This month’s group writing project was based around the theme of “Motherhood to me.” We had eight beautiful entries that cover a wide range of motherhood (and future motherhood) experiences:

• Lessons from my Children by Elisa Allan
• My Little 3 Year Old by An Ordinary Mom
• Motherhood to me by Jordan (MamaBlogga)
• Sing it, Perry by Lindsey
• Motherhood and Me by Danyelle Ferguson
• Motherhood to Me by Shelly Brown
• Motherhood to Me by Brooke Anderson — that’s my sister!
• Dear Kids by Erin — that’s also my sister!

All of these great entries explore motherhood in brilliant ways. I’ve found them all inspiring, and I hope you’ll read and comment on them too! (I’m a little behind in commenting, but I’m hoping to get to it today.)

Now, feel free (but, of course, not compelled) to spread the link love by copying the above list (instructions) and posting it to your own blog.

The Winna!
Chosen at random, the winner of our prize, a $30 Amazon.com gift certificate, is <drum roll>…

Motherhood to Me by Shelly Brown

Congratulations, Shelly, and thanks to everyone who participated!

So far, we’ve got three great entries:

• Lessons from my Children by Elisa Allan
• My Little 3 Year Old by An Ordinary Mom
• Motherhood to me by Jordan (MamaBlogga)

Read, comment—and join in!

Oh, wait. I think I wanted to tell you it was time for a MamaBlogga Group Writing Project! As I posted yesterday, the theme for the October Group Writing Project is “Motherhood to me.”

As always, feel free to go in any direction that appeals to you. Even if you don’t choose to participate, you can encourage others to participate!

• Although the inspiration post is a fantastic essay-in-list-form, your post can take any form as long as it reflects this theme—this includes anything from serious to sarcastic, about your children, your future children, your pet, etc.
• You can participate with a blog post, a podcast, a video, a page on your website, etc., etc. If you don’t have a website, contact me and I’ll be happy to publish your entry here on MamaBlogga.
• Only NEW posts (i.e., posts have not been published prior to 10 October 2011) are eligible. Posts must be submitted through the submission form before Sunday, 16 October 2011.

Why participate?
There are lots of reasons to participate! All entries that meet the guidelines will be listed and linked to here on MamaBlogga. This an opportunity for you to discover new blogs (and for others to discover yours!). Also, see how you can get the most out of the GWP.

And, of course, there is one more incentive: one lucky post author, drawn at random, will receive a $30 gift certificate to Amazon.com (to be announced Monday, 17 October 2011).

Finally, we’d appreciate it if you linked to this post or to the guidelines/submission form on your entry post so that others can learn about the project and participate.

Get the badge!
Copy and paste this code to get the MamaBlogga GWP badge above (it includes a link back here, but I’d still appreciate a text link, too).

<a href="http://www.mamablogga.com/blogoversary-group-writing-project/"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3513/3809317958_29e3f156e4_m.jpg" alt="MamaBlogga Group Writing Project" title="MamaBlogga Group Writing Project" /></a>

Previous Group Writing Projects:

• May 2007: Dear Children
• June 2007: Three things I want my kids to . . .
• July 2007: Thanks, Mom
• September 2007: Motherhood is . . .
• October 2007: The best things about this age
• November 2007: I’m grateful for my child(ren) because . . .
• December 2007: The best time of the year
• January 2008: Me time
• March/April 2008: Savoring the season
• August 2008: The new normal
• January/February 2009: Choosing happiness
• August 2009: Before I was a mom
• October 2010: Feeling fulfilled
• July 2011: Five years from now

• …I will be nine years old. by Esmé Maritz
• Five years from now by Jordan (MamaBlogga)
• How to Get Over a Broken Heart by Kate
• 5 years by Elisa Allan
• Five. Years. by Lindsey

The winna!
Chosen at random, the winner of our prize, a $30 Amazon.com gift certificate, is <drum roll>…

…I will be nine years old. by Esmé Maritz

Congratulations! The gift certificate is winging its way to you (well, your mom) from Amazon right now!

What do you think? Should we bring back the Group Writing Project? If you want to participate but didn’t this time, what do you need from me to help you?

• …I will be nine years old. by Esmé Maritz
• Five years from now by Jordan (MamaBlogga)
• How to Get Over a Broken Heart by Kate
• 5 years by Elisa Allan
• Five. Years. by Lindsey

And remember, one lucky winner, chosen at random, will receive a $30 Amazon gift card!

As always, feel free to go in any direction that appeals to you. Even if you don’t choose to participate, you can encourage others to participate!

• Your post can take any form as long as it reflects this theme—this includes anything from serious to sarcastic, about your children, your future children, your pet, etc.
• You can participate with a blog post, a podcast, a video, a page on your website, etc., etc. If you don’t have a website, contact me and I’ll be happy to publish your entry here on MamaBlogga.
• Only NEW posts (i.e., posts have not been published prior to 15 July 2011) are eligible. Posts must be submitted through the submission form before Saturday, 23 July 2011.

Why participate?
There are lots of reasons to participate! All entries that meet the guidelines will be listed and linked to here on MamaBlogga. This an opportunity for you to discover new blogs (and for others to discover yours!). Also, see how you can get the most out of the GWP.

And, of course, there is one more incentive: one lucky post author, drawn at random, will receive a $30 gift certificate to Amazon.com (to be announced Monday, 25 July 2011).

Finally, we’d appreciate it if you linked to this post or to the guidelines/submission form on your entry post so that others can learn about the project and participate.

Get the badge!
Copy and paste this code to get the MamaBlogga GWP badge above (it includes a link back here, but I’d still appreciate a text link, too).

<a href="http://www.mamablogga.com/blogoversary-group-writing-project/"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3513/3809317958_29e3f156e4_m.jpg" alt="MamaBlogga Group Writing Project" title="MamaBlogga Group Writing Project" /></a>

Previous Group Writing Projects:

• May 2007: Dear Children
• June 2007: Three things I want my kids to . . .
• July 2007: Thanks, Mom
• September 2007: Motherhood is . . .
• October 2007: The best things about this age
• November 2007: I’m grateful for my child(ren) because . . .
• December 2007: The best time of the year
• January 2008: Me time
• March/April 2008: Savoring the season
• August 2008: The new normal
• January/February 2009: Choosing happiness
• August 2009: Before I was a mom
• October 2010: Feeling fulfilled

Remember, to enter, all you have to do is blog or post about Feeling Fulfilled Fridays by doing any one of these things:

• A blog post on things that make you feel accomplished (especially as a mother)
• Your full “feeling accomplished” list
• A Feeling Fulfilled Friday report
• Spread the word about FFF or the GWP on Twitter, Facebook or another social network (your privacy settings must be such that I can see the post so I can count it!)

Each post is an entry into the random drawing for the prize—but you must use the form to submit each entry (it’s too easy for me to miss them otherwise!).

That’s right, you can have multiple entries!

The Prize
A $30 Amazon gift card.

(If we get a lot of entries, I’ll give away more than one gift card!)

So hurry and enter!

1. Make a list of things that make you feel accomplished (but aren’t so huge that they take more than a day or a week)
2. During the week, try to focus on those things that help us feel accomplished
3. Report on feeling fulfilled Friday and enter the GWP to win an Amazon gift card!

Ugh. I’m flattened by a rough cold.

But we’ve had some good days this week. I’ve done pretty well on making healthy dinners (until tonight), and when my in-laws were here, we watched almost no TV (and they made me take a nap because I was sick, woot!). And I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and Catching Fire this week—two good books. AND I worked on school stuff with the kids at least a little.

AND I need to go lay back down.

How has your week been? How is your list coming?

1. Make a list of things that make you feel accomplished (but aren’t so huge that they take more than a day or a week)
2. During the week, try to focus on those things that help us feel accomplished
3. Report on feeling fulfilled Friday
4. Post on your blog and submit on the form for a chance to win an Amazon gift card in the GWP this month!

My week: this week we started a home-preschool co-op with a couple other families in our neighborhood. Rebecca’s still a little young for the class, but we’ve been working on the lessons at home. In fact, there’s even a curriculum for Rachel (who turned four months on Tuesday!). Her curriculum involves reading her a story, scriptures and a poem, listening to Mozart, playing games (this week, little piggies) and nursery rhymes.

For Rebecca and Hayden, they learn letters, numbers, shapes, colors and a little vocabulary. Hayden is excelling so far—for the first time, he’s really eager to write the letter A all by himself. Rebecca, on the other hand, enjoys spending time together, but of course a lot of the lessons don’t “stick.” She’s only two, though; I don’t expect her to learn everything.

Teaching the kids something new is on my accomplishment list—but, notably, their learning something is not. When I made my list, I thought of a lot more things than what I put on there. It’s hard not to feel accomplished when the kids are angels, do whatever I want, and prove that they are the geniuses I’m convinced they are. And of course it’s okay to have those things on your list—it’s your list. For me, though,those things are out of my control, and feeling accomplished—and fulfilled—is too important to leave up to the mercy of my children’s whims.

What do you think? Would/did you include things that are out of your control on your accomplishment list?

And don’t forget: Post about your FFF and enter to win!

I hope that as I focus on these simple things, I’ll be able to build on that sense of accomplishment and at the end of the day, I’ll be able to look back and see that I did something.

So here’s my list!

• Read scriptures with the kids.
• Exercise.
• Make a healthy dinner and serve it before 7 PM.
• Play with the kids.
• Remain patient.
• Recording precious moments.
• Do laundry promptly.
• Teach the kids something new.
• Finish a good book.
• Reach other stories to the kids.
• Have a clean house.
• Enforce rules (or chores).
• Publish a good blog post.
• Go out with the kids, especially for something fun for them.
• Defuse or anticipate tantrums.

What makes you feel super accomplished? Blog your list for an entry in the October Group Writing Project!