Dear Friends,

I'm going to attempt not to be whiny tonight.  It's just that time of night and I tend to sound whiny unless I have a particular point to get to.  Which I don't tonight.

I really have had a great day!  I picked my mom up from the airport last night and she's been spoiling me all day.  Well, okay, actually I dragged her around on a million errands and in the middle of it we went to Kohl's, her requested destination of choice, where she bought me twice as many articles of clothing as she bought herself.  (A little early birthday.)  And yeah.  New clothes pretty much shoot the moon for me.

I just finished immersing myself in the blogs of my very best friends.  Do you know how amazing it is that my very best friends all are bloggers too!?

Sarah got me started blogging.  

Then I got Melissa hooked.  

Next Charmian joined in.  

And now they all follow each other!  

It's a beautiful thing.  

Ladies, can I just tell you that reading all your bloggy thoughts is almost as good as sitting in your living rooms with a cup of hot cocoa?  I said almost.  

Anywhooooo...  Alejandro is still in California.  If things keep up, he's going to be there for a while longer forever.  The man is just good and every time he turns around he has someone asking for an estimate.  He's working on three tonight.  I really couldn't possibly be prouder or I think I'd burst.  

But yes, being apart is no fun...  Please pray for us as we look toward the future.  We're starting to realize we may be headed toward a new reality (at least for a time) of working in different parts of the country and traveling regularly.  I don't know that, so please don't quote me.  Things are still WAY up in the air.  But as a sort of survival mode, I'm trying to figure out how to make this work long term while still having a family together since at this point we have surpassed twice the amount of time we expected him to be gone.  The wonderful thing is that I do have a lot of flexibility and I can work anywhere in the country too.  It's just a matter of figuring out how to do that and where to draw the line and how not to fall over from exhaustion.

I hear a lot that, "this must be so hard."  What's NOT hard is doing every diaper, never ever sleeping in, never ever having a night off, finding a sitter any time I want to work when Danny's not sleeping, cooking every meal or washing every dish.  It just doesn't phase me anymore.  What IS hard is not snuggling at night, not kissing him good morning, trying to remember all of the new things Danny does and recounting them so Alejandro can be a part of his growth, not holding hands and not having him by my side through all the things of life, mundane and exciting. 

But I'll tell you what:  I'm thankful.  I know better than to think I have any room to complain.  There are plenty of women out there (and reading this blog) who deal with the alone-ness but who deal with loneliness too, because their husbands have removed their love.  I praise the Lord that mine has never done that.  I will never begrudge my husband for gathering all the courage he has to step out and do something he'd never done before because we had to eat and the heat had to stay on.  I know that this is a huge sacrifice for him too.  

I'll end by just sharing two things we started this week that have worked for us and I'd encourage any couple who experiences distance  for any amount of time to put these two things into place.  Also I want to share because there may come a time when we realize we got out of these two habits and they have made the last four days SO MUCH better, despite being apart, and I don't want to forget them.

First, we pray together each morning.  It took compromise and flexibility and a little brain-work to accomodate the time difference, but we figured out a way to connect by phone every single morning to pray over each other.  It's like a warm wake-up hug.  Wow, do I love it!

Second, we have phone-dates.  Yep.  Phone dates.  There's a date and a time and when that rolls around we each curl up with the phone (or the computer and Skype), put everything else away and just hang out together.  We talk about all things not too important (business stuff is off-limits during this hang-out time) and just enjoy the sound of each other's voice.  The rule is, the phone date can't end until we've set a date for the next one.  It just fills my love-bucket.  

Alright, that's enough rambling tonight.  I hope that you are all content, cozy and full of warm-fuzzies tonight.  

With much love,

Let's Try This Again

**update - The comments are back up!


So apparently when one switches their entire blog template, numerous things are bound to go wrong...  I haven't changed my blog template... EVER.  Soooooo, it's a new adventure. 

I do know my commenting system went away.  I'm so sorry!  I miss all of your comments!!  I will get that back up ASAP. 

Secondly, I attempted to post these pictures of Danny during our girls' day out today... but for some reason my phone and my blog are no longer cooperating, and only half of the post made it. 

Danny helped us shop today: 

He picked out this lovely room accessory.  He tried it right in the store.  He pulled it off of the shelf, laid it down on the floor and plopped belly down on it while resting his head in his hands.  Apparently, it met with his approval, because he didn't let go of it for an hour.  After he drug it around the store floor, I figured I ought to at least buy it. 

Fortunately it's only $5.00.

Alright, now to see if I can work out some of the blog kinks while Danny takes a bath. 

How I Blog

The other day my Dad asked me in the comments section of a previous post HOW I blog and WHY I blog. They are really two different posts.  Here is Part 1.  Today I'm tackling Part 2!  :) 

I toyed with the idea of calling this "Blogging for Dummies," because it really is truly a simple thing.  It's so easy, in fact, that although my Dad asked me how I do it, he beat me to the punch and started his own!  I cannot WAIT to read more of what he writes. 

The first step in starting to blog is picking a host.  There are many to choose from, but the most popular are Blogger and Wordpress.  This blog is hosted by Blogger.  I checked out both.  I understand that all the "big" bloggers use Wordpress, and that it offers much more flexibility and options.  However, as a brand new beginner with absolutely NO knowledge of html code (the computer language that blogs are coded with) I found it confusing and difficult to figure out.  Blogger made it simple and walked me step by step through each part of getting it set up. 

After choosing a host, you'll need to choose a name and a web address.  You can use one that includes your host's name for free or pay a small annual fee to have a unique name like http://www.miqueridafamilia.com/.  You can also start using one and then switch later.  One of my favorite things about blogging is that you can start simple and add more as you go without losing your readers or their ability to find you on the web.  Even though my blog address is now http://www.miqueridafamilia.com/, you can still find me at http://www.queridafamiliablog.blogspot.com/ because you are automatically redirected. 

Next is the task of picking a layout.  This is an important decision, because although you can switch layouts later, it's a little harder. You can also pick a layout and  tweak the html code to include or exclude features you want.  For instance, I wanted to change the color of the side-bar titles.  It took a little work and research on Google to figure out the html code for the color I was switching from and to, and then I Googled "how to change my blog title color."  I found some answers and was able to change them.  Sometimes figuring all that out can be painstaking and can take longer than expected, but I also found that every time I wanted to tweak something, I learned a lot in the process. 

After the layout is picked, there's all kinds of things you can do! 

I use Photobucket and Picasa a LOT for my blog.  Photobucket is an online site which you can use to upload and/or create images.  Those pictures are then assigned an html code which can be pasted right into a post or other component of your blog.  Picasa is a software by Google that can be down-loaded for free and allows you to manipulate photos.  I use it mostly to crop, fix the lighting, add special effects, and collage my photos.  My blog header, for example, was created using a combination of these programs.  I used Paint to create a page with a tan background and the words "Mi Querida Familia" and our names.  Then I opened Picasa and cropped the pictures I wanted to use for my header.  Then (still using Picasa) I created the collage using six pictures and that Paint document with my blog title.  I changed the settings so that each image would have a border and a bit of a shadow.  Then I saved it.  Next I uploaded that collage to Photobucket and used photobucket to re-size the image so it would be the same width of my blog.  This took a bit of trial and error.  Last I went to the "Design" tab on my Blogger dashboard and uploaded the image onto my site. 

It sounds like a lot of steps, but once you are familiar with a few simple programs, it's simple and very easy to figure out.  I used the same process to create all of the images in the side bars of my blog. 

Let's see... What else might a beginner blogger want to know?  Well last week a friend of mine asked me how to change the commenting system so that she could reply to those who commented on her blog.  My favorite of what's available for Blogger (and the key here is of what's available because there isn't much) is Disqus.  It has its flaws, but it's the best I've found.  If anyone knows of any better, do let me know. 

Kingdom Mama did several great posts that have helped me a lot.  She posted about how to create a web button like this one: 

You know... how you have a pictures that is a link too.  She also wrote a post on how to add buttons right underneath a blog header.  Here's the link for that post.

If you like my signature underneath my post, you can make your own at MyLiveSignature.com.  If you'd like people to be able to subscribe to your blog, try Google's Feedburner. 

Oh, and if you think it's kinda' cool to know how many people are clicking on your blog each day, week or month, there are gadgets for that too.  I use StatCounter.  It's one of many, but it's kinda' fun to see that three whole people actually read what you are writing!!  :)

Have I missed anything you are curious about?  If so, let me know in the comments section and I'll do my best to respond.  In the meantime, I'm going to go start the two-hour process to make arroz con leche, our dessert for tonight.  Happy blogging, everybody! 

Why I Blog

The boys are sleeping late in rare form this morning

so while they snooze next to me (at almost 11 a.m.), I thought I'd take some time to do one of my favorite things.  Blog.  (I know you all are so surprised.)  Somebody (ahem, yours truly) forgot to turn the heater on last night before bed, so none of us had a very good night's sleep.  At about 7 a.m. we pulled Danny and his popsicle toes into bed with us and we've been here ever since.  I'd post the picture of them both sleeping, but if I did that I'd be in BIG trouble.  Ha!

The other day my Dad asked me in the comments section of a previous post HOW I blog and WHY I blog. They are really two different posts, so you can count on part 2 coming soon, but for today I thought I'd tackle the first part.

I wrote about why I blog here but of course why I started blogging and why I keep blogging are two entirely different things.

I was introduced to blogging by my good friend Sarah over at Kingdom Twindom. I wrote all about her yesterday. I started reading her blog long ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. What I liked best about it then was the "scrap book" of sorts that had evolved online of her family and the journeys God takes them on.

Fast forward to Fall of 2009 when I was pregnant with Danny. We live a 17-hour-drive away from my family and 7-hour-flight away from my husband's family so needless to say, I found myself emailing lots of pictures to many. I only did that once or twice before deciding to streamline the process with a website of my own. Hence, my blog was born.

Well, the old one was. About a year later I switched to Blogger. I did try Wordpress and found it complicated and hard to figure out. I understand that Wordpress gives you many more freedoms and options but I didn't have the patience for it. Anyway, this rabbit trail is more suited for the "How I Blog" post, so I'll leave it at that for now.

So my blog started purely as a way to document our history through stories and pictures. I love to write and I'm sort of (ahem) opinionated so I found myself sharing my thoughts about more than just my family. As I learned more about how to blog, I did more creative stuff to my blog layout and to each individual post. I fell in love with the creative outlet.

Why I continue to blog today... Well, it's a combination of things. The fact that a creative outlet can be realized through my love for writing blended with my love for training and sharing publicly and my passion for influencing others for Christ is just too much to pass up for more than a day or so at a time. It's my meat and potatoes, so I try to write here often. The fact that it blesses others to be able to catch up with my family and watch Danny grow is just gravy. The fact that someday he will be able to look back in detail at his infant and childhood years is the cherry on top (or maybe the sour cream over the gravy, to stick to the same analogy).

Other things I like about it: I have formed and deepened friendships through blogging. My IRL* friends read my blog know me better because I write here about things I think but don't talk about. I even tell my husband to read if he hasn't for a couple of days, because of the depth of stuff I share here, that just doesn't come up in regular conversation.  I also love that my best girlfriends have gotten to connect with each other by writing and commenting. And last... well, I heard it said once that when your great passion meets the world's great need through one of your biggest talents, that is when you've found your calling.  It is truly my hope and prayer that this blog meets some needs out there. 

*In Real Life

So there you go! WHY I blog. Anyone wanna try it? Come back soon and I'll tell you HOW.