We’re sticking to the blog theme again this week for Friday’s Free for All. 

Sometimes we all get in a slump when it comes to ideas for topics to post about on our blog and one of the worst things that can happen when you have a blog is that it goes dry and your visitors get tired of visiting and not finding new and fresh content.

So this week, I thought I’d share this freebie from Lynette Chandler to help you when you get in those funks (yes, even people as chatty as me go brain dead on our blogs).  Lynette is one of the best when it comes to working with, setting up and everything blogging, so who better to give you ideas to keep your blog alive. 

So, grab this quick read (it’s only 5 pages) and you’ll have 31 ideas for blog post topics to help keep your blog fresh and welcoming to your readers.  Just click the image below to get your copy.

Aurelia over at Real Life Solutions posted about her theme song the other day and it got me to thinking what my theme song is.  To be honest it really depends on the day and my mood.  Since I’m such a lover of music of all kinds, it’s hard to pick just one, but here’s the song that probably wins on most days.

Jessica Andrews - Who I Am

So, what about you - what’s your theme song?

Apple Tortilla Rolls

What You’ll Need:

8 flour tortilla 10 in size
1 (8 oz) pkg. cream cheese softened
1 C finely diced apples
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Fool Proof Directions:

Mix together cream cheese, apples and cinnamon together in a mixing bowl. Be sure cream cheese is completely mixed with no lumps. Place one tortilla shell flat. Spread which cream cheese mixture. Place a second tortilla over the top. Roll up. Continue until all the tortillas have been used. Wrap each roll in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for about 1 hour. Remove from refrigerator when ready to serve. Unwrap and slice each tortilla roll into 10 to 12 slices. Serve immediately.

This is a great snack for children of all ages. Be sure to dice the apples up fine so every can enjoy a bit of apple in each bite. These can be served sprinkled with cinnamon sugar or a dollop of whip cream for a change of pace.

This week I want to shake things up a bit with our work at home tip of the week. I want to go to just a few of the people I consider experts in the work at home mom field and ask them a question.

I guess you could call this a meme or tag of sorts. So, for those of you listed below I’d love to know your answer to the following questions.

What one thing, that you know now, do you wish you had known when you first started working from home that would have made things easier for you?

Nicole Dean
Nell Taliercio
Kelly McCausey
Alice Seba
Lynette Chandler
Carrie Lauth
Annette Yen
Treece

So, here goes ladies: If you would be so kind as to post your answer on your blog and then let everyone here know where to find that post in the comments section, pretty please!

For anyone else who has some advice for work at home moms - I’d love to hear your thoughts too so feel free to join in and post your answers on your blog or in the comments section as well.

Thanks a million in advance.

I was browsing a few other blogs this morning and came across a couple posts about praying over at the Quiet-Mom blog. You can check them out by clicking the links below:

Beginning Everything with Prayer

More on Prayer from Annette

This is really awkward for me to say out loud, but sometimes I find it difficult to pray. It’s really one of the areas of my life that I want to work at making better. The hardest part is that I know it is holding me back from so much by not having that close relationship with God through praying.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I DO pray, but I just feel awkward when I do sometimes. Just ask the ladies at my weekly bible study on the nights I’m asked to open up with prayer.

I don’t feel like I’m as close to God as I want or need to be because I get tongue tied, spend a lot of time thinking about what I should say, etc. After reading Annette’s second post I realized I’m trying to “get it right” and the perfectionist comes out in me even with God who knows more about me than anyone ever could. In other words, I’m being me but not being me, if that makes sense.

God knows I’m a perfectionist and he already knows that I struggle in the area of prayer, right? So, am I really keeping it real with him when I pray and stumble and throw things in the prayer just for conversation sake?

Tough question, because on one hand yes, I’m keeping it real by being the real me and not just making something up to pray about for the sake of saying I prayed. But…on the other hand, I’m not opening myself up and just saying “Father, I’m not really sure what to say right now, so can you help me in the way only you can?”

I know this post probably confused many of you, but I’d like to know…

Do you ever have a similar problem when it comes to praying? How do you keep it real with God - or do you just take the fact that he knows what you’re going to do before you do and let it be?

Woah baby, I almost completely missed Tishia tagging me for this blog meme.  The deal is I have to list 6 unimportant things about myself, so here goes.

1.  To follow suit with Tishia…my name, Arika, is pronounced like Erica or Erika.  You’d be amazed at how many different ways people try to say it.  The biggest one I get is Areeka or Eureka (hello folks, I’m not a vacuum cleaner)!  Seriously though, it doesn’t bother me anymore.  As a kid it did, but I guess you could say I have embraced the uniqueness.

2.  Because of the fact people had such a hard time pronouncing my name I made sure to give my children the traditional spelling of their names, even against my father’s wishes that I spell Zachary with a K instead of CH.  Funny thing is, people want to spell his name with a K.  Zachary, Hunter, and Sierra - as far as I know those are the normal spellings.

3.  Wow, I’m on a roll with this name thing so I’ll keep it going.  I can’t wait to get married and change my last name to something plain and simple.  From my maiden name Stonebraker to Liddiard, there’s not an improvement and even my MIL has a hard time pronouncing Liddiard.  Once Jerry and I tie the knot, it will be plain old Lewis and I’m loving it.

4.  I enjoy working with numbers and doing taxes…not only unimportant but weird hu?

5. I wear a size 8 1/2 shoe. (Hey the theme is unimportant…lol)

6.  My nicknames for the boys are Sugar Butt and Sweet Tater!

I’m not tagging anyone specific so play along if you’d like and be sure to let me know where I can find your post in the comments section.