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Contests

September GWP Day Two

Once again, we have nine excellent entries to share in the September Group Writing Project! Go read these great entries about the joy—and the sacrifice—that is motherhood!

And don’t forget to submit your entry today!


Motherhood is . . . a full time job. That works all three shifts. Every day. And weekends.

It’s acknowledging, with (or without) the crush of self-defeat, that it’s been three days since you’ve done dishes or laundry, and that hour number seven of television probably isn’t the best thing for your toddler. If only he’d learn to turn it off for you. . .

It’s the slow rise of accomplishment deep in your heart as you realize that you’ve worked hard to care for, provide for and enjoy your family—and you’re really on top of it (for now).

Categories
Contests

September GWP Day One

Once again, we’re off to a great start with this month’s Group Writing Project! With nine entries today, this makes today the best day one ever!

Today’s entries reflect the wide range of experience that is motherhood. Some reflect the difficult times we all go through; some focus on the beautiful times we live for; many of them highlight both! Definitely read—and empathize with—all of today’s entries!

Don’t forget to submit your entries!


Motherhood is . . . actually smiling when you find your child’s book in the pantry, his ball in your bedroom and his hat on the couch.

Categories
Contests

September MamaBlogga Group Writing Project

This writing project has ended. Please view the full list of wonderful entries at the September GWP Finale, and subscribe to MamaBlogga to find out about the next group writing project!

After May’s, June’s and July’s Group Writing Projects, were such a success, we’re gonna do it again. It’s time for the September MamaBlogga Group Writing Project!

The theme for the September Group Writing Project is “What is motherhood?” We’re writing about how we define motherhood. 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, addressed to your mother, a mother figure, your mother-in-law, 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 3 September 2007) are eligible. Posts must be submitted through the submission form before Saturday, 6 September 2007.

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!). Last week, I came up with five ways to 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, 10 September 2007).

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.

Now get writing!

Categories
Contests

July Group Writing Project Finale

With twenty-eight twenty-nine awesome entries, I’m happy to say that the July Group Writing Project has gone very well, in spite of my intermittent maintenance as I traveled for my brother-in-law’s wedding (which was lovely!). Without making you wait a moment more, here is the final list of entries:

All of these great entries clearly took time and consideration. Read through them and find inspiration from adults and mothers now thanking their own mothers for everything from hair color and blue jeans to looking forward to spending time with them and creating simple memories. I hope you’ll find someone offering thanks for the very thankless thing that you’re struggling with doing for your children now, wondering whether they’ll ever appreciate your efforts. And I hope that they do appreciate your efforts.

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>…

Thanks, Mommy! by Stacey @ Look, Mom, Look!

Congratulations, Stacey, on not only winning the gift certificate (again, she was chosen at random!) but also on writing a most excellent entry! The gift certificate will be winging its way to you soon!


Still working on your entry? Even though we’ve awarded our prize, we’ll continue to accept, read, link to and comment on submissions through next week.

Categories
Contests

July GWP Days Four and Five

A strong finish for our last two days: eleven great entries for the July Group Writing Project, and once again all these entries are of the highest quality! Again, we have a wide range of thanks for everything from simple memories to Levi’s. As always, read, comment and enjoy!


A simple one for today: thank you, mom, for being such a good example of a stay-at-home mom. When I was little, it was difficult for me to understand that there was any other kind of mom.

But you were never “just” a mom to us. Thank you for proving that you can—and even should—be there with your kids.

Tune in Monday to get the final list and find out who wins the $30 prize!

Categories
Kids/Parenting

Right from wrong

Dear Mom,

Thank you for teaching us right from wrong. It’s so easy these days to let children and teenagers just do whatever they want. I see it all the time. Everything from letting children run wild in public places, trample strangers and ignore basic courtesies to passively allowing teenagers to engage in any behavior they think will make them happy. “Standards are antequated,” everyone seems to say today. “Kids are going to do what they want anyway.”

While some teenagers and children will always do what they want no matter what you say or do, that doesn’t mean that we should just give up and let our children run amuck. Just because a child or teenager wants to do something or thinks that it will make him or her happy in the short run doesn’t mean it’s actually a good idea.

And my mom knows all this. She knows the pressures of raising teenagers today—just six years ago, she had four daughters at home. We didn’t grow up in some idyllic time when it was easy for teens to choose the right. We dealt with pressures and my mother did everything in her power to steel us against them.

And she did quite well. To date, my three sisters and I have yet to make the big, life-altering bad choices that I’m so very afraid my children will make one day. When my mother was asked to teach a class on coping with children who go astray at a church women’s conference, she told me with visible mirth—it was the third year in a row she was teaching a class on something she felt she had little personal experience with.

And it’s not a coincidence. My mom didn’t just end up with good ones. That contributed to this outcome, certainly, but without proper standards instilled in our minds and our hearts, even good children wouldn’t have made the same choices we did. I also think that having these standards rooted in something concrete to us, our religion, reinforced them in a way that an amorphous “you should do this because it’s right/it’s for your own good/I said so” never could.

So thank you, Mom, for what was probably one of the most important gifts you’ve given to us. I know sometimes it was hard and my reactions to the rules (not the rules themselves, as I almost wrote) strained our relationship from time to time. But honestly, looking back, sometimes I wish the rules had been stricter.

Thank you for caring about us enough to work so hard to instill core values in us. And thanks especially for proving to me that it can be done, even in this day and age, and that it’s worth it.

Love,
Jordan