Brandy at The Building Brows tagged me for this meme. It’s been a LONG time since I’ve done one of these. Here are five things people (probably) don’t know about me that I don’t mind sharing:

1. I played Mary Todd Lincoln in our 8th grade play, “The Blue and the Gray.” I wore my mom’s old prom dress with hoops, made by my grandmother. I was a nervous wreck practicing my speech — but when I got in front of the audience, it was mysteriously fun. I couldn’t see people’s faces because of the bright lights — and I felt … like I was … Mary Todd Lincoln. Weird.

2. I used to dream of going to the Olympics as a gymnast. Really dream. I came home from gymnastics practice every day with new bruises, covered in chalk from the bars. I loved having special friends who only knew me from the gym, separate from school. At school, I was painfully shy; at the gym, I was outgoing and fun. (It was like having my own private Terabithia, for those of you who get that.)

3. Our family owned a horse for three years named “The Bandit’s Delight.” My sister and I went riding every day after school at a stable a few miles from my house. (It’s now a subdivision). Bandit liked carrots and sugar cubes — and he’d tilt his head to the side and finish off a Coke, if we wanted to share with him. Those were very happy days for me and my sister. I still love the sweet smell of hay in a barn and the sound of rain on a tin roof.

4. I may or may not have a fake talent for clogging. Whenever I pretended to clog in college, it got all my dorm friends laughing. This led to my being nominated for the “Rodeo Queen” contest by my sorority. I actually had to go be interviewed for this role by the president of the agricultural fraternity, and the day of the rodeo, the five of us who were finalists were driven around the arena in the back of a pick-up truck. I wore a borrowed cowboy hat and boots. When they called my name, enough people whooped and hollered for me, so I received a silver tray engraved with my title, “Rodeo Queen.” My husband gets a kick out of calling me this.

5. I’ve eaten fugu before, the Japanese blowfish that, if prepared the wrong way, is so poisonous it can kill you. I ate some at a ryokan (Japanese hotel) with my homestay family on the island of Kyushu. It tasted good — and was very expensive. After we ate fugu, we played a rowdy card game of “Uno,” our favorite.

That’s my five. I’m tagging YOU because I don’t know who hasn’t done this yet. Thanks, Brandy!

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!

A couple of years ago, I read a great tip in Lisa Whelchel’s online journal. She said she gives each of her children a new box of stationery for Christmas. These are for writing thank-you notes.

Here’s something she says about it in a Focus on the Family article, “Holidays and Kids — Maintain Control,” by Jesse Florea:

“We have a tradition of putting new stationery in our kids’ stockings at Christmas,” Lisa says. “It’s more fun to write thank-you notes if you’re writing on new stationery.”

She has her kids write a thank-you note before they play with the gift.

“It teaches a nice principle of thinking of other people,” Lisa says. “If someone took the time to buy you a gift, then you need to take the time to write and thank them right away.”

I was so glad to read that! I’ve struggled with getting my kids to write thank-you notes (probably because I struggle with it too). I’ve been remiss the past couple of years — and felt guilty about it.

I’m curious. Do you think adults need to write thank-you notes to each other if a gift is received in person? It’s certainly a thoughtful gesture, going the extra mile. But if I don’t write them, am I breaking rules of etiquette? Does anyone know? These days, I think a phone call or email work fine too. Of course, if you didn’t receive the gift in person, you should in SOME way let the person know you received it and thank them for it.

I do think it builds gratitude in children when they sit down and write out a thank-you note. After all, in the rush of ripping through paper, sometimes it’s hard to even remember who gave them their gift. Even if all the note says is, “Dear Grandma, thank you for the new Bionicle. It’s cool. Love, __.”

This afternoon, I was so proud of my six-year-old daughter who got out her new “fairy” stationery and penned notes to her aunts, uncles, and grandparents. She sealed them all — so I’m sure they’re full of creative spelling and lots of love. That got her siblings moving — and now the notes are all written! I didn’t do anything this year except give each child a list of who gave them what (which I jotted down a couple of days after Christmas).

From one mom to another. Thanks, Lisa!

I read this over at Mommy Life and have laughed so hard about this. Try it. Then get your kids to try it. Why does your foot do this?

How Smart Is Your Right Foot?

This is so funny that it will boggle your mind. And, you will keep trying it at least 50 more times
to see if you can outsmart your foot. But you can’t!!!

1. While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles with it.

2. Now, while doing this, draw the number “6” in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change directions!!!

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:
to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep
oneself from being polluted by the world.
James 1:27


A local friend of mine has adopted two precious little boys from Russia, increasing her family size from three to five children. In the past year, her new sons (who are brothers) have learned English and love living out in the country, where they raise sheep and other farm animals. We were blessed to be present when the older boy (7) was baptized after accepting Jesus into his heart.

Only a few months before, the boys had little hope for their future. My friend has visited the orphanages in Russia twice and feels a deep calling to raise up families in the U.S. to adopt these children.

The organization is called New Horizons for Children, and they’re currently hosting a group of children from Latvia. It’s my prayer that if anyone reading this is longing to raise a child, will you consider adopting an orphan? These children are so beautiful and in need of Christian families to love and teach them.

You can learn more about their needs through visiting the New Horizons for Children website. Here is the contact information:

Le Ann Dakake
Renee McAlpin
New Horizons for Children, Inc
678-574-4677
www.newhorizonsforchildren.org

My friend writes:

There are so many awesome stories out there about churches and people who have taken orphan ministry to heart and are really making a difference. My favorite story is the church in Texas of about 600 members that took James 1:27 to heart and shut down an orphanage in Russia by adopting around 50 children. Voice of the Orphan has some great information about orphan ministry.

God predestined us for adoption into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
Ephesians 1:5

My new issue of Today’s Christian Woman magazine arrived this week, and Elisa Morgan was on the cover. In her interview, editor Jane Johnson Struck asks her some tough questions, yet her answers are filled with encouragement. I hope you can read it here.

How I wish there had been a MOPS (Moms of Preschoolers) group in my area when my oldest child was born. I was desperate to be around other first-time moms, so I joined a church preschool moms group — but it wasn’t long before I realized the church was only a meeting place — the group really lacked a Christ-centered focus, so I didn’t stay in it for long.

If you’ve got a MOPS group in your area, I hope you can go! If you don’t, why not start one?

Here’s a snippet from this interview:

JJS asks: “Why is it important for older women to reach out to moms of preschoolers?”

Elisa Morgan answers: “It’s a mentoring opportunity. You have something to offer, even if you’re only a few months further down the road in parenting. But I think the younger generations have so much to teach us. There’s such mutuality in mentoring.

I want our world to remember the importance of those early mothering years. The purpose of those developmental tasks, those close bonds we forge with our children, is to be able to launch individuals — ourselves included — who can make a wider investment in God’s kingdom.”

Laurel Wreath is collecting new year’s meditations here. I think today’s the last day, so I wanted to jump in.

I’ve thought about this for several weeks, and I finally sat down and wrote out my GOALS for 2007. I divided them into five categories:

1. God (Growing my faith and sharing it with others)
2. Family (Husband and children, extended)
3. Friends (local, distant)
4. Self (personal goals)
5. House (projects we’d like to accomplish this year around the house and yard)

Instead of posting this list though, I printed it out and put it in my journal. It will be something for me to refer to privately throughout the year. I’m excited to see how God will work in these areas of my life — and I’m going to commit to the discipline required to meet several of these goals.

It does me no good at all to write down vague, general goals without turning these into monthly, weekly, daily, and even hourly lists of tasks. I’ve not gone that far … but I do have daily lists that give my day structure and prevent me from thinking, “Where did all my time go?”

Discipline doesn’t come in the big areas; it comes in those tiny 15-minute increments where you decide whether to wash the breakfast dishes or “check email real quick.” I’ve lived and learned and am still in the midst of trying to be more disciplined with my time!

Here, I wanted to state publicly (for anyone who reads this) that my goal this year will be to put FIRST THINGS FIRST.

For me, here’s a choice I’ve made: I’m not going to read or write anything until I read my daily Bible passage and write a response in my journal. Even if I get up at 4 am to catch up on writing (which I do sometimes), I’m first going to pry open my eyes and read the day’s passage (which is reading the whole Bible in a year, chronologically). It’s too tempting to check email, check a blog or two — then suddenly the house is up, the day is off and running, and I haven’t read God’s Word for the day.

I love my new Bible, and I’ve made this fresh commitment, fully aware that this will cut into my writing time. But I’m praying God will bless it because my heart is to please Him by putting His Word first in my life.

Secondly, another FIRST THING FIRST is to take better care of my health, seriously. This means filling up with water all day (ten glasses for me, according to my weight), so that I don’t stay dehydrated and crazy for sugar. I knew I was starting to put on some weight last month — but I avoided the scale. That’s pure denial for me. I finally got on it Monday, and discovered to my horror that I’d gained six pounds! Nothing like a dose of reality to get me up and running. Literally.

Last month, after much prayer, I decided to turn my Lively Women blog over to someone else. Kristin King is the new b5 media blogger, and she’s doing a fantastic super-lively job over there! It was a great place for me, and I learned so much about women’s health and wellness through writing about it — but after six months, I realized that in order to be a lively woman, I needed to quit writing so much and go live it! In other words, get off the computer and go exercise.

I worked out at Curves this morning and had a great time laughing and swapping stories with the ladies who were working out there. I don’t know if I burned 500 calories, but it was a small step for me to get back in shape. I felt blah before I worked out and great afterward! I can’t go every day, but on the days I don’t go, I’m going to get back on my treadmill and RUN.

Running burns calories so much faster than walking, I’ve learned. And the simple truth to losing weight — no matter how many millions of diet plans are out there — is that you have to burn more calories than you consume. That’s it. If I had a safe place to run outside, I’d rather do that — but I don’t now. And today is cold and rainy where I live. I worked out at Curves while the rain came pouring down.

No more excuses!

Here’s what I’ve discovered:

God’s Word + Laughter + Exercise = Happy Me

Happy Me = Happy Family

Skipping God’s Word + Stress + Sugary, starchy foods = Unhappy, Frumpy Me

Unhappy, Frumpy Me = Unhappy Family

There you have it. It took 15 minutes of writing here for me to reduce my goals this year to three: Bible Reading, Laughter, and Exercise. Putting first things first.

Have you written your goals out yet? Are they measurable? Have you reduced them to daily tasks? Let’s encourage each other to take baby steps each day toward becoming the best we can be for the glory of God.

If you’d like to join in at Laurel Wreath, write your goals somewhere and leave a link here.

I haven’t done one of these blog quizzes in a while, and I was curious about this one. The last time I was in New York was via the movie, The Devil Wears Prada, which is actually a cute movie about a girl working for a fashion magazine in NYC.

Meryl Streep’s role as power editor is amazing — and the theme is about a woman’s dilemma of whether to put her job or her personal life first. (If you’d like a quick laugh, click here to see a snooty-hooty clip from this film, where editor “Miranda” first meets journalist wanna-be “Andy.”)

All of the racing after cabs made me appreciate my simple life driving my own mom vehicle, no Prada required.

You Belong in the East Village

A little bit arty, a little bit punk – you seem to set trends that many people follow. It’s likely that you’re an academic of sorts, even if it’s just on the weekends.

Do you wear an apron in the kitchen while you cook? I don’t, but if I had one as cute as the one Barbara Curtis is wearing in this photo here, I might!

Barbara is hosting an “Apron Power” contest at her Mommy Life site that I think is fabulous! Here’s what she says:

Announcing the Apron Power! Contest

I say it’s time to bring back the apron – and I don’t mean the unisex cloth chef’s apron, but the frilly feminine – even to the point of useless – kind.

Send me a picture of you in your apron and I promise not only to run it, but to send the best ones a copy of my new book, The Mommy Survival Guide. Remember, practical is okay (mine is practical because it covers a lot and is made of oilcloth), but the criteria for this contest includes femininity.

The top picture – according to your votes – will win an apron just like mine (I managed to track one down on Ebay!).

Other criteria:
You must be wearing the apron
Context and creativity

Please spread the word! Our last photo contest – Meet Me in the Laundry Room (winners here) – was so much fun.

Entries due January 12. I will post them as I receive them, but also in a batch on January 13 for voting. Final day of voting January 19. Winners announced January 20.

So if you send her a picture of yourself wearing an apron, you may win her cool-looking vintage apron AND her new book, The Mommy Survival Guide.

A few months ago, I reviewed Barbara’s book, Lord, Please Meet Me in the Laundry Room and announced her Laundry Room contest, where you can see the winners here. (Still not quite sure HOW second place winner HolyMama! got her picture made on top of her laundry room cabinets!) Barbara’s publisher decided to give ALL of the entrants a free book. So I’d encourage you to enter if you like her books — and the one I read was great.

Any mom of 12 who can find enough time to be a mom AND write books is a hero to me!

I’m sorry if you’re viewing my blog using Internet Explorer. It’s looking very funky right now, with half the screen blocked in blue. I use Firefox so I wasn’t even aware of this problem until someone wrote and told me.

Apparently, it’s something to do with a change in CSS coding as a result of an IE update. It will be a while before I can get it fixed, as my designer is currently writing a book and is very busy!

If any of you have experienced this problem and know what I can do, please let me know. Otherwise, I apologize, and I hope you can view using Firefox. This kind of stuff is way beyond my comprehension!