I’m featured in an e-book! And you can win a copy!

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Barbara Harper

Some of you might be familiar with the Works For Me Wednesday blog carnival. It was started years ago by Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer, and then she gave it over to Kristen at We Are THAT family. Every Wednesday, scores of bloggers share a tip that they’ve found helpful in real life.

Kristen thought it would be useful to take some of the best tips shared over the years and compile them into an e-book, and she asked to use three of mine.

I have posted any tips in a while — my repertoire ran dry a while ago. But I’m glad that some folks can still see them and glean something helpful from them.

The e-book is titled That Works For Me. It contains some 800 tips divided up into 24 categories, from Babies and Blogging to Marriage to Time Management, Frugality, Decor, Cleaning, Pets — almost every category you can think of. Within each category is a list of submitted tips: a brief description and then a link to the original blog post they came from. Some are very practical, like Peanut Butter Dog Treats and iPhone Troubleshooting: some are more philosophical, like my Can Frugality Go Too Far?

There are two contests in connection with the book.

1. You can win a clean house — a $150 Visa card toward a local cleaning company — by submitting a tip here through the month of April. This contest is sponsored by the folks that compiled the e-book: if you want to enter that contest, please go there. Commenting here won’t help you win that one. 🙂

2. You can win a copy of the e-book That Works For Me! by commenting on this post.

You can earn an extra entry by “liking” the book’s Facebook page and leaving a comment here telling me you did.

You can earn and extra entry by following the book’s Pinterest page and leaving a comment here telling me you did.

You can earn an extra entry by following the book’s Twitter feed and leaving a comment telling me you did.

Also, if you want to buy the book and click through from my links here or the button at the top of the page, I get a percentage of the sale. (WordPress Police, I did get prior permission for this.) And if you’d like to save a dollar off the $8 price of the book, use the coupon code SAVE1.

I’ll draw a winner Wednsday morning, May 2, using random.org.

Have fun and enjoy the book!

(This review will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

This contest is now closed. Congratulations to Ann!

The LIW Challenge Giveaway Winner!

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Barbara Harper

The winner of the giveaway for those participating in the Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge is Kami! She has won Laura’s Album: A Remembrance Scrapbook of Laura Ingalls Wilder by William Anderson. I’ll be contacting you soon!

Thanks again to all those who participated!

Giveaway Winners

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Thanks to all who participated in my giveaways celebrating 2.500 posts and five years of blogging! I always hate to come to the end of a contest — I hate to disappoint anyone and wish I could give something to everyone! But I do thank each of you for taking the time to read here and for commenting.

OK, here goes: time to draw for the winners with the help of Random.org. Drum roll, please!

The winner of By Searching: My Journey Through Doubt Into Faith and In the Arena by Isobel Kuhn is…Sue.

The two winners of a Scotch Thermal Laminator. are…Sherri and Cheri.

The winner of Come to the Table is…rbclibrary.

Oh, by the way, those who answered pink roses to my favorite flower and color were right as well as those who named my husband as Jim and our years of marriage together as 31 (32 next month!) Those didn’t count extra for the contest, but were just for fun.

Congratulations! I’ll be e-mailing you shortly to get your addresses. Thanks again, everyone, for entering and for reading here. I so appreciate my regular readers, and the “silent ones,” too — I hope those of you who popped in for the contest will pop in again!

Giveaway #3

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Barbara Harper

To continue celebrating 2,500 posts and 5 years of blogging, here is my third giveaway. (The giveaway for Day 1 is here and Day 2 is here.)

Come to the Table is more than a cookbook: it does have recipes, but it also has beautiful photography, quotes, poems, meditations, and Scriptures about hospitality and food scattered throughout.

Honestly, my main reason for giving away my copy is that the recipes in here just aren’t ones that I would use. I think I copied 3 or 4 (there were a few more that looked good but were similar to something I already had). But looking through the book again, I almost decided to keep it just for the “stray thoughts” throughout the book. I refrained, however! I did make note of a few of the poems and quotes that particularly stood out to me.

Both the Amazon site and Christianbook.com sites have access to the inside of the book, so you can take a look and see if it is something you’d be interested in.

If you’d like an opportunity to win this book, just leave a comment on this post before next Tuesday morning, Nov. 15, when I’ll use random.org to draw winners for each of the giveaways.

You can enter each giveaway, but please do so only once for each one (don’t leave multiple comments in order to increase your chances of winning). You can only win one, however, so if you enter more than one, let me know if you have a preference.

This one is open to everyone!

Oh, and here is a quiz question — you don’t have to answer it in order to enter, but just for fun:
How long have I been married, and what is my husband’s name?

Entries are now closed. Congratulations to rbclibrary.

Giveaway #2

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Barbara Harper

I mentioned yesterday that in celebration of 2,500 posts and 5 years of blogging, I’m having a few days of giveaways.

A funny thing happened last Christmas….while doing some online shopping, I clicked on the “Today’s Deals” at Amazon.com, which I had never done before. I’m not sure why I did that day. But that day they had a Scotch Thermal Laminator on sale for $17. I’d been wanting a laminator and hadn’t taken time to research them, but thought this was a great price to try one out. So I ordered it.

My husband happened to see the same deal, and he ordered one for me for Christmas.

And somehow we ended up with a third one — we never did figure out which of us accidentally ordered it or how.

So now I have three laminators when I only need one. Jim said I could use the extra two to give away on my blog if I wanted to, and they’ve been sitting in my sewing room waiting for the opportunity.

You might ask, what can you do with a laminator? I wanted one to cover bookmarks — it makes them firmer, provides a nice straight edge for those who like to use them to underline, and helps them last longer. Teachers use them to make their visuals and bulletin board items stronger and longer-lasting. Some other great ideas are here and here.

I’m afraid this giveaway has to be restricted to the USA only. I was checking around the US Post Office site to see if maybe I could include Canada, but it looks like it would cost $70 to ship there — way more than I can spend.

So if you’d like to enter for the drawing of a Scotch Thermal Laminator and have a USA address, leave a comment below. I’ll choose two winners using random.org next Tuesday morning, Nov. 15.

Entries are now closed. Congratulations to Sherri and Cheri.

Milestones, Celebrations, and Giveaways

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Barbara Harper

According to my blog stats, this is my 2500th post.

Wow. Who knew I had so much to say? 🙂

Also, my fifth blogoversary was July 27, and somehow it just blew by me. Usually I anticipate it and often have a giveaway around then. This being a “milestone” year (somehow birthdays and anniversaries ending in 5 and 0 are more milestone-ish than others) it seems especially appropriate.

So, I’ve decided to have a few days of giveaways, as a thank-you to those of you who stop by my humble online abode. I’ll have at least three — maybe more. Some will be open to everyone, some will only be open to US residents due to shipping costs. Though I’ll spread out announcing them over the next few days, all the drawings will be held a week from today, next Tuesday morning, November 15.

The first giveaway will be the two books By Searching: My Journey Through Doubt Into Faith and In the Arena by Isobel Kuhn, reviewed together here (one winner will receive both books). If you’ve read here long, you know these are special to me, and I’d love to share them with someone. This one is open to all. If you’d like to be entered to win these books, just leave a comment below any time between now and next Tuesday morning. You don’t have to have a blog to enter. I’ll use random.org to choose the winners.

If you’d like to be entered for the drawings on the other days, you’ll need to leave a comment those days as well: the comments here will just count for this particular drawing.

I thought about doing some quizzes as part of the drawings, and decided against it. So this doesn’t count for anything but just for fun:

What is my favorite flower and my favorite color of it?

Thanks so much to those who read and those who comment. You are a blessing to me!

Entries are now closed. Congratulations to Sue.

The Week In Words…and a Giveaway!

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.

Here are a few that spoke to me this past week:

I saw this on Lisa‘s sidebar of her Twitter feed:

If you understand that God is using all the difficulties you face to perfect you, you’ll be at peace. It’s not all for nothing. ~ John MacArthur

That does help to know God has a purpose in everything He allows, and this is at least one of them.

The next few are from The Invitation by Derick Bingham, all concerning John 12.

From the May 30th reading about Martha serving as many as seventeen people:

[Formerly] Martha was distracted by her serving. Now, she isn’t. She is now serving as wholeheartedly as ever but not to the detriment of ignoring what God wants to say to her.

May it be true of all of God’s Marthas.

From the May 31 reading concerning Mary’s anointing Christ’s feet with a costly ointment:

If we have not what the Bible calls “first love” for Christ we will do more harm than good by the defence of the Christian faith. People have risen in the history of the church with a zeal for truth but because there is no first love for Christ behind it, their zeal narrow into hate. All service for Christ that is not the outgrowth of love for Him is worthless. Activity in the King’s service will not make up for neglect of the King.

There’s a lot in that one, but what particularly grabbed me was the thought of zeal for truth with no love doing more harm than good. I’ve seen people like that, and I believe that’s true. And then the last statement convicts as well: how easy it is to be busy in service and drift away from that first love.

From the June 1 reading commenting on Judas’s disparaging remarks concerning Mary’s act:

If you wait until everybody commends and praises you, then you will never do any good in this world.

True: there will always be naysayers.

Now, as for the giveaway I mentioned in the title. 🙂 I just realized last week that I missed the one year anniversary of hosting The Week In Words. It was begun by Melissa at Breath of Life, and when she had to set it aside I asked if I could take it over, and in May I had been hosting it for a year. And an anniversary is a nice time for a giveaway. One source I’ve shared many quotes from is Warren Wiersbe’s With the Word, a book of short commentary on every chapter in the Bible, so I would like to give away one copy of that book…and I may include a couple of other little surprises as well. If you’d like to be included in the giveaway, just leave a comment on this post, and I’ll announce the winner at the next Week In Words next Monday morning. (You don’t have to leave a quote to enter, but if you have one, please do share it as well! All comments will be entered in the drawing, so if you comment but you are not interested in the book, please let me know. If you already have a copy, this might make a nice gift for someone else.)

If you’ve read anything that particularly spoke to you that you’d like to share, please either list it in the comments below or write a post on your blog and then put the link to that post (not your general blog link) in Mr. Linky below. I do ask that only family-friendly quotes be included. I hope you’ll visit some of the other participants as well and glean some great thoughts to ponder.

Don’t forget to leave a comment, even if you don’t have any quotes to share! 🙂

Winner!

Posted on October 21, 2010 by Barbara Harper

The winner of my giveaway for I’m Outnumbered!: One Mom’s Lessons in the Lively Art of Raising Boys by Laura Lee Groves is….

Ann!

I’ll send you an e-mail in just a moment to request your contact information.

Book Review and Giveaway: I’m Outnumbered!: One Mom’s Lessons in the Lively Art of Raising Boys

Posted on October 14, 2010 by Barbara Harper

(The giveaway and comments are closed: the winner is Ann!)

I first “met” Laura Lee Groves at her blog through Susanne‘s Friday’s Fave Five weekly meme (thanks, Susanne!) I identified with her immediately as we’re near the same age and stage of life and she has four boys while I have three. She mentioned in one of her earliest comments that it was like we were in parallel universes. 🙂

When she announced she was about to have a book published, I was on the alert for it. And then when I heard it was about raising boys, well, that especially made me want to read it even though I only have one still at home.

In I’m Outnumbered!: One Mom’s Lessons in the Lively Art of Raising Boys, Laura Lee Groves draws from her own experience in raising four young men as well as her years of experience in the classroom as an English teacher, plus she weaves together quotes from a number of books on the subject. She writes as a mom who was the only female in her house trying to relate to the male mindset and who wants to share what she has gleaned with other moms. There are a few pointers for those households who have girls and boys especially along the lines of their relating to each other.

There is a lot of practical wisdom as well as a solid Scriptural basis in Laura Lee’s advice. She writes in a conversational style that is easy to follow. The book includes chapters on managing expectations, sibling rivalry, intentional parenting, education, conversation, organization, respect, and media influences and management. She also includes a chapter titled “A Word From the Boys” with some of their thoughts on the way they were raised and a list of resources.

I think this book is a treasure trove for any mom of boys. In fact, I’d like to give this copy to a mom who would benefit from it, so if you’d like it or know someone who might, just let me know in the comments. I’ll draw a name a week from today, Thursday, October 21.

Laura also sends out a helpful weekly newsletter which can be signed up for at her blog.

(The giveaway and comments are closed: the winner is Ann!)

(This review will be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday review of Books and the next 5 Minutes For Books I Read It column.)