Archive for August, 2006
August 31, 2006 @ 3:21 pm | Filed under: School Stuff
1. The Religions of the World. This text is for the class I’m taking to satisfy my philosophy credit. While I’m thoroughly enjoying the class discussions and the, um, very…colorful characters in the class around me, this text is B-O-R-I-N-G. That’s right, with all CAPS!
2. A hot pink 3-subject notebook, with built-in manilla folders. This notebook is making my life very simple. I have three classes. There are three compartments. One notebook. How handy is that?
3. An assortment of pens, pencils, and highlighters. Basically I just need A pen. But I tend to plan for the unexpected. You just never know when you’re going to need a neon orange highlighter or be called upon to whip out a handy, dandy mechanical pencil.
4. America: A Narrative History. This 758 page text is my U.S. History book. I thought I knew a lot about the history of this great country, you know, being raised by a history teacher-turned-principal and all. But evidently I must have nodded off a time or two during my high school U.S. History classes because I’ve learned lots of really neat facts…in just TWO days!
5. A bookmark from the Writing Center in the library. My Composition & Rhetoric class has a required lab attached to it: three hours in the writing lab. (Oh, come on, twist my arm – make me write!)
6. A maroon-covered academic dayplanner. I keep it tucked in the bag so I can jot down class assignments and be able to see at a glance what my week looks like.
7. My wallet. It holds my license, my school ID, library card, and – of course – a little cash. You never know when you might need a Diet Coke bottle of water or a granola bar. (Water, I meant water. Really.)
8. Making Literature Matter, An Anthology for Readers and Writers. Okay, I simply cannot say enough great things about my Composition & Rhetoric textbook. I love, love, LOVE it! Now granted, I’m a writer, a voracious reader, and a Literature major – but, folks, this book is like water to my soul. I flip through the pages, drinking in each delicious word, relishing the feel of the pages between my fingers. (I know, you’re wondering what my nerd quotient is, aren’t you?)
9. My keys. They somehow manage to find the darkest corner in the furthest reach of the bottom of the bag. The biggest challenge I have each Tuesday and Thursday afternoon is hunting for the ever-elusive car keys.
10. The Syllabi for each class. So I can double-check any ‘ol time I want to see just exactly how many papers I GET to write this semester for all three classes. Call me lucky, or call me crazy, but between these classes I will be writing a grand total of 16 papers this semester. I’M LOVIN’ THAT! (If I was skating around the edges of nerdiness before, I just now fell face-first into nerd-dom, didn’t I?)
11. My cell phone. This is the first time in I-don’t-know-how-many-years that I have to remind myself to check for messages between classes. This is my connection to my husband, children, and my real estate agent.
12. A bottle of water. Just to stay hydrated. I really AM being faithful to my Diet Coke ban and a bottle of water has become my constant companion. I am literally never without one these days. Except maybe at church. Then I leave it in the car.
13. Last but certainly not least…{drum roll, please}…my blogging notebook. Yes, you heard me right. I have a small 4×6 notebook whose sole purpose is to hold recorded notes on all the "characters" (just wait!) in my classes, funny things I overhear, class activities, and my personal take on all that this wonderful journey of going back to college is so lovingly granting to me.
To quote the now famous McDonald’s slogan: I’m Lovin’ It!
August 30, 2006 @ 10:11 am | Filed under: Wordless Wednesday
August 28, 2006 @ 10:19 am | Filed under: Uncategorized
Thanks to all of you who are participating in the Saving Grace blog tour! I had such an overwhelmingly great response and will be posting the blog tour schedule in the next few days…Stay tuned!
And an equally LARGE shout-out to all who have either emailed me or commented, asking how the Diet Coke ban was going! I see that I am SO not alone in my DC addiction, and that’s a huge relief!
I’m proud to say that I am on my seventh day without Diet Coke and – to my great shock & awe – I’m not only surviving, but thriving!
The first three days were really rough. Truly.
Those days made a believer out of me. Diet Coke is truly addictive. No joke.
If I had doubted this truth before these first hours and days of withdrawal changed my way of thinking. A pounding headache plagued me for seventy-two hours straight, with nothing bringing me relief from it.
Before I’d even conquered this malady, I began to physically reach for a cup of Diet Coke that wasn’t even there.
You’re laughing, aren’t you?
But the thing is, I’m serious. I’ve become so accustomed to having a DC on my desk as I write during the day that, from time to time, I would automatically reach for the ghost cup.
Imagine my shock when my eager fingers closed around – NOTHING! Nuffin’ but air, baby…
On Friday night I joined friends for a midnight crop at a local scrapbook store. Now – you have to understand – normally these six hours require vast quantities of caffeine. My chosen form was always Diet Coke, of course.
Trying to stay true to my husband’s challenge, I drank bottled water while my friends guzzled my contraband. Just when I thought I might very well crack, lo and behold, it was midnight and everyone was packing up to go home.
And I had made the night without one single, solitary sip of Diet Coke in any form.
The money jar is up $28 dollars thus far. TWENTY-EIGHT BUCKS, folks!
All because I’m not drinking indulging my need for twice-daily Sonic Diet Cokes, in a large cup, with that great you-can-only-get-it-at-Sonic crushed ice…
…oops…I digress.
Now, clearly, I still have a while to go. Twenty-two days, five hours, and 48 minutes, to be exact. (Do you detect a note of eagerness in those stats?)
But I’m feeling a new strength of will and, I have to say, it feels pretty good! To set out to conquer something, even if it’s as trivial and unconsequential as my need for Diet Coke, and then actually manage to cage those desires and put them all in proper perspective…well, it’s amazing.
Does this mean that I’ve had my last Diet Coke? Am I reformed, a changed water-loving, Diet Coke-despising chick?
Uh…’fraid not.
I have a deep-gut feeling that I’ll be parked at Sonic at 11:59 on September 19th, my finger just itching to push the little red button at the stroke of midnight.
But all the while I’m sipping in those first few gulps of Diet Coke, feeling the familiar, tantalizing burn as it travels down my Diet Coke parched throat, I’ll be able to hold my head high.
I will have faced a challenge head-on.
And WON!
August 26, 2006 @ 8:06 am | Filed under: Uncategorized
Blessings have always seemed to be the symbol of the favor of God, of being in His will. And when they’ve rained down upon my head, I have to say that I have felt incredibly loved by God.
Not that I deserved the blessings – never, ever will that be the case – but that, by receiving them, I’d reached some sort of apex.
That’s how I used to think.
Now I know differently.
Blessings don’t bring fulfillment. If you don’t believe this, think back over the blessings in your life. The new house? It’s beautiful, wonderful, exactly what you’d dreamed of.
But at the end of the day, when you lay down to sleep, it’s still a house. With responsibilities, chores, and pressures built right in. And eventually your family will outgrow even the new house, and you’ll want a larger, nicer one.
A promotion? It’s what we all want, what we work so diligently toward. But again, it’s a job, and as with any job, there are multi-faceted issues that make it seem less than a blessing on many days. And one day, even that dream job will appear stale, and you’ll find it no longer satisfies.
We always want more.
The same is true with our spiritual blessings. Just beyond blessings, lies another place. A place we don’t like to talk of much, let alone visit.
Brokenness.
When we reach that point, well…that’s where we find the true will of God. That’s when we know that yes, indeed we are in His perfect will.
It may not always be the most comfortable spot to be.
It may not be the place of importance or stature we thought we wanted.
It may take us outside personal comfort zones and force us into situations that are foreign and unfamiliar.
But it’s in those places we find new levels of relationship with God.
Blessings are a sign He loves us. In spite of all our faults, our failures, our inadequacies, He loves us still.
But brokenness is a sign we’ve tapped into a new realm of relationship.
Think of Abraham. Isaac, the son of his old age, was nothing short of a blessing straight from God. But as Isaac lay on the altar of sacrifice, Abraham was brought to a place of brokenness.
The blessing was no longer enough. It was only after that time of brokenness that Abraham was brought into a new realm of relationship with God.
And what about Job? No one would ever dispute that blessings were abundant in Job’s life. If blessings were a sign of favor, well, Job certainly had favor.
But it was only after losing these blessings, and coming to a place of brokenness, that Job was at last lifted to a new realm. A place he would never have reached had it not been for brokenness.
Brokenness leaves us transparent, needy, and vulnerable.
It also leaves us in a place to be reshaped, remolded, and fashioned into vessels He can truly use.
When the blessing isn’t enough…
August 24, 2006 @ 9:22 am | Filed under: Books
I’m looking to do a blog tour for my new novel, Saving Grace, which just released. Here’s thirteen easy steps showing you exactly how you can be a part!
- Saving Grace is my brand-new inspirational novel, just released two weeks ago.
- The story deals with grief, forgiveness, and grace.
- While the book retails for $14.99…
- if you host an introduction to the book to your readers,
- then I will send you your very own free copy.
- Feel free to keep it for yourself, or give it to one of your readers, or to a friend.
- If you are interested, simply email me (my email link is in the right-hand sidebar) and/or leave a comment.
- I will then send you the book,
- a link to the prologue and Chapter One (which you can then post in part or whole on your blog),
- answers to Interview questions (if you’d like them),
- and a pre-written article about the book.
- This a great way to get a brand-new free book while, at the same time, introducing your friends and family to great inspirational fiction.
- And…you’d be helping me out tremendously as I promote Saving Grace!
ONE FRIGHTENING SUMMER…
Thirty-four-year-old Grace Davenport’s childhood memories are less than idyllic. Raised by an alcoholic mother, Grace learned to fend for herself in the midst of chaos. Her sixteenth summer shattered her innocence, plunging her headfirst into a nightmare that followed her into adulthood.
A PAST SHE’D ALMOST FORGOTTEN…
Determined to put the painful past far behind her, Grace picks up the broken pieces of her heart and forges a future, finding love along the way. Finally the pain is vanquished, a dim memory of a life she once knew. That is, until the day the phone rings and Grace hears the one voice she’d never expected to hear again. Suddenly the terror of that fateful summer is back, and Grace is face to face with the haunted memories she thought she’d laid to rest.
TWO PEOPLE CAN HELP HER RECONCILE THE PAIN OF THE PAST WITH THE JOY OF THE FUTURE…
One hope remains, but it requires a huge leap of faith – one Grace isn’t prepared to make. Hope for a promising future means delving into the painful past – and accepting help from two very unlikely sources…
IF SHE’LL ONLY LET THEM
August 23, 2006 @ 4:03 pm | Filed under: Wordless Wednesday
August 22, 2006 @ 2:02 pm | Filed under: Uncategorized
Okay, I was tagged to do this and right up front I’m tagging Rochelle, Dawn, Tsiona, and Denise. So start thinking, ladies!
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Accent: I couldn’t deny this one if I tried, could I? So…a great, big, honkin’ Texas accent!
Bible book I love: Psalm. I love all the psalms. In just a few words they bring such comfort.
Chore I don’t care for: Wow…I have to pick just one? Okay…I don’t like to iron. Fortunately, we send Mike’s shirts out to be laundered, starched, and ironed now so that really cuts down on the amount I have to do.
Dog or cat: Neither, thank you very much. I’m just so not a pet person. (I know, some of you think that’s criminal of me! What can I say? I had a traumatic episode as a child – it scarred me for life!)
Essential electronics: My cell phone and my computer, hands down. Gotta have ‘em.
Favorite movie: When Harry Met Sally. I watch it every. single. New. Years. Day. For real.
Gold or silver: Totally depends on the piece. I’m not a jewelry-type gal.
Handbag I carry most: A great big bag that my friend, Rochelle, insists could be classified as carry-on luggage.
Insomnia: When I have a lot weighing heavily on my mind. But I try to remedy that by drinking Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime tea. It works wonders on me.
Job Title: Novelist and freelance writer. Wow. That makes what I do every day seem real!
Kids: one 18 year-old college freshman, one 17 year-old high school senior, and a grown step-daughter.
Living arrangements: 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house that is now up for sale, if anyone’s interested!
Most memorable moment: It’s a tie between marrying Mike and the days my kids were born.
Naughtiest childhood behavior: I slapped my brother Kevin when we were kids and were alone at the breakfast table and then made him promise not to tell on me. Bad, bad sister…
Phobias: 1. Basically anything that moves and breathes and is not human. I prefer all other creatures to be behind a fence or on a leash, please. 2. Public speaking. Some tell me that I’ll have to do more of this if I want my writing career to be really successful, but it absolutely terrifies me.
Religion: Christian all the way.
Siblings: A younger brother, Kevin.
Time I wake up: Really close to 6 a.m. during the school year and more seven-ish during the summer months.
Unusual talent: I do really bad foreign accents. Mike and the boys beg me NOT to do them because they are so bad, but they laugh! So I keep on doing them!
Vegetable I refuse to eat: I think I like all veggies.
Worst habit: I worry too much.
X-rays: A few. Mainly X-rays of my mouth for dental purposes and cool pictures of my colon. Aren’t you glad you asked?
Yummy stuff I cook: Oh, this is so not my question. Let me think…I make really great brownies, I’ve gotten fairly good with tilapia over the summer, and I make a great Hershey bar chocolate cake.
Zoo animal I like the most: Monkeys! I think they really are what we’d appear like to each other if we weren’t so worried about what other people around us were thinking. I mean, really, how many times have you wanted to scratch yourself but was afraid you’d come off as uncool or unladylike? I’m just sayin’…
August 21, 2006 @ 3:11 pm | Filed under: Uncategorized
…but not broken.
Every year, for as long as I can remember, I’ve prayed with the boys each morning before they’d leave for school. Not a long prayer, and never elaborate.
I’d just ask God to watch over our family, guide the boys through their day, help them with their schoolwork, and bless their relationships with their friends and with their teachers.
All summer long I’ve wondered what this morning would be like. The first day of school and Nate is not here to join our prayer circle in the living room.
I was often tempted to ask him if he wanted to "phone in" and join us via Cingular. But I’ve been trying so hard to give him some space and let him discover his own identity and independence.
I know it’s important for him to set his own routine in regards to his walk with God and it’s needful for him to now establish his own boundaries.
That’s a tough thing for a Mom to accept, believe me!
I shouldn’t have fretted though.
Nate called at 6:45 this morning and wanted to know what we were doing. I filled him in on the little details of our morning and we chatted a bit.
"We’re about to pray. Do you want to stay on the line while we do?"
There wasn’t even the slightest hesitation. Instead there was honest-to-goodness relief resonating across the line. For real.
"Uh, yeah. That sounds like a good idea. I’ll stay on the line."
And so the four of us prayed. Almost like normal.
Except now, one of us lives three hours away.
But that’s the wonder of families, isn’t it? Distance is only as far as the hearts stray.
The way I figure it, if I can keep this family praying together – even if those times become a bit more sporadic as time goes on – then I feel certain this circle will remain unbroken.
This Mom is counting on it.
August 20, 2006 @ 11:37 pm | Filed under: Uncategorized
"When people keep telling you that you can’t do a thing, you kind of like to try it." —Margaret Chase Smith
_____________________________
Okay, the challenge has been uttered, the gauntlet has been thrown down…
Mike doesn’t think I can go thirty days without Diet Coke.
Quite frankly, I’m not so sure I could under ordinary circumstances but – by George – I’ll certainly give it my all from now until…<gulp> September 19th.
Oh my, that’s quite a long time, isn’t it?
Now that I’m looking at the calendar I’m realizing that, in the course of these thirty days, I’ll be going through one scrapbooking midnight crop (how do you do that without some DC?), Labor Day weekend (lots of food, friends, and DC…normally), and a weekend retreat with friends (oh, just kill me now).
Still, there’s nothing like a good challenge to spark the motivation needed to begin working toward a goal. My goal is two-fold.
I have to say that I was inspired by my friend, Katy. Katy and her husband, Doug, gave up Starbucks (coined Four-bucks by Katy) over sixty days ago.
Their rationalization is that over these past two months they have saved $480 that is normally liquidly consumed. It got me to thinking…
If I made a conscious effort to give up my daily trips to Sonic for a large, ice-filled (don’t-forget-the-straw-please) Diet Cokes and – instead – dropped that same amount of money into our money jug…
Mike and I did the math on the way to church this morning. Two trips a day, one DC per trip, at $2.00 a pop (since I tip Meredith generously – and yes, I AM on a first-name basis with my Sonic people). That adds up to $20-$28 a week, meaning that I could "save" as much as $120 a month.
Just by giving up Diet Coke runs.
"Think you can do it?" Mike’s voice sounded suspiciously wicked.
"Do what?" I cut my eyes at him. "Give up Diet Coke?"
"For thirty days. Give up Diet Coke for thirty days and drop all that money into the jar." He grins at me. "I bet you can’t do it."
I was already feeling a twitch coming on, just thinking about taking on this challenge. But – he doesn’t think I can do it?
He. doesn’t. think. I. can. do. it.
Baby, you are SO on.
Beginning tomorrow morning I’ll be Diet Coke-free and I’ll begin "adding to the jar daily such as should be saved."
As for right now…I’m enjoying one last Diet Coke from America’s favorite drive-in.
And if you happen to notice an uncontrollable twitch or two from me in the coming weeks, don’t let it worry you too much.
Just know that I’m doing well in the challenge.
August 18, 2006 @ 8:26 pm | Filed under: Uncategorized
"Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forward, backwards, or sideways."
— H. Jackson Brown, Jr. Author
_______________________________
You know, today is one of those days when I wish you could buy some self-discipline in bulk at Sam’s or Costco’s, or maybe at least find it on clearance on one of those great end caps at Target.
Today is my last official day of unofficial vacation. On Monday Jordan returns to school for his Senior year, Mike resumes his travel, and I begin work on a new novel.
A part of me is longing for the familiar comfort of routine and all of its predictability. Another part of me is already internally whining about the early rising, the long hours at the computer, and the need for me to switch hats at around five. At which time I’ll prepare dinner, throw in a load of laundry, and basically make sure this family is clothed, fed, and in their right minds.
Well, at least fed and clothed…
The thing is, as much as I – a Type A personality – crave organization and balance, I also tend to balk at the self-discipline that is required to glue my rear to the chair and…W-R-I-T-E.
It’s ironic, really. I’m persuing my dream. Living it, breathing it, embracing it. And yet, at the end of the day, it still manages to convey itself as W-O-R-K.
Nothing of quality that’s worth having comes easy. Or free.
So over the course of the weekend I’ll be doing some internal inventory. Taking stock of what’s on the shelves of my heart, mind and soul. Coming to terms with what’s still good, and what can stand to be tossed.
Hopefully, since I’m a hoarder by nature, I’ll be sensitive to God’s voice and heed his direction to clean out the clutter. It’s time to buckle down and get some work done.
Don’t you think it’d be easier if you could take care of all this at Target…?
