Southern Living Yankee

I have to show you all sorts of fun stuff today--a miscellaneous collection of things, a hodgepodge, a jumble, a mishmash, a real omnium-gatherum! For example, Tom pesters me about getting a puppy all the time. So if you scroll down towards the bottom of this page you'll see I'm starting to crack--The Daily Puppy. Aww, isn't it cute? Check back tomorrow and you'll see a different pup. Now put your mouse in the right hand column under "Lijit Search." Click on the "Visitors Map" bar to see the spots around the world that have hit my blog. The next bar down, "Recent Readers" names the locations of people who have read this blog. Sometimes I see Australia, Thailand, Philippines . . . blows my mind! Oh, and in the top right corner is a poll for you to vote! Please exercise your American right! :) Your feedback and comments would really help me out! The poll closes on my birthday, cough cough, hint hint. To enter the funny zone click here: ...

So tonite I'm going through my "Favorites" tab. It's about 2 miles long because when I'm wandering around the internet and find something I want to remember I just make it a "favorite." That doesn't mean I'm really fond of it, it just means I can't remember much of anything! So far I've thrown out "vomiting in cats," "overactive bladder," "foot-type test," flight itineraries, shopping carts, and a lot of grief! Now to tackle "belly fat," "7 foods every woman must eat," all sorts of organizing tips (Hey--here's a tip: Don't collect organizing tips!); and then real estate listings, all sorts of secrets, job interview questions, "8 Ways to Leave a Mess for your Heirs," and Life Expectancy Calculator (120 for me, just as I suspected). It's a freezing fog night here in Southwestern Ohio. This is what I do. Except earlier tonight I found a big hairy butt sticking out ...

On my writing day last week I did two pretty significant things. 1) I put together a new table of contents for my book. Let me know if you'd like me to email it to you. Just click on the comment box below and give me your name and email address. All comments go to my email before they are posted, so I'll make sure your email address doesn't appear publicly, and of course, I won't send you any fwds! 2) I SET UP A BLOG FOR WIDOWS! I'm not ready for it to really be seen yet, but I'd like to get your reaction. Please visit it at http://widowschristianplace.blogspot.com/ and let me know what you think! WRITING UPDATE: Tomorrow is my writing day. I'm not sure what I'll tackle yet, but I am sure I need prayer! Thanks for checking in on me.

I love New Year Resolutions! I get all wide-eyed and happy as I dream them up and anticipate the clean, orderly, fit and perfect life that awaits my fresh start. Really! I'm nuts about them! Picture a grinning baby in her crib, fat and toothless, happily cooing as a musical mobile of rainbow ponies spins overhead. I'm the same way, except my mobile has bright shiny resolutions on it. Oh, and I'm not toothless, not yet. It's Day 5 of the New Year and I've only started one so far. But I found a blog that had some good thoughts about resolutions, well stated, too. I think the title says it all: Resolving to Fail in 2010 . (blog.christianitytoday.com/.../2010/01/resolving_to_fail_in_2010) Now there's something I can achieve! But all kidding aside, the wonderful thing is this, as the author says, "So go ahead and make some resolves for 2010. But allow the inevitable failures to press you even further to Christ and to the boundless mercy of God, who has already a...