We all have blogging fears at some point in this journey. Mostly in the beginning.
We may fear "not fitting in" in the blog sphere.
We may fear that after we make the choice to put our life out there, in writing, for others to read and criticize we won't be able to take the rude comments and harsh critics.
We may fear voicing our own opinions and beliefs for fear that others might not agree with us and judge us.
Another fear is that of having the pictures of our kids we so proudly put up to capture the moment or turn into a memory getting stolen and used for God knows what.
At the beginning of my blogging journey I didn't pay much attention to the last fear noted. It was mostly at everything above that. Then when I became pregnant I started to think more about my blogging. How much is too much sharing? How do I take precaution? How do I protect my children? Myself?
I'm guilty of probably over-sharing sometimes. Not so much with my kids though. I hope.
Even so, it worries me what some people can do with the stuff I share online. Especially my pictures.
It wasn't till recently after reading a story about how a blogger's pictures and blog posts, were stolen and being used as someone else's. Even scarier was the fact that it was somewhere outside the United States. Then I read two other stories similar to this one. That was it for me. No more procrastinating on watermarking my pictures. I needed to find the best way to do this and lucky enough that same blogger posted a tutorial on how to watermark your pictures. I tried it and have been using it in my last few posts. Now only if there was a way to watermark previous pictures just as easy.
I blog for me. To write my story. Our story. To print it and have it some place safe to look back on over the years. This is my journal. One that I decided, for whatever reason, to make readable by the public. Whoever they may be. Do I regret it? No. Not yet at least. Because I have learned things that have made me a better wife and better mother. A better person in general. And whether I have 1 or 50 followers I will always blog for me and my family. Yes, I will be more cautious on how much I share. Wouldn't want the wrong person to find my blog and use it against me, like the crazy-jealous-stalker I had before. And I will definitely do my very best to protect my children, husband, family, and friends from having their picture stolen. I hardly ever post pictures other than of my family but I do post pictures of others and I need to take responsibility for those images.
Here's the tutorial I've been using. If you're not already watermarking your photos I advice you to take precaution. Is not as hard as you might think.
The only thing I do different then Becky is that I use Blogstomp to group them nicely so instead of uploading my pictures to Facebook I open them from "Stomped" directly to paintbrush add the watermark and just re save it. It automatically saves in Stomped again and I send them all to Flickr to be uploaded to my blog post. All my ungrouped photos remain in iPhoto without being touched. However if I wanted to keep the grouped photos as well without the watermark all I have to do is use "Save As" instead of just "Save" in paintbrush.
I also have the option to watermark via Blogstomp but it shows in the corners and I much rather have it in the middle since that's harder to "crop out".
What will it take for you to protect yourself and your family?
A Place:
After years and years of waiting to have a place of our own. A place to call our home. A place to make our home. There's no other place beside our house that I'm most thankful for.
For starter, this house was a gift. It wasn't in the best of shape but little by little it is being transform to a place where we will always look back at and remember all the precious memories we created in it. The early years of our marriage. The place where our son learned how to ride a bike and learned how to be a big brother. The place where we brought home our second child. The place that taught us what were must have in our next house and what we do not need. The place where we learned the true responsibilities of a home owner. The place that saw me grow into homemaker. All of our ups and down. There is no mistaken that this is the most important place I could be thankful for.
Little by little and one project at a time this house has become more then what it once was. From a cold, scary, tasteless place to a place that held my family together through it all and saw us each grow into our best version of one another. From my mother-in-law to renters and now us this place is more then a house we were gifted. This place is now Our Home and I will forever be thankful for it.
An Event:
I can recall many events that I am thankful for for shaping me into who I am today. One very important event that without it I wouldn't be where I am today has been meeting my husband.
That cold winter day of February 2005 in school where we first laid eyes on each other. Where we first exchanged a Hello and smiles. Without that day my sons wouldn't be here today, I wouldn't be a married woman nor a blogger. If that day I wouldn't of met my husband who knows where I would have ended up. I have learned so much. He has taught me so much. It has been a beautiful journey and I just cannot think of going through the last 8+ years of my life without him. He has helped me grow from a young girl into a woman. A wife, a mother, and even a better daughter. Thank you Steven!
I had been looking forward to this day for weeks. I'm not into sports at all. Never was as a matter of fact. Not even in high school. I guess with not having a dad or a male figure around (beside my younger brother) that was into them it never really made a difference to me. I would go to the school's pep rallies and games but it was more to be with my friends then anything else. And to root for my school of course. Beyond that there was nothing much. To tell you the truth I didn't even understand the game. Football more then anything since that was always the big thing in school.
Then I met my husband and things didn't change. He played football in high school and played with his cousins and friends over the seasons but being that he would always end up with a fracture or broken bone he stopped that real quick and little by little he even stop watching the games all together. Just from time to time he would check scores etc.
So every year when football season came around I would just go on my merry way like it was nothing. But this year. This year it was different. This year we made plans to go watch a home game 3.5 hours away from home to Penn State University and experience it all. The tailgating, shouting, cheering, beer drinking, after game parties, you name it. I was so excited.
That Saturday I had gotten out of work at 7am and I drove to my mother's to drop off the milk I had pumped at work and to change. About an hour later Hubby dropped the boys off and we got on the road. It didn't feel like we drove long at all. I guess with good company this sort of thing tends to happen :)
We drove straight to the stadium since it was an early game and we got there just in time. We parked, enjoyed a couple of cold beers while we stretched our legs and off we were to our seats. It was Amazing! I had never experienced anything like it. No wonder people go all out when football season arrives.
It was so much fun!
But I wasn't understanding nothing. #rookie
I sat there, so concentrated in the game and freezing my tosh off. Trying to understand what was happening and asking a gazillion question hahaha. Luckily the hubs and the other couple didn't mind. I hope. Then at the end of the game I finally understood a little bit. just a little. We went into overtime and we won! Woohoo. It was crazy. People were going wild. I was in LOVE!
We walked back to the car and cooked some burgers and yummy hot dogs while sipping on some cold beer and munching on chips. It rained a little but it stopped pretty quick. Then we drove to the hotel and I pumped, showered, and took my sweet time getting ready while everyone napped. I knew that I wouldn't be able to nap because then I wasn't going to be able to get back up for the night.
Later that night we were all ready to take the town. We went to a couple of bars and just chilled. It was a very nice time although I felt like we were in a Halloween movie. Everyone was all dressed up. Every single person. Except us. Super weird.
Our last stop was a diner for dessert. Boy was that good. So worth it! Then I was done. My body gave up and from that moment on I was like a zombie. Next thing I know we were back at the hotel and I was getting ready for bed.
The next day we walked up and down the main street shopping. We ate lunch and stopped by the creamery for some ice cream to bring home. We got the pumpkin pie flavor and happy happy joy joy which was a coconut ice cream and tasted pretty much like you were eating an almond joy bar. Then it was back on the road for the drive back home.
Overall it was an awesome experienced and I can't wait to do it again. I'd love to take the boys at some point too. I'm sure Steven Jr. would enjoy it so much. I know I did.
I still dont understand the plays much or what most things means during a game but I'm confident that with time I will be just like those friends of mine that enjoy football so much :D
That Saturday I had gotten out of work at 7am and I drove to my mother's to drop off the milk I had pumped at work and to change. About an hour later Hubby dropped the boys off and we got on the road. It didn't feel like we drove long at all. I guess with good company this sort of thing tends to happen :)
We drove straight to the stadium since it was an early game and we got there just in time. We parked, enjoyed a couple of cold beers while we stretched our legs and off we were to our seats. It was Amazing! I had never experienced anything like it. No wonder people go all out when football season arrives.
It was so much fun!
But I wasn't understanding nothing. #rookie
I sat there, so concentrated in the game and freezing my tosh off. Trying to understand what was happening and asking a gazillion question hahaha. Luckily the hubs and the other couple didn't mind. I hope. Then at the end of the game I finally understood a little bit. just a little. We went into overtime and we won! Woohoo. It was crazy. People were going wild. I was in LOVE!
We walked back to the car and cooked some burgers and yummy hot dogs while sipping on some cold beer and munching on chips. It rained a little but it stopped pretty quick. Then we drove to the hotel and I pumped, showered, and took my sweet time getting ready while everyone napped. I knew that I wouldn't be able to nap because then I wasn't going to be able to get back up for the night.
Later that night we were all ready to take the town. We went to a couple of bars and just chilled. It was a very nice time although I felt like we were in a Halloween movie. Everyone was all dressed up. Every single person. Except us. Super weird.
Our last stop was a diner for dessert. Boy was that good. So worth it! Then I was done. My body gave up and from that moment on I was like a zombie. Next thing I know we were back at the hotel and I was getting ready for bed.
The next day we walked up and down the main street shopping. We ate lunch and stopped by the creamery for some ice cream to bring home. We got the pumpkin pie flavor and happy happy joy joy which was a coconut ice cream and tasted pretty much like you were eating an almond joy bar. Then it was back on the road for the drive back home.
Overall it was an awesome experienced and I can't wait to do it again. I'd love to take the boys at some point too. I'm sure Steven Jr. would enjoy it so much. I know I did.
I still dont understand the plays much or what most things means during a game but I'm confident that with time I will be just like those friends of mine that enjoy football so much :D
These babies have been my everything lately. I'm sure that they are also the reason for the +3lbs I've gained. But omg are they good. And they sure do a great job at helping me lactate more. It did however take about two weeks before I saw a change in my supply.
I heard of lactation cookies so many times in forums and while searching for ways to increase my supply but I was scare to try them. First because the two main ingredients intimidated me, I have no idea why. And two because I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to control my eating them, hahaha. I have to admit though, I'm glad I tried them this late in the game otherwise I would have never gotten rid of my pregnancy weight left and probably would of added an extra 10lbs to that. Yikes! So as delicious as they are just be very careful with how many you eat in a day. Most I ate was 8. Shame on me.
Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
4 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons flax seed meal
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups oats
1 cup chocolate chips
2 -4 tablespoons brewer's yeast
Directions:
1 cup sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
4 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons flax seed meal
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups oats
1 cup chocolate chips
2 -4 tablespoons brewer's yeast
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Mix the flaxseed meal and water and let sit for 3-5 minutes.
3. Beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar well.
4. Add eggs and mix well.
5. Add flaxseed mix and vanilla, beat well.
6. Sift together flour, brewers yeast, baking soda, and salt.
7. Add dry ingredients to butter mix.
8. Stir in oats and chips (I didn't use the chocolate chips the second time around and they turned out great anyways)
2. Mix the flaxseed meal and water and let sit for 3-5 minutes.
3. Beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar well.
4. Add eggs and mix well.
5. Add flaxseed mix and vanilla, beat well.
6. Sift together flour, brewers yeast, baking soda, and salt.
7. Add dry ingredients to butter mix.
8. Stir in oats and chips (I didn't use the chocolate chips the second time around and they turned out great anyways)
9. Scoop onto baking sheet.
10. Bake for 12 minutes.
11. Let set for a couple minutes then remove from tray.
You can find the original recipe here.
10. Bake for 12 minutes.
11. Let set for a couple minutes then remove from tray.
You can find the original recipe here.
I hope you enjoy them as much as I did and that they help with your supply!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Social Icons