An Introduction to #Blurb: What the Heck Is It?!

Like many great companies before it, Blurb was actually started by accident. In the early 2000s, Eileen Gittins, Blurbs' Founder, rekindled a passion for photography while trying to figure out her next career gig. 

She wanted to compile her photos into a nice coffee table photo book, but she only wanted to print a handful of copies. The conundrum was that every publisher was quoting her hundreds of dollars for each book! She found this curious – and frustrating. So she asked herself, are there other people like me who want to affordably create their own high-quality book from their photos? The answer, of course, was yes, and it changed her life – and book publishing – forever. 

In 2006, Eileen launched Blurb, a simple book-designing platform and a publishing process that could quickly produce beautifully made books at game-changing price. 


Everyone from award-winning photographers, to couples wanting to commemorate the birth of their child started using Blurb – and they continue to do so today. Even after almost a decade, people are still blown away by Blurb’s user-friendliness, quality, and affordability. People trust Blurb to create every kind of book imaginable, including:

• Cookbooks
• Photo books
• Yearbooks
• Ebooks
• Magazines, and more

Blurb doesn’t just help people make books and magazines, they also help market them by providing publishers with their own dedicated sales page. Blurb’s dedicated sales pages allow authors to:

• Make their book or magazine available to the public or by invitation-only
• Write a compelling book description
• Customize a preview of their book
• Share their book with others on social media

Blurb also created their publishing platform to work seamlessly with Amazon and Apple iBooks Store so authors would have even more options for how they sell their books. 

There are so many remarkable things to share about Blurb – too much for just one post! So keep an eye out for next week’s post because I’ll be sharing some of my favorite Blurb tools and tips -- which, if you’re like me, will leave you thinking … “I didn’t know Blurb could do all that!” 

Learning to be Consistent in my Homeschool

I am the worst person in the world when it comes to consistency. Always have been.

• I start a weight loss or exercise program and I quit. 
• Never kept a boyfriend long before Mr. Kerrie (20 years in with the dude this summer so I'm pretty sure it's going to work out). 
• Never kept a job too long either. 
• Can't keep up a household routine as far as keeping things organized and clean.
• SUCH a challenge for me to stay on the kids to keep up with homeschooling or to stick with a plan. That's why I started doing virtual school last fall and it has helped me but has not cured my inconsistency issue.

So here are some things I'm working on as I try to get better as a homeschooling mama. I have got to get my stuff together since Samuel will be doing kindergarten in the fall, which makes a total of 5 kids homeschooling under my care AT THE SAME TIME! Also, I had Eva doing kindergarten this year and I'm thinking she could blow through some first grade stuff this summer and hit second grade this fall with our virtual school since she turns 8 in December. (this is not a matter of me pushing her -- I technically have all my kids a year "behind" from the start so they can take their time -- more a matter of she is smart as a whip, especially in math, and I want to get her where she CAN be).

**I am not trying to be consistent because I think I SHOULD be but because I know I HAVE TO BE or else nothing would get done EVER, and I want my kids to have learning opportunities every day. Trust me, we get PLENTY of play and friend and field trip and travel and screen time in!

1. See those cards in the picture above? Those are sight word cards that came with Callie's virtual school program and I kind of let them rot for months. Last week I counted out 20 cards at a time and put each set of 20 into a snack-sized Ziploc baggie with the date on each baggie. If we miss a day we do two the next day. It works because Callie knows we are doing it DAILY, even on weekends. It's a manageable number for her to do. I put them where I can see them so I can catch her and have her do a few at a time or all at once.
2. I keep a spiral notebook where I write down each kid's name on one page for each day. So like I put Joel's name at the top of a page with the date. I turn the page and put Michael's name with the date. This way each kid gets a full page so I can track what I WANT to do versus what we REALLY did. I can transfer things from day to day depending on what comes up. I just try to get a set amount of stuff done each week so I see some sort of progress. If I slack for one day, I slack for weeks, people. And it's not like the kids are BEGGING to homeschool. They are thrilled when I don't bug them to do anything!
3. As much as I try to resist it, every week I print out 7 daily calendar pages. I fill in what I know is happening, like plans we have. I fill in work time in the mornings from about 7-9. Then 9-noon is homeschooling, which also sometimes includes some chores and maybe even a recess time with the neighbors. Then the rest of the day could explode but we at least get SOMETHING done. That's the plan anyway!
4. I have to fight the urge to be too laid back with my homeschooling. I am not homeschooling each kid for 7 hours per day, but homeschooling 4 kids over a period of 3 hours is about all I can usually fit in because we get busy after lunchtime. It is hard for me to be at peace with the concept of "slow and steady wins the race" but I have to be. I can't cram a year's worth of knowledge into my kids' heads in one month so we can then play the other 11 months of the year. A tiny bit every day is what gets it done. Some is enjoyable to them, some is harder to grasp, but we have different ways to teach different subjects and are blessed to have those resources!

How are you conquering your faults as a homeschool parent? I'd love to talk to you!

Sell Your Blog Content and #Writing #Reprints Over and Over Using My Resource!

WHEW! It's finally in print! I started working on this puppy in 2009 before my 5th kidlet Samuel was born. I had been writing for some regional parenting magazines and compiled a bunch of the magazine info into one resource with tips. I got it onto an ebook platform and it sold pretty well for a while. I updated it annually and then kind of gave up in 2014.

Then Susan Maccarelli from Beyond Your Blog wrote me and wanted to do a podcast with me about it. She has an amazing site and amazing writers and bloggers who read her site and she knew they would want to know how to sell their work and GET PAID!

Microwave Cake in a Cup #CakeInACup

So for some reason I whipped out this recipe on Sunday. I have had this recipe since my stepmom Nancy emailed it to me in 2008. Two thousand eight, people. Yeah, I obviously like to let a recipe age before I use it.

Anyway, I threw together several of these since I had a zillion kids over like always and they were such a hit! I took a picture and put it on Facebook and a lot of you wanted the recipe so here you go!

Ingredients:

1 coffee mug
4 tablespoons flour (not self-rising)
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips if desired
Small splash of vanilla

Add dry ingredients to mug and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in milk and oil and mix well. Add chocolate chips if using and vanilla and mix again. Put mug in microwave and cook 3 minutes at 1,000 watts. It will rise over the top of the mug so don't freak out. Let it cool a bit then dump it onto a plate. Enough to serve 2 people per mug.

Enjoy and share!

Tips for Driving in #Houston, #Texas

I was warned by several people about driving in Texas. And I remember being a kid and my parents would drive in Colorado and there were a lot of Texas drivers for some reason there and they mostly drove like idiots. So I was all prepared to get into some sort of traffic accident or something with someone who was not paying attention in Texas ...

And ...