Are you happy?

Are you happy?

My daughter asked me that question last night after dinner.  I know why she did it.  We had just heard some news that upset us and we were trying hard not to let it show.

But it did.

And she noticed.

But it really got me to thinking.  AM I happy?  What defines "being happy?" 

You can be content but not be happy, if happy is defined as being peppy and perky all the time.

On the other hand, you can be peppy and perky all the time and not really be happy on the inside.

You can be resigned that this is the best that it gets, even if it's not very good.  Is that happy?  Being resigned to your situation so much that you don't try to change it?

What about our situation last night?  Overall I like my life.  I like the freedom I have during the day - freedom that's there because I am not employed.  I like being here when my kids get home from school.  I like being on PTA and going on field trips.  I like that I like the same leisure time activities as my husband.  I like that he loves me and I love him.

But that doesn't mean I display outward happiness at all times on all days.  That doesn't mean I'm not happy.

I think kids have such a black and white picture of happiness.  If you like what you are doing at any given time, you are happy.  If you don't, you are sad. 

Fortunately for us, it's more gray.  I like that one bad situation in life doesn't define my happiness.  It might put a damper on it for an hour or a day.  Then I remember how all the good things in life are still there and I choose to be happy.

What about you?  How do you define happiness?

Book Review: Digitalis

Digitalis by Ronie Kendig



Digitalis is the second book in the Discarded Heroes series. (Book 1, Nightshade, was reviewed here.)

Colton "Cowboy" McNeeley is a loving father and son.  He's also a highly trained sniper, one with deadly accuracy.  Nightshade, a black ops military group, looks to him as the stable force in their group.  Only he's off his game, shaken up by a woman.  Piper Blum has stolen his heart but Piper has secrets that she is hiding from him.  Keeping those secrets may put his family in danger, but revealing them may put an entire country in danger.

Can Nightshade rescue a nation?  Can Colton forgive the lies that Piper has told him?

My Thoughts:

After loving Nightshade, book 1 in the series, I had high hopes for book 2.  And it delivered!!  Twists and turns kept me interested.  Bad things happening to the good people made it believable. And just when you think you know who's behind the attacks, you're thrown for a loop.

Was there anything I didn't like?  Yes, I have just a few complaints.  They were more like annoyances.  Most books flow with an introduction, a conflict, the action, then the resolution.  The flow in this book is introduction, conflict, action, interlude, more action, then finally a resolution.  The action in the middle of the book kind of threw me off.  Not that it was written badly, it was just different than other books I've read.

Despite the flow issues, I still loved the book.  I recommend it to all who love to read.

5 out of 5 stars


Thanks to NetGalley for providing the Kindle version of this book for review.

What I Learned Wednesday: Sidebar Titles

Check out my other What I Learned Wednesday posts here.

This is turning out to be a super busy week. I am getting ready for Disney, as well as volunteering at the Book Fair and Carnival at school this week.  Whew!  I'm going to be so ready for our vacation.

In light of all that, I just have a little lesson for today, more of a blog tweak instead of part of our blog pimping.  Anyway...

Scroll on down until you see "About Me" and "Follow Me" titles on my right sidebar.  That's what I changed for today.  And it was so easy.  Really, I promise.

Those two titles are just pictures.  And you can easily put pictures on your sidebar.  I'll leave making the title picture up to you.  Once you've done that, it's time to add it to your blog.  As usual, all the magic starts on the Design/Page Element page.  You'll see your sidebar over on the right.  Click on "Add a Gadget" at the top.  You'll have lots of choices of things to add.  Scroll down until you see "Picture."  Click the plus to add a picture.  Like with our blog title, it's smart to go ahead and click that little box that says "Size to fit," because once you add your file, you can't click it.  Add your file and Save and you're all set.

So now all my titles match and, if you notice, I figured out how to get the white background out of my title.  Yay for transparent titles!!

By the way, did any of you know that hamsters hiss?  Seriously, our hamster just hissed at me when I got close to her cage.  This is bringing back flashbacks of my childhood vampire cat who hated me.

Planning our Disney vacation

It's T-minus 4 days until we leave for Disney!!!!!!!
(I'm just a tad excited!)

Since this is our first Disney trip as a family, we are kind of novices in this whole Disney trip planning thing.  But I did learn a few things, so I thought I'd take you through my process so maybe you can learn something too.

We figured we had several big decisions to make - Drive or fly? What time of year do we go?  How many days do we stay?  Stay on property or off?

The first thing I did to answer those questions was to ask others about their Disney experiences and to check out a Disney guide from the library.  I actually picked up several guides to compare.  My favorite by far, was the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World.  After pouring over that book and getting lots of Facebook answers to lots of Facebook questions, we got some answers.

First question: Drive or fly?  We picked driving over flying for simple monetary reasons.  Of course gas wasn't $3.50 a gallon then; however, the cheapest airline tickets we could find were around $300 round-trip.  For 4 of us, that is a chunk of change!  I know there are deals to be had, but the stress of waiting for them would have been too much for me.

Second question: When to go?  The Unofficial guide and their corresponding website have a wonderful crowd calendar that helps you determine when the best time to go is.  Our original plan was to visit over Spring Break.  But once I found out that was the busiest time of the year, we quickly crossed that off the list.  Summer is the second most crowded time of year and ... HOT.  But the first week in May looked like the perfect time.  Not too busy, not too hot but hot enough.  And you may disagree, but we felt like our kids were young enough that taking them out of school for the week wouldn't hurt them too much.  So the first week of May it is.  Check.

Next up - How long do we stay and how many days do we go to the parks?  Well, we felt like to really get the Disney experience, it required a week.  We are driving down part way on Saturday, the rest of the way on Sunday and driving back the next Saturday.  That gives us 5 days to go to parks.  But...we are also on vacation, which means we don't want to be stressed and tired all the time, so our plan is to take Wed off.  A day off right there in the middle of the week to lounge around, swim in the pool and be lazy.  No parks on Wed! 

All those decisions seemed so much easier compared to the BIG one - where do we stay?  I have to admit, we have never been more conflicted over any vacation decision as we were with "Do we stay on Disney property or off?"  If you talk to someone who has stayed on property, they are going to tell you to stay on property - "You don't get the full Disney experience without it."  If you talk to someone who stayed off, they are going to list the merits of staying off property - "more space, cheaper."  We went back and forth over and over and in the end, we decided....to stay on Disney property.  The dragon slide at the pool was the deciding factor.  We have NEVER all 4 stayed in one hotel room for a week before.  We'll see if we are all speaking at the end of this :).

That's how my analytical, love-to-plan mind works.  Just thought I'd give you a glimpse.

I still have spots for guest posters next week.  Email me or leave me a comment if you'd like to get your name out there.

Wonderful Easter

Ever have one of those days where you think of blog posts you want to write all day but don't have the time to write them?  Yeah, it's been one of those days.  But on the bright side, I got a LOT accomplished today.  A lot of things seemed to be hanging over my head and I worked on them and they are not hanging anymore. Yahoo!

Anyway, remember when I anticipated Easter?  I anticipated doing Julie's hair, seeing my kids dive into their baskets and spending time with family.  Well, this Easter delivered all those things.  It was truly a great Easter. 

I think it started out well because I set my alarm for 30 minutes early.  I wanted plenty of time to do Julie's hair and we wanted to get to church early and get a parking space.  A few minutes before my alarm went off, I heard the little Munchkins getting into their baskets.

Highlights this year: Enchanted movie, playdoh, pencils, American Girl sleeping bag and PJ's for Julie; 

How to Train your Dragon movie, silly putty and Ninjago Lego set for David.

Then it was time to get beautiful.

 (Note:  A 5-year old took this, hence the "looking up our noses" feel to the photo.)

 David posed me here.  Thought I'd include it too.

We had a wonderful church service with record attendance.  A total of 1232 people attended in our 2 services.  (Normally we have about 700 in attendance each week, so that was a HUGE Easter Sunday increase.)

After lunch at Grandma's, it was time for the egg hunt.  

On your mark, get set...

GO!!!

Lots of goodies were found inside the eggs, including $3.23.  

Unfortunately our batteries died on our camera so we didn't get pictures of the second egg hunt at Mamaw's house.  Another $1 or $2 was found in those eggs.  All in all, a pretty profitable days for the kids :).

I ate waaaay to much yummy food (although all the candy was chocolate, which I'm allergic to, so I didn't have any candy).  But overall it was probably the best Easter that I remember. 

HomeSav: Earn a FREE $10 credit

Have you heard of HomeSav?

It's the latest and greatest daily deal site out there.  And if you sign up now under this link, you'll earn a FREE $10 credit to the site.  It never expires and it's good on anything, including shipping.  Hurry!  Sign up now!

DealPulp (another daily deal site) is currently offering a $40 credit to HomeSav for only $15.  Another great way to save.

**Invite your friends and earn more credit.  Any friend that signs up with your link will get a $10 credit.  When they spend that credit, you'll earn $15 credit.
**The above links are my referral links.  If you'd rather not use them, you can go directly to the site to sign up.

Guest Bloggers Needed

Hey out there to all my wonderful bloggy peeps.  Have I told you lately how great you are?

OK, ok, I'm trying to butter you up a bit here.  Why?

Because I'm in need of some guest bloggers for the week of May 2-6. 

Guest blogging is a great way to get the word out about your blog.  Advertise yourself, tell my readers who you are so they can go check out your neck of the blogging woods.

If you are not a blogger, that's OK too.  Maybe you have some issue you've wanted to get off your chest and out into the world.  Now's your chance.

You can write about anything you want.  However, because this is a family-friendly blog, I can't take any posts with curse words, or the Lord's name taken in vain.

Just leave me a comment saying you want to guest post and make sure I have an email address where I can contact you.  That's it!

Book Review: Nightshade

Nightshade by Ronnie Kendig



Nightshade is book 1 in the Discarded Heroes Series.

Max Jacobs has been discharged from the Navy - discarded.  His marriage is crumbling and his life is spiraling out of control.  Then he meets Nightshade, a group of elite soldiers - discarded heroes like him - who join to form a secret elite team.  They go in where others don't dare to tread. 

Nightshade is called upon to go into the jungles of the Philippine islands to rescue a missionary family held captive by local radicals.  At the same time Max's estranged wife, Sydney, a reporter, is coming dangerously close to uncovering the identity of the Nightshade team.  Can Max rescue his objectives and lead his team out safely?  Will he heal his marriage with his wife, or alienate her even more?

My Thoughts

When I first read the description of this book, I was a little hesitant to read it.  I don't usually go for the military dramas.  If I had gone with my instincts, I would have really missed out!  This was a wonderful book!  Kendig incorporated just the right amount of military drama to balance the relationship issues facing this team.  I never felt overwhelmed by military jargon; yet at the same time, the military moves the characters made and the terms they used all seemed very authentic and believable to me.

The characters were wonderfully flawed.  The team, the wife, the missionaries - they were all real.  No perfect heroes in this book. There were a few predictable spots in the book where you knew exactly what the characters would say and do, but those spots were few and far between.  The storyline took enough twists and turns to keep me up reading at night.  I am currently reading the second book in the series, Digitalis (review to come soon) and eagerly await the third book coming out in July of this year.

I give this book a 5 out of 5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me the Kindle version of this book for review.

What I Learned Wednesday: Changing your Blog Header

Time to keep pimping our blog in our What I Learned Wednesday series!

If you have been keeping up with the series, you have learned how to create a blog signature and how to change the background of your blog.

Today we are going to learn the next step - how to change your blog header.

Actually changing your header is really easy.  However, creating that header - not so much.  You guys may be able to help me out on this.  I'll tell you what I know and you can comment and tell me what you know.

1. Choose your favorite photo editing or digital scrapbooking software.  A lot of people use Photoshop Elements.  I use Creative Memories' scrapbooking software program - Storybook Creator Plus.  It's a great scrapbooking program but it does have some limitations as a website design program.  
2. Spend as much time as you need (or have to because your computer is not cooperating) to make your new header.  This step will take some trial and error, especially as you try to make a header the correct size for your site.  If you are using the Minima template, your header will need to be 660 pixels in width.  There is a way around this that I'll mention below.
3. If possible make your header transparent.  What does that mean?  Well if you look up at my header you'll see that it is all in a white box.  If it were transparent, it wouldn't have that white box.  Remember the limitations of my software that I mentioned?  That's one of them.  It can't make transparent images. I'm trying to find a good program that does. If your software is capable of that, you'll need to save your file as either a PNG or a GIF file.  JPG does NOT support transparent images.
4. Next go to the design tab in your blog.  At the top of the Page Elements section, you'll see "your blog name (header)" and a little "Edit" link.  Click on that.  Your current header picture should show up there.  Click on "remove image" (you can't get it back once you remove it, so make sure that file is saved somewhere on your computer).  
5. Now if you aren't sure about the sizing of your header, before you pick a new file to upload, click on the "scale to fit" box at the bottom.  It will disappear after you add your image so you'll need to click on it first.
6. Now just add your header picture that you have saved.  Make sure the middle choice of the bottom buttons is clicked, save it and you're done.
7. Preview your blog.  Tweak anything that needs tweaking and relax.  You did well!

That's it!
I'd love to see any design changes you've made to your blog.  Simply comment below and I'll stop by to look and return the comment love.

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Remember a comment on today's post earns you another chance to enter our boredom to Disney contest.

Pack now or later?

As you know, Disney is looming in our near future.  Yay!!!

What you may not know is how differently each of my family members approaches the upcoming trip.

Guess whose suitcase this is?
You got it!
Julie, my overachieving, extremely excited second-grader.

This was packed on April 5, a full 25 days before our departure date.  What does that tell me? 

One - She has WAY too many clothes if she can leave 7 days worth of clothes packed and still be fully clothed for a month. 
Two - She's a tad excited about the trip (just a smidge).
Three - She's totally my child :).

OK, this one is David's.  The only reason it is partially packed (the things are literally just thrown in there) is because Julie convinced him that he needed to pack it.  Unfortunately he doesn't have the amount of clothes that Julie does.  Which means that after he packed all his clothes, I had to unpack most of them so he wouldn't be naked at school.  He's excited, but not nearly so much as Julie.

Embarrassingly so, this is my little stack of things that I can't forget to pack.  As I think of them I either write on my list or put them in this chair. 

I am a list-maker, big time.  Here is my Disney packing list:

Um, except that's just part of it.  My "list" is actually 5 lists.  I've divided it into Papers/Books, Toys/Games/Electronics, Clothes/Toiletries, Misc, and Food.  But, hey, I rarely forget much that way.

This is what Tim has done to get ready....NOTHING.
He'll pack about a day or two before and put everything here on the bed.  He packs by asking me what he should pack and then I actually do the packing into the suitcase because I have a knack for getting it all in one suitcase.

But the cool thing is, we all get where we are going and we all are packed by the time we get there :).

Now that you know our quirks, here are a few packing tips for your next trip.

• For each child, I took gallon ziploc bags and put dates on them for each day we are going to be gone.  Their shorts, shirt, underwear and socks for that day all go in that bag.  When they wake up, they just have to pull out the bag for that day and its all right there ready for them.
• For adult clothes, you can fit a lot more in your suitcase if you roll all of your clothes instead of folding them.  (I actually rolled the kids clothes inside each bag as well.)
• We are only taking 2 pair of shoes each - tennis shoes for walking around Disney and flip-flops for the pool.
• I've gotten each child a fanny pack to wear in the parks (good thing they don't know how uncool that is).  They will put their sunglasses, chapstick, mp3 player (in a plastic bag), and snack in there.  That way they get to "share the load."

13 days to go. What additional packing tips do you have for us?

**Don't forget to enter our Disney trip boredom contest.  A comment on this post earns you an additional entry!**

Starting a 50/50 journal

Some days, it's hard to come up with something interesting to write about.  Today is one of those days :).  In light of that, I'll leave you with this article by Kathi Lipp.  (I reviewed Kathi Lipp's book, The Me Project, back in February.)

Remember, a comment on today's post will earn you another entry into the Disney boredom contest.
******************************************************** Starting a 50/50 Journal

Disney contest

It's T minus 2 weeks until Disney time.  And in honor of that I thought it would be fun to have a little contest.

So here it is:

Guess how long it will take for the first child to say "I'm bored" in the car on our way to Disney World.

The winner will get one handpicked Disney souvenir mailed to them at the end of our trip.

Here are some things you need to know:

• We are stopping part way the first night and it will be an 8-hour car drive (yikes!) to that destination.
• There will be a DVD player in the car to stave off boredom.
• There will be 2 DSi's in the car to stave off boredom.
• Julie can't read or she gets carsick, so cross that activity off the list.
• You can guess within 5 minute intervals.  You will put your guess in a comment in hour/minute format.  For example, you can guess that they will be bored in 4 hours and 20 minutes.  
• We will round to the nearest 5 minutes to determine the winner.
• The first comment to pick the time closest to the correct time wins, so read all the comments to make sure you are putting a unique time in.
• You MUST be a follower of my blog to be eligible
• For every post that you comment on next week, you will be eligible for an additional entry (up to 6 entries per person).
• The contest will end on FRI APRIL 22.
• The winner will be announced the week of May 1 and your prize will be mailed the week of May 8.

Good luck to you all!!

Stylin' and Profilin'

OK, so I'm not really profilin'. I don't even know what that means, actually.

But according to Amie at And we're off to I am stylin'.

See, here's proof:

She gave me the Stylish Blogger Award!

When you get awarded this wonderful honor, you get to pick another 10 blogs that you think are stylish too.
Crystal's Craft Spot - so crafty she can't help being stylish
Stacy Makes Cents - frugal, witty and funny
2Wired2Tired - 2 wired kids + 2 tired parents = one great blog
Jill Savage's blog - Jill runs a great organization for SAHM's called Hearts at Home
Queen of Tweens - Shanna is new to blogging, go give her some comment love
Iheart Organizing - Jen just has the cutest blog and the cutest downloadables
5 Minutes just for Me - My Aussie friend always has gorgeous pictures on her site
Lifting Revolution - what's more stylish then learning how to take care of yourself
Knits, Reads and Reviews - see cute knitted creations or find a great book
Ramblings - 3 kids, and a SAHM, lots of cute stuff there

For the last part of the assignment, I'm supposed to tell you 7 random things about me.
(You can find some other random things about me here.)

1. I love to peel things - sunburned skin, that blue stuff that comes on new appliances, fruit roll-ups, you name it.  Yes, I'm weird like that.
2. I can pick up sanddollars off of the ocean floor with my toes.  My husband says I could kill a small animal with those toes.
3. I hate surgery but I've had 3 surgeries in the past 2.5 years.
4. Tulips are my absolute favorite flower.  I wish I had picked a sturdier flower to be my fav cause tulips are very fragile.
5. I think board games are the best.  My little man inherited that love as well.
6. I play piano and flute and I had a handful of solos as a teenager in our youth choir.
7. I have been watching "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" on Netflix every day at lunchtime for about a month.  It's like a soap opera and I'm hooked!

So there you have it.  To sum up:  I'm stylish but a little odd :).

How about you?

Book Review: Organized Simplicity

This week I decided to read Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider (and yes, I spelled that name correctly, but I don't know how to pronounce it.)


Tsh is a blogger turned author, which instantly drew me to read her book.  She blogs at SimpleMom.net. 

This book is divided into two sections.  In the first section, Tsh defines what living simply in the real world looks like.  Her definition of living simply is to "live holistically with your life's purpose."  She talks about creating a purpose statement for your family and how every family's purpose statement will look different.  What is important to one family may not be important to another.  With that in mind, we are to reevaluate how we spend our time and money. Once we do that, we will realize that a lot of things that we enjoy here in the US are really luxuries, not the necessities that we think they are.  Such things as cable TV, 2 cars, or even a clothes dryer are not in the average home around the world.

Once we have a clear purpose statement written we can move on to the second section of the book - 10 days to a simpler, more organized home.  In this section, Tsh takes you through each room of your house - living room, kitchen, bathrooms, kids rooms, master bedroom and entryways.  As you go, you sort, declutter and clean.  Her mantra throughout this organization is "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." (William Morris)  So as you declutter, sort things by asking, Is this useful to me?  Is this beautiful to me?  If it is not, toss it.  You will also keep your purpose statement in mind and redefine your rooms purpose in light of that.  For example, if your purpose statement is to lower your family's ecological footprint, you might lessen the amount of electronics you have in the house or choose to put up a clothesline.  In the end, you are left with a home that has less clutter, less stress and one that more adequately meets your family's purpose statement.

My Thoughts:

I really enjoyed this book.  It was very well-written and well-organized.  You would have thought Tsh had been writing books for years.  We don't have a family purpose statement and to be honest, the thought of making one is pretty daunting for me.  But I think the concept of having a purpose statement is excellent.  Businesses and corporations have them and refer to them often in their decision making.  My childrens' school has a purpose statement that the whole school quotes every morning.  Every child there knows it and every teacher teaches with it in mind.  So a family purpose statement may be something we will work on in the near future.

In terms of her decluttering "rules."  I think they are awesome...in theory.  I tried it out (not as extensively as she outlines in the book) by cleaning out my closet.  I tried to be really objective and get rid of anything that had not been worn in a year, anything that didn't fit, anything out-dated or the wrong color.  And I got 2 garbage bags full of clothes ready to be donated as well as a basket full of nicer stuff ready for the consignment store. 

But I still have a lot of clothes.

So did I really only keep the useful and beautiful stuff?  I don't know. 

Next I tackled my linen closet.  I found 3 old quilts that we no longer use.  I put them on a local classifieds site to see if I could sell them. 

But if they don't sell, am I willing to just give them away?  I don't know.

All that to say, I think this is a wonderful book with a wonderful concept but for me to really follow the plan in it, I will have to have agreement and assistance from the family and a lot more will power than I currently have.  Not only to get rid of non-essential things in my house, but to limit myself and not buy more of them.  I do recommend this book and because of that, I give it:

5 out of 5 stars

I'll leave you with my favorite quote from the book:

"The secret to happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less." (Don Millman)

What I Learned Wednesday: Changing your Blog Background

Last week we started a new What I Learned Wednesday series. We started pimping up our blog and I showed you how you could create a signature for your blog. 

Notice anything new on my blog?  If you are reading this in a reader, click on over and see the new look.  What do you think?  (Don't worry, it's not done yet.)
Today I'm going to show you the easy way to change the background on your blog.

Notice I said the easy way ... because that's the only way I know how to do it so far.
(All this assumes you are blogging with Blogger.  If you are using Wordpress or some other platform, then you probably know more about this than I do.)

1. Your first step is to find a background you like.  Now you can pay for one of those, but why do that when there are tons out there for free!  Just Google "free blog backgrounds for Blogger" and you'll find a bunch of sites come up.  Look over them and find one you like.  Different sites have different styles.  Some are scrapbooky, some are more modern.  Find one that suites your taste and your blog.  I found mine on Hot Bliggity Blog.
2. The background you find should have a bunch of code with it.  Copy it to your clipboard (the site I used did the copying for me when I clicked the "Install" button).
3. Go back to Blogger, to your editor and click on the "Design" tab, then on "Page Elements."  Click on "Add a Gadget," then on "HTML."  Leave the title part blank and paste your code in the box.  You can preview your blog to make sure it looks like you want.  Then make sure you click on "Save."
4. If it doesn't look right for some reason, you can change the template of your blog to Minima.  To do that, click on "Edit HTML" under the Design tab.  Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page.  Under the Old Templates heading, click on Select Template Layout.  Minima is the first choice.  
5. After you have changed to Minima, look at your blog again.  If you have a weird box at the top, go back to the Edit HTML section you were just in.  Scroll down til you see /* Header.  Look in that section, any time you see "header _px" change the number in the _ to a 0.  Do the same when you see "margin _px."  That should take care of your box.

I really hope all that works for you.  I'm certainly no expert and I'm learning right along with you.  So, good luck and let me know in the comments how it turned out.

I'm SocialMoms Blog of the Week!!

Wahoo!! 

I was just chosen to be SocialMoms Blog of the Week.  If you'd like to see proof, check it out here.

I'd like to say "Welcome" to all those visiting from SocialMoms.  I'd love for you to check out some of my favorite posts and series.  Learn to be your own medical advocate or learn more about blogging.  Want to cook only once a month or find a great book to read?  I've got posts on those too.  And my favorite posts?  Those involving my two cute kids, of course.

If you like what you read, feel free to follow me.  I'll be happy to return the favor.

To my regular readers, here's more about SocialMoms.  SocialMoms (formerly TwitterMoms) is a network site that helps blogging moms connect with other blogging moms, especially through social media.  There's always a weekly commenting contest where one lucky commenter wins $100 Amazon card (I haven't been lucky yet - still holding out hope though).  But my favorite feature is the Discussion Forum, where new idea prompts are posted.  Go visit and look around.

I'll be back tomorrow with a new What I Learned Wednesday post.  See you then!

My vicarious life

Like every good blogger, I love to read other blogs.  I get ideas. I laugh. I cry.  It's a great escape. 

I am especially intrigued when someone has a unique blog idea.  You know, like the Julie girl on Julie and Julia who had the wonderful idea to cook her way through Julia Child's french cookbook and blog about it. That was a unique blog idea.

Most of the time, I feel like my blog is very generic, a dime a dozen.  I would love to come up with a great premise for a blog.  But, alas, until I do, I have to live vicariously through others who have great ideas. 

So you can share in the vicarious living with me, I give you my current 3 favorite unique blogs.

Stuff Christians Like - Jon Acuff is a wonderful Christian writer who knows how to satirize Christianity in a way that isn't sacrilegious but makes me crack up almost every day. He created his blog in response to the blog Stuff White People Like (just for the record, I've never read that blog, so I don't know anything about it).  I look forward to reading his witty posts every day. 

101 Books - Time magazine produced a list of the 100 greatest English-speaking novels since 1923 and Robert Bruce had decided to read through them all...and blog about it.  101 Books is one book-lovers journey.  He not only reviews the books, he looks up everywhere that the book has been - on the big screen, in articles, etc and he gives you little precursor information prior to his reviews.  He also has his own rankings going to see how much he agrees with Time magazine.  I think it's a wonderful idea for a blog if a bit time consuming :).

I heart Organizing - Jen runs a blog all about organizing.  She organizes the spaces in her home (and takes beautiful pictures of it), she organizes her life with a household notebook, and she features other organizers with great ideas.  I have seen and read a lot of DIY blogs for updating your house, but to me, a blog all about organizing is very unique.

So there you have it.  The blogs I look forward to reading every day.  Click on 'em, check 'em out, see if you find them as worthy as I have.

Totally Bummed

I have to admit it.  I'm an huge American Idol fan.

And I was HUGELY disappointed last night. 

My favorite, Pia, was sent home last night and I think that was a horrible mistake.

She is beautiful and she is an awesome singer.  I mean look at her in that dress.  Doesn't she look gorgeous!

I guess I'll try to look on the bright side.  We were big Chris Daughtry fans from Season 5 as well and he came in fourth.  And guess what?  I don't even remember who won that year.  Chris did so well even without winning and the winner didn't do well enough to be worth remembering.

So my hope is for Pia to do well even without winning.  I, for one, will buy her CD.

Now, I have to go figure out who to cheer for now.