Archive for March, 2008

March 13, 2008 @ 4:43 pm | Filed under: Uniquely Me

Hey, friends!

Glimpses is happy to invite you to The Ultimate Blog Party hosted by the sweet and popular twins at 5 Minutes for Mom! They raise creativity to all new high and always have plenty of things on their site to spark fresh inspiration when I’m running low. This is a blog party for women bloggers. Some are Mom-blogs and some are Mom-run businesses, but all are fun, informative, and a great excuse to take a break and read (I mean, party) a while. The premise is to tell a little about yourself, leave your link at 5 Minutes for Mom, and then take the opportunity to meet fellow lady bloggers.

About Me:

I am a wife, writer, mother, runner, friend, student, daughter, sister, scrapbooker, blogger, etc… – not necessarily in that order. I write Christian women’s fiction. I have four published novels, with another two expected out in the fall and winter of this year. My husband and I enjoy being active in our home church; I lead our local women’s WOW group and he leads Apostolic Men. We have three children – one grown and two in college. I took up running last year and I’ve never looked back. It has totally revolutionized the way I look at health and working out. In my spare time, I love photography and scrapbooking all the millions of photos I take!

Here’s a snippet from my life:

Free MySpace slideshows, photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Be sure to visit 5 Minutes for Mom, leave your link, and register to win lots of really great prizes!

March 12, 2008 @ 1:01 pm | Filed under: It's a Girl Thing,Uniquely Me

Friendship is the golden thread that ties all hearts together. – Unknown

Welcome to my blog!This is the place where faith and fiction bring friends together. A place to share the wonder of being a friend, a wife, a mother, a writer, a teacher, a student…bu

It’s the place to share the wonder of being a woman. 

But – most of all – it’s the place to share the joy of being a daughter of the King!

It’s a place where I hope you’ll discover glimpses of God’s grace as He continues His work in, and through, me.

Visit often, and bring your friends along! For each comment left from now until the end of April, your name will be placed into a drawing for a $50 gift card to Bath & Body Works!

So don’t lurk – sign in and join the conversation!  

March 5, 2008 @ 3:59 am | Filed under: Uniquely Me

The whole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee.

Short, tall, light, dark, caf, decaf, low-fat, non-fat, etc.

So people who don’t know what on earth they’re doing or who on earth they are can, for only $3.95, get not just a cup of coffee but an absolutely defining sense of self:

Tall. Decaf. Cappuccino.
______________________
I started out yesterday just looking forward to voting.

I somehow ended the day as a delegate to the senatorial convention for Precinct 33.

Sandwiched somewhere in between must surely have been several decisions but – quite honestly – it all happened so quickly and with such ease that it caught me by surprise.

After an early dinner last night for Coventry, we headed back to our voting headquarters to attend the precinct convention/caucas. I had never taken my interest past the polling stations so it was all very new and somewhat exciting.

We walked into the room and were immediatly greeted by an ebulliant woman with a gigantic gap-toothed smile and a room full of energetic and talkative people. It felt like a great big pep rally.

The smiley woman introduced herself and her party and we immediately realized we were in the wrong room. Good-natured ribbing and jokes followed us as we sheepishly ducked right back out the way we’d come in.

After finally finding our proper group, we walked into a room where a scant few people sat quietly in chairs, hardly a sound being made. I have to admit that – just for a split second – I kind of wanted to go back to the pep rally – to the fun group.

Still, determined to find out what more of the political process was like, I settled in and, as a group, we waited for the remainder of the votes to be judged and for each of us to be deemed eligible to even be there.

Somehow, as the convention was called to order and a chairman elected, I was nominated and elected to be the convention secretary. I’m still not quite sure how that happened, but it had something to do with the fact that NO ONE wanted to do it. Finally, someone jokingly pointed to me and said I looked like a good candidate for the job.

Nominated.

“I second that.” Someone on the front row piped in his two cents.

Elected.

From the front of the room I then enjoyed a full evening of seeing just how fascinating it can be to watch grass roots campaigns get their start. I took minutes and kept track of each resolution and the outcome of the votes.

Eleven resolutions and two debates later, the only thing left was to nominate and elect delegates from the precinct to attend the senatorial convention at county headquarters the end of this month.

“I think we should send our secretary.”

Again, I don’t know the person on the front row, but the woman next to him immediately seconds the motion.

I walked into the precinct convention new to this part of the process, but excited to be a witness to it.

I walked out of the convention as one of 14 delegates that will be attending the next level convention.

It was quite a day. Surely I made several decisions but – quite honestly – I’M NOT SURE I DID.
So a gal who really didn’t know what on earth she was doing can, for only a three hour investment of time, get not just a an enlightening dose of politics but an absolutely defining sense of self:

Short. Excited. Party delegate.

March 5, 2008 @ 2:54 am | Filed under: Friends

“Life is short, but wide.”
____________________

I spotted her as soon as I walked in the door of Fish City Grill last night. She moved from table to table – chatting, hugging – always with a huge smile on her face. She spotted us soon after we were seated and came over, scooting into the booth next to me.

“Can you believe it?” Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears and her hug was tight and warm.

I clutched her hand and looked around the restaurant, taking in the host of people that crowded in, making it appear more of a weekend crowd rather than that of a Tuesday night.

“This is amazing.” I really had no words to adequately describe the scene, nor my own emotions.

Everywhere I looked, people were smiling and mingling and greeting one another. It looked like one big family reunion. Except this family was a fairly new one. Not long ago they were strangers; now – because of one shared vision – this unlikely group of people had found family within one another.

I first met Darlene almost five years ago at a dinner party. At that time Coventry was still a seed of a dream inside her heart, but it was a seed that was already bursting at the seams.

I remember standing in the living room, having met her only moments before, and already I was held spellbound as I listened to the details of a dream she’d claimed as her life’s mission. I have to admit that even to me – a big dreamer myself – this seemed like a long shot. A huge undertaking.

Still, I couldn’t help but catch a bit of her excitement as she shared her wish of being able to move the special needs day facility from her home to a separate location where a trained staff and medical professionals could provide classes, health care, and occupational training.

Two years ago I got a catch in my throat as I drove past the new facility, seeing the first real sign go up in the front. Local families with special needs young adults began to learn about them and the family began to grow. A speech therapist came for a visit and – even though they couldn’t afford her services – she stayed on and now offers a full day of her care each week to the facility. Numerous volunteers and sponsors – including Fish City Grill – have taken on the burden of the Coventry mission.

Now maxed out with 17 day residents, the center is in the middle of planning their new, spacious facility that will sit on the land directly behind their current location. Set to house 60 residents, the next phase is to add residential living, more classes, more training, more medical partners.

Yesterday, as 15% of all Fish City’s sales went directly to the center, two different sponsors stepped up, both matching the restaurant’s contribution. By the time we left the restaurant, weaving in and out of the long line that still waited to be seated, I couldn’t help but think back five years to that first, initial conversation where I’d learned of Coventry.

I stepped outside and took one look back, choked with emotion at what I had just witnessed.

It was a realized dream.

Proof to us all that one small seed of a dream – housed inside of a heart that is passionate and committed – can bloom into the most beautiful portrait of reality possible.

March 4, 2008 @ 7:17 am | Filed under: Uniquely Me

I really like voting days.

I don’t really care for the two years of political games and the seemingly endless war of words and actions that lead up to election season.

But I truly like voting.

One thing that concerns me most as a nation is the spirit of apathy that seems to grip a large segment of the population these days. This is true both in my own peer group and in others that I meet and see and speak with.

Two main things seem to be the driving force behind this apathy. 1.) They are disgusted with each of the candidates and don’t feel a real inclination to vote either way or 2.) They are overwhelmed with all the information that is filtered to the public through news ads, magazine articles, news shows, etc. to the point where they don’t know what the candidates really stand for, let alone what they themselves should choose to stand for.

I’m not a politically-minded person, but I do enjoy a good political conversation at times. I’m a firm believer in making it to the polls. Voting is a right, not an obligation, but – personally – I believe it should be a requirement.

I think it is simply astounding that our Constitution was conceived, constructed, and then carried out by men who were pioneers – not only of a new country – but of a new way of government. It was the first of its kind and it remains one of the few documents that has withstood the test of time and trials and changes.

To me, this speaks the loudest to the fact that this country was founded under God. How could anyone look at these facts and then lobby to remove God from the equation?

I think this great democratic system works (and it DOES work in spite of the fact that it doesn’t always lean in our favor) simply because the faith of the founding fathers paved the way for an entire country to be able to live and breathe and work and play in a land that was free to love God and serve Him.

I don’t really care where the political views of people lie. While I know what is important to me, my main wish for a country that seems to be more and more lethargic when it comes to voting, is to simply do it anyway.

For those who feel as though their vote won’t count, I liken it to taking part in church. From time to time, we need to scrub a toilet or two in our place of worship. Does this simple act really change anything significant? Does anyone really notice?

But it helps us to take part ownership of something that is very important and vital.

I have a very simple approach when it comes to learning about the candidates. I stay away from the all the campaign advertising. These are merely smoke and mirrors, full of sound bites and fluffy words with little or no meaning. I stay away from their books. I read only a handful of articles, and take even those very lightly.

No one candidate will ever be everything that I’d like him to be. No one man/woman and no one party will be able to find a cure and a fix for everything within a four year period.

So I pick the two or three issues that are most important to me, to my life and the lives of my family and friends. Then I go here. I am able to search those issues and find out within just a few minutes how these potential candidates voted in the Senate and in the House on past bills and pieces of legislature that are related to the things that are most important to me.

This probably seems like a simplistic approach to many hard-core politically-minded people. But – for me – it’s a way to cut through the chaos that clouds election year and approach the polls with a feeling of pride and excitement.

This is a great country, and voting is a great honor.

I really like voting days.