Wednesday, December 20, 2017

And The Winner Is...

I realize that I failed to put an end date on my 'honoring my mom' giveaway. Since I generally leave a giveaway open for a week, I sat down last night and read back through all the comments to count them up and choose a winner.

There are a lot of wise mothers out there. Would you like to hear what our mothers have taught us?

My Mother Taught Me ----

* The importance of prayer

* To treat others how you want to be treated

* Honesty

* Forgiveness is a choice, not based on feelings

* The importance and meaning of the word "No"

* To always talk kindly about others

* How to be hospitable

* To love people even when they are unlovable

* To reach out to the neighbors

* How to sew

* Respect for school teachers

* To fold laundry neatly

* It is better to give than to receive

* Be a friend to everyone even if they don't look "cool"

* To write thank you notes

* How to clean house

* To give credit to others

* To enjoy books and poetry

* "If you don't have anything good to say about someone, be quiet."

* I can depend on God in every situation

* To care for others even if things aren't perfect

* How to spoil my husband

* "Get at it and do it"

* To apologize when I've done wrong as a parent

* Life skills - and if she didn't know how, she had someone else teach me

* To reach out to those who are hurting

* To accept life as it comes without complaint

Thank you so much for sharing with me, I loved reading through all your comments!

My mom taught me many things, as well. As a mom myself now, I often think of mom's actions that spoke louder than words. Many were the times she let us play with something that might end up broken or lost or ruined. I didn't think much of it then, when I was begging to play with baby clothes from her cedar chest, but I think of it now. While she could have taught us to be harder workers instead of washing those dishes so we could play a game, she was showing us by her actions that we were more important than the things she owned or all the work that got accomplished. She loved nothing more than seeing us having fun and using our imaginations.

Last night, as I read through your comments and counted up what number to feed into random.org, I mentioned to Chris that I needed to choose a winner.

"How many names do you have?" He wondered.

I told him the number I had come up with.

"Why don't you give them all a book?"

I'm sure my eyes got as big as saucers because he laughed and said, "Why not? It would be fun!"

And so, all you lovely people who blessed my day by leaving a comment, please email your address to christopherbethany@juno.com. It will take a little time to get all the details situated but thanks to my generous husband (and Dorcas Smucker herself, who was also very generous) eventually each and every one of you will be receiving a copy of "Fragrant Whiffs Of Joy"!

You heard that correctly.

Now isn't that a nice Christmas surprise?

16 comments:

  1. WOW! That IS generous and a blessing to all the ladies who commented!!😊

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  2. Woa!! Are you serious?!! I can't believe this!! I'm so excited!! My address is friendlywiggles@gmail.com

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    1. 😊 Can you email me your snail mail address please and thanks?

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  3. And thanks for taking time to condense and compile our answers. Linda

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  4. Oh my goodness! That is so generous! Thank you Bethany!

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  5. Thank you! What a nice surprise!!
    You can send my copy to school for Melody to bring home.

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  6. That is so sweet of you!! I didn't enter the giveaway cause 90% of the time bloggers say US addresses only. I quick looked back and read no such thing on yours...that'll teach me 😊May you have a blessed Christmas!!

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  7. This is just the nicest give away ever! I am happy for all the people you are blessing. (Now I really must subscribe to your blog, since I haven't seen better odds for winning a give away anywhere else. :) The problem is, I can't get your button at the bottom of the blog to work. It directs me to a page of coding.)
    Also, I want to comment on your post about actively trying to make others happy. I loved it!
    Blessings on you and yours!

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    1. "No better odds" 😁 Got a chuckle out of that. I don't think that button at the bottom is for that purpose, actually. If you hit the "follow" button on the left hand side or enter your email address in the "subscribe by email" spot you might have better luck ☺

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  8. Wow! What a pleasant surprise! But... I already have a copy! And I'll say this- it's a very worthwhile book and I definitely recommend that everyone read it! :) Have a Merry Christmas!

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  9. Bethany, may you and your family have a merry and blessed Christmas!

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  10. Thank you SO much! What an unbelievably generous thing for you to do.
    Blessings,
    Betsy

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  11. This is so exciting, there is hardly anything better than winning a free book. Books are our friends, and you can never have too many friends:-) Thank you, Bethany!

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  12. Did I really REad right? OH this is exciting!
    tina@zimmermanauto.biz
    Tina Zimmerman
    11737 Akron Canfield Rd
    North Jackson Ohio 44451

    Thank you so Much, will be such a treat!

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  13. I always tell myself I never win in drawings like this. So this feels like a gift from God and you both. Thanks and blessings on your family
    Marlene

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Two words about comments:
#1. If you leave a comment and it seems to disappear, that's because all comments go straight to my email and I publish them later.
#2. I know putting a comment out there for the world to see is scary but just know this -- if you leave a comment, you make my day!