Diapers and Divinity

It’s the Diapers and Divinity Spring Poetry Contest.  (Roaring applause heard from all six readers even though they’re really jealous because they wish this crown could be theirs.)

I loved all your poems.  Thanks to everyone who was adventurous enough to participate. 

Vote for your favorite limerick about laundry.  Here are the finalists:

There once was a girl in a quandary,
For she had at least ten loads of laundry
To do in a day
But there just was no way
To finish without magic wand-ery

-Lara at Overstuffed

The piles are climbing the walls
The shirts, the pants and the overalls.
Oh, when will it end?
I think I need a friend-
Oh, help me it’s spilled to the halls.

- Jessica

It’s a blessing to do everyday,
To serve my family this way.
I have to repeat it
Until I believe it,
For laundry will not go away.

- MaryAnne

I’m the luckiest girl in creation,
there are no bounds to my giddy elation!
My husband once volunteered,
now it’s been seven years:
I’m on permanent laundry vacation!

- Becca at Come What May and Love It

The official ballot:

I’ll announce the winner next Wednesday.  (I know, it kind of puts the Oscars and Emmys and stuff to shame, but we’ll try not to rub it in.)

This is one of those random I’ve-got-several-things-on-my-mind-but-not-enough-time-to-do-them-real-justice posts.  Please forgive the mess as I simply spit it all out on my computer screen.

1.  Did you know that you can download mp3 files of all the songs from General Conference?  Well you can. I love loading up my iPod with this stuff and playing it in the kitchen on Sundays.

2.  I stumbled across this video today on another blog.  I LOVE this hymn.  It is a prayer, a plea for God to bind us to Him and keep us safe and bring us to Him.  It is SO beautiful.  I’ve seen this arrangment a few times on BYUTV and it moves me everytime.  Seriously, give it a listen and let the spirit of it just pour in, because it will.

3.  Later this week, I’ll be going to Women’s Conference at BYU.  Some of us bloggy-type-friends are going to try to get together for dinner on Thursday night in Orem.  If you’d like to join us, email me (dd.stephanie [at] gmail [dot] com) and I’ll send you the details.  I sent an email to the people that have expressed some interest already.  If you didn’t get one and wanted to, it was an ACCIDENT.  Tell me and I’ll send you one right away.

4.  Um, Spring started and I forgot to do a Spring poetry contest.  I don’t have to, of course, but I like to do one every season because they’re fun.  And I find out how creative and talented you are.  So here it is (oooh, look at the fancy prize):

Spring Poetry Contest

Write a limerick about laundry.

See how easy that is?  Just leave yours in the comments here.  You can write as many as you’d like.  Click here if you don’t remember how limericks work. Next week, I’ll put my favorites up for a vote, and someone (squeal, it could be you!) will get a coveted spot of honor on my sidebar and that bee-yutiful sparkly crown blog button.  Here, I’ll write one just to give an example.

I’m warning you, don’t go in there.
The piles will sure give you a scare.
The dungeon of doom?
Nope, it’s my laundry room.
I’m a hostage of kids’ underwear.

Um, yeah, you can definitely top that.  Have a great week!

I’ve always loved March because I’m a basketball fan, and college basketball is the best of all.

The first time I ever did a March Madness (NCAA tournament) challenge was with my older cousin Todd and all his roommates and buddies.  I was 19 and they were all returned missionaries.  They each put some money in the pot and the winner took all.  Boy, were they embarrassed when they all got beat by a GIRL.

I remember sneaking out of my Latin American History class in March to run home and watch some of the Final Four games.  I even left all my books and papers and backpack at my desk to make it “look” like I was just running to the bathroom or something, but I really went off campus all the way over to a friend’s apartment to watch the game and then went back later to recover my items.

I love to challenge friends to make bracket picks, and I’m competitive about it.  It’s fun. I love it.  Especially if I win.  And even though I don’t watch any of the regular season games anymore (Children seriously altered my TV watching habits), I still love to make tournament picks and watch the March Madness tournament games as much as I can.

So, anybody want to play along?  The NCAA brackets were all just announced and the first round of games starts on Thursday.  I created a group at CBS Sports.com called Cyber Moms.  Go in and make your picks.  Trust me, it’s fun, even if you have no idea who the teams are.  I’ll come up with some awesome prize for the winner.  (Let’s be honest, it will probably be chocolate and some of my favorite books, but I’ll try to spice it up a little.)

Go to this link, create your own user name and make your bracket picks.  You’ll automatically be a part of the CyberMoms group.  The password is momsrule.  C’mon, it’ll be a blast!!  I’ll try really hard not to trash talk anyone.  Please?

(Matt, you’re invited, too, of course!  And my brother, and anyone else who wants to play along even if you’re not a mommy blogger.)

Today feels like a day of miscellaneous business.  I’ll try to be efficient as I cover it all.

• My blog has a new look because I just felt like shaking things up a little bit.  I did it a few days ago and no one’s said anything, so I’m wondering if it was more of a makeunder than a makeover.  Maybe I’ll start from scratch.

• I picked a winner for the poetry contest.  I know I said I’d pick a few and we’d all vote, but there were only a few entries (which were all fun and wonderful, by the way) and I just picked my favorite.   The winner is Charlotte of Memories for Later.  I loved her “Ode to the Snow Day” and it will soon be honored on my sidebar.  This lovely crown?  It’s ALL YOURS, Charlotte.  Congratulations! 

Snow Day.
Beloved of my childhood.
How I did yearn for thee then!
Praying for thy presence
With lazy days and snow to play.

Age hath unmasked thee,
O’ cruel day thou art!
Disruptor of Routine!
Deliverer of Cabin Fever!
Creator of Summer Makeup Days.

How I should dread thee,
And yet thy place of magic
Still holds sway,
And my heart flutters
At the thought of thee.

• Just wanted to let you know that I have a guest post up today over at Mormon Women.  It’s called “Obedience Buffet,” wherein I pontificate about my love of restaurants and tendency toward pick-and-choose in other areas of life.  Head on over to check out their site, and ring the comment bell if you feel so inclined. 

• Miss Wonder Woman gave me a Happiness Award, and asked me to list 10 things that make me happy.  So I did (click here). I’m supposed to tag 10 people, but I’m not feeling very rule-hardy right now, so I hereby bequeath this award to any of my readers who were born in July (because you must be cool).  If you choose to accept it, write your happy list on your blog and leave me a link so I can go read it.  Thanks, Wonder Woman!
• Okay, (deep breath) last thing.  It’s been a while since I’ve honored some of my favorite posts that I’ve tripped upon in the blogosphere.  So without further ado, the current Post-It award recipients …..  (click here if you’re a winner)

1. Annie Valentine blogs at Regarding Annie and she feels like a kindred blogger to me in many ways.  (I mean, her blog tagline says: “Sometimes I want to kick my man in the shin and sell my kids on eBay.”  *snort*).  She also writes a column in her local newspaper and I absolutely loved this post/article she wrote.  Made me look at the way I talk about people in a whole new way.
2. I always love That Girl over at Pensievity, but she wrote two posts recently about marriage (one crash course and one down-to-earth chuckle) that just reeked of right.  She’s a smart cookie, That Girl– all full of priorities, and cuteness, and wit and such.
3. In this post called “Death Doulas,” Terresa at The Chocolate Chip Waffle weaved a lovely tale of death and hope and wonder.  It’s quite beautiful.
4. I really loved this sweet, humble testimony, “God is There,” over at Mormon Women, too.
5. And finally, Momza wrote a guest post at Mormon Mommy Blogs called “Mothers Don’t Have to Be Everything to Everyone,” in which the title itself preaches a lovely sermon, but it was the last line of her post that hit me like a ton of bricks (the Holy- Ghost,-that-is-so-true kind of bricks.)

Whew, that’s it.

And I love my readers, really I do.  This past week you’ve given some great advice, and said some of the sweetest things that really made me feel great.  So thank you.

I will now relate to you just a few of the events in our family in the last 48 hours.  Pretend you care.

Coughing

Snot

Fever

Waking at night

Lab visit

Strep Test

Antibiotic

Urinalysis

Another Strep test

Carbon Monoxide alarm going off

Evacuate house for hour

No notable danger

More fever

Bubble Gum Motrin

Bubble Gum Yum Tylenol

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Doctor visit

Blood test

Chest x-rays

Stomach x-rays

H1N1 test

Urology referral

Another antibiotic

Make cake

Grant’s birthday

Antibiotic battles

More sore throat

Two peed beds

Doctor visit

Strep test

ANOTHER antibiotic

The end.

Kill me now.

So, out of necessity and the spirit of survival, I will now change the subject.  I think it’s time for the Diapers and Divinity Winter poetry contest.  The winner gets a spotlight on my blog sidebar for the rest of winter AND this lovely crown:

Let’s do an ode this time, shall we?  An ode is “A kind of poem devoted to the praise of a person, animal, or thing. An ode is usually written in an elevated style and often expresses deep feeling. An example is “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” by John Keats.”  (Thanks, dictionary.com.)  We’ll be much less formal here, and modify the ode rules.  Pick something or someone to praise (Anything related to winter) and write a poem about or to it/him/her.  Can rhyme, doesn’t have to.  Can be serious or sarcastic.

I’ll cough up two here as examples:

Ode to my fireplace

In the midst of painful winter, wise birds have flown away.

Yet, we foolishly remain.

Thou art my only consolation.

Thy gentle warm breezes and intoxicating flames dance about,

and I rest by your side.  Waiting, Waiting.

Come Spring I’ll bid thee farewell.

Or given my current list of whining:

Ode to Antibiotics (Did I say I was going to change the subject?)

(in the form of a limerick.)

Winter affects us a lot.
There’s pressure, and coughing, and snot.
Write the doctor some checks.
Go pick up the Rx.
Enjoy 10 healthy days that you’ve bought.

My favorite part of antibiotics is “Take with food.”  I’m pretty sure they mean this:

Can’t wait until my next dose.

We’ll let the contest run for several days.  Leave your poem(s) — as many as you want to write– in the comments on this post by midnight the night of Tues., Jan. 19th.  I’ll pick my favorites and then we’ll vote together on a winner.

I think I need a nap.