You Guys Are Great!

One of the things I love about writing a blog is the way that when life throws you something unexpected, friends just pour out of the woodwork.

Even friends you didn’t know were out there, the ones you haven’t met yet.

The last few weeks have been a key example.

You’ve stood by me and encouraged me while my health has put things on hold here again and again.

You’ve wished us all the best with our unexpectedly sudden house~hunting.

And with Mr Bump’s impending surgery, you’ve outdone yourselves.

You’ve poured your love and support for my family into a huge vat and mixed it all together with advice and information that we’ve really needed in the last few days.

Thank you, it’s been fantastic and I wanted to let you know that we all appreciate it.

PS ~

Mr Bump himself is quite excited about having surgery.

He’s been dancing around the house, singing “I’m sicker than you are” to Wren.

You Comment ~ I Follow

Ever seen those little doodads in people’s sidebars and wondered what the heck they were about? I used to think they were something to do with entrecard or something similar.

Turns out, it’s a new~ish blogging movement to make comment links count towards your search engine rankings.

Okay, it’s like this. A few years ago, Google got fed up with giving out GoogleLove to every Tom Dick & Harry with a comment~spamming~robot and came up with a new html attribute (read: tricky code), “no-follow”.

The search engines and blogging platforms clambered onboard in hopes that this would spell the end of comment spam forevermore.

As we all know, it didn’t work. And it also adversely affected those commenters who were genuinely taking part in the blogging community.

So bloggers taking part in the “You Comment ~ I Follow” movement remove the “no-follow” from their comments on their blogs and put up this cute little doohicky device to let others know about it.

There’s a number of ways to rid your blog of “no-comment” blues:

• Wordpress bloggers can use the Semiologic No_Follow plugin,
• Blogger users can alter their template code,
• Moveable Typers can disable No-Follow, too.

I’ve joined up because I think that one of the main points of comments is to build community and by spreading the linklove, we’re doing exactly that. If you need help making the changes, just give me a holler.

You can get a No-Follow badge and become a follower here.

Blogging Prompt #3

Today, how about tripping on over to Google and taking a squizz at what comes up for a search on “boomerang”?

Okay, now choose the 131st result and read it.

If it’s unthinkably inappropriate for some reason, try the 113th or 311th result.

That’s your inspiration for today, get creative and go to it!

Edited to add: ~My apologies that this didn’t publish on time. I got the date wrong when scheduling.

Blogging Prompt #2

Today’s prompt is: Laundry.

Walk into your laundry and look around.

Find the strangest item in there and write about it.

Or if you prefer, bemoan the unwashed mountain that you have just stumbled over.

Send me an email once you’ve published your post, and I’ll link to it here.

Revive Your Blog Mojo Here!

Thanks to overwhelming demand, I am delighted to bring you a brand~new section of Kidzarama, Blog Mojo.

Yes, all five of my readers asked for it, and now here it is!

What on earth have I started?

So, here’s how it will work.

• Each Tuesday I’ll post a sentence, a picture, a single word or a collection of unrelated words here.

It could be absolutely anything, depending on how silly or serious I’m feeling at the time.

• Any time you’re feeling kind of blah about writing something, you can call by and take a look through the latest prompts.

• Then, feeling totally inspired and reinvigorated, you will be able to go back to your own wonderful blog and spew forth pure gems of wisdom and joy.

• You don’t have to publish your post on any particular day. Just send me an email when your post is up, and I’ll link to it here at Kidzarama.

Everyone goes through patches of writer’s block. We could all use something outside of ourselves to reignite the spark at times.

I’ll probably be using this as much as anyone.

If you’d like to link back, it would be greatly appreciated.
Want to use the image on the right?

Just copy and paste this html gobbledegook into the html of your post.

<a href=”http://www.kidzarama.com/blogmojo/”><img src=”http://www.kidzarama.com/images/tuesblogmojo125.bmp”></a>

Oh, I nearly forgot what with all the excitement and trumpet fanfares…

Today’s prompt is the following sentence:

I’d rather they didn’t sell them in packs of twelve…

Could be a rant, could be funny or wistful.
I’m looking forward to seeing where you can take it.

These people have used this particular prompt:

Lauren at Can You be a Part of My Life.

I done got my blogging mojo back.

After weeks of sickness, hosting issues and blah inspiration I am finally back in the groove.

I am inspired, verbose and um, I forgot the word I was going to use next.

Needless to say it wasn’t one that means “I have a great memory”, or indeed any memory at all. Where was I?

Oh yeah, blogging. Mojo.

So nice to walk into a room and be hit with ideas to die for (instead of a coughing fit). I am relieved, because for a while there I thought I might be *gasp* losing interest in blogging.

I know this shocks you, because how could anyone lose interest in blogging???

So I’m sure you’re just as relieved to learn that your world view remains firmly rooted in reality, with nary a sign of being undermined.

It’s important to be realistic.

So realistically, this has a lot to do with the blog makeover that Shauna has been working on for me.
Do you like it so far?

By the way, I hope your blogging is going well for you all, too.
Let me know if you’re having a mental block and I’ll throw you a prompt, free of charge.

My brain is overflowing…

In fact, I’m thinking of adding a daily blogging prompt here. What do you all think of the idea?

Dona Nobis Pacem

Welcome to this year’s first Blog Blast for Peace, and my first one ever. Yes *blush* I’m a virgin no longer.

Peace is such a broad topic that it’s been hard to fix on something specific to write about.

I thought about being flip and discussing the brawls we have in the UpsideDownHouse each school morning, when Wren refuses to get out of bed.

But it seemed too trivial when I think about what each morning must be like for families in war~torn countries like Sudan, Somalia, Congo and the Ivory Coast. And that’s just in Africa.

more »

Candid Carrie & Shauna~the~Great

I. am. so. lucky.

I just wanted to tell you that.

I have two beeeeooooteeefool, healthy children.

I have WonderHubby, who puts up with my tiredness and grumpiness (especially in the morning).

And now, I have the honour of being the winner of the fabtastic Blog Makeover Competition from the amazingly generous and wonderful Carrie.

more »

Do you sign your name “Use a different account”?

I do. It’s the “in” thing around the blogosphere at the moment.

Want to join in? It goes like this.

You visit a blogger um, blog.

You read something really serious and sad and feel like crying for the poor woman.

You write a heartfelt response and sign it “take care of you”.

Then you enter the kfhdfhd word verification code and hope you read it correctly this time.

Underneath, your blogger account name is on display, but you choose the option where you can enter your name & URL instead.

more »