It’s been a year since I posted on this blog.  When I began to write this blog post, I thought about a song from my childhood – A Change Is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke. One of the lines in the song says, “It’s been a long time coming but I know a change is gonna come.”  That’s exactly how I feel right now.

Last year about this time I was still taking care of my sister, Gladys, who had Alzheimer’s disease and her condition was steadily declining.  She passed away over the Thanksgiving weekend and it has taken me this long to get back into the swing of blogging.

When I started this blog it was an outlet for me to talk about whatever was on my mind that was not related to care giving or ministry.  At that time, I called the blog Nothing In Particular.  But since she passed I’ve been able to return to something that I really enjoy – collecting recipes and cooking.  So, a change is gonna come.

For the past eight months I’ve been doing a lot of baking – cakes, cupcakes, cake pops and breads.   I started posting recipes on another blog and decided to change the focus of this blog and post my adventures in cooking right here.

I hope you’ll come back and see what’s going on.  Change is coming!

I purchased Thesis based on glowing reviews on its ease of use and its SEO.  Unfortunately the ease of use seemed to be for designers and coders; however, Thesis lived up to its reputation for search engine optimization (SEO).  Because of that, I don’t totally regret the purchase.

Before purchasing Headway, I talked to a web designer who tweaked my first blog’s template and coached me in some blogging techniques.  When I saw that he switched from Thesis to Headway, I asked him if he thought I could successfully use Headway and he replied “absolutely.”

I find Headway to be very user friendly.  This site was done in about 1-1/2 hours, most of that time was spent fooling around with color.  I did run into a few roadblocks that were cause by some of my settings, but between Headway’s forum and support team, those issues were resolved.

As I write this post, I’m trying to get some help for my header.  Headway is versatile but it can’t design headers (and neither can I).  If you’re looking for a premium WordPress blog that is user friendly and search engine optimized, consider Headway.  I think you’ll like it.

Related Articles:

Headway

My Problem With Thesis Theme

Since the last time I was here, Harborside has discontinued any free wireless.  They now charge $15 per day for Internet use, either wireless or through a LAN line with a discount for multiple days.  There were several things I wanted to do online:

1. Start setting up a new blog for an Internet store that I recently started.
2. Communicate with my husband via e-mail
3. Keep up with the Atlanta flood situation via Twitter and Facebook

So, since I don’t drink or gamble and didn’t have my handsome husband to take me out to a fancy dinner, I paid my money, logged onto the Internet and immediately had some problems: I could receive incoming email through Outlook but could not send; I tried to send from my Yahoo account and that didn’t work either; I could not log into Facebook and Twitter thought I was a robot.  So I called IT for help .

You Know You’re In Trouble When . . .

You know you’re in trouble when you explain your problems to the IT person and they ask “What’s Twitter?”  This is why I pointed out where I am staying.  Atlantis is one of, if not THE premiere hotel/resort properties in the Bahamas.  How can they have IT people who don’t know what Twitter is?  I was aghast, and literally sitting on the phone with my mouth open.  I told the person, “If you don’t know what it is, I can’t explain it.”

Long story short, I am able to receive incoming email through Outlook, I can log onto Facebook and Twitter but I still cannot send email through Outlook.  To communicate with my husband, I send a direct message through Facebook.  I’ve been communicating with my daughter via Twitter.

Why Is It Important for Me To Use the Internet?

1. International phone calls are very expensive
2. I am a caregiver for my god-sister.  She is 82 years old and has dementia and limited physical abilities.  I NEED a vacation from the stress and emotional drain from caregiving.  My husband stayed at home to take care of Gladys, my oldest daughter flew to Atlanta to help out the first 3 days (bathing and dressing); I hired a caregiver to bathe and dress Gladys for the next 4 days and my youngest daughter will go to the house to get her ready for bed.  But I still needed a way to communicate with them just in case.
3. I live the the Atlanta area that was most affected by the recent floods and a lot of my friends were affected.  I want to keep up with what’s going on.
4. AND It’s just hard for me to disconnect from my computer

All that said, I still can’t receive e-mail and at least one of their IT people still doesn’t know what Twitter is – INcredible.  BTW, the IT people came to my room to try to get my email straightened out – TWO of them.  Still not working.

If you vacation at Atlantis and bring your lap top, I hope you have a back-up plan.

about a year ago to document and share my family’s caregiving experiences.  Several month’s later I started a ministry blog that I had been sitting on for four years. I enjoy blogging and reading blogs.  To me it is much more interesting than watching CNN or network news and more entertaining than Entertainment Tonight or Jay Leno.

I enjoy reading blogs because

they are written by individuals who share their own viewpoints on a variety of topics.  If I choose, I can comment or ask  questions.  When I find something particularly interesting that I’ve been discussing with friends I can forward the link so they can enjoy it too.  It doesn’t matter if they missed it on TV or on the radio, because the blog will be there whenever they decide to visit.  Even if the blog disappears, the cache can still be found on the Internet.

My eclectic taste in blogs

Ministry Blogs:

• http://anthonycoppedge.com/blogs – Church Technology – Anthony writes about maximizing media and communication in ministry
• www.churchmarketingsucks.com – Need I say more?
• http://www.copyrightsolver.com/dn2/pt/blog/ – Copyright Queen Blog – Focuses on copyright rules and infringements that pertain to churches
• www.shauninthecity.com – Young pastor in Atlanta with a different approach to ministry (today’s post is Weed Smoking Volunteers)

Caregivers Blogs

• www.AlzheimersReadingRoom.com – Information and research into Alzheimer’s
• www.tangledneuron.info – A layperson’s perspective on memory loss. dementia and Alzheimer’s
• www.elderexperts.blogspot.com – Mimi’s Place – a blog for caregivers of elderly parents

Blogs on Blogging

• www.MichaelMartine.com – Remarkablogger, blog consulting and coaching
• www.Problogger.com – A blog to help bloggers add income streams to their blogs
• www.VirtualImpax.com – A blog about social media marketing

Miscellaneous Blogs

• http://cathlawson.com – tips for success in business and life
• http://theblackcritic.com – hard to define, you just have to read it (not for the faint of heart)
• http://thinkingoutloudblog.com – humor and random thoughts

Blogging “Friends”

is one of the curious things about blogs.  Friendships develop by visiting and commenting on each other’s blogs.  Regular commenter’s often visit each other and develop relationships as well. I’ve met people around the country and outside the U.S. We may never meet personally, but I feel like I know them.

The main thing I like about blogs

is my blog, my rules.  If you like what I do, hopefully you’ll come back.  If you don’t like it, oh well!  Y’all come back now, you hear