All Our Fun Could Make You Jealous

Yesterday marked the very first in-real-life conference. Around the blogging world, this was known as (in)RL. It was an opportunity for women to be inspired by other women without hopping a plane or paying hundreds of dollars in conference fees. (in)RL encouraged women to go beyond comment box relationships and gather in-real-life.

Do you remember each fall when you returned from summer vacation and your teacher made you write a "What I learned on summer vacation” paper?

Well, today’s that day. Only it’s not the end of summer. Oh, and we aren’t in elementary school, and I won’t embellish details in my paper like I did in second grade (Come on, people, Tommy T. went to Disney World and my parents got divorced. It was kind of like being forced to lie).

Here we go. What I learned by hosting an (in)RL party:

• Donkeys keep coyotes away.
• People hunger for offline connections and are willing to drive hours for new community.
• Guests don’t complain about tiny in-home theatres (translation: sitting on the floor hovered around a tiny computer screen).
• Bloggers have mad dreams.
• Some engineers are very funny, look like Barbies, and drive cute jeeps. This is surprising since well, I know a handful of engineers, and this wouldn’t exactly describe them.
• Homegrown, hand-dipped strawberries travel well and taste like heaven.
• On-line personalities tend to match in-real-life personalities. Some are sassy (in a good way). Some are sweet.
• Husbands everywhere were very confused about the whole idea of an in-real-life conference.
• However, husbands support our goals. They drive young children around a city they don’t know for three hours so their wife can rack-up some girl time, and other husbands rope their best friend into spreading red mulch because wives deem it necessary. Yes, that was me with a small request for red mulch before guests arrived.
• Neon orange is in. If you need further confirmation, please peek at the picture. I know you think the girl in the cute shorts is a model and probably writes a fashion blog. You are incorrect. Instead, she is a food blogger.
• Dawna Allison from PA has read my blog, and I think that's pretty fab.
• When you tell party-goers not to bring anything, a twenty dollar bill and an anonymous thank you note may end up in your guest bathroom. 
• God uses every situation in our life as a way to glorify Him, even pain, especially pain (link to my new friend, Corina, coming soon. She's on the verge of tossing her wisdom on the online world).

Good lessons. Yes, indeedy.

How about you? Do you personally know any of the authors behind the blogs you read? Who? Tell us how you met. Leave their link so we can love them too.

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Investing Well and Mother Teresa

Do you know what this is a picture of? Go ahead and guess.

No idea, right?

It's drying dung on a house in Tibet. Seriously, when a person sends you a picture of drying dung on a house in Tibet, you know they have something to say.

Today's Share Your Story guest, Amy Young, asks herself (and us!), "Am I lining my house with drying dung?"

Here's Amy, author of The Messy Middle.

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When I first saw Sarah: Plain and Tall I connected instantly with Sarah. I understood why she’d pack up and leave a life she’d known to move from Boston to Kansas. She was responding to the pull to invest in something MORE.

I understood because I too have felt the pull. I’m guessing you know just what I’m talking about because you’ve felt it too. I wanted to live in such a way that at the end I could look back without regrets. And so I invested in response to God’s leadings.

I am now midcourse, no longer the young, ideal woman following in Sarah’s footsteps.

Moments, days, years of investing. Nearing half a life lived.

Hope spoken into brokenness

Children built into

Work done diligently and faithfully

Conversations had

Meals cooked

Bible studies attended and taught

Causes supported

Environment cared for

Physical exercise done

Traditions honored

Rest taken

From the outside it looks like I’m on the right path. That I’m living a life of significance.

But from the inside of my life, I wonder. Am I?

I hear of building houses for the disenfranchised, freeing those trapped in human trafficking, educating poor students, changing racial and cultural interactions, teaching adults to read, working at soup kitchens and pantries, helping with after school problems, fighting teen suicide, adopting orphans, caring for widows and the abused, teaching new trades, loaning money for micro-loans, and fostering children. The needs seem endless.

I am deeply moved and encouraged. So many opportunities. So many needs met and evidence of redemption.

I am deeply troubled and discouraged. Have the ways I’ve invested truly made a difference? Instead of a life well invested, am I living more shallowly than intended?

I cannot help everyone.

What if I’ve picked poorly? What if at the end I regret where I’ve invested and wished I had helped more to combat the sex trade? Or teen suicide? Or fed more poor people? In small ways I’ve been involved in all three.

But where is the line? When am I underinvested and too focused on self? When am I over invested and living in flagrant disobedience to the limits God has placed on me?

Others say I’ve given so much, lived so well. I wonder.

I wonder if Mother Teresa had these same thoughts? Or did she have a deep sense of what she was doing that other needs registered but weren’t like sirens calling to her?

Ah, the sound of a warning bell. I am comparing myself to Mother Teresa. Do I stack up? Do I measure in the eyes of others to what she did with her life? Part of this is normal wrestling and I’m OK with that. But part of it is not really about serving but being admired. Wrestling (and even changing courses mid-path) is not the problem. It’s ultimately an issue of where I’m focused and whose “Well Done” I want to hear.

Like Sarah, who didn’t listen to her brother when he thought she had chosen poorly, I must ignore the critic in my head. Eyes on God. Ears tuned to the spirit, trusting that He made me for significance and will guide me.

What tension do you sense in how others see (or comment on) your life, and how it looks to you? 

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Thanks, Amy. For those of you interested in reading more of Amy's writing and hearing details of her life in Beijing, make sure to click over to her place.

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Roadside Births and Ruby Do

This is Ruby.

We call her Ru, Ru-Ru, Ruby Duby, Ruby Duby Do (Think Scooby-Doo).

For a short period of time, we called her Business because she is always into monkey business, but then she started telling people her name was Business and therefore, we nixed that name.

Last night, my husband was giving Ruby a bath, and I heard him say, “Is your name chicken-fried steak?” (Very random since I don’t think either of us have ever eaten chicken-fried steak, but I’m pretty sure it involves gravy).

To his comment Ruby replied, “No, call me Popsicle.”

Ruby was born on the side of the road. No, no. I wasn’t holding out on traveling to the hospital, instead a super fast birth and road construction played havoc on my birth plan, which was basically show up at the hospital and get shot-up with a big, fat  epidural. FYI: Random strangers on the side of the road don’t usually carry big, fat epidurals in their trunks so don’t bother asking.

Ruby’s birth describes her wild-haired ways perfectly, and it also cemented my love for mothers. Moms who struggle, not just with birth, but with life. Moms, the glue of most families. The sticky part that holds everything together.

Mother’s Day is quickly approaching, and my friend Adriel is hosting a Bloggers for Birth Kits initiative. This initiative not only celebrates mothers, but Bloggers for Birth Kits encourages the online community to rally and help moms in developing nations get supplies they need for a clean birth.

Take a peek at birth kit contents.

Looks a little different than a birthing suite, yes? Can you believe just $2.00-$3.00 can provide a mom with the supplies she needs to help deliver her baby?

And now for the question rolling around your head. How can I help? Oh, so glad you asked.

Buy a birth kit! It is only $10.00 for 5. Last year, bloggers pulled together and collected money for over 2,000 kits. Click here for the direct link to purchase birth kits (make sure to note Bloggers for Birth Kits on form when purchasing!) and here to read more from Adriel. Hello, great Mother's Day gift for all of those moms in your life!

Help raise awareness by posting about the cause on your blog, facebook, pinterest, and twitter (hash tag #B4BirthKits).

Make a birth kit. Assemble one yourself or gather a group of girlfriends, a moms group, work associates, or a church group to make a box full of them! Find a how-to video at Adriel's place. Mail your kits to: Adriel Booker, Bloggers for Birth Kits, PO Box 6221, Townsville, Queensland, 4810, Australia

 And since we are talking mommies and birth stories let's hear yours! Share, share. Any crazy tales out there or did you make it to the hospital with plenty of time to spare? I'd love to know your story better.

 

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On Going to the Desert to Get Filled

Sometimes life leaves me cracked and raw.

I feel prickly, and teeny holes start to form in my thinking. A few even find the way to my heart.

I miss friends who soothe rough spots with laughter, love, and lotion (the suntan variety).

I long for the balm of those who know me best. Girls who call me names over Tex-Mex. Names I don't see when I define myself, but words I long to be: fun loving, wise, multidimensional, a connector of people.

So, I jump on a plane and head to the desert. I take up residence by a pool, drink limeade-flavored deliciousness, and discuss big questions like if Ashton and Rhianna are really together and what to do about babies and bosses. Then, we do what all forever friends do. We belt out Journey in a dark minivan named Blue Thunder.

And I'm not sure why, but soon after, the world makes more sense.

(email subscribers, please click here)

In case there is any doubt about who is yammering on the loudest, it is I.

Thank you, God, for Leah, Lindy, Steph, Krista and Laura (because cancelled flights only mean free future tickets!), and thanks too for the women I get to meet very soon. I'm not sure if my (in)RL friends know any Journey, but my fingers are crossed.

Do you have a friend who soothes the rough places in life? What kinds of activities do you engage in together to make the world seem right?

Linking with Jen and also counting my friends as gifts with Ann.

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Building Community and a Little Free Library

For a short period of my life, my neighbors remained nameless faces who smiled and waved as they quickly sped by my home. If I ever needed help, I would have to go to the “lady with two dogs who always works in her yard”. See, I didn’t know her name.

And unfortunately, not knowing your neighbors is common in today’s world.

We have kids to run and dinners to make and calendars to fill. Neighbors, shneighbors. Who has time?

Three years ago, a Wisconsin man came up with a great idea; he wanted to build a library. No, no, not a bricks and mortar and staffed with employees type of library, but a Little Free Library. Todd Bol’s Little Free Library was a handmade, waterproof box he filled with books, and then placed in his front yard. Todd’s library was to honor his mother, a former teacher, and to encourage his neighbors to take a book and then return a book.

The idea caught on. Big time. Click here to continue reading at Mom It Forward.

Thanks to Sarah A. for the lead on this and Stacy, the Blogunteer for highlighting Little Fee Libraries.

Comments closed today.

Portable Projects and Partying with Purpose

You know I like to party with a purpose.

There’s something about gathering a group of people, flexing friend power, and spending an evening doing something for others.

Recently, someone asked me about party ideas for smaller communities that aren’t filled with agencies and opportunities.

“What about the little towns? The faraway communities? The places that don’t have others-centered organizations within driving distance?”

My answer? Portable projects.

Portable projects are projects which are completed locally, and then sent off to fill a national or international need. Portable projects have gained popularity in recent years because they appeal to moms who work full time, ministries looking to become involved in new ways, senior citizens who struggle to get out, and average families hoping to become a part of something bigger.

Need some ideas to get your project on? Try one of these.

Craft Hope. Craft Hope could be one of my favorite organizations that offer portable projects. Craft Hope is a perfect example of what a little bit of crafting know how and a whole lot of social media can do for a cause. Past projects include sending rags for an oil spill clean-up, creating pillowcase dresses, sewing sock monkeys, and piecing together bracelets for orphans. Craft Hope gets so much traffic, the site recently crashed. A new site is in the works, but for current project info check them out through their Facebook page.

Free the Girls. Instead of planning another girls' night out, plan a Free the Girls gathering. Free the Girls is an organization that works to end human trafficking by collecting used bras. Yep, you can box up those old bras, send them away, and be a participant in the fight against sexual slavery.

Color a Smile. Color a Smile sends hand colored pictures to people in nursing homes who need extra encouragement or a boost. Color a Smile has pre-made coloring sheets which can be downloaded through their website. 

Project Linus. Do you remember the blanket toting, character Linus from the Peanuts cartoon? Just like Linus’ blanket gave him comfort, Project Linus seeks to provide comfort for babies in need of a little love. Patterns and pictures available on the site.

Sole Hope. Sole Hope strives to bring closed-toed shoes to the people of Africa. However, Sole Hope does not want to send shoes in a buy them and box them up sort of way. Nope. Sole Hope wants you to participate in the creating of shoes. Materials needed to create shoes include: jeans, safety pins, fabric, pinking shears, fabric scissors and milk jugs. I know you will want to complete this project because you probably wonder what milk jugs have to do with anything.

  

Soldiers Angels. Support service members by participating in one of the many (I stopped counting at twenty-four) projects available to show service members love. This site includes ideas that will interest everyone including Patriot Pillowcases, Letter Writing, Ladies of Liberty, and Angel Bakers.

Oh, and you don't need an organization to focus on those in need. Here's two more ways to show some hometown love. 

Hold a Love Blitz. Because one of the most powerful ways to impact someone is by showing up. Sure you can leave a box on a doorstep, but what if forty people showed up at your front door? Powerful stuff. 

Birthdays in a box. Gather friends, go on a giant field trip (who doesn't love field trips?), and buy supplies needed to celebrate a child's birthday. Then challenge yourself to find a local organization or church who can give your boxes away. Fantabulous project to help involve kids.

Question for you (because you are so smart): Do you know of any organizations that offer portable projects? Have you ever participated in a party with a purpose? Tell, tell, tell.

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Friends Who Love Rag Tag Kids

Friends came to visit this weekend. These friends are the Pied Pipers of rag tag kids.

Whenever we see our friends, they usually have a Plus One in tow. A Plus One is a child who is not their own, a child they love just the same.

The Plus One our friends brought this weekend was different because this girl has taken up permanent residence with our friends, and she is a teenager. Oh, and this Plus One recently spent some time in jail. Um, as in last weekend.

And as the female part of the Pied Piper couple and I sat with our pants rolled to our knees, baking our white legs in the NC sun, I asked hard questions.

Aren’t your hands already full?

Don’t you worry about the impact on your kids?

Financially, can you hack it?

Of course, my friend worried, but her worries weren’t about responsibilities that already flooded or the disruption of birth order in her family’s home or her new laptop crashing into a nearby wall. My friend worried more about what would happen if her family didn’t take in this girl, if they didn’t act.

This conversation was a lot for me to think about because raising someone else’s child just isn’t simple. So, I didn’t say anything. Instead, I painted my toes cotton candy pink, ate a big bowl of vanilla ice cream with crunchy peanut butter and thought about selflessness.

Selflessness. A concept humans aren't hardwired to understand. For some, selflessness means opening homes to kids. For others, it means discovering new ways to open our hearts.

Jim Wallis once stated, "Things change when a new generation decides 'this that was acceptable is no longer tolerable, or 'that which we thought impossible, now we believe can be done.'"

Praying you find eyes to see hurt in the world and courage to get up and act, even in a small way.

Question for you: What issue rattles around your heart and your head? 

Linking with Jen.

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Grab Your Salsa and Get Ready to Dance

Hey, fabulous you,

Glad you found your little 'ol self here.

5 Minutes for Mom is hosting a party, and I am taking part. The goal of this par-ta is to get to know other bloggers. So, grab yourself some salsa, pull up the brown chair that a certain three-year-old decorated with pink nail polish, and let’s get down to it, shall we?

Tidbits about me.

I'm Amy, Amy Lauren, but my birth certificate says Amy Loraine, a mishap my parents find completely normal.

If you walked up my sidewalk, you might hear this blaring out our front window. It’s okay, drop what you are carrying and dance. The neighbors are used to outside dancing because sometimes I lock my husband out of the house and refuse to let him in until he dances. Some call it mean, I call it sweet delight.

I adore words. They fly around my head and clog up my heart.

I blog about ways to give in the everyday, and our family’s struggle in moving away from our me, me, me attitudes. I also like to flood readers with practical ways to get involved in the community and the world. Sometimes these ways involve bras. Who knew helping others could involve bras? Oh, and I’m writing a nonfiction book about serving as a family. 

I lived in a pink house once. It stood where Michigan and Canada leaned so close they kissed, but now, somehow, I live in the South. This means my kids try to say things like yonder, but don’t worry, I correct them.

Technology and I aren't exactly close, but I just started crushing on Twitter. However, Twitter parties scare me. Invite me and I'm sure to embarass you.

I married my high school prom date, even though he showed up an hour and a half late for the dance.

I also write about dreams, the ones we keep locked in the back of our hearts, and I discuss what happens when we dig deep and find the courage to step out and live those dreams.

I refuse to eat at restaurants which advertise with cartoon animals, not because I don’t like cartoons or because I don’t like animals. I just think eating and cartoon animals make an odd mix.

And now, because I am afraid I’ve turned into that person who talks incessantly about themselves, but forgets to ask questions about you, please, tell me something about you, your blog, or your life. Oh, and to all my regular readers, phu-lease stay. Tell me something I don't know about you.

Thanks for stopping by. I can tell I like you already.

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Help Them Finish

We have such big plans for ourselves, don't we?

But despite years of sweating, striving, and training, sometimes we still need a person to walk us to the end of our race.

Praying you have someone to toss an arm around your shoulder and guide you to the finish line today.

(email subscribers, please click here)

Discovered this video through My Teachers' Lounge, where I happen to be sharing today on how-to fall for the kid that drives you crazy. I am certain my post won't apply to you because you probably don't know any teens that curse, spit, or do the exact opposite of what you hope, but you know, just in case.

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Showing Wordy Love

My boyfriend’s mother said I looked like an alien.

Of course she didn’t tell me this. She said it to my boyfriend’s brother, who told his girlfriend, and then the girlfriend mentioned it to her sister, and the sister whispered it to my best friend, and you know how best friends are.

And therefore, I spent time wondering just what made me look like an alien and oh, yes, how to hurry up and change it.

Twenty years later, I still remember. It’s funny how a single word can transport us back in time and leave our heart smarting.

Recently, Mike Foster wrote an article for Relevant entitled, “Fat, Ghetto, Slut, and Other Words to Quit Using”.

After reading the title, I decided I’m not a big user of “fat, ghetto, or slut” and I’m not about to give up my occasional curse word, so obviously, his little post wasn’t intended for me, but I gave it a quick click for good measure.

First word on the list? Stupid. Bam!

Stupid. Oh, come on now, I like stupid. The stupid appraisal. The stupid grocery cart. The stupid drain. The stupid person I lent my library card to and then found myself with a $78.00 fee. Stupid library fees.

Stupid feels good.

Foster’s words got me thinking about my words and my words got me thinking about the sarcasm that gushes from my mouth like water from a Class IV rapid.

I wonder if maybe one of the easiest ways to show love for others is by carefully crafting what comes out of our mouths. Whether intentional or not, what we say molds those around us. We push and shape. We hold the ability to carve beautiful. So, why wouldn't we?

Let's start today. Now.

What words make your heart swell? What words do you shower on your kids, husband, and friends? What words do you long to hear?

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Speaking of wordy love, my friend, Alene, just put out an ebook entitled Giving Up Normal, and guess what? It's free. In it, she challenges readers to pay attention to the causes that make hearts pound and fists clench. Click over to here place to read more.

Linking with the SDG crew.

Image credit.

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Content vs My Life and Theirs

On Monday nights I hang out with some ladies in an unusual place.

Tiny shards of the stories they share shake my heart. The hard kind of shake, like when you search for that last dime to feed the meter, and you repeatedly pound your purse upside down in the passenger’s seat because you know eventually the dime will drop out.

Okay, you get it. I am inspired by these ladies.

Last week, one of the women shared a powerful story, and I really wanted to tell you about it. Still do.

Then, I thought it's her story. It's her life. It isn't my content.

And what’s my point in sharing her story anyway?

To impact you?

To make me look good?

To make a killer blog post?

What if my sharing has more to do with me than with her.

Disappointing, right? Slightly.

Anyway, the whole situation made me revisit some of the guidelines I made for myself regarding what I share online. 

So, just what are my online rules?

1.  Share about serving people in an inspiring way, not a condemning, I’m so fantastic kind-of-way.

2.  Restrict the amount of pictures I use of my kids, and try to use old pics. This is haaaard and sometimes I break it. However, Jon A. wrote a great article about not using your kids as content here, and it's a good reminder.

3.  Write very little about the hubby.

4. Use this space to celebrate God and acknowledge people involved in cool ways of helping others. 

 Your turn. What rules do you have regarding sharing online through blogging or Facebook? Are you guilty of using your friends or family as content too much? Is anyone else out there freaked out at the thought of how much we share online?

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On Skipping to the End of the Story

I like a good ending, one that belts out songs in my heart and dances in my head long after the book closes.

Because of this, sometimes I slide chunks of thin pages through my fingers and flip to the back of the book. I need to know the hero wins the girl, and the kid kicks the addiction. I want to hear good trumps evil and light blasts darkness. I skip part of the story because I like tidy resolutions.

It’s easy to want to jump to the back of our Savior’s story because today contains a lot of ugly.

We know the story so we shouldn’t be surprised that friends fall asleep, a kiss doesn’t always equal love, and public humiliation was actually part of The Plan.

I’ve heard all about the gruesome of today, and yet, every year it shocks me.

But it wasn’t the jeering crowd, the nails, or the blows of the soldiers that ended Jesus.

Nope, it was something much more powerful: His dedication to mankind.

Today I ask you to resist the urge of skipping ahead to the light of Sunday, and instead, I pray you take in the fullness of His story today.

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Linking with the Five Minute Friday crew, where you stop, drop, and write for five minutes flat. Today’s topic: light. Want a little inspiration? Clickity, click your little ‘ol self over and see what “light” means to others.

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Easter Circa 1981 and Guarding Against Gobbling

In 1981, Easter signaled my family’s arrival at the local Kmart and our frantic search through the giant, Easter hat bin.

Easter indicated the end of my scuffed-up, too small, white, patent leather shoes, and the celebration of a new pair of shiny shoes.

Easter meant taking the dried-up, palm cross down from the previous year and putting up a new one.

Easter equaled dying eggs rainbow hues and staring at stained fingers.

Easter reminded us of Lent and a sacrifice that lasted in my case, at least two days.

Easter meant attending mass and then booking my new shoes back to the car and listening to the end of Casey Kasem’s countdown.

Jesus proved to be a key player in Easter, but mostly just when I clicked my new, white, patent leather shoes to and from church.

Oh, my, how times have changed.

Or wait, have they?

It’s truth time.

Over the last few years, life pounced on Easter and gobbled it up. In fact, usually before Easter afternoon hits, I find myself walking around the house, picking up tiny foil wrappers from chocolate eggs and feeling pretty empty. No, not pretty empty, really empty.

Of course, we go to church and teach our kids Easter is about the cross and not the bunny, but something still seems missing. Celebration absent. No, no, not the ham and potatoes kind of celebration. 

I'm talking about the kind of celebration that happens when you realize the pinnacle of our Savior's story is upon us. The kind of celebration that screams death cannot end us and sin cannot ruin us.

This year Holy Week arrived exactly on time (amid the wrong-sized bridesmaid dress, a camping trip, and a summer job that fell through) but instead of trying to beat my usual manic rush, I'm guarding against life's gobbling ways.

Quality reflection and utter amazement of our God required. 

Marshmallow Peeps optional.

What are some Easter memories from your childhood? How do you celebrate Easter today? How do you help your family stay focused on Jesus? 

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A big PS:

Discovered the resource The Twelve Voices of Easter. It's Easter told from the point of view of twelve people in the Bible. Thanks for the lead, Ann.

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On Being a Generous Blogger and 9 Ways to Build Online Community

You start a blog. Not so tough.

You visit the blogs of others and comment. Check.

You meet people online. Wow, fun.

Now you want to maintain online relationships. Um, how? It’s not like you can invite new friends over for your famous homemade salsa and Magic Hat's #9 (Should you know and like Magic Hat's #9, consider us instant forever friends).

Take a peek at nine ways you can become a generous blogger and build online community.

1. Post. Seems obvious, right? But really, hit the little publish button, regularly.

2. Tweet it, share it, and name drop. People work hard at pounding out posts. When you connect with words, find a way to acknowledge the writing and the writer.

3. Meet an online friend in person. Last summer at She Speaks, I roomed with a girl I met online. I was very nervous about this whole meet in real life opportunity, and I was a tad worried this online friend would turn out to be a crazy person. The entire first night of the conference, I fielded texts from at-home friends asking, “How’s Jen? What’s she like? Oh, and is she crazy?” The answer? She’s fun, real, artsy, deep, and inspiring. Stretch yourself to connect with online friends. It brings the relationship to a deeper level. If you are close to Asheville, North Carolina, consider connecting in real life by attending a small party I'm hosting. Go here for info.

4. Champion their cause. People use the Internet to rally support. Help online friends tell the world about water or the importance of mentoring or following a dream.

5. Sprinkle your writing (and commenting) with bits of you. This is tough for me. I teach high school kids and last year a picture I posted on my blog ended up in one of my senior's presentations. It was not at all awesome. However, you need to let readers into your world, at least in small ways, and then cross your fingers that your big, fat head doesn't find its way into a PowerPoint.

6. Take off word verification. Blah! I know people disagree with me on this one because they are afraid of spam, but geez, I hate the extra step of word verification, and it’s simple to take off.

7. Share cool content.  Discover a new site. Fall for a new voice. Stumble on a moving article. Share your findings. Don’t hoard. Share. People will see you as a resource.

8. Join someone’s something. Online communities abound. Find one you like and join it. Be a part of an online book group. Participate in a link-up and share your mad photography skills. Tell others about inspiration you heard on Sunday. Join.

9. Write an email. I remember the first email I received from a blogger. It was random and about the words "fist pump". The content of the email didn't matter. I was clapping-my-hands happy she wrote.

Now let's hear from you.

 What are ways you try to be a generous blogger and build community? Any points or tips you have in regards to connecting with people online? Any big turn-offs when it comes to blogs or online communities?

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Image credit.

Linking with Jen.

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