I didn’t grow up in a denomination that followed the Lenten tradition of giving something up for the season. I think I might have done it once, but that’s it. I did decide to give up something this year. Sugar drinks, specifically pop and coffee drinks. Now this might not be a big deal to some people, but I love my sugar drinks. I’ve tried many times to cut back on them without a lot of success. So this is major for me. However, so far it has not been a big deal. I just think – ok, if you drink one of those it is the same as spitting in Christ’s face. He died for you. The least you can do is give up your sugar addiction for Lent. Somehow putting it in that light makes it completely different than just saying I want to give them up to lose weight. I am choosing not to focus on the fact that it might also make me lose weight over the next seven weeks. That truly is not my motive. And David could attest to the fact that I’m mighty attached to my mochas and Coke/Pepsi so this is a good choice for me. Did anyone else give up something for Lent?
I mentioned recently that we were doing some little homeschooling-type things with Caroline. Rest assured we are not trying to raise a super child. I have no intention of pushing her and trying to accelerate her learning so she’s some kind of whiz kid. However, I do want to expose her to little things as appropriate. I bought her a LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Set one night in early December when I was Christmas shopping at Target. She has played with it multiple times daily since then.
Last week I decided to see if she had learned any of the letters after playing with it. I THINK SHE KNOWS JUST ABOUT EVERY LETTER AND A LOT OF THE SOUNDS!!! I’m not kidding! We do talk about letters sometimes when we read books and we do have some ABC books such as a Noah’s Ark book, etc. But I could not believe it when over several days I checked to see what she knew. Sometimes I would ask her where the (insert letter here) was and before she pointed it out to me she would say the sound! Wow! I had no idea! (As a side bonus, since the fridge is right next to where you walk into the kitchen, she sometimes gets distracted by it on her way in to see me and so I get a few more minutes to get things done while she’s playing with it. LOL!) Anyway, I highly recommend that little set.
So about BlogHer. I’m curious about something. Several months ago I looked into BlogHer and considered applying. I decided not to do so because I didn’t like how much control of your blog you had to give up in order to participate. But even more than that, I didn’t like the little links to random blogs that always show up under their ads. I had clicked on some and, more often than not, was sorry that I did.
Recently I clicked on one because the title caught my attention and it was related to a topic I am very interested in. I can’t begin to express how sorry I was I clicked on it. There is no other way to describe some of what I read other than as p*rn*gr*ph*c. One phrase in particular was stuck in my head the rest of the day. It was so s*x*ally graphic I can’t even come up with a polite way to explain it. So here is my question to anyone who wants to answer. Do I just have horrible luck when it comes to clicking on BlogHer links or have other people experienced this as well? It seems like almost any site I go to has a potty mouth author.
Now I realize that BlogHer is not a Christian network, but some of this stuff would be offensive to anyone who was even moderately conservative about language and s*x*ual content. I’m sure that they would be just as offended coming to a blog like mine that talks about sin and Christ and salvation, but still. Anyway, I’m just wondering about other people’s experiences with this. I think the idea of promoting women bloggers is so great and I know some women who read here use BlogHer so please don’t (PLEASE DON’T) take this as an attack. I’m just sincerely curious about how other women view BlogHer and how they interact (or don’t) with the links when they come across them. Do I just have a horrible track record?
And, has anyone else picked up on The Next Big Thing in Christian blogging circles? By this I mean how teachings on patriarchy swept through so many Christian blogs for a few years and the teachings caused so much grief to so many. I think I’ve identified the next topic that I think is going to cripple people’s faith and I’m wondering if anyone else is noticing it. And, no, we’re not going to discuss it here, even if people identify it. I’m just curious if anyone else has noticed a real spike in blogging about this particular topic.
You’ve got my curiosity piqued about the Next Big Thing! I hope you explain yourself a bit. 🙂
I’ve never given anything up for Lent. Actually, I had never heard of giving things up for Lent until I went to college. My husband always jokes that he is giving up cigarettes. (He doesn’t and has never smoked.) I told him that doesn’t count.
Raised Episcopalian and now Catholic, so we all give up something for Lent. My kids and I have all given up sweets– how I wish Valentine’s Day did not fall during Lent this year! There is a little ice cream/coffee shop near the Catholic high school and grade school that my children attend and the owner told me the other day that he had seen a big drop off in ice cream sales since Lent started! This is his first year of operation and he is, of course, concerned about his little business- I told him things should pick up again after Easter.
As for the next big thing– I think it’s frugality- which taken to the extreme can be a dmaging thing, I think.
Hi, Sallie! I’m one of the producers with BlogHerAds – I thought I’d chime in to thank you for your questions, and to see if I can’t help answer them.
BlogHer is actually quite diverse – we have many conservative bloggers, and our Christian bloggers are one of the fastest growing groups in our ad network as well as on BlogHer.com. We’d love it if you’d come add your voice to the conversations taking place!
When a blogger joins our ad network, we carefully select a group for their blog that will ensure that the fellow bloggers in their headline group will be something that they and their audience will enjoy reading. While many bloggers do use foul language, an equal number are family-friendly, and we do our best to make sure that your blog is matched up with relevant sites.
Another great part of the BlogHerAds network is that we allow bloggers to decide which ads they would like to run on their site. Bloggers may specify industries, companies, products or people that they would not like to have on their site, and we honor these requests without fail.
I’m really glad to see that BlogHer has piqued your interest – and I’d be happy to steer you to content you might enjoy, or answer any questions about BlogHer.com or the BlogHerAds network – you can find me at jenny at blogher dot com.
Have a great rest of the week!
I’m curious to know, too! The few other Christian bloggers I read do not seem like the types to be on anyone’s bandwagon or cripple anyone’s faith. That’s why I read them!
I’m glad you like the leapfrog thingy, they are great. Get the 3 letter one next, she’ll be ready for it soon. If we could send those and the leapfrog movies to inner city children instead of books, that would be a great improvement for literacy (of course, if they taught explicit, systematic phonics in the schools, it wouldn’t matter whether you sent them books or leapfrog products!)
And after the 3 letter magnet, you can be really classical and teach her with Webster’s Speller, we used it this year with our 5 year old, she’s now reading very, very well, and also spelling very well. It teaches syllables first and spelling, and is totally sight word and context guessing free, you learn to sound out and spell syllables and words before doing any reading.
I’ve just started posting at a group blog called Kitchen Table Math, it has some education discussions you might enjoy, you can read my Webster post there if you want to know more about how to teach it:
https://kitchentablemath.blogspot.com/2008/02/syllables-syllables-syllabary.html
and the link to a bit more about Webster’s Speller and how to teach it on our phonics page:
https://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/webstersway.html
My mom was a bit skeptical about the whole homeschooling thing, but she now likes to brag that her Granddaughter can read “War and Peace.” (She’s actually not quite at War and Peace level yet, but she’s close–one sentence at a time. She still has the attention span of a 5 year old and cannot read more than one or two sentences written at higher grade levels. She can read several stories from the Rhyme Bible without tiring, however. I highly recommend that Bible if you don’t have it yet. It’s amazingly Biblically accurate for a Bible that rhymes and is written so that preschoolers can understand it.)
Jenny,
Thanks for stopping by and providing some additional information regarding BlogHer. Could you clarify a couple of things?
When I saw the link to the site with the p*rn*gr*phic content I was actually at a Christian site. This is what troubles me. I’m not sure which group this blogger is in, but she would NEVER post something like what I read when I took that link. So that part of giving up control of what is being linked to from my own site was a huge red flag for me as I reviewed the BlogHer opportunity several months ago.
My other question has to do with the ads themselves. Has BlogHer ever considered doing different sized ads? I know BlogHer has very stringent guidelines for their ads. Frankly, being required to put a huge ad like that in the most prominent spot on my blog was not appealing to me either. I understand why it is done from the advertiser’s standpoint (placement, click through rate, etc.), but as a blogger it feels far too intrusive to me. Will BlogHer ever develop a variety of ad options?
I ask these questions sincerely. I hope they come across that way. I really appreciated the kindness of your note as well. While many women bloggers would not consider putting ads on their site, I am glad there are options like BlogAds and BlogHer for the women who are interested and desire to add to their family income through the work they do on their blog. I just wish that I had more confidence in how the BlogHer system would work for conservative Christian bloggers such as myself.
Thank you so much for your time, Jenny! 🙂
Sallie
Hmmm. A doctrinal issue…could it be egalitarianism and complementarianism? I’ve seen this one quite a bit recently….
On the “next big thing”, I’m guessing either something like frugality/becoming debt-free OR family-integrated worship. I’m interested to hear what you’re thinking.
Because you mention Protestants in particular I’m inclined to guess with Elaine Mazzo the bit about the Protestants converting to Catholicism.
Though I’m not one who thinks that has to be “faith destroying,” so I’m still head-scratching over that.
I really don’t see myself ever going that route, but I can understand different personalities and people connecting better with God in different environments, and that’s one thing I’ve heard specifically.