Bloggerhood Etc. 11/3/14

Photo: Shutterstock

Best Parenting Post. “10 Parenting Moves That Aren’t As Smart As They Seem” by Deanna King at Scary Mommy.

Bravest Post. “This is a Story About Mental Illness” by Elizabeth Esther.

Best Profile. “Rocket Man” by Patrick Radden Keefe at The New Yorker.

Best Commentary. “The Right’s Sham Christianity: How an Attack on John Kasich Exposes the Fraud” by Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig at Salon.com.

Best Pregnancy Post. “Can Fetal Movements Predict a Baby’s Sex or Temperament?” by Alice Callahan at Science of Mom.

Best Article. “The Book in Every Iranian Home” by Diana Darke at BBC News Magazine.

Best Dad Post. “Anna, You’re a Frozen Princess I Need to Apologize To” by Mike Reynolds at Puzzling Posts.

Worst Pastors. “Mars Hill Church leadership – Giving Members the Finger to the Very End” by Robthain Smith at Musings From Under the Bus.

Best Special Needs Post. “Uncertainty in a Special Needs Life: Surviving its Ups and Downs” by Kelli Ra Anderson at Not Alone.

Best Update. “Phase 2 of the Pope Francis era: The Honeymoon is Over” by John L. Allen Jr. at Crux.

Best Essay. “No Guarantee of Safety: Inside the Belgrade Derby” by Kirsten Schlewitz at SB Nation.

Best Halloween Video. “The Headless Horseman Blog” by Glove and Boots (via YouTube).

You may ask yourself “How did I get here?”

Wonder Woman!

Halloween 2014

Halloween Cupcakes Slideshow

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Parent-Teacher conferences are coming up this week at Anna’s elementary school. The kids get a couple of days off, but the teachers and staff are still working. Anna wanted to express her appreciation, so for her October Girl Scouts Service Project, Anna made Halloween “Slime Lime” cupcakes for them. Great job, Anna!

Bloggerhood Etc. 10/20/14

Photo: Heather Park

Best Photoblog. “Once I Went to a Wedding” by Heather Park and Evelyn Shoop at Momsicle.

Best Special Needs Post. “The Path to Self-Advocacy” by Robert Rummel-Hudson at Support for Special Needs.

Best List. “The 5 Worst Commercials of the MLB Postseason” by Grant Brisbee at SB Nation.

Best Satire. “The War on Halloween” by Drew Chial.

Best Question. “What Does it Mean to be Blackish?” by Christena Cleveland at Christianity Today.

Most Hopeful. “The Secret to Stop Feeling Like a Failure” by Jennifer Dukes-Lee, guest-posting at Ann Voskamp’s A Holy Experience.

Best Social Commentary. “Deus Ex Musica: Beethoven’s Bad Influence” by Alex Ross at The New Yorker.

Best Parenting Post. “The Whole Truth About Infant Cereals: 7 Science-Based Tips” by Alice Callahan at Science of Mom.

Best Reflection. “Mark Driscoll Impacts the Non-Mars-Hill People Too” by Andee Zomerman at Nature of a Servant.

Best Sports Commentary. “Kirk Cousins, E.J. Manuel, and Why Bad Quarterbacks Keep Getting Starting Jobs” by K.C. Clyburn at Football is Stupid.

Best Advice. “How I Learned NOT to be an Obnoxious Author” by Sarabeth Caplin.

Best Mom Post. “To Live Like a Child” by Ashley Larkin at Draw Near.

Best Dad Post. “A Dispatch from the Gender Frontline (I Went to Some Toy Shops)” by Simon Ragoonanan at Man vs. Pink.

Best Essay. “The Other Side of the River” by Stephen Knox at SB Nation.

Most Awesome Video. “3D Printed IRON MAN Child Prosthetic Hand” by Pat Starace (via YouTube).

Bloggerhood Etc. 10/13/14

BEEFTANK!!! (Image: Jon Bois/SB Nation)

Best Return. “Breaking Madden: BEEFTANK Returns” by Jon Bois at SB Nation.

Most Honest. “Making Peace With My Mental Illness” by Cara Strickland at Little Did She Know.

Best Special Needs Post. “An Extraordinary Story” by Robert Rummel-Hudson at Support for Special Needs.

Best List. “10 Reasons I Can’t Relate to the 30-Something Blogger” by Andee Zomerman at Nature of a Servant.

Best Question. “I Sing Because I’m Happy! Or is it the Other Way Around?” by Adam Hall at Tenor Dad.

Best Parenting Post. “Target’s Response To My Calling Out Their Girls” Clothing Problem” by Stephanie Glese at Huff Post Parents.

Best Commentary. “Synod 14: The Church Needs to Replace the Family” by Artur Roseman at Cosmos in the Lost.

Strangest Story. “I’m a Blonde Tattooed Girl From Texas. Why Are ISIS Fighters Tweeting Marriage Proposals to Me?” by Jennifer Williams at New Republic.

Best Use of Bad Candy. “Six Silly/Spooky Candy Corn Crafts” by Brent Almond at Designer Daddy.

Best Travel Article. “Shakespeare and the Seven-Year Old” By Melissa Hart at Show Me the Monkey: An Oregon Family’s Adventures.

Best Guest Post. “Why I Am Made Right” by Ashley Linne at Addie Zierman’s How to Talk Evangelical.

Cutest. “What Happens When Second Graders Are Treated to a Seven-Course, $220 Tasting Meal” by Jeffrey Blitz at New York Times Magazine (Video).

Best Essay. “40,000 Suicides Annually, Yet America Simply Shrugs” by Greg Zoroya at USA Today.

Best Bilingual Video. “Transformers: Age of Extinction (變形金剛4 灭绝重生)” by Honest Trailers (via YouTube).

“The Transformers are back! And they’re as over these movies as we are.”

Bloggerhood Etc. 11/4/13

AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino

Here’s what caught my eye over a very busy week. Enjoy!

Cutest Gallery. “Boy Wanders Onto Stage To Hang Out With Pope Francis” by Ellie Hall at Buzzfeed.

Best Wrap-up. “2013 Convention Wrap-Up” by The At-Home Dad Network.

Most Prayerful. “Modern-Day Hermits: Answering the Call to Solitude, Prayer” by Leslie Fain at Catholic World Report.

Best List. “10 Reasons Why This Christian Mama Loves Halloween” by Addie Zierman at How to Talk Evangelical.

Best Self-Examination. “From Now On a Catholic, Always a Protestant” by Natalie Trust.

Scariest Non-Halloween Themed Post. “My Scary Airplane Story” by Rachel Held Evans.

Best Special Needs Post. “What Inclusion Isn’t” by Robert Rummel-Hudson at Support for Special Needs.

Best Short. “Cold Thor” by Glove and Boots (via YouTube).

“This is ridiculous!”

Happy Halloween!

Photo: Julia Ozab (2006)

There is a lot of controversy in some Christian circles over Halloween. Should it be acknowledged, let alone celebrated? If so, how? Thomas Blevins addressed this topic last week on Elevate Dads, and Addie Zierman (author of the beautiful memoir When We Were One Fire) shared this post from 2012 with her fans online. I think Rachel Held Evans (author of Evolving in Monkey Town and  A Year of Biblical Womanhood) has the best take on the subject. She posted this on her Facebook timeline today.

“I was a God-fearing Christian until I went trick-or-treating when I was eight and converted to paganism,” said no one ever.

So calm down. It’s a fun holiday. Focus on the positives and enjoy it. My wife and I always celebrated it as kids and we turned out okay. Plus, it’s not like we have a choice. Halloween is Anna’s favorite holiday. Why?

She loves Halloween because she loves dressing up.

Anna’s first two Halloween outfits were our idea. Who doesn’t want to show off their cute kid in a cute costume. So at nine months, she was Winnie the Pooh in a bee outfit. She had a matching Winnie the Pooh plush toy in his own bee outfit, which she carried as we carried her. You can’t get much cuter than that.

Her costume at 20 months was a monkey, complete with a banana from her play food set. This time, she got into the swing of trick-or-treating around the complex, walking up to the doors, holding out her bucket, and signing thank you.

Since then, she’s chosen her own costume. At two, she was Elmo. At three, Princess Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty). At four and five, she was Super Girl (her only two-year costume to date). At six, she was Merida from the movie Brave, and this year, she’s Snow White.

Halloween has become a dress-up holiday for her, and since she loves dressing up, it’s the holiday she looks forward to the most. The candy is secondary, and the darker aspects of the day don’t even register for her. Why?