Site of the Week Saturday

This week I would like to highlight Jack over at the survival podcast. I know this is not going to be quite what some of you expect, but I like the message that Jack spreads. He does get a bit excited on some of his podcasts, and you don't have to agree or even listen to him, but he does discuss getting out of debt, not getting any new debt, and stockpiling. There is even a thread in the forum about couponing and another one about CVS'ing. Some of his ideas won't appeal to you, but I bet some of them will. Go check out the site, the podcasts and the forum. I guarantee you will learn something new. I know I have.

ETA: This is the first time I have featured a guy for the site of the week!

Site of the Week Saturday

This week for my site of the week, stop by and visit Alaina at Ms.SingleMama. She is a single mama trying, scratch that, doing the best possible for her son. Go and check her site out. She has lots of advice and stories to share for all of us. She has stories to make you laugh and stories to make your heart melt.

Site of The Week Saturday

This week's Site of the Week? It's Scary Mommy. Jill over there at Scary Mommy tells it like it is with her three little munchkins. She puts a humerous take on the life of mommyhood. Go and check her out. You will laugh out loud at her children's antics and her stories of life.

Site of the Week Saturday

I am going to post this today because for some reason I cannot seem to get the scheduled posts to work. I did not think it was that hard, but they aren't posting anymore. So here goes a day early:





Site of the Week Saturday this week will be Frugal Family Fun Blog. Valerie is the master at coming up with loads of thrifty ways to have fun with the kids. Go and check her site out for great ideas on all things kids and crafty. She even has posted a snack or two that are great fun for the kids. She has even been on her local news with one of her lovely daughters.

I have been invited to participate in telling my blogging quest by Semantically Driven, so here goes.

My blogging quest.

I began my blogging quest for two reasons. First, I needed to get some of my pain out. I was hurting deeply. My life had been turned upside down by an unjust legal system, a lousy attorney, and an evil ex. I was devastated. I had no one to turn to. I read online where things like this happened, to real people, not just stories, but I could find no one to turn to talk things out. To tell my story to. Even folks I knew for ages, people my sister worked with, they all started wondering if I hadn't done something wrong since I lost custody. It did not seem to occur to people that this does happen. Shit happens to good people. That seems to be the way it works. Sometimes the bad guy wins a round.

Secondly, I wanted to be a source of hope for other moms in this situation. I made plans to use my blog as an outlet, but also to reach people to give them hope. If I can make it through my situation, then you can make it through yours. I also want to change the laws. I want to do my best to help other moms keep their kids. No one should be diagnosed with MSBP. It is a witch-hunt*. It will take a strong person to change these laws. I want to be that person. If I can help save one child and mother's life and prevent this kind of emotional turmoil, then I will feel that I have done my part. There actually are cases of children dying after being removed from their mother's care after losing custody from being labeled MSBP. I want to stop this from happening. Ever.

My blog then changed course a little bit when I started trying to save money. I was posting deals that I found from fellow "hounds" (from the Grocery Challenge on MSN money). I was spending less time focusing on my story and more time on the "deals" I was getting. I do still post about my son, but as I don't get to see him everyday, I don't have the daily stories to tell.

I don't know exactly what I expected for blogging. I do know that what I get out of it now is far different than what I got out of it originally. I have read from many bloggers that the comments are what you want. I won't lie, I enjoy comments, but what I like more is watching the counter go up. I like to check the stats and see how long people were on my site to make sure it was not an accidental click and that they left immediately. I just like knowing that people stopped by. Comments are always appreciated, but I am always just thankful for a visit.

I have not really had any adversity, but I keep my blog anonymous, and I only recently took it public. It began as private and was not found by search engines. I did not want my ex or his atty to stumble on it. Now I don't care if they find it or not. I do not use our real names anyway. I think coming up with new topics is totally an adventure though!

The one thing that I did not expect was the expanse. I have had visitors from all over the world. This just blows my mind. I don't advertise anywhere about my blog, I just listed it with a few other blogs and next thing you know, the whole world is visiting. Not really. My numbers are no where near what a lot of other blogs get, but it is still amazing to me none the less.

I will continue to blog for the foreseeable future. I want to continue to chronicle money saving ideas. We all could use those, especially these days, but especially struggling single moms. I also will continue to chronicle my journey in getting my son back, and the little joys that we get right now. I most definitely will chronicle my journey to changing laws. This needs to be done, and why not me? I want to continue learning about blogging and all that it entails. Maybe even getting my own domain someday.

I don't know where I see blogging going. I have had the site for a while, but have only recently gotten more interested in frequent posting. I have a lot to learn about it in the meantime. Hopefully, it does not change faster than I can learn!

I chose my title, Life is hard-just keep swimming because that is the essence of life. It is hard, but do not give up. We all have to get through it, and we can. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming....Now you have that song and Dory stuck in your head, don't ya?


*I was going to say it is a witch-hunt by a bunch of men, but that makes me sound like a man-hater. I am not a man-hater, just a "hater" of folks who use made up medical jargon to hurt another and benefit themselves. If one researches MSBP, you will discover that the man that "discovered" it has been discredited and cases in which he testified against women-BTW, women are the only ones labeled with MSBP-are now being re-heard and the women are getting their kids back. MSBP is not even allowed any more in England and Australia in court cases.

Flashback Friday

I have been following our hostess Scary Mommy for the past few weeks with the Flashback Fridays. This week I have nothing to flash back on, so I will just post this link to Jill, go read everyone else's flashbacks. This could be fun, let's go.

Site of the Week Saturday

This week I would like to highlight a blog that I just love. You can find a wealth of information for catching those great deals. You can get wonderful (and funny) fur baby stories. You can also find great pictures of those fur babies and of nature. She is a wonderful gal over there at Frugalsuz's place. Her web site is frugalsuz.blogspot.com. Go check Frugalsuz out over there at Hounding with Frugalsuz. She is also active on the Grocery Challenge passing along great ideas. She is just an all around great gal.

Site of the Week Saturday

I would like to highlight a blog today. It is the website of a good pal of mine. She is a super hound and an even better friend! She is always generous and kind, so I thought she deserved to be my first Site of the Week! Annie over at Chi-Annie: at the table is the wonderful person I am talking about! Go check her place out! Lots of fabulous shopping tips, cooking tips, recipes, you name it she's got it. Go on, get over there!

Flashback Friday

I am going to try to remember to participate every Friday in Flashback Friday, hosted by Jill over at ScaryMommy. Now my blog has not been around long enough to have flashbacks from the blog. I also have only had a digital camera for a short while. I do have a picture to share though. My son has had a camera for about three years now. This picture represents about half of all the pictures that I have from my son S.

I mostly throw these pictures away after a while, when I think that S won't notice that they are missing. Now I can keep them forever on a disc because what fun to show S the super photographer he used to be! I do have to admit however, he is getting better. I swear I have not seen an up and close eye ball shot for a couple of months! Or the ever popular "Up the Nose See all My Nose Hairs" type of shot.

Gee, what will I do with no more nose hair shots?

Check this blog out!

I ran across Scary Mommy and boy is she funny. Her kids are adorable, well they are not mine so of course they are adorable. I am sure that Jill agrees (most of the time) they are adorable too. Go check her out and subscribe. She is going to have some kind of breakdown I think if she cannot get her subscribers back up to 700. So go check her out for a good laugh and make sure to subscribe. Oh yea, she is also giving away a set of fancy earrings and you can get the opportunity for a lot of entries. She really is begging for people to subscribe, as she lost all of her subscribers when she went from blogger to feedburner. She NEEDS subscribers. Now go!!