I want to post this announcement about a new writing contest that is going on now at Christian Women Online. There are some great prizes offered, and this is a wonderful excuse to write something to give your mom for Mother’s Day. (Can you imagine how you’d feel if your own daughter grew up to write about you in a contest?)

Note: The deadline is April 14!

From the CWO website:

Christian Women Online in conjunction with Art Bookbindery is sponsoring the “Her Life Reflected,” writing contest. We are looking for stories that illustrate how your mother, or a mother that you know has reflected the heart of God in her life.

Our panel of judges will choose only one winner, and that winner’s name will be published along with her essay in the May 2007 issue of Christian Women Online–just in time for Mother’s Day.

Eligibility

The contest is open to women aged 18 years and older, who reside in Canada or the United States. Employees of Art Bookbindery and their immediate families are not eligible to enter.

Entries must be submitted in Microsoft Word format via email by 11:59 pm central time April 14, 2007.

Prize Package

* $200.00 U.S. from Art Bookbindery
* A photo of Candace Cameron Bure, star of the hit TV series “Full House,” autographed to the winner
* An autographed copy of Barbara Cameron’s book, A Full House of Growing Pains.
* Two autographed copies of Darlene Schacht’s humorous book The Mom Complex ~ one for you, and one for Mom!
* A copy of Yvonne Parks music CD “Only One Love”
* One web page design or blog design (Blogspot only) by Yvonne Parks Design
* A selection of the following books from Allison Bottke:
A Stitch in Time (fiction)
I Can’t Do it All (non-fiction)
God Allows U-Turns for Women (anthology)
God Allows U-Turns for Teens (anthology)

Click here to read the Official Guidelines. There is no entry fee.

I’m always nostalgic for Japan on March 3rd because I truly can’t believe God has blessed me as the mother of three daughters. If I lived in Japan, we’d have a specific area devoted in our home to display these dolls — and we’d be eating special food and having a party!

I would love to hear from any Japanese readers about what you do to celebrate the Japanese Doll Festival in your hometown.

A few minutes ago, a girl named Chikako posted this on her Myspace blog, with an adorable picture of some Japanese paper dolls:

It’s March 3rd. Today is Girl’s Day called Hina-matsuri in Japan. It is also called Peach Festival or Doll’s Day.

It’s not a national holiday, but we celebrate with decollating traditional Japanese dolls called Hina-ningyo. But only family which has girls.

We eat special rice cracker called Hina-arare, 3 colours mochi, Chirashi-zushi and drink white sake. Recently, we eat Hima-matsuri cake.

My mom decollated Hina-ningyo when my sister and I were little girls, but not now. We had small Hina-matsuri party tonight. We had nice yakiniku for dinner!

The picture is paper Hina-ningyo decollated in Taketa. The town are having Hima-matsuri festival until March 18th. We can also see traditional dolls.

Kawaii … Natsukashi, ne! 😉

If you have a daughter, give her an extra-special hug today. She’s worthy of celebrating!!!

There are so many things going on in bloggityville. I just checked over at the 5 Minutes for Mom Ultimate Blog Party, and there are over 430 blogs signed up. Wow! That’s a lot of people. The party will go through Friday — so you’re still invited to join in the fun.

The new issue of Christian Women Online is out this month — so you’re probably seeing this cover picture of Ellie Kay on people’s blogs. I hope you’ll find a chance to go read my interview with her. My Book Buzz column focused on Ellie’s new book, 1/2 Price Living, published by Moody. She’s known as “America’s Family Financial Expert.” And she’s a mom of seven children who also skydives! She has some great tips on how to live on one income — and why it’s worth it.

I browsed through the whole issue last night — and every article and column was so inspiring. I especially enjoyed Allison Bottke’s Boomer Babes Rock column this month, entitled Seven Things You Can Do Today to Start Living Your Dreams. She shares about a big risk she took recently and what she learned from it. Allison is someone who inspires me because she says she didn’t publish her first book until she was 45 years old. But within six years, she’s become the bestselling author of over 20 books — the God Allows U-Turns series, as well as other non-fiction books and two novels (one not yet released). I read Allison’s A Stitch in Time novel, and she’s a fabulous, funny writer! The theme of her column is “It’s never too late!” I love this. Don’t you?

Other things going on:

I joined in the Carnival of Christian Writers last Monday at Gina Conroy’s Writer … Interrupted site. There are submissions from several authors and two literary agents who acquire books in the CBA. Every one of these posts is rich with information — but I must say that Chip MacGregor’s post on Ten Changes in Christian Publishing is truly fascinating.

I wanted to thank author Jenn Doucette for sharing about me and my book on her blog. Out of all the blog tours I’ve given, she’s the first person who has ever taken the time to write a post about each one of her tour hosts. How nice! I like hosting blog tours — but it does take up time to upload the right-size author photo and book cover — as well as devote a day to it. So this was much, much appreciated!

Tricia Goyer is one of the most prolific writers I know — and she somehow manages to keep up with at least a half-dozen of her own blogs. She recently posted an article from me, Six Tips for Building a Savvy Blog Readership on her It’s Real Life blog. This stemmed from something I’d posted to an online group, giving me a chance to expound a little bit on one of my pet peeves — I find it unnerving when someone I barely know writes and asks me to link to them! I link to other bloggers when I’ve gotten to know them or I really like something specific they’ve written. Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks this way, because there’s some more about this at Shannon and Chilihead’s Blogging Basics 101 site, which is packed with useful information.

I also want to thank Bethany House publishers for including my interview with C. Hope Flinchbaugh on the front page of their site this month. They have a section entitled Authors in the Media, which I think is a great way to interact with readers. I don’t know many publishers who do this — but check out the left side of their home page. The Bethany House site is always fresh with updates — a bonus for their authors!

And last but not least, I wanted to thank author Sharon Hinck for linking to me in her Around the World Blog Tour. This is one of the most fun tours I’ve given — and it’s no wonder Sharon’s novels have become so popular (besides the fact that Becky Miller is an inspiring, funny character) — she treats us little people like we matter. I thought it was neat that she had a “travel agent” set up her tour. I’ve never heard this expression before (in the context of blog tours) — but I thought it was a nice way of thanking an assistant who took care of all the correspondence required to set this up.

I think I’m caught up now — this is what happens when I take off a week!

[Edit: I’m adding some ice cream to this post because I had no idea how many people would be stopping in from the party. By the way, welcome! I’m Heather, and I love blogging about books! Care for some strawberry ice cream?]

You Are Strawberry Ice Cream

A bit shy and sensitive, you are sweet to the core. You often find yourself on the outside looking in. Insightful and pensive, you really understand how the world works. You are most compatible with chocolate chip ice cream.

I’m BACK!

How was your week? I can’t believe I took a whole week off from blogging. Well, here’s a good excuse to come back — there’s a humongous Ultimate Blog Party going on over at Janice and Susan’s 5 Minutes for Mom blog.

Adorable — they even decorated their home for the party with balloons and streamers, made party food, and dressed up their kids.

Here’s what you do if you want to join in the fun and be eligible to win FREE PRIZES. (Don’t we all love free things?)

You just write a post on your blog with a link back to the party, then add your name to the “Mr. Linky” set up on their site. And voila! You’re a party guest! Grab a grilled cheese sandwich and rock on.

Do any of you have a decluttering success story this week? As promised in my last post, I want to give somebody this free book — Too Much Stuff, by Kathryn Porter. Thank you to all of you who bravely shared your decluttering goals — I feel like we have a support group!

Mary of Relevant Blog, who has moved across the Atlantic twice in the past few years, says she’s a “decluttering fanatic,” but would like to get rid of some extra cups. She even has a great article online with In Touch Ministries full of tips for us stubborn packrats.

Deb of Mountain Musings is working on clearing out a space by a window in her bedroom to move a recliner so she can relax and get some reading/craft projects done. Sounds lovely!

Tonya of Raising Eagles is working on decluttering her study/office, which also must serve as an attic and storage room. She says, “I am confident that the Lord will help me … as He always does.” How encouraging!

Elle of Fall on the Grace is also in a decluttering mode, trying to pare down the abundance of children’s toys, which have been overflowing since Christmas. (I can definitely relate!)

Heather of Cool Zebras says she has been inspired by watching “Mission Organization” at her parents’ house. YEA! My mom is always telling me about the latest extreme organization makeovers on this show. I need to watch it too!

Liza of Liza’s Eyeview says the main area she wants to start with is the garage. Me too! Thanks for the support — it is NO FUN cleaning out a garage. We don’t even park our cars in ours right now because there’s a tractor and kids’ bikes and toys filling up all the space — but we need to do something about this!

Lisa asks us to “please pray” for her as she gets rid of clutter. She has found true joy in leading a preschool faith-based workshop and wants to keep going with this. She says, “Good luck to all of you with overwhelming emotions that literally seem to stack up around you!” So true! — our emotions are stacked up around us. What does this mean if we can get a handle on our clutter? Will we have a better handle on our emotions? (Praying for ya, Lisa!)

Connie is hoping to restore some order to her computer shelves and clean out some boxes in the basement from eight years’ worth of school teaching. Sounds like a great place for an educational yard sale! I’m sure there are many families who would be thrilled with a teacher’s cleanout!

Ruth of “It’s True,” Sighed Roo is also working on her office area. She’s been busy road-tripping to the beach, building up some great memories for her family!

Cmommy of Singalullaby says her goal is to “let it go,” when figuring out what to do with paperwork. Yes! This is also a problem I have — I think I’d better hang on to things, just in case. I also need to let it go!

OK … Drumroll please!

I put all of your names in a basket, and the name I drew to win the FREE book is…

CONNIE!

Congratulations, Connie! I’ll email you to get your snail mail address and get this book sent to you ASAP. And what a coincidence — we’ll both be down in our basements getting rid of clutter. YEA!

Well, I do not have a total success story from my decluttering goals this past week. I did clean out one kitchen cabinet — but I haven’t reorganized the craft supplies yet. I also spent several hours in the basement, and I took one trunkload of much-worn and beloved baby clothes to the Salvation Army. I was almost in tears when I handed the workers my boxes. It was like handing them a decade of my life!

But I felt better — FREE — as I drove away. I know I still have a long way to go, but in clearing out the past, I’m making room for the future (sounds corny, I know).

Here’s a quote from Kathryn Porter’s book, Too Much Stuff:

“With every piece of clutter that went out the door, I lost pounds of emotional weight. My soul felt lighter. Whatever feelings of comfort or happiness I derived from having too much stuff were multiplied by letting things go. I came to understand a new definition of the word freedom. My heart sensed God’s presence like never before. And I experienced a peace and clarity previously unknown to me” (from page 18).

Kathryn writes that her friends who came over to help her said this, “You can’t keep everything and keep a clean house.” This phrase became a mantra, something Kathryn repeated as she let go of the clutter that was robbing her of peace and joy.

You can’t keep everything and keep a clean house. (It has a nice rhythm, doesn’t it?)

Say this, as you give away your abundance to others. (And to the trash can!)

I know Connie will enjoy this book! I wish I could send one to all of you — it really is the best book I’ve read on this topic. So many books focus on the organizing itself — but this one goes to the heart of the matter, teaching you how to draw strength and power from God, through prayer.

Although I love FlyLady and her routines dearly, I think Kathryn’s book teaches us the spiritual principles we need to accomplish our goals — relying on PRAYER and God’s Word as the source of our emotional decluttering — which leads to freedom in the physical sense!

Well, I have a ton more things I need to catch up on since I’ve been “absent” for a week — but I’ll spread some linky love tomorrow (there’s been a ton going on in bloggityville that I’ve been wanting to tell you about).

Also! For a couple of days, I thought maybe I should quit blogging to make more time in my schedule for other things — but then I checked the mail one day, and I got a package from Taiwan full of treats for my family! From a blogging friend! I want to write a separate post about this — but let’s just say the timing could not have been more perfect because my kids thought this was the coolest thing ever.

One more thing happened relating to this — a Christian author wrote me yesterday wanting to know if I could help with some research for a book she was working on. Well, the book topic is not something I’m too familiar with, but I wrote her back and said one of you bloggee people has a total passion for this topic! So this author contacted the blogger I mentioned — and GUESS WHAT? They’re a perfect match. She wrote back and said in all-caps, “You ROCK!”

So I can’t quit. Because it’s fun to feel used by God to connect women to resources they need. Anyway! Thus the name, “Mom 2 Mom,” although I certainly don’t want to limit this to only moms.

I hope you have a great weekend — and don’t forget to head on over to the Ultimate Blog Party!