I love Christmas. I love the festive decorations and twinkling lights. I love what the season represents and witnessing the giving nature in people flourish during this special time of the year. It’s so heartwarming to pull into a drive-thru and find out the person before you paid your bill or to go to a restaurant and discover someone paid for your meal. As I stood in line at the grocery store one day, I spotted a lady digging through her purse while the cashier waited for her to pay. A gentle nudging dropped into my mind that I should…
Thanksgiving at a Glance
With achy feet and tired backs from all the cooking and baking, we exhale a sigh of relief and fall on the sofa. Thanksgiving Day is over, and we have a slight reprieve before another festive family gathering takes place. Take a look at the behind-the-scenes work goes into making these holidays extra special. We sort through recipes for those festive dishes only prepared during the holidays. Make a grocery list, a long list, of all the ingredients needed to make each one. The grocery store is like a major highway with no traffic lights. Long lines at the cash register…
Thanksgiving Traditions & Recipe Swap
Thanksgiving Day will be here in less than two weeks. I don’t know about you, but my mind kicked in gear about the middle of October when I began decorating for Fall. I’ve already started planning for our family Thanksgiving festivities. Of course, we’ll have the traditional smoked turkey, honey-baked ham, dressing, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, cut corn, black-eyed peas, Scandinavian salad (my husband’s favorite), and hot rolls. Dessert is top on my list of favorites. Tell the truth; sometimes we’d rather have dessert first! Right? I must admit to dabbling in some of the…
Make It Happen
“Oh, Loretta, you should make a book out of all your poems,” a friend said. “Who? Me?” My hands grew sweaty, and I choked back feelings of incompetence. Fear gripped my throat, and a shaky voice slipped from my lips. “Ah, thanks, but I don’t know anything about publishing. I just write poems when I feel inspired, and I share them with family and friends.” The thought of putting my poems into book form almost made me hyperventilate. They weren’t your typical prose, nor were they written with literary intelligence. I just wrote the way the words flowed from my…
Writing – Keep on Keeping On
Congratulations to DiAnn Mills on her new release Burden of Proof! I’m especially excited to have DiAnn as a guest on my blog today. It’s a very special occasion – Launch Day for Burden of Proof! Here’s DiAnn… Writing is a series of keep on keeping on. Our minds are geared toward the latest project while balancing social media and staying up to date on the craft and changes in the publishing industry. We waken at 3 a.m. with a forgotten deadline looming over us like a bad case of flu. Yikes! How did I miss that! We bolt from…
Expect More
What does it mean when I say, “Expect more?” Doesn’t that phrase sound greedy? Yes, if you look at it in the sense of material things, but I’m talking about us, as human beings. It’s easy enough to give up on commitments, goals, and promises, but don’t ever give up on yourself. You are created in the image of God. You are a child of the King. You belong to a royal priesthood. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. Life in the earthly sense has a way of kicking you when you’re down. Your countenance plummets,…
Start, Move, Grow
Most everyone who has the desire to become successful in an occupation must follow the start-move-grow plan. Without starting there’d be no reason to move forward in the learning process and grow in your gift. We must find the one thing that captures our attention and makes us happy. Take me, for instance, when I felt the call to become a writer, I sat at my computer and let my fingers dance across the keyboard. It never occurred to me there were different methods of writing and specific styles in punctuation, like The Chicago Manuel of Style or The Bedford…
Are You a Deep Thinker?
I am a deep thinker. I ponder all types of scenarios. Like, what story would that single tree surrounded by an open field tell if it could talk? How many storms did it withstand? How many people sought relief from the summer heat under the shade of its branches? What crops grew in the field around it? What’s the story behind an abandoned home left to rot? Did the owners pack up to travel and never returned? Was the family called to the mission field and found peace in a new land? What about the rickety rocking chair or the…
What If
When the first serious thoughts of writing for the public’s view entered my mind, I was exhilarated but nervous. Questions attacked my thoughts while the fear of failure twisted in my gut. The what if’s repeated in my head like a broken record (if anyone remembers when record players were the thing). I trudged forward with caution and tested the waters. It wasn’t until I’d completed my first novel and entered it into multiple contests that I began to find the answers to my harassing questions. The feedback from judges gave me insight into where I needed improvements which helped…
Balanced or Teetering
Have you ever walked a balance beam or tried to walk a curb without falling off? I have, and I can tell you gymnastics is not my calling in life. Just the thought of walking on a log across a river or encountering a swinging bridge over a waterfall shoots my stress level off the charts. Physical balance is one thing, but what about weighing the scales of life? Is it balanced or is one side heavy and weighted? For the record, there’s never a dull moment in my life with four grown children, twelve grandchildren, and aging parents, but…
