My New Education

One of my grandmother's favorite sayings was:  "You learn something new every day."  Well, I think she was right, because this old dog has learned some new tricks in the past few days.

Up until recently, my internet experience was basically checking e-mail about once a month.  I started this blog and joined Facebook about a year ago, and started my website a few months ago.  At that point, I had sort of learned what HTML is (it's a code way of writing on the internet which uses symbols for punctuation, paragraphs, fonts, etc.)  I can't read it, but, oh well. In fact, in High School, when computers were young, and the WWW wasn't invented yet, I thought that computers were going to take over the world, and avoided them like the plague.  Now, I'm sure they're taking over the world and are almost there, but that's another story.

I joined Suite101 as a writer a couple of weeks ago, and as of this morning have made 54 cents, but I have gained more than money.  I really think I've learned something new everyday!  Here is my new Internet Writing notebook:

• Search Engine:  That thing you type into to find 2 million articles on how to brush your teeth.  Examples include Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
• SEO:  Search Engine Optimization - writing so that search engines will be able to find your article, using things such as - 
• Keywords:  Word phrases that people would be likely to search for.  You can apparently put these into the title, headings, first paragraph, and picture captions.  Some people put them all over, and use the same one over and over.  This is supposed to make you more visible to search engines.
• Scraped:  Somebody stole your article and put it on another website, where you won't get any royalties.
• Adwords:  Ads that a company places around your article which may someday make you some money if somebody actually reads them.
• Revenue Share:  Money you will hopefully get from people clicking on the ads (hence the 54 cents).
• Content Farm:  A company which looks for the most-searched subjects and then gets people to write articles about them in order to get money.   - Company business, here - In the past week, Suite101 has been called a content farm.  I know I'm new, but I don't really see it.  I have not been told what to  write about, and I don't believe anyone else on Suite has, either.  It is a very diverse magazine, and people write about things they are interested in or passionate about.  I think people use different levels of SEO to try to get their articles seen, some maybe trying to find out which articles will show better, but this is an individual decision.  Suite is actually very accommodating, and seem happy to let you write about anything you'd like.  They do edit the articles to make sure they are in the proper format and don't have mistakes and things, but that's all.
• Pageviews:  Something you get obsessed about, because you want people to read your article.
• Algorithm:  The way a search engine sets up their search - what they look for in articles, which sites they look at articles from, and a million other variables that I have absolutely understanding of.  This seems to make a difference in which page of the search your article will appear on, the ones being deemed best or most important supposedly showing first.

That's all I can get out of my wee little head this morning, but I can tell you this has been an amazing couple of weeks, and my brain is quite tangled.  If I have made any mistakes or left things out, please tell me, and I will include them in another post!  I may need help here to get a good grade!  Now, back to obsessing over my pageviews.

Oh - and if you want to share this post, please copy the URL and direct people here, so that I can get revenue.  Don't scrape it!  This has been a public service message.  Thank you.

Ups and Downs in the World Wide Web

If you've been reading my blog, you know that I recently started writing for Suite101.  I have so far submitted three articles.  Well, I started reading some of the forums today, and found that Google has apparently changed the way they set up their search pages, and now Suite101 articles are not getting on the pages as much.  This is a curiosity for me at this time, as I was not really counting on this to pay the mortgage, but there are some writers who are taking a horrible hit.  Writers are paid a percentage of the advertising money which is brought in from the ads around their article.  If their articles are not seen, they don't get paid.  I tried personally searching for my articles on Google, and they were much farther back than they were a few days ago.  The funny thing is that when I tried on Bing, they were on the first page.

So, this has been quite an experiment.  I think I will hold off writing any more until this gets ironed out a bit!  I'm also trying a counter-experiment.  I had never considered "monetizing" this blog before, but I'm going to do it now just to see if I get more than 47 cents in a week and a half.  It's also using Google ads, so we'll see which one Google finds more relevant.

Clean Desk

When I was young, I had a sign for my desk. It said "an empty desk is a sign of an empty mind," or something to that effect. I think my Mom got it for me after she gave up on ever seeing the top of my desk again. She was probably hoping that my piles of paper, books, and paper clip creations were a sign of genius. You have to know that my Mom is a very neat person. My son laments that our house is not clean "like Grandma's." I try to explain that Grandma does not have two kids, a husband, a cat and a dog messing up her house, but to be honest, that is not really the problem. The problem is, I am just as guilty of laying things down and not putting them away as everyone else. So, I have (yet again) tried to do something about it.

I had tried Flylady before (see this post), but had given up a while back. Well, I decided to look at her ideas again. One of the reasons I had stopped, was her admonition of keeping a "shined sink." This was actually a source of stress for me, first because it seemed that as soon as I shined it, somebody put something IN it, and second because my dishwasher has to be attached to the sink spigot to work, so my sink gets messed up for a couple hours while it's working. Many times I run it at night, so I wake up to a dishwasher, not a shined sink. Another thing was the shoes, but that's kind of minor. The third problem I had was the "Control Journal," which I attempted to make, but never looked at so it did me no good.

Well, I have had an epiphany. I decided that I wasn't Flylady, and maybe I needed to take her ideas and make them work for me. So this week, I cleaned off my desk. I have a sewing table for a computer desk, and it doesn't have a lot of room, so it always ends up piled with stuff. I also had a TV tray next to it to hold the overflow. Well, I took down the TV tray, and filed EVERYTHING! The only things on my desk right now, other than the computer, are a lamp, a small notebook, and a file folder.

The file folder is my new "Control Journal." It has a list on the front, headed "Daily." It says clean off desk, dishes, make bed, chickens. There are similar lists on the inside for "Weekly" and "Monthly." Inside are week-long blank To-Do lists, where I am writing day to day the things I have to get accomplished. The good news, is that the clean desk made the shelves look bad, so I cleaned those off, and then the piano looked bad, so I cleaned it off, too. While trying to put away the extra piano music, I realized that my music cabinets were a disaster, so I cleaned them, too.

I have some good reasons for starting with the desk. First of all, it is very difficult to function there with stuff all over it (light bulb moment, duh!) Because I am spending more time at the computer, trying to write articles and also get my website going, having it cleaned off has given me much more room to work. It has also forced me to get the bills in order, and it has been much easier to enter things into the checkbook, so my finances are a little better under control. The last reason is that my desk is in a corner of my living room, and if it is messy, it makes the whole room look worse. This is the room Mike likes to spend most of his time in when he is home, and it is hard for him to have to sit amidst all the mess and clutter, so I am really trying to keep it picked up so he can be more comfortable when he is home. It is much easier to motivate the kids to pick up their stuff if my stuff isn't all over the place!

So, here we are. I'm typing this post on my dust-free (or almost) computer, at my clean desk.

Bush and the Marine Corps Band

I just realized that I had saved this a few weeks ago, intending to post it.  Well, better late than never!  Enjoy!

My Second Article

Teaching Music to Your Children

So I haven't made any money yet on the first article, but I figured I would submit another one while I was on a roll.  So, here it is if anyone would like to read it!  I hope that it will help people who are not musicians themselves, but would like to give their children a good start in music.

I'm Published!

How to Design Your Own Homeschool Curriculum

Good morning, everyone! I wanted to let you know that I am a published author! I was accepted as a writer for Suite101, an online source for articles of all sorts. I submitted my first article last night, and it was accepted and published! I don't know if I'll make any money, because it works on royalties based on the ads around the article, but I am hopeful that this may be a way I can do some work from home. Anyway, I enjoy writing, and it was rather fun. It's kind of exciting to see something you've written published like this! So, as you can see, it is called "How to Design Your Own Homeschool Curriculum." This is actually something I've done, and I am working on making the curriculum I used for Rory last year into a book to sell. In the meantime, though, pray that this article will do well flying around on the web!

Happy Birthday Rory!

Rory's birthday started yesterday, with a party at Chuck E. Cheese.  He invited six friends (and his little sister, of course!) and had a great time eating pizza and playing games.  He and one of his friends managed to lose their stash of tickets - twice - first by leaving them somewhere (they each swore the other one had them), and then by putting them into the counting machine and not getting the receipt (they accidentally got someone else's credit card receipt from the machine next to it!)  I mention this, because I want to let you all know how proud I was of my little boy.  He has always had trouble dealing with things like this, and usually ends up having a "fit" of some sort (crying or screaming or stomping or something) when things don't go his way.  He then dwells on the bad thing for the rest of the day, covering it with a big old shadow.  Well, I have to tell you, he was one disappointed kid after this double whammy, and it showed on his face.  HOWEVER, he did NOT scream, or cry, or stomp, or otherwise act up.  He DEALT WITH IT!!!!  I was never so proud, and I told him so.

This is his official birthday cake.  Yes, it has a square bottom and a round top.  I had originally intended it to be a heart shape, but after it was baked he decided he would rather have a layer cake, so this is what we came up with.  It is German Chocolate (why did I suggest it?  - fussy recipe and 2 types of frosting), and has 8 star candles, star sprinkles, and "Rory you're our star!" written in purple icing (all picked out by Rory).

Here is Rory with his cake, and a box of candy he got from one of his friends yesterday, which he insisted we must eat with the cake.  MMM!

And this is Rory's official picture on the couch.  We have done this since he was a month old, first once a month, and then once a year.

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday, dear Rory!

Happy Birthday to you!

Book Review - "A Compromised Generation" by Beth Lambert

"A Compromised Generation:  The Epidemic of Chronic Illness In America's Children" was written by Beth Lambert, with Victoria Kobliner, MS, RD.  It was published in 2010 by First Sentienent Publications.

Anyone who has children, or spends time with children, has probably noticed that our children seem to have more medical issues than past generations.  In this book, Beth Lambert gives a compelling argument that our environment and lifestyles are contributing to diverse maladies such as Autism, ADHD, Celiac disease, and allergies.  Many parents are concerned about what has happened to their children, and unsure about what to do about it.  Potential parents are worried about having children at all, given the possibilities of having a chronically ill child.  This book addresses those issues very well.

Ms. Lambert has done a huge amount of research in this area.  She methodically presents her case, which is that our children are in danger, and then proceeds to tell us why.  Her premise is that there is not one thing that causes Autism, for example.  It is a "perfect storm" of influences.  She also presents the idea that each child reacts in a different way to those influences, depending on their own constitution, how many environmental factors they are encountering, and even the timing of those factors.  The reaction could be unnoticeable in one child, and cause neurological or physical problems in another.  She reviews five different factors:  Medication Overusage, Environmental Toxins/Pollution, Diet and Nutrition, Habits and Lifestyles, and Immunizations.  She ends the book with case studies of children who have been healed from their "chronic" diseases, and a chapter on how to prevent these things in our own children.

I was very impressed by this book.  It it very well-organized, well-researched, and well-notated. It gave me insight into things that I can do for my own children, as well as hope that any mistakes I have made can be remedied in some way.  I would recommend it to anyone who has children, wants to have children, or cares for children.  The author includes a note at the beginning, stating that she documented all of the research presented in the endnotes to leave a "breadcrumb trail" for others to follow.  She also hopes to provide support and guidance to parents.  I believe she accomplished her aim.

Ms. Lambert also has a website based on the book, where you can get more information about these issues.  You can also sign up for e-mails as more information becomes available (I just did!).  The website is: acompromisedgeneration.com

Pages!

Hello, everyone - I (ta-ta-TAA!) have figured out how to add PAGES  to my blog. (big cheer, applause, bowing, bowing, flowers...).  Yes, if you look to the right of this post  (>), you will find a new section, called...PAGES!  In this new section, you will see three whole pages - Home, which is the page you're on now, Music In the Homeschool, which includes a gateway to my music teaching website, and Schoolhouse At Glen Hill, which has a link to my new blog at homeschoolblogger.com, which will focus only on homeschooling.  So, from this ONE blog, you can actually access THREE sites.  Pretty fancy, huh?  I thought you'd be impressed.  Okay, now I have to lay down.  Ahhhh.