The Sensible Mom

Food, DIY, Chicago Mom Blogger

Getting Started with WordPress ebook

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Getting Started with WordPress

If you are new to WordPress or were thinking about starting a self-hosted WordPress blog, I recently came across a new ebook that will help you to get started. The ebook is called, Getting Started with WordPress, and it’s put out by the folks at iThemes. I personally LOVE the plugins that iThemes has developed, and I love attending their webinars. I’m signed up for their email updates and came across this ebook that way.

I wish I would have had access to this book when I was first starting out with WordPress. That would have made my life SO much easier, but sometimes learning the hard way and making mistakes is a great way to learn, too. πŸ™‚

This book will save you lots of time, though, and perhaps less banging your head against the wall. You can visit the iThemes website to download it.

P.S. I don’t make any money if you download the book. I just thought I’d pass along a handy WordPress resource.


Losing the Baby Fat Weight Loss Update: Did counting calories make a difference?

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I mentioned that I would be counting my calories last week.

Did it make a difference?

Yes!

I lost 1.5lbs., and I’m now down to 214lbs. I was pretty happy when I looked down at the scale this morning. My clothes are feeling just a little bit better, too.

Here’s where I’m at in terms of my goal:

Current Weight:Β 214 lbs.

Goal Weight:Β 170 lbs.

# of total pounds I want to lose in 2012:Β 50lbs.

# of pounds to go until I reach my goal:Β 44 lbs.

Total # of pounds lost to date:Β 6 lbs.

My husband and I are thinking about doing a real juice fast using fresh fruits and vegetables. (Of course, we’d need to buy a juicer to do this.) I may do the juice for one or two meals in addition to food, because I am breastfeeding. I’m not sure yet.

We were inspired after watching the movie, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead (cool movie title, huh?). It’s about a documentary about a man who juices for two-months and literally goes from very unhealthy and on medication to healthy.

Anyway, I’ll blog my way through the fast if we decide to do it.

For now, we are off to catch a train to visit the Sears Tower in Chicago today. Just in case we do move to Georgia, we want to give the kids a chance to experience this before we leave. πŸ™‚


10 Goals for the week!

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10 Goals to Tackle This Week

Another week gone by, and a fresh new week ahead.

I did pretty well with my goals last week, even though I didn’t get everything on list accomplished.

Here’s how I did:

Family/Mothering Goals:

1. Start reading through the Psalms with the kids. Done.

2. Spend more one-on-one time with David. Done. David, our 3yr. old, seems to need a lot of attention these days, so I’m going to keep up making an effort to spend more time with him. So is my husband.

Personal Goals:

3. Walk on the treadmill 4 days this week. Done.

4. Start counting my calories. Done. And this has been SO eye-opening and helpful! I’m definitely going to keep it up. I’m shooting for 1,900 calories per day, because I’m breastfeeding Elisabeth exclusively. I did have one REALLY bad calorie day last week. We decided to eat lunch out, and in an effort to be frugal and not waste so much money, I decided that we should go to the California Pizza Kitchen, because then Isaac and David could use their birthday coupons for free kid’s meals and sundaes. Well, when I went to order the wedge salad, the waitress commented on the fact that the salad was “small” and asked if that was all that I wanted. In a split second decision, I decided not to order the salad at all and just order a calorie-filled pizza. Let’s just say the scale spoke for itself the next day….

I am finally back to my normal weight this morning of 215.5lbs.

5. Wake up by 8:00am every morning. This did not happen. I’m going to make getting up earlier more of a priority this week.

Home Management Goals:

6. Finish de-cluttering the house for when the landlord’s real estate agent comes by to take pictures on Tuesday morning. Done.

7. Pack up as many boxes as possible. Done.

Business Goals:

8. Post one blog post each day. Almost. I only missed posting one day, which is real progress.

9. Work on client project. Done.

10. Go back over the WordPress Web Design for Dummies book to the places I marked to revisit. Done.

And now for this week’s goals:

Family/Mothering Goals:

1. Continue reading through the Psalms with the kids.

2. Spend time reading one-on-one with David.

Personal Goals:

3. Walk on the treadmill 4 days this week for longer periods of time than I did last week.

4. Continue counting my calories.

5. Wake up by 8:00am every morning.

Home Management Goals:

6. Clean the refrigerator.

7. Pack up as many boxes as possible.

Business Goals:

8. Post one blog post each day.

9. Work on client project.

10. Return emails.

What are your goals for the week?


Book Review: WordPress Web Design for Dummies

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wordpresswebdesign

I finished reading WordPress Web Design for DummiesΒ by Lisa Sabin-WilsonΒ and wanted to do a quick review of it.

What I thought, overall:

I thought this book delivered on exactly what it promised. It shows you how to build WordPress themes, and throws in so many tips, short-cuts, and great recommendations that this book is worth picking up even if you skip the chapters that talk directly about how to build WordPress themes (These chapters happen to be VERY code-heavy (PHP, HTML, & CSS)).

Because this book uses a lot of code and assumes that you already know how to use WordPress, this book is NOT for beginners. For this reason, I would recommend checking this book out from your local library before you buy it.

I did like the fact that I could skip around and read some of the later chapters while at the same time reading the chapters that were packed with a lot of code. This is the way “Dummies” books are designed. You don’t have to read them cover to cover unless you want to. My favorite chapters were the ones that talked about plugins. The author made several good plugin recommendations (both free and premium) that I ended up installing on The Sensible Mom.

What I liked about the book:

:: the website recommendations that give me more tools for my blog design business

:: breakdown of how to create a portfolio gallery using WordPress

:: detailed explanations of helpful plugins

:: the showcase of beautiful websites built on WordPress

:: the pieces of code in the book that you can use to give your theme more functionality, even if you don’t want to build a full-blown theme

What I didn’t like:

:: all the code! πŸ™‚ and that the chapters with code were so long, but I KNOW this was necessary

There really isn’t anything else that I didn’t like.

If you are new to WordPress or just want to learn how to use it better, I recommend reading the author’s first “Dummies” book, which is called WordPress for Dummies. After you’ve read that book, I would recommend reading this book even if you aren’t going to be a WordPress web designer, because you will glean so many helpful ways to make your blog better. Just skip the chapters will the code, mainly chapters 11-13.

What books have you read recently?