Beautiful day.

 

My daughter and I are outside in our yard playing and enjoying this gorgeous day, so I thought I would snap a few pictures just to give everyone an idea of how beautiful my view is everyday. I absolutely love living close to the mountains, in a small community. Seeing nature and the outdoors like this just makes me feel even closer to God. He's given us such beauty to admire and I'm so happy I'm getting to spend the rest of my life here. Also, pictured above is our precious little mutt dog Skeeter who is about to turn 2 in November! I'm not sure what all breed of dog she is, but we rescued her at 6 weeks and have been blessed with her ever since! I hope everyone is getting to enjoy this day as much as we are! :) 

Facebook - good or bad?

 

http://nickbarricella.hubpages.com/hub/The-Positive-and-Negative-Effects-of-Facebook

There are obviously millions and millions of Facebook users all over the world. I, myself, am one of them. I use Facebook for all sorts of reasons. I have family in Utah that I don't get to see often, so I keep up with them on there. My dad lives 7 hours away in another state, so he gets on my profile to see pictures of my daughter. I'm always posting statuses about the cute things she does or says. And I am constantly posting pictures of her, mainly because I think she is the most beautiful little angel in the whole world! Haha. But seriously. There's a ton of things you can do with Facebook, but there's a lot of debate on whether its a good thing or a bad thing. Clearly from what I just said, I agree with the author on the positive things he says about Facebook. It does make it extremely easy to keep in touch with family. Instead of trying to send a picture to each of your family members, you can just upload it and everyone can see. Another thing that I find helpful is the "create event" part of Facebook. Instead of trying to write down everyone's address and pick out invitations and remember to get them all sent out on time, you can create a simple event on Facebook and invite everyone at once with a click of a button. You can also create group messages to send to everyone you need to and much more. It's also easy to make new friends, although I don't try that too often because I'm not just real social with new people! Lol. But you can see who your friends are connected to and you can connect with them too. Or you can add people once you meet them and connect that way. It's also a good way to express yourself being that you have the freedom to post anything you'd like to on your profile! It's also an extremely good way to express the things you care about. You can create pages for certain things, share prayer chains, show people pages for charity, post about your faith, scriptures, devotions, etc. Being a Christian, I believe that Facebook can be a great tool to minister to people all over the world! 

I also agree with the negative effects he talks about. Cyber bullying is one of the main problems I see with social media. It's entirely too easy for people to sit behind a computer and keyboard and bully someone when they don't have to be face to face with them. There have been multiple stories of suicides, people being put into mental institutions, etc etc. due to being cyber bullied. That being said, Facebook is just one of MANY sites that can be used for cyber bullying. I can say that I have known some relationships that have been ruined because of how easy it is to I guess to sneak around on Facebook or because of some posts, or whatever the case may be. However, if people are going to do those things, they'll find another way if not Facebook. I can definitely agree that it could be a distraction. I can honestly say that it's distracted me before. Maybe someone is trying to talk to me but I've just found a post I'm really interested in reading so I kind of just tune them out. Yea, it's happened before. Don't pretend it hasn't for you! Haha. But really, sometimes we get so wrapped up in making sure we post about our perfect lives and making sure everyone likes those posts, that we forget to just live and enjoy the moment. Insecurity has been the subject of many Facebook debates. I can see it, someone has a bigger house, a nicer vehicle, a prettier face or body, nicer clothes, a better job, the list goes on. I can't say that I've never been jealous of some of my friends on Facebook. And about the stalker portion.. Well of course there's that potential with every site you put information on. That's why you set your profile to private so only people you give permission to can view your profile information. And you have to ALWAYS be careful of who you add and let be friends with you. 

There are pros and cons to every social media website, but as long as you're careful and use it for the right reasons, I think Facebook is an awesome tool! 

Twitter - an educational tool?

 

http://novemberlearning.com/educational-resources-for-educators/teaching-and-learning-articles/how-twitter-can-be-used-as-a-powerful-educational-tool/

I will be completely honest in saying that I rarely ever use Twitter. I have an account that I used to use quite regularly, but I've drifted away from it as I've gotten older. I guess I kind of feel like I have better things to do than tweet everything that happens throughout my day. Which is why I thought this article was interesting. Because it made me consider that Twitter  could be much more than that. I think it's very true that this social media can provide global communication and exchanging of information. People from all over the world are conversating and putting their ideas out there on this site and you can simply type in a keyword or "hashtag" and learn all sorts of things about that topic. You're able to broaden your thinking by seeing what other people have to say. I thought it was really interesting that the author put the idea out there of creating a classroom account and using certain hashtags. This could be a tool they use to ask others questions about certain topics and receive ideas from all over the world. It's a way of connecting that was never possible before social media. I also thought it was interesting that one teacher got an account on Twitter to communicate with her students outside of the classroom with bonus questions and reminding them of things they learned in class. This could possibly be a way for students to retain more information than just from seeing it in the classroom. I'm so happy that I came upon this article because it has sparked ideas for my future classroom and has given me a new perspective on Twitter! I definitely have more appreciation for this particular social media site than I ever have before. It doesn't have to be a waste of time, it can actually be something that helps many people, including teachers and their students. 

A little about me and my blog.

First off, you will learn quickly that I never take pictures of just myself anymore, which is why the above is of me and my little girl.. So, a little bit about me. I am 21 years old, will be 22 in March. I am currently attending Henderson State University to finish my English degree. I've been married for two years and we have our beautiful 15 month old daughter, Hadley. We live in a very small town and own chicken houses. My absolute favorite things to do are anything that involves spending time with my family. I thoroughly enjoy a good book, and could spend hours reading (if I had that kind of time), and I love movies as well. I love to write, whether it be poetry, journal entries or novel ideas. I plan to write many novels throughout the rest of my years on earth. I'm also a very big fan of decorating my home and making DIY crafts. I am a Christian and I am furthering my walk with Christ every single day. I also love animals, doesn't matter what kind and food! I am currently on a weight loss journey as well, even though I have gotten off track recently. But anyway, those are just some things that will be on my blog. I know, it is kind of a random assortment of things, but at least there will be something different for each post. I will be trying to post as often as I can, and there will probably be just random thoughts, ideas, or things that are going on in my life on here. So enjoy! :)