{Guest Post} A Long December

Hello friends! I'm on a boat right now sailing somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico (be jealous!), so I've enlisted some help from a friend to entertain you while I'm soaking up the sun. His name is Josh and I've known him for about eight years now. While he doesn't have a blog of his own, he is an amazing writer and offered to fill in for me today.

Most people long for January. The first of the year is their chance to make their New Year's Resolutions. Their chance to change everything that they've been thinking about changing for the past few months, or in some cases, just the past few weeks. "New Year, new me." That's usually how the saying goes, right? But why? Why is it that a deadline that has to be set? "THIS is the time I'm finally going to start to change my life!"

It seems to me that people choose the resolution solely because it's when resolutions are supposed to be made. The whole "New Year, new me" concept is basically a person deciding that they're going to make a lifestyle change because that's when you're supposed to change a part of your lifestyle that you're not happy with.

You always hear about gyms being overly crowded in early January... and then they're back to normal no later than mid-February. It's because these people are willing to try, but the commitment just isn't there. 

I've been a victim of it in the past as well. There were many times when I would say "This is the year I'm going to quit drinking!" And, like everyone else, I would drink more in December than usual because, "May as well while I can! No more once the New Year hits!" Few weeks after the first of the year, resolution failed. 

Change isn't something you can plan. Change isn't something you can predict. Change is something that just happens. 

Don't wait to make changes until the calendar moves from December to January. That's just setting yourself up to for a let down when your "resolution" fails.  I once was in a terrible marriage. I swore I would NEVER get married again. Years passed, and here I am engaged. It wasn't planned. It's life. Change happens when you least expect it. You can lose weight. You can quit drinking. You can change your entire life and be happy even after hitting your absolute lowest point and thinking you never will be again. 

I think the moral of this story is that there is hope and opportunity for change no matter what time of year it is. So don't wait for January 1st, and don't get that ball of change rolling until you are good and ready. 

Do you make New Year's resolutions? Have you been able to stick to them? 

{Guest Post} How to Prepare Your Blog for a Vacation

Hello friends! I'm in Georgia soaking up some quality time with my family, so I've enlisted some help from a dear bloggy friend to entertain you. I love all of Anne's blogging How-To posts, and this one fits in so perfectly! Enjoy!

Hi there Knock On Wood readers! I'm Anne, the blogger behind Love the Here and Now. While Amanda is away and enjoying time off I thought I would step in and take over for the day.

We have all been there. We relish the idea of taking a vacation (like Amanda is right now!) from not only our daily lives but also from our online responsibilities as well.

In my opinion, one of the best parts of going on a vacation is the change of routine. Oftentimes I go about my days as if I am in autopilot. Between my family, work, and blogging my schedule is pretty full. Before going on vacation there are always a few things you should do....hold the mail, set timers etc. Have you ever thought about preparing your blog for a vacation? Here are a few tips that have helped me get ready for my blog vacations.

Schedule Posts Ahead

If you can, and so choose, work ahead and schedule your posts for the duration of your vacation. This definitely takes time and effort to do ahead. Not only can you have your posts scheduled but you can also schedule your social media promotions as well (thanks to some of the great resources mentioned here).

Guest Bloggers

I decided to add some variety to my blog and opted to have some guest bloggers. To me this is a win/win. I get to have a bit of a break and they get to share their material with a new audience. Out of respect to the guest bloggers, be sure to give them enough advance warning and set a deadline of when you would like to have them submit their post. I allowed my guest bloggers to either share new content or repost a favorite post of theirs. After all, they are doing me the favor and I wanted to make this as easy on them as I could.

Notify Sponsors

If you plan on taking a break from promoting your sponsors it is only fair that you notify them of this. As a token of my appreciation for my sponsors' understanding that I wouldn't be promoting them as much as I normally do, I will be extending their ads for a week.

Notify Your Readers

If you are a blogger that keeps a consistent blogging schedule and opt to not blog at all, you may want to alert your readers to the fact that you won't be present. This will keep your readers from wondering if you dropped off the face of the Earth.

What if I have a few spare moments to devote to my blog while I'm away?

Create a To Do List

Perhaps you don't want to step completely away from your blog. If you plan on having some down time, make a list of things that you would like to tackle. Want to freshen up your sidebar? Create new blog buttons? Make changes to your blog design? Create blog graphics? This is the perfect time to tackle the housekeeping projects and the behind the scenes work on your blog that may get lost in the shuffle of day to day blogging.

Work Ahead

If you're anything like me, there are quite a few drafts waiting to be assembled into posts. Tackle a few of those and schedule them for your return. The aftermath of a vacation can cause some disruption in your schedule so knowing that you have a few blog posts scheduled may help alleviate some stress.

Brainstorm

I sometimes feel like a deadline stifles my creativity. I plan on using some time to brainstorm new post ideas and store them as drafts. If writer's block should ever strike I will have an arsenal of ideas at my disposal (perfect since I may be able to use some of my existing drafts as noted above!).

No matter what you decide to do, the key is to relax and enjoy your time away. You may find that a break from blogging may leave you inspired and motivated to try new things and share new experiences.

Have you taken a break from blogging when you went on vacation? What did you do to prepare your blog for a vacation? What tips do you have to share?

[ guest post ] Staying Positive Despite a Chronic Illness

Good Morning! While I'm away on vacation in Georgia with Hubs and playing with my mommy, I've invited a few of my favorite bloggers to entertain you! Today Kendra is sharing something that has been on her heart for a while now. It's something she and I have talked about on several occasions and it's brought us closer together. Take away Kendra!

Hi everyone, I’m Kenji from Kenji is Here! I am so happy to be taking over Amanda’s blog while she is away! Today I wanted to talk about something that sits heavy on my heart everyday and I am sure there are so many other people out there that are right there with me.

In May of 2014 I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. I was distraught and my world spun around completely. I went through long period of deep depression all while trying to figure out this disease. I was in the middle of turmoil and couldn’t figure out where the exit door was located.

Previously to being diagnosed I was always a happy person. I was always positive and never spoke a bad word. (okay, maybe a few…but who doesn’t) Regardless, my point is that I had never experienced depression, I was not a negative person, and I never lost faith in God. When I was diagnosed and felt the disease start to take over I lost all of who I was. My motivation diminished, my positivity was hard to be found, and depression settled in. 

After a hard couple month’s I felt that enough was enough and knew this wasn’t who I was. I wanted the old me. I didn’t want to be in a slump anymore. I knew I couldn’t break the depression, as this was a side effect of the medication. I knew however that I was a positive person and deep down I was still me..

Keeping positive with a chronic illness isn’t always easy. When medication stop working and your in pain and sick it is extremely hard to put on a happy face and act like everything’s okay. Still to this day it is not easy but I do it. Staying positive during the hard times has helped me immensely. Walking into a doctor’s office with a positive outlook on how things will go will help the end result.

The best thing one with chronic illness can do is to let go and let God. This is not something we can change, it is something we must live with forever. It is a part of us, hence "chronic." Giving it over to God was the best thing I ever did, no God did not heal me but the weight was lifted off of my shoulders. Another thing I found extremely helpful were my friends and family. Having a great support system who understands times are tough can completely change ones mood. Personally, I feed off of other positivity thus having positive people surrounding me aids in my own positivity. Lastly, smile. Simple, so so simple, but so purposeful. When you smile it makes others smile and when you make others happy it’ll make you happy. It’s a complete circle. 

credit

At the end of the day it’s all about doing what you can to make you happy. Whatever it is that brings a smile to your face, do it because the most important thing when living with a chronic illness is to stay positive.  All we can guarantee is our own happiness and we only live one life so why not make it as best as we can!


Huge thanks to Kendra for helping me out and writing something so important to both of us! I just love Kendra's heart. Want to fall in love with Kendra too?

Kenji is Here   |   Twitter   |   Instagram   |   Pinterest

[ guest post ] How to Have Fun on Your Long Road Trip

Good Morning! While I'm away on vacation in Georgia with Hubs and playing with my mommy, I've invited a few of my favorite bloggers to entertain you! Today Melissa is sharing some amazing tips on how to stay sane when you take a road trip. Take away Melissa!

Hey, y'all! I'm Melissa from The Rambling Llama. I'm happy to take over Amanda's little corner of the internet while she's here in Georgia! Amanda and her hubs made the super long drive from Missouri to Georgia. Road tripping is something my family is very familiar with, so today I thought I'd share some secrets to getting the most out of a long road trip with your spouse (and family).

// Snacks are Key.
Let's face it! Fast food and snacks from the gas station can get pricy. Before you leave, load your car with lots of tasty filling snacks. Granola bars are  winner for us! We can usually get away with going to the dollar store a few days before we leave to get things that everyone loves. Along with the snacks, drinks are important. I of course prefer water, but capri suns are great for the kids. Heck, there's even great recipes to make your own granola snacks to save even more.


No one wants to be HANGRY

// Know your MPGs!
To get the most out of your journey, it helps to know how often you'll have to stop for gas. You may not be able to map out where exactly to stop for gas, but you'll at least be able to know how often you will need to stop based on how far you're going and your MPG's. For example, when we drive from Georgia to Jersey we know we'll have to fill up three times. This gets worked into our travel budget. Without stressing about stopping too much allows you and the driver to enjoy the ride a little more.

Just watch out for flying Mexican!

// Enjoy the ride.
Plain and simple. Just make the trip fun. Just because you're literally stuck in the car for hours on end, you don't have to be cranky about it!You may have taken the same road trip every year and know your route so well that you could do it in your sleep. But don't make the ride boring! Play I-Spy games. This helps keep the driver entertained.

// Crank up the tunes!
Road trip songs are the best! Before you leave, get some playlists together that will have you and the driver singing along. My husband and I have a bunch of mixed CD's we use just for road trips. We both sing and dance along. And hey, if you have kids, you DON'T need to keep the kids songs playing. Let's face it, y'all... those get old FAST. The kids can learn to appreciate Journey at an early age!

// Plan to Explore. This kind of goes back to enjoying the ride. Before you leave allow little wiggle room in your travel time to stop and explore. Y'all may not realize there's a zoo you haven't been to before or a random "state's biggest (fill in the blank)" Look up some random attractions on your route and explore! For example, there's a natural bridge in Virginia that someone might like to see!  This makes for great memories and pictures.



See? Road trips don't have to always be  long and boring! Make it fun and make it something you enjoy. 13-15 hours in the car is a long time, y'all. We don't want to kill your spouse at the end of it, right?



What are some things you do on road trips? What's your favorite road trip song?

Huge thanks to Melissa for helping me out last minute! This is why she's my bestie ya'll. Here is where you can stalk her like I do!

The Rambling Llama   |   Twitter   |   Instagram   |   Pinterest

[ guest post ] Creation and Woriship

Good Morning! While I'm away on vacation in Georgia playing with my mommy, I've invited a few of my favorite bloggers to entertain you! Today Faith is sharing a little of what has been on her heart lately. Take away Faith!

Hi Knock on Wood Readers! I'm Faith and I blog at Life w/ Mrs G & the Artist where I talk about all things faith, love, marriage, & life, a little DIY and recipes and a whole lot of real, authentic community and connection between women in all seasons of life. I nanny by day for two adorable little twin boys and I'm a blogger by night. I’m passionate about God and what he is doing in my life. I love working with my sign language team and living life to the fullest. I love the community and the connections that I've found through this wonderful little blog of mine and I can't wait to meet you!

So have you ever sat back and really thought about the creator of the whole universe wanting to hear our praise and our worship? I know I've always been taught that praise and worship is something that God loves to hear...but somewhere a long the lines, I began thinking that God had to have our praise and worship. Now don't get me wrong .. he loves to hear it but he doesn't have to have our worship to get worship. He has a whole creation that worships him day in and day out.

Tuesday is mid-week service for me and sometimes after the busyness of the weekend things finally start to slow down a little by Tuesday and I feel somewhat rested. I usually "try" on Tuesday's to be "spiritually minded" as my mother calls it to prepare for service that night. I realize that we always need to have a God consciousness but sometimes on those days that we are in service it just seems to come more readily .. if you know what I mean. :) Anyways, lately I've been thinking of the goodness of God and his love and mercy and greatness! I mean, when you really stop and think about all the things that God has done...it's amazing! It's amazing to me how a God that created the whole world just by speaking it into existence...knows and CARES what is happening in my life.

Not only that but he loves me and wants to see me prosper. In fact the bible says that he plans to prosper us and not to harm us and to give us a hope and a future. He cares about what bothers me, he cares when I'm in pain, he cares when my heart is broken into a million pieces, he cares when I don't understand why things happen for some people and not for me. The bible says he is "touched by the feelings of our infirmities". And that's not to mention what he did on Calvary for you and me...

How many of you know someone who would die for you? Without even blinking...and then pray that your sins not be held against you...who does that? I don't know that I know anyone that would do that. And to think that he did all this for us...died for us, created this life for us, left to prepare a place for us the bible says so that where he is we might be also. And yet...after all that...sometimes we get so caught up in this life and things that don't matter that we forget to worship the one that makes this life possible...I'm guilt of this myself way more times than I even want to think about. But we have to remember that even though we are IN this world, we are not OF this world. We have something better than this waiting on us.

A couple of months ago our pastor showed us a clip of something that I just found amazing! I would like to show it to you now. I hope you find it as interesting as I did! It just goes to show that if we don't worship God and give him glory he deserves...he has a creation, a whole world that will take our place!

Is that not amazing? I guess I had never thought about it to much but even though he desires our praise. Even though it gives him pleasure when we sing our songs to him and worship him not for just who he and what he has done for us but because we love him. Even though he loves all that .... if we somehow get so caught up in this life and the world we live in .. he is still going to get the glory, worship, and praise he deserves. His creation ... loves to give him praise and the bible says if we don't worship .. the rocks will take our place. I don't know about you .. but I don't want a rock taking my place. I have to much to thank him for. He has done to much for me not to praise him with everything I have in me.

Huge Thanks to Faith for stepping in for me today! I hope you enjoyed what she had to share with you. Stay tuned for more fun guest posts while I'm away! Now go follow Faith on all the things!

Life w/ Mrs. G   |   Twitter   |   Facebook   |   Instagram

P.S. There won't be a Blogger Pow Wow for April due to Easter festivities and multiple vacations of the hosts. We will be back in full swing on May 3rd though! Stay tuned to find out who will be hosting and what topic we will be discussing.

{Guest Post} Craigslist Is Not As Bad As You Think

While Hubs and I are down in Georgia visiting my family, I have invited a couple of my fav bloggers and bestest friends to fill in for me. Today it's Kathy from Him and Me (but mostly me). If you don't follow her, you totally should. Especially if you're a newlywed. She tells the truth about life as a newlywed and her battles with anxiety. I admire her courage for putting it all out there so honestly. We have so much in common, it's no wonder she and I became such good friends so quickly! When I asked her to write a post for me, she decided to open up a little more and share the story about how she and her husband met. So take it away Kathy!

Hello Knock On Wood readers! My name is Kathy from Him & Me (But Mostly Me) and since Amanda Nicole is off having fun I thought I’d help her out and tell you about why online dating, specifically Craigslist, isn’t as bad as the media has made it out to be.

I got inspired to write this post because I’ve seen a lot of people speaking badly about Craigslist and that sort of bothers me since that is where I met my husband.

Don’t get me wrong, I get it. There was a murder and they made a Lifetime movie about it. That scares people. But have you stopped to think about the other side of it? How many young ladies have gone to a bar and met someone, set up a date, and then were raped or murdered? I don’t have statistics on that – but when I Googled it I found a ton of stories about murders after first dates. But that story doesn’t make a good headline so they don’t report it on the news. I mean, “Girl Meets Guy at Bar, Then Is Murdered” – it’s not really as catchy as “Craigslist Killer”.

Another headline that doesn’t make it to the evening news is “Girl Meets Guy off Craigslist and Lives Happily Ever After”. That is my headline.

I was never the outgoing girl that would walk up to a guy and start talking to him, nor was I the girl that guys flocked around and wanted to take out on dates. My first date didn’t happen until a few months after my 21st birthday. I’m pretty sure I met him off of Craigslist too.

Between him and meeting my husband I went on a lot of dates. I was made fun of by my family because I was going on a different date every night. And every one of those dates came from meeting the guy off the internet. They weren’t all off of Craigslist. I tried Match.com, eHarmony, Plenty of Fish, and a few other sites that I’ve forgotten about now (no Tinder, though).

I read a blog post recently where the author said that you will get better candidates on the paid websites since people who are paying are more likely to be looking for something serious. I don’t think this is the case. As I mentioned before, I tried those paid websites and I talked to different guys on them, but I think that out of maybe a year of being subscribed to the sites I only got 2 or 3 dates. And by this I mean I only found a few guys that actually were interested in relationships and not just getting some no strings attached sex. It was on Craigslist that I found guys who were looking for relationships and not just sex.

That’s not to say that I didn’t find creeps on Craigslist, because I did. But I do think that you can find just as many creeps on the paid websites and in person. After all, if you go to a bar or meet a guy randomly when you are out and about – how do you know he isn’t a criminal that will hurt you (and I don’t mean emotionally). The fact is that unless he is someone that you met through someone your chances of the guy being a creep or a bad guy are just as likely in person as they are online. But I have to say that I think online is better.

Why, you ask? Well because when you meet someone through Craigslist or some other site you can research them. You can Facebook stalk them, Google their name and do whatever else you feel you need to do in order to get to know the person before getting to know them. This is what I did with the guys I dated. I usually e-mailed back and forth a little bit, then I texted with them or IM’d with them, finally we set up a date.

After some time I would post my own ad’s on Craigslist and just wait for people to respond to me. I found this a much easier and better way to get to know guys. I posted what I looked like (honestly), my age, what I liked to do and what I was looking for. I got many good replies. My husband was one of them. He e-mailed me in 2010 apparently and after exchanging a couple of e-mails I didn’t reply. He says it was because of the pictures he sent me; I say it was because he was living a good 30-40 minute drive away in a bad part of town (ever heard of Compton?). Either way I don’t remember this at all.

He persevered though! A year later he replied to another post I made and we started e-mailing and texting each other. He had a lot of assets I liked. It took about 2-3 weeks before we actually went out. Now we are happily married and living in our new condo.

The moral of my story is: don’t judge Craigslist by one thing that happened to one person and that got blown up because it made good headlines and a Lifetime movie. Craigslist is also a great place to get used furniture for low prices and even find jobs (I have done both!). I also got rid of my washer and dryer for $20 instead of paying $15 for Sears to take them away!

Where/How did you meet your significant other? Have you used Craigslist?

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