Blog Foolery

FOTOS
The photo above and the photo I added to yesterday's blog post was from the camera on my iPhone. Pretty groovy, hu? (By the way, if you were wondering what that crazy baby's shirt says? "Don't be FOOLED by my SIZE". It's Old Navy. Ridiculously cute. Couldn't resist the bee!) I have been neglecting the Canon lately because the iPhone is attached to my palm as if by super-glue. It's rather handy as a camera, I have found. But it makes me want to get out and take some REAL photos... in November when it cools off. Dratted Texas summers really are a killjoy when it comes to photography. I lurve my Canon, but I hate the heat. The A/C is my best friend from April through October.

FREEBIES
Oh, I forgot to notify you that this post is completely random. In case you hadn't noticed. You are excused if you are too busy for random. But I do want to inform you, before you go, that I'll be hosting a GROOVY give-away starting Friday. Yep - 50$ worth of free children's furniture or toys from an online store! You'll have to be here Friday for the details and to start your entries! I've been drooling on their book cases. Figuratively.

FRIENDZ
Yes, I said bookcases. You homeschoolers are all alike. That one word sends shudders of joy up your bookwormie little spines. I am anticipating all the traffic on Friday. I'll bet more than 80% of it will be drooling homeschoolers looking for bookcases. Just sayin'.



FOWL
Speaking of bookcases. Or - well, of household goods and home decor in general... I'm nearly done with the mural in the baby's room. The only thing that's lacking is the OWL. Well, there are owls in the room - just not the one painted on the wall. (Yep, another iPhone photo!) Do you have a favorite owl graphic? Care to share it with me? Shoot me an email. I'm looking for the perfect and cutest style of owl illustration to paint on my lovely trees. Gotta find the best one before I make it permanent.

FUNCTION
The other thing I've been working hard on is my to-do list. Now that the blog is redesigned and the desk is partially cleaned off, I'm delving in to my stack of paperwork and piles of projects to try and see if my groove is hiding somewhere in there with the 16-inch long house spiders. Man, that was a serious run-on sentence. Excuse me.

FREAKY
What is it with the bugs this year?! Holy cow! We have been taken over by sugar ants. Anyone else suffering insect invasion? It is unreal.

FLURRY
Tomorrow night I'm going to update my to-do list in here. Because I know you care. I bet you just sit around twiddling your thumbs in anxiety - waiting for me to update my to-do lists so you can see how much I have checked off. You poor, sick soul. Well, tomorrow is your day. You are going to get your list fix. Just you wait.

FRESH
We've completely neglected the garden this year. The lettuce has turned in to huge flowering and towering stalks of bitter strangeness. I had no idea that lettuce can look that freakish. I'm homeschooling myself, even. Or I guess you would call that yardschooling. At least the tomatoes are putting out. Had six juicy, dripping, red, sugary, sweet, sliced and salted tomatoes from the garden tonight. Man, they were good. And we have sweet potato vines that came up in our gravel path - so we let them stay because it was heartless to kill them just because they couldn't grow within the lines. They are PLANTS, after all.

FOURTH
For the first time in years, we are staying home on the Fourth of July. Grandma Betty's pool party will just have to go on without us. Traveling with an infant (and without money) is just too difficult. So we're going to hang out around here and maybe do something with friends if we are lucky. Like burn ourselves with sparklers. And stuff.



What are you doing for the holiday weekend?

FRUIT
I think our holiday will involve watermelon for sure. What's 4th of July without watermelon? I mean, come on already! Seed spitting contests are the new black.


FAREWELL...

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Buzz Words: owls, parenting, iPhone, 4th, Summer, Garden, Fourth of July, Photos, Parenting, Freebies, Give Away, Watermelon, Getting Things Done

Bloggin' Live From the Convention

This is my first attempt at an iPhone post. Brought to you straight from the nursing room at the Austin CHEACT Book Fair. I'm about to go in to hear Jessica Hulcy's son talk about how he's greatful to his parents for going that last mile to finish what they started. It is so easy to understand why homeschoolers give up when the kids get in high school! Not to mention why moms get burned out half way in to the journey of home education.

Kind of like how this little peck and poke keyboard is burning me out half way through this post...

But I digress...

... And abuse elipses. Sorry.

I better take advantage of this sleepy-baby moment to slip in to the conference session late! Talk to you later. Check out my facebook page to see what Homeschool blogger came to see me yesterday: www.facebook.Com/Sprittibee! I need to go get some halfway-mark Homeschool mom encouragement.

Later!

Third and Fourth Grade Learning Enrichment (& Summer Activites)

Every year, I keep a record of our homeschool journey here. Click the 'homeschool' link in my sidebar for more information if you are interested. You can use the ideas in this list for rainy days, to beat summer boredome, or to add to your school year as extra curricular activites. Or you could just do them in your free time with the kids and have fun.

Below is a list of fun ideas we used as part of our learning enrichment for Grades 3 and 4. We did all these things while homeschooling during the 2006-7 school year. They were NOT a part of my curriculum (at least not scheduled for the units we were working on at the time)... they were just extra fun things we threw in. My school-aged kids were 7 and 8 at the time. I can't guarantee that there are not duplicates between my previous enrichment idea lists and this one since I just jot these down as we go throughout the school year. Some of them probably are duplicates. Things like 'helping in the kitchen' and 'writing poems' are things we do every year, so you'll likely find them on every enrichment list on my site (sometimes with a different 'twist' or 'angle' thrown in to make it somewhat unique). However, I wouldn't stop reading just because you might run in to a few 'tried-and-true', 'rainy-day' 'fun-items'. There may be a few on here that surprise you. Feel free to print the list off to save your eyes from too much screen-time. Just be sure to link back to me if you pass it to a friend. Of course, if you love and use my ideas, you can always leave me a tip in my tip jar. We Texans need snowcone money to beat the heat!



They look like such babies! This was our last year (of the 2) that we spent in Arkansas - away from family. It was a time that God grew our family as a unit since we had no other place to go and hardly a distraction. Life in a 2-bedroom apartment and some of the best outdoor scenery in the nation... It was a time we all look back on now and miss (even though we would have done anything at the time to return to Texas). This photo was taken at Burns Park in North Little Rock near a covered bridge in the fall as the leaves were turning. I was using a point-and-shoot digital! Too bad I didn't have my nice camera until the end of the following school year.



192 Learning Enrichment Ideas (Grades 3 & 4)

Back to School Party (water balloons, relays)
Ride a 4-wheeler
Journal your hight, weight, age, grade, goals at the beginning of school
Set goals and go over unit objectives
Do Bible memory verse system
Learn what a Venn Diagram is and use one for a report
Ride bikes
Write misspelled words every week
Pray as a family
Write penpals
Look up places on a map as you study or read about them
Sing
Do chores regularly
Draw something in a sketch book every day
Learn how to clean the bathrooms well
Practice the cursive alphabet
Talk about careers you might want when you grow up
Drill yourself on how fast you can find verses in the Bible
Go to church & Bible class weekly
Review last year's standardized tests & discuss what you missed
Help mom grade papers
Play on the playground with other kids
Play in the woods with friends
Do Mad Libs
Gather eggs from a friend's hen house
Color a coloring page
Learn how to cook eggs
Look at your favorite paintings online
Learn about history, science, creative writing online
Learn about the solar system, and holidays online
Learn about Civil War and Napoleon online
Draw a self portrait
Eat Thai food out
Discuss 9/11 (look at old drawings)
Catch bugs and identify them online, draw them
Write Thank You cards
Ride a horse
Play vocabulary games
Glue vocabulary words into our journals artistically
Learn how to play solitaire
Make an A-Z of What I'm Thankful For list
Learn how to address an envelope
Write the books of the Bible
Learn about China
Review goals and work on changing bad habits
Cuddle and take a nap with mom
Take the day off to just have fun together
Have a "Reading Only" day (snuggle)
Learn how to make lasagna
Play Bible Outburst
Take a walk
Have a family discussion
Learn some Latin
Pray for someone fervently
Go have lunch at a burger joint
Spend the night at a friend's house
Copy a favorite poem in to your journal
Learn about copyright laws and plagiarism
Build and watch a fire - learn safety with fire
Watch science videos on animals
Give away the clothes the kids outgrow
Help mom babysit a friend's kids
Make cards for a little boy in the hospital
Learn about the Lord's Supper & take communion at home
Learn about Thailand
Jump on a Trampoline
Explore in the Woods
Visit a pumpkin patch
Do a leaf rubbing craft
Watch the geese migrate
Discuss abortion, elections and politics
Look at paintings in books
Sit on the porch and sketch nature
Organize the bookshelf
Learn about Islam
Take photos at a local park
Grade each other on attitude and behavior
Sing Hymns
Swim at the gym with Daddy
Take sermon notes at church
Draw a map of Thailand and draw and color their flag
Help cook Thai food at home
Read about SE Asia in Families book
Copy work on Bible verses about character and discipline
Sketch leaves
Draw horses
Watch documentary on China
Watch documentary on Iran
Read Presidential Prayer Team website
Share the meaning of Thanksgiving with a foreign friend
Sponsor a child in India and write them
Make mud pies
Eat a pomegranate
Learn about geometry and square roots
Walk a mile on the track with Daddy
Play basketball
Study about Christmas Trees
Read current events about Indonesia
Look up photos of Thailand and Indonesia online
Make popsicle stick reindeer ornaments
Make bookmarks
Learn about North Korea
Draw North Korean flag and a map of NK
Learn some French
Learn about Van Gogh
Look at a map of Washington State
Discuss baptism
Read about Christian persecution in the Middle East through ICC
Read Atlas and Geography books about North Korea, discuss Communist Govt.
See photos online of North Korea
Read current Event online through BBC about North Korea
Make Daddy an online Birthday Photo Card
Play with Playdough
Play with Legos
Read the Christmas story in Luke
Roast pinecones in a chimnea
Make smores over a campfire
Copy work - write out a recipe
Research online about calories
Read introduction to the "Maker's Diet"
Put together Lego Mindstorm Alpha Rex
Play educational Computer Games
Email grandparents
Look up info about the Ark of the Covenant online
Help with spring cleaning
Learn how to clean out cat litter box/pet care
Make a map and flag for South Korea
Read Family atlas, world atlas about S.Korea
Build Lego "Sandcrawler" with Daddy
Build a snowman
Look up South Korea photos/foods online
Take the Texas TAKS test online
Take the online science Quizzes at BBC Schools
Write and type an essay on Eggs and how to cook them
Walk in the park
Watch an online movie about circulation and the heart
Learn about the history of Valentines Day
Send e-cards for Valentines Day
Learn about the history of Chocolate online
Read Bio of Milton Hershey online
Read poem: If I Ever Had to Raise My Child Again - Diane Loomans
Do current event on North Korea & Journal
Map of Malaysia, draw & color their flag
Create Art online with Corel Painter Essentials (GeeArt Challenge & Play)
Make honey cookies from recipe in a book
Take 3 days off for Standardized testing in AR (IOWA Skills Full Battery)
Play with baby chicks & frogs
Pet baby lamb and bunnies
Learn to scrapbook (tools)
Celebrate Passover
Make Passover crafts
Chat on Google Talk
Draw Unicorns
Do creative writing about cats
Start cooking without help (following recipes)
Unit Study on Bees in one day
Read encyclopedia bug books
Talk on the phone to friends out of state
Color post office postcards of famous American wonders & send them
Play Star Wars Monopoly
Write the author of a book you like and thank them for writing it
Discuss the goals for the day
Cook dinner for friends (host dinner)
Read and see photos online about Petra (Peter/Rock)
Use Spelling Time Online
Make and decorate prayer journals
Review Geography we have covered this year
Draw cartoons
Modpodge
Read about the American Revolution
Read about birds
Look up books without help at library
Read about Asian Countries in Atlast and Geography books
Learn the Language of Art (GeeArt)
Practice Latin phonics
Bake cookies for neighbors
Play board games with Daddy
Learn about the Message of Art (GeeArt)
Draw your hand
Learn mapping skills
See a lock for boats at a dam and learn how they work
Get to know your neighbors
Look up and identify birds we see
Read about birds in a National Geographic Atlas
Send out Father's Day Cards
Make a map of Vietnam
Look up animals that live in Vietnam
Study geometric shapes and do shape puzzles online
Find out you have to move in one week - frantically pack
Say goodbye to all your Arkansas friends
Move Home to Texas and stay with friends/family while house hunting
Move in to a new house and unpack

Seems like we are always moving, eh?! We moved at the beginning of our 2005-6 school year and at the end of our 2006-7 one. We were still getting settled when our 2007-8 school year started, but thankfully, we have stayed put since then! We've been at our current home since July of 2007 - nearly two full years now! Hope we get to stay a lot longer. Amazing that we were in Arkansas the same length of time that we have been here at this house.

Up next in the series will be:
Post #5 - Favorite KONOS Memories from Third and Fourth Grade
Update of Homeschool Series Post with past and current upcoming school year info
Beginning posts of 2007-8 school year (Fourth and Fifth Grades)

I'm finally getting caught up! Hurray!

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Buzz Words: Homeschooling, Children, Homeschool, Enrichment, Learning, Education, Family, Parenting, Texas, Extra Curricular, School, Field Trips, Summer, Fun

Free Wedding Photography and Happily Ever After

Cousin Kristen tied the knot this weekend. She looked like an angel. Of course, she didn't have to try hard, because she truly is one of the sweetest people I have ever met. I love being invited to weddings... especially weddings of those whom I know well enough to not appear crazy for taking photos. Because I am going to take photos. Just sayin'.



Kristen never stopped smiling yesterday. I took over 400 pictures and never caught her without a glow and a shiny smile. I loved seeing her and her sweetheart - now husband - steal glances at each other. The other hundred or two hundred people might as well have not even been there. Good thing she was busy being in love - so I wouldn't look so much like a stalker as I followed her around snapping pictures.



Unfortunately her wedding photographers noticed me. I pestered them as much as I could with questions and followed them like a lost puppy. One of them was using the same camera I have, but they had a lot of fun gear to go along with it. Expensive lenses, flashes, hoods and other neat camera gadgets. They are lucky that I didn't ruin their tools with my drool.



It was fun taking pictures. Even if I wasn't the one Kristen hired to do the job. I'm going to retouch some of the pictures and print them for her as a belated wedding gift. That's what I call a steal of a deal... free wedding photography. Which of course takes all the pressure off of me and makes taking the pictures enjoyable - because I'm not responsible if they don't all come out fantastic. Which all of them didn't. Blame it on the lens.



But I got a few that I think she'll love. When she comes down off of cloud nine, that is. I'm sure none of her wedding photos will compare with the memories she's making this week. I'm soooo happy for them.



I think you'll agree that they make a happy couple. That gleam in their eyes is Jesus. What a great way to start off a life together: best friends that have a heart for the Lord.

Makes me all misty eyed. I glanced at my sweetheart as Kristen walked down the aisle, too. Can't believe that seventeen years has gone by since we met and fell in love. For us, the Jesus part came later.



Funny how love gets sweeter as you get older (if you are best friends and are trying to serve the Lord and each other). We aren't 20 any more - though that was certainly a fun time. We might have a bit more to be preoccupied with (kids tend to add a little more responsibility and take a little more time away from what you have to give each day). I can see the worn lines of shared experiences in our faces. We have made a life together. Christ has multiplied that life in our children. We have lived our 'I do's' daily now for nearly two decades. I'm thankful that I see the same depth of conviction and commitment between Kristen and her man as I have with mine. One day they will finish each others' sentences, too.



Kristen's was a fairy-tale wedding.



It was worth carrying the baby and the Canon around at the same time... so I could share in the dance and capture the feeling with my camera. I hope Kristen and Buddy share a life of joyful photographic moments together. If they ever need a free photographer for future wonderful events, I'm their gal. May they weather the storms well and live happily ever after.

P.S. Want to see her cake? Go check out my food link. I'm posting a picture of it with a short story about it on Gathering Manna.

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Buzz Words: wedding, photography, marriage, relationships, Jesus, life, love

Honey-Sweet Blog Template Redesign

Darcy is an animal. She goes like the energizer bunny until the project is done and has a long list of anxious clients in her queue. She really worked well with me on this template redesign... allowing my children to participate and making my blog an extension of ME. Favorite colors, whimsical graphics and personal touches... all of it screams "Sprittibee". Whatever that means, right?!

Anyway, I wanted to welcome you formally to the new Bee Hive on the net and request that you join me in telling Darcy THANK YOU and how much you love her work! Just leave a little note in the comment section here and I'm sure she'll be back over to see them some time after she catches up on her sleep! We were up until 2am a few nights last week together on GTalk!

While you are here, check out the groovy hovering animated navigation bar up top. So cute! Leave your friendly face in my Google Friend box! Snag a graphic button to put in your sidebar. She thought of everything.

When I get home from vacation, I'll finish the fine details of making the template home, but until then, I'm enjoying the fresh new look from afar.

Keep us in your prayers for our travels and join me in praising the Lord that one of my best friend's families was spared this weekend. Her husband and daughter were in a head on collision and flipped around 5 times - both are fine, but the police officer could not believe they lived through the accident. Pray for their minor injuries to heal. I hear that there are pain meds and bruised lungs involved.

While we travel, take some time and look around my new digs.





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Buzz Words: design, blogging, blog design, bees, personal, life, random

Another Good Reason to Live in the Country

If you have to live in the suburb, it's good to take up landscaping. Especially TREES. And if you have a 2-story house, TALL trees.

This is what suburb trees are for - besides for birds and squirrels. Lots of trees. Too bad it takes so long for them to grow.


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Buzz Words: neighbors, humor, landscaping, trees, privacy, backyard, summer, personal, life, random

It Only Looks Quiet Around Here

Quiet. Or lack of it.

Not NOISE quiet. But activity quiet.

I'm not talking about the insane colic that went on tonight with Mr. Viking and his 2 hour cry-fest. I'm still twitching from that one, but shall recover. Must have been the round of 'I-can't-believe-my-own-mother-would-do-this-to-me' shots he got at the doctor the day before.

I'm talking about posts on this here blog. Or the lack of 'em.

Sorry folks. Blog designing, purging and purdifying takes a lot of concentration. A few tears, too. I sit here waiting on Darcy to get online, watching for her name to appear on my GoogleTalk (rather like a stalker) - and then I accost her with all sorts of requests and questions so as to use up every ounce of her free time. It's busy work, you-betcha.

There's also a hefty amount of whining. And then there are the panic attacks. Three years with a blog template tends to marry you to it in an unhealthy way. And as much as I talk about simplification and decluttering, there's a little of my mom's pack rat in me somewhere. Because Darcy has been having to tell me to go take a Prosac or a deep breath in between her stern commands that I MUST NOT cave and put all this j-u-n-k back on my sidebars.

She's nice like that. She needs to go in to drug and alcohol counseling.

Anyway, you peoples are going to probably drop a jaw when you come in here later on and see what she's done. I feel like I'm having my mind erased in the process... but I know I'll be glad when the site is pretty and fresh... and the sidebars are STARK NEKED. BLANK. EMPTY. Holy moly, they look funny!

I figured you wanted to make sure I was alive in here since it got so quiet. You were probably thinking... 1. she spilled sweet tea in her laptop and was in a major depression because she couldn't afford to replace it... or ... 2. she overloaded on iPhone applications and had some sort of seizure - and is spending the rest of her days in a straight jacket, drooling... or ... 3. she secretly decided to quit blogging here because a twittering Target executive offered her $5,000 a month to blog for them on another site...

... or maybe you just thought I was busy with the baby?

Well, whatever you were thinking, I thought I would set the record straight. YES, Target. I will blog for you. But you have to ask first.

And about the redesign while I'm waiting on that offer... it will happen some time around... June. Because I don't want to put any pressure on Darcy. Or she might make me give up another five categories.

Don't worry. You'll love the new look. It's rather BRIGHT - and ORANGE, but you'll love the new look. You better!


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Buzz Words: funny, humor, blogging, Target, quiet, design, blog design, personal, life, blogger, random

iPhone Killed the Blog Star

Unless you run a blog that is about gadgets and gizmos, the iPhone is something that a blogger really shouldn't have. You see... once you get one, you are instantly able to:

• surf the web (and actually see web pages the way they are supposed to look)
• sync your Outlook contacts, calendar and reminders
• watch YouTube videos and TV
• take pictures and quickly upload them to flickr or Facebook in just a few touches
• play all manner of video games (Pocket Tanks being one of our faves)
• listen to ALL OF your music via a built in iPod
• listen to the radio via Pandora (picking the bands/genre you are interested in) or just tune in to K-Love instantly!
• Google by voice command - hands free!
• use your iPod as a level to hang pictures
• keep up with your Netflix queue
• check the weather
• see what time it is in lots of places at once
• track your driving progress on a trip with an interactive map and get directions
• look through endless amounts of groovy pictures with Cooliris
• check the pollen in your area with Pollen Lite
• find restaurants that have healthy foods (including caloric/nutritional info & menus) and are near you (using GPS)
• track your weight and exercise goals with Lose It
• keep up with baby's feedings, diaper changes, naps, sleep patterns and medicines
• text your husband to remind him to bring home milk
• calculate the answer to a math problem
• time how long it takes your kids to do the dishes
• read a book on Kindle
• look up a Bible verse at church quicker than anyone who is using a real Bible
• use the device as a flashlight when the power goes out (in a variety of colors)
• twitter about what you saw along the road on your family vacation
• check your email (and actually DELETE G-Mails so you don't have to do it twice)

...

oh... and make a phone-call at the touch of a finger after you look up your contact or information on the web about a person or business. I mean just click the phone number from a web page and it connects you to them on the phone!

It's the coolest thing since sliced bread. I lurve it, y'all. But what a time hog! You hardly want to put the thing down!

My blog is so jealous. But thankfully, my heart for blogging is winning out over this infatuation. I actually put my "phone" in my purse for half a day the other day. I managed to keep it in the daiper bag for most of church service today, too (except when I had to go in the nursing room). I'm planning to get back in the saddle around here in blogland after the site is back up with its new purdy face.

I bet you just stopped in to see if I had redesigned it yet! You sneaky sneak. You'll just have to wait and see...

...and while I'm waiting on the final touches to be put on my blog design, I'll be weaning myself off of the iPhone high I've been on for the past month. AT&T certainly knew a good thing when they saw it.


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Buzz Words: iPhone, gadget, electronics, cellphone, communications, mobile, review, blogging, att, wireless, apple, phone, orange, wasting+time, opinion

Elbow Grease, Boobiejuice and Poppyseeds

I'm so busy cleaning up the back end of my blog that I don't have time for the front end - or the side that you are reading. My blog designer told me I had to clean up my categories. Seems a hundred categories is too many! Who knew?! And then there's the decisions to be made, the graphics my kids have to draw, the backing up of templates, the GoogleTalking with Darcy. Things are pretty hairy.

During all this design prep, I also have some nursing issues going on that aren't pretty, either. Things you just don't blog about. Boobiejuice containers being one of them. Needless to say, I'm going to the doctor on Tuesday. Kohen is going, too. Pray for some resolution to our ills and for the little Viking to start gaining weight to live up to his namesake.

While I await the blog to be finished and the health issues to resolve, I'll be attending a family reunion this weekend. I'm guessing that there are poppyseed kolaches with my name on them. My husband's family is Czech. They KNOW how to cook, baby. I can already feel the extra weight I'll be wearing home. If there's one thing that can get me away from my computer (as good as Mr. Viking can), it's poppyseed pastry things made my honest-to-goodness real Czech people.

New blog design coming soon. Pictures to follow of the kolaches. As for the boobiejuice... well... let's hope that everything works out fine.



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Buzz Words: poppyseed, kolache, food, baby, life, random, motherhood, nursing, getting things done, blogging, blog design, infant, health, mommy, personal

Sneaky Snotty... and Her Accomplice

I've been down and out with a horrible cold as of late. Made it's way through my entire family, picking us off like a lioness in the night. None of us were spared.

Except the non-human one.

The man.

He's a machine, I tell you. A machine. His employer is so lucky. He's the last of a dying breed (must be dying of rust if they are machines). He never takes a sick day (burns his own vacation). He is NEVER late for work; rather, he's thirty minutes early. Takes a snack to eat at lunch and works without pay so he won't even LOOK like he's taking advantage of company time.

And I have to bribe his co-workers to get his phone number at his desk... because you DON'T MAKE PERSONAL CALLS AT WORK. I do when he forgets to leave his cell phone on, though. I feel for the poor chap that let the number out. I'm sure they aren't friends any more.

He's not what this post is about though. So let's get back to it, shall we?

Sick. Yep. All of us. Especially me. And the poor itty bitty witty little baby! His first cold. And it's all Morgan's fault - who came down with it first. Even grandma got it. We sound like we have two weeks to live and need to be in the TB ward (me and granny). However, for the first time in five days, I feel human again.

I felt good enough to play on the computer today (instead of homeschooling, cooking, or paying my bills... or any of the other pressing duties that had my name on them). [Did I say that out loud?]

It's not my fault you know. It's all Darcy's fault. She's a web designer. She took it upon her sweet, charitable self to give me a blogiversary present (since my FOUR YEAR blogiversary was YESTERDAY - you may leave belated happy comments now). Four years in blog years is like 162. Because every hour another of the 6 billion blogs out there DIES! Because some homeschool mother realizes it takes too much work to keep it up.

Not me, baby. I'm no quitter.

I may not remember my name by the end of the summer... after pregnancy, bed rest, delivery, recovery, postpartum, depression, nipple confusion, lack of sleep, cluster feeding, prolonged Spring-Break Syndrome ... or has that become Summer Break... let's just call it homeschool burn-out. I need a vacation. But that's for another post.

Not a quitter. Nope. But hey - I AM a whiner. And Darcy happened to be available to whine to. Either that, or she just got fed up of my twittering about being fat, pregnant, in labor, a human pacifier, and snotty. So she decided to design my blog!

My kids must be sick of me, too; because THEY are supplying the graphics. Yeah, I homeschool them. They're blog designer artistyish people. And they haven't even hit puberty. So there.

Call me crazy (which is probably what Darcy did behind my back on GoogleTalk a few minutes ago when I told her I was still on a Classic Blogger Template)... but three years is long enough for a good design. I know some of you - or all three of you - who read my blog religiously - may have a hard time letting go of the trees and the shiny bee. Don't worry. She's NOT DEAD. She's just being archived in to my graphics folder on my PC. She's OKAY.

I may not be. But she's OKAY. Darcy, on the other hand. She's more than OKAY, folks. You need to line up at her doorstep for a blog design. It should be like the day after Thanksgiving (besides all those people that get trampled, of course). She's done a great job. She's very professional (which makes me wonder why she's doing this for ME). She's FAST at Photoshop and has a keen eye for color... and has made my children VERY excited by "offering them a job" doing graphics for her if she should ever need any more whimsical hand-drawn artwork again.

My husband will never get my son to mow the lawn again if he can make 'easy money' doodling for Darcy. Think of my poor lawn!

Anyway... as you were all sleeping in your beds tonight... I, the still-snotty sicky, was up making crazy design plans with my crazy friend. The world may not be a better place because of it... but I know that two little bees in this hive have gained a new confidence in their artwork... and I've gained a true appreciation for how hard designers work - and the long hours they put in.

The next time you see a blog designer, make sure to give them a BIG hug. Unless, of course, you are infected with a cold or the flu. In that case, STAY AWAY. Stay very far away.

Back to the Blog

There's a blank page awaiting within Blogger when you log in. At the top of the page is the command: "Create". I don't know that I ever even noticed it before today. I have logged in to write many times without any idea of what exactly I was going to say... but I always came up with something. Four years of almost daily posts and you would think that I might have made the connection between 'Creating' and blogging.

There are many different ways to create. I have friends who quilt, decorate, design, take pictures, scrapbook, tell stories, make music, and cook. If you love what you do, it's artwork. It's beautiful. It's a passionate thing.

Do you think of blogging as creating? Being creative? Bringing forth something worthwhile to share with the world? After all, blogging is writing... with a touch of scrapping - photography - formatting - and design. Writing is creating.

I have thought of my blog as my outlet to the world. My creative outlet. However, as of late, I feel anything but creative with a matter of rushed minutes between feedings and diapers to change. I steal a few quick moments of hands-free time at the computer each day and can't even get through my email, much less really write. There's no rest for mama.

I can say that being one-handed and tied down to a Boppy pillow has truly given me a bit of time to read. Reading is something I had lost. I was too busy getting together my own daily posts to have much time to mull over the amazing talent on all my favorite blogs. It has been a blessing to me to read again. It has made me thankful, inspired me, and given me a desire to get back to blogging with my own voice again... not just mechanical blogging with contests and give-aways, memes and reminders of social networking cyber-parties... but real writing. Writing from the heart. After all... that's what I began blogging for.

A solid week of twitter tweets is enough to drive anyone back to the meat of a blog. Tiny bites of information just aren't enough. I need the full story. The photos. Give me the whole blog and nothing but the blog.

Now if I could only find the time to get back to business.

Maybe my upcoming 4 year blogiversary and site redesign will give me the inspiration and push I need to find time to blog more. I certainly hope so. Not sure I would ever be satisfied on 140 charachters or less. Sorry, Twitter. You're fun, but you just can't compete with the real deal.