~Spring Blog Carnival- Come join me in all the fun, get your tickets, ride some rides,eat some cotton candy and meet some new friends!~
Reading Angel~ " Haunted House" Spring blog carnival-bloghop!
Reading Teens~ " Fortune teller booth" Spring blog carnival-bloghop!
Candance's Bookblog~ "Food court"- Spring blog carnival-bloghop!
The mod podge~ " House of mirrors" - SBC-bloghop!
The book swarm! " Roller coster"- SBC bloghop!
Actin' up with books~ " karaoke booth" - SBC bloghop!
Pure Imagniatin~ " Kissing booth" - SBC bloghop!
More coming soon....
May 2-8,2011 Children's book in the spotlight blog hop. Join us on gfc friends, leave us a comment, follow on twitter and facebook. Enter to win some great prizes for your kids and family.
Barefoot Books~ gift set $50 vaule; to enter must leave comment, follow on gfc,facebook,twitter and visit my marketplace and leave comment there. ( image shown is not actual product winner will receive. winner is to pay tax on product given state guidelines )
Usborne Books~ gift card $20 to spend in the e-store. ( rep. glenda cates) to enter follow on gfc, twitter and facebook. leave comment on blog and rep. e-store site.
What starts out as a leisurely trail ride turns into a terrifying afternoon when Alex and Leslie see a plume of smoke rising in the trees. After saving the neighbor's horses from a horrible fate, the two teens must run through the burning woods and get back to Green Meadow before it's too late. On the way, they encounter a strange horse wandering through the woods by itself, and it follows them home. Leslie soon becomes attached to "Spark" when she can't find his owner...but will she get to keep him, or will someone come forward to claim the horse she has come to love?
Welcome to Pearl Girls™ Mother of Pearl Mother's Day blog series. The series is week long celebration of moms and mothering. Each day will feature a new post by some of today's best writer's (Tricia Goyer, Megan Alexander, Suzanne Woods Fisher, Beth Engelman, Holley Gerth, Shellie Rushing Tomlinson, and more). I hope you'll join us each day for another unique perspective on Mother's Day.
AND ... do enter the contest for a chance to win a beautiful hand crafted pearl necklace. To enter, just {CLICK THIS LINK} and fill out the short form. Contest runs 5/1-5/8 and the winner will on 5/11. Contest is only open to US and Canadian residents.
If you are unfamiliar with Pearl Girls™, please visit http://www.pearlgirls.info/and see what we're all about. In short, we exist to support the work of charities that help women and children in the US and around the globe. Consider purchasing a copy of Pearl Girls: Encountering Grit, Experiencing Graceor one of thePearl Girls™ products (all GREAT Mother's Day gifts!) to help support Pearl Girls.
And to all you MOMS out there! Happy Mother's Day!
PEARL PINS by Margaret McSweeney
At age 49, I am a mom without a mom. This deep longing for my mother continues to surprise me. During milestone moments, I imagine phone conversations with her.
“Can you believe that Melissa is graduating from high school in June? I’m so glad you will be flying to Chicago to be here with us.”
“Wasn’t that a fun family dinner we all had last weekend to celebrate Katie’s ‘sweet sixteen?’ I am so glad you could join us.”
“Isn’t this exciting? I just got a new book contract. Will you please edit my manuscript before I send it in?”
Sadly, this will be my eighth Mother’s Day to spend without my mother. She has missed some poignant milestones in my life and in the lives of my daughters. Both Melissa and Katie were very young when she died so they don’t have a full reservoir of memories about Grandmommy Rhea. However, they do have the legacy of faith that she helped instill in them as toddlers. She loved to send Veggie Tales tapes, Children’s Bibles and devotional books.
Melissa and Katie were blessed to have Nana, (Dave’s mother) around for much longer. Nana passed away two years ago. A few years before Nana died, she gave me a beautiful necklace with a diamond pendant made from her wedding ring along with a pair of diamond earrings. She asked me to give these special gifts to Melissa and Katie for their sixteenth birthdays. Even though Nana wasn’t around to celebrate, my daughters were so happy to receive such special keepsakes from her. Hugs from heaven.
Last week on Katie’s 16th birthday, I discovered an unexpected blessing that had been tucked away in a cardboard container of my mother’s things. A jewelry box with three pearl pins! I gave one to Melissa as a belated 16th birthday gift, and I presented one to Katie for her 16th birthday. This Mother’s Day, I will wear my mother’s pearl pin as a tangible reminder that a mother’s love (and a grandmother’s love) is an everlasting gift from God.
Finding these gifts made me think about what I might leave for my own daughters someday. It isn’t the external value of the gift that matters, but rather the love that it represents.
Is there a special gift or letter that you would like to leave your children?
Margaret McSweeney lives with her husband, David and two teenage daughters in the Chicago suburbs. After earning a master’s degree in international business from the University of South Carolina, Margaret moved to New York City to work at a large bank where she met David. Margaret is the editor of Pearl Girls, author of A Mother’s Heart Knows and co-author of Go Back and Be Happy. Charity and community involvement are very important to Margaret. She has served on the board of directors for WINGS (Women in Need Growing Stronger) for over eight years.For more information, find Margaret at www.pearlgirls.info and www.kitchenchat.info.
Thank you all so much for following along with the Pearl Girls™Mother of Pearl Mother's Day blog series. I pray you laughed, cried and were touched by the translucent stories of real life written by new moms, stepmoms, grandmoms, adoptive moms, and moms without moms. Iridescent reality. And how poignant that the translucent nacre which coats the sand stuck inside an oyster’s shell is called Mother of Pearl. Mothers surround children with their love and with God’s love so they can grow in grace. I hope you'll join us this December for the third annual 12 Pearls of Christmas series.
AND ... thanks too, to all of you who entered to win the beautiful hand crafted pearl necklace. I'm thrilled to announce that the winner is ...
If you are unfamiliar with Pearl Girls™, please visit http://www.pearlgirls.info/and see what we're all about. The purpose of Pearl Girls is to connect women so that together, we can make a difference in the world. All proceeds of the Pearl Girls book go in full to two charities: Wings (women in need growing stronger) to help fund a safe house in the Chicago suburbs and to Hands of Hope to help build wells for schoolchildren in Uganda. Consider purchasing a copy of Pearl Girls: Encountering Grit, Experiencing Graceor one of thePearl Girls™ products to help support Pearl Girls.
Book Give-Away May 2 - 9: To win an ebook, Making the Turn, leave a comment about this interview with your e-mail. International.
For all the non-golfers out there, "making the turn" means the player has finished the front nine and begins the back nine. This story begins with four women playing golf, and each chapter begins with a golf rule or quote. The story is about a thirty-nine-year-old socialite from Dallas who loses everything overnight due to the death of her philandering, absent husband. Now she must return to her childhood home of Del Rey, Texas, to live with her mother, and…gasp…find a job.
