I'm trying it out! I'd love it if you added me to your list or whatever you call it! :D
~Copy and paste this blog post into a new blog post on your site.
~Come back here and leave a comment with a full link address to direct us to your post.
~Your link will then be added to the list.
When the list ends in late June, come back and update your list with all of the members. We are atttempting to limit this list to 100 blog links.
SitedandBlogged
The Contest Hub
I am Harriet
Lifes Perfect Pictures
Diana Rambles
Insanity and Bliss
Lolas Diner
Life is Sweet
Happy Healthy Families
Five Monkeys
http://www.mftawk.com/2009/05/
http://www.ilikeitfrantic.net/2009/06/technorati-list.html http://theredheadriter.blogspot.com/2009/06/technorati-list.html http://yesiknowwhatcausesthat.blogspot.com/2009/06/technorati-list.html
http://apocketfullofbuttons.blogspot.com/
http://outnumbered3-1.blogspot.com/2009/06/technorati-list.html
http://twoprettylittleskirts.blogspot.com/2009/06/technorati-list.html
http://valeriegail.blogspot.com/2009/06/technorati-list.html
http://mainfo.blogspot.com/
http://anniekelleher.blogspot.com/
http://eclecticschooling.blogspot.com/2009/06/technorati.html
http://atticgirl.blogspot.com/2009/06/technorati-list.html
http://iheartfrutopia.blogspot.com/
http://frugalcreativity.blogspot.com/2009/06/technorati-list.html
http://supermommytotherescue.com/technorati
http://pennypinchingpenguin.blogspot.com/2009/06/technorati-list.html
http://aaensons-lifewithatoddler.blogspot.com/2009/06/technorati-list.html
http://www.ahappyhippymom.com/2009/06/technorati-linky-love.html
http://flyinggigglesandlollipops.blogspot.com/2009/06/its-time-to-repost-our-list.html
http://canwestopthis.blogspot.com/2009/06/technorati-list.html
http://happilyblended.com/2009/06/sited-and-blogged-the-technorati-list/
http://www.fairyblogmotherblog.com/2009/06/technorati-list.html
http://psychicmamaindigochild.blogspot.com/2009/06/sited-and-blogged-technorati-list.html
http://snipsandsnailsboutique.blogspot.com/2009/06/technorati-list-at-sited-and-blogged.html
http://thedivinemissmommy.com/2009/06/05/sited-and-blogged-technorati-list/
http://www.josieswindow.info
http://alittleoftheother.blogspot.com/2009/06/site-blogged-technorati-list.html
Confessions of a Moody Mommy
http://www.ageorgiaangel.com/blog/?p=1092
Penelope's Oasis
Monday, July 13, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Review: The Momnificent Life
I have the pleasure of sharing a review today of a wonderful book called The Momnificent Life: Healthy and Balanced Living for Busy Moms. This is a wonderful resource for any mom who might be feeling run down, too busy to take care of herself, or just wants to make sure that she is giving all areas of her life the attention they deserve!
Check this out:
From the book:
Lori Radun is a certified life coach, accredited energy leadership coach, inspirational speaker and author of many personal and family development products. Aside from being a happy life coach and passionate entrepreneur, she is a proud mommy of two wonderful boys, and the wife of a very loving and supportive husband. She lives with her family in Aurora, Illinois.
It is obvious from the beginning of the book that Radun sincerely wants to do all she can to help others. The introduction gives a short description of the eight components that Radun considers essential to living a momnificent life. She then leads you through examining your own life balance and satisfaction, and introduces her readers to The Wheel of Life. By analyzing each of the eight essential components, one can get a better picture of where she might be out of balance. The introduction then goes on to give specific tips on how to maintain this life balance, and begins to look at the reader’s values, priorities, and choices. The reader is also encouraged to identify some aspects of life that might be draining her of energy.
And this is only the introduction!
This brings me to what I like best about the book: it is divided into the eight components of the life wheel that the introduction helped one examine. Because of this, it isn’t necessary to read it straight through; you can pick a specific focus to start, or look for a topic that seems to fit best with what your life needs right now. Each chapter also includes an action assignment that can be used to reinforce the information presented.
Radun truly is the guide here; you will be learning from yourself! As a Christian, I appreciate that she shares her faith, but it is presented in such a way that persons of other belief systems would be able to incorporate their beliefs with her guidance.
This description offered from Mom Coach Press sums it up well:
…finally a life coach takes the time to mete out much needed direction to mothers in order to minimize mommy stress, identify and solve problems to begin living life as an adventure. By walking the talk, mothers begin teaching children about independence and responsibility—they are the first one’s to answer the call and open the door to create extraordinary families living extraordinary lives.
Radun also offers a comprehensive website describing her offerings ranging from individual coaching sessions to group conference topics and availabilities. Be sure to check out Momnificent University and the videos of Radun teaching about guilt!
There you can also sign up to receive Radun’s biweekly newsletter, and that also entitles you to 2 free useful reports: 155 Things Moms can Do to Raise Great Children and 52 Positive Affirmations for Moms.
For specific information about The Momnificient Life book, you can visit here! The book is available for purchase on Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Target.com, and Walmart.com.
Thanks again for the opportunity to review this book!
FIRST Wild Card Tour: What the Bayou Saw
It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
Today's Wild Card author is:
and the book:
Kregel Publications (March 24, 2009)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Patti Lacy graduated from Baylor University with a B.S. in education. She taught at Heartland Community College in Normal, Illinois, until 2006, when she began to pursue writing full-time. She has two grown children and lives in Illinois with her husband, Alan, and a dog named Laura.
Visit the author's website.
Product Details:
List Price: $14.99
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Kregel Publications (March 24, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0825429374
ISBN-13: 978-0825429378
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
Prologue
Hold the Wind, Hold the Wind, Hold the Wind, don’t let it blow.
—Negro spiritual, “Hold the Wind”
August 26, 2005, Normal, Illinois
“I’m meteorologist Kim Boudreaux.” Clad in a dark suit, the petite woman smiled big for her television audience. “Katrina’s track has changed.” She pointed to a mass of ominous-looking clouds that threatened to engulf the screen. “She’s no longer headed for Mobile but is on course for the Crescent City.”
Sally Stevens checked her cell phone, then paced in front of the television, as if that would make her brother Robert pick up the phone. She needed to talk to him, needed to know that he’d gotten her nieces and her sister-in-law out of the death trap that New Orleans suddenly had become. Needed to have him assure her, with his balmy Southern drawl, that he and his National Guardsmen were going to be okay.
A slender hand pointed to what must be a fortune’s worth of satellite and radar imagery. “As you can see, Katrina’s moving toward the mouth of the Mississippi, toward the levees . . .” The meteorologist buzzed on, seemingly high on news of this climactic wonder.
Every word seeped from the television screen, crept across the Stevens’s den, and crawled up Sally’s spine. Louisiana had once been her home. Her heritage. What would this hurricane do to the Southern state that she still loved?
A glance at her watch told Sally to get moving. Instead, she once again punched in Robert’s number. If she could just hear his voice, she’d know how to pray later as she stood in her classroom pretending to be passionate about her lecture on the history of American music, pretending to act like it was another ordinary afternoon in Normal, Illinois, while this mother of a storm wreaked wrath and vengeance upon her brother. Her home.
“. . . the next twenty-four hours are crucial . . .” The camera zoomed in for a close-up, focusing on a perfect oval face that, for just a moment, seemed to stiffen, as if a personal levee was about to be breached. “I’m not supposed to say this.” Urgency laced the forecaster’s voice “But I’m telling you. Leave. This is a killer.” The pulsating weather image seemed to confirm her report, a mass of scarlet and violet whirling about an ominous-looking eye. Growing like a cancer. Moving in for the kill . . .
Talk turned to evacuation, log-jammed roads, but Sally barely listened. Years flew away as she studied Ms. Boudreaux’s flawless mocha complexion, the tilt of her chin. The determination of this woman to save her city, or at least its people. So like the determination of Ella, that first friend, who’d taken off for New Orleans. It was as if the lockbox of Sally’s memories had somehow sprung open. Ella, that friend who’d saved her. Ella. And her brother Willie, if he’d gotten out of the pen. Were they digging in, evacuating—
A classical song Sally’s kids had downloaded onto her phone poured from the tiny speaker as the device vibrated in her palm.
“God, let it be—” She glanced at the readout. 504 area code. New Orleans. Robert. Her fingers suddenly clumsy, she struggled to flip open the phone.
Static greeted her.
“Robert? Bobby?” She was shouting, but she didn’t care. “Are you there? Are you—”
“Ssss—got them out.”
He’s out there somewhere, right in the elements, from the sound of it. “Where are you?” Sally cried. “Robert, what’s going on?” Sally pressed the phone against her ear until it hurt. All this technology, yet she could barely hear him, could barely—
The whooshing stopped. So did Robert’s voice. Sally stared at the readout. Ten seconds she’d had with him. Ten seconds to gauge the climate of a city. A city that might still claim as a resident that once-best friend. Sally whispered a prayer as she grabbed her briefcase and headed to class.
***
August 29, 2005, New Orleans, Louisiana
“It’s no use! The generator’s flooded!” A single battery-operated hallway light revealed the faint outline of Dr. Powers, the thin, impeccably groomed physician whom Ella Ward had worked with for a decade. “Ella? Ella?” He groped against the hospital’s second floor wall, his hands and arms made ghoulish by the shadowy dark. “Are you there? Ella? We’ve got to get them out of here! Now.”
Screams, howling winds, and debris crashing against boarded-up windows swirled into a hellish cacophony that tore at Ella’s heart. What were the three of them, she, Willie, and the doctor—no. Willie didn’t count. What were the two of them going to do for sixty-three patients writhing in excrement, gasping for breath, thousands of dollars of ventilators and BiPAPs rendered powerless? Dying, minute by minute, second by second?
Just to keep from falling down, Ella dug her fingernails into a wall sweaty with humidity. She opened her mouth to answer, but no words came out. At Dr. Powers’s side, she’d watched an aortic artery explode, a patient gurgle in his own blood . . . “The scalpel, Ms. Ward?” he’d said. “Suction, please.” With ice-blue cool, Dr. Powers had plucked life out of mangled messes and never even raised his voice. Now his screams pierced Ella’s ears, and her hopes. Even with one of New Orleans’ best surgeons at her side, the prognosis of surviving this storm was dim. There was nothing for Ella to do but close her eyes and beg. “Oh God. Please Spirit. Please Lord Jesus, please.”
Dr. Powers clutched at the sleeve of Ella’s cotton scrub. “Where’s Willie?”
The doctor’s touch and the mention of her brother brought Ella around. Still, she could barely speak for the quivering of her lip. “Where . . . do you think a junkie would be?”
“The . . . pharmacy?”
Even though Dr. Powers most likely couldn’t see her nod, Ella went through the motion. Twenty-four hours ago, she’d decided she and Willie would come here together. Yet even in her worst nightmare, she hadn’t really believed that they’d die here together.
“Someone, anyone, let me outta here!” It was Mrs. Smith, in Room 215.
“Hold the wind, Lord!” Mr. Lunsford, who’d thought he’d die of cancer.
Ella gritted her teeth. One by one, the patients were seeing the storm’s demonic fingers etching out a death sentence, and screaming their response.
“We’ve got to do something.”
Dr. Powers’s words sent a shiver through Ella. Had he read her mind? Or had she babbled without even knowing it? She clamped her hands over her ears. Lord! I’m goin’ crazy! Help me, Lord!
“What’s happenin’, Lawd? Oh, Lawd Jesus!”
“Sweet Jesus! Where are you?”
What had acted as a twisted tonic to incite the patients to a new level of chaos? Was it the howls of the winds, the thuds and crashes against the windows, the doors, the very roof of this place?
“Jesus, oh Jesus!”
Every moan, every scream, knifed into Ella like a scalpel. Nursing school hadn’t trained her for this. Nearly thirty years working at understaffed facilities hadn’t trained her for this. Nothing had trained her for this. With taut fingers, she pulled the doctor close, then shoved him to his knees and knelt by him, her hands flush against the wall. “We gotta pray,” she said.
Hold the Wind, Hold the Wind, Hold the Wind, don’t let it blow.
—Negro spiritual, “Hold the Wind”
August 26, 2005, Normal, Illinois
“I’m meteorologist Kim Boudreaux.” Clad in a dark suit, the petite woman smiled big for her television audience. “Katrina’s track has changed.” She pointed to a mass of ominous-looking clouds that threatened to engulf the screen. “She’s no longer headed for Mobile but is on course for the Crescent City.”
Sally Stevens checked her cell phone, then paced in front of the television, as if that would make her brother Robert pick up the phone. She needed to talk to him, needed to know that he’d gotten her nieces and her sister-in-law out of the death trap that New Orleans suddenly had become. Needed to have him assure her, with his balmy Southern drawl, that he and his National Guardsmen were going to be okay.
A slender hand pointed to what must be a fortune’s worth of satellite and radar imagery. “As you can see, Katrina’s moving toward the mouth of the Mississippi, toward the levees . . .” The meteorologist buzzed on, seemingly high on news of this climactic wonder.
Every word seeped from the television screen, crept across the Stevens’s den, and crawled up Sally’s spine. Louisiana had once been her home. Her heritage. What would this hurricane do to the Southern state that she still loved?
A glance at her watch told Sally to get moving. Instead, she once again punched in Robert’s number. If she could just hear his voice, she’d know how to pray later as she stood in her classroom pretending to be passionate about her lecture on the history of American music, pretending to act like it was another ordinary afternoon in Normal, Illinois, while this mother of a storm wreaked wrath and vengeance upon her brother. Her home.
“. . . the next twenty-four hours are crucial . . .” The camera zoomed in for a close-up, focusing on a perfect oval face that, for just a moment, seemed to stiffen, as if a personal levee was about to be breached. “I’m not supposed to say this.” Urgency laced the forecaster’s voice “But I’m telling you. Leave. This is a killer.” The pulsating weather image seemed to confirm her report, a mass of scarlet and violet whirling about an ominous-looking eye. Growing like a cancer. Moving in for the kill . . .
Talk turned to evacuation, log-jammed roads, but Sally barely listened. Years flew away as she studied Ms. Boudreaux’s flawless mocha complexion, the tilt of her chin. The determination of this woman to save her city, or at least its people. So like the determination of Ella, that first friend, who’d taken off for New Orleans. It was as if the lockbox of Sally’s memories had somehow sprung open. Ella, that friend who’d saved her. Ella. And her brother Willie, if he’d gotten out of the pen. Were they digging in, evacuating—
A classical song Sally’s kids had downloaded onto her phone poured from the tiny speaker as the device vibrated in her palm.
“God, let it be—” She glanced at the readout. 504 area code. New Orleans. Robert. Her fingers suddenly clumsy, she struggled to flip open the phone.
Static greeted her.
“Robert? Bobby?” She was shouting, but she didn’t care. “Are you there? Are you—”
“Ssss—got them out.”
He’s out there somewhere, right in the elements, from the sound of it. “Where are you?” Sally cried. “Robert, what’s going on?” Sally pressed the phone against her ear until it hurt. All this technology, yet she could barely hear him, could barely—
The whooshing stopped. So did Robert’s voice. Sally stared at the readout. Ten seconds she’d had with him. Ten seconds to gauge the climate of a city. A city that might still claim as a resident that once-best friend. Sally whispered a prayer as she grabbed her briefcase and headed to class.
***
August 29, 2005, New Orleans, Louisiana
“It’s no use! The generator’s flooded!” A single battery-operated hallway light revealed the faint outline of Dr. Powers, the thin, impeccably groomed physician whom Ella Ward had worked with for a decade. “Ella? Ella?” He groped against the hospital’s second floor wall, his hands and arms made ghoulish by the shadowy dark. “Are you there? Ella? We’ve got to get them out of here! Now.”
Screams, howling winds, and debris crashing against boarded-up windows swirled into a hellish cacophony that tore at Ella’s heart. What were the three of them, she, Willie, and the doctor—no. Willie didn’t count. What were the two of them going to do for sixty-three patients writhing in excrement, gasping for breath, thousands of dollars of ventilators and BiPAPs rendered powerless? Dying, minute by minute, second by second?
Just to keep from falling down, Ella dug her fingernails into a wall sweaty with humidity. She opened her mouth to answer, but no words came out. At Dr. Powers’s side, she’d watched an aortic artery explode, a patient gurgle in his own blood . . . “The scalpel, Ms. Ward?” he’d said. “Suction, please.” With ice-blue cool, Dr. Powers had plucked life out of mangled messes and never even raised his voice. Now his screams pierced Ella’s ears, and her hopes. Even with one of New Orleans’ best surgeons at her side, the prognosis of surviving this storm was dim. There was nothing for Ella to do but close her eyes and beg. “Oh God. Please Spirit. Please Lord Jesus, please.”
Dr. Powers clutched at the sleeve of Ella’s cotton scrub. “Where’s Willie?”
The doctor’s touch and the mention of her brother brought Ella around. Still, she could barely speak for the quivering of her lip. “Where . . . do you think a junkie would be?”
“The . . . pharmacy?”
Even though Dr. Powers most likely couldn’t see her nod, Ella went through the motion. Twenty-four hours ago, she’d decided she and Willie would come here together. Yet even in her worst nightmare, she hadn’t really believed that they’d die here together.
“Someone, anyone, let me outta here!” It was Mrs. Smith, in Room 215.
“Hold the wind, Lord!” Mr. Lunsford, who’d thought he’d die of cancer.
Ella gritted her teeth. One by one, the patients were seeing the storm’s demonic fingers etching out a death sentence, and screaming their response.
“We’ve got to do something.”
Dr. Powers’s words sent a shiver through Ella. Had he read her mind? Or had she babbled without even knowing it? She clamped her hands over her ears. Lord! I’m goin’ crazy! Help me, Lord!
“What’s happenin’, Lawd? Oh, Lawd Jesus!”
“Sweet Jesus! Where are you?”
What had acted as a twisted tonic to incite the patients to a new level of chaos? Was it the howls of the winds, the thuds and crashes against the windows, the doors, the very roof of this place?
“Jesus, oh Jesus!”
Every moan, every scream, knifed into Ella like a scalpel. Nursing school hadn’t trained her for this. Nearly thirty years working at understaffed facilities hadn’t trained her for this. Nothing had trained her for this. With taut fingers, she pulled the doctor close, then shoved him to his knees and knelt by him, her hands flush against the wall. “We gotta pray,” she said.
My review: I really enjoyed this book! It keep me interested...it was hard to put down! Intriguing is the word that comes to mind when describing this book. You will LOVE it!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
We have a winner--How to Start a Christian Giveaway Blog!
First, thank you for entering the giveway! The winner is.........Brenners!! I'll be contacting you by email soon, and will fill you in on details of how you will receive your copy of this e-book! I would love to hear about YOUR giveaway blog if you get it up and running, too!Have a GREAT week, ya'll, and check back SOON for some fun reviews and giveaways!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
A Favorite Photograph!
Howdy! I'm so glad that these Blog Hops are so successful! I'm Christi, and you may have stopped by my other blog, BlahBlahBlog. This is my blog where I do reviews and such! Welcome!
This picture is the latest of mine and my sister's kids. It was taken this past Christmas. My two are the ones on the far right--the two smallest! I am so glad that we all live in the same town and get to see each other often, and that these cousins actually LIKE to be around each other!
Thanks for stopping by, and please come back soon!
Monday, July 6, 2009
Responsible Sports
Over at TwitterMoms, a contest has been going on focusing on one question:
I was not very athletic growing up. I liked dance lessons and cheerleading, but put a ball in my hand, and I was pretty useless. However, knowing how much sports mean to little boys, we have encouraged our boys to join in. Thankfully, around here we have both Upward Soccer and Upward Basketball. This starts our kids out with a positive introduction to both sports where they have the chance to learn basic skills in a Christian environment. I also really like that the Upward program insists on giving each child equal playing time. That way if the boys happen to inherit my lack of skillz, they still get to play! This is a boost to ANY child's self-confidence!
In the past month, both my sons have started taking TaeKwonDo as well, and are really enjoying it. It, too, teaches about control and respect, and they have to rely on their individual skills and confidence to succeed.
Another way that we have encouraged Isaac in sports is perseverance. In baseball, he struggled batting at first. We had several talks about how we didn't want him to succeed for US, but that we wanted him to keep trying for himself to see that he could do it! I am sure that if we had said it was okay for him to quit baseball mid-season, he would have done it. But we insisted that he carry through with the commitment he had made to his team. Though he didn't end up the star player by the end of the season, he did learn much about the sport and about his ability to take constructive criticism from others and work on improving his playing abilities.
Thanks to Liberty Mutual's Responsible Sports program, which can be found at www.responsiblesports.com, for encouraging kids to move and to be good sports!
"As a parent, how do you encourage and reinforce the positive aspects of youth sports?"
I was not very athletic growing up. I liked dance lessons and cheerleading, but put a ball in my hand, and I was pretty useless. However, knowing how much sports mean to little boys, we have encouraged our boys to join in. Thankfully, around here we have both Upward Soccer and Upward Basketball. This starts our kids out with a positive introduction to both sports where they have the chance to learn basic skills in a Christian environment. I also really like that the Upward program insists on giving each child equal playing time. That way if the boys happen to inherit my lack of skillz, they still get to play! This is a boost to ANY child's self-confidence!
In the past month, both my sons have started taking TaeKwonDo as well, and are really enjoying it. It, too, teaches about control and respect, and they have to rely on their individual skills and confidence to succeed.
Another way that we have encouraged Isaac in sports is perseverance. In baseball, he struggled batting at first. We had several talks about how we didn't want him to succeed for US, but that we wanted him to keep trying for himself to see that he could do it! I am sure that if we had said it was okay for him to quit baseball mid-season, he would have done it. But we insisted that he carry through with the commitment he had made to his team. Though he didn't end up the star player by the end of the season, he did learn much about the sport and about his ability to take constructive criticism from others and work on improving his playing abilities.
Thanks to Liberty Mutual's Responsible Sports program, which can be found at www.responsiblesports.com, for encouraging kids to move and to be good sports!
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