Seven Quick Takes: A Blog Rant and a Giveaway

--- 1 --- 

Thanks to Kayla for introducing me to this loveliness.  The Brilliance has been my jam during long grading-papers stints lately.  FYI, they have a free live album up for your perusal on NoiseTrade.

 

--- 2 ---

How is it that I seem to think that I have nothing to write about?  It has been a week, right?  There has been a gathering of crafting friends, another snow day, a great and challenging Bible Study, dinners with more friends, getting stuck away from home for two nights, lots of productive students, exciting projects starting at school...and yet I can't come up with any stories...

--- 3 ---

Let's just talk about blogs for a minute, then.  Recently I verbalized to a friend the thing that "scares" me about this little space.  I started this blog as a way to communicate with friends and family, those who love me, and actually know more about my life then what is posted here.  Then, later on and for various reasons, I started posting Religious Ed ideas as a way to share resources with people who are doing similar work. 

So in my head, I like to pretend that there are only two types of people who read my blog:

My closest family and friends.

And complete strangers.

I have no issues or concerns with either of those groups reading what is here.  However, there are a lot of people that do not fall into either category that still find their way to this space.  Acquaintances.  Friends I don't connect with frequently.  Friends of friends.  Extended family. Coworkers.  Students (eek!). 

Even though I am not ashamed of or regret anything that I post here, there is still something about finding out that a person that I don't know all that well knows a whole lot more about me, bases their opinion of me from on what they can find here, and then never mentions it to me during our in-real- life interactions...

--- 4 ---

I'm not telling those people to leave!  Stay a while; you are very welcome to browse and read and share.  But maybe consider actually following me, or leave a comment, or the next time you see me say something like, "Hey, this might be kind of weird, but I found your blog, and I am enjoying reading it."  And then I will respond with, "Glad you found it.  Forgive me for being the one weird enough to blog in the first place."

--- 5 ---

In #3, I mentioned that some of my students had found my blog.  Unlike most other forms of Social Media, I can't exactly block access to my students without setting the blog to be private.  How did they find me, you ask?  Well, apparently if you teach your kids about Fulton Sheen, and help them to grow to love him, they will start looking around online for more info about him.  And if you happen to post a lot of information about Fulton Sheen on your blog, they are going to find it.

Google image search Fulton Sheen Activities and a chunk of the first couple hundred hits are links back to this blog.  Same thing if you start digging around on Pinterest.  Should have seen that one coming, but the greeting, "Miss Bogner, I found your blog!" isn't exactly music to my teacher ears.

--- 6 ---

So where are we?  Oh, yah, this thought process turned into an all out blog about blogging rant.  Point of the story, I am still not sure of the mission and purpose and audience of this little blog.  I will keep working that out, and some people somewhere will keep reading it.

--- 7 ---

But speaking of those some people somewhere?  Now is your chance!  Lurkers, come out of the woodwork.  Readers, announce yourself.  Help me know more about who I am writing to so that I can do my best with this little hobby. 

An incentive?  

Anyone who starts following my blog through blogger or blog lovin' 

or leaves a non-anonymous comment on any post 

including this one 

from today until my next Seven Quick Takes post next Friday 

will have their name thrown into an ultra scientific hat.  

One lucky winner will have their choice of $25 worth of handmade merchandise from my friends' and my little craft business, [un]common workbasket.  Go check it out- lots of cute stuff.  Totally worth making yourself known sometime this week!  Regular followers and friends, just leave a comment and you can be in the running too!

 

You could have this:

 or these:

 or this!

Hope to hear from you soon!

As you can see, my rant slid into bribery.  Whoops.

Good thing I know that we have a merciful God, just like the song above preaches.   

Happy Friday!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!