Don’t miss your chance to win a copy of The Mighty Macs!
THE MIGHTY MACS Review & Giveaway
March 28, 2012 By
Catholic Family Fun: Now in MY Hands!
March 25, 2012 By 1 Comment
Look what was waiting at the post office yesterday:
We’re a weeeee bit excited.
Both girls asked for their own copies, and seven-year-old expressed her delight and approval that one of the activities is horseback riding.
I’d be failing if I didn’t also remind you:
- Have you entered to win a Snoring Scholar SurPrize Pack yet?
- And what’s your biggest meal-time challenge?
Lest you think it’s giveaways all the time around here…well, I have something up my sleeve for later this week, March Madness style. 
Making the Meal Blessing More Interesting AND a Giveaway
March 24, 2012 By
It’s challenge enough to get everyone to sit down at the same time while the food is still hot (but not too hot).
Then there’s the challenge of certain children racing through the meal blessing as though their tongues are on fire.
I know they’re not starving. (They just ate an hour ago!) From whence does this impatience come?
I’m sure there are many answers to this particular problem, but here’s my favorite so far:
It’s a Table Grace Die, and it’s larger than I expected. When the mancub throws it across the room, it makes a satisfying THUNK. (He thinks it’s great. I don’t.)
On each side of the cube, there are different prayers. They’re easy enough for my first-grader to read, short enough for my toddler to sit through, and delightful enough for my four-year-old to memorize.
In other words, I love it.
Want one of your own?
The kind folks at Catholic Family Gifts have offered to give one away to one of my blog readers.
Enter in the comments with your biggest dinnertime challenge by Wednesday, March 28 and I’ll randomly select a winner to be announced in next week’s Quick Takes.
* * *
While we’re on the topic of giveaways, don’t forget about the one I mentioned yesterday. You have to buy my book and then let me know to be entered.
This contest is now over & comments are closed.
In which I jump up and down for Quick Takes
March 23, 2012 By 3 Comments
A reader sent me this picture a week or so ago, and then gave me permission to use it.
Is your family using Welcome Risen Jesus? I’d love to hear how it’s working for you.
As for my family, well. Let’s just say I’m having a lesson in parental humility and big failures this Lent. There’s always next year…
Last week, I came home from a conference and within two hours had a puking kid and a very sick husband.
I had a talk scheduled for Tuesday with a local moms group, but I canceled it, sadly.
I couldn’t leave them in the lurch, though, so I recorded a little intro (which is verrrrry bad, click through at your own risk) and my Mary for Moms talk.
Then after they listened to my talk, we connected via Skype.
It was an awesome work-around, and in November, I’m looking forward to actually meeting this group of ladies in person. Don’t they look sweet?
(My boy was reaching out across the computer screen to a few of those other little guys. It was very sweet.)
On Wednesday last week, I went down with some virus thing.
Turns out maybe it wasn’t food poisoning for the sick kid and the husband.
And, in more delightful news, I have hard and fast proof that Catholic Family Fun: A Guide for the Adventurous, Overwhelmed, Creative, or Clueless is in the publishing house.
See that? That is someone AT Pauline, holding my book in their hot little hands.
(It’s actually Holly in marketing, and she is every bit as much of a cutie patootie as I thought she’d be.)
And check THIS news out…
The book is available on Pauline’s bookstore! Yay!
So let’s have a contest!
Order a copy and leave a comment by next Wednesday, March 28, and I’ll enter you in a drawing for a Snoring Scholar SurPrize Pack.
My kids will draw names out of a basket next Thursday, March 29 and I’ll announce the winners as part of next week’s Quick Takes.
You can enter once for every copy you purchase. Let the FUN begin!
What ‘s in the prize pack? How many winners? Well, that’s a surprise.
So, how about a plug for my other writing, too? It’s not like there’s grass growing under my keyboard.
For one thing, there’s my ongoing series at New Evangelizers. This week, I’m talking about how balance doesn’t always mean giving something (like the internet, say) up. In fact, giving it up would be, in some ways, easier than my current, ongoing struggle with balance.
There’s also my post at Amazing Catechists about calling in sick, something that’s oh-so-hard for a perfectionist-who-loves-her-volunteering to do. Unless there’s puking and passing out involved. Then it gets easier. I simply couldn’t move.
I took the week off from posting at CatholicMom.com and recording a Mary Moment for iPadre, but I’ll be back next week as usual.
I also have a book proposal I promised to get to my editor by March 31. Since she follows this blog (in theory, anyway), I’m going to just smile and keep quiet about the status. (It’s in God’s hands, folks, GOD’S HANDS.)
This week, I’ve been teaching two blogging forums for the first week of the two-week Catholic Writers Conference Online. It’s such fun! More about it next week or the week after, when I have time to gather my thoughts a bit. (The interacting there is keeping me hopping, and I feel like I’m not doing as much as I should.)
It’s great to get together with other writers and encourage each other, even if we can’t do it often in person.
Which brings me to this bit of awesomeness: 30K for Christ!
You’ve heard of National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo), right? Those of us who don’t write fiction watch in wonder as those who do attempt to complete an entire novel in the month of November.
30K for Christ is for the rest of us (and hey, we let fiction writers in, too), and it has a Christian focus. You write 30,000 words during the month of April (any kinds of words–novel, blogging, book, journaling, whatever), but you do it for Christ and with Christ.
If you’re on Twitter, join in with the hashtag #30K4JC.
Visit Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes!
February Book Giveaway Winners
February 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Remember the book giveaway?
As promised, here are the winners, selected randomly by the lovely Random Number Generator:
- K Rockamann
- Barbmom6
- Kim @ Transitus Tiber
- Kerry Knott
- Leanne
- Ali
- Lena Flores
- Nancy Carabio Belanger
- Karen Edmisten
- Thadeus
- Oneeyedsmiley
- Barb S
- Melanie Gillespie
- Thereitstuff
- Nicole S
Please contact me at blog -at- snoringscholar.com with your mailing address and I’ll get the book you’ve won in the mail to you as soon as I can!
Thanks to everyone for joining the fun!
Beat the February Doldrums: A Book Giveaway!
February 1, 2012 By
Enter as many times as you qualify for by February 21!
Update: contest is now closed. Thanks to everyone for participating! Winners were announced on February 22.
Quick Takes Halfway through Advent
December 9, 2011 By 1 Comment
Not only did I find my Advent wreath this week, but I set it up.
AND we have USED it.
In case I’m not the only person just getting started on Advent halfway through, I thought I’d host something fun next week…a link-up (or “carnival” to those of us who remember the days of such bloggy fun) of Advent wreaths.
This is inspired, in part, by the people who keep sending me messages with pictures of their Advent wreaths and my book.
For example, I received this from Larissa Hoffman this week:
Know what that book at the end of the table is?
Welcome Baby Jesus, by yours truly.
Talk about humbled.
So I was inspired: let’s have an Advent Wreath Carnival! We’ll exchange links, post pictures, and have all sorts of fun.
Let’s CELEBRATE Advent, shall we? Hope you can participate!
Part of what inspired me to actually find my wreath (which involved a special trip to the attic of our old house) was the encouragement of Greg and Jennifer Willits.
I had a chance to talk to them on Tuesday afternoon during their radio show, The Catholics Next Door.
It was great fun and yes, I’m feeling a lot like this about it (still):
Speaking of things that excite me, check THIS out:
That’s my newest book, Welcome Risen Jesus: Lent and Easter Reflections for Families. I don’t even have blurbs for it yet, but I have my author copies in hand. (The marketing of pamphlets/booklets is far different than what’s done for “real” books, I’m finding.)
Best place to buy it? Your local Catholic retailer. If you don’t have one, consider Liguori (the publisher), Aquinas and More, or The Catholic Company (though, admittedly, they don’t have it for pre-order). Or, yes, Amazon. But let’s keep our Catholic friends in business first, shall we?
Want a free book? OF COURSE you do!
And it’s not just any book…it’s Ellen Gable’s new book, Stealing Jenny, one that should come with a warning label. You still have today to enter to win one of the five Kindle copies we’re giving away at CatholicMom.com.
But wait…there’s more! Over at Amazing Catechists, the amazing Lisa Mladinich has organized a giveaway that lasts for ten days, and we’re only halfway through. Be sure to enter each day!
Speaking of Amazing Catechists, my latest column is up: Immacu-what?
I was standing at the front of the class, fresh out of Mass. I’d like to say it was a room of fresh-faced fifth graders, but the truth was, we were all tired.
I asked them who had been at Mass.
A few hands went up.
“And why were you at Mass? What were we celebrating?”
“Advent!” They were triumphant. They were confident. They were sure.
And they were WRONG.
Read the rest at Amazing Catechists.
And this post wouldn’t be complete without the obligatory mancub picture:
He’s trying to walk and he’s almost succeeding (with or without something to push). Maybe I should quit pushing him down every time he stands up: it’s just making him stronger and more determined (and goodness, we don’t need any more strong wills in this house!).
Visit Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes!
Here at Snoring Scholar, you'll find marriage and motherhood, book talk and rambling remarks, observations and distractions, in the midst of life in rural Ohio on a farm, with kids, critters, and Catholic flair.
Catholic Family Fun: A Guide for the Adventurous, Overwhelmed, Creative, or Clueless is now available for ordering! 
