I hope you had a good weekend. I found out some exciting news for Mom 2 Mom Connection blog readers yesterday — we’ve made it as a finalist in the 2005 Weblog Awards! Our category is “Best Blog Design.” So, if you like my design, could you please vote for me? You can VOTE HERE at the Weblog Awards site. The voting goes until December 15, and you’re allowed to vote once a day. I don’t know all that many people, so I’m hoping my husband will remember to vote for me — and then I might get at least two votes a day!

I also found out that Mind & Media is a finalist in the Best Business category — Stacy Harp says “we’re like a David against a lot of Goliaths.” Please cast your vote for Mind & Media because Stacy started this business to help Christian authors publicize their books in the blogosphere, and she’s doing a great job.

Other Mind & Media reviewers who are finalists: Matt Anderson’s Mere-Orthodoxy and Jay Adkins’ blog in the Best Religious Blog category; Catez Stevens in the Best Australia or New Zealand category; Charmaine Yoest in the Top 501-1000; and our favorite political blogger, La Shawn Barber in the Best Conservative Blog category. All of these blogs stand for something I believe in, so they’re getting my vote every day — and hopefully yours too!

I encourage you to browse through the other finalists. This international award is a great way to introduce blogs to new readers. There were over 3,000 nominations this year for 37 different categories, and a committee narrowed it down to 15 finalists. I’ve already discovered some wonderful blogs I’d never heard of! The awards are hosted by Kevin Aylward of Wizbang.

Onto other news…

This is the week — FOUR MORE DAYS until “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” Have you gotten your tickets yet?

If there’s any way possible, I encourage you to listen to Focus on the Family’s broadcast TODAY, Entering the World of Narnia Through Film. I just heard it a few minutes ago, and it was fantastic. I can hardly type these words fast enough, I’m so excited to tell you about it!

Dr. James Dobson interviewed author Kurt Bruner, who wrote the book, Finding God in the Land of Narnia, as well as Michael Flaherty, who is the cofounder and president of Walden Media. I had never heard the background of how Walden Media was formed — but its sole purpose is to find great BOOKS to adapt them to film. Bob Waliszewski was also a guest on this program — he’s the senior director of Focus on the Family’s teen ministries’ dept. and reviews movies for Focus’ website, Plugged In, as well as on the radio.

I did not take notes because the radio broadcast came on at 5 am, and I listened to it in the dark — but everyone is saying this movie is going to be even more far-reaching than “The Passion.” They said Lewis has created a world in which he can share the principles of Christianity in a fresh way that captivates. It’s best to first experience Narnia through books, but Focus on the Family also produced a wonderful radio broadcast that you can listen to. One of the interviewees said they were listening to it on a long car trip, and during the Stone Table scene, his child shouted from that backseat, “THAT’S JUST LIKE JESUS!”

The big shocking news for me is that parents are cautioned it’s got some very scary scenes in it, and it’s not recommended for children under age nine. Nine! What are we going to do? We’ve all been talking about it so much — how can we NOT take our younger ones? Does anybody have any advice for me? They said it may cause nightmares — the White Witch is truly horrendous during the Stone Table scene.

So, please — if you have time — listen to the broadcast! And when you’re on Focus on the Family’s website — you can see lots of other related articles and links.

Here’s a good article from today’s LA Times about the Denver-based millionaire, Philip Anschutz, who’s backed this movie with half its $180 million budget. If all goes well at the box office, Prince Caspian is rumored to be next…in Dec. 2007.

The countdown to Narnia continues…