The Carnival of Beauty is in full swing over at Allison’s Autumn Rain blog. Ten bloggers have submitted essays on The Beauty of Rainy Days. As always, thanks to Two Talent Living for being the official sponsor of this lovely Carnival, which gathers posts by Christian women bloggers.
What happens when you hear something really funny? You probably can’t wait to repeat the story to someone else so you can enjoy another laugh. (If you’re like me, you’ll probably forget the punch line in the midst of retelling.) But if you’re a novelist, everything you hear may end up as a character or scene in your next book, as author Jonathan Rogers tells about here.
There are only two more weeks until the final installment of the Wilderking trilogy hits the stores. I’ve had a sneak peek at The Way of the Wilderking, and it’s absolutely the best one yet. If you’ve missed out on the first two books in this inspirational fantasy series for kids, you can enter the Riverbottom Forest at the official Wilderking site and catch up.
Our kids have all loved the first two Wilderking books: The Bark of the Bog Owl and The Secret of the Swamp King. You can read some blogger reviews of these books here and here. Stacy of Active Christian Media wrote to tell us she plans on interviewing Jonathan Rogers this week — I’ll let you know when the link is up, or you can check her site.
Meanwhile, you can get to know this author behind the scenes through The Wilderking Weblog. I hope you can click on over and welcome someone new to the blogosphere. His children’s novels are for kids of all ages — a series parents actually ENJOY reading out loud as a family. Warning: our favorite feechie, Dobro Turtlebane, is so funny in Book 3, you may end up reading all night because your kids are going to keep begging you: Just one more chapter, please!
There are a whole lot of blessings going around today that I wanted to share with you.
First of all, we’ve had a big celebration over at Susan’s new blog — she has been searching for answers to some spiritual questions lately and finally found the ANSWER! After communicating with some members of our Beth Moore Bible Study, Susan is beginning a new journey! (Thanks, Jeana!) You can read more about this on Carol’s blog — but please visit Susan and wish her a note of encouragement. Isn’t this awesome news? What better reason do we have for blogging than to help lead someone to a relationship with Christ?
The Carnival of Beauty is up at MzEllen & Co on the topic of “technology.” If you have a chance, there are some thoughtful essays on how technology has brought many blessings to our world today.
Be sure to visit the new April edition of Darlene’s Christian Women Online magazine. I’m always amazed at how pretty the photos and graphics are that accompany the stories. If you’re in need of a positive place to read a few minutes, this magazine is full of inspiration. I’ve also joined her new webring.
Darlene is too funny! I had to laugh while reading her Letter from the Editor about how life changes as we head into our 40s.
So, if she happens to be reading this post, here’s something I saw in an author’s autobiography last week:
They say “life begins at forty.” A certain phase of mine certainly did, for I was just forty when my first novel was published.
(Does that make you feel like you’re in good company, Darlene?)
I’ve given this some thought. Do any of you out there agree that life begins at 40? Those of you who are over age 40, did anything happen to you in this new decade that you could share with us?
I’m looking forward to turning 40 — which is only a few years away for me. I started thinking about how I’ve spent the last few decades:
Ages 0-5 — Infancy. Learned how to walk and talk … and haven’t stopped since!
Elementary school — Early academics, spiritual awakening with a sincere child-like faith. Prepared for middle school.
Middle school — Began to realize I liked some subjects better than others. Developed hobbies. Prepared for high school.
High school — Prepared for college. Started thinking about my future husband … and began looking for him! (Why, oh why, was I even thinking about that when I was 16? I should have been doing more volunteer work in my community, helping others. There’s no rush to hurry on to college and marriage!)
College — Prepared for a career by narrowing down the subjects I studied. Began seriously trying to figure out if I would be single for the rest of my life or if God had other plans for me. Constant focus was on the future. Time of amazing spiritual growth for me.
20s and 30s — For most women, these are the busy foundational years of marriage and childbearing/ childraising. I’m sure you moms agree — things ain’t the same with your body, mind, and spirit after you go through the transformation of becoming a mother. During these years, the constant demands of small children are first and foremost on our minds.
40s — OK! Does life begin now? These are the years when our kids might be older and more independent. We might even be able to have time to take a shower and put on make-up! Our husband may be more settled in a career. I don’t know — I’m not there yet. I’m just thinking it might take my mind off getting older if I could look forward to the excitement of having a little more “me-time” than I do now.
What do you think?
I’ve been noticing that my Travel category in this blog is a bit wimpy. I mostly focus here on books and parenting issues. But if you’re like me, blessed with little ones at home, you may have to do a lot of your adventure-seeking from your armchair (or should I say rocking chair? Or maybe I should even say laundry room, after seeing a picture of a mom tapping away on her laptop a la washing machine over at the recent contest on Mommy Net).
Did you know people all over the world are writing travel blogs? This technology did not EXIST when I did some international traveling in my late teens/early 20s. As I mentioned once, when I lived in Japan, I spent every evening writing letters, one by one, BY HAND telling my family and friends (and my special pen pal who later became my husband) all about my adventures living overseas.
But now the technology is here to be able to update everyone instantly — with words and pictures. This is also useful for anyone preparing for a trip somewhere. I mean — why read a guidebook that was written like two years ago when you can read about a traveler eating in a trendy bistro this morning?
The best site I’ve found so far is one called Travel Blog: Live Travel Journals. Have you heard of this site yet? I recently went to Rome — and before that, I climbed a mountain with a traveler somewhere along the coast of South America! The pictures are stunning. Of course, since the blogs are not edited, you never know what you might read. But for the most part, I’ve been interested to hear people’s fascinating stories.
You can choose any continent in the world, and hundreds of countries. The site owners pick different blogs to feature on the home page — I’m not sure if they’re updated daily or maybe weekly. Today’s front page features:
— On March 30th, a traveler named Keith took pictures and wrote about seeing humpback whales off the coast of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
— An explorer dubbed Honest Abe reports on sheep herding and eating curry on the island of Fiji.
— A traveler shared views of life on Penang, a large island off the northwestern coast of Malaysia.
— An April Fool’s Bike Ride through Pittsburgh (I suppose exotic to someone).
— A duo who call themselves “Cumberland Sausage” share pictures of a Holi Festival in Udaipur, India. You won’t believe their pictures. And they close their brief post with this: “No more blogs for a month I’m afraid, we’re off trekking in Nepal.” Ughhh!!
You gotta love it. I can travel the world for free via reading these people’s blogs — and you can too.
With two more months until summer, I’d love to hear back from you readers who don’t live in America. I know you’re out there! You may not realize it, but your home is very exotic to me. I know where a few of you live, but I’d love to learn more. Can you write me and tell me what it’s like? You don’t have to send a picture — I can probably find one on Google.
Do you live on an island? Anywhere near the ocean? I don’t. So in my opinion, you’re on vacation year-round. I want to know what the ocean sounds like for you. What color is the sand? Do you eat fish from the sea, and what kinds? Do you cook it at home or eat it at a restaurant?
You don’t need a blog to write — and you can email me, and I’ll use only your first name or initial. I just think it would be so interesting to use this blog technology to bring the world to my home — and yours.
If anyone else knows a good travel website, I’d love to hear about it.
(Sigh … bigtime sigh.)
Edit: (after much sighing) — If anyone reading this happens to live on an island and is in need of a family to herd your sheep for a while, we’d be happy to consider your offer. I think I’m kidding, but I might not be.
It’s April. Can you believe it? We’ve made it through winter. In our house, we survived spring break last week. Now, I feel like we’re coasting through the next two months until school is out at the end of May.
So, I’ve been poring over our calendar trying to decide what we’ll do this summer. We’ve got one trip planned (YEA!), and my kids are already asking me, “How many days until we go on our trip?” Add that to “How many days until my birthday?” (my almost 6-year-old) and “How many more days of school?” and you can see why I’m living in the future!
It may already be too late, but I’ve got to get on the phone with some of my mom maven friends who seem to know everything and find out whose kids are signed up for which camp or activity. Summer’s when I catch up with a lot of friends who I don’t see as often during the school year because they homeschool or their kids go to a different school. So, we try to coordinate our plans so our kids can play together while we hang out and gab.
I also try to take my kids to a pool somewhere at least three times a week. Honestly, this is not my idea of relaxation because my younger ones need me to get in the water with them. I don’t get to lounge along the side of the pool lost in a good book — I’ve got to be IN the water constantly. It’s fun when I find another mom with her kids there to talk to. But some days when we go to the city pool, I’m the only mom there — except for the day camp workers. So I end up playing Marco Polo and Ring around the Rosy with other people’s kids, and they hang on my shoulders — and I feel COMPLETELY worn out by the time we get home.
But I do this because my kids MUST know how to swim. We’re around water so much — a lot of people in our area live near lakes and ponds — and some people have backyard pools. Right now, I think only two of my kids are strong swimmers, so I’ve got to keep diligent about teaching the younger ones, which means lots of practice.
In giving all this some thought, here’s my news — I’ve decided to take a break from blogging over the summer. We’ll be on the go so much I won’t have time to be on the computer. I know this won’t be a big deal to those of you who’ve subscribed to me via Bloglines because you can tell when I’ve updated. But I’m very loyal to you — and I don’t want to suddenly slack off without giving you some warning! Mom 2 Mom Connection will be very quiet during the months of June and July. School starts back in early August, and that’s when I plan to get back to blogging.
Our Beth Moore Living Beyond Yourself Study will go for the next nine weeks and end on June 2. Sallie has her new Carnival of Beauty schedule posted on her site up until the end of May as well. The last topic is “Beginnings and Endings,” which I think is an appropriate way for me to end my first season of blogging. (By the way, my 6-month blogiversary was last week — 226 posts!)
Over the summer break, I even plan to turn off my comments so I won’t be obsessed tempted to check in. I’ve just GOT to. I want my children to remember all the fun summers they had growing up — and this is their childhood! Between going to the pool, library summer reading program, the park, ice-cream shop, vacation, and a couple of day camps they enjoy, my job as “special events coordinator” and “elite transportation service provider” takes up all my time!
Until then, I’m so excited I’ve got several interviews lined up with moms who’ve done outstanding things. This week, we’re going to be visited by a GRANDMOTHER who is out and about writing children’s mystery books that take place on islands, and she’s also a three-time award-winning playwright. I absolutely can’t wait for you to meet her. She’s AMAZING!
P.S. Don’t forget — those of you who like writing for the Carnival of Beauty. Today at 3 pm is the deadline on the topic of “Technology” over at MzEllen & Co. That’s a really interesting topic — I can’t wait to see what people come up with!
I’ve been alerted to the fact that my post this morning was a bit too bloggy for my non-blogging blog readers. I’m sorry about that. Someone who has NEVER ONCE left me a comment said my blog is “getting blogged down in all the blogocentricities of the blogosphere.”
OK … I can’t help it. This is just what happens. I’ve seen a slow evolution occurring in the blogosphere. Here are four things I’ve noticed happening lately:
1) Some people just get sick of blogging and quit. When you go to their site, you see a last post that says something like, “Good-bye, y’all. It’s been real.”
2) Some people enjoy the online journaling part, but not the whole bloggy comments thing, so they turn their comments off and say something along the lines of, “Please contact me by email only.” This is how I started out my blog because I was afraid I’d get spammed all the time. There is certainly nothing wrong with this, and it’s useful for many people.
3) Others will go commercial with their blogs and start accepting paid advertising. Why not? What’s the difference between a blog and a newspaper? How do editors and writers make a living? From advertising. Or the blogs become part of the person’s overall for-profit or not-for-profit business. (For example, to build up expertise or leadership skills.)
4) Some people just keep on going, year after year. I don’t know any of these people yet.
I enjoy participating in the Carnival of Beauty because I spend time thinking deeply about a topic and writing out my best. But if I did this every day, I’d have nothing left to submit for publication — to places that actually pay for writing. This is what I do “behind the scenes” of my blog — I submit articles and stories for publication. Once something is posted online, you can’t submit it for first rights anymore. So, your payment might be zero, as compared to several hundred dollars for first rights.
It would be easier to post all of my favorite ideas and stories online, but it would also be lazy of me. It’s hard to submit for publication because you have to seek out the exact editor who might want to buy your story, and you get REJECTED a lot. You get these nice form letters that tell you, “Thanks, but no thanks.”
People have to eat, you know. And our five kids have the stubborn habit of outgrowing their clothes and shoes. But I do love the people out here in the blogosphere — I’d miss out on an awful lot of fellowship if I only wrote for print publications.
Here’s a nice picture so my post is not all bloggy:
What do you call it when someone gets a new look for their blog? I guess I’d call it a “bloglift.” Does this word already exist? There are changes going on all over the blogosphere, so I thought I’d highlight a few recent ones.
Sallie has been making some changes to her blog at Two Talent Living that look great. It’s interesting for me to see — she and her husband run a home business together, and blogging is one aspect of it.
Carol at She Lives has a new header for her blog that really shows who she is — a mom and a musician at the foot of the Cross. It looks fabulous!
And I love Mama B’s new blogskin over at Confessions of a Busy Mom. Great design work by Kelly of Nello Design.
Now here’s another total transformation. Have you visited Mind & Media lately? Stacy just celebrated the one-year anniversary of starting her business blog. So I’ve heard this called a “blogiversary.” She’s expanded her site to encompass several different pages, packed with information, designed by Natalie Jost.
She sent out this press release:
Orange, CA (PRWEB) March 20, 2006 — Mind & Media, the very first online publicity company that utilizes the blogosphere to promote Christian media, including books, film, and music, has just completed our first year of business.
Using Christian and conservative bloggers, Mind & Media has proven that companies and independent authors realize the power of the blogosphere.
We have placed books for some of the top Christian publishers and authors in the industry, including Crossway Books, Bethany House, Tyndale House, and World Ahead Publishing.
If you would like to learn about how you can blog for books, or have your books, music or film promoted through Mind & Media we invite you to join us as we enter our second year of business.
But this morning I found out some more breaking news — Mind & Media will soon be undergoing a name change! I don’t know if this is public yet, so go visit her site to find out more details.
I’ve been reviewing books for Mind & Media since last fall, and I really enjoy it. I’ve been introduced to books and authors I never would have known about. And believe me, when I read a book I love, I don’t just keep it within the blogosphere — I tell everybody I know! In fact, a few people have referred to me lately as an “influencer.” I guess that’s what happens to bossy big sisters (which is what I was growing up). Shi kata ga nai! [for my Japanese readers.]
I think every blogger who likes to read Christian books ought to check out what’s going on over there. The requirements for reviewers have changed a bit in the past year. She wants you to have at least 1500 unique visitors (not hits) to your site per month. And there’s a nominal yearly fee for new reviewers — this is just to make sure she only gets people who are serious about writing reviews. (And she needs some more good writers who will post thought-provoking reviews.)
If you’d like to join and your blog is approved, then you get to choose which books you want to review — and they’re shipped to you absolutely free — no tax, no shipping, nada. There have been some great books on the list lately. I’ve signed up to review James Scott Bell’s thriller, Presumed Guilty, even though I don’t normally read suspense. But I did hear Bell speak last fall, and he’s a huge fan of A.W. Tozer, so I’m curious to see how he writes fiction.
Another bestselling author who has a new book on the list is Karen Kingsbury. Her website says she’s the “top-selling Christian fiction author of our day.” I remember reading an article about her in MomSense Magazine that she has six children — and three are adopted. I’ve signed up to review her new novel, Divine. Ooh … and I just discovered Karen has an online journal.
There are many other benefits for being part of the Mind & Media team. For example, last week Family Research Council announced a full-time web editorial position; reviewers were invited to apply, and we were given the name of the contact person. (I’m not looking for a full-time job right now, in case you’re wondering. I prefer part-time work that I can do from home.)
As I mentioned in an earlier post, there are more professional positions opening up for bloggers. So if you think you might like to get paid to blog someday, remember that everything you write in your blog may be seen by a potential employer. Just a thought.
Mary Yerkes also has some information about blog evangelism that I found interesting.
I know there are over 30 million blogs out there, but I confess most of my favorites fall under the category of “Mommy Blogging.” I love reading what ordinary moms like me have to say about their days. Sometimes I think it’s truly fascinating that this blogging phenomenon has given us a voice — many of us are staying home stirring spaghetti sauce and raising our family — yet when you google a topic, our blogs rank up there as high as top news sites (especially those of us who post every day — Google seems to like that.)
So, I was fascinated to discover yesterday that Catez of All Things 2 All spent several days researching women’s blogs that were nominated for the Share the Love Blog Awards. She visited and read posts from 197 women’s blogs — wow! You’ll have to go read the details in her post, Share the Love: Demographics and Some Thoughts.
Here are the statistics:
No. of blogs I read: 197 (in 8 categories)
No. of blogs I didn’t read: 34 (in 3 categories)
Inaccessible: 3 (links didn’t work or bandwidth exceeded)
And here is how she categorized them:
Not Religious or No Religious Content
Christian (Protestant or Catholic)
Other Religious/Spiritual Beliefs
Mormon
Jewish
Unspecified
You can read her post to find out the numbers and percentages in each group. It’s very interesting! After all of her research, which I’m sure took dozens of hours, here’s what she discovered:
Most of the blogs I read didn’t have a lot about religion or spirituality. Of those that expressed a religious or spiritual belief the majority only made an occasional reference. The biggest theme, by a huge majority, was motherhood and what is called mommy blogging. I have said that before, but I think the demographics help to make the point better …
Thank you, Catez, for doing all this work! (I think this topic would make a great magazine article.) Do y’all find this as fascinating as I do? Why are mommies blogging? I’ve joined a few blogger mom groups lately — and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading essays on DotMoms — which expresses an extreme diversity of views on mothering. (Key word: diverse.) But I can’t get enough of reading about real-time motherhood — obviously!
One common thread I’m noticing personally — in many of the tag lines and throughout the posts — it seems like moms joke around about blogging to keep their sanity. I’ve always felt like I needed to write out my thoughts or I would go bananas. Maybe I’m not alone.
I’m curious — if you’re a mom and you blog, why do you do it?
I’m discovering there are a ton of Heathers out there in the blogosphere — so here’s a quiz that says our 1920s name would be:
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Your 1920’s Name is: |
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If you take this quiz, I’d love to find out what your name is!
I want to write a quick note to share a few things that are going on in our blogging community. It really is a small world now that we can click over and visit each other. If we met each week in a book club or Bible study, we’d probably go around and ask for prayer requests, right?
So this week, my prayers are with Alyice of The Dabbling Mum. Many of you read her blog or visit her website — I know some of you are her regular columnists. Alyice found out the devastating news that her mother suddenly passed away. Now she will be traveling across several states to be with her family. Even though she’ll probably be off-line for a while, I think it would mean a lot to her if you dropped by her blog and said you were thinking of her.
Also, Carol of She Lives wrote an essay about the death of her father-in-law a couple of days ago. I’m so thankful she took the time to write out some of her special memories and share them with us. We’ll be keeping her family in our prayers as well.
As for me, I’m still not sure what to do about my wrist — I don’t know if it might be broken or just sprained! I wrote the other day about how I fell up our makeshift “porch steps” and felt a really sharp pain. Of course, I ignored it, hoping it would go away. The bruise is gone, but I still feel too much pain to even do simple things like unscrew lids. And I’ve usually got a baby on my left hip while I do everything — so this pain is starting to be a real … pain. I don’t want to have to be billed for an x-ray if it’s one of these things that might heal on its own.
Also, if any of my local friends are reading this, does anyone know a good, reasonable carpenter? We’re in desperate need of getting back steps on our porch built, as well as a railing to protect our newly mobile baby from crawling off the porch. We keep thinking we’ll wait until we can save up … but we can’t wait any longer. This has got to be done! When I blog about things, it seems to move us into action around here. A sprained or broken wrist is nothing like a baby falling off a porch.
Now, for the good news. I discovered that Lauren of Created for HIS Glory is thinking about starting an online study of Beth Moore’s Living Beyond Yourself. She’s suggesting maybe if there are several of us who’d like to sign up for it at the same time, we could post about it once a week in our blogs, then create a blogroll in our sidebar of other participants. This looks like perfect timing for me, since our group here is just finishing up Beth Moore’s Believing God study.
If you’re interested, leave a comment here or at Created for HIS Glory . If you’ve never heard of Beth Moore or done one of her studies, let me just tell you, she will TEAR OPEN the Bible in a fresh way like you’ve never experienced before. She’s the most passionate teacher I’ve ever heard and speaks from such a humble heart. Her studies are intense, but they’re not aimed for scholars; they’re for real people who may need a few extra minutes to look in their index to find the book she’s talking about. So feel free to join us!
Last but not least, there are still a few more days to join into Barbara Curtis’ Love That Laundry Room contest over at Mommy Life. You have until March 15 to enter by sending her a picture of yourself in your laundry room, and you might win a copy of Lord, Please Meet Me in the Laundry Room!
