5/19/13

7 Favorite Writes On Raising Girls

Today I'm tossing out favorite writes from the archives on raising girls.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for commenting. Thanks for mothering well.


1.  Rallying Girls for Good and an Almost Sleepover. A fun way to rally all of that tween girl energy for good.

2.  10 Books for Girls that Birth Strength. Because I love lists. Who doesn't love lists?

3.  A Video with Highlights From Our Mom and Daughter Doing Good Scavenger Hunt. Fun idea for a girls group or youth group. Race to do good mom and daughter style.

4. 5 Steps to Start a Kid Centered Summer Book Club. Perfect idea for summer. A kid-centered book club is a great way to get to know your neighbors and the friends of your girl.

5. Conversations in Tweendom. Just in case you pretend the spaghetti noodles need stirring just to grab extra time with your girl.

6. Why I Pretend to Love Crafting. Duct tape may drive me crazy, but she's wild about it.

7. To My Girls on Using Your Words. Don't let iCarly dictate how you live.


And just in case you are wild about pinning and passionate about raising girls.

Raising Girls Board. Because You know I love me some Pinterest.


Other favorite girl related writes from around the net.

Letting Her Be Left Out. Laura cranks out the wisdom.

Vicky Courtney Shares About Nice Girls Being Made Not Born. Awesome post from Vicky when she visited us here.

Raising Girls in a World that Devalues Them: 7 Things We Must Tell Them. Kristen from We Are That Family breaks down seven must share lessons.

Tips for Enhancing the Mother Daughter Relationship. Number three is my favorite tip.

Are you raising or have you raised a girl? Tell, tell. What's the best part of mothering a girl? What's the hardest?

Photobucket

5/17/13

Battling Senioritis With Bingo

I know a senior, a bright, and beautiful senior named Lizbeth. 

Meet Lizzie.


In the midst of a bad case of senioritis, Lizbeth discovered a little about serving others and a lot about herself. Lizbeth, thanks for allowing me to share part of your Senior Project here. Here's Lizzie.

: :


. . . And then the biggest shock of my life came when I volunteered a day of my time at the Brian Center in Weaverville. And it was this: Life isn’t all about me.

Wow, I’ve been focused on what life can give me instead of what I can give back. In these hours of unselfish giving, I discovered a feeling of total fulfillment. My heart had never felt as satisfied as it did when it was time for me to go. I know I’ll go back though, because it wasn’t even me that did the giving. I ended up being the ultimate recipient. No, I didn’t get to shout “BINGO” or take home any of the monies being rewarded, but I ended up winning it all.

The day that I was there, I wasn’t feeling particularly pretty, genuinely appreciated, or really loved. You know what I mean? Typical day in the life of a teenager. Dot, (who told me her real name was Dorothy but that all of her friends called her Dot) was a lady with whom I got particularly close.

Taking both of my hands in hers, she said: “Gorgeous girl, you need to stop biting your nails. What is it? Stress? Life’s too short to worry about whatever it is you’re worrying about.” Giving Dot a giant hug, I managed to squeeze out a muffled “Thank you, Dottie.” “God bless you!” she said in reply.

Working hard for what you want and being pushed to do things out of your comfort zone enables a thought process of confidence, responsibility and overall prosperity in a person. Accomplishing things on my own, finding service to be a birthright, and becoming familiar with capability are all traits that I’ve picked up in these past couple of months.

The truth remains- I still can’t wait to get out on my own. I am excited, and yet, I’m a little frightened of the future and what it will bring. But I know my Heavenly Father has a plan for me. “Be still and know the plans I have for you” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11.

Bottom line? I’m blessed. I am beautiful. I am loved, and I am a child of God.

I’m ready for college.

Bring it. BINGO!


: :

Thanks for sharing a section of your paper, Lizzie.
Think back, way back. What were you doing at the end of your senior year of high school?

Photobucket

5/15/13

Chatting It Up With CausePub

The idea behind CausePub is simple: Choose a cause, rally writers and artists to submit work, edit and publish a book, donate half of the proceeds to the cause, give contributing authors a portion of the profit. Repeat.

Recently, Griff Hanning, co-founder of CausePub (short for Cause Publishing) and I chatted it up about my involvement with CausePub.

Look at my face in the freeze frame below.

Seriously, I must like you guys a lot, or maybe I am just really excited about this project.

Either way, I look like a total crazy person.


(email subscribers, click here)


Interested in submitting a story of your own? Head here.

Interested in learning more about the cause CausePub is writing for? Read this.

Interested in reading CausePub submissions by some of my writer-ly friends?

Check out the following links:
Oh, voting for one of these couch rebels is easy peasy. Click on over to show them some love.

Photobucket

5/13/13

Finding Jesus in the Smiling Square Faces


(A shout out to online friends turned real-life friends)

It’s easy to lose track of Jesus online.

Bloggers blast out words at all times of day and night. Pieces of truth they are learning, and that truth is usually accompanied by a beautiful picture with a moving piece of scripture inscribed in cool font.

Tweets and likes and +1’s, cloud my thinking, and it doesn’t make sense that Jesus can be the topic of almost every post I read and yet, somehow go missing.

When I start feeling like this, I know it’s time to unplug, and I do so happily.

Who will notice? Surely, the smiling, square faces from Arizona, Arkansas, and across the ocean are busy, and if I close shop for a time, it would go undetected. 

Insert speculation about the quality of my online relationships.


Care to join me? Click here. 

*Comments are closed, but wow, the comments under the post make me smile.

: :

Linking with SDG.
Photobucket