Weekend Blog Hop

If you don't have a blog you can link your site, Facebook, etc. Whatever you want, it's all in fun☺

It's simple to participate, here are the rules:

1. Please place the "Weekend Blog Hop" button in a blog post and/or on your blog somewhere. This lets us all know where to find each other!
2. Visit at least 2 blogs on Tara's list; she is the gracious hostess of the hop.
3. Add your name to the linky list on Tara's site so we can visit you back.
4. Comments are optional but always appreciated.

The creation of Nurse's Notes

I am participating in the Blog Dare on bloggy moms.  It is a month long challenge with daily prompts.  The  prompt for day 5 is "Why did you create a blog?"  That question is easy for me.  I have always kept a journal; this is simply an on-line forum for that.  Also, I wanted to share ideas and expertise in areas I am knowledgable (i.e. healthcare, parenting, autism).

The really cool thing though, is not only have I taught, I have also learned.  I have made a lot of awesome on-line friends, learned how to improve my blog, and learned more about the myriad aspects of social media.  I think these are my favorite thing about blogging.

If you blog, why did you start your blog? What is your favorite thing about blogging.

MidWeek Mingle

 

It's simple to participate, here are the rules:

1. Please place the "Mid Week Mingle Blog Hop" button in a blog post and/or on your blog somewhere. This lets us all know where to find each other!
2. Follow Tara's blog.
3. Visit at least 2 blogs on the list.
4. Add your name/image to the linky list below so we can visit you back.
5. Comments are optional but always appreciated☺

The 2011 To - Do List

In keeping with the new year, it's a good time to consider goals for the year.  I'm fairly simple and don't have many grandiose dreams.  Anything on my bucket list can't be accomplished this year since most of those goals are long-term.  That said, by the end of the year, I would like to accomplish the following:

• Read the Bible through
• Complete 20 hrs of grad school
• Get a part-time job that fits my schedule
• Help DS to prep for college
• Help DD with a successful transition to the next grade

What would you like to accomplish this year?  What are the places you would like to visit in 2011?  What do you hope to check off your bucket list in 2011?

Weekend Blog Hop!!

It's simple to participate, here are the rules:

1. Please place the "Weekend Blog Hop" button in a blog post and/or on your blog somewhere. This lets us all know where to find each other!
2. Follow my blog.
3. Visit at least 2 blogs on the list @ Tara's  site.
4. Add your name to the linky list below so we can visit you back. I will be following everyone who posts.
5. Comments are optional but always appreciated.

Please support this blog hop by using your Facebook, Twitter, and forums to advertise. It's great for everyone to discover new friends, followers, and fantastic blogs!

Thanks so much for participating!
T♥

Resolutions!

Ah, the time of year for resolutions.  Anybody excited? Anyone plan to keep them long term?  I make resolutions every year, but sadly, they usually don't seem to last long term.  Whether it is lack of will power, issues of daily life, or what have you, they quietly fade away.  They usually (on a good year) last until the end of January.

So, that said, what horrible traits can I remedy this year?  I think I will work on maintaining my cool and not letting school, home, & family responsibilities get the best of me.  Wish me luck!!
  

What is your resolution for 2011?  Do you often make a resolution and not keep it?  What is the longest you have kept a New Years resolution?  What is your most often chosen New Years resolution?  What do you think about New Years resolutions?

Wordless Wednesday

I thought this was a neat pic with the sun breaking through the clouds.  What is a good pic that you have taken?

Mid Week Blog Hop

Free Online Interactive Children's Library

I just learned of a fantastic free online children’s book library that is being developed which I highly recommend for you to visit and ‘Like’ their Facebook fan page to show your support and to be appraised of their developments. Children’s literacy is so important and the goal of this program is to create a public library online giving families and schools access to 100’s of quality interactive children’s books at no cost.

Here is the link to show your support for this wonderful program:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Free-Online-Interactive-Childrens-Books/158576927518927

Statistics. Who automatically cringes? Read this ...

I was totally excited when Tammy asked me to write about my experience during the Back to School, Back to Blogging Challenge hosted by Kludgy Mom. When I sat down to think about what I learned from this challenge, I was overwhelmed, I didn’t know where to start – I learned so much! I decided to do a Best of Back to School, Back to Blogging Challenge and post the favorite five things I learned and found beneficial! This is #5.  Here we go……

 Statistics

I’m guilty of obsessing over my blog statistics. I would check out my Google Analytics each night and would get excited that I had three more visitors today than I did yesterday or that the average time people spent on my site was now 2 minutes, 26 seconds! Yes, that is exciting, but other than that, I didn’t know how to get the most out of my blogs statistics. That’s where the B2S/B2B came in!

Kludgy Mom introduced us to the StatBook StatBook. She gave us an excellent tutorial on how to bring all those worthless important information we pulled from our statistics into one spot. She walked us through the making of the book, and what information was important to include. Kludgy suggested many important statistics to include that I hadn’t thought of as significant until then. Now that my StatBook is complete, each month, I will enter the prior month’s stats and can start to look for trends in my blog!

• The Official B2S/B2B information about statistics can be found here HERE and here HERE!

This is the last guest post from Cori, she was a real life-saver. I hope you enjoyed it!

Who needs ideas?? Go to the idea bankl!

Courtesy of Cori 


We’ve all gone through blogging slumps. We have nothing worthwhile to blog about. Life is boring. Thus, your blog is boring. Now can you get out of the rut, with Kludgy Mom's Idea Bank]!

The Idea Bank is comprised of nearly 700 writing prompts! Pick a prompt, and write about it! It’s as easy as that!

The Idea Bank is continually being edited and updated! Have a prompt you want to add…according to Kludgy we should “keep the Idea Bank fresh by depositing a new idea (by leaving a comment) if you make a withdrawal of an idea”. I challenge you to leave a deposit or two in the Idea Bank, let’s keep the Idea Bank balance high!

• The Official B2S/B2B information about the Idea Bank can be found here Idea Bank, if you want to check out the idea book you can find it here HERE.

If you are enjoying the guest posts, I hope you are showing the love to Cori & Gigi!! ~ TP

Photography ~ guest series continues!!

 Guest series with Cori from Coris Big Mouth continues with her comments on how to add photos to your blog....

 

I think in my next life I want to be a photographer. Lately, I am so intrigued by not only photography, but also techniques and photo editing! Prior to B2S/B2B, I became a fan and follower of Alicia’s blog A Beautiful Mess and her beautiful photography. (If you haven’t checked out her blog, you must! You’re totally missing out!). Well, it didn’t surprise me that she was chosen to do a guest post on photography for the final week of the challenge!

 

Alicia reassures all us non-photographers or photographer-wannabees that “these days, you don’t have to be a photographer to have amazing photos”. Few! There’s still hope for me! Here are a few of her suggestions to add better quality photos to your blog.

 

• Use Stock Photos – Perfect if you forgot to take photos or you don’t have photos appropriate for a blog post!
• Utilize Photo Editing Programs – I’ve been getting better about using photo editors to improve my photos! It’s amazing what a couple simple enhancements can do to a boring photo! My personal favorite photo editor is an online program Picnik [http://www.picnik.com]. With Picnik you can edit and enhance photos and make collages! All very user friendly!
• Watermarking – I’m bad at this, but I understand that in today’s world, you really need to watermark your photos, so other people don’t steal them. This is one aspect of photography and my blog that I need to improve! But with all the crazies in society today, you can never be too careful when trying to protect your family!
• The Official B2S/B2B information about Photography can be found here HERE.

 

Guest post!!

http://www.kludgymom.com/As most of you know, I'm whirling away on completing my degree (less than 3 wks, woot!). So, Cori from Cori's big mouth has graciously agreed to be my guest poster for the week while I finish up some last minute school projects.  Here are some tidbits to help you get to know her:

• started a hairbow making business
• nanny for triplets
• going to college and currently taking American Sign Language
• Preemie Awareness Advocate
•  done a lot of traveling through caribbean cruises, even been through the panama canal
• successfully finished the B2SB2B challenge
• Love, Love, Love to scrapbook just wish I had more time to do it!

This fall we participated in an event sponsored by Gigi @ kludgymom.com called "Back to School, Back to Blogging" or #B2SB2B for you Twitter affecionados.  Cori is sharing her favorite gems of wisdom from that event with you. Today's gem, NETWORKING!  Enjoy!!  Here's Cori ... :)

#1: Networking

 

Networking. You either love it, hate it or are scared to death of it! I for one, L*O*V*E networking with others, but I know that others are completely overwhelmed by the whole concept!

 

Well Kludgy Mom made it easy and broke it down into three focus areas: Blog Networks, Comments, and Social Media – even better she broke it down into an easy to follow diagram! The best part is….she made three separate diagrams (TP here, pardon the interruption, I was unable to get the pics to post ): )depending on how many followers you have to determine where you should spend most of your time in the blogosphere! How awesome is that?!  

 

1. Blog Networks: Not only do you need to JOIN blog networks, but you need to be ACTIVE in the networks! Post questions in their forums. Respond to others. Participate in events. Visit the blogs of the day. I’m a currently a member of two Blog Networks, Blog Frog and Bloggers. I know there are tons more and I challenge you to find them and join!

2. Comments: I’m sure you’re like me and read blog after blog and enjoy it! But how often do you leave a comment? If you have something thoughtful or pertinent to say, take the extra minute to comment. Everyone loves comments, no matter if they are famous established bloggers or a newbie blogger - a comment is a comment!

 

3. Social Media: I use Twitter, Facebook and Stumble Upon on a daily basis as a way to promote and share my blog with the world! You can set-up self-publishing/auto-feeds for both sites. So as soon as you publish your blog post, it’ll post to Twitter and/or Facebook…how easy is that?!

•  Twitter: Kludgy Mom wrote an awesome eBook on Getting Over Your Fears of Twitter that has some great information on how to get the most for your blog out of Twitter!
• Facebook: Facebook is a great way to share your blog feeds with your friends and family! You can even take it a step further and set-up a Facebook Fan Page for your blog! Fan pages are great because you can share your blog feeds with fellow bloggers who aren’t on your personal Facebook page!
• Stumble Upon: See above!

 The Official B2S/B2B information about Networking can be found HERE. If you want more information for New Bloggers (less than 100 followers) click HERE]. If you want information for Growing Bloggers (100-300 followers) click HERE and if you want more information for Established Bloggers (300+ followers) click HERE.

 

Okay, I know that was a lot of information for one blog post!

 
If you want to check out the ENTIRE Back To School, Back To Blogging Challenge, you can check it out on Kludgy Mom's blog. If you are curious what I had to say about the challenge, you can check out my posts for the challenge HERE!

 

Happy Blogging Everyone!

 

 

Wordless Wednesday ... video

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Mid-Week Mingle

It's simple to participate, here are the rules:

1. Please place the "Mid Week Mingle Blog Hop" button in a blog post and/or on your blog somewhere. This lets us all know where to find each other!
2. Visit at least 2 blogs on this list.  
3. Add your name/image to the linky list below so we can visit you back.  

 Comments are optional but always appreciated☺

 

 

Saturday Silliness

Alright, I feel really bad that everyone has been so neglected.  Here are my excuses: boatloads of schoolwork & dealing with the aftermath of my FIL's passing last week.  Any sympathy?? :)

Here's a cartoon to bring a chuckle to your day.  Hope everyone is having a fantabulous weekend!!

Courtesy of Zits ®

What amuses y'all?? I enjoy deprecating teenager jokes/cartoons @ this point in my life; they are so close to my life! :)

Study or blog, that is the question

I'm waxing Shakespearean this morning, lol.  I came to the libray with the best of intentions.  I was going to edit a project for school before heading to work.  However, fate dealt me a cruel hand.  When I opened the file, I discovered the library computer had a different version of Word.  What's a girl to do? I mean seriously.  Why spend time reformatting it when I could just wait and work on it after I get home. Right? RIGHT?!?! Who is with me? "Work smarter, not harder" is my motto. So, you can obviously see which decision I made.  Really, it was the only rational one. :D


So, let's get you caught up on what is happening in my little corner of the world.  Shall we? 

• Favorite recent B.ism "my private anger issues are my business!!" Said after I was trying to give her better anger management techniques than screaming "I hate you" @ the taekwondo instructor when she becomes frustrated.
• Started B. on a med for ADHD. She is doing AWESOME! Woot!
• J is still perfecting the surly youth persona.
• Celebrated 17th anniversary by vomiting the very expensive dinner I had eaten. Blech.
• Got a second dinner out of the deal though. :D
• Went to a wine tasting where the owner became more talkative the more she drank. ;)
• Started PT last week.  Experiencing some mixed emotions, let me tell you.
• Started orientation as the substitute nurse for the school district.
• Getting caught up on projects around the house since I am more mobile.

That's enough about me.  What is going on with you? Anything new, fun, and/or exciting?? C'mon, spill ...

Weekend Hop!!

Welcome to my Weekend Blog Hop!

 It's simple to participate, here are the rules:

1. Please place the "Weekend Blog Hop" button in a blog post and/or on your blog somewhere. This lets us all know where to find each other!
2. Follow Tara, she is hosting the blog hop.
3. Visit at least 2 blogs on the list.
4. Add your name/image to the linky list below so we can visit you back.
5. Comments are optional but always appreciated☺

 

 Please support this blog hop by using your Facebook, Twitter, and forums to advertise. It's great for everyone to discover new friends, followers, and fantastic blogs!

Thanks so much for participating!

T♥

Friendly Friday - Blog Hop

Welcome to Friendly Friday!

Remember, YOU can host the link list on your blog, too! Just click "Get the code here..." at the bottom of the list. The code is different every week, so be sure to get the new code when hosting Friendly Friday on your blog. Hosting the list is a great way to get even more traffic to your blog and make Friendly Friday more beneficial for everyone.

Thanks for joining the Friendly Friday celebration hosted by Xenia at Thanks, Mail Carrier, Christi at Frugal Novice and Charla at Healthy Home Blog! We invite you to join us every Friday to make more friends in blogville, get more blog followers and follow other great blogs out there.



To join in the Friendly Friday celebration, include your family-friendly link in our list, follow the hostesses in the first 3 spots and then start blog hopping! Visit other blogs on the list and comment to give them some blog love. Then take a minute to follow them through Google Friend Connect - this is a good way to keep up with other blogs, but also lets us show support to each other! Please DO NOT list your giveaways here, links must be to either your homepage or your Friday posting with your blog title. All others will be deleted.


When people comment on your blog and let you know they're a part of Friendly Friday, return the favor and follow them back. This way everyone gets traffic and followers out of participating, and it's a win-win situation. We would love for you to also grab our Friendly Friday button and post it on your blog and/or in a post - the more bloggers that find out about Friendly Friday and participate, the better!

Spotlight on Friendly Friday Followers!

We love your participation and want to show it! In addition to gaining followers, each week we'll select three blogs at random and will feature links and a write-up for those blogs in the content of next week's Friendly Friday post. There are so many seriously wonderful blogs out there, and this will be a great way to highlight some of those each week. Say hello to the lucky chosen 3 for this week (and feel free to stop by and give them a little extra love):


The Nesty Girl over at - you guessed it! - Nesty writes about pursuing a happy home and a honeyed life through simplified living! She updates her blog three times a week with recipes, creative ideas, scrapbooking projects, and stories from her day-to-day life. Her writing is charming and relatable and, well, a lot of fun to read!


Jill (who lives in Florida) and Denise (who lives in California) are the bloggers behind Cottage Sisters. Denise is married to Jill's brother Mike, so they're related by marriage but are, according to them, sisters by heart. Their blog started as a way to share their homes, recipes, great books, and everything in between. You'll find photos galore and get a taste of both coasts!

Kime' at Adventures of the Domesticated Mama is a Christian SAHM (stay-at-home-mom) to six children. She homeschools and loves to sew, knit, crochet and bake. She hosts a lot of great reviews and giveaways and is very active in the blogging community. You'll also see fun photos of her family for Wordless Wednesdays from time to time!


Now that you know about these 3 wonderful blogs, it's time for you to join in! Add your family-friendly link below and we'll see you! And don't forget, you can grab the code to share the link list on your blog, too.


All three hostesses appreciate followers through Google Friend Connect AND Twitter and we'll follow you back - just leave a comment with your URL and/or Twitter username. Have a great weekend, everyone!