MOPS Convention in Nashville - Guess who's coming?

Click on over to my author page and see who is coming to the MOPS International convention in Nashville this August, and hear what my husband had to say about it.


I'll be there! Will you?


I'm a teensy weensy bit excited. If you haven't already made the move to my author page, make sure to follow along there. I'll eventually be making the transition from Blessed... to my author site. I'd hate to lose my connection with you.

I have lots of good things planned over there. I'm also trying to figure out vlogging. I think it would be fun to send you snippets of our cross-country road trip. Who doesn't have funny moments from road trips, right?

Any you'd like to share?

Guess What Arrived!

I am absolutely giddy. Something arrived on Friday. Something I've been waiting on for quite awhile.

Head over to my author-site and see what it is. Any guesses?

A.D.D. Mothering? A Busy-Mom Epidemic!

Only five weeks and two days until my book Just Too Busy-Taking Your Family on a Radical Sabbatical hits the shelves.

I was at Border's last week and met with their assistant manager. After inquiring about my book being readily available in my hometown area, he went to their computer and looked it up. "Here it is." He smiled. "It's going to be in our "general parenting" section. Overjoyed, I floated home.

My blog family has been with me from the very beginning of this book-journey, so I thought it fitting to share a sneak peek with all of you.

A.D.D. - Activity Denial Disorder

It's not denial. I'm just selective about the reality I accept.

Bill Watterson

Addiction. The word means to have a habitual or compulsive involvement in an activity. Or, in my case, over activity which led me straight into the center of a busy-mom hurricane. Busyness is an addiction. I couldn’t slow down no matter how hard I tried. If I did find a peaceful pause in my day it felt unnatural, almost uncomfortable. My body was used to 100mph days, high in busyness and high in stress.

Imagine my surprise when I read this quote in a magazine article, “Because the adrenaline rush from stress creates an unconscious “reward” in the brain, it can become habit-forming,” says addiction specialist John Montgomery, Ph.D.

So, it was true. I wasn’t making this up. Busyness is stressful and stress becomes habit-forming. Like any bad habit, I had to find a way to stop.

The realization I was living on a constant habitual stress-filled adrenaline rush came to me one afternoon. A friend of mine, who was extremely health conscious, encouraged me to begin taking a daily vitamin supplement. I respected her wisdom and began taking them. After the first day, I was immediately on the phone with her.

“Hi Sharon, it’s me. Could you please tell me what was in that vitamin? I have been sitting on my couch all afternoon and I feel like I’ve fallen down Alice’s rabbit hole.”

“What in the world are you talking about Joanne?”

“Wasted. That’s the first word that comes to mind. Like, I’m much too relaxed. I thought you were a godly woman Sharon!” I teased her, but it was true, I felt like a zombie.

“Joanne, I gave you a vitamin B supplement. That’s all you have there. Vitamin B feeds your adrenal glands. If you’re living on a regular dose of adrenaline, I’m guessing the supplement gave your adrenals a good helping of support today. That’s probably why you feel “wasted.” I can assure you everything in the capsule is natural—and legal!”

Living a life of busyness can easily lead to stress and stress was something I was apparently becoming accustomed to. But, even with this new evidence pointing to my mom-addiction of busyness, like every addict, for the longest time I lived in the land of denial.


Want to read more? Head over to my author site and learn what Activity Denial Disorder is and discover if you're a victim of this mom-disorder.

Please help spread the word to all the busy-moms you love, and post this or my Facebook Author page to your Twitter or Facebook.

Hugging you all with my heart, my precious Blessed... friends!

New Author Site and Book Trailer!

Blessed...readers, this summer it will be four years since we began our friendship. This teensy, tiny spot of world wide web has become home to me. Some of you have been with me since my very first post.

I am grateful for your encouragement, your prayers, and your love. For me, blogging has been a blessed tool in God's hands. After 737 blog posts, I am still in love with blogging - and with all of you.

I made sure to include you when writing my "Acknowledgement" page in my book. I had to. You have been with me from the beginning. Now you can tell your family you're in a book!

You have laughed with me and cried with me and given me confidence to step out and walk through the next door the Lord opened for me - author.

My book Just Too Busy - Taking Your Family on a Radical Sabbatical  will be out in a few short weeks (June 1). Like most authors, I need to have my own space to share about my book, have giveaways, and keep my readers posted about where I'm going to be and where I will be speaking. I would LOVE to hug your neck in person!

So, I have a new site:  JoanneKraft.com

Head over and sign up for my MotherLoad newsletter, and RSS feed. I pray it will become a warm place to land for moms; devotions, tips, book reviews, and freebies galore.

This week over there, I am hosting a $30 Starbuck's gift card giveaway! All you have to do is blog about my new site and follow along on my Facebook page.
I will be including excerpts from my book over there this week, and as the time draws near for my book launch there will be lots of fun visitors and shenannigans going on.

My book trailer? It's over on my Facebook page.


Blessed is she who believed what the Lord said to her would be accomplished.
 Luke 1:45

9 Weeks Until Publication - Just Too Busy

There are some things I believe we are born to do, purposed to become. For me, motherhood is the magical adventure that keeps each day a spirited, spunky, surprise.


As a little girl, I wrote in my brown leather diary and kept journals my mother always seemed to find.


Motherhood and writing. Who knew God would bring the love of both together, like chocolate and peanut-butter...a deliciously perfect combination.

Brushing my teeth one evening, I yelled back at my husband who was reading in bed. “Paul, I’m going to write a book one day.”

Getting no answer, I yelled through my garbled mouthful of toothpaste and spit for emphasis, just in case he hadn’t heard me.

“Paul. Did you hear me? I said, I’m going to write a book one day. Do you believe me?”

“Yes. I believe you.” He yelled back. “You’ll do anything to keep from cleaning the house.”

Excerpt from Just too Busy - Taking You're Family on a Radical Sabbatical


My to-do list for the next nine weeks looks a little like this:

• Go over galley copy with the eyes of a hawk - search for every teeny, tiny, microscopic typo.
• Get my author site up and running. Begin posting excerpts on a daily basis.
• Post author site link to my Facebook page and Twitter account via Hootsuite. 
• Work on leader's guide to put up on author site in downloadable pdf format.
• Work on newsletter for author site.
• Write press releases for Pitch Engine site.
• Gather blog review list for Beacon Hill.
• Write blog tour letter begging for marketing help.
• Query magazine editors with article possibilities.
• Mail postcards to local women's ministry and MOPS groups.
• Print off labels to stick onto postcards with contact info before mailing.
• Work on story; Finding Grace,  being published in Popcorn Miracles book and resend to editor.
• Remember to care for my family, make dinners, work my hours at the police department, get Samuel's birthday gift for Saturday, grocery shop for his favorite foods and Austin Cream Pie, order glass for french doors going in, mail Susan's article critiques,  find paint colors for painter coming next week, go to Lowe's and purchase cabinet refinishing kit and practice on my laundry room, pickup wood to replace front porch railings, order Grace's yearbook, pickup large bag of pretzels at Costco for David, sign Samuel up for soccer, clean up bonus room for Meghan's visit over Easter break, figure out which day to begin Bible study with girls at work.

I hear someone wrote a book about being Just Too Busy. I may have to read it.

I'm Cheating on Books with My Nook Color

"There's nothing like curling up on the couch with a good book." I told my girlfriend.

She'd been sharing a bunch of nonsense and Tom-foolery about e-readers and how they could be the new wave of the future.

Who was she kidding? I'm a bonafide bookaholic. I resented the fact she thought she knew more than I did about a reading experience.

"I mean, really, it's not the same as smelling a new book, and turning each page or dog-earing a chapter or two for later." I reminded her. "Reading from a computer type-thingy is cold and too techy for me." I added.

Six months later...

"Paul, where's my Nook? I can't find it anywhere!"

"We're only running up to the bank and the post office, Joanne. You don't need your Nook."

"Oh yes I do." I yelled over my shoulder, looking under and in between everything on my kitchen counters. "What if we stop at a red light, what then, huh?"

It's true, I take my Color Nook with me everywhere. I've downloaded everything from Whole Living Magazine to the .99 cent Bible HCSB Version.

Leviticus is downright beautiful this week!

I am officially retracting my statements from six months ago. The ugly techno-reading experience has become a wonderful thing. Have I mentioned the Pandora feature yet? Soothing sounds of Jim Brickman penetrate the silence at bedtime, giving me a reading encounter like no other.

Another benefit is Paul and I belong to approximately seven county libraries for their e-reader books. You borrow a book and two weeks later, whoosh...the library electronically takes the book back. No more library fines or cage fighting-arguments with my children over who didn't return their books.


I'm in love with my Nook Color. I just don't know how to break it to my bookcases at home.

The library book sale is this morning, where Books and I have been meeting every second Saturday of the month for over ten years. It's our special place. My hands are clammy and I'm sick to my stomach, but I'm going to force myself to paste a smile on my face, dab on some lipstick and peruse the aisles. It will be hard to fake the lack of eye contact and the disinterested touch of my hand.

They'll know something has changed between us...yes, they most definitely will know.

Distracted Frustrated and Anxious

Distracted, frustrated and anxious...how's that for the perfect writer-storm?

With only six weeks left before my deadline, the butterflies in my stomach have become F-16 fighter jets.

My plan has always been to submit my first book project to Beacon Hill Press before my deadline. I'll do whatever it takes to make that happen. Which means staying awake past nine at night and learning to drink coffee like big people.

Peace is foreign to me right now. I could really use your prayers.
My manuscript is not ready for publisher's eyes, not polished enough. Each time I read through a chapter I cut and chop, add and tweak and wonder if this project will ever be good enough to warrant hitting my send button.

My book is going to be about twenty chapters long and will include approximately 50,000 words. My computer is a cluttered mess of documents and files. I'm swimming in a sea of books and magazines marked with quotes and references and never the one I want at hand.

Not a comforting environment for someone who is a disorganized perfectionist.

We came home last night from six beautiful days in Tennessee - a week long distraction. I lost six days of writing time and now the rest of my week is bulging with have-to's - two graveyard shifts at work, hosting a marriage study, a birthday party, soccer games, in-laws coming over...

Funny how the topic I'm writing on (the captivity of activity and the bondage of busyness) is what I'm having to battle myself.