Sometimes I Write

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.***

I’ve had so many teachers over the years, and I don’t mean the kind with books and tests. Some really great people have come and gone in my life and while we shared those brief seasons together, I was watching and learning whether they new it or intended it, or not.

Joyce was an older woman at my church when I was growing up. I didn’t like my church, but I LOVED Joyce. She always had gum or candy for me, told me how beautiful I was, and I never heard her speak unkindly of anyone. I decided that when I grew up I wanted to be the gum lady and tell all of the lonely girls how beautiful they are and only speak good things about people. I’m working on the only speaking good things part, but otherwise Joyce’s lessons were well learned. I am the gum/candy lady and I LOVE to tell lonely girls (and women) how beautiful they are.

Avon was my dorm mom in college. She loved me and gave me strength, taught me that I have wings and that I would use them, and pegged my husband for me before I did. I was born organized, but that woman helped me turn it into an art form. She was teased mercilessly about her endless supply of forms for this that and the other and while I’m not so much into forms, I am an organizing junkie…of stuff and people. She treated each of us girls like her precious daughters and friends and she looked past the drama and saw our hearts. I believe it was her example that planted the seeds of ministry in my heart and she is partly responsible for what has bloomed there. BTW, she’s the MIL of my friend Shalee in my sidebar over on the right. 🙂

Then there’s Linda. I’ve spoken often of my dear friend here on my blog. Our relationship is extremely verbal (hehehe) and she has taught me many lessons through our conversations and the books she’s given me. Her words are life to me and a balm to my soul. But the nonverbal lessons mean just as much. She makes time for me. She’s fully present when we’re together. She looks me in the eye and squeezes my hand. After being in her presence I have to sigh in relief from sharing our burdens and joys, and I feel a completeness and filling up to the point of overflowing. She affirms me and releases me to be who I am.

I could go on and on about the people who have crossed my path and have shared my journey with me, but I can sum it up in one sentence. I am grateful for the lessons I’ve learned just by being with another child of God. As a reader and writer it’s hard for me to say this, but sometimes words are unnecessary. 🙂

Want to join us for Gratituesday?

Head on over to Laura’s blog – Heavenly Homemakers and link up.

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:

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.

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I’m on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I’m thinking, ‘Can’t you see I’m on the phone?’ Obviously not; no one can see if I’m on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I’m invisible. The invisible Mom.

Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this ? Can you tie this? Can you open this?? Some days I’m not a pair of hands ; I’m not even a human being. I’m a clock to ask, ‘What time is it?’ I’m a satellite guide to answer,’What number is the Disney Channel?’ I’m a car to order, ‘Right around 5:30, please.’

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude – but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She’s going, she’s going, she’s gone!?

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England. Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, ‘I brought you this.’ It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn’t exactly sure why she’d given it to me until I read her inscription: ‘To Charlotte, with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.’

In the days ahead I would read – no, devour – the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths,after which I could pattern my work: No one can say who built the great cathedrals – we have no record of their names. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything. A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, ‘Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof, No one will ever see it. And the workman replied, ‘Because God sees.’

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, ‘I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you’ve done, no sequin you’ve sewn on, no cupcake you’ve baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can’t see right now what it will become.

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride.

I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don’t want my son to tell the friend he’s bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, ‘My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.’ That would mean I’d built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, ‘You’re gonna love it there.’

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we’re doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.

Want to join us for Gratituesday?

Head on over to Laura’s blog – Heavenly Homemakers and link up.