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Labels: Wordless Wednesday

I enjoyed all the entries for this week's L.E.N.S. photo challenge, I love animals- so do my kids, and we 'oohed and awwed' over all of them!

Here are this week's winners!

1) Joy @ My Home in the Smokies


there was just something about this photo, the big eyes, the cuteness, how you framed this shot..

2) Michelle @ So, I Married a Mennonite



she captured the theme of animals as friends, and I love how close she got, filling the frame almost entirely with the subjects.

Thank you, everyone who entered! The upcoming theme is "numbers" and the week after will be "red, white, and blue" -if you look on my side bar, I will keep upcoming themes listed there.

keep the fantastic photos coming!

Labels: Lens winners

So, the Home crew went vacationing in Solvang, Ca..and then camping. Here are some of the fun things we found to do...

Labels: trips

Welcome to the LEarning Never Stops photo challenge, hosted here on Saturdays.

The theme this week is "Our Animal Friends", please sign into the linky with your entry. Remember to visit at least 3 other entries. Two winners will be announced & displayed on Tuesday night, this linky will close Sunday night at 10 pm.

Labels: Lens

Solvang, Ca was our destination choice for our summer family vacation. It's less than a 4 hour drive from Orange County.

A close-to-home vacation spot has several advantages for the large family

• less expensive. -no plane tickets, car rentals or hotel stays for the trips in and out of destination.
• a quick trip home. I love to travel, but I am also a homebody. Sky is the same, as are several of our kids...after a few days of excitement, we are ready to go home. Now. Right now.
• less time away means saving on pet sitting, if you need that sort of thing.
• if things are not going well, you can pack up and head on home.

Labels: trips

Labels: trips, Wordless Wednesday

I said I'd pick TWO winners, so I will...but it is hard picking just two. I loved these summer entries, they all captured the feeling/warmth/tastes of summer! Here are the winners this week:

1) Lego Boy from Missionary Mama

I loved the perspective on this shot, how she got down on his level, and of course the subject, boy playing with his beloved legos- summery fun!


2) Lake Summer from Nuz News

The lake in the background, the sunglasses, the healthy, summery golden glow on her face- it all shouts "summer fun"! and it's so joyful. Self portraits are a difficult shot to get, this one works.

Thank you everyone for participating! I hope you can join up next week for the theme,
"our animal friends". Happy Summer :)

Labels: Lens winners

Just because I was tooo busy yesterday,but never-fear, here they are!

• First, my friend Janae is doing a meme called Flashback Friday. I've been rather a bad friend, and keep forgetting to join up...or like last week, I was camping...so I am going to try to redeem myself and give it a shout-out here! Janea's blog is Pink Moss, click over to visit- and be sure to go back on Friday!

• Darth Vader cookies. You know you have to do them now, to be the cool mom. From Bake at 350 via We are THAT family (thanks!)bonus: she gives you directions for icing, but she says they look cool without, too- if you are more the lazy mom, like moi...

• Eggs Benedict for Father's day. Sky has off and on expressed an interest in trying eggs benedict, looked at those special pans-but had so far, not tried them. So, I whipped up a batch for Father's day. For someone who is not a great cook, this is huge. huge. I turned to the Pioneer Woman for help, of course. Her recipe did not disappoint. -Pioneer Woman Cooks Egge Benedict recipe here
  

• Our new show is Dr. Who on BBC America. The new, 2010 one. We usually only have time for 1 show, we just ended our House run from netflix, before that it was Monk. We just stumbled onto Dr. Who, and we are hooked. It's Sci-Fi, adventure, mystery, British and scary all rolled into one. It's a bit too scary for our kids, we save it for after bedtime. My fav episode so far, "The weeping angels" - had me looking behind me for a few days, creepy.
  

Happy Monday!

The LEarning Never Ends photo challenge for Saturday, June 19th is now live!

This weekend, the theme is "Summer". Share a shot that says "summer" to you.
Linky closes Sunday night, 10 pm pacific time. *Remember to visit at least 3 other entries, and if you do any edits, we would love to know what you did, and how.

Look on the sidebar to see upcoming themes***

Labels: Lens

Labels: family, field-trips, Jen's world

I've been sharing a bit about my experiences at
CBC '10- The Casual Blogger Conference.
(click on the CBC label at the bottom of this post to see earlier posts on this)

The closing session ended with Courtney Kendrick -aka*CJane speaking.
I am a big fan of her blog C Jane Enjoy it- I enjoy her writing style, her sense of humor and her spunk. Lately, I've been loving her spunk. I am not a spunky person mostly-I'm pretty quiet...I have to say that I admire Courtney's spunk/joy of living, her huge personality (she just sparkles with personality) but,most of all, I admire how she seems to forget about herself and just have fun- and makes sure others are having fun. Click over to see a video on her blog that illustrates what I mean about her spunk/personality **CJane sings Christmas song

I started reading CJane because I heard about her sister and the accident, I remain a reader of CJane, because I love words- and beside being funny and quirky, she makes art with words.

This post- "Unrequited"

...As I watch Gigs follow Lucy around, insisting that all her attention belongs to himself, I am more convinced of my personal theory about having sons. A boy needs to be constantly in love. ....Of course I am finding out that the other part of my theory is that the mother falls just as hard for her son....

-which she read aloud to us, -had me crying at CBC10 - and missing my boy.
(click the title to read)
go read it, I promise it's worth it.

Labels: cbc10

Labels: homeschool, homeschool planning

Labels: Wordless Wednesday

Wow, this week was a hard one to choose the winners- well, all the weeks have been a little hard, but this week it was very difficult to just choose 2 winning photos. Sure, technical and/or artistic skill grabs me, but beyond that- a great display of the theme also grabs me. We had so many entries that just shouted "nature is my classroom" even if technically not an incredible shot...

Here are the winners for this week!

1. Melissa at Missionary Mama. Beyond this shot at the beach being beautiful in composition and beauty, I love, love the intense concentration on this little one's face as he considers nature.



2. Lizzie at A Work in Progress. oh how I love the different, beautiful shades of green, and the two children sharing together about something out there.

Congratulations! I hope you will all come back and play next week!

The theme/challenge for this Saturday will be "Summer"

We are heading into summer, for many this is the end of the school year, or for many homeschoolers, a break time or the change into a lighter study load. Catch a shot that either yells "summer!" to you..or reflects the change in learning routines.

I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Labels: Lens

The LEarning Never Stops photo challenge is up until Sunday night, 10 p.m.

I hope you join us! Please remember to visit at least 3 other entries, and if you do any edits, we would love to hear what you did and how.

Winners will be announced Tuesday night.

Labels: Lens, nature

At the CBC10 conference, I think I took the most notes at the talk on SEO by Sarah Kimmel of Tech4mommies.com

I actually took a few pages of notes...so I'll just report back on a few points that really jumped out at me:

• use google's keyword tool for adwords to see how simple changes in your wording can make huge differences in traffic.
• always chose to open a link in a new window, do not send people away from your site.
• make sure your keywords are relevent and popular
• when hyperlinking, never use the words "this post' or "here" ( um yeah, guilty...)
• get and use a google webmaster account

she went through a list of "worst practices" here are a few;

• don't have primary navigation that requires flash/java
• don't use mostly or all images with no text
• don't target too many keywords
• don't participate in link farms.

Jaime Chase presented on Product review, here are a few top things I wrote down...I see I was pretty note-heavy with this discussion, too;

• Have a media kit
• use images and or video of product, or you using the product
• a buyer description of who the product is for, how to use it
• have a call to action- where to find it, a giveaway...
• be descriptive in your review, do not be vague

The Casual Blogger Conference was all about learning how to do better...how to blog better, how to use and take better photographs, how to find your voice. It was also about connecting to other bloggers- the social part of the conference was the life of the conference, really. Thursday night we had a girl's night out event- it was a great way to mix and meet, I met several bloggers finally in person, and also met many new friends. Friday night's social included a concert..frankly, as an introvert, I was a little fried by Friday night. So, I headed back to my room after dinner with the Blog Frog team and..what else, ...blogged, talked to Sky on the phone and recharged.

to be cont...

Labels: cbc10

Labels: homeschool, homeschool planning

Labels: Wordless Wednesday

I enjoyed viewing all the entries for this week's
The LEarning Never Stops photo challenge, I hope you all had the chance to visit the other entries!
This week's winners are:

1. Claudia @ Splittergewitter


and

2. SyracuseDoula-another crunchy birth blogger




I enjoyed visiting the different entries, loved seeing all the learning-together going on!

Next week's challenge is: Nature is my classroom

-don't be shy, be creative- and remember that learning is not easily defined, kids are always learning, even on a walk, or exploring a pond...get your camera's out!

Labels: Lens, photo challenge

I attended my very first blog conference Memorial Day weekend- and yes, I'm just now sitting down to blog about it..life's been a little hectic since I got back!

I chose The Casual Blogger Conference, since it seemed to be just the right size for this little blogger who doesn't swim with the big bloggers. Beside learning about blogging better, blogging platforms and SEO, there were also workshops on photography, niche blogging and sharing your faith in blogging. It was a small conference, with tickets limited to around 400 attendees.

The thought of a really big conference in a really big city, like blogher or bliss kind of scares me..but this, I figured, I could do. And I did!





Here is a pic snapped of me tweeting from the cbc10 flikr stream. I have to say, that I finally came to a firm handle on twitter and all it can do-all conference related.



I'm a little shy, the thought of going to a conference all by myself was a little scary. I was really looking forward to meeting Janae in real life, after connecting as blog-friends. We have a lot in common, we definitely connect on a kindred-spirit level; meeting her was a big highlight of the conference for me. Love ya, Janae!! :)

She has 6 daughters! I know, I don't believe it either!..look how young she is!


The opening meeting was given by Rustin from the blogfrog community. He was a great speaker, very personable. A few points from his talk that stayed with me:

• find your niche first, then expand
• do your homework -pass on the bad ideas and grab the good
• partner-up
• pivot-keep one foot on what you have learned, and when your original plan does not work out, use the other foot to change direction
• sacrifice to get to the next level
• don't get discouraged -there is no such thing as an overnight success.

It was very insightful listening to Rustin talk about how he started blogfrog. I've been part of the blogfrog community from pretty early on- though not at the very early beginning- but early enough to see it really grow in an explosive way. I really enjoyed hearing how he started it, the different ideas and failures he had, and how big it has gotten; their success is very inspiring.

Labels: blogging, cbc10

Colors is the theme for this week's the LEarning Never Stops photo challenge.

Enter your link to your entry below, remember to link to your photo, not your main page. Photo must be learning related in some way- and remember to visit at least 3 other entries.
See complete rules *here-Intro to L.E.N.S. photo challenge

join up!



*Next week's theme is "nature is my classroom"

Labels: Lens

A funny thing happened the other day, I dropped off our labradoodle for her first ever professional grooming session...










Imagine my shock when I picked
her up, and was handed a
standard poodle!

Under all that fluffy, curly fur was a glam-girl.

Our oldest flat out did not believe it was our Emma. I had to run her through her tricks!



I admit I was a little afraid of what my construction/steel-toe boot-guy was going to say...he actually liked it, he liked how clean and neat she looked.

Spa day for dogs...so when is my day??

Labels: Emma-doodle dog

I am writing today at a new website, The M.O.B. Society (for moms of boys by moms of boys). Click over to read about using parables and character stories to reach the hearts of your boys.

Labels: devotional, homeschool

Labels: Emma-doodle dog, Wordless Wednesday

We have the two winners of the L.E.N.S. photo challenge!
First, I have to say that it was really hard choosing just two photos- there were so many great entries. I loved, loved, loved- seeing so many photos with shelves of books behind the kids!

Here are the two winners chosen for this week,







A big thank you to all who participated this week! I hope you come back on Saturday, when the challenge will be *Colors*

see you Saturday!

Labels: Lens