What a week. More shootings, more Facebook shaming, more Christmas shopping.

I can’t take too much of it. The bad news and the negativity steals my joy. I don’t get the Facebook shaming thing. I’m talking about the people who post their viewpoint, and tag onto it, “How can you be so STUPID to think otherwise…” or my personal least favorite, “You aren’t a Christian if you think otherwise…” Real helpful. Real loving. Super edifying.

I’m guilty of being negative too, but I’d much rather be loving.

I have no business reading Facebook these days. Once something becomes a ‘bring- me-down’ instead of a ‘pick-me-up’, it needs to be set aside.

But I don’t think that means pull out all together. This world is full of evil things, but if all the loving people leave the forums of the world, it gets ugly fast!

No, instead of isolating ourselves from all negative, since it can’t be done anyway, we need to limit those influences, maybe even hide those peeps who routinely do the Facebook shaming from our news feed.

The only way to spread love or to get love is to show love. 

Keep on dancing, keep on singing, keep on praying, keep on giving and giving and giving, teaching, reading, learning, and giving some more. 

Sometimes I just need a good pick-me-up like this peppy song.  Get up, and do your soul thing. Be happy. You’re God’s child. You have nothing to fear and only love to give.

“The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.”           Galatians 5:14-15

I hope you all have a glorious weekend! We have some Salvation Army bell ringin’ and a 5K run for Arthritis planned.

I spent this week getting MRIs, blood work, and x-rays. Maybe I’ll finally find out what is causing my achy back problem. Maybe I won’t. Either way, no biggie. There’s no reason for anyone who belongs to God to be stressed. We just need to trust him. I will not be stress ball April any longer. I’m going to be resting-in-the-arms-of-Jesus April. Won’t you join me in the peace of it?

Come on, Daniel! You’ll feel better you’re dancin’!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct3y0LZuPSM

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us, And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”    1 John 3:16

The post You know what, I DO “feel better when I’m dancin’!” appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Tonight I really wanted to go to bed early. My new “good habit” for this month, via coachcox.com is getting 8 hours of sleep per night.

Stop shaking your head and chuckling.

I can do it.

Can YOU? That’s right. I’m literally taking a SLEEP challenge. I’ve never been so happy to accept a challenge. 🙂

Coach Cox doesn’t really call it a sleep challenge. He calls it building healthy habits. I think sleep challenge sounds more fun. 😉 The Water Challenge worked out really nicely for me, so I have high hopes.

I WAS going to go to bed at 10, but first, I HAD to clean the house up. I have no visions of grandeur when it comes to cleaning house. I set a timer for 60 minutes and clean. Once my timer goes off, it’s “Sorry, house.”

I just spent 30 minutes on my hands and knees scrubbing food stains out of my dining room carpet. We do not have an eat-in kitchen. We only have a dining room. Who puts wall-to-wall carpet in the eating area?

My timer went off, so then I HAD to check Facebook. What if one of my friends has something important to say about Caitlyn Jenner, how much they love their sister, Lynard Skynard, or modest clothing, and I MISS IT??? 😉

No, I’m kidding, but if you know me at all, then you know I check Facebook everyday. Actually, that’s not true. You only know that if YOU also check Facebook everyday.

We should have a support group.

Hi. My name is April, and I check Facebook more than once a day.

There I said it. I mostly go on there to see if there’s anything new that pertains to me. Do I have any new messages? Did anyone read my blog? Does anyone ever read my blog?

At one point, the book of Faces introduced “top friends”. This is where you star your top friends, and then it tells you every blessed time they post something new. This is a bad idea. Now when I go on Facebook, I see the blue world lit up with the number 3 or something on it, and I think, “Ooo! I have something new!” Then I click the world, and lo and behold, it’s just telling me that one of the random friends that I starred, that one day that I starred a few people, uploaded a new photo via Instagram.

Anyway. Once I check my blue world, I instantly get sucked in by my news feed. It’s like the newspaper, or t.v., only these are people I actually know!!! Yes, for some reason, I DO want to look at 10 pictures of your new puppy. And YES! I DO need to read this new and sensational article from Matt Walsh.

I’m not being sarcastic. I DO.

What’s funny is that even with all the time I spend on Facebook, the FB powers that be still do not understand me!!  Not. at. all. You know those ads in the sidebar? They keep trying to sell me sewing machines.

If something rips in our house, it means either we never get to wear it again, or Alan has to sew it up. Actually, my sewing machine and kit are currently living at Alan’s school’s engineering building, where he has been using it for design projects, believe it or not.

Facebook, just because I’m a home schooling mom of four does not mean I love sewing. We don’t wear bibs on our clothing or run around barefoot either. Oh, wait, yes we do do that last one.

Also, Facebook doesn’t even show my latest blog posts to ALAN in HIS news feed. I get it. They have their algorithms or whatever, but Alan reads everything I post. You’d think I would at least make it into my husband’s news feed.

You should star me, Alan. We can be “top friends.”

Did you know that if you have a Facebook business/blog/community/whatever page, they give you insights about your audience, as they continue to try to convince you to BUY news feed space? Facebook, I refuse to pay you to be in anyone’s news feed. Stop asking. If only 100 people see my story, then it must not have been relevant to more than 100  people. Let’s just leave it at that.

According to Facebook pages, my blog is most popular in Alabama, Virginia, and California. No surprise there.

So there you have it. This is my Facebook junkie confession. For some reason, it does not feel like a badge of honor…hmmm  Maybe this summer I will have so much fun that I will only check the ‘book once/day…

Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere. I’m not leaving the party.

1.) I have a need to see your kids’ “last day of school” photos and newborn babies. I can’t help it. I NEED to see them.

2.) Facebook is my #1 source for blog viewers, so thank you, FB friends!

3.) Facebook is like television for me. It kills ridiculous amounts of time, and leaves me typically feeling discouraged by the news and confused about status updates that leave you hanging.

4.) It helps me keep up with friends and family.

5.) Stuff like this–hilarious!

IHappy Hump Day! I’ll be packing soon. We are Bama Bound!! All of my summer clothes are in under-bed bags, so I’d better start digging! I hear it’s hot there.

The post My name is April, and I am addicted to Facebook. appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Welcome!!!!

I’m almost finished converting to WordPress for blog hosting and the new name!!!

That’s really the whole reason I’m doing all of this was to get my own name and drop the whole “blogspot.com” bit.  I definitely like this better!

I will have the pages at the top all finished up soon.

Meanwhile, I want to say THANK YOU for following me from the old web address to the new one.  Pretty please, pause a moment and leave yourself a trail so you can find your way back…..if you know what I mean.  I’m just terrified I’m going to lose all my readers because they won’t know how to find me.

Here are several ways to always know where my website is and keep in touch:

1.  You can follow me on my Facebook page, via the “Like” icon on my sidebar.  Each time I post something new, I always post it on my Facebook page.

2.  You can subscribe via email, and this is a great option if you are not a regular Facebook user!

..but if you don’t really want to hear from me every day or even every few days, that may not be for you.  Ha!  Of course, I’m sure you would never get tired of me…

3.  If you have bloglovin’ or any other form of reader, you can add me to that by copy/pasting my url.

4.  You can just bookmark me.

5.  You can follow me on Pinterest or Google +, but that won’t let you know when I post something new.

6.  If all else fails, go to my old website, and click the link that I left there!

old site:  The Liter Side of Life

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