Hangin' On {For} The Ride ...

I want to post ... sooooo much ... but I've got so little time at the moment. I'll get myself sorted and be back to posting regularly soon !! Who knew having two children in school, swimming, tennis, working five days a week, organizing stuff for the missions month at church, taking on a new job, training and setting up a new system for checking people in, training people to help me, doing my current job, having a husband go overseas for a week and taking care of a home would leave so little time to blog !!!

Be back soon.

PS ... it's hard, very hard, to eat unprocessed at the moment. We're doing our best but have made some great realizations. I'll write about them soon !! (over at the beans blog ...)

Just checking in ...

Life ... is busy at the moment.
I'm having to make choices about my time.
Blogging falls way down on the priority list ... and this is ok.

I'll be glad when the list isn't so long though and I have more time to spend in blog land again !

{systems -n- junk} {and Corner View too !!}

I have to share my latest successful system with you. I love systems. I love when I find systems that work. I go through a lot that don't to get to ones that do ...

This one ... totally works ! Anyone who knows me well, knows that I love to spend time in the tub ! Serious amounts of time. Like, the water goes cold and needs to be topped up (multiple times) sort of time !! I love to read in the tub. But ... I also like to do other stuff. Like ... menu plan or read catalogs or journal or draw or you get the picture ...

Well ... those things can be tricky when surrounded by water. I always look at those 'bath buddy' things in the stores but they are so small and impractical and EXPENSIVE !! The other night, I wanted to read the Ikea catalog and do a bit of 'life planning' in the bath. I was racking my brain when I remembered that we had these shelves from an old entertainment unit out in the garage. I thought it might be the perfect size and it so was !!! Ahhhhh ... a new system ! And I love it !

I might even be able to knit in the tub now ...

WARNING : ABRUPT CHANGE OF SUBJECT TAKING PLACE NOW ...

After my little post about google reader, I decided to take your advice and try the 'next' button. Oh my goodness !!!! I.LOVE.IT ! Seriously. It makes blog reading so easy and it's perfect because you get to see the posts in the actual blogs which is heaps better than just seeing them in google reader !! The funniest thing happened though ... The way it works is that you just hit next and it takes you to the next blog in your subscriptions, until you either quick clicking next or get to the end. I was clicking away, enjoying all of your blogs when this message came up ...

And when I clicked on End of the Internet, I got this message ....

Totally cracked me up !!

If you'd like to try the next button you can do it by going into your google reader, clicking the 'Settings' tab at the top right of your page and then going into 'Goodies' ... you'll see an option for the next button ...

There is also a subscribe button that I've been using for ages now ... I'd recommend it too !

I will leave you with this ... Funky Lime Pizza. We had it for dinner Monday night and it was freaking delicious ! It was a bit of a risk. I mean, seriously, who would have thought that squeezing lime on top of a pizza would be good ?! I don't know ... but I'm glad they did !! YUM ! Alia wasn't totally sold on this ... but she ate it. Jono on the other hand asked if I could make another one in the morning to send in his lunch ! Lucky for him I'd made two so there was plenty for his lunch ... and mine, and Rory's ! And it was just as good cold as it was hot !!

PS ... if you haven't left a comment in my JUST OUT OF CURIOSITY POST yet, would you ? I'm at 35 comments ... only 75 to go !! ha ha

PPS ... I just remembered that today is Wednesday (yes, Jane it happens to me too !) and time for Corner View ... I think I've shared a few secrets here in this post ... Seriously, that Lime Pizza is a pretty well kept secret that needs to be shared !! So .... pop on over to my cooking blog and discover it !! This is the last Corner View til September ... I'll miss my weekly trips around the world ... see you all in a month !!

:: answers ::

Wow ! I am so thrilled at the results of my last post ! So far, I've got 23 comments, and if we take away two because Mari and Tina commented twice, then that's 21 people who commented ! I'm trying to make it to 109 comments (at least), as that is how many people I have subscribed ... go read the post, you'll understand. Out of those 21 comments, I've come across FOUR NEW BLOGS ! FOUR !! Isn't that crazy ? I always visit the blogs of people who comment but these guys hadn't commented before ... so, thanks for leaving me a comment to let me know you read, and so I could stop by and visit you !! ('cept for Susie ... do you have a blog ?)

ANYWAY ... some of you had some google reader questions. I'm going to do my best to answer them for you. Google reader is a great way to keep all the blogs you love at your finger tips. Instead of going through each blog and seeing if there is a new post, you just open your reader and it shows you all the new posts !! It's wonderful !! I love it. From there, you can click on the post and it will take you to it so you can comment if you like ...

Here's how mine looks. I've got the blogs I follow sorted into categories. You can see the categories under "subscriptions" in the left hand column ...

To find out how many subscribers you have, just subscribe to your own blog. To subscribe, just click on "add a subscription" (right under google reader in the left hand column below) and type in the address. Once you've got your blog there, you can click on "show details".

I've circled it for you ...

The view will change and show you some details ... here's mine. Oh ! Look ! I have 68 subscribers now ! That's one more than yesterday !! So, I'm going to have to up that to 110 comments !! ha ha

Hope that answers everyone's questions ...

Want to see the living room ?

We hung my painting yesterday. I'm not sure that it's finished but I've decided that it's going to stay the way it is. Rory loves it and I don't know that I will love it even if I keep working on it so ... it's finished !

I still need to get some cushions and I think we're leaning towards getting a rug to go under the coffee table ... what do ya'll think ?? Rory thinks that we should turn the coffee table to be the other way now that we have the painting there. Yes ? No ?

Yeah ... the painting IS crooked in this photo. Rory fixed that ! We both kept walking past going "is that straight ?" It wasn't. But it is now !!

There is a small lamp on the end table too. I added that after I took the photo ...

I like how it is shaping up !!

Well, I think that is all for today. Tomorrow I bring you the pantry overhaul .................................

:: just out of curiosity ::

i use google reader to keep track of when my favorite bloggers have posted new blogs
i am actually subscribed to my own blogs as well
not because i can't remember if i have posted or not, although my memory is almost that bad,
but because i was curious as to how many people 'subscribe' to my blog

according to google reader there are 67 of you
add to that the 7 that are subscribed in bloglines
and then the 32 who follow along in blogger
and we're looking at 106 people

i wonder though how many actually read regularly
i know i subscribe to lots of blogs and i don't always read all of them
and i don't always comment either
there are some blogs that i read that i never comment on

lots of them are cooking blogs and i just scroll through the titles til one grabs my interest
same with the crafty blogs i subscribe to
and the photography blogs

i have blogs that i read daily as well ... obviously my favorite ones
i should do a post to share them with you

anyhoo ...

i thought i'd do a little experiment
if you subscribe to this blog in any way, would you leave a quick comment and let me know how
I wonder if i can come anywhere close to finding out who all 106 of you are !!

ps ... i've been busy organizing
i'll be showing you my pantry overhaul this week
and i'm hoping to get the kids toy room done too

oh ... and we hung my painting (!!!)
i can't wait to show you
and we got some new furniture
it's all happening in the decorating department !
i'll post on that this week as well

pps ... the flowers in the photos
MAGNOLIAS
aren't they gorgeous ?
they are blooming at the moment and i'm lovin' em !!

New Look Simple Beauty

What do you think ?

I spent yesterday afternoon changing things up a bit and I'm really happy with it !

The side bar has always been a bit busy for me but I have always loved having all the links there so never got rid of it. But now ... all the links are at the bottom ! Thanks to 'ourblogtemplates.com' ... great site. You should check it out if you're wanting great FREE templates ! They've got heaps to choose from ! And plenty of help/tutorials to get you going !

It's still a work in progress. I want to have a few more tabs in my link bar at the top ... a blog roll and an 'about me' page are first on my list ! The blog roll may take a while ... I read a lot of blogs !! ha ha

Anyhoo ... just a quick note today. I've got lots happening ! We have a canine visitor staying for the weekend. Riley ... you may remember him, he's stayed with us before ...

Besides that, Rory and the kids are home for four days for the Easter long weekend, we've got a house to finish packing up, church, a day with extended family at the park, an AFL game, and as well ... we get to meet Karen and her family who will be in our neck of the woods visiting from New Zealand !! I'm so excited about this ! Karen and I met through blogging ( some of you will also know her from blogging ! ) a couple of years ago. She's the cousin of a great friend of our family too which makes it even neater ! Such a small world, isn't it ?

Sounds like a car pulling into my driveway ... better go !!

PS ... the car didn't pull into my driveway so I'm back but only quickly to share this cool site I just found. Tizag ... great to help you learn to read the HTML/CSS code in your templates ! I needed to change something, searched and found it on this site ! Check it out !!