I have been busy playing with wordpress plugins and I think I finally found everything I could possibly want on my blog that is worth the time to figure out how to use. Until next week, anyway.
So I thought I’d give you all a quick tour of my new and improved site so you know what is here and what you can do.
I now have a contact page. If you have a question, suggestion or something you feel you need to say to me and not necessarily the whole world, you can do so right here from my blog. Just click on “contact” under my header and fill out the nifty little form.
I now have threaded comments. My primary purpose for this blog is discussion, and I think this feature aids that purpose. This will allow you to respond either to the post in the normal fashion, or directly to individual comments. Just click “reply to this comment” and your comment will be put under that comment with a slight indent and shading to help track discussions. It will only thread three deep for the sake of legibility, but subsequent replies continue to be displayed under the comment with alternate shading. In IE, you will also see a little symbol that allows you to collapse comments as you read them. [When you click "Comments," it will bump you to the start of the entry and you have to scroll back down to the comment section. Annoying. If anyone knows how to fix that, please help!! Thanks, Alex!]
You can now email links. Just click the “Share This” feature and type in the email address. I don’t know how often anyone ever uses that feature, but now I have it, too. I did have a neat plug in that allowed you to convert the post to a pdf document to print off, but it made the end of the post too messy.
I have an announcement feature. You probably really don’t care, but I thought I’d further justify the fact that I have spent two and a half hours on my blog without actually writing anything. I can’t even think of anything to announce. What kinds of things would you like to know?
- Random facts about my children?
- A recommended blog post?
- Notes from our nature journal?
- A mix?
Let me know. I’m sort of leaning towards featuring a blog post or two from my surfing, but I’m open to suggestions.
Other than that, consider this an open thread. Any plans for the weekend? How is homeschooling going? Reading any good books? Feel free to discuss this and more. And have fun with the threaded comments. I did, as anyone who subscribes to the comment feed might have noted.
Dana, I’ve been avoiding your blog feed since the other day when you scared me to death with your California post…LOL.. Glad to know there isn’t any homeschool profiling really going on! Obviously, I’m not avoiding it anymore and have gotten over my fear of your blog news
We have been watching a BBC show on netflix called MI-5. It is kind of like 24 but a brit version. We are adventurous, James Bond kind of a family I guess and so its been interesting to watch. I keep teasing my husband that I am going to make a t-shirt and sell it on cafepress. Of course, I can’t tell ya here or someone might steal the idea.. ROFL
Have a great weekend!
Sallie
Hmm…clicking on the comment button seems to bump you back up to the start of the entry. We’ll see if I can fix that…
It doesn’t seem to do that for a reply, however.
I don’t like the scrolling involved…but for the moment I am happy!
Well, I’ll keep the secret. : ) Sorry to startle you there…But it was fun to write. I’ve never seen either, so I’m afraid I’m out of the loop on your television viewing. I’m reading a pretty good book, though: “Superior, Nebraska.” It is sort of a conservative response to “What’s the Matter with Kansas?”
Dana – Hubby and I are going AWAY for the weeekend! I’m taking my camera, so I’ll take lots of photos! Maybe I’ll even see who can guess where we were based on photos.
Hope you have a great weekend – and I think you are perfectly justified spending two hours on your blog without writing. 
I did the same thing a couple of weeks ago when I was giving my blog a mini-makeover.
Unfortunately, himself has to work all weekend, so it’s just me and the chicks. I feel the need to clean out the boys’ closet. Don’t worry, the urge will probably pass.
Oh, and I have to go shopping with Butterfly for new shoes. (I think I’d rather clean the closet.)
Ooh…that sounds like fun. I’m planning a little two day outing with the children to see the Sandhill Crane migration in central Nebraska…we won’t be going during the weekend, however. But I’ll share pictures, too!
Cleaning closets? Yippee! I’d actually be happy if my children had closets to clean. Then all their stuff wouldn’t be hanging in my closet.
Ohh, where did you find a pluggin for threaded comments? I would love to add that!
It is basically Brian’s Threaded Comments but it didn’t work. So I found Alex’s Threaded Comments, which also did not work. Somehow (don’t ask me), the two of them not working together got me this. Which is probably why hitting the comment button puts you back at the top of the page. I’m afraid to recreate what I did for fear of losing all my comments again. Boy, was I relieved when they all came back!
I was going to ask the same question, but maybe I should start plug-in installation with something I know works.
So there you have my weekend plans. After work this afternoon, I am going to figure out how to add plug-ins. Are you going to be around? If I were you, I’d say no. 
I had planned on going to an area homeschooling book fair and used book sale today, but I decided my time would be better spent sorting through all the books I got at last year’s fair, some have which haven’t even been opened yet, before I add anything else to the pile.
Shoes purchased…on to the closet.
That sounds like fun, Renae. Don’t know that I can be of much help, but I can certainly annoy you!
Hehe…that would sound something like me. Looking forward to next year’s library fair, already!
Sounds like fun. We just got back from the doctor and I don’t like what he said. I didn’t like the part he tacked on to the end of ordering the blood work on my 9yo: “This will help us decide if we need to do something yet this weekend.” I don’t like the list of things he’s ruling out, either…unless, of course, they are all ruled out and it is nothing too serious.
So I’m just waiting. That’s why chatting with Renae sounds like fun…some distraction would be nice, unless, well, I don’t want to think about going to the hospital. So I won’t.
Maybe y’all should get gmail and we can all help her with plug ins. We can break her blog before she even gets it set up!
Oh, no. Have you heard back yet? I’ll look for you later on gmail.
Very cool comment feature! Kudos to you for figuring this out! I haven’t yet gotten up the courage to play with Wordpress plugins. Such a wimp. I need my husband for any techincal endeavor.
Aw…missed you. I went to bed the same time as the kids last night. I hadn’t intended to, but I was exhausted. Guess fretting all afternoon can be tiring. Haven’t heard back, but I’ll let you know when I do.
Just back up your blog first. Actually, there is a way to put Wordpress on your computer and you can play with it there to see what happens without actually messing with your actual blog. Maybe I should do that next time I try doing something I don’t understand. : )