Finally Friday!

Finally it's Friday night!

I don't have to get up early to get kids off to school.

I ran all of my erands today, instead of being insane and doing it like everyone else, on Saturday.

My family will all be home so we will be able to play some board games and do some things like that.

Of course, it won't all be fun and games. I have over 8 years of de-cluttering and reorganizing to do around this house. We really need some order around here! Yes, I am a "type A", which stands for anal.

Right now, I'm networking a post I wrote on another blog I have to my network on Digg. That takes a while because it only allows me to share to a certain number of people at a time and I have about 1000 in my network. That weblog location is http://maxyourping.blogspot.com and it is about maximizing your blog with widgets, gadgets, technology, networking and other useful advice. Here is the link if you are interested. Click Here

Tomorrow I will be posting another in the series of informational posts on Lyme Disease. The more I investigate as my diagnosis and treatment continue, the more interesting the information becomes.

At the same time as I am networking on Digg, I am going to throw a load of white laundry in the wash on a delay so that it will be done in the morning to put in the dryer. I love my washing machine!

If you haven't watched my YouTube video selection to the left, you should. I have included a guy that is hillarious and is funny in a clean way...vary rare in the comedy scene!

Until tomorrow...

I'm grateful for Fridays!

I'm grateful for my family members who are helping us provide while my Husband is unemployed.

I'm grateful for my children and their hugs.

I'm grateful for appliances!

I'm grateful for a smiling faced checker when you go to a busy place like Walmart, who has a great attitude and bags your items just right!

I'm grateful for the other coaches who are working with me at the elementary school on The Knowledge Bowl...we all have children with Asperger's Syndrome.

I'm grateful for reliable cars, that I pray can stay reliable until we are employed and can afford to service them.

I'm grateful for my cats and their companionship, as if they are like little toddlers, entertaining me and needing me at the same time.

I'm grateful for the beautiful snow that fell today. The flakes were big and fell very gracefully without a lot of wind.

I'm grateful for the school crossing-guard who works between the parking lot at the park and the parking lot at the school. He is always so much a gentleman and so happy to be doing his job.

Face of Lyme Disease, Today

I've decided to give my readers an expanded version of what it's like to have Lyme Disease, from the recovery process, which is just beginning. I will include reflections on my illness for readers to relate to as well as posts on the series that I have begun regarding the facts involved.

I feel it's important for readers to have someone to relate with, especially if they are going through something similar. If you know someone who is chronically ill, now is the time to have them subscribe to my blog because I've decided to get personal.

Here is what today was like.

Everyday is just a little bit different. It's kind of like a never-ending roller coaster ride...never very predictable, although moreso than it used to be.

I woke up, after hitting the snooze from 6:15am to 7:00am. I woke up my kids, two boys, ages 7 and 10 and then proceeded to wake up my husband so that he would be ready when I got my kids ready so he could drive them to school.

He is currently unemployed...much too long now...since October...In other words, we are hating it in the money department!

So, I have him drive the kids to school right now, so that I can take it easy in the morning until he has a job...not that I always take it easy, but I have a bit of nausea in the morning...mostly from the antibiotics and transitioning off some of the meds that have been pushed at me for conditions I really don't have.

Some days are more challenging than others because my 10 year old has high-functioning Asperger's Syndrome and my 7 year old has aspects of it, however, not as dramatically obvious...both being treated...both blessings!!!!

Today, I was really dragging when I got up, but managed to get their lunches ready and get them dressed in well-pressed clothes with their hair combed as usual. However, this morning's breakfast consisted of yogurt and poptarts. Not exactly the breakfast of champions.

Once they were out the door, I took my medicine and sat down to watch the local news...my normal morning ritual. I then had a bagel for breakfast and laid down to watch the national news and fell asleep on the couch until 11:30am. So much for productivity!

Once I woke up, I decided that I'd better make good use of my day before my kids came home so I logged onto the computer and did some networking on Digg and caught up on my email sites for 1 hour. After that I read for 30 minutes...uplifting material, followed by 30 minutes of yoga and free weights.



Knowing that the kids would walk in from the bus at any time, I decided to hurry and make the beds, clean-up the kitchen table and take care of the litter-box.

When they walked in the door, I was able to greet them with a smile, as if I had been productive all day. I had done a pretty darn good job with the time I'd used!

We did the typical after school stuff...snack, homework, chores, and then my kids went out to play with their friends for a bit. I finished taking down all of the Christmas stuff and putting the tubs and boxes down in the basement. Then, I re-arranged my family room, since the Christmas Tree wasn't there anymore. I like the way it looks. I used methods of Fung Shui and altered it from before we had the tree there. My kids like it. They get into reorganizing the furniture and stuff with me. It's fun!

Yes, my Christmas stuff was still up.

I then had my Husband help me fix dinner (he was gone all day), while I worked on fixing his glasses that broke today...don't have a job=no money for new glasses...no good...I tried for about 45 minutes...still broken.

After dinner, my Husband helped me get the kids to bathe and get ready for bed. We got them in bed. One got out of bed for a snack and back in bed. I cleaned the downstairs bathroom, did one load of laundry, prepped for tomorrow, showered, and here I am (my Husband is playing basketball with the guys at the church gym).

No, I didn't shower until 10:00pm.

Was it easy today? Not completely. I fought a migraine, which I have been fighting for 3 days now, and nausea. I also had to self-motivate quite a bit. However, once I did my yoga and read uplifting literature, I really felt quite motivated. I think that the nap was necessary as well. I used to feel guilty about those...as if they were some kind of laziness. However, I know now that my body is healing and when I need a nap, I need a nap.

Not too exciting, eh? But, I feel it was a lot better than Saturday and Sunday, in which I spent the majority of the day in bed.

Like I said...a roller coaster ride!!!

Story "Romney and Mormonism"...Take Your Own Time To Research...

Note: This story, because there where so many diverse remarks made by various parties on Digg, as it is a place where opinion is welcome and cherished, was buried.

"How many Diggs or buries does it take to promote or remove stories? The promotion and burying of stories is managed by an algorithm developed by Digg. There is no hard number of Diggs/buries to promote or remove a story. It's based on a sliding scale that takes several factors into consideration, such as number of Diggs, reports, time of day, topic submitted to, Digging/burying diversity, etc. "

Therefore, doing a search on Digg for this, even though it received 264 Diggs, you will not be able to find the story unless you go back through this site or to see the various comments (some of which may be offensive, but opinions non-the-less) click the following...

Click Here For My Digg Submit List

Just the name of the game in networking my articles.

For information on technology, please see my blog at

maxyourping.blogspot.com

Managing Time...My Lessons

I'm learning that between my blogging, networking my blogs, and everything that goes into the articles that my time management skills are in need of work. I seem to be burning the candle at both ends between taking care of my family, an illness, and my love of reading and writing.

Therefore, tonight I spent some time on my developmental blog site at

maxyourping.com
maxyourping.com, article

where I manage all of the new information that I continue to learn regarding "Technology, Widgets, Networks, and More...Increasing Traffic and Personal Happiness In Blogging" during this Internet journey.

I wanted to write both blogs tonight, as I usually do, however, with this illness, kids home sick, a Husband out of work, etc., today just kind of became an out of balance day.

So, to all of my readers, I appologize if the topics on my other blog site are not your type of topics. I will be writing more on this site tomorrow, attempting to regain some semblance of daily balance.

Thank you for your patience and for your loyalty in readership.

Here's a little laugh from

Joke-A-Day.com


Two bachelors, Larry and Frank were out to dinner. The conversation drifted from office, sports to politics and then to cooking. “I got a cook book once” said Larry. “But I couldn’t do anything with it.” “Too much fancy stuff in it, huh?” asked Frank. “You said it, Larry replied, nodding. “Every one of those recipes began the same way: “Take a clean plate…”

Networking Your Blog...Maximize Your Blog...(reprint from yesterday-had problem with public receipt)

When starting a venture into weblogging, many bloggers wish to share their weblogs with the Internet Universe.

How do you get your blog past your immediate friends and family members?

Of course, Digg is a great site for networking. However, the following are other sites that have given me a plethora of additional information to add to my networking collection.

First, here is a site with a ranking list of networking locations for your weblogs.

Blog Network Lists
http://www.blognetworklist.com/topnetworklist.php

Second, here are some more networking opportunities to maximize your blog coverage.
Technorati
http://www.technorati.com/

Yahoo Publisher (Beta)
http://publisher.yahoo.com/

Alexa
http://www.alexa.com/
http://www.alexa.com/browse/general/?&CategoryID=1422529

Google
http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&q=data+network&ie=utf-8

MSN Spaces
http://home.services.spaces.live.com/


In addition to the sites listed above, today I read articles from the following locations regarding maximizing weblog coverage and monetizing your blog.

If your like me, you really feel like your writing is an output of your reading (or other hobby or trade) and you're learning the weblog technology as an creative outlet.

The monetizing will be "icing-on-the-cake", so to speak.

My real goal, is to consistently improve my writing skills and to create a network of others with the same interests to gather writing material from and to present my writing material to. (This, in addition to my competitive nature of watching the numbers increase of those reading my materials on my site and constantly trying to maximize that number:)

Here are the articles of interest from today's research into maximizing my weblog.

I will place them on Digg later tonight. I hope they help someone else who may have some of the same questions and/or curiosities as I have had.

Creating a New Blog Network - Hiring Bloggers

http://www.sohaibthiab.com/index.php/archives/129

Blogging Done Right

http://www.paolomendoza.com/2007/11/blogging-done-right.html

http://blog.icalvyn.com/freedomain

Many Titles from this location...

http://www.problogger.net/

Obviously, there is much information out there, and there are many different styles for each blogger.

The lessons I am learning are many, including some of these simple ones...

...pay attention to the quality and content of your writing

...pay attention to the comments from readers, as it is a signal of your writing content and quality needing improvement or change

...pay attention to your ads and their content, daily, along with the traffic they are bringing to see when you may need to adjust them to bring in more revenue

...pay attention to the traffic flow to your weblog and use daily time to network your site

...pay attention that you balance your investment in time that it does not take your passion away from your writing and/or from the topic(s) you wish to share.

For this week of Thanksgiving, I thank all of those who have been so brilliant in creating the technology so that I can meet a network of great and generous minds on a global scale.

Without the work of the technologically savvy, I would not be able to get to know such great people as I am now able to interact with.

Thank you for reading my articles and for being a part of this journey. I hope that this information is helping you as much as it is helping me.

I will be writing about other subjects, however, as you know if you are a blogger, development takes up a bit of time. Research is important. Since I've invested some time into research, I thought I'd share my results to save some of you the time.

Have a great evening!