A new bloggy look

For ages now I've wanted to change up my blog header a bit to reflect the season and update the pictures of my growing-faster-than-weeds offspring. 

And tonight I finally did just that.  Ahh.  It was so refreshing to ignore the household duties and to waste an hour dinking around with colors, fonts, and photos. 

With the able assistance of picasa and this stellar tutorial by Clover Lane I created the header above. 

What do you think?  Do you like it? 

Next up: serious blog layout changes.  Stay tuned!

Rethinking my blog

Again, I'm delinquent in my blog posting.  This time it's been almost a MONTH since my last post. 

Yikes.

It's not like I don't have fodder for posting; I always seem to have 5+ ideas running around in my frazzled brain.  What I lack lately is time and hutzpah (how DO you spell that word?).  Can't some genius out there invent something to read my thoughts while I'm in the shower and transmit them automatically into blog posts?  Is there an app for that?

Which leads me to a crossroads regarding this here blogspace of mine.  I know I've lost readership in the last months.  I'm guessing that's because 1) I haven't blogged consistently and 2) the purpose of blogs is changing.

I've been pondering the latter quite a bit lately.  When I consider the blogs that I read regularly very few of them are personal individually-authored blogs.  I read blogs on couponing, cooking, homeschooling, Biblical living, crafting, and geekdom.  Yes, I said geekdom (check out geekmom for all things geeky). 

Facebook seems to have become the new mecca for personal ramblings and photo posting.  I admit that I've been lured and have succumbed.  I love the ease and super quickness of posting in FB.  The notes feature still allows for journal-type reflection posts and I can share photos easily with my long-distance family.

The biggest drawback of Facebook that I can see is that the access is so universal.  Even though I have all my privacy settings in FB to "Friends Only" my friend count is an unwieldy 368.  Those 368 FB friends range from high school acquaintances, old friends of my husband's that I've never met, extended family, former students, college buddies and local friends.   Do I want those 368 folks to see all my photos and thoughts?  In posting to my blog, visitors have to know the actual url address to find me.  Or I suppose they could do a google search for my blog.  Or they could see the links to the notes I've imported into Facebook.  Huh.  So, I guess the blog does have the same access level for someone who really wanted to find it.  Confused yet? 

All that to say, I'm thinking of axing my blog.  Bloggers out there, are you killing your blog presence in lieu of FB?  What pros/cons do you see to both venues?

Looking for a good foodie blog

I have pared down the blogs in my reading list significantly.  I kept finding myself clicking the "mark all as read" button without even glancing at the myriad of posts that accumulated in my google reader pane. So I drastically slashed the number of blogs I subscribe to.

Now that I'm down to a manageable list of blogs to read I have NO food blogs listed.  None! And I am in desperate need of some culinary inspiration.  I've been in a serious dinner-cooking rut lately and I need help.  Dinner in the Horn household is becoming a rather boring affair.

I'm hoping to find a blog that's healthy-ish, inspirational and family friendly.

What foodie blogs do you read and would recommend?

Back to life, back to blogging

Hello, again!

It was incredibly refreshing and expedient to step away from the computer for the last two weeks.  Ah.  The hiatus from blogging and active face-booking (is that even a word?) was lovely and needed so I could fully enjoy the family we had with us during the Christmas break.

We have had a glorious and overwhelmingly blessed Christmas season!  I'm sure I'll blog about the highlights soon but until then, it feels good to see the holiday hubbub fading away.  This week we'll be back to familiar routines and quiet boring days.

As quiet and boring as life with three small children can be that is.  :)

MY BLOG IS MOVING

Today I'm changing my blog's url.  I don't want to lose you so PLEASE make note of the new address and update your readers.

http://www.hornfamilychronicles.blogspot.com

See you at the new space!

Paring down the ole blog reader

Lately I've been paring down my blog feeds and eliminating mercilessly. There is NOT enough time in my day to read blog posts that aren't interesting or applicable to me.

I'm not talking about personal blog posts here -- your stuff is always interesting. :)

I mean the informative and entertaining blog reading I do on a daily basis. Scratch that. Lately it's become the blog skimming I do on a daily basis. It takes a LOT of sparkling crafty glitter or an incredibly intriguing title to get me to click forward and read an entire post from my listing these days. Usually I scan quickly and click the delightfully efficient "mark all as read" button. I love that button. Feels like I'm actually accomplishing something important when I press it.

What's crazy is that I don't even have many blogs in my feed. I only follow a handful of blogs related to bargaining, crafting, cooking and reading. It's simply astounding how quickly a few blogs can pile up posts if I don't keep it in check. That's the mathematical principle of exponential growth at work I suppose!

On the reader chopping block are the following:

• Pioneer Woman. At first I really enjoyed PW's sarcasm. But after following her blog awhile, the writing is borderline caustic and the sarcasm is predictable. She still makes me snicker but I don't have enough interest in following her family farm life to continue. And I never win her word nerd contests even though my hubby helps me and he is certifiably THE biggest word nerd in the world. The contests must be rigged.
  
• Burda Style. Great blog but I must admit the sewing technique is WAY beyond me. I have a hard enough time just getting my mending done much less fashioning fall pleated jackets.
  

A few blogs are still proving themselves to me. On deck for chopping are:

• Geek Mom. Two in every 10 posts are super fresh and unique. The other 8 tend to involve star wars or electronics. The few posts I read really resonate with me though. The image above is from their site -- right on!
  
• Baby Cheapskate. I hate to chop this one since it was the first bargaining site I ever followed. It mostly keeps tabs on retail and since I don't really shop retail it's not very practical. Keeping it on the list for now since online Christmas shopping and Black Friday are sneaking up on me.
• Simple Mom. Not much originality here but once in a while a bright spot. I did very much enjoy her recent post on relaxation.
• Holy Experience. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Ann Voskamp's poetry and her cherish-everything-as-from-God views. Her accompanying photography is breathtaking. But I must say I'm not often in the best mood for soaking up Ann's deep thoughts and imagery. Keeping it for now because I hate to heartlessly axe such beauty.
  
• Stuff Christians Like. The author, John Acuff, is HILARIOUS. Witty and observant and not afraid to make fun of Christian churchy topics. Slightly frivolous though.
  

And since I've eliminated a few reads that makes room to add some new blogs!

• Rabbit Room. I recently discovered this collaborative blog of Christian musicians, writers and artists. The site is named for the legendary pub back-room where C.S. Lewis and his cronies, the Inklings, shared ideas and talked God. The naming itself was enough to win me over! I've been thoroughly enjoying their posts on imagination, story-telling and the gospel fleshed out in family life. My only beef is that the posts are rather lengthy at times.
  
• Shaun Groves. A rich song-writer and musician, Shaun also has a natural flair for writing humorously and finding depth in every day family experiences. Good stuff.
  

So, you know I'm going to ask . . . what are YOUR essential blog reads? Which blogs will never meet the chopping axe in your reader?

Spicing things up

I'm finally getting around to spicing up my plain jane blog!

Spicing up like with a teaspoon of cinnamon, not a cup of cayenne pepper. Nothing major, just a tad more color, a new header and a more professional looking layout.

I've often thought about redesigning the ole blog but never got around to it. I know scads of you use free templates but I knew I couldn't follow suit (they look great on your blogs though). Knowing my fickle tastes I'd certainly loathe looking at any busy pattern in a matter of days. Or maybe minutes. (And I despise how those templates move when you scroll down the page of a blog. Am I the only one who's noticed that? Maybe it's the amateur-web-designer in me that cringes at that. In my mind only text should move when you scroll down, not backgrounds.)

Man, blogger has seriously improved its design tools in the past few years. Besides the new templates, they have plugged in html editors almost everywhere! I vividly remember 4 years ago when I spent hours of Chloe's naptime creating a header image and then laboriously toiling in the html to get it just right. And then there was the agony of realizing that the header STILL didn't work even after all my labor. Ugh.

This recent blog revamp was quick, smooth, and painless! Thanks to a few super easy tools that is.

• Jing. I realize I say I LOVE a lot. But I really truly LOVE this screen capture program. It's free and incredibly easy to use. And the quality of screen capture images is perfecto. Jing enabled me to skip the tricky step of saving my header as a picture (formatting, size and resolution often alter when I do this). Instead I just clicked on my magic yellow Jing ball, dragged the cross-hairs across my header and grabbed a copy of it. Jing has also made uploading medical images for my online job MUCH easier.
• Picnik. I think I'm the last person in the world to discover the fun-ness of Picnik. This online photo editing site has a lovely simple interface making it un-intimidating and easy to navigate. And it's loads of fun to apply their photo effects. Besides the usual color changing tools there are myriads of other toys to play with which make pictures fuzzy, bright, pixellated, and much more. I've only just begun exploring this whimsical site.
  
• New font. For the first time ever I downloaded and installed a new font. Woo-hoo! I don't remember on where I found the font for my new header but google "free fonts" and you'll soon see there are a plethora of downloadable fonts out there. Just be sure to read the fine print so you don't owe the font creator any royalties. This site made for good font browsing and boasts of 8,000 free ones.

So, what d'ya think of the new look? And how do you update your bloggy look?

The Allure of Facebook

Boy, I have completely neglected this blog as of late. There are many valid reasons for my delinquency but I find the most pressing one is Facebook.

Facebook is so easy, immediate, and rewarding that I'm finding it harder and harder to come back to my first love, blogging.

How do you all keep blogging and Facebook separate? Or have you abandoned your blogs whole-hog in preference of Facebook?

We are still alive and kicking

Seems like every time I write a new blog post I begin by apologizing for my blogging delinquency. Arggh! I just can not figure out how to juggle my responsibilities well enough to make my blog-writing consistent. Any one have any suggestions?

November has flown by like a supersonic jet. We've had family here to visit and the calendar is full of activities, preschool co-op, birthday parties, and Bible study.

Clive is on the brink of his 11 month milestone. He's fearless. Who ever heard of a baby who climbed before he could walk?

Chloe is a pretending queen lately. Every game of note includes imagining somehow. Her latest fancy is to be a wonder pet and to rescue animals in distress. Playing school, princess, and train are standards too.

Now I can sleep in peace that I've put to rest that nagging you-should-update-the-blog feeling. :)

[If you'd like to see pictures of our busy fall activities, check out my recent facebook photo album.]

What have you been up to this fall?

Blogging slump

In a desperate attempt to get some online work done I plopped my very mobile Clive into his walker and focused on my computer tasks. And this picture shows you my view of the persistent tugging that ensued on my work binder. Hmmm.

I'm learning that naps do not magically align between my two munchkins. Sometimes the naps are perfectly timed and I'm able to get a good few hours of work in. And during those days I often crash for a quick catnap too. Other days Chloe and Clive tag team their naps so I get no break. And it's tough to get much done with a crawling-trying-to-walk 9 month old at my heels.

Consequently, my blog has suffered. When I do get quiet time I'm racing around putting laundry away, unloading the dishwasher, or doing my online job (of which my workload has significantly increased recently).

I apologize for my recent blogging dearth. How in the world do you moms of more-than-one find time to blog and keep up on your blog-reading?!? Do you have a set time that you put in daily?