Bloggin’

She Speaks 2009: Bloggy Purpose

By Lisa B on August 25, 2009

I want to thank my Christian buddies who attended BlogHer for commenting on my Differences post. I would absolutely love some more feedback — so if you are a Christian and you attended BlogHer, please go leave a comment on your perspective.

Knowing your bloggy purpose is very important

One of the sessions I attended at She Speaks was given by the two absolutely adorable sisters, Emily @ Chatting at the Sky and The Nester at Nesting Place. They gave a great presentation with a lot of great advice. There were lots of great nuggets of advice, and I tweeted what I could. Here are some of my tweets during that session:

If you try to have a blog to please everyone, you won’t. You’ll be able to deal with criticism.

When someone comes to your blog, you want them to know what to expect. Ragu ads don’t go with furniture

Don’t get caught in trying to keep up with others – post when you want about the thing that makes you come alive

RT @dcrmom: “I’m not a person who loves to write. I’m a person who loves what I write about.” {brilliant} @thenester

Do you need some “space for your soul to breathe?” Check out @skychatter ‘s blog: http://chattingatthesky.com

For writers: http://encouragingwordsforwriters.com Awesome blog from Bonita (who’s here)

What we build, we have to maintain. {Bonita’s encouraging words for writers}

Are you getting tons of email? Maybe you can take them and use them as blog posts. Info on site might cut down on email.

Have a writing session and write multiple posts – schedule them to post in the future. Don’t feel forced to write every day.

Protecting your family on the Internet. Recommended from fellow attendee: http://bit.ly/e3md4

When Nester shared about the Ragu ads, I had to laugh. She knows interior design, furniture, and how to make stuff even if it’s not perfect. She’s not a cooking blog so Ragu ads really don’t go with furniture. But if she didn’t really understand the purpose of her blog, then she might have just ignored that.

Purpose?

{I first wrote the following on April 28, 2008. Amazingly, I made sense back then!}

To be completely honest, I don�t like the word �purpose� very much. Purpose is defined as an anticipated outcome that is intended or that guides your planned actions. That scares me. Most of the time when I anticipate good things happening, I�ve been let down. So I lower my expectations which is not a good thing either. But the thing that scares me the most is the fear of failure. I am afraid to define a purpose, let it guide my actions and then fail to meet that purpose.

Most of us have probably heard the following scripture:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
– Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

The 2 verses that follow Jeremiah 29:11 are relevant also:

“Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” — Jeremiah 29:12, 13 (NIV)

Whether you have a blog already or you want to start one, the best advice I can give you is to find your bloggy purpose.

Pray: Ask God what purpose and plan He has for your blog. Here are some questions to ask Him when you are developing your purpose:

Is that purpose to keep in touch with family who are far away?
Can you use the blog to subtly share your faith with others like unsaved family?
Can you share some knowledge you have to help others (homeschooling? crafts? fashion?)?
Are you going to use your blog to make money?
Do you want your blog to be an online ministry?

That last one is a doozy to answer! When I started simply His, it was a way for me to keep in touch with family and friends. I honestly did not want to subject them to ads here and there so I could make a few dollars. It was not worth it. There�s nothing wrong with making a little money to help support your family, but there is a fine line you must be sure you want to cross. Blogging is about building a community. Be respectful of your readers. Treat them as your friends. If you would recommend a product to your friend, then do so on your blog. Don�t recommend stuff just to try and earn some money. Remember what your Bloggy Purpose is! When your Bloggy Purpose comes from God, answers to these questions will become quite clear.

{other She Speaks posts}

| Filed Under: Bloggin', Conferences, She Speaks

Friday Blogger Lunch

By Lisa B on July 30, 2009

This is an unofficial bloggers lunch — so anyone in the area is welcome to join us! Going to She Speaks or not! Blogger or not!

This is a different Chili’s than I first posted about. It is the one at Concord Mills Mall and is a lot closer to the hotel (same exit!). A woman’s got a right to change her mind, right??

If you would, leave me a comment here to let me know you are coming or email me at lisab (at) simplyhis (dot) org. I need to get an idea of how many ladies are coming so I can get a table big enough. Also if you email me or leave a comment, I can email you my cell phone in case you need to get in contact with me.

Friday, July 31st � Lunch 12:00 pm
Chili�s Grill & Bar — The one at Concord Mills Mall!
8111 Concord Mills Blvd Suite #101 Concord Mills Mall
Concord, NC�28027
704-979-2314

Off I85 you’ll take exit 49 – Get directions.

| Filed Under: Bloggin', She Speaks

I’m in a funk.

By Lisa B on June 13, 2009

There. I said it. I didn’t want to say it. I didn’t want to admit it. But, I am in a funk. Nothing all that serious (don’t worry Mom!). It’s just I have so much I have to do, so much I want to do, that I am simply overwhelmed. I want to crawl back in the bed and pull the covers over my head. I want to sleep for a few years. I just don’t know where to start. There are piles and piles and piles and PILES of junk around my desk and on the floor. I’m getting pretty good at blocking those out from my peripheral view. That takes talent, ya’ll.

Oh yeah, and I’ve been working on some blogs for some very nice ladies, but let me tell you — I hate Blogger. Seriously. I’m so excited that these ladies are moving from Blogger to WordPress I couldn’t be happier, but it can be a pain to move all that stuff. So if you — yeah, you right there — are thinking of starting a blog, or before you get a few hundred posts into one, use WordPress. That’s my public announcement for the month. Well, that and STOP using IE! Use Firefox instead it rocks. I seem to be easily distracted this week (month? year?).

I’ve also been feeling overlooked. I see all kinds of bloggy friends who are being asked to do all kinds of cool stuff, and I’m in pity-partying mode evidently. “Why not me?” So while trying to talk this over with Duck the other day, he honestly tried to make me feel better, but it didn’t work. He basically told me I need to get my bahonkas off the computer and live life.

So in honor of Duck, Doodle’s summer vacation and the 2″ of dust on everything, I’m going to get off the computer for a bit. I’d say I’ll be back in July, but I might just take July off too. Once I finish with these few nagging little blog projects on my to do list, I’m going to say no to some work so I can concentrate on my offline life. Geez, how often do I need to be reminded to get off this stupid thing. Evidently a lot.

If you see me on Twitter, or Facebook, or here, ask me how many piles are left on my desk or if I’ve swept the floor lately. Help hold me accountable!

| Filed Under: Bloggin', Personal

Mister Linky is not feeling well

By Lisa B on May 26, 2009

and many, many bloggers seem to be catching whatever he has.

About 4 days ago, Mister Linky requested that everyone remove the script (a line or two of code) from the head of your blog. If you have not done that and need help, please let me know. I’m not sure why I didn’t think of this before — other than it was quite a bother for non-techies to actually put this code in the header portion of their design — but it caused some problems. With this code being in the head, it would load the script on every page of your site — whether or not it needed it to display a Mister Linky. That’s a lot of traffic to his server — and hence why it was down a lot from overload. It also caused sites to be extremely slow in displaying because the page was trying to get information for the script off his server which it couldn’t find.

Sufficiently confused yet?

Since Mister Linky has not felt well, several of you have found your way over here to my other post about him needing some competition. So, I have some good news and some bad news I’m going to work on a WP Plugin for this very thing. Bad news being that it’ll start being just for WordPress and that it’s going to take me until next week to get to it.

I’ve got another site in the works which I’ll share soon. Hang in there! I know you’re frustrated!

| Filed Under: Bloggin'

Mission Field

By Lisa B on April 28, 2009

This post has been bouncing around my head for the past few days. It’s a hard post to write. It makes me uncomfortable and I hate to be uncomfortable.

I am a typical, spoiled, selfish American.

Ever since I’ve been saved and heard it preached that we need to go out into the mission field, I’ve said “Lord, just don’t send me to Africa.” You know the attitude. It’s not that Africa is the only place in the world that needs to hear about Jesus, but that’s typically people’s first reactions when you start talking about missions.

There were a few representatives from Compassion International at She Speaks last year. The rumor came to our table that they were looking for some bloggers to go on their next trip (at the time to the Dominican Republic). Robin got a light in her eyes — a passion burning deep inside her. She wanted to go on a trip with Compassion. She got excited and started talking about how awesome and hard it would be to go on a trip like that. I shrunk down in a corner thinking, “God, please don’t send me to another country. I have no desire whatsoever to go.”

Robin applied to go, but wasn’t chosen for the Dominican Republic trip, but she was chosen for the India trip. She’s there right now. Her writing is so awesome I cannot even describe it … my words fail. Her stories along with the others I’ve read are breaking my heart and bringing tears to my eyes.

In all honesty I have a bad view of India. Many friends and a few family members have been laid off from a big company around here that is sending all these jobs over to India. I know it’s not the people there’s fault, but it just makes me mad. I think the company is taking advantage of people over there and they are affecting our comfortable lives over here. Ouch.

From these stories I’ve been reading and pictures I’ve been looking at, it’s surreal. I cannot imagine being there. Being uncomfortable in no-air-conditioning and 110 degree weather.

I talked to a couple of good friends of mine a few years ago about missions. I told them my heart doesn’t hurt for people in other countries and I feel guilty about that. I know in my mind that we have tons more than they would ever have. But I don’t feel a passion … a huge desire to go to another country. My heart hurts for the people I see in this country. The ones who are walking around, dead inside. The ones who have all this *stuff* and still aren’t happy. They don’t know the peace of God.

“You’re just home missions minded,” they told me. The mission field is all around us … the people we see everyday … and even the people we don’t see everyday but talk to on the Internet. I may be selfish wanting to sit in my air-conditioned house and say the Internet is my mission field, but I desire to follow God’s will for my life. My talents and knowledge put me on the Internet … not in an office and not half-way around the world … at least not physically.

So back to my buddy Robin in India. Even though God chose not to send me and to send Robin (a wise decision indeed), there are many things we can do to help others who are passionate about international missions.

The most important thing we can ever do is pray! Pray for the team in India; for their safety and wellbeing; for their minds and hearts to be able to process all they see; for God to give them the words and reliable internet connection to relay to us what they are seeing.
Sponsor a child. I have been struggling with this one for quite awhile. I think we should sponsor a child, but then I get caught up in our “lack of money.” I’m going to talk to Duck about sponsoring a child through Compassion. I need to get Doodle into this too. She truly doesn’t realize how well she has it.

And if you are so inclined, say a quick prayer for me to be less me-minded and more others-minded. Thanks.

Here’s Duck singing a very relevant song … I think the name is “My House is Full” but don’t hold me to it.

My House is Full [ 2:43 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Keep track of all that’s going on with the Compassion Bloggers in India this week:

Pray about sponsoring a child today!

Get this widget!

| Filed Under: Blessings, Bloggin', Family, Prayer Requests, Writing

You know it’s bad when …

By Lisa B on March 25, 2009

… your mom IMs you to see if you’re still alive because you haven’t blogged or tweeted in 5 days (still here Mom!)

… you walk up behind your husband and see that he’s got your blog pulled up on his laptop — “just to see what you’re up to.” (not blogging is what I’ve been up to!)

… you come up to bat in the last inning, 2 outs, tying run on 3rd, and you fly out to the right-center fielder AND you’re the coach (not such a good game last night!)

I’m trying not to be in a funk, but it seems like I have for the past few days. Nothing major has happened — I’ve just been dreaming of softball, how to coach, where to put people, how am I going to do … those kinds of things. I mean, I have been going to the gym regularly for over a year now to build up muscles and endurance. I want to be able to play better. I just didn’t last night.

Good news though. Last Saturday I managed to clean out our laundry room. I never knew so much schtuff could be in a 6×8 room until I pulled it all out and it was in all over our den floor. But, it’s clean and organized in there now. Duck has plenty of room to get in there and do the laundry. Oh, and I’m so not joking about that. He’s great at doing the laundry. It only took a gazillion times of me shrinking shirts and leaving clothes (wet) in the washer for a few days before he took it over. You do a wonderful job, Duck. Mean it. Love you. Hate doing laundry.

Oh, I finally got our taxes done last week. We owe money — which we expected, but at least now I know how much. That’s a huge burden off my shoulders. I’ve also been working on this one poor woman’s site. I say poor woman because she’s had to deal with me being my usual slow self in getting too things. I switched her from Blogger to WordPress on one host. Then that one host had several issues and I just finished moving her to a new host. I’m hoping all is well now. It’d be nice to get to my blogs

So, I’m still here. Still hanging on. Nothing major’s happened. Just cruising along. Hope all is well with you. If not, let me know what I can pray about for you. Because PRAYER WORKS!

| Filed Under: Bloggin', Family, Home

Lord, have mercy. Look who’s reading my blog.

By Lisa B on February 23, 2009

Over the past few weeks, I have found that a couple of people are reading my blog that I never would have thought would be reading.

Early last week I participated in Jo-Lynne @ Musings of a Housewife‘s Mister Linky for What I learned this week. Through that Mister Linky, a woman I know IRL (in real life) found my blog. Turns out that Duck and I coached her daughter this year in Upward basketball which just ended. So, how cool is it that I meet one of the basketball parents on the internet? I told her I don’t normally run into people around here who even have a clue as to what a blog is, much less have one! Stop by and tell Kellie “hey” for me

Since my journey began on Facebook just a few short weeks ago, I have been finding family that I haven’t seen since the last death in the family and before that — way too long. One of my cousins sent me a message on Facebook saying she reads my blog and complimented me on my writing. How weird can that be? I don’t know if I’d rather just believe in my own little world here where Mom, Dad and strangers read my blog — oh yeah, and of course Duck. Here’s a shout out to Debbie — we need to get you started blogging

Going on vacation — sort of: For those of you who have seen my tweets or updates on Facebook. I am getting a MacBook Pro. I’ve been waiting for it for 2 months now (it’s one of the newer models). Well, it’s on the truck as I’m typing this “out to be delivered.” This means a few things. One, I’m going to be caught up playing working on transferring everything over to my new Mac. Two, I’ve decided to change up some things here on my blog.

I realized that I blog about several different things that are all me — but may not be all you. So, I’m going to be working on a redesign here and I’m going to add some sections. One section will be for Harleys so you don’t have to read about motorcycles if you’re not interested. Another section I’m going to start is PC-to-Mac. I’m going to write about my transition from PC to Mac (it’s been 12 years at least since I worked on a Mac). I’m also going to log all the tips and everything I find about how to do stuff on the Mac, because well, my memory sucks. Thanks to Secret Agent Mama‘s great advice at BlissDom, I’ve picked up my camera again and started taking pictures. She told me something along the lines of I should take pictures at the conference too because I am not going to see the same things as she does. Well, I went around snapping pictures this weekend and trying to figure out my camera (some of the manual settings) and failed horribly. Seriously, I have some very bad pictures. But I’ll share them with y’all if you’re interested in the Photo section.

I’m probably not going to be blogging here a lot this week — and when you come, things may look different. Hang with me through the changes. I think you’ll like them.