Blogging

It’s time.

It’s time for me to begin writing more seriously for this blog and creating a schedule for the topics I will post about each day. This will help me, as the author of this blog, to know in advance what-in-the-world I’m supposed to be posting about each day of the week. This will also help you, dear readers, to know what to expect each day that you visit The Sensible Mom.

I’m very excited about this!

I want The Sensible Mom to truly become a place where the content is fresh and relevant to your everyday lives. I want to share with you from my everyday life as a Christian, wife, and mom. I want to give you a peek into our lives as homeschoolers and share tips and curriculum with you that might work for your kids.

I also want to venture out of my comfort zone and start talking more publicly on my blog about a topic I’m very passionate about.

Breastfeeding.

I want to share my struggles, joys, and tips for nursing your babies. I’ve nursed each of my five children for different periods of time, anywhere from two weeks to two years, and I’d love to help and come alongside other nursing moms.

Other topics I’ll be blogging about:

:: Weight Loss – many of you already know I have a goal to lose 50 pounds this year

:: Blogging Tips – I know many of my readers are also bloggers and would love tips to make their blogging lives easier

:: Recipes – once a week, I’d like to share what I’ve been making in my kitchen

:: Great Posts to Read – I’m going to continue to highlight posts I think will benefit you and inspire you

:: Weekly Goals

And now for my Blogging Schedule….here is what I have planned:

Monday – Weekly Goals post

Tuesday – Weight Loss post

Wednesday – Homeschooling post

Thursday – Recipe post

Friday – Breastfeeding post

Saturday – Blogging Tips

Sunday – Around the Blogosphere post

There will be more posts sprinkled in with these, but this is the schedule you can expect to find on The Sensible Mom.com. 🙂

When will this blogging schedule begin?

Lord willing, this regular posting schedule will begin on May 1st. Many of you know that we are moving from Illinois to Georgia next week, and I want to give myself plenty of time (2 weeks) to move and unpack most of our things before I start implementing my blogging schedule.

Why should you believe that I’m actually going to follow through with this schedule?

Two reasons. One being God’s grace. The other reason being MY OWN OFFICE! I’m just a little bit excited about this! 😀 Well, technically, I will be sharing the office space with Ruben, my husband, but it will be a huge difference from how I get computer work done right now, which is in our living room – usually with our 5 kids around and lots of noise and interruptions.

What can you expect between now and May 1st, when I implement this schedule?

Until then, I will blog when I can. We’re kicking the packing into high gear and will be very busy over the next few days as we continue to work on the little details of this move and spend time with family and friends that we will be leaving here in Illinois. Your grace is very much appreciated during this time. I’d love your prayers for safe travels to Georgia, too.

Overall, I can’t wait to finally get a rhythm going with my posting.

How about you? Do you have a regular posting schedule?

 

One of my goals last week was to add more more plugins to The Sensible Mom to make it easier for everyone to use. This has been a long time coming. I have procrastinated adding more plugins for functionality to The Sensible Mom for way too long, and I finally took the plugin plunge and added many that I’ve never used before. All of these plugins are reliable, relatively easy to use, and highly recommended (which is very important when it comes to searching for plugins – not all plugins are created equal).

Most of the plugins that I added are fabulously free! But there are a couple that do cost money. These are known as Premium plugins. I purchased the PluginBuddy Developer Suite because of the great plugins that they offer for both bloggers and WordPress blog designers. As a WordPress blog designer, I thought the best bang for my buck would come from the PluginBuddy Developer Suite. It includes all of the PluginBuddy plugins plus I can use it for my client sites. That’s a major plus.

The most exciting plugin in the suite for me is, BackupBuddy. Not only can I back up my own blog with this plugin, but it’s going to shave a lot of TIME off of transferring a client’s site from my testing area to their actual domain and web host. This was a MAJOR factor in choosing to purchase the PluginBuddy Developer’s suite. Another bonus was that I got to use a coupon code to bring the total for the suite down to only $110 from the regular price of $197. 🙂 And I used recent blog design earnings to buy the suite.

Now for the actual plugins that I added….

Free WordPress Plugins:

Comment Luv – displays a commenter’s last post from their blog (I love commenting on blogs with this plugin installed)

All in one SEO Pack – great for search engine optimization

Print Friendly and PDF – adds a button to the bottom of your posts that allows readers to easily print your content

Subscribe to Comments – allows readers to subscribe to individual post comments and helps to keep the conversation going on your blog

Share This – allows readers to quickly share your posts with others via social networks and email

WP Security Scan – helps to make sure your blog is secure and lets you know if your blog is vulnerable to a security breach

Premium WordPress Plugin$:

PluginBuddy Mobile – for viewing your website on mobile devices (the huge plus with this plugin is that you can customize how your website shows up on different devices, such as the ipod, ipad, android, iphone, etc…)

Backup Buddy – backs up your pages, posts, theme, etc… and it’s also a very useful tool for WordPress designers to have in their toolbox

These are not all the plugins that I use on my site, but they are the newest. I’m hoping to write more posts in the future to get into the details of these plugins and breakdown further their benefits.

If you are new to WordPress and don’t know how to add plugins, just head to your WordPress Dashboard and go to “Plugins” then click on “Add New” and search for your desired plugin. Once you find the plugin you want, click on “Install Now”, then click “Activate.” After you’ve activated the plugin, see if there are any settings you need to change in order to get the plugin enabled and working on your blog. This part is usually pretty easy, too.

Are there any plugins you can add to this list that you find particularly useful?

Hi guys,

For one of my classes, I had to create a podcast on the subject of my choice, so, I’ve decided to share how I became a work-at-home mom. Enjoy! And if you have any thoughts, I’d love to hear them. 🙂