Well, I’ve gotten behind on all things bloggy, so I missed reading about Shannon’s Works-for-Me-Wednesday Birthday Edition, which was … um … last Wednesday. But since she still has her Mr. Linky up, I’ll send my tip in late.

With five children, we host a LOT of birthday parties around here. I really love entertaining kids, yet I’m not a Martha Stewart, and we don’t have a big budget for these things. What I enjoy most is getting to know the mothers of my kids’ friends. And a birthday party is an easy excuse to get people together.

The best kind of party for me is a laid-back affair where the kids run around and play outside and the parents sit around talking. I’ve discovered the easiest time to host a birthday party — for our family, at least — is on a weekday.

When my oldest children were toddlers, I usually liked a weekday party from 11 to 1. Since all of my close friends at the time were fellow SAHMs, it was pretty much like a play group, except I provided PB&J sandwiches and cake. The moms talked, the kids played. Then everybody went home and took naps. Easy.

As my kids have gotten older, we’ve opted for the 4 to 5:30 pm time slot, preferably on a Friday. That way, some of the moms who work can still attend if they can get off early. Moms with school-age kids can pick up their kids at school, swing by Wal-Mart and stuff something into a gift bag (don’t you do that?), then come over.

The reason why I like weekday parties is that there’s so much more hype and expense involved with big weekend bashes. This also leads to more stress for me — because I feel like people expect more on the weekend. Plus, I’m interrupting their Saturday afternoon plans.

Some years, I haven’t felt like hosting at my house, so we’ve had them at parks with a playground. Most of the parks have a covered pavilion, in case of rain.

For my son who has a July birthday, we’ve done a few evening cookouts, when the sun has gone down a bit. I guess our favorite one so far was a pirate party, where my husband led the kids down to the creek to search for “hidden treasure.” (We hid a cooler full of party favors and let them “follow the map” to find it.)

Yesterday, we worked on making invitations for my daughter’s 7th birthday. She asked if she could invite her whole first grade class over, including her teacher. OK. She only has 13 in her class, so I can handle this. We were going to do a tea party, but since the boys are coming too, we’ll just do a “backyard fun” party. Swingset, sandbox, frisbees, nerf footballs … maybe I’ll invest in some bubbles. And that’s it.

I really love birthday parties. Some parents have the budgets to go all out and invite entertainment and do the whole nine yards, but we keep things simple. I also prefer to invite the whole family; that way I get to know the siblings, and I can see who has kids the same age as mine. (Older siblings are great help for organizing games!)

There is really only a small window of time when your kids will want to do these kinds of parties. I remember growing up, that as I got older, I wanted to invite only a couple of friends and maybe go out to eat instead of having a party.

When we homeschooled, we often squeezed in a lunchtime birthday party, then the moms could go back home and finish the schoolday. Now I try to work around traditional school hours.

My kids get so excited about making the invitations and stuffing goody bags (though at times, we’ve just handed out bubbles or balls for party favors). This summer, we’re hoping it will work out to host a rocket-themed party, and we’ll let the kids make rockets and shoot them off in our backyard.

I’ve also learned it’s best to go ahead and buy thank-you notes along with the invitations — and get them done AS SOON AS POSSIBLE after the party. I confess, some years are just crazier than others, and we haven’t always gotten thank-you notes written, but we do try.

This works for us!

Mary DeMuth tagged me for a blog meme, 8 Random Facts About Me. Hey, you’ll have to go check out her list and see the cover of her mom’s devotional book in KOREAN! Mary, I hope your dream will come true of leading praise & worship someday — you should do it!

Here’s how you play:

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.

2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.

3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.

4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

OK, here goes:

1. My favorite snack is this Atkins’ Protein Bar. It tastes like a chocolate candy bar — yet it’s got enough protein to prevent that sugar high-low thing that makes me crash.

2. We have six chickens right now. I could seriously spend all day watching our chickens peck around the backyard. They’re so much fun to watch! Our two-year-old daughter calls them “chich-ens.” And she runs around trying to “catch the chich-ens.” She caught one yesterday and sat down and petted it for about half an hour. Poor chicken!

3. I want to go to Venice someday. I have several paintings of Venice on the walls of my house. I love looking at the canals and boats — I dream of gliding along in a gondola someday with my husband.

4. I’m reading Caddie Woodlawn out loud to my daughters right now, another Newbery winner that I missed reading growing up. It’s by Carol Ryrie Brink, who wrote about her grandmother’s childhood growing up in late 19th-century Wisconsin, told from a first-person point of view. It’s great!

5. I went to the same high school as the actress, Julia Roberts, who was two grades ahead of me. We did NOT have a drama program at our high school — but she was good at making political speeches for school elections.

6. I have trouble motivating myself to exercise, so I’m keeping track of how many miles I walk/jog on the treadmill. I’ve figured out it’s 268 miles to reach one of my favorite beaches (Tybee Island), so I subtract from that number every time I treadmill. My goal was to walk to Tybee by the end of May — then I’d fit into my old bathing suit — HA! It’s looking like I might get there by September, when pool season will be over and I can once again hide in my sweatpants.

7. I just finished reading Tracey Bateman’s novel, Catch a Rising Star, book one in her Drama Queens series. It was funny! If you like to watch soap operas, you’ll love this one.

8. I spent a summer driving a delivery truck in Lake Tahoe, California. I worked in a copy shop and had to deliever flyers and marketing materials to Caesar’s Tahoe. Lake Tahoe has got to be one of the most beautiful places on earth.

That’s my eight. Now I’m supposed to tag eight of you. Hmmm … if you’re interested in this meme, consider yourself tagged — and let us know you’ve blogged it!

I wrote yesterday about discovering Beth Vogt’s article in the new issue of Spirit-Led Writer. Well, that led me to do some nosing around her website, Mommy Come Lately, which is full of wonderful help for mothers who are having children later in life.

Beth writes, “More and more women are embracing motherhood in their mid-thirties and forties. Most Mommies-come-lately agree: A late start at motherhood—or for some women, a restart—enhances your ability to succeed as a mom.”

On her website, there are links to recent news articles as well as a rich library of resources — both online and print — that are of interest to women bearing children later in life.

I learned the term AMA, which means Advanced Maternal Age. Any woman over age 35 bears increased risks during pregnancy, explained more here.

There’s also a photo album full of inspiring pictures of families where the mother gave birth later in age.

Beth’s book topic strikes close to home for me. Our party turned out to be a lot of fun last weekend, and we had several young families over at our house. At one point, I was sitting on my back porch talking to two friends my age, in our late 30s. Both women were considering whether or not to have another baby.

I felt like, from that conversation, perhaps a new life will someday come into the world — because I do hope they’ll try for another baby. We also had a couple, mid-30ish, who are considering adoption — and this is also a topic covered on Beth’s website and in her book, Baby Changes Everything: Embracing and Preparing for Motherhood After 35.

Beth also writes a blog, Mommy Musings.

Since my last child was born when I was 36, I guess I’m part of this Mommy-Come-Lately movement as well. No matter what age you are — or whether you have a child biologically or through adoption — there is no greater gift than being called to raise a new human being in the image of God. Nothing compares to the joys!

If you want to be published, one of the best things you can do to move toward your goals is to attend a writers’ conference.

But for most of us, budget and time constraints prevent our being able to attend as often as we’d like. So, what’s the next best thing to going? Reading conference reports from those who attended! YEA!

This month’s Spirit-Led Writer includes two conference reports that kept me hanging on every word.

In her article, Writing for the Soul: The Sweet Agony, Beth Vogt reports on what it was like to attend her fourth Writing for the Soul conference in Colorado. Beth will have her first book published by Revell this August, entitled Baby Changes Everything: Embracing and Preparing for Motherhood after 35.

Beth wrote:

The list of this year’s conference speakers read like a Who’s Who of Christian writers: Liz Curtis Higgs, Dr. Tim LaHaye, Dr. Dennis Hensley, and James Scott Bell, just to name a few. Editors representing Discipleship Journal, Focus on the Family, MOPS International, as well as Tyndale House Publishers, Guideposts, and Bethany House and others were available for appointments.

She included notes and quotes from attending the different workshops. What an inspiration for those of us armchair traveling attendees!

And Linda Boe wrote a fantastic first-timer’s account of her trip to the Mount Hermon Christian Writer’s Conference in northern California. She was graciously given a scholarship by Cecil Murphey, which allowed her to attend. As a mother of three and grandmother of six, Linda relished every minute of this conference — and her enthusiasm is contagious.

I love reading articles like these! They remind me of all the wonderful reasons to attend Christian writers’ conferences; mainly, the people you meet will encourage you to keep on writing for God’s glory.

And one more thing:
If you’re seeking paying markets for your work, a great place to do some research is to read through the conference website and see what the faculty are looking for. For example, there is a detailed list on the Writing for the Soul website.

A tip from one of these sites might make your query letter stand out — it shows the editor you’re serious when you send them exactly what they’re looking for. Plus, you KNOW this information is current if the conference took place recently.

Have you ever had questions about copyright law?

I found a great chart on this website that shows public domain copyright law. In the U.S., anything published before 1923 is considered public domain. As bloggers, we need to be aware of copyright law and not publish anything that we need permission to publish.

For example, I’ve noticed some bloggers publishing whole poems or devotionals written by other people after 1923. We can’t be doing this — even if we link to it.

We can quote a few lines, if we’re doing it for review purposes, but we can’t just snag someone’s great poem and post it on our site without permission. The author should be compensated (paid) if the work is under copyright — and anything written after 1978 is under copyright automatically.

As writers, this is a risk we take when posting online — anyone can steal your work as well. If you’d like to write a book someday, be careful what you post online. Some publishers don’t want to buy work that’s already been seen online, even if you only have a small blog readership. What if your work has already been cut and pasted on a bunch of other sites? This could lead to legal problems down the road for your publisher — if someone else claims your work as their own.

Book contracts are getting so complicated these days — and many publishers now want to buy electronic rights to your work. Yet how can you offer them electronic rights if your work has already been published online?

I’ve learned a lot of this from more experienced writers in my writing group — and some of them have had to play the meanie when they’ve found other sites cut and pasting their work without permission.

Just be careful. If you’ve got a great story, think about how you’d feel seeing that story show up on another site under someone else’s name. It might be better to save it and send it to a print publication first … where you’ll always have proof that it belongs to you. (For help with writing markets, check out Sally Stuart’s Christian Writers’ Market Guide).

This chart, When U.S. Works Pass Into the Public Domain, was prepared by Lolly Gasaway of the University of North Carolina. If you’re a serious writer, it’s definitely worth your time to educate yourself on copyright law.

If anyone knows a link to a site about Canadian copyright law or other countries, I’d love to learn more about this.

We’re cooking for a crowd this weekend, and I’ve decided to go with a super-easy dish that always seems to turn out okay.

A friend and I are each making two of these casseroles, then I’ve asked everyone else to bring either a side dish, drink, or dessert. We’re hoping this will be a budget-friendly, easy party for everyone.

I’m PRAYING it doesn’t rain — because we’ll have a ton of energetic kids running around!

Here’s the recipe — in case you’re also looking for a simple crowd-pleaser. (I like dishes you can make ahead — since the day of the party I’m usually running around cleaning!)

6 chicken breasts
1 dozen tortillas
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 tall can evaporated milk
1/2 cup butter
1 medium onion
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 tall can mild chili peppers (optional)
Paprika

Cook chicken until tender; cool and tear apart. Saute onion in butter, adding soups, milk, onions, and chilies. Drop tortillas in chicken stock, 2 at a time and soak 2 minutes. Line bottom of greased 9×13 casserole dish, using 6 tortillas. Put layer of chicken and another layer of tortillas and the rest of chicken.

Pour soup mixture over top of all. Lift tortillas lightly to allow mixture to dribble through. Sprinkle with grated cheese, then paprika. Bake at 325 for 45 minutes. (I usually keep covered for 30, then uncovered for 15.) Serves 8.

This goes well with salad, black beans, and bread.

I saw this link from Sallie and couldn’t believe it. I’ve never seen anything like this.

Honestly, I don’t like it at all. There are so many people in the world who would love to read a book — and seeing people cut up books as “art” bothers me.

Plus — what do you DO with these weird papery creations? They’ll just gather dust. I know what FlyLady would say!

What do you think? I’m curious — do these people cut up books as a hobby, or is this a job? Who has time to do things like this? I’d rather read a book than cut one up as art — but that’s just me.

I recently discovered a wonderful site for moms-to-be. It’s called Baby Names Country, started by Veronica and Daniel Russell.

There are few decisions more difficult than choosing a name for your baby, and this site makes it easy to look up thousands of names and their meanings. You can also search for names from different countries.

The Russells started their non-profit website to help honor the memory of their son, Gregory, who died four years ago from a serious illness. “He was just two years old, we loved him very much, and miss him greatly. The pain of loss and memories of him will always live in our hearts.”

They now have an adopted daughter, Caroline, whose name means “Little and Strong.” They hope to help other parents discover the rich meanings of baby names as an aid to picking out the name of their child.

The Russells say, “We hope our site will be helpful to you in finding the perfect name for your baby and the name you choose will bring only happiness for your baby in future.”

I have to add that this site is also helpful for fiction writers who are searching for a character’s name in a story. It’s so easy to browse through the variety of names and meanings on this site. Finding the right name can sometimes fuel an entire plot, as a character learns the meaning of his or her name.

Enjoy Baby Names Country!

With Mother’s Day coming soon, I want to highlight some special moms who reach out to encourage those of us deep in the trenches.

Gina Conroy is an author and mom of four who has a heart for using her gift of writing to build up her peers. According to her website, Gina grew up in a New York Italian family where she says “there was never a lack of drama, love and interesting dialogue.”

At the age of 15, she went to a Wayne Cochran retreat and gave her life to the Lord. She graduated with honor from Oral Roberts University with a degree in Communication Arts. Gina is founder of Writer…Interrupted and writes about her experiences trying to balance it all at Portrait of a Writer…Interrupted. She’s the co-author of Anytime Prayers for Everyday Moms and has also contributed to Reach for Your Dreams Graduate.

Welcome, Gina! Why do you feel it’s important for mothers to pray?

Believe it or not, praying is not an easy thing for me to do. I’m not talking about the quick prayers we moms mutter consistently under our breaths every day. I’m talking about the more concentrated and thoughtful prayers, specific to each child. I’ve always known it’s important to do, but knowing and doing are two different things.

When I wrote Anytime Prayers for Everyday Moms, God met a need in my own life through my own prayers. The topics I was assigned to write about were exactly what I was going through. My prayers flowed naturally from me and ministered to me.

Mothers know their children better than anyone else except God. We know their weaknesses, struggles and strengths. We have a built-in “worry mechanism” that father’s don’t have. We worry, so we pray, and that’s a good thing.

Prayer brings peace and takes care of things in the spiritual realm. Prayer can also change the course of our children’s lives.

Recently I adapted a new rule into my parenting: “Pray before Punishment.” Though I fail daily at my own rule and I’m still trying to break bad habits, it just makes perfect sense. You can’t argue your child into doing right, but you can pray him into it.

Do you have any tips for those of us who need help learning how to pray more effectively?

I’m still learning how to do this. In fact, I recently purchased The Power of a Praying Parent by Stormie Omartian so I can pray more effectively for my children. She offers meaty chapters on why you should pray with comprehensive prayers at the end.

I have that book on my bookshelf — and I love it!

These books are wonderful, but sometimes you need a quick prayer to get you through the moment. That’s when I pick up Anytime Prayers for Everyday Moms and other books like it. I keep one in my bathroom near the kitchen where I homeschool. Then when I’m overwhelmed and need a quick prayer to get me through, I know where to find it. The well- thought-out categories in the table of contents make it easy to find the right prayer.

These prayer books are so helpful because the prayers are written out for you, so when you’re at a loss for words, all you have to do is read them. God doesn’t care if they’re your words or not; if you’re praying them, and they’re from your heart He listens!

What types of prayers are included in your book?

All my prayers start out with a problem, and end in hope.

Some of the prayer I worked on are:

When I’ve Experienced Failure as a Mother
When I need Guidance in Regards to My Child
When I need Hope, Peace, Patience
When I’m too Ambitious Regarding my Child
When I’ve Become critical and Judgmental Towards My Child

What mother couldn’t benefit from those?

There are over 100 prayers of praise, supplication, confession, and intercession to choose from. And every prayer has several scriptures to encourage moms.

One of my favorites starts off like this…

Dear Lord,

It happened again. I told myself it wouldn’t, but it did. I feel like such a failure as if I’ll never be the kind of mother my children deserve. Why can’t I get it right? Why do my children have to suffer for my shortcomings?

Then it ends with a prayer of hope…

Lord, encourage my soul and help me overcome the doubts and self-criticism that have crept into my life. My failure as a parent is draining me of energy. Recharge me with Your divine strength….

What did you learn about prayer while writing your book?

I learned that prayer is easy when it comes from your heart or out of a specific need. Prayer doesn’t have to be formal; just raw and real.

God wants us to pour out our heart to Him. That’s all prayer is. I just need to remember that when condemnation starts to rise within me because I don’t pray enough or the “right way.”

Prayer is not just an act; it’s a way of life.

Wow — that’s so true, Gina. Are there any scriptures that stand out to you on showing us how to pray?

“Pray without ceasing.” To me this means having a prayer relationship and not just a prayer time. Before I moved to the Bible Belt, I communed with God in prayer all day long.

Then I “learned” how to pray. That it was supposed to be done early in the morning and for so many minutes or hours. I failed miserably at this kind of prayer.

I’m just now getting back to the way I used to pray, and it’s very freeing.

That’s wonderful, Gina! Thank you so much for visiting here and for sharing with us about the power of a mother’s prayers. I know I couldn’t live without my active prayer life!

You can read more about Gina at her fabulous website, which is a springboard to many of the writing ventures she is involved in.

The May issue of CWO is a beautiful tribute to moms everywhere. There’s an inspiring interview with Kathy Ireland, where she shares some of her secrets that encourage women to seek God first in all we do.

Congratulations to the winner of the “Her Life Reflected” writing contest! You’ll have to click here to see who she is and read her wonderful essay! I enjoyed helping to judge the essays for this contest; there were some amazing submissions.

My Book Buzz column focuses on several books that highlight the roles of moms and daughters. This is such a timeless topic; every book I reviewed had a unique piece of insight to offer.

Whether or not we’re moms, all of us are daughters, and God wants us to share our stories. Books can be springboards for reminding us how we can offer others hope through our own experiences and lessons learned.

This month (until the 18th), I plan to focus on several authors and books that celebrate the role of motherhood. Tomorrow, author Gina Conroy will share with us some tips on how to be prayer warriors for our families.