Parties, contests, awards, and randomness

Jungle Mom’s Saturday Morning Cartoons about blogging will bring you a lot of smiles.

ArtsyMama is having an Artful Blogger party on Wednesday, August 8, “to celebrate all the amazing creative blogs out there.” Participants can post a tutorial of some art or craft technique, or instructions, or “pictures of how you display your own art or vignettes of art you’ve received from others. Anything goes… whatever artful blogging means to you.” Doesn’t that sound like fun? I don’t know what or if I will post, but I will definitely be seeing what others come up with.

If you haven’t heard by now, the ladies at 5 Minutes For Mom are giving away Insignia® 37″ Flat-Panel LCD HDTV, a prize valued at $799.99, courtesy of Best Buy. Can you believe it? All you have to do is go to this post, leave a comment, and create a post on your site linking to the contest post and Best Buy. I wasn’t going to enter at first because we have a somewhat similar TV, but Oldest Son reminded me he will be leaving the nest soon and wouldn’t mind a “pretty TV” as he called it. His birthday is this month, too — wouldn’t that make a great present?

Tamara at Training Hearts is having a “Pass the Button” give-away of 25 different things as a thank you to her readers. She says, “Pass the Button is a family tradition of the past where a family member would secretly bless another family member by doing a chore or deed, and then leave a pillow with a button sewn on it as a token of the deed. The principle of this is to then Pass the Button to another family member by doing a secret chore or deed and leaving the button pillow to keep the blessing going.”

Tamara also honored me with the Courageous Blogger award. Thanks so much, Tamara! My understanding is that I am supposed to pass this on to five others, so here are five who I think are courageous:

Janeen at Our Story, also known as ChupieandJsMama, has little boys with severe allergies, and I am amazed at how she handles all the details. She probably doesn’t feel very “courageous,” but if I had to deal with all that she does, I would probably crumple into a whimpering heap. I admire her vigilant perseverance in watching over the details of hers sons’ diets and providing creative alternatives for them.

Barb at A Chelsea Morning has shown a lot of courage in the last year in the face of her husband’s employment problems, which would be a trial anyway, but especially during the time a daughter’s wedding was coming up. Then facing and learning to deal with little grandson Cameron’s juvenile diabetes added another layer of pressure and concern. She has handled it all with grace, humor, and courage, and I admire her transparency in letting us in on the hard times.

Laura of My Quotidian Mysteries has just moved to Qatar! It is always hard to move to a new location, but to move to a whole new country and adjust to different customs, to set up a household without the resources you’re used to, to make new friends and find a new church — it can be daunting.

Mopsy at Lifenut is facing her third miscarriage, and my heart has been touched by her faith and her writing, especially today’s post about not having to be “tough,” but admitting it’s ok to feel hurt and to letting yourself be open to others’ comfort.

Rita at The Jungle Hut has been a missionary to Venezuela for several years but has had to leave due to the encroaching policies of President Chavez. She’s excited about preparing for a new ministry in Paraguay, but it takes a lot of courage and grace from the Lord to start all over and leave behind those you love, trusting them to God’s care and protection, knowing that the communistic influence will likely only get worse unless the Lord intervenes.

I want to add a sixth: “Lizzie” at A Dusty Frame has challenged me many times over with her walk of faith. Her husband is incarcerated but has come to repentance. Lizzie faces many challenges awaiting the time until her husband is released and is raising her son as a single mom until that time. I know she probably doesn’t “feel” courageous, either, but she shows true courage every day as her faith and endurance are stretched and replenished by the Lord she loves and depends on.

Finally, Debbie at Counting Our Daily Blessings tagged me with the 8 random things about me meme. The rules are as follows:

1. Post rules before we give you the facts.
2. Start with eight random facts/habits.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their 8 things and post these rules.
4. At the end of the blog, you need to choose 8 people to get tagged and list their names. Leave them a comment to tell them they are tagged.

I did this one a while back and received notice of this when I was working on my 100 Things post, but I am not going to check and see whether I’ve mentioned these before. So there may be a few repeats. 🙂

1. I am a self-confessed germophobe. I’ll spare you the details of how this plays out in everyday life.
2. I have to check to make sure all the doors are locked at night, even if I know someone else already has.
3. I love to play Battle Boggle on the computer.
4. In its natural state my hair looks like an old straw broom.
5. I was the valedictorian of my graduating class of 8 other students. 🙂
6. I am not nearly as organized as I’d like to be, but I have made progress over the years.
7. I am lactose intolerant.
8. I have never been out of the country — and don’t particularly want to venture over the borders at this stage of life.

This one has gone around a lot, so I am not sure who all hasn’t done it yet. But I will tag these, and if you have done it and don;t want to do it again, that’s fine: Jeremy, Bet, Rita, Susan, Janeen, Diane, Jewel, and Ann. And, as always, if you don’t like tags, I won’t be offended if you don’t participate, and if you haven;t been tagged and would like to do this, let me know!