In So Many Words

It’s 1:01 pm on Saturday, and I am starting a new blog post. It’s part of the Mom’s 30-Minute Blog Challenge over at SteadyMom, so I am giving myself 30 minutes to write this post and publish it. I will have to go in on Tuesday to link up to the challenge, but that’s it.

So, what to talk about? Well, I wanted to tell you about my amazing new discovery (new to me, anyway) that has gotten me back into the fun of blog hopping and commenting while still keeping up with my favorite blogs. It’s the Next bookmark in Google Reader.

I found it by clicking on the Settings link and then going into the Goodies section. All I had to do was drag it to my toolbar and then I can click it at any time to go to the next unread blog post in my Google Reader. I can leave a comment, click around, do whatever I want, and then just click the Next button again when I want to read another post. I love it, and it has gotten me totally turned back on to commenting again!

You may have seen this before, but I thought it was cute. This is the page I saw when I clicked Next after all the posts had been read:


And when I clicked on the “End of the Internet” link, this is what I got:

So, if you saw a comment from me today, please know I have been reading your blog all along but just gotten out of the habit of clicking through to leave a comment. Shameful of me, really, because the interaction and community is such a critical part of why we all do this.

I also wanted to share a couple of the things I read today that really caught my attention:

• How To Give Yourself to Whatever the Moment Brings, and Forget Stress at Zen Habits
• The Sparkle Effect at Adventures in Autism (this one made me cry in a good way, and not just because the story takes place right next to my hometown).

So, that’s it for me right now. It’s 1:21 pm, and I am getting ready to hit the publish button. And just in time really, because me son is calling me to come and see what he is working on.

*****Visit the 30-Minute Blog Challenge to read more posts or find out how to join in.*****

Well, I missed the beginning of the Spring Reading Thing 2009 start date by a few days two weeks, but that’s okay because I have until June 20th to read everything on my list.

I actually wasn’t sure what to put on my list, mainly because I read constantly. For example, I listed all the books I currently have out of the library, all chosen very quickly since I only had about 15 minutes the last time I was there.

However, they are due in two weeks; I will have no trouble reading them all by then; and I’m sure there will be many more consumed read between now and June 20th. While I could keep adding to the list as the season progresses, I’m not sure that would do anything but make me embarrassed about how much time I spend reading.

Randomly Chosen Books from the Library:

• A Hundred Years of Happiness: A Fable of Life After War by Nicole Seitz
• Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler
• Dangerous Heart by Tracey Bateman
• Every Now & Then by Karen Kingsbury
• Healing Waters by Nancy N. Rue and Stephen Arterburn
• Lessons in Heartbreak by Cathy Kelly
• Love Starts with Elle by Rachel Hauck
• Luke’s Story: By Faith Alone by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
• Scrapping Plans by Rebeca Seitz
• The God Cookie by Geoffrey Wood
• The Sweet By and By by Todd Johnson

So then I started thinking that to really challenge myself, I should make a list of books that I have started but not finished or have felt that I should read but been avoiding. So that list is much shorter but will definitely give me a sense of accomplishment when it is completed.

My Challenge List:

To join in on the challenge or see what others are reading, visit Callapidder Days.