blogging bit and link love

In case anyone wants to know this; I've opened up the comments again, hoping all the spammers have gone away and will leave me alone for a time. I was spending so much time moderating and deleting spam, I've had to take an extended break for a time to deter the bulk of it from appearing there. 

Here's hoping...

And now for something completely random. Allow me to share some linky website loving with y'all;

My sweet friend Barbara has been hosting a 52 week photography link-up which I've been yearning to join and haven't done so to this date. 

Her invitation reads;

52 weeks of daily life in pictures: trials and celebrations, 
the extraordinary and mundane -- 
whatever is unique to the week. 
Join me if you like.

 

Tomorrow, I will catch up so I'm alongside of all the ladies also joining in blogging about my weekly photographic memoirs. 

You've all had me loving your posts so far, thank you!  I might pull off a tail spinner by posting all five weeks into one big photo fest, wouldn't that be wonderfully wild! LOL 

I know I won't be able to load em up at home though, might blow up my medium-slow non-high speed internet system. :) 

** Oh, and while you're checking out the 52 week photo challenge on Barbara's blog, you simple must enjoy reading her series of posts on "laundry". She's done such a great job, writing several posts so far to date, all uploaded for a delightful and helpful read.

Part one can be found HERE, and then you can find the rest by scrolling through her "household" tag HERE. 

Do enjoy all of her helpful tips.

Ten Things I'm Thankful For

It's time once again for another installment of my "Ten Things" to be thankful for, always varied, always random bits in positively NO particular order. Most of these are overdue for posting, but here again, better late than never. :) Please allow me to babble onward then...

December is here! Whoosh, and the end of the year is almost at hand. Another 365 days for gratitude seeking, thanksgiving blessings, and monumental memory making abilities. Another year, and so much to be thankful for. Advent is upon us, and here we are in the midst of Jesse trees, empty manger nativities, and all things winter at the same time. A season to reflect, contemplate, and just be grateful for every itty bitty thing!

And I am grateful for these things the past few weeks;

• - Our oldest expectant daughter's health improvements from having to battle both gestational diabetes and hypoglycemia at the same time. It's been a fine balance and the threat of insulin shots still hovers greatly, however the doctor keeps choosing to delay from improvement the past few weeks. Plus, little missy has at last chosen to turn from breech position to head down. Yep, so thankful! Only a few more weeks lovely daughter, and all these challenges will become a thing of the past.

• - A telephone call to announce an "advanced" class for guitar lessons and one son who has proved a natural talent for picking up the instrument. All the middle aged ladies told me they hoped he would come again as he motivated them to practice and keep up with him. Loved that. So fun.

• - Another vehicle in the family! And this mama is driving less the past few days since our son picked up his new truck, and some "time" freedoms are at hand for both of us. How wonderful to see him with his own wheels at last, and how wonderful to find out the new insurance policy I switched to last year offered him our umbrella of same pricing until he turns 25 years old. Affordable insurance is such a great thing for these young adults in this province, and this guy hit the jackpot when we were determined to seek out the best options for him. I'm a happy mama! See my smile?

• - My decluterring continues and I seem to be stuck in some sort of nesting mode as I toss and file, and stack and dump the mounds of junk in our home. How did we accumulate so much crap? LOL Actually, I am deeply satisfied to perform such actions in our home office, the one where my hubby will work much during the winter cold season and snowy depths of dangerous roadways. Nothing was left untouched, the desktop emptied and a work station formed. I framed all of my husband's certificates, and they are currently decorating the space to create something very inviting for achieving much on a work day.

• - I've been smitten with the way our children are picking up a second language with their french lesson classes each week. Today we venture off for yet another session, this time the days of the week will be reviewed, and together our conversational chatting will fill the vehicle on our way home. Bonjour!

• - It's been so heartwarming to get daily telephone calls from the least expected little one. Our (almost three year old) granddaughter has discovered the telephone! She's quite a chatter box, calling to talk to her "Nana" (me), and even knows how to leave a message if no one is here. I've saved a few of those to listen to over again, so precious! One of them was of her sweet little voice saying; "I love you Nana, I called to say goodnight". How can anyone not melt over that? Ever cute! Makes my day!
  

Without further ado, let me present my "Ten Thankful Things", just sparks of thankfulness appearing in my days this past week.

Please know for certain that my own personal thoughts on true thankfulness can obviously never be offered, nor delivered in true completeness within one simple post. And in case you just might find it interesting and want even more today, you can always skip along to view other "thankful" posts by clicking onto the archives located - right HERE.




1 - I'm thankful for "sugar dustings" when winter comes to play.

Actually I'd be even more thankful if this current rain went away and the land was fully blanketed and sprinkled with deeper dustings. It sure feels like winter is late this year! Bring it on!


- 2 - I'm thankful for love letters from our grandchildren. The note above was written by our grandson, a complete surprise one day in the mail.

It fast becomes heart rendering to see the love action of these wee ones when we are the recipients of their artistry and thoughtfulness. But then again, we aren't the only ones so that makes it double-fun when their young aunt and uncles get their own mail too.


The note above was a letter by the same grandson to his thirteen year old uncle, a little penmanship practice along with his soccer update. So cute!


- 3 - I'm thankful for this marvelous invention, and though not a current one, we are reaping many rewards already from having them in our home for only a short time! And when there was quite an alarming "Amber alert" (that ended happily with two little boys ages 5 & 10, lost overnight and found three miles away in a corn field) in our general area two weeks ago, I'm especially pleased with this purchase.


One remains in our home, and one each for the younger two when out visiting or riding bikes with neighborhood children. Shhhh, don't tell them, but they think these are much cooler than cell phones with instant access to their parents for their requests when out and about. They even work at the barn, so perfect and no worries about cell phone lags on texts and telephone calling as the norm is here.

When the trees are filled with leaves, it's difficult to see where they are even if only on our street riding their bikes. Now we have this great communication device, good for ten miles (though we won't be needing that range just yet) and a bit of comfort when needing to summon them home.

Rather than having to resort to using my hefty-ranged hockey-mama (great) whistling skills to get their attention, all it takes is one click of a button to ring them up. And they are also able to ring one another up while out and about, meeting up with their friends for longer bike rides together as one big bunch. Motorola, where have you been all my life! Costco apparently...


- 4 - I'm thankful for a little smirky sweet revenge after my hubby had reminded me (over and over again in this past spring) that there were three boxes downstairs yet unpacked. As they were stacked one on top of the other, I had assumed they were school curricula all along, deciding it was stuff I didn't use anyway, leaving the content in the boxes without anywhere to place them.

One day before summer I braved the monsters and began to slice open the packing tape on those unmarked boxes (don't you just love those unmarked boxes!) and much to my first dreaded but fast turned delighted surprise -nothing was mine! I laughed to myself in utter excitement when I felt that horrible task-dread roll right over my shoulders, also knowing this lousy detail was no longer my problem. It was all my hubby's work books from his former office HE never unpacked! Ha, loved this surprising discovery to bits!

At long last this past week, these boxes were finally taken to task (my oh my he procrastinates doesn't he? LOL) and had to be dealt with because they had been moved last summer, ending up in our little office closet, taking up way too much space. Finally, to my thrilling semi-revengeful silly pleasure, I sat near with a big wide grin on my face, slowing kicking one box at a time in front of my hubby as he sat perched and ready to tackle his own dreaded task. It was like Christmas watching him go through it all. Great discoveries abounded, many treasures were packed up again to take to his office here, and others set about our own office. Finally, combined with other file cabinet paper pile decluttering, not only were these three moving boxes filled with books and papers reviewed, two full boxes of accumulated stacks went to the curbside for recycling!

It felt marvelous not only to beat my best weekly goal of filling up the recycling bins (blue and gray), we filled them both and added a stacked set of jam packed moving boxes filled with paper goods for recycling disposal. I can't even begin to tell you what a feat it felt like to see those boxes at the roadside! And best part? It wasn't even my own junk....snicker.


- 5 - I'm thankful for shuffling picture frames again, this time the white 8x10 inch ones in our younger daughter's bedroom.

As per my yearly usual, the bedrooms were completely ransacked and organized again, and these five empty white dollar store (GREAT DEAL) frames were filled with (what else?) horse photo pages from her favorite horse magazines. Now she has a few favorite photos lined up and hung over her dressers. And one big smile appears when she gazes and dreams about owning her own horse someday.


- 6 - I'm thankful for map making cheating once in a while. I've always encouraged our children to draw maps, familiarizing themselves with the study of lands, including; continents, countries, assorted worldwide destinations, rivers, oceans and globe particulars.

Thick in our study of Canada, this time geography, they are allowed one cheat map to get the overall picture of a country, the first practice if you will, and then it's free hand all the way from then on. One province at a time, one territory at a time, this is our country, the land that we love. Oh Canada!


- 7 - I'm thankful for last week in general! My husband had a vacation week from work, and together we accomplished many assorted tasks and goals with a twist. We decided on purpose to take the bulk of our days to enjoy "quality time" together any way possible, at our leisure, and in our own timing. Dinner came when we cooked it, coffee shop visits occurred if the mood struck, we attended the local art studio tour, sat by the fire for as long as we desired, rolled with the flow of driving kids around, and just plain ole lapped up every minute of "quality" everything!

You see most times when my hubby has time off, he rolls into recovery mode from respiratory health induced fatigue, or he battles a lung infection yet again and needs the time off to do so. Last year at this time he had already battled two of them by now, so we are thrilled there have been none yet to date this fall/winter.

Although there were times of catching up on sleep with a midday nap, it was like having a vacation at home, when we were offline for the bulk of it just because. Actually I shouldn't say that. I spent oodles of time editing slurped up blog posts to publish more blog books for our family library. That task is so time consuming to me, my own fault with the growing number of posts I publish here. To date I'm just under 1500 in total, so I have to get rolling to catch up on publishing them all into more books.

I need to publish two books per year to assemble and contain all I've written, but most of all to accent or blow up my favorite photos as well. The last one was a monster with 386 pages (single sided so divide in two) and 786 photos! I use BLURB to slurp up my blog into print, time consuming for my personal taste but half the price compared to Blog2print. Just a personal choice for me tis all.

With internet issues at home (SLOW!) I had to head up to Starbucks for high speed usage for uploading my book to the website for safe keeping, but sadly only to find the coffee shop's server down. I ended up at a little library ten minutes away with my hubby and children in tow. Turned out to be a lovely calming time for all to relax, read and enjoy all available to them by way of newspapers, magazines and books. We even took home a few "quality movies" to watch. I love libraries! Don't you?


- 8 - I'm thankful for this delectable yummy indulgence not available in Canada, or at least very much NOT the same if there is one.

Yes, the folks in the USA have this little luxurious coconutty treat readily available for all those passing by confectionery stands, the occasional item I grab and savor for a very long time with a coffee or two. Okay, okay, so it's like being able to buy any type of bubble gum without added poisonous (!) aspartame included in the ingredients list, with the only exception of "hubba bubba" or something from the health food store. Only in the USA will I be able to stock up on my favorite chewies. Okay, so I'm weird like that....laughing.


- 9 - I'm thankful for times when the dinosaur computer age meets the modern age, like in the photo above!

The younger ones wanted the Compaq 3.1 all in one (circa 1991) computer in the kitchen for some math review games (Mathblaster, Algeblaster and others) for their free time. Complete with our "Holy Heroes" mouse pad, and perched next to the laptop where this daughter is completing a research assignment, I had to chuckle at the thought of this beloved and ancient technical piece of equipment in our home because ALL have forbidden me to get rid of it. Come on guys, I'm on a permanent quest to get rid of all our JUNK around here. Can't I even begin to appease you on this? Apparently not.

Even with its antiquated graphics, they tell me there's nothing quite like a great game of "A-train", "Sim City", "NHL 1992", "Dangerous Dave" and other age old games. What's a mother to do? Nothing. It stays because the family vote says hands off. So there it is, a novelty to all those with computer skills for none of them know quite what to do with it, how it works (we use the program "Kiddesk" as entry), unusual technology way before their time. Hilarious so far to see the faces on kids who enter our home and wonder "what that thing is" sitting on the desk in the kitchen! :)


- 10 - I'm thankful for healthy snacks provided by the younger children, the spontaneous ones when they know a snack must consist of something healthy around here. Current love for munching on is apples and peanut butter! Oh yum!


Bonus photo of the day;

The Canadians were HERE at the CLE Browns versus NE Patriots NFL football game. Freezing cold temperatures and threatening snow forecasts almost ruined the day for attending this "outdoor" stadium game, but all was just a fabulous experience for this mama who needed a "football for dummies" tutoring from son before attending with my sister.

More to come...

Meanwhile, what are your own "grateful things" this past while? Jot them down, keep rereading them for that is when you will definitely know - You are indeed so very blessed!

Have a great day!
Renee

apologies for the flood of draft posts - now published...

Apologies to the email subscribers of this blog, for I have been in a publishing frenzy, shooting out most of the "old" blog drafts still sitting and awaiting final send offs. I think I counted upwards to fifteen of them so far.

To those who read the blog through a reader, they shouldn't be appearing as they are back dated and would fall into time line position rather than on the reader, or even on the main blog itself online, therefore this doesn't apply to you. (Whew!)

It has been my aim to accomplish this wee feat, and my sincere hope is that you haven't been overwhelmingly inundated with so many posts appearing in your email box.

So sorry for this (blushing) and just a little bit of a warning that there are only a few more to complete to get the "draft" section emptied again.

Thank you for your understanding.

Blessings; Renee

Little details....

Just a little housekeeping note for those who might wonder what has happened on this blog today...

I've been posting, post dating a few posts today to publish in a few days. Accidentally my fingers did the walking and the enter button was somehow pressed prematurely.

If you've received these errors in your readers, I apologize in advance for them. :)

Oh keyboard! Oh keyboard! Watch me walk thy ways.... snickering.

Thanks for your understanding and hoping it won't happen again;
Renee

Oopsies!!!

I've been blogging, several posts in fact, the ones which are supposed to be postdated for a bit, but as I seem to be "all thumbs" here today, and once yesterday, you might see posts that just aren't edited and ready for publication yet.

For these, the ones that might appear prematurely in your RSS feeds and/or in your email box, I stand red-faced and apologize.

I guess life is like that... silly things happening when you don't want them to. gulp... Better yet, don't even read them okay? :)

~ Renee

A little spring cleaning

Over the next few days this blog, I'll be shuffling things about on the sidebars, changing the winter scenery and text to this seasonal change of spring currently upon us.

Please be patient as it may appear different every day until all is settled.

Also, a few other changes to note;

• If you subscribe to my blog via an email subscription; it has come to my attention many of my "draft" posts were slipping out to your inboxes, showing up unedited for the most part, and for that I apologize with glowing and red blushing cheeks! Needless to say - I've removed the "Email subscription" box on the right side bar for now.

• I'll be adding page tabs at the top of the blog, under the blog header soon, and they will remain under construction as I continue to shuffle things about before complete.

• Lastly, if you have any suggestions or ideas to send my way on how I can improve my blog, please feel free to email me anytime. I would love to hear from you! :)

Please be patient with me as I continue plugging along with all the changes here. I've been visited by a not-so-fun sinus infection the past week, one that rendered me fairly under the weather. It's been ages since I felt something like this, but happily I'm now on the mend.

If you've emailed to me during this time, I apologize and will be up and running again over the next few days.

For today, I'll leave you with this lovely poem by Robert Frost...

A Prayer in Spring


Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill.

Have a glorious day everyone!

Blessings;
Renee

Housekeeping note...

I figured out how to turn off comments on just one post (duh), so now have the comment section turned back on, just an FYI for whoever might find it useful. Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Blessings;
Renee

Just a wee note...

Overdue posts are going to be continuous for the next few weeks.

I am being made to feel quite guilty by a few family members here for not posting things of importance to them, even as far back as our trip to Montreal, and other assorted events within our family's memory banks.

My Christmas posts are not coming because I've realized I haven't the photos yet to accompany much of them, but they will.

As I publish my blog into family treasured keepsake books, this is my own labor of love while attending to the duty of family historian during our overall journey to the east.

If you are an email subscriber or read my posts via RSS feeds, you might reckon I've lost my mind as perhaps many posts begin to come your way for a bit. Thanks in advance for your patience with me. *blush*

If you hop over here from the blog URL, not so much as I will back date some of them to fit into the chronological order for when they actually occurred.

Have a great day everyone!

Blessings;
Renee

New Year Wordle

I found the challenge of making my very own "Wordle" interesting, and the prospect of creating a word list to enter into the cloud of words was simple and easy for me. There are several options to create a "wordle". You can type out all of your own word preferences, one at a time, enter a blog address or RSS feed addy, or any other address.

For my wordle, I typed up a variety of words used on my blog frequently. In only a few moments, my word cloud appeared! What fun!

The only glitch I found was the wordle wasn't able to be saved or downloaded into my own computer hard drive, so I did the next best thing; saved it to the wordle public gallery, bookmarked the page to return to for printing and I snapped a photo to load here for a show and tell.

For best viewing, you can click onto my personalized wordle HTML below and it will take you to the website. From there you can create your very own and I would love to see yours so be sure to let me know when you've completed and posted.

If you happen to find a way to save and upload easier, I'm all ears!

Construction zone

So sorry folks, this blog's sidebars has been under construction all day today as I've been attempting to update everything since our move six months ago.

Hopefully just a few more hours and it will all be completed and I'll be back with my many posts also in progress to catch up with y'all out in blogland.

For all of our google or feedburner subscribers; if it's been some time since you came to call in person, I invite you to come and check out our blog since all of the updates and from the all round facelift from some time ago. I'll be changing photos and juggling things around seasonally, so don't be shy. Drop me a note and tell me what you think.

Hugs!
Renee

Feedburner & Google Reader

Recently I was alerted to the fact my Feedburner transfer from the Feedburner site to my Google account changed everything and people who regularly followed my blog had nothing but silence from any new posts here. I am so sorry to you all and want to assure you all is well, fixed, and ready to go if you wish to resubscribe, or follow me again. :-)

I've attempted to update several options if you are one of those who feel inclined to continue following our adventures here "in the east". First, you can subscribe to the Feedburner email system using two options; through an account you create with the site itself using the widget on the left sidebar here, an account which you sign in and check on when able. Secondly, if you prefer something more simple you can subscribe to having individual posts appear when posted right into your inbox instead. There is a live link above the first option widget mentioned above. Both options are below.

Lastly, I've just loaded a new widget if you prefer to "Follow" this blog using your Google reader account. Simple to use with a click of a button, you'll also find that option on the left sidebar near to the other Feedburner email ability options.

Thank you so much for all the kind private emails, comments and sweetness recently. All of your comments are treasures in our day, and uplifting to us.

God Bless;
Renee

Revamping in progress

Just a heads-up...

I will be revamping my blog to get it back to some sort of normalcy.

As my readers may recall, not long ago I was having a tough moment one day, somehow my fingers did the walking and "poof", my entire template had disappeared along with the entire formatting of the blog's sidebars.

I attempted in vain to reload the same three column template back up again and after groaning for several days, thought it could become an opportunity to create a new and fresh look using a different template. Perhaps some may like the new Lighthouse "harbor" look, my current template, but if I can be so bold and share with all of you just one thing, I have to admit I absolutely loathe it! Granted I love being near the water, this template has become a negative for me as it does not allow my eyes to track my blog posts properly when viewing my new posts in the preview pane. I find it hard to read the template's blue writing which tends to roll across my screen and blend into the right sidebars. Nope, I just don't find it aesthetically pleasing, or easy to read at all.

I've finally relocated the proper 3 column original template from my former format which features the same classic colors of navy and dark green. Also located is a great tutorial to assist me in reformatting it all using HTML computer language. So, as a warning - over the next few days, the look of my blog will change dramatically.

All of my sidebar information; photos, quotes, widgets and links will vanish and I will have to begin anew.....again. Like anyone else, I do not have an abundance of time to devote to this project so it may be slow, or it may be quicker to fruition than expected. Please be patient with me. I promise you a better, easier and faster reading ability very shortly. Let me know what you think when it's complete.

Meanwhile if anyone knows how NOT to lose all the widgets in the process of changing the blogger template, I'm all ears. And, if anyone knows how to produce and format a properly sized new header, I need a few pointers to personalize mine to our new location here.

Thank you so much in advance. Oh, and before your head hits your pillow tonight, please go and hug your loved ones, asleep or not. You'll never regret it!

Twittering

Last November I was able to take a moment and fly over to join the rest of the soaring populace by signing up on Twitter.

I didn't do too much with it until recently, okay so very recently really when I realized I wasn't twittering and taking advantage of all the quick notes and fun it offered for me.

After playing around today to get my "Facebook" all updated and just loving (!) all of the family/friend catching up easily done at my fingertips, I'm ready to tweet, twitter, and fly some more.

Got Facebook? Got Twitter? Why not come along, join the fun and fly with me then? I added the Twitter widget under my photo challenges so you are able to "follow me" there, hope it works.

Have a great day everyone.

God Bless;
Renee

Comments and more comments

Comments and more comments...

Just a quick note to mention I have turned off the comment section on the blog, the one that appears under each writing. This action is surely not for the purpose of deterring your continued wonderful comments from blogger land and beyond, rather the bulk of notes we receive are via private emails using the email link located on the blog itself and it's just a thought to simplify for a time by eliminating two ways to communicate with us down to one.

Oh, for sure, oh please - We would still love hearing from you anytime and warmly invite you to keep your comments, notes or letters coming - oh yes, please do!

You'll find the email link on the upper left of the blog and again on the lower right on the side bars. Simply click onto the link and type away. We'll be here waiting.

This note wouldn't be complete without yet again thanking you so much for all your continued kind words, prayers, advice and well wishes.

God Bless!

Renee

Mosaic Meme

Fancy this fun today!

A photo mosaic meme for me to try.

GREAT FUN!

(Feel free to click the mosaic to see it larger)

This was so fun and I learned something new today, just when I was feeling a bit low and needed a boost. I first saw the results of this blog meme on Alison's blog, (thank you for the fun) who led her readers to Jessica's blog, and then I saw Matilda's mosaic. All are so beautiful, colorful and most interesting to boot!

So here's how you do this...

There are twelve questions to answer, thus twelve squares on the mosaic above. Here they are;

Questions;

1. What is your first name? Renee
2. Favorite food? Sushi, (Mexican a close second)
3. Where did you go to high school? Local to my teenage home
   
4. Favorite color? Blue/Greens
5. Celebrity crush? Hmmm...how about Pierce Brosnan.
6. Favorite drink? Love my latte, though I like a glass of "Italy's Santa Margarita Pinot Grigio" upon occasion and I loved this photo.
7. Dream vacation? After my hubby has his surgery, we want to visit the Mediterranean - Italy, Greece, etc. Just give us all of it, we'd live there for awhile to explore everything! So old world charming, and fabulous history, can't go wrong visiting there.
8. Favorite dessert? Fresh from the oven chocolate chip cookies
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? Just little ole me doing whatever God wants me to do, to know/love and serve...
10. What do you love most in life? My big beautiful Family
11. One word to describe you? Overflowing (with God's blessings in abundance)
12. Hobby? Taking photos, scrapbooking, all the same to me...memories to store forever.

YOUR invitation to join the fun!

Go ahead, have fun with this like I did today! Get on the bandwagon, come along and ride with us... Denise and Justine, I'm sure you'll love to get in on the fun, right?

So then, here's what you do with this. 1) Head over the Flicker and using the search box, type in the answers to the questions above, one at a time. 2) A page of photos will appear, and you are to choose your favorite from only the first page offered. 3) Copy and paste the URL into FDs mosaic maker at be sure to select your mosaic configuration first, three rows by four. 4) Save your image to your hard drive and then upload and post to your blog. 5) Copy the HTML code for flickr photo credits and paste them at the bottom of your post.

Share, share, share...because there are likely going to be no two alike!

....................................................................................................

My mosaic's photo credits....

1. Renee's Salon of Beauty Sign, 2. Tokyo Sushi - Spicy Tuna and Salmon, 3. Time..., 4. Mallorca 2007 -- Waiting for summer (Part 2), 5. brosnan, 6. Acquarello, 7. Montee du Souvenir, 8. 14th August 2007 / Day 226, 9. For the love of God, 10. Day 27/365: Two years, 11. come, thou fount of every blessing, 12. 8 days a week

The incredible benefits of using "Google Reader".

Google Reader
...the best time saving tool around!

Have you a registered with "Google Reader" yet to reap many benefit for saving time? If not, why not? I cannot stress enough what a difference it has made for me to use the tutorial from Youtube (below) to get hooked up with this service, and connect with all my favorite blogs and news readers in one spot.

Do you have a zillion special blogs you like to peruse, all taking up space in your "Favorites", or "Bookmarks"? Would you like to eliminate them all and still have them handy? Would you like to sign in once and view all your favorites in one place? Let me show you the way to an easier way...

Oh, and I can already see the smile on your face since you read this!

It's a blogging party!

Welcome to the blogging party, I’m happy to be celebrating this year’s event with you!

If you aren’t familiar with the blogging party merriment, you’re in good company because neither am I! We can enjoy this grand occasion together, exploring a reason to celebrate mommy bloggers all over, blowing into our party whistles (though I have a GREAT whistle all my own, my claim to fame during my boys’ hockey games when they score!) and making new friends. Let’s rummage through the dress up chest and grab a few fun and unique party hats, crank up the music with toe tapping melodies, and just thoroughly enjoy the festivities. How exciting is this, prizes and all? Yippee!

Thumb's Up! Let's party!

I was sent an invitation to play this year and there is nothing like another fun occasion to celebrate, something I frequently write about myself here. It’s an incredible thing you know, being able to find celebrations whenever possible, my very motto for healthy living, happy hearts, and creating terrific memories for our progeny to remember us by.

Always a celebration...we're ready for the party.

For those of you who don’t know me quite yet, my name is Renee and here’s a pretty good summary of what is dear to my heart;

I am a simple believer that life is all about choices, and the direct results of our thoughts and actions, are the foundations for what type of person we eventually become. Life may not be all a bed of roses all of the time, but I believe, we have the choice to make it all we want it to be, and more.

Family Memories are made of these...

I believe there are continual forks in the road, seemingly falling upon us out of nowhere, most often piercing the ground before us, along our paths in this thing we call life, where both happiness and agony can prevail, often alongside one another at the very same time. I have, and continue to experience the bittersweet, and the need for a continual reminder to foster a love for what is true, what is worthy, what is lovely, and what is right! believe hard work and sweat are both necessary!

Life to me is not all about fluffy, self-centered, frivolous, superficial, self-serving, and super shallow attempts at feeling an odd type of joy. I personally strive for the deep scuba thrills though admittedly often result in hard work, maybe sending me to my knees often, and offering up tough sacrifices to make it all happen, but the reward is great and unforgettable memories linger on after the fact.

Finding my party clothes in Hawaii.

To me, people matter, not things! I believe where there are people in our midst who sincerely matter to us, and whom we love and cherish dearly, relationships are clearly a constant tweaking process with so many fruits for the reaping, a definite and tough work of art in need of constant direction to keep the growth patterns both nurtured, never taken for granted, and yet always celebrated.

Thumbs Up ... whiter teeth for the party!

I am a person all about Faith, Family, and Friends! Within our large family, there have always been so many opportunities to serve, sacrifice, give, love, pray, hope, dream, teach, believe, share, cry, bond, pray some more, agonize, love some more, pray even more, and cherish the treasures we'd hate to miss if guilty of ever (!) overlooking, or momentarily forgetting how important these three prioritized things really are in life!

Winding up for the blogging party.

I am so immensely blessed and gifted with the most incredible husband, my teenage heart throb whom my heart still skips a beat for, even after thirty PLUS years! I am the mother of the best and most amazing eight children (and four of them added spouses into the fold to make it even richer). And then, as if that’s not enough, many more blessings continue (how can I be so lucky!!!) with the circle of life continuing with seven of the most fantastic grandchildren.

Some of the children are ready..

I would give my everything... for any one of them in a blink of an eye, at any time, and will always stand up to the plate no matter what, for they are all far too precious in my heart to ever deny them that! My motherhood investment has grown far beyond riches to me!

Hooray, blow out the candles!

I am a woman with a huge family outside of my own; those including both sets of our parents, our siblings and extended family with all the nieces and nephews (and their families), who just continue to enrich what we already have; blood we hope remains “thicker” than any drop, or sprinkle of water!

Ola! Fiesta for us!

I am also a woman lucky enough to have kept lifelong friendships alive and well, new friendships buzzing, and feel it important to also keep in touch with them when able. They fill my life with so much, and aren’t afraid to advise me or chastise me when I really need it! How great is that?

I am so incredibly thankful for everything little thing in my life!

After the festivities, letting our hair hang down.

What great party fun! Hope you enjoyed it too! Be sure to visit other mommas at the party by clicking the banner headlines at the top and finding their blog links there.

Announcing new things here!

Of Interest..

There has been minor changes on my blog, sweet little HTML computer page devices I found particularly touching to place within my personal space here.

If you've not been to the very end of this page in some time, why not press your "end" button when the page has fully loaded to observe what's new these days.

First of all I've placed several long counters with photos of the people who are counting down the days (and sleeps) to something very special in their lives. These are the people we are praying for amongst many others of course. It's been fun to watch the countdown in progress, the daily reminders of celebrations and blessings to come in the near future.

Secondly, you may or may not have your speakers turned on and noticed I've added music selections here. I've placed four of our favorites these days, ones to lift ANY weary soul, offering kind thoughts to those who are remaining in the west and our friends all over the world in general.

Yes.....for sure....

• You'll be in our hearts!
• Find your wings!
  
• Friends are friends forever!
• I can only imagine...

To you all, sending lots of love to you through the countdowns and, of course, the music.

HUGS!
Renee

Blog Label Categories

Of Interest...

At long last, I have reached the end of the editing task to place each of the 524 writing posts, held within my blog, labeling the contents so each individual writing can be accessed directly via the right side bar's category labels.

Therefore, with the beat of a drum roll playing in the background, I wish to extend an invitation to browse previous posts by category, should you wish to. Also, if there was a post in the past you were looking to find again, consider searching here for a quicker perusal.

Whew! What a job, but on the bright side, it’s all DONE now!

Mia Culpa!

OOPS!

With such a busy, busy time in our days this past week, my flying fingers aren't doing justice to my writings posted on this blog, and spellcheck just isn't figuring out what I mean to type either. Please excuse the typos and odd sentence structures when present and if you might wish to "kindly" give heads-up to me, I'll zoom over to correct anything weird.

I was just notified about one such blooper, and laughed all the way back to my last post to correct it. It was quite funny to find I wrote about my youngest daughter - married! Sheesh!