p.s. I'm not raising toilets either

Among members of my dad's family, there are some well-known parenting phrases that came from my great grandmother, who had eight children and lived to be 92. It's hard to pick a favorite. When asked how she raised so many children so well, she always replied "With one blind eye and one deaf ear." I love that one because it's basically the only way I've stayed sane since becoming a mom.

The one I've got on my mind this week is "I'm raising children, not furniture." She would say it whenever one of the kids would spill, break, or generally mistreat an object in her home. I love it because it's so true! Whatever angry outburst that I am inclined to have when my kids break something is never worth it compared to the positive and lasting worth of the patience and love I can show them instead.

That's not to say I don't erupt from time to time, like when they combined forces to make the toilet overflow yesterday, just so they could "use the potty fixer thing like Mommy does," and I walked in to find water drowning the floor, the kids, and my humility. La di da, la di da.

I find another use of this phrase--perhaps unintended by Great Grandma--is an internal mantra when I'm pondering whether to play with my kids or clean up. Tonight we voted for playing dominoes at the dining room table instead of doing the dishes. And so, okay, dishes aren't furniture, but the general meaning is the same.

Random assortment of above-the-sink collectibles. Items change weekly but never disappear completely.

The likely reason I've got the phrase on my mind this week is that instead of doing my nightly cleaning and organizing, I've been writing and reading. I have gotten back into the swing of writing every day, even if it's only a paragraph, and I'm immensely enjoying myself. NaBloPoMo (the blogging every day thing) really helps me get the gears turning. Tonight I'm doing more reading than writing, since I am doing my part to vote for The Bloggies. Check it out, but don't say I didn't warn you about the potential for time suckage.

Be well and stay dry,
~J

how to build your blog readership

How I ward off writer's block: Caffeine and sugar. It works!

One of the greatest tips I've learned about writing is that the best way to get over writer's block is to write every day. In that spirit, I'm planning to blog every day in March! I have a few recipes, some ideas that have been bouncing around my mind, and some great guests who are going to join us. I'll start today with a practical post about blogging.

I recently wrote to a friend who is starting to blog for her business with some of my tips for how she can build followers. I realized after finishing the email that I had written a lengthy list of ideas that could also be useful to others.

I seem to have been pretty good at developing a group of followers on my blog (hey you guys!). The Facebook page is another story, but maybe if I do a better job of asking people to like it--I have a hard time doing that--I'll be more successful there. If you're reading this, why not pop over there and say hi or share it with your friends? Thanks!

One of the most important tricks of website traffic is the number of sites that link to you. I find that at first, no one was finding my blog in Google, but now I get followers that way because my search engine hits are so much higher.


Here are a few ways to jumpstart your blog:

1) Join link parties/blog hops. I'm not big on these any more because they are so time-consuming, but I think they are worthwhile when you are just starting to blog. The following link parties (i.e. blog hops) are a few of my favorites:

• Monday: Healthy Home Economist's Monday Mania
• Tuesday: Extraordinary Ordinary's Just Write 
• Wednesday: We are That Family's  Works for Me Wednesday draws lots of natural parenting, real food cooking, doula, homeschooling folks
• Thursday: "Your Green Resource" is run by several blogs, but I follow Sorta Crunchy 
• Friday: Food Renegade's Fight Back Friday 

2) Join a "blog carnival," where you write a post on a specific subject that is listed on a single page with a bunch of other bloggers' articles on that topic. Here's a list of natural parenting carnivals.


3) Guest post on another blog in your topic area. Start with local writers, and stick with writers in your metier. My best writing is always on subjects near to my heart. I'm happy to have you post on mine too, just send me your pitch! One way to get guests is to reciprocate and allow them to post on your blog.


4) Quarterly online magazines and group networks are a GREAT way to get followers. I write for "Rhythm of the Home" and "Natural Parents Network."


If you want ads, you need to establish a blog and have a certain number of pageviews first. The second way both to get traffic and to make money is sponsorships. You can pay to "sponsor" another blog, which means you buy a little square ad in the sidebar. Then you can run some on your blog too. You'll see a few in my sidebar over there >>>>>.

Author's Note: This post is part of LHITS DIY Linky.

highs and lows

Cap'n Obvious reporting for duty to tell y'all, moving is no fun. Next time you think about moving, remember that. The only thing you can expect about moving is that your stuff will be everywhere, and you will forget to do something VERY important and scramble to get it done. That seems to be happening to me every day right now.

I'll recap the day with some highs and lows.

HIGHS...

raison d’être

Charlie on her first morning of "stay and play" school.

October already? We have an action-packed month, including a move, some of my first doula clients, and getting in shape for my reunion row in a month. To give myself an outlet for discussing all that's happening and to hold myself accountable in my desire to exercise every day, I've decided to join up with NaBloPoMo, that thing where you blog every day for a month. I hope you'll read along!

If you know me well, you might know that today's post title happens to be the name of one of my favorite beers. But I'm not writing about beer this time, I'm writing about my discovery in the last two years of what really matters to me. My reason for existence, my everything, my be all to end all.

the finish line

Today is the final day of LoHoRaBloPoMo, my month of daily blogging. What a month this has been, both for the blog and for me! I began sharing my blog for the first time to a wider audience than just close friends and family. Put simply, wow. I am humbled by all the attention the blog has received. A very heartfelt thank you for reading!

Combining the 23-day frugal living challenge with my daily blogging turned out to be a great idea because I had a continual source of inspiration when it didn't come from within. This led to some posts that garnered exponentially higher hits than I'm used to getting. As my aunt said, I may have just found my metier. Here are the top five posts in order of popularity...

you found me how?!

I got the idea to post about the crazy ways people find my blog via Word Nerd Speaks. This is my first installment, aside from the time I laughed about geese and Tim Geithner, of what I imagine will be a more frequent occurrence of the people who find my blog through strange and sometimes hilarious Google searches. The following are some of the #youfoundmehow searches from this month:

do wacka do

"At my age, you think you've seen it all. Then boom! Somethin' else happens." 

-Burt, Raising Hope

Remember how we got rid of cable last week? Yeah, well apparently that doesn't mean we stop watching TV. That 9-10pm hour draws me to the couch like an undertow, and most nights I'm too brain-dead to read my shiny stack of library books. Instead, we've discovered a new show to stream on Netflix, marathon-style: Raising Hope! It took us so long to get on board, despite the literally dozens of friends who told us we should. In case you're also one of those people who can only add so many TV shows to the repertoire at once, let me just say that this one should move up a few notches on your stand-by list.

tending my livestock

"Everybody's coming back to take stock of their lives. You know what I say? Leave your livestock alone." -Minnie Driver, Gross Pointe Blank

What's on your New Year's Day agenda? Are you cleaning? Shopping? Enjoying the outdoors? Taking stock of your life in 2011?