A Slice of Smith Life: Every 50th Follower Feature

Showing posts with label Every 50th Follower Feature. Show all posts

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Featuring My 300th Follower !

8:21 PM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

Ever since I featured my 100th follower, I decided to feature every 50th follower from now on because every blogger has a story and a life to share and I love letting others share their world with me and others! You can read about my 150th follower, my 200th follower and my 250th follower and now it's time to introduce my 300th follower!

Michelle at Adventures in Home Education recently became my 300th follower through the No Ordinary Blog Hop that I co-host with Lynda, Anna-Marie, Melissa, Christine, and Kara. I asked Michelle a few questions to get to know her a little better. Below are her answers in red.

1. How long have you been blogging? I have been blogging for 2 years come December.

2. What part of the world do you blog from? Hot and Sunny Arizona!

3. How did you find my blog to become the 300th follower? I found you from the "No Ordinary Blog Hop"!

4. How did you decide on the "theme" of your blog? Since we are homeschoolers it seem only natural to have a "schoolish" theme. :)

5. How long have you been homeschooling? We have just started our 2nd year.

6. Why did you decide to homeschool? Hubby and I decided to homeschool because our oldest was struggling in Math to the point where the schools were not equipped to help her. We decided to bring her home and after having success homeschooling her we have decided that we will continue and homeschool all our children!

7. What do you like best about blogging? I started blogging as a way to journal our homeschooling adventures but it has turned into so much more! Now I blog not only to chronicle our learning but, hopefully, to help other homeschooling mamas as well!

8. Do you find any challenges with maintaining a blog? If so, what are they? My biggest challenge with maintaing my blog is remembering to post my "Workbox Wednesday" link-up each week! ;)

9. If you had 3 wishes what would they be? Wow...this is a hard one. Let's see...1) That my children will have a strong testimony of Christ.

2) That all three of my children will grow up happy, healthy, productive members of society. 3) That we will know where we will be living when our lease is up in December!

10. Where is your favorite place to be with your family? At home. We love being together in the comfort of our home.

I encourage you to visit Michelle's blog, Adventures in Home Education, and see all the wonderful things she is doing with her children and world! Thanks again Michelle for following my blog! It's been great getting to know you a little better!

Join August's No Ordinary Blog Hop (NOBH) by clicking on button below!

Labels:Every 50th Follower Feature | 3 comments

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Featuring My 250th Follower!

10:22 PM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

Kara linked up to the No Ordinary Blog Hop (NOBH) that I am co-hosting with Lynda and Anna-Marie and it was through NOBH that I first "met" Kara.

I asked Kara some questions to get to know her a little better. Below are the questions and her answers are in green.

1. How long have you been blogging?

Our blog has been up and running since December 12, 2008. That would've been our daughter Selah's first birthday and I needed a place to write and process feelings after she died, but as far as blogging consistently, I've really only been blogging regularly since the beginning of February 2011. I put myself into a self-imposed Facebook "timeout" and decided to focus more on blogging.

2. What part of the world do you blog from?

We're in the Portland, Oregon area (Pacific Northwest) and we love it here--mountatins, oceans, forests, high desert, lush farmland---very wet, but also very green and beautiful!

3. How did you find my blog to become the 250th follower?

I found you through No Ordinary Blog Hop--which I want to thank you, Lynda, and Anna-Marie for hosting every month...also for taking the time to come visit my blog and leave feedback (very encouraging to a new blogger).

4. How did you decide on the "theme" of your blog?

The "theme" of our blog has shifted over time. From a visual standpoint--it's mostly green, which is my favorite color, but I clearly still need help with the whole layout (I'm on a slow learning curve in that arena). As far as the content, when our daughter died from the disease Pompe in 2008, it was helpful for me to write out my feelings and thoughts. When a child dies, there often is a hanging silence that seems to smother communication--people don't know what to say and at least with me, I didn't want to constantly bring it up--so it was hard to know when and where to share. But the blog became a safe place for me to share and others to respond. Over time and through God's healing, I blog less about Selah's death...but it will always have an impact on what I write. Currently--our other 4 kiddos provide LOTS of inspiration for writing. And as I grow as a writer and blogger, my biggest desire it keep myself real before God--to write for His approval, as He leads.

5. How long have you been homeschooling?

We are into our second year of official homeschooling (I think most involved mamas are homeschooling, whether they know it or not). We have one in 4th, one in 3rd, and one in 1st. The biggest challenge-- is the one in diapers though! Figuring out how to keep "Miss Busy"....busy...during the homeschool hours has been a big challenge for me.

Our homeschool scenario is a bit different--the kiddos attend a school that runs M/W/F and then everyone in the whole school homeschools on T/TH.

So--I'm always a little hesitant to claim the "homeschool badge" because it is a lot of hard, but fun, but hard, but valuable, but hard work (for those of you who homeschool the full 5 days a week--I'm seriously impressed!).

6. Why did you decide to homeschool?

My husband and I really want to be involved in the education of our children (and it was nearly impossible for us to sufficiently keep up on their learning when all three of the big kids were gone every day, all day and then I'd have to dig through their backpacks after school to figure out what they did and did not understand).

We also want to bring God into conversations and school work in an authentic way all throughout the day. We don't want God compartmentalized to Sundays and church. We want to be able to talk about Him when studying history, writing, science or whatever the subject may be. As the number of our children has grown, we've also made a concentrated effort to avoid a hectic lifestyle--and homeschool has helped with this (though life still feels hectic to me :). Also, in 2009 our oldest daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia and a couple other learning disabilities through a local Children's Hospital, so when it comes to her education, I need to be very involved. She has been very successful in our current set up and I'm so thankful for the options we have through homeschool.

7. What do you like best about blogging?

Best? Probably the actual writing...and then that "push the publish button" when it all kind of comes together. A close second though is meeting new friends. I have met lots of interesting, encouraging people in the past 8 weeks and even a few kindred spirits.

8. Do you find any challenges with maintaining a blog? If so, what are they?

Finding balance--I'm slowly learning that I don't have to post every day and real life overrides responding to a comment. I also want to make sure that I'm not driven or deflated by the responses of readers. Our page views have shot up in the last 8 weeks because when you start at zero...800 in a day feels pretty exciting! But--I don't want blogging to be about comments or page views...I want to write what God puts on my heart and leave it at that.

9. If you had 3 wishes what would they be?

I'm going to change this to "3 superficial wishes" if that's okay? (Because it's too early in the morning to think too deeply).

#1) A full week to sleep in as late as I want, with my own nap time carved out if needed.

#2) Someone to come completely clean and organize our entire house and then a "touch up" crew that would return weekly.

#3) The ability to eat whatever I want without considering how many laps-around-the-track I just negated.

10. Where is your favorite place to be with your family?

Together.

Period.

I really mean that.

I think after Selah died it shifted how much I value that together time.

I hope you will stop by Kara's corner of the world and say "Hi!" over at The Chuppies. You can read more about her and her beautiful family on her page, Who are the Chuppies? If you have adopted children and/or have a child in Heaven, you may be especially interested in getting to know Kara better. Kara's posts are faith-filled, inspiring and heart warming through all the triumphs and trials in her life. I hope you will be touched as I was after visiting Kara's blog. Thank you Kara for becoming my 250th follower! See you in blogland!

Please join Lynda, Anna-Marie and myself for April's No Ordinary Blog Hop (NOBH). You can link up any or all your posts for the entire month of April. The blogger with the most posts will be awarded a Star Blogger Award! Click below for details!

Labels:Every 50th Follower Feature,No Ordinary Blog Hop | 14 comments

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Featuring my 200th Follower !

4:00 AM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

Recently, I "met" my 200th follower! I appreciate all the visitors that stop by to read my posts and I love hearing comments from my readers. Your comments encourage me to keep posting topics that are important to me, but I also hope my blog posts will be encouraging and interesting to you.

I would LOVE to get to know ALL my past, present, and future followers because each one has a story to tell and something to offer in blog world and in the "real" world. I know this is not possible due to time, but I would like to feature my 200th follower to get to know her a little better and share her blog with you.

So my 200th follower is.... Erica at bassgiraffe's Thoughts ! Erica hopped onto my blog from the Friday Blog Hop where my blog was featured at the #6 spot on the Linky List. Erica left a comment on this post and I always enjoy visiting my visitor's blog. Erica's blog is adorable, bright and cheery and she has lots of great giveaways and reviews going on. I am amazed how Erica and so many other bloggers do such a great job keeping up with so many reviews and giveaways on their blog! Erica has some great posts and currently she has a Filly Princess Review and Giveaway.

I emailed Erica some questions to get to know her a little better. Her answers are in purple.

1. How long have you been blogging?
I started my blog Dec 9, 2009 as a family blog, talking about my girls and at the end of March 2010 my blog became a review/giveaway blog

2. What do you blog about?
I mainly focus of reviews/giveaways that are family friendly and mainly for kids. I do still post about my kids/family stuff outside of reviews.

3. What part of the world do you blog from?
Waterloo, On, Canada

4. Your blog title is so unique and creative, how did you come up with your title? bassgiraffe (always together, always lowercase) started in 1999 when my brother hooked me up with email. Yes, I’ve only been using email for 11 years now. He asked what I wanted my user name to be and I told him I had no clue. He told me to think of my favorite things. I said, playing bass clarinet and giraffes. Then he said, there you go, put them together, but bassclarinetgiraffe was too long so we shortened it to bassgiraffe.
bass= bass clarinet, the instrument I’ve played since I was 10
giraffe= the animal I have loved since I was kindergarten, when the teacher said we will be coloring pictures of the animal that best represented us and since I was the tallest in class I picked giraffe.
So there you have it folks, bassgiraffe, all one word, all lowercase. Oh and NOT pronounced like bass as in the fish, bass as in bass clarinet

5. Do you celebrate Christmas? If so, what are some of your favorite Christmas traditions? If not, what do you like best about this time of year or season?
We do, we like to focus on the reason for the season, Jesus. And we always decorate the day after American Thanksgiving. I also love having family over.

6. What has been the best thing about blogging for you?

Of course reviewing items is always fun. But I also love challenging myself in writing/reading. I have learning disorders that make writing a challenge and I love it.

How do you give Joy to the World? Come join Lynda, Anna-Marie, and myself at our No Ordinary Blog Hop running through December! We would love to read how you give Joy to the World by adding your blog post(s) to the Linky list!

I give Joy to the World when I let others know about great blogs like Erica's at bassgiraffe's Thoughts ! I'm sure Erica would love to have you visit, read your comment and have you enter into one of her many giveaways! Enjoy!

Labels:Every 50th Follower Feature,giveaway,No Ordinary Blog Hop | 4 comments

Friday, September 24, 2010

My Every 50th Follower Feature!

4:00 AM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

Not too long ago, my Google Friend Connect (GFC) Follower total reached 100 so I thought it would be fun to feature my 100th follower and get to know her a little better. You can read my blog post here about Brenda at WV Stitcher, A Blog About Reading, Reviewing, and Stitchery, my 100th follower.

Getting to know Brenda was so much fun that I decided to not wait for another 100 followers, but to feature every 50th follower of my blog from now on. So this week, my 150th follower was Shelby at Homeschool Highway. She homeschools her children like I do and we use some of the same curriculum for our children. Shelby shares so many wonderful ideas with her readers as she travels on her "homeschool highway".

To get to know Shelby, I asked her the following questions and her answers are in red:

1. How long have you been blogging?

I have been blogging steady for a little over a year. I started my first blog, though, over two years ago when I had a life or death scare. It was very therapeutic for me to blog about it. I did not share the blog or post with anyone and after time I forgot I even started the blog. Over a year later I joined a yahoo group where so many of the women had blogs. I was inspired to create one as well. I began a homeschool blog to share all of the things that we do in our homeschool. I thought it would be a great way to keep those distant relatives up to date. Earlier this year I created a second blog to blog about the things in our live that are not strictly homeschool related, like my passion for taking pictures.

2. What part of the world do you blog from?

The Southern United States

3. How did you find my blog to become the 150th follower?

I believe it was through Anna-Marie's blog, Life's Adventures, when she awarded me the One Lovely Blog Award.

4. How did you decide on the "theme" of your blog?

When I began my blog my theme was all about our journey on the homeschool highway. I even had little nicknames for each of my kids (booster seat, student driver, etc.), but as I was needing to update the blog with the graduation of one of my children and other changes in our life, I got lazy and was short on time and picked one of the generic blog themes to make life easier. Some day I may go back to doing it all myself, but for now it is what it is.

5. How long have you been homeschooling?

My eldest is 18 and we have always homeschooled. He graduated this past year, so now we are only homeschooling my 17 and 7 year old daughters.

6. Why did you decide to homeschool?

Ya know, a friend and I were just talking about this the other day. I really can not remember what the deciding factor was, but I do know that as everyone else was getting their kids ready to go to school, it just seemed right to keep them home. Now it is just such a part of who we are that I often forget that we are doing something "different" than everyone else.

7. What do you like best about blogging?

I like to share the things I create for our homeschool with our homeschool moms.

I also love to share my pictures. I used to participate weekly in Foto Friday, but it has been discontinued and I really miss it. I am thinking of starting my own, but I have to figure out McLinky first.

8. Do you find any challenges with maintaining a blog? If so, what are they?

Just finding the time to actually blog. I love playing around with the HTML and layout, but again it is very time consuming.

9. If you had 3 wishes what would they be?

World peace, ending child exploitation and abuse, and educating people on how to be responsible pet owners - these are my global wishes.

My more personal wishes would be . . .

To be debt free. To live closer to our extended family. For better overall health.

10. Where is your favorite place to be with your family?

Home. We all love being at home and being together as a family. It may sound funny, but we actually like each other and each others company.

I am thankful for all my other 149 GFC followers (and those that follow my blog that I may know or not know about) and I wish I could feature all of you! I hope you have enjoyed getting to know Shelby as much as I have. Make sure you stop in at her blog, Homeschool Highway, and say "Hi!"

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