Cross-eyed

YIKES! I can't believe it's been over a week since I've blogged. Did not mean for that one, but hey that's been what my life has been like the past week. I flew home from Chicago, got home late, woke up early the next morning to head to my mom's for Christmas, got back here in time for a snowstorm, jumped back into teaching, and the rest of the life I left behind.

You know the funny thing about taking a vacation from life? It's still waiting when you get back, with the added bonus of everything you didn't do all piled up.

Which is why I'm cross-eyed.

I did all the hard copy edits on the book on my trip. Yes, yes I did. I put my flight time and layovers to good use, tyvm. Now, of course, I have to put it into the computer, which is a slightly daunting task because I think I may have edited myself into a corner. Yes, my friends, these are the days when I understand why many of the literary greats ended up alcoholics. And, no, I didn't actually drink. I just understand why one would want to.

Then there are the boards, which are crazy... with the upcoming changeover and a couple of events I have launching at the same time, I've got a million and one things to finish and have ready ASAP. I've spent the past two hours trying to get some html right and figure out why I couldn't get one stinking paragraph to format correctly.

And of course, I have teaching. We did a marathon session today. I love it when the course material says it's slated for an hour more than the class time you're given. Along with all of that, I've got to do all the end of year/beginning of new year paperwork. ICK.

So that, dear people, is what I've been doing. Roaming the country, leaving havoc in my trail, and actually trying to be productive. Just in time for tax season to start. I got a glimpse of my schedule, and frankly, I'm not ready to face it yet, so I don't remember when I'm working. My boss said she's being nice to me and giving me some time off. *insert skeptical look*

And I've really got to get started on my own taxes. That Man and his HR person did not understand my instructions for his withholding and I didn't catch it until too late. Which means we're going to owe. I think. Unless I can pull a few more deductions out of my hat. Speaking of, I need to get new glasses tomorrow. The silver lining of the cloud that's been my health problems this year is I'm going to have a ton of medical expenses to deduct. The new glasses will be total icing.

Or at least that's the hope. I think I'm starting to ramble. I am so tired. Too tired to move. Can I stay here forever? Of course then the stuff will just pile up around me, won't it? Ah... my life... gotta love it.

Friends, Fun, and YAY!!!

Honestly, I don't have anything specific to blog about, but I know folks know I'm on the road, so I wanted to do a general "I'm safe, alive, and happy" post. There's six of us in this suite in the hotel and we are having a ball. Last night, we attended the final show for the Christmas Promise tour with Todd Agnew, Newsong, Matthew West, Nate Sallie, and Britt Nicole. It was wonderful.

Last year, we did a retreat with the Christmas Hope tour with Todd and Newsong, and it was also wonderful. I meant it when I said it's going to be a tradition. So praying already for next year.

The hardest thing about the connections and friendships I have with people all over the world is that we don't get to see each other often enough. Of course, we're already planning the next get-together. I admit, I hope we do something sooner than what we're looking at. I love these girls. They are some of the most amazing women I've met.

And now we've got four others stopped by to say goodbye, so I guess I'll sign off for now.

Reason #98798 why Mommies need vacations

Because after spending over an hour in the car looking for the place that has our pictures, said place can't find them amidst three year old throwing a temper tantrum in the store. In fact, no record of us seems to exist. Funny, they seemed eager enough to charge my credit card, for which there IS a record. Fortunately, the guy was nice and said if I called them with the info, rather than having to make another trip out there, they'll mail them to me for free. Yippee for me.

We pile back into the car, said monster child begs for her chocolate milk.

I should have known better.

I do know better.

But when she promises to be really careful and not spill, I *sigh* trust her.

Surely you know what's coming.

Yep.

Two blocks later, she dumps the entire bottle of chocolate milk all over her and the interior of my car. And thinks it's funny.

Needless to say, I did not get to the store, or run any of my other errands. Unfortunately, the "I can parent better than you police" don't look kindly to dragging around a dripping wet with chocolate milk child in the middle of winter. Been there, done that, got the lecture.

So we drove home, I put the little rat in bed, and I am now wondering how I can get all of my errands run before I head to the airport at 9 a.m. I imagine it'll look something like Mommy ends up at the grocery store in the middle of the night and I stay up all night packing and doing all the other miscellaneous things I have to do. I can sleep on the plane, right?

Which means I'll end up sitting between two linebackers who think they can take up my share of my seat because I'm such a cute little thing and I won't mind.

Oh well. I'm going to be spending the next few days with some of my bestest girlfriends, sans children, and life will be GRAND. *happy sigh*

The Kingdom

Not the one you're thinking of. :)

I just finished watching The Kingdom. A friend of mine works for Blockbuster, so he gets to preview a lot of the movies about to come out. Anyway, we all went over and watched it.

Wow.

I should say that again.

Wow.

I come into it from a different perspective. In college, my primary field of study was the Middle East. I'd actually hoped to go into foreign affairs, work for the State Department, make the world a better place. Yeah. You see where I'm going with this, right? I spent a summer living in Israel and realized that foreign policy in the Middle East has very little to do with what's right and everything to do with power. I couldn't live with that. And frankly, as much as I am a rebel, I'm not into being a one-woman fight against the machine.

I watched this movie with a lot of sadness. I'm going to ruin the ending, so if you're one of those who can't deal with it, I apologize. Each side ended with the notion that "we're going to kill them all." There was this little boy, and that was the thought planted in his head. You want to know where the terrorists come from? Those little boys. And probably, little girls.

The next generation of terrorists are going to be even more ruthless. We think it's bad now, but I believe it will be even worse. The younger generation sits back and watches as their loved ones die horrible deaths. All the blame is placed on the Americans. Or, if you live here, on the Muslims. And so we learn to hate. When we hate, it's easier to kill. They aren't one of us. They are the enemy.

If you want to know the truth about what's going on over there, you need to know that we're all in the wrong. All sides. We aren't the good guys. But we aren't the bad guys, either.

I gave up my Middle East dreams because I didn't know what to do about it. There are some in this country who would think I'm unpatriotic or wrong or worse, a terrorist myself because I feel this way. And the thing is, I'm none of those things. I love my country. But I love other people too. And I think all people have the same inalienable rights. Rights that we deny a lot of others because they believe different things, live a different way, and look a little different from us.

I say this as an American. I say this as a Christian. I say this as a mother.

I used to laugh about the bumper sticker that says, "Who would Jesus bomb?" I keep thinking about it, though. Who WOULD Jesus bomb? He came so that all might be saved. Not everyone except the people we don't like. Abram became Abraham, the father of many nations, so that all the peoples of the world would be blessed. The fulfillment of all the law is love. I'm a bit confused as to how any of our actions are in line with the law. But apparently I follow the wrong law. At least in human terms.

So maybe I did blog about The Kingdom, after all. And not the movie.

If you want to change the situation in the Middle East, if we want to win the war on terror, it's not going to come by going in, guns blazing. I used to work with an organization that's figured that out. Seeking Common Ground- Building Bridges for Peace brings together young women from Israel, Palestine, and the U.S. to learn about one another and break the cycle of hatred. I was privileged enough to work with a number of the girls, get to know them, and fall in love with each and every one of them. It's groups like SCG, working to change the hearts of the next generation, one person at a time, that's going to make a difference.

I encourage all of you to take the time, step into the shoes of your enemy, and truly consider what Jesus would really do. Perhaps, if we started to figure that out, we wouldn't be damning the next generation to hell on earth.

Thursday Thirteen #28: Things I've learned recently about eating healthy

Thirteen Things about eating healthy 1. Healthy food tastes pretty good. 2. Some of it is still gross, though. 3. Soy is one of the worst things you can put into your body (and here I thought it was good for me) 4. If you plan right, it's also not as expensive as I thought. 5. Homemade food doesn’t take as much time as I’d thought (and it’s much better for you!) 6. You’re not supposed to sauté the garlic with the onions (and guess how I learned how to cook) 7. I can get my kiddo to eat anything if I tell her its medicine (and she likes it) 8. How to make Kefir (and what Kefir is) 9. That when you roast a chicken, you’re supposed to do it with the right side up (I still can’t tell which end is which) 10. My house will not burn down if I simmer homemade broth for the full 24 hours recommended by the recipe (and the broth turns out really nice) 11. Homemade Bread is really yummy and not so hard to make. 12. My family is not as fond of eating healthy as I am. 13. I still crave junk! (especially hot dogs!)

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An open letter to those in the universe conspiring against me

STOP IT ALREADY!!!!!!!

There. I feel much better.

As some of you know, this is crazy season for me. I wish I could *just* have Christmas to deal with. Frankly, it gets scaled back every year, and I'm fine with that. But it's a busy time for those of us gearing up for tax season, and somehow I ended up teaching two classes. UGH. And then, we are moving our boards to a new platform, which is great, but again, more work! Add in all my regular stuff, and I'm going crazy.

So today, on a day with lots of icky white stuff falling, when I have no place to go except to teach tonight, the only day I have in my schedule to sleep in, WHY WHY WHY won't people leave me alone?

No one ever calls. I kinda like it that way. Silence is golden. Today, the phone has not stopped ringing. Is it anyone I'd want to talk to? No. In fact, if you know whoever has the number 818-456-1234, could you please tell them to stop calling? So far, they've called three times today, and that's after I politely told them yesterday to never call here again. In case you're wondering, I screen my calls. If I don't recognize the number on caller ID, and you don't leave a message, I don't answer the phone. Anyway, all day long, from the moment I got up long enough to bundle kiddo up, kiss her goodbye, and send her to school, it's been a zoo here.

Not by my choosing, mind you.

My only peaceful day this week, and it's being disturbed.

Oh well, maybe I'll go bake something and feel better. :)

Thursday Thirteen #27: Things I've done since I last blogged

Yeah, I know. Long time no blog. I'm pretty shocked myself. Life's been... crazy to say the least. But rather than bore you with my petty excuses, here's my list:

Thirteen Things I've done since I last blogged 1. Slept. Let's let that one sink in for just one more blissful moment. 2. Mailed off that pesky manuscript. 3. Cleaned my kitchen. I am no longer worried about the Health Department. 4. Visited 5 medical supply type places and called about a dozen more to find a sling for my 7 year old who fell off the trampoline and sprained her arm. Apparently, my children are the only ones who ever need slings. I am also, according to those medical people, a very bad mom for letting my kiddos have a trampoline. 5. Fell off the nutritional supplement bandwagon. I deeply regret it. 6. Spent a blissful day with my bestest best friend. 7. Attended one out of the four holiday parties scheduled for this week. Three more to go. 8. Rediscovered the joy of Neopets with my children. 9. Made an Advent Wreath. 10. Unpacked 10 boxes. 11. Paid the bills. Wahoo!! Our electricity won't be shut off because I forgot! 12. Re-bonded with hubby, children, and dog. 13. Worked on next major project for the boards.

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Finally!!

At 2:35 p.m. this afternoon, I finished the rewrite of the book.

Let's all cheer.

However, I had to go back and revise the partial and synopsis to put in the mail tomorrow. Which I finished at 11:30 p.m. I had to cut 8 pages, make the grandfather less of a jerk, and make my hero less wishy-washy. Pages are cut. I think I succeeded with the grandfather and hero.

So tomorrow, I'm off to Kinkos to print and mail. Then, I can find my life again.

I'm pretty proud of myself. I set a difficult goal and met it. More importantly, I learned that my family can pull around me and work together to make it happen. Hubby very generously kicked me out of the house so I could get some work done. He kept the kiddos fed, the house semi picked up, and accomplished the crazy tasks I absolutely had to have done to stay sane.

As I prepared the very gourmet meal of hot dogs, the first I'd done all week, with the exception of a lasagna I'd frozen a couple months ago, I thought about a speech I saw a famous author give when she received an award for one of her books.

She got up and said that while everyone else thanked their family, she wasn't going to, because her family didn't write the book. Maybe the family didn't write the book. But at least in my house, my family plays an important role in my writing. They eat cereal on the nights I'm too preoccupied to cook without burning the house down. My husband works hard and sometimes extra hours so I have enough money for whatever I need- whether it be paper, ink, or conference expenses. They put up with me asking them weird questions like, "If you were in this situation, how would you react?" And they pitch in to do chores that I don't quite get around to. The seven year old informed me that she loooooooves to do laundry.

So to my family, thank you. I still have a lot of work to do, but without your help, I would not have reached this goal

Santa and Jesus

I realized why I hadn't posted the entries in the Unposted Blog Entry file. ACK! So much for the magic file.

I broke my little girl's heart today. We were talking about Christmas, and she told me about this toy she wanted. I'm sorry, but I think it's inappropriate to spend $300 for a toy horse for a child for Christmas. Frankly, I think people are going waaaay too overboard with Christmas spending. Which is why we're scaling down.

So, we had to have a talk. I finally explained to her that the horse she wanted was too expensive, and there was absolutely no way she'd get it. In a tearful voice, she asked, "But Mom, what about Santa? Can't he bring it?"

Now see, we do Santa in our house. But for us, Santa is a fun tradition, and the focus is Jesus. Santa is not a miracle worker. And my kids certainly aren't getting things from Santa that we'd never buy.

I told her again, "it's too expensive. We can't afford it."

My daughter said, "you have to PAY Santa?"

"Yes."

She spent a good hour crying. But when she finished, we talked about other gifts she might like. And we talked about what's important about Christmas.

On one hand, I feel bad for making her cry. But I also know that if that horse isn't under the tree on Christmas, it'll completely ruin her day. It's best she understands now.

A friend of mine and I talked recently about how God isn't Santa. He doesn't give us the nice gifts on our wish list just because we're good or because we really want them. But I'd like to add something. Santa isn't God. We shouldn't be looking for him to do things for our families that we can't. Our kids shouldn't be looking for him to give miraculous presents mom and dad have already said no to.

I'm not one of those anti-Santa Christians. I think Santa is a nice story and a nice tradition. Just like any one of the other stories I grew up reading. And I think it's okay to play pretend and play Santa. But I also think we need to keep Santa in perspective and make sure his importance isn't at the center of our holiday. He's not a miracle. The miracle is in Jesus, and that's where we need to keep our focus.

So this Christmas season, rather than wondering about what Santa can do, ask yourself how you can be Jesus to someone else. It's a whole lot better than Santa.

Struggling, but getting by

Okay, so promised post from yesterday didn't materialize until today. Sorry about that.

It's been a long, hard day, with pretty much nothing going as planned. And that's been a real bummer, to say the least. And at the risk of sounding like a big, whiny, cry baby, no one's given me a whole lot of sympathy over it.

Anyway, I'm on a major deadline so I'll be hit and miss the rest of the week. I think my posts will be coming from that magic file of stuff I meant to post a long time ago but never got around to posting. It should be interesting. Or not. I don't know.

I'd post more tonight, but it's been such a bad day that I'm afraid to say or do anything else. My computer will probably blow up or something. So send me chocolate, hugs, tea, and I'll catch you here real soon.

Unless my house blows up. I wish I were kidding.

Free Book Monday: Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

This is a real-quick-like post, just letting you know what the book is. I'll be back later to fill in details, but I figured some folks were expecting it, so I'd at least share that much. I'll be back later with some kind of post. :)

Updates

Well, if you're a sidebar watcher, you'll see that I've FINALLY!! updated my sidebar and links. If you're not on there and want to be, or are there and don't want to be, let me know and I'll make the change. :)

The winner of last week's Free Book Monday is... Heather! Congratulations!! Email me with your info and I'll get the book out to you.

Hearing God

Happy Sunday! Last Sunday, as part of our small group, we took an assessment of our spiritual gifts. In the past, I've always scored pretty high on discernment. Yet, with this assessment, as I looked at the questions about discernment, I started to wonder. The questions made me realize how little discernment I have. I'm not really good at picking out people's motivations. My judgment tends to be clouded by my experience. My experience is that people aren't as good as they say, or as they'd like to think. But is it the truth? Or is it just my experience?

Lately, I've had a number of folks in my life playing the "God said" card. They'll be saying something about their life and ultimately, that phrase gets thrown out. However, as I watch the things happening in their lives, I hear the words that come out of their mouths, and the attitudes they have, I have to wonder... did God really say?

These people say they have a lot of discernment. It scares me because they are a couple of the meanest people I know. I don't hear a lot of nice things coming out of their mouths. But they think they have God's will all figured out. Is God's will about sarcasm? Is God's will about putting self above others? Is God's will about condemnation? Is God's will self-righteous?

Maybe I have a different version of the Bible. Maybe I don't understand God the way I'm supposed to. The truth is, the more I learn about God, the more I read my Bible, the more I think I don't have discernment at all. I still do and say a lot of bad things. I'd like to say the level of sin in my life continues to go down as I grow spiritually, but the truth is, all that's happened is that I'm more aware of how sinful I am.

Do I hear from God? I'd like to think so. But I'm also painfully aware of the fact that my hearing is distorted by my human experience, my human failings, my human desires, my human hurts, my human fears. It's easy to find a verse or interpret a verse to say what we think we want God to be saying. But is it what God meant by those words? And do they really justify our position?

I don't know. Like I said, as I've aged, discernment hasn't been my strong suit. Instead of answers, I only have more questions. Fortunately, as those of you who read my blog know, that's all part of the journey.

It came to me on page 198

Yep, that's where I am on this rewrite. And I need to kick it into higher gear to get it done in time. However, I had to take a quick break to celebrate this major epiphany.

For those of you new to my writing angst, you should know that I can't summarize to save my life. As a reader of my blog, you've hopefully figured that out by now. I get to my points. Eventually.

I usually start a book with a vague idea of what it's about. Except if you ask, "what's your book about," I will typically stammer for a good ten minutes until something resembling a story idea pops out of my mouth. I can tell you all sorts of things about my books. But to be able to crystallize it in any intelligent form? Nope.

So here I am, typing away, fighting with this latest chapter because it's so stinking hard, and it comes to me: a one sentence crystallization of my book.

My book is about finding who you are in Christ.

You may all now applaud.

Do not ask me to put that in a logline. Yet.

Thursday Thirteen #26: Verses for Thanksgiving.

As promised, this week, it's all about the meaningful verses. My friend Tonya emailed me with one of my favorite verses today, and I couldn't help but think of the story behind it: a Thanksgiving story.

I did not grow up in a Christian home. Most of my family members break out in hives if I mention Jesus or God in their presence. But I've always loved God. I've always been curious. When I was eight years old, as we prepared to celebrate Thanksgiving, I got into an argument with my mom. I told her Thanksgiving was a God holiday because all holidays are about God. She told me no, it was about the Pilgrims. I've always been an argumentative little stinker, so I decided to prove her wrong. I grabbed the only Bible we had in the house, my aunt's old King James version. I came up with the first verse in my list. It had the word "thanksgiving" in it, which to me was the ultimate proof. Thanksgiving is all about God. Then again, so should be every other day. Although I was a lot older than eight before I figured out that one. Ooops. Still working on it. However, now that I'm older and know how to use a concordance, here's a few more "proofs" of Thanksgiving in the Bible.

Thirteen Verses about Thanksgiving 1. Psalm 100 (sorry, have to use KJV on this one... it's how I learned it, and nothing sounds as good. The rest is NIV) 1Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.2Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. 3Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 5For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations. 2. Leviticus 7:12-14 (See, we should EAT for Thanksgiving!) 12 " 'If he offers it as an expression of thankfulness, then along with this thank offering he is to offer cakes of bread made without yeast and mixed with oil, wafers made without yeast and spread with oil, and cakes of fine flour well-kneaded and mixed with oil. 13 Along with his fellowship offering of thanksgiving he is to present an offering with cakes of bread made with yeast. 14 He is to bring one of each kind as an offering, a contribution to the LORD; it belongs to the priest who sprinkles the blood of the fellowship offerings. 3. Ezra 3:10-11 10 When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the LORD, as prescribed by David king of Israel. 11 With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the LORD : "He is good; his love to Israel endures forever." And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. 4. Nehemiah 12:24 (Didn't I recently blog about needing Thanksgiving carols?) And the leaders of the Levites were Hashabiah, Sherebiah, Jeshua son of Kadmiel, and their associates, who stood opposite them to give praise and thanksgiving, one section responding to the other, as prescribed by David the man of God. 5. Psalm 69:30 I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. 6. Isaiah 51:3 The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing. 7. Jeremiah 30:19 From them will come songs of thanksgiving and the sound of rejoicing. I will add to their numbers, and they will not be decreased; I will bring them honor, and they will not be disdained. 8. Jonah 2:9 But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the LORD. 9. I Corinthians 10:15-17 15I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 16Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? 17Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf. 10. 2 Corinthians 4:14-16 (Wow! Isn't this the ultimate thing to be thankful for?) 14because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. 15All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. 16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 11. 2 Corinthians 9:10-12 10Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. 12This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 12. Ephesians 5:4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 13. Philippians 4:6-7 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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The things our characters teach us...

Sunday morning, I woke up after having a series of bizarre dreams. As I showered and thought about them, I realized something pretty interesting about my writing. My characters, as much as I try to separate them from my real life, are taking a journey similar to one I'm on or have been on. I honestly never mean for it to happen, but there it is.

My heroine is at a crossroads. She's learned that someone she cares deeply about isn't the person she thought he was. And now she's got to decide how to handle it.

The cool thing about fiction is that characters learn a lot faster than we do. They can make the right choices because the great, wise writer can make it so. The funny thing is, as much as I can right the wrongs in my heroine's life, I have a much harder time doing it with my own.

As I examined my heroine's dilemma, it brought to mind a time I sat at a similar crossroads. My best friend had just betrayed me, and I was so hurt. I remember standing in the quad at school, and she tried to talk to me. But I walked away. I refused to listen, refused to talk. Granted, we'd been down that road before, and I was tired of having the same conversation only to have the same thing happen again. I used to be really proud of my decision to finally stop being walked on by this girl. With maturity and age, though, I've realized how unfair I was to not give her the chance to say her piece.

The truth is, I miss her. I wish I had the chance to tell her that I'm sorry for not giving her a chance. I've looked for her on the Internet, and haven't found her. Maybe some day. And maybe, because she used to love reading romance as much as I do, she'll read one of my books and we can find each other again. Or maybe, she'll find my blog and know that I am deeply and truly sorry. I am sorry, Sherry.

As I picture the look on my character's face at the moment of betrayal, I wonder, is that how she felt when I repaid my friend for injuring me by turning my back on her?

I am so glad my characters are a million times smarter than I am.

Free Book Monday: The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr.

Wahooo!!! Free book Monday!!

Today's been a rough day for me. Long story. Now that I've told it about a hundred times, it doesn't seem so bad. However, what got me through were some good friends who listened and didn't say, "you are such a pyscho!" Or worse, "aww, PMS again?" Nope, they just loved on me. And I truly appreciate it.

Anyway, as I pondered which book to give away, I decided on this gem: The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. For me, writing books are old friends. Particularly old writing books. As a history nut, I find it fascinating to read books from another time period. The cool thing about this book, though, is that much of its contents are still applicable today.

So check it out! Post a comment here this week and I'll draw a winner this weekend.

Weekend Update with... me!

Did any of you ever watch Saturday Night Live? I used to love it, but then life got in the way, and I'm afraid I don't understand half the jokes anymore. However, one of my favorite parts was Weekend Update. Which has absolutely nothing to do with this post except that the theme song from Weekend Update went through my head as I typed it.

So there you are. Randomness with me.

I don't have anything in particular to share about the weekend, except to let you all know that the winner of the Liz Fielding book is Patricia! Congratulations!!

Tomorrow I'll have a new book up for grabs. Huh. That's just a few hours away. Guess I'd better get digging. :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

This is the abomination as viewed from my back porch. Last week, some enterprising neighbors hired a lift to decorate the huge tree in their front yard. I remember driving by, thinking, I feel sorry for that guy's neighbors. Uh, that would be me. D'OH!

Actually, it is kinda pretty, and I imagine I'll sit here, drinking a cup of tea, watching the snowflakes fall, thinking something deeply spiritual with that lovely tree in the background.

However, we have not even hit Thanksgiving yet! For that matter, what happened to Veteran's Day? I'm not ready to have a Holly Jolly Christmas (which some idiotic radio station played the other day). I haven't even had my turkey. What about decking the halls with Pilgrims and Indians? Falalalalalalalala

Have we gotten so busy spending our money on junk we don't really need, but feel obligated to give that we've neglected taking the time to be still and think about how thankful we are for the money in the first place? We have to race out for the latest tacky singing Christmas blow up lawn ornament without stopping to take a look at the flags honoring the men and women who've served our country, making it a safe place for us to live, giving us the right to place those tacky lawn ornaments out there. Unless, of course, you've got an HOA. And then, my friends, you signed away that freedom. But for the rest of us, like my neighbor across the way, we can get as in your face as we want to show our pride in the holiday season.

God bless America.

May He have mercy on us all.

Thursday Thirteen #25: Thanksgiving

Thirteen Things about Thanksgiving Since Jan and Tonya are doing Thanksgiving this week and have another theme this week, and I got the email to join them, we're doing Thanksgiving a week early. Hopefully, as we begin to think what we're thankful for before the big day, before we get into all the preparations, we can make our preparations and celebrations with thankful hearts. 1. My new house. People keep asking me how I like it, and all I can say is I love it. I am so happy here. God really blessed us with this one. 2. My little Kiki. We call her the terrorist, and she is so much work. But you know, she brings us more joy than I ever imagined possible. 3. My little Bebo. She just amazes me with the things that come out of her mouth which began in her heart. 4. That Man. He's given me so much unconditional love. I don't know where I'd be without him. 5. Modern medicine. Even though I'm working to get back to more natural things in our family, with all the health challenges I've had this past year, I've gained a great respect for all the things modern medicine can do. 6. My Sara. She's one of the few people on this earth who really "gets" me. 7. Suffragettes. Maybe that's a weird thing to think of on Thanksgiving, but when I think of the first Thanksgiving and the praise they gave for God's bounty in a new land where they could have freedom to practice their religion, I realize that for many of the people coming over, freedom did not come for centuries. Because of the women fighting for our right to our opinions, I have the right to post on my blog, share my opinion, and when it comes time to vote, exercise that right. 8. Religious freedom. Let's be honest here. Some of the attacks on Christianity here suck. And sometimes it stinks to see so many things contrary to our values running rampant in our country. But it is such a blessing to live in a country where we can pray to our God, read our Bible, and worship as we feel led without fear of being arrested or jailed. 9. Good friends. This year, I've had some amazing people come alongside me. They've blessed me in more ways than I can count. 10. The Dog. Because he's The Dog. 11. Heavenly Provision. The past few years have been tough for us in a lot of ways. If you look at it on paper, there's no way we should have made it. But we did. God provided for us in so many wonderful ways. 12. A good cup of tea. Tea fixes just about everything. It makes me really happy. :) 13. God. Well, that's just a given, isn't it? Except it really shouldn't be. I think a lot of times, it comes out as rote, and we don't really stop to consider what an amazing God we really have. We kind of get used to Him, like a piece of furniture in the room. But what if we move that furniture? Suddenly, it's a big deal if the lamp isn't in the right place. Totally messes everything up. Yet, we don't walk around singing praises to the lamp. Maybe we should. Or at least we should take God out of the furniture department and keep Him on center stage. Huh. Didn't exactly mean to go there, but that's where my heart is. Being thankful that even though sometimes God is a lamp, and not in the psalmist sense, He still loves me, He still desires me, and He chases after me with an eager heart. What are you thankful for?

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