How's life? :)

Hi girls! I hope you are all doing well~ I've certainly missed all the chatter around here! Personally, my life has been such a crazy whirlwind & I am super-duper excited that summer is about to begin. I'm trying very hard to not fill our calendar with plans for the next few months. I want to sort through every room in the house & get rid of all this clutter- which seems to be my plan every year. And, I am going to be intentional about connecting with my children's hearts. It is amazing how slowly days go by while the years fly by so quickly!
My youngest daughter was recently diagnosed with Lyme disease. We found a nasty little deer tick on her leg & within a week, the red rash started to develop. Thank God, we discovered it early! She is my precious girl, always wanting to work with me on whatever I am doing. Please pray for her complete recovery. Thanks! I hope you have a delightful summer! XO, Becky

Our Friends Are Hurting

Hi guys, I just wanted to let you know that Deborah is in mourning right now. She is grieving the loss of her nephew. You can leave your condolences here... http://fairfieldhousenj.com/2011/01/24/the-moment-that-matters/ 

Also, The Cottage Child's  family dog Chili, passed yesterday. Rachael we are sorry for your family's loss.

Unfortunately there are going to be times in this little band of sisters (and one bro) that it's not all about the giggles or the chit chat.

We'll be thinking of you today ladies, and grieving your losses along side you in spirit.

CSN Giveaway

CSN got a hold of me to do a giveaway for them on Wit Behind the Ears. (No, Alaina, that's not what I've been so giddy about.)

Here's the thing yo, I've never hosted a giveaway before. I'm not sure exactly how to get people to enter, how to raffle it off, how to let people know about it. Anything.

The giveaway I did for the cookbook, was a surprise giveaway and came after everyone had already left a comment.  And all I did was write y'alls names down on scraps of paper and pull one out. Not exactly high tech, ya know?

But for this one, since the whole point is to drive up hits to the site they want me to link to, I have no idea how to proceed. :-o

And if they get a lot of entries they might run one again... maybe even for more moolah... woohoo! So I want to get this one right, see?

Let me tell you, the guy that drew my name out of the blogging hat, got gypped.

Any tips?

Trust me on this one...

If you don't normally drink but you want a little somethin'- the 3yr. old opened bottle of HOMEMADE red wine is probably NOT a good idea. Mind you, being open for 3yrs does show that it was probably NOT that good in the first place, bless my uncle's heart.

I think I'll just be patient from now on & wait on the distiller to finish running my water through. That tall glass of water has always been my favorite, anyway.
Cheers!

Lebanon???

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_center_of_the_contiguous_United_States

Why am I not overcome with the need to see Lebanon, KS before the year is out?

Who knows though, maybe it's like-totally-freakin-awesome!

So in my previous post, I suggested Nebraska because I thought suggesting KS sounded slightly too opportunistic for me. "Hey folks let's meet in KS! That way I only have to drive though Oklahoma (my old stomping grounds) to get there!"

Actually, when I look at Lebanon on the map, it does appear to be farthest away from our girls in the NE. We also have to take into consideration our token Canadian and CC who lives the farthest to the south.
I hope the Cali girls would be able to make it that far, but who knows. Amy has family in the midwest, so maybe she could coordinate her visits and it wouldn't be so bad.

I never do ANYTHING like this but I think it would be sooo worth it, that I'm willing to get myself just about anywhere. Hey, we could rotate houses! Meet at whoever's house wanted to host that year. (Oh, You didn't know this is to be a yearly get together?) And for those who are not in a position to host a houseful of goofballs, maybe they could co-host at someone else's house. I for one get super frazzled with things like that, so I would GLADLY take on a co-host.

else's and whoever's are new words, pass it on and use them often.

Would any of you...

Ever like to meet up as a group?

I'm generally pretty anti-social. Not on purpose or anything, it just seems to work out that way. I guess I'd just about rather hole up in my house than be anywhere else. You know, at parties, I hug the wall. But for you fine people, I'd actually put pants on and pack a suitcase.

Anyway, maybe I'm just dreaming here, we do come from all over the map. (Yikes, Berries!) But maybe we could pick some far off date (so that we could all save up) and some central location. (Nebraska? LOL)

I'm addressing this to "all" of us. Followers, authors, and friends that don't get to hang here much anymore.

I've never been really interested in going to one of the blogging conferences but something like that with all or some of you could be super fun!

Just somethin to chew on. Happy New Years, friends!