A Mid-Month Check-Up

Sometimes, it’s good just to sit back and take stock of where you are and/or where your family is.

Businesses do it. Why not individuals and families?

So, it’s Monday when I write this, and it’s snowing. (Something that seems pretty unusual for where I live in the Midwest, especially considering it’s mid-April.) I love the snow, so I sat and stared at it for quite a while, absorbing the blessed silence and peace of it. And that silence, naturally, led to some reflection.

We have four weeks of homeschool left. This means that my oldest is graduating high school and will no longer, officially, be under my tutelage.

My takeaway: Don’t overschedule so I can savor the last few days. (She’ll still be around, attending a local university next year and living with us, but it’ll still be different.)

We just came through several days of revival services, and I’m refreshed but tired. Our church had a special preacher and special services for half of last week, and we attended every night. It was wonderful preaching, and I took six and one-half pages of notes that contain so many nuggets of wisdom. But I’m tired. Our schedule was rearranged, clothing was a special effort, and there was lots of socializing (which is good but tiring for an introvert).

My takeaway: After that intense time, I need a few days of downtime to recoup and think/pray through what I learned.

My reading goals are being met, but I need to stay vigilant. I’m in the middle of my third book this month, which thrills me. Life has a tendency to get in the way, especially with a large family, but I’ve made a conscious effort to read in small snatches of time. Those bits of time add up. I’ve also started reading more on my phone with the kindle app or the overdrive app. At first, I was reluctant. I don’t want to look like I’m just fiddling away on my phone all the time, especially to the children. But I explained to my children that I was actually reading a book or my Bible, and they look at the screen whenever they want. I also shoved away my worry of what others will think.

My takeaway: I’m not thrilled with reading on my phone, but it’s better than not reading at all.

I’m finding it difficult to remain patient for my next book cover. Amish Country Amnesia is coming this September, and I’ve seen a preview of the cover, but I don’t have a final version to share yet. I check my email inbox at least ten times each day, looking for it. {Spoiler alert: It’s different than my other covers, but it’s incredible! 😊 } I loved writing Amish suspense, and I’m currently working on another.

The takeaway: Sign up now for my author newsletter, and you’ll be the first to see the cover as well as be entered to win a copy. Here's a quick link ~ http://eepurl.com/cxcrL5.

It’s time for a nap. Sometimes, the most spiritual thing a person can do is sleep. Rest.

The takeaway: Don’t feel guilty for getting enough sleep.

How is the month of April going for you?

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The Dangers of Writing Suspense

{I have another Love Inspired Suspense coming in September, and I'm eagerly awaiting the cover. If you'd like to be the first to see it and have the opportunity to win an advance copy, sign up for my author newsletter. Thanks!}

I’m starting a new story. I love this phase of brainstorming and creating characters and figuring out the villain and watching them all interact.

To fit in writing with six children at home, I usually tuck the younger ones away in a bedroom to play quietly or read (since they’re beyond the age of napping now). This is what I did a couple of days ago to get some time to start my new story. I had settled at my desk with a huge glass of iced tea (half sweet – half unsweet J ) and was beginning to set the opening scene. My oldest teen daughter was working quietly on homework at a desk next to mine, and my other two teenagers were on the couch behind me reading. My husband had come home from work a little early, and he was finishing up a work project on another laptop behind me.

It was a dark and stormy afternoon. A gray gloominess filled the room, despite the little globe lights that hung from the desk hutch. Rain pounded a steady beat on the roof.

Taking advantage of the circumstances around me, I amplified the weather and wrote it into my opening scene ~ my heroine on a bicycle in that eerie yellow haze that appears before a summer storm, the crackle of lightning behind her, the hair on the back of her neck standing at attention as she feels like someone is watching her.

I was in that scene, picturing it, feeling it, living it. Everything around me had disappeared. Only the pounding of the rain remained in my consciousness.

And then a chanting of mingled voices filtered into my hearing. An ominous rhythmic monotone that drummed into my mind.

Pedal faster, Heroine! My heart and fingers raced as I urged her on. I didn’t know how the villain had appeared so quickly, but he seemed to be there. Get away, Heroine!

I stopped typing and clutched my shirt, my brain struggling to understand where this chant was coming from in the story.

And then the chant mingled with laughter. I forced myself to focus on the room around me and found my teen daughter watching me with an amused smile stretched across her face. I turned to see my husband laughing at my fright. My two little boys stood in the doorway, chanting their rhythm. “We’ve read the book. May we come out?”

I could only smile at myself as I inhaled deeply, willing my heart to stop racing.

Does your heart race when you read suspense? How much do you immerse yourself in a story?

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Happy Easter!

"Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’”

"And they remembered His words. Then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles. And their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them. But Peter arose and ran to the tomb; and stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying by themselves; and he departed, marveling to himself at what had happened."
~ Luke 24:1-12

What say you? Are these "idle tales" or do you marvel to yourself at what has happened?

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Homeschool Convention? Oh, yeah! 😊

This past Friday and Saturday, our family was incredibly blessed by attending our statewide homeschool convention.

These times of refreshing have become a vital part of our homeschool year, not just in terms of instruction but also encouragement that we don’t find elsewhere. And when some of these presenters get going, it turns into some excellent preaching!

Here are some thoughts and images from the two days ~

This was our drive in on Saturday. Wowza! I think this was the most snow we've had all winter!

 
 “We have the capacity to make our brains grow larger through study and use…. Practice doesn't make perfect. Practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect.” ~ Frederic Gray

Rick Green on the main stage.

“The longer children are homeschooled, the more curiosity and love of learning they have.” ~ Debra Bell, Ph.D.

This is just a tiny portion of one-half of the exhibit hall.

“The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves, throughout their lives.” Robert Maynard Hutchins, Educator

Late afternoon view from the front doors to the exhibit hall.

“Doesn’t matter what the press says. Doesn’t matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn’t matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principal above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree next to the river of truth and tell the whole world, ‘No, YOU move.’” ~ Captain America (I haven't seen the movie, but I discovered that the original quote is attributed to Mark Twain.) (quoted by Rick Green)

This is just a small portion of our purchases.
A homeschool convention is a great place to shop for birthday and Christmas gifts!

“How can we have a victim mentality when the Bible says we are more than conquerors? This is a bad testimony for Christianity.” ~ Frederic Gray

And everybody said..."Amen!"

Do you attend homeschool conventions? What's been your favorite moment?

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Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

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A Weekly Plan: Amping Up the To-Do List

My to-do list is four pages long.

It makes me cringe just to write that, and it’s not really as bad as it sounds. I don’t wear busyness as a badge of honor, but there is a certain amount of stuff that needs to get done each week.

I also use my list as a dumping ground for just about anything that enters my mind, from books I want to read – to the need to repair a child’s shoes – to field trip ideas for the next school year.

What I really need to do is separate my list into must-dos, want-to-dos, and ideas. That bit of organization is on my to-do as well. J

But I’ve begun a different sort of organizing of my to-do list which has helped me check things off It’s also helped me psychologically. You know that spirit of discouragement that creeps in when you feel overwhelmed with tasks and you rarely see that you accomplish anything? I can’t say that’s gone completely – will it ever be gone completely? – but there is improvement.

I now have, in addition to my four-page to-do list, a Weekly Plan.

My Weekly Plan organizes the things I can reasonably hope to accomplish around my calendar and my children’s calendars. It also creates a cut-off, a finish point (to some extent), so that my to-do list doesn’t creep into my mind when I need to be focused on the most important things in life ~ my husband, my children, ministry.

It sounds simple now when I write it out, but this was a real eye-opener for me.

So, every weekend, in preparation for the next week, I examine my to-do list. I prefer to compile my Weekly Plan on Friday as the week ends or, at least, on Saturday before our day of rest on Sunday.

I keep my weekly plan in Google Docs so that I can access it on all devices. It’s a simple list of the days of the week with bullet points underneath. (If you’re into bullet journaling, this would probably fit right in.)

First, I check the calendar and insert all of our activities that week. It’s just a simple asterisk or bullet point under that particular day. For example ~

Monday –

*LEAVE at 5:00 for ladies meeting.

I capitalize or bold or use a different color font depending on my urgency in remembering. J

Some activities repeat every week, so those stay in the Weekly Plan.

Second, I look at my to-do list and determine the most important. Then, I plan those in around the activities for the week. I have a fairly good idea of what I can handle in a given day, so I’m careful not to insert too much to get done. The last thing I need is a Weekly Plan that shames me. The point is to organize and encourage me. It’s a terrific bolster on Thursday afternoon and Friday to look back over the week and have a visual of what I’ve accomplished.

A few more examples ~

I know that on the same day every week I’m going to spend a large portion of my day at our homeschool co-op with constant interruption whether it be getting children to and from the TKD classroom or a much-needed moment of conversation with a homeschooling-mom friend. In the in-between moments, I’ll plan to update our school logs then and work on a blog post or respond to emails. I know that’s not the time to try to get serious words on the page for my next book.

On a recent Tuesday, I had to pick up my daughter in the middle of the afternoon at an odd location due to a one-time change in our schedule. In planning that week, I already knew my day would be interrupted, so I planned some writing time at another point in the day. I also knew I would be out of the house, so I prepared to stop by the post office to mail off a book to a giveaway winner.

On a recent Friday, we went to the theater to see Shakespeare. (It was an amazing field trip!) The show was midday, so I knew bookwork would get interrupted. As I glanced at my Weekly Plan at the beginning of the week, I was reminded. So, on Monday and Tuesday, I reminded the children to do a little bit of extra bookwork so that Friday wouldn’t get us behind.

Third, I don’t delete things as I complete them. That way, at the end of the week, I can review the entire week. The sense of accomplishment that comes from that gives me the encouragement I need to plan for the next week.

Fourth, I remind myself not to be afraid to edit as the week progresses. It’s not set in stone! My Weekly Plan serves me. I don’t serve it. If I don’t accomplish something necessary on Monday, like calling the doctor to schedule an appointment, I move it to the next available time.

It’s one page, a summary of my calendar events and necessary tasks for the week. It’s simplified my approach to the week and helped with the calm. What could be better? J

How do you organize your week? I’m always looking for tips to streamline the to-do’s!

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Scripture for Valentine's Day

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

~ 1 Corinthians 13 (NKJV)


May the presence of God and His everlasting love embrace you this Valentine's Day!

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