Blog Exposure: Along For The Ride

Matthias at The Matthias Chronicles has developed a simple no cost widget that can bring some extra people to your blog each day and give your blog some much deserved free (I like free) exposure. I, tech challenged that I am, had no trouble installing the widget. You can see the Along For The Ride widget on the left side of the screen if you scroll down a little. I want to put it under the e-card widget but I can't get the thing to move....sigh

You can get the rules and the code at http://matthiaschronicles.tanaya.net/

Thank you also to Windmill on The Hill  for helping Matthias work out the programing bugs.

 Anyone like to share another free opportunity for blog exposure that has worked for them besides E-Card (which I love) and Along For The Ride?

My Christmas Tree Rant

I was commenting on Kathy of Brazoscowgirl’s rant and started a rant of my own in her comment section! She graciously allowed my comment to post. I realized I need a brief rant of my own.

Since Christmas is almost upon us this is my Christmas tree rant. In point of fact, I love Christmas trees. This is a rant directed toward those people who feel the need to point out (often with smug moral superiority) that Christmas trees are in actuality pagan in origin! Shock!

To which I now rant “ Duh”.

Paganism in what is now Europe without a doubt predated Christianity. With the coming of the Gospel, the church fathers (at least some of them, there are Bah Hum Bug people in every generation) wisely realized that people desire a reason to celebrate before the impending cold dark of deep winter. What better reason to celebrate than the birth of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Just to clarify we do not celebrate Jesus’ birthday on December 25, we celebrate His birth.

Now if you are replacing a pagan celebration with one focused on the birth of the Savior (can you think of something better to celebrate?) and there are no Wal-Mart’s, flower marts or on line shopping available and you really do need something festive to decorate the house and it is winter and most everything is dead or in hibernation, what are you going use to decorate?

A pretty green fir tree! Available to anyone who needs celebratory decorations.

We believers plan to take over the Superbowl parties next! Moreover, no one had better say pigs in a blanket were originally a secular tradition or I will have to reply “Duh!”

Colored or white lights, which do you prefer?

E Card / Blogher List

I have noticed there are a lot of great blogs on both e-card and blogher. This is a list I made during my e-card rounds. If it is helpful to you please feel free to use it. If you blog is not listed and you would like it to be, please leave the information in a comment. If you are horrified to be on this list, again leave a comment and I will take you off. If there is an "official" list some place, I would love to be on it!

         Glue4Families

Nytro Girl

Jogging In Circles - Jogging In Circles

Cheaper than Therapy--Musings of a Mom of 3

The Homesteading Housewife

Zip 'n' Tizzy

News from NOLA

Beetle's humour - Memories of 50's & 60's

Scraps Of Mind

Living Locurto - Graphic Design | Creative Ideas | FREE Downloads

The Online Recipe Box

Chica & Pumuckl - 2 Egyptian Cats in Germany

Mama Belly Blog

WillThink4Wine

Workout Mommy

Homeschooling Four

Bobbie Dawn

Friends FurEver

Parenting Squad | Tips, hacks, and news for parents and their families.

Nodin's Nest

It's OK to be WEIRD! : Memory Verse Monday - Prov 3

Colloquium

iVegasFamily

Short Pump Preppy

The Junk Drawer

Small Town Mommy

Connect with your Teens through Pop Culture and Technology

Blog - A Second Cup

washwords » Blog Archive » We are the stories we tell

I Do Things So You Don’t Have To

Gandalf and Grayson

On The Verge

Not a Day Goes By.....

Gather Little by Little - Personal Finance with a Christian Perspective

Sassy Irish Lassie: The Myths of Motherhood

On the Horizon

1Blog and 2 Sides

Chic Galleria

Aging With Adventure: Productive Goofing Off

Sometimes I get so much done when I am not doing what I should be.

Wonderful posts get written while dust and dog hair pile up. Amazing dinners are cooked while avoiding writing the Ephesians talks. I never skip the study part of Bible teaching. I really enjoy studying. However, occasionally white page block has me doing other things until deadlines force my mind to focus and produce cohesive thoughts to share with others.

The house gets cleaned while I should be running errands or returning phone calls. Calls are done while I making e-card drops. Errands get done while I am avoiding thinking about what to make for dinner. Somehow, the wash always gets done and homeschool is accomplished more or less.

If I am really in avoidant mode, I watch TV (during the day!) and catch up on TiVo and knit. How can you be goofing off if inch after inch of scarf is gliding off your needles?

When Real Simple arrives each month, that event signals a 2-hour life stop. I sit, I read, I rip out recipes and articles I will never look at again. I feel something has been accomplished in those two hours as I carefully put all the rip outs in a folder with all the other ones from previous life stop sessions.

Too much goofing off will becomes counter productive, but I am surprised how I get done while I am avoiding doing what I should be doing.

Do you have a productive way of goofing off?

Blogs Worth a Click: Catch Up Addition

The orginial idea behind Blogs Worth a Click was to later recap blogs suggested by the commentors who are usually bloggers themselves. I was thinking at least monthly. Thinking and doing are two different actions.

There are so many interesting blogs and few ways for others to discover them. This would be perfect for a Mr Linky type plugin but my current blog platform doesn't offer any thing like that. Sad but true. It doesn't even offer something like Comment Luv. Very sad.

 Diet and Exercise Addition

 Gina suggested 101Cookbooks as worth a click.

Speaking Hope Addition

Ton suggested Modus Vivendi

Odd But Interesting Addition

SheSue Expirence suggested Unusual Hotels of the World which includes a ice hotel. How cool is that!

So in theory this is what I am planning to do. If you are a commentor with your own blog and you suggest a different blog you enjoy on the given topic, when I do the monthly recap, link love all around. Manually because of my blog platform. (I do believe this irks me more than I realized!)

Anyone blogging on the perfect platform?