Officially Taking a Break

I'm finally making it official. I need a break.

If you haven't noticed, I've been on an "unofficial" break from blogging for a while now.

I didn't really intend to abandon you. I'm quite fond of you, my fine blogging buddies. And I love sharing my life and experiences with you.

And yet I've been mysteriously sucked into the blogosphere vortex. Drafted for an episode of "Without a Trace." Rendered more elusive than a good-paying job in this sad-sack economy.

Well, I can't go into complete detail, but I think I owe you an explanation:

1.) I'm in a dry spell. Normally, I'd think of that as a negative, but I'm seeing it as a positive right now. I'm taking this time to get closer to God and He's revealing to me some weak spiritual areas in my life and is exposing some lies I believe -- about myself and about Him. I'm actually enjoying taking this break from writing and just concentrating on deepening my relationship with Jesus.

2.) I'm concentrating on family. I just feel like I'm in a period where my kids need some extra attention, so I've cut my activity level over the past five or six months. Again, I'm enjoying this. I'm seeing fruit from this.

I am confident I will be back. I'm not sure when, but I think it will be sooner rather than later. But instead of limping along like I have been lately, I've decided to just take the pressure off myself, enjoy a break and, God-willing, come back renewed and stronger.

In the meantime, I will miss you.

Winning Wisdom Wednesday: The Simple Life!

I cringe when I think back on it.

My daughter Molly was two years old. It was a busy, stressful morning (as usual). My house was a disaster. The refrigerator was bare and dirty. And I was rushing to put her in the car and running late for a women's group I was leading at my church. Which I was unprepared for because of the 500 other commitments I'd made.

And then I just lost it. I began ranting and raving (to no one in particular) about how overwhelmed I was and how I was late everywhere I went. On and on I went ... I was sobbing. And poor Molly looked at me as if to say, "Pull it together, you crazy woman!"

The fact of the matter is that it took a couple more years of insanity before I hit rock bottom and realized that I had to make some big changes. And that the world would indeed continue to spin on its axis if I wasn't in charge of everything.

One of the books that supernaturally landed in my hands around this time period was called, Simplify Your Life with Kids by Elaine St. James.

Every mama can benefit from reading this book. And the sooner the better.

It gives wonderful, practical wisdom on just about every area of family life from teaching your little ones household chores to limiting the "stuff" to conflict resolution.

It's not a "to do" list for moms. We all need another one of those like we need a hole in the head. It's more like having a really sweet, wise, but firm mother handing down some hard-won wisdom. She convinces you that life really can be slower, sweeter and less complicated -- and gives you the inspiration and tools to make it happen.

The chapters are super short, to the point and easy to apply.

Here's an excerpt from the book:

One of the reasons we end up doing too many things at one time is that we're trying to do it all. Not long ago I met a single mom with three sons, ages nine, thirteen and sixteen. Her kids are polite and well behaved. She works full-time, her house is reasonably orderly, and she appears to have her life together.

I asked her how she did it all.

She said, quite frankly, "I don't do it all. I don't even try. I work full-time, and I spend the rest of the time with my kids. Period. I don't bake for anyone but the boys. I don't accept social invitations unless the kids are invited too and we all really want to go. My kids are my top priority right now; everything else has to wait. And I'm okay with that." ...

Whether you're a single working parent, part of a working couple, or a work-from-home or stay-at-home parent, the pressure to do it all is enormous. One basic way to simplify your life is learning to discriminate between the essential and the nonessential.

So figure out what your top two or three priorities are, spend your time and energy on them, and let the rest go. Simply accept that it's not possible to do it all and that it's all right if you don't -- in fact, it's immeasurably better if you don't. You can have a happy and fulfilling life while doing only part of it. People have done that successfully for years.

Your Chance to Win Some Wisdom:

Each Wednesday, I post a thought-provoking, interesting or encouraging quote from a parenting book I've read. On the last Wednesday of the month, I will give away one of the books (winner's choice) that I've quoted from throughout the month.

How do you enter? Simply leave me a comment on my Wednesday "Winning Wisdom" posts during the month. I will choose a monthly winner from all those who have commented. The next winner will be chosen on June 1st.

Winning Wisdom Wednesday Winner!

The winner of this month's Winning Wisdom Wednesday is .... Graywolfie! Congratulations!

She'll get to choose from the three parenting books that I featured over the last month:

Boundaries with Kids by Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend

Sacred Parenting by Gary Thomas

Revolutionary Parenting by George Barna

All three are excellent, so you can't go wrong whatever you choose, Graywolfie!

Do YOU want to win some wisdom next month? Here's how:

Each Wednesday, I post a thought-provoking, interesting or encouraging quote from a parenting book I've read. On the last Wednesday of the month, I will give away one of the books (winner's choice) that I've quoted from throughout the month.

Simply leave me a comment on my Wednesday "Winning Wisdom" posts during the month. I will choose a monthly winner from all those who have commented.

What's the Big, Honkin' Deal?

I am so excited to have my very good friend Dina guest posting today. Dina is not a blogger, but she should be. And I think she's about thisclose to taking the plunge. Dina and I met about 9 years ago and have spent many hours solving the world's problems in our kids' school parking lot. Which, by the way, is the setting of a funny, entirely all-too-relatable experience she's sharing with us today:

My anger can be an ugly thing. Especially when it’s on display in my children’s Christian school parking lot. At least it wasn’t directed at any family members this time (I’m hoping that’s a step in the right direction). Perhaps I’m just in a bit of denial.

Okay, let me explain. On a recent morning, after dropping my kids off at school, I was exiting the parking lot. You can only turn right or left out of the parking lot into a 15mph school zone. There was quite a bit of traffic coming both directions so I knew – okay , I thought - I had a minute to look down and dial a number on my phone. (Talking while driving is a topic to be discussed at another time.) Well, apparently I missed a prime opportunity to pull out because the person in line behind me gave me a nice long honk. Point taken. Phone down. Begin exit from parking lot.

But wait, I can’t pull out – too much traffic is still coming. Not to mention I’m totally distracted now because the honking has continued very obnoxiously and as I look in the rear-view mirror I see that this man’s lips are moving violently. He's alone in the car, so I realize that he is honking and yelling at me. My first instinct was to throw the car in park, make him wait even longer and go back there and give him a piece of my mind. I didn’t want to be rude to the other people behind him though. Instead, I waited until I had a nice long break in traffic, pulled out ever so slowly, rolled down my window, craned my neck, made full eye contact, and proceeded to scream at the top of my lungs, “THIS IS A CHRISTIAN SCHOOL – YOU COULD ACT LIKE IT!!!”

At least I didn’t swear.

Fast forward to the next day. God must have wanted to test me because as I was coming to school guess who pulled out right in front of me? You guessed it - Mr. Horn Honker! I could feel the anger rising up in me again. I indulged my impulse to ride up on his tail for a minute, until my level-headed daughter reminded me that "I am a Christian and should probably act like one." Ahem.

I know that I should have ignored this man to begin with. I know it was wrong to yell out the window at him. But this type of thing gets to me. I was burning with rage and continued to stew over it for at least an hour. I could have made a list: “40 Ways to Torture the Honking Hellian”.

However, I decided to spend a little time with God, ask forgiveness, and get my head back on straight. Proverbs 29:11 reminded me “A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control”. I might tape this to my visor. Maybe the next time I’m confronted by another hostile honker, I won’t act like a fool.

Winning Wisdom Wednesday!

We all want to raise revolutionary offspring.

Unfortunately, if you're like me, getting them to school in the morning sometimes feels like your only parental accomplishment in an average day.

So how do we rise above the chaos and mundane aspects of parenting so we can raise children who actively live out their Christian faith in their workplaces, friendships and communities? Who bring their spiritual commitment and character into everything they do?

Renowned researcher George Barna was on a mission to find out the secret to raising kids with "life-impacting faith." To that end, he spent years talking to parents who had raised children who were making a measurable difference in their churches and communities. He looked for common themes in how these parents raised their children. His book Revolutionary Parenting is the product of that research.

Be prepared. This book will no doubt change your ideas about how you teach (he prefers the term "coach") your children. And you may be surprised that the things we focus on with our children aren't always the most important things.

Here's a rather lengthy, but very insightful quote from the book:

Spiritual champions have the advantage of being raised by parents who are more concerned about the love they show fellow students than whether they outperform them. They are raised to tell the truth, even if it means they might lose some opportunities....

"Oh my gosh," said a mother, laughing as she recalled the behavior of her son, who was always trying to impress his folks with his grades and his sports feats. "We kept coming back to how he treated people and what he did with his money and what kind of stories he'd tell his friends. We tried to affirm his accomplishments, but we worked at keeping those things in their proper place.

"He was sick of hearing me tell him that I'd rather have an honest boy than a smart one, and that God was more excited about a servant than a superstar. It took him a long time to get that message. None of his friends were being given the message, his teachers did not give him that message, his coaches did not give him that message; it was only dorky Mom and Dad who kept harping on that them But as he grew older and began to see, and sometimes suffer from the absence of character among this friends, he latched onto the idea that character matters more than achievements."

Your Chance to Win Some Wisdom:

Each Wednesday, I post a thought-provoking, interesting or encouraging quote from a parenting book I've read. On the last Wednesday of the month, I will give away one of the books (winner's choice) that I've quoted from throughout the month.

How do you enter? Simply leave me a comment on my Wednesday "Winning Wisdom" posts during the month. I will choose a monthly winner from all those who have commented. The first winner will be chosen on April 27th.

* I apologize for not posting last Wednesday. Last week's Winning Wisdom Wednesday was the casualty of Melinda's Migraine. :(