jonandnic dot com's newest new look

If the last design for the site was a monument to everything we worked to pull off this year, then this design should have equal weight. Sometimes its difficult to understand why God does or allows certain things in our lives. Even when the clarity of hindsight is available, I doubt we fully understand the intricacies of God’s plan. So sometimes its best just to shut-up and obey the best you can, and trust that He knows what He’s doing.
We’re still not totally sure what He’s doing — or what He wants from us right now. But the picture is starting to come together. Plus, I finally found a 3-column layout that didn’t look like poo!
This design can be found here, with a few modifications. And it allows a couple features I’ve been itching to try:

  • The banner image in the top right corner is a rotater. Meaning, every visit to the site it will pick a different picture to show you. Right now there’s only 4 possibilities, but we’ll pop in some more of our favorite shots of the kids as we collect them.
  • The double-column sidebar allows me to put a lot more in there. I’ve pretty much got it back up to where it was before, and I’m not sure what else I’ll be doing with it, but it sure is nice to have the room!
  • The “sideblog” which is a bit of a hack by the designer, nonetheless is a nice feature, where I can keep a more thematic and semi-permanent ramble. I’ll change this on a weekly, monthly, or whenever-I-see-fit basis, and hopefully help set an over-all mood for what I’m blogging about at the time. When I change it, I’ll try to post it into a normal entry to allow it a historical presence.

Let me know if you like it/hate it/have any suggestions to improve!