Our monthly winners are...

Joanne Sher who wins an autographed copy of The Sheriff's Daughter by Laurie Kingery and Cheri Horgan wins a copy of Something Stirs by Thomas Smith. These books will be on their way after both winners send me their mailing addresses.

This month's book to win is called 199 Promises of God to celebrate me reaching the milestone of 199 blogposts last month! It is chock-full of Scripture promises to encourage you along your journey. To be included in the drawing which will take place on June 1st, please leave a comment any time the month of May along with your email address so I can contact you for mailing info. All those with a US mailing addy except the two winners mentioned above are eligible, so what are you waiting for?

Monday Musings on why I am late with my book drawings! The winners are...Heather Sunseri for Angel Sister and Donna Winters for the copy of Long Time Coming

Please send me your snail mail addys, ladies so we can get your books out to you ASAP. I usually post the winners on the first of each month, but am three days late this time. I did schedule a blog to post on April 1st before I left for a trip, but I couldn't choose the winners until I returned home as I didn't want to draw numbers until the end of the month as per the guidelines. Now for the reason for my late posting.

Once a year I try to take a retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemani guest house in Trappist, KY. It is a two hour drive each way, but a world apart from my normal everyday life. As several signs around the buildings and grounds read "Silence is spoken here." Although you are allowed to speak in the lobby, on the grounds, and in one of the dining halls, all the rest of the places you are asked to remain silent to not disturb the other retreatants.

A friend accompanied me, so besides our times of silence and reflection, we enjoyed eating several meals in the "speaking" dining room and taking walks on the grounds each day and talking. She is a writer, too, so we even did a little brainstorming in the car and on our walks! But most of my waking hours were spent in reading my Bible and other devotional type books and in prayer. And writing pages and pages in my prayer journal about many of the things the Lord was teaching me there. I also took a prayer journal from two years ago and re-read some of the chronicles of my spiritual journey. Time well spent! This picture of my friend and me in front of one of my favorite signs says it all--God alone! Our lives should be lived for God alone, and much of my time last week was spent with God alone!

Please check back later this week for the book review for this month's contest.

Two New Winners! Will you be next?

I'm happy to announce my two winners for today's drawings from the list of those who commented last month. The winner of Sandra D. Bricker's hilarious The Big 5-0 is Lynda Schab and the winner of Angie Breidenbach's very helpful E-book on Creative Cooking for Colitis is Donna Winters. Angie and I will be sending their books out pronto.

And now, if you want to be the newest winner, just leave a comment and your email info on one of my posts for the month of May. The drawing will be held June 1st and everyone with a US mailing address is eligible except this month's two winners, so what is stopping you? Oh, you want to know the name of the book you could win? Then check out my post from April 17, 2010 and read more about Abbie Ann by Sharlene MacLaren. It's another keeper!