7/20/2007
She's Home!!
My daughter is home from Ghana with incredible stories to tell--and I'm sure those we're just the tip of the iceberg! I can't wait to hear more in the coming days. Thanks for praying!
Tagged for Reader and Writer Questions
My friend Richard tagged me on this writing-related questionnaire, so here goes:
1. What's the one book or writing project you haven't yet written but still hope to?
A novel loosely based on my grandmother’s experience (as a child) of the 1917 Influenza pandemic.
2. If you had one entire day in which to do nothing but read, what book would you start with?
Hmm. My “to read” bookshelf is full of fun and eclectic authors like Maeve Binchy, Lisa Samson, Susan Meissner, John Le Carre, Alexander McCall Smith, Daphne Du Maurier, Anne Perry, and others. And of course there are the classics that I love and the ones I still want to read. And a slew of YA books I would re-read and others I’d like to experience. And then there are the new titles I’m waiting for from some of my favorite authors. So to answer the question: it would depend on my mood for that day!
3. What was your first writing "instrument" (besides pen and paper)?
I went straight from paper and pen to a computer. My short typewriter phase only produced papers for my college classes.
4. What's your best guess as to how many books you read in a month?
I know this, because I keep a list! The average for a year is 5 a month. The most has been something like 10, usually in the summer.
5. What's your favorite writing "machine" you've ever owned?
I’m not sure I’ve had a “favorite.” All of my computers have been adequately functional.
6. Think historical fiction: what's your favorite time period in which to read? (And if you don't read historical fiction--shame on you.)
I never have just one! I love many of the “war” eras—Revolutionary, Civil, WWI, WWII. I also enjoy Regency and Victorian.
7. What's the one book you remember most clearly from your youth (childhood or teens)?
I hate these “one book” questions! My answer is the whole Little House on the Prairie set. I think I’ve read through them upwards of twenty times—and still re-read them every couple of years!
So now you know a little more about me as a reader and a writer. I’m supposed to tag other bloggers now, so Tina, Robin, and Heather, let’s hear your answers!
1. What's the one book or writing project you haven't yet written but still hope to?
A novel loosely based on my grandmother’s experience (as a child) of the 1917 Influenza pandemic.
2. If you had one entire day in which to do nothing but read, what book would you start with?
Hmm. My “to read” bookshelf is full of fun and eclectic authors like Maeve Binchy, Lisa Samson, Susan Meissner, John Le Carre, Alexander McCall Smith, Daphne Du Maurier, Anne Perry, and others. And of course there are the classics that I love and the ones I still want to read. And a slew of YA books I would re-read and others I’d like to experience. And then there are the new titles I’m waiting for from some of my favorite authors. So to answer the question: it would depend on my mood for that day!
3. What was your first writing "instrument" (besides pen and paper)?
I went straight from paper and pen to a computer. My short typewriter phase only produced papers for my college classes.
4. What's your best guess as to how many books you read in a month?
I know this, because I keep a list! The average for a year is 5 a month. The most has been something like 10, usually in the summer.
5. What's your favorite writing "machine" you've ever owned?
I’m not sure I’ve had a “favorite.” All of my computers have been adequately functional.
6. Think historical fiction: what's your favorite time period in which to read? (And if you don't read historical fiction--shame on you.)
I never have just one! I love many of the “war” eras—Revolutionary, Civil, WWI, WWII. I also enjoy Regency and Victorian.
7. What's the one book you remember most clearly from your youth (childhood or teens)?
I hate these “one book” questions! My answer is the whole Little House on the Prairie set. I think I’ve read through them upwards of twenty times—and still re-read them every couple of years!
So now you know a little more about me as a reader and a writer. I’m supposed to tag other bloggers now, so Tina, Robin, and Heather, let’s hear your answers!
7/16/2007
Sporatic Summer
I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth. Instead, I’ve taken two boys for their physicals and back and forth to football practices and the golf course. I’ve attended parties at friends’ houses, meet another friend for lunch, had some meetings at my kids’ school, celebrated both my sisters’ birthdays, attended two monthly critique groups and spent about five hours on the phone with the new mail order pharmacy company trying to get my prescription refills (which still aren’t here but are promised for tomorrow!)
A little writing has been done in between times. And my boys and I have almost finished our 1000 piece puzzle for the summer.
My daughter comes home on Thursday. (I’ve missed her so much!) We leave Saturday for a visit with my in-laws—meeting our brand-new niece, celebrating my husband’s grandmother’s eightieth birthday, and hanging out at the beach with my sister-in-law’s family for a few days.
Needless to say, my blogging will be sporadic until August. Ah, but the routine of the school year is close at hand!
A little writing has been done in between times. And my boys and I have almost finished our 1000 piece puzzle for the summer.
My daughter comes home on Thursday. (I’ve missed her so much!) We leave Saturday for a visit with my in-laws—meeting our brand-new niece, celebrating my husband’s grandmother’s eightieth birthday, and hanging out at the beach with my sister-in-law’s family for a few days.
Needless to say, my blogging will be sporadic until August. Ah, but the routine of the school year is close at hand!
7/10/2007
A Tidbit from Ghana
Last year, one of the most life-changing events my daughter experienced on her trip to Ghana was participating in passing out Operation Christmas Child boxes. It was a secret desire of her heart, one only the Lord could have orchestrated. It was the highlight of her trip—and maybe her life to that point.
In an update email from this year’s trip, I learned that an 8 x 10 picture of her passing out the boxes hangs outside the office of the director of World Vision in this region of Ghana. Wow! What an incredible gift to her! To have such an experience that you have treasured in your heart and then to discover that it meant enough to others, too, to warrant their constant remembrance of you in a picture must have been a bit overwhelming. And it must have been, again, a confirmation of God’s love for her and His pleasure at her service in His name.
In an update email from this year’s trip, I learned that an 8 x 10 picture of her passing out the boxes hangs outside the office of the director of World Vision in this region of Ghana. Wow! What an incredible gift to her! To have such an experience that you have treasured in your heart and then to discover that it meant enough to others, too, to warrant their constant remembrance of you in a picture must have been a bit overwhelming. And it must have been, again, a confirmation of God’s love for her and His pleasure at her service in His name.
7/09/2007
Looking forward
I have to admit, I’m jealous. I’m reading all these fun blog posts of people who are at ICRS (International Christian Retail Show) this week. It’s like looking through the glass at a party all your friends were invited to and you weren’t.
Now, granted, I have no reason to go—I have no book published or contracted. And I know that only a couple of said people are really my friends—the majority I know of or read their blogs or their books or both.
Still, it sounds fun. And I hate to be left out of fun, especially when it includes books and writerly people.
Maybe someday.
For now, I’ll just anticipate all the fun I’ll have with old writer friends and new at the ACFW conference in September.
Now, granted, I have no reason to go—I have no book published or contracted. And I know that only a couple of said people are really my friends—the majority I know of or read their blogs or their books or both.
Still, it sounds fun. And I hate to be left out of fun, especially when it includes books and writerly people.
Maybe someday.
For now, I’ll just anticipate all the fun I’ll have with old writer friends and new at the ACFW conference in September.
7/05/2007
Off to Ghana
My sixteen-year-old daughter leaves for Ghana, West Africa today. (She’s on the end of the front row, in the green shorts.) This will be her second trip. She is traveling with a group mostly from her school—four students (all will be juniors next year) and four adults. They will be gone from July 5-July 19.
If the Lord brings her to mind over the next couple of weeks, would you pray for her and the team she is with? They will be ministering in villages of an unreached people group and spending much of their time with the children of those villages. Please pray for seeds to be sown on good soil. They will also get to see the progress being made on a village church building that our school has raised the money to build.
This was a life-changing trip for her last year and I expect it will be so again. I’ll give you some highlights when she gets back.
If the Lord brings her to mind over the next couple of weeks, would you pray for her and the team she is with? They will be ministering in villages of an unreached people group and spending much of their time with the children of those villages. Please pray for seeds to be sown on good soil. They will also get to see the progress being made on a village church building that our school has raised the money to build.
This was a life-changing trip for her last year and I expect it will be so again. I’ll give you some highlights when she gets back.
7/03/2007
Rain, Rain Go Away
It’s almost sacrilegious to say this in Texas after the past two years of horrendous drought conditions, but I’m going to say it anyway:
I’m sick of rain!
Almost 11 inches in the month of July. Yesterday alone we had 3 inches in less than an hour, according to my parents’ rain gauge. I’m tired of gray, humid days. I’m tired of the kids being in the house all day. I’m tired of everything being wet, of our yard at jungle levels.
On occasion we see the sun, but it does little more than create a steam bath atmosphere. I never realized how much I took the sun in summer for granted, how much I depended on it for that happy summer feeling.
There is an upside, though. The temperature has rarely reached 90, let alone the customary 100s, so the electric bill has been a blessed bright spot (every pun intended!)
If you are in a rain-soaked state, I hope you dry out soon.
If you are in a place where you pray daily for rain to fall—-be careful what you pray for!
I’m sick of rain!
Almost 11 inches in the month of July. Yesterday alone we had 3 inches in less than an hour, according to my parents’ rain gauge. I’m tired of gray, humid days. I’m tired of the kids being in the house all day. I’m tired of everything being wet, of our yard at jungle levels.
On occasion we see the sun, but it does little more than create a steam bath atmosphere. I never realized how much I took the sun in summer for granted, how much I depended on it for that happy summer feeling.
There is an upside, though. The temperature has rarely reached 90, let alone the customary 100s, so the electric bill has been a blessed bright spot (every pun intended!)
If you are in a rain-soaked state, I hope you dry out soon.
If you are in a place where you pray daily for rain to fall—-be careful what you pray for!
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