This couldn’t have happened without the hard work of the following people:

• Josh Sowin of Rainsong Media, the technical brainpower behind pretty much everything.
• Brannon McAllister, the designer of my banner. I love how simple yet pretty it looks. Not to imply that I think I look pretty, but the floral design…
• Abraham Piper, my faithful and devoted husband who knows waaaay more about blogging than I do. He’s seriously a genius.

If you’re already a subscriber then nothing should change for you. If you haven’t subscribed, I’d love it if you did!

If you’re new here, you may want to jump in with my Compassion series from when I went to El Salvador, or my series on How to Help Your Grieving Friend. And of course you can learn more about me on my About page!

Thanks to all of you who’ve read this blog and brought it to this point with your readership and comments. I can’t wait to see where this goes.

If you’ve ever wanted to turn one of your favorite snapshots into art for your wall, you may be interested in the giveaway we’re doing this week for readers of this blog and 22 Words.

On Saturday, Molly and I will do a drawing for one free product up to $100 from Online Poster Printing. (And the shipping will be free, too, if you’re in the US or Canada.)

How to Enter the Drawing

All you need to do to be entered to win is contact us and tell us you want to participate. You can simply say “I wanna win” or “Pick me” or something like that.

How to Enter the Drawing Multiple Times

If you want to increase your chances, here are 5 ways to be entered in the drawing extra times:

1. Subscribe to this blog. (RSS or Email)
2. Subscribe to 22 Words. (RSS or Email)
3. Let people know about the giveaway on Twitter…
4. …or Facebook…
5. …or your own blog.

When you contact us to enter, include that you’ve done any of these 5 things, and we’ll put your name in the hat an extra time for each.

Thanks a lot for reading!

Here’s how to win

1. Subscribe by email or RSS. (If you don’t know what RSS is, my husband can show you. It’s really easy.)
2. Contact me to let me know you’re a subscriber.
3. I’ll draw a winner on Wednesday, January 14th.

Bonus Entries!

If you refer a person to this blog and they subscribe, let me know. I’ll enter your name again each time you do it! (I’ll just be trusting you, so play fair. )

I’m offering one of these lovely nursing covers, made by my friend Jenna from All the Way Home.

I know this won’t be relevant to all of you, but certainly you know someone who is pregnant or nursing, so anyone can win! I’m certainly using mine a lot right now.

Why I love this nursing cover

• The boning in the top gives you a line of sight to the baby under there.
• The D-ring clasp lets you adjust it to just the right length so you don’t have to tie it every time.
• The baby can’t pull or kick it off!
• It’s reversible!

Incidentally, this one I’m giving away is the exact same fabric that I have, so I’m dubbing it the “Molly” line.

Here’s how to win

1. Subscribe by email or RSS. (If you don’t know what RSS is, my husband can show you. It’s really easy.)
2. Contact me to let me know you’re a subscriber.
3. I’ll draw a winner on BLACK FRIDAY… MWAA-ha-ha-ha!

Bonus Entries!

If you refer a person to this blog and they subscribe, let me know. I’ll enter your name again each time you do it! (I’ll just be trusting you, so play fair. )

If you read even one blog regularly, RSS is for you. It will save you time, I promise.

Some of you may be wondering, “Doesn’t everyone use RSS?” The answer is no; less than 6% of internet users take advantage of this extraordinarily helpful technology.

I’ve read lots of posts on what RSS is and how to use it, but they’re limited in their helpfulness. There are just too many options out there to fully explain any one of them in a post that tackles RSS as a whole. So I am going to use the majority of this article to help non-RSS-users get started on Google Reader.

If you follow these instructions, you will be subscribed to your favorite sites and already saving time by the end of this article.

What Is RSS and Why Is It Worthwhile?

The acronym RSS stands for a couple things. The most helpful as far as a clear explanation of what it’s for is “Real Simple Syndication.”

RSS is a technology that allows you to subscribe to any website that has one of these in the address bar. You can then track every site you’re subscribed to without having to go to each individual site.

If you’re like me there are a couple websites that you love to read. Without RSS, I would be looking at these sites regularly to see if there were new material. Depending on how often I checked, I wouldn’t see anything new most times I visited.

With RSS, I never again have to go to a site that has no new material. I subscribe to the sites I enjoy and am updated every time they post.

This is especially helpful for keeping track of those bloggers who we want to read but who only post every 3 months.

Why I’m Focusing on Google Reader

If you’re not a current RSS-user and would like to be, my hope is that by the end of this article you’d have everything you need to begin. In order to do that, I need to pick one feedreader to show you how to use. (“Feedreaders” are the programs that people use to collect and manage their RSS subscriptions.)

I’ve chosen to use Google Reader for 3 reasons:

• It’s free and available to everyone no matter what computer or browser you use.
• It is by far the most popular feedreader that’s out there right now. On both the blogs I write for, Google subscribers are between 35-40% of the readership. The next most popular feedreader only claims about 5% of readers.
• It’s really easy to use, so let’s get started.

Setting Up Google Reader

1. Create a Google account.
2. Go to Google Reader and make sure you’re signed in.

Adding a Subscription in Google Reader

1. Select “Add Subscription” from the left column.
2. Type in the address of a blog you want to subscribe to and click “Add.”

Adding a Subscription from Elsewhere Online

1. When you are visiting a site that you want to subscribe to, click on the orange icon in the address bar or on a link provide on the site.

You will either see a page like this:

Or like this:

2. On either page, select Google as the reader you want to subscribe with.
3. On the first page, you will need to click “Subscribe Now.”
4. On either page, choose “Add to Google Reader.”

Reading and Managing your Subscriptions

Reading Options

You now have a few of your favorite blogs listed in the left column of your Google reader page. The best way to go through your feeds is up to you. Here are some options.

• Home, at the top of the left column, is where you can see new, unread posts listed with just a few lines of content.
• All Items, just below “Home,” is where you can see new, unread posts listed with all their content.
• Selecting an individual feed from the list in the left column allows you to see new posts as well as scroll down through older ones.

Scanning Options

In the upper right corner you will see tabs for “Expanded view” and “List view.” These allow you to decide whether you see all content as you scroll through your feeds or just titles and the first few words.

Marking as Read

You will mark a post as read when you click on it. Scrolling through posts will also mark them as read, although you can turn this feature off in settings if you want to. Finally, if you want to mark all your new posts as read at once, you can do so at the top of the “All Items” page.

Unsubscribing

When you change your mind about being subscribed to a blog, you can unsubscribe by going to the settings in the upper right corner.

You’re All Set!

As you poke around in Google Reader, I’m sure you’ll find more nifty ways to improve your RSSing. But for now, you should have what you need to go on a wild subscription binge.

You will, of course, want to subscribe to Molly’s blog and and to the blog of whoever referred you here. And then maybe even to mine.

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments. Happy blog reading!

Photo: Wendy Maybury

2. I’m a Christian. I believe in the love of God, sent through his son Jesus Christ, who sacrificed himself for the sins of the world so that, through him, we might have peace with God in this life and forever. We attend Hope Community Church, a really great church here in Minneapolis.

3. I’m a wife. I married a wonderful, brilliant man. I know that sounds weird to say, but…I did. And it’s a good thing it worked out well, since we hardly knew each other when we got married–we dated for two months and then were engaged for four. A whopping total of 6 months! Abraham has a day job, but in his heart, he’s a writer. You can read his essays. I love what he writes. He also likes red wine and playing in rain storms, so that’s convenient.

Photo: Wendy Maybury

4. I’m a mom. I am the mother to 5 children.

Orison is our oldest. He was born in 2004, just after our first anniversary (yeah, we didn’t waste any time). Orison is full of life, imagination, passion, and music. He’s our little songsmith.

Photo: Danielle Hartland

Felicity is our second child, stillborn on September 22, 2007. She was 39 weeks and 4 days in my womb. Saying goodbye to her has been the heartbreak of my life. Many of my posts on this blog have been about grieving her loss.

Morrow is our third child, born in 2008 (11 months to the day after his sister was born). Having 2 babies in 1 year was killer, but this kid has been the beam of sunshine our family wanted and needed. He loves to jump and play ball and melt hearts nationwide.

Photos: Danielle Hartland

AND…on August 2, 2010, we welcomed Cadence Felicity Piper and Whitsun Robert Piper to our family!

5. I’m a child sponsor. Hector is our extended family member, and he lives in El Salvador. Our family has chosen to sponsor him through Compassion International. I had a chance to meet him in November 2009, on a Compassion Bloggers trip, and it was amazing. Part of what I did on the trip was blog! I’d love for you to read the posts from that trip, and think about child sponsorship through Compassion. It’s life-changing.

Photo: Keely Scott

6. I’m a knitter. My favorite things to knit are socks, but I like everything else too. Baby knitting is great for the faster gratification. True confession: I’ve been knitting for years and I’ve never knit a blanket (too much commitment and too boring)!

I invite you to read along with our family’s highs and lows, our joys and our sorrows. You can join the adventure by subscribing to the RSS feed, or by email subscription. You can also follow me on Twitter!

Thanks for reading!