watching her garden grow

Apr 232012
 

Dear Mary Kate,

Your daddy and I insisted on everyone napping Sunday afternoon.  Then, we promised, then we could all plant flowers outside.

We left the front door open (yay for screen door weather!) and knew you’d wander out whenever you woke up.  We were working right by your bedroom window, not too quietly, at that, but you must have had nearly a three hour nap.  You were a tired punkin’ (I know, you’re not orange).

When you finally showed up, bleary-eyed and late for the planting party, you were still wearing the pantaloons you’d worn under your dress to church.  Then there was the excitement of getting out the flip-flops for the year and discovering that your ones with the purple flowers still fit.  Your favorite color is purple, so of course, purple flip-flops were the highlight of the day.  You’d wear purple every day if your wardrobe made it possible.  (You also tell us all the time about the purple car you’re going to buy!)

By the time you were dressed in outside clothes and had actually gotten your flip-flops on, Mommy was working in another flower bed.  You came up next to me and said, “You can use that in your garden if you want to, Mommy.”  I realized you were referring to the pinwheel you’d apparently claimed as your own, which your big sister Ruth and I had stuck in the garden earlier while you were sleeping. 

I smiled and thanked you for your permission.

“Mommy, your dandelions are blooming! Your dandelions are blooming!”  Your excitement was contagious to everyone except your daddy.  He is not very excited about dandelions.  Except, we corrected you, these were daffodils.

A few moments later, “Look at your sunflowers, Mommy!”  Yes, I had planted sunflower seeds earlier, and yes, daffodils were yellow like sunflowers, but these were still daffodils, Mary, still daffodils.

But your crowning comment of the day was as you quietly stood observing us plant.  “I watching my garden grow, Mommy.”

Apparently, we’ve recited that “Mary, Mary quite contrary…” rhyme to you one too many times.  But I s’pose that watching your garden grow is training for being a good helper as a farmer’s daughter.

We love you, Mary Kate.  Your serious commentary brings much laughter to our days.  And just a glance at your wayward spiral curls is enough to make us smile!

Love always,
your mommy

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together

Apr 212012
 

Writing can be a lonely calling.  The hammering out of words on keys.  The editing, the honing, the writing again.  It’s laborious and lonely.  So there’s nothing like doing it together with a team of those who are also called to write.

Cheering each other on when we get published, when we’re featured as a guest poster.  Reassuring each other after a critical comment or when someone completely misunderstood the words we labored over so long.

Spurring each other on as we better our skills.  Promoting each other rather than just ourselves.  Helping each other attain greater heights. 

Together, because of Him.  Writing, for His glory.

Here’s to my teams—the YLCF Team and the Ladder Bloggers mastermind group.  I’m so thankful I get to do this with you; thanks for sharing your passion and your prayers.   And thanks to the better half of my primary team: thanks to my husband for still reading my words after all these years, and for loving me regardless of the comments and the stats.

Five-Minute Friday: Together

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just like mommy

Apr 192012
 

They try to be just like mommy.

They write little tiny characters all over every square inch of paper, making a list just like mommy.

They take half the clothes off the hangers in my closet, parading around in my shoes and shirts, looking just like mommy.

They jabber away on their toy cell phones, talking while they walk, just like mommy.

They cover the coffee table with blankets, pile it high with pretend birthday cakes and food, making meals just like mommy.

They concentrate hard on their “work” on their book-turned-computer, saying, “Can you please be quiet a minute?” just like mommy.

They borrow my makeup and my lotion and my chapstick, making themselves look pretty, just like mommy.

They are two and a half and four and a half.  And they want to be just like me.

But as they copy my tone, my words, my actions, sometimes I wonder: am I really living as if I want my daughters to be just like me?

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Twitter as a Tool for Bloggers

Apr 192012
 

bloggerstoolLet me reassure you, my blogging friend: Twitter is not necessary for success in blogging.

I could name countless bloggers who were read by thousands before they ever got a Twitter account.

But the names aren’t important.  It’s the fact that they had something to say worth reading.  And that carried over into their Twitter accounts when they got them, making them someone worth following.

Twitter can be a great tool for bloggers.  I have blogging friends who get the majority of their traffic from Twitter.  However, less than 2% of my traffic comes from Twitter (at least according to Google Analytics, which may not always calculate Twitter referrals correctly).

Twitter is not for generating traffic; Twitter is for creating relationships. <—click to Tweet this

Twitter has increased page clicks, but frankly, Twitter has allowed me to connect with individuals that I would have never been able to before, from women in my community, to friends, to colleagues.
-Kristina, @kjpetrella

Should you as a blogger be on Twitter?  Maybe.  Especially if your readers are.  But if your average reader has never even heard of Twitter, then please, spend your online time blogging, and put Twitter very low on your priority list. (Check out Amy Lynn Andrews’ post on choosing social media platforms for more on this.)

That being said, if you as a blogger decide to try out Twitter, here are some tips for not only utilizing the tool, but keeping it in the box.

Continue reading »

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Twitter 101: Buffer

Apr 182012
 

Twitter 101: Buffera guest post by
Chantel Brankshire, @springjoys

Why I Buffer

I’m not the techiest of techie people, but technology fascinates me. Watching the rise of social media like Facebook and Twitter, I’ve seen the great potential that they have as tools for growing circles and nurturing ties with people who are seeking information or encouragement. I’ve watched as some people successfully harnessed that potential and others struggled to get their footing.

Naturally, from my seat at the sidelines, I could only learn so much about the hows and the whys of it all.  But plunging in gave me a taste of why it is so easy to start strong and burn out quickly when you are trying to create a little niche for yourself in the massively overwhelming world of social media. It doesn’t matter how great the tools are, if you don’t know how to use them effectively to reach your target audience, they aren’t worth a whole lot.

Facebook wasn’t so bad. By the time pages started popping up, and it occurred to me to create one for my own little corner of the web, I’d been using it long enough to have a feel for the basics. With Twitter, on the other hand, I just didn’t think I could ever really fit in. The setup and ideas were simple enough, but I wasn’t prepared for the high paced environment or the level of commitment it seemed to require. My initial reaction was to immediately have an information overload and retreat into the shadows for a few months while I tried to recover. Twitter seemed to require at least twice as much commitment as my Facebook page. Combine that with the high speed style of Tweets and Retweets and mentions, and it was a perfect setup for being instantly overwhelmed. Quite honestly it was about all I could do to master good blogging techniques and keep up with the necessities for my personal blogging efforts, as well as my team writing responsibilities.

My time for Tweeting and social media comes in little spurts. I couldn’t figure out how to maintain an active online presence on Twitter without being on my computer all day or flooding everyone with a dozen Tweets at once a few times a week or month. Thus began the (very casual) quest to find what I knew must be out there—a way to streamline social media so that I could control it, instead of fighting with it or letting it control me. If one could schedule blog posts, why not Tweets?

My first introduction to scheduling Tweets and attempting to master Twitter came through Hootsuite. It helped a little, but it just wasn’t what I was looking for. And then, early this year, I met Buffer. Continue reading »

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Twitter 101: How I Keep Track of Twitter & Tweets

Apr 162012
 

How I Keep Track of Twitter & TweetsYou’ve seen them.  The Twitter users who follow fifteen cajillion people.  Or almost that many.  And you wonder how on earth they ever actually read all those Tweets.

They don’t.  I promise.  No one who follows more than 100 people reads every Tweet of every person they follow.

So how, amongst those hundreds of Tweets, do they find the Tweets by their friends, the Tweets that they actually want to read and re-Tweet?  They use lists!

You can set up public lists that other people can see and follow.  We have a public one for the YLCF Team, so people can easily find and follow all the YLCF writers.  I have a public list for technical Tweeters.  ListsIt’s not only the Twitter list I go to when I want to catch up in the tech world or find out if someone’s had an issue with the same thing I have on Facebook lately, Add or remove from lists...but it’s a way for me to promote those technical Twitter users.  By publicly “listing” them, it shows up on their Twitter profile that they’ve been “listed” so many times.  It gives them some “klout”, you could say.  (And no, I won’t try to explain klout.com to you because I don’t understand it myself!)

Create listSubscribe to a Twitter listNot only that, but people can subscribe to your lists and you can subscribe to other lists.  You can even make lists of people you want to follow on occasion but that you don’t want to actually follow.  (In other words, you can add someone to a list without following them or having their Tweets appear in your Timeline.)

Lists aren’t static directories of Twitter handles, but rather living Twitter streams from individuals you choose. Not only can you use lists to organize the people you follow into relevant groups, but you can also follow the relevant Tweets of people on lists—even if you aren’t following those individuals.

-Claire Diaz-Ortiz (@claired) in Twitter for Good: Change the World One Tweet at a Time

Lists in the profile drop-downBut the private lists?  That’s where you make your Twitter actually usable, if you end up following way more people than you can really follow all the time.  I have a “must-read” list that is the one stream of Tweets I really want to read.  You know, my best friends and closest mentors on Twitter.  It’s the list I do go back and read if I happen to have been off Twitter while traveling, etc.  And I’m in the process of creating a “my circle” list, that contains the people I do want to try to keep up with and reply to.

Continue reading »

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