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Ending the Year Strong
Did you make New Year’s resolutions at the beginning of 2019? How’s that going for you? Yeah, same here. This year has been a tough one for me. I set out to finish a manuscript that I had started back in October of last year and had somehow convinced myself that I would have the whole project wrapped up and published by this summer. Obviously, I’m a first-time author and those of you that are more experienced with this process are shaking your head and smiling at my naivety. BUT…she is finally going off to the editor in two weeks! Margaret Mitchell took ten years to write Gone with the…
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The Girl in the Third Row
She sat in the middle of the third row back. I was visiting the class for an observation assignment. A substitute teacher was filling in that day and half the class was turned around in their seats chatting with friends, the other half slouched low in their chairs, staring down at forbidden cell phones in their laps. They weren’t fooling me. It’s not hard to notice the flickering glow from the screens reflecting off their oily adolescent faces. The noise level in the room was annoying, so I hunkered in my seat, arms folded across my chest, to watch the show. I wouldn’t get any work done anyway. It would…
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“I Have So Much to Do!” (A Lesson on Busyness)
“Remind me again WHY I decided to write a book (and edit another writer’s manuscript as well), help my daughter prepare for a missions trip to a foreign country, buy a house, and sell a house all in six months…” This is an excerpt from an actual text I sent out to a friend several weeks ago. Today, I reread that text and shook my head in bewilderment. Why Do I Do This to Myself? It’s like I think, “Hmm, I’m logging in eight hours of sleep every night, my client work is completed, chores are caught up, and I’m five chapters ahead of schedule on writing my manuscript. What…
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“Dear Mother of a Teenage Daughter…”
Dear Mother of a Teenage Daughter: I know she slammed the door in your face for the third time this week. You stood outside the door for two full minutes, taking deep breaths, trying to decide if you should force your way through the offending door and demand respect or threaten to ship her off to your sister. Your sister wouldn’t put up with these teenage temper tantrums. Or…you could just shuffle down to your own room and cry yourself to sleep. You opt to cry yourself to sleep. Again. Feeling like a miserable excuse for a mother. Again. I’m sorry this is so hard. (Big hug from me…)I know…
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“Sorry, I Can’t Hear You Right Now” (Our Infatuation with Devices)
I’m not sure how long my husband had been rambling on about something happening in the news until I pulled my earbuds out and caught the tail end of “…and if it passes, you know they’ll be rioting in the streets.” Was he talking to me? I’d been sitting nearby listening to a podcast on my iPad. Fortunately, we had discussed the news story he was referring to in social studies class that day, so I caught up real quick. “Well, honey, this world is only going to get worse,” was my lame response. Although I felt guilty for not telling him I’d missed the first part of his diatribe,…