Wonder Women

What ARE they talking about?

People today are hungry for meaning and purpose in their lives. When someone offers up a simple explanation for troubles like "being disconnected from the power source" or requiring an "egoic enema," it's easy to be confused. I put my faith in the Word of God rather than the flowery words of man who is mortal. I found a great video that compares the New Age teaching of Wayne Dyer and biblical Christianity. It could help you determine false teaching whether it's coming from Oprah or your next-door neighbor.

Change Now! Here's How...

To listen to my interview with Phyllis Wallace of Woman to Woman on how to change your life now, click this link. Enjoy browsing the new "Woman to Woman" site. It's lovely!

http://www.womantowomanradio.com/

Trade you a book?

I've told you about www.LibraryThing.com and www.shelfari.com. Now I want to introduce you to my new hobby, www.paperbackswap.com.

I order a lot of used books from Amazon. I can get them very inexpensively, but have to pay $3.99 for shipping. Now, all I have to do is post my books (hard and softcover) that I'm willing to share via ISBN. When someone orders one of my books, I print the shipping label WITH postage, tape it up, pop it in the mail, and I am able to order a book from someone else. As yet, I have never paid more than $3.19 to ship. Average is about $2.60. I won't be putting all my used books out for charity anymore! Don't worry. I still donate plenty of goodies to charity.

If you give it a try (and I hope you do), please put Melanie Wilson as the person who referred you so I can earn free books!

Some of you may be wondering where I've been. It has hasn't been reading many books! I allowed myself to have a major event each month since January. I did not have time to blog or do much of anything else. I plan to blog about a book that is helping me get back on track soon. Happy Memorial Day!

Heart Matters

Normally when I reference the heart, I am speaking of the spiritual heart. Today, though, I read a story that had me considering the physical heart. I receive an excellent newsletter on digital scrapbooking by Linda Sattgast. She shared the story of her heart attack at the age of 51 here: http://www.scrappersguide.com/heart_attack.html

Years ago that story wouldn't have been a blip on my mental EKG, but now that I can see 51 up ahead, I'm taking notice. Linda wasn't overweight, inactive, or a smoker. Neither am I. I hope you will read her story and if you or someone you love has chest pain, insist on a full workup.  Better to be embarrassed than to leave your loved ones lost without you.

This Valentine's Day, take steps to guard your physical heart as well as your spiritual one!

Hibernating Can Be Productive

Maybe you've wondered if I've been doing a lot of this. Nope! But superheroes DO need rest! Christmas, the flu, birthday parties, church functions, and homeschooling have kept me extra busy as have two very destructive preschoolers!

But in my absence from blogging, I've been finding a lot of great things I wanted to share with you! Here are a couple of them.

The first  is www.jott.com. Heard of it? I told one of my friends who always asks about my latest finds about it and she doesn't have a cell phone. You have to have a cell phone to make use of this. Let's say you're in your car and you remember something you need to email someone or that you need to be reminded of. Just call Jott and the message is automatically typed for you in an email. Jott to yourself, your spouse, a group, even your blog! Best of all...it's FREE!

Another free find I have for you is www.iwantsandy.com. This is a lot like Jott (and actually you can use both services together) only you email Sandy. She sends you reminders to your email or your phone as you request. What makes Sandy a big time-saver is you don't have to take the time to enter items into your calendar. When I do that on Yahoo, I have to use several steps to also set up the reminder. With Sandy, it's as simple as emailing r 2/5 10 am radio interview in the subject line. R stands for "remind me." Each day Sandy will email you what you have on your agenda. You can use her to keep track of your todo's, too.

Another Brushworks Class Assignment

Thanks to my friend Barbie for her help with this LO. I've really enjoyed doing this class and I highly recommend it for people who know basic digital scrapbooking using Photoshop Elements.

Do You See What I See?

Snow! The snow postponed our plans to see family this weekend, but it's been delightful otherwise. Days like this remind me of snuggling in for a day with family or sledding and snowmen. Today I think I will do some cleaning and baking! Hope you're keeping warm wherever you are.

Faith Like a Child

My 3yo daughter sang a song about God and His Son that I'd never heard before. I said, "Where did you hear that song?" She said, "God put it in my heart." Awwwww. It was so dear! The next day I asked her to sing it again. I was thinking I might videotape her. She said, "I don't know that song anymore." LOL

I love how children often encourage us in OUR faith even as we encourage theirs. A good friend emailed me this example and I wanted to share it with you:

http://www.ksbj.org/eblogs/morningShow/

Here Am I

A few days ago, we caught a glimpse of a big beautiful woodpecker in our front yard. He created quite a stir in our house, but despite my best efforts, I couldn't capture him with my camera. I was really disappointed! I studied ornithology in college and thought I remembered it being a Pileated Woodpecker. A quick online search confirmed it.

This morning, a pair of the woodpeckers returned to our yard and were patient enough for me to attach my zoom lens. I was delighted to get this shot.

I was thinking that God comes to us the way this woodpecker did. I certainly wasn't looking for him. But there he was, creating in me a longing for more.  In the book of Isaiah, God tells us: "I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, 'Here am I, here am I.'"

May the Lord reveal Himself to you this Christmas in beautiful, unexpected ways.

Not Just Frankenstein's Monster

The kids received a puzzle around Halloween and the answer was Frankenstein. The puzzle pointed out that Frankenstein is not the monster, but its creator. I was so intrigued by the fact that an 18-year-old Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein when challenged to write a frightening tale at a dinner party. It is considered to be the very first book in the science fiction genre.

I checked the book out from the library, determined to read the classic a la A Thomas Jefferson Education. The particular version I got was from The Whole Story collection. I am crazy about this series because every page is beautifully illustrated (yes I'm 40 and I still like picture books!) and because all kinds of historical background information is provided in the margins. I bought a copy from Ebay, but there are several classics available in this series from Amazon.

At this point, you may be wondering if I have my holidays confused! Nope! I just finished reading this book and I loved it. I don't even remember the movie, it's been so long since I saw it. The story captivated me! The monster follows the once-prideful Frankenstein everywhere intent not on killing him, but on killing his joy and hope. Mary Shelley was an atheist, but she wrote a fictional work that could be my story and yours. We, too, are pursued by a monster who isn't content with our death; he wants our faith, hope, and joy. Like Frankenstein, we create our own monsters and are then powerless to eliminate them. But praise be to God who delivers us from the enemy of our souls!  This Christmas, we can celebrate having no reason to fear, but every reason to rejoice.