Please do your homework.

Has this ever happened to you?   You are in charge of an annual event.  You have a committee who has been working hard to make the event a success year after year.  Suddenly, your friend, Jane bring on a new person who can take this event over the top.  You have said in your meetings with the group, new people were always welcome, as long as their ideas are consistent with the views of the group.  So Anna joins the group, and she is the perfect fit to the committee.  All of a sudden, Anna has this idea for a new activity.  It for adults only, and the event is supposed to be family oriented, and she insists on having this activity.  What do you do?  
This just happened to me.  it was not about a recent event but this blog.  I try to give my readers something that is inspirational and for writers. I went on a site called Guest Blogger.com and a someone wanted to guest blog on all 5 of my blogs.  "Great, love to have you."   Her topics were way off, but I tried to place them the best way I knew how.  This is the reason why for those of you have been following this blog, were reading the post on Internet Marketing.   I should have not posted this article here, but I did not know where to post it.   My first blog that I started, MDN Creates is all about the world of scrapbooking and paper crafting in general, how to organized your supplies, CHA (Craft and Hobby Association-which starts next week for the Winter quarter); and all of that good stuff.   Tricia's Baskets, which in general is about Longaberger products and how to decorate around them.  For that blog, she submitted how to save for decorating, which really should have gone in the Simply Organized Crafts blog.  This blog is about organizational tips, tricks, recipes, and other household items including finances.  The SOC blog is where the Internet marketing post should have gone, but to me it does not fit here either, because I want to talk more about personal and family finances as well.   Lastly is my Disney blog, and it is all about traveling to the Disney parks in Florida and California, with a touch on the international parks.
So why do I have the example in the beginning of the post, and list each of my blogs descriptions?  It all goes back to homework and writing.  I have not done a demographic survey of my readers, but if I were, the majority of my readers do not write, but it does not matter.  No matter what you do in life, make sure you research, research, research before you do anything.  Had Anna done her homework (research), she would have found out ahead of time that the activity she wanted to do was not appropriate for the event, and she would have found another venue for it.   If the guest blogger I was working with had looked at each one of my blogs that I have in my profile, she would have known about the types of posts I have in each blog, and gauge each post according to my blogs.  She also would not have been so demanding either.
Doing your homework avoids confusion, hurt feelings, and allows both parties to say that they had a good experience.   She left a bad taste in my mouth, but that does not stop me from having guest bloggers in the future.
So what am I looking for in a guest blogger on THIS blog?   I would prefer a writer who is inspirational (yes, no more Abby Lee Miller posts), who loves to write THEIR story.  Something more on the style of Guideposts the magazine.   It can be creative writing, like a poem.  I love poems.    If its factual, please get you facts straight (again with the research).  You do not have to quote scripture, but it would be nice.  If you do quote scripture, please tell me what version of the bible you quoted from.  I want my readers to be able to look it up if they are bible scholars. (Or not.) You can give advise on this blog, but write it so that if your children were sitting on your lap, you would not mind them seeing it.   So nothing about sex and the other "adult" issues, unless it is about how you overcame your problem with those issues, but again, make it family friendly.  Do not advertise, and most importantly, have fun with your post.  You do not have to give me the happy, happy , joy, joy type post.  It could be something that has made you feel good about yourself and inspire others.
So with that, I apologize for the last post, and I hope it will never happen again.  Be well (it's flu season), be safe (it's winter), and Be Blessed (God is always in the blessing business).  Have a great evening.

I had to write something

35 - Get Ready, Get Set, Write (Photo credit: Holtsman)

Hello, rather good morning and happy October 1st.  It is 1:37 am on a Monday morning, and the daily activities have not started in my neck of the woods.  People here are getting settled down for sleep, have been sleeping, or like me a chronic night owl.

I have had a very busy week last week, and I have not posted like I should.  Last Monday, I got crazy so to speak, and cleaned one corner of my house.  I am trying to organize my life so I do not have to look at the living room the way it is.  I just took a pile and started pitching stuff.  I have not been looking at it anyway, so unless it was important, in the trash it went. (I meant the paper.)  I will be doing more of the same this week. It is so freeing.  
Tuesday was a lazy day.  I mostly looked at email.  No big on that, except it should have been more of the same from Monday.   Wednesday, hum, cannot remember Wednesday, except I went over to my pastor's house for bible study.  She is still recovering from her foot surgery.   Thursday was a long day.  My sister wanted to borrow $2, so I went by her apartment to give it to her, on my way to the Jeffersonville Mall (now called Tangent Mall-Jeffersonville).  I was working to get some sales at the Longaberger at Home showroom there.   This was my first time doing it at that location. I am usually at the flagship store-Homestead in Frazeysburg, Ohio.  The drive was easier, and I will defiantly go back to work there.  It rained so we did not have too many people come in.  Friday I was preparing for my open house on Saturday.  Once I was finished with that, I had to go to J C Penney's to get something for my Keurig coffeemaker.  If you want to brew regular coffee grounds in this coffeemaker, you need the adapter for it.  It is a filter with a holder, and all you do is take out the K-cup housing and put the adapter.  Simple, right?  Nope not at all.  I love this coffeemaker, but mine is 10 years old, and the adapter is made for the newer Keurig machines in mind, so adapted the adapter.  I am using the filter in the K-cup holder, and saving the adapter part for the day I get a new machine (this one is on it's last leg).  Saturday was the open house, and I had a ball presenting the new Longaberger products to friends and family.  I had a no-order party, where you just come to look at the products.  I will get about 3 or 4 orders at the end of the week.  Sweet, huh?
Now for this week.  I have cards to make, orders to take, websites to update, and maybe some blog closings. (not this one).  Oh, now I remember last Wednesday.  I had a meeting with an online creation consultant.  She looked over my businesses, blogs, stores, and websites, went over a plan of action for me to do, in order for me to have a more organized business model and more social media presence.  I am to concentrate on 3 niches (paper crafting, Longaberger products, and writing).  Sounds fair enough.  I need to complete my websites, switch my blogs over to WordPress, and create a shopping cart (which part of it should lead back to my Longaberger My shop and part to my Etsy Shop).  It was a wonderful meeting.  She also said that the products should lead towards problem solving for the customer instead of just shopping for something that they can get elsewhere.  I need to be leading the person to my site.  So that is in the plans.  This is going to be fun.
So I have another assignment for your writing prompt:   How was your week?  Do you have any action plans for this week?  Did someone show you how to do something different in your life, business, or on your job that gave you that "ah ha" moment?  It does not have to be so elaborate, and it is not always that "big lighting strikes you from the behind" moment, for it is the little things that make you think.  It would be fun for you to  read it back in your journal a month, a year, or even 10 years from now to see that moment in your life history.

Be blessed everyday.

Related articles

• October . . . Writing Prompt
• Writing assignment:how I spend my summer vacation. http://ic.longaberger.com/esuite/home/patricialogan?showID=15738043&hostName=Rhonda+Lofton&closeDate=09/13/2012

To Pin or not to Pin, that Is The Question

I have a piece of poetry and it is not the greatest, so do not call me a poet, yet.  When I thought about what I was going to write about, not necessary a poem, the first thing I thought about was how much trouble I was having pinning a purple skirt from a blog.  I take pinning pictures for granted and got frustrated in the process.  In fact, I took Google Chrome for granted as well.  It is much easier to use than Internet Explorer.   Oh well, here is my poem about Pinterest.

Pinterest

Pinning pictures of everything you see of

Interesting things to behold as

Nothing is safe on the internet.

To see something, to pin something, telling

Everyone who happens to follow you of your find.

Racing to see who will pin that bowl of Jell-O first and who will pin it last.

Everything is such a mystery.

Social Media’s newest

Trend.