Big fan of Beth Moore!

I wasn't at this Beth Moore event but loved this video & thought I'd share it...

Living Proof Live - Stockton from Rich Kalonick on Vimeo.

My Etsy Shop!

It's UP! A lot of work & brainstorming...

So Hooked!

Please come by and check out my items. There are 6 currently listed but more to come...and special orders are a possibility as well!

I'd love to know your thoughts!

Misc Update...

Birthday photos still to come...very busy week...

Potty training is going wonderfully! By day 2 Tulip was already telling me to go potty (both types of potty) but sometimes would be a little late with pee. Still having an accident or so each day but most of them are on the way to the potty...unless she's super distracted. Still working on fine tuning but she's on the road to being diaper free for day-time. She wears a pull-up...which we call bye-bye undies...when we go out (at least for a little while we'll do this until I know she won't have an incident in the middle of chick-fil-a or something) and she has "night-night undies" (that are really diaprs with cinderella undies on top) for bedtime. I am not concerned about bedtime. She is dry about 1-2x a week and very wet the other times. She is ready for day-time potty training but not night-time...and that's just fine with me.

She has been dry about 5/6 naps in the last week or so...which is a great sign for not using a diaper (night-night undies) for naps soon...but no rush as far as I'm concerned. No diapers during the day and no stinky diapers...that's a great feeling of accomplishment!

So...it was a very successful week last week...

In other news...

Will be doing a book giveaway & author interview in the next few weeks! :-) Check out Allison Pittman! Have read through her 3 Crossroads of Grace series and LOVED them! Have been neglectful of housework, writing, blogging, all things domestic in reading these! I'll do a review on #2 & #3 soon...I did one on #1 HERE.

Mix-it-Up Monday

Tulip's 2nd Birthday celebration was fab!  Photos to come soon!

Tulip's first time in the 2 year old Sunday School was also wonderful.  She loved it and was a very good little girl.  She had a new dress from her Auntie Em even...it was a near perfect Sunday Morning.

Potty Training (take 1) starts Tuesday...pray for us. {grin}  I am willing to accept defeat if she is getting stressed about it...but she's giving me so many signs and is even dry after nighttime and naps at times...so we'll see how this week goes.  

If you have tips & tricks...would LOVE to hear them.  I am hoping to do the stay-at-home for 3 days and focus only on potty training type of method.  No "real" method as far as a book or anything...charting, repetition, consistency, rewards, a lot of enthusiasm, have her participate in clean up if there is an accident...those are the basics, right?

Hope you all had a great weekend & are looking forward to a wonderful new week the Lord has given us!

Living & Learning...

While I was cooking dinner tonight (Taco Pizza) Tulip walked up with her Resurrection Eggs (look 'em up on Google) and sat down and started opening the eggs.

She opened the one with the stone in it...

I said, "What happened to the stone?"

"Roll away," Tulip said, "bye-bye."

I said that was right...and asked her if Jesus was in the tomb?

She shakes her head and opens the last and final egg (a golden one) showing that it's empty..."no", she says.

What a little sweetheart! It really does sink in...the learning, the time, the praying that she will hear the truth from Day 1...praise the Lord!

Tulip turns 2 on Saturday!!!!!! I will post photos sometime next week and will be doing an author interview & giveaway...

What about my "break"...well, as long as there is less pressure to blog, I feel like I can just come and go as I am able. :-) Hopefully someday will blog regularly again though.

Mix-it-Up Monday

Hello!!! Wow, the weekend went so quickly!

I had a great time at the retreat. A great time of fellowship with other women who I am just barely getting to know. Some wonderful stories from moms who I am really coming to respect and care for. Some very sweet college girls who are looking for babysitting jobs...YAY YAY YAY! Some excellent mentor-moms who I can really learn from. And an excellent study on the topic if Discernment...something we can all always learn more and more about.

Tulip ended up with a fever Saturday night...kept us inside and out of church on Sunday (boo) but by Sunday bedtime had no fever...but still coughing. Using lots of Vicks for her feet and chest...seems to really be helping. And she's being as sweet as ever...you'd not even know she's sick most of the time!

I have decided to open up an Etsy shop [exhausted sigh], selling crochet items. Some are orignial designs some won't be. I am excited but it's definitely going to take a lot of time to get together a good collection to start and then just add to it along the way. I am trying to raise money for my Writer's Conference fund...it's a lot of money and unless I can really do my part by raising as much as possible, I wouldn't feel right about going. So...that leads me to another part of my "mixing-it-up"...

I'm going to hit the PAUSE button on this blog for a while. Maybe just a few weeks, maybe longer...but I need need need to get this Etsy shop up and running and re-prioritize a few things. When I am come back I may revamp this blog and post more crocheting/Etsy shop stuff and writing...and maybe less personal. OR perhaps more personal stuff, especially if I happen to get pregnant sooner than later...that will be a journey I will want to document.

I have been getting a lot less traffic over the past few weeks when I haven't been able to post as much and with how busy we have been having to take some time off for my grandma's funeral and such. And, quite frankly, I'm not sure I have a lot to say right now. I think I need a break for several reasons.

I am going to try to keep reading in my Google Reader...but it can't be a priority either. Hopefully at some point I can find a better way to prioritize my life and be more passionate about blogging again...but right now I need this break.

I will miss it and will plan to be back...and will probably have to rekindle my bloggy-friendships...but that's just how things go.

So, with a long sigh I say farewell for a time...and I hope when I come back you wonderful readers will be willing to give me another chance. [smile]

My Cleaning Fairy

(taken via iPhone...a little blurry)

Have a great weekend...I'm going on my Women's Retreat for my church this weekend...I'll report back on Monday...my first overnight trip away from Tulip! Boo-hoo!

For the birds...

Hello all,

Today I wanted to share with you out of a book called "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott. She is a very very successful writer and speaker. I listen to her book "Bird by Bird" on my iPhone constantly.

I can't agree with her on everything but she has a very deep spiritual "Jesus" side to her that intrigues me because she is otherwise basically liberal.

Anyway, this is a little snapshot of when she talks about getting yourself to write "short assignments" daily to keep your writing juices flowing...lemme tell ya...it is HILARIOUS!

Picture a writer sitting in front of their computer screen trying to write...but this is what is actually going through our minds...

"What I do at this point, as the panic mounts and the jungle drums begin beating and I realize that the well has run dry and that my future is behind me and I'm going to have to get a job only I'm completely unemployable, is to stop. First I try to breathe, because I'm either sitting there panting like a lapdog or I'm unintentionally making slow asthmatic death rattles. So I just sit there for a minute, breathing slowly, quietly. I let my mind wander. After a moment I may notice that I'm trying to decide whether or not I am too old for orthodontia and whether right now would be a good time to make a few calls, and then I start to think about learning to use makeup and how maybe I could find some boyfriend who is not a total and complete fixer-upper and then my life would be totally great and I'd be happy all the time...." [Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird, Anchor Books, 1995, page 16-17]

Maybe it's just me but I find that too hilarious for words...because maybe not exactly in that scenario...but this is the life of a writer.

Just thought I'd share...

Wordless Wednesday: Miscellaneous Stuff

Esquire & Tulip at Chuck-E-Cheese...one of her favorite places!

Tulip & me at Chuck-E-Cheese...

A solo shot...oh, so cute!

My wonderful, fabulous, extraordinary Physical Therapists at Clear Passage. Kimi, Larry, Me, & Belinda (left to right). I am forever grateful...

Our newest addition to our home...Zane Gray! He's a super sweet little kitty...loves to play around and ruin my leather...claws be gone (this week!).

I did a lot of walking during my Clear Passage therapy and one afternoon we ran across this little guy.

Hope you're all having a great Wordless Wednesday!

Mix-it-Up Monday: Book Review

Hello Fellow Bloggers...

I wanted to do a quick book review. The author of this book is new to me and is also a new friend to me. I am lucky enough to be in her writing group...so I get to see her weekly and even get my work critiqued by her...which is a bit intimidating even though she's totally unassuming and sweet!

Ten Thousand Charms was Allison Pittman's debut novel. It is Christian Historical Fiction.

I wrote in THIS post of my latest writing decision. I believe God is calling me to write faith-based fiction...Christian Fiction...faith-inspired...whatever you prefer to label it as. So with that came the search for recent publications that I find well-written, a great story, not "cheesy" like some of Christian fiction. In the beginning of this journey I was extremely skeptical. I read another Christian Historical Fiction book by a different author (it was a self-publication) that I was not that excited about...I'll do a review on that sometime...so I felt a bit uneasy moving onto the next Christian book, hoping to be more encouraged in my new decision. And...I WAS!

Ten Thousand Charms is a wonderful book, and not just because I am starting to get to know this author, Allison Pittman. First of all...I love the cover design...I know that the author typically has little input on this part but it's still a positive for me. I loved all the flowers and the out of focus house in the background. I just liked it.

The storyline was less cliche than a lot of the Christian fiction I'd previously read (which, remember, was over 10 years ago!). I don't want to give away a lot...just the basic outline of the beginning. It starts out with a prostitute named Gloria. She goes to find a friend of her dead mother (who died a prostitute) who runs a brothel, seeking out an abortion. When she is unable to get one because she is too far along, she realizes that she actually has to deliver this baby and determines not to feel an attachment toward it.

Meanwhile, further up the mountain there is a husband & wife who are also expecting a child. Both of the women deliver their children within days of one another, only the wife, Katherine, dies due to complications after childbirth. The new father rushes down to Gloria, hoping and praying that she would take pity on his yet unnamed little girl to nurse her along with her son, Danny. When Gloria accepts this request her life gets thrown into a journey that you won't expect.

I am always trying to guess the endings of books...but have never read the last page first. I like the journey so much. This book offers anticipation of the conclusion while giving a dramatic, thought-provoking, mixing expected with the unexpected throughout. Of course, there were elements that I fully expected to happen...these elements are in every book...but there were so many things that I didn't expect at all. Allison Pittman even surprised the daylights out of me and had me in TEARS! ...and, come on, what woman doesn't like to cry over a good read!

Ten Thousand Charms is truly a heartwarming story of redemption, rebirth, and "True" love. I would highly recommend reading this Christian based novel. There is no profanity or gratuitous scenes but yet this story of the life of the prostitute is so well delivered...making it truly a remarkably classy read. The writing is terrific and I would consider myself rather picky when it comes to writing styles...and I really liked her style. I was stealing moments to read constantly and found any excuse possible to stick my nose in the book when I should've been doing laundry or cleaning the bathroom. When I finished it I ordered the 2nd in her Crossroads Series immediately then gave my copy of Ten Thousand Charms to my mom. JUST TO BORROW! I think she'll really like it. ...oh, and I had Allison sign my book, too! Yay!

HERE is Allison Pittman's website.
Meet Me at the Crossroads is Allison's blog.


Crossroads of Grace:
Ten Thousand Charms
Speak Through the Wind
With Endless Sight

Upcoming Release:
Stealing Home

Stealing Home is not part of the Crossroads Series so you won't feel "behind" if you pick it up first. AND YOU SHOULD! A love story mixed in with the nostalgia of baseball...America's pass-time. Sounds like a good read to me...

It is on bookshelves this Tuesday, April 14th! I can't wait to go out and buy my copy and have it signed by Allison. Can't get out to a bookstore...order it HERE and have it shipped at minimal cost through Amazon.

If you go out and get this book or another one of Allison's wonderful reads...let me know, blog about it, get a picture of you buying the book...I'll try to get a picture of it myself and of Allison signing it for me. Let's make this book her best-selling one yet!

Want to know more about this great author and her latest novel Stealing Home? Allison has agreed to do an interview with me, The Mommy, etc...so, what would you like to know about her? Leave me your question and I'll ask her (of course, I reserve the right to decline any questions I may find inappropriate...but none of my commenters have ever been inappropriate so I'm not worried). But I'd love to know what you're wondering about...what you're curiously thinking...what is on your mind!

Look forward to hearing from you!