• Chris Brogan – Waste of a Perfectly Good Airplane
• Cath Lawson – Why the Perfect Small Business Owner Doesn’t Exist
• Copyblogger – How to Use Stories to Change the World
• Successful Blog/Liz Strauss – The Preschool Teacher and The 3 Year Old: When Customers Misbehave

There were more, but I can’t seem to find them now so if I find what the heck I did with them, I’ll update this post.

Hope you find something here you haven’t read yet.

Have you read something recently that you really enjoyed? Please share in the comments!

Be blessed,

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Post tags: around the web

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As you probably know, Spring has been a rather challenging time for me and I’m so glad Summer is finally here! I’m looking forward to relaxing, bike riding, hanging out with the kids and sleeping in.

Pretty soon here I’ll get back to posting regularly here – probably next week, I’m hoping. If you have questions or want to send me a private note, please feel free. There’s a contact form here. (Just don’t spam me, ok?)

Enjoy the Summer Solstice today and the longest day of the year.

Be blessed,

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If you’re reading this in a reader, please drop by the blog and take a peek! I’ve customized the header and a few of the colors, etc to reflect my own style. It’s not complete yet and I anticipate making a few other changes.

Let me know what you think!

And I’ll be back very soon with more posts.

Be blessed,

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Post tags: Design, News, site, Updates

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But for me, going completely vegetarian is just not something I see myself doing. There are too many staples in our everyday menu that just wouldn’t be the same and since we enjoy them, why cut them out? I know there are many reasons to become wholly vegetarian and they are all valid – for some – but they’re not for others.

Also, I just can’t see going all vegetarian myself and forcing my kids to do so if they don’t want to. And I’m just not into cooking 2 or more separate meals every meal, every day, either.

Instead, over the past few weeks, I’ve become a “weekday vegetarian” by eating only fruits, vegetables and other more healthy vegetarian foods during the week. I know that my body is one that needs some form of protein at least once in a while. This way, I cook one meal for everyone and I just increase the amount of vegetables I usually prepare and then just eat the vegetable, while everyone else eats the main dish as well.

So far, this plan seems to be working for me. I’m not experiencing any headaches or feeling like I’m not eating enough. In this initial “phase” I am also not eating bread. I may eat rice once a week or perhaps some potatoes but that will be the extent of the carbs. And those – along with lean meat and fish – will be eaten only on weekends. Hence, the “weekday” vegetarian.

This way, I allow myself to get the protein my body needs and I can hopefully keep myself from eating less healthy things day in and day out. And I’m not talking about cake or cookies or things of that nature – I’m talking about bread, crackers, dairy products and other things that just really don’t make me feel my best. Things I know I should avoid simply because my body really doesn’t like them.

When I was about 8 or so, we found out I had many allergies – milk, eggs, cheese, peanuts, oranges, grapefruits, pineapple and several others. The worst were the citrus fruits and peanuts. I could handle the others as long as I didn’t eat them every day.

But you know, like so many people do, I just ignored the ones that didn’t make feel “that bad” and ate them anyway. As I’m getting older, though, I’m finding they DO make me feel worse than I thought. Maybe it’s because hormones and things are changing as I’m getting older, I don’t know. Additionally, I seem to have picked up a few other food allergies along the way.

The worst two are hibiscus and chicory, which everyone and their brother seem to put into tea blends these days. I’ve had to stop drinking a few of my favorite teas as a result.

I’ve always been conscientious of food labels and what not since I grew up with, not only allergies, but a mom who was ultra-health conscientious. She was on the health and nutrition bandwagon long before most people, probably as a result of HER allergies.

Anyway, like I said, so far it seems to be working well. My hope is that I’ll actually lose some weight in the process and maybe even encourage my 12 year old to eat a few more veggies and fruits. The other kids all eat a pretty decent variety, especially the 16 year old. She’s very health conscientious as well.

Since I’m not a big breakfast person, eating this way is easier as well. I have simply just been making a fruit smoothie – mango and pineapple, strawberry and banana – and having that. Then at lunch, I’ll have a salad or perhaps some vegetable soup. For dinner, extra veggies – broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, zucchini, carrots. An apple or a pear or some other fruit for snacks.

I’ll post a few vegetarian recipes soon. You can also peruse the archives for some others I’ve posted in the past few years.

Hope you have a great week! The weather is starting to warm up here and lots of things are blooming. It’s beautiful!

Be blessed,

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Post tags: food, health, Kids, Recipes, veg

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Since I knew ahead of time these changes would be taking place, I was able to somewhat prepare – as much as one can prepare – for the pain and the heartache I would be feeling. I think that has helped lessen the blow somewhat.

As we head into summer, I plan to just take things easy. Spend as much time as I can doing things with my kids, whether that means watching movies, taking a day trip somewhere, visiting family and friends or just hanging out at home. I know things will be different for them since it will just be me and them.

And they’ll be going through some changes over the next few months – the 16 year old is going to a special school this summer (for 5 months, really – July through December), the 12 year old will entering middle school next year and the little guy will be going into 1st grade and attending school all day for the first time once fall comes around. It’ll also be the first time the 9 year old doesn’t have her big brother at school to watch out for her.

But I think this new dynamic is starting to make sense to them. They are continuing to be helpful with things and they are all anxious for summer’s change.

I’ll be back soon. Thanks for continuing to stick around while I’ve been away. That means a lot to me.

Be blessed,

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While I’m not running around like a chicken with my head cut off ( . . . yet) and I’m not quite as stressed as I had been, I am willing to freely admit there are few things that have been left undone. Not major things or totally important things but little things here and there – like not folding and putting away all of the laundry as soon as it’s finished in the dryer, leaving non-perishable groceries like crackers and cereal etc in their bags by the pantry shelf instead of organizing them right away and what-not.

And the kids! Can I just say they are some great kids! They have really stepped up to fill the void and been extremely helpful to me. Yesterday my youngest son (age 5) put away the towels in the bathroom. They were sitting in the laundry room, all folded and ready to go and he saw that and just did the job. Last week, my 16 year old finished washing and drying all of the laundry that hadn’t yet been completed. She also swept the floors and vacuumed the living room and den. Also without being asked.

As we go through these days, I’m sure there will be some trying times at one point or another but I’m immensely thankful for the way things are going right now.

Be blessed,

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It’s not that I meant to leave you alone for so long, I’ve just been dealing with some personal issues that have taken up much of my time and mostly, my energy. The day to day things I’ve been preparing have left me with no energy for anything besides my family.

And while that has been good for me, it probably hasn’t been so great for you and I apologize to you for that.

Now, a few of you do know what’s been going on and I want thank you for standing by me and offering your support, your friendship and your time. It means more to me than you will ever know, more than I can ever express. And though these words seem inadequate, I sincerely thank you from the bottom of my heart.

For those of you who don’t know, I am going to spill the beans in just a few minutes but first, I want to say that this is likely the only time I’ll really speak about it on this blog. I don’t want this blog to become something it never was intended to be and also — I don’t like to focus on the ugly things in life. I much, much prefer to focus on the all good stuff and that’s what I try to do here, be positive.

So the big news is very personal and, as you know if you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, I rarely discuss truly personal things. I may tell you about my family or something we did together and such like that but I don’t think I’ve ever talked about something THIS personal before.

Please bear with me . . .

(. . . . . . . . taking a deep breath . . . . . . . .)

I’ve kicked my husband out of the house.

A few months ago, I began to notice things. At first, just small things. I had a niggling thought in the back of my mind but I didn’t pay attention to it. I just dismissed it . . . because, see, we’ve down this road once before. So I was hoping – hoping beyond all hope – that I was wrong.

But . . . I wasn’t. Unfortunately.

Not even in the least. It’s even more this time than it was last time. I knew I should have sent him packing back then. But he said he’d get help, he said it would never happen again. And I told him it would take a very, very long time to rebuild my trust – to regain – my trust.

And he blew it all. Again.

He began, from what I can tell, by chatting with other women online and responding to personal ads on various websites. He browsed dating websites and made contact with several women. He created profiles on dating sites where he said he was either single or divorced. He sent other women nude pictures of himself. He received nude pictures of some of them.

Now I have learned that he has actually met some of them in person. And not just for coffee . . .

Not only all of that, but he has stolen money from me, not paid bills he was supposed to pay and gotten involved in some scam that has gotten his PayPal account frozen. I also suspect it has caused him some issues with his bank account as well. Thank god we don’t have a joint account! But I do fear that because I’ve sent him electronic transfers from MY account, that somehow the scammers have my info anyway. As a result, I’m canceling my cards and closing my accounts.

Anyway, although the 2 older kids know, the 2 younger ones do not and I don’t plan to tell them until they specifically ask questions. Right now, they just think he’s “at school” since that’s the norm. Until recently, he had evening classes so they are used to him not being home for dinner and bedtime. Due to that, it’s made it’s pretty simple so far.

You know what breaks my heart the most, though?

I know, somewhere down deep inside, he really is a good guy. He can very sweet. He can be very attentive and for the most part, he’s a fairly decent father a good amount of the time. And it saddens me most that somewhere along the line, he has lost his way.

Even so, I just cannot tolerate this type of behavior. The good stuff, unfortunately, doesn’t make up for the bad stuff. Not like this. I mean, I can handle the little things. We all have our quirks and areas where we can improve. But when it comes to morals, I can’t compromise my own.

And that’s what this boils down to. I have to be true to myself. Because how I can be true to my family, my children, otherwise? How can I be true to those who need me most if I cannot be true to myself first?

That realization, to be true to myself, finally lead to my decision to ask him to leave. Probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my whole life.

Although it is hard and there will obstacles in the future as well, I am certain I’ve made the right choice.

For me, for now, that is enough.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and thank you for your understanding. I hope I’ll be able to post more again very soon. Until then . . . as always, my friends -

Be blessed,

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Some stuff I’ve enjoyed the past few weeks . . . .

iPad Reviews UK – How Wired Magazine Will Look on the iPad

The Gratitude Log – “The Happiest Place on the Internet” -The Gratitude Log is a website where you post things your grateful for. It’s a wonderful concept and I really like. This is my Gratitude Log page. Feel free to check it out and join if you like it.

Noupe – 40 Outstanding Photo Manipulation Tutorials. Some of these are pretty interesting – manipulations include blending a planet into a photo, how to create glass transparency, alien invasion, steampunk style illustration and many others.

Inhabitat – Texas Breaks US Wind Power Generation Record – this is pretty cool. And Texas is the leading state in wind power generation. Last year, they produced enough energy using wind turbines to offset electricity use in the state by 6.2% overall. But Friday, they set a record – 19% of the energy mix!

Blog Mommas – Take a break, share your blog, have some fun! Not just a blog directory for blogging mommas but also for dad bloggers. Check it out and add your blog too.

And I think that’ll do it for now. I hope you have a great week!

Be blessed,

Copyright © 2008 Annie Anderson | Blog. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact annie@anniandersonblog.com so we can take legal action immediately.

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I spent some time this weekend going over those old blogs and importing most of their posts to THIS blog. So, if you browse around through some of the older posts here now, you’ll see a lot of content from those old blogs. There are posts that go all the way back to 2006 and as soon as I finish importing the remaining archives, they’ll go back to 2005 and maybe even 2003. There are now a little over 600 posts here on AABlog. And many, many other topics that I have not covered here before.

Over the next few days, I’ll revamp things a bit to make it easier to access older content so I’m looking into some type of archive plugin. If you know of good one, please do share!

Also, I may be re-posting some of those older articles to make it a little easier on you. If by chance you happen upon something in the archives you’d like to me re-post this week or next, let me know.

I’m now off to finish up some paperwork for my doctor and will hopefully have my referral for the MRI’s very soon.

Until then . . .

Be blessed,

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

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Post tags: Blogging, plugins, spring

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This morning about 6:45 after my teenager got on the school bus, I was sitting here drinking my coffee and I just felt kinda bogged down. Not heavy bogged down, but just enough that it caused me to think about things. And I realized that in order to CREATE anything, I have to be willing to LET OTHER THINGS GO. (Of course, I knew that already really, but it was one of those moments like “Well, hey, no time like the present!”)

And so shortly thereafter, I got an email that reminded me about renewing my weight loss blogs domain name and even though I enjoy that blog and I really do intend to write there more often, I made the decision to let it go – to not renew it. Once I had that decision made, it just kind of snow-balled a bunch of other similar decisions and I’ve spent the last while letting go of all kinds of things that simply no longer serve my purpose.

I feel peaceful about this change and I think that’s really helping me feel peaceful about some other changes that I’ve been considering for quite some time. Some HUGE changes, actually.

Now it’s just simply time to get on with it. As much as these other changes will be difficult, I am feeling ok about them in the long run. I know the short term will be rough and I’ll have to make some adjustments, but in the end, I think it’s the choice I have to make.

And I know that’s pretty cryptic – sorry – but I’ll let you know about those things soon. I have to make them happen first before I can really discuss them. But trust me – when the time comes, I will NEED A LOT OF TALKING and I’ll be here saying all that needs to said.

Until then,

Be blessed,

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

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Post tags: life, purpose, Self, themeword

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