Oh, by the way I’m going to join Melanie and Karen as a guest on their online show Behind the Blog. It airs tomorrow (Tuesday) at 12 noon CST, and you can click here to listen. You can call in with your blogging questions or listen later to the podcast version.

I have no idea what I’m going to say, but let’s hope I don’t embarrass the family.

Here are the winners of the Third Day question contest.

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

123 67 1 111 57
Timestamp: 2008-08-07 23:45:44 UTC

1. Suzanne at Life in the Key of S

57. Chelsea at Half Step from Crazy

67. Teresa with an aol email address

111. Ellebelle at L’s Lair

123. edj at Planet Nomad

Congratulations! Please email me your address at bigmama8303@yahoo.com so we can get your CD’s and t-shirts in the mail!

Oh my word.

Why doesn’t Wordpress have some kind of numbered comments feature?

I believe I have seriously compromised my eyesight.

Too bad it didn’t just pick numbers 1-10. It would have made it much easier.

Anyway, here are the lucky winners of the Third Day CD.

Random Integer Generator

104 230 39 178 124
279 90 87 68 123
Timestamp: 2008-07-01 01:30:04 UTC

104 is Laura at Organizing Junkie

279 is Sarah who doesn’t have a blog, but has a gmail address

230 is Jennie who doesn’t have a blog, but has a yahoo email address

90 is Patty at Girlfriends in God

39 is Cheryl at Cheryl’s World

87 is Gwyn at Mommy Daily Vent

178 is Laurie who doesn’t have a blog, but has a msn email address

68 is LeAnn (AKA Frazzmom)

124 is Holly at Crown Laid Down

123 is Beverly at Dancing with the Daffodils

Congratulations, Ladies.

Please email me your mailing address at bigmama8303@yahoo.com and I’ll get your CD’s in the mail.

If you are a blogger and are going to She Speaks, then head over to Lysa Terkeurt’s blog. She has a Mr. Linky set up so that you can enter your blog information.

It’s a great way for everyone who is attending to connect before the actual conference. Plus, you may find some great new blogs to read.

Also, since the attire for the conference is business casual I’m planning on doing this week’s Fashion Friday on what exactly that means. Here’s a hint: No cut-offs or sombreros.

Although sometimes a sombrero does have a way of adding that extra something special to an outfit.

Okay, I have a huge favor to ask that involves some blog housekeeping.

If any of y’all have me listed on your blogroll or link to me on your blog (for which I am forever grateful by the way, because seriously, the fact that y’all not only come over here to read some mediocre content, but also link to it? Love you for it.) would you mind changing the link to my new wordpress url?

If the link still has blogspot in it, it’s the wrong one. I mean, it still gets you here because there is a redirect on the page, but eventually, I’d like to get rid of the redirect.

So, if you wouldn’t mind, I’d love it if you’d change the link to http://bigmama1.com .

And if you do mind, then nevermind.

Thank you for your continuing support. Y’all are the best.

I’ve gotten a few emails and comments in the last few days from people letting me know they thought I had taken a break from blogging because my feed wasn’t showing up in their Bloglines.

If you’re having that problem, you might want to check and make sure you’ve updated the feed to my new url, which is http://www.thebigmamablog.com or you can just click on the subscribe button in my sidebar. That way, you won’t have to spend countless hours of your day wondering if I have posted anything.

And for those of you who have asked, here is the recipe for Mississippi Sin Dip which, ironically, I got from Jennifer at Mississippi Girl.

Mississippi Sin Dip

Anyway, cut out top of french bread and scoop out insides. Mix all other ingredients together in a large bowl. Put the dip inside the loaf of french bread and put the top of bread back on. Wrap the whole thing in foil and bake 1 hour at 350. I personally love this served with Fritos Scoops, but it would be great with crackers too.

I can guarantee I’ll be making this a lot during college football season because watching the Aggies while eating fattening foods is what fall is all about.

Some of y’all may have already heard that Boomama and I did a podcast last night. We will both post it sometime this weekend for your listening enjoyment. Or, you know, if you’re bored out of your mind.

It all started about a month ago when we were talking on the phone and agreed we wanted a way to be able to discuss our thoughts on the upcoming Presidential elections, the globalization of the economy, and our top stock picks for 2007.

But then we decided that has all just been done to death and will instead be discussing our thoughts on even deeper issues such as fall trends, drugstore cosmetics, and Paula Deen.

We are deeply introspective and these are the things that are keeping us up at night.

And y’all will see from the podcast that we agree on so many of these issues, it’s like we share one mind.

Along with our ability to discuss absolutely nothing in great detail, we’ll also reveal our real names because, at some point, you just start to feel a little silly being referred to as Boomama or Big Mama. I’ve always said that if I had known more than 2 people would read this blog, I probably would have rethought the whole Big Mama thing. I can’t tell y’all the number of Google searches I have looking for references to a certain movie starring Martin Lawrence.

And really, that’s the mental image I’d like to convey to the internet.

Anyway, I hope y’all think it’s fun. We had a great time with it, although I’m a little afraid that I had a tendency to try to muffle my laughter which may make me sound a little like Beavis and Butthead. Just know that in real life I normally don’t sound like a cartoon character with bad acne.

That is all.

I know y’all have been on the edge of your seats all weekend wondering who was going to win the fine array of pharmaceutical promo items. So, to end the suspense, the winner (and I use that term loosely because I still can’t believe anybody wants any of this stuff) is TaunaLen.

So, TaunaLen, email me (bigmama8303@yahoo.com) with your address and I will put your tapeler and other assorted winnings in the mail on Tuesday morning. And congratulations, you’ll now be able to tape and staple all at the same time, while writing with quality writing utensils.

What a blessing.

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Shelia Wray Gregoire, the author of “To Love, Honor and Vacuum: When You Feel More Like a Maid than a Wife and a Mother”. She is in the midst of doing a blog book tour and with a title like that, how can a girl resist?

I asked Sheila a few questions about how she finds the balance in being a mama.

1. How do you balance your day between time spent playing with the kids and doing housework?

If you want to know the truth, too often I let both fall by the wayside because I get a phone call and I get carried away, or something tickles my fancy on the internet, and before I know it I’ve wasted 45 minutes! That’s the rub, isn’t it?

When you’re at home with your kids all day, it is very difficult to be organized or purposeful. There’s no one telling you what to do (”Mommy, I want a cookie” doesn’t count). So we have to be our own motivators–or, perhaps more to the point, we need to ask God to help us develop a vision for our family life. In To Love, Honor and Vacuum, I talk about how at a job you have certain goals of what you’re going to get done today. And you try to get those things done quickly so that you can leave early. You don’t dilly dally if you don’t have to. We need to be purposeful like that at home! Ironically, it helps us to be alot more relaxed. There’s no worse place to be at 5:30 at night than in the grocery store line with 3 kids in tow because you forgot to buy spaghetti sauce.

When we can organize ourselves to shop well, to keep the house to at least an organized chaos, and to make easy meals on time, our stress level goes way down. When we let things get out of hand, we’re more inclined to blow up at our kids!

And all of this leads to the second half of the equation–what about time with the kids? What I propose in the book is that if you treat housework in an organized way, it isn’t going to take as long. You do today’s tasks, and you’re done. You can move on to more important things. If you schedule those most important things, too, you’ll be sure they will get done! So each morning, when you wake up, say hi to God. Dedicate that day to Him. And before you get moving, even if it’s while you’re lying in bed with little ones cuddling you, figure out something fun you can do to enhance your relationship with your kids. Will you walk to the park? Make cookies? Read a book? Make sure you do something everyday that’s just for fun, and you’ll feel a lot better about your life! Finally, remember that kids are always more important than dust bunnies. Let them distract you, and not the dust. You’ll be a lot happier.

2. What’s the best advice you can give to busy moms?

Take bubble baths. Eat chocolate. And practice saying “no”. Say no to committees if you don’t have time to keep your house running smoothly. Say no to extracurricular activities if it’s going to mean you spend your life as a chauffeur and eat McDonald’s take out constantly. Say no to a huge house that will need all kinds of cleaning and will mean you have to work, too, just to make the payments, if you really want to stay home. Figure out how to save as much money as you can, and lower your expenses as much as you can, because the more wiggle room you give yourselves, the more freedom you’ll have to spend time with family.

Most of all, though, remember that life is about relationships, and how they can help us learn about God and learn to love God. You’re on this earth specifically, right now, to help your kids see Jesus. That means they have to see you in action! If you’re so busy that they can’t, then you will never feel that you are fulfilling your purpose in life. Keep in mind, too, that God put you on this earth to be your children’s mother. He thinks you’re good enough! So don’t feel like you’re not, and that you need to sign them up for every activity under the sun and take them to preschool and entertain them. You just have to be you. You are good enough. So give yourself a break, cuddle your kids, and read to them. It’s amazing how good that feels.

3. Do you think it’s harder to be a mom now than itwas 50 years ago?

A lot of us think life was idyllic back in the Leave it to Beaver days. Mom stayed home and looked after the kids; Dad had a good job, and always came home to be the man of the family and discipline the children. One of the chapters I have in my book, though, looks at how family radically changed even before that, and so it’s no wonder we’re often frazzled!

I think the ideal time was really over a century ago, when families tended to work together. They farmed together, or they owned a shop together. The kids participated in the work, and everybody was near each other. It was a family enterprise. What I try to show in the book, though, is that today we’re scattered. Dad’s at his job. The kids are at school. Mom often works, too, at least part-time. It’s all these separate lives, and it’s Mom’s job to coordinate it. And because so many people work, there’s not the same sense of community anymore.

Instead of kids playing on the street, we have to sign them up for soccer or gymnastics to get any sports or interactions with other young ones. And that takes work and even more scheduling! Our lives are, quite simply, more complicated. Add to that the strangers that keep coming into our house through our screens–the computer, the TV, the video games–which give our kids morals that we don’t approve of, and it’s even worse! We’re fighting an uphill battle, and it’s one that if we don’t fight, kids will definitely lose. If we don’t closely monitor what they watch, they will start to believe things that just aren’t true or just aren’t good for them. I have a 12-year-old daughter who is in a youth group at church. She feels like she doesn’t fit in, because she doesn’t watch TV. Instead, she reads, plays the piano, plays sports, and plays with her sister. The other girls are really into celebrity magazines and make-up. My little girl is at a loss and doesn’t understand why the other girls are in such a hurry to grow up. But they have entered the media culture. My daughter has not. And she is just who I want her to be–but it’s really, really hard. Life is more difficult. It’s more complicated. It’s more isolated. And it’s more dangerous. So give yourself a break if you don’t manage to accomplish everything your grandmother did! You’re living in a different world, and we’ve got to make our own paths.

To find more encouragement to get your kids to help at home and make your marriage less stressful, you can pick up To Love, Honor and Vacuum ($13.00) at www.sheilawraygregoire.com.

WIN A BUNDLE OF SHEILA’S BOOKS! Sign up for Sheila’s free weekly parenting and family ezine, and you’ll be entered in a draw to win a bunch of Sheila’s books and audio recordings! Sign up at www.sheilawraygregoire.com/blogtoursignup. She’ll make the draw April 30.

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Shelia Wray Gregoire, the author of “To Love, Honor and Vacuum: When You Feel More Like a Maid than a Wife and a Mother”. She is in the midst of doing a blog book tour and with a title like that, how can a girl resist?

I asked Sheila a few questions about how she finds the balance in being a mama.

1. How do you balance your day between time spent playing with the kids and doing housework?

If you want to know the truth, too often I let both fall by the wayside because I get a phone call and I get carried away, or something tickles my fancy on the internet, and before I know it I’ve wasted 45 minutes! That’s the rub, isn’t it?

When you’re at home with your kids all day, it is very difficult to be organized or purposeful. There’s no one telling you what to do (”Mommy, I want a cookie” doesn’t count). So we have to be our own motivators–or, perhaps more to the point, we need to ask God to help us develop a vision for our family life. In To Love, Honor and Vacuum, I talk about how at a job you have certain goals of what you’re going to get done today. And you try to get those things done quickly so that you can leave early. You don’t dilly dally if you don’t have to. We need to be purposeful like that at home! Ironically, it helps us to be alot more relaxed. There’s no worse place to be at 5:30 at night than in the grocery store line with 3 kids in tow because you forgot to buy spaghetti sauce.

When we can organize ourselves to shop well, to keep the house to at least an organized chaos, and to make easy meals on time, our stress level goes way down. When we let things get out of hand, we’re more inclined to blow up at our kids!

And all of this leads to the second half of the equation–what about time with the kids? What I propose in the book is that if you treat housework in an organized way, it isn’t going to take as long. You do today’s tasks, and you’re done. You can move on to more important things. If you schedule those most important things, too, you’ll be sure they will get done! So each morning, when you wake up, say hi to God. Dedicate that day to Him. And before you get moving, even if it’s while you’re lying in bed with little ones cuddling you, figure out something fun you can do to enhance your relationship with your kids. Will you walk to the park? Make cookies? Read a book? Make sure you do something everyday that’s just for fun, and you’ll feel a lot better about your life! Finally, remember that kids are always more important than dust bunnies. Let them distract you, and not the dust. You’ll be a lot happier.

2. What’s the best advice you can give to busy moms?

Take bubble baths. Eat chocolate. And practice saying “no”. Say no to committees if you don’t have time to keep your house running smoothly. Say no to extracurricular activities if it’s going to mean you spend your life as a chauffeur and eat McDonald’s take out constantly. Say no to a huge house that will need all kinds of cleaning and will mean you have to work, too, just to make the payments, if you really want to stay home. Figure out how to save as much money as you can, and lower your expenses as much as you can, because the more wiggle room you give yourselves, the more freedom you’ll have to spend time with family.

Most of all, though, remember that life is about relationships, and how they can help us learn about God and learn to love God. You’re on this earth specifically, right now, to help your kids see Jesus. That means they have to see you in action! If you’re so busy that they can’t, then you will never feel that you are fulfilling your purpose in life. Keep in mind, too, that God put you on this earth to be your children’s mother. He thinks you’re good enough! So don’t feel like you’re not, and that you need to sign them up for every activity under the sun and take them to preschool and entertain them. You just have to be you. You are good enough. So give yourself a break, cuddle your kids, and read to them. It’s amazing how good that feels.

3. Do you think it’s harder to be a mom now than itwas 50 years ago?

A lot of us think life was idyllic back in the Leave it to Beaver days. Mom stayed home and looked after the kids; Dad had a good job, and always came home to be the man of the family and discipline the children. One of the chapters I have in my book, though, looks at how family radically changed even before that, and so it’s no wonder we’re often frazzled!

I think the ideal time was really over a century ago, when families tended to work together. They farmed together, or they owned a shop together. The kids participated in the work, and everybody was near each other. It was a family enterprise. What I try to show in the book, though, is that today we’re scattered. Dad’s at his job. The kids are at school. Mom often works, too, at least part-time. It’s all these separate lives, and it’s Mom’s job to coordinate it. And because so many people work, there’s not the same sense of community anymore.

Instead of kids playing on the street, we have to sign them up for soccer or gymnastics to get any sports or interactions with other young ones. And that takes work and even more scheduling! Our lives are, quite simply, more complicated. Add to that the strangers that keep coming into our house through our screens–the computer, the TV, the video games–which give our kids morals that we don’t approve of, and it’s even worse! We’re fighting an uphill battle, and it’s one that if we don’t fight, kids will definitely lose. If we don’t closely monitor what they watch, they will start to believe things that just aren’t true or just aren’t good for them. I have a 12-year-old daughter who is in a youth group at church. She feels like she doesn’t fit in, because she doesn’t watch TV. Instead, she reads, plays the piano, plays sports, and plays with her sister. The other girls are really into celebrity magazines and make-up. My little girl is at a loss and doesn’t understand why the other girls are in such a hurry to grow up. But they have entered the media culture. My daughter has not. And she is just who I want her to be–but it’s really, really hard. Life is more difficult. It’s more complicated. It’s more isolated. And it’s more dangerous. So give yourself a break if you don’t manage to accomplish everything your grandmother did! You’re living in a different world, and we’ve got to make our own paths.

To find more encouragement to get your kids to help at home and make your marriage less stressful, you can pick up To Love, Honor and Vacuum ($13.00) at www.sheilawraygregoire.com.

WIN A BUNDLE OF SHEILA’S BOOKS! Sign up for Sheila’s free weekly parenting and family ezine, and you’ll be entered in a draw to win a bunch of Sheila’s books and audio recordings! Sign up at www.sheilawraygregoire.com/blogtoursignup. She’ll make the draw April 30.