I just received an email from a lady who said she went to pick up a copy of “Anytime Prayers for Everyday Moms,” a book she worked on and she saw my name! I guess we worked on the same book! Hope I can recognized my own prayers!I have been waiting over a year for this to come out and was told it’d be a couple more months. I think I wrote about 30 prayers in it. I’m so excited it’s here just in time for Christmas!

I’m headed to amazon.com right now to see if it’s there!

I think this is it! But since there is “no author” and my name is probably teeny weeny on the inside, I’ll have to wait and see to make sure!

I wasn’t even going to post on Halloween until I read this post. And I’m not going to get into the pagan history of the “fun” holiday because if you want to get picky about things, even Easter has pagan origins, but I am going to share with you a Godly alternative to pumpkin carving.

The Pumpkin Gospel

Open with prayer and share “Every Halloween, people carve pumpkins to make jack-o-lanterns. We’re going to carve a pumpkin too, but our pumpkin is going to teach us about the Gospel and God’s promise of heaven.

Theme: We become a new creation when Jesus comes into our hearts.

Supplies: Pumpkin, large bowl, newspapers, sharp knife, spoon, candle, matches, Bible

Activity: Cut an opening in the top of the pumpkin and have your kids pull out the seeds and scrape the inside of the pumpkin while you read Matthew 23:25-28 and Revelation 3:20

Ask: How is the stuff we pulled out of the pumpkin like sin in our hearts? (They’re both yucky, sticky…)

How is the way we cleaned out our pumpkin like the way Jesus cleans us out when we confess our sins?(Jesus scoops the yucky stuff out, etc)

Draw a happy face on your pumpkin, then carve it out. When your pumpkin has a happy face read 2 Corinthians 5:17 and Ephesians 2:10

Ask: How have we made this pumpkin a “new creation”?

How do we become new creations when Jesus comes into our hearts?

Share: When Jesus comes into our hearts, we become new creations, just as our pumpkin has become a new creation. Read 2 Corinthians 4:7-10

Read aloud: Matthew 5:14-16. Then light a candle and place it inside the pumpkin. Turn off the room lights and have everyone stand or sit so they can see the light coming through the pumpkin’s face.

Discuss how God wants our light to shine before others. Read 2 Cor. 4:6

Ask: How is the way the candle light comes through the pumpkin like the way God wants our light to shine?

This can be a wonderful way to glorify God on this day and olders kids can help read scripture while the younger ones will have fun learning the Gospel in a way that will stick with them forever.

If you do this, please come back and let me know how it went!

I’m working on some new posts, so in the meantime check out what’s happening at my other blog. Even if you’re not a writer, or DON’T want to be one, you’ll find inspiration for your faith walk, and encouragement for life in general.

Reposted in honor of the FIRST Carnival of Christian Writers Don’t forget to check out the rest of the carnival! You’re in for a wild ride!

by Gina Conroy
based on “If you Give a Mouse a Cookie” by Laura Numeroff

If you give a writer a laptop she’ll want a cup of coffee before she writes. She’ll go to the kitchen to make herself a pot and realize she drank it all yesterday.

She’ll reach for her purse and realize she can’t find her keys. She’ll dump the contents of her purse onto the table and find her lipstick. That will remind her that she doesn’t have any make-up on, and she’s still in her pajamas. So she’ll splash a little color on her face and pull on her favorite jeans.

Bending over to tie her sneakers, she’ll split her pants and realize she’s gained more than a couple of pounds. She’ll throw on her sweats and decide to jog to the coffee shop since it’s just a couple of blocks away.

As she’s jogging down the street she’ll see a paper sack and clothes scattered in the road. She’ll stop. Her writer’s imagination kicks into high gear (unlike her slow jog), and she imagines a kidnapping gone awry, a teen runaway falling off the back of a truck she just hitched a ride from, or an angry housewife kicking her cheating husband out.

As she stoops down for a closer inspection, she’ll notice a wallet. Seeing the empty wallet will remind her she was on her way to get some coffee. And chances are if she reaches into her pockets for her money, she’ll realize she spent it all on the laptop.

Often Go Awry.

“Has someone seen the life I planned?
It seems it’s been misplaced
I’ve looked in every corner
It’s lost without a trace…”
~ Beth Moore~
From the poem: “The Life I Planned “

Do things always turn out the way we plan? I don’t think so.

I dreamed a lot when I was younger of finding love and having the perfect kids. Is it anything like I thought? Yes and no.

It’s tons of more work than I ever dreamed, and extremely challenging most days. Many times those I love bring out the worst in me. Why? I haven’t totally figured that out yet.

Maybe it has something to do with this quote. Maybe growing up in dysfunction made me have unrealistically high expectations about motherhood and marriage. I didn’t really have great examples of either to follow in my life, so I made up my own idealistic view of what each should look like. The reality is, it looks nothing like what I had planned it would be.

But the good news is God can make it even better than I imagined! So as I plug along doing the best I can at this season in my life, I’m trying hard not to plan my future. Because in the end, God is the one who orders my steps. All I have to do is follow where He leads.

Well, it’s a half-truth, (my kids and I have been studying when Abram told a half-truth to the pharaoh of Egypt saying Sarai was his sister which was true, but she also was his wife.) We had a great little discussion on whether a half-truth is REALLY a lie, and if we speak against the truth are we speaking against Jesus who is the way, the truth, and the life?

But that’s not the reason for this post. Though I’ve received many, many rejections in my writing life, this month I had to GIVE my first rejection. I never thought I’d have to sit down and write on of those emails that start like this…

Thank you for your submission, unfortunately it doesn’t meet the criteria for our writer’s guidelines…

Have you figured out what I’m talking about yet? It’s a rejection letter for the Carnival of Christian Writers. While many people sent in wonderful and thoughtful posts, they were not about writing, the craft of writing or the struggle with writing, etc.

So you still have a chance to submit.  Only five more days until our very first Carnival of Christian Writers!

And don’t worry, if you stick to the guidelines, chances are you WON’T get a rejection letter…from me!

 finally got my laptop back and it’s been great using my hubby’s old one at home, but mine had certain things to help me get where I needed fast…like having my bloglines and my.delio.us in the tool bar section! (Confession: I haven’t checked my bloglines in almost two weeks!)

Now I have to reconfigure all that, but what I’m really praying about is all my homeschool data will transfer. I’m booting up the computer now…

I’m hinking of doing this for my 20,000 word novella I’m plotting now! How abhout you?

I’ve been toying with the idea of a pen name for years and want your input. I’ve noticed that most published writers in the CBA use their real names and seem to give out sensitive information about their kids and where they live right on the book jacket. I’m just curious as to why? Maybe I’m a little more paranoid cautious, but a pen name seems like it’d keep away many unwanted problems.

So what do you published and nonpublished writers think? What do you use and why? And why do you think more writers don’t use pen names? It seems like in this day and age, that would be the practice and not the exception.

Since I’m not published I feel I still have a choice and want to make the best one for me and my family. So let me know what you’re thinking!

God’s glory. His holy presence. It’s something so many people desire. But are they really ready for it?

In the Old Testament many prophets experienced God’s glory, and it wasn’t how many Christians today imagine it to be. Most often when God entered a place, the ground shook, the Temple filled with smoke and people fell down in fear.

Isaiah was no exception. When struck with the presence and glory of God, Isaiah cried, “Woe to me! I am ruined for I am a man of unclean lips.” He recognized the awesomeness of and the sinfulness of his soul.

What would happen if we were met with the presence of the Holy God? Thankfully, God will look upon us and see the blood of his son, but still the presence of God changes people.

Thoughts on Experiencing God’s Glory

2 Corinthians 3:17-18 “We, with unveiled faces, all reflect the Lord’s glory and are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory…”

I want to be like Jesus, but I’m so far from looking anything like Him. On some days I really wonder if there is any resemblance and if He’d recognize me as his child.

Presence brings purification.

Maybe that’s my problem. I’m not changed because I don’t sit long enough in the presence of the One who can change me

Dwight Edwards says this “Nothing so invigorates our souls, so ravishes our hearts, so diminishes our anxieties, and so ennobles our existence as being supremely preoccupied with God’s greatness and presence. This is what you and I were made for.”

So how do I find the time to sit in God’s presence and absorb His glory when I’m surrounded by “stuff” to do and people to take care of? We all can’t be monks or nuns, called to hours of isolation and communion with God. So how can a normal person, a busy, stressed-out, exhausted mom experience the glory of God in her daily life? I’m still trying to figure out this answer.

Father, I want so much for your glory to be present in my life, especially in my home and parenting. Help me find the time and desire to spend it with you so I can be filled with your glory so others will be drawn to you.

We’re working our way through the states, learning the basic facts like the capital cities and each state’s nickname. Where also reading lots of fun books on the each state.This week we’re in Maine and our focus has been on lighthouses. We’ve learned about the true story of a young girl named Abbie who kept the lighthouse burning during a terrible winter storm while her father was away.

We got the Reading Rainbow version of the book on DVD and Lavar took us on a tour of a lighthouse and then read a book I had in my to be read pile. The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Grey Bridge was set in NYC, so I had tucked it away for another day when we studied NY. But after seeing it on Reading Rainbow we decided to read it together.

It was a sweet story about feeling needed but the best part came at the end when the author said “And every day the people who go up Riverside Drive in New York City turn to look at it (the little red lighthouse.) For there they both are- the great grey brigde and the little red lighthouse. If you don’t believe it, so see for yourself!

So that’s just what we did. We searched Google Earth and SAW the little RED lighthouse! It was so neat to be able to make a story come alive and actually SEE something right in my pajamas in the comfort of our home.

And that’s one of the reasons I love homeschooling!

Remember that old Dunkin Donuts commercial where the chubby man would shuffle into the store, eyelids heavy, and then he’d drone “Time to make the donuts?” Well, substitute salad for donuts and put my face on his, and you got the enthusiasm I feel about making the pre-dinner greenery.Growing up it was my job to make the salad. It was a job I hated. I guess it was all the chopping or something. Though I LOVE to eat a good resturant salad, to this day I still hate to make salad. That’s why I seldom have it for dinner at home.

But there is another reason my family doesn’t eat salad at dinner. I can’t make it. Sure, I can cook a three course Italian meal without blinking and eye, but when it comes to salad mine just never turns out right.

I’m trying to figure out why and here’s a couple of reasons I come up with.

1. By the time I get around to making salad, it’s wilted and old.

2. After I thouroughly wash my salad and use that salad spinner, my greens look like they’ve been through a hurricane. All wet and wilty.

3. I never have enough good salad extras in my refrigerator. Sure I buy tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers, etc. But by the time I get around to making salad they’re wilted and moldy.

So why can’t I make a good salad? Any ideas or solutions.

I’ve tried buying those READY TO EAT THOUROUGHLY WASHED pre packaged types, and I seem to have the best luck with those when I eat them before the experation date. But sometimes I get the idea that I SHOULD wash it anyway, especially with the E Coli scare, and when I do I get wet wilted leaves! YUCK!

So what’s a salad lover to do? I guess if I can’t figure this out I’ll just have to keep ordering salad out. At least I won’t have to make the salad!

I planted these wild flowers in the yard and my husband wasn’t thrilled. Now he’s so excited about his five foot+ Marigold he’s taken a photo of it and was even on the local news!

No, I’m not taking about the extra baby fat I can’t seem to get rid of. I’m talking about the lazy, selfish part of me that gets tired of doing the right thing. Well, I’m glad I didn’t listen to my flesh yesterday because my obedience really blessed someone in need.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up Galatians 6:9

I have a friend with Cerebal Palsy whom I have helped care for in college and on occasion over the last six years. In college she was very mobile in her wheelchair, but for the last 7 years she’s been bed ridden due to an wheellchair accident, no fualt of her own.

Most times meeting her needs is inconvient, other times it’s just plain hard to drag myself away from my homeschooling, raising four kids, writing routine. I often have to drop what I’m doing to help fill an immediate need.

On Sunday our family was going to visit her in the hosptial, but I didn’t feel like it. It was raining and bringing the kids is never fun because they’re usually rowdy, plus I really wanted to write. So I did what I wanted, but made myself promise to visit her the next day when I had a babysitter.

Monday afternoon rolled around, and I dreaded manuvering through the maze of hospital rooms and corridors, but I pushed aside my flabby flesh and “just did it” as Nike would say. All week I had been praying that God would show me what He wanted me to do each day. Today He did!

My unexpected visit to her hospital room was an ordained blessing in disguise. Though I could not have known it, God had heard my friends need and filled it through me.

When I showed up she was getting ready to be discharged. It comforted her that I was there. She said she was humbled by God’s answer to her prayer. With family in another state, she had no way of getting all her “stuff” home. Though I only expected to stay for 30 minutes, I made some calls and had my babysitter bring my kids over to a neighbors until I could get home.

Then I helped get my friend’s stuff home. There was supposed to be an aid waiting for her, but the aid wasn’t there and my friend was worried about dinner. I told her I could fix something for her and feed her. Which I did (though it was only a tuna sandwich)! I made it home just in time to feed my own kids and then run out the door to drive my son to play practice.

What God’s showed me through the whole thing is that He does provide, even through reluctant flabby people. And that obedience brings blessing. The hardest part of the whole day was dragging my flabby flesh down there, after I did everything else was fine and I enjoyed my friend and being able to meet a need.

It doesn’t matter what is behind you as much as it matters who is beside you.” ~ Ellen ~“Laced with Grace“

As I stepped onto the ORU campus for the first time as a freshman, I felt a renewed hope for my life. Though my childhood wasn’t awful, it wasn’t something I looked back on with joyful memories. Many of my memories were of a sad and lonely girl. Yet, I had made it through, accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior as a teen, and having him guide me through some very tough times.

But in college a new confidence took hold of me my freshman year. I made friends easily and was some what popular. Many times I’d catch myself saying something or socializing and I didn’t recognize the person I had become. I liked the new me and seldom thought about the Gina of my childhood.

At college on my own with Jesus by my side it didn’t matter who I was in the past. No one knew me then. I didn’t have to be that shy, insecure girl anymore. I was free to carve out a new identity. Free to have Jesus walk beside me and hold my hand when old feelings crept up. Free to hide in His arms when I needed to and free to be who God had called me to be!

Welcome author mom Kristin Billerbeck to Portrait of a Writer…Interrupted.

Kristin, tell us a little about your family and your call to write.

I’m married to the engineer sort and we have four kids; three boys and one girl. I totally consider myself a boy mom since I was raised around so many, so I’m learning about the world of princesses. Writing is something I do in my sleep, it’s just so ingrained in me. When God’s not in it, it shows, what can I say?

How do you balance being a mom, wife, and writer?

If you ask my kids’ teachers, probably not very well. LOL I’m allergic to homework — I wasn’t great at doing my own, so with the four of them in one of the most competitive area…well, I learn to say I’m not perfect a lot. Scheduling is really key though. When I’m not creative, I try not to waste time at the computer. I hit the grocery stores early Saturday morning before soccer, do laundry while I’m writing and I usually stay up later than I should to decompress and get some “we” time. But I think the writing makes me better all the way around because I have a creative outlet. Oh, and someone cleans my house.

Do you think it’s possible to give yourself fully to raising children, writing and keeping in shape?

I’m a big advocate of taking care of yourself. In the early years with my babies, I was terribly sick with M.S. Now, if I start to feel run down, I schedule a morning at the Spa. Yes, that may sound spoiled, but I know if I overdo it, this body shuts down, so I pay attention to it and listen. As far as staying in shape, that’s a priority to my husband, so I make it my priority. I work my day around my iced mocha, but other than that, I can take or leave most fattening things, and I cook healthy because my husband appreciates that. Two vegetables on his plate and he’s a happy man.

We all do what is important to our husbands. Mine doesn’t care if someone else cleans the house, so I just let that one go. I’m where I need to be, and not guilty over the rest. I’ve been very anti-hydrogenated oils since first diagnosed with MS (the body doesn’t process them like normal fats) so I’ve raised my kids without most packaged snacks and I think that’s helped us all around the house.

The one time I did really gain weight was during our stay in the country. Naturally, that’s when I went on the Today Show. God has a sense of humor.

We’ve also backed off from the processed foods and hydrogenated oils for behavior reasons and I really do see a different in my kids ability to focus better at homeschooling when they eat healthy.

What do you do to encourage yourself during those stormy days every writing mom has?

I quit writing. I’ve heard from too many writer-moms not to miss out. I schedule my deadlines far enough out where I don’t have to. I’m a working mom, there’s going to be guilt, but like all Moms, I’m doing the best I can. Dr. Laura always says ALL moms should be home. I don’t believe that. I am home, but I believe I’m best serving my God in this capacity. I am not the domestic type, but I do my best.

Do you ever feel like you’re neglecting your children when you write?

You know, we have worked out a schedule. When they were little, it was from one to three. When they stopped napping, I told them that time was “mommy time” and they had to keep themselves busy. Kids have so many needs, and we can’t meet them all. I think it’s good to know your limits. Being sick taught me a lot of this by default.

If you do feel your priorities slipping, what do you do to get back on track?

You can tell if your family is neglected. They’re sorting through laundry baskets for socks and feeling like strangers to you. I want to KNOW my kids, know when they’re hurting, who their friends are, etc. If I’m getting off, I make a point to rein it back in by family time. Again, the schedule helps. We have family dinner every single night and at 8 p.m., we come together for family time — be it a game or a TV show (they love Wife Swap). It’s been a hard year with a move, my husband going back to work and the kids in their new/old schools. There was a month where I wrote nothing.

How do you position yourself to HEAR God’s voice when all the noises of life are swirling around you?

Honestly? That’s one of the reasons I’ll schedule a spa treatment when the world gets too noisy. In my house, someone is talking ALL the time. God speaks to me in so many ways. I’m one of those people He has to slap upside the head here and again, but I want to do His will and tell Him so. When something is more difficult than usual, I ask questions. Am I off? Are my priorities screwed up? I immediately go to the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. These books calm me and remind me about His wisdom vs. my own.

I think one of the biggest ways He speaks to me is through the gift of empathy. Which can also be a curse. But I can feel people’s pain when they tell me something, I want to walk through it with them, and when I get calloused to things like this, I know I’m off and have to reconnect with Him. I think that’s why I love the Silicon Valley so much. Everyone is living the lie, trying to attain perfection, be the smartest, best, healthiest, etc. And yet, there’s so much pain, and if you only open your heart a little, God shows you the needs. That kind of noise is often where He speaks to me and tells me to get busy.

Did you ever feel like you’ve “missed” God in regards to writing, that maybe you should be doing something else?

I have always tried to be humble in writing. To sit back and wait on Him to ask me to the front of the table if He wants me to go. If He says it’s over tomorrow, I can deal with that, because I know Who it’s about. He will always give me something else to do. I think in the pursuit of publication, one really has to find their humility. I hear so many new authors thumb their nose at certain types of writing or publishing, and if God wants to hone your gift, you have to be willing to go where He has you.

When do you find the time to write, and how do you handle interruptions in your writing life?

I’m quite certain I’m ADD — though I have no official diagnosis, I have no attention span either. I can actually leave off mid-sentence and get started the next day where I left off. I learned living in the country (which I HATED!!!) that God is so in control. Nothing you do can fight against that, so when interruptions happen, you have to stop and say, okay, God wants me here right now. I lived a year with no phone and it taught me a lot about contentment.

Tell me about how you got your first “writing break.”

My first writing break was Tracie Peterson picking me out of the slush pile at Heartsongs, and giving the manuscript to Rebecca Germany, who helped me hone it into something publishable.

What do you write and why this genre?

I write because I absolutely love words and books. I love the power of story. I write chick lit because it embodies all aspects of womanhood. I have a real heart for young women and want to reach out through fiction.

Tell me a about your recent contracts and up coming releases.

Calm, Cool & Adjusted has just released from Integrity Publishers. It’s the last in the Spa Girls trilogy and the story of Poppy, a fun, but obsessive-compulsive chiropractor with a health fetish.
My next book is set to release next year and it’s called Split Ends and chronicles the life of a young Beverly Hills hairstylist to the stars.

What do you hope to accomplish through your novels?

I want women to know they are not alone and they don’t have to be perfect because nothing can separate them from the love of God.

What advice would you give to writing moms?

Keep writing. Keep reading. Keep a schedule, even if it’s not exact, it’s better to build the expectations among your kids that Mommy time is important, just as their playtime is.

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

Just that having small children is exhausting. I always heard mothers say, “Oh, it only gets worse as they get older. Their problems just get bigger!” I’m here to tell you, I don’t think that’s true. A pained sixth grader tells you what’s the matter, a colicky baby just makes you want to pull your hair out. Take time for you during those years, you’ll all be better for it. And lose the guilt, you’re doing the best job you can. Not everyone is Mrs. Cleaver.

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and wisdom with us!

Wisdom? Not sure about that. LOL

For a review of Calm, Cool and Adjusted visit Writer…Interrupted!

“…whatever you do, do all things to the glory of God.”
I Corinthians 10:31

Boy this was a convicting one for me because I am so guilty of not doing all things to the glory of God. Though I am learning about how to invite God’s glory into my daily life, I usually grumble (outloud and under my breath) about having to do the laundry, fix dinner, clean up spills, etc, when I’d rahter be writing, blogging or reading.

I’m also learning (though slowly) to be content in all things. That God has’t called me to juggle a bunch of hats at once, instead He’s called me to wear one at a time..

It’s so much easier that way! When I’m homeschooling, I wear the homeschooling hat, when I’m cooking the domestic hat, but only if it were that simple because while wearing one of the not so pretty hats, the dazzling writer’s hat always catches my eye. It is then I need to remind myself to be content in all things and the time will come when I get to put on my writer’s hat.

Sure sometimes I take off my others hat and place the more desireable ones on my head, but then God call me back to my purpose. To be content in wearing one hat at a time.

Okay, I’ve been avoiding this for weeks, maybe months, but since my “to be read” pile has doubled in size since I got back from ACFW, I think I need to write my goals down. So here it is: my list of books that I hope to read this Fall.Non-fiction:

The Mom I Want to be by Suzie Eller
Heartfelt Discipline by Clay Clarkson

Fiction:

My goal for fiction is to read what I’m hoping to write and also some of the books by the new author friends I met at ACFW.

Abduction by Wanda Dyson
Distant Echoes by Colleen Coble
Invitation to Murder by Elizabeth Bright
My Life as a Doormat by Rene Gutteridge
Watching the Tree Limbs by Mary E. DeMuth
Wishing on Dandelions by Mary E. DeMuth
The Wedding Caper by Janice A. Thompson

Bible study:

I’m currently working on this one and hope to finish it before Christmas.

Expereincing Christ Within by Dwight Edwards

Read-alouds: This will encompass different people(mom, dad, babysitter, big kids) reading aloud to different kids.

Little Pilgrims’s Progress by Helen Taylor
The Sign of the Beaver Unit Study by Elizabeth George Speare
Stink the Amazing Shrinking Kid
The Boxcar Children #1

To see all the participants and to visit their Fall Into Reading Challenge lists, click HERE. I’ll be making the rounds and checking out all the reading lists later today. Can’t wait!

This quiz is eerily on target. I almost went for the color I liked the most, but then opted for the photo. Try it out and tell me what you think!

Your Personality Profile

You are dependable, popular, and observant. Deep and thoughtful, you are prone to moodiness. In fact, your emotions tend to influence everything you do. You are unique, creative, and expressive. You don’t mind waving your freak flag every once and a while. And lucky for you, most people find your weird ways charming!

World’s Shortest Personality Test

Okay, I was curious about the red picture and it holds some truths!

Your Personality Profile

You are sexy, powerful, and bold. You’re full of passion and energy… Sometimes this passion has a dark side.You feel most alive when you’re seducing someone. You never fail to get someone’s attention. Quick minded, you’re also quick to lose your temper!

The World’s Shortest Personality Test