My Friend Dan

I have several friends from college who home school.  One is Dan, who lives in the same town as my sister-in-law and her 2 kids.  He is a police officer who spoke 2 years ago at our local homeschooling conference about internet safety.  Earlier this year he took his family on a missionary trip to South Africa.  He is now in the process of switching careers and going back to South Africa as a full time missionary.  His wife is planning on continuing the home education of their children.  Here is a link to their blog, which you can also find on my blogroll starting today.

Blogging A to Z FAQs and a Puppyism

April was my first foray (actually I only wrote one a post not four) into the Blogging A to Z Challenge.

Today, I am going to tell you a few reflections about my experience there, Since it is now 12:00 a,m Friday which as you know is Half Past Kissing Time, I will give these reflections in fragment form. I will do this in Frequently Asked Question format, since I haven't done a FAQ's of Life segment ever so long

FAQ/Fragment # 1 What was it like?

A to Z was fantastic, fun and frenetic. It was also several words that don't begin with the letter F, but I was on a roll. Starting Sunday April the first and ending Monday April the thirtieth with the exception of the subsequent Sundays, I blogged about a word beginning with a different letter of the alphabet. I did this in alphabetical order, because that's the kind of guy I am.

FAQ/Fragment # 2 Did you plan ahead or just fly by the seat of your pants?

yes. The first few weeks were planned out ahead of time and many were written days in advance as I knew I would be very busy the first few days of April. After about mid month, I still had a few letters I was planning on doing, but many I decided the word and wrote the post just hours before the end of that day. I was also very busy the last few days of the month and that's the only time I got into major panic mode?

FAQ/Fragment # 3 What was your most unusual experience with the A to Z challenge?

My wife Amy sometimes will write an unsolicited post for me, as me. Often these are jokes, to get a reaction from me. Many of those never make it to the light of day. Sometimes, she will write something very poignant as me, often saying my thoughts better than I could. Well for the letter O, she did a post for me, as me. This post got more views than any of my other A to Z posts. The unusual thing is that it was called Original.

FAQ/Fragment #4 What was your greatest challenge with the challenge?

I dropped my laptop about two thirds through the challenge. I have still not gotten it back. This really created many problems with getting the challenge done.

FAQ/Fragment #5 How would you compare Blogging A to Z with NABLOPOMO?

NABLOPOMO is something that I've never really enjoyed. I have participated in it three times, completing it twice. The first time, I did it was my second month of blogging. It nearly ended my blogging career before it got off the ground. I was able to complete it again a year or so later, it was less stressful but not very fun for me.

Blogging A to Z was fun. I enjoyed following other blogs. I enjoyed getting more readers and more comments. I really enjoyed getting Sunday's off. Even with my busy April schedule, and my computer mishaps, I would definitely Blog A to Z again. Next year I might even enter from more than one of my blogs.

For more A to Z Blogging experience reflections click here.



Fragment # 6 Puppy on the Wagon

Today, technically yesterday, while the bigs (my name for our oldest 2 kids) were running an errand for me, I told puppy I would take her on a wagon ride.

Here's a snippet of conversation as I started getting ready to leave the house.

Me: Hey Puppy are you ready for our walk?

Puppy: I'm not walking, I'm riding.

Me: That's right. I'm walking and you're riding.

Puppy: You're exercising and I'm restercising.

For more Friday Fragments click here.

Rush to 100

I am giving away two sets of 50 state quarters.  One contest is closed,  The other will close as soon as I get 100 followers.  I will then choose winners fro both contests.    Guess whagt I have 99!  My 100th follower will get 100 entries to win the second set of quarters.  If they still don't win the quarters then they will get 10 state quarters instead. 

Please leave a comment after you have followed.