Mama-on-days: Getting that Fly and Blog-lovin

The Challenge:  
Catching that fly that's been buzzing around the house.
 I've had a fly that's been living in our house for about a week.  I'd be on my computer and it would fly around my head or land on my computer screen.  At night time, I'd hear it buzz around my head.  I'd wave it away at dinner time.  Many times I would try to catch it Mr. Miyagi style.  



Okay, after watching this video, I have to say, "Not true."  I don't have an extra pair of chopsticks lying around the house.  I can't even find my fly swatter.  And THAT, my friends, is the problem.  How are you supposed to catch a fly if you can't even find your basic insect annihilation tools.

In July, my mama-on-day challenges will all be related to organization.  Topics may include:

• Tackling the weed pit on the side of the house
• Finishing up my Family binder
• Creating a path through our Laundry/Junk room
• Taming the Toy Clutter

For this week's challenge I decided to get my blog reading in order.  

The Experience:  

I still remember when we would talk about the Internet like a Science Fiction project.  I still have a floppy disk somewhere where I used DOS coding to make my name scroll across the screen.  I've heard the term HTML-and thought: No thank you.  I don't want any hatemail here.  

The past few months, I heard fellow bloggers lamenting the demise of Google Reader and suggesting alternatives.  Google reader?  Never heard of it.  My blog consumption strategy was this: Pin a bunch of blogs onto Pinterest.  Every once in awhile, remember that you like these blogs and head over to their site.  This was back when I was in PRIME blog stalking mode.  So I'd take a few hours, stock up on therapy ideas and sneak away quietly.  You never even knew I was there.

Google Reader was an RSS Service.  RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.  I tried doing more research on this so that I could really sound smart.  (RSS speech therapy blogger)  But I got bored.  Basically RSS is like a personalized TV guide for blogs.  It updates each blog with the title and first paragraph.  Then you can decide to click on the blog to read more.  Crazy cat videos: No thank you.  Crazy kids talking about cats? Why, yes-I think I'd like some more.  

In my quest for blog organization, I signed up for Bloglovin.  It was pretty easy to set up.  I'm going to leave the tutorials for the "blogger experts."  But I wanted to point out a couple of things that I love about Bloglovin.  

It's a really quick way to follow a lot of different blogs.  I love how clean look of this and the fact that I can mark a blog as read.  If you click on the blog name, it will take you to all of their posts.  

This is really helpful.  I'm going to add some new categories for teacher blogs, parenting blogs and cooking blogs.  

When I click on a blog group that I am following, it lists all of the blogs and the number of new/unread posts.  As you can see, I'm pretty far behind on some of these.  

Once someone is following you, you can also click on their list of blogs to add new blogs.  Here's a list of the blogs that I follow:  http://www.bloglovin.com/speech2u 

How about you?  Do you use a service to follow blogs?  

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Next Week's Challenge:  Unplug and enjoy a family lake vacation.  I've got a few automatic posts lined up for here and on Facebook.  Hopefully they will load up.  As for me, I'm leaving my computer at home and focusing on relaxation and reading a good book.