If you’ve ever had a baby, you’re all-too-familiar with what is often referred to as “The Baby Blues.” In Dena Dyer’s book, Grace for the Race, she gives moms the encouragement we need to keep on going, despite the ups and downs of motherhood.

Dena, who is also a blogger at Amazing Graceland, admits that after you have a baby, you may experience some weird emotions — and they can lead to depression. Even though you’ve just brought this new person into the world, you may start to feel like maybe that’s not good enough. You’re tired, so you can’t keep up the housework and laundry like you used to. It’s hard to get to the grocery store, so you learn to think tomato soup tastes pretty good for supper. You’re happy being a mom! So, why in the world are you crying?

Dena writes, “When we brought our firstborn home from the hospital, I felt happy – and scared out of my mind. I was still swollen with fluids, sore from a fresh incision…and hormonal. Like many newborns, Jordan slept during the day and cried all night…I was low on sleep and high on anxiety.” She describes her powerful emotions in candid detail and how she dealt with them. All I can say is God bless her for having the nerve to write about it. Thank you, Dena.

As for me, I now have a six-month-old baby girl, and I can’t understand at all why I’m feeling a little depressed at times. I have so much to be thankful for. But the feelings descend, weighing me down. Making me feel inadequate, like a loser. My tears come easily. At least when I write, I channel my negative emotions toward something positive. Maybe God can use my feelings to help encourage someone else. What a relief to read this in Grace for the Race:

One of my passions is to help women see that we’re in this race together. Let’s not judge one another for the decisions we make about working or staying at home, nursing or bottle-feeding, cleaning or hiring help, homeschooling versus public schooling. Instead, I pray that we moms will give ourselves, and each other, grace – grace that Anne Lamott describes as “the force that infuses our lives and keeps letting us off the hook…It’s the help you receive when you have no bright ideas left, when you are empty and desperate and have discovered that your best thinking and most charming charm have failed you.

So, if you’re a mom and you’ve ever felt like your most charming charm has failed you, then you’ll love Grace for the Race.

The book is divided into nine sections that relate to the various stages and emotions of motherhood: training well, warming up and stretching out, the first lap, using proper equipment, hopping over the hurdles, handing it off, in the final stretch, crossing the finish line, and on the podium.

Each chapter is short, a few pages of hilarious stories from Dena’s personal life. And she is such a great storyteller — I can totally relate to everything she’s describing. At the end of each section, she offers “Notes from the Coach,” which are easy-to-read scriptures from modern versions of the Bible that speak right to the heart.

I’m going to get some copies of this book to have on hand for baby shower gifts and for mom friends who I want to encourage. It’s so wonderful to read something where you feel loved and accepted for who you are, yet also challenged to be the best you can be for God. The author says:

If you’re like me, you probably feel ‘stuck’ sometimes. Every day, I look toward the top of Mt. Laundry, having just tackled Mt. Dishes. Taking a deep breath, I start the climb…When I feel overwhelmed in the midst of the endurance test called parenthood, it helps me to remember that I’m not alone — other climbers have gone before me.

Reading this book is like pausing a minute to sip a cool refreshing drink, then gearing back up for the climb, knowing that you’re never in this parenting gig alone.

P.S. I received this book from Mind & Media as a gift from the publisher.

My cats don’t like me very much in the morning. When I approach them with my rise-and-shine chippery voice and try to pet them, they snake away from me and line up at the gray Rubbermaid box that says “Cat Food.” I used to let this bother me – why do they like their Meow Mix more than they like me, the giver of their Meow Mix?

Then I realized — Oh, it’s because they’re hungry. They don’t want petting when their feline bellies are growling. They want me to fill up their bowl with something crunchy that tastes like chicken of the sea.

I say, people on the internet are like cats. We surf to a site looking for something we need to fill a certain spot. We’re in a hurry – we’ve got to order those plane tickets or find out about that weird insect bite or keep up with the news (and other people’s blogs). We don’t care about being pampered.

So, about this blog. Some of you are surfing in because you’ve done a parenting search on Technorati. And now you discover all I do is talk about my kids – I’m not really an expert on parenting. Well, I’m not! Sorry. This is what you might hear at my house. “Mom! I can’t eat my piece of pizza now because he breathed his yukky boy breath on it!”

I’m not a cat expert either – but I love their soft fur, how they purr when you rub their backs, how they romp around to chase butterflies while you sit and watch. You ought to see our two-week-old kittens now. Their mother moved them to a cardboard box inside our garage.

I wrote a blooper in an email to my sister yesterday and she called me very upset. “I’m so sorry your cat ate all her kittens!” she said.

“What? Our cat didn’t eat her kittens!”

“Well, you said that your Mama cat ate the hamster and her babies.”

“No, no…I meant the cat got back into the house and got the hamster and the hamster’s babies.”

“Oh!” She sounded quite relieved. Yes, we’ve discovered cats and hamsters don’t go together too well. Since there’s much more of a cat to pet, we’ve nixed the hamster idea permanently.

So we’ve still got our kittens. Maybe I need to post a picture. They’re going to be smart country cats. They even like to be petted!

Just wait until they discover seafood-flavored Meow Mix.

I listened to the radio in the car yesterday and heard an interview with two Katrina survivors who’d returned home to New Orleans.

“It’s dark out here,” the man observed. “We only know one other neighbor besides us who’s come back.”

This husband and wife share a solitary light in their once-flooded home, powered by a generator. An electric fan cools the house for part of the day.

Every morning, the man enjoys getting out his walking stick and strolling several blocks. He stops to feed a few stray cats and dogs. “I can’t let them starve,” he said. “What’s a ten-pound bag of dog food?”

When asked if they felt lonely, the couple explained they were actually kind of enjoying the peace.

“We like the quiet now,” the woman said. “We can hear the sound of birds.”

Sure enough, the radio broadcast the glorious song of the birds they now hear.

Imagine that. Amid the devastation of everything they held onto: their home, their neighborhood, their dreams…they’ve come home and, for the first time ever, are enjoying the sound of birds.

This is why I write.

I want to help you hear the sound of birds. They’re there. But you can’t hear them usually. It’s so easy in our fast-paced lives to get busy and engulfed in noise that you forget the birds are there. It takes a quiet stillness to hear their song.

Whatever you have going on in your life right now: health problems, financial worries, depression, wayward children, relationship struggles…take a few minutes today and slow down. Pray.

And listen for the sound of the birds.

Narnia is coming!

Walden Media and Disney Pictures will release “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” in movie theaters on December 9. So, you’ve got less than two months to read the book, if you never have before. This is so incredibly exciting! HarperCollins publishers own the rights to the books, and I read an article that said they’re printing 170 C.S. Lewis-related book titles in more than 60 countries — 140 related to ”The Chronicles of Narnia.” You can read the whole article here.

I was first introduced to Narnia in the fourth grade. One of the TV stations presented “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” and our teachers asked us to read a script in class. I remember being fascinated at the thought of entering a whole new fantasy world through a wardrobe. Once I entered, I fell in love with the lion hero, Aslan.

On my tenth birthday, I invited the girls from my gymnastics team over for a spend-the-night party, looking forward to all the birthday trinkets they would give me. Instead, one of the moms took it upon herself to have all the girls pitch in and buy me a huge, stuffed lion. Of course, I named him Aslan, and he stood solemnly in a corner of my room all through my childhood years. Thankfully, he even survived my massive purging when I “grew up” and left home for college.

Now, my kids love that big old lion, although my younger daughter used to be scared of him. A couple of years ago, we lived in a small rental house where our three older kids all shared one bedroom. Every night, my husband read The Chronicles of Narnia out loud. They all piled around him, listening to every word, their imaginations expanding with each sentence. He read the whole series of seven books from the same boxed set he owned in boyhood.

When it came time for my then three-year-old daughter to choose a Halloween costume, she promptly said, “I want to be Aslan.” So, we found her the cutest fluffy lion costume and painted her face with whiskers. At her preschool costume parade, I noticed the other girls in her class all marched in sparkling princess or ballerina costumes. But Aslan paraded proudly among the shimmer, tail dragging behind.

That costume has been packed away in our basement until yesterday afternoon. At first, the girls fought over the golden princess gown. They both wanted to wear the dress Nana made from extra curtain fabric. Then my younger daughter (now five) decided she’d be Aslan again. Of course, the costume stopped at her hips instead of her knees, but her face peeking out from the caramel fur was too adorable!

They wore their costumes all afternoon and into dinner. Aslan sat at our table, dining on a plate of spaghetti, trying not to get any red tomato sauce in [her] furry mane. At bedtime, she wanted to sleep in her lion costume but decided she’d get too hot.

So, the true lion king is here at our house now. And will be everywhere soon.

Narnia’s coming. Are you ready to enter into the wardrobe?

I want to introduce you to a very special “voice” behind this blog, Stacy Harp, president of Mind & Media. Today is her birthday! So, click on over to Mind & Media and wish her a wonderful year ahead.

Stacy has helped me enormously in getting this blog up and going. I admit I’ve been terrified of sending my thoughts out into cyberspace – but she’s encouraged me every click of the way. I don’t know anyone as passionate as she is about the life-changing power of Christian books.

She’s one of the first people who has stepped out boldly to harness the medium of blogs in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After all, if people are going to blog about anything, why not blog about great Christian books? I agree: there’s no better way to share the message of Truth than to help someone get their hands on the perfect book at the perfect time.

I look forward to opening Stacy’s emails – she always offers encouraging words to her reviewers, making us feel connected and appreciated. Not only does she help promote faith-driven books, CDs, DVDs, and magazines – she’s also out there personally serving behind the scenes. She meets with missionaries, helps pass out Bibles in her (spare!) time at hospitals, and she even donates books to incarcerated and spiritually hungry inmates.

She’s pretty much left the rest of us in the dust with her energy! Check out her two new posts on WomanTalk, “Liberal Women Do Not Speak for Me” and “Feminists Have a Low View of Themselves.” Here’s an excerpt:

…With God’s leading, prayer and the voice He gave me, I began to engage the culture for Christ and His principles and values. And I can tell you that my life hasn’t been very boring! I’ve been totally excited about how women can and do make a difference for what is right if they just take the time to become informed and then execute their battle plan for righteousness.

Anyway, today’s her special day. So, if you feel as strongly as I do that books have the power to open minds, open hearts, and change lives, send her a note today!

A couple of days ago, I took my fourth grade son on a special outing, leaving the others with their grandparents. He needed a new Cub Scout uniform, which I could have ordered online, but I decided it might be fun to let him pick everything out himself. The shop is about an hour from our house.

As we drove, he finally had my complete attention. He brought his Star Wars card collection and told me about each card. We stopped for lunch along the way at the mall. When we walked in, we saw Border’s Bookstore, and my heart was racing – I don’t get there too often. “Mama, can we please go in there first, before we eat?” he asked me.

“Sure. I’ll let you pick out one book today. How’s that?” I told him.

So, guess what he wanted? A book about U.S. coin collecting. We asked the guy behind the counter where the coin books were, and it was like literary heaven for a 9-year-old. Rows and rows of coin books. While he browsed, I peeped over and saw the writing section. I CANNOT read enough books about writing. Thankfully, I didn’t see the word “blogging” on any of the covers, because of course that’s my latest passion, and I have SO much to learn. (i.e., you’re not supposed to delete an entry you later change your mind about!)

Well, I thought I would just browse. But there it was. This giant, red & gold, newly updated…Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations! I have never owned this book before. I don’t see how I finished an English degree without needing a quotation book, but now I’ve been wanting one so badly. I mean, you can look up quotes online, but it doesn’t compare to reading the pages, flipping through different subjects.

This quote jumped out at me off the back cover:

“You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.”
(Maya Angelou)

I love that. I looked up the rest of the poem online here. That’s it! This is the poem I’ve had in my head since I heard a speaker at a conference perform it for us, telling us this was writing with soul. I didn’t know the poem and have thought many times about emailing him and asking him what it was that had “I’ll rise” over and over again. If you like this poem, you’ll love this one, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.”

I have lots more to tell you about things I found, but I’ll save it for another entry. As we were paying for our new books, I asked the clerk which of those little round chocolates were the bestsellers, and he said, “Oh, definitely the hot pink ones. The raspberry chocolates.” So I bought one. Chocolate and a new book…amazing.

I was on overload. I started talking to everybody! I feel this tremendous camaraderie with other parents pushing strollers and LOVE asking them about their children. While we waited in line for lunch, I noticed a man in a bright orange “How may I help you?” toy store shirt. What a job! He looked tired, so I asked him what were going to be the new big toys this Christmas.

His whole face lit up. “Oh, for sure, the Tumble Tigger. You know, the one that does cartwheels and flips.” He waved his hands through the air, doing wrist flips. “And of course we’ve already sold out of Holiday Barbies. Had to place a new order. I’m glad I already got mine. Then there’s the Angel Rocks from Bratz…those are going to be BIG.” He raised his eyebrows and made a “big” gesture with his hands.

Interesting. Finally, my son whispered, “Mama, you don’t have to talk so loud to everybody!”

Oh! I was becoming an embarrassment. It’s just that reporter in me. Or maybe the marketer. I love hearing people talk about their passions. EVERY person in the world has a passion and an expertise in something. What’s yours?

After lunch, we headed to the Cub Scout store. I can’t even begin to describe that fabulous place, so I won’t. All I can say is — if you have a boy…he will love being a scout.

If you have a son, try to do something just the two of you every now and then. And then write about it, so you won’t forget. They grow up fast, don’t they?

P.S. If you’re a mom of a son, you will love Jean Lush’s book, Mothers and Sons. It’s one of my favorites.

Well, I did it. I went to the Beth Moore book study yesterday, and I have YOU to thank.

Let me explain. It was really gloomy outside yesterday – raining sheets. I just didn’t feel like getting all the kids dressed and loaded up. My two-year-old had preschool, but the others are home for fall break. They of course stayed up too late the night before and didn’t want to get up.

Here are a few choice phrases I heard from their bedrooms: “We don’t want to go to a BABY nursery! That’s boring! Why do we have to get up early when we don’t have school? That church has only a preschool for BABIES! It’s raining outside…”

So my high hopes began to wear. I had to bathe my two-year-old because he had school pictures and his hair was poking up everywhere. Got everybody fed breakfast, but…the time had flown, and we were running late. Then I noticed I needed to rebraid the girls’ hair. The baby spit up. Five more minutes passed, and I began to lose my resolve to go. So, I sighed and decided, once again, it was too hard to get out of the house on time, and so I should just forget it.

Then a little voice said, “What about your blog readers? You told them you were going.”

So, the voice and I had a little discussion about how you really only exist in my mind – but guess what? I lost. So we loaded up, and I arrived at the church 20 minutes late. By the time I got everyone in the right classroom, I was 30 minutes late. When I opened the door to the meeting room, I knocked over a trash can that someone had put in the door to keep it cracked so moms could hear their babies.

So much for a quiet entrance. The video had already started. But within 30 seconds, several ladies smiled at me, someone gave me a workbook, and someone else pulled me up a chair. A girl next to my seat leaned over and showed me how to fill in the answers I’d missed. “We just started,” she whispered. “You didn’t really miss anything.”

So, wow. I was there. I haven’t heard Beth Moore speak since my first son was born, way back when we were in a different city and I wasn’t so busy with life and endless housework and having five babies in a row.

The first minute I looked up at the video, Beth stared straight at ME and said, “If God is moving you to a leadership position, the first thing you’re going to need is a deeper faith.” Oh! How did she know? I’m not really a leader yet, but in my little pretend blog world I have imaginary readers who want to hear what I have to say!

Then I thought, well I’m a mom, so I AM a leader. And you are too if you’re a mom, dad, grandmom, granddad, aunt, uncle, whatever. If you’re older than ANYone, you’re in a position of leadership! We all have a huge responsibility before us to help raise the next generation!

Well, all I can say is that Beth Moore’s teaching was powerful, and I was about to cry the whole time. (I did some and hope nobody saw me.) What is WRONG with me? Well, I do know…but that’s a topic I’ll talk about next week. This study is great for moms. I don’t know about you, but I have trouble with my mind wandering. One minute I’m concentrating; the next minute, I’m thinking of my grocery list, then I remember something I need to return to Home Depot, then I wonder if my cell phone is turned off (and I check and realize I must have left it in the car, then I worry maybe I lost it) and then I remember this deadline I’ve got coming up and…pretty soon I’ve zoned out.

With Beth Moore, you can’t do that. There are blanks to fill in. I’m just so hungry for this rich teaching! Honestly, I’ve struggled to get enough spiritual feeding since having kids. On Sundays, I’ve done this and that…kept the nursery, taught 2-and 3-year-olds. Nursed babies and missed sermons. So I’ve had to fuel my faith mostly at home, reading 90 million books and listening to sermons on the radio. Now I’m loving Beth’s intense teaching, which is perfect for women like me.

On my wrist, I’m wearing a lovely, royal blue plastic bracelet, symbolizing my commitment to grow in my faith over the next 18 weeks. Even though this is only a 9-week study, our group leaders have decided to lengthen the time since most of us are preschool moms…so we’ll watch the video one week, then discuss it the following week. And we’ll spread the homework lessons out over a two-week period too. That means I’ll be part of this group until at least February or March.

We also had a time to share prayer requests. Wow – these women are going through some major things. A soldier’s death overseas, someone’s friend died of suicide, job changes and moving, building houses, selling homes, health problems, and relationship issues. I guess Beth Moore knows all this when she’s writing her books.

So, I feel the urge to say to you, my dear mom reader whoever you may be:

Please don’t give up. Whatever you have going on in your life right now — it will get better. If you’re a mom of a young child, NOBODY can understand you like another mom with young kids. Even those women who raised wonderful children to adulthood. They forget what it’s like to endure the sleepless nights and the worries and inadequate feelings and weird hormones and the sheer exhaustion of getting out the door in the morning.

Anyway, thanks for reading. And for holding me accountable at least in my own thoughts. God bless you, whoever you are.

I read an article a couple of days ago about the books people leave on the subway in New York City. I don’t know why they leave their books — did they mean to? Or did they forget? The Transit Authority collects these books in boxes and takes them to a room called “Lost Property Unit.”

Here’s a sampling of what they found recently:

A few Harry Potters, Huckleberry Finn, The Lord of the Flies, Curious George, a spy novel printed in Russian, The Firefighter’s Workout Book, The Glucose Revolution, many devotional books (some in Hebrew and some in Arabic), Life in a Medieval Monastery, and How to Meet the Right Woman: A Five-Step Strategy That Really Works.

They also boxed up ten cases of Bibles.

I find that interesting, especially the fact that people are reading devotional books and Bibles. Do you read a devotional book? I read Michelle Medlock Adams’ DAILY WISDOM FOR MOTHERS, as well as a few others. Everybody has been talking about Joyce Meyer, so I sometimes read one of hers as well. I also like Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest, especially this new version I have that has an index in the back.

When I lived in Japan, I noticed many adults were reading comic books on the train — manga. I know comics and graphic novels are on the rise here now — but in our part of the country where everybody drives cars, I don’t know any adults who read comic books.

I used to ride the train home at night and see exhausted businessmen in suits, bouncing along with the rhythms of the train, hunched over thick comic books. I just found this so fascinating I signed up for a semester-long class at a university called “Manga.” It was taught by an American who was married to a Japanese woman. We had to pick a comic series and read it all semester. I read about a little girl named “Sasae-chan” who was sort of like a Dennis the Menace and always getting into trouble.

I miss riding the train and being able to see what people are reading. The closest thing that comes to that now is watching the other moms in the car rider pick-up line at the elementary school. Most are talking on their cell phones or reading the newspaper. A few read books, but I can’t see what they’re reading. Whenever I see someone with a book, I’m so nosy I really want to know what they’re reading. It will tell me a lot about their personality.

Well, I’m off to my Beth Moore study this morning. We’re going to be reading Believing God. I’ll let you know how it goes!

The weather is changing here in Georgia. It’s becoming cooler, and tonight it was breezy outside, so I could almost imagine I was sitting out near the ocean. I was petting one of our cats, and I realized a slow evolution has taken place at our house: we’ve become cat people.

I didn’t have a cat growing up. Our family had one dog most of my childhood, along with an assortment of caged feathery and furry creatures and, for a while, a horse. We did acquire one stray cat during my high school years.

Now, we’ve discovered cats to be good pets for kids. They’re pretty low maintenance if you have to go out of town for a day or so. Our cats stay outside and spend most of their days hunting mice or sleeping on the porch. We have three permanent feline pets, and one who drops in on the weekends smelling like perfume. We’re not sure where she spends her week.

Last summer, two of our cats had litters, and it was my job to find homes for 11 kittens. It was an enlightening experience for me. One lady called several times and wanted to talk about her old cat that had recently passed away. She told me story after story, and I could tell she was really grieving. Thankfully, she adopted one of ours, and I hope she’s beginning a new happy chapter of her life.

The other people who adopted our kittens routinely call us and tell us how spoiled they are, and what they’re getting into. Just like they’re describing children. “You won’t believe what Merlin and Lancelot did today,” my cousin told me. “They’re just breaking all the rules and climbing into the silver punch bowl in the dining room. Can you believe that?”

I checked, and we’re not alone in our cat ownership. According to a United Press statistic, 34% of American households claim to own a cat. That means people in nearly 100 million homes are petting a cat today.

In our extended family, all of our siblings own cats. And both sets of our parents own cats. Altogether, that’s at least a dozen.

Underneath our porch we have four new kittens. I know what you’re thinking. OK! I told everyone that as soon as my son started preschool I would take the cat mamas to the vet to prevent future litters. But it was too late. Now, I’ll soon be starting the process again of finding new homes.

Since it’s October, maybe these kittens will make perfect Christmas presents for someone. They’re adorable and of course kid-friendly. Any takers?

My husband’s parents have bought an old cabin and are in process of moving it a few miles down the road to the family farm. It’s a rustic-looking homeplace with a tin roof and deep porches, built around 1870 by a man who’d returned from fighting in the Civil War.

Last night, we went to look at the grassy spot where the cabin will rest. There were eleven of us, all walking around, imagining what the cabin will look like…where the driveway will come in and which way the porches will face. We could hear the creek gurgling nearby, and a V-shaped flock of geese flew over us.

“I like it out here,” my sister-in-law said. “It’s going to be really dark at night, so you can see the stars.”

I have to say, seeing stars is one of the best advantages of living out in the country. Our bedtime skies are pitch black, studded with brilliance. When we returned home, we stood in our own driveway, staring up at the night. We could see the white swirl of the Milky Way overhead. The kids all danced underneath the October sky, enjoying the cool air and display of lights.

How about you? Can you see the stars at night from where you live? Do you take the time to look up at them? A missionary, Jim Elliot, once noticed the stars and took the time to write down these words:

Oh, the fullness, pleasure, sheer excitement of knowing God on Earth! I care not if I never raise my voice again for Him, if only I may love Him, please Him. Mayhap in mercy He shall give me a host of children that I may lead them through the vast star fields to explore His delicacies whose finger ends set them to burning. But if not, if only I may see Him, touch His garments, smile into His eyes — ah then, not stars nor children shall matter, only Himself.

Jim Elliot lived from 1927-1956, dying at the hands of the Auca Indians in South America, the people group he was sent to serve. His wife, Elisabeth Elliot, went on to become a well-known writer. I’m thankful Mr. Elliot took the time to record his words because I thought about them last night as I watched our “host of children” enjoying the stars.

My two-year-old sang at the top of his lungs, “Jesus loves me! This I know! For the Bible tells me so!” This is all I can do as a parent — teach my children that yes, Jesus loves them. Nothing — nothing at all — gives me greater purpose.