Late to the [Proverbial] Party

For the record, I'm usually early or on time for parties, which some might say is much worse than being late.

This post is about the proverbial party...the blog lover's party.

I love reading blogs of all kinds -- cooking, family, pet, exercise.

Up until recently, I simply had them bookmarked and would check each one every so often. This got to be quite time consuming, as I amassed quite a few (thanks Pinterest!)

I would be wasting time going to each blog when only some of them had new posts.

Enter my friend Crystal from My Ramblings. (Speaking of which, CRYSTAL: you need to get back to blogging regularly! :)

She mentioned that she uses Bloglovin to keep track of the blogs she reads.

I decided to check it out.

It's awesome and SUPER simple to use!

Go to bloglovin.com and set up an account (if I recall, this only involves giving an email address and thinking up a password.)

Then, start finding the blogs you read.

You can type a blog's URL into the search box and it will bring back (more than likely) a bunch of results, but usually for the same blog. I'm unsure of why this is (naming differences?), but I went ahead and picked the result that had the largest amount of followers (there's strength in numbers!).

It then adds it to your feed. You can add as many or as few as you like.

Then, sign in when you feel like it and you'll see new posts from those blogs on your feed.

I find the last post that I remember seeing and work my way up through the newer posts.  It's cool because I get the blog post title, the first few sentences, and generally a photo from the post.

If I'm not interested, I move on and I don't have to waste time visiting the blog.

If I want to read a post, I simply click on it and it opens it up in a Bloglovin frame.

So, as the title of this post indicates, I'm probably the last person on Earth to discover Bloglovin. However, if any of my few readers haven't checked it out -- you should!

50 States? 50 Blogs!: Georgia

photo credit

A Boomer Girl's Guide

Georgia...on my mind.

I'm on a midnight train to Georgia.

It's a rule...you HAVE to say those two lines when talking about the state of Georgia.

This post has been in draft form for...well, let's not say how long, shall we? And because it's been so long, I honestly have no recollection how I stumbled across this blog. Now that we've established that I'm slow in writing/posting and have a bad memory, let's move along, shall we?

As the name of the blog indicates, Juhli (the blogger) is a baby boomer. (And yes, I had to go to Wikipedia to make sure I was clear on what ages that specifically covered.) Those born between 1946 & 1964 are considered to be baby boomers. While I'm not considered part of this generation, my parents are and I've recently begun thinking about the next phase of John's and my life -- retirement. (We haven't hit Powerball yet, so I don't think we'll be quitting our jobs tomorrow, but it's always good to think ahead.)

Speaking of thinking ahead, Juhli has written some posts that have helped me in this regard and gotten me thinking about and interested in planning for the retirement phase. (I've even added some retirement-like books to my "to read" list.) Eek.

Another interesting subject/subjects that Juhli writes about are decluttering and only buying things needed. She keeps detailed records about what she's shed from her house and in turn, what she's allowed to come into her house. Bless her heart, she's even done a no spend challenge. (I'm not from the South, but since this post is about a southern blog, I felt it necessary to throw out that a "bless her heart."

Even though we may not be in the same generation, Juhli and I have something in common -- volunteering! (Which I will eventually blog about.) We both are involved in the Friends' group for our local public library. As we're just getting underway at our library, I find Juhli's volunteer posts interesting, specifically ones about book sales.


Things that caught my eye about this blog:

• Tabs at the top of the blog. I especially like the Helpful Reading tab, which gives recommended reading on a variety of subjects germane to retirement -- decluttering, aging, happiness, money, etc...
• Aesthetically pleasing background. The coral color with bird silhouettes is simple, yet beautiful.

Things on this blog that I'd like for my blog:

• The tabs at the top of the blog that I mention above.
• A "theme" for each year. Juhli's theme for her 65th year is PUSH. I think it's great to have a theme/goals in writing as a constant reminder.

While the subjects of retirement and aging aren't my usual blog fare, I enjoy being exposed to these topics and in some small way starting to prepare myself for these things. 

Oh, and did I mention she's a thrift store shopper? I think we'd get along famously "in real life." (Until I wanted to buy something and she'd kindly remind me to only buy what I need...lol.)