Google Reader Gone Wild

There comes a point when you must pair down your Google Reader. Seriously. When I open it to find 1000+ unread posts each time, something has to give. So here are some guidelines to follow when you realize you will never be able to catch up to your reader.

It’s Never Been Worn You know when you clean out your closet and you think, “Have I worn this in the last year?” If you are coming across blogs that you have marked “read all” each time you flip it open, you need to delete.

Scan and Discard If you don’t recognize a blog by name and know the content, you need to do a scan. Open it up and roll through as many posts as you have interest for. If you get through 15 or 20 and nothing has caught your interest, you are probably safe to discard it.

Re-posts are Time savers Some blogs make their living posting links to other blogs. This can be a huge time saver. Is there one blog that you like that takes the best of the best from five others you subscribe to? You can delete the five and keep the blog-scanner with just the one. You know you will get the cream de la cream of your favorites with none of the fluff. (no idea what I’m talking about? Think Crafty Cow. I can get rid of several other blogs that are hit or miss and just reference the Cow to catch up on all the best art projects from around the town.)

This is not Facebook The world is not judging you by how many “blog friends” you make. If you added someones personal blog about their family, friends, and life because of one cool general post six months ago, it is time to delete. You don’t know them and you don’t need to know about their sister-in-law’s wedding plans.

Folders are Friends Once you have paired down, it is time to make folders. Click on the blog you want to read, go to feed options, and make a folder for the content. This way, you can put all the “food” blogs together and all the “knitting” blogs together. When I open my reader, I want to see family news and kids crafts. When I have more time, I explore the general crafts and sewing. On really lazy days I get into food and knitting blogs or the blogs I just wasn’t ready to part with yet. You know…that sweater that you know is pilled and doesn’t fit, but you can’t seem to part with because it might match a fictional pair of boots that you wish you had.

Happy Organizing!

 

PS — Anyone think it is weird that a blog editor doesn’t recognize the word “blog” as being spelled correctly? Geesh!

 

All About Justin

Justin says that I don’t post about him on here (though I think his top 5 albums are on here, as is going blueberry picking with his grandparents). Fact is, I don’t post much at all. As I type, the boys are running around the house, begging for Pez, and hosting some kind of wrestlemania scene on the couch. It is insane.

So here you go….all about Justin. Justin is my hubby of 6 1/2 years. He is adorable and athletic and his hair looks best mussed from the pool. You couldn’t ask for a better father. I’ve always loved him, but watching him with the boys just magnifies it. He is scary smart and I feel like I’m in a constant battle of the wits, which is 99% of the time a great thing.  Justin is hysterical and gets my humor too. We can laugh about little things and sing and play like no body’s business. Justin splits (or even takes on more) household chores, which I hear is a rarity among husbands.

Justin loves music, which is great. Music has always been a big part of my life, so even though it is a different type of thing, it is cool to have that in common. The fact that we met at band camp is just a funny icing to the cake.

So why he feels like I don’t write about him, I’m not sure. I’ve posted 2 times since 2008 even began. This is not a blog about anything particular, but it isn’t topic specific. It is just rambling and started out as a way to document all the summer activities I enjoy with our little boys.

So babe, I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings not talking about you. I love you more than the oceans and sky, more than summer’s off, and more than Alfredo sauce. You should know how much that is.

Flowers

So today was one of those days where you think to yourself, “I know I love him, but….” And at the last second when I thought that I could darn near use the country phrase “I will beat your butt” to my eldest child, he pulls out this one…

We were riding home from a very loud trip to Target and there was silence in the car for about three minutes. I thought maybe B had fallen asleep, but no. From the backseat comes the question, “How do you make bananas?” “Real bananas?” I ask. “Bananas you eat.” Well….here comes the whole bananas grow on trees just like apples, but not just any tree, a banana tree. This leads to more questions about how and why different trees grow different items and what stems versus trunks are. Bridger pauses and says, “I like trees that grow flowers the best. Do you know why?”

“No, Bridge, why?”

“Because then I can pick the flowers and give them to you because flowers are pretty like you.”

OK….so we won’t sell him on the black market today….

Ahhhh….summer

It is summer, which gives me wonderful nap times to do things like update this blog! Yay! We were off to a busy summer already. The day school got out, I took my boys up to Huntsville and then on to St. Louis with my mom. Her summary is better than any I’ll provide, so just check it out there for the deets.

Today is the first true vacation day for me. We hung out and I cleaned up our house, which is still far from clean. The end of the year and both of us vacationing has left quite the mess around here. I have to have it ready for our first playdate of the year on Thursday though! After making lunch that both boys ate (supermom!!!) we went to the Ho by Lobby to get playdate, VBS, and personal crafts. Then onto Homely Depot  to get stuff to make curtains for my kitchen nook. (both the Ho and Depot are our loving nicknames for the closest stores to our house aptly named when choice lights go out on their signs)

Currently, I’m taking a break from the curtains to sneak in a computer moment while B is watching a movie and T is taking an afternoon nap. Ahhh…summer, how I missed thee.

People Like Movies, but Not Me

As in, my mom and sister are having a grand time listing their favorite movies and tagging each other, but did either one tag me? Oh, no… act like Meghan doesn’t even READ those things. Act like I don’t want to participate!

So… in retaliation, I’m posting my list of 6 unimportant* things that make me happy:
1.) magazines… any and all
2.) school supplies
3.) diet soft drinks
4.) book sales (like $1 books, scholastic warehouse sales, books at the thrift store, bargin bins)
5.) wearing jeans to work
6.) really really girly girl baby stuff and nurseries (not that it inspires me to need a girl – I just like them, which is not generally me to like)

And who should I tag… hum…. Mom? no, Shannon? no….

I’m going to tag Justin. SO THERE!

Bad Blogging and Crawlers

So I’m a terrible blogger. I have best intentions of things to write…. almost daily in fact… and yet I don’t. You might think that speaks to the pace of life I keep, but it really speaks to my prioritizing TV over Internet most evenings. If we had a TV in here, like any good extra bedroom would, then I don’t think I’d have a problem.

Why post today then? Well mostly to announce that Mr. Taplin can crawl! Yessir…. he was on all fours this morning heading for Bridger and the toys. Now, this isn’t a full on coordinated crawl, but he is up and lunging, so by this time next week I expect to be moving things off my floor that I didn’t realize were there. Exciting stuff. Watch out Christmas tree, here Tap comes!

We did 2 birthday parties today and have one planned for tomorrow. I need to upload tons of Bridger artwork pictures, so maybe after the party I can work on that. I’m still putting up Disney on Ice and GiGi’s house pictures from Homecoming weekend at Alabama. I can’t believe there is only one full week of school left before Thanksgiving. Thank goodness!

Tap can roll (and darn near crawl!)

I was reading online and Tap was on his tummy near me (for those keeping count, he is 12 weeks and almost 3 months). Sooooo he began to fuss and I was going to move him only to find he had flipped himself to his back! In a mad attempt to recreate this success, I put him on his tummy again. This is making him quite mad at the current moment, but has produced enough flailing about to have propelled him forward about 3 feet from his starting position in an almost army-man style crawl (though truthfully it is more of a disdainful wiggle).

Couch to 5k

I’ve been trying to get back to walking as routine for awhile now and have finally gotten off my duff and done something about it. I read an article in Redbook recently about a woman who started walking and turned to jogging only to end up running 1/2 marathons. I have to be honest and say that running has never been my thing, but I always wanted to be a runner. It just sounds so cool and healthy and runners seem to have great bodies. I worry about my knee problem acting up, but it seems it could also help by strengthening my patella (sp?), which is the whole dislocation problem in the first place. So along with the article there were several links and http://c25k.com/ has really caught my interest. I was wondering how I would know what time to change from running to walking and they offer several podcasts. I just so happens we have an old mp3 player laying the drawer, so I think we might have a go. Currently, I am in my second week of 4 weeks of committed walking before I begin the running program. It seemed like a good choice for a mild warm up and to make myself get back in the habit of daily excercise. Today I didn’t walk, but I did mow the lawn, which should count for something. I figure if I can walk 4-5 times each week that’s good. The running program suggests running 3 days a week with breaks inbetween so I can still walk one or two days and end up working out nearly every day. I’m excited to get started!

Long Awaited Nominations

Justin gave me permission to post this today:

Justin’s Top 5 Albums of 2008 so far:

1.  My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges
2. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
3. The Black Crowes – Warpaint
4. Drive-By Truckers – Brighter Than Creation’s Dark
5. Hot Chip – Made In The Dark

In case you were wondering, this is per calendar year not Grammy year. It also has the possibility of being tainted by live performance viewings and general band attitude. Case in point: Not that Kanye West was going to make the top twenty, let alone five, his general sassiness and Bonarroo shananigins have caused his albums to find other homes to live in all together. So, if your band is not on the top five, keep your attitude in check on your rise to greatness (and send free CDs our way, that helps) and maybe…just maybe…you’ll recieve a “Justin” in the future.

Lazy Blogger

I am a lazy blogger. No doubt about it. I don’t even get around to posting links to pictures that have long-since been mentioned and forgot about. Good thing only my fam reads this for now Maybe one day I’ll be interesting enough (and involved enough) to post stuff others want to read! Ha!

So I’ve been thinking about the art club I want and I think my best plan this year, since being moved against my will, is going to be to write the plans, try them out, take pictures and refine, etc… all within the classroom. We are supposed to get something like 45 min a week for fine arts anyway so I can make it my “thank goodness it’s Friday / we don’t watch movies in my class / Friday tests always leave extra time” activity. I think it will be good and this way I can see how kids react and do while documenting steps and such for a future club. It will be really important for getting grants in the future for a club as well. (That’s not to say that I don’t still want a logo…. shan… wink…wink…)

Other than that, I’m psyched that our house is off the market and that I can have beds unmade if I want to. Plus, we are preparing for our first garage sale and we have SO much stuff! I hope it goes really well. If we made like, $150 or so, I’d be pumped and I think that is totally doable. It really depends on the day I guess, but smack in the middle of summer can’t be too bad. Too bad we missed the neighborhood-wide sale, but maybe next year…

Tuesday I’m going up to school to pack my things and the boys have their first ever paid babysitter. It hurts the pocket a little, but I think it will be worth it. Taking them would only drive me nuts and prolong the task and they will have tons of fun playing with cousin Jenny. I need/want to get some of those study boxes meant to hold files since I have the impression I’ll be in limbo in a portable for the first part of the year. Besides which, I can bring them home and properly organize and label before sticking them back into unmanageable drawers.

Well, not anything exciting to say, just talking to the computer screen while my children take a nap. Ah the sweet bliss of silence in the house!