Tag: group-writing-project

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Contests

June Group Writing Project Finale

I do have to start off the post with a little shoutout: Happy birthday to my sister, Jaime!

Time for the grand finale of the June MamaBlogga Group Writing Project.

That brings our total count of submissions—all most excellent!—to 39 40 (with one late entry). Even though I got a little off in my count during the week, we more than doubled from last time’s number!

All entries
Here is the complete list of entries that qualify for the prize:

Of course, we want to give a huge thank you to everyone who participated. I would love to know how each of you came to find the group writing project and decide to participate, and I hope that you’ll stick around MamaBlogga (and not just for next month’s GWP!).

Without further ado…

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

Okay, Listen Up! by bellevelma

Congratulations, Bellevelma! The gift certificate is winging its way to you from Amazon right now! (I think it’s funny that the only person who specifically said what she’d do with the gift certificate happened to be the same entry randomly picked by the random integer generator, don’t you?)

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

One late entry brought our grand total to 40. Thanks, Diane!

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Kids/Parenting Faith

Three Things for Hayden

I really didn’t intend for the June Group Writing Project to become a serious repository for the three most important things ever in your life. I figured most people would take a light-hearted approach, especially after the ever-so-serious topic for May, “Dear Children. . .” I was bowled over by how introspective and thought-provoking many (perhaps most) of the posts turned out.

And now I feel as though I should share the three things that I really want for Hayden. The things I worry about on nights when it’s too hot to sleep, when I see other women’s children alone in the world, when I am alone in a quiet house, not working.

Hayden, if ever you read this (and I’m rather confident you will, since nothing is ever lost on the Internet, and I have yet to throw away a computer), these are the three most important things I can tell you:

  1. Love God with all your heart, might, mind and strength. Keep your eye single to His glory. Do the best that you can—and sometimes, even better—and He will strengthen you in this life and make you more than you could have imagined. (To say nothing of the next life!)
  2. Love your future wife. Always be faithful to her, whomever she is, whatever she may be doing—starting now. Life your life to be worthy of her that when you finally meet her, you will be ready to marry her.
  3. O be wise; what can I say more? I know that you are young, and are not yet wise.  But many, many, many wise people have lived before us.  I will try to teach you the things which they have learned from sad experience, that you will not have to make the difficult, painful mistakes that so many of us make.  I cannot tell you all the things that may happen to you if you make poor choices, but I can tell you the most important things you can do in this life to make you and those around you truly happy.

Stay tuned for this afternoon’s announcement of the June Group Writing Project Winner!

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Kids/Parenting Contests

June Group Writing Project Day Six

For our last day in the June Group Writing Project, we have two more great entries, to bring the total number of entries to THIRTY-EIGHT! So don’t forget to read and comment on our last two entries, and stay tuned Monday to find out who wins the $30 Amazon Gift Card!

Three things I’d like Hayden to stop:

  1. Waking up so early. This month, I made a goal to get up at 7 so I’d have an extra hour to work. Hayden, apparently, made a goal to defeat everything I ever do, so he began waking at 7:15 (instead of 8 or 8:30). Today he woke up at 6:45 (which is okay; I don’t work on Sundays, but still. I was hoping to sleep in).
  2. Being a total monster at church. Every other day of the week, he can’t be forced to take a nap in the morning, no matter how tired and grumpy he is. Sundays, he can hardly make it through the 9-10AM hour (the beginning of church) without throwing a fit or having a major meltdown. And guess what? After that, we have two more hours of church. Hayden hasn’t seen the end of church in probably six weeks. I pity the nursery teachers who’ll have to deal with him starting next month (hooray!—although I’m sure he’ll be fine for them.)
  3. Switching between a one nap schedule and a two nap schedule. Okay, kid, I know you want to be a big boy. Here’s your chance: either wake up at 8 and take one long nap in the afternoon or wake up at 7 and take two naps. Stop switching schedules back and forth, stop taking a two hour morning nap and expecting to stay awake from 11 AM to 8 PM, and stop sitting in bed talking, screaming and yelling for an hour when I put you down and you were yawning and grumpy.

Don’t forget to check in Monday (this is for you, not Hayden) to read my final list of three things, see the full list of entries and, of course, find out who won the gift certificate!

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Contests

June Group Writing Project Day Five

We’re getting near the end of the June Group Writing Project. Today we have four more great entries, bringing the total to 36. Very awesome!

Once again, thanks to everyone who’s participated, and don’t forget to submit your entries before tomorrow’s deadline!

Today, I’ll take my cue from several of our entries thus far and come up with three things I want Hayden to know about me:

  1. I love God. And I try to live my life to show Him that.
  2. I love my family: my son, my husband, my parents, my sisters, my in-laws and all my extended family. Whenever they’re far from me, I miss them. (And yes, that includes you, Hayden!)
  3. I love learning. To be honest, I really loved school. I do want to go back, even if I haven’t definitively decided what to study (I’ve got more than a decade to do that!). Along with learning, I love teaching. I actually don’t mind public speaking if it’s in anyway instructive. (Which is why I didn’t really mind when Ryan volunteered me to speak in church last month.)

Don’t forget to submit your entries—tomorrow is the last day for submissions!

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Contests

June Group Writing Project Day Four

Once again, we have some amazing entries in our June Group Writing Project! Today we have nine more entries, bringing our total to 32 entries. I’m way excited about the number of entries—but more excited about the caliber of all the entries!

So, once again, read comment and don’t forget to submit your entries!

Today, three things I want Hayden to remember so far in his life:

  1. Marty. His beloved monkey. It’s no coincidence, I think, that a monkey’s screeches are the first animal sound he learned to imitate.
  2. His songs. We sing “Baby Beluga” before every nap and bedtime, but I also want him to remember three special songs that we sing from time to time: “Today,” (sung by my mother to my sisters and me, and by my sisters at my wedding), “Bike Rider” (all five verses, plus any that we make up in the future) and “My Boy is Handsome” (the last two were written by Ryan and me especially for Hayden).
  3. Giggles! Today I was working and I heard Hayden laughing uproariously. He doesn’t laugh like that unless someone’s tickling him or being very silly, so it was weird to hear him laugh like that while playing by himself. (It was the cat.) He was in a strange mood most of the day—grumpy, but very prone to hysterical giggles. He especially liked being chased and being my “puppet” to “play” the drums.
      Don’t forget to submit your entry; the deadline is Saturday!
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Kids/Parenting Ryan/Married Life Fulfillment Contests

June Group Writing Project Day Three

Wow, I’m going to run out of great things to say about the excellent entries for the June group writing project that are still coming in!

Today, we have seven more entries, bringing the total of submitted entries to 23!

Once again, read, share and comment—and don’t forget to submit your entries!

Today, three things I want my son to do just like his daddy:

  1. Be good. I once asked my husband what was the worst punishment his parents had ever given him. He couldn’t think of anything. He’d never done anything to be grounded or anything. (His mother has told me many times that he never gave them a minute of trouble or worry!)
  2. Be sweet. When I first met Ryan, I was deceived by what I perceived to be a “bad boy” act. He is really a good person—and very sweet (to me). If Hayden can be as gentle, caring and supportive to his wife as Ryan is to me, she’ll be a most lucky woman.
  3. Be dedicated to the best things. Ryan has been dedicated to all the right things in his life, from his (our) beliefs to a strict code of behavior (see #1) to his job to our family. He has his priorities right and has made sacrifices throughout his life, some of which have not been easy, to follow the higher good.

Okay, the honest-to-goodness truth: when I found out we were having a boy, I begged Ryan to let our son be just like him. He didn’t make any promises (darn!), but if I can say about my son what Ryan’s mother can say about him in 25 years, I will feel as though I’ve done better than my best as a mother (and, I hope, feel supremely fulfilled in my role as mother!).