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Archive for the ‘Promoting Friends’ Category

Heavenly Homemakers with Laura Coppinger

Posted in Promoting Friends on May 21, 2008| 22 Comments »

This is my sweet college friend Laura and her beautiful *ahem* handsome family. She’s one of those people you’d love to have as a neighbor and are happy to have as a friend. She’s compassionate, encouraging, and multi-talented. Since college, our journeys have had (and still have) some interesting parallels. Both of us are mid-western girls, were youth ministry wives for many years, and we’re organizing queens. I could list several more things in common, but today I want to share one of my favorites with you. We are both trying to find ways to keep our families healthy and happy through eating good, whole foods (she’s better at this than I am) and training our boys (and my girl) to be men (and a woman) of God. To us, that’s a great and adventurous undertaking!

Laura has created a business from the skills and knowledge she has gained making her home welcoming and a place of rest and growth. The top of her homepage says that her site is “A place to be encouraged as you strive to make your home heavenly…as well as a place to encourage you as we strive toward our heavenly home!”

Laura loves to cook and she has developed a simple style of cooking that doesn’t involve TV dinners or fast food drive-thrus. Not that they never eat fast foods, but they prefer whole foods which are better for you and taste amazing. Her site is full of ideas for making homemaking easier. Even if you work outside the home, her ideas will be helpful to you and aide you in getting organized, eating healthier, and having fun while doing both. But that’s not all her family is about. Laura says:

“Feeding your family does not end with food. My husband and I feel that filling our souls with spiritual nourishment is more important than anything else. We try to incorporate our walk with Jesus into every aspect of our lives. The spiritual training of our children does not begin and end at the church building. Please use our ideas to help you make God a part of everything you do.”

I’ve really enjoyed Laura’s site and plan on buying several of her e-books. The two newest ones (pictured) are half price through tomorrow! (Keep reading to the end to find out how to enter my drawing to win one of her e-books!) Some of the titles include: Totally Tortillas, What To Do With The Chicken In Your Kitchen, and Do The Funky Kitchen – about having a functional kitchen. Her online shop contains multiple recipe e-books, card making kits, prayer journals (or kits to make your own), and many other great products that are available through download or mail order. You can check out her online shop by clicking HERE.

Did I mention she’s a blogger? Laura is the creator of Gratituesday that you see here every week. Many of her free tips and ideas are posted through her blog which I enjoy for her kind words of encouragement and her sense of humor in dealing with motherhood and homemaking. I love her menu ideas, recipes and kid craft ideas. There is everything from homemade bubble bath to giant breakfast cookies to how to organize your pantry using jars – one of her favorite things . She also has a newsletter available that’s delivered to your email on a delivery schedule of your choosing. To sign up, visit her homepage HERE. Click HERE to read her blog.

Now for the fun part. Laura has offered one free e-book (of the winner’s choosing) out of her online shop for one lucky reader of this blog. To enter this contest, you must leave me a comment telling me which e-book you would choose if you won. Next Wednesday my lovely 5 year old assistant will draw a name out of a hat – literally. It could be you! So go visit Laura’s site and leave her a little love in the form of a comment…or better yet, a purchase. 🙂 And don’t forget to come back here to click on that little comment button below…yes, that one.

To make things easier for you, here are all of the links once again:

Laura’s Heavenly Homemakers Website: http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/home/

Laura’s Online Shop: http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/shop/

Laura’s Blog: http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/blog/

***You still have until Friday to enter the drawing for Megan’s book, Searching For Spice. Click HERE for details.***

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Searching For Spice with Megan DiMaria

Posted in Book Reviews, Promoting Friends on May 19, 2008| 11 Comments »

It’s pronounced Mee gihn Dee muh ree uh. Or that’s what it sounds like when she says it. A lovely name to suit a lovely woman. This post has been a long time coming and I am so excited to share my friend with you. Megan is one of my Starbucks girlfriends, though there was the day we enjoyed a lunch together after the book signing of another author friend. As I recall, the conversation was much better than the food. 🙂

On April 1st, one of Megan’s dreams came true. Her debut novel, Searching For Spice, became available to the public, and she’s been busy doing book signings and celebrating ever since. I was lucky enough to be invited to her book launch party at the D & F Tower in downtown Denver. I happily met many of her friends and family including her husband, her agent, and several of her friends from the writing world. She looked so beautiful and poised as she made her way around the room greeting every guest and thanking them for coming to support her. It was a wonderful celebration.
I was immediately drawn to the cover of her book since pink is one of my favorite colors. But it was the storyline that kept my attention. The back of the book says, “Linda Revere longs to have a sizzling affair . . .

with her husband, a practical, no-nonsense community college science teacher. Unfortunately, life isn’t scripted, and nothing goes according to plan. From having a demanding boss and at times a frustrating job to helping her family and friends with their troubles, life seems to be preventing Linda from achieving her goal of an exciting and passionate marriage. Linda hopes God will answer her prayers to jazz up her marriage, but is she ready for what happens next?”

I loved that Megan’s characters were real and engaging. Though I’ve not yet reached the stage of life the main character Linda is in, I could relate to many of her frustrations. I too have had to learn to navigate the changing seasons of the marriage relationship, work in a job where I was poorly treated and overloaded, and watch a close friend suffer through deep pain in her own marriage. I’ve also shared some of the same joys Linda has; watching my children grow up and noticing the little changes in their personalities as they begin to make choices of their own, celebrating wacky occasions with girlfriends, and rediscovering the strengths of the man I married and love so dearly – even when he doesn’t “get me”. It’s hard to fight your way back from dissatisfaction in marriage, but Linda tackles the challenge with gusto. When life gets tough, she prays for help and falls back on her habit of spending time meditating on the word of God while sitting in her favorite chair. It reminds me of my own comfort rituals and how safe and restorative they are when life seems to spin out of control.

I always look for a common thread to hold onto when I read a novel. You know, something I can grasp as a reminder that we’re all a little bit alike and usually more than we think we are. This book’s thread was Linda and her daughter sharing tea, and their family enjoying Chinese take-out. These are a few of the pleasures in my life. I also loved that the family has some hard times, but they stick together and are stronger for it in the end.

There is so much more I could tell you about this book, but if I reveal it all then you wouldn’t have a reason to read it now would you? Here are a few things others have had to say about it:

“DiMaria’s debut novel shines with warmth and wisdom. Linda and Jerry’s marriage is realistic, and readers will be able to identify with and learn from their struggles. A sprinkling of humor and detailed secondary characters raise this novel a notch above the rest.”
Romantic Times Magazine ~ 4 1/2 stars!

“Be careful what you pray for . . . Megan DiMaria’s Searching for Spice is an entertaining tale of an Everywoman who yearns for the Extraordinary–as we all do on occasion. Filled with humor, zest, and real life, this charming romantic tale will charm and delight.”
~Angela Hunt, author of Doesn’t She Look Natural?

“Searching for Spice is a fantastic read that I couldn’t put down. With a grabbing main character, a cast of friends and family that makes things interesting, a storyline to keep the pages turning, and writing that brought both laughter to my lips and tears to my eyes, Searching for Spice is a novel not to be missed. I’m looking forward to reading more from this new author.”

“What a breath of fresh air. Megan DiMaria has a pulse on the Boomer generation. I love that a woman my own age is the main character – not just somebody’s mom. Linda’s thoughts and feelings so closely mirrored my own; I had to take a break to reflect on some of them. What insight!”
~ Jan Parrish, fellow writer and friend
Want a chance to win a signed copy of Megan’s book? Leave me a comment or email me to let me know you’d like to be entered in my drawing to be held this Friday morning. As an added bonus, I’ll put your name in the hat twice if you include a funny or romantic way you’ve tried to add a little spice to your own marriage or dating relationship.
The Revere family story continues in Megan’s next book, Out of Her Hands, due out in October 2008. Look for it in bookstores near you! Here’s Megan posing next to her book in a local Barnes & Noble. Can you imagine the thrill of seeing a book with YOUR name on it on the shelf of a major national bookstore? I am so happy for her success! For more information about Megan and her writing projects, visit her places on the web. To purchase her book online, click on the picture of the book above and it will take you to amazon.com or stop by your local bookstore and pick up a copy. Don’t forget about the drawing on Friday!

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Promoting Friends Week

Posted in Big Announcements, Promoting Friends on May 18, 2008| Leave a Comment »

I have great friends. 🙂  I am blessed to know so many gifted, extraordinary people and it is my pleasure to walk with them on their journeys and give them encouragement and applause when I can.  They’ve done the same for me.  I believe in community and building one another up, spurring each other on to greatness and success.  Anytime I can connect friends together and promote them and their creatitivity, I will.

This week I’m featuring four of the amazing women I know.  (I’m still reserving Gratituesday.)  These four women play very different roles in my life and I’m grateful for all of them.  One is a writer, one a musician, one an artist, and one a multi-talented homemaker, and I get to call them all my friends.  My hope is that by featuring them here on MY Journey, you’ll get to know them a little bit and see how they each invite beauty into the world around them.

I will be sharing pieces of their stories and linking you to their websites.  I also have some give-aways for contests I’ll be holding in partnership with these women.  So join me this week to meet a few of my friends.

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Gratituesday – College Friends

Posted in Gratituesday, Growing Faith, Joy in the Journey, Promoting Friends on April 8, 2008| 4 Comments »

My college friend Laura has begun a regular feature on her blog on Tuesdays. She posts things she’s grateful for then uses Mr. Linky to link up with other bloggers. I think her idea of encouraging an attitude of gratitude is a worthy one. I know a lot of my friends are a part of weekly posts on certain topics, like Marriage Mondays, Works for me Wednesdays, etc. I’ve never joined them because I don’t want to lose my freedom of posting whatever happens to be on my mind for the week. This is the first time I’ve read one that I felt I needed to be a part of. I see this as an opportunity to encourage and support Laura and to keep my mind on ways I am blessed. Being grateful for my life and God’s blessings should be a way of life, and sometimes I forget to acknowledge those things. A weekly reminder will be good for me. If you care to join us, visit Laura’s blog and link up.

It seems appropriate that my first gratituesday post should be about my college friends, since Laura is getting me started. In the early 90’s I went to a small Christian college in Nebraska. I had no idea how the people there would change me, shape my future, and challenge me to be a better person. It was through these people that I learned about love and loss, loyalty and humility, and how to deal with heartache in healthy and unhealthy ways. 😉 I made friends there that are still my comfort and strength today and have remained my close friends despite the years and the miles that have come between us.

Some of those people have not only watched me change and grow into who I am now, many of them were the catalyst of those changes and the “wind beneath my wings”. Blech I hate that song, but the analogy fits. The Doe Club, my friends from Student Association, my fellow drama and music lovers, and the others who shared dorm staff responsibilities are still some of my favorite people from college. I love my friends!

But I’m also really grateful for my enemies turned friends. I’m a better person than I was back then, and I’ve tried to make amends with people I hurt and forgive those who hurt me. A few have been happy to reconcile, while others have not. I can’t do much about that but pray that someday they will.

So today I am grateful for years-long college friendships and the reconciliation that can only come with the help of a loving God. He is so good!

Check out the blogs of some of my college friends:

Tawnya, Jennifer, Laura, Taj, Shalee, Deb, and Kevin.

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The sisterhood of the traveling bloggers

Posted in Humor, Joy in the Journey, Just for fun, Promoting Friends on April 7, 2008| 7 Comments »

Chelf and her DH were here in Denver over the weekend and stayed with me and my family. We had a good time getting to know each other better. Chelf and I stayed up until 4 a.m. this morning discussing life, church issues, family, and friends. We did some touristy things while they were here . We visited the Colorado State Capitol Building at 10 lastnight. The pic above is them sitting by the step that reads, “One mile above see level”. We rode the entire line of the Free Mall Ride up and down the 16th Street Mall, and this morning we toured Celestial Seasonings in Boulder. But my favorite activity of the weekend was meeting some blogging friends at Starbucks yesterday afternoon.

Paula, Niki, Heather, Jan, and Chelf

L-R is Paula, Me, Heather, Jan, and Chelf. I was happy to introduce Chelf to our blogging girlfriends she hadn’t met yet. Her DH came with us too, but we asked him to play the part of the photographer for our chick pics. We talked and laughed and shared chocolate…some of the best things in life, right Jan? 😉 We even entertained the people around us, which tends to happen when we get together. We also discussed what the proper name was for the person who does your hair – assuming you go somewhere to get your hair done. So, weigh in on the subject for me…

The person who does your hair is a:

  1. Hairdresser
  2. Beautician
  3. Stylist
  4. Barber

Leave me a comment and tell me what you think. There is technically no wrong answer, BUT your answer may date you…as in determine if you’re young & hip or an old gray hair. 🙂 lol I’m kidding.

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