Month: July 2011

Categories
Contests

Totally Together Giveaway!

Please join the Five Years From Now Group Writing Project!

Our giveaway this week is a new book designed to help moms get it Totally Together. Subtitled “Shortcuts to an Organized Life,” Totally Together is part homecleaning system, part organizer.

The Amazon page describes it this way:

From a New York Times bestselling author, a planner and organizing system to help women conquer chaos.

This book combines a practical planner with a smart system for women who are feeling frenzied (that is, most of them!). With sets of daily, weekly, monthly, and season to-dos, Totally Together lets women manage their priorities and prevent molehills from turning into mountains.

From keeping the household in order to keeping the in-box clear, this valuable, attractive volume helps women maintain their balance in today’s crazed world.

The first forty or so pages of this little spiral-bound book cover tips for streamlining house cleaning, getting kids involved in chores, and planning for the holidays (and for real, we’re talking starting 8 months out). Some of the advice is fairly standard fare, but personally, I’m really excited to have a calendar-based system written out for me (the other 100+ pages of the book) to make sure the whole house gets cleaned and runs smoothly.

Since I read my [Disclosure] free review copy yesterday, I’ve been working to start implementing the seven habits Ms O’Dea lists as the chores to do every day. It’s not a lot of work, and it can make a big difference—I should know since a few of them are things I’ve been working on for a while (doing a load of laundry a day, timed cleanup sessions). Right now I’m sitting in a 98% clean family room—and it feels good.

I’m excited to start this program soon!

Would you like a copy of Totally Together? Comment below to enter!

For additional entries:

  • Follow this blog (see the sidebar) and leave a comment saying you did.
  • Tweet about this post and leave a comment saying you did with a link to the Tweet itself.
  • Mention this contest on your blog or Facebook and leave a comment saying you did with a link to the FB or blog post.

Entries (aka comments) must be received by midnight on Saturday, July 23, 2011. Winner to be announced Monday, July 25, 2011.

Giveaway open to residents of the US and Canada only.

Categories
Kids/Parenting MetaBlogging Fulfillment

Five years from now

It’s hard to imagine my life five years from now. Five years ago, I’d been married for two years, I was one year out of school, I had one little baby, I worked from home in Internet marketing and I started a blog.

Now I’ve been married for almost seven years, and we have three kids. I’m still blogging, though I have to admit I’ve really dropped off from time to time. I blogged professionally for a long time writing about Internet marketing news and became something of an expert, but for the last year I’ve been able to just focus on my family. I’ve begun writing fiction again, after a long break starting in college. I’ve started a writing craft blog by myself and a craft blog with my sisters. I think I’ve had several more blog ideas come and go in the mean time, but so far these are sticking.

The reason I started this blog was to help me appreciate motherhood more, to help myself and others find fulfillment in a calling I believe to be the most important thing I could do with my life right now—but which was also alternately boring and overwhelming. I wanted to be able to help other mothers feel good about a choice to stay home with their children, even though it can be long stretches of dull, hard work between the few glittering moments.

Sometimes my personal journey goes well, and sometimes it’s still rough. I think if you’d asked me five years ago, I would have told you I’d have everything figured out by now—but I think learning to be happy and grateful and content and fulfilled is a lifetime endeavor, and even if I have to take two steps forward and one step back, even if I can’t see the progress a lot of the time, even if I still struggle, as long as I keep these efforts in mind, rely on my MamaBlogga Group Writing Projectfaith and don’t let myself get too discouraged, I’ll make it—maybe not in the next five years, but I’ll be closer every day I make the effort.

My entry in the Five Years From Now Group Writing Project

What do you think? Where will you be in five years? Share your entry in the GWP today!

Categories
Contests

God Gave Us You Giveaway Winner!

The winner of the God Gave Us You giveaway is . . .

Elisa!

Make sure I have your address and I’ll get that in the mail!

Thanks to everyone entered.

Categories
Contests

Blogoversary Group Writing Project

It’s been waaaay too long, and the Fifth Blogoversaryfestathon wouldn’t be complete without one—a MamaBlogga Group Writing Project! Five years ago I started this blog, so the theme for the August Group Writing Project is “Five years from now.”

MamaBlogga Group Writing Project badgeAs 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:

Categories
Kids/Parenting

Welcome to Chez Beck

The winner of the Tom & Drew Boys Giveaway is An Ordinary Mom! Send me your address and I’ll pass it along!

Rebecca loves imagination play. She’s pretended to be Sully from Monsters, Inc. (“Suwwy”), Buzz Lightyear, and Bolt. (No idea why she tends to pick male main characters.) But lately her play has centered around “my west’aunt!” Chez Beck is set up in Hayden’s room (where Rebecca sleeps until Rachel’s ready to share a room). She’s taken to very carefully laying out each and every kitchen toy she has. But on Sunday she developed a new innovation in restaurateurism:


That would be tables.

What kind of fun pretend games do (or did) your kids like?

Categories
Faith Contests

God Gave Us You Giveaway

That sounds terrible, doesn’t it??

The Fifth Blogoversaryfestathon continues! WaterBrook Press sent me a review copy of God Gave Us You, and I’m going to pass it along to one lucky winner (even though I really don’t want to).

God Gave Us You is a really cute book to help teach a young child about where they come from. Obviously, it comes from a religious perspective, but it’s not wedded to any particular religion. (It does teach that children were with God before they came to Earth.)

It explains how the child in the story (Little Cub, a polar bear cub) grew in his mother’s tummy and was born in the hospital (no more details than that). It’s a sweet story and a good way to give a small child a simple explanation to the question “Where did I come from?”

I’ve heard they have a similar book to help explain a new sibling, called God Gave Us Two.

Would you like a copy of God Gave Us You? Comment below to enter!

For additional entries:

  • Follow this blog (see the sidebar) and leave a comment saying you did.
  • Tweet about this post and leave a comment saying you did with a link to the Tweet itself.
  • Mention this contest on your blog or Facebook and leave a comment saying you did with a link to the FB or blog post.

Entries (aka comments) must be received by midnight on Friday, July 15, 2011. Winner to be announced Monday, July 18, 2011.

It’s also the last day to enter the Tom & Drew Boys giveaway!