Write for a Reader

I thought a New Year’s poem would be appropriate for today.  I was going to write one, but when I found this one, I decided that I couldn’t explain it any better.  Our family suffered loss last year, and know that this year will be better, one because we have each other.  I hope that this new year brings you the clean slate that you need to achieve whatever it is you desire!  Happy New Year!!

Life I Am the New Year

Life I am the new year.
I am an unspoiled page in your book of time.
I am your next chance at the art of living.
I am your opportunity to practice what you have learned about life during the last twelve months.
All that you sought and didn’t find is hidden in me,
waiting for you to search it out with more determination.
All the good that you tried for and didn’t achieve
is mine to grant when you have fewer conflicting desires.
All that you dreamed but didn’t dare to do, all that you hoped but did not will,
all the faith that you claimed but did not have –
these slumber lightly, waiting to be awakened
by the touch of a strong purpose.
I am your opportunity
to renew your allegiance to Him who said, “behold, I make all things new.”
I am the new year.
– Author Unknown

You can find the rest of the Poetry Friday Round-Up over at A Year of Reading

This will be the last Wednesday Wanderings post for the year.  I have enjoyed this new addition to my blog.  Still wish I knew how to make a button – anyone that will volunteer or help me out?  I found a picture I like, but don’t know how to do the “button” thing.

There are tons of ‘08 wrap-ups around the blogosphere as well as New Year’s wishes.  Both of which I’ve done; the wish just won’t post until tomorrow.  Here is what I found over at Papertigers.  I really liked the short and sweet post.

Giveaways

I found a new blog this week – Life Starring Ellie and Eve.  Great giveaways happen here, including this one for Eric Carle books.  2 winners will get all of the books listed.  Giveaway ends Jan. 10. 

Consumer Queen.com is new to me this week also.  In one of her posts, she gives you 7 ways to save and has a great giveaway to go along with it.  Here are the 7 ways to save:

Sign up for Fanatics to print $5 in Savings coupons                   Purchase the January “All You” magazine for $1.50 Savings (Magazine contains $50 in manufacturer’s coupons)Purchase the Fast Fixin’ Breakfast items and send in the Try Me Free for up to $5 in savings.Cut out the UPC’s from the products and collect 10 to earn a free product coupon. = $7.99 SavingsUse the coupon inside the box of Fast Fixin’ Breakfast items for a $1 savings.Use the Coupon in the Breakfast Burrito box for a Savings of $1.50

Use the Coupon in the Fast Classics Country Fried Steak for $2 off any 2 Fast Fixin’ Breakfast Items= $2 Savings

Here is the giveaway!  15 families will win a year’s supply of breakfast from Fast Fixin’ & Fast Classics.  This one will end on Jan. 15th with many ways to earn extra entries.

If you read my blog frequently, you know that I love Parent Reviewers.  They are wrapping up their Mega Giveaways with some great ones!  Who wouldn’t love a SNAP! digital camera?  Want to see Altar Boyz?  Readers available near the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania area or readers traveling to NYC would be able to take advantage of this opportunity.

A Peek At My Bookshelf is putting her blog through some changes for the new year, and she wants to do a You Pick It! book giveaway once a month, but she won’t unless we help her get to 50,000 by tonight.  Read the post here.

Don’t Forget

The Cybils short lists are due out tomorrow.  There are many bloggers who have been busily reading tons of books to whittle down each category.  Thank you for all your hard work; can’t wait to see the list!

Challenges

I will be participating in many challenges in the upcoming year.  I am trying to refrain from overloading myself with too many, but here is one that I may have to add to my list.  Check out The Ban on Spending Challenge!

That is all I have for today, unless you have something for me to add.  Let me know in the comments about what you’ve “wandered” on as you blog hopped this week.

Until next week…

My blog posting has slowed down due to the holidays, but I didn’t want to leave out the Wednesday Wanderings post.  This post is filled with all kinds of holiday goodies.  Enjoy!!

Christmas Greetings from the Blogosphere

Holiday wishes are all over the blogosphere as bloggers are slowing down with posts to spend quality time with family and friends.  Here are some wishes I’ve found:  Happy Holidays from Picture Book of the Day, Merry Christmas from Bookroomreview’s Weblog, Merry Christmas from Florinda at the 3 R’s, Christmas Cards from J. Kaye’s Book Blog, and Yes, Virginia!  There is a Santa Claus – Christmas Eve Traditions from Lesa at Lesa’s Book Critiques.

Holiday Goodies

Need a dish to take to a family gathering?  Bermudaonion has posted a Vegetable Casserole today.  What about some holiday treats?  Holly at Brimstone Soup has Orange Vanilla Caramels, Masala Chai, and Olivia’s Sugar Cookies.

Do you have a cookie maker in your life?  Check out the book that Franki over at A Year of Reading just bought.

Get a Santa coloring page for the kiddos to work on while you cook, finish wrapping, or just to pass the time until Santa comes, from Elizabeth at Dulemba.com.

Last-Minute

Still need some last minute gifts?  Books are great!  Head over to Books for the Holidays and look at all the suggestions.  You could also “give” a gift in someone’s name, like Melissa at Readergirlz suggests.

Giveaways

I did find some giveaways still going on during the holidays.  Head over to Parent Reviewers.  They are giving away a Brain Quest Workbook and they have opened up applications for to join the Parent Reviewer’s Team. 

Over at 3 P’s in a Pod, they are having a Lucky Mom giveaway. 

You could win a copy of the Golden Treasury of Children’s Literature from Vintage Kids’ Books My Kid Loves.

Win a StrollAway from 5 Minutes for Giveaways.

I hope that each and every one of you has a very Merry Christmas!  Until next week…

Today’s questions are so appropriate for this time of year.

Do you give books as gifts?

Yes, I do.  In fact, for Christmas this year, everyone on my list is getting a book.  My husband and I have had such fun trying to match the perfect book to the people on our list.  It has made shopping more exciting!

To everyone? Or only to select people?

This year, we are giving them to everyone.  On other occasions, birthday, etc., I always give books to our grandkids, at least 1.

How do you feel about receiving books as gifts?

I love it!  Books are such a treat!

How do you feel?  Leave your answers in the comments or join us at Booking Through Thursday.

I have lots of good things to tell you about this week!  I’m posting this early because of the deadlines on a few of the contests.

First things first…are you a member of Bookblogs?  If not, you need to get over there and check out all the groups that you can be a part of.  Yesterday, two groups were started that I want to highlight.  Natasha, of Maw Books Blog, started a group called Blogging Tips - “A place to share blogging tips, techniques, technical “stuff”, creating an audience, share frustrations and successes, what works and what doesn’t!”  Wendi, of Wendi’s Book Corner, started Book Bloggers Stumble Up!! - “Help drive traffic to your site by learning about StumbleUpon and how we can use it to help each other!”  Both of these groups would benefit new as well as experienced bloggers.

Speaking of Maw Books Blog, she has a great giveaway right now.  Read her post about the Christmas Mouse and see how you can enter to win a $10 Amazon gift certificate.  Hurry as she is announcing the winner TOMORROW!!!

Bookshipper is giving away any book of your choice of $20 or less from either Amazon.com or Chapters.ca because she has had 10,000 visitors to her blog…WOOHOO!!!

Over at Sharon Loves Books and Cats, you can win a copy of The Forest of Hands & Teeth.  Contest ends 12/18

Brimful Curiosities is always having giveaways, but the one that has my attention right now is the Smartshopper.  Have you seen this thing?  I am so into it!  Make sure you check it out and get entered.  You have until 12/31 on this one.  You can check out her other giveaways in the sidebar.  She also does a list of Kid’s Book Giveaways every Monday and Friday.

I came across 2 new blogs this past week.  Both of these are great and are hosting giveaways that I’m sure you’ll want to check out.

The first is Write by Faith - Ramblings, Musings, and a Whole Lot About Books.  Right now she has 3 books and an ornament giveaway going on.  Hurry because these end 12/19.

Next, I happened on Allison’s Attic of Books.  Over at Allison’s Attic, you could win a copy of Perfect on Paper.  This one ends 12/21.

Finally, I’ve saved the biggest one for last!  Run, don’t walk over to Reviewer X!  It is Girl Week and you are in for AWESOME treats – guest blogs, reviews, interviews and contests.  You don’t want to miss this!

This just in…OMG!  Have you seen the contest over at The Story Siren?  It’s an amazing giveaway to say Thank You to all of the readers.  BTW, her blog is 1 year old!!!

That’s all for this week’s Wanderings.  As always, if you have something you’ve “wandered” on or want me to add, please leave it in the comments.  Until next week…

Here is another poem that I used in the classroom.  I always tried to teach my kids about Holidays around the World during this time of year.  One of the holidays was always Hanukkah, so this poem is appropriate.

The    Dreidel    Song

           I    have    a    little    dreidel.           

 I    made    it    out    of    clay.

And    when    it’s    dry    and    ready,

 My    dreidel    I    will    play.

 Dreidel,    dreidel,    dreidel,

  I    made    it    out    of    clay.

  Dreidel,    dreidel,    dreidel,

 My    dreidel    I    will    play.

Enjoy the rest of today’s poems at the Poetry Round-Up over at Wild Rose Reader.

1. Do you get to read as much as you WANT to read?

(I’m guessing #1 is an easy question for everyone?)

Of course not! My husband makes fun of me because I take books in the truck when we go ANYWHERE so that I can sneak in some reading time.  I would rather be curled up on the couch with a good book, than many other things I have to do.

2. If you had (magically) more time to read–what would you read? Something educational? Classic? Comfort Reading? Escapism? Magazines?

I would catch up on my TBR pile.  I have alot of books that I have bought that I haven’t read due to reading books to review.  Most of them are YA titles.  There are also many books on my Amazon wish list that I would read: picture books and YA titles.

What are your answers to these questions?  Leave your thoughts in the comments or join us over at Booking Through Thursday.

I apologize for these being so late today.  It has been a hard week here.  We had writing benchmarks yesterday for 3, 4, 5, so I was with a small group all day.  Last night, had to make cake balls and spicy crackers for our Pig Out day today.  Then today, had a reading training after school, in the SNOW.  Yes, it is snowing in Houston, TX!  Can you believe it?  For those of you up north, it’s no big deal, but for us, BIG DEAL!  I am even going to write plans for a sub tomorrow in case I can’t get in.   I live 30 miles north of Houston and my school, so things out here are usually worse.  Plus, I have to go over alot of bridges and overpasses, so I’m leery of the ice.  If it gets too bad, they may call school, but it has to be REAL bad for our superintendent to do that.

Anyway, I didn’t want to go without Wednesday Wanderings, so I’m giving it to you short and sweet tonight.  I would like to say, that if you are having a giveaway or a special post on your blog that you’d like me to highlight one week on Wednesday Wanderings, please email me.  My email addy is in the sidebar.  I would love to hear from you and add your giveaways and posts so that others will see them. 

Brimful Curiosites is having 4 giveaways right now.  Here is what she’s giving away:  IttyBitty Bookworm, ends 12/15, WordWorld Toy and DVD ends 12/15, Cole Family Christmas Book ends 12/15, and Toot & Puddle: I’ll Be Home for Christmas children’s book, ends 12/16.

Books Ahoy is giving away Snow Valley Heroes: A Christmas Tale, children’s chapter book.

If you love 5 Minutes for Mom, you have to check out their new site: 5 Minutes for Giveaways.  Right now they have 2 DVD copies of THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN 3-disc collector’s edition.

Novel Menagerie has a giveaway right now.  You can win a 4 pack of Jane Porter’s books, but you have to enter by 10 PM, PST tonight.  On another site, she is also giving away one of her BookCharmers.  If you haven’t seen them; you have to check them out!  Enter by tomorrow over at Thursday Thoughts by telling her whether you are a cat person or a dog person.

Until next week…

This month for poetry Friday, I thought that I would share poems that I have used in my classroom.  When I taught Kindergarten, we did a poem of the week. We read it everyday and then on Friday, I made copies for the kids to put into a poetry notebook.  Every poem had pictures on it that they could color.  They took the notebooks home over the weekend and read them to their families.  They loved their poems and the parents had a wonderful keepsake at the end of the year.  We also started December with the following poem…I hope you enjoy!

December Celebrations

Every year at just this time,

In cold and dark December,

Families around the world

All gather to remember,

With presents and with parties,

With feasting and with fun,

Customs and traditions

For people old and young

So every year around the world

In all lands and nations

People of all ages love

December celebrations!!

Find more poems at the Poetry Friday Round-up, hosted this week by Mommy’s Favorite Children’s Books.

Today’s Booking Through Thursday asks us some questions about authors,

1. Do you have a favorite author?  Certainly; a children’s author – Jan Brett

2. Have you read everything he or she has written?  Yes, and I own almost all of them as well.

3. Did you LIKE everything? Yes!

4. How about a least favorite author?  Can’t really say that I do, but if I did, I wouldn’t give the name.

5. An author you wanted to like, but didn’t?  Danielle Steel.  My mom loves her, but I just can’t really get into her.

What are your answers?  Read others at Booking Through Thursday.