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.

Facebook Friends - Do you have any?

    If Facebook were a country, it would be the fourth largest and most populated in the world.

     At 350 million users to date, it surpasses the number of people in both the United States and Spain combined.


    If Facebook were my boyfriend, we would be the quintessential high school couple - since I've broken up with Facebook more times than I can count.

    I'm back for now. Wondering daily, Why are we still together? or better yet, Why am I looking at someones honeymoon pictures from Niagara Falls? I don't even know these people.


    Facebook is the number one social networking tool, used by everyone from the Fortune 500 businessman to grandparents. My reason for joining this social phenomena was to post my articles and blog posts and to keep my finger on the pulse of the fast-changing world of Christian publishing.

    What began with good intentions, quickly evolved into something different.


    My spare time, once used to garden, decorate, and make dinner a few times a week, soon became filled with incomplete sentences and cutesy comments. They call out to me like a siren's song and before long, my daily to-do list crashes against the rocks.


    Before you begin to tell me how beneficial Facebook is and how many “friends” you have reconnected with, let me remind you what the definition of friend is.


    Friend: a person who is attached to another by feelings or affection.


    The Bible says, A friend loves at all times, a brother is born of adversity. Proverbs 17:17


    Clearly, love and affection are two fundamental characteristics of a friend. So, when you tell me you have six hundred and thirty-two friends, you might be deluding yourself. My husband likes to call them F.F.F.'s, or “Fake Facebook Friends.”


    Calling an unknown person who can read your daily one-liners a friend is like calling every male contact on your EHarmony page your husband.


    For the few months Facebook and I have been in this relationship, I've learned a few things I'd like to share with you:

Purpose  Be honest with yourself. Why are you using a social network? Good reasons like client contacts and keeping in touch with the kids can quickly become talking to ex-boyfriends, or investing what little free time you have watching lives of people you will probably never meet and who have little or no interest in you. Focus on the benefits and use it as a tool for good.

Precaution  It's always smart, when possible, to plan what you are going to post on your Facebook page for the day. Try not to shoot from the hip with pithy comments. You may think your sarcasm is funny, but often times, funny and sarcasm is lost in translation. Only share on Facebook what you're comfortable shouting in a crowded movie theater.

Patron  Don't be delusional. There is no possible way you can have five-hundred friends. Facebook-Friends should really be called Facebook-Acquaintances or Facebook-Patrons. A patron is a much better term for lookey-loos. A patron is a customer, client, or a regular guest. When you think of your networking base this way, it makes it much easier to keep yourself emotionally detached.

    As for me? For now, I will move forward in this on-again off-again relationship, while desperately clinging to my true beliefs.

     A real friend loves. A real friend sacrifices. A real friend takes time for me. And, out of the seven hundred and ninety four F.F.F.'s I have, only a handful are real.

It's Official!

Well friends, it's official. I may never clean my bathroom again.

Wasn't it enough that I have my own blog, three email accounts and a cellphone? Not to mention a husband, four children, part-time job, dog, cat and a LIFE - more than enough to distract me from my daily household chores.

Listen friends, like most of you, I am a people person, plain and simple. It's who I am, who God created me to be. People like me should never be tempted and given the ability to talk to a new friend in New York, New Jersey or Michigan at all hours of the day or night!?! It's like giving a candy bar to a two year old!

After two weeks of listening to the accolades of Facebook by my so-called friends at my writer's group (the same group of people who told me I just had to start my own blog, then wonder why I don't have time to write my book), I finally took a moment and spent more than three seconds there.

And you know what?


I LOVE FACEBOOK!


So, it's officially official. I may never clean my bathroom again. For those of you who visit my home, this is your warning, use it at your own risk.

AND... if you want to stay on my nice friends' list, don't breathe a word to me about Twitter, Gaia, Friendster or Myspace...not.. a.. word!