This is definitely NOT a New Year's Resolution LOL

So let's just say that the house is NOT a wreck a lot of the time. Let's be reminded that I am NOT doing New Year's Resolutions this year. And let's just say that I don't have any plans to get this house in order (for the last time). Let's not say that there is not an area of the house that is clean and clutter-free. Let's not say that my husband puts up with WAY more than he should with this house. And let's not say that the laundry has finally formally revolted and has decided that the bathroom is not big enough and it needs to live in the storage room, upstairs, by the doorway and on my bedroom floor. We won't say that I have grand plans to organize this house and my life. Let's not say that I have plans to blog about it. Wouldn't want to say that lest I don't do it and fail us all.

We won't say any of that!

And then I will proceed to not give you a few great links :)

• FIRST here's the link to my t-tapp blog where there are some free downloads of exercise and food logs to get your BODY organized (though we definitely won't say you need any of that! Oops forgot the link originally. Edited to add it (Um and it's obviously the most important link LOL) http://pursuitoftappiness.blogspot.com/2010/12/free-foodexercise-log.html
  
• http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/ - I have spent WAY too much time lately reading this blog!
• Part 1 of a two sectioned series: http://www.beneathmyheart.net/2011/01/organizing-your-heart-and-home-2011/
• Part 2: http://cyndispivey.com/?p=1200 - Follow both blogs to play along
• http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/organizing/before-after-mikis-diy-super-sized-wall-calendar-133831 - a very cool wall white board calendar (though I couldn't have the spaces between the blocks because there's no way for my kids to not write on the spaces. But still a great idea!
• http://womenlivingwell-courtney.blogspot.com/2011/01/unveiling-of-james-book-club.html - Courtney is leading a book of James Bible Study. I've been struggling a bit lately and was reminded what a great book this is. I've read James SO many times! I will be reading it again tonight in fact and starting to memorize some of it.
• Fab before and after Organizing pictures :) http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/roundup/before-after-organizational-projects-the-best-of-2010-135490
  

Backwoods Home Magazine

A friend of Clay's bought us a subscription to Backwoods Home Magazine. We just got our first issue. I'm so excited! I've bought issues at Tractor Supply and the feed store in the past but never would go spend the money and subscribe. I'm not sure what's wrong with me but I should have years ago. Years.

If you haven't checked out Backwoods Home Magazine, click this cover of the current issue and it will take you to their website's front page where it has online versions of a few of the current issue's articles.

But on top of that, their website is a HUGE resource. On the left side with all the links are blogs of some amazing homesteaders. And archives of retired BWH bloggers. But there is my all-time favorite "Ask Jackie Clay". Jackie knows everything and she gives me confidence that I can do it. Even when it's raw packing crazy meats and canning them or canning cheese :) Or acorn stew.

BWH rocks though seriously. They cover everything from building clay ovens to harvesting acorns to building log cabins with step by step instructions to politics and guns :) Anything and everything a homesteader or dreaming homesteader thinks about is covered in this magazine.

Now just when you think it can't get better........... there's this:
THE BWH ARCHIVES

It's the insane, and I mean insane, archive list of past issues from 1998! So run over there and start clicking and reading. Meet me back here in a couple years.

Homestead Blessings Giveaway

Kendra, at New Life on a Homestead, is giving away copies of the oh-so-fabulous Homestead Blessings Collection, by the wonderful West ladies and Franklin Springs Media. There will 8 winners who each get to pick one of these great DVDs! You can find this giveaway here. Good Luck to all who take the time to enter! :)

SOS Conference Giveaway!

I would have given my left arm to go to this conference. But winning the Audio CDs of it would be the next best thing! Honestly the line-up of speakers is like no other conference. Voddie Baucham, Ken Ham, Paul Washer, Doug Phillips and more! We'd never have been able to attend. But you can buy the Audio CDs here: http://ncfic.org/conferenceaudiopreorder BUT first, the lovely family over at Inashoe is giving away 3 FREE sets if you follow the guidelines on their blog Inashoe . So whether you order them or get them free, it will definitely be a blessing! Wish me luck! And you luck!

Tab Check Tuesday

http://livingaslights.blogspot.com/2009/11/yelling-kids-in-line-of-fire.html
Did a little tab check. Here are some random websites open in tabs in my Firefox right now. Enjoy.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/GarlandsOfGrace

http://visionarydaughters.com/quiz/

http://mcpactions.com/blog/2009/11/19/over-300-incredible-photography-tips-from-mcp-fans/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mcpactions+%28MCP+Actions+Blog%29&utm_content=Bloglines

http://www.moneysavingmom.com/

http://bluebehemoth.com/

http://needleinahaystackstitchery.blogspot.com/

http://jenniwren32.blogspot.com/

Beauty in the little things

Go here first and see her oh-so-lovely laundry room.

http://pleasantviewschoolhouse.blogspot.com/2007/04/beauty-in-laundry-room.html

Just looking at that makes laundry not seem so bad. I can see myself with sunshine beaming through the window as I iron Clay's shirt on that floral ironing board cover.

Oh to make my surrounding such that I can't stand to see them messed up. Oh to make the little things beautiful. To have my laundry soap in a cute metal bucket with a metal measuring scoop. To have large floral ribbons weaved through my laundry baskets so that when they're filled with homeless socks they aren't an eyesore but an addition to my bathroom. I want to make or really should I be wanting to SEE the areas of house as beautiful and lovely; places that I straighten up as I walk by to keep them looking beautiful.

On a side note, this is a great idea to me:
See how she uses an actual bed pillow with on the couch? How much easier would it be to try and find cute vintage pillowcases than pillows? I actually love this and will be doing it ASAP!

Honestly though. Run on over to PleasantVilleSchoolhouse. She has post after post showing the beauty in the little things of her life, of her home. Inspiring.

If you blog...

There's this post. This one here at Rocks In My Dryer. Go read it. It says things like this:

"But there is undeniable part of blogging that feeds a part of us (me) that is, perhaps, not the most sensible part: the part that craves to "measure" ourselves, the part that is naturally drawn to a false sense of urgency, the part that needs to be heard even when there's not really anything to say. "

Then you move onto the comments. READ THE COMMENTS. Yes, that was a command. Heed it. But you move onto the comments and you read things like this:

It was feeding something unhealthy in me - mostly a whole lot of narcissism. It was hard to admit that to myself, that I was wasting so much time on something that was essentially just a big ego booster. It felt awfully self indulgent.

I have felt God yelling at me to 'find the quiet' (yes, I see the irony in that statement). Blogging has started to feel like a highschool clique, and I'm certainly not part of the in group. I had started to wish I was the popular blog out there instead of just enjoying writing when I was inspired and had something to say. I was starting to fret if I hadn't blogged for a few days, worried that I was losing readers.

What was supposed to be a place to practice my writing sort of morphed into a journal and then a place to complain about anythign and everything. And then suddenly, I become more concerned with catering to the people that I thought might be reading my blog and I worried about what would draw them in and keep them

Seems like lately I come across a lot of blogs where the writer starts by saying that they don't have anything to blog about however they manage to write a very lengthy post about nothing

WHY do I do this? Is it pride? Is it making friends? Is it wanting to feel interesting or needed?

My post from last night and then reading this made me think. I haven't been posting because things aren't perfect. In fact, they're far from perfect. Really far. From here to China far. I haven't been doing great things. I haven't been canning or gardening. I haven't been finally conquering the behavior problems with the kids. Or keeping the bathroom spotless because of some great inspirational cleaning routine.

I started this to document things for my family. I could have stayed on my other blog with the readers I already had. Comments everyday sure are nice and who doesn't love the pat-on-the-back of loads of comments? But I moved. To start a blog more for our family. More about our family. And SO fast I came back to this place where I was blogging for other people, and hey, NOT blogging because of other people. In the same respect, I haven't been blogging real life BECAUSE family reads this blog. Who really wants their Grandmother (Hi Gramma! IF you've gotten this far and haven't turned back because my ramblings are too weird and annoying, I'm waving to you *wave*) but who wants their Gramma to read that they just can't seem to climb Mt. Laundry?

But if I don't mention Mt. Laundry I never post. lol!

SO what's the answer? I'm not sure. Part of me wants to not blog at all. Part of me wants to just cut this internet off and be done. Part of me wants to be able to just throw it all out the window and blog like a journal. Part of me wants to limit the blog to family stuff and farm stuff with no ramblings. Who knows. I don't. I know myself well enough to know I won't stop 100%. I know myself well enough to know I won't stop being on the internet. I wish I would. But I won't. Just won't happen. BUT I need to do something about my internet addiction. Maybe that should be the first step. To step back. Now how to do that? I'm an all-or-nothing gal. I'll pray about it and talk about it tomorrow. I've been thinking and praying about this internet thing for a while.

But for now you get my "I'm doing a blog post about whether or not to do a blog post" post. Which brings me back to another great post from the original post here

(In other words, I think writing a 47-part blogging series about Why We Probably Shouldn't Be Blogging So Much might be a little disingenous, don't you think?)

Hmm... blogging about why I blog. Blogging about whether to blog. Spending time on the internet debating whether to be on the internet. Ever wonder if because you're wondering you should just get up and stop?

See ya.

A sweet little giveaway

Over at the Seven Sisters blog. I love finding little blog gems. Today someone sent me over to check out their mother's blog Never a Dull Moment. What a wonderful blog that is. What a love of the Lord she has and it shines through in her words. Through her blog of course I found her daughters' blog Seven Sisters. My Cassie came over immediately looking at the pictures of these gorgeous modest Christ-centered young ladies with a smile on her face. Then I read through many of their posts and was touched my how sweet and kind and lovely they are.

They are having a sweet, sweet giveaway that I want to win but want you to enter too :) :)

They are giving away this pretty little hand-embroidered journal:

So breeze on by their blog and be amazed at the grace of these young women and enter their contest. Seven Sisters Blog.

In case you didn't know

Michelle Duggar has a blog!

http://blogs.discovery.com/tlc-michelle-duggar-blog/

Fun stuff.

A profound thought.....

Over at With Great Joy, she said EXACTLY how I feel. And while she feels she has no profound thoughts, that in and of itself is profound. I will quote the first part here and then you can go say hi to her lol.

In her today's post, she wrote this BUT I could have written this, word for word:

One of the frustrating things about blogging, for me, is that I feel like I need to have some profound thought in order to post, or a topic to cover, or a practical, helpful thing to share, or at least an event in our family life to write about.

The thing is: I rarely, if ever, have a profound thought.

And my brain- when I sit down to write- isn't organized by topic.

And most days I have nothing practical or helpful to share. We may be doing things that I think are fun and or helpful to us, but it feels a little presumptious to think that others will, too.

As for family events, we have lots of those happening, but by the time I sit down to write about them- it's been several days, I have no photos uploaded or just didn't take any photos and my motivation to blog about it has waned.

Often I open up the little "New Post" window to write something and then sit there with the cursor blinking and the blank screen before me and decide I have nothing to say.

But I do have lots to say, it just doesn't seem "polished" enough for a blog post.

For the time being, I'm throwing anything remotely resembling a "polished" blog post out the window and I'm going to try to simply be me. Conversational.

***NOW, go over and read about her sweet and normal day and get to know her.

Sunday July 12th ramblings

I am currently reading a book my friend, Chautona, is writing about a lovely lady named Willow. Go read it! She posts chapters as she writes them. Tonight though something touched me a little. Throughout the first part of the story, she would read through her Mother's journals. Journals that told everything from the garden to her feelings on having a baby. Everything. Life. In words. Then tonight she was reminded at how important her own journals would be to her family in her the future.

I scrapbook, I do. And I journal about the story or my feelings on them. I do. But so much of it is art to me too. Creating, the fun of making a layout I love to look at. Pictures I love to look at. But oh how I'd love to read my grandmother's journals. Or great grandmother's. To read about how she did this without electricity, about the great flood this year, or the sound of the rain on the roof of the farm house or...

So there's that romantic part of me that wants to journal. But I've tried before. I've started journals a million times. Do I try to do it here? Would I be able to be real enough? That is the real question I think.

In the past in my old blog, I got the most response from friends when I was honest about weight, about struggles, marriage, all of it. When I started this blog, at first it was homestead focused, and family focused. Family focused as in I was writing and putting pictures for my family to read, not posting about thing that might be too real for them. But I lost the stories, the ramblings, the truth of life.

What does that mean? How will I go from here? I don't know. I had someone the other day tell me they missed my old blog, that they really loved reading the things I wrote. It made me sad that I haven't been that here. In some ways it was because no one I knew in real life knew my other blog for a long long time. What does my sweet hubby Clay want? I know he looks at the blog, he has his family read it, gives people the link to it, maybe this should be a family blog only? So I need another blog? I'll have to ask him I think eh?

So I'm starting a new hard copy journal. And starting to journal more here. And asking Clay how he feels about the blog. And praying about it. And rambling way too long. Good night.

Blog Giveaway

It's not mine but I want to win it! Serenity Sheep Farm has a great new idea. Okay so you know CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture)? Where you pay for a share in their farm so-to-speak and get a share of their bounty every month? Fabulous stuff. Anyways over at SSF they're doing a sheep CSA - where you pay your share and get yarn or roving (your choice) instead of produce. Such an incredible idea. So over there is a fabulous giveaway. Check it out here:

Serenity Sheep Farm Blog

And check out the amazing goodies over at the fabulous SSF etsy shop

Their fabulous Etsy shop

Run, don't walk, on over and check out their blog and shop.

A new favorite blog

Lately I've found so many "must-reads". I love reading blogs. Just when you feel like you're reading every good blog there is, you find a new fabulous little treasure. Eclectic Culture is one of those treasures. Why didn't any of you tell me about it sooner?

This blog is a journal of a normal homeschooling Christian family. Normal looking in every way. They wear pants and blow dry their hair, normal. They felt called by God to buy a farm smack dab in the middle of Amish country. They gave away all their electronic goodies, packed up and left the world they knew.

Their story and adventure as they deal with living totally off grid, getting to know their Amish neighbors, doing things like working for days with their neighbors cutting huge chunks of ice to fill ice houses and the women working in the house together to make the meals, just all of it is fascinating in every way. She definitely leaves most of us out here in homestead land quite jealous! Me at least. I admit to being somewhat obsessed with the Amish and the choices they make for their lives. I definitely learned things on this blog already that smashed a lot of my preconceived notions about the Amish.

Here's the link to a welcome post of sorts. It has the link to the beginning of their journey.
http://eclecticculturefarm.blogspot.com/2009/01/welcome.html

Go read. I started from the beginning and read post by post. It was a nice way to spend the evening with everyone asleep except for the sickie lethargic baby doll. Pray these sickies go away soon.