The Well Drained Mind

I'm excited to be a part of The Well Drained Mind, a new place for homeschooling moms. Here's a little bit of the philosophy behind this group blog:

"This blog is about how to maintain a sense of self in this all encompassing life altering decision we have each made, for all manner of reasons, to homeschool. There are plenty of blogs out there devoted to being a Mom. There are plenty devoted to the challenges associated with homeschooling. But I think there are few where many voices can speak to how we can maintain and grow as individuals through this process. . ."

I enjoyed redesigning the blog, which has a yummy hot chocolate theme. Okay, so it's coffee; I'm not a coffee drinker so I imagine it as a frothy hot chocolate. Homeschooling moms, stop by and visit: it's a place for you!

[And no, this isn't the big announcement. I'm quite shocked that no one has asked if I'm pregnant (I'm not), which is the usual response when I have an announcement to make!]

I think, therefore I blog

I discovered that Randi at "i have to say..." gave me a "thinking blogger" award. I would love to say something clever and thought-provoking, but nothing comes to mind, so let me just say "Thank you, Randi. I'm touched."

I looked up the history of this award, originally called "5 Blogs That Make Me Think." The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote.

There are two buttons, gold or silver:




I award:

Queen Shenaynay at The Beehive. She is my long-distance (Texas) cousin, from my mother's father's side of the family, many of whom are known as great characters thinkers. Her posts range from silly to sublime, but they always make me think. The Beehive is a family blog effort, including Queen Shenaynay's husband and two daughters.

Elle at A Complete Thought. Elle is one of the most thought-provoking bloggers I know. I usually have Bible Gateway pulled up on another tab while leaving comments on her posts. Our initial bond was our shared love appreciation for Jack Bauer.

Melanie at This Ain't New York. Melanie is an observer and commentator on all, from the mundane to the eccentric. You've never seen a prouder mama. She's also completely. certifiably. insane, which makes her a whole lot of fun.

Amber at Life with the Ferrells. Amber makes me think of what life would be like as a wickedly funny, 20-something mommy with a camera in one hand and a toddler in the other. Her digital scrapbooking layouts and photos of her kids are amazing.

Antique Mommy. If you've never read Antique Mommy, you're missing some of the best mommy blogging around. She has the ability to examine the unique facets of motherhood in a profound and insightful way. She makes me think about what it means to be a mommy.

Happenings in the blogosphere:

Does your vacuum cleaner suck? Or more importantly does it not suck? (Carol, I'm doing this for you, and since I'm discussing vacuum cleaners, I think I can get away with it.) The gals at at 5 Minutes for Mom are having a contest to give away a Dyson vacuum cleaner. Woo hoo! Hurry over and sign-up to win. Entries are due by 1:00 p.m. Wednesday.

Also, 5 Minutes for Mom is hosting a new series called "About Blogging" on the first Mondays of the month and are they looking for guest contributors. Topics will include:

• What is Page Rank and How Do I Get It?
• All About Carnivals and Memes
• How To Embed Video, Music and Slideshows
• SEO – The Basics
• The HTML You Need to Know

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Here are a couple of reminders (just click the buttons):

(Y'all please don't leave me with a lonely Mr. Linky, hint, hint!)

Full Circle

I set up a blog on homeschoolblogger.com in the fall of 2005, but I just didn't "get it"--blogging I mean. I wrote a couple of self-conscious posts, didn't go out and meet anyone, didn't get any comments.

A few months later an issue of The Old Schoolhouse magazine arrived in my mailbox. It featured an article about the Homeschool Blog Awards. Blog awards? I'd never imagined such a thing! I promptly sat down with my magazine in hand and began checking out the award winners--fantastic stuff! I got it this time--blogging that is--and I set up a blogger blog after finding out some friends had just started blogs here. That article about the Homeschool Blog Award winners was what ultimately lured me into starting this blog last May. I was tickled pink yesterday when I saw I had a nomination for Best Blog Design on this year's awards.

Nominations are going on until Friday (April 6) at midnight. Go make a homeschool mommy blogger happy and submit a nomination!

Critique my blog

I saw this over at Barb's the other day and I thought I'd play. If you go to here, you can have your blog critiqued. Here's my review:

I love blogs that are full of life and give you a warm feeling of family. Now this family is full of 8 children which makes it a little more of a full family, but I think big families are the best! I had a friend growing up who had 10 brothers and sisters, 2 cousins, and an uncle all living in the same house. I live in a little neighborhood, needless to say they had the biggest house there. As for this fantastic blog, you will find lots of family photos and stories about family and thoughts and ideas the blogger has. All that a blog should be. Only thing I didn't notice was some kind of site counter...it's nice to see how many people are stopping by your Home sweet home. Nice job and keep up the great work!

Just to set the record straight, I actually do have a sitemeter, it's just not publicly viewable (I think it's hidden under the navbar). I get way too much of a kick out of the google searches to eliminate it.

And the winners are...

{this and that} won the copy of Norton Antivirus 2007 that I donated through the Ultimate Blog Party, and Melissa Mae won the recipe journal/organizer from the drawing I posted on my own blog party post. Melissa is actually one of my real-life friends, but I promise the drawing wasn't rigged. It was nice from a shipping aspect--I hand-delivered her organizer today!

Melissa has been patiently waiting for me to finish designing her website for selling girls hair bows. Most people don't have to wait for their web designer to read two books and learn two high-tech programs while their site is being created. I guess Melissa is just lucky that way--NOT! At least I did manage to give her blog a makeover. Love you, girl--be patient!

Feeling Foolish

Have you ever posted a comment on a blogger blog and needed to go back and view the post, so you copied your comment so that you wouldn't lose it and then hit the back button, reread the post and then hit the forward button, pasted your comment back in the comment box, and then happened to notice on the comments page that underneath the title of the post it says "Show Original Post," which displays the post on the comments page, making you realize that you have performed a completely unnecessary and time-wasting cutting and pasting ritual hundreds of times?

Nope, me neither.

Why I Blog

MomRN2 at My Quiet Corner is asking a series of questions for feedback this week during the blog party. Here are her latest questions and my answers:

How do you define blogging? If you were to describe it to another person, what is it for you personally? Do you have specific goals or a purpose with your blogging? If so, would you mind sharing?

First, blogging is my personal journal, a memory-keeper for myself and my family. My mother passed away three years ago this month. After she was gone, I searched everywhere for cards, recipes, anything she had written. She would have been an amazing blogger! I like the idea of leaving something like this for my kids.

Second, I love the community of bloggers and the friends I've made. That was a totally unexpected perk of blogging, something I didn't understand about it before I started.

Third, I loved writing in school; it's something I miss. I find deep satisfaction in expressing my thoughts in writing.

Fourth, I feel like I'm keeping in touch with friends and family. I've discovered that friends that I didn't even know were aware of the blog's existence read it, if only occasionally.

What does blogging mean to you? Are there any of you who don't blog but enjoy reading blogs?

The Ultimate Blog Party Begins!

The Ultimate Blog Party begins today, hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom. What is a blog party, you ask? It's a great opportunity to meet other bloggers and win prizes! I am a prize host, #10 on the American-only list. I'm giving away Norton Antivirus 2007, so if you're feeling less than secure head over to the prize page and choose it. Check here to find out how to improve your chances of getting the prize you want.

Welcome to my little corner of the blogosphere. I'm a SAHM of eight kids, with a love for blogging, creating things on my computer, hanging out with the best church family ever, and watching whatever my kids are doing at the time. Soccer moms get their own title, but we're not into soccer, so I guess I'm a baseball/basketball/chorus sort of mom.

I just got this great idea from the Preacher's Wife: to encourage de-lurking, I'll offer a prize from a random drawing from comments left this week. I would tell you what the prize is, but that would imply that I'd had time to put some heavy thought into it, which unfortunately isn't the case... I promise, "whatever it is, it's a nice one!"

UPDATE: I HAVE A PRIZE!

Last weekend I bought the New York City Ballet Complete Workout, which enables me to be beaten up one side and down the other--all in the privacy of my own home!--by the world-renowned NYC Ballet. In the midst of yesterday's fiasco workout, I almost decided that those videos would be a perfect prize. On second thought, I've decided I should stick with it for more than a week before giving it away, so here is the actual prize, selected by my 10-year-old daughter:

This is a recipe organizer with 100 journal pages and 4 divider tabs, perfect for saving and organizing your favorite recipes. I don't know about you, but I've found some fabulous recipes on blogs.

Here are a few of my favorite and/or most-read posts:

The Greatest Job in the World
Moments in motherhood

Modesty Doesn't Become Him
Hubby Dearest, that is

Introducing Aunt Mayme
A tribute to a very special relative

Basic Truths About 24's Jack Bauer
This is copied--not something I wrote--but I could read it all day long and laugh every time.

Strikethrough Text in Blogger
This one gets lots of hits, so I guess it's kind of a blogger public service announcement.

this time I'm serious

After just announcing my standing as "Unchallenged Winner of the Influential No Award Award," I received a comment tonight telling me that my recent post, The Greatest Job in the World, has been nominated for a Hot Stuff Award at GNMParents, and that voting closes this Thursday. Cool, huh?

I want to state for the record that my "Unchallenged Winner of the Influential No Award Award" was 100% poking fun at myself and not at the nominees and winners of any of the recent blogging contests. Some of those people are my dearest blogging buddies, whom I wouldn't offend for the world. Also, No Cool Story--who should receive some kind of award for most consistently creative use of Photoshop--wrote such a sweet post and went to the trouble of making those cute little buttons; I just had to have one. I admit that there was one afternoon where every blog I visited had a post announcing their nominations and I thought, "Gee, I'm obviously not doing very well at this blogging thing." Then I thought, "Hello! I'm a 40-year-old woman with 8 kids! What's with the 8th grade moment I'm having here?" and that was the end of it.

The reason I posted almost nothing last week was twofold: first, I was still sick (I actually went to a walk-in clinic Saturday, thinking I might have strep throat; I don't); second, I saw in my sitemeter that someone had come here after doing a blog search for teen@ge boy$ (I'm scrambling this as well as I can to avoid getting a hit for that one again). I linked recently to an article with parenting advice for moms of teen sons, although the title used the word "boys" instead of "sons." I didn't click on any links, but the other blogs that the person pulled up with those search terms sounded like every mother's worst nightmare. It so sickened and upset me that I actually had a moment where I wanted to delete this blog. I checked the time and saw that this "visitor" left as soon as he arrived--obviously my little mommy blog was not what he was interested in--but I couldn't shake that horrible feeling. Tonight I changed the title on the post.

Also, I've been doing a lot of soul searching lately. That post I'll write about my mother, while going through a box of Kleenex, is still on the horizon. She was one of those people who told you exactly what she thought in no.uncertain.terms (while I stood there cringing and thinking, "Did she really say that?"). You know what? Almost universally, that quality seems to be what people loved and miss the most about her: her honesty tempered with dry wit (for those who didn't know her--if I had to compare her to a blogger, I would choose Antique Mommy, hands down). I've been told that I'm very diplomatic, which is a nice way of saying I'm tactful; I am very much the peacemaker. The thing is, there's a lot of my mother lurking beneath the surface. I just keep a lid on it for the most part.

What does that mean in terms of this blog? Looking back over the last couple of weeks, I'd say I'm posting about the things that mean the most to me: motherhood, my mother, family roots, beloved family members. I'm also unapologetically sharing a little more about who I am and what I'm all about. I started this blog because I wanted my kids to be able to look back and see what their mom had to say, a sort of memory-keeper for the next generation. Up until today, my kids would have looked and said, "Oh, puleeze! It doesn't even mention that she listens to the B@ren@ked L@dies 24 HOURS A DAY!" [Maybe that's a slight exaggeration. I don't play them during school or when I'm asleep.]

Maybe my readership will dwindle to my cousin in NYC, my aunt who just got internet access, and my cousin in Texas, since these topics could have limited appeal. That's okay. You know what my greatest bloggy moments have been lately? My cousin emailed to say how she cried over my Where I'm From, and both my aunt (my mom's sister) and my Great-Aunt Mayme called to tell me how much they enjoyed and laughed about the Aunt Mayme post. Aunt Mayme even recalled another cooking story: tossing one of her homemade biscuits to someone and cutting their forehead.

Stick around if you're up for more about the glamorous world of motherhood and my crazy/sweet/funny family!

Look, I Won!

As you can see, I've had a blog break this week. I'm emerging momentarily to announce this exciting news: I WON! WOO HOO!

Thank you, No Cool Story - you rock!

Savoring the moment...

Because I have literally spent the entire day sick in bed, I am now, possibly for the first and last time ever, completely caught up on my bloglines. I am going to shut down this computer quickly before anyone posts something and blows it. I may not have strewn comments every I visited along the way (and I hate doing that), but I was there. Feel the love, people!

Works-for-Me Wednesday: Strikethrough Text

I've never done this before, but I'm going to post something from the archives. I originally published this in October and it still gets lots of hits from Google searches, so I figure this is something people want to learn how to do. So without further ado...

Strikethrough Text

Do you really like love it when you see that strikethrough text effect, you just don't know how to do it? Now you can! Just enclose the word or words you want to strike through between the following tags:

<strike>like</strike> gives you like
or
<s>like</s> will also give you like

Those brackets are on your keyboard under the letter "L." Just don't forget to include the / on the end tag; that lets your browser know to stop this effect, or else it will just keep striking through everything you write.

To my knowledge, this will not work when leaving comments (I haven't tried it in the new Beta, so who knows?). Have fun, go forth, and strike away!

For more Works-for-Me Wednesday ideas, visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

Win a free apron!

Publish a comment at Smockity Frocks to enter a drawing to win this lovely free apron. Post about it on your blog (like this), and you'll be entered a second time.

Just listen to this description from the website:

This is the newest apron I am selling. I am not making any guarantees, but when I wear this apron, my hair is curlier, my teeth are whiter, and there is a noticeable sing-song quality to my voice. In fact, when I speak, I can hear the faint sound of birds chirping and leaves rustling.*

*Results may vary.

All entries are due by midnight this Thursday.

Hidden Treasure Blog Awards

This is a really neat idea hosted by Everyday Mommy (and I really love this button she's designed)! Here is her summary of what it's all about:

Announcing the First Annual Hidden Treasure Blog Awards. The idea is simple; to recognize blog authors of excellence, with deserving posts which may go unnoticed.

All of us have our favorite blogs, the ones we read faithfully. They are dear friends, like a comfortable pair of shoes, perfectly broken in. But, we can also find ourselves in a rut, reading the same blogs week after week, and overlooking those hidden gems which may require a little more digging. But, as my mom taught me, anything worth having is worth working for.

So, if you're up for an adventure I invite you to join me in a treasure hunt.

Hey! You're invited to The Ultimate Blog Party at 5 Minutes For Mom!
This looks like a lot of bloggy fun and socializing like BooMama's tours of homes.

OH.MY.WORD!

Update: All of the bloglines errors are gone today! I think Milehimama was probably right (in comments) about it being caused by blogger maintenance. I was gone all day and didn't realize there was maintenance yesterday. I'm leaving this up in case it helps anyone in the future with a site feed error. They seem to happen all the time.

Dear friends,

I went to check my bloglines tonight and found that not one, not two, not three, but EIGHTEEN of the fifty-one blogs I subscribe to are showing feed errors through Bloglines. I posted about this in November when it happened to me. Usually, if I see one of my friendly bloggers with a feed error I email them and tell them about it. Since emailing eighteen of you seems a little labor intensive at the moment, I'm hoping this will help. Just email them and ask them to reset your feed.

Blessed blogging!

p.s. - To find out if you have a site feed error, subscribe to your own blog, and look for a red [!] by your name, both on the list to the left and in the upper right corner next to "edit subscription" when you click on your individual listing. A site feed error means that bloglines will not show subscribers that you have posted anything new (even if you have). Hopefully this is a freaky bloglines thing and will resolve itself.

You like?

I've been anticipating making over the blog since before the holidays. My husband saw what I was doing and said, "But there are still snowflakes!"

That's a good excuse to do it again in the spring.

Fall Into Reading: Wrap-Up

Okay, I confess that I posted about Katrina's Fall Into Reading Challenge, but never posted an actual challenge for myself. Basically, my reading goals for the fall didn't sound too fun, interesting, inspiring, or like books anyone would want to take note of for their reading lists (like everyone else's). What I did read, however was exactly what I set out to (although maybe not as quickly as I'd intended). This is a period of my life where rather than a serious reader, I need to be a serious reader (clear as mud, huh?). Here is it:


Macromedia Dreamweaver 8: Training from the Source
I am working on a website for a friend who makes beautiful girls' hairbows, and this is the tool I need to make it happen. It took me forever to complete (lots of kids are fabulous, but not conducive to this kind of reading); sort of like taking a college course in the privacy of my home. It felt like I was chiseling new tunnels in my brain, only slightly less painful.



Adobe Photoshop CS2 Classroom in a Book
This is my current read; I have completed 7 out of 13 chapters. This is my tool for a lovely homepage for that bow site. I learned firsthand that you will not be the life of the party if you talk Photoshop. I was told that my friends' comments meant: "Please change topics - we have nothing to contribute to this discussion." What it sounded like is: "You have become so boring!"

These are books that you read with book in one hand, mouse in the other, while working on elaborate web and design projects. Maybe I can turn this post into an inspiration after all: don't be afraid to seek the information and learn what you need to know to do the things you want to do. You may not have to time or money to go back to school, but there's a lot you can do on your own. I'm hoping to have a lovely, functional site to show for my fall reading efforts!

Go to Katrina's Finish Line post to read about what others have been reading this fall.

Is someone trying to tell me something?

When I went to post my Christmas Tour of Homes, blogger asked me to jump right in and make the switch to beta, which I did. I just noticed that my profile settings changed in the switch. My email link which should be visible wasn't, and my test blog which shouldn't be visible was. Here was the kicker, however: my birth date was correct, but my birth year was listed as 1756! Any recent visitors from the tour of homes who may have visited my profile would have seen my age listed as 250 years old!

I think I'll go change that now.