DIY Blog - Tabbed Widget

I enjoy surfing the web and webdesign and somewhere in the busyness of wifehood, motherhood, homeschool, sisterhood, daughterhood, friendhood and general life I would love to learn to program in CSS & HTML!  I have enjoyed looking at different blogs and the creative ways in which people do up their little corner of the web to make it their own. 

I have felt a little frustrated (alright I confess: VERY frustrated )in trying to rearrange my little corner of blog world and have spent hours trying to figure out how some of you do the amazing things you do with your blogs.  So I thought I would share with you some of the tips I have learned from other blogs and bloggers along the way.

Tabbed Widget

My new Tabbed Widget

 DIY Steps for blogger:

• Decide which three widgets you want to combine to add into this one tabbed widget.
• Open your Design tab in blogger.
• Make sure you drag and place the three widgets you want to combine to the top of your list
• Edit each widget and make sure you add in a title to each widget.

• Now click Add a Gadget

• Select HTML/Java Script

• Open a new tab in your browser
• Go to Blogger Sentral The Easiest Tabbed Widget
• Scroll down to Installation
• Read the instructions.
• Click on the little button (view source) this will open the code page

• Click anywhere on the page.
• On your keyboard press Ctrl & A together, this will select all the code
• Now press Ctrl & C together, this will copy the code
• Go back to your widget code box, click on the box, now press Ctrl & V together this will paste the code into the box. 

• Click save and it will autoload for you !
• Now at the top of the Design page click Save
• Now click View Blog

If you want to have more than three tabs you can alter the code. For step by step instructions you will need to carefully read the steps in the installation part after the picture of the code on Blogger Sentral Easiest Tabbed Content Widget.

Widget Colum Width

You might need to make the colum your widget resides in wider to accomodate what you are trying to achieve.

To do this you need to:

• Open your blog
• Log in
• Click on Design
• Click on Template Designer
• Click on Adjust widths
• Adjust the width by either dragging the arrow or change the number.
• Click Apply to Blog
• Click View Blog to make sure it is sufficient.

Have fun making your blog tabbed widget.

Week 1 - Intro to The Ministry of Motherhood

I managed this week to read the introduction chapter in The Ministry of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson as well as think over a scripture a day from the S.O.A.P sheet from Good Morning Girls.  I'm glad I did as it gave me something positive to sleep on and wake up and walk around with for the day. 

This caught my attention

They need the authentic strength that comes from the true foundation of a biblical world-view and a proper understanding of the real Christ who is worthy of their worship. They need an unwavering, internal moral and spiritual compass that will help them weather today's storms and tomorrow's and will guide them for the rest of their lives.
- Sally Clarkson (The Ministry of Motherhood)

Not only my children but I need this! I find that as each day passes I long to know Him more authentically. I need this true foundation how else will my children learn it ?  As Sally points out in Luke 6:40

"A pupil is not above his teacher;

but everyone, after he has been fully trained,

will be like his teacher."

That is a weight to carry! I am responsible for the position my children are in once they are fully trained.

Study & Discussion

We were encouraged to look at some verses and one of them was Psalm 127:1-3 (AMP) (I'm a wordy kinda girl and LOVE the Amplified Bible!)

Psalm 127
A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon.
 1[a]EXCEPT THE Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; except the Lord keeps the city, the watchman wakes but in vain.
    2It is vain for you to rise up early, to take rest late, to eat the bread of [anxious] toil--for He gives [blessings] to His beloved in sleep.
    3Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.

I enjoyed reading this but felt a little frustrated as I wanted more than the status quo.  My head thought straight away I can't do anything without the Lord but I wanted to dig deeper to know more of what the Lord means in this.

I have been blessed with a jewish friend who I emailed and asked for insight.  Chanah so blessed me, this is what she said (shared with her permission):

You need to remember that generally Jews do not take one specific verse out of scripture for insight-rather we look at the whole context of what was written, when and why.

So, the Jewish perspective on that verse is initially quite clear. If HaShem is not a part of your plans, don't bother cause it will be in vain.

The reality is that scripture is much deaper when you look at the context of 127.. David is instructing his son Solomon on the virtues of proper training for children.

An arrow shot with a strong hand bears within itself the strength of the bowman long after the arrow has left his hand and it follows unswervingly the direction given by the hand of the mighty man. So too, children raised by dedicated parents will remain unwaveringly and unhesitatingly true to the goal set for them by the guiding hands of parents, long after they have left the spehere of parental guidance.

So, if HaShem does not build a house-the hebrew word is home-and what is a home made up of??? children!!!!! So, if HaShem is not a part of building your house-home-if you are not raising your children in his ways, then more then likely you will have futility and do so in vain.

What are cities? They are heaps of homes-so if Hashem is not a part of building your city (or community) then all of the work could be being done in vain.

Bricks and morter are only the physical things used to protect the most spiritual things-children and family-there are beautiful houses and cities that are null and void as they have not been built in the ways of HaShem and there are homes of poverty-people who live in poverty but are protected by the ways of the L-rd....

Chanah gave me a fresh way of looking at the importance of what we are, and the choices we make do have an influence long after our children have left our sphere of influence.

• I loved her reminder that it's not about things it's about people. 
• She pointed me back to the eternal perspective. 
• I've always thought about the quiver part of the scripture and never given much head to the bowman. Of what use is a quiver without the bowman who carries it ? 

In verse two the word anxious jumped at me.  Anxious toil,  I was begining to feel anxious over the role I carry as mother in relation to this verse, but it is followed with,  He gives blessings. I thought about it.....  He gives blessings wow. I do not need to be greatly concerned, for He gives me blessing.

I was going to try keep up with the schedule of one section a week but didn't want to miss the depth of what I could be learning so this coming week I will be looking at some of the other scriptures Sally has on page 19 and thinking about some of the things she asks.  One of them being Proverbs 31 .......

Take courage my friends your daily walk will be echoing for eternity.  It is important

Just for fun :)

Ode to English Plurals

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?

If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,

But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!
Let's face it - English is a crazy language.

There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England .
We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,

we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing,
grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and
get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English
should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.
In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?

We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
in which your house can burn up as it burns down,
in which you fill in a form by filling it out,  and
in which an alarm goes off by going on.

And in closing, if Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop?

 *-*-*-*-*

The first five verses are from a poem “Pluralities” written in January 2006 by Eugenia A. Nidia (EFITA Newsletter). I haven’t been able to determine who wrote the second part -

This poem really illustrates some of the interesting things that our children need to learn in order to grasp the English language ! 

I think as adults we forget just how much our students still need to learn.