Welcome to the first Five Minute Friday of 2015! Happy New Year to all of you!
As many of you know, I took a break from Five Minute Friday during the past two weeks because of the holidays, but I have really, genuinely missed you guys!
So, tell me, how was your Christmas and New Year’s? Did you have a restful break? Did you have withdrawal symptoms from two weeks without #fmfparty?
To celebrate our happy reunion and to show you just how much I’ve missed you, my e-book, Letters to Grief, is FREE on Amazon Kindle for ONE DAY ONLY — Friday, January 9th. Click here to get your free copy. (And if you don’t have a Kindle, have no fear — you can get a free Kindle reading app over here.)
[Tweet “Letters to Grief is FREE on Kindle, Friday January 9th ONLY. Get it here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QG5YD6U”]
Spread the word, eh? I truly hope it will be a blessing to all who read.
Photo Credit: Kaitlyn Bouchillon
Have you heard that registration for Round Five of Five Minute Friday Snail Mail is now open? Click here for more details and to register!
[Tweet “Registration is now open for Round Five of #fmfpartysnailmail! Visit http://kaitlynbouchillon.com/fmfpartysnailmail/ “]
How many of you took part in the mini-Christmas round? Wasn’t it so much fun? Many thanks to Kaitlyn Bouchillon for all of her hard work to make #fmfpartysnailmail a reality! Such a wonderful way to grow this amazing community.
And speaking of growing community, I have even more exciting news!
At the end of last year, I asked on Twitter what you guys would like to see in 2015 for Five Minute Friday. Many of you suggested vlogs as a fun addition to our weekly flash mob writing link-up.
So, I thought about it and came up with the idea of Five Minute Friday Introductions.
Every once in a while in the regular FMF posts, we’re going to feature five-minute long videos introducing one of our fabulous FMF participants!
I’ve asked the lovely Asheritah Ciuciu of OneThingAlone.com to be our video person. She will be interviewing FMF participants at random intervals and I’ll share the videos here in our regular link-ups!
I’m super excited about this new component to Five Minute Friday, and so look forward to actually seeing many of you and hearing your voices, instead of just reading your words on a screen!
[Tweet “Introducing Five Minute Friday Introductions! Check out the first video with @asheritah!”]
This week, I have Asheritah with me in the video below so you can get to know her a bit better before she takes over as the FMF Introductions interviewer. Enjoy the video, and don’t forget to stop by her blog after you’ve linked up your own post!
https://youtu.be/tGap2ai3eSE
(If you’re reading this in your e-mail and can’t see the video, click here.)
And goodness, after all of this excitement, I almost forgot that I still have to write!
This week’s prompt is:
[Tweet “Join us for the first Five Minute Friday of 2015! Prompt word: WELCOME”]
Ready? GO.
You know the places, don’t you?
You can see them in your mind’s eye as soon as I ask you about them.
The places that make you feel welcome.
Or maybe it’s not the places, but the people.
The ones who drop everything and make you feel like you’re the most important thing they could be paying attention to in that particular moment.
They look at you with smiling eyes and go out of their way to give you the most comfortable spot on the overstuffed couch, and you sit and chat until you remember to look at the clock and gasp in surprise at how much time has passed, entirely unnoticed.
Those are the places where the welcome just oozes from the slightly marked up walls, where the curtains sway hello in the gentle breeze and crusty dishes still soak in the sink from last night.
The places where your friend kicks Matchbox cars out of the way and swipes crayons off the table so you can sit down and sip a steaming cup of tea with hot milk and sugar. She’s not flustered by your presence or apologetic for the mess. Just thrilled that you stopped by.
You don’t mean to spill out all the words, but they flow freely anyway, and how can they not, when you’re so warmly embraced in such an environment seeping with grace?
That’s the kind of welcome I want you to feel here. The place I have to offer in this tiny corner of the internet, where words flow free and the floor is a bit messy, but the tea is hot and the door is open.
STOP.
Link up your own five minutes on the word WELCOME below!
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Love the Vlog idea/interviews- yeah!:)
I’m so excited to see how it takes off!
Ahh, I can feel the warmth of that room through your words! Well said my friend. Our little part of the blogosphere absolutely feels like that!
So glad you’re a part of it, Mollie!
Oh Kate…and you do it so well! Welcoming women from around the world into this corner of the internet, your home, a safe haven in the midst of the storm that is all the bossy sites telling us how to mother and look and be. This place. This reminds me that it’s ok to not have it all together. Thank you for that.
So thrilled to walk with you in this messy journey, Asheritah! Thank you for your grace!
Uh, not only women…but I do look pretty good in a kilt.
Careful. If you roll your eyes too far back they’ll get stuck.
Yay for videos! And major thanks for the surprise of you sharing #fmfpartysnailmail here tonight.
Of course, Kaitlyn! And yes to the yay for videos! Excited to see how this develops!
I want to be the woman who kicks the Matchbox cars and sits to listen long. Thank you for reminding me of how important she is… Only a deeper embrace of the gospel can change me and truly welcome others. Beautiful writing, Kate- as always. 🙂
“Only a deeper embrace of the gospel” … so very true for most things, isn’t it, Karen? Thank you for making the effort to comment once again .. I always love reading your encouraging words!
I’m wired after my post and FINALLY got the kids down so I could find my headphones to watch the video. I LOVE THIS IDEA! Seriously made my day to see both of you! I love this community so much! Thanks for all you do!
You just made my day, Bethany! 🙂 Glad you love the idea .. I’m so excited to watch more videos in the future!
Great to see you, Kate!
This is a welcoming place. I’m glad I found it (I owe Jeanne Takenaka for that).
I try to be welcoming, both in my blog sand in reality. I think I do OK on the blogs, but in person…I’m pretty austere, and can range between “serious” and “scary”. Gotta work on that.
We’re glad you found it, too, Andrew! Thanks for the comment.
Okay, I published my first post on my newly created blog just for FMF. Also created an About page.
I may have written the shortest post on today’s prompt, but I’ll get better as I keep writing. Been a while I wrote non-tech posts. 🙂
Nice to be part of the party, though. Thanks to Kate (and Lisa Jo Baker), for hosting FMF.
Well done! Very impressed.
Thanks for visiting my blog, Kate. I hardly see any guys, here (or, were on Lisa’s FMF). Wondering what would the reason be.
But, then I was in a list building challenge FB group, and there were nearly 5,000 ladies there with hardly any guys.
I guess, lady bloggers are just more active and publish more frequently, compared to guys.
It was so wonderful to see you both. But for me, it’s the voice. I love the warmth in each of your voices. So good to be back to this linkup. I missed being here 🙂 Blessings to you both you & Asheritah!
Thank you, Joanne! Glad you enjoyed it! Looking forward to watching more videos and hearing more voices!
Oh I love this… all of it! The post on Welcome… the video (and video interview idea!)… the plug for Round 5 of #fmfpartysnailmail
So much fun!!!
Yep, the video interviews would all be so cool and so much fun. BTW, thanks for your comment on my blog, Karrileea. 🙂
Kate, how fun to hear yours and Asheritah’s voices and get a glimpse of your personalities! Doing blogs is such a fun ideas.
I loved your post on Welcome, too. And I grinned at your opening. Because the first thing I envisioned was the people who make me feel welcome. Places may add ambiance, but it’s the welcoming of people that invites me (and I suspect most of us) in. Beautiful thoughts, Kate!
Thank you, Jeanne! Always love hearing from you. Have a blessed weekend!
Hi, I want to hangout too at a beach house with the Five Minute Friday community. We should do a conference! 😉
Start praying, Mary! 😉 Might be a possibility .. we’ll see!