Thirtysomethingitis

After thoughtful consideration and a consultation with a friend or two, I have come up with a name for my current state of mind. I am officially diagnosing myself with Thirtysomethingitis. Not to be confused with Senioritis, although it bears some similarity.

For instance, a symptom of Senioritis is a lack of motivation to do homework. And a symptom of Thirtysomethingitis is a lack of motivation to do housework (and if I'm being truly honest...a host of other things). See where I am going with this?

Unfortunately, it is the point where the similarities between Thirtysomethingitis and Senioritis END that poses the true problem.

Let me illustrate. Below is a definition for Senioritis that I found online at Urban Dictionary.

Senioritis
noun. A crippling disease that strikes high school seniors. Symptoms include: laziness, an over-excessive wearing of track pants, old athletic shirts, sweatpants, athletic shorts, and sweatshirts. Also features a lack of studying, repeated absences, and a generally dismissive attitude. The only known cure is a phenomenon known as Graduation.

The problem lies in that last statement. You know the one highlighted in bold and italics? Right. Pretty sure my next "Graduation" isn't for QUITE SOME TIME.

And on that happy and encouraging note I will close.

The Verdict

Well, hello there! I know you guys must be biting your nails in anticipation of the following announcement! Exactly who will win the coveted $10 Starbucks card?

I want to tell you, I do. And I know you will be tempted to scroll down and look for your name in the bold print at the end of this post...but DON'T DO IT! Not yet.

First I must address your comments on the subject. I will admit I was actually a little surprised that there were comments. I half expected you all to balk at my little proposal. I mean, if I'm being honest, it would take A WHOLE LOT MORE COFFEE than that to get me to do the same thing. Of course, I don't have a creative bone in my body and some of you come by that naturally! I am so thankful for those of you who come by that naturally!

Now, before I announce the winner, I feel like I should award a few "honorable mentions". I'm afraid you don't win anything (because again...I'm CHEAP and HELLO our country is in an ECONOMIC CRISIS!), but you do win my gratitude for putting some real thought into this whole thing on my behalf!

The first "honorable mention" goes to Tiffani at Bears and Belles. First of all Tiffani is super sweet and quite obviously has the gift of encouragement. I thought her idea was really cute, but she kind of lost me when she mentioned putting Spot in the header of my blog...I mean, I'm having a hard enough time dealing with him being in my house! ;-)

The second "honorable mention" goes to Heather C at A Woman's Worth. She said I reminded her of sunshine! I mean, come on...that alone deserves a free Starbucks card! So sweet. However, I can't in good conscience say that I am all that sunshiny. And when I mentioned the possibility to my good friend Janelle the other day she said, "Yeah, you're more like partly cloudy.".

And I was like...YES, that's it. There IS sunshine there, but it's not full on sunshine. Yep, that's me...partly cloudy! ;-)

And the last honorable mention goes to my "real life" friend Dawn. She had some really great ideas on a color scheme and suggested using one of my favorite verses in the header. Her comment was so nice, too. Thanks so much for your sweet words, Dawn!

And now, last but not least...the WINNER! This person went above and beyond by actually emailing me two designs that she custom made for me! I know! How cool is that? She also said she would be willing to work with me to create a special design based on some ideas that I have! Yeehaw! I'm so excited! So, the $10 Starbucks card is officially awarded to...

Jackie at Our Moments Our Memories!

Congratulations, Jackie! Thanks so much for being willing to do this. I'm looking forward to working with you on a wonderful new design. Also, many thanks to all who commented for your thoughtful and creative input!

For All You Readers

This is from a PR company that I have done some book review for...

Do you read Christian novels? Do you buy Christian novels? GRPR is conducting a research study and wants to know more about you! If you would like to participate, go to http://tiny.cc/G4IsN to take an anonymous survey about buying Christian fiction. At the end, you can enter to win a library of TEN Christian novels!

Worth a shot, right?

A Proposition

SO. I am really over this blog design. I'm pretty sure you guys are, too. How about a new look? It's only been like 3 years or something. Sheesh. I'm obviously a woman who is prone to change.

ANYWAY. Here is what I propose. A little GIVEAWAY! Don't get too excited...I'm cheap. And (I'll even admit) a bit lazy because I'm basically using this as a shameless ploy to get you guys to do the work of finding a new design for me. But at least I'm being upfront about that. And of course, it is PURELY optional. You only have to play along if you want to OR if you want a FREE $10 Starbucks gift card (you can't say I didn't warn you about the cheap part).

Wanna know how you can win? All you have to do is give me the inspiration I need to change my design. I will set no parameters on how you inspire the new design. You can find a free design online, or a really great blog designer, or come up with your own concept...the sky is the limit.

If YOUR idea, design, designer, color scheme, etc. inspires me to actually change my design...you win! You'll win the Starbucks card and ALL THE CREDIT somewhere on this blog for being the inspiration of the FABULOUS new design.

I know.

It's kind of lame.

But worth a try.

I guess I should make a deadline for the entries or something.

How about...

Wednesday, March 25th at midnight

I'll consider all the entries and announce the winner on or before...

Sunday, March 29th at midnight

The midnight part makes it sound more official...don't ya think?

Brotherly Love

I think that our boys have a pretty typical sibling relationship. We have good days and bad days. It's kind of like the whole "waking up on the right or wrong side of the bed" thing. There are days that they get along great and I stumble upon them (gasp) cooperating and enjoying each others company. And then there are days when they literally "come out swinging" from their bedroom doors first thing in the morning.

We had one of those days (the latter) last Saturday and I remember at one point in the day sighing and wondering to myself if they would ever become the kind of friends that I hope and pray they will be.

And then that evening, as if in response to my pondering, God blessed me with this...



They had asked to sleep together (something we allow when it is not a school night) and when I came in to check on them I found them snuggled together like this. I'm not sure if you can tell, but Richie had his arm around Will.

This gives me hope. A hope I will cling to on the good days...and the bad.

A Guest Post and Book Review

A few weeks ago a fellow blogger, Jennifer contacted me about doing a guest post on my blog. It's a little book review that she wrote. I figured that you guys might appreciate it...plus this way at least someone is writing on my blog ;-)

Here's the review...

In the Shadow of Lions
By Ginger Garrett
David C Cook
$13.99, 320 pages
ISBN: 978-0-7814-4887-1

Almost everyone has heard of Anne Boleyn. The question is, is what we have been told accurate? Was she just a woman who wanted to become queen and so manipulated the king to this end? In In the Shadow of Lions (the first of the Chronicles of the Scribe series), Ginger Garrett sheds a different light on this story than what we have heard. She also takes us to a place the reader would not expect to go: beyond the physical realm to present the possibility that angels play a part in our dramas called life.

This story is “The Scribe’s” personal account of Anne Boleyn’s life in King Henry VIII’s court. He is Anne’s guardian angel. He knows her secret desires and what the motivation is behind her aspiration to be queen. He also knows of Anne’s longing to read “the book” and make it legal for ordinary people to read. In this story Ginger takes a look at how angels are here with us and how they play a role in history. What do they know about us and how much do they intervene in our daily lives? Do they know our personal history and also the history of our ancestors?
Interwoven in this story, however, is Sir Thomas More and another key character, Rose. Sir More wants to destroy “the book” before it reaches the masses and turns people away from the Catholic Church. His daughter’s maid, Rose, seeks to learn more about this book and discovers the truth that could set her free. How far will she go to try to convince the girl she takes care of that God has provided a way to Him? But, Rose has her own secrets. Will she be able to keep them to herself or will they be exposed? What would happen to her if Sir More were to discover them?

Ginger Garrett is the author of several fiction and non-fiction works. Among them is the number two on Amazon’s best seller list, Beauty Secrets of the Bible. Ginger is an expert on ancient women’s history and uses her knowledge to bring together works that inspire as well as educate. So, if you want to know who Anne Boleyn was, don’t look to Hollywood! Read In the Shadow of Lions. Be ready for a page turner that will leave you begging for more!

Jennifer Barker writes from North Carolina.

Where Does the Time Go?

With that title, you may think I am about to wax poetic on how quickly our children grow or how soon we come to an age we once thought of as OLD (not that I can relate to that or anything). No, I am actually referring to the time passed in blog world since my last post. As my friend Janelle mentioned in one of her recent posts, there used to be a time when I would not have let ONE day go by without posting on this little pink page. Now, I look at the date of my last post and I see almost a month has come and gone since my last entry. Seriously, in my first month of blogging, I wrote 48 posts! This past month of February? I have written one...this one. Yeah.

Today, though, I received a comment from a young lady named Rachael that spurred me to action. (Rachael, I'm sorry I don't have your blog address or I would link to you!) Her sweet comment as well as others on my last post have made me realize that I need to figure out how to make this work. I truly love blogging, but somewhere along the way it has become more like a duty than a pleasure and I've become a bit burned out.

I've shared before that one of my main struggles is finding the time to read and comment on others' blogs. Over time my list of blog friends has grown, however (and most unfortunately) the hours in the day available to me have not. In fact, the hours available have actually decreased significantly since November when I started my new job. This produces a dilemma to me because I truly care about many of you as if you were my real-life friends. I want to keep up with your lives and comment on each and every post that you write. I want to do that so much that I have become paralyzed by my bloglines and overwhelmed to the point that I have nearly quit reading and commenting altogether. I hate the aspect of my personality that causes me to do "all or nothing", so I am attempting some small steps toward reforming myself.

Starting today. I'm doing the unthinkable (for me anyway). I am going to click on "mark all as read" on my bloglines and start fresh. I can't promise that I will read every post and/or comment on every post in the future, but I will try to be truly present when I am able to take the time to read. I will also try to post on this blog more often even if I don't have time to write what I would consider a "proper" post. I'm going to do my best to take the pressure off of myself so that maybe, just maybe I can reclaim the love of blogging that I have been missing so much.