Tag Archives: Twitter

Angels, Lambs, Ladybugs and Fireflies

2 Jan

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I'm a winner

When my daughter was in elementary school the second and third grade performed a Christmas program entitled “Angels, Lambs, Ladybugs and Fireflies.” She was a firefly and their job was to light the way to Bethlehem for Mary and Joseph. As they sang their song with dimmed lights, each child waved a lit flashlight and one child, I think, it was mine had this line “When everyone works together, a lot can be accomplished.” Isn’t that a great line?

This week I was notified I had won a month long  contest, a writing contest at that. It involved writing a story using only one hundred and forty characters. That is 140 letters people!  They even paid me money; fifty dollars and that is not the best part, the part that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The only reason I won is that I have an incredibly supportive group of friends on Facebook and Twitter. Together they retweeted my story over sixty times, more than any other contestant.

When everyone works together a lot can be accomplished. I think that is my motto for 2014.

I know you have been dying to read my winning story, so here it is, don’t blink or you will miss it!

 Birthed in pain to a life of shame. Hooker by night, student by day, paying her way, trying to escape and change her fate.

Not my daughter’s performance but it’s a cute play. The wise fireflies speak around the 7 minute mark

PLUS, I wanted everyone to have the song stuck in their heads like I do right now.

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Throwback Thursday

5 Dec

My Take

Onisha Ellis

On Facebook and Twitter, Thursdays have become “Throw Back Thursday. People post old photos of themselves, their family or places with fond memories. Then there is the Facebook page, You Grew Up In…. There is a lot of nostalgia going on, I wonder why that is?

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My thoughts linger on the past, remembering all my loved ones who have moved to heaven. I miss them and remembering makes me feel close to them. Sometimes I look back on my life with regret, wishing I had make better choices and been wiser but I am also thankful for how far I have come and the sure knowledge that even when I was distant from Him, God was not distant from me. He was just waiting for me to move forward.

Are we looking to the past, which has a safe, secure feeling because we subconsciously don’t feel secure about the future?  I have always loved Matthew 6:26

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Or as my mother would say, “What do you have a Lord for?”

“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” Isaiah 40:8

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Book Blast:A Life of Gratitude: 21 Days to Overcoming Self-Pity and Negativity

20 Mar

We are having fun today, welcoming Crossreads Book Blast to our home. Feel free to click the share buttons at the bottom and spread the word. Onisha

 

Book Blast: A Life of Gratitude: 21 Days to Overcoming Self-Pity and Negativity by Shelley Hitz {3/20/13} – $25 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway

Title: A Life of Gratitude: 21 Days to Overcoming Self-Pity and Negativity

By Shelley Hitz

About the Book:

During a season of transition in my life, I found myself overwhelmed with negative emotions like self-pity and a complaining spirit. It was as if a dark cloud had descended over me. I prayed and asked God for wisdom on how to overcome these negative emotions. As I did, I sensed Him leading me to do a 21 day gratitude challenge.

Over the course of the 21 days, God began to change me as I spent intentional time being grateful for all I had been given. I did this through writing in my journal each day and also sending a hand-written thank you note to someone different each day. This also led me to writing out 21 prayers of gratitude and compiling 21 stories of gratitude.

I want to share what I learned with you in the pages of this book which includes:

21 Days of Gratitude Challenge

21 Prayers of Gratitude

21 Stories of Gratitude

What to Expect On Each Day:

Read my personal stories, struggles and reflections.

Read one scripture and one quote about gratitude.

Apply one personal application step from the challenge.

Read one prayer of gratitude

Read one story of gratitude

Get Accountability and Encouragement

Along with the 21 day challenge, I also started a private Facebook group to provide accountability and encouragement for myself but also for others who decide to join me in the challenge. You will get access to this group as well. It has been amazing to see God at work in each of our lives.

Will you join me on this journey to gratitude?

KINDLE | PAPERBACKShelley Hitz
shelley-lynne-headshot-webShelley Hitz is an award-winning and international best-selling author. Her openness and vulnerability as she shares her own story of hope and healing through her books will inspire and encourage you.

Shelley has been ministering alongside her husband, CJ, since 1998. They currently travel and speak to teens and adults around the country. Shelley’s main passion is to share God’s truth and the freedom in Christ she has found with others. She does this through her books, websites and speaking engagements.

You can find more about Shelley at ShelleyHitz.com or invite her to speak at your event here: ChristianSpeakers.tv

Follow Shelley Hitz
Website | Facebook | Twitter

Enter to Win a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

Enter below to enter a $25 amazon gift card, sponsored by author Shelley Hitz!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This book blast is hosted by Crossreads.

We would like to send out a special THANK YOU to all of the CrossReads book blast bloggers!

 

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How’s Your Connection?

2 Nov

Onisha Ellis

On the Porch

 

My name is Onisha and I am an addict, specifically a twitter addict. My addiction began innocently as an alternative to throwing something at the television. It quickly escalated into an insatiable need to “know” things. Twitter is a global community of people who share in 140 characters what they are seeing, thinking and feeling and by joining twitter I found I could get information straight from the source.  I know most people will think this need is a bit extreme and it is, but I have trust issues with our media outlets.

After my daughter, Rebekah Lyn began writing novels, I moved deeper into social media and twitter as a way to help with her career.  This is when I became thoroughly addicted. Tweeting in the independent author community is an amazing experience. I have connected with women and men who I now consider to be friends. We meet together each day on twitter to help each other promote their work and in the process we laugh and encourage one another.

I have been musing over this connection phenomenon and think I may have figured it out. Each year, starting in November, my husband becomes very thoughtful and attentive. In the beginning, I meanly thought he was just angling for a nice Christmas gift, but after a few years I began to notice a pattern.  You see, my husband loves to give Christmas gifts and he starts thinking about what he will choose for me in November. The more he thinks about which gifts would please attentive, the more thoughtful and me he becomes. We feel a closer connection.  I, of course, love this time of year.

On twitter it is so easy to be attentive and supportive. With two clicks you can retweet someone or create a brand new tweet and help them promote their book.  In 140 characters you can ask someone how their day is going and share yours.

Come check out my books on Amazon. There’s romance, horror, inspirational                and children’s books. @ReginaPuckethttp://ow.ly/eW9TY 

It seems connection comes from moving our attention away from our thoughts and onto thinking of someone else. I wish it was as easy in my everyday world as it is in the virtual realm.

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Sour Cabbage

24 May

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I titled my blog Old Things R New because I want to learn the old ways of growing and preserving foods as well as  growing and using medicinal herbs. Recently I read “A Luminous Future” by Teodor Flonta. The book is set in the late 1940’s through the early 1960’s in Romania. I was fascinated with the foods he ate during that time, in particular, sour cabbage. In “A Luminous Future”, Teodor’s mother would ask him to get a sour cabbage out of the barrel for dinner. I love learning about different methods of food preservation and since Teodor is on twitter I was able to ask questions and he graciously answered.

            “Sour cabbage: take a whole cabbage, cut out the stem, get in the middle of it where the stem was and clean very well the white matter – you obtain a hole like a cone – fill that hole with coarse salt and place the cabbages on the bottom of a barrel next to each other, then you add other layers of cabbages on top until you fill the barrel. Then you add a handful of pepper whole grain, some horseradish, the root, and cover the cabbages with water. Then you place a plank or a lid on top of the barrel and on top of the lid you place a rock or something heavy to keep the cabbages pressed. That’s it. After 2-3 months your sour cabbage is ready. Among the cabbages you can put carrots, green tomatoes, turnips and they’ll be sour too and are quite good in winter. So, the juices the cabbage release and the water, plus the horseradish and pepper do the trick… you don’t need anything else to preserve them in.”

Of course, my next question was how do you eat it? Do you eat it cold or cook it?

“The cabbage can be eaten raw, as it comes from the barrel, like pickles. Or you can add a bit of oil and pepper like you do with salads. Ariella (wife) uses cumin seeds also and no pepper. Then you can fry it with mince meat or ribs or pieces of pork meat… first fry onions until translucent, add the cabbage, 2-3 bay leaves, 10-12 pepper grains, the meat and let it simmer for 40 minutes or so. It is delicious.”

I love the idea of going to a barrel and grabbing out a spicy cabbage so I am looking around for a small barrel. Thank you, Teodor for sharing your knowledge. Teodor and I also discussed preserving meat by larding. I am sure I will be writing about that in the coming weeks. “A Luminous Future” is a wonderful non-fiction novel and I highly recommend it.

If anyone has any tips for preserving or medicinal herbs, I would love to hear from you.

 

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It’s All About Fishing

7 Mar

Today I was tweet chatting with my friend; author Regina Puckett about being an outdoor person. I like the outdoors and she prefers to view it through a window. It turns out both our fathers loved fishing.  Coincidentally, earlier in the day I was tweet chatting with another author friend, Charles Dougherty about fishing. All this fish talk made me very nostalgic.

In our house, Friday night was not movie night or pizza night or staying up late night, it was fishing night. We lived about 60 miles from the east coast of Florida and after work my parents would load the car with poles, tackle, and sandwiches and off we went. We usually ended up at Mather’s bridge in Eau Gallie or the pier in Titusville.  We used a lantern dropped down over the water to draw the fish to the surface. It was thrilling to watch the trout swirl and dive under the light. I would hold my breath hoping one of them, preferably the big one would decide to rise to the surface and smack my bait with a pop.

Isn’t that kind of like being an Indie author? You dream and write and work to be published hoping that one day someone really big will rise to the top and pop your book with a great contract?

Hopefully the big fish will come, but until then I like my fish rolled in cornmeal with a little flour, fried in bacon grease on a Coleman stove right there on the water. Right Charles?

Check out my favorite Indie author Rebekah Lyn’s Summer Storms

Kindle Edition

Like Rebekah Lyn on Facebook

Nook

You might like to follow my friends @ReginaPuckett and @clrdougherty on Twitter.

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My Newest Thing

23 Feb

I’ve added a new thing in my life and I never saw it coming. One day I was playing in the garden, canning and baking in the kitchen and the next thing I know, I am glued to my keyboard, pounding out 140 characters.

I thought I was going to spend a nice winter/spring in Florida, reversing the trend and mooching off our daughter. I planned to carry my weight with a little cooking and cleaning in exchange for a winter escape. It hasn’t quite worked out that way.

I was so proud of Rebekah when she self published her first book in the Seasons of Faith series. To be a writer has been her dream since she was a child, writing, “I’m very mad at you” on her chalkboard. She had to interpret the scribbles. Since we were mooching off of her for the winter, I offered to help her promote her book.

Book promotion has changed since the old days. Rebekah held a book signing at a friend’s restaurant and made an impact on seven people. I quickly learned social media is the way to go. Fortunately I love technology and was already a twitter addict. So here I am, pounding out 140 characters, hoping it makes a difference and best of all making new friends like you.

If you are new to social media and blogging. Check out this very short eBook by my new twitter friend. I promise it won’t overwhelm you.

How to Make a Splash Online eBook: Kathy Lynn Hall: Kindle Store http://j.mp/A2XKNM

I would love to have you follow me on twitter @onisha or @iluvscoops if you don’t mind my political side.

It would be greatly appreciated if you would Like Rebekah Lyn author FB

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