Category Archives: Uncategorized

Madonna-ing My Book

Posted on July 30, 2013 by caverns of my mind

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It has often been said that Madonna is the Queen of Reinvention as she has managed to reinvent herself time and again, continuing to hold her original fan base and finding a way to grab newbies.  This means she learns how to take on a new approach in image and audience, and I need to do the same.  I need to Madonna.

That’s right.  I just made a celebrity into a verb.  I can do that sort of thing because I’m a writer.  Shakespeare made stuff up all the time.  Comparing myself in any way to Shakespeare may seem like sacrilege, but that’s part of my point.  Reinventing myself means I may need to add a little sass and sauciness (as the bard would say) to my approach.

Don’t worry.  I don’t plan to strap black party hats onto my bosom and vogue or anything, and in fact that would be quite inappropriate for my target audience, but I’m going to be bold and reach out with a new confidence to them.  As far as I can tell, adults are the ones who have been reading my book, which is great because of its nostalgia factor, but the feelings and emotions of the book are better suited for current middle school girls, which keeps my book more relevant to them than adults.  This also means they are more likely to want to pass on a recommendation to others, since it is more impactful to them, thus keeping my book in the spotlight.

Of course, I don’t really hang out with a lot of girls in middle school, so I need help from those adults to pass the info on to daughters, cousins, young sisters, neighbors, random kids in the grocery store- whatever.  That’s part of being bold: asking people to spread the word, like asking you to share this link with someone you think might enjoy my book Memoirs of an Ordinary Girl: The Middle-ish Ages.

Another part of reinvention is that my confidence in my product must be obvious. Drew Hotchner is one of my favorite young women ever, even if she is a fictional character, and I’m proud of the witty voice in my book, so I need to create awareness of this, probably by sharing short excerpts or one-liners, like the one a friend of mine brought to my attention that other day as one of her favorites:

“After all the time that had passed with Danny and I flirting and calling each other, I was still no closer to making him my boyfriend than Milli Vanilli were of singing their own songs.”

See, that’s good stuff, so I’m going to start tweeting, facebooking, and tumbling this stuff until I’ve completely Madonna-ized my book by giving it the attention it deserves.

Rant and self pep talk complete.  I feel much better.  Carry on.

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Serenity Now!

Posted on July 29, 2013 by caverns of my mind

Once upon a time, nine years ago, my husband and I bought our house with the anticipation that we would slowly renovate it to fit our grand vision.  We stripped wallpaper and painted.  We extirpated carpet and tiled. Lots of that sort of thing. Slowly it came to fit our dream, some parts more slowly than other parts, and in all honesty, we still have a few rooms to go.  In all of this, the largest and slowest endeavor both physically and emotionally was our master bathroom.  This bathroom is a symbol of patience and not giving up, no matter how hopeless something seems.

I wish I'd gotten a picture before I destroyed the old wallpaper.

I wish I’d gotten a picture before I destroyed the old wallpaper.

A few nights ago, we slept in our master bedroom for the first time in the nine years we’ve been in the house.  Being able to do this was contingent upon completing the bathroom because of the mess renovation can cause.  We figured any mess going on in the bathroom would come out into the bedroom and decided we would wait until the bathroom was complete.

Why yes, the tile is a peachy-pink!

Why yes, the tile is a peachy-pink!

First I stripped the peachy and flowery wallpaper (I despise wallpaper!) almost as soon as we moved in.  We picked colors and I painted the bedroom and bathroom to match.  Then we realize the bathroom needed more than just a new color. For an example of why we needed to pretty much gut the whole thing and start fresh, we had a seven foot countertop with just one sink.  About six years ago we ripped out the old tile, the bathtub, and the countertop with single sink.  Then we realized we needed to replace the walls around the bathtub because they had become moldy.  A few years later, because we only had limited time together to work on such a major project, we reframed an enormous bathtub and retiled the room.  Somewhere in that time I had found an amazing deal on the most beautiful red glass vessel sinks (two of them) with antiqued bronze fixtures.  Then not long after that, Robert suddenly found himself with more time to work on the bathroom, but that was because he had lost his job, so we had no money to work on the bathroom, leading to a two year hiatus from the project.

We seriously ripped the room to bare bones and started over.

We seriously ripped the room to bare bones and started over.

At the start of June, we had an entire week together and a renewed bathroom fund and completed another huge part of the project- placing bamboo flooring on part of the walls and the ceiling. After that week we built our own vanity for the sinks over whatever days Robert had off from work.  Last week, the project came to fully ripened fruition, and it looks like a spa resort according to some of our friends’ comments.

But all the time, those six years, that we struggled just to get tiny parts of the whole project completed were trying times.  We would get one project done and see a need to do something we had not thought of before.  Sometimes it felt like we would never get it done and I thought we might just have to cut corners in order to finish.  Fortunately, we never did that.  We held on to our vision and through massive amounts of patience and diligence, we got it done, finally.  So, the old adage is true- good things do come to those who wait, and wait, and wait…

Our serene spa bathroom

Our serene spa bathroom

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My Communication Breakdown

Posted on July 23, 2013 by caverns of my mind

I don’t believe there is such a thing as “sudden-onset” telephonophobia, but it happens slowly over time, and it happened to me.  (Actually, I thought I was just making this up, but I found an interesting little article covering the irrational fear of phone use- can’t tell if this is a real thing or not, but it proves others are curious about it)  You see, over time I have grown and nurtured an aversion to traditional telephone use.  I cannot pinpoint when it happened, but I went from being a lover of phones to an avoider of phones.  The irony is that in today’s world, at least here in the US, many of us are dependent upon our phones, but not for their traditional use of simply speaking to someone…unless maybe we could find an app to do that for us.

Back in the day I could talk on a phone until both ears hurt.  I’d stretch the phone cord as far as I could in order to get comfortable and settle in for a long conversation.  These were even the days before caller ID.  If the phone rang, you answered it; you didn’t even think about it.  Now if my phone rings, which fortunately it does not often do, I look first to see who is calling, and if I see the dreaded “unknown caller,” I refuse to answer, as if the person can somehow hurt me through the phone.  If that stranger thinks he of she has business with me, a voicemail message must be left.  I will screen it and decide if I deem the caller worthy or not.  I think this all stems from telemarketers.  There came a time when the only calls that ever came to our home phone were from people trying to sell kitchen knives, weight-loss miracle drugs, or magazine subscriptions.  We got rid of the home phone.

Sadly, I am ecstatic that I finally memorized my husband’s cell number.  He’s had that particular number for over three years now, and I just got to where I know I can dial it from memory if my phone should ever happen to die or get lost.  I used to have all my friends’ numbers memorized because I actually had to physically dial them and I could visually see the numbers on a key pad.  Now there are any number of ways, depending on how smart our smart phones really are, that we can dial people, but it rarely involves punching any numbers into the keypad.

But these days, I want some freedom, so I text.  Other than driving (NEVER text and drive!), so much can be done and multi-tasked while texting, that I cannot imagine all the time I wasted in my youth concentrating solely on a phone conversation.

All this came to mind because I was recently thinking about an old friend, my oldest friendship actually- the one I used to talk to for hours at a time- and I decided we needed to reconnect…on the phone.  Because I dislike phones so much, it is hard to get past that even when it’s for a dear friend.  I tend to make all sorts of excuses in my mind to not make a phone call.  It’s ridiculous really.  So, to hold myself to it, I scheduled a day and time (an appointment) to call her, figuring I’d be more likely to hold myself to it if I wrote it on my calendar.  It worked too.  I called her at our agreed upon time and we spoke for well over an hour, just like old times, and it was wonderful!  I might even work up the nerve to do it again sometime.

A totally non-related moment here, but when I was trying to find out if phone phobia was a real thing, I came across this little bit of irony, and I love irony:  “Sesquipedalophobia” is the fear of long words.

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My Sole Soul Mate

Posted on July 22, 2013 by caverns of my mind

Today is my husband’s 35 birthday and I wanted to do something special to show Robert how much I love him, but I’d already put this together last winter, and it still speaks perfectly of my love for this wonderful man. Happy birthday Robert! I’m loving growing old with you, yet never growing up.

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hands

With the passing of Thanksgiving I’ve really been assessing how and why I am thankful.  One of the most essential parts of my life, and one for which I am truly thankful, is also one I often take for granted: Robert, my husband, the love of my life.  After 12 1/2 years of marriage, I realize I fall in love with him more all the time.  If you’re doing the math and have read my previous posts, you’re probably wondering how a woman who just turned 29 (for the 7th time) could possibly have been married for so long. I must have been a baby.

Seriously, I don’t know what either of us were thinking when we decided to get married at 21 (Robert) and 22 (me- yes, I’m the “older woman” by nine months).  I was graduating from college one day, and two weeks and a day later, I…

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The Top Three Reasons Why People Read the Books They Read

Posted on July 18, 2013 by caverns of my mind

stack-of-books

I made it my most recent mission to find out the top three reasons people are drawn to read the books they read.  After all, I figured uncovering this information would give me insight as to how I can get my book out there and read by the masses. (Here’s one subtle hint… read Memoirs of an Ordinary Girl: the Middle-ish Ages– nah, subliminal messages are not in the top three, but check it out anyway!)

1) Someone recommended it, perhaps over and over again

2) You read at least one other work by the author and swore you would read everything else this person ever wrote

3) You were just browsing, but the cover and title of the book looked awesome

By the way, I did absolutely no solid data gathering or official research for this, so you are warned, but you’re also thinking, That’s a good list.  Maybe I should see what else she has to say.  She is obviously quite smart and beautiful.  So maybe I added the last part, but keep reading anyway.  My list was carefully constructed by my own experiences as a book nerd and by observations of other people.  I love observing other people… but not in that creepy, restraining order kind of way.  No worries.

Back to number one (by the way, these are in no particular order of importance).  There are many ways a book may be recommended to you.  Perhaps a friend read the book and just knew you would love/relate to it.  The name of the book just kept popping up everywhere you went, on everything you watched and in everything you read, and critics loved it.  Maybe you know or once knew the author and wanted to either be supportive or to find something wrong so you could knock him or her down a peg, finally!  In rarer instances, you may have found yourself forced into it (school assignment or a gun to your head).  But the bottom line is that recommendations do work, so I know I need to work on my marketing with word of mouth or buy a gun.  I’d rather go with the first (and I know some hippie tree hugger is going to find my sense of humor off on the whole gun thing, but then that person really needs to lighten up and go eat some granola).

Number Two.  I know from experience (and all the posts I see on Facebook, which are sure to be good research) that once I read something I love, or sometimes even just like, I suddenly want to read everything that person ever wrote.  Sometimes this leaves me feeling hollow inside and disappointed to the point of tears (I read the entire Twilight series because I was a high school English teacher and I wanted to see what was warping the minds of the girls in my classes, but please don’t tell anyone. I still have nightmares about sparkling vampires), but it’s usually a good investment of time.  And then, of course, a good book series (not Twilight) can pull us in to the point that we’re just not sure what we will do with our lives once we’ve read them all.

And then number three (hold on, let me scroll up to see what I wrote for that).  Ah, yes, the book cover.  “You can’t judge a book by its cover” is a load of poop.  We all know if the cover looks boring we do not want to read the book.  It’s a really nice idea to use for learning to get to know people before we make decisions about them, but there are way too may books out there waiting for me to read them to waste my time reading them all.  If I find myself in a situation where I do not already have the next book I want to read or I’m at my local public library that hardly ever has anything on my want to read list, I browse.  If the cover gets my attention, that’s a good start.  Then if the title is intriguing, I will read the back of the book or the book flap.  If I’m not hooked, I’m not going to read it.

So, there you have it, my not-so-scientific research list of why we read the stuff we read.  If you don’t agree, come up with your own list.

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Secular Writing or Not?

Posted on July 16, 2013 by caverns of my mind

A question I’ve struggled with almost since the moment I knew I wanted to be a writer is, “As a Christian, am I obligated to write only Christian material?”  Other questions stemming from this idea include: What are our limits in the realm of entertainment?  What is right or wrong for a Christian to create in any type of art?  Do I have some sort of responsibility to teach biblical principles in all my writings?  Am I allowed to just write for the sake of fun entertainment?  If we are to do all things to the glory of God, am I allowed to take any credit for my masterpieces?

This is an area that really held me back in my writing for a long time.  For one thing, I never considered myself to be in any standing to “preach” to people; I just want to write because I enjoy putting together words, weaving tales, and creating characters.

Since Drew Hotchner, my protagonist in Memoirs of an Ordinary Girl: the Middle-ish Ages, is modeled greatly after me and I grew up as a Christian, is it wrong that my book does not center around her Christianity?  Honestly, I wanted to create a lighthearted book with identifiable issues for almost any young girl, and when I was Drew’s age, I didn’t really live a good Christian life.  Drew isn’t a bad influence, but she isn’t making her own clothes at home school outings and preaching to her heathen friends.  The book is clean because that was important to me.

I’ll do my best to answer my own sub-questions here in order to see if I can answer the main one, but the truth is, I’m not sure if most my answers are correct.  You may disagree, and as long as you are nice about shaming me, you can even tell me where you think I’m wrong.

What are our (Christians) limits in the realm of entertainment? and What is right or wrong for a Christian to create in any type of art?  These two are closely linked, so I’ll deal with them together.   I certainly believe we must try to set good examples, but we also need to be real people.  That whole idea that all Christians are hypocrites comes from us trying to puff ourselves up to perfection when the truth is that we struggle with right living every day ourselves.  Showing we are trying but admitting we have vulnerabilities too is probably a good message to send, in all reality.  Telling dirty jokes on a stage or stripping are good places to draw a line.  We are not of this world, but we are living in it now, right?  So, keeping it clean and not using it to judge others might be a good rule.

Do I have some sort of responsibility to teach biblical principles in all my writings?  God gives us talents that He wants us to use to “further His kingdom.”  So, I should probably use my writing in some way to get the Good News out there, right?  And I do that sometimes right here on this blog.  Not everything I write has a spiritual message, but some of it does.  When I feel inspired, I write it.  Closely related to that is:

Am I allowed to just write for the sake of fun entertainment?  Again, if God has given me a writing talent, as a Christian I should probably try to see how I can use it to His glory, but I really don’t feel every single word I write has to be a bible lesson. But even secular entertainment often holds some biblical truths.  Most Christians have jobs that keep them in secular settings, because they are regular people who need to make a living and not everyone is called to be a preacher.  No matter what you do, whether it’s cleaning office buildings, putting out fires, cashing people’s checks at a bank, or being a lawyer (this one is more questionable though), you do it to the best of your ability and set an example.  And that leads to the last sub-question:

If we are to do all things to the glory of God, am I allowed to take any credit for my masterpieces?  I think we are not meant to brag about how great we are, but to give the thanks and credit to God for giving us the abilities we have.  I do proclaim self-awesomeness from time to time, and that’s probably wrong.  Of course, when I do I’m usually being silly anyway.  I do not take compliments well (I respond to them so very awkwardly), and I don’t really know how to brag about myself seriously anyway.

Did all, or even any of this, work to help answer my original question, “As a Christian, am I obligated to write only Christian material?”  I think so.  As long as I remain open to writing what I feel inspired to write, I’m sure from time to time those inspirations will be leadings from God to write something to help others.  And honestly, who is to say that Drew can’t be that vessel to teach others something good?  We should use good judgment in our entertainment, but I truly believe God wanted us to have enjoyment in our lives. If not, He never would have given us bacon (if you are Jewish, replace bacon with chocolate- both are big loves of mine).

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Here I Go Again

Posted on July 15, 2013 by caverns of my mind
On display at Chumley's in New York.

On display at Chumley’s in New York.

It has now been almost a year since I self published my book Memoirs of an Ordinary Girl: the Middle-ish Ages, sending it into cyber space, with no equipment, to mostly fend for itself.  I discovered later on exactly how cruel that was. The thing is… I went about it all wrong.  I wrote the book over the course of a couple summers off in the first few years I taught.  Then it just hung out on my computer for a few more years.

My first mistake:  Since I was a kid I had known I would write books.  Most of the people around me when I was younger knew that was my dream as well.  Then I grew up, moved a few times, started a new life, and I stopped talking to people about it because it wasn’t a practical way to make a living and I was writing less anyway.  I don’t mind bragging or talking about myself on social media or in my blog, but in the real world, I’m an introvert and I don’t really know how to bring up stuff like this.  Therefore, few people in my world had a clue that I wrote, let alone that it had been a lifelong dream to publish anything.  Since nobody knew, nobody was there to encourage me.  Not even my husband knew what this meant to me.  You’ve got to tell people your dreams.

My second mistake:  I felt like maybe as an adult I should forget holding onto childish dreams.  Many people claim to be “writers,” but that doesn’t mean they’re any good at it, and I was so afraid of finding out I was in that category.  I let go of my dream.  It was easier than putting myself out there and getting hurt.

My third mistake:  Impatience or desperation or cluelessness.  I do not think I made a mistake in self publishing an ebook, but I do feel I should have known more about it and all my options first.  I really wanted to publish my book with a “real” publishing firm and be able to smell its pages and hold it in my hands, but as I began to research the industry I was disheartened at how long it could take to see that happen and how the physical book publishing world seems to be changing so much that the odds of getting a book published that way seem even closer to impossible than they were previously.  Nobody takes unsolicited manuscripts anymore; you must have an agent.  The process of getting an agent is as time consuming and difficult as getting a publisher used to be, and then the agent must work on the publication submissions and rejections, and he or she gets a cut of whatever the writer makes, and the writer still has to do his or her own promoting. This whole process began to feel more and more hopeless, and I began to wonder who could get anything published these days.

That is when I began thinking more seriously of the ebook idea.  At least I could get my book “out there.”  It was doing no good to anyone just sitting on my computer, collecting virtual dust and reminding me of the dream I let die.  With the exponential growth of technological advancements, it seemed like my only reasonable and timely chance.  The thing with changing technology (which, by the way, is a big part of why the print publication industry is changing so rapidly now and becoming more difficult to navigate), is that ebooks are only now really catching on and the know how of it is still new.  And so, I had no know how.  I really didn’t have an inkling of where to begin and I only had my summer months off to figure it out, which is not much time in the grand scheme of things.  I consulted a friend of mine who had self published her own ebook (Sarah Reckenwald and Flames in the Midst) and she was quite helpful and supportive, but she was still just learning too.

I felt the pressure of my quickly fading summer, as if the small spark of hope to revive my dream was again fading as well, and I just went for it.  A week before I had to start back to school for my pre-planning week, I  launched Memoirs onto Amazon’s Kindle, of which there is absolutely nothing wrong.  The part that became my mistake, was that other than creating an author page on Facebook and spreading the word about my book via my own Facebook profile, I did little else.  Remember, I never talked it up to anybody, so for most people I knew, it came out of nowhere.  Also, I missed so many opportunities to hype it up ahead of time and to keep the excitement up because I did not know how to promote myself.  I just wanted it up and hoped people would stumble across it because I knew it was awesome.  But that is NOT how it works.

So now that I have no current day job, being a writer and a self promoter has become my day job, so I am taking a step back and learning more about putting myself out there.  I’ve only just begun; there is much to learn, but I’m excited to do it.  I will care for and nurture my book, and it will have a fresh chance.

I do get a decent following on my Facebook author page, considering I’ve done so little to promote myself.  I just launched into the world of twitter as @DrewHotchner (my protagonist), and am looking into other places to publish Memoirs, including the possibility of doing a print on demand option since I tend to get some people who are still afraid of technology but do want to read the book.  I’ll keep you all posted.

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Happy Hippie Poem

Posted on July 11, 2013 by caverns of my mind

I made some sort of suggestion on my blog the other day that I’d look for something a bit more cheerful since I declared this poetry week and posted a couple dark poems in a row.  I don’t know what I was thinking when I said that.  Apparently I had forgotten that in my poetry writing days, I wasn’t a very cheerful person.  Well, that’s not completely true either.  I just needed poetry writing therapy more when I was sad.

Oh, but I found one.  If I remember correctly, I wrote this one almost mockingly because a few of my family members told me all I ever wrote was depressing.  That means this is pretty cheesy, but I’m posting it because I am a woman of my word.  Please don’t hold the poem against me, and come back again.

make love not war

Hippie Poem

World peace starts here

within your heart and mind

Each individual person

can change a life

Put down your verbal weapons

and physical ones too

Give someone a hug

and a great big smile

Plant a tree outside

within the world’s back yard

Show how you care

and the love that you possess

Don’t pick a flower

but let it grow forever

Stretch out your arms

and express your love

-Terree L. Klaes-

1994

copyright

Ok, it isn’t that bad.  I have read worse.  I may have even written worse, and then crumpled it up into a ball and thrown it away or burned it.  But I’m sure some people will like it.  Back to the angsty teen stuff tomorrow.  I guess I just feel there is more substance in those poems of mine.

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All Men were Created Equal… All

Posted on July 4, 2013 by caverns of my mind

I’m reposting last year’s Independence Day edition, partly because I didn’t have time for a new one, and partly because I figured a year later I might get a different group reading it.

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The Declaration of Independence was written specifically to dissolve the relationship “the Colonies” had with Great Britain due to the tyrannical acts of George III, and the result was the birth of this great free nation we now call the United Stated of America.  We all know, or should know that from history class.  However, freedom and independence, for which many sacrificed and died to secure for us, should not be ideas only we can enjoy, but should be the general consideration of human beings to each other, everywhere.

No, the irony that Thomas Jefferson, the writer of this great document which gives us this day to celebrate our freedom, owned slaves is not lost on me.  He was a complex man, and though he owned several slaves, he actually was against slavery and wanted it to be abolished.  I remember learning something once about his attacking Great Britain for…

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My Own God Story

Posted on July 2, 2013 by caverns of my mind

For the longest time, I really only understood the idea of God doing great works for and through biblical figures.  Somehow it escaped me that He still does amazing works for and through people today… but you know, other people.  I’ve heard some seriously awesome (the word gets thrown around like kids throwing fits in Walmart, but in this case, it is more reverent and appropriate) stories from other people.

Then I started thinking, Why exactly do I feel these things cannot happen to me?  All these biblical figures were just people with a little faith.  The personal stories I’ve heard have come from ordinary people who just happened to exercise some faith.  God actually wants to bless us, but we tend to hold Him back by our own lack of faith in receiving what He has to offer.  Seriously, if God wants to give you something, take it.  Duh!  And yet, many of us often miss it.  Yes, us- I include myself.

This time, I believed and received.  It works! Go figure.

I went on a mission trip to Costa Rica last summer.  It was an eye-opening and wonderful experience, and I saw God in it.  However, when I felt called to go on that trip, Robert had just regained employment and we had fundraised so much for our favorite organization Love 146 before that, we really didn’t feel right reaching out for money from others to help pay my way for the trip, and we took care of about 2/3 of it ourselves.  Don’t get me wrong; it wasn’t a pride thing as much as it was that we were grateful for Robert’s job and figured we should give our thanks through this, because we finally could.

This January was the deadline to apply for this summer’s mission trips.  Robert had been so moved through my experience last year that he wanted to go back with me.  This time around, the price went up for individuals and we would have to pay for two instead of one.  And oh, yeah, we were already pretty sure I was going to be leaving the security of my job as a teacher, meaning that by the time the money would all be due (July 1), we would be on the last of that income.  Financially, this would be a stretch.

Then sometimes our plans get changed.  So few people applied for the trip to Costa Rica that it had to be cancelled, but there were openings in one of the trips to Guatemala.  For just a moment I thought it was a way to escape the financial burden and we could bow out gracefully.  But that thought was overridden by the possibility that the plan change was by God’s design and He really just wanted us to go to Guatemala instead, so we agreed to the change.  Good news: this trip was actually a few hundred dollars less per person, so that helped ease my worries, but not much.

I found myself continually stumbling across various pieces of faith literature that just happened to be about having faith to receive, following God’s plan, and believing that He will always provide.  Then one morning while I was getting ready for work, I had an epiphany (that is such a fun word).  I was looking at the “mountain” of not having an extra $3200 in my pocket, instead of telling the mountain to move, which is what we are told to do in Matthew 17:20.  It wasn’t an audible voice, but I felt in that moment that God told me to stop worrying because He was going to move that mountain and that we wouldn’t have to pay a penny.  One other important part of that scripture is that we can’t just think our mountain will move, but we have to tell it to move, so I began to thank God for providing the finances for our trip and I told Robert it would be all taken care of.

We made our list of people to send support request letters, typed them up, and mailed them out.  We were getting a steady flow of donations for a while and it was encouraging.

Then there was a lull.  We had made it just beyond the halfway mark, and then we had nothing else coming in.  Honestly, I began to feel a bit discouraged.  I was grateful for what had been provided, but since it didn’t seem like anything else was coming, I was bummed that we were going to have to put in our own funds after all.  I figured this meant God was going to provide a way for us to come up with that money for ourselves, but I had really hoped to have one of those amazing God stories to tell people about how God had told me the trip would be taken care of and all the money came flowing in.   Now it just seemed that although I was sure we would manage, the story just wouldn’t be as cool, and I wanted a way cool God story… like the ones other people have.

God also wanted me to have a story to tell others, a way to spread the word about how awesome He is and how He still makes amazing things happen today.

Through a friend of Robert’s family, someone I’ve never even met in person and only have the honor of knowing through Facebook, God provided $1800 in a really cool way.  She and her husband had given to their church to help plant a new church, but it just hadn’t worked out and the group had decided to not pursue it any further and each person could request their fair amount to go towards some other charity, and  this couple chose us for their portion.  Not only did we end up with enough money to cover our trip, but God provided beyond what was needed!  And now I have my own really cool God story I can tell people.

Then Robert and I had a conversation about faith just last night.  He was talking about how sometimes we (Christians in general) tend to forget about having faith for the simple little things in life because we focus on those big mountains.  I totally agree with him because I really wanted a way cool God story so that I could tell others about it and they could see His amazingness.   I think in our world we’re so used to needing to have something big to show and impress people that I guess I’m afraid if I tell people about something small like, “Since peanut butter was on sale at Publix I actually stayed within my grocery budget to the penny this month,” they’ll just think, “So what?”  But those little things add up and are just proof that we can trust God for everything from peanut butter to completely paid for mission trips, and so much more (just add your own little to big issues here).

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