Category: Contests

Contests and monthly group writing projects from MamaBlogga: mom’s search for meaning.

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Contests

August Group Writing Project

It’s been a really long time—a MamaBlogga Group Writing Project is way overdue. Starting in on your suggestions (with more topics to come from your comments soon!), the theme for the August Group Writing Project is “Before I was a mom.”

MamaBlogga Group Writing Project badgeAs always, feel free to go in any direction that appeals to you. Even if you don’t choose to participate, you can encourage others to participate!

  • Your post can take any form as long as it reflects this theme—this includes anything from serious to sarcastic, about your children, your future children, your pet, etc.
  • You can participate with a blog post, a podcast, a video, a page on your website, etc., etc. If you don’t have a website, contact me and I’ll be happy to publish your entry here on MamaBlogga.
  • Only NEW posts (i.e., posts have not been published prior to 10 August 2009) are eligible. Posts must be submitted through the submission form before Monday, 17 August 2009.

Why participate?
There are lots of reasons to participate! All entries that meet the guidelines will be listed and linked to here on MamaBlogga. This an opportunity for you to discover new blogs (and for others to discover yours!). Also, see how you can get the most out of the GWP.

And, of course, there is one more incentive: one lucky post author, drawn at random, will receive a $30 gift certificate to Amazon.com (to be announced Monday, 17 August 2009).

Finally, we’d appreciate it if you linked to this post or to the guidelines/submission form on your entry post so that others can learn about the project and participate.

Get the badge!
Copy and paste this code to get the MamaBlogga GWP badge above (it includes a link back here, but I’d still appreciate a text link, too).

<a href="http://www.mamablogga.com/august-2009-group-writing-project/"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3513/3809317958_29e3f156e4_m.jpg" alt="MamaBlogga Group Writing Project" title="MamaBlogga Group Writing Project" /></a>

Previous Group Writing Projects:

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Contests

GWP ideas

It’s been a while since we’ve had a group writing project. Let’s get one together for August.

But . . . um . . . I got nothing. What should our next group writing project be on?

Refresher: a group writing project is one where I pick a very general topic and throughout the chosen week, participants post on their blogs about the topic. I link to them all here so everyone can read, comment and learn. One entry is chosen at random to receive a $30 Amazon gift certificate!

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Kids/Parenting Contests

Solid!

Once upon a time, Rebecca liked solid foods. Okay, well, she liked bananas like two times. But at eight months, she’s once again nursing exclusively.

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Baby: folds for easy storage convenience!

I think it had something to do with the entire month she spent with teeth painfully bulging her gums. The closest she came to solids was a steady stream of Tylenol.

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Also, she had the dreaded car pox

We tried a variety of foods; we gave her teething biscuits; we let her hold saltines. The only thing she had any interest in sticking in her mouth was the bottle of the aforementioned medicine.

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Silly Mommy. I don’t want this!

One tooth finally came through last Friday and the second this Friday. But that wasn’t what it took to get her interested in solids.

Yesterday, I had some beef stew. She found my empty bowl very interesting, so I tried to tease her with a little of the leftover sauce in a spoon.

She ate it. She ate and ate and ate until I couldn’t scrape together enough to put in her mouth anymore. I fetched half a teething biscuit; she suddenly understood where that was supposed to go. She went to town on some saltines.

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Nummy!

We haven’t attempted any more solids today, but here’s hoping she’ll be interested when we do!

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Contests

January/February Group Writing Project Finale

To those of you who entered the January/February Group Writing Project: I didn’t forget you! We’ve had a lot going on around here and it’s far from over, but I couldn’t put this off any longer.

We have a great array of entries on the theme of “choosing happiness,” many of them dealing with trials and faith:

Now, feel free to spread the link love by copying the above list (instructions) and posting it to your own blog. Believe me—they all deserve it.

The Winna!
Chosen at random the winner of our prize, a $30 Amazon.com gift certificate, is <drum roll>…

Fog by An Ordinary Mom

Congratulations, AOM, on not only winning the gift certificate (again, she was chosen at random!) but also on continuing to work through difficult times. The gift certificate will be winging its way to you soon!

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Contests

GWP: Choosing Happiness Part III

We’re finishing up the January group writing project on choosing happiness, and our last four entries are all stellar!

So read, comment, and keep your eyes open for the finale and the full list tomorrow!

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Fulfillment Contests

Finding and choosing happiness

At my sister-in-law’s house, she has a painting that says, “We tend to seek happiness when happiness is actually a choice.” (I’ve mentioned this before, but I finally found where I wrote down the quote.)

I think that happiness and fulfillment have that in common—we think we’ll find these things and voilà—we’ll be set for life. Fulfillment and happiness do seem to go hand in hand. But for both of them, it is in the end a choice. To feel happy or fulfilled, we have to choose to be, not just seek them and wait for them to be bestowed upon us.

Granted, it’s also not just as easy as deciding “Yeah, I’m going to be happy now” or “Yeah, I’m going to be fulfilled now.” It’s something that we have to recapture every day. I think it’s like a Harold B. Lee quotation about personal testimonies: “Testimony isn’t something you have today, and you are going to have always. A testimony is fragile. It is as hard to hold as a moonbeam. It is something you have to recapture every day of your life.”

So I’ve tried to recapture that happiness every day by focusing on the times and actions that do make me think I wouldn’t give this up for anything. Times like Hayden voluntarily walking into Rebecca’s room as she’s struggling to fall asleep and singing her to sleep; Rebecca craning her neck just to catch a glimpse of me; Hayden asking to snuggle with me; Rebecca’s delighted squeals.

I choose to find happiness every day in the little things, and I hope that by choosing happiness, I’m choosing fulfillment, too.

For the Choosing Happiness Group Writing Project—accepting submissions until midnight tonight!