I was looking all over the site where I thought I had seen this the day I posted about current bloggy happenings, but I couldn’t find it there. That’s because it was here! Crystal at Biblical Womanhood is hosting a contest for single women to share how they celebrate Valentine’s Day in a meaningful way by showing love and encouragement to others. Unfortunately this is the last day to submit an entry — there are still a few hours left if you’re so inclined. But the top entries chosen will be posted for readers to vote on over the next couple of days, and there will be a prize package for the winner. Even if you don’t have enough time to enter, I am sure there will be some great ideas posted.

Crystal will also be hosting “some guest posts from unmarried women or young women encouraging other unmarried women to glorify God in this season” over the next few days: the first one is here.

• The ladies at 5 Minutes For Mom are always up to something! Currently they are sponsoring a giveaway for an Oreck XL Ultra vacuum. You can find more information and the rules of the giveaway here.

• 5 Minutes For Mom is also hosting another Ultimate Blog Party as a way for bloggers to introduce themselves to other bloggers. And there are prizes involved! The party invitations is for women bloggers and non-bloggers “regardless of parental status, religious affiliations, etc. This party is about having fun with friends and meeting new people.” You can find more information here or click on the banner below.

• The former Family Friendly Blogroll had now been transformed into the Family-Friendly Network and launched a new site called Blogged In News and Networking to help promote “the better side, the safe-for-the-whole-family side of the ’sphere.”

• Last but certainly not least, Julie at Joyful Days blessed me with this award that says “You encourage me to follow in His footsteps.” It was created by a new-to-me blogger named Karen at Karen’s Ramblings who says here, “What is on my heart this morning is Encouragement. A word of hope or affirmation is a real blessing to building one another up – with the view of leading us closer to God.
  I have been really encouraged, inspired, challenged and stirred up by a lot of posts that I have read. They have drawn me closer to God, desiring to follow in His Footsteps more and more. So, with that in mind I have designed this Award called “You Encourage me to follow in his Footsteps”.

Julie wrote, “Barbara at Stray Thoughts–faithful and constant, a true lady, I love the sense of peacefulness and serenity at Barbara’s blog. It’s obvious where she places her trust.” Julie, I can’t tell you how that blessed me. I want to convey those qualities, and I want more than anything else for my blog to be a testimony to Christ and to show that He is more than worthy of our trust. When someone tells me they have seen a glimpse of Him here, my heart is overjoyed.

A few of the bloggers who encourage me to follow in His footsteps are:

Kim of Life in the 10/40 Window. Kim and her family are missionaries in Japan. Her desire to see Christ in all her circumstances and reflect Him in all her actions shines through. I’ve only known her for several months here on the blogsophere, but I count her a true friend.

Melli at Insanity Prevails. Melli’s honesty with the things she deals with is refreshing to me, because we all have struggles. Her merry heart pervades her posts, as does her steadfast trust in God.

Barb at A Chelsea Morning has a sweet graciousness about her and a way of caring for and interacting with others that puts me to shame.

Susan at By Grace is a pastor’s wife in Canada. Her meek and quiet spirit and steadfast, faithful character are examples to me.

Laurel at Laurel Wreath’s Reflections. Encouragement to follow in Christ’s footsteps seem to me to be the essence of Laurel’s blog. She keeps her eyes on Christ and keeps following Him through good times or not-so-good times.

Susanne at Living to Tell the Story is another sweet, quiet, steady, faithful spirit who encourages me.

I am sure there are others I could name, and that’s always the danger of these things — I don’t want to leave anyone out. But these are the ones that first come to mind and who bless me often.

Near the end of last year I saw several people post a list of the first line of the first post from each month through the past year. Several days ago I saw Bet do the same thing, and that reminded me of it. It’s a fun exercise, so here are my first posts for each month of 2007. While looking through them I also decided to highlight certain favorite posts from each month as well.

January:

First line from first post: Quotes for the new year: “There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed. Joshua 13:1”

Other highlights from January: The Storm and the Rainbow, Fundamentalism and separatism, Doctrine.

February:

First post: Snow day “… though it’s not snow, exactly. More like falling slush balls…”

Other highlights: You can’t say no until you pray about it, The language of Christians, Fundamentals and secondary issues, Meme about Mr. Right, What do you say about this book?

March:

First post: Yuck! “I had a hankering for a hamburger today…”

Other highlights: A sense of Him, God is able, Spring musings, When there is no hunger for God’s Word, The community of believers, The greatest sin.

April:

First post: Easter quotes: “I’ll be back later this evening with Psalm Sunday, but for now I wanted to put up the first of a series of quotes about Easter (or Resurrection Day, if you prefer).”

Other highlights: The resurrection of Jesus Christ.

May:

First post: Labeling downloaded pictures: “My tackle for today involved computer housekeeping.” (Too bad I am easily amused wasn’t first. 😀 )

Other highlights: No work of mine, Why are we so surprised?, Devotional exercise using definitions, Afraid? Of what?, Interview with author Lynn Walker.

June:

First post: Talk about high security: “I haven’t flown in ages — I haven’t even been to an airport in a long time except to pick my husband up from a business trip at the curb.”

Other highlights: No merit of my own, The Deity of Christ, Ode to a summer cold.

July:

First post: Having devotions when you’re not feeling very devoted: “Several days ago, I was starting out my devotional time as I usually do by reading the day’s passage from a book called Daily Light for the Daily Path.”

Other highlights: Works for me Wednesday: Parenting edition, Faith isn’t arrogance, Does He know you?, Scriptural reasons for suffering, Why I love Jesus, Though everything goes wrong, Poor Suzie.

August:

First post: A belated — or early — happy Birthday to Jason: “Jason, my middle son, had a birthday a couple of weeks ago.”

Other highlights: A milestone birthday, No judgment?, It’s the little things.

September:

First post: Book Review: The Potluck Club Takes the Cake: “The Potluck Club Takes the Cake by Linda Evans Shepherd and Eva Marie Everson is the third in a series about a group of friends from a church who started several years ago getting together for prayer and a potluck meal.”

Other highlights: Every possibility, What women want…in a Christian man, Does niceness really matter?

October:

First post: My desktop free view: “Alice at Hello, My Name Is Alice tagged me for a meme in which we show what’s on our desktop on our computer.”

Other highlights: Sometimes love means…, My righteousness, Sometimes it’s best to leave children alone, God’s Word, She regrets having children

November:

First post: Another ER visit: “I decided to skip prayer meeting tonight to go to the ER. 🙄 ”

Other highlights: Thanksgiving Bible study, Preparing good ground.

December:

First post: Photo Scavenger Hunt: Red: “I was looking for the first picture for today and found the other two in the process.”

Other highlights: Don’t forget the grace, His dear wife, Primary purpose of a home, Laying down life.

Update: I just saw that Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home did a similar post, only she has pictures from each month. Neat idea! She added a Mr. Linky here if anyone would like to post the first sentence of your first blog post of each month and link back to it for others to enjoy.

No photo hunt post today — the theme was “long” and I just couldn’t come up with anything — and have a really busy day ahead anyway.

So I thought this would be a good time to take care of some long over-due bloggy business.

My good blog friend Alice gave me the “You’re an Amazing Blogger” award weeks ago. No, Alice I didn’t forget — please forgive me for taking so long to respond! Thank you so much!

What usually holds me up in acknowledging these things is figuring out who to pass them on to. In some ways I could give them to everyone, but I don’t think that’s what’s intended. I don;t want to leave anyone out — I appreciate everyone who comes here. But to narrow it down a bit, some of the bloggers I consider amazing are:

Dawn at 4:53 am. A Christian crafty lady, she displays a sweet spirit and sense of awe and wonder at God’s creation. And I like her craft entries, too!

Melli at Insanity Prevails. She has a way of making everyday life always seem like such an adventure. I love her enthusiasm and cheerfulness. Even in hard times she traces God’s hand in it and relies on His strength.

Lizzie at A Dusty Frame. I admire her honesty and the evidence of grace and God’s strength as she deals with being a temporary single mom while her husband is incarcerated. The lessons of faith her family has been learning have been a joy to witness.

Karla at Karla’s Cottage. She’s one if my favorite crafty bloggers, and I’m so glad she shares what she’s working on. I am amazed at how much she can get done in a short time!

Then, more recently my good blog buddy Jen gave me a couple more awards. Thanks so much!

One was the Blog Buddies award. There is a sense in which everyone who comes here is a blog buddy. 🙂 But I’d like to pass this on to few whom I feel I know a little better:

Alice at Hello, My Name is Alice.
Diane at A Watered Garden.
Susan at By Grace.
Bet at Dappled Things.
Ann at From Sinking Sand.
Jen at Joyful Notes.
Rita at The Jungle Hut.
Laurel at Laurel Wreath Reflections.
Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.
Cindy at Notes in the Key of Life.
Janeen at Our Story.
Jewel at Down In My Little Valley.
Kim at Life in the 10/40 Window.

Jen also passed on the me the Tough Blogger award for being “a tough blogger who is true to yourself.” Thanks, Jen!

This is kind of a hard one to pass on as my brain is scrambled right now and I can’t think of any blogger I know who isn’t true to themselves.

And jen also gave me the “Nice Matters” award (thank you!). I passed that on to several folks a while back.

In other bloggy news — at some point in the near future I think I am going to move my awards and links and maybe my blogroll up into the “About Me” section at the top right. I think it would make my sidebar look neater. And, though I love the awards, I fell a little funny about displaying them all there — don’t want to seem like I am bragging on myself. 🙂 So if you have blessed me with an award and don’t see it on the side, either I am busy with Christmas stuff and don’t have it up yet or I will have moved it. It may be after Christmas before I get to that, though.

Thanks, dear blog friends!

I’ve seen a couple of different great contests out there today.

If you know a college student who has a blog, they could win a $10,000 college scholarship. Deadline for entry is midnight PST Oct. 6.

I’m not familiar with ProBlogger since I’m not making money on my blog, at least for now, but my son alerted me to some birthday bash contests they’re having this week. in one, you can win TWO 20-inch FlatronWide L206WU USB-based monitors provided by DisplayLink. For that you have to write up a post about the ProBlogger Birthday Bash and link to it, then leave a comment on the post at ProBlogger about it. That one ends Friday at 8am (EST). This one features 24 blogging-related prizes in 24 hours for writing a post about blogging tips and runs until noon EST Thursday. There is another contest there tomorrow.