July 27, 2005 1:56 PM
Pictures, please
There is so much I want to say, but having been away so much this month, I've spent the last few days catching up on stuff with my kids and running the house. Plus I've had quite a few radio interviews for The Mommy Manual.
This has been my first stretch of time without a book contract for a couple years, so I am breathing easier - and thankful, because I can't imagine trying to meet a book deadline right now with everything else that's going on with our family.
I do have a couple articles writing themselves in my mind as I drive my kids around town, not to mention doing laundry. As Agatha Christie once said, "The best time to plan a book is while doing the dishes."
There is also a bunch of stuff I'm aching to share here, which I'd hoped to get to today until one of my kids needed to see the podiatrist, and because we had to wait an hour, the morning was shot.
One of the best parts of being a mom - and Tripp reminds me, this goes for dads as well - is how you're forced to develop flexibility. I mean, I can either turn over my time to serve others grudgingly because I'm fixated on "my" stuff (writing, blog), or I can just shrug off the disappointment and say, "Whatever you want from me today, God." Hey, I've been doing this a long time and learned one way leads to frustration and one to satisfaction. Guess which one I choose.
There's always tomorrow. And I promise: You will be hearing something meaningful from me soon :)
In the meantime, Dirty Dancing at the Prom and Other Challenges Your Christian Teen Faces: How Parents Can Help is finally out. I'm anxious to see what people think as no one has read it except my editor and my oldest daughter Samantha.
Also in the meantime, there is one thing I would really like from those of you who enjoy this blog - a picture of your family. I have what I call my Inspiration Board where I write. It is filled with pictures of family friends and those readers have sent me. But some are getting pretty old. I would love to start over and fill it with pictures of mommies who are reading this blog - surrounded by your families.
To me, this blog is about more than just growing a readership. It's about the women God specifically sends this way. It's led to cyber-reunions with women I used to know even back before I started writing. Actually, as far back as a student I had when I was a Montessori teacher, who now has two children of her own. Plus friends of my grown-up daughters who've married and had kids, mommies with kids with Down syndrome who were referred by old acquaintances, new mommies looking for new ideas, and other megamommies who find some encouragement here.
I would so love it if each of you would send me a picture of your family with an email telling me the names and ages. I will print the pictures and put them up to give me inspiration as I write.
People write blogs for different reasons. The purpose of mine goes along with my mission statement: to unburden, enlighten and encourage mommies. I draw inspiration from pictures of your families. I draw inspiration from the thriving community of mommy blogs. I draw inspiration from the email I get from readers - of my books and articles as well as my blog.
Last week a couple moms wrote to tell me that hearing my story gave them hope that even though they came from bad backgrounds, they could grow up to be good mommies themselves (and hey, if you're reading this and need to know that - well, you've come to the right place!) Yesterday a young mommy wrote to tell me she'd been at the end of her rope when she picked up Chicken Soup for the Christian Woman's Soul and read the last story - my "Chapel of the Wash and Dry." It gave her hope and she wanted to let me know.
That book's been out for at least a couple of years. Isn't it awesome to think how God knew even before I wrote that article that another mother would need to hear the message and it would be there when she did?
When you understand it that way, you begin to see how great a responsibility writing is and how important it is to be led by the Spirit before anything else. It's hard for me to see how any writer can become arrogant. It's actually a very humbling task.
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