On Being a Couch Rebel

Bottom line: I wrote a story about stepping out of my comfort zone, and it's going to be included--along with 85 other, similarly-themed stories--in CausePub's Kindle ebook* Couch Rebels, which will be available for purchase through Amazon in three days, on Wednesday, August 14th. I'd like to invite you to purchase a copy for the same reason I'm going to purchase a copy...for the same reason I got involved in the project to begin with:

Every copy sold will provide clean water to 3 people in Africa via Blood:Water Mission. The goal of this Cause is to sell 15,000 copies and impact 45,000 lives.

This is my first experience with CausePub (a for-profit crowd-book-publishing company that partners with nonprofits to help them achieve specific goals within specific causes), and Couch Rebels will be CausePub's first book. So, I'll be honest: there are many things I don't know. I haven't seen the finished product, and I have no idea how many copies of Couch Rebels will be sold or if the goal of the Cause will be met.

What I do know, again, is that every copy sold will provide clean water to 3 people in Africa via Blood:Water Mission.

What I do know is that 50%+ of all sales will go directly to the cause for as long as copies are sold.

I know that 20% of sales for the first six months will be divided among authors. I've prayed about this and want to pledge: 50% of my personal, author royalties will go directly to Africa Inland Mission to benefit the Owens Family**. (I have not spoken with the Owens family about this.)

Finally, I know that the more copies sold this Wednesday, August 14th, the better. You would bless in signing up to buy the book here.

The irony in my asking you to buy a book about stepping out of one's comfort zone is this: asking you to buy something...anything...is outside of my comfort zone! I wouldn't ask you to do it if I didn't believe there to be great potential, here, to make a difference. Thank you for your time and consideration.

*If you don't own a Kindle but have an Android phone or tablet, iPad, iPhone, Mac, Windows 8 PC or tablet, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone, you can read the book using a free Kindle app.

**To read more about the Owens family and their work in Kenya, click here.

Prayer Meeting of the Blogosphere (2)

Welcome to the second, old-fashioned prayer meeting in this space. I'm so glad you're here! I didn't know what would happen when I called an impromptu prayer meeting, last week. I was deeply encouraged by the response.

 
I want to update you, first of all, regarding my last prayer request. My brother and dad made it home safely. My brother went to church on Sunday and has worked some, this week. Thank you for praying for him. God heard your prayers and continues to answer them.

I believe with all my heart in the power of prayer.

This week, I'd like to request prayer for my son Cade's stepmom. I don't want to go into a lot of details but don't think she'll mind my sharing: she sustained an injury at work back around the holidays, and she hasn't yet recovered fully. 

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for Tabitha and her kind heart. She's been so good to Cade; thank You, and thank You for the example she's been to all of us during the long months since her injury: so patient, Father. I ask, now, for her healing: whether instantaneous or through the wisdom and work of her doctors. I ask that she'll soon be able to live her life more fully. Please grant her, Jason, and Cade a safe trip home from vacation.

I lift up anyone reading this right now, Father, who struggles in living peaceably with someone else. Some relationships are dangerous, toxic, and best avoided; others are healthy but maybe a little uncomfortable or unconventional. Give us the wisdom, Father, to know the difference. Thank You for Tabitha's and my genuine love for one another. What a wonderful and constant reminder to me that You can redeem any situation into which I invite You; thank You for being the Great Redeemer! In Your Son's name I pray, amen.

Now it's your turn! Would you like to participate in an old-fashioned prayer meeting of the blogosphere? Here are some ideas:

• You can pray about my prayer request.
• You can share a prayer request by means of a comment.
• You can share a prayer request on your personal blog and direct me to your post by means of a comment.
• You can pray about a participant's prayer request.
• You can write a prayer about my, your, or someone else's prayer request (in comments hither or yon, on your blog, etc.). If your prayer is somewhere other than this place, please direct me as you can and will.
• You can join in praying my or someone else's prayer.
• You can share an update regarding a prayer request you've made here, in the past.

Thank you so much for being here! I hope to see you for next Friday's prayer meeting, if not before. (As our family preacher Rob would say: I'll see you here, there, or in the air!)

Post #500: Lie to Me

I told my parents and Jim that my friend wouldn't call back. I told them, and I'll tell you: one of his goats had kids, when we were kids, and he said I could have it when it was big enough to leave its mother. One day I went to visit that kid, and it was gone. When I asked about it, he said someone had made a great offer, and he'd needed the money. I was furious.

Months later, I still hadn't dropped it, and he told me the truth: he hadn't sold the kid; it had died. He hadn't wanted to make me cry.

And aren't we still so much, as adults, who we were at, say, twelve? Thirteen? I'm so much the same. Life has given me plenty of opportunities to buck up, to toughen up, but I'm still as easily broken as ever I was. My own brother avoids me on his worst days.

***

"I need you to call me every couple days," I tell my thirteen-year-old. "I'm not like your dad. My nerves. You know," I say.

"I know," he says. 

"And when you call, say nice things like how much you miss me and how you can't wait to see me again," I tell him.

"But, Mom," he asks, "won't you wonder if I'm just saying those things because you told me to?"

"Not at all," I tell him. "Lie to me. Tell me you miss me so much you can hardly sleep."

He laughs.

***

The phone rings. My friend. I close my eyes and float on his accent, his voice, as he tells me his hard truths. "I don't like what you're saying to me," I tell him, "but I'm so glad you called me back. I love you."

"I know," he says. "I love you, too."

"I want to pray with you," I tell him ("Alright," he says.), "but I'll probably cry."

"Don't cry," he says. "Everything's ok." 

 
Later, I stare into the dark and think to myself: we've changed, but we haven't. His words broke me, but not to the point I couldn't pray. And he didn't try to protect me with lies, at all, up to the point of his saying everything's ok. Let's just call that what it was: a bunch of crap.

***

The phone rings. My son. I close my eyes and float on his ever-deepening voice. "Hi, Mom," he says. "I miss you."

"Having trouble sleeping?" I ask.

"Totally," he says. I can hear his smile.

***

Struggling a little this week, Friends. I feel burdened for several loved ones, and I miss my big kid, whom I haven't seen since Friday. He goes on vacation with his dad every year, and every year I wonder if I'll handle it better than the year before, but--sure as clockwork--I always start crying come Day #4 or #5: not out of concern, just the missing.

Also, I seem to have gotten myself a mystery illness of the sore-throat variety for which--as of today--I'm taking antibiotics that may or may not help, according to the first general practitioner I've seen, I think, in at least six years.

I hope to see you here on Friday, regardless, for a second virtual (but old-fashioned) prayer meeting. Just in case this is spiritual warfare, I don't want to let the enemy win.

In the meantime, and on the heels of reading Beth's brave post on deconversion and Shelly's thought-provoking post on honest feedback, I think I'll continue asking myself: how well do I receive truth? (I have a ways to go, I suspect.)

This has been my 5ooth post in this space. Thank you for being here with me.

Nine Months

I tried my best to keep him a little baby. I hardly ever put him down. I think he experienced "tummy time," like, twice. I'm not even kidding.

It took him about eight months, but seems he wised up all at once. There was this week in early July during which he started doing pretty much everything: sitting up, crawling, pulling up, waving, saying words other than Mama and Dada (Yeah! Hi!). He cut his first tooth that week and very abruptly gave up his pacifier.

I was distressed. He knew it and laughed at me. I swear he talks with his eyes: "C'mon, Mama. It's cool. It's fun. I'm fun. You didn't really think you could keep me a baby, did you?"

He turned nine months old on August 2nd. He has four teeth, now, and can navigate the walker like nobody's business. If I hand him a peeled banana or half a peanut-butter sandwich, he knows what to do with it.

He loves to sing along. I maintain that he has the heart of a great singer and will outsing all of us, one day.

He crawls into the playroom to play with his sisters. (I have to watch the sisters like a hawk, though; Clementine tried to pick him up and put him in the doll stroller, and Charleigh put a drum on his head.)

My body is his bed. He's never really fallen asleep without being held except for in his car seat, every once in awhile, in a moving vehicle. He prefers my body to the car seat. Oftentimes--after he's fallen asleep--I can lie him down on my way to bed, but he's always in my arms when I wake up. I can almost never recollect how he got there.

It's the sweetest thing: often, I'll be carrying him around, and he'll just lie his head over on my shoulder or chest and go to sleep. Just like that. Gone.

He hugs back, now, and kisses. Strokes my arm. Holds on.

He's my main man.

This has been merely a record of where we are: not a series of parenting recommendations. I'm a tremendous baby spoiler and have co-slept blissfully with all of my babies. I've pretty much always done what feels right and good to me, and I haven't paid no nevermind to what other parents do or think. We've been extremely happy. The key, in my humble opinion, to happiness as a parent is to do your own deal and hold your head up high.

Family Vacation 2013: East Tennessee

When several families in our small group started kicking around the idea of camping for a long weekend in East Tennessee, we knew we'd be in if at all possible. I mean, that's home to us. They ended up settling on a weekend that worked perfectly in ways we couldn't have forseen when we started planning. (Don't you just love it when you catch just a glimpse of how the Lord works?)

We drove south a couple days before our friends so as to spend some time in Knoxville with Jim's mama, whom we hadn't seen since Easter. The children and I met Uncle Bernie and Aunt Renee for lunch one day and my brother's wife just after; she was returning to my brother in Baltimore and traded me her older son for her younger.

Our East Tennessee experience was unique in that we didn't visit my home county at all but, instead, camped in Pigeon Forge and tooled around its surrounding areas. I didn't use my camera as consistently as I usually do and failed to get a good photo of the cabins where we stayed. Thank goodness Rachel got one, because I really want you to marvel with me that we slept seven people in ours.

Photo by Rachel Huff. This is Ray, who opened his Indiana home to us earlier this summer. Can you believe we had seven people in one of those cabins? It was like a clown car, Man.

I discovered that East Tennessee as a "tourist" can be incredibly expensive. Holy cow. We'll be eating in for awhile. I don't have any regrets but don't think we'll return to Dollywood with little children...or big children, for that matter, unless they're up for roller coasters. The little kids had fun, but I could've taken them to ride kiddie rides elsewhere for a whole lot less money.

I did love spending time with my parents, who have season passes to Dollywood. I spent more time with Dad than Mom, who enjoys the coasters and wanted to ride them with Jim and the boys.

I think my favorite Dollywood moment was watching The Little Engine That Could with Rachel (and with the others, but especially with Rachel). It could've been better only if Ray's wife Daleen had been with us. It's a long story, but I chose a Little Engine theme for Rachel's and Daleen's (joint) baby shower almost four years ago. It was surreal to be far away from our home in Virginia, watching that play with Rachel and her tow-headed tractor man.

I loved the no-pressure vibe among our group of twenty-five. We broke up into smaller groups for most of the weekend, each family making its own decisions in terms of activities. Here's the only shot of everyone:

Ray and Daleen, who originally hosted our small group, live with their children near Indianapolis, now. The rest of us--and three other families, besides--gather in Jim's and my log cabin every week during the school year. Five of our seven families have been studying together for at least five years, but I've grown so attached even to those who've joined very recently. I hold in my heart the wild hope that our children will grow up together.

Here are some more photos from our trip:

That's my nephew CJ, holding Chip.

Little Pigeon River Near Cades Cove

Cades Cove

The Track, Pigeon Forge

The Man and Me (because I'm wilder than you think I am). :)

Old-fashioned Prayer Meeting of the Blogosphere

I was sitting on the floor, this morning, folding clothes and thinking (again) about the Church of the Blogosphere. People drop out of it like flies, but I'm in it for good because I blog (print and bind) for my kids, and I'm part of the Church. I take it with me wherever I go.

I was thinking: what I'm missing in the Church of the Blogosphere is an old-fashioned prayer meeting. Maybe they're out there and I don't know it, but--even if that's the case--there can never be too many prayer meetings, so I'm starting one here and now, and you're invited.

Every Friday, I'm going to share one of my personal prayer requests in this space, and then I'm going to write out a prayer that may or may not be related to my request. You're invited to participate in any way you see fit.

• You can pray about my prayer request.
• You can share a prayer request by means of a comment.
• You can share a prayer request on your personal blog and direct me to your post by means of a comment.
• You can pray about a participant's prayer request.
• You can write a prayer about my, your, or someone else's prayer request (in comments hither or yon, on your blog, etc.). If your prayer is somewhere other than this place, please direct me as you can and will.
• You can join in praying my or someone else's prayer.

I can't promise much, but I can promise this: if you share a prayer request, I'll lift it up. I don't need this to be big; I need this to be authentic. Where two or more are joined together, right? And even if--even if!--no one joins me, I'll have a record of my own prayer requests and prayers, and the Lord is so faithful.

So here goes.

Please pray for my brother's complete recovery. He had a second, permanent nerve stimulator inserted a week ago. His staples were removed, today, and he's riding home to East Tennessee for the first time since June 22nd.

Father, thank You that my brother's surgery went well. Thank you that the staples have been removed and that he's able to go home. Please give him and Dad safe travels. Please continue to heal my brother's body so he will be able to live life more fully and with less medication.

I lift up to You anyone reading this, right now, with a loved one who's unwell. I ask You to draw this reader to Yourself. It's so hard, Father, to watch a loved one suffer; I pray Your peace that passeth all understanding, no matter the situation. Help this reader to release his or her loved one into Your care. Help this reader to extend practical sorts of help as appropriate but not internalize the problem and allow it to take him or her hostage, emotionally. In Your Son's name I pray, Amen.

Now it's your turn! Would you like to participate in an old-fashioned prayer meeting of the blogosphere? (See the bulleted list above for some ideas!)

12 Things I Learned in July 2013

1) The Greater Richmond Area includes at least one (amazing) blueberry farm: Swift Creek Berry Farm. Blessed to be included in Margie's and Phillip's blueberry-picking adventure.

 2) Blueberry bushes don't have brambles. Laugh if you will, but I was just as surprised as I was the day (fourteen years ago) I learned that pineapples grow out of the ground and not on trees.

3) Every now and then, a 35mm lens really is just the thing. No regrets over the purchase.

Charleigh and Andrea

4) Children really do grow up in the blink of an eye. Seems like just yesterday that I was celebrating my twenty-first birthday with my cousin-sister Andrea. Brandi would've been almost three years old then, but we didn't know her, yet. Andrea adopted Brandi into our family when she was five. She turned twenty-one this month.

Little Brandi, Me, and My Friend Gabby. 1998ish.

The Birthday Girl

 

5) It's possible for a baby to not only cut a tooth but also start sitting up, crawling, pulling up, and saying several new words all within the span of a week. I don't remember my other children's developing in a rush like that. (Stop the clock! Wahhhh!)

5) National Harbor, Maryland (eight miles south of D.C.) is a fascinating place to visit and offers a carousel; J. Seward Johnson's massive, heart-stopping sculpture The Awakening; and lots of fun shopping/eating possibilities. I was reading, tonight, that it offers, also, a children's museum; I look forward to returning.

Proud of this: my photo of The Awakening. I could've looked at this sculpture all day. (I wanted to marry it to the Awaking Muse  in Schaumburg, IL!)

 

Jim and His Peeps at National Harbor

6) God's timing is perfect. Including the following photo as a quiet reminder to myself. (I know what I mean.)

7) I'm a fan of the Gooch Dog. Yes. Yes, I am.

 

8) Somehow, my dad has morphed into an excellent kid wrangler. This is a puzzling--but beautiful!--development.

9) The secret to life with little kids is...big kids.

My Nephew CJ with Clementine

 

 10) I love a testifying magician. Terry Evanswood (at Wonderworks in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee) shares boldly with his audiences that all true magic is the work of Jesus Christ.

11) I read Adele Geras's Troy this month as part of what I call Cade's and my "Mommy and Me Book Club." Great book. I was reminded of so much of what I'd forgotten about Greek mythology, and let me just say: I'm thankful to believe in and serve one God: a non-fickle, non-trifling God. And I'm thankful that He reveals Himself to me in ways that stick. Can I get an amen?

12) According to the girls' National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of Dinosaurs, there never was such a thing as a Brontosaurus. The "Brontosaurus" fossils paleontologists discovered belonged to a dinosaur that had already been named Apatosaurus. How did I miss this? And was Fred Flintstone eating Apatosaurus burgers, then?