I recently got together with some old (and I do mean OLD) college friends, and it reminded me of this picture. HA! That’s me, top left corner, about 20 years ago. Now, it won’t be long before my daughters reach this age.

Well, time has flown since I’ve last posted. Sorry about this. I desperately would love to get back into the routine of blogging, but LIFE these days doesn’t allow me much time at the computer. I miss writing. I miss connecting with people I can’t see locally. I don’t even have time to join facebook.

Five kids, one busy husband, two cats, two rabbits, a dog, a chicken, and several tanks full of mysterious swampy creatures that keep my oldest son busy carrying buckets to and from the creek … and my plate (and house) is full.

In my “spare” time, I’ve been passionate about reading some classic books I somehow missed during my days as an English major. I’ve discovered the breathtaking joys of reading Jane Eyre for the first time — how did I miss this? I read a biography of the Bronte sisters last fall and put Jane Eyre on my reading list … and finally read it a few weeks ago. Then I immediately had to rush out to the library and borrow the movie. What a story! What thrilling beauty!

Lately, I’ve been working my way through Louisa May Alcott’s novels. I’d read Little Women years ago, but was shocked at this current reading to see myself more in the role of Marmee than Jo. Next, I rushed my way through Little Men for the first time, and I could so relate to to the joys and trials of raising a houseful of children at Plumfield. I finished the trilogy with Jo’s Boys, which left me with a sigh, as the curtain closed forever on the March family.

I’ve also made my way through some of Catherine Marshall’s books — my mother gave me a beautiful hardbound compilation of A Closer Walk and Something More back in 1998, and in rereading it recently, I felt so much kinship with Catherine, as she struggled to carve out her writing time while raising a busy family. This of course made me want to read her wonderful novel, Julie, which I’d never had a chance to read. I loved it. (This is the companion novel to Christy).

I could go on … but somebody’s gotta cook supper around here. I hope you’re all enjoying a beautiful spring, wherever you are. I’ll try to pop in from time to time and update you. For now, motherhood is my greatest calling.

I guess it’s been pretty obvious the last few weeks that blogging has slid down my priority list. I really appreciate those of you who still stop in and check on me now and then. I’m amazed that you care to keep up!

I don’t want to lose this place — because I keep thinking one of these days I’m going to get back to it. I love writing about books and inspirational media — yet my reading has slowed to a crawl lately. I guess I’ve reached a point in life where I’d rather be doing something than reading about other people doing things.

When I started blogging in October 2005, it seemed like the perfect timing. Back then, my youngest was six months old, sitting in my lap while I typed. Now she’s three — and she’s got a million things she’d rather be doing than watching me tap away on a keyboard!

So I thought I’d check in and let you know I’m giving myself an official summer break from blogging. Summers have gotten shorter with the new school calendar. Since we get a week off in October and three weeks off at Christmas, our new school year resumes in early August.

How about you? Are you feeling a need to rest and recharge your batteries? If I forget to charge my cell phone a few days, my battery wears out until my phone is useless. We mothers are the same way.

If you’re feeling tired and in need of a vacation, give yourself one! Even if you’re on a budget, you can still step out into your backyard and breathe deeply, letting go of your worries.

That’s where I’ll be.

Helloooo out there. Um … it’s been a while. What can I say? I’ve had two boys in soccer this spring, two girls in Irish dance, another two in gymnastics … and I’m somehow squeezing in my weekly art class.

I’ve done most of my mom-to-mom connecting lately with my local friends. At the soccer field, on the phone, in the parking lot (oh yes!), and blabbing with our windows rolled down while we wait to pick up our kids from school.

But I’ve missed writing here … and I love hearing from you. Thank you for encouraging me as I’ve done a good bit of soul searching lately.

I’m actually writing more than ever … privately. In my journal. Scribbling with a pen on paper. The other day, I was sitting out in the backyard watching my preschoolers wade in our little plastic pool. The sun warmed me, dogwoods in bloom, pet chicken scratching around the yard, dog and cat lounging in the soft green. It was so good, I had to write.

So I ran back inside to get my journal, and my five-year-old asked, “Mama, why are you always writing in that little book?” I told him, “I’m writing the story of your life.” It’s true. THIS is the book God wants me to write. Recording the days that will someday be my children’s memories of childhood.

I don’t always have my camera, and my camera can’t record my thoughts. I don’t seem to fully experience the joy of the moment until I write about it later, reflect on it, and oh thank my heavenly Father for His precious gifts.

There’s more … so much more. But I’ve become shy online. I’m looking for an editor who will help me shape my scribbles into something worthy of your time.

For now, I’m doing what you’re doing — connecting with those moms who mentor me through local friendships and books.

School’s out in a month here … wishing you a great summer ahead!

In the new January issue of Christian Women Online, Laurel Wreath’s interview with Lisa Whelchel is so inspiring!

If you’re a busy mom seeking ways to increase your understanding of God’s Word this year, Lisa has some great tips for you.

I was blessed to pick up a copy of Lisa’s new book, A Busy Mom’s Guide to Bible Study, at the International Christian Retail Show in Atlanta last summer.

Since I was attending through CLASS Publishing Connections, my nametag said “Albuquerque, New Mexico” as my hometown. When I met Lisa Whelchel as she autographed her book for me, she said, “Oh, you’re from Albuquerque? I’ll be going there next week.” I was so tongue-tied at meeting her, I just smiled and said, “That’s great!”

There are several inspiring articles in CWO this month — I hope you can stop in and read the whole issue.

I’ve added Darlene’s “Live Well” button to my sidebar because this reminds me that I’m on a mission, like many of you, to live a healthier lifestyle. No more excuses!

My children need a healthy, energetic mom, and my husband needs a wife who’s in control of her emotions because she’s eating well and exercising! It’s a new year, a chance to start fresh with our lifestyle habits.

I need all the encouragement I can get! 🙂

We had a blast this week discussing the homework. We all cracked up about Beth’s “gnat in the lip gloss” story.

She said she was leaving her house one day with serious ministry matters on her mind when a gnat landed smack dab on her lip gloss. “For a minute I thought I’d have to go back in the house for a spoon to dig it out,” she writes.

It’s true that trivial things can distract us from what’s important — and sometimes we just need to stop and pray! For us moms in the study, we talked about how the little distractions of daily life can get in the way of our main purpose of teaching and training our children to become more like Christ.

This week’s lesson focused on Daniel’s prayer in the 9th chapter of the book of Daniel. Wow — reading through that chapter several times reminded me what urgency there is to Daniel’s praying. He ends with, “O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name” (Daniel 9:19 NIV).

After studying and discussing this, I realized that in my own life, prayer often comes as a last resort, after I’ve mulled over a problem, worried for days about it, written in my journal, whined and complained to others about it — THEN I remember, “Oh yeah! I think I’ll pray about it!”

This lesson showed me brilliantly how I must pray FIRST.

How incredible that in the midst of Daniel’s prayer, the angel Gabriel appears to him and says, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed” (Daniel 9:22,23).

Wouldn’t you love it if a messenger from heaven would come tell you right away the insight you’re longing for in your prayers? Sometimes, when we pray, we can almost instantly feel in our hearts the answer is “yes” or “no,” yet other times, we can do nothing but wait. It may seem like God isn’t listening, and that our prayers are merely bouncing off the ceiling.

But God is listening! He chose to answer Daniel’s prayer right away through a direct message from Gabriel. And He’ll speak to our hearts too, if we do not give up.

Do you write your prayers down? Sometimes we pray so hard about something, but if it’s not written down, we can quickly forget the anguish our souls went through as we waited for God’s answer. I’ve kept journals for years, and it’s amusing to look back and see how hard I prayed for certain things (like a husband!). If my prayers weren’t written down, it would be easy for me to forget how God is the True Giver of all Good Gifts.

What are your prayers today? If you’re not going through this study with us, I encourage you to read through the 9th chapter of the book of Daniel and see how this earthly man who was “highly esteemed” in heaven prayed — and how God chose to answer his prayers.

Dear Lord, teach us how to pray! Our faith is so small at times, yet you’re always there, waiting patiently for us to come to you and share our concerns. Thank you that you listen to us. You know what’s best for us, even though we may not like what we’re suffering through at the moment. Thank you for the example Daniel gives us, in showing us how to pray with power and conviction. Amen.

I’ve gotten behind on posting about my Beth Moore Bible study, and I need to catch up! I still continue to learn and be amazed about the book of Daniel.

A couple of weeks ago, I went out to eat with some of the ladies in our group, and we ended up talking about dreams. This study has made us so much more aware of how God can use dreams as a way to communicate with us.

Do you ever wake up with a certain image or word stuck in your mind? Perhaps this is something you dreamed about — and the word is what’s left behind.

I really believe God can speak to us through our dreams, if we’re sensitive to His Spirit. If you’re like me and you always forget your dreams, you can keep a notebook and pen by your bed and jot them down as soon as you wake up, even if it’s the middle of the night!

At the beginning of the week 8 homework, Beth Moore writes:

I’m praying that your passion to study this fascinating book will continue to grow and your life will bear much fruit as a result. Your God is accomplishing awesome purposes in you, Dear One. Have the confidence to thank Him for it. Nothing about this adventure is accidental in your life.

When I read that, I felt like she was speaking directly to me. What an adventure!

One thing that struck me during the homework is learning what the word “parable” means. Parable comes from the Greek word, paraballo. (See why it would be so helpful to know how to read in GREEK!) Para means “near” and ballo means “to cast or put near.” Beth explains, “A parable uses something familiar to help us understand something heavenly or spiritual.”

Isn’t that amazing? I shared this definition with a group of about 50 homeschooled kids and parents in a writing workshop I gave a couple of weeks ago. I told all those kids that God has a wonderful plan for their lives — and that part of His plan is for them to tell stories that will help others understand the Good News.

After my workshop, several kids came up to me and told me they were writing novels! It was fun to encourage them — and they spurred me on as well.

How about you? Are you writing your own parables? One of my main purposes for this blog is to encourage all of you moms out there to tell your stories! Preserve them for future generations. If you’re not writing your stories, who will? The best way to preserve a story, of course, is to get it published and in the hands of multiple readers!

Dear Father, Thank you for the gentle reminders you give us to keep writing, if we have stories burning inside of us. Show us the best places to submit our writing so that we can work under editors who will help us grow. I pray we would not give up in our quest to tell others about you! Amen

This week at our Bible study I was reminded more than ever how much I appreciate the friendships God has blessed me with. You know, when you’re surrounded by children all the time, you sometimes feel like a castle, with a moat all around you. It can be hard to reach outside the moat — yet we need friendships with other women just as much as any time in our lives. Maybe even more than ever.

It’s hard to write about this now, since I’m still in the midst of it, but someday I want to make a special effort to reach out to women with young children. People look at me and think I’m busy and happy raising my little family, and I’m very thankful for this time of life. But my soul is thirsty. In person, I find it very hard to move beyond “small talk.” Yet I crave depth in my friendships.

That’s what I really enjoy about this Bible study. The workbook and DVDs are tools that give us women a reason to get together and cut through the small talk — as soon as our workbooks are open, we’re digging deep, plowing through the jewels of scripture, and sharing our treasures with each other.

Our discussion this week focused on how our culture has changed through the years. In the homework, Beth asked us to write the names of the presidents who have served during our lifetime. (With a little help from Wikipedia), I wrote down:

Richard Nixon (1969-1974)
Gerald Ford (1974-1977)
Jimmy Carter (1977-1981)
Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)
George Bush, Sr. (1989-1993)
Bill Clinton (1993-2001)
George W. Bush (2001-present)

Beth asked, “In your opinion, has American culture and its mores risen and fallen dramatically under the direct influence of each president?”

This question led to a lively discussion. We tried to steer clear of politics, but we could all definitely see a shift in our culture under certain presidents. But mainly, it’s the little things that change, bit by bit, until suddenly you see a big shift.

Beth explains, “Cultures are stronger than human leaders because they are dictated by masses and cultivated by time” and “they are influenced by unseen powers. Invisible principalities.” As we moved into discussing Babylon as portrayed in Revelation 17, I began to grasp how the powers of evil move behind the scenes — yet our God is going to win the last battle!

One girl in our group talked about how every day she is seeing little things she can do to take a stand for her faith. She mentioned how she was in a Wal-Mart recently and saw a display for a horrible, gruesome movie right next to the kids’ movies! She said, “Before this Bible study, I probably would have just turned away from that image, but instead I decided this was something I didn’t want to let go.” She went and talked to a manager about it! Who knows — if all of us can do something like this, we can take back our culture for good. [Edit: The Wal-Mart manager responded to her request and MOVED that disgusting poster! Victory!]

I shared how a few years ago, a friend of mine was complaining to her husband how graphic the magazine covers are at the checkout counter — especially the tabloids. So her husband talked to the manager of a grocery store in our area (Publix — YEA!), and they now cover these magazines up, so only the top of the magazine shows.

I was surprised to learn that “with the exception of Jerusalem, no other city is mentioned more than Babylon in the Bible.” Babylon is mentioned 290 times! It’s so interesting how the visions of Daniel compare to John’s visions in Revelation. I would never have made those comparisons on my own.

In the video this week, we studied Daniel 7, focusing on how God is called “The Ancient of Days.” Isn’t this scripture incredible:

I love these verses! They give me a concrete image I can share with my children when they ask me questions about God.

Do you know how many questions a 4-year-old can ask about God in a single day? Now when my son asks, “What does God look like?” I can say, “I don’t know for sure, but let me read to you what Daniel saw in a dream about God. Here’s what He looked like to Daniel.”

Exciting!

As a mom, I need my faith to be built so that I know what I believe, and I can pass this along to my children. It’s truly a privilege to be entrusted with the care of raising up children in my faith. There is no greater joy on earth!

I occasionally skim through my website visitor statistics to see who’s reading here and why they came.

It never ceases to amaze me that God may have sent a particular person my way to speak to them through my meager attempts to write what’s on my heart.

Sometimes, the search phrases are hilarious, and other times they make me cry.

Here’s a sampling of what moms out there are searching for online, ending up here, during the month of October 2007:

• verses to comfort and give hope to a mom of an alcoholic son
• mother writing letters from the heart to their teen daughters
• essay love between mom and daughter
• frustrated moms
• where can i find an article on a mothers love no matter how her child treats her
• is it ok to eat poppy seed dressing when youre pregnant
• blog neverending housework mom
• what to put in an october newsletter for moms of preschoolers
• how does a 14 year old girl make new friends
• snobby homeschool moms
• becoming a guest on the joyce meyer show
• who said youre only as happy as your unhappiest child?
• frazzled mom organization
• how does the mother in i stand here ironing try to make it right again
• is avonlea a real place?
• online mother teen daughter devotional

I know people probably end up here and go, “huh?” I’m not really a one-stop shop with all the answers, and there are millions of other sites full of more information than mine. All I really have to offer is what I’ve learned through my daily experiences of being a mother of five kids under 12. Maybe this is how I show my hard-earned gray hair — since in real-life, I try to hide it under highlights!

My favorite search here is “blog neverending housework mom.” HA! That’s me! My housework never ends — it’s like a treadmill I run every day. I would be in the pits of discouragement if it weren’t for FlyLady — so if you’re a “neverending housework mom,” maybe you can find some relief from FlyLady’s organizational methods. They’ve sure helped me!

It is truly a privilege to be able to take the journey that I’m on, attending my weekly Beth Moore Bible Study, and if I’m opening a small window for some soul out there stifled in a culture or a season of life with no opportunity like this, I pray my journey offers you a breath of fresh air. Attending Bible Study is the highlight of my week, and my joy is magnified just thinking that I get to come home and share all that I’ve learned with my family — and with you.

This fifth session taught me about an event I really haven’t thought much about. The banquet, hosted by Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson, Belshazzar. You’ve heard the expression, “the writing on the wall.” Well, now I know the night this took place was October 12, 539 BC.

On this night, Belshazzar hosted a huge banquet, “for a thousand of his nobles,” as well as his wives and concubines. At one point, he asked his servants to bring in the gold and silver goblets that had been stolen from the temple of God in Jerusalem. Then they all drank wine from them. Scripture says, “As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone” (Daniel 5:4).

This was horrible what they did! They took that which was holy and used it for unholy purposes. Beth took us back to the scripture where Moses anointed these very goblets in Leviticus 8:10-11. They were consecrated to the Lord, set aside for holy purposes!

What happens next is truly awe-inspiring. Daniel 5:5-6 says, “Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way.”

No one could interpret what God’s hand had written, except Daniel, who was brought in by the Queen Mother, possibly the wife of Nebuchadnezzar, who had not forgotten Daniel’s God. The hand had written: “MENE MENE TEKEL PARSIN,” which Daniel interpreted to mean that God had numbered the days of Belshazzar’s reign, he’d been weighed on the scales and found wanting, and his kingdom would be divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

And that very night, Belshazzar was assassinated, just like Daniel said! Darius the Mede rose to power in Babylon.

Beth talked to us about how our physical bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. We are holy! We’ve been bought at a price, the blood of Jesus Christ, and we are to treat ourselves as holy. She shared specifically about how we women are to dress ourselves modestly. We can still wear cute clothes! But we should choose items that present a modest image that honors God.

I was so happy to hear someone saying this. This is a GREAT study for teen girls. If you’re looking for scriptures for teens to remind them that they are consecrated and set apart from the culture, show them what happened when Belshazzar used the holy golden goblets of Israel for unholy purposes!

P.S. Aloha and Konnichiwa to my new Beth Moore Bible Study friends in Hawaii! 🙂

We started our new Beth Moore Bible study at church last week, and I’m so excited. At last, I’ve found a new direction for this blog, something I’ve prayed about all summer. Instead of popping in daily to chat like I’ve done the past two years, my plan now is to write a weekly devotional reflecting on what I’ve learned. I hope you’ll join the journey with me!

We’re studying Daniel. If you’ve gone through this before, what did you think? If you’d like to join me here through watching the DVD and studying on your own, that would be great. Let’s go!

Looking Back
In my early 20s, I went to live in Japan to teach English. I worked for a Japanese Christian church and stayed with a Japanese family my first year there.

After living overseas for about six months, I began to wonder what my next step should be. Did God want me to spend the rest of my life in Japan, as a single career missionary and teacher? If so, why did I have such a strong desire to get married and have children? Did He want me to come home and work or go back to school?

As I began to pray deeply about this matter, a certain school came into my mind. I sent off for information about this school, a Bible college near my home state, which offered several programs for graduate students. (This is before we could research online!)

When the packet from the school arrived, I tore open the manila envelope and gazed longingly at the glossy pictures inside. Young men and women sitting under trees, Bibles open, intensely studying the Word of God. My heart beat faster thinking how wonderful it would be to delve into Hebrew and Greek, gaining a greater understanding of the Bible’s original languages. I couldn’t imagine anything more exciting than going to this school!

Yet when I looked into the cost of tuition, I didn’t see how I could pay for it. I didn’t want to ask my parents for money, and I didn’t feel like I had anything unique to offer to apply for a scholarship. I was just one of thousands of confused 20-somethings, wondering what the next step of my life should be.

So instead of applying to this Bible college, I decided to stay in Japan another year and work on saving money. I shifted my schedule around, allowing me to take on a few higher-paying teaching jobs, and I visited a Japanese university that offered an Asian studies program for foreign students.

Based on my application and interview, this school offered me a teaching assistantship so my tuition was paid for. It was an incredible opportunity. God allowed me to go to school – just like I’d prayed for! But instead of studying the Bible on an American campus, I was studying Japanese culture, art, history, and language at a university in Japan.

Taking the Next Step
By the time I felt sure God was leading me back to the U.S. I was engaged to be married in a few months (another long story.) Our first year of marriage, I attended graduate school full-time (along with my husband), and I worked two jobs to help pay for it – writing articles for the campus newspaper and working in marketing for the university publisher.

Years later, I’m at LAST able to study the Bible intensely like I’ve always dreamed of. Instead of sitting under trees on a gorgeous campus in my early 20s, I’m now in my late 30s, a busy mother and wife, studying on my kitchen table and in a classroom at church. I watch my teacher on video, a dynamic Texan woman who makes me laugh and cry with her powerful testimony.

Instead of serving God on an overseas mission field, here I am, blogging away. Some of you are reading this on a computer thousands of miles from me. Hello! Bonjour! Konnichiwa! Guten Tag! Within the walls of my own home, I have five little souls who hear me share the excitement daily. Lord willing, I want to raise a new generation of Daniels!

Everyone says you get out of Bible study what you put into it. This would be a very shallow experience if I only went to the meetings, sat through the videos, then did nothing on my own. What makes this study so rich is the one-on-one time I spend with the Holy Spirit, as I encounter Him, my Teacher, in my individual devotional time.

In the introduction to Daniel, Beth Moore says, “If The Patriarchs was a camel ride, this one … is a rocket ride — with the windows open.” She later writes, “The wind of the Holy Spirit blows so hard through some of these scriptures, you may have to re-fix your hair.”

Ready to Blast Off!
Years and years have gone by since I first prayed, “Lord, please open the doors for me to study Your Word!” The past decade I’ve spent bearing and nursing children has consumed me and kept me so physically exhausted, I’ve had to prop my eyelids open to study.

And to be honest, I’ve never made it through a whole Beth Moore study intact – I’ve always gotten overwhelmed with the busy-ness of life, sick children who’ve kept me at home and away from the fellowship, and distractions.

Will you pray for me? I’m starting out with such dreams of completing all the homework and attending every session for the next 12 weeks. My life is so hectic right now — yet I don’t want to give up on this!

Connecting Hearts
What are you going through now? Are you able to get some Bible study in, somehow, someway? Ask God to open up your schedule so that you can. You’ll impact every person who comes into contact with you. This is truly exciting!

Lord, as moms, we’re busy women. We’re tired! We can’t get up early like we want to because we were up late last night feeding the baby or nursing the sick. We wake up in the morning and face mountains of laundry and piles of dishes. Our to-do list includes everything but spending time with you. Help us, Lord! Give us energy and time. Deepen our joy and longing to spend time with you. Amen.

It’s hard to believe, but school will be out soon. While I love having my kids home more, I also know I’ll go crazy if we don’t have any plans. The phrase, “Mom, I’m bored,” strikes terror in my heart. So I’ve signed them up for a few camps.

My Mom Taxi will be on the go as I transport children to dance camp, art camp, overnight Christian camp, VBS, and grandma camp. We’ll also become regulars at the library’s mid-week storytime, when the summer reading program kicks into full swing.

And with our sweltering Georgia summers, I’ll be around water as much as possible. For our family, this means we buy a three-month family pass to the city pool — and we never turn down invitations from friends who bravely invite us to swim at their private pools.

During all this summer planning, I let myself daydream for a minute. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a summer camp for moms? Ah … Mommy Camp. What would that be like?

First of all, we wouldn’t have to do anything if we didn’t want to. This is a camp where all activities are optional. If we’re totally exhausted, we can keep the curtains closed and just sleep in. Of course, the rooms are luxurious, with whirlpool tubs and the softest sheets imaginable.

After a day or two of sleeping in (interrupted only by room service bringing us gourmet meals), we might be recovered a bit. We’d then begin to dine together on a balcony overlooking the sea and mountains. Soft breezes would gently flow around us, keeping us cool. The balmy salt air would moisturize our skin, so that we’d begin to look and feel like teenagers again.

We’d meet together a few times to listen to a motivational speaker tell us how wonderful we moms (and grandmoms) are, how difficult yet important the role of mothering is, and how much the next generation is blessed by us. After that, we’d be set free to do whatever we wanted.

Some of us would change into hiking clothes and trek up the mountain, led by an entertaining guide who regales us with witty stories about our natural surroundings. Others of us would change into swimsuits and grab the novel we never have time to read and go lie out in the sun by the sea. We’d alternate between sleeping and reading — with no worries about keeping our eye on small, wandering children.

Later in the afternoon, a private fitness coach would meet with us and give us an individual workout, targeting our problem areas. Then we would be offered a full spa treatment — including body massage, facial, pedicure, and anything else we liked.

At some point during this camp, which lasts at least two weeks, we’d receive a complete makeover: new hairstyle, makeup, and an entire wardrobe!

To ensure that we had plenty of time to relax, we would only check email or answer our cell phones once a day, for an hour or less. Everyone would KNOW that Mommy is at Mommy Camp and needs some time to rest.

Oh yes, and this camp would be completely free of charge! It would be paid for by advertisers who provide us with the food, spa treatments, and makeovers — hoping that we’ll enjoy their products so much we’ll tell others about them. (No pressure, of course.)

Would you care to join me at Mommy Camp? I think, after two weeks, our batteries would be recharged to jump back into hectic daily living. And we’d always have that mental oasis in our minds — a place to retreat during our stress.

Seriously, where do you go when you’re feeling overwhelmed? Here’s where I’ve found the most peace: from the words of Jesus, who says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Christ longs to have a relationship with us if we’ll trust Him — and let Him carry our heavy motherload.

(c) Heather Ivester

This column was originally published in the April 2007 issue of West Georgia Ladies & Men magazine.