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HSB Blogger of the Week November 13-19, 2008 
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| So says Randy Thomasson, of the Campaign for Children and Families. Some background... After Proposition 8 in California was passed by a 52-48 margin in a vote by the people of California, the state's Supreme Court has agreed to hear multiple challenges from the opposition. One of the arguments being made is that the Proposition (14 words: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.") constitutes a "revision" or "gutting" of the state constitution, which requires the legislature to be involved. Here is the excerpt from a news release that I received from the CCF (emphasis mine): "If Prop. 8 gutted the constitution, why is it only one subject in one section of the constitution? If Prop. 8 doesn't stand, then our constitution doesn't mean anything, the people's vote doesn't mean anything, marriage has been utterly disrespected, and judges lied when they swore to uphold the constitution. Prop. 8 must stand, because the constitution is above the judges, not the other way around."I encourage all interested persons to read the entire release, visit CCF's homepage, and stay informed. This is very important not only to upholding Christian values in our rapidy deteriorating society, but also to uphold the rule of LAW as opposed to being ruled over by Judicial Tyrrany. ~ |
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| ...Or any other daytime shows. They are not too intelligent. That's my opinion. Entertaining, maybe... if I was really, really bored and my house was clean (ha!) and it was a blinding blizzard outside (I live in So. Cal. near the coast... not likely). In other words, pigs would grow wings and fly (or insert other cliche that means NEVER) before I would watch willingly. For example, apparently Joy Behar opened her mouth the other day and some bigotry focused on homeschoolers came out. You can see the clip, read a partial transcript, and get contact info for ABC and "The View" at Homeschool the Revolution. To be clear, I am not shocked. But I am offended. Not for my own sake, but for the sake of my children and others like them. We already face so much resistance in the "popular culture" for doing what we KNOW is right for our children, comments like this are not helpful or welcome. If I didn't already NOT watch "The View", I'd certainly stop watching it after that. I will be writing an email to all applicable parties about this. |
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| So, hopefully my instructions in Part 1 were clear as mud and you've applied a background to your HSB blog if you wanted to. Part 2 is... how to switch between backgrounds. This is a piece of cake compared to Part 1. So, imagine it's after the holidays and you want to change the background to something else on TCBOTB. All you have to do is change the code that points to the background image. I know, you are saying, "Easy for HER to say! (What did she just say?)" Fear Not! Just follow the steps below: Step 1: Here is what we pasted into the template in Step 6 of Part 1, and where to orient your eyeballs to get started.  See where it runs off the side of my screen-print? That "http://....." is the location on the internet (photobucket in this case) where the background image resides. STEP 2: So, now that you know where we will be playing, we need to pick a new background. As before, open a new tab or window in your browser and go to TCBOTB. Select a new background. STEP 3: Again, ignore the instructions given, but look at the code below the instructions.  Copy everything inside the parenthesis and quotation marks. This is the address where the image for your new background resides. STEP 4: Go back to your HSB Template and find the code referenced in Step 1 above.  Highlight the old image address in your code, and paste the new image address over it. STEP 5: Click Preview Changes to see if it worked or if you need to make changes. Then Save your changes or continue working with your template. Have fun! ~ |
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| I promised a couple times to show how to do this, and a few people have asked for it, so here's the long-awaited post on how to use backgrounds from The Cutest Blog on the Block. The ladies at TCBOTB have streamlined their instructions for Blogger blogs, but you can use them on HSB templates too, if you have time to play... or you can take the instructions below verbatim. If you are super-fond of your current template/layout/background, be SURE to back up your code before you begin. I usually go to the Edit Template area and copy/paste everything into Notepad or Word and save it. This way, if I don't like what I've done while I'm experimenting, I can just paste the old code back in and I'm back to something that works. So, if you've backed up your current blog and are ready to begin... let's go! STEP 1: Go into your blog's template area and click "Choose New Template".  STEP 2: Choose the "Soap" Template.  Any HSB template would work, but I chose this one for the sake of simplicity. If you work with another template, you may have to fiddle around with other settings inside the template, and I'm not an expert in coding websites, so I'm only comfortable giving advice on this particular element (i.e. applying the background). If you use another template, you will need time to play with the other elements (i.e. columns, headers, etc) on your own. Hey, it's how I learned this much, so if you have the patience it's worth it! OK, back to the instructions... STEP 3: Be SURE you have backed up your current blog template before proceeding. After you click OK, your current template will be overwritten.  STEP 4: You will be given the below choices. Click Edit Template.  STEP 5: This is the fun part... Open a new window or tab in your browser, so you can go back and forth. Go to The Cutest Blog on the Block and select a background you like. I will be using one they titled "Sassy Santa" for this example. Click on the background. You will be taken to a page showing you the background you selected and, if you scroll down, instructions for Blogger blogs. We can ignore the Blogger instructions, as they don't apply on HSB, but the part below the instructions is the code that is the secret to putting the background in your blog. Select the code in between the curly brackets, as shown below. Do not include the curly brackets, just the part in between.  Because this is not as easy to read as I had hoped, it's the part that starts: background image: url all the way through the part that says: background-attachment: fixed STEP 6: Return to the window or tab where you are working on your HSB template. Paste the code you just copied into the BODY section of your template, as shown below This applies the background to your blog. But we aren't quite finished yet. STEP 7: We have to add in the "Link Back" button to the background, giving credit where credit is due. So, go back to your TCBOTB window or tab and copy another bit of the code as shown below:  It the part that is between the "div" tags... STEP 8: Then go back to the tab or window where you are working on your template. Paste the code you just copied into the template AFTER the "end of head" tag and BEFORE the "begin body" tag, as shown below:  STEP 9: Now we have to make an edit to the code you just pasted in, so that the button isn't covered up by the HSB banner at the top of the blog. Edit the code as shown below so that the top position is 60px (it will be 30px before you edit):  Step 10: We're almost done! We need to edit the HSB template so that the columns fit in between the edges of the background. Look down just a few lines from where you pasted the Link Back code we just worked on until you see "BEGIN LEFTSIDE". Just above that, change the td width to 500, as shown below:  STEP 11: Click Preview Changes to make sure it looks OK. Now you can either Save Changes, or continue working with font styles and colors, or whatever else you want to play with. So, there you have it... how to apply TCBOTB backgrounds to your HSB blog! Have fun! ~ . |
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I received the following from HSLDA:HSLDA: Invitation to Participate My school-age child will not be eligible this time around, as the coop starts standardized testing with 1st grade, and it is done at the end of the year so we will have to wait until the next study is done to participate. But I thought that anyone else who meets the guidelines and wants to participate should know about it. I am not sure if you have to be a member with HSLDA to participate, I'm sure they would take all comers if you met the requirements at the link in the notice above, but it wouldn't hurt to call Mr. Ian Slatter at (540) 338-8663 if you had any questions about eligibility. Here are some more informational links: Introductory Letter from Mr. Slatter Dated March 2008 Prize Drawing Guidelines for study participants ~ |
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| Well, since being honored by HSB as "Blogger of the Week", I haven't had much time to blog. I feel a tiny bit bad about that, so I thought I'd make a post about my blog and explain a bit about our homeschooling arrangement. I started blogging about a year ago when an online friend said something like, "Hey, I was surfing the net looking for something and stumbled across this blogging community I thought might interest you." So I clicked on over to HSB and used the jump button (up there in the top right corner) to browse through a few random blogs. Before I knew it, I had set up my own page using a canned template from the selection HSB offers. Since then, I have (by much trial and error and not by my own knowledge) managed to personalize my blog a bit more with backgrounds and I continue to try new things out from time to time. I intended this space to be kind of a journal for me, and for my friends and family to check in on us. This is still the main purpose of my blog, and so it was quite unexpected to be honored by HSB with an award. I don't blog for the sake of blogging or getting attention. I do blog some political stuff, because we follow politics closely at home and because some of it (especially given that we are in California) directly affects children and how they are educated. This is something that grieves my heart to no end... seeing what our state is forcing on young, impressionable minds. It's why I'm home teaching my kids! So, from time to time a request for action will pop up here. I try not to get into the "down and dirty", but I will post the facts and action steps on issues important to the homeschooling and Christian communities. As for school, we are using a "Private School Satellite Program", or PSP (which used to be called "Independant Study Program (ISP)" or "Cover School"), which operates as a very sophisticated homeschool cooperative. We meet twice a week in the youth building of a local church, and the cooperative provides all the "administration" for our school. These administrative items include: filing any required paperwork with the state, choosing the curriculum, placing a classroom teacher for each grade, issuing lesson plans, classroom instruction twice a week for grades PreK-8th, issuing report cards, and keeping a cumulative file for each student. We also have elective classes that you can sign up for that meet once a week on various days, and we have a mom that volunteers to coordinate field trips every month. So, you can see, it is the best of both worlds. Much more affordable than a full time private day school, and I teach at home 3 days a week to the lesson plan. So, there you have a little background on this space. I hope you enjoy it! ~ |
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| It's time again for the Not Me! Monday blog carnival, hosted by MckMama. For the week of November 10-16:  I did not ditch doing Not Me! Mondays for the past few weeks just because my weekend schedule has been busy. I mean, how much time does it take to sit down and write a post? And I've found time to post other things, so I wouldn't have possibly skipped Not Me! Mondays... it wouldn't make any sense. I did not leave the house for church yesterday and start to drive off with my coffee cup on top of the car, spilling half of the sugar and hazelnut creamer laden beverage all over my white van. Nope, I never put things on top of the car and forget them there while I buckle in the baby and make sure the older boys are fastened in. Who would do that? Especially when the car salesman tried making a selling point out of the number of cupholders inside the vehicle? Certainly not me. Of course, it could be because my cupholders are certainly NOT occupied by empty beverage containers that have not been thrown out yet. Because cupholders are not garbage holders, and my van does not look like a tribe of homeless people lives in it 24/7. Nope, that wouldn't be me. I am not typing this post at 7:15 on Monday morning, even though I should be making sure the kids are getting dressed and ready for school at the coop. I am not still in my own jammies, and we don't have to leave in 45 minutes at the latest, with breakfast in our bellies and lunchbox in hand, to be there on time. So, since it is a "school at the coop" day, I need to scram and make sure we get out the door on time. Thanks for checking in! You can visit MckMama's blog for her "Not Me!" and a list of Not Me! participants that you can click on for more "cheaper than therapy" catharsis. ~ |
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14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day. This week, we actually learned about the third and fourth days of creation, but our science and "exploration" subject was the sun, moon and stars. We talked about how the moon circles the earth once in a month, and how the earth spins around once each day while circling the sun once in a year. I set the vacuum cleaner in the middle of the room and pretended at first it was the Earth, and we walked around it once facing it the whole time as if we were the moon. Then the vacuum became the sun and we twirled around as we circled it, pretending we were the Earth. I confess, I get motion sick, and the twirling and circling about did me in. I'm glad I'm not a planet! We have noticed a lot of shooting stars in the sky lately around here. I think in the last month we've seen a half dozen of them. Of course, they aren't really stars... more likely some small bits of space junk coming in from orbit, or some small pieces of cosmic dust. Whatever they are, they sure are pretty! Our memory verse from Proverbs this week is: Proverbs 14:30 (NIV) A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones. Stay tuned for a post on our Cub Scout "Go See It" outing! ~ |
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| My previous post was part of a blog contest to win a copy of "The Quest For Thunder Mountain", from the new Tales from Terrestria series of books. I won a copy! How cool is that? Then while checking my email this morning, as the kids ate their breakfast and before we tackled our schoolwork for the day, I received a notice that a comment awaited on my blog. Wondering, "Who may have left a comment, especially since I didn't blog anything this week of any importance?", I clicked the link to see what awaited me. Tia at the HSB Company Blog had left me a note congratulating me on being chosen as the "Blogger of the Week"! You can visit the HSB Company Blog by clicking on the "Blogger of the Week" award button in my sidebar to see what else is there. They have some great contests and articles that make you think, as well as articles that are just fun to read too. I must say, I am really flattered to have been chosen. I don't really know what to say, but it is a very pleasant and unexpected surprise! So I will just say "Thank You", and that I hope my new visitors will make themselves comfy. Please feel free to leave comments or questions. I am very happy to respond. ~ |
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