He looks at every picture and talks about every single one. “Dogggggiess?” and “Eh-fant?” and “Bih Bird?”

This is the only picture that makes me say hmmmm…

What’s your kids’ favorite book?

happily linked to The Diaper Diaries Things I Love Thursday

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I got inspired by Leigh’s Saint Patrick’s Day post today and made green Rice KRispie treats with the kids. And that is what made my Lost recap get posted at 2:25pm. Well, that and the fact that Sawyer’s RECON episode made me…I don’t know—LOST. Anyway, if you would like to talk about last night’s episode (PLEASE!) read all about it at The Disney Blog.

And if you are from the ATL (or even if you’re not, and you just want to see something fun I wrote) click over to Georgia.com for my newest Family Life post about the Tellus Museum!

freaky Sawyer miniature by Bolts and Bots

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The other week I had this great idea that I would learn how to a screencast and do a “welcome to my blog” screencast to show new visitors what my blog was about and maybe even show newbies how blogs in general work. Wouldn’t that be fun? At this exact same time I read a post by Problogger called “Welcome to Problogger” and besides not being a screencast, it was the exact idea I had. (Yes. I really am comparing myself to Problogger.) So, this is kinda sorta a little bit going to be one of those posts. These are the

Top Ten Things You Can Do To Make a Blogger Happy

1. Subscribe

Do you see that bright purple button on my sidebar? It’s a subscription button. You can click it and subscribe to my blog via a feedreader. Which is basically like a big inbox for your favorite blogs. Here’s a screenshot of my Google Reader:

If you’ve just been bookmarking all your favorite sites or clicking on them eleventybillion times a day to see if they’ve updated then YOU NEED A FEEDREADER. It will make you happy AND it makes bloggers happy to have subscribers! (I mean how cool do you feel if someone loves you enough to know the second you update your blog?!) Of course, there is another option—subscribing via email. You can get an email every time the blog updates and read the post right in your inbox. I love that idea except for the fact that I get like 100 emails a day. And adding another one to the mix would be horrendous.

2. Comment

Comment is like crack to bloggers. It is why we do it. If we didn’t want comments, we would keep the thing private or write in a journal.

When I first started reading blogs, I would see the blogger ask a question and see all the people that left comments and I always thought, “Am I allowed to do that? I know she just asked a question, but certainly she doesn’t really want ME to answer it.” YEAH. SHE DOES. If you answer the question, leave your own similar experience or just say, “I read every word.” you will absolutely make someone’s day. And on top of that, you will probably make a friend. Every one of my best bloggy friends started with a comment.

If you are still unsure, Ill walk you thorugh it. Do you see that little purple box at the bottom of this post? IT says, “Got something to say?” and then a clickable “5 comments”? Click that. Then fill in the fields–name, email, website (it can be your blog, facebook, twitter or just leave it blank). Then type to your heart’s content.

3. Facebook Fan

I know you’re on Facebook. If you’re not. Well, just crawl out from under your rock and skip to #4. If you are and you think of it as just a place to snoop on your High School boyfriend, think again! Facebook is fast becoming a place to connect with companies, organizations and other like-minded people.

I know you’ve probably become a fan of “Texting Someone While In The Same Room” and “People Who Have Mullets” but how ’bout being a fan of Impress Your Kids, Once A Month Mom and Silly Eagle Books so you can see blog updates and fun links on your status updates? I also love being fans of companies and local businesses because they always give coupons!

Another tiny little facebook-love tip is to share a post on Facebook or LIKE the status of a blog. That will enable your friends see it and hopefully they’ll click, it too!

4. Stumble

Ah, Stumbleupon! This is my new favorite site. When you read a really great post (after leaving a comment) why don’t you click the StumbleUpon button below the post? (See it? It’s that round one at the end.)

When you do, it sends StumbleUpon a message that says, “THIS POST IS AWESOME.” Then when other people search around StumbleUpon for a cool post to read, they’ll find your first! It’s like a search engine of GOOD posts! And it can bring BOOKOOS of traffic to a blogger’s site. Some nice person stumbled my How To Wrap and Detangle Christmas Lights and I STILL get hits on that every week. (Who still has their Christmas lights up?!)

Christine has a great StumbleUpon tutorial for those of you who are interested.

5. Tweet. If you are twittering (and who isn’t? our town has a tweetstream!) bloggers love a nice tweet or re-tweet. Does all this sound like it’s for the birds? (Couldn’t resist.) Well, what’s great about twitter is the large amount of people you can reach quickly. I have about 3000 followers on twitter. So, if I send out a link on twitter there are potentially 3000 people who might read it! 3000 people who didn’t know about the link until I sent it!

You might not have 3000 followers, but you probably have followers that I do not. So, if you read a fun post, tweet about it!

6. Click Their Ads. Did you know that I can make money if YOU buy new shoes on Amazon? It’s a small percentage, but who doesn’t like getting money in the mail? In the mommy-blogging circle, lots of ads on sidebars are to other small mom-owned companies. When you click (and buy) through a sidebar ad, you could be helping out more than one mama! I’m not suggesting you buy stuff just to buy it–let’s be reasonable! But if you are going to buy Signing Time or Robeez- anyway, or were already planning on shopping via Amazonclick through my a blogger’s site first!

7. Gravatar. (Hmmm…sounds like a movie I once saw…)

This is the globally-recognized-avatar. And all it means is when you leave a comment, you’ll see your own little picture next to your comment! Why do bloggers like this? Well, it helps them recognize YOU. And it makes their blog feel more like a community. I love seeing you smiling face smiling down below my post!

(Gravatar has the best tutorial on setting up your own picture.) I also love Gravatar because you can set up different pictures for every email you own, or put the same one on each!

8. Paypal. Then you can always send them money. KIDDING. (But I do think Once A Month Mom should have a donation button on her menu posts. She’s like having a personal grocery assistant!)

9. Comment. Did I mention comments are like crack?

10. Get Involved. The highest compliment you can pay a blogger is by getting involved. Every blogger loves to see people become a part of their community. So start considering your favorite blogger a friend. Show them you care by making them apart of your online world and who knows, you may get a new best friend!

Are you a blogger? What makes your day?

Next week’s Top Ten list: How To Make Your READERS Happy

:: :: ::

Speaking of getting involved I’d LOVE to hear your Top Ten list! Please link up today! For official Top Ten info check out my Top Ten {Tuesday} page!

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It’s 6:29pm and this is the first time I’ve been able to sit, catch my breath, put my feet up and open my laptop without a child hugging one of my limbs. Well, I did a little skyping with Mandi and Christine during breakfast dishes. Then I hammered out a sweet post at Impress Your Kids while Asa cried himself to sleep and Lydia complained during her rest time.

But now, the dinner dishes are put away (yes, at 6:29), my husband is giving the kids a bath in our big whirlpool bath and I am ignoring everything else to visit my little home away from home. I’ve got two little posts in my drafts folder that I cannot wait to share with you. It’s been something I’ve been thinking about for several weeks. I think it might be a two or three-parter. But because I usually never follow through on my series, I’m waiting till I have everything hammered out before I show it to you. How’s that for cryptic? Anywhoo, I’m excited about it and will want your input and insight.

For now (and without the help of a decent segue) I need some nap help. Don’t we all? A few weeks ago I tried the one nap a day thing for Asa. It just wans’t working. He was only sleeping for about an hour and fifteen minutes total during the day and his night sleep felt more interrupted.

So, I switched him back to two naps. And even though he was only sleeping a little over an hour with each nap, it was making for more daytime sleep which made better nighttime sleep. But it TOTALLY wears me out because I can’t get Lydia’s nap to coincide with either of these two naps. And now Asa is fighting BOTH naps. I know he’s old enough to do one nap but I don’t know the best way to go about it.

But this zero alone time during the day is about to make me unfunctioning. See, it’s already happening. I’m making up weird words.

How was your Monday?

{ps: it’s 6:46 now. less than 20 minutes on a post. any number of people should be rolling over in their graves now.}

{pss: have you heard about Giveaway Day at The Nesting Place? It’s tomorrow and sounds f-u-n!}

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Photo :: :: :: Lydia and Asa experiencing almost-Spring

Mac Stuff :: :: :: Mac Monday from Bneato {fun posts about shortcuts for your Mac!}

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Friendly BFF Bloggy Post :: :: :: An Interview with Hilary at The Other Mama by Mary at Giving Up Perfect and An Interview with Mary at Giving Up Perfect by Hilary at The Other Mama. {These ladies crack me up!}

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Fun Link Up Post :: :: :: Saturday Stumbles at ItsCome2This {link up your favorite favorites posts…like this one!}

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Last week I took the kids to The Center for Puppetry Arts. Yeah, we just went in January, but I can’t help it. It’s fun! This time we saw a really amazing show. It was all shadow puppetry and was performed by only one puppeteer, Hobey Ford. I don’t know if you’ve seen shadow puppets before but they are mesmerizing. It’s an old (ancient, even!) form of puppetry that is similar to the old hand in front of the flashlight thing you used to do as a kid.

Ford performed three stories and did all the voices and puppets for each one. When we first walked in the stage looked like a bunch of black curtains thrown over a box. But when the lights went down and the puppets came up, Lydia didn’t move. I even took Asa into the hall at one point (because he was so…happy), and Lydia sat in there by herself. (Don’t call DFACS, it was for 14 seconds.) Lydia was laughing, responding out loud to the puppets and cheering with the rest of the audience. Who knew shadows could be so entertaining?!

At the end, Ford performed some of his new puppets called Foamies. All I can say about the Foamies is…I literally thought the otter puppet was real. And the whale? If he had only been 20x bigger, I would have run for cover.

After the show, we headed to the Create-a-Puppet Workshop. This may be our favorite part of the Center for Puppetry Arts (as documented here and here and oh, here.). This time we made a really simple dolphin shadow puppet. They had a shadow puppet stage set up in the room and Lydia got to try her puppet out for the world to see!

When we got home, we also made some great shadow puppet shows on our wall!

The best part of the whole day is that I got the tickets to the show BUY ONE GET ONE FREE (that’s a $16 value)! And how did I get those you ask? You did, didn’t you? From Tropicana Juicy Rewards*! You collect points from your OJ cartons, enter them online and use them to redeem coupons. You know how most point thingies are for free stuff (ie. Pampers Gifts 2 Grow), well Juicy Rewards are for great DISCOUNTS. There are coupons for museums, fitness centers, home improvement, hair salons, theme parks and more. My fave? 20% off at Massage Envy! Oh, baby.

The cool part is you don’t need a lot of points. I bought some Tropicana 2 for $6 at Publix last week. (SCORE) and got 6 points. My Center for Puppetry Arts coupon was ONE point. That was SO worth the orange juice I would already buy!

I noticed when I was printing off the coupon that it was from Entertainment. You know, the coupon book? So, think of these Juicy Rewards as having the big fat coupon book WITHOUT buying it! I always buy those books and then they sit in my glove compartment forgotten until they all expire.

Want a free Juicy Reward point? theMotherhood.com has one for you…

1. Go to www.tropicana.com

2. Set-up your Tropicana Juicy Rewards account (just takes a minute!)

3. Visit the “Enter Codes” page within the site and get started with MOTHE-RHOOD*

*This one-time use code is valid for new accounts ONLY. Must be entered within 6 hours of creating your account.

*disclosure: I am a Tropicana Juicy Rewards Insider. I was given points to try out the rewards system. I was also compensated financially. But the love for puppetry and orange juice? All mine!

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I’m tired. It’s been raining for like 13 days here. (Well, two anyway.) Yesterday there was even thunder. And you may remember that Lydia is TERRIFIED of thunder. So, last night I was half awake listening for the thunder and her cry. (That’s some serious faith in my daughter, isn’t it?) Anyway, I heard thunder three times. She only called out once. My husband checked on her (love him!). Still, I couldn’t sleep. I kept hearing THIS NOISE.

It was kinda like the whining of a machine. Or maybe a baby? It was a weird high-pitched sound that crescendoed about 75 times a minute. Les and I laid in the bed contemplating what it might be…broken humidifier in the kids’ room? an animal howling outside? an alarm?

Finally I made asked my husband to get up and check it out. He opened our back door, immediately turned around and said, “It’s a frog.”

A FROG?

Frogs say RIBBIT. This was not RIBBIT. This was more like eeeEEERRRIIIIIIIIBBBBBBEEEeeeeEEEETTTttttTTTT. Every once in awhile that little froggie would take a break (probably ambling closer to my window) and I’d fall asleep. Then I’d slightly wake up to hear him in the background—far far away. I’d fight myself to go back to sleep, “DON’T LISTEN TO IT! DON’T LISTEN!” But it was too late, my mind would pinpoint the sound and suddenly it was so loud I couldn’t sleep. Again. I think when all was said and done, I spent about 4 hours sleeping and about 4 hours listening to that frog.

“It ain’t easy bein’ green.” Hmph. I’d like to deliver on that promise.

photo by kermit on tour, which is hilarious and worth a click.

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Agda and Hazel. Outside our old home in Oxford, MN. 1963.

Hazel is my Great-Grandmother. And Agda? Yes, she’s THE Agda.

:: :: ::

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I’ve been writing this post since May. I knew I’d have to share it on a day I wasn’t actually aggravated with my husband. It’s just some little things I’ve collected that showcases what separates Mamas from Daddies. And of course, as anyone (who is normal) would know, I love my husband and can’t imagine parenting without him!

With that said, here are The Top Ten Things {Most} Dads Never Have To Do:

1. Take a shower while one child is pressing their nose against the glass door of the shower and asking 400 questions, while the other child is crying on the floor.

2. Give one child sustenance from your body while the other child is playing ride-a-little-pony on your leg.

3. Carry a diaper bag, a camera, a crying preschooler and an infant at the same time.

4. Give one kid a bath while putting pajamas on another kid all while cooking (and not burning) dinner.

5. Solve problems, dry tears and answer questions within 5 seconds of being awake.

6. Entertain a child at 5:15am.

7. Consider it a good day when you get a shower before noon AND brush your teeth.

8. Make three meals in one day AND do the dishes for said meals.

9. Live without even one minute of quiet or alone time for more than 10 hours.

10. Agree 100% with this: “I’ve witnessed every burp, smile, hiccup and whimper this baby has ever made, at the expense of my personal interests, career and social life. Good trade.” -Baby Blues

:: :: ::

Got a Top Ten list to share? Just write it up on your own blog—link back to me—then enter the link to your post below—then start visiting the other participants. And for extra brownie points leave them comments, tweet their posts (#toptentues) and stumble or otherwise share the love with everyone you know!

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I hope my own blog has gone through that metamorphosis. I hope I’ve made others aware of more than TV shows and special edition oreos. I want to use my blog to show others the things that are really important to me. As much as I think you should love LOST, I think you should love Jesus. I think everyone should plan elaborate birthday parties for their kids—but I want you to honor your children and show them the most love you can.

I’ve gone on bloggy trips to learn about diapers, chocolate and Mickey Mouse. And although I was pleased to do so, I am ecstatic to tell you that I’ve been invited on a missions trip with World Vision. Four other fabu bloggers (Andrea, Briana, Jill and Jessica) along with author Matthew Paul Turner will be traveling to the Dominican Republic the first week of May. We’ll be visiting World Visions’ community programs, the “river slums” and most importantly the children. Oh. The children.

I’m so honored. And nervous. I want to communicate effectively the amazing opportunity we have: to help children and their families, to bring them out of poverty and towards Jesus.

I’ll keep you updated with info as I get it. But for now, start praying for us. For World Vision and the kids that YOU will meet. If you’d like, you can meet some of them now.

:: :: ::

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