The Write-Away Winner

Thank you to Amanda at Oh Amanda for judging this month's writing contest, she's terrific and you'll get to read more about her later this week as I interview her.

Thank you also to Bath and Body Works for the prize package from their new antibacterial line.

But the greatest thanks to the entrants who shared their feelings on being Grateful. I hope you enjoy the entries.

. . . And the winner is:

The Chocolate Chip Waffle with Gratitude: Seeing It

Our judge said: "This was beautiful. As good as any novel I've ever read!"

Honorable Mentions

Mozi Esmé with To Be Grateful for More
"I think she really answered the question, if there was one. Such a great perspective."
Such the Spot with Whispered Reminders
"Oh, i needed this reminder today!"
Glacier Racing with Thanks to Joey
"They deserve this for the sheer volume written about a dog!! Plus, it was so articulate!"

***

Here are a list of the entries in the order they were received:

1. Glacier Racing with Thanks to Joey
I'm mourning this dog more than any of the people I've lost in the past ten years. Earlier today the grief leaked out, my body making sounds I didn't know it could. It doesn't help there's no shoulder near to cry on, or that night shift makes emotions tougher to control. Perhaps weeping is weakness, but I'm just now realizing the weight of the role he played in this simplified life I've made, and the hole that's left, and I am weak, and so I weep.

2. Lifenut with My Thanksgiving with Mick Jagger
The turkey and the stuffing were diced into tidy brown blocks. They sat side-by-side, looking like bricks for a dainty but foolhardy construction project. The mashed potatoes were scooped by hand like ice cream. Someone four floors below, in a basement kitchen, released the dull white lukewarm globe over a tray with a flourish of a tired wrist. There were stubby grey green beans and a short glass of milk with a paper lid to prevent sloshing.

3. The Time for Change with Gratitude
It's sitting there in the paper robe, staring at the ceiling, wondering, as always, what would happen if the fire alarm went of at that exact second, that it all crept up on me. While waiting in the lobby for forty-five minutes, I had worked myself up into a state of anxiety and worry. It's routine, but routine for something I try to deny, as if by denying its existence, it will suddenly disappear and never haunt me again.

4. Mozi Esmé with To Be Grateful for More
The overcast skies didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the crowd on Wednesday as we applauded the marching bands, the Scout groups, the fire trucks, the branches of services, the veterans, and most importantly to many there, the flying candy. It felt good to be an American!

5. Blog o' Beth with Gratitude
Sometimes an argument over a toy can lead me to say ugly words, causing my bottomless patience to vanish in a flash. Sometimes the simple sound of Max’s heavy breathing at night can awake worry and concern. Sometimes the smell of Lucy’s hair as it is nestled tightly under my nose can be comforting.

6. In the Mom Zone with A Lot to Be Grateful For
There's a challenge circulating around Facebook to post one thing you are thankful for each day until Thanksgiving. Two weeks and they call it a challenge? That's only 15 things you're thankful for. Surely there's more than that to be grateful for...

7. The Holly's Family with Gratitude

1. Good parents...they raised well, I know I am loved.

2. Gospel...thank my parents here too for raising me up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! I love the Gospel for many reasons but to be basic and not take too much space I love the Savior Jesus Christ and HIS love for me makes me want to strive to be more loving to others!

3. Siblings...they are precious and my dearest friends.

8. The Diaper Diaries with Gratitude

I have always found myself to be a glass half full kind of person. And to be honest, life hasn’t thrown me many curveballs to get down about. Life isn’t all sunshine and roses, but when I look around, it isn’t hard to see that I have been incredibly blessed. To try and act like life has been hard on me would just be insulting to those who have truly had an uphill battle.

9. School Teacher by Day, Super Hero by Night with How Sweet the Sound
Gratitude and grace go hand in hand. It takes grace to have gratitude for all that's in your life, even in those hours where you might feel lost. Truly, there is so much in my life for which I am grateful. I am grateful that even though I don't want to work outside of the home, I have a job. I am grateful for this in a tough economic time when so many would give so much that have a full-time job with good health insurance.

10. Such the Spot with Whispered Reminders
I lead a blessed life. This much I know is true. Well, most of the time anyway. Admittedly, I’ve been known to forget from time to time. If I’m being honest I will tell you that there are days when my four young blessing from above seem particularly heavy.

11. Me and Mine with I Have a Few Wrenches If You Need to Borrow One
I'd like to think of myself as the kind of person that's grateful for her trials. I was thinking about this yesterday and wondered, "Am I really grateful for them?" It's easier said than done, really. Sure, hindsight is a wonderfully safe place to be grateful for one's lessons through adversity, but what about when you're actually in the process of "learning"? Whenever my life starts to make sense and seems reasonably steady, I know it's only the calm before the storm.

12. The Chocolate Chip Waffle with Gratitude: Seeing It
I think I began to grasp the concept of gratitude when I was seventeen. The summer of 1989, before my senior year in high school, I was dumped by The Boy Friend of my young life who was going to become my husband and the father of my future children. I was sure of it.

13. Food for the Soul with Give Thanks with a GRATEFUL Heart
For the last few days I have been contemplating the theme on everyone's mind as we approach Thanksgiving Day. No, not turkey (although I have contemplated that quite a bit as well!) I'm talking about the theme of giving thanks.

14. Paula May with Gratitude to the Rescue
I've been focusing on gratitude all month. Partially because the Thanksgiving season is a perfect time to reflect on the gifts we have in our lives. Partially because I have been having a hard time coming to terms with the reality of my life as compared to where I think it should be.

15. The Mommy Machine with Grateful
When I say my in-laws live a few towns away, I'm not talking about an hour's drive through the suburbs. Because we reside in Alaska, a visit to Grandma's house involves a half-day's journey over 370 miles and a trek across the marsh, up the mountain, into the pass, over the river, and through the woods. Service stations are few and far between—even if we manage to make it to a gas station, the restrooms aren't always working.

16. Fractured Toy with One More Day
I wished that she would not see tomorrow. I wished my mother's life away. I dressed in the dark and I drove there in the darkness. I quietly put the key in the lock and entered her house, praying that I wouldn't awaken her. I knew she would be asleep in the back bedroom and yes, I could see the night light from the living room. Would tonight be the night? Would tonight be the night I'd watch my mother die?

Sponsored by K & M Studios and photographer Megan Burgess

November's Write-Away Contest

Heading into the holidays here (notice my smooooth alliteration) and we've got a new month's contest. Our guest judge will be Amanda from Oh, Amanda (who I'm hoping to meet at Blissdom in February) and the topic will be "Grateful." I'm leaving it rather open but there is a slight change in the rules this time. Because it's so open I will only take new posts this month. Nothing from the archives, only new material.

As for the prize, this month it will be a selection of goodies from Bath and Body Works suitable for the occasion.

So if that gets you thinking all you need to do to enter is to follow the directions below:

1. Write a post on this month's theme then email your post's permalink to me at scribbit at gmail.com. The permalink is the URL of the individual post--not the URL of your blog--usually found by clicking on the post title or time stamp and copying the URL that appears in the address field. I will accept entries through Sunday November 22nd. If you fail to meet that deadline I will still happily publish your link with the list of entries but it will not be judged. I reserve the right to reject submissions if they fail to meet the topic or if they contain objectionable content. Please look for a confirmation email from me within hours saying I received your entry--just to be safe.

2. Publish a link to this contest page here at Scribbit in either your entry post or in a separate post. I'm not picky how you do this, just give the contest a little mention as a courtesy and nod back. Don't stress over it because I won't.

3. Check back here on Tuesday November 24th when I will post a complete list of the entries along with the Write-Away Winner and three Honorable Mentions.

4. Please remember: I will list the entries along with a small teaser for each. Just the first sentence or two of each post to give people an idea what they might expect if they should be so bold as to click on the entry.

Also, please be aware that while you are welcome to include graphics or photographs with your entries the judge will only see the text of your post. No links, no pictures, no name of your blog, nothing that might identify it to the judge. While visual posts are always beautiful to see on your blog I will only send the text to the judge and your entry will not be able to rely on visuals to influence his or her judgment.

As always, all Winners and Honorable Mentions will get to take home this attractive Write-Away Winner button which he or she may display if they wish.

***

Oops! Forgot to add--Jennifer at Family Musings was the winner of the Timberland giveaway from this weekend. Those shoes are made for walking.

Sponsored by Pak Naks--decorate your stuff!

Our Fearsome Write-Away Winner

Thank you to Allysha at Bells on Their Toes for judging this month's Halloweenish writing contest (you'll get to hear more about her next week) and thank you to jaC Jewelry for providing the gorgeous Chocolate Cherry Swirl pendant as the prize for the best entry on the topic of "Fear."

If you didn't win this gorgeous pendant don't worry, jaC has giveaways here and there and to find out when sign up for the newsletter which will give you all the upcoming events.

And of course thank you to all who entered, there's nothing so fearful as putting up your writing for someone else to judge!

Anyone want to suggest a topic for next month's contest? I'm wide open . . .

. . . And the winner is:

Wonder Years with Fear a la Edgar Allan Poe

Sonja is a wonderful writer, photographer and mother with a house full of beautiful little blondies. I've subscribed to her blog for about a year now and highly recommend it--you'll love this creative post. I do believe it's the first time a poem has won the Write-Away Contest.

Honorable Mentions

Stories to Cheer People Up with To Catch a Thief
My Neurotic Spot with Description of a Night Terror
Glacier Racing with Floyd the Coward

***

Here are a list of the entries in the order they were received:

1. Babysteps with Flying Away
Last night Zaya said, “Mom, I don't want to ever fly a kite again, because it might fly away.”
He said this with tears barely restrained and his voice cracking a bit, as if we were discussing something truly terrifying, like tornadoes or spiders or newborn babies. (Hey, we're all afraid of something.)

2. All Stace, All the Time with Childhood Phobias That Linger On
Okay so I know nothing is sleeping under my bed. I never have to check the closet for the boogie man. These are things that I outgrew YEARS ago. I'm not afraid of the dark. Thunderstorms don't scare me. I can watch a scary movie, most of the time, without lingering effects.

3. Warm Chocolate Milk with I'm Back
It took going away last weekend, driving up north to my friend Sarah's remote cabin in the woods where there was no Internet access, and I could only get a signal on my phone by standing on my tiptoes in the middle of a field with my arms reached out high above my head, removing myself from my life was required, for me to see the possibilities in the center of it.

4. Flea's World with Posthumously
Many a book and screenplay are written by shrinks – excuse me, licensed therapists – who think they’ve cornered the market on crazy. I’ve read quite a few – in my profession I’d go nuts if I couldn’t laugh at myself. They’d lock me away if I couldn’t laugh at my patients. Privately, of course.

5. Momish with Home Base
Our house was one of the few row homes left that still had a wall separating the living room from the staircase. In most of the houses, the wall was taken down so the staircase stood open, overlooking the living room. But not our house, our house still had the wall. And boy do I remember that wall.

6. I Most Definitely Control the Spice with Tortoiseshell
I am typing this currently in very small, very unassuming font into a Word document at work. After lunch, after the morning tumult and the relaxing walk outside after sharing a packed lunch at the library with Gary, my stomach begins this horrible decline, this needful feeling of want and regret and envy. Of lonesome feeling for my son.

7. Flip Flop Mama with Conquering Half Dome
Yosemite has to be one of my all time favorite places--right up there with the Big Sur coast and North Shore, Oahu. The first time I visited Yosemite was about 11 years ago. My family--with the exception of my sister who was on her mission in Spain--and another family from my home town took a vacation there. We went in August and our plan was to backpack throughout the valley.

8. Fear Realized with Fear #045 Drown Deep
For a long time, I couldn’t swim. There were a myriad of reasons why and they varied in legend: I couldn’t get my hair wet (I’m black. It’s a long story.); my eyes couldn’t take the chlorine; my mother never continued lessons for me as a baby since, back in those days, they threw you in and said “swim”, and it freaked her out. This is how the legends go. Some I’m told, some I’ve lived.

9. Confessions of a Narcoleptic with Faith
Let me start at the beginning. Being pregnant, all of my emotions are heightened. A lot. I am normally a worrier, and lately, I think my worrying has kind of gotten out of control. Mostly about my children. I worry that something, anything, will happen to them. I would lie awake at night, my stomach twisting in knots over the thousands of ways my children can be harmed.

10. Wonder Years with Fear a la Edgar Allan Poe
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over all the fears that make me tremble to my core.
(I thought of wars, I pondered needles and those freaky little beetles,
that I hear will nearly always crawl by hundreds on the floor.)

11.Emzeegee and the Hungry Three with Don't Let Go
The spokes of my new $99 blue Sears bike gleam in the sunshine as they wobble back and forth. "Dad?" "Dad?! You're still holding on, right Dad?" I asked with a waver in my voice. "I don't want to fall off! I'm scared!" "I'm holding, I'm holding!" he pants, as he runs along behind me, one hand on the back of the bike and the other helping him keep his balance.

12. Warm Chocolate Milk with Calming His Greatest Fear and Mine
My son Weston screams out in the night. Visions of hungry wolves terrorize him as he sleeps. I leap out of bed when I hear his panic-stricken cry, I come running from down the hall and into his room to hold him, to awaken him from his nightmare and bring him back to the warm, tranquil setting of his bedroom. "You're safe," I whisper as we rock.

13. Stories to Cheer People Up with To Catch a Thief
We had just gone out and had one last family dinner and were now stopping to buy some groceries to decorate our empty cupboards and refrigerator with. It had been a long day and I had decided to stay in the car at this last stop so I wouldn’t have to hurt my back any more by stooping and bending to get in and out of the vehicle.

14. Gritty City Woman with Hapuna Drowning: Reflections, Revelations and Respect
Hapuna Beach on the Big Island is a life altering experience. Fantastic waves, warm waters, cool, soft sand, whales breaching on the horizon, and warm tropical sun ease the body, mind, and soul. My family and I have been coming to this beach for years and we eagerly anticipated our homecoming, Sunday morning, February 8th. Little did we understand that our beach routine would change dramatically this day and that our eyes would see too much.

15. Short Stop with Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie
The day my first son was born, I was sitting in my hospital bed blissfully staring at the tiny wonder that was my new baby when my husband returned to our room from dinner. All smiles. “Guess what? Mom and Dad wanna go to our house and clean it for us while we’re here in the hospital. Cool, huh?”

16. I'm (Not) Crazy Mommy with Waking Nightmare
When I was in high school, one of my best friends (we'll call him Skippy) was the son of a rose grower. His dad and grandfather owned a huge compound of greenhouses that grew the most beautiful and fragrant of flowers in every variety and color imaginable. The facility was composed of two long rows of greenhouses, stacked like the rungs of a ladder with access at the ends.

17. Parent Club with Mourning a Baby
I wasn't going to write this. I thought it too raw, too personal, too painful to put out into the blogosphere...but it was actually my prince who said I should blog about it. We have both received so much support from friends (twitter & non-twits alike), family and co-workers.

18. Baby Makin(g) Machine with The Selfish Fear
This is a very difficult, extremely sensitive topic to blog about. I'm almost ashamed to write it. It's something I've been thinking about, pondering over, dwelling on for the last couple of years.

19. Notes of Jubilee with I Was Ratted out by My Five Year-old Son
My kids' love the library. Whirling Dervish and I haunt the library frequently during the school week. With all the neat toys, story time, and enough picture books to claim sensory overload as a medical condition, it's a big draw.

20. Glacier Racing with Floyd the Coward
Foolhardy, that's what it was. We were stopped at the light on Old Lake Road behind a whiny piped pickup full of side-hatted teenagers when a wadded Lota-Burger bag flew from the truck window. Floyd muttered from my passenger seat. He threw his door open, strode purposefully to the opposite lane, gathered the grease stained paper, and tossed it back into the truck bed.

21. Ad Libitum with False Evidence Appearing Real
I read somewhere once that FEAR stands for “False Evidence Appearing Real”. I have to agree with that, in retrospect, that is. But when you are lying on your bed, staring at the ceiling, heart pounding at the very thought of that awful thing you fear so much, the evidence you dig up from the recesses of your mind seem anything but false…. You know what I mean, right?

22. My Neurotic Spot with Description of a Night Terror
Her sleep is a portal. She’s not known a full night’s peaceful sleep since that moment in childhood when they first found her and filled her with visions of her bed crawling with spiders and other such creepy crawlies to taunt a small girls mind. She’s an adult now, but that doesn’t mean she’s any less immune to them when they choose to approach. When she sleeps, somewhere within a dusty window into another dimension opens, and things cross over.

23. Life with Boys with A Fright in the Night
It was a quarter 'til midnight and I was lying in bed, trying to go to sleep. Then I heard it ... the sound that could be innocuous, or could be the beginning of a long, scary night. I waited with baited breath for more clues as to what my night would hold. The rustling continued, but on its own that was still innocuous.

24. Just Mom's Musings with In Which I Owe My Newfound Courage to Pooh
I have a theory. You know those cute little stories we read at bedtime to our children? I think they're actually written for "grown-ups." No, don't laugh. You see, just recently I was plagued with making a decision that would have life altering consequences based on what I decided.

25. Adventures of Howler and Toad with Fear
Growing up, I was afraid of the dark. My sister, brother, and cousins made fun of me. There was nothing that was more terrifying to me than the deep darkness that was bedtime at my house.

26. Shelly Munro with Fear
Fear–it’s the gut-wrenching anxiety that strikes us all in moments of extreme stress, when our limbs tremble, our face goes pale, and we scream until we’re hoarse.

27. My Left Hook with He's Gay or Weird or Weirdly Gay or Whatever
The Pterodactyl wants me to buy him a purse. Obviously he’s gay. Which would explain his fascination with the hair dryer, his weird attachment to anything fuzzy, and his tendency to sing along to Taylor Swift songs. He’s almost five years old and he loves rainbows. Can there possibly be a gayer sign?

28. Army Wife Quilter with Fear
OK! So here is the thing. "Fear!" It is the time of year when we pull out all the stuff that makes us scream, laugh, and say wow how did they do that. It's Halloween the one time of year when the fears of others are displayed on the lawn to scare us all. I have one big huge fear that drives my family crazy all summer. I don't need to go to a haunted house to be scared.

29. Mozi Esmé with Filling the Gap: Time
I am not a fearful person, I don't think. I like heights, I'm fascinated with snakes, and I still want to skydive some day. Even goblin masks and pumpkin guts don't scare me. But I fear one significant thing.

30. Divergent Pathways with The Bogeyman of Edingurgh
The idea came to us in the hallowed halls of Cambridge, where I totally imagined Fagin to be collecting orphan boys, and Macbeth lurking in the next cloister. Just as our semester was coming to a close, my friend Dottie and I stuffed our Sidney Sussex towels into our duffels, and conspired to tour the UK for a few weeks on a Brit-Rail pass. (It’s a great way to travel when you’re young and foolish.)

31. Just Mom's Musings with The Night I Saw a Spookable
JS asked me the other day if ghosts are real. I knew it was only a matter time before I was asked that question. After all, it is almost Halloween and we have been watching Winnie-the-Pooh's "Heffalump Halloween," complete with "spookables." But I didn't know how to answer and simply came back with, "Well, what do you think?"

32. Dancing with the Daffodils with Fear Is Just a Bad Dream
I’ve had my share of bad dreams. As a child, I remember having dreams of a steamroller overtaking me - leaving me flat as Wile E. Coyote in the Road Runner cartoons. (No doubt that’s where that dream originated!) Later my bad dreams were not of falling or monsters or things that go BUMP in the night.

33. Lifepoint with Beverly Dru with False Evidence Appearing Real
Fear is a thief; stealing your energy and creativity and leaving you despondent. Conversely, it can be the tool that sharpens your perception and propels you to success as you use the edge of fear to sharpen the blade of faith.

34. Merge with My Best Friend's Dog
My best friend, Nova and I met in college. We weren't exactly friends from the start, rather our friendship evolved over time once we realized how much we had in common. We both had birthdays in June, this made us Cancers, which, we both agreed, was the best astrological sign out there. We both also agreed that anyone who wasn't a Cancer was not someone to be mocked, but rather pitied.

Sponsored by Beau-Coup for unique baby shower favors.

Finally! Another Write-Away Contest!

The Write-Away Contest has been on a summer hiatus but I'm ready to pick it up again in style with a great month.

Given that it's now October and we're facing Halloween soon the theme for the contest is "Fear." Fear? Yes, fear. Anything you happen to be afraid of or not afraid as the mood may strike. You can take it from any angle you wish within the topic.

Our guest judge for the month is Allysha from Bells on Their Toes, a blog I have admired for three years now. Allysha is a mom to thirty little toes and she's a fantastic writer as well. You'll be in good hands.

And the prize? Well I promised you style and I deliver. You see here the gorgeous "Chocolate Cherry Swirl" pendant in beautiful fall colors and a slightly mysterious yet romantic tone. It's hand-made by jaC Jewelry especially for this contest with a 18-inch sterling silver chain and a cherry, red, black and cream lampwork bead for a focal point.

I've worked with jaC many times before and all of the pieces are beautiful. If you haven't already you might like to sign up for her newsletter, visit her on her blog or in her Etsy shop.

So if that gets you thinking all you need to do to enter is to follow the directions below:

1. Write a post or find one in your archives on this month's theme then email your post's permalink to me at scribbit at gmail.com. The permalink is the URL of the individual post--not the URL of your blog--usually found by clicking on the post title or time stamp and copying the URL that appears in the address field. I will accept entries through Wednesday October 21st. If you fail to meet that deadline I will still happily publish your link with the list of entries but it will not be judged. I reserve the right to reject submissions if they fail to meet the topic or if they contain objectionable content. Please look for a confirmation email from me within hours saying I received your entry--just to be safe.

2. Publish a link to this contest page here at Scribbit in either your entry post or in a separate post. I'm not picky how you do this, just give the contest a little mention as a courtesy and nod back. Don't stress over it because I won't.

3. Check back here on Friday October 23rd when I will post a complete list of the entries along with the Write-Away Winner and three Honorable Mentions.

4. Please remember: I will list the entries along with a small teaser for each. Just the first sentence or two of each post to give people an idea what they might expect if they should be so bold as to click on the entry.

Also, please be aware that while you are welcome to include graphics or photographs with your entries the judge will only see the text of your post. No links, no pictures, no name of your blog, nothing that might identify it to the judge. While visual posts are always beautiful to see on your blog I will only send the text to the judge and your entry will not be able to rely on visuals to influence his or her judgment.

As always, all Winners and Honorable Mentions will get to take home this attractive Write-Away Winner button which he or she may display if they wish.


Sponsored by Beau-Coup for unique baby shower favors.

June's Write-Away Winner

Thank you to Michelle Fabio at Bleeding Espresso for serving as the judge for this month's contest. You might notice that some of the entries don't have links to the author's blog and that's because I had a record number of people submitting offline entries. So I've uploaded the offline entries as pdf documents that you can download if you'd like to see the full entry. Just that little extra bit of service folks.

. . . And the winner is:

Blog o'Beth with The Menu of My Life

Honorable Mentions

Richard Curtis with Food? No Love
Life on the Wild Side with My Favorite Day of the Year
Mozi Emsé with Filling the Gap: Food

***

Here are a list of the entries in the order they were received:

1. The Home Team Wins with Fun-dant with Brittany
We just returned from my niece's graduation in Texas...which was Texas-sized, heh, heh. She and 570 or so classmates made the transition from little people to "big people," as their class Valedictorian so eloquently proclaimed.

2. Maine Buzz with The Doughnut Guy
In the April issue of Bangor Metro we featured my father, Brian Brooks, and his delicious doughnuts. Nepotism aside, my dad really does make lip-smacking homemade doughnuts. Try his recipe and see for yourself.

3. The Daily Life of a Classic Housewife with Tangelo Dream
Sitting on my porch feeling the spring-like breeze and watching a small dancing butterfly, I am both here and also not here - one foot in this world and one foot in some distant place of long ago. Taking another bite of the little orange fruit sends me back in time to my childhood, not to any specific memory or point in time, but to something nameless and fuzzy.

4. Table for Nine with King Ranch Chicken
The King Ranch is legendary in Texas. The ranch was started in the 1860's by Richard King, a man who had once been an indentured servant. It began with 15,500 acres and grew by the end of the Civil War to an astonishing 146,000 acres. Mr. King's family continues to run the ranch to this day.

5. Ramblins with Little Ways to Drive up Closer to Happiness
one of my favorite sayings about happiness comes from a television show....."money may not buy happiness, but it can buy me a red corvette so I can drive up really close to it."

6. Cooking at Home with Eating with Friends 2
"I must get out of these wet clothes and into a dry Martini." Robert Benchley. It's Friday, and it is pouring. But T & G will be here for dinner like clockwork. You see, there is a Martini calling our names, and there is pizza.

7. The Scholastic Scribe with The Ben and Jerry's Stressbuster Diet
I was thinking about naming this post, "Fashionista Du Jour." Wore above T-shirt to school yesterday, & was quite the popular chica. I'm thinking every day will be Casual Friday from here on out. Not that I really get all gussied up for school, anyway...

8. I'm (Not) Crazy Mommy with Confessions of a Food Snob
When I was in the eighth grade, we had a writing assignment in English class: describe, in detail, the MOST PERFECT MEAL. I still remember mine. While my classmates' menus included things like hotdogs and popcorn and food you buy at a ball park, mine included things like spanakopita and shrimp scampi. My mom, who has always been my best editor, read the essay and just shook her head.

9. The Chocolate Chip Waffle with I Dig Sweets
I have a small request. Go to your pantry and check for the following:

10. If You Give a Mom a Moment with I Gave up Chocolate for Him
Want to know a good weight loss program? It involves a lot of weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth, and some days you might just want to crawl into that space between your couch and the wall and die, but it works! Read on.

11. Mommy Snark with Food
Yesterday, I stood on the back deck of my parents house and ate watermelon. I was transported back to the days of my childhood when all the kids would line up along the banister and try to see who could spit watermelon seeds the farthest, extra points if you managed to hit the trunk of the tall sugar maple, or the giant rock beyond the azalea bushes.

12. Write Stuff with Secret Family Recipes
"I stirred it with my finger." That was my grandfather's standard response to, "How'd you make this taste so good?"

13. Blog o'Beth with The Menu of My Life
1977 The Ohio summer air was warm and muggy. My friend Vicki and I had spent the day perfecting our rollerskating skills on my driveway. I had white skates with a big blue stripe down each side, and large blue pom poms with bells in the middle. Vicki and I were sweaty and tired and tumbled into the house eager for a snack.

14. Chasingche with Brunch
On rare occasions, when Daddy is home in the morning, we make a big brunch. This weekend we were out of coffee and had to visit our local roaster and artisan bakery. The couple who owns the shop are some of my favorite people. I admire all they've accomplished just in the last five years. What was once a little stand at the Farmer's Market, giving out free cups of delicious coffee to the visitors, has become quite an accomplished business.

15. Notes from the Cookie Jar with The Gingerbread Incident
Many years ago, I slipped into a phase in my journey of motherhood that I'd like to call the "Martha-land" phase. I blame a certain domestic diva that was popular at the time, because for some reason I became enthralled with crafts, making homemade baby food, bread, the whole deal. Plus working. Oh, and being a foster mom too. Besides that, we also owned our own business.

16. Just Mom's Musings with Eating Barbecue? Ditch the Fork
As soon as I walked in to the restaurant I knew I wasn't in familiar territory. Instead of a bowl of mints on the hostess's counter, there was a large ceramic pig holding mounds of hermetically sealed toothpicks. Instead of napkins neatly placed on the dining tables, there were large rolls of paper towels.

17. Glacier Racing with Food for Thought
My wife had nightmares after pizza. Something someone over at Moose Tooth Pizzeria put in the sauce worked its way into her inner consciousness and woke all the best monsters. I'd listen for a while when she spoke in her sleep to see if she'd divulge anything useful, but usually about the third scream I'd kinda lose interest and poke her and tell her to pipe down.

18. Life with Boys with A Food Wasteland
I thought we were making progress. I thought our 3-year-old was learning to be truthful and to not sneak food that had not been "approved". Apparently I was wrong. It seems that we had made progress in removing the opportunity for such behaviors, but not the desire for wrong-doing. We were able to manipulate the behavior, but not the heart behind it.

19. Mozi Emsé with Filling the Gap: Food
Dear Esmé, FOOD is not a four-letter word. It may make all my clothes shrink, but it is not in itself evil.

20. Loulou's Views with For the Love of Food
I love food. I'm Greek. I have to love food. Greeks are very passionate people - we yell, we are loud, we love life, we love our families, we are really over-dramatic, we freak out over the smallest thing, we dance, we sing, we like to have fun, and we eat. Oh, do we eat!

21. Pensieve with The Southern Way
Blood and marriage are reason enough to gather on the hottest day of the year to celebrate family, for no other reason than that. It's the Southern Way.

22. Richard Curtis with Food? No Love
The spring of 2001 found me day dreaming and fantasizing about how I would celebrate my third wedding anniversary. My newly given wife had become the focus of my admiration and awareness. I just knew The Universe would provide something spectacular. What I didn’t realize is that I needed to buckle my seat belt for the dining experience of my life.

23. Living with Walls with Frog Legs
I do not promote the eating of Frog Legs... but as a child, it was a different world and a different time. It was 1968 and I was 8 years old.

24. Compost Happens with Recession Gardening, Victory Gardens and Family Tales
Last season, the news was full of a new term: Recession Gardens. Folks across the U.S.A. were figuring out what we backyard gardeners already knew: fresh home grown veggies are inexpensive and delicious, with less risk of contamination in the harvest or shipping process. Whether I call it recession garden or kitchen garden, this plot of soil will produce the produce my family loves.

25. From the Planet of Janet with Post-birthday Stress Disorder
Yup. I don't know what is wrong with me today, but I am totally in a funk. Could it be that I am suffering from the aftermath of having dinner with my children again? Could it be that I'm worn out from holiday cheer?

26. Capital Mom with Snacks
All too often in our house mealtime involves the girl declaring "I don't like that" before her plate of food even hits the table. "You haven't tried it" I say. "I don't like it" she says. "You have to try three bites" I say. "No, just one" she says. The negotiations begin.

27. Swell Flamingo with Sweet Tea, Sweet Tea . . . We All Scream for Sweet Tea
My family came up for a visit last month... the first time meeting the new little one. A tradition we have started when Dad & Johnnie visit is hosting a Southern Sunday Brunch. And this visit was no exception. I just love it. When you are 8,000 miles away from family and home there is nothing better than food to help savor those memories.

28. The Book Chook with Books and Food
Certain things go really well together: songs and campfires, kids and puppies, crusty bread and cheese. Today, I've been thinking how well two of my favourite things complement each other: books... and food.

29. Earnest Parenting with Butterfly Lunch Wrap
One of my personal challenges: lunch. It’s easy to just serve peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which can get tedious after a while. I’m not the most creative food person on the planet either. That said, I’m rather proud of my Butterfly Lunch Wrap.

30. Vacuumusing with Eating Habits
This thought has crossed my mind many times while struggling to navigate the peculiar world of pre-school eating habits: Why do I care so much about what she eats? I pondered this question as I was vacuuming left-over shredded cheese from lunch that was now crusted on the kitchen floor. I mean, my oldest survived for years almost wholly on a diet of bagel bites and tv dinners. By all indications, she seems to be perfectly healthy.

31. Life on the Wild Side with My Favorite Day of the Year
The day dawned hot and humid, as most July days on the Illinois prairie do. It seemed like the cornfields just trapped the heated air, making the plains a natural oven and each day hotter than the next. But as a kid, the heat didn’t bother me; I simply got up, threw on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, and headed outside.

32. Rose Milcetic with Remembering Mom, Grandma and Aunt Lucy!!!!!
When one takes time to think, really think, it's amazing how many avenues of the past the mind wanders through. One of my favorite memories of growing up centers on the wonderful holiday meals and the large friendly kitchen in our home on Van Nest Avenue in the Bronx. Holidays always evoked feelings of enduring love and security that surrounded home and hearth back in the good old days!!!

33. Days Ease Wordlets and Creativities with The Smell of Love
It is back. A deep, nagging, and overwhelming longing has come upon my heart, like a haunting memory that is somehow sweet, though barely recognizable. In an attempt to distract myself, I glance at my unmanicured hands with their unpainted nails and am momentarily disgusted by the deeper, drier lines that have formed across them.

34. City Chic on a Farm with My Six-Cheese Lasagna . . . FINALLY!
This CCOAF is not a cook by any means and I have no interest in cooking what’s so ever, nor do I like any aspect of the whole responsibility. However I have a husband and 3 boys to feed so I need to learn so I can feed my family. Usually I make simple things using frozen food, or box dinners with all the ingredients where you just add the meat, like Hamburger Helper. HH makes me look like I know what I’m doing!

35. Cindy Salazar with Pancake Surprise
Early, morning sunshine glistened through an open kitchen window, giving light to the tiny, dimly-lit room. Trees danced to a classical tune played by the set of shiny, silver windchimes hanging above the patio door. Little feet, twelve little feet, tiptoed into the kitchen, one set of feet larger than the next. Hushed, laughing voices whispered on top of each other as scrambling little hands rummaged through cabinet doors.

35. Dancing with the Daffodils with Love Smells Just Like Peach Cobbler
While shopping for peaches this weekend, I inquired of the woman at the vegetable stand if she might have some in the back that were bruised and too ripe to have on display. I told her I prefer those for making cobbler. She wanted to know the occasion and it started a conversation about cooking and marriage that inspired me to testify about something that works for me.

***

Congratulations to Janet of Pennsauken, New Jersey for winning this weekend's bridal package giveaway from Chic Execs! She'll be seeing treats from Ideal Favors, Lapin Vilardi and Magic Bells.

Sponsored by Wedding Paper Divas for wedding invitations.

June's Write-Away Contest

This month's Write-Away Contest is going to be so summery and good that I'm already excited to give you all the details. The theme is . . . (drumroll) "Food."

I tried to think of a more elegant way to put it but I came up empty and when you get right down to it--plain old "Food" works pretty well. It could be a memory about food, a story where food figures prominently, it could be a mystery story where the victim gets it with a cannoli to the head, it could be an ode to a pair of artichokes, you get to decide.

Food inspires so many memories and emotions that I'm sure you can find something to fit the subject.

This month's guest judge lives in beautiful Italy and knows a thing or two about good food. Michelle from Bleeding Espresso will be judging your entries and selecting the post she deems the best. You can check out her recipe for fried mozzarella if you dare.

This month's prize is a great food treat--the winner will receive a cute little picnic basket with place settings for two plus everything you need for some summer feasting: Swanson chicken, mayonnaise, raisins, Dijon mustard, curry and dill. You'll get recipes for chicken salad and coupons for additional Swanson chicken--all you'll be missing is the picnic partner to join you in your event, though if you're near Alaska anytime soon I'd be happy to take care of that issue as well.

Thank you Swanson Chicken and Campbell's Soup!

To enter please follow the directions below:

1. Write a post or find one in your archives on this month's theme then email your post's permalink to me at scribbit at gmail.com. The permalink is the URL of the individual post--not the URL of your blog--usually found by clicking on the post title or time stamp and copying the URL that appears in the address field. I will accept entries through Sunday June 21st. If you fail to meet that deadline I will still happily publish your link with the list of entries but it will not be judged. I reserve the right to reject submissions if they fail to meet the topic or if they contain objectionable content. Please look for a confirmation email from me within hours saying I received your entry--just to be safe.

2. Publish a link to the contest page here at Scribbit in either your entry post or in a separate post. I'm not picky how you do this, just give the contest a little mention as a courtesy and nod back. Don't stress over it because I won't.

3. Check back here on Tuesday June 23rd when I will post a complete list of the entries along with the Write-Away Winner and three Honorable Mentions.

4. Please remember: I will list the entries along with a small teaser for each. Just the first sentence or two of each post to give people an idea what they might expect if they should be so bold as to click on the entry.

Also, please be aware that while you are welcome to include graphics or photographs with your entries the judge will only see the text of your post. No links, no pictures, no name of your blog, nothing that might identify it to the judge. While visual posts are always beautiful to see on your blog I will only send the text to the judge and your entry will not be able to rely on visuals to influence their judgment.

As always, all featured winners will get to take home this attractive Write-Away Winner button which he or she may display if they wish.

***

Congratulations to Maria of Dundalk, Maryland who won last weekend's double giveaway from Kimochis and Little Stamp. That ought to make summer sweet!

Sponsored by Beau-Coup for unique baby shower favors.

May's Write-Away Winner

Thank you to Teresa Hirst at TJHirst.com for serving as the judge for this month's contest. You must all be out enjoying the great spring weather since there weren't as many entries this month . . . though on the bright side, it should be a manageable list to read if you're in the mood for some spring reading!

So what do you think? Should we give the writing contest a break for the summer while you're out playing? I love reading the entries and seeing your talent but maybe two and a half years of topics means we're due for a break . . .

. . . And the winner is:

Divergent Pathways with Give, Said the Little Stream

Honorable Mentions

Babysteps with Spring it On
Stories for Us with Spring Reawakening
Girls to Grow with Spring Scenes

***

Here are a list of the entries in the order they were received:

1. In the Mom Zone with A Life-Changing Spring
I've been thinking back on all the "Springs" in my life. Thinking hard. Trying to see if there were any Springs that were monumental. Did I learn something? Did I go somewhere? Did something happen to me? In my 30 years of springs, there is exactly one that I keep going back to when I think of Spring with these questions in mind.

2. Stories for Us with Spring Reawakening
It’s been six years since I’ve seen spring. After living in Florida for 5 ½ years, we returned home to Michigan at the end of March – just in time for spring. (And just in time for one last whopping snowfall of five inches!!)

3. Summer's Nook with A Season for Growth
It’s spring time again. Or so I’m told. The changing of seasons, the passing of time holds little meaning for me since my wife died.

4. Babysteps with Spring it On
Today was Zaya's first track meet, and I have to confess that quite a few of my childhood bogeymen came slithering out on this cloudy, thundery spring morning.

5. The Scholastic Scribe with Leslie Geraldine Sherman April 9, 1987-April 16, 2007
Two years ago today, winds gusted up to 60 miles an hour, vanquishing the blossoms from the trees. Mr. Superintendent worried that the hundreds of classroom trailers...known euphemistically in the biz as Learning Cottages...in Our Humble School District were in danger of blowing away, so he closed the schools 3 hours early.

6. I Most Definitely Control the Spice with Cusp Wing
There was a time in the cool cusp of spring that I completely believed that I was a fairy queen. I was little. I didn’t know that there are adults who spell it faerie queene and purchase butterfly wings at Renaissance festivals…I luckily didn’t grow up to become one of those women, although sometimes I wonder if I grew my hair long and put nothing but Lorena McKennett and Dead Can Dance on if I would be transformed for a few minutes.

7. Thrifty Girl with Nomadic Spring
Spring 2006. Move to Atlanta from Tampa. Spring 2007. Move 45 miles across town. Spring 2008. Move another 60 miles back across town, again! May 2009. Stay put!

8. Girls to Grow with Spring Scenes
The sights and sounds of Spring…..

9. Divergent Pathways with Give, Said the Little Stream
Meet the proud owner of a babbling brook. Uh-huh. Me.We have a flowing stream running through our yard. But only about once every three years.

10. Another Day, Another Thought . . . or Two. with I Hate Spring
Okay, maybe hate is a little strong, but Spring is my least favourite season. Summer is about ice cream, vacation, and warm sun on your face. Fall is apple cider, pumpkin pie and crunchy leaves under your feet. Winter is hot chocolate, fireplaces and snow angels. Then there’s Spring.

11. I'm (not) Crazy Mommy with Despicable Drosophila and Other Tales of Spring
I stayed up too late last night. You see, I was waging an epic battle against an enemy both foul and insidious, that wins its wars by sheer number, fortified by an incredibly prolific reproductive ability: Drosophila melanogaster, the common fruit fly.

12. No Sex in the City with Women in Black and the Witch Hunt
This post is not about the women's organization that protests war in Israel or any other part of the world. It's about women wearing black and not standing out in the crowd. Iris Baron, a sexologist and marriage counsellor (link is to her Hebrew site) often mentions the issue of women wearing black at events, meetings, parties. etc.

Sponsored by Unique Wedding Invitations in Paper and Wood by Oslo Press

May's Write-Away Contest Just for You

I'm slow this month, please accept my apologies, I had planned on getting the Write-Away announcement out yesterday (which I why I didn't bother to include it in the newsletter) but I had trouble getting my act together enough to get it ready.

I was busy spring cleaning. I didn't get my shower until 3pm but WOO-eee you should see my kitchen. Talk about spotless!

So for those who emailed asking where the announcement is it's all in my plan to get you worked up enough and get those creative juices flowing because this month's topic is: "Spring."

This could be about the season itself, it could be about an event that you associate with the season. It could be a metaphorical spring, shoot you could maybe even get away with treating it as a verb, I'm generous that way.

As for the prize I have a treat. One of the big things for spring in the U.S. is of course Spring Training. In fact, David has signed up for Little League and had extorted a two-hour game of catch from Spencer to get ready for the big event. So in celebration I have copies of the new 2010 Nintendo Wii game Backyard Baseball game courtesy of Nintendo to give out as a spring treat.

The boys have been playing it for a couple weeks now and loving every minute. David's first love is baseball so it wasn't a stretch.

BUT . . . I have four copies, which I'll be giving out to the Grand Winner as well as the three Honorable Mentions so your odds of winning are greatly improved.

I'll be announcing our guest judge later next week. Just to keep you on the edge of your seat.

To enter please follow the directions below:

1. Write a post or find one in your archives on this month's theme then email your post's permalink to me at scribbit at gmail.com. The permalink is the URL of the individual post--not the URL of your blog--usually found by clicking on the post title or time stamp and copying the URL that appears in the address field. I will accept entries through Wednesday May 20th. If you fail to meet that deadline I will still happily publish your link with the list of entries but it will not be judged. I reserve the right to reject submissions if they fail to meet the topic or if they contain objectionable content. Please look for a confirmation email from me within hours saying I received your entry--just to be safe.

2. Publish a link to the contest page here at Scribbit in either your entry post or in a separate post. I'm not picky how you do this, just give the contest a little mention as a courtesy and nod back. Don't stress over it because I won't.

3. Check back here on Friday May 22nd when I will post a complete list of the entries along with the Write-Away Winner and three Honorable Mentions.

4. Please remember: I will list the entries along with a small teaser for each. Just the first sentence or two of each post to give people an idea what they might expect if they should be so bold as to click on the entry.

Also, please be aware that while you are welcome to include graphics or photographs with your entries the judge will only see the text of your post. No links, no pictures, no name of your blog, nothing that might identify it to the judge. While visual posts are always beautiful to see on your blog I will only send the text to the judge and your entry will not be able to rely on visuals to influence their judgment.

As always, all featured winners will get to take home this attractive Write-Away Winner button which he or she may display if they wish.


Sponsored by Dimples and Dandelions with the Serena and Lily Bedding Collection for children.

April's Write-Away Winner

Thank you to Antique Mommy for serving as the judge for this month's contest--I owe her big time for this--how about dropping by her place and telling her thanks? Not only did she have an eye for good writing (she happened to pick my favorite entry as well) she did a great job of mentioning the contest and encouraging entries. I think this is the most the Write-Away Contest has seen yet.

And my thanks to our 58 entrants. I appreciate every one of you too--I hope each of you have a wonderful Mother's Day!

. . . And the winner is:

The Happy Geek with Derrick's Mom

Honorable Mentions

The Chickadee Feeder with Sunday Nap
Mommy Snark with To My Fourth Child
Experience Imagination with Clothes Make the Mom

***

Here are a list of the entries in the order they were received:

1. Babysteps with It's Official
I am raising science geeks, and thanks to a 50 cent thrift store box of science experiments, I've got the photographic proof.

2. Glacier Racing with What They Hear
I love you. You can't be hungry again. Winnie the Pooh goes on the front, unless he's on the INside. USE YOUR INSIDE VOICE.

3. Experience Imagination with Clothes Make the Mom
Our neighbors are having a tree taken down in their yard today. If I lean my head forward until it's almost touching the monitor, I can watch the workmen outside my window. They are all decked out in hard hats and safety goggles and workboots that probably have steel reinforced toes.

4. Experience Imagination with Unexpected Grief
I didn’t think I’d feel this way. It’s like I’m losing a baby. As if I really have been pregnant these past several days and now I no longer am. I never considered that losing a dream can seem just as traumatic as losing a child—even when it’s only a temporary loss.

5. Experience Imagination with Losing and Letting Go
Dear Mother, I don't know if every mother is like this or if I'm especially morbid. Ever since my daughter was born, I've had visions of losing her to an accident or sudden illness. Maybe everybody has these fears, but if we all share them, we certainly don't talk much about it.

6. Experience Imagination with Daughter of Laughter
Today would have been my mom's 66th birthday. She died just three months after her 49th. Her first grandchild was born a month later. When I think of my mom, I think of big dangley clip-on earrings. I think of painted fingernails and tea with honey. I remember homemade birthday cakes that she and my dad painstakingly decorated with their Wilton decorator set.

7. Semantically Driven with Missing My Son
Just about whenever I go out for the evening I end up talking to whoever will listen about my son. I don’t go out that often without him and you’d think that one night off without all thought of him wouldn’t be that hard but it usually doesn’t happen.

8. Momma Mindy's Moments with How to Torture a Teenager
One day I had to run errands with all the kids still living at home. Had to. I had to take the older kids because they were the ones that needed to go to the bank. I had to take the younger kids because I had no babysitter.

9. Just Mom's Musings with My Peter Pan
"Where are you taking me?" I ask my son as he grabs my hand and enthusiastically leads me to an unknown destination. "To Neverland," he says. "You be Wendy, and I'll be Peter Pan." Peter Pan. The boy who wouldn't grow up.

10. Our Moments Our Memories with Chasing Bubbles, Chasing Dreams
There is chicken thawing on the counter, and laundry in the dryer. Floors to be vacuumed. Blogs to be read. "Mama! Can we blow bubbles? Come outside!" I sigh. Interrupted.

11. Sara in Vermont with A Day at Your Mother's House
You see that the new dog beds you had shipped for Christmas are sitting on top of the dog crates, instead of in them. I was waiting until I cleaned the crates, says your mother. You know this is never going to happen, so you clean the crates and wash the old dog bed covers, and put the new beds within.

12. Mommy Snark with To My Fourth Child
I wouldn't call you an accident. I understand the workings of basic biology... cause, and effect. But then, I didn't really put you there on purpose either. One day, you just were. A part of me, growing, consuming, becoming.

13. The Sojourner with The Things My Momma Taught Me
Today would have been my mother's 69th birthday. That is, if she had not died 20 years ago. My mom was an amazing woman and left us all too soon, but I have so many wonderful memories of her. I also have a lot of unanswered questions, but those will have to remain unanswered for now because there is no one left to answer them.

14. The Chickadee Feeder with Sunday Nap
I have been doing this for a long time. I had been raised to know that the only reason for being in bed in the daytime would be because you’re sick. Besides, I would miss all the action (so-to-speak) if I were in another room. So the living room couch is the place to be when taking a Sunday nap.

15. Finding La Dolce Vita with The Mopine
All mothers have a virtual treasure box they employ for the formidable task of raising a child. Some tools inside the box are visible, like rainbow colored crayons, a special and well loved stuffed animal, or a book that's tattered and bent from being read more times than she dares to count. There are magical mommy kisses that heal the boo-boo.

16. The Mommylogues with It's Possible!
Ok. I must confess one of my many horrible mother moments to tell this story. At the Christmas program for Sunday School, my children were the ones running up part way through the first song. Of two songs. Completely my fault. Although in my partial defense, they started a little early.

17. Chocolate and Garlic with I Am the Velveteen Rabbit
I am the Velveteen Rabbit. Today, Kate was ill. She threw up on me at least five times. I did a lot of laundry. I didn’t have time to shower. The few presentable items of clothing I own (due to my body’s odyssey through pregnancy and nursing) are now distinctly unpresentable.

18. Seeds from My Garden with Lifetime Warranty
When my children were little, it was just natural for me to be there and meet all their needs. It was normal to honor the "warranty". But as they grew up and moved out, I realized that the warranty became a lifetime commitment. Naturally, as a mother I never want them to need anything, yet I have come to realize that I cannot BE everything to them anymore.

19. Blog o' Beth with Okay Mom, You Were Right
Mom, I’m sorry.You were right. One of the most surprising things about becoming a mother is realizing in a lightning-bolt-flash of a moment that your mother had been right. Indeed, she was right about so many things. I want to take a moment and let my mom wallow in her “rightness”.

20. It's Always a Production with An Anniversary
Wednesday was an anniversary (of sorts) for me. June 28th 2003, a sunny Saturday afernoon, my mom lost her battle with cancer. Three years....yet I can still remember the day as though it were yesterday. I was with her on that day. The day my precious precious mom slipped slowly out of my life and into the arms of Jesus.

21. One Thing with Perfektion
When I used to daydream about becoming a mother, I wasn’t completely naive. I knew there was more to it than the highly-romantic Similac commercials made it out to be. After all, I had a mother myself, and although she made the job look like just about the Best Thing Going, I knew it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. I knew it could be trying. I knew it could even be, at times, A Challenge.

22. Divergent Pathways with A Mother's Reach
One summer I learned the extent of my mother's reach: It spanned exactly one continent, one ocean, and one channel, traversing halfway up the UK to a little farming community so small even the buses don't travel there.

23. Divergent Pathways with --And Don't Tell Anyone You're My Mother (She Said Sweetly)
That's not the worst thing anyone's said to me. But it's what my teenage daughter, The Princess, said as she reminded me about volunteering at her school today. Only it's better than that. Because the sentence actually began, "Remember, try to look pretty–and don't tell anyone you're my mom, okay?"

24. Divergent Pathways with Mother of All Weeks
It's my mom's birthday today. She'd be turning 71, if she were still alive. This is always a loaded time for me: Mom's birthday and Mother's Day, both crammed into one emotionally-charged week.

25. Welcome to Married Life with Mother's Day
Mother's Day is one month from today. I am a mother. This will be my third Mother's Day with my little guy. He is a blessing and a treasure. Every day he surprises me with the things he says and does. He brings me hugs and smiles and sticky treasures. I read to him and play with him and dance with him.

26. Green Green Grass of Home with Parenting 101
On the day my first child was born, I said to myself that I would be the best parent ever! I would make all the right decisions and my child would grow up to be the most amazing adult that ever walked the earth- all b/c I was so good at raising her.

27. Summer's Nook with Being a Mother
School would be out in 15 minutes. I had arrived early and pulled into a space facing my sons classroom. Only a moment later the school doors swung open and thirty or so kindergartners swarmed out onto the playground to savor a bit of the warm day, the first we’d had in a week.

28. Becoming Me with The Ledge
He measures 14 inches shorter and weighs 12 pounds less than his sister who drew her first breath more than three years before air brushed against his round face. Those facts hold little significance in Z-man's toddler-sized mind. He is not easily daunted by his limitations...he rarely recognizes their existence.

29. Tara's World with A Gentle Reminder
Every spring I remember a bit of advice passed on from a wiser older woman to my mother. I remember this bit of advice every time my little boys bring me dandelion bouquets with grubby little hands. Little eyes light up when I express my gratitude over a simple love offering.

30. Jewelz Sightings with It's Not My Mother's Voice
Sometimes the regrets of my life, overwhelm me. I wish I could go back to the beginning with what I now know. I ache when I see how the enemy has used my actions to speak to those I love.

31. Mom of 3 Girls with Broken
There once was a little girl. Who lived in a typical house in a nice neighborhood. She had a mother and a father, two sisters and a brother.

32. Drifting Divergence with Totally Full and Yet Half Empty
Tonite 14 and I were working the volleyball concession stand at 15's High School game. I have been able to send him to private school (the right move for him~his sister has NO interest in his school) and people from his middle school kept coming by to say hi.

33. TJ Hirst.com with Why Being a Mom Isn't Hard
No one would argue that a mom’s work is hard. Other moms know how it is. Fathers wouldn’t dare to disagree. Recently, I took time away with a friend, and what did we do? We chatted over parenting struggles. I found myself saying things like, “that sounds hard” or “that is a hard stage”. I said it over and over again, almost without even thinking, until I stopped and heard myself.

34. Dancing with the Daffodils with A Steel Magnolia
My Mom was a steel magnolia long before the popular movie acquainted the masses with the term that describes a southern woman who is strong and independent yet very feminine. In fact, she comes from a long line of steel magnolias that weave a colorful history.

35. Rebecca's Writing Practices with "I Can" Versus "I Can't"
I’ve never had incredible self confidence, and I always second guess my abilities. Taking on the role of mother is still incredibly daunting to me, even eighteen months after my son’s birth. But the process of giving birth has so much to do with how I still approach motherhood.

36. Beanish and Other Languages I'm Learning with A Beanish Birthday
Today, is an auspicious day. Three years ago today, T and I waited in the hospital for The Bean to enter this world so much earlier than she should have. She changed us from the moment we began yearning for her, from our first knowledge of her, from that first breath that she drew, from the first time we held her.

37. I'm So Funny with One Word
There is one word that is always appropriate. This word is there no matter what the circumstance. Joy and pain. Trials and triumphs. Ups and downs. Sickness and health. Obstacles and open roads. Wonder and boredom. Love and annoyance. Hopefully more love. As unbelievable as it may sound, this one word can bring incredible comfort and total terror all in the same utterance.

38. Ceaseless Praises with Who's Grown More?
I have been a mom for 16 months now. Well, 25 months, technically, but when that baby's BORN, that's when everything changes. And do you know who has changed the most in the last sixteen months??? I have.

39. A Look into My World with Nobody Told Me
In the few short weeks since I became a mother, I have wondered why nobody told me what I was in for. While I was pregnant, other mothers advised that I should sleep while I had the chance, and warned that labor and delivery would be the easy part. But nobody really prepared me for what to expect once the journey began.

40. The Happy Geek with Derrick's Mom
We run into each other every week. Her son is in the swimming class after my son. But this week was different. This week I saw her. She was easy to miss. Her son commands attention. He is big, loud and talks all the blessed time. He is a wonderful, loving boy who is profoundly delayed. She is as quiet as he is loud and usually blends into the background.

41. My Neurotic Spot with My Unanswered Prayer
I stood there in my bathroom before leaving for the hospital, looking down at my hands on my stomach and scared in a way I'd never been before. I didn't care if it was normal or not to talk to your stomach, I did it anyway. "Stay put, you just stay right there. Please, little one, just stay in there."

42. Life . . . Exaggerated with Getting over Being Stoic
My mom did an amazing job raising me, if I do say so myself. She has always been thoughtful and caring. From the beginning, she wanted me to grow up right and proper. She taught me right from wrong. She has dozens of close friends and tirelessly keeps up with all of them.

43. My Brown Baby with A Love Letter to My Unborn Child
My dear, sweet first baby, this is the only letter I’ve written to someone who isn’t even alive yet. I wonder what it’s like for you where you are now. I wonder if you’re getting impatient with me and anxious at the same time to come down to this world. I imagine you may be a little nervous too; it’s a scary place sometimes. But don’t worry—I’ll take good care of you.

44. Perspicacity with I'm Regretting Letting You Fly
I don’t remember who answered the phone that night. I suspect it was initially my father, who sleeps closer to the phone and has killer reflexes when woken abruptly at 3am. But it’s my mom’s voice I remember, calm, sleepy but alert. She told me they were praying. She told me to call in the morning. She told me she loved me, and she asked if I wanted her to come.

45. My Back Door with We Put the "Special" in Special Needs
I don't know about your high school, but in mine we would have these inspirational speakers come once or twice a year to encourage us to avoid the trifecta of stupid mistakes you could make in your teenage years: prison, drugs and pregnancy. I only remember one speaker who specialized in avoiding the pitfalls on the road to prison.

46. My Back Door with Cooking Class
Have you ever wondered why there are never any small children helping on cooking shows like Rachel Ray and Emeril? I have seen some children helping but never under the age of nine. It is because the shows would have to be taped from a padded room--you would have to be clinically insane to attempt measuring, stirring and any -ing with the little guys.

47. Eat Your Veggies! with Empty Nesters
College Girl and The Wild One leave for college today. They'll spend about 14 hours on the road in a 2001 Honda Civic, en route to Larry U. The car is packed to the gills, of course! CG's gonna be a Big Bad Senior, while her younger sister will be a Tiny Little Froshie.

48. Whee! All the Way Home with Who Is a Mom?
I wonder if it stops for others, the turning their heads in the direction of the voice of an appropriately aged child of indiscriminate gender. As their children age and leave early childhood and then childhood itself, do they stop spinning in response to the word shouted across the aisles? I don’t recall noticing older women doing it, so I imagine the reaction is less instinctive and more learned.

49. Refresh Moments with A Pregnant Pause
I have two boys--one born under the influence of an epidural, and one born drug-free. I know, you're expecting me to say that I asked the anesthesiologist to marry me, or go on about how you don't really "forget all the pain" in a drug-free birth, but none of that's true. I actually preferred the drug-free birth.

50. The Scholastic Scribe with Happy Mom's Day!
Several of my memories of Mom center around birthday parties and cakes. Having the entire 2nd grade (including the teacher) over for a fete under the crabapple trees in our suburban NY yard; later, after we'd moved to Big D, staying up 'til all hours waiting for Her Eldest (moi) to arrive home from college and greeting me with a Sara Lee Banana Cake (at the time my very fave, but apparently discontinued), candles and all.

51. Morning Mist and Scattered Clouds with Strength for the "Do-Not-Die" Program
Strength. That is a word that epitomizes my Grandmother. She needed it. Little did she know the amount of strength she would need to run her race.

52.On Ruby's Hill with Real Mom
"Mom...when is M going back to his real mom?" At the kitchen counter, back towards the boys, I stop breathing for a split second, compose, compose. Big M is quiet all of the sudden. A rare quiet moment because, Big M is rarely quiet. "I am the real mom". Please let that be the end. I turn around and compose my face to show a calm reaction.

53. BeeMusing with A Mother's Arms
It’s one of her earliest childhood memories - she and her two little sisters standing in the middle of the tiny living room holding tightly to each other. She doesn’t remember what their pajamas looked like, or whether or not they had messy bed hair.

54. Alaska Mom with The Influence of a Mom
"I am just a Mom", she said timidly as she introduced herself. She had been asked by her son to attend a banquet in his honor. One of his professors had asked her what she did for a living. I'm just a mom she said again. Little did that professor know what she had done for her son. She had helped him overcome great obstacles in his life.

55. Inkling Writes with Because That Grin Is for Me
I got a new name on January 7, 2009. My name is Mama, sometimes Mommy, or just that woman who has a reason for getting up in the morning with a smile.

56. Our Own Private Idaho with Little Blue Sleeper
Our neighbor delivered a son about a month ago, and a surprising amount of Alli's pretending revolves around Baby Jack. She calls her brothers Baby Jack, she pretends to be Baby Jack, and all of her dolls have gone from names like Pink Baby and Sareesa to--you guessed it---Baby Jack.

57. Diapers and Divinity with My Life Was an Inspirational Movie
Life as a mother of young children usually bounces back and forth between chaotic and monotonous, but there are occasionally profound moments that remind you of the power and importance behind what you’re doing, and without sounding overdramatic, your place in the universe.

58. My Thoughts on That with Not the Worst Day
This past Thursday was an important day here. It was the day the boy was going to compete in the Math Olympics. He won this honor by getting one of the highest scores on a test the class took. He would be representing his school in the area of third grade computation.

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Congratulations to Rory of Bayport, Minnesota won the sterling silver mini medallion from The Fine Art of Family this weekend--just in time for a lovely Mother's Day gift!

Sponsored by Tiny Prints for the holiday party invitations for children.