May each reader enjoy a special day:

• If you’re a mother, may you be honored and pampered by your children.
• If you have a mother, may you enjoy special time honoring and pampering her.
• If your mother is no longer with you, may you recall special memories of your times together.
• If you know a mother without a family, may you stand in the stead of children for her and make her day meaningful.
• If you are estranged from your family, may this be the day you forgive each other and start a new loving relationship.

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. ~ Exodus 20:12 (ESV)

ALMIGHTY God, we give you thanks for mothers who love and care for us and entrust our mothers who are so dear to us to thy never-failing care and love, for this life and the life to come; knowing that thou art doing for them better things than we can desire or pray for; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

photo credit: aesop

The special week is sponsored by the American Library Association and celebrated by libraries across the US. Public libraries offer a variety of events, such as the displays, stories, trivia challenge, and other activities planned by the San Antonio Public Library.

According to the Campaign for America’s Libraries:

National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April. It is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians and to promote library use.

Do you visit the library regularly? Do you plan to participate in any special events for National Library Week?

Read Across America happens on March 2nd because that is Dr. Seuss’s birthday. Imagine how many kids have developed a passion for reading from Dr. Seuss!

Schools, libraries, and community centers around the country are offering special events today. But you don’t have to attend a formal event to participate. If you have children or grandchildren, spend some time reading with them today. Share with neighborhood kids how reading impacted your life when you were their age. Or pay a visit to Seusville and pretend you’re a kid again, falling in love with Dr. Seuss’s stories for the first time.

Show your family how much you love them by spending time together doing something fun. Brighten your coworkers’ day with a note or a treat. Make Valentine’s Day special for an elderly neighbor or residents in a nearby nursing home by simply listening to their stories of days gone by. Spend time with your children looking at the valentines they got at their school party. Maybe even show a little love by smiling and sharing a few kind words with the most unlovable person you know. And, of course, share loving moments with your spouse or romantic partner.

But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. ~ 1 Corinthians 13:13 (NASB)

ALMIGHTY God, we entrust all who are dear to us to thy never-failing care and love, for this life and the life to come; knowing that thou art doing for them better things than we can desire or pray for; help us to show them how much we love them, especially on this day of love, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. ~ adapted from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer

photo credit: LadyDragonflyCC – TY for 300,000 Views!!!!

Thanks to Christopher at Technology Bloggers for nominating me to participate in the My 7 Links Challenge

Several years ago, challenges (or “memes”) were quite popular in the blogosphere. However, their popularity has declined, and this is the first one I’ve been invited to participate in for a long time. I like this one because it gave me a chance to look back through my archives and select a few posts from the past to bring to the attention of my newer readers. Selecting only seven posts out of 1132 posts over the past five and a half years proved to be a real challenge, and in some cases I couldn’t narrow it down to one. Here are my choices.

My Most Beautiful Post

Happy 44th Anniversary to Us is a loving tribute to a beautiful marriage and my special husband.

My Most Popular Post

Thanks to the power of StumbleUpon, Creating Fictional Characters—Part 4: Fleshing Out Characters with Tags, Traits, and Relationships has had more than 147,000 views, about ten times as many as any other post. Strangely, this is part of a series, and while some of the other posts in the series are among my top ten popular posts, none has anywhere near this many views.

My Most Controversial Post

I don’t generally write controversial posts, but one post generated such a lively discussion that I wrote a second post about it, which generated even more opinionated conversation. The first post, A Chuckle from Spam, generated 67 comments (including my responses), and the follow-on post, There’s Always a Choice, generated 70 comments.

My Most Helpful Post

I wrote Tips and Tricks: How to Write, Send, Reply, and Forward E-mail for two writing challenges: Tips and Tricks and How-To. When I wrote it, I considered the advice so basic that the post might not be appropriate for the challenges. However, as basic as the advice is, a lot of people apparently need it. The post has generated nearly 4500 views and 125 comments.

A Post Whose Success Surprised Me

There’s absolutely no explanation for the fact that the fifth most popular post on my blog is two sentences wishing my readers Happy Valentine’s Day. I’m not only surprised; I’m totally perplexed.

Until StumbleUpon moved another post into first place, How Much Will It Cost? Average Freelance Editing Rates was  my popular post. It’s now #2 in my popular posts, and the post is #2 in Google for the search terms “freelance editing rates.” What is so surprising about this is that the post refers to a chart of average rates on the website of the Editorial Freelancers Association, but my posts ranks higher in Google and has generated a lot of traffic.

A Post That Didn’t Get the Attention I Feel It Deserved

One time when I was feeling discouraged that I wasn’t doing great things, I had an epiphany and wrote Catalyst: God’s Tool. I suspect many other people can benefit from my epiphany because most of us often fail to recognize what we are accomplishing.

A related post, You May Never Know the Impact You Have, also didn’t get much attention.  Both of these posts were written in my first year of blogging, when I had very few readers.

The Post I’m Most Proud Of

Choosing one post I’m most proud of is impossible, so I’ll select one that is close to my heart. A Different … and Special … Family Vacation won the Family Vacation Writing Project at Babylune, but the reason it means so much to me is that it describes a favorite family vacation—the last with my father before Alzheimer’s disease stole his ability to enjoy vacations and remember the people he loved. 

The second part of the challenge is to nominate up to five other bloggers to share their 7 links.

• David Bowles, Westward Sagas, a client, friend, historical author, and blogger who knows all kinds of Americana trivia
• Dominique, 4Walls and a View, inspiring blogger who writes about the challenges of living with chronic disease
• Dawn, Dawn Colclasure’s Blog, prolific author of adult nonfiction, poetry, and children’s literature
• Laura Spencer, Writing Thoughts, a freelance writer and blogger who has some great posts in her archives

I’m going to stop at four nominations, so if you would like a nomination, leave a comment.

I know the people I nominated, if they choose to participate, will provide links to some outstanding posts in their archives.