One of my favorite authors recently celebrated her 94th birthday. This is such happy news! I’ve loved Beverly Cleary’s Henry Huggins and Ramona series since I read them as a child, but even more so since I rediscovered them as a mom reading them to my own kids. They’re so pure, clean, and FUNNY.

School Library Journal posted a nice interview with Mrs. Cleary on her birthday,which was April 11. You can read the whole story here.

When asked, “What’s your legacy to children’s literature?”, Cleary answered:

I’ve done what I started to do—to write books that children would want to read, books that would let them enjoy reading. I want them to discover that reading is more than something they have to do in school. Ramona and the others are just the sort of kids who lived in my neighborhood in Portland, OR. Everything in the Ramona and Henry books could have happened in Portland and probably did.

She also talks a little about the new movie, “Ramona and Beezus,” that’s due out in July. We saw the previews for this movie when we went to see “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” (which is not nearly as funny as the books, by the way. Too much crude humor.) I think I might have squealed in the dark theater, “RAMONA’S GOING TO BE IN A MOVIE!!” I think I might have embarrassed my kids and spilled a little popcorn. But it was exciting.

The preview for Ramona was actually more exciting than the whole Wimpy Kid movie. It will star Selena Gomez as Beezus. I like Selena Gomez because I can finally tell her apart from Demi Lovato, and my daughters think I’m cool when I can roll their names off my tongue. Try saying Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato fast three times and you’ll see what it’s like to be the mother of tween girls today.

But back to Beverly!

I’m crazy about Beverly Cleary! Ask anyone! I have her beloved memoir, On My Own Two Feet, on my shelf of hallowed books, alongside my Grandfather’s 1956 edition of Kipling short stories, Alcott’s Little Women, The Bronte sisters’ Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, and Allen Say’s The Ink-Keeper’s Apprentice. These are the books that give me courage to write.

If you have never read Cleary’s My Own Two Feet, you absolutely must, if you love children’s books. Along with that, you’ll have to get a copy of A Girl From Yamhill as well. Both chronicle her growing up years and how all of her personal life experiences fed into her becoming one of the world’s most beloved children’s writers, whose books are ALL still in print after 60 years. Yes, I love this woman’s work.

When we visited Portland last fall, I almost couldn’t wait a second before taking my kids to the Portland city library. There was a stop on the subway (the “MAX”) for Yamhill district. I remember holding my map with shaking hands, as we approached the streets where young Beverly might have walked to check out books from the library. “This is it!” I told them. “We’re getting closer to Beverly Cleary’s library! The place where she checked out books when she was your age!!”

My kids wanted to go shopping at the mall and buy plastic trinkets, and to the zoo to see monkeys, but I had to take them to see Beverly’s library, which is also Allen Say’s library to me, since he lives somewhere in Portland. When we got inside, we discovered an actual room with the words, “Beverly Cleary Children’s Library” posted over the door. It was a beauiful place, with a giant tree towering over stacks and stacks of glorious children’s books. I think I might have shed a tear or two.

In My Own Two Feet, Beverly describes the point in her life when she was finally ready to start writing children’s books. It was a dream she’d carried around inside for years, but she was too busy being a student, a librarian, and then a wife to that wonderful Clarence Cleary. Finally, it was time. They were settled in a cute little house in southern California. But she struggled with writer’s block. After visiting her parents in Portland, she shares:

I told myself that if I was ever going to write a children’s book, now was the time to do it. But when I sat down at my typewriter and stared at the paper I had rolled into it, the typewriter seemed hostile, and the paper remained blank. The longer I stared, the blanker it seemed. After years of aspiring, I found I had nothing to say. Maybe it had all been a foolish dream.

Her husband kept encouraging her. While he went to work, she stayed home to try and write. They went through a difficult miscarriage, and Beverly got depressed for a while. So they moved to a different house, and this time they discovered a ream of typing paper in the linen closet, left by the former owner.

Here’s how she describes what happened next:

I remarked to Clarence. “I guess I’ll have to write a book.” My ambition, refusing to die, was beginning to bloom again.
“Why don’t you?” asked Clarence.
“We never have any sharp pencils” was my flippant answer.
The next day he brought home a pencil sharpener.

Isn’t that cute? Oh, I just love Clarence Cleary for buying Beverly a pencil sharpener and for encouraging her to stick with her dreams. She wrote some stories about a boy named Henry Huggins and his dog, Ribsy (though she originally named him “Spareribs”). She gave him a friend named Beezus and, on a whim, decided to give Beezus a sister. She named her Ramona after hearing a neighbor call out to another whose name was Ramona.

Ramona Quimby.

Cleary sent her stories to New York, and Elisabeth Hamilton of Morrow helped her turn them into a novel. Sixty years later, we’re still reading it, as well as all the ones that came after.

I adore Beverly Cleary, and am thrilled God has given her such a long, happy life. I wish her many more happy years to come. She’s an inspiration to all of us who stare at the blank page and wonder if we have something worthwhile to say.

Our family spent spring break visiting Asheville, North Carolina, and it turned out to be somewhat of a literary tour for me. As always, I’m drawn to anything related to books, and so I wanted to share with you my fascination with George Washington Vanderbilt’s astonishing library in his former personal home, Biltmore Estates.

The library contains over 10,000 books, although we learned that Vanderbilt’s original collection contained over 23,000 volumes. He was an avid reader and book collector, and our tour guide said Vanderbilt was once known as “the best read man in America.” Wouldn’t you have loved being one of his guests? Biltmore is known as the largest home in America, with over 250 rooms, including 43 bathrooms. (My children were particularly interested in that detail because we all have to share in our house. No fair.)

I was completely in awe, and my oldest daughter and I had to tour the house two days in a row to make sure we didn’t miss anything. If you have a chance to visit, I highly recommend that you spend the extra $10 to listen to the audio tour. It’s worth every penny if you love stories, and Biltmore is a home full of stories! We especially loved hearing tales about the lavish banquets and house parties. The house originally opened in 1895 for a Christmas Eve party.

Behind the library’s chimney, on the second floor, is a secret door and passageway which Vanderbilt designed for the use of his guests. This allowed them to slip downstairs, perhaps in their nightcaps, and select a bedtime book to read without having to descend the grand spiral staircase in the center of the home. How thoughtful!

Many of Vanderbilt’s guests were writers, including Henry James and Edith Wharton. On the ceiling is a painting by Venetian artist Pellegrini, entitled, “The Chariot of Aurora.” I really could have spent a week in that one room alone, though of course visitors aren’t allowed to touch any of the books. Still, what a place to dream.

Our second literary stop came as a bit of a surprise because I got so caught up in the glory of Biltmore and the Blue Ridge mountains, I didn’t do enough research before the trip.

While there, we discovered that Asheville is the homeplace of author Thomas Wolfe, whose famous novels include Look Homeward Angel, Of Time and the River, The Web and the Rock, and You Can’t Go Home Again. I haven’t read any of these books, but I’ve now got Look Homeward Angel on reserve at the library because I’m so curious as to what caused such a stir in Asheville when it was first published in 1929. It was autobiographical, based on his life in a boarding house called “Old Kentucky Home,” where he lived with his mom and their boarders (pictured below).

We visited the Thomas Wolfe Memorial, which showed a wonderful short movie about his life, as well as exhibits that included Wolfe’s desk and typewriter from his apartment in New York. I was struck by how uncomfortable his chair looked, imagining him sitting there for hours a day, composing his novels and short stories. His editor, Max Perkins at Scribner, also worked with Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

We were sad to learn that Wolfe died 18 days short of his 38th birthday — so he got all his life’s work done by age 37. Amazing. I found it interesting to note that Thomas Wolfe was born in 1900, the same year Cornelia Vanderbilt was born at Biltmore, only daughter of George and Edith Vanderbilt. (She had quite a big house to ramble around in.)

Having fun yet? OK, our last stop on this brief literary tour of Asheville is only a temporary one. We visited the CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG exhibit at the Health Adventure Museum at Pack Place. If you have kids, you must visit this museum, especially on a rainy day (like we did). We spent about four hours in that place, all thoroughly entertained. My older kids and husband spent the entire time upstairs in the Mindbender Mansion doing all sorts of brainy exercises, while my 5-year-old daughter and I hung out with Clifford.

What fascinated me most about Clifford is that I never thought much about Clifford as a character in literature. Yet there was a small exhibit about the book’s author, Norman Bridwell, and I’ll never look at those books the same again. His first Clifford book was published in 1962, and there are now over 160 titles in the series, with over 100 million copies in print. I think I’d consider him a successful author!

My kids, at various times, have all loved the Clifford books, and his big red dogness has helped me many times keep my eyelids propped open during late night story reading. We enjoyed watching a little movie about Norman Bridwell, who is an older man now, talking about how his drawings came to life. The setting for the Clifford books is the island of Birdwell, based on the author’s home at Martha’s Vineyard. PBS created the television series based on the books in 2000. Any parent of a preschooler will be able to recognize the sound of Clifford’s theme song coming on TV. (That’s when we all jump in the shower, right?)

I entered the world of Clifford and spent a happy time playing with my daughter, who will one day tell me she’s too old for Clifford books. I know this because it’s already happened with my four older kids.

Traveling with five children is an experience itself. My husband and I like to use the term “educational field trip” because the vacation really begins once the trip is over. But it was worth it.

I hope you enjoyed my little tour. I think I’m out of breath now.

I find this hard to believe, but 2010 marks my fifth year as a contributor to the world of blogging. Although I’ve taken breaks now and then, I’ve kept this same site and design, and I like it, but …

I’ve been working hard behind the scenes on a few things, and I’d like to branch out a bit and have a site that can sort of grow with me. So if you’re one of those wonderful people who’ve stuck with me for years reading here or you have my blog linked in your sidebar, please update the link to:

www.heatherivester.com

For now, nothing will change except the address. It will still be a while before I figure out exactly what I want to do with my name as the site, but I do know I’d like young readers to feel comfortable reaching me … someday.

Although the novels I’m trying to write are still in bits and pieces, the characters are sitting on my desk looking annoyed with me when I ignore them. They want me to tell their stories, so I’m working on it. Along with everything else.

Here’s a quote I came across last week from the enigmatic Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird.:

It’s absolutely essential that a writer know himself, for until he knows his abilities and limitations, his talents and problems, he will be unable to produce anything of real value …The writer must know for whom he writes, why he writes, and if his writing means what he means for it to say.

Writing is, in a way, a contest of knowing, of seeing the dream, of getting there, and of achieving what you set out to do. The simplest way to reach this goal is to simply say what you mean as clearly and precisely as you know how.

(from Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee, by Charles J. Shields).

I went to see Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance the other night, and it was the most amazing live performance I’ve ever seen. My daughters took Irish dancing a couple of years, so I recognized some of the music and choreography, but I was totally unprepared to see these dozens of feet on fire.

At the end of the show, the dancers bowed to a wild, sold-out audience of clapping, screaming fans. Even I had to join in with a few hoots and hollers, forgetting for a moment I spend most of my days hauling little people around in my mom taxi. It was wonderful. Our joined hearts were flaming. And then it was time to go home.

The theater lights went out; people in the audience started shuffling, looking for purses and umbrellas. But it was so dark. A minute passed.

And then the stage lit up again, the music and lights electrified the room, and the dancers appeared, entertaining us with an encore that somehow surpassed their previous two hours of work. I didn’t know the human foot could possibly move that fast! We clapped and hollered some more, filled with the rich heritage of Ireland.

As I drove home that night, I thought about the darkness that preceded that encore. We really thought the show was over — but the best was yet to come. It reminded me of what an editor once told us wannabe writers at a conference — she used the term, “fruitful darkness.”

She said sometimes you write something, and you think it’s so good, you send it out before it’s ready. Or you get back some work from an editor full of change requests, and you want to dash off an angry email shouting IN ALL CAPS how your writing was already perfect. Instead, she encouraged us to take advantage of the “fruitful darkness,” by letting our work sit for a while, giving it at least 24 hours to rest in silence. In time, you’ll have the energy and renewed vision to give your work the passion it needs.

The same goes for our writing careers, I believe. Sometimes, as mothers, we must spend long YEARS in the darkness, writing quietly in our journals or private correspondences because the timing is not quite right for us to pursue publication. Our families need to eat meals our hands prepare, they need clean socks in their drawers, and most of all, they need our focused attention. And love.

While our writing waits in the dark, we can still be getting our creative acts together, behind stage, waiting for the lights to come on, the music to begin, and the timing to be right for our best performance.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing writer CJ Darlington about her breakout debut novel, Thicker Than Blood. I’ve known CJ for years through various writer’s groups and comment threads, such as Terry Whalin’s The Writing Life and Gina Holmes’ Novel Journey, so holding her book in my hands for the first time was like cradling a precious newborn. Her book is absolutely gorgeous and a stunning read, which I highly recommend if you are a book collector and lover of all things literary!

The plot centers around the theft of a first-edition Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls, one of my favorite novels. I hope you’ll visit CJ at her website and read the story behind the story about how she got her first book contract through Tyndale by winning a writing contest! Dreams do come true!

Welcome, CJ! Since you were homeschooled by your mother, can you tell us how she encouraged you to become such an avid reader and writer?

Mom never said one negative word to me about pursuing writing. Everything was always positive. And still is, I might add. She took the time to notice my interests and provide all the necessary tools. That’s what she believes is so important for homeschooling moms to do. It’s a parent’s job to water the dreams of their kids, not to impose their dreams on their children.

My parents never hesitated to take my sister and me to the library, and they never complained when we came home with bags and bags full of books. Mom created curriculum around our interests. She made sure we read some of the classics like The Scarlet Letter, The Old Man and the Sea, Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, and the like.

Oh, those are some of my favorite books too! Anything else?

She also had us keep a journal from an early age, making sure we knew she wasn’t going to read them (she felt this was important to tell us up front). She just wanted us to be creative and write without editing. I still journal to this day.

And she made us learn how to type! Of all the things I learned homeschooling, that’s one thing I use every single day.

Your mom sounds amazing! Do you have any words of wisdom for today’s moms who want to teach their kids to love books, despite all the competing media and demands for kids’ time?

It’s one thing to tell your kids to read, it’s another to read out loud to them. By doing this, you’re practicing what you preach, and you get some great quality time with your kids. This opens up the door to discussing what you read too.

Books are doorways into countries we might never explore in real life. Through books we can travel to worlds beyond the solar system. We can learn history and how not to repeat it and discover what character traits were noteworthy in others. Through reading we learn without even realizing it.

You started writing your novel when you were 15, and you describe your long 14-year journey to publication. What would you say to a teen writer who dreams of publishing books someday? Is there anything he or she can be doing now to prepare for a life as a professional writer?

First of all, know that if you have a dream to be a writer, that dream is valid and most likely comes from God. Being a writer is a very important calling. God took the time to write His thoughts on paper. I don’t think he would have done that if there was a more powerful medium.

Read lots of different authors. Yes, write whenever you can (writers write after all), but when you’re reading you’re learning by osmosis how other authors have mastered the craft. Subconsciously you’ll pick up techniques.

Don’t give up. Determine that no matter how long it takes to reach your goals, you’re not letting go of your dream. Maybe you’ll read another author and start to wonder how you could possibly write like him or her. Or someone will say something critical about what you wrote, and the words will cut deep. That’s not the time to push the keyboard or pen away! Keep at it. Even when the words don’t seem to flow.

Then, don’t be afraid to start submitting to publications. But don’t be discouraged if the rejections come. Often an editor will reject a piece simply because they don’t have space or they’ve published something similar recently. It doesn’t mean they’re rejecting you or that your writing isn’t publishable. My first novel was rejected by almost all the major Christian publishers before it finally found its home at Tyndale House.

This all sounds like great advice! One last question: Are there any writing courses or programs you’d recommend for teens who love to write? Also, do you know of any publications that accept short articles or stories from teens that may help them build up a writing resume of clips?

The Christian Writers Guild has several courses designed especially for young writers. If you learn best through courses and programs, I highly recommend them. The staff there are amazing and supportive. Their website has all the info.

But if you’re more unstructured (like I am), it is possible to succeed as a writer by learning on your own too. There are so many great how-to books and magazines out there that can teach you everything you need to know. One of the first things I did when I was starting out was subscribe to Writers Digest and The Writer magazines. They’re also available at most libraries. Read Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell and A Novel Idea by Chilibris. They’re great books on the craft to start with, but then there are so many others as well.

A great resource for finding magazines and websites that accept articles and stories is The Christian Writers Market Guide by Sally Stuart. It’s a valuable reference tool you’ll turn to again and again. My very first short story was accepted for publication when I was 18, and it was published in a Sunday School take-home paper called Live. The take-home papers can be a great market.

Thank you so much for all of your encouragement, CJ! And to all of you aspiring writers out there, be sure to visit CJ at her other home on the web, TitleTrakk.com, where she reviews books, movies, music and other inspirational media.

We’re coming up on November, which is of course National Novel Writing Month. If you’ve never participated in NaNoWriMo, I encourage you to take the plunge and try it.

I’m particularly interested in the Young Writers Program sponsored by NaNoWriMo that encourages writers under the age of 17 to pen their novels without having to complete the adult-required 50,000 words. Young writers can set their own word count goals, yet they’ll still have some outside accountability by being a part of the program.

Last year, 119,000 adults participated in NaNoWriMo and 22,000 young writers. That just makes my writerly heart leap for joy! That’s over 140,000 people trying to connect their ideas and heart with the printed word. I love it. If people are busy writing novels, then they’re probably too busy to watch TV. They’re also too busy to go shopping spending money they don’t have. Just think what cheap entertainment this is — it’s free!

I read recently that fiction is one aspect of the publishing world that is doing well despite the recession. Readers still want to escape; in fact, with our economic woes, we have even more to escape from.

I’m thinking about participating this year, mainly to try to crank out something new. I have a hard time turning off that editor’s voice in my head that tells me what I’m writing isn’t good enough. But writing is the only way story plots and characters can come to life.

I love what author Ann Brashares wrote on the day one of her young adult novels was released. She shares in her blog:

I always worry on such a day … But this day also brings a certain joy. I am launching these made-up people into the world and giving them a kind of life. I am turning a private, meditative writing experience into a reading experience I hope to share. I am trying to connect my inner life and my stories to the inner lives of others. As E.M. Forster famously wrote in Howards End, “Only connect.”

It’s always nervewracking to put yourself out there. But it’s the root of joy.

I love that. Connecting writer to reader is the root of joy. What if C.S. Lewis had never gotten his made-up kingdom of Narnia out of his head onto the page? What if Anne of Green Gables died when her author died? What if Louisa May Alcott loved her alter-ego Jo too much to ever let her step out onto the page and make some mistakes that connected her to her readers?

I heard Ann Brashares speak in person at SCBWI 2007 in New York. It was one of the most inspiring speeches I’ve ever heard. She was humble. She wore blue jeans. She told us once we figured out how to write a scene, we had it made. She worked very very hard as an unknown editorial assistant before publishing her breakout debut novel, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

Yesterday, I rode on the bus with a bunch of first graders and parents and chatted with my friend who has published extensively in the adult nonfiction market, yet dreams of writing novels. She has all these great ideas … in her head! Like me. Like you.

When are we going to stop talking about writing and start writing? Will you take the challenge? Let’s give it a try this year, OK?

—Heather

I woke up to an email this morning from my Japanese friend who lives near Tokyo. She and her family came to visit us last Christmas, and not a day goes by that I don’t think of her. She told me to be on the lookout for a box of “Japanese snacks” which she and her children picked out for us. How exciting!

It seems like only yesterday they were all camped out in our den, helping us sort the piles of rice cakes and Japanese candy they brought to share with us. As I’ve been doing some fall cleaning in the past month, I keep finding dozens of origami animals, flowers, and other shapes. They’re everywhere.

When I lived in Japan, “Ohisashi buri desu ne” was a greeting people would say to me if they hadn’t seen me in a while. I guess it’s similar to our English expression of “Long time, no see.” It pretty much sums up how I feel about Japan.

I read recently that author Kate DiCamillo wrote Because of Winn Dixie while she was living in Minnesota and longing for her native Florida. On her website, she says:

I wrote Because of Winn-Dixie during the worst winter on record in Minnesota. I was cold and lonely and homesick for Florida (where I grew up). I couldn’t afford to go home, but I could write a book that took me there.

I think that’s what I’ve been doing lately. I can’t afford to fly to Japan, but I can read about it and write about it. My desire to write fiction has become so strong lately, mostly due to this nagging sense of feeling “homesick” for Japan. I’m trying-trying-trying to carve out some space and time to write these stories that are on my heart. I just wonder if there is a child out there somewhere I’m supposed to reach. I guess I’ll never know unless I try.

It’s so much easier to write in my journal and tell myself I’m too busy to write fiction and send stuff out to agents and editors. That’s scary! And time-consuming! And how can I even know this is what God wants me to do with my time?

Then I read a quote like this, from author Jonathan Rogers, and I shuffle onward:

For me, that’s what writing is like. All these broken pieces of truth and beauty lying about: how do you begin to put them together into something that is a little truer, a little more beautiful than what we see every day? Stories, when they are told the right way, give us something that is TRUER than everyday life…

That’s why stories are so important in a child’s life, and in anyone else’s. Teaching a child what’s true and right requires the telling of stories—Bible stories, histories, family stories, fiction. It’s fine to tell our children that virtue is good. It’s better to tell them a story that shows them that virtue is beautiful and desirable. It’s better still to tell them a story that lets them enter into a life of virtue—that lets them try on virtue for size.

I hope you enjoy a refreshing month of October!

–Heather

Author Kristi Holl recently returned from a fabulous ten-day trip to England, where she visited the home of Jane Austen in Chawton. I’m always in awe of the places where authors pen their great works, so I loved Kristi’s picture and description of Austen’s writing desk.

She writes:

I was struck by the contrast between her small desk, just big enough for her paper and ink well, and my two desks back home covered with computers, printers, books, notebooks, and assorted junk. Jane had no shelves of how-to writing books, no writing room of her own, no Internet or cell phone.

If you love Jane Austen, you must read Kristi’s post here.

And if you’re a mother trying to balance your creative life with a desire to write, you’ll be encouraged by this interview with prolific author, Karen O’Conner.

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.

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!