5 Awesome Blogs I Follow--And You Should Too!

I enjoy reading other blogs. For some reason, reading what I just wrote two seconds ago to check for spelling/grammar errors and making sure the links work is boring. So, here are some of the blogs I like to check out on a regular basis:

• Free Sample Momma
• Immensely awesome when it comes to free stuff, no BS.
• Diary of a Mad Woman
• When my life seems like suck, I still feel for her.
• Prepared For Survival
• I'm not a "prepper" but this shit is still freakin' awesome.
• Budgeting with the Bushmans
• Like whoa. If only I can manage to do half of what they've managed, I'd feel like I'm king queen of the world!
• Jonesberries
• I love the thought of traveling. I want to do this. I want this life. Plus, their rig is sweeet.

The last one, about living out in an RV or something similar... I've been working on for some time. I had this beautiful old Grumman that we were getting before #4, but it fell through and I've been absolutely devastated since then. But, that's more for another post. ;)

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Anyone Else Feel This Way? Lol.

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Hey Facebook Fans! Here's How to View Our Page in Your News Feed!

If you're having trouble getting the posts from our page in your news feed, here's how to fix it!

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Please Pay Attention If You Have A Facebook Page!

Been seeing complaints about the "Promote" function on Facebook lately. I'm sick and tired of it.

I have a Facebook page or two. I know how to read. I'm sure most people online can say the same. So why are people making this more complicated than it needs to be?

When you promote a post, it will be shown in the news feeds of more of the people who like your Page than you would reach normally. Friends of the people who have interacted with your post will also be more likely to see the story in their news feeds for up to 3 days from when the post was first created.

Now, is that not simple enough for you?

When you use the "promote" feature, your post will be shown in the feeds of more people who like you page rather than how the new feed works based on contact. In addition, the friends of people who have interacted (liked, commented, shares) with your page are also more likely to see the promoted post for up to three days from creation.

If you still don't get it, here's the thing: You're paying for your post to appear in the feeds of people who don't even like your page.

The promotion feature allows you to target people that are more likely to "Like" your page based on friends. It is an ad, whether they like it or not.

I've personally seen these in my feed on a daily basis and they are all from the same page with the same friend. Apparently that page promotes a lot and that friend likes a lot of the things they post. Does that mean I like it? No, but they're trying to get people to view it based on your friends, just like a related post.

When a link is from a page you don't follow but has a friends' name attached to it, you're more likely to trust it and click. More than likely, it's totally worth the money for that factor alone, but if you have a lot of followers that are really engaged, that's promoting itself.

So, no, it's not something you have to do. It's not even something that people are advising pages to do, but it's a button and people are getting confused by it. Facebook is not forcing anyone to pay money to get their posts seen by their members. If they aren't engaged and don't interact with your page then they aren't going to get your posts, but it's the same way with friends and family so please don't throw a fit about it.

You can like our page on Facebook and not have to worry about me complaining about Facebook changing or adding things like a lot of people. (Dear God, people on my feed are still complaining about the timeline! How about you?)

It's Facebook people--not your website. If you want to complain about it, don't use it! ..I think that's what happened to MySpace! Hehe.

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Excuse Me?

I don't care how nice someone is trying to be, but randomly asking "You're getting you're tubes tied now, right?" is still rude.

Why do other people make these things their business?

I understand that they are simply being friendly and attempting small-talk since four kids tends to be a rather large topic starter. But what really gets me... It's always other moms that say these things to me!

I've only had issues with one pregnancy and it didn't even make me high-risk or anything like that. Sure, we've had our kids in rapid succession but that's because we tried for years before the first and were worried about having the same issues again.

No matter how much our families ignore this: Our children were planned.

We love our kids. We take care of our kids. I stay at home and raise them, unless Hubby isn't working and then he spends even more time with them. I've already signed up to start homeschooling. We teach our children without books or things like that right now because they're more "hands on" and we're fine with that!

Why can't everyone else be fine with our family and how we do things?

Yes, we're younger and have four kids but we wanted them. We love them.

I know several girls that have four kids with different guys or aren't married, etc. It sucks because I get "Do they have the same father?" questions a lot. Yes! "Are you married?" Yes! Why in the world is it so hard for people to comprehend?

My aunt laughs when I tell her these things. She says if any of these people actually knew us at all they'd know the kids were all ours and that we are happily in love. Maybe she sees us differently than everyone else, because questions like those even pop up in our own families.

It's discouraging. It's hard to answer these kinds of questions when they actually bother you. They bother me. While it's nice to be able to start up a conversation with a stranger, having them tell me that and then go on about giving one of their kids up and having another that was raised as an only child--being an only child, it makes me cringe to think about--doesn't make me feel too good about myself.

Honestly, with the ease at which I've had children I've thought about being a surrogate. I think it would be wonderful to help others like that! But I'm sure my doctor would hear nothing of it. Of course, she also doesn't want me to get "fixed" because I'm so young.

In any case, if you have kids or not, if you happen to be attempting to strike up a random conversation with another person and they are, perhaps, the mother or father of multiple children, please please please please please hold your tongue. Small talk doesn't have to involve invasive questions about sex and anatomy, it could just be as simple as asking how old the kids are or their names!

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