Name Dropping

I have a dear real-life friend who just started a blog called Thoughts of the Heart.


Linda is a Christian homeschooling mother of 5, and one of my favorite people to talk to. We've had some wonderful telephone conversations about Christianity . We've talked at length about doctrines & denominations, or what God's Word says concerning this or that -- usually to the background music of her sweet little ones.


When Linda told me she had started a blog, I knew the Lord would use her to bless others, and she's off to a great start.


So drop by and visit her at Thoughts of the Heart. Remember when you first started blogging, and make her day by leaving her a welcome comment!

Why It's A Major Award, That's What It Is.....

Look at it....would you just LOOK at it!

It's, it's indescribably beautiful! Why, it reminds me of the Fourth of July!

The good people at Tennesseebloggers.com sent me an e-mail informing me that Raising Butterflies has been listed in their Best Blogs in Tennessee directory.

Oh, the temptation to let the above sentence stand without any further explanation.... wait, I just want to read it one more time.

Okay. The thing is, Tennesseebloggers.com calls ALL the blogs in it's directory a" Best Blog in Tennessee". What's more, they're so all-inclusive that I'm pretty sure if you live in Tennessee AND you have a blog, you have met all the criteria. Ha! I love it. No ugly voting, no rejection issues...and you get a cute little award button to put on your blog.

Narcissistic? Well, yeah. But I'm doing it in the name of state pride :)

They really do have an informative site, with blogs listed by categories like: regional, political, faith and religion, personal journals, food, etc. There's even some Tennessee trivia.

Attention Blog Gurus

I have a technical question for other bloggers.

Can I save my blog archives to CD without saving them to my hard drive first?
I've had a growing sense of urgency to backup my blog for a while now, but I really don't know how, and I have this fear of these written memories of my kids getting lost forever.

So if anyone has done this....someone who has written a BOOK containing much of their blog content, perhaps, could you give me some technical advice on saving my blog? In nontechnical, easy-to-understand language?

Thanks.

Statcounter Induced Madness

I'm not one who lives and breathes by the statcounter. At first I was, but I've come a long way since my Sixteenth Post, and while knowing others read my blog occasionally is wonderful and motivating, it's not the reason I do what I do here.

Still.....it's nice to be able to go to statcounter and see where my readers are coming from, or why I may have more traffic on any one day than another. Allison linked me after I passed her the Blogging Friend Award, which explains why I've received some hits that came from her blog readers.

It's also fun and amusing to see what Google search phrases have led people to my blog. The most frequent one has been some variation of "children sitting quietly in church", which relates to a post I made awhile back on the topic. Other searches have nothing to do with anything on my blog, such as "control freak in old age" and "butterflies in church". I bet THEY didn't hang around long:o)

If one has visited my blog more than a few times, I can usually figure out who they are, IF they've ever left a comment, When I see hits from Yuma, Arizona I know Sallie's been here. The ISP in Maine has got to be Marie, and if Montgomery, Alabama pops up, it means Kathy came by today. I know where Hadias is too, but she doesn't disclose that info on her blog, for safety reasons, so I respect that.

What's maddening is figuring out everybody else. I don't mean one-hit wonders fromTawain, or Australia. I mean people I know in person, who have told me in person that they visit my blog, but have never left a comment so I don't know exactly when they visited.

It drives me crazy to see my hometown on the statcounter , and NOT know who it is. Is it Donna from church? Lisa? No, not Lisa... I think she reads me from work because her company name shows up sometimes on the stats. Mom? No, wrong ISP. My pastor? He TELLS me he reads me, and I guess I have to believe him, but he lives in a neighboring town, which I have NEVER seen on my statcounter. On the other hand, it will sometimes show a visit from my Mom as coming from New York, New York! What's up with that?

And who are you Spartanburg, South Carolina???? And I know you've been here Winter Park Florida! Why don't you guys come out and introduce yourselves ?? It's keeping me awake at night.

OK, not really. But I WOULD like to know because......well.....just because.

The Subculture of Blog Awards

In the blog world, if I've figured this out correctly, once you find some other bloggers you have things in common with, you develop a kind-of, neighborly visit relationship. You come and go between each other's blogs, you swap ideas, opinions, jokes, concerns, and in the process, you find you've got a friend.

Sallie very kindly passed this award to me today. It makes me only slightly uncomfortable, in the sense that when somebody tags me with a meme, or an award, I'm never really sure what to do next. Tag somebody else? Write a thank-you speech? Hmmm.

I'll go with the former. I'm going to pass the BFF award to two of the first bloggers I "met":

Kathy at Kathy's Klavier, because her blog is one of the first I ever read, because she is so sweet to leave comments after my ramblings about my kids, and because she has given me a couple of awards in the past that I've never done anything with...... I'm giving back now ; )

And Allison at Olive Plants, because I have been known to fall out of my chair laughing at her posts about life with eight kids. Also because I have never seen anything on Allison's blog like an award or a meme, or anything that would indicate to me that she digs that kind of thing, and I just want to see if it makes her feel all weird and uncomfortable like it does me ; )

You're very welcome!

I'm a Winner!!

Hadias at Country Girl at Heart, held a giveaway last week. I signed up because she was giving away three children's books, and we have read almost everything in the house a zillion times.
I was so excited when she e-mailed me that I had won. I never win stuff. This is the first time I've entered a blog giveaway, but at events with door prizes and the like, even when they give out so many prizes that almost everybody goes home with something, it seems I'm always one of the few that doesn't, so I'm tickled quite pink, to say the least.

The Campaign is Winding Down.......

and I have a small but intimate collection of comments now, procured in a variety of ways.

1. I badgered my friends and coworkers


2. threatened my parents


3. hacked up a classic song


4. cleverly inflated the numbers with my own comments


5. and impersonated my husband -- with his consent. Sort of.

I mean, doesn't the absence of dissent define "implied consent"?

Say ..... I ask my husband if he's OK with me signing his name to a comment I write myself, with the understanding that said comment would be part of a brief , playfully romantic dialogue with me, and would be entirely in keeping with something he would actually say, should he be so motivated.

Say .... the response I get is a snore from the direction of the recliner. That gives me the green light doesn't it?


Yes, I think I've milked this little comment campaign for just about all its worth. But not quite.

The one tactic I have not yet employed is bribery. I've been saving that for my pastor. See, I happen to be familiar with a particular weakness of his, and I believe the man can be bought. I'll be speaking with him tomorrow.

"Sixteen Posts" - a shameless plea for feedback

Today, in honor of my sixteenth post and because my blog has received a grand total of one comment (thanks again Sheri, I'm changing my will), I penned a little ditty to the tune of "16 Tons", one of my favorite oldies, made famous by Tennessee Ernie Ford.

For the enhanced version, please snap your fingers in 4/4 time ....

The tempo is moderately slow.

OK here we go. A-he-he-hem.

Som-m-e people say a blog bares a woman's soul

Well this woman's blog is a takin' it's toll

I've worn my fingers down to the bone,

my neck muscles ache and my eyesight's gone

You load sixteen posts

and what do you get?

A couple e-mails and and a lone comment

A little validation's all I'm lookin FO-O-O-O-R

So ple-e-ase if you REE-E-E-E-E-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-ead me-e-e

(wait for it)

leave a comment belowwwwww.

Dum Dum dum dum dum de dum dum

Okay, who's first?.......Anybody??...... Mom??