Have You Missed Me?

While in St. Louis for Thanksgiving, my mother, who does not have internet and no clue as to how one surfs the internet, scolded me, "How come you haven't been writing in that blog thingy!!!" Apparently, my sister Chrissy likes to keep up on my life via Blogger and she complained to my mother that I haven't written in a zillion years. Plus, being the good daughter she is, Chrissy will call Mom and read my posts to her when I write something remotely interesting.

I explained to my mother that my life is busy. You know that whole homeschool mom thing and now business owner on top of it. Running Homeschool Connections leaves just enough time for the kids and not enough for blogging. "Besides," I defended myself, "Chrissy can get Facebook if she wants to follow me." I only got a blank stare with that one. Did I mention my mom doesn't have internet?

I left things at that, traveled home to Michigan, got back to my life and ignored my poor pitiful blog. And then the phone call came. It was Mom. "I have a favor to ask as your mother." I knew I was in trouble. Whenever you mother starts a sentence like that you start thinking, "Please let it be a little favor, please," because, as you all know, you can't say "No" to your mom when she says that. If you do, then you'll get the Catholic-mother-guilt-trip. You know the one, "Oh, that's okay. I don't mind really. It's not like I gave up my whole life just to birth you or anything. I wouldn't want you to go out of your way for me. I should be more selfless as your mother and the person who gave you the gift of life. So don't worry about it. It's okay." I know this is true because I use the Catholic-mother-guilt-trip on my own children and it works like a charm.

Where was I? Oh yes, "I have a favor to ask as your mother. Write in your blog thingy just once a week. That's all I'm asking. Just once a week. It would make your sister so happy."

So, here I am writing. My sister better be reading this. Though I'm not so sure about the prospect of her calling my mom and reading it to her. Thankfully, she's 500 miles away and can't threaten to ground me for my bad tone of voice (I got in trouble for that a lot. That and eye rolling.)

I hereby promise to write in my blog thingy once a week. At least until my sister gets that Facebook thingy.

Where in the World is Maureen?

I got a concerned voice mail from my sister in California. She's worried about me. I haven't written in my blog forever. Am I okay? Are the kids okay? How is she supposed to keep up with my life if I'm not updating the blog everyday?

Well, I'm okay and the kids are okay. Life is just insanely busy right now. And that's not an exaggeration. There is the Homeschool Connections business, the kids' shooting sports events, 4-H Fair, summer school, and getting my oldest ready for his semester in Austria. All on top of the everyday mom duties of laundry, cooking, and reading aloud.

So, if you've been wondering where I am too, please be assured I'm still here albeit a bit frazzled. I'll do my best to get back on the blogging track but I can't make any promises.

I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane

I'll be leaving in a few hours for the CHAPLET conference in New Jersey. I hope to see some of you there. Not only will I be there, but so will Danielle Bean, Susie Lloyd with her new book, Rachel Watkins of Little Flowers Girls Club, and Margot Davidson of mater et magistra.

There are a good number of Catholic homeschooling conferences this weekend. Please pray for all those attending, volunteering, speaking, traveling, and so on.

I will not have my computer with me so I'll be out of touch until Sunday. Though I did pre-post one more Christopher West YouTube for tomorrow. I hope you like these and I pray that Christopher and Ascension Press continue to make them. Theology of the Body may be the greatest gift given to us by Pope John Paul II.

The Thrifty Homeschooler and Organization

I've been attending to The Thrifty Homeschooler Blog for the New Year. Besides having a new look and being cleaned up a tad, I've put together a series of posts on Organizing Your Homeschool 101 that will run over the next few weeks. Posts will include tips from Thrifty Homeschooler members, pictures, and loads of ideas from the webinar I did on the same topic a couple of weeks ago. So, if getting the classroom organized is one of your New Year resolutions, you may want to put it on your Reader.

My New Years Resolutions

I made a couple of New Year's resolutions. One I want to finish the 100 Books for Kids Who Love to Read book. Two I'll be expanding the No Question Left Behind ministry.

The second resolution isn't going to take much of my time until summer. However, if I'm going to get the new book finished I have to buckle down right now today.

What this means is that my personal blogging may be sporadic over the next several months.

Just thought I should give you all forewarning.

Christmas Has Only Begun

I found myself, as I grow older, growing more and more agitated by the secularization of Christmas. I could go on and on about examples but I will refrain. Otherwise, my rant could go on for pages.

However, I will do my part to keep the Christmas Season alive between now and the Epiphany. (No, Virginia Christmas doesn't end December 25th, that's when it begins.) I'll post a Christmas music video each day between now and January 6th. (Anyone ever hear of the twelve days of Christmas?)

If you know of a particularly good YouTube or GodTube video, please let me know in the comments.

I've also posted a few at the Catholic teen blog, No Question Left Behind.

I'm Still Here

It's been few days since I've blogged. Well, blogged here. I have been doing some work over at the No Question Left Behind blog, pre-posting through the end of December. I've also been getting a lot of grunt work done on the new book. And then there's that homeschooling thing. The children do still expect to be educated, fed, and clothed no matter my blogging schedule.

Amazon Purchases and Children's Literature Book

I could use my readers' help. If you're planning on making any purchases at Amazon.com you could help me out by clicking on the Amazon ad in the sidebar (or any of the book cover graphics). Amazon will then give me a small commission to be used on future purchases.

Here's why:
When I wrote For the Love of Literature, my library was a huge help. There is no way I could have afforded to purchase the 900 books listed in For the Love of Literature but I could borrow them from the library. My former library in Lansing is part of a huge library district. What I couldn't find through inner-library loan I could borrow through their inter-library system. They had the gold standard when it came to library systems. Then I moved.

Unfortunately, my new city's library system doesn't even begin to compare in services. We have one country library. The books are old and tattered. There is no inner- or inter-library lending. None. Nada. Zero. Zip. They tell me they are working on implementing an inter-library loan system but it's at least six months down the road.

I've already put my new book, 100 Books for Kids Who Love to Read on hold for the past several months. This book is taking a lot of research and a lot of reading. I've purchased a good number books that I can't get at my library but I've already wiped out the school budget for the next few years doing so. Now I'm stalled.

This is why I am coming to you. If you're going to make a purchase through Amazon.com anyway (and it doesn't have to be books -- it can be software, video games, appliances or anything), you can click there through my blog and help me purchase books for my research.

Nominating and Voting in the Blogosphere

Today is the last day to nominate your favorite homeschooling blogs at the Homeschool Blog Awards. I have a lot of great homeschool blogs in my sidebar if you need some ideas.

Also, you have one week left to vote on a patron saint at the Catholic teen blog, No Question Left Behind if you'd like to help the teens choose.

Nominating Your Favorite Blogs

The 2008 Homeschool Blog Awards are now taking nominations. Go and nominate your favorite homeschooling blogs! You have until October 24th but don't procrastinate too long.

In order to reach the voting part of the awards, a blog must be nominated at least 3 times so don't rely someone else to nominate your favorite blog.

The rules are all laid out at the website.

Thanks!

Teen Blog Patron Saint

I'm so excited. Sister Mary Martha, my most favorite blogger, posted about No Question Left Behind today. How cool is that! Well, I admit it's not like she did it out of the blue. I asked for her help in picking a patron saint for the teen blog and she answered on her blog. She does read No Question Left Behind from time to time so it's still very cool.

I'm going to have the teens vote on their patron saint, but I'd like to hear your opinions too. St. Raphael or St. Augustine? Or someone completely different?

Teens and Blogs

I recently asked all of you to link to No Question Left Behind, but what I should've asked for is, "Have your kids link to No Question Left Behind." We've got to get the word out to the teenagers, more so than the grownups. If your older teen has a blog or a website, consider having them review No Question Left Behind. Do they think it's relevant? Helpful? Worthy of passing on?

More Blogger Glitches

Well, yesterday I could view my blog but couldn't post to it. Today I can post but I can't see it.

It seems to be a universal issue with Site Meter. No, it's not a conspiracy by Obama zealots or anti-Catholic hackers, just a cyber glitch. Apparently, Site Meter made some changes last night and every website that has their meter has been affected negatively. Seriously negatively. You can't even get on www.sitemeter.com

If you're reading this, either the glitch has been fixed or I got frustrated and removed the Site Meter all together.

Now, I'm off to investigate Stat Counter.

Maureen, The Evil Spammer

Just in case any of you are wondering, I am not an evil spammer.
I was locked out of my blog last night by Blogger because, well, here is what they said:

Hello,

Your blog at: http://maureenwittmann.blogspot.com/ has been identified as a potential spam blog. To correct this, please request a review by filling out the form at http://www.blogger.com/unlock-blog.g?lockedBlogID

Your blog will be deleted within 20 days if it isn't reviewed, and you'll be unable to publish posts during this time. After we receive your request, we'll review your blog and unlock it within two business days. If this blog doesn't belong to you, you don't have to do anything, and any other blogs you may have won't be affected.

We find spam by using an automated classifier. Automatic spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and occasionally a blog like yours is flagged incorrectly. We
sincerely apologize for this error. By using this kind of system, however, we can dedicate more storage, bandwidth, and engineering resources to bloggers like you instead of to spammers. For more information, please see Blogger Help:
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42577

Thank you for your understanding and for your help with our spam-fighting efforts.

Sincerely,
The Blogger Team

I went to their Help section to see if I could figure out why my innocent little homeschool mom blog would be targeted as a spam blog:

What Are Spam Blogs?
As with many powerful tools, blogging services can be both used and abused. The ease of creating and updating webpages with Blogger has made it particularly prone to a form of behavior known as link spamming. Blogs engaged in this behavior are called spam blogs, and can be recognized by their irrelevant, repetitive, or nonsensical text, along with a large number of links, usually all pointing to a single site.

Spam blogs cause various problems, beyond simply wasting a few seconds of your time when you happen to come across one. They can clog up search engines, making it difficult to find real content on the subjects that interest you. They may scrape content from other sites on the web, using other people's writing to make it look as though they have useful information of their own. And if an automated system is creating spam posts at an extremely high rate, it can impact the speed and quality of the service for other, legitimate users.

What We're Doing About Spam
Needless to say, we do not approve of spamming here at Blogger. Below are some of the things we've implemented to remove and reduce spam on our service. We will update this list as we continue our efforts.

Automated spam classifying algorithms keep spam blogs out of NextBlog and out of our "Recently Published" list on the dashboard. The same classifiers are used to require an extra word verification field on the posting form for potential spam blogs. This makes it harder for spammers to set up automated systems to do their posting, since a human needs to complete this step. The Flag as Objectionable button in the Navbar lets you notify us of problem blogs that you find, so we can review them and take appropriate action.

Click here to report spam.

". . can be recognized by their irrelevant, repetitive, or nonsensical text, along with a large number of links, usually all pointing to a single site." Uh? I don't recall posting irrelevant, reptititive, or nonsensical text. And I certainly don't have a large number of links all pointing toward one site.

Ummm, could it be a conspiracy? Personally, I don't think it's a conspiracy by Google but instead more likely it's one kook (perhaps with a few friends) reporting Catholic blogs as spam to Blogger. I'm just glad I'm back up and running!

AOL Gone Wacky

There is something odd going on with my AOL email account. I'm not getting any email from my Yahoo Groups. Plus, I've got a friend who tells me that her emails to me have been bouncing back to her.

The really weird thing is that not all my emails are going out. For example, I've tried twice to send an email to the Catholic Charlotte Mason Yahoo Group, but neither was received by CCM. They show up in my "sent box" yet they were never received.

So, if anyone out there is having trouble reaching me via email, try this email address.

Supporting Catholic/Homeschooling Authors

This was posted at Annunciations in the combox:

Question:
For folks who write books: is it better financially to buy these books directly from the author (who has some trouble in packaging and mailing, etc) or from amazon.com?

It's an interesting question. In case anyone else was wondering the answer to this question, here it is:

It’s definitely better for the author if you buy directly from him or her. Authors typically get a 10% royalty on net sales.

Publishers wholesale books to bookstores and amazon.com 40% to 60% off.

Let’s say a book retails for $10. You purchase it from amazon.com. They likely got a 60% discount. So the author gets 10% of $4. A whopping 40 cents royalty!

If you buy the book from your local family-owned Catholic bookstore, they likely got a 40% discount. So, the author gets a 60 cent royalty. Not a lot, but you are also helping support the Catholic bookstore owners.

If you buy the book directly from the publisher there is no discount. So, the author gets the royalty on the full price — $1 per book.

Now, if the author stockpiles books and sells them herself (as I do) she gets them probably for 40% or %50 wholesale — depending on how many she purchases. So, if you buy the book directly from the author he or she will make at least $4.

Catholic authors don’t make a lot of money. It’s a niche market and sales numbers are not exactly in the stratosphere. If you're writing for the Catholic homeschooling market, that's a niche within a niche.

Most of us write as an apostolate. But, it helps a lot to actually get a paycheck to pay for all the time taken away from our families and the expenses involved in writing a book.

So, that’s the long answer to your question. Yes, it is way better to financially to order directly from the author.

More importantly, it encourages them to continue writing and producing good books.

Amazon and Contests

Remember to check the blog in the morning as the contest will begin again -- now that I've survived Christmas and New Year's Day.


Margaret Mary Myers is the first person to review For the Love of Literature over at amazon.com. Thank MM!!!

Google Alerts

Ever wonder what people are saying about a certain subject on the Internet? Or maybe you just wonder what they're saying about you? If you go to Google Alerts, you can set it up so that you receive email alerts about any topic -- a news story, a sports team, a favorite author, a distant cousin.

For example, if I wanted to know what people are saying online about my homeschool book, I would set up a query for "Catholic Homeschool Companion." I could then have Google contact me immediately, once a day, or once a week. I could also have Google notify me of everything on the web, or I could set it up to only notify me of blog posts or news stories, etc.

This is a neat little tool.

God Bless the Computer Guy

Max the computer guy returned my PC to me today. He managed to save my hard drive and I'm so grateful. Thank you Max and thank you St. Isidore!

It's nice to be on my own computer again and not having to run to the library or wait for Rob to get home with his laptop. Now I just need to catch up on email!

The bad news is that my laptop needs a new motherboard and so it'll probably not be revived. It's pretty ancient and they don't make parts for it anymore. Maybe I can find a cheap motherboard on eBay, but I'm not counting on it. That's the computer the kids use for schoolwork so I have a couple of months to save up for another one.

Google Status

I like to check my stat counter every so often (you can check too if you want -- it's in the sidebar all the way down). It's so interesting to me to see how people came to find my blog. Also interesting is what they Google in order to find me. For example, if you Google "muzzleloading blog" I'm number 15 on the list . . .

Adoremus books coupon code, 4
Catholic homeschool mother's planner, 10
maureen whittman blog, 1 (even when you spell my name wrong, you can find me)
homeschool science olympiad, 5
the mystery of Harry Potter, 4
RACHAEL RAY MEATBALL MUFFIN, 6
mini meatloafs, 3
catholic homeschooling blog, 13
catholic homeschool literature, 27
homeschool shooting sports, 2
maureen, 26
Holly Pierlot, 5
life of fred stan schmidt, 1