love to paint

A few years I read a book titled Honey for a Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt.  I love this quote about what good books do: "Good books have genuine spiritual substance, not just intellectual enjoyment.  Books help children know what to look for in life.  Reading develops the taste buds of the mind as children learn to savor what is seen, heard, and experienced and fit these into some kind of worthwhile framework."  Gladys Hunt, Honey for a Child's Heart, p. 21 There is a saying that goes "You are what you eat".  Essentially, what you put into your body shapes how your body feels and what you are able to do.  In the same way, you might be able to say "You are what you read."  Our minds are stretched or stunted by what we read and put into our minds.  What we read feeds how we interact with others and with the world around us.  It shapes our worldview.  What we read doesn't determine our actions and thoughts, but it does feeds them. ...

Before I had kids, I was generally pretty even keel through the month.  Then, I had kids.  And everything changed.  I struggled with post partum depression after the birth of each of of my children.  It subsided after I stopped nursing, but my hormones never quite returned to normal.   I realized this year that I have really begun to struggle with PMS.  Each month, I would find times when I couldn't keep from crying.  It was irrational.  This year I have also struggled to exercise regularly--which I was able to do after my girls births.  I began talking to friends about PMS and asking how they deal with it in their lives.  One friend shared with me that she plans her week so that it will be less stressful and gives herself more room to breathe.  But, other than that one friend, most women I talked to simply struggle with it like me.   A few weeks ago, I discovered that Lorraine Pintus wrote a book titled  Jump off the ho...

I have had a lot on my mind this afternoon.  I think the biggest thing is that it's easier to keep my mouth shut than to guard what comes out of it.  I second guess myself a lot.  There is a risk in opening my mouth.  A risk that I will say the wrong thing around people it will offend.  Sometimes I am a bit blunt--aren't we all?  Sometimes I am also very opinionated.  When I say something that I'm surprised at, I usually try to think about what the seed of it was.  I think I see in myself how a little seed can grow a big plant and a big idea.  Maybe that's why I'm so concerned about what's being published and the overt and subtle messages of fiction and nonfiction books. Over the past two years, I've found that there are publishers that I trust more than others.  By that I mean, that I feel safer usually reading a book published by one of these companies.  I've found their books to encourage me more in my walk with the Lord and m...

I am in my mid-30s and have had 17 jobs, 4 of them full-time, year round jobs. Now, I'm a stay at home mom of 3 little children. When I graduated college, I got a job with a big corporation and thought I'd work there for years. But, a year later, I left that job because I didn't want to move every few months. It used to be that you could live in one city all your life and find jobs there. Now, you have to move to where your job is. The job market has changed from what it was 20 or 30 years ago--even from what it was 10 years ago. When I came across this book, I expected a book with a lot of How-to's. I expected it to be mostly about finding a new job. It is actually mostly a book about coping with unemployment. This book is very readable and interesting. The crux of it is how to cope and realize that your job is not who you are, but to remember that our identity is in Christ. After tackling that issue, the author does tackle how to start finding a...