Idea OVERLOAD

I have been sucked into a blogging vortex. I've mentioned my fears of being blog addicted and my love for Bloglines, which lets me know when there are new posts on my favorite blogs. That really makes it easy, I must say. Until I neglect my Bloglines list for a few days and several of the blog authors post a dozen things and I open it up and it says that there are 74 new posts for me to read!!! Are you kidding me?!?!? If I spent one minute per post (which I don't, it's more like 5-10 minutes) it would take me over an hour to read all of those. (*sigh*)

I haven't been caught up with my Bloglines in days. At this moment, it sits at 45 plus an additional 11 which are half-read. (I tried to glance through them, then realized these were posts that I wanted to go back and pay attention to when I was more focused) I try to click on them, glance to see if there's anything good, then move on, but these people just...keep...posting.

There are a few main categories of blogs that I peruse:

* Friends: I will always read my friends posts, even if they're long. (and you should always read MY long posts because you love me, right? RIGHT, JW???)

* Other SAHM moms: I've found a few moms of little ones out there that I like to read up on. It's inspiring and they have great ideas sometimes. So I always at least glance at those, even if I never comment.

* Other Christian moms: Totally inspirational. I try to glance, but usually need to read every word. How to be an intentional mom, creating quick teachable moments with your kids, making your house a safe haven for your family, honoring your husband, things like that. Need 'em all, read 'em all.

* Frugal sites: There are a handful of frugal moms out there who share their money-saving wisdom with the world. I feel obligated to read these to see where we can cut back and save. But whoa, a couple of these ladies post 5-10 things a day. It's so much to keep up with...OH the pressure!!!

* Deals and Freebies: I know of a few sites that are constantly having contests. It takes 2 seconds to enter your name and there are some really cool things out there to win. In fact, I just found out I won a $10 Starbucks Gift card! Of course, I'll give that over to Mike, my coffee addicted husband...

* Organizational sites: These get me out of my seat and keep me motivated. I love them! I love the pictures, I love the ideas, I love the challenges, and as you can see from the gazillion "she sure seems like she's throwing her productivity in our faces..." posts that I've written, these posts light a fire under my bum.

* Decorating sites: I only have a couple of these, but they're both frugal decorating ideas, which again, I love. If I can only look at the pictures, I will. I can't help but see what other people are doing out there who are also on a budget.

* Recipe ideas: This is what pushed me over the top, believe it or not. I see these recipes that others love and I want to try. The biggest problem is that a few of these ladies put these link options at the bottoms of their posts to see all of the other great recipes other people have put on their blogs. Too many recipes, not enough time! I have a little folder in my Outlook for emails of recipes that look good, but with blogs, I had no way of finding these recipes again once I finally decide to try them! Until now.

Last week, I got sick of printed recipes floating around my desk and kitchen. It was 8:30 at night and I needed a solution. I was done! I cleared out a 3 ring binder, grabbed my hole punch and put each recipe into one of five sections. I have a section of my cooking favorites, my baking favorites, recipes that I've tried and would make again, recipes that I want to try that I've gotten from other blogs and recipes that I've gotten from professional cooking sites (like Food Network or Cooking Light) that I want to try. (because I also am a Food Network addict and love to try recipes I see on those shows) This little project took me all of 10 minutes to compile and it has been a lifesaver!!! Because I've started meal planning, if I have extra time one week and am open to trying a new dish, I can flip through the binder and grab a recipe before making my grocery list. After I make it, it either gets moved to the "tried it and liked it" section, "favorites" if the family loved it, or thrown in the trash. Simple.

It's funny, because since I'm on this organizational kick, ideas like this suddenly just come to me naturally. I've been battling with stray printed 8.5x11 recipes for years, trying new things to keep them together and useful when I need them, and this concept is finally workable for me.

So now you have another idea to overload YOU! Hopefully someone out there will take this idea and run with it, too. It sounds complicated, but it's not. I'm going to go spend 15 minutes going through my Bloglines before people start getting axed from my list. It's a vortex, I tell ya!