Shannon’s hosting a themed “heathy eating” edition of WFMW today over at Rocks in My Dryer. Yep, we’re all in this together, trying to work off those pounds that crept on during the holidays.

The only way I could get through all the stress of shopping, decorating, and going to parties was by eating loads of chocolate, alternating salty/sweet snacks, and drinking coffee. It got me through it, and now my stress is showing up on my waistline.

But what to do? My family doesn’t need to eat low-fat; only I do! In fact, my husband doesn’t like ANY food that has “low fat” on the label. If you’re a mom with a house full of kids, you know how pasta, rice, bread, and potatoes can stretch your food budget and make everybody feel satisfied. Yet all those starchy foods are what OUR bodies don’t need, if we’re trying to slim down.

So I’m heading back to The South Beach Diet — actually not the strict phase 1, but more of a phase 2. If you’ve never read this book, it’s a good one, and I’m sure your library has it.

You basically cut out those things I mentioned above: pasta, rice, bread, potatoes — and anything with sugar in it. Even fruit, if you want to do the strict phase 1 (which lasts for two weeks). You still eat plenty of dairy products, protein-rich foods, and vegetables. If you follow this plan and increase your exercise, you will easily drop ten pounds in two weeks. (And weirdly, you won’t be hungry for junk food. It somehow, mysteriously works, after a couple days of withdrawal).

Here’s what I do when I’m South Beaching, yet feeding my family regular meals. I buy about five of those salad bags a week, and this is what I base my meals on for lunch and dinner. I fix myself a HUGE bowl of salad and toss in everything I can — beans, tuna, cheese, raw veggies, etc.

For example, if I’m feeding my family chicken and rice, then I’ll put chicken on my salad and skip the rice. If they’re eating spaghetti with meaty/tomato sauce, then I’ll put the sauce right on my lettuce with some cheese. It’s tastes pretty good. What’s even better is that my energy goes up, and the numbers on the scale go down.

It’s hard to do this alone, though. It’s so helpful to have an accountability partner. One thing I really picked up from reading The South Beach Diet is the obesity-diabetes-heart disease connection. Being overweight is often just an outward sign of the havoc that our poor diets and sedentary lifestyles are wreaking on our bodies: especially our vascualar systems.

Heart disease is the #1 killer of women, not cancer. Yet 80% of heart disease can be prevented. The South Beach Diet explains it all. I’m still trying to drop my last stubborn 20 postpartum pounds — and the reason why I haven’t is because I’m carrying around my junk food addictions stuck right around my middle.

Well, it’s a new month, a new year, and I’m going to keep on trying. The South Beach Diet has worked for millions. And it works for me!

Club Mothers and Wives, Club M.A.W., is up and running, and I’d love for you to visit and tell me what you’re reading!

Author and mom, Michele Steinhauser, has started this new club for women — and she’s building a great community. Her site is based on rooms of the house, and I’m the club “MAW-derator” for … you guessed it. The Library!

There’s a discussion board set up, and I’d love for you to click on over and sign up, then join in the discussions. I’d love to know what you’re reading. To be honest, most of the books on my nightstand are new Christian books, what the publishers and publicists send me. But I’m also reading an older book for my ladies’ Bible study, as well as working through the Anne of Green Gables series … slowly.

How about you? If you’re reading a great book — or you’re the author of a great book, come tell us about it. Especially if you’re reading something older, a classic even, I’d love to know. Your advice will be much appreciated.

Michele Steinhauser is a gal with a huge heart, a mom of two boys, living in northern California. I met her in fall 2005 at the Glorieta Christian Writer’s Conference. We found ourselves sitting next to each other at breakfast one morning — and ended up becoming buddies.

She’s been such an encouragement to me the past year — and if you visit her new home at Club M.A.W. I’m sure you’ll know what I mean.

Hope to see you there!

I’m so excited about my new Bible I can’t wait to tell you about it. When I read this post in The Writing Life, it was like God was speaking right to me. I’d stopped by Terry Whalin’s blog to read on my way to Amazon.com to finish up my Christmas shopping, and I read this:

Each day for at least the last ten years, I reach for one book to begin my day, the Bible. Before I read the local newspaper or anything else, the words have guided and inspired my life.

This year I’m toward the end of The Daily Bible where author LaGard Smith has organized the Bible into chronological order. I’m making my fourth or fifth trip through this Bible and appreciate his devotional insights scattered throughout this book.

Well, I bought two copies of The Daily Bible in Chronological Order, one for me and one for my husband. As soon as I opened mine on Christmas day, I couldn’t wait to start reading it. I’ve never read the Bible like this before — it’s amazing. The readings are organized so that you’ll understand the chronological order of the events that take place.

This Bible is so easy to read — the type is plenty big, and there is wonderful white space between paragraphs, as well as subheadings in all-caps. (This has become important to me as I get older — little-bitty type strains my aging eyes, and it distracts me.)

Each day’s reading includes a brief introduction by F. LaGard Smith — then he just steps out of the way and lets the Word speak to you directly. There are no footnotes or other commentary to distract you. While I’ve loved my NIV Life Application Bible, I sometimes get distracted by all the commentary — wondering if I should have gone to seminary so I could understand deeper meaning in scripture.

The Word of God is living and active, and it will speak to each of us differently. But it won’t speak to us at all if we’re too busy to sit down and read it. So this is what I’ve committed to do this year — before my eyes read ANYTHING else, I’m going to read my daily reading in this Bible.

Today, New Year’s Eve, I finished up the book of Revelation. Wow. No wonder C.S. Lewis felt compelled to create a Narnia for children.

I hope you have a safe and wonderful New Year’s Eve. If you have a Bible Reading Plan that you enjoy, can you share it with us here? Do you read the Bible online or in a book form?

Wow. Thank you so much for your compliments on my home. I should have invited you in a year ago, and I would have felt a lot better about myself.

It’s amazing what a few cleverly angled shots can do for a gal’s self-confidence. (Notice: you did NOT see my basement or laundry room. Those areas are messy projects in process. Um, for about three years now.)

I have to thank Alyice Edrich of The Dabbling Mum Magazine for inspiring me to try using our digital camera. If you’ve not visited her DM Writes blog lately, she is starting a new journey in photography, and I’m tagging along for the ride. Her husband bought her a snazzy new (incredible) camera, and she’s learning how to use it and sharing what she learns. Her post, Develop, Print, and Share Photographs, explained all the basics for me!

I still don’t understand the mysterious process of how the pictures go from our camera to the computer. My husband does this — and I’ve learned not to ask stupid questions, like “How’d you do that?” because then my loss of brain cells from full-time mothering the last decade becomes all-too apparent. I just don’t get it. If I touch it, it will crash.

I had never even HEARD of digital scrapbook pages until I read in Scribblings by Blair that she was selling her old scrapbook stuff so she could convert her scrapbooks to digital. Huh? Then I read more about this in DM Writes. So, now I’m … thankful that I’m several YEARS behind in my scrapbooking because I’m sure I’ll jump on this digital bandwagon with glee once I figure it out. I never did like putting tape on the back of pictures to stick them in archive-safe pages. (It bends the pictures if you ever decide to pull one out of your scrapbook to put in a frame.)

But I digress.

This is a post about last-minute Christmas shopping! Which officially begins today, with six days before Christmas — and most of us with our kids home from school! I just discovered that Hobby Lobby has permanent 40% off coupons if you go here and print them off. So you never have to go in that store without a coupon. Hobby Lobby has GREAT craft kits for kids — giving us moms hours of quiet!

This morning I finished up my BOOK shopping! Don’t you know I would have a ton of books to buy? I love supporting our local independent bookstore in town, but this year I just can’t do it. I can’t take the kids into a store full of breakable knick-knacks so I can browse. And the nearest Borders is an hour away. Not good. So I’ve done my book shopping on-line this year.

I ordered several books from Amazon for each of my elementary-age children — the classics I loved as a child, as well as some of the newer ones that have won awards. One thing I’ve missed at the kids’ Christian school this year is a school library — the school is too small to have one. So we go to the public library, which is always stressful when you bring toddlers who SPEAK IN ALL CAPS. And then I have to keep up with the books and make sure they’re returned on time.

Last year in public school, my son went to the library every day on his own. As soon as he finished a book and took his AR test, he’d go back and get another. (Two hours of reading for a Hardy Boys novel, four hours for a Narnia book, he said.)

All that to say, if you want to order books this year for Christmas presents, now’s the time. To see my Christmas recommendations, check out my December Book Buzz column at Christian Women Online — or read some thoughtful reviews at Christian Book Previews. I always get a little spooked at Amazon — I pick out a book, and then the site recommends a few other books that are PERFECT. Eery.

Definitely beats last-minute browsing in a store full of breakables with toddlers.

It’s the end of the semester on college campuses, and once again I’m stunned at what students will try to turn in as their work. My husband has had to fail several of his students for plagiarizing. He hates doing this. But people must think professors have never heard of the internet.

It’s not just the teenagers (who of course should know better) but it’s the adults, who take classes in between busy family and work schedules. So here’s where it really stinks to have to give them a zero. But come on! If you cut and paste off Wikipedia and pass it off as your own work, you don’t deserve a college diploma. Period.

Anyway, my 6-year-old daughter has been overhearing our discussions about plagiarism, and she’s taken it all to heart. Last night, she was carrying her Bible and a little notebook around.

“What ‘cha writing?” I asked her.

“I’m writing a book about God,” she said.

“Can I read it?”

“OK, you can look at it. But I promise I didn’t copy it. I wrote it in my own words.”

Sure enough, when I began to read it, she was writing out the creation story from the book of Genesis in her own words.

After I read a couple of pages, I looked up at her and said, “This is wonderful. But you know, it’s OK if you copy the Bible. God likes it when we copy His Words. You don’t have to worry about getting in trouble for copying the Bible.”

I explained to her how people used to copy the Bible by hand a long time ago before we had copy machines.

Then I took my own message to heart. It’s OK if you copy the Bible.

Is my life copying the Bible? Do my thoughts and attitudes represent those of Christ? Are my actions worthy of a Christ-follower?

For all of us, “It’s OK to copy the Bible.”

Does anyone have any advice on where to find a good set of encyclopedias? Of course, we’d like to buy them used — but I don’t want anything older than 2003 or 2004. The more recent, the better. We’ve been looking at World Book and Encyclopedia Britannica. Whoa…they’re expensive!

Our kids have all had research projects lately — specifically, science projects. While the internet has tons of information, we have to monitor them while they’re surfing (unfortunately), and we’d love to let them have at it on their own with encyclopedias. Plus, we’d like to know their research comes from reliable sources. (I’m also thinking this would be helpful for me writing children’s books and articles!)

Some of my husband’s favorite books growing up were his family’s set of encyclopedias — he loved browsing. You look up one subject, and you end up discovering tons of other things. I guess that’s what made him so smart. (Well, he does have his doctorate!) 😉

If any of you out there have recently bought a set of encyclopedias for a good price, where did you find them? We’re hoping to have these shipped to us by Christmas!

[Edit: We found a good price on a 2005 used World Book set. Fingers crossed it will arrive in time for Christmas.]

The new December issue of Christian Women Online is out, and it’s full of inspiration for Christmas, including an interview with one of my favorite Christian authors, Lisa Whelchel.

This weekend, if you start to feel swamped in decorating, shopping, wrapping, baking, and all those other things we women do before Christmas, take a breather and browse through CWO for some spiritual encouragement.

I love this pretty graphic the editor, Darlene Schacht, made of my book cover. How creative! Here’s what she said about it when she introduced my December Book Buzz column:

“You might also want to check out Heather’s own book, From a Daughter’s Heart to Her Mom, if you’re looking for something beautiful and unique to give to your Mom this year.

From a Daughter’s Heart to Her Mom makes a wonderful keepsake as a coffee table book, or one to keep at your bedside for daily reflection. Vintage style, color-tinted photographs adorn the pages of this book alongside quotes, scriptures, and inspirational messages that remind a mother how important she is.”

From a Daughter’s Heart to Her Mom is now for sale in the CWO Bookstore, which includes some more reviews of it. (Thank you!)

I’m so blessed to be part of this publication. You can write for CWO too! If you have an article idea, check out the CWO Writer’s Guidelines, which begin by stating, “The purpose of Christian Women Online Magazine is to unite women of faith, regardless of our differing ages, our roles as women, or the signs that mark our church doors. We believe that one of the best ways to do this is to encourage each other in faith, by our spoken and written words.”

You can also participate by downloading the free Christmas scrapbooking pages, which are simply gorgeous! Or you can write an essay for the weekly In Other Words blog carnival, which is hosted at a different site every week and is based on an inspirational quote. This month’s host is Laurel Wreath.

Another way to join in CWO is through reading the Snippets from the Word together. There are suggested scripture readings in the morning, along with a devotional by Elisabeth Elliot to read in the evening. Can you think of any more inspiring way to spend your time?

Be blessed!

Today is Lucy Maud Montogomery’s birthday, and I’ve been wanting to sit down and blog about her all day — but I’m just too tired!

She was born in Clifton (now New London), Prince Edward Island on November 30, 1874. She published her first novel, Anne of Green Gables, in 1908 — so I guess that means she was 34 years old (we better get moving). Altogether, she published 20 novels in a little over 30 years.

I enjoyed reading about her life here at Wikipedia, especially since I’ve journeyed to Cavendish where she lived. It’s interesting to note how her life seems to parallel Anne’s in many ways.

I hope I can write more tomorrow. Right now, every muscle in my body is aching. I feel like I know how manual laborers feel when they come home at night. If I were a man, I’d want to sit in a big, fat Lazy Boy chair and hog the remote, shutting out the world.

I’ve spent the better part of my week either down in the basement totally reorganizing and hauling clutter off to Goodwill — or I’ve been upstairs repainting a bedroom and a bathroom. Who knew painting gives you sore muscles?

Why, oh why, did I ever let our house painter talk us into matte (flat) paint three years ago? I can hear him right now, “Well, m’am, I’d highly recommend the matte paint on these new walls here. I’ve done this for years, and I wouldn’t go with a satin. No sirree.”

Grrrr. Ever tried to wipe crayon or fingerprints off buttery yellow flat paint? It leaves a mark, even if you use those Mr. Clean eraser things.

So it was a glorious occasion yesterday when I covered the boys’ bathroom walls in a rich, deep SATIN taupe that dried a little bit shiny. I’m so happy I could kiss the walls. And another bedroom with light pink flat paint is now a happy apple green — satin of course.

I still have one more coat to paint tomorrow — then I have to haul all the furniture back in. Thankfully, most of the toys now have homes in our semi-organized (though still unfinished) basement.

When I’m not so tired, I want to tell you more about what inspired me to TACKLE my basement. And yes, it does have something to do with Lucy Maud Montgomery. I’ve had a creative burst of some sort.

Tonight I’m flat, worn out. Not flat — satin! There’s a new phrase — satin worn out. Sounds better, doesn’t it?

I’ve been culling my book collection today … no easy task for me. But I simply MUST! I’ve received so many great books lately, I’ve got to find places to put them. So that means cleaning off my shelves to make room. (I’m donating them to our local public library, which has a permanent used book sale.)

As I was going through our books, I wished I had more time to organize them into categories. One day when I have time — ha! I would really LOVE to organize my Japanese books. I bought quite a few at Kinokuniya, the largest bookstore in Osaka. They had the most fantastic Japanese language section — and I actually made a lot of friends there with fellow gaijin (foreigners). That’s where I learned to teach English!

Today I came across my all-time favorite Japanese language book, and I was near breathless as I typed it into Amazon to see if it’s still in print. It is! Read Japanese Today by Len Walsh was published in 1969, and it is the most wonderful introduction to Nihongo I’ve ever read. If anyone has any other favorites, please let me know!

Here’s what the back of the book says:
“Far from being a complex and mysterious script, Japanese writing is actually a simple, fascinating pictographic system, easily understood and readily mastered. It need no longer baffle visitors to Japan — with the new approach in this concise and entertaining book you will be able to read 300 of the most common and useful characters in just a few hours …”

If you have any interest in Japanese language or culture, you MUST read this book. It will simplify all the kanji down to pictures, showing you how the picture became the written character. I’m going to reread this book again tonight. It’s a quick, enjoyable read.

Before I studied Japanese, I didn’t understand the people over there. Everything was weird and different — and though I wasn’t a bit homesick, I felt like an oaf with a “high nose” and American accent. But God led me to an English-speaking church in south Osaka which met on Sunday nights, where the pastor and many church members were from New Zealand. They were all fluent in Nihongo, and told me I must study it or the country would never make sense to me.

So I did. Very intensely. I took language lessons at least two hours a day, five days a week, mostly for free taught by volunteers or in exchange for English lessons. Then I pushed myself and got into a Japanese university, which was incredible. I’m sure I’ve written about this before here, but I don’t feel like scrounging around in my archives right now.

This book opened my eyes and heart to Nihonjin (Japanese people). Reading it again brings back so many memories. Sometimes I wonder what in the world God wants me to do with these little tidbits that rumble around in my mind — certainly not handy for most polite dinner conversation. For now, I’m having a fascinating time researching my novel for NaNoWriMo. Maybe I’ll find a sympathetic editor someday who is looking for a children’s writer crazy about Japan. (If you are this editor, please contact me!)

I’m off to read … Oyasumi nasai.

P.S. The character on the front of this book is higashi, which means East.

I’m constantly on the lookout for writing mentors, and here are a couple of new ones for me. Since I’m writing a children’s novel for NaNoWriMo, I’ve been rereading some favorite books from my childhood — trying to figure out what it is that makes them so good.

I’ve rediscovered Katherine Paterson’s Bridge to Terabithia — have you read this one? Ms. Paterson’s Christianity is subtly woven into her writing, and I love this. It fascinates me to see how she gently leads readers into a greater understanding of God without bamming them over the head. For unbelievers who pick up one of her books, her faith is fresh and startling.

Katherine Paterson was born in China to missionary parents, lived there for many years of her childhood, then also lived in Japan for four years. She’s married to a Presbyterian minister and began writing while her four children (two biological, two adopted) were young.

Many of her books for children have won awards, including two Newbery Medals: Bridge to Terabithia and Jacob Have I Loved, as well as two National Book Awards: Master Puppeteer, and The Great Gilly Hopkins.

On her website, an interviewer asked her, “In what ways has your religious conviction informed your writing?”

She answered, “I think it was Lewis who said something like: ‘The book cannot be what the writer is not.’ What you are will shape your book whether you want it to or not. I am Christian, so that conviction will pervade the book even when I make no conscious effort to teach or preach. Grace and hope will inform everything I write … The challenge for those of us who care about our faith and about a hurting world is to tell stories which will carry the words of grace and hope in their bones and sinews and not wear them like fancy dress.”

In another part of the interview, she was asked, “What would be your ‘words of wisdom’ to a person who wants to write, but is paralyzed by failure? What advice would you give people starting out?”

Here’s her response:

“When a teacher (still a dear friend) of mine in graduate school suggested I ought to be a writer, I was appalled. ‘I don’t want to add another mediocre writer to the world,’ I said. She helped me (it took years of nudging) to understand that if I wasn’t willing to risk mediocrity, I would never accomplish anything. There are simply no guarantees. It takes courage to lay your insides out for people to examine and sneer over. But that’s the only way to give what is your unique gift to the world. ”

“I have often noted that it takes the thinnest skin in the world to be a writer, and it takes the thickest to seek out publication. But both are needed—the extreme sensitivity and the hippo hide against criticism. Send your inner critic off on vacation and just write the way little children play. You can’t be judge and creator at the same time.”

Another Christian writer who has successfully written for the general markets is best-selling author, Bret Lott, whose book, Jewel, was an Oprah Book Club selection. He was the keynote speaker at this year’s Christy Awards banquet, held last July at the International Christian Retail Show in Denver.

In The Writing Life, Terry Whalin linked to his keynote address here. If you have time, it’s definitely worth a read.

Lott says in his speech, “From the time I wrote my very first short story, I struggled with how to tell a lie — that is, write fiction — while serving Christ. My struggle, then, was always with how to be a Christian and how to be a writer … one simply is a Christian, and I was trying to learn how to be a Christian who writes.”

He later talks about how Christ used parables, works of fiction, as connecting points to reach people. Lott brings to life the parable of the Good Samaritan by placing the story set in modern-day Denver.

Then he says, “Christ’s stories surprised His listeners. They were unexpected, yet the surprise of them was totally logical and clear and, finally, the kind of surprise that makes good literature good literature: the surprise turn in a story — not of plot, but of character — when the reader must come face to face with himself, and his own failures, and the dust of his own life, a dust with which we are each of us fully familiar, but which we forget about or ignore or accommodate ourselves to. The dust of our lives that we have grown accustomed to, and which it takes a piece of art created in the spirit of Christ to remind us of ourselves, and our distance from our Creator — and the chasm that is bridged by grace.”

Katherine Paterson does this so well in Bridge to Terabithia, written three decades ago and still widely read today, even in public school classrooms. As an aspiring fiction writer, I’m struggling with how to create my own bridge from a child’s heart to God — through story.

Lott ends his Christy Awards speech by imploring the writers in attendace to:

” … write books that will magnify Christ in a way that only I — you listening to me — can magnify Him. That’s all. And it is work enough — joy enough — to last each of us our own lifetime.”