Odds and Ends Sunday

This will be a random post of bits and pieces since I don't have a regular post for today. 

1. 

First, please please keep praying for young Matt Wise.  He and his family are going through a very difficult ordeal with his ARDS.   Aidan had a bout with this disease as a young infant (it was caused by fluid overload from blood products during his liver failure) but it was not as severe as Matt's.   As with Aidan, I think the continued prayers for Matt are crucial.

2.  

Also, while you are praying, will you pray for Michael Summerville and his family?  His mommy and aunt are long-distance friends of mine and they are brave, loving people who can use those prayers.   I think anniversaries and holidays are particularly difficult. 

3.

And one more prayer request.. for my son Sean, presently living in Oregon with his brothers for his senior year of high school.   His foot was injured during football practice and we are currently facing some decisions about whether surgery is needed or not. 

4. 

I have been reading around the blogosphere that Google Reader no longer allows you to share favorite posts.   I have been asked how I am still able to share favorite posts and so I will mention this free app called Mobile RSS.   It is compatible with IPhone, ITouch and IPad and requires iOS3 or later.    Because I really almost NEED the share feature to keep track of favorite posts from other blogs, I am really really hoping this won't go away.    I am missing the shared posts of others, though.  Sigh.   Another thing I like about Mobile RSS is that it lets you clip blog posts over to Evernote.  It's really quite a good app, and FREE! 

5

Now I'm going to link to a few from Take Up and Read, the blog my friend Chari and I recently started.
First,  I posted a few Disney vacation pictures over there. 

6 


Also, Chari posted about her November tradition of a Thankfulness Tree.  Fun idea and the way she does it, guests get to join in, which seems even more fun.  

7.

I wrote this post, Together for a Reason,  in response to Elizabeth's great post What I'm Never Going to Tell You.   I was going to post it here, but Chari and I agreed it was better over there.   As older moms who have homeschooled for many years, we have seen enough to know that there are no absolute guarantees, and in fact, to think that Homeschooling the Right Way =  Practically Perfect Kids is sort of missing the point of  the real strengths of homeschooling.    Homeschooling is still good and worth doing, but not for that reason. 

8  

If you have a Kindle, and are doing NaNoWriMo this month, this might be of interest:   There are presently a few How-To typing writing books for free at Amazon.   I am just linking to the "free" list (on the right of the page) not to each individual book.  

I don't know how long they will stay free.  I also don't personally know if any of them are good or not.   I just downloaded them in the hopes that I might be able to use bits of them with Kieron.   He has asked me to sort of do an ongoing Writing Practicum with him since he's a social learner and it helps him get enthused about the story he is working on.