Going Private? Try sending emails to avoid loosing readers like me.

There's a growing trend of personal blogs I read or want to read are private. I always am late sending people my email address (don't you have it), so I end up getting locked out. This makes me sad.

I'm more open than most people and tend to through everything out there on the 'internets.' So, I don't have a private blog. Everyone can find my contact information by searching. And, I prefer, that others don't have private blogs either. Why? I read blogs via a feed reader.* This means, I spend very little time browsing blogs. I find out a friend has a blog, and I subscribe to it. Once you go private, I barely visit (sorry). But I do miss your blogs.

Sign me up to get email updates about every post.

1. First sign in to blogger.com
2. Select Settings > Email & Mobile
3. Add my email address under Email Notifications > BlogSend address

Now, like my feed reader, I get updated every time you post. It's great for me. Not much gain for you, unless you need help with some Google product - you can shout out on your blog 'help me!' and I'll be there. :)

My email address: joel.headley@gmail.com - if you want to get really clever, help me filter my mail by +yourblogname to my email address. For example, joel.headley+headleyhomestead@gmail.com - hint, hint.

*By the way - I recommend (with bias) Google Reader as a feed reader. That way, if you want to share what you're reading on the web (not just writing), we can share together.

Productivity

I was thinking yesterday about feeling "productive." It's kinda a broad term but so many days of the week I don't feel productive enough. So, I thought about my day yesterday and here it is in a nutshell to show all of you what makes me feel "non-productive":

Got breakfast for the kids
Cleaned up kitchen from night before and morning breakfast
Got all kids dressed and ready for the day
Changed a gazillion diapers (my kids are sick and come with lots of dirty diapers)
Organized Ben's shirt drawers
Cleaned up my room and made my bed
Picked up Collette from preschool
Made lunch and cleaned up mess from lunch
Took all 4 kids to the post office for some work on my church calling~ spent way too long there!
Clean up the living/dining/family room areas
Vacuumed the carpets (more on this later)
Took all recycling out to the bins.
Took out all yucky diapers to the trash
Took trash and recycle bins to the curb
Made dinner (such a simple thing to write but so much more to do!)
Swept the kitchen floor
Ironed Ben and Gabe's church shirts
Helped Abigail with her homework
Did 2 loads of laundry
Cleaned up the girls' room
Picked up Ben's room
Went on a walk with the family (Joel is finally home here)
Bathed kids (with Joel's help)
Got kids to bed (with Joel's help)
Fed Gabe twice during the night (when the 24 hour clock stop??)

There may be more but that's what I could come up with quickly. So...why don't I feel productive?? Does anyone else have this problem?

I was trying to answer the question and this is what I could come up with:

I never got a shower yesterday. Therefore, never really felt clean and ready for the day.

We have gross carpets. So even when I vacuum, it doesn't look like I did.

As soon as I put something away, something else gets destroyed. You should have seen my house by the end of the day... it looked like I never cleaned anything up all day long.

It feels like someone who works at a job and say...writes a report and then the manager comes along and says, great, then deletes it all and then says, "Could you just rewrite that since you have nothing better to do?" EVERY DAY

Thanks for letting me vent. Again.

Camera?

Hi readers!

We're looking at getting a new camera. We'd like it to be a really nice one. If you swear by one that you have, could you let us know? Thanks!

Happy #8!!

When I first met Joel I thought we were so different that I couldn't even imagine going on "a" date with him. Though I did think he was very cute and intriguing. Sometimes when I step back and look at the two of us in this marriage, I still see that we are so different in so many ways I'm surprised we've made it to eight years. But, when I look at us in the entirety and all that we've done in 8 years it's no wonder we're still going. Here are some of the highlights I thought of quickly to recap the last eight years. (and for fun at the bottom are some pictures of us along the way).

~We spent the first 7 months of our marriage living apart. Very tough. Wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
~We were able to buy a house right off the bat in Arizona. That was a great place to live and we made great life long friends there.
~We've moved 5 times in the last 8 years and live in 3 states.
~We've had kids in all 3 states
~My favorite place has been Boulder though my best memories are probably while in Arizona. Our life together started there and we had so much time to spend together.
~One of my favorite things about Joel is that he loves food and loves a good treat. I knew I could never marry a guy who just wasn't that into good food. I have friends now who's husbands don't really care for treats or delicious desserts and I just couldn't live with that. Thanks, Joel for always being willing to indulge with me!
~I love that Joel and I have totally different likes and dislikes to be able to bring to the table with our children.
~I love that Joel loves playing music. And listening to jazz. It's an experience to watch him play or listen to music he enjoys. He hears things I don't. I like music with words that you can blast in the car and sing along to with your friends on a road trip. Joel likes that, too. If it's a musical.


Here are some pictures of Joel and me~ mostly before children to remember how we started 8 years ago. Not really any particular order. I was too tired to rearrange things chronologically.

This is a picture of us at our friends wedding in Rhode Island. Joel was able to marry them. It was a lot of fun and I have fond memories of our first "big" trip together.

The picture under that is at my graduation from San Francisco State. Hard to believe I graduated from there 7 years ago. Time is flying...


The next two pictures are of our "wedding." Yes, for those that don't know the full story, you can ask me someday. But this is our elopement picture at the Las Vegas Courthouse. The security guard was also our camera man. And a lady with big blueish hair married us. Gotta love Vegas. Except this secret didn't stay there too long. I stress too long.




This is our house being built in Arizona. Well, we're on the lot anyway. There wasn't much house yet. I can still vividly remember the day we moved in. June 21st 2002. It was so fun for our first house to be brand new and all the things we got to pick out and do to it. After two kids I complained about that house being too small. I'm sorry, Joel. You did an amazing job at making sure we were taken care of there.


One of our favorite things to do would be to come outside at dusk and watch the sunset. It's no secret that my favorite color is pink and Joel and I would go out to watch the sky light up in pinks and reds and oranges. The desert has some amazing sunsets.


Here we were just driving around the Saguaro National Forrest. We put the camera on the top of the car and said "click."


We took in and trained two pit bulls while in Az. They were both good dogs. I miss them.



Here's Joel peaking in the room I was in when I was getting ready for our reception. I like this picture. A lot.



Not a super great picture~ but here's what he was looking at:


And this was us. A little less than the full 8 years but this is pretty much how we started out. Thanks, Joel. I love you. Always and forever- just like Chip and LaFonda.

Faces Painted

More magic at Disneyland.

Princess Lunch

Quick update:

Day three at Disneyland, we're going to a princess lunch at Ariel's Grotto. The girls all wait in anticipation of seeing all the princesses at once.