Meme Going Around

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? No, I don't think so.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? I don't cry. Just kidding. But others aren't likely to know about it...unless they're watching a sad (or happy) movie with me.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Yes.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Any but bologna.

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? Does a bear live in the woods? Yes, I have six wonderful kids.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Yes! But I would probably treat myself better than I do. And I think I would like to get away from me now and then for just a little while.

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? What's a lot?

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? No, I hope not, unless the doctor missed something when I was five.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Not unless it's a safer - less scary - way to get down from the second floor of a mall than an escalator. Just kidding. Simple answer: no.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Special K with Strawberries.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? You've got to be kidding me. You mean it's okay not to untie them. I've always gotten after my kids for not untying them.

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Super-resilient! And I ain't kiddin' this time. I might add, I'm resilient with help of God's grace.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Cherry Cordial. Or a cherry dipped chocolate cone from Dairy Queen.

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? What they are feeling; their emotions and moods.

15. RED OR PINK? Pink.

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF? Ha! Like I'm going to tell you that. (Whatever it is. Now I'll be thinking all afternoon. No, I think I'll sleep instead.)

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My grown kids who live in other states.

18. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Black pants, no shoes.

19. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? Weiner sandwich.

20. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? In the background or listening, really listening? Oh, let's just skip this one. Listening isn't my thing, anyway (unless you have a problem you want me to listen to.)

21. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Sky blue.

22. FAVORITE SMELLS? Food cooking.

23. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? My daughter.

24. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? People.

25. HAIR COLOR? Brown with premature undyed white - and proud of it.

26. EYE COLOR? Green

27. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Never even considered them. I don't even like WATER in my eyes.

28. FAVORITE FOOD? The kind that goes in my mouth. I love to eat.

29. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Very definitely happy endings.

30. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? The one I want to share with you (again) because I'm really excited about it and think everyone should see it is: Remember the Titans.

31. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? I think you'd either call it raspberry or mauve.

32. SUMMER OR WINTER? Spring or Fall!

33. HUGS OR KISSES? Friends or Hubby?

34. FAVORITE DESSERT? Cherry Pie.

35. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? Irish Red by Jim Kjelgaard...half-heartedly. Needed something light. A great book but I prefer them a little more character-driven.

36. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Some bank I've never heard of. Don't know where it came from (the mouse pad, I mean, not the bank. I think I know where banks come from but I won't tell you as this is G rated. Just kidding.).

37. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T.V. LAST NIGHT? The last thing I watched on t.v. that I want to recommend was a Monk episode.

38. FAVORITE SOUNDS? The sound of family and friends greeting me.

39. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Beatles.

40. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? Hawaii when I was in the 6th grade.

41. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? Writing. I guess whether or not I have talent is up for discussion...I haven't had a lot of talent for marketing my writing...but writing is definitely an obsession.

42. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Vancouver, Washington. That's Washington State, not Washington, D.C. And that's Vancouver, Washington, on the southern border of Washington across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon, not Vancouver B.C. Have had to convince a lot of people I'm not Canadian. Maybe I should answer "where are you from" with: "Not D.C., not B.C." It could be a riddle.

If anyone reading this would like to answer these questions, please feel free to pick it up from me as I picked it up from others. Just copy, delete my answers, and insert yours. If you do, I'd love it if you'd leave me a link to your post.



Hat tip: I've seen this blog around lately, but I picked it up from Jean.

What is My Blog About?

"What is your blog about?" a friend asked me yesterday, as I was organizing the day's supplies for our preschool class while the children played. Um, hmm. Good question. Anyone know what my blog is about? Anyone help me out, here? How would I give a short answer to this question?

Is it time for me to reflect? I've often wondered if I should be more focused in my blog. The problem is that I'm not focused in my life, and my blog is a slice of my life. It's that part of my life that I feel comfortable (not always real comfortable) sharing with you, my reader.

Oh! Thank you for listening, as I think I just found my definition. My blog is like a column where I share some of the people, events, emotions and resources that are currently a part of my life or that I've just discovered and am excited about. The keyword here for those who know me off-blog is "current". For a little while each day, I'm not time-traveling: living in the past and the future, as some of you know I otherwise tend to do.

When I say I'm not focused in my life, is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. I try to go where God calls me. And maybe sometimes I'm not listening well, or other times maybe I'm hearing things, but at least that's my intention.

So, here's why I haven't been blogging much the past week or two: I've been very busy getting organized with my new preschool class. Okay, it's not brand new, but it was time to spend more time getting better organized. I won't give you a list today of all the other things going on in my life as well, but maybe I'll let you in on them a little at a time in the following days. Just maybe. Much of the time, I don't know what I'm going to blog until I begin.

So, if you're a blogger reading this, would you be able to give a short definition of what your blog is about? And if you're a blog reader, what do you look for in a blog?



P.S. Most blog posts are not articles (despite their length). Articles are revised and rewritten and revised some more. Sometimes with a blog post, I think (as I did this morning): I should cut this down, I should change this; however, duty calls!

Thank You for Blog Comments!

A question was asked a few weeks ago at the Moms Who Blog group about responding to blog comments. Does blog etiquette suggest that we should respond to comments at our blog? The answer that someone offered was basically no. Not that it isn't a great thing to do but that it isn't an "ought to do" type of thing.

Many bloggers have so many comments (sometimes a hundred for one post) that they would never be able to respond to it all. Some others only post sporadically, and there's a reason for that: their blog time is very limited...so they don't have time to respond to comments.

One question I've always wondered is how many people who leave a comment come back to see if the blog host or anyone else has commented on their comment or on the topic. I guess people do, because sometimes I myself wander back to someone's comment box to see what else has been said since I was there.

And I do enjoy responding to comments at my blog! However, I found out in the past few weeks, as I prepared for a new school year, that's it's not always something I can keep up with.

Please know that I love to have you comment at my blog. I might not always respond. But I read each and every comment lovingly. I think of you. I'm asking God to bless you. Thank you for your blog comments and keep 'em coming.

New Label Category

A new label category I've devised for my blog is "Book Preview". This doesn't mean the book hasn't been published yet (although occasionally that is the case). It means I think the book is worth calling your attention to, but I either haven't read it yet or haven't finished it yet.

By the way, if you want to check out past posts by alphabetical topic, or just browse through the topical or alphabetical list of post topics, you can find links in my sidebar - below the pictures of books in my library. When you click on the link for either topical labels or alphabetical labels, you will go to a blog post which is a list of labels. Click on a label on that page and you will get all the posts I've written on that topic.

Just in case you have lots of time for browsing one day. Or like me at the moment, you wake up very early in the morning, unable to sleep...

Too Bad I Don't Get Paid to Write

Too bad I don't get paid? Whose fault is that? I need to get to work and find a match between the market and what I'm good at writing. But in the meantime:

When I post something here at my blog, I'm just thinking of you, my dear readers. But lo and behold, I get picked up (like a leaf) and carried (on the wind) to other quarters. My book review about Inside My Heart, by Robin McGraw, wife of Dr. Phil McGraw, got picked up by their website. Kinda' neat, huh?

I did have just a brief moment of thought about copyright (I got interrupted just as I happened to find my review out there). But when I went back for a second look, I realized they only quoted a passage and linked to me for the rest. Totally right! (Of course they know what they're doing! They're media people.) As a matter of fact, even better than what's allowed for a review, they left a sentence hanging so people would want to click through to read the rest. Click through to my blog. How neat is that?

For those of you who have blogs, you might want to do a Google search now and then with the name of your blog. Never know what you might find. (I suggest putting the name in quotation marks.) Even if you don't write a blog, you might like to Google your name now and then, just for fun.



P.S. Just as they posted a disclaimer about my blog, I want to say that I have never watched Dr. Phil's show and don't know how I'd feel about it. I only know I liked his wife's book. Oh, and about getting paid, just for the sake of total honesty, yes, I do. I get a bit of royalty for Chats with God's Little Ones. But having written that in about 1980, I need to get something else going now. It's about time, isn't it?

Time to Switch Templates

I just copied the html for my template: twenty pages! I am now going to switch to the newer version. I think I will use the same template, but by using the new version, I will be able to make the sidebar less cluttered. (P'raps I should be doing that declutter thing with my house instead of my blog.)

Please be patient as I work gradually to restore links.

Blogger Reflection Award

Jean at Catholic Fire gave me this award. Wow, I feel so honored! And I was overwhelmed by her kind words, too. Thank you, Jean!

In case Jean’s blog isn’t already one of your regular stops on your internet journeys, I’d like to tell you something about her blog. It lives up to it’s slogan, two quotes from St. Catherine of Siena: "If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world on fire." "Let the truth be your delight....proclaim it...,but with a certain congeniality." She shares truth at her blog in very palatable ways, and always with warmth and congeniality.

And now to pass on the award to five other bloggers.

1) Crazy Acres, the blog of my dear old friend, “Mary Poppins Not”, who is really my dear younger friend, as I knew her when she was a child (and I was already an adult). I was so happy to find her on the internet recently. MPN shares about her faith, her family, and her iconography. She has been an example to me as a blogger in sharing from the heart rather than just from the mind.

2) Happy Hearts at Home, where Alexandra blends tips and resources for being thrifty, with a love for her husband and children, with a love for gardening and cooking, with saint stories...all mixed up into a recipe of enjoyable snippets of reading. Her other blog Happy Hearts Homeschooling Library provides numerous reviews and links for free online books.

3) Studeo, where Alicia shares little stories of her family and homeschooling, as well as reviews and clips from books. She especially shares with us a paragraph here and a quote there from a lot of faith-filled books, papal documents, catechism, and Scripture.

4) Flying Stars is the blog of Nancy Carpentier Brown who wrote The Mystery of Harry Potter, A Catholic Family Guide. Tiptoe when you're there, if you haven't read the seventh Harry Potter book, as there are a lot of discussions of the book in the comments sections (sometimes referred to as "spoilers"). But if you peruse Nancy's blog, you will see that it's not all about Harry Potter. She is a G.K.Chesterton expert, who has written study guides for his The Blue Cross and his Saint Francis of Assisi. In the sidebar, you can find links to articles that Nancy has written about literature and homeschooling.

5) Maureen Wittmann, as you may have guessed would be included in this list, if you've been reading my blog for very long. Maureen is the one who suggested that I start a blog. As I said in April, when I nominated her for Super-Homeschooler Blog at the Homeschool Blog Awards: "She homeschools both little ones and teenagers, and is very involved in their lives and activities...She shares all this and more with the rest of us, for our encouragement, too; along with giving us words of wisdom about how we can do it." I would like to add that I'm most impressed by her kindness, and her faith in everyday living miracles, the kind of faith that moves mountains.

Now, you five ladies can copy this award onto your own blog. And then guess what you get to do...if you have time and all that. Name five other blogs. I hope, if you have time, that you enjoy it. I had fun doing it.

How to Navigate a Blog

Have you ever felt a bit overwhelmed when you visit a blog? I sometimes do (and I visit a lot of blogs. I have about forty blog feeds in my Bloglines account.).

Previous Posts:
What if you read on down the page and want to know what was written just before that last post at the bottom? With some blogs, there is something at the bottom to click on to get to previous posts. With this one, I'm sorry to say, there is not; and to be perfectly frank, I have not yet figured out how to add that...without a total revamp of the blog which would cost me many hours and too much risk of lost content. I'm not big on gambling...

So...if you ever want to know what came before the posts on the current page, here's what you can do:
Scroll down, skimming the sidebar for "Archives". In this case, it's the last list just above the pictures of "Random Books from my Library". Click on the current month and you can see all the posts from this month. In this way, you can be sure you don't miss any content. (Should you have so much time on your hands. )

Contact Blog Owner:
Now, what if you want to contact a blog owner? Been there, done that. Some are easy; some not so easy. First thing you can do is look for a profile. Where there is a profile, there is often (though not always) an email address. In my blog, if you look under Contact Me in the list of Labels (Alphabetical), you can find my email address.

If you can't find someone's email address, on most blogs you can leave a comment. I once needed to talk to someone whose email address I couldn't find anywhere, so I left her a comment giving her my email address and asking her to email me - and she did. (I have a friend who I know reads my blogs but doesn't have email. Could I leave her messages in my posts? Don't worry, _________, I'm just joking...and hope you all are doing well!).

Search:
You are researching turtles and you remember this blogger who wrote about turtles (not me). Or you want to see what someone looks like. Go to "Search" and type "turtles" or "pictures" and voila! you get everything on that topic. Yes, that search field at the top left isn't for the web, nor even for all the blogs in the blogosphere. It's for the very blog you are visiting. This is not available on all blogs, but it is on most blogs whose addresses have "blogspot.com" in them.

So, have fun. But, oh yes, there's the schoolwork and the housework and spending time with the family. I'm outta' here!

My Updated Avatar

I browsed on over to the Yahoo Avatar page and guess what I found? A motorcycle! Oh, oh, this is so me! This is even the color of my Honda 90 that I had when I was 21 years old. It was my only means of transportation for awhile. I prayed to St. Francis for "approval" before I got it, since he was an expert at living in the spirit of poverty.

The only thing wrong with the Avatar is: no helmet. Just figure I'm only posing for the picture. I would not have ridden without a helmet! Not for a moment.

P.S. I don't recommend this type of city transportation for you or your kids. As a matter of fact, I kept this from my kids for decades because I didn't want them to grow up and ride. It was fun, really, really fun, but pretty darn dangerous, too.

Another Blog Roll

If you scroll down my sidebar, you will see a new addition: a beautiful picture of Jesus and Mary, with the words "Catholic Mothers Online". It includes a scrolling list of many blogs. Again, as with any blog roll, it is not "all inclusive" or anything like that. But it's another neat way to find new blogs! These blogs are not necessarily about homeschooling; they're a varied collection of blogs by Catholic mothers, including those who would like to be mothers, are godmothers, or have a mother's heart.

If you have a blog that you would like to add to this service, you can go check it out by going here, or you can check it out any time from the Catholic Mothers Online scrolling list in my sidebar itself, where it says "Click here to join".

Thank you, Angie, for this service.

My Three Blogs

Yes, you read that right. I'm now up to three blogs...and holding. I hope. I think three is a good number, don't you?

Actually, this third one was borne of a Yahoo group that I started several years ago. It's called Catholic BVI Readers. It is an effort to share Catholic materials that are available in Braille, large print or audio format.

This third blog may have posts that are only occasional. Over the past years, with the Yahoo group by the same name, there has been very little activity. On my part, some of that was due to the fact that I didn't have the money to buy anything. Now I do need to buy some things for my son who is entering high school this coming fall. As I do, I will want to share those ideas with others.

I've also expanded the format of Catholic BVI Readers to include some special internet resources, such as those with human voice, and I might also post book reviews in the future about books that are available in alternate formats.

If you know anyone who might be interested in this type of blog, please send them along to check it out.

Sidebar Changes

I hope you'll like the changes to my sidebar. Yesterday I looked at the long list of "Labels" and counted 25 of them! Who would want to wade through that? ...unless you're looking for something in particular.

So, today I added a list of seven labels and called it: "Labels-Topical"; and I re-labeled the old list: "Labels-Alphetical".

This is why my posts now have seemingly repetitious labels, such as this one being labeled "About this Blog" and "My Blog and Me".

I may not get posts from the past re-labeled all at once; it will be a work in progress.

Ultimately, even though this sounds more complicated (for me), I hope it will make the blog less complicated and more user friendly, for you, my dear reader.

Blogging "Plan"

I had forgotten my list. Some weeks ago I had come up with a plan for this blog, much like my menu plan for our family meals. Monday I would write this kind of thing, Tuesday that kind of thing, Wednesday something else. I didn't want to share the plan with you for the same reason that I didn't use to share my menu plan with the family:

"Hey, I thought we were supposed to have spaghetti tonight!"

Or, "Hey, I was expecting a book review."

But the past week I've been sitting down to a blank screen, wondering why I "got myself into this". To quit (or to write less often) was unthinkable. But I didn't know where to go with it each day. It had been a bit like coming home from a busy day of errands at 4:30 or 5:00 and trying to figure out what to have for dinner. And then you waste all kinds of time running to the store. Know the feeling? You might actually come up with something tasty now and then, but it takes some of the joy out of the cooking.

And then I remembered my list! A plan for what type of thing to write each day. So here I am. Saturday is: "About this blog" or "Family life". Sunday is: "Potluck" -- not as in recipes, but as in, whatever; anything or nothing. But that's all I'll tell you of my blog "menu plan" for now!

Mission Statement for My Blog

So, why, then do I write this blog? The following is what I've been working on for a week or so. The items are not necessarily in order of priority. As a matter of fact, if you would like to know, I put them in the order I thought would look best visually.

To promote joy in everyday living;
To promote healthy, happy relationships;
To share resources for innocent online recreation;
To share ideas for economical and healthful eating;
To share resources for the education of our children and ourselves;
To share the beauty and joy of the Catholic faith with people of any creed;
To promote respect for the individual, regardless of race, creed, ability, etc.

My Little "Secrets" about My Blog

1) How did I keep up the blog with our daughter here from out of town? Well, yes, I did get on the computer some while she was here...but I also had most of the blog posts sitting in Microsoft Word, ready to go. (Smile).

2) I have secret fears about my blog. (I guess they're not going to be secret anymore.) What if I run out of things to say? Or what if no one is really interested? Should I be spending my time some other way?

3) I began posting on a daily basis rather than an occasional basis when my second son became visually impaired (this past January). There wasn't anything I could do for him, and I had to "do something". Now I realize I was probably doing what Elwood N. Chapman suggests in his book, Attitude, Your Most Priceless Possession. He says that all of us deal with both positive factors and negative factors in our lives. He says that in order to keep our attitude postive, it helps to "play our winners"...whether it's taking a walk in nature or listening to classical music, or a hobby or sport. Whatever we do well, or whatever is a happy influence for us, can help to keep the positives stronger than the negatives in our lives. Neat, huh?

My Avatar

Hmm, I'm not certain what an "avatar" IS. But it was fun creating this figure on my Yahoo page. For those who don't know what I look like, I don't even begin to look like this! And I don't have a dog. But it was fun inventing a "me" that's young and slim; and if I had a dog, this would be the one. And the 50's or 60's diner is my dream kitchen decor.

Recognizing Faces

A couple years ago, I wrote the following article at my website:

Fifteen years ago, sitting at dinner with my family, I asked a question that had slowly dawned on me, "When we're talking about someone, do you see that person in your mind?"

What I've found since then is that most people who do, have never imagined that anyone else doesn't. And for those who don't, it sometimes takes many years of life to realize that others do. I've also found that it's a matter of degree. Some people visualize faces in their minds clearly and at will. Some people visualize faces in their minds only occasionally and not clearly...still others, not at all.

For those of us who do not visualize faces well, description can be a problem. Someone asks, "What does she look like?" and we are often hard-pressed to give an answer. Often our answer has more to do with the person's personality or mood than with what he or she looks like.

"How widespread is this problem and what can I learn about it?" I wondered.

Click here to find out what I learned.

New Blog Established

My new blog, "VIP Homeschooler", is now up and running. VIP (in this case) stands for Visually Impaired Persons.

I will keep this current blog as it is, including the label for visually impaired articles in the right hand column. But future articles about visual impairment will appear on the other blog.

Do You Hear the Music?

If you have sound on your computer and have your speakers turned on, you might hear "Fur Elise" playing right now. You can turn it off or on without touching your speakers or going into your computer controls. Just scroll down to the bottom of the stuff in the right hand margin to find a control panel right here on the blog.

My son Robert asked me yesterday, "Would you like to have music on your blog?" This morning when I got up, there it was! Thanks, Rob!

Do Try This at Home - Just for Fun

Have you ever Googled yourself? (Isn't it funny the verbs that we have fabricated, using proper nouns such as Google and FedEx?). Just for fun, put your name in quotation marks in a Google search and see what comes up. Maybe nothing, maybe something. It depends on where and what you write. For example, if you write on a restricted e-group, what you've written there shouldn't come up on a search. If you write on a public e-group, it might. There was a time a few years ago when I put my name in a search, and up popped a message to an e-group of a sensitive nature...not exactly private, not something I was ashamed of personally, but...well, something I would rather not have had popping up with my name. Couldn't the search have picked something more impressive? Makes me think of how everything we say will be seen one day. Yikes. Maybe I should be quiet more. Ha.

So...just to warn you, my blog IS PUBLIC. I would absolutely LOVE for you to make comments on my blog, but please be aware that they are not private. Sometimes I even forget that myself…well, not really when I’m writing in my own blog, but when I’m commenting on someone else’s. Of course, you can post anonymously, OR if you don't use your whole name as I always do, then I guess your name won't come up in a search. Makes me think of that verse, "Fools' names like fools' faces often appear in public places." Hmm, now that makes two times I've called myself a fool on here ("Fools rush in where angels dare not tread. ")Wonder what would come up if I did a search for "fools"...