Thoughtful Thursdays

Thank you, Lord, for all You do for me. For sending Jesus to save me, for knowing me from eternity, for setting me on this path, surrounding me with friends and family, and holding my hand all through it. Thank you, Lord, for placing me in a loving family, one that...

I'm sitting here with a little boy climbing all over me. Sitting on the arm of my chair. Hanging from my neck. Inching his finger closer and closer to my keyboard. When I send him one of those Mommy looks, he flashes those cute little dimples of his and giggles in...

I've realized something over the last two weeks: I can't do it all. I know, right? SHOCKER. Call the local news! Roseanna White cannot do everything! 😉 But seriously, this was a big deal for me. This realization that I have finally reached my saturation point, that...

I'm going to try to share news in a way that doesn't tell what I'm not at liberty to tell yet. =) Let's see how I do. This much I think I can say: In the last two weeks, I've gotten two offers for book contracts. One for a three-book deal. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm...

We love to torture our kids. And by torture I mean tickle them, "eat" them up, chase them around, pretend our hand is a monster . . . you know. Torture. The sweet kind. I imagine that's a fairly universal love of parents the world over, and it's no great secret why....

Round about five and a half years ago, my family started a church. Why? Because we felt the conviction to worship on the Sabbath, and there were no sabbath-keeping churches around whose doctrines we believed in. So we became a branch church of a Seventh Day Baptist...

Back when I worked in the Admissions Office of my college, I made friends with one of the (non-student) staff who manned the office. Patricia was a total sweetheart, and we had many a laugh together over the four years I worked there. At 6'1" tall, Patricia towered...

Am I the only one out there slightly amazed that the ACFW conference is only a week away? I knew it was coming. I had in fact thought, for a while, it was coming this week rather than  next. But I've been so focused on finishing my Revolutionary War novel that...

First, I want to thank everyone who shared their story yesterday of where they were on 9/11. If you haven't yet, I'd love to hear from you on yesterday's post. Tomorrow I'll be asking for folks to share the tales of heroism and miracles they've heard--from the small...

As I wrote up the posts about the fun time I had in Oregon, picking and choosing what I ought to share and what I ought not, it got me thinking about a few things of the utmost importance to all of us--and how to balance them. The first, as my post's title would...

Though I don't have organizational skills that would wow anyone, I'm a planner. A goal-setter. And someone who doesn't often budge on those goals. When I say I'll have a book to the 75% mark by August 14, for instance, I do whatever it takes to hit that point in the...

I have a family of drivers. My husband goes for drives to clear his head. My sister was one of those kids who begged her way behind the wheel on our farm vehicles as soon as she could see over it. My mother-in-law has a list of dream-cars. My dad is the proud owner of...

Last night, as we were flipping through the TV, we came across a new-ish show. It's another of those reality shows, this one following an archaeologist and writer who specializes in symbols. Who, naturally, is jetting around the world in search of lost legends. Like a...

In a few short weeks, I'm going to be hopping a cross-country flight and winging my way to Oregon for the Oregon Christian Writers Conference. This will not be my first conference, or my first solo flight. But it's my first time flying so long at all, and my first...

"You crown the year with Your goodnessAnd Your paths drip with abundance." ~ Psalm 65:11 Yesterday, when I sat down for some much-needed reading and praying, I read Psalm 65, and this verse really struck me. In church last weekend we were talking about how this has...

I'm finally giving in. After years of refusing to label myself (and not really needing to), I' ve found myself wanting a tagline. Primarily because I need to upgrade my website and want something to put under my name, LOL. But I could use some help. Who's up for...

Yesterday started like any other. Namely, with the kids calling, "Mommy! Mooooommmmmyyyyyy! I ready to get uuuuuupppppp!" Followed by getting them each what felt like 10 breakfasts, blogging, torturing myself with exercise . . . you know, the norm. When I finally got...

How many times in life do we get do-overs? Do we get to fix the things we've done wrong and make them better? How many times do we have the chance to rebuild, to repair, to refine before anyone sees our first attempt? I know there are many times I wish we could do...

You know how it goes. You're going through your day, probably thinking about the twelve things you're juggling at that particular moment. In the back of your mind you've been turning something over. And over. And over. Not exactly worrying, not exactly fretting (or...

Thanks to the wonders of Facebook, I think many of us get to connect with old friends we otherwise wouldn't see, right? It can be super awesome to exchange even a few lines with a buddy from high school you haven't spoken to in a decade. It is for me, anyway. =)...

As I'm doing some basic research for a new story idea, I wanted to figure out what my heroine would call the Lord. She comes from a congregationalist, rather Puritan background, so I started by looking up Puritan prayers. And wow, am I glad I did. These prayers are so...

Happy Cinqo de Mayo, everyone! We'll be having enchiladas and arroz con leche tonight. (Homeschool, you know. It's educational, LOL.) Now onto the actual blog. 😉 Last night I had the honor of visiting the women's group at Trinity Assembly of God in Midlothian,...

I'm not a worrier. I am, in fact, convinced there's a worry gene, and that my sister got it double strength, leaving me with a lack. And sometimes it definitely feels like a bad thing, this no-worrying. It makes me lax about things I should be on top of. I...

Salvation. Something of the utmost importance to any believer, and of the utmost relevance as Easter nears. Turn on any contemporary Christian show and you'll come across the phrase "to be saved." It's become (dare I say so?) a cliche. Saved. It means you're a...

There I was, innocently putting Rowyn into the car at the library. Minding my own business, moving a bag out of the way so he could climb over to his seat. Doing it that way avoid him entering on the street-side. Then, from out of nowhere, came a voice. My mother's...

This might sound like a strange blog post for someone who's still jigging along one of life's mountaintops, right? And in a way it is. But it's something that's come to mind from various sources this last week, so let's see where it goes . . . Two of my good friends...

I've been reading through the Psalms lately, which is my go-to place in the Bible when I've finished up another book and am not sure where I want to head next. I know they're a go-to for many other people too, and the one I read today hammered home why. David (and the...

As many of you know, about four weeks ago I pressed "send" on a manuscript submission. Exhaling a major sigh of relief, I then focused on my son's birthday. Went to church the next day. Got sick that evening. For the next three weeks, I battled infection and flu and...

In the course of writing my Annapolis story, I read through a lot of Poor Richard's Almanack, filled with fun proverbs by Ben Franklin. I had a secondary character who quoted him constantly, and it was a ton of fun to try to weave in my favorites of his adages through...

So, we're sick. The kids and I came down with a rather nasty cold/flu thing on Saturday p.m., and we're still wiped from it. Xoe has barely budged from the couch for the last five days, and both the wee ones are coughing to beat the band. Naturally, things take a...

I've got a lot to do today to meet my self-appointed deadline and get a manuscript ready to submit to a requesting editor by tomorrow. A task which would have been easy, had my critique partners not all agreed the ending needed work. I knew it needed work--but it...

So, the other day, when my kids were with a grandmother for the first half of it, I achieved some amazing results in the realm of word count. When I'm actively working on a novel, my goal for every day is to write 2,000 words. Now, some days this is like pulling...

There are days when my prayers are all supplication. When I barely remember to thank the Lord for anything before launching into my litany of things I need His help with. Most days, I try to balance it out, to start and end my prayer time with thankfulness, with...

Does anyone like to wait? I don't think I've ever met such a crazy person. I'm not talking about being patient in a long line or restraining yourself from honking your horn in traffic. I'm talking being really, truly joyful as you put down the phone or close out the...

Most of my readers know me well enough to realize I have two small kids. Xoe's 5, Rowyn's 3 next month. One of my greatest frustrations is that it seems that three minutes can't pass without someone screaming, "Mommy!" Followed by some demand, request, complaint, or...

Once upon a time, I was a New Year's Resolution girl, back in the day when I had nothing but time in which to contemplate this stuff, and diaries to write it in. My first real set was when I was 13--I resolved to finish the novel I was working on, and I did. So along...

I've been having a bit of difficulty getting into my latest work-in-progress. Probably because it's been nine months since I wrote the first three chapters, and rather than day-dreaming about this one during those months, I was hard at work on Jewel of Persia. But...

Do you believe in Santa? I still do. Well, I mean, I don't expect a mountain of presents under my tree from a jolly old elf. But I still believe in the idea of Santa Claus, in the ideal of Santa Claus. I still believe in that magical something that surrounds this most...

When Xoe was a year old, her grandfather came in for Christmas (he lives in South Caroline) and brought his new girlfriend--a super-sweet woman who was very excited to meet Bill's granddaughter. They came armed with gifts. Lots of them. The prettiest? A gorgeous...

I've noticed a trend lately. In action shows/movies, whenever bad guys are chasing the good guys through a public location, they always (and I mean always--I've counted at least three of these scenes in stuff I've watched the last two weeks) duck through some shiny,...