Archives for April 2008

American Idol – Top 7

15 April 2008 by

I haven’t seen tonight’s AI yet because I’m out of town (I’m in Nashville and have had THE BEST DAY – more on that later), but I’m going to go ahead and put up the Mr. Linky because, well, I will develop some sort of nervous tic if I don’t. Because every Tuesday night I’m supposed to put up a Mr. Linky for AI. That is what I do.

So link away, my friends. And I’ll play catch-up sometime in the next day or two.

Finally, please make sure you link to your specific post – not your general URL.

Thank you ever so much, oh Idol-watching internets.

See y’all tomorrow.

Filed Under: Rambling

Help Us, Help Us, Somebody Please Help Us

15 April 2008 by

So Melanie, Shannon and I are in the beginning stages of planning for our little bloggy seminar at SheSpeaks in June. Honestly, I’m a little surprised that we’re planning so far in advance – because typically I don’t plan anything way in advance unless I’m trying to set some very ambitious hair goals.

And there’s still time for that, my friends.

Anyway, we’ve started to talk about what we’d like to cover during our first session, and we’ve realized that we would benefit from some insight and assistance from the internets.

So if you wouldn’t mind, it would be really helpful if you could briefly answer these questions in the comments or in an email (and no need to answer here if you’ve already said all you have to say over at Mel’s or Shannon’s, unless of course you’d just like to repeat yourself, and that is perfectly fine with me, I repeat myself all day long):

1. What part of blogging brings you the most joy and satisfaction? Relationships? Having an outlet for writing? Reading? Commenting? Building your traffic? Something else?

2. What is the most frustrating part of blogging for you?

3. If you had to give someone one piece of advice about blogging, what would it be?

4. What do you know about blogging now that you WISH you had known when you started your blog?

5. What draws you to the blogs you read regularly? What elevates a blog to “daily read” status?

You can answer any or all of these, and if you’d like to do that on your own blog, that’s great – just send me a link to your post.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some hair goals to solidify.

I mean, June will be here before you know it, y’all.

And time’s a wastin’, oh yes it is.

Filed Under: Rambling

Thanks To You…

14 April 2008 by

…fourteen fifteen children – seven> eight of whom are orphans – have been rescued from poverty today!

FOURTEEN! FIFTEEN! CHILDREN!

That’s extraordinary, internets. Thank you so much.

There is still one orphan – Adera – who hasn’t been sponsored yet. So if you’d like to help him, just click on his name. (he’s been sponsored! yay!)

And here’s what I know for sure: as thankful as I am for what y’all have done, I can’t even being to comprehend how grateful those children will be when they find out that they’ve been sponsored.

Thank you so much, everybody. A million times.

Thank you.

I cannot say it enough.

As of 6 AM central time Tuesday morning:

Y’all ROCK.

Filed Under: Rambling

Doing

14 April 2008 by

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from a sweet person who reads my blawg pretty frequently. “You’ve seemed different,” she wrote, “since you got home from Africa. And I just want you to know that I’m praying for you.”

Oh, interpeoples. That email touched my heart right down to my liver.

Because I am different. There’s no doubt about that. But the problem is that I haven’t had any idea what to do with the different, so I’ve responded around by just sitting around and thinking about it.

A lot.

And just FYI: periods of great introspection do not exactly lend themselves to cranking out blog posts that pass for some semblance of witty, kicky fun.

Which has left me in a bit of a bloggy pickle.

And so, if I’m being completely honest, I’ve felt a little disconnected from the blog for the last couple of months. And I’ve given myself a hard time about the fact that I’m not exactly sure how to live and write in that tension, in that place where my heart aches for the despair and the poverty in third world countries while I sit in my central air conditioning and work on my laptop and drink diet Coke while I wait for my husband to walk in the door with a big bucket of fried chicken.

I’ve felt a little bit frustrated, to say the least.

Well.

A couple of days ago Alex and I were running some errands, and he asked me if we could go to Johnny Rocket’s for supper. I explained that we were cooking hamburgers on the grill that night, an announcement that was met with no small degree of displeasure. “BUT MAMA,” he said, “I LOOOOOVE Johnny Rocket’s. I think we should eat THERE.”

And even though I said I would NEVER do such a thing, I totally pulled the Africa card on my five year-old. I’ll spare you a repeat of my speech, but you can probably imagine the bullet points: children starving, children without meat, children without restaurants, children without choices where food is concerned, children who are grateful for God’s provision even if said provision doesn’t look or taste like what they’d hoped for.

Then I turned up the music so that I could silently convince myself to STOP TALKING, JUST STOP IT WITH THE TALKING, THE CHILD IN THE BACKSEAT IS ONLY FIVE AND PROBABLY COULD HAVE DONE WITHOUT THE LECTURE.

Alex was quiet for a few minutes, and then he said, “Mama? Mama? I think we should say a prayer for those children in Africa. I think we should say a prayer for the children who don’t have enough food. Can we do that, Mama?”

And once I picked up my heart and put it back in my chest, we did just that. We prayed for those children.

There were a lot of things about that moment in the car that struck me. If you’ve ever loved a child, you could probably rattle off a list that mirrors mine. But the thing that absolutely blew me away is that Alex DID SOMETHING with the information I’d shared with him. He listened, he thought, he prayed. There was no angst, no second-guessing, no strategizing.

He didn’t wait until he’d had some grand vision or had configured some master plan. He just acted on what he’d heard. And he taught his mama a thing or nine in the process.

So today, I follow his lead.

Right now, on Compassion’s website, there are eight orphans in third-world countries who need sponsors. For $32 a month – which is about what it would cost a family of four to go out to dinner – you can take care of that child. Your $32 will provide medical care, vaccinations, school fees, nutritional needs and – THIS IS HUGE – give that child countless opportunities to hear the Gospel. Through your sponsorship of one of these eight children, you can rescue a child who doesn’t have a mother or father from poverty.

Tuyishime, Caroline (just sponsored! yay!), Adera, Natnael (just sponsored! yay!), Nairesiai (just sponsored! yay!), Selina (just sponsored! yay!), Nevine (just sponsored! yay!), and Asnaku (just sponsored! yay!) are waiting.

And I don’t know about you, but I think it would be pretty cool if we stepped up and changed their lives today.

Just click on their names if you’d like to help.

Thanks in advance for what you’re going to do.

And thanks, Alex, for the lesson.

Filed Under: Africa, Compassion

I Heart Spring

13 April 2008 by

I have a thing about trees. I can’t explain it, but I love them. I really, reallllly love them.

A lot.

In fact, when Jules was starting on my blog redesign and asked me about what colors I wanted to use, I immediately thought of trees. I’m crazy about leaves that are that fresh, spring green – especially when I see those leaves contrasted against a sky so blue that it’s almost turquoise. It just takes my breath away.

Take, for instance, yesterday.

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“This is the day the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.” – Psalm 118:24

Have a beautiful Sunday, everybody.

Filed Under: The Nature

Mother’s Day Jewelry Giveaway

12 April 2008 by

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One of my favorite jewelry items in all the land is a charm bracelet. It’s personal, it’s one-of-a-kind, it’s easy to customize, and it can be passed down in your family for years and years.

Frankly, I think that is quite sassy.

So I’m very excited to tell you that, in honor of Mother’s Day, Erica at Bonbon Charms has offered to give away a sterling silver charm bracelet with up to six charms. The bracelet has a retail value of about $75.

Here’s how you can have a chance to win:

1. Check out these charms and these charms on the Bonbon site.

2. After you’ve looked around, come back here and tell me your two favorite charms in the comments. Only one entry per person, por favor.

3. That’s all!

And if you know that you want to go ahead and order something rightthissecond, you can enter in the discount code BOOMAMA at checkout and receive 20% off of your entire order. If you’d like your jewelry in time for Mother’s Day, you need to place your order by April 28th.

I believe that’s all. Well, except for the fact that I’ll leave this giveaway open until Thursday, April 17th, at which point I’ll use my bloggy friend random.org to select a winner.

Have fun, everybody!

This giveaway is now closed.

Filed Under: Bloggity Fun, There's More!
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