Our weekend in Photos - Post #4 of 4!

Ok, this is post #4 of 4, so you need to continue to read through and look at all the pictures until you see all of them. Post 3 is Harrison's baseball game, Post 2 is Michela's softball game and Post 1 is Jacob's dance competition.

This set of two pictures is of the two Japanese students staying with us. It's been going well. As you can see, they're quite young. Yasuhiro, the oldest, is 10 and Tatsuki, the youngest, is 8. They came here not speaking any English, but now they are speaking more and more. They enjoy playing with the kids and love playing with Midnight. They are at camp all day every day, so I just have to give them breakfast, drop them off, and pick them up sometime between 5:30 and 9:30 (every night is different, depending on where they go.) They've been coming with us to various activities and baseball games, etc., and then we go home and have dinner and then all the kids either play outside or we go to the pool or something. They leave on Friday.

Our Weekend in Pictures - Post #3 of 4

These four pictures are of Harrison's baseball game this past friday night. He's playing in the National Division of the PONY baseball league in Irvine, which is a higher, more competitive level of play. Of the approximate 140 kids in his age division, 40 kids are in the Nationals (4 teams of 10) and just play against each other and the other kids are in the American League and play against each other. All of the kids in Nationals play travel baseball as well and are all very good. Harrison is holding his own, although there are definitely kids better than him on his team. It's good for him because he was in the American League last year and was clearly one of the best, but it's not as competitive and you find kids who haven't played before so it's harder to play together as a team. He plays catcher, although he's used to being the "first string" catcher and on this team he's "second string." He also plays 3rd base and left or right field. His batting has been really good lately and he has had some great hits lately, some of which got him to first, one of which got him to second and quite a few of which were caught in the field, but that's the way it goes! He loves it, in any case, and he has 2 games and 2 practices a week so it keeps him quite busy. He'll probably return to club baseball in the summer when this season ends.

Our weekend in Pictures - Post #2 of 4

This next set of pictures is from Michela's softball game on Saturday. She loves her team and loves girls' softball better than boys' baseball. She is their starting catcher and usually plays 4 or 5 innings of catcher and 1 or 2 innings of one of the bases or occasionally in the outfield. She is quite a good catcher and fielder.
There are three photos of her catching and one photo of her batting. She got hits and got on base all 3 times she came up to bat this weekend, so she was happy!

Our weekend in pictures -- Post #1 of 4

Much of the weekend was spent at Jacob's dance competition in Redondo Beach. This picture is from his jazz honor group, which has been doing really, really well at competitions. They are getting platinums, which is the highest you can get, and have been placing high up overall (once they got first!) It's a great number and he loves it. The song is "5,6,7,8" and it's a Western song. This pose is him doing a "leg hold," which is a technique that is hard to do and not everyone can do it. He has worked hard to be able to do it and he's the only one of the three boys who can do it! It's an "honor" to get "feature" like that in the dance.

Jacob stretching and warming up ... (Yes, he can do the splits!)

Another good shot from "5,6,7,8"

The boys honor group is comprised of 4 boys and is to a Motley Crue rock song. It's a great dance and they have been doing well and got a special judge's award for "most entertaining" at the competition this weekend.

A final photo from the jazz number

Our "baby" has a girlfriend...oh my!

Harrison and his girlfriend (yes, you read that right!), Danna, at the Purim Carnival. (They discussed whether or not to dress up and decided that they would do something "in between." Wearing a regular costume was too "yesterday" (according to them) but they were encouraged by the temple to dress up, so he wore his baseball uniform and she wore her cheerleading uniform.

Ok, this is my first try at posting a photo, so let's hope it comes out right!

Now, for the girlfriend story. As unbelievable as it seems (to us, anyway), Harrison has a girlfriend. He's not even 12 yet! (His bday is in two weeks). This is actually his second girlfriend. His first was a girl from his class at school. They "liked each other", (and told each other they did), danced together at a couple of school dances, and hung out together for a few minutes after school and occasionally at lunch.

This girlfriend, Danna, is in his class at hebrew school and they have been friends for a couple of years. They've been flirting with each other for a few months now and spending a lot of time together at youth group events once a month.

Last month there was a dance for 6th-8th graders in the youth groups of all the different temples and they went together with a group of friends from temple. He came home from the dance very excited and told me that he and Danna are "going out." I asked him where they were going and he said "well, we're not really going anywhere, but we're "going out" as in boyfriend and girlfriend." Apparently they danced together the whole time, (including slow dances, which *they* requested from the DJ!), he held her hand, they decided they were boyfriend and girlfriend and that was that. He told Jacqueline at school the next day and now they are just friends.

He and Danna email each other regularly, talk on the phone a few nights a week and they see each other on Wednesdays and Sundays at hebrew school. I did catch a glimpse of him briefly holding her hand as they walked around the Purim carnival. They don't go to the same school, so they don't see each other at school, which is good. He went to her birthday party a couple of weeks ago and she's coming to his bday skating party in 2 weeks.

The necklace she is wearing (in the picture) is what he picked out to buy her for her birthday present and he wrote her the sweetest card. Her mom said she wears it every day!

It's all very innocent and he still tells us everything, which is good and I hope doesn't stop! She's a very sweet girl and very smart too. (She and Harrison are way ahead of everyone else in their self paced hebrew program.) Marlon and I are not quite sure what to do about it all, so we've decided that we shouldn't do anything and just let it be. He seems young to us, but he's not the only one of his friends who seems interested in girls (he says that three of his friends also have an "official" girlfriend - he's reading over my shoulder and telling me what to write, just in case you are worried he'd be upset that I'm sharing his girlfriend news with everyone!) Her parents know all about it and think it's very sweet, although they also have a 16 year old daughter, so this isn't new to them.

Anyway, that's it for now! :) Let me know what you think by posting a comment!

Mitzvah or Mistake? Time will tell!

I know I peaked your curiousity when I mentioned our spring break plans...students staying with us and a cruise?! Allow me to elaborate.

We're having two students from Japan stay with us starting tomorrow night for ten days. They are ages 8 and 10 years old. I know many of you are saying, "what, are you crazy? Isn't your life hectic enough?" There are a group of students ranging from age 8 to 15 coming from Japan for a 10 day intensive English emersion program. (okay, okay, now I know you're thinking I'm even crazier that they don't speak much English!) A friend of ours always has a student from this school who lives with them and does some babysitting and housekeeping in exchange for room and board. She mentioned that they really needed host families for these kids. They pay $800 for the week. I figured that it would be a good experience for our kids (who LOVED having those three Jewish atheletes from New York stay with us for four days during the Macabbi Olympic games this past August), it would be doing a mitzvah because they needed good host families and it would be nice to have the $800 to use towards our vacation the next week. What's a couple of extra mouths to feed around here and another couple of kids to haul around to their activities, right? They're busy with their camp every day from at least 8 to 5, sometimes until 9 or 10 at night when they go to Disneyland and other big outings.

So, I signed up. And now we're committed. I wasn't really expecting our students to be so young. I thought they'd be 12-14 years old because that is what I requested. 8 seems SO young to me. I would never let me kids travel across the world to go to camp -- I haven't even let them go to Jewish sleepaway camp in Southern California! I also thought it was "about a week." They're coming tomorrow and leaving a week from Friday, which is actually almost closer to 2 weeks! And I wasn't thinking about the fact that we're on spring break and our mornings are leisurely without any need for rushing around in the morning, but I'll have to get going early enough to get them fed and out the door early.

It may still be a good experience and our kids will, I'm sure, enjoy it and benefit from the cultural experience. And the money is nice. And I know I'm doing a mitzvah. So I just need to remember those things when I'm kicking myself and thinking that maybe this wasn't such a hot idea. (Oh, yeah, and Marlon is less than 10% thrilled about it to say the least because it's a busy week for him work-wise and he knows we're busy enough with our own activities!)

The other part of our "spring break news" is that we're taking a cruise to Mexico the third week of our break. We had a ball on the cruise we took with Marlon's family three years ago and have been wanting to take another one, especially one to Mexico because it doesn't require air fares for us. It's a perfect vacation for us because we can explore new places but everything is included and there's something for everyone and a good combination of family time and time for the kids to have fun on their own and us to have time as a couple and as individuals. We got an amazing deal and the $800 is paying for more than half of it. We were going to take a driving trip up the Coast of CA to San Francisco, where the kids have never been, believe it or not (even as much as we travel) but they've been working so hard and we've been so busy that we really felt like we needed a trip that was sure to be more fun for them. (And it's costing us less than the driving trip up the coast would have cost!)

I'll keep you posted on how we do with our Japanese students!

A Perfect Weekend!

This weekend was the epitomy of what I'd call a perfect weekend. The kids are now officially on their three week break, so although they have some little projects to do and will read every day, they certainly didn't have the normal amount of weekend homework and test-studying so it was very relaxed.

Fri night we had a fun and delicious dinner out with family.

Saturday Marlon had some work to finish up and Jacob didn't want to go to the various baseball/softball games, so the two of them were happy staying home together all morning. Michela, Harrison, Midnight and I made the softball/baseball rounds, which were back to back so no overlapping conficts.

Harrison's team won 5-3, Michela's team lost 7-5 and both Michela and Harrison played really well. Michela was thrilled to get a double (she got to second base on one of her hits) and Harrison batted well and got an amazing out by throwing from third base to first base to make a double play (he got the runner out at third, then threw the ball to first and they got that kid out too, which ended the inning and gave them the lead.)

Saturday afternoon was Michela and Harrison's time to relax while Jacob had dance.

Then we all spent some time just relaxing and watching tv and enjoying the fact that we had a very light weekend of activities. It was hot here, so we all went to the pool around 9 p.m. and the kids played, Marlon watched them and I got my laps in. It felt like summer, not just because of the weather, but mostly because of our carefree existence.

Today there was no Hebrew School because of the Purim holiday and no theater because of Easter, so we had a fun, relaxing day. There was a (fun!) Purim service at temple, but we didn't have to be there until 10 a.m instead of 8:30 a.m.. Then there was a carnival of games, activities and moon bounces (and food!) from 11-1. Marlon and I worked the whole time, which was fine, Jacob and Michela had fun with their friends and Harrison hung out the whole time with his girlfriend. Yes you read that right. Our not quite 12 year old has a real girlfriend. We're not quite sure what to do about it, so we're doing nothing. More on that whole story in a day or two when I can post pictures... something to look forward to!

After the carnival, we went with our Chavurah (group of other families that we do stuff with from temple) to a nearby park (next to the kids' school) and had a relaxing day visiting and doing tons of eating while the kids (and dogs) played.

It was hot here, so we decided to round out the day by going to swimming with some of the group. That was fun and I got my laps in, which was an unexpected surprise in a busy day.

More later about our spring break plans (hosting some kids from japan and going on a cruise!)

Barbara

"Angel of Death?"

We were walking into a restaurant to have dinner with my mom, Patti and Brian (who are in town for the weekend) and the kids (at Bucca de Beppo - an awesome italian restaurant you should try if you have one near you!) Anyway, Marlon says to me, "I'm very worried that I'm going to die today." He seemed about half serious. He proceeded to explain that he saw a weird thing driving to the kids' school mid morning today (he was coming for the jog a thon, I was already there.) He explained that it was a "person" in the front seat of a truck that was white and looked like an angel. It had some sort of mask or hat on and looked very scary.

He thought maybe it was the "Angel of Death" and since he saw it, it meant that he was going to die soon. I said I had never even heard of the Angel of Death and I'm sure it was just someone in a weird outfit or his imagination.

He continued to fret about it for awhile. Finally, he asked if I thought it could have been someone wearing a costume for Good Friday. It hit me then that today is the Jewish holiday of Purim and and our school is next to the JCC. I remember reading in an email newsletter that they were having a big Purim costume parade/carnivalfor the preschool, so I'm sure Marlon saw someone going in costume!

He was quite relieved about this, so he's no longer worried! :)

Is there really something called the "Angel of Death?" I've never heard of that!

Checking in, spring break coming up!

It's time to "check in." There seems to be a fine line between updating too often and not updating often enough. I don't want to post too often because I don't want it to be a boring play by play of our daily lives. Even though the blog IS about our daily lives and comings and goings, I want to at least have some interesting things to report on. But I notice people are checking in frequently and I wouldn't want you to feel like there's no point in checking the blog because it's never updated.

I'm new to all of this, remember? I'd appreciate feedback in the comments section as to how often you'd check in and whether you'd rather see a daily update or less frequent but longer posts.

We've been busy as usual, but are thrilled that this is the last week of school for 3 weeks. We are in desperate need of a break. The kids have been working so hard. Harrison had a huge science test on tuesday so we spent a lot of hours preparing for that. (Why do I feel like *I'm* going through 4th grade and 6th grade all over again?! I help them study so much that I feel like I'm the one taking the tests and writing the reports!) But I hope I'm helping enforce the concepts of how to study and helping to lay the groundwork for good independent studying in high school and college. Mostly what I do is quiz them and check Jacob and Michela's work for accuracy, but with 3 kids, it's a pretty full time job every evening! Harrison felt good about the science test. Jacob and Michela had a math test monday (100 percent for each of them - yay!) and a big social studies test on tuesday (which they aced as well). They have science tests tomorrow (on earthquakes, volcanos, landslides and mudslides - fun stuff) and Harrison has a social studies test on Ancient China tomorrow. A couple of reports due friday and our annual jog-a-thon friday too rounds out the week.

Oh, and Harrison informed me today that he needs "about a hundred" latkes with sour cream and applesauce for a "birthday party" they're having in math on friday... it's apparently the average or mean or something of all of the kids' birthdays that day so they're having a class bday party. Thanks for the notice! He couldn't have volunteered to bring the forks?! :) When I groaned, he said that at least he didn't volunteer me to bake a pie for "National Pi Day" which celebrated "pi" a few days ago. "National Pi Day?" -- is that something Hallmark made up?

Our mornings have been more hectic than usual because Harrison started zero period PE. Since he got a part in the middle school musical, the only way to do that and still stay in symphonic band is to take zero period PE. He doesn't want to give up band b/c he's one of only 4 6th graders in this "honor" band and only one of two trombone players and he loves it plus his band director would be pretty upset. So he needs to go to school at 7:35 instead of 8:30. Of course getting the other two out of the house at that hour would be a major feat, so that requires two trips to school each morning. Marlon's been taking him because the time from 7:20 (when we have to leave) til 7:45 is right when I'm making sure Jacob and Michela get up, dressed, fed, have lunches on days they are taking, etc. We're NOT morning people around here (well, harrison is) so the early departure time is hard on us. At least it's only 4 days a week (not Wednesdays.)

Jacob and Michela were in the school talent show on Monday night with their good friend Kiley. Jacob choreographed their dance and they did great. They got so many compliments. IF I was able to get the video to work (I bought a new video camera that day) and if I can figure out how to post it here, I'll post the video for you to see.

I've been working as much as I can. More about what I'm working on in another post. Marlon's good, also busy working but looking forward to his spring sabbatical, which starts... about NOW. He's hoping to have more time for research and writing while on sabbatical. He'll be home all the time, which is both good and bad. Nice to have lunch together sometimes, but I do so very much enjoy my quiet solitude during the day time and his being here messes that up. He always seems to be on the computer when I need it and the phone when I want it. Oh well.

Ok, this is long enough, so more about our spring break plans tomorrow!

Our Day, In Review

I just got everyone into bed (it's around 10 p.m.) after a day that started at 8 a.m. this morning and didn't stop. Whew. I'm about ready to snuggle up in my own bed with a cup of tea, my book (I'm reading the new J.D. Robb and it's great) and Midnight, maybe Marlon too! :), but thought I'd do a quick update entry before I do that. I'm finding that after everyone is in bed and the house is quiet is the best time for it. So, here's a quick recap of our day:

Baseball:

Harrison had a baseball game this morning and they won 5 to 3. He is in the National League of Pony baseball, which is a higher level of play than the regular American League and his games -- and his coach! -- are intense. Our "jobs" for the season are that we are announcer (annoucing the batters, the score, etc.) and the ones who update the automated score board after each pitch, etc. Last Thurs I had to do both myself, but today we all went to the game, so Marlon announced and I kept the scoreboard remote. Harrison played well and played 3 innings as Catcher and 3 innings in the outfield. Although is coach praises the boys when they do well, which I like, he is extremely intense out there and does not hesitate to bluntly tell the boys what they are doing wrong. You definitely can't be sensitive on his team! He's a great coach, though, and Harrison is learning a lot from him.

Softball:

Michela had a game this afternoon. I didn't go because of Jacob's dance competition, but Marlon and Harrison were there. She played well and they also won, something like 13 to 5. She enjoyed it very much.

Dance:

Jacob had a dance competition in Long Beach that lasted all afternoon into the evening. Only two of his competition numbers competed in this particular competition. They took "High Gold" (the highest you can get) for one number and Regular Gold for the other. At the last two competitions they placed first overall in their category one time and second the other, but this time they didn't place in the overalls.

We finished off the day by all of us meeting up for pasta at a nearby pasta restaurant!

Great Movie!

We had "family movie night" at home tonight. It was a wonderful respite from our hectic life of late. In fact, we couldn't believe that by 7 p.m. we were all home and no one had any more activities. We watched "August Rush" on demand and it was really, really good. I highly recommend it. Quite a "feel good" kind of good quality movie. A perfect evening at home -- a nice dinner of salmon, mashed potatoes, salad, fruit and homemade bisquits;all of us together in the living room, cuddling on the coach with Midnight at our feet; freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and a good movie. Crazy day again tomorrow with a baseball game for Harrison, a softball game for Michela and a dance competition all afternoon/evening for Jacob. Plus they all have big science and social studies tests coming up next week, so they have to study over the weekend. The good news is that our spring break starts next friday for three glorious weeks!!

How did we get our blog name?

Several of you have asked me (in person or via email, not in comments on the blog) why our blog is named "the busy Boarnet's?" Well, first let me clarify that we are not the busty Boarnet's. Only one of us is "busty." (I'll leave you guessing which one!). I sent out an email to a bunch of friends telling them about the blog and I accidentally mis-typed the address to the busty instead of busy Boarnet's.

So, why the name? Because that is the best way to describe us. We are so incredibly busy right now that I'm not sure how we even survive our days. It usually takes both of us to get the kids to all of their various activities. Marlon is also busy with work, of course, and juggling kids activities. I'm busy trying to work as many hours a week as I can, plus running our household, which, in and of itself, is a full time job. The kids are busy with their various activities.

Spring seems to be the most intense time for us, as all of the kids' activities have heated up. We're definitely looking forward to our three week spring break, which starts next friday. Then it will be much easier. So, what are they up to that's keeping them so busy?

Harrison - he made a National League baseball team for PONY instead of American League, which is a higher, more competitive level of play. It's intense. The coach is really tough and they practice twice a week and have two games a week. He dropped off his travel baseball team for the spring because there were too many conflicts. He also made the Irvine School District Honor Band (playing trombone) which is a really big deal b/c 26 trombones tried out and they only took 4. He auditioned for and got a part in the middle school musical (Seussical) and he got a lead in the spring musical for our theater group, which is doing High school Musical (he's Chad.) One show ends Sun. June 1st and the other starts June 2nd! Then there's hebrew school twice a week, school and homework.

Jacob - Spring is really intense at the dance studio because they have competitions (6 in all between Feb. and May) and they have extra rehearsals b/c of that. Plus, the regular classes are busy gearing up for the June dance concerts. The past three weekends, he has been at dance for at least 4 hours a day sat and sun, in addition to his regular schedule of mondays, tuesdays and fridays. He also got a huge lead in High School Musical with our theater group (Ryan.) And of course hebrew school twice a week, school and homework.

Michela - She does sports AND dance, so she's equally busy. She's not competing with dance, but she dances 8 hrs/week as it is. And we switched her from baseball to girls' softball, which she loves so far. She also has a big part in High School Musical (Elise, a "made up" part that our director made up so he could tailor the part to her. ) She, too, of course, has hebrew school twice a week, school and homework.

I sometimes worry that the kids are too busy and don't have enough down time, but they say they're happy and WANT to do their activities. They all got almost all A's on their report cards, so their schoolwork isn't suffering from being busy. They are healthy, happy, not stressed out and love everything they are doing, so for now we're just letting it be.

More later! I'm actually quite tired from being so busy and I'm off to bed.

Why Blog? Feb. Kids Konnection answers that question!

Ok, I officially "launched" in Feb, but then I did nothing with it for a full month? I'm not off to a very good start! It's time to do better.

I thought my first "real" post should explain why I started this blog in the first place. One of the many "hats" I wear is that I'm a writer and have a regular column in the Orange County Jewish Life Magazine called Kids Konnection. I started it about 3 years ago when I approached the editor with the idea and she loved it.

My february column, which I'm posting here in it's entirety, explains why I've started this blog.


Orange County Jewish Life - Printer Friendly Page

KIDS' KONNECTION
By Barbara Boarnet

www.thebusyboarnets.blogspot.com
Jacob and Michela were born in 1998. Had I been more computer savvy and entrepreneurial at that time, we could be rich now. Or at least employed by Google! At that time, wanting to keep in touch with family and friends and wanting to keep everyone updated regularly about our family and our daily life, I would draft newsy emails on a regular basis, type “update list” in the address section and the message would be instantly delivered to dozens of our nearest and dearest. I even started a trend – several people on my “list” started sending updates of their own. I’ve continued the practice over the years and am proud to say that I keep in touch regularly with our family and close friends. In addition to the joy and pleasure I feel from knowing that I keep in good touch and from sharing the details of what’s going on in our life with everyone (don’t we all have this innate desire to tell people what’s going on in our lives?), I also have this wonderful record for our children of their lives – from everything ranging from their activities to funny things they say, from places we go and things we do, to the good and bad things that happen to us as we go about living our lives. I wish I had such a detailed written account of my childhood!So why, you might be wondering, would this have made us rich if I had been more computer savvy or entrepreneurial? Because one year after I started the updates, in August of 1999, three entrepreneurs in San Francisco, who wanted to make a grand entrance into the world of the Internet, created Blogger, a host company that allows individuals and businesses to create free on-line blogs. Blogger took off in a big way, and, in 2002, they were bought out by Google (yes, the Google that we all know, love, and use regularly) and they continued to flourish ever since. Now these three individuals are a Google team who “focus on helping people have their own voice on the web and organize the world’s information from the personal perspective, which has basically been [their goal] all along.” (and to think, that could have been me!)In case you have never heard of a blog and don’t know what it is, blogs are sites (also called weblogs) that serve as online journals that have become the latest craze. According to statistics found on The Blog Herald, there are over 60 million bloggers, and the number is growing by leaps and bounds. “Many people use a blog to organize their own thoughts or reveal their innermost thoughts and feelings, while others command influential worldwide audiences of thousands and use blogs to publish breaking news.”Organized chronologically, with the most recent entry (newest post) appearing at the top, individual entries, called logs, are almost always dated and time-stamped and are usually given some sort of creative subheading or title by the author. The host or software automatically generates an archive of all previous posts, with the most recent entries listed by title and the older logs archived by month or week and year. Blogs can be used in a variety of ways and for many different purposes. For personal use, blogs can function as a shared on-line diary, where people can post entries about their day-to-day lives, their personal experiences, their views on various issues, and their hobbies. Such blogs allow families and friends to keep track of each other and stay current on their daily lives (very similar to my updates!) and facilitate communication between the author and the readers. There is no restriction on what the author can write or on what style is used to write it, and readers can comment or start a discussion thread similar to a forum. Interestingly, blogs do not just contain the written word. Although primarily textual in nature, blogs also can contain photos and even videos and often provide links to other blogs and websites. These interconnected social blogging communities are known as the “blogosphere.” The only limit to the design and theme of the blog is the author’s creativity and time one puts into it.Blogs allow businesses to communicate with their current and prospective clients. They can use their entries to announce new products and services, discounts, promotions, and for a variety of other purposes. Blogs can also be very helpful in networking your business if you take the time to link to others in your niche at every available opportunity and spend time connecting with other bloggers and promoting your site. Business and personal use seem to be the two main uses for blogs, although they can also be used for educational, informational and entertainment purposes.One thing I learned in doing the research for this article is that a blog is not a website. Apparently, there are several reasons why a blog is different from a website, and blogs seem to have advantages that websites do not have. First, blogs can be more easily and frequently updated, which makes them more current and results in a more constant flow of “visitor traffic.” It is easier to start up a blog than a website, for which you would have to pay a web designer to create. Many companies offer free blogs with hosting that allow anyone to start publishing content to the Internet instantly by the click of a button… The author needs to just write, post, and publish. These blogs are apparently very easy to customize and design with easy-to-follow instructions, as opposed to creating a website. (Blogger.com is just the one that I found the most easily, but there are apparently many companies that provide this service and also software you can buy.) One of the biggest advantages that I can see is that blogs, unlike websites, allow and encourage interaction among the readers, which creates a social community environment on the topic. It’s similar to emailing back and forth but this way others can be involved – sort of like a big conference call. Additionally, although I haven’t done much (or any!) of this, I know there are many people who regularly follow blogs and engage in online communication, idea sharing, and debates on topics that are interesting to them, such as pets, politics, and celebrity gossip, even if they don’t know the author of the blog. Blogger profile on blogger.com lets you find people and blogs that share your interests and lets people find you if you want to be found.Until I sat down to write this article, I was very happy with the e-mail updates I have been writing for over nine years. I had considered – and rejected – starting a blog. But I’ve changed my mind and am going to join the other sixty million plus people and create a blog to chronicle our family’s journeys and adventures through school, activities, work, and daily life. Check it out at www.thebusyboarnets.blogspot.com… and don’t forget to comment!For feedback, contact editor@ocjewishlife.com.
Printed from: http://www.ocjewishlife.com/stories/xarchive.php?id=474© Orange County Jewish Life, All Rights Reserved