design. But being able to change the picture header from time to time makes me happy.

2. Does your family know about your blog?

My husband and sons do and I think they look at it every now and then. I have mentioned it to me step-father and sisters and extended family, but I don’t know if any of them reads it. If they do, they’ve never said so.

3. Can you tell your friends about your blog?

I told several when I first started it. I know Carol drops in from time to time (Hello, Carol. 🙂 ) After a lot of wrestling I even mentioned it in our Christmas letter. I didn’t want to sound self-promotional, but then reasoned that if any of our friends and family had blogs, I’d want to know, and I hoped they felt the same way.

4. Do you just read the blogs of those who comment on your blog?

I do usually go to that person’s blog at least once, sometimes I become a regular reader. On the weekly memes that tend to get more comments, I do try to visit the blog of every person that has commented on mine, but I probably have missed a few on busy days.

Edited: I realized after reading Bet’s answers that I had misunderstood this question. I do read a number of blogs of people that do not comment on mine, who either don’t know I exist or to whom I am just a little blip on the radar. 😀

5. Did your blog positively affect your mind?

I had to think over that one…..I think so. Knowing that anyone can take what you say any number of ways makes one more thoughtful about what to say and how.

6. What does the number of visitors to your blog mean?

Well, it means a lot to me that someone would take the time to stop in.

7. Do you imagine what other bloggers look like?

Not really, though sometimes I am surprised when I do see a picture of them.

8. Do you think blogging has any real benefit?

Oh, yes. I’ve seen people lifted up, encouraged, prayed for. I’ve read posts that made me laugh, made me think, made me worship and thank God. As far as my own blog goes, I am thankful for comments that indicate that someone was blessed by my sharing something that God has taught me.

9. Do you think that the blogosphere is a stand alone community separated from the real world?

No — I think most people are involved in the ‘real world” and the blogosphere is just one aspect of their lives.

10. Do some political blogs scare you? Do you avoid them?

Yes and yes.

11. Do you think criticizing your blog is useful?

I haven’t really had that, but I guess it would depend on what the person was saying and what spirit they seemed to be in. We should be open to constructive criticism, especially if we’re off-base Biblically. But most people (at least the ones that I encounter) would no more come to one’s blog and start criticising than they would come to your home and do so.

12. Have you ever thought what would happen to your blog in case you died?

Not until that question! At first it would probably be the last thing on anyone’s mind. But I imagine at some point my oldest son would post and tell everyone what happened to me. Then, since the WordPress version I use is free, I imagine it would stay up until WordPress decided to delete inactive blogs (I don’t know if they do that or not.) My husband has often told me I need to save my writing here, and I do copy some of the posts to Word documents. He might go through and save some things.

13. Which blogger has had the greatest impression on you?

Wow — that’s one of those questions that you’re afraid to answer because you don’t want to leave someone out. But I think that Barb’s sweetness and demeanor and genuine caring heart have had a great impression on me.

14. Which blogger do you think is the most similar to you?

I’m not sure…..

15. Name a song you want to listen to.

Any from my favorite CDs.

I have seen this meme around but can’t recall who has done it, so, if these folks haven’t and have the time and inclination to do it, I’ll tag Barb, Bet, and DeAnna.

National De-lurking Week

Posted on January 10, 2007 by Barbara Harper

I have have seen on several blogs that this week has been declared (by whom, originally, I’m not sure) “National De-lurking Week.” To “lurk” in cyberspace is to read a blog or forum without participating or commenting. Nothing wrong with that — if I commented on everything I read I’d spend a lot more time on the computer than I already do. 🙂 But bloggers love to know that there are real people reading their blogs, so I’d love it if you left a comment to say “Hi!”

Bunny: 1; Snake: 0

Posted on January 8, 2007 by Barbara Harper

My oldest son sent this to me. I don’t know whether to think this bunny is really plucky or whether his mama never taught him about snakes.

Looking back meme

Posted on December 29, 2006 by Barbara Harper

I saw this fun-looking meme over at 4:53 am (a wonderful craft blog! I get inspired just looking) in which we post the first line of the first post for each month from our blogs. I have only been blogging since July, so I only have six:

July:

“I am a Christian 40-something stay-at-home mom. “

August:

“Last week was a busy week!”

September:

“I saw a new meme over at Rocks In My Dryer originated by Catez:”

October:

“Lauren at Created for His Glory is hosting a ‘Bloggy Tour of Testimonies.'”

November:

“That which we elect to surround ourselves with becomes the museum of our soul and the archive of our experiences.”
—Thomas Jefferson

December:

“A pretty easy feast today!”

Let me know if you play along and I’ll come “look back” with you.

New Year’s Wishes for You

Posted on December 28, 2006 by Barbara Harper

This is not original with me: I received it in an email years ago, I forget from whom, and the author is unknown. But I thought the wishes and the writing were witty, and I do hope these things for you in the coming year:

New Year’s Greetings!

May you get a clean bill of health from your dentist, our cardiologist, your gastro-endocrinologist, your urologist, your proctologist, your podiatrist, your psychiatrist, your gynecologist, your plumber and the IRS.

May your hair, your teeth, your face-lift, your abs and your stocks not fall; and may your blood pressure, your triglycerides, your cholesterol, your white blood count and your mortgage interest not rise.

May you find a way to travel from anywhere to anywhere in the rush hour in less than an hour, and when you get there may you find a parking space.

May Sunday evening, December 31, find you seated around the dinner table, together with your beloved family and cherished friends, ushering in the new year ahead. You will find the food better, the environment quieter, the cost much cheaper, and the pleasure much
more fulfilling than anything else you might ordinarily do that night.

May you wake up on January 1st, finding that the world has not come to an end, the lights work, the water faucets flow, and the sky has not fallen.

May you ponder how did this ultramodern civilization of ours manage to get itself traumatized by a possible slip of a blip on a chip made out of sand.

May what you see in the mirror delight you, and what others see in you delight them.

May someone love you enough to forgive your faults, be blind to your blemishes, and tell the world about your virtues.

May the telemarketers wait to make their sales calls until you finish dinner, and may your check book and your budget balance and may they include generous amounts for charity.

May you remember to say “I love you” at least once a day to your spouse, your child, your parents, your friends; but not to your secretary, your nurse, your masseuse, your hairdresser or your tennis instructor.

May we live as God intended, in a world at peace and the awareness of His love in every sunset, every flower’s unfolding petals, every baby’s smile, every lover’s kiss, and every wonderful, astonishing, miraculous beat of our heart.

A Very Happy New Year to All!

(See also New Year’s quotes and two poems sitting for the new year, The Year We Have Now Passed Through and Another Year Is Dawning.)

Thursday Thirteen #18: New Year’s Resolutions for Dogs

Posted on December 28, 2006 by Barbara Harper

This list is not original with me — I received it in an e-mail years ago, author unknown.

New Year’s Resolutions for Dogs:

1. I will no longer be beholden to the sound of the can opener.

2. Understand the garbage collector is NOT stealing our stuff.

3. I do not need to suddenly stand straight up when I’m lying under the coffee table.

4. I will not roll my toys behind the fridge.

5. I must shake the rainwater out of my fur BEFORE entering the house.

6. I will stop trying to find the few remaining pieces of clean carpet in the house when I am about to throw up.

7. I will not throw up in the car.

8. I will not roll on dead seagulls, fish, crabs, etc.

9. I will not eat any more socks and then redeposit them in the backyard.

10. I will not chew my human’s toothbrush and not tell them.

11. When in the car, I will not insist on having the window rolled down when it’s raining outside.

12. We do not have a doorbell. I will not bark each time I hear one on TV.

13. I will not bite the officer’s hand when he reaches in for Mom’s driver’s license and car registration.

May your dog, if you have one, keep them all. 🙂

See more Thursday Thirteens here.

Christmas funnies #2

Posted on December 16, 2006 by Barbara Harper

OK, these are really, really corny, but fun. Your kids might like some of them. They are not all directly related to Christmas, but they’re seasonal. The first one is my favorite. Enjoy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What did the sheep say to the shepherd?
Seasons Bleatings!

Why are Christmas trees like bad knitters ?
They both drop their needles !

What did the bald man say when he got a comb for Christmas ?
Thanks, I’ll never part with it !

What did the big candle say to the little candle ?
I’m going out tonight !

What will happen to you at Christmas ?
Yule be happy !

How long does it take to burn a candle down ?
About a wick !

What did the guest sing at the Eskimo’s Christmas party ?
Freeze a jolly fellow !

Why couldn’t the butterfly go to the Chistmas ball ?
It was a moth ball!

Where does Frosty the Snowman keep his money?
In a snow bank.

What is a snowman’s favorite breakfast cereal?
Frosted Flakes

What do you call a polar bear that steals icebergs from other polar bears?
An ice-burglar.

What happens when Frosty the Snowman gets dandruff?
He gets snowflakes.

Where did the mistletoe go to become rich and famous?
Holly-wood.

What does Frosty the Snowman take when he gets sick?
A chill pill.

What do you call a cow in Alaska?
An Eski-moo.

Why did Frosty go to live in the middle of the ocean?
Because snow man is an island.

What happened when the snowgirl fell out with the snowboy ?
She gave him the cold shoulder !

How do snowmen travel around?
By iceicle !

What did Jack Frost say to Frosty the Snowman?
Have an ice day!

What do snowmen eat for lunch?
Icebergers !

Christmas funnies

Posted on December 9, 2006 by Barbara Harper

These have been collected from various places over the years. Enjoy!

Planning a Christmas weekend of entertaining guests, I made a list of things I needed to do, including taking food out of the freezer and grocery shopping.As it happened, a friend whom I had been promising to take to lunch asked if we could make it that Friday. So, hopping into the car, I taped my “to do” list to the dashboard and went and picked her up. As she settled into the car, her face dropped.

“Thanks a lot!” she sulked.

Then I glanced at my list and saw the first item: “Take out the turkey.”

A kindly 90-year-old grandmother found buying presents for family and friends a bit much last Christmas. So this year she wrote out checks for each of them to send in their Christmas cards. In each card she carefully wrote, “Buy your own present this year.” and then sent them off.

After the Christmas festivities were over, she found the checks under a pile of papers on her desk!

Everyone on her gift list had received a beautiful Christmas card from her with “Buy your own present this year” written inside–without the check!

There was a woman who had waited until the last minute to send Christmas cards. She knew she had 49 folks on her list. So she rushed into a store and bought a package of 50 cards without really looking at them. Still in a big hurry, she addressed the 49 and signed them, still without reading the message inside.

On Christmas Day when things had quieted down somewhat, she happened to come across the leftover card and finally read the message she had sent to 49 of her friends. Much to her dismay, it read like this:
“This card is just to say,
A little gift is on the way.”

Suddenly she realized that 49 of her friends were expecting a gift from her–a gift that would never come.

Did you know that some psychiatrists claim that hanging lights on a Christmas tree is one of the three most stressful situations in relationships? They say the other two danger zones are teaching your mate to drive and wallpapering. With this in mind I present to you a …

…List of Things *not* to Say when Hanging Lights on the ChristmasTree!

“You’ve got two red lights right next to each other. You’re supposed to go yellow, green, red, blue, not yellow, red, red, green,blue…”

“Up a little higher. You can reach it. Go on, try.”

“What do you do to these lights when you put them away every year? Tie them in knots?”

“Here! Give me that!”

“I don’t care if you have found another two strings, I’m done!”

“You’ve just wound ’em around and around – I thought we agreed it shouldn’t look like a spiral this year?”

“Where’s the cat?”

“You’ve got the whole thing on the tree upside down. The electric plug thingie should be down here at the bottom, not up at the top.”

Holiday meme

Posted on December 5, 2006 by Barbara Harper

I saw this Holiday Meme over at Barb’s place, A Chelsea Morning. She saw it on someone else’s, who saw it on someone else’s, etc. — I’ll let you trace the history there if you’d like. I thought it looked like fun, so I’m jumping in.

Eggnog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate. Eggnog does not look at all enticing to me.
Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree? We don’t do Santa — no offense to those who do. 🙂 I want my children to know those gifts came from me! We handle Santa like any other fairy tale or storybook character, and we do watch “Rudolph,” but I never wanted to convince my children to believe in a myth.
Colored lights on tree/house or white? Colored. I do like the look of the all-white icicle lights, but we’ve always opted for colored. I don’t know — just seems bright and happy to me.
Do you hang mistletoe? No — no reason in particular, just never did.
When do you put your decorations up? Whenever we can get everyone together with no obligations elsewhere, which is getting harder and harder to do. I like to make it a family thing. We all go together to pick out a love tree, the boys get the decorations from the attic while my husband gets the tree into the stand and I start putting out wreaths, table decorations, etc., then we all put the ornaments on. I don’t like to do it the weekend after Thanksgiving — I’d like just a little time to change gears before Christmas — but we may go to that since everyone is home (at least for now) and off that weekend. We had a lot of things going on last weekend, so I am hoping we can do it this Saturday.
What is your favorite holiday dish, excluding dessert? Excluding dessert? Hmm. I don’t really have any favorite holiday dishes — except Thanksgiving and Christmas are about the only times we have mashed potatoes and green bean casserole.
Favorite holiday memory as a child? I don’t really have any specific childhood memories of Christmas — just little glimpses, like one year getting Barbie dolls (my childhood nickname was Barbie, so that was special for many reasons), sometimes getting together with relatives, etc.
When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don’t remember that there was any particular dramatic revelation — more of a gradual realization.
Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? No, though my family did this when I was young and my husband’s family opened all theirs on Christmas Eve.
How do you decorate your Christmas tree? My husband puts the lights on, though in the last few years he’s had the boys help. Then we all put ornaments on. The boys have particular ones they each want to put up. It’s always fun to pull out the old favorites and talk about them every year.
Snow! Love it or Dread It? Love it for about a day, then I want it to go away — which, thankfully, is how it usually happens here.
Can you ice skate? Nope!!
Do you remember your favorite gift? Not really. I enjoyed my Barbie dolls when I was younger, and I usually get some books these days, which I love.
What is the most important thing about the holidays to you? Remembering the gift God gave to us of a Savior. We hear it so much we get used to it and take it for granted, I think, but during the holidays it seems like a special time to remember and reflect. One of the things that most helps me do that is the glorious Christmas music I hear on the radio and on CDs collected through the years.
What is your favorite holiday dessert? I usually make this some time in December before Christmas, but a friend gave me a recipe for Harvest Loaf Cake when I had it at her house. The name sounds fallish, but we like it at Christmas. Since it is not “my” recipe I won’t post it, but it is sort of like a pumpkin bread with chocolate chips and a spiced glaze drizzled over the top. You wouldn’t think pumpkin and chocolate would go together, but it’s wonderful in that concoction.
What is your favorite holiday tradition? Probably decorating the tree together, then reading the Christmas story from Luke 2 Christmas morning. With kids in school we’ve always had Christmas programs and recitals to go to. My youngest will have his piano recital next week, and I realized with a start that we won’t have to go to any school Christmas programs since he is not in elementary school (where everyone was in the chorus) and he’s not in the secondary choir. And, as much as I was looking forward to not having to go — I find I am going to miss it. Isn’t that silly? For years we would get exhausted during Christmas with all the stuff to go to — often we had elementary piano recital, secondary piano recital, elementary Christmas program, and secondary program — sometimes all in the same week! Along with Sunday night and Wednesday night church!! Thankfully the school rearranged its schedule — put all the piano recitals on one night (the elementary never lasted long anyway — even with 25 students, their pieces were all very short. I much preferred having them all together one night than having to go out after a rushed dinner two nights) and put the programs in separate weeks. I probably won’t miss it enough to be motivated to go to them! But there is a little pang there. We will see the children’s program at church this Sunday night and then the choir’s Christmas cantata later on. I can’t imagine Christmas without any programs like that! I may also unofficially start a new tradition of seeing a classic Christmas movie. We often see George C. Scott’s version of A Christmas Carol, and last year we rented White Christmas. I’ve thought about renting White Christmas again or another classic. It was fun sharing a movie that my family had watched often with my own children. I also used to make an ornament of every craft I tried. (Forgive me for having one long paragraph here — when I try to make new paragraphs it tries to number them.)
What tops your tree? Right now it’s a Victorian-type angel, but I am thinking of changing it. I don’t really like angel decorations because they are so different from what an angel really is, Biblically. But I don’t know if I want to do a star or a bow or what. I think I’d prefer something with light in it to just a bow.
Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? I love them both. 🙂
What is your favorite Christmas song? Infant Holy, Infant Lowly and Gentle Mary Laid Her Child.
Candy canes! Yuck or Yum? More yuck than yum. 🙂

Let me know if you do this meme, too!

On another note, I wanted to mention these darling little fabric trees I saw at a link from The Sparrow’s Nest to Turkey Feathers, whose link for the pattern at Little Bird led me to the cutest button wreath here and here. I’m sad to say I haven’t made any Christmas decorations in many years, but these are inspiring, and I hope to do them! I had never read either of the last two blogs, though I do love The Sparrow’s Nest, but I am going to peruse them some more!