What Blogs I'm Reading Right Now

My blog reading has gotton a bit more eclectic in the last few months. With my husband graduating from college, looking for a permanent, full time job, possibly moving to a new locale, I have been finding and reading more financial blogs. With the possibility of a larger income than our current "starving-student" (tongue in cheek)bank account, we can think once again about investing for our future, replacing our car with a bigger, more dependable, family car and feathering our nest. I am drawn to these financial blogs that talk about how to save for the future, invest in the stock market, commodities or real estate, and save on the basics and luxuries of life. Some of these interesting blogs you can see now residing on my sidebar.

I'm also increasingly interested in learning other languages and traveling overseas. I've found some inspiring blogs of those who are braver than I and are living the traveling dream. And those who are learning other languages to go along with their travels. At this point in my life, and my husbands newly launching career, I don't know how this will all fit in with our goals, but its always there in the back of our minds. When the time is right, we'll know it ....

So how bout you? What's on your blog reading list these days? Has it changed in the last couple months?

Blogs: How Many Do You Read?

how many blogs do you read regularly? 3? 8? 10? 20? how many is too many? do you read all the blogs you highlight on your blogroll?

these were the questions flitting thru my brain tonite, as i scanned my blogroll for new content and realized that some blogs i skip and should really take off my blogroll. these aren't the only blogs i read. i also have blogs in my favorites folder. i also have bloglines, but don't check in there very often. i like actually going to the blogs and seeing the photos, colors, widgets, etc

so if i spend a couple hours reading 20+ blogs on the weekend, is that too much? anyone know someone who reads 30 or more blogs on a regular basis?

and how do you choose which blogs to read? what if you find a really great blog--do you add it to your blogrolls? what does a blog have to have to make the cut for you?

i'd love to know. leave me some comment love. i'll come visit your blog, if you do.

have you stumbled yet?

i found this neat site called blog coach a few weeks ago. i have been wanting to improve my blog and know i need to learn a few things. well when i was over there last week she had a post about the site stumble upon. have you heard of it? if not, you are in for a treat, esp if you like to surf the web and discover new interesting sites. but i must warn you, it is very addicting!

basically, how it works is you put in your interests, you download their toolbar and then you hit the button that says "stumble". they take you to a site that is in your interest survey and you can click on "i like it" or "i don't like it" and they start to gather info on what kinds of sites you are interested in. i have found lots and lots of sites on graphics (photoshop, etc) tutorials, travel -- did you know that chile has the largest swimming pool ever built and its right on the ocean!, very cool. cooking, crafting, knitting and sewing sites i didn't know existed and some that are ol favs of mine.

of course, blog coach shows you how to use stumble upon to increase traffic to your own site, but i'm just addicted to surfing around and haven't got to that point yet. did i mention its addictive! plus you can invite friends to join you and they have a community of sorts where you can meet others and compare sites you like.

so go check it out, and if you're a member of stumble let me know and we can stumble together .... its' great fun!

This n That Thursday

was moseying around the blogworld and came across one of my fav blogs. lisa writes, and boy does she write with great perspective. i have to link to her post on thinking, cuz it was so good. one of those that you wished you could have wrote yourself, but your brain isn't awake enough these days. so go here, to read her words. then come back and read the rest of the blather that i have to say ....

so you're back!

lisa mentioned john piper and i must say i see his name pop up alot. i need to find something of his to read. i'm always impressed when i see a quote of his. anyone have any recommendations on what to dive into first? i have found with not having cableland anymore i do have time to read and i actually do read a bit. not as prolifically as i did before #1 son came along, but .... you know.

last nite i drug #1 son to the thrift store. i found a cute pair of khaki green shorts for him. i think they should fit--i'll have to get him to try them on. i found a shirt for me and a couple patterns. clothes are probably the only thing we need right now. i'm trying to declutter for the move, but clothes are always a necessity. next on the list are sandals for #1 son and husband, undergarments for me, did i mention how much i hate shopping for bras? but it can't be put off any longer. and some new jeans for husband. i'm not much of a shopper if i can get away with it, but some things have to be done.


well, i told you it was blather. come back later and maybe i'll have something witty, deep or at least acceptable to share ... we can only hope!

Thankful Thursday

this week i thot i would highlight several bloggers that i am thankful for. tho i started my seed story blog back in '06 i didn't find out there was this huge bloggy community of christian wives, mothers and gals until last summer when i was surfing around one day. i felt like i had found a bunch of kindred spirits who live all over the country and even the world! what a treasure the internet is.

so i want to introduce a few of these kindred spirits to you:

carrie has a great title for her blog. "with all that i've been given" isnt' that great? she is a young mom with a one year old son. she loves her family, practices hospitality and shares some great recipes. she ministers to young girls, which gives her extra brownie points in my book. go visit carrie's blog

another blog title i love is cindy's at "still His girl" referring to both the Lord and her husband. her husband has his own blog and they are both a hoot. cindy is that girl back in highschool that you wanted for your best friend: fun, cool, nice, funny, extroverted, coming up with lots of great ideas and has tons of energy. when i grow up i want to be cindy! besides her fun side she also has a serious side which endears her to me. she's willing to be real and doesn't pretend to be perfect (even tho i know she must be!)

monica from the homespun heart has a heart for her family, home and hospitality. i love reading about her 2 little ladies (ages 3 and 18 mo) and her newborn son. plus they live in south carolina and since i would love to move to north carolina i get to live down in the south thru her blog. monica shows her strategies for feeding her family well on a budget, cleaning up the clutter that accumulates, how she makes her home more homey with her feminine touches. she is serious about her walk with the Lord and makes balancing all her demands look (almost) effortless. maybe we can move to south carolina and i can be her n'bor???

kathy and her husband, tim,co-write their blog "the duckabush blog." they live in western wa, my stomping grounds growing up. when i need a reminder of what i'm missing i just have to wander over to their blog and be reminded of the rain that i got away from, the beautiful pics of mt rainier that i miss seeing on a regular basis. kathy homeschools her brood, which i had always planned to do if we had had the brood we had planned on, instead of our special boy that God gave us. so i get to homeschool vicariously thru her blog. one of the reasons i like kathy's blog is that she includs lots of photos and she posts every day. and if she doesn't blog, she has bribed her husband to blog with added computer time for his obsession. i'm so glad my husband doesn't read my blog. if he knew that tim had a set amount of computer time and had to do something to earn more time, well, just say it wouldn't be pretty around here if something similiar was instigated.

there are a ton more that are in my fav file, but those are the ones i go to regularly to catch up on their lives. go visit these wonderful blogs and let me know what your "must view daily" blogs are.

one cool blog

i heard about this website a couple days ago, but didn't check it out. its a blog about crockpot cooking. this gal is posting about using her crockpot every day of 2008. at first i thot it was a bit of overkill. i love my crockpot and i use it regularly, but really, every day??? but then i stumbled upon a review of the site and thot i should at least give it a look. and what do you know? its a great site!

crockpot lady has been true to her word, posting her experiments and showing the evidence in bold big color. i like that she hasn't limited her crockpotting to just dinner entrees. she has tried desserts, breakfast breads, and other ideas. so go check out the crockpot lady and see what she's cooking up next.

the dead raised ...

as i was looking at blogs over the past couple days, i stumbled across a blog i had not seen before. meandering through .... is the work of christin, a lovely christian gal with a beautiful family. but what caught my attention was her post about a letter she had recieved from a ywam friend of hers. she gave me permission to post a few paragraphs of it and to link to the whole post. i strongly recommend you take the time to jump over to christin's blog and read the whole thing. i was greatly blessed to see how the Lord worked in the situation. i can only imagine the impact for the kingdom this must be having in the village and surrounding areas as word gets out of what the Lord has done!

This is a testimony from an old YWAM friend, Lubens. I'm going to set the stage before using his words....

Lubens, a Native Haitian, was leading a SST (Season of Service and Training...a ywam summer "camp"geared towards middle- and high-schoolers) to Jacmel, Haiti. The first morning they were in Jacmel, a man came to Lubens asking him for help.

The man was a witch doctor.

His wife was extremely sick, having been cursed by another witch doctor. This man had done everything he could...seen all sorts of doctors, spent all of his money. But nothing worked. Feeling great shame that he could not heal his own wife, he left his town to move to the town of Jacmel.

and here is the link to the rest of the story, please go read it! you won't be sorry you took the time ....