Month: March 2012

Categories
Kids/Parenting

Evolution works! (Or: Five reasons why babies are cute)

A flashback from three years ago when Rebecca was a baby.

I’m not really going to get into a theory of evolution debate here—really, the more appropriate headline would be “Natural selection works.” I totally believe that and I see evidence of it in my everyday life (“natural selection” is just a lot longer than “evolution”).

franklin-family-045crop
Genetics at work: my mother and my daughter

As a mother of very young children, I can tell you exactly how demanding and frustrating babies and toddlers can be—but I’ve come to believe that a babies’ cuteness is, in fact, an inherited defense mechanism against some of their most motherly-frustration-inducing behaviors. My evidence:

  1. Cuddling: Although waking me for the eighth time in six hours is decidedly not a good way into my good graces, a quiet, sweet, snuggling baby is pretty tough to stay angry at.
  2. Gurgling giggles: It’s five AM and the infant thinks it’s time to get up for the day. But before I can burst into tears, she sees my face and wham—instant gales of excited laughter. Even if I’m not quite as happy to see her at that hour, it’s hard not to forgive her when she’s just so happy to see me.
  3. Nap time: When I reach my wits’ end, I know it’s time for a nap (for me and/or the kids 😉 ). This can be a double whammy, especially if the baby or toddler is obviously tired but still averse to said nap, and spends half an hour screaming—because when they finally succumb to the much-needed sleep, it’s all the sweeter to peek in on the peacefully slumbering angel (and pray it lasts!).
  4. Baby talk: Sure, you can argue their articulatory muscles aren’t fully developed enough to appreciate the nuances of the lateral approximate, but let’s face it: somewhere in his DNA, my son knows that “I yub you!” melts even an annoyed heart faster than plain old “I love you.”
  5. Stoic tears: Okay, this one might not be entirely genetic, but who wouldn’t forgive a tantrum from tiny child who bravely insists that he must wipe his own tears?

What other naturally cute behaviors have you seen that totally take the wind out of your frustration?

Categories
Kids/Parenting

Talking up a storm

Rachel is learning new words every week. Two of my recent favorites include “Yah” and “Suh” (sure). (That also kind of worries me that I’m raising the world’s most flippant one-year-old….)

However, it’s hard to beat this one:

Categories
Fulfillment

Living your dreams now

This entry is part 3 of 3 in the series Beginning with Blogger

Maybe I just follow too many fans of the Catholic Register (or just Jen at Conversion Diary), but I’ve heard such good things about Simcha Fisher. However, I don’t think I’d read anything by her until my dad sent me a link to her article “The Time to Thrive Is Now“:

Certainly the “trenches” of motherhood are a time of sacrifice, and a woman in that phase of life can drive both herself and her family crazy by trying to have the same lifestyle as her neighbor whose youngest child is 12. It would be hard for, say, a mom with a baby and a toddler to do everything on the list above. But I think we’ve thrown the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak, and in many cases the message has morphed from “you shouldn’t try to do too much when you have young children,” to “you shouldn’t try to do anything when you have young children.” And I think that that’s a problem.

It’s definitely true that raising children is a bit time consuming 😉 . But I think Simcha is right—there perception in popular culture has shifted from “time consuming” to “all consuming.”

I am a mother. 24/7, always on call, never get a vacation mom.

But while my children are so much of my life—figurative and literally—I am still a person. I have three small kids, but I can do more than just change diapers, ready preschool books and sing “Itsy Bitsy Spider.” (It’s a fave.)

I have dreams—the big one of writing, of course. In the last four and a half years, I’ve written seven novels (hoping to make that eight soon). While having one two three kids at home full time or nearly so. Some of my dreams will have to wait until my children are older—but my whole life doesn’t have to wait.

What are you doing to capture your dreams today?

Categories
MetaBlogging

Making the most out of your Blogger profile

Even if you don’t have a blog on Blogger/Blogspot, you probably have a Blogger profile, either to comment on blogs that require you to sign in, or just by default with a Google account. Since my sisters and I have developed our craft blog over the last year, I’ve looked at a lot of Blogger profiles from our commenters. And let me tell you: not all profiles are created equal. But even if you’re not on Blogger, your Blogger profile can be a great tool for driving traffic back to your blog—if you do it right.

We’ll take it section by section to talk about the best ways to optimize your Blogger profile. (To edit your profile, go to Blogger.com & sign in. In the upper right-hand corner, there’s your profile picture and name, with a triangle next to it. Click on that, then click on Blogger profile.

When your profile is up, in the upper right-hand corner again, you’ll find an orange Edit Profile button. Click it.)

Here’s what the editing page looks like:

I absolutely believe you should check that first box, “Share my profile.” when you leave a comment on a Blogger blog with your Google account, your name links to this profile. If you don’t allow people to see your profile, bloggers won’t be able to get back to your site to leave a comment in return or follow your blog.

Show my email address is generally a good idea, too. When Blogger sends a comment notification to a blog owner, if you don’t have this checked, they can’t reply by email, and you will have to go back to their post to see if they respond there.

Under Show blogs to display, you can select which of your Blogger blogs to list here. I have about a dozen, but most of them are for personal projects/jokes/random venting. I choose to list only the ones I currently use—and the ones I’d want people to see. When you customize your list, be sure to save your settings!

For Show sites I follow, this is a personal choice. I do like to see the lists of who commenters follow because who doesn’t like to see I choose not to display them for one simple reason: Blogger puts the list of blogs I follow second on my profile, bumping the “About Me” section of the profile way, way down. (Bad choice, Blogger. The lists might be interesting, but why is it more important than learning more about the person who made the profile?)

In the next section, Identity, you can set what email address you receive your emails to, as well as the name that appears at the end of your posts and in feed readers.

I hope the profile photo section is pretty clear! I recommend using a clear photo that works as a very small and medium sized image. I’m always partial to faces (it’s a pretty natural human response).

Next comes the audio section. A recorded greeting and short introduction of yourself would be good here if you choose to use it. (I don’t, but you certainly can.)

In the General section, you can fill out your gender and birthday if you choose. Here is also where you specify your homepage URL. This is probably one of the two most important sections of your profile, especially if your blog isn’t on Blogger. I recommend filling this out even if your homepage is on Blogger, however. (You will have to pick just one homepage to list.)

This homepage is listed as “Web page” beneath your profile photo. If you don’t list (or have) any Blogger blogs, this is the logical place for any visitor to your profile to go.

Also here, you can list a wishlist, such as on Amazon, and your username for one of several IM programs.

Next up, location and work. These are optional, of course. Only list what you’re comfortable to. If you’re using your blog to appeal to a certain demographic, though, either or both of these might be helpful.

All right, now we’re getting to the meat. This is where your profile can really work for you (if you hide the blogs you follow, anyway).

Under Interests, you can list everything you’re interested. I recommend listing everything you blog about, separated with commas. I use the blogger profile search tool to find other blogs in my niche from time to time, and these interests are what get you listed in those search results.

For Introduction—make this section work! This is the other of the top two most important sections. If you have multiple off-Blogger sites, important career notes and distinctions, and anything else that might make someone come to your site, highlight them here. Since I use the same Blogger profile to comment on blogs in each of the niches I blog in, I try to do this. Here’s what mine says:

I’m a wife & mother, author, and crafter. I pretty much think I can do anything.

I blog about writing at http://JordanMcCollum.com, motherhood at http://www.MamaBlogga.com, and crafts (with my 3 sisters & mom) at http://www.WaywardGirlsCrafts.com . My first novel is coming in 2013!

I list all my blogs, even the one on Blogger, so that people can see the types of blogs I have, tell the difference, and find the blog that they’re most interested in. Unfortunately, these aren’t links, but it does showcase my sites, my interests and my writing and make it so people can find me.

You can list whatever other movies, music and books seem appropriate, and you can answer the random question, or not. (If you’re wondering, the question is displayed—they don’t just stick a totally random answer on your profile.)

And here’s the finished product:


What do you think? How else can you get the most out of your Blogger profile?

Categories
Kids/Parenting

Rebecca is clever

Rebecca is three and a half now (and she’ll gladly tell you this!). And let me tell you—we love to hear her talk. And sing. Here are some cute phrases from her I’ve collected over the last few months:

One afternoon, she was playing with Hayden and his fire truck. Seeking his attention, she exclaimed, “I’m a fiwe [fire]! Buwn buwn buwn buwn!”

It worked.

A couple months ago we had a mouse. In our house. Shudder.

Rebecca’s reaction, however, was on the other end of the spectrum. “Mayme we can do sumping nice fow de mouse!” [Maybe we can do something nice for the mouse!]

We decided not to, however, and trapped and killed it. When I explained this all to Rebecca, she concluded, “Dewe awe no wive mice in ours wowd [world].”

Rebecca climbed onto Hayden’s bike, but couldn’t make it go. I asked if she needed something. She said she did.

“A new bike. It’s whoa on enderdy [energy].”

Rebecca had some . . . bathroom issues recently. It looks like she’s all better now, but at once upon a time, I told her her bummy was telling her it was time to poop. She narrowed her eyes at me. “Bummies can’t talk ’cause dey awe not awive.” She lowered her eyes and her voice. “Duh.”

Finally, my sister recorded this original composition by Rebecca a couple weeks ago: