Site

Having my own classroom takes a lot of time! I kept thinking about this site, and wanting to do some work on it, but between lesson plans, IEPs and then wanting to also spend time with my family, you all got left behind. Well, it's summer now. I plan on doing a lot of writing this summer and make some new videos. Elizabeth (my wife) has also agreed to write some on the couponing she is doing. We are novices to couponing, but we will share what we are learning. I'm not sure how much Elizabeth will be writing and I may not be able to write much in September, but I'll see you all while I'm here!

I'm still not really around. I'm working 60+ hours a week so I don't really have much time. I'm doing some backend work once in a while, but not really doing much for writing. What work I am doing I'm concentrating on one of my other sites.

For various personal and economic reasons I am not blogging. I have to concentrate my energy elsewhere. I will be keeping the site up but more content will not be coming anytime soon. When I am able to concentrate some energy on my sites again it will most likely be in the creation of tools more than blogging as I can get my writing energies out in ways that actually make me money.

I'd like to thank everyone who has read or will read my blog articles for being great readers. Thanks and God bless!

Tired Garden is a year old today! It has been a glorious year. The site has grown a lot and has made some changes. I hope it will continue to grow and that we can build the site up more. I've enjoyed my time spent talking with my readers and talking with other bloggers who do not read my blog much. It has been a great time!

In the year to come I am sure we will see even more changes. The site will, I hope, continue to grow and mature. I hope that my readership will increase and that you all will tell me what you want to see from me and I will be able to provide it. I pray for a fruitful year for all of us.

Actually, Tired Garden, the site, is older than a year old. March, 22 2007, so it is really nearly two years old. The site went through a major revision and rebirth from a crappy static site that was just about tired gardening to the more dynamic blog you see today. I lost the articles from that original site, so I count the beginning of the site to be when this version of the site began. Perhaps I will be able to dig up those old articles at some point and repost them. I had a couple of good tire gardening articles up there.

Anyway, if you want to wish me a happy birthday, chocolate or cash are both accepted :D. Thanks for the great year and I look forward to another.

I've moved the site to a new server. I've not been happy with my previous host, so I've moved. In the move I also upgraded the software and started to move to a new theme. I've just got the basics in and it is late tonight. I'll get the correct image into the header tomorrow and check to see if anything is missing (I see that the tag cloud is missing).

I've also gotten rid of a couple of advertisement blocks that I was getting no income from. The Project Wonderful and Entrecard widgets. This will hopefully make the site load a little faster and I can live without the $1.00 a month I was making off the two ads.

If you have any comments, or would like to see something else in those spots, let me know. I'm always interested in what my readers like.

If you have been reading here long, you may have noticed that the content has changed over time. I thought I'd talk about that a little.

I started this site mainly for sustainable tips and tricks. I, however, am just learning about this and while I'm learning a lot and pass things along when I get something good, my family is also important. I'm writing a lot more about family things and memories. I'm also planning on adding more fiction, but don't expect a lot.

Do you have something you want to hear about? Make a suggestion with a comment and I'll take it under consideration.

Do you donate? If you donate, that is great. I thank you. The receivers of your donation thank you. Everyone should donate. I am not going to presure you to donate, but if you do, let everyone know. Let's challange everyone to donate. Just get the badge below, put it on your site to let your readers know that you donate and then comment below, so I can let my readers know.

My Story

As I was painting my ceiling and listening to Todd Agnew. I began thinking about how poor I am. I'm a student, so I have no money coming in. Then I thought about how poor other people are in comparison. I'm not so poor.

We (my wife and I) often complain about being poor. We live fairly modestly, but we are far from being poor. No one in this household knows how it feels to be hungry. To know hunger you have to have gone days, weeks, months, without enough food. We have and have always had, a good solid roof over our heads. No, we don't have much money. It is likely that our savings will be gone by the time I finish my masters, but we are doing pretty good. Others are not.

God spoke to me through the music. He reminded me of a promise I made that I have not kept good on. I had made a pledge to KLOVE and since I have no income, I chose to not send in the pledge. KLOVE helps people who are in dire straights. Their pastors are available by phone, 24 hours a day, every day to talk people who have nowhere else to turn away from their poor decisions and toward Christ. Last night, I sent in the payment to get me caught up on my pledge. Do you have a past due pledge you need to send in?

I had also promised myself that 10% of all income I get will go to charity. I got a temp job doing some web design work over the summer. I've already sent in the 10% from my first check. I also got a small commission check from my advertisers on this site. Every dollar I make, from this site, from my other sites, from my job, from any other form of income I end up with, I will give 10% to charity. I pray I will do this for the rest of my life.

Challenge

Here is my challenge to you. I challenge you to make a donation. Talk to God, He will tell you how much and where to. Once you have made your donation, post a comment below and let your users know that you donate by including the I Donate Badge below on your page. This will let everyone who visits your site know that you are dedicated to donating. Your badge is good for one year, then you should make another donation. The amount of your donation is up to you, and I have no way of auditing you to find out if you are actually making the donations. That is between you and God.

If you do not believe in God, or worship another god, that should not stop you from helping out a comminity that needs your support. Please don't let my religious beliefs get in the way of your doing a good deed.

What do I get?

Some people need a reason to donate. Other just donate because it makes them feel good. If you donate, let me know, and put the badge on your site, you will get your name on the Blog Roll below. I will periodically visit sites on the list, comment, stumble, etc. I encourage others who are on the list to do the same thing. The more you comment and stumble, the bigger this community will grow. Twit some pages. Add them to your social bookmarking sites.

Badge

Put this badge on your site to announce your participation:

<a href="http://tiredgarden.info/blog/i-donate-do-you"> <img src="http://tiredgarden.info/files/logos/idonate.png" alt="I Donate" /></a>

Blog Roll

Paid Link I mentioned a while back that I was unhappy with my current host. I'm checking out a new host. I'll be moving my site that I've done nothing with yet over there. I'm going to do a bunch of work to Shabam Development and see how Host Papa performs for me. If I'm happy, I'll move everything else over there. If I'm not, I'll be asking for my money back (30 day guarantee) and trying someone else. Also, I'll be writing up a lengthy report about them and my current host over at Shabam Development.

In case anyone is interested, Shabam Development is my main site. I don't do much with it currently except point to this and Shabam School. I plan on changing that. Over the summer I'll be starting my third blog on it. That blog will be used to review different net related products, such as web hosts. I'm not one to post a good review just to get people to click on the ad and for me to get a commission, so I'll be leaving honest reviews.

That does not mean that I will not get a commission. It just means that if I leave them a bad review, I'll still have a commission link to them so that if someone decides to ignore my review, I can still make a commission. If they pull my affiliation because of the bad review, then I'll update the post saying so. I will not let my advertisers tell me what I can or can't say on my sites.

The reason I chose this particular company is because they use 100% green energy. I like that, but if they do not give me the service that I need, then I'll ditch them and try someone else until I find a company I like. I also saw some good reviews of them on the net, but sometimes it is hard to tell the people who are just saying they are good to get a commission from those that actually think they are good. By the way, I get a $90 commission off them if you get service from them through my link.

I have done a lot of work to my feed. Take a look at it. You can also subscribe to it and join the growing number of people who read the Tired Garden articles from the comfort of their feed reader.

Comment here, or send me a message on the contact form. I'd love to hear what you have to say, it may well help me to improve the site and make it more helpful to you.

Thanks!

All right, I'm getting really annoyed with Snap Shots. It is slow and it pops up at bothersome times. I don't really find it all the useful. The only votes on my poll were from the two tests I did (the first time I did a poll, so I had to test it). So, I'm making the decision without your input, sorry. I think I'm calling it a little earlier than I said I would, but if anyone comments that they really love it, let me know. I still probably will not put them back, but I do want to hear your input.