It’s hard to believe our schools begin in a little over a week! We’ve been going through some major family decisions and have decided to follow our hearts and enroll our three older children in a private Christian school this year.

I’ve blogged a little about our educational journey, which has included homeschooling and public school. Yet we’ve always said we’d take things year by year. Back in June, we attended a marriage retreat, and our speaker was a pastor from Wisconsin. He showed us slides of his family and said, “We’re very blessed that all three of our children can attend a Christian school.” When he said that, I felt this tugging on my heart — wishing our children could also be educated in a Christian setting.

Well, this dream became a prayer, and that prayer stirred my heart to start making phone calls and knocking on doors. I talked to so many people, gathering various opinions, checking out websites. And we’ve taken this first step. By faith.

We went shopping for school uniforms last week, something I’ve never done before. I was in complete awe as a polite sales girl brought me all the items we needed in the proper sizes. When my son told her, “I don’t need to try anything on; I can just tell if it fits,” it was wonderful to hear her say, “Oh no. You have to try these clothes on because some run big and some run small.” He went through several sizes and brands before she said, “Those are perfect.”

I had to stop myself from doing toe touches in the fitting area when I saw the transformation of my children from sloppy summer T-shirts and shorts to crisp, pleated MODEST school uniforms. The girls will wear cotton polos and skorts or jumpers. My son will also wear collared shirts tucked into neat shorts or pants. There are special colors for mid-week chapel, as well as field trips.

I watched other kids come out of the dressing rooms as they tried on uniforms, and I was amazed. A young teen girl wearing a halter top and typical shorts disappeared into the dressing room, emerging as a beautiful, modest young woman. If I were a teacher, I would take her much more seriously. She looked intellectual instead of … trampy.

Modesty is beautiful. The simplicity of school uniforms is beautiful.

When I brought everything to the cash register, I asked the clerk, “How long will it take to get the school logos sewn on?” I was embarrassed we were so last minute, wondering how much express postage would cost to have them mailed to us. But she looked over her shoulder at a teen girl busy pressing some things and said, “I think we’ll have all these done for you in about five minutes. Ten max.”

So we got all of our school shopping finished in less than an hour! I read in a magazine that the average parent will spend $483 per child on back-to-school clothes. We spent well below that — for clothes my kids would NEVER have picked out. But they’re so proud of their new uniforms!

We’re heading into a new adventure this year. My older daughter’s teacher already called us and said, “Our theme this year is F-R-O-G. It stands for Fully Relying on God.”

Fully Relying on God.

I wonder if she’d mind if I sat in the back of the room, taking a few notes.

I’ve been a bit down lately, so I wanted to pop in here and say hello. I injured my knee in a major way last Saturday and have never been in such pain. You can read about it here in my new women’s health blog, which I’m writing for b5 media. It was definitely not penciled in my calendar to be hauled away in an ambulance FROM THE PLAYGROUND.

The total irony of course is that my wellness blog is called Lively Women, and yet I haven’t been lively at all — hobbling around on crutches. I was proud of myself for getting bold enough to post my weight-loss goals online, and I was dreaming of moving forward and joining The Amazing Shrinking Mom Club. Yet that’ll have to wait.

Instead, I’ve been banished from the fitness scene and have replaced my jaunts to Curves with our local Physical Therapy Club, a happenin’ social network that is most definitely a sign of aging. Are there any of you out there who are also getting one-on-one therapy for your aches and pains? I must admit, it’s nice to have someone ask about how I’m feeling — even though it’s my left knee that’s the subject of interest.

One bright spot of the past week was finding out someone nominated me for a few of the Blogs of Beauty Awards over at A Gracious Home. Thank you, whoever you are — I’d love to meet you for a mocha too! Voting for the top finalists in these awards goes until Monday, July 17th at 8 pm.

If you have any health tips that can encourage us all to be more Lively Women (as the ladies appear in the above picture), please email me at heatheri@b5media.com. And if you often blog about wellness, I’d love to add you to my b5 media blogroll. Maybe I’ll be able to return to my regularly scheduled fitness program soon. For now, my leg is propped, my knee is weak, and I’ll be reading Dr. Seuss again before I sleep.

The new July issue of Christian Women Online magazine is out. Click here to read it.

You can enter to win a free copy of Allison Bottke’s A Stitch in Time, which I’m in the middle of reading now — it’s absolutely adorable. And there are regular columns by Darlene Schacht, Shannon Woodward, Bonnie Hooley, Valerie Wolff, Victoria Gaines, Bonnie Bruno, Kim Brenneman, Ann Voskamp, and moi. You can also read a new chapter from Catherine West’s novel, Just a Little Walk, and be further inspired by guest columnist, Polly Boyette, author of Life is a Buffet, So Save Room for Dessert .

If you haven’t joined the CWO blogring yet, what are you waiting for? There’s also a new CWO Blog, which includes daily posts from six of our favorite bloggers: Darlene, Iris, Paula, Joy, Antique Mommy, and Tracey.

Here’s how editor Darlene Schacht introduced my new Book Buzz column:

Heather Ivester has picked some of the best books this month we’re sure you’ll want to get your hands on for summer.

Whether you want to get whisked away to the Isle of Arran, enter the hilarious and hectic world of Beckie Miller, or brush up on your home-keeping skills, there’s a wonderful book waiting for you.

So sit back in your favorite chair, put up your feet and get lost in a book.

Read more…

Take a good look at this picture — do you see something funny? Yes, it’s supposed to look like this guy has wings. Well, I have to tell you about this story.

You know when you turn on the news or pick up the paper, what you see and hear is mostly bad, scary news. At least that’s what I usually feel bombarded with. Here’s some GOOD news. There really are modern day heroes in this world, like angels on earth. Maybe you’ve met one.

A few weeks ago, I interviewed several pilots for an article I was working on about the Angel Flight organization. I’d never heard of this before, so I had to do a lot of background reading to prepare even before I made any phone calls.

I couldn’t believe what I heard when I talked to these people. They’re pilots — busy, well-trained, well-educated pilots. And yet they VOLUNTEER their time, aircraft, and fuel to fly people in need of special medical help.

I talked to a pilot who flew a family with a newborn baby that needed specialized surgery in order to survive. They couldn’t afford to fly to a different state for this critical care, but the pilot flew them, and the baby survived. Another pilot said he takes a little girl from Florida to Tennessee every month so she can get her specialized chemo treatments for cancer. The distance and cost would have been impossible otherwise. His efforts are helping to preserve her life.

One pilot said he helped bring supplies to thousands of desperate people after hurricane Katrina wiped out their town. He happened to show up on his way home from somewhere else, and discovered this town had no communication and had been accidentally ignored by supply planes. The people had no food or water. There were pregnant women about to deliver, and they had no medical supplies!

The pilot said he flew back home and notified the Angel Flight offices. The next day, hundreds of people, volunteers, went out shopping at Wal-Mart and various places, loading up supplies. They flew five planes that very next day — saving this whole town of people! And within a few days, they’d sent out over 25 planes.

I was just in awe. You know, you think you can’t do much in the world, but you really can. Those people who shopped for diapers and formula at Wal-Mart were just as important as the volunteer pilots who flew the planes. Oh, and this man also helped set up a makeshift cellular communication system for the people as they waited for more help to arrive. Amazing.

These are our modern-day heroes, role models for my children. And yours.

A few months ago, I checked my mail and saw a thin envelope with a return address from Guideposts magazine, based in New York City. I thought it was probably another rejection, from the third story I’d sent. But this short one was accepted. Here’s a link to an online version.

I’ve been reading Guideposts every month since middle school, and it’s had a huge impact on my outlook on life. Here’s a little information about the magazine from the Daily Guideposts website.

GUIDEPOSTS publishes five magazines that have a combined paid circulation of close to 4.5 million. Best known is Guideposts, with a circulation of 3.3 million (680,000 circulation attributed to our large print edition), making it among the top 20 largest magazines in the United States. Other magazines include Positive Thinking Magazine, published ten times a year, and two bimonthlies, Angels on Earth, Guideposts Sweet 16.

Guideposts is a monthly magazine featuring first-person, true-life stories that offer practical solutions to everyday problems and inspiration for overcoming personal difficulties. Guideposts magazine is first and foremost about people — people from all walks of life, celebrities to schoolteachers, who tell personal stories of how faith has helped them overcome enormous adversity or simply face life’s day-to-day challenges with optimism, determination and joy.

I can tell you — they’re a great magazine to work with. I’ve written for some publications that don’t even send me extra copies, but Guideposts sent me over a dozen. They really made me feel appreciated!

If you have a high school junior or senior in your house, Guideposts has a Young Writer’s Contest that will start accepting submissions Sept. 1, 2006 until the deadline, November 22, 2006. There will be 20 prizes offered; the top winner will receive a $10,000 college scholarship. This is great incentive to get your teens to write an inspirational story! Here are some stories from previous winners.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Miss Teresa!

I took the kids to the library yesterday, desperate for a new load of books. I’d just found out the unhappy news that our house is not a candidate for cable TV. I was finally exhausted from three years of the same half-dozen fuzzy local channels, and this week we’d decided maybe it was time to branch out and allow a little more variety into our home.

But the cable company came out and informed us our country home sits too far back from the road for cable. Our only option is satellite, which I don’t want. We had satellite several years ago when we lived even further out in the country, and the satellite company was always giving us free “sneak peeks” at upgrades. Our kids were toddlers then, but now that they’re old enough to handle the remote, I don’t even want to take the risk that they might flip to something that would become permanently etched in their minds.

No can do. So we’re back to the books. Which is fine. Better even.

So I walked into the children’s department and asked our librarian, Miss Teresa, what she recommended for our kids’ ages. “I’m especially looking for chapter books for my rising third grade daughter,” I told her. And I added with a whisper, “She still likes checking out picture books, but I want her to move on, you know?”

Miss Teresa smiled at me. “I’ve got the perfect books for you.”

We followed her back to the “L” section, and she showed me Christian author Bevery Lewis writes a children’s series called The Cul-de-Sac Kids. We checked out Pickle Pizza and a few others.

“Look,” she whispered. “These are published by Bethany House. All of their books are Christian!” Her eyes lit up with excitement. “I try to buy as many as I can. These are wonderful.”

I wanted to reach over and give her a gigantic hug — but with a wiggling baby on my hip, tote bag overflowing, it was not possible.

She started pulling more books off the shelf. “Here are some good mysteries your son might like,” she said to me. “The Bloodhound series by Bill Myers are also published by Bethany House.”

Am I the last person in the world to discover Bill Myers? Wow! I looked him up, and his books and videos have sold over six million copies. He’s published with Zondervan, Tommy Nelson, and Bethany House, among others. So we brought home The Ghost of KRZY. I was a little concerned it looked too easy for my almost ten-year-old, who plowed through The Lord of the Rings trilogy this past year, but my son loves this book. In fact, he’s finished it, ready for another.

What a relief to know my kids are reading books by Christian authors, whose faith will be woven into the pages of the book. And it’s pure joy to know my children’s librarian is a kindred spirit. Miss Teresa also told me she bought the Landon Snow books, which are published by Barbour. I reviewed Landon Snow and the Auctor’s Riddle last fall.

So I ask, does your children’s librarian know what kind of books you want your children to read?

P.S. Another great series for kids is the Wilderking trilogy, published by Broadman & Holman. There’s a new interview up with author Jonathan Rogers over at Gina Holmes’ wonderful blog, Novel Journey.

I know. I know. I said I was going to take a few weeks off to focus on my family this summer. And I AM. But I’ve got one child at summer camp and four asleep right now — so I think it’s be OK for me to sneak over to the computer and tell you:

THE WOMEN OF FAITH CONFERENCE WAS AWESOME!!!!!

You’ve got to go … just got to. If there is ever a conference in your city, I hope you can get there. Here’s the link that lists all the upcoming conferences left in 2006. Next month, they’ll be in Chicago, Cleveland, Washington D.C., and Calgary, Alberta. In August, they’ll be in St. Louis, Hartford, Ft. Wayne, and Dallas. (To my blogger friend in Phoenix, they’ll be coming to Glendale Arena Nov. 17-18!)

The theme for this year’s conference is “Contagious Joy.” Oh, how God knew I needed to hear the music and great speakers at this time in my life. This whole conference was a gift from my mom. She invited me and my sister several months ago — before I knew we’d go through a sad family time and have two of our extended family members pass away within a few days of each other.

So this! This conference gave us something to look forward to! I really had no idea — there were 15,000 women packed into Philips Arena in downtown Atlanta, right across from the CNN Center. Most people came in groups, and lots of these ladies wore matching colorful T-shirts. They came from all over besides Georgia: North and South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, and more. The youngest attendee was a newborn swaddled in her new mom’s arms; the oldest was in her 90s.

The hostess of the conference informed us we had a surprise — Sandi Patty was there! She sang for us!! I’ve never heard Sandi Patty in person, but I’ve listened to her CDs for years. Anyway, you ain’t heard nothin’ until you experience Sandi Patty singing “How Great Thou Art.” Her voice echoed all over the arena — I’m sure you could hear her for miles around — it was incredible.

I was so overwhelmed, it was all I could do to keep from crying in front of my mom and sister — I did NOT have on waterproof mascara and I didn’t want to look like too much of a raccoon.

We also heard music from talented Nichole Nordeman, who has the most beautiful voice — she played several songs that I’ve heard on the radio but didn’t know who she was. What’s really interesting to me about Nichole is that a few weeks ago on our trip to the beach I was reading Madeleine L’Engle’s book, Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, and Nichole wrote the introduction to this book. She described how L’Engle impacted her life and writing, so it was pure joy to hear Nichole sing.

The other group was Avalon. Wow! They sounded amazing as well — and had the whole place rocking. And there was also a Women of Faith Praise Band that played all of my favorite praise songs. I brought their CD home with me and have discovered that my 3-year-old enjoys singing and jumping around the kitchen with me while this music is on.

I’ll tell you about the speakers in a different post — because I hope you’ll have time to follow the links here.

We did find out one piece of amazing news — the speaker for next year’s Women of Faith pre-conference in Atlanta will be:

BETH MOORE!!!

Have any of you ever been to a Women of Faith conference? There’s one in Atlanta this weekend, and I’ll be there. It would be fun to meet some like-minded friends. If any of you will be there, please let me know. The theme is “Contagious Joy.”

Since I haven’t been blogging here the past few days, I figured nobody was coming here. I hadn’t checked my webstats lately because I didn’t want to see the number “o.” But I checked this morning, and I discovered that people are coming here anyway. Weird. I’m absent, but people are still coming to visit.

Guess what my #1 most read post is this month? My review of 90 Minutes in Heaven. I still highly recommend this book. I checked the ECPA Christian Bestseller list and found out some good news. Are you ready? This book is a bestseller, ranked #21!

Psssst … I’ll just whisper this — I got my Dad a copy signed by Cecil Murphey, who wrote this book in the words of Don Piper. It will be a late Father’s Day present because I forgot to give it to him the last time I saw him.

I hope you’re all having a great summer. I’m swamped with kids everywhere. And I do mean everywhere.

What are you doing for Father’s Day today? It gives kids security in this crazy, mixed-up world when they see you loving their Dad. My husband and I went on a marriage retreat last weekend and were reminded once again that “Love is an Action.” Saying you love someone is nice — but showing it through your actions is even better. For me, that means staying off the computer and hanging out in the real world with my family.

Nobody says it better than FlyLady, who tells us, “Love means making sure there’s clean toilet paper on the roll and extra ones within reach. (ahem.) Love means making sure your family has clean underwear folded and put away in their drawers.”

I gotta get off the computer — bye! 🙂

Since my kids are out of school, this will be my last post here for a few weeks. I’ve also been praying about whether this is what God wants me to continue doing with my time. Here’s a story that will show you some things that have been on my mind lately.

I’ve written a few times about my experiences at the Glorieta Christian Writers’ Conference in New Mexico last fall. At this conference, everyone eats meals together in a cafeteria. My parents and two of my daughters came too, and sometimes I ate with them, but one morning I went to eat breakfast at a table with a sign that said “Children’s Writers.” So everyone at the table was either a children’s writer or interested in becoming a children’s writer (I’m still a dreamer).

I didn’t realize this was one of those “divine appointments” God arranged for me. I sat next to a girl named Michele, and as we talked, we kept saying “me too! me too!” We realized we had a thousand things in common. After breakfast, we walked around the lake together to reach the chapel for the morning worship and devotional. We had both signed up to meet with the same editors, and we went to the same workshops. I was overjoyed to meet someone I shared so much in common with.

We’ve bonded even more through months of email — and I recently opened up and told her I wasn’t sure what to do about my blog. “It’s all over the place.” I said. “I don’t want to waste people’s valuable time reading it — yet I don’t really know what God wants me to keep writing about.”

“What’s your passion?” she asked me. “What do you really care about?” I thought for a while, and I told her that I really enjoy sharing my faith, as well as helping women feel encouraged in their daily lives. That’s why I’ve interviewed people and reviewed books here — as well as participated in the online Bible study and the Carnival of Beauty.

Then the word “wellness” came to my mind. “I’m passionate about wellness,” I told her. Women’s wellness. Through that discussion, I remembered that the subtitle for my mother/daughter book was “Reflections on Living Well.”

Living Well. Living Well. Living Well. The phrase stayed in my head for a few days. Then I got an email from an editor of a blogging network who invited me to take over their “Women’s Wellness” blog. I prayed about it for several days, and the more I prayed, the more I felt this “yes” from the Holy Spirit. The opportunity seemed good, as well as the timing. (And it will be nice to make a little income from blogging!)

So I accepted the position. My new blog will focus on what unites us as women — women from all cultures, beliefs, and lifestyles. We all want to be healthy — and wellness to me implies a balance of living well physically, mentally, emotionally — and yes of course, spiritually. I’ll be posting on current news and happenings in the wellness field.

I don’t plan on abandoning my blog here — it will still be my “home base.” I’ll come back and let you know when I get my other blog going, and I plan on posting here again after my “summer vacation” is over in August. I’ll also let you know when the new edition of Christian Women Online comes out — I’ll be reviewing books in my “Book Buzz” column there more often than I review books here. I also plan on reviewing wellness-related books in my other blog.

I wish you all a safe and happy summer!