Joanne Heim

In case you were wondering...

...writing is hard work. And I need to put some hard work into the book I'm currently writing. So I've cancelled my plans for tomorrow and am going to stay home and be productive. I'm hoping to finish the rough draft of the last chapter in the morning and then start looking at the book as a whole in the afternoon.

I could use your prayers--for focus, for creativity, for inspiration, for guard against distraction. But most of all, for whatever I write to be what God wants me to write. Because it's not about me at all.

At Bible study yesterday, Beth told this story about Corrie Ten Boom and what she thought of receiving so much applause wherever she went. Her response was something along these lines: "Do you really think the donkey thought all the shouting was for him when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday?"

So I pray that Jesus is glorified in whatever ends up on the page. Because I am just a donkey!

For Miss Jan...

Toben and I were high school sweethearts and he was my date for my senior prom. So here's a picture to prove it!

He's SO gonna kill me!

P.S. I still have the dress...and it still fits!

I'm not ignoring all those emails you've sent...

I'm the process of transferring all my files, photos, music, and such to my new Mac that arrived today. It's taking way longer than I though it would and so the floors aren't mopped, the scones aren't baked for my meeting tomorrow morning at school, and my email box is overflowing with messages I need to respond to.

I'm off to go mop!

I'm all confused...

The girls have been on Fall Break (which is really a long weekend--half-day on Thursday, no school Friday or Monday) and so were home today. I'm having a hard time getting it into my head that tomorrow is Tuesday. (And so is Audrey; she's frantically doing some homework she was saving for Monday night--and just now realized it is Monday night!)

I've spent much of the day in my mad workshop (aka the basement) working away on some crafty projects for Christmas. (No peeking yet...I'll have to remember to take pictures for AFTER the gifts are given!) Audrey spent much of her day down there with me, working on some gifts for her friends. I just love seeing my girls be crafty! It's great to see how excited she is to do something handmade for her BFFs.

Working down there is so relaxing for me. I don't watch much television, and though I love to read, I mostly do that before bed at night. So hanging out in the mad workshop and being creative is my way to unwind.

I especially love projects that are fun and simple. Nothing with too many steps, nothing too complicated, nothing finicky. That's my favorite kind of anything really--recipes, knitting patterns, projects. Simple is best in my book.

Audrey's done with her homework; I gotta go do some Bible Blast with the girls (see the Links page for more info on Bible Blast), and get into my jammies.

(And speaking of jammies, I did manage to stay in my pjs for 48 hours straight over the long weekend! Total bliss...)

I won!

I entered a giveaway over at The Preacher's Wife the other day and got an email from her last night telling me that I won!

Here's what I won:

Loving Well by Beth Moore--go check it out and see everything it includes!

And while I can't say that I've never won anything before, the last thing I remember winning was a jar of gumdrops (and I don't even like those) at a Fall Festival when I was in the third or fourth grade.

I am so excited for it to arrive and to use it with girl friends, moms from school, and whoever else I can think of. Wouldn't it be fun to get together for a weekend somewhere in the mountains and have our own Loving Well retreat?

Sounds like a pretty good plan to me...

A thank you note

Dear all of you who commented the other day,

I've had your comments saved in my email inbox all weekend and have wanted to sit down and write each one of you back. But I think I'd say the same thing to all of you, so I thought I'd just do one big thank you.

Thank you to all of you for sharing so much of your own lives and heartaches and joys with me through your comments and emails. It's such a privilege to know each one of you. Even though I've not met some of you face to face, I do feel like I know you and count you as my friends.

In a very real way, blogging and "meeting" you has made me long more and more for heaven. Won't it be grand to sit and visit together in eternity? Something makes me think that it's going to be like one big family reunion. And even if we never meet face to face here on earth (though I surely hope we will!), we'll recognize one another and throw our arms around each other with exclamations of joy.

You are so dear to me, and I love you!

Joanne

Housekeeping

Just like it's fun to rearrange things in the house (the girls and I rearranged the basement some yesterday morning--they had to help because I couldn't move the daybed myself and so they learned the joy of moving the same piece of furniture around and around until you find that perfect spot) it's fun to rearrange and update a website.

I've spent some time this morning updating and changing some things around here.

Over there (<------ on the left) you'll see a new thing: My Pages. Listed underneath are some pages I've added to the website. Here's what you'll find when you go check it out...

Around the Web
Here's where you can find me out there in the big webby world. Facebook groups, other blogs I'm part of, that sort of thing.

Favorite Links
Yep, pretty much what it sounds like. Wanna know more about charm bracelets, online Bible study tools, or where to find great fabric? That's where to look. I've also begun to list my bloggy friends and plan to add a list of sites I find inspiring--if I've left you out, be patient, I'm still working on all this!

In the Media
Here's where you can download or link to radio/television interviews I've done. I've also linked to some magazine articles I've written, or been interviewed in. I've organized it by book title.

Reviews & Endorsements
These are endorsements and reviews for my books. Again, I've organized it by book title. Want to add a review of your own? Leave a comment on this page to let others know what you think.

I'm also working on getting a shop up and running as well as some free material that will be available for download...stay tuned. Plus, Toben has ordered me a new Mac since mine is getting old and tired. I'll have a built-in camera and will be able to add some video stuff to this site. So more changes coming...but change is good, right?

As always, I love, love, love hearing from you. I hope you always feel free to leave a comment, ask a question, or just say hello. I really mean it...having the opportunity to "meet" you just makes my day!

The big pit in my past

I've been thinking a lot about poor Eustace after blogging about that quote from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader the other day. About the layers of his dragon-y skin being removed one at a time until he lets Aslan peel it all off right down to the core.

And with that, I've been thinking about the whole pit thing (a la Psalm 40 and Beth Moore). There are definitely some pits in my past. Some pretty cavernous, others more like pot holes.

But as I was doing my Bible study (Jesus the One and Only) homework yesterday morning, I came across this:

"Satan would rather return to a previous job on an individual than find a new one. Satan is a lot of things, but creative is not one of them. He ordinarly sticks to what has worked in the past...when he has attempted to return to an area in my life where he held a previous stronghold--even though he's already been forced to leave. Have you experienced something similar? Briefly explain."

--and had a little epiphany.

My answer to her questions was this: Yes! For me it's having a "thing"--an issue that crops up again and again. Those issues? Control, guarding my heart instead of letting God guard it, self-sufficiency.

I answered the question and wrote in the margin about the things I struggle with, and I realized that they all stem from pride. Yuck. I've just been wandering around the edge for what seems like my whole adult life and falling in at different points around this huge, giant pit of pride.

Here's the story...

Control really cropped up for me once I had children. I've always been a well-ordered person and have liked to have my ducks in a row. Something I really don't think is bad. BUT...when my ducks revolt and run here, there, and everywhere, I couldn't handle it.

Anger--red-hot, uncontrollable, swallowing you in a huge gulp anger--was the result. I yelled at my kids, said horrible things, threw things around the house, lashed out at everyone and everything. It came on suddenly, taking me over, and made me feel even more out of control. I hated it, but couldn't stop. It was so unexpected, so frightening.

In the midst of all of this, my friend Hanna called me one day. "Joanne," she said, "control is an idol. You can worship control, or you can worship God." And then she hung up. (Do you have a friend like that, who speaks truth into your life unflinchingly? I hope so...because a friend like that is a wonderful gift.) It was the beginning of learning to give control to God each day. To see it clearly as something to hand over to him, to open my hands and not grab at control until my knuckles turned white with the effort.

It was a long process, years really. I still have to be on guard against control, but when it crops up now (like when the kids get sick in the middle of the night and my first reaction is anger because I'm so scared) I stop and think, "Oh, I know what this is and where it's coming from." I can say aloud, "Okay, God, I'm choosing to trust you in this, to let you be in control."

***

Guarding my heart was the next pit I fell into--well, jumped into willingly would be more accurate. When Toben was diagnosed as being bipolar, life fell apart. In his pain and illness, he broke my heart--repeatedly. So I took it back from him. Literally. I told him one day, "I'll stick with you through this, but I'm taking my heart back. I don't trust you with it anymore."

And I told God the same thing. "You're not protecting my heart in this and it hurts too much. Your Word says that you'll guard my heart, but it doesn't feel like it, so I'm taking that job back."

Bitterness was the result. Choking, strangling bitterness. Have you ever heard that bitterness is like a weed? It's true. I could feel like strangling my heart, choking me. It may sound like I'm being overly dramatic, but that's exactly what it was. I could almost see it sending down roots and twisting around my heart.

I sat at a traffic light one morning--at the intersection of La Costa and El Camino Real--scarcely able to breathe. There are been times in my life when I've clearly heard the voice of God invade my thoughts. This one of those. "Guarding your heart is MY job, Joanne," he said. "Will you let me do it?" Tears rolled down my face and I let go and gave my heart back to those around me. It hurt like crazy, but slowly the grip of bitterness eased.

My heart still hurt, but it was a healthy kind of hurt--the hurt that comes from being real and alive, rather than the choking hurt bitterness afforded. And now when my heart gets hurt, I remember that it means I'm alive, and I'm free.

***

I'm slowly coming to see the pit for what it is--pride. Control was pride--thinking I could control things beyond myself. Guarding my heart was pride--thinking I could do God's job better than he could. And the latest pit I've been in is clearly pride as well.

Self-sufficiency is how pride has been manifesting itself lately. Thinking I don't need anyone and can do it all myself. Can't remember if I shared this definition of humility with you. It's from the book TruFaced and goes like this: Humility is trusting God and others with who I really am.

Trusting God is easier for me than trusting others. God knows who I really am and there's no hiding from him. But trusting others is harder--especially those closest to me. Especially Toben, I think.

In the midst of his crisis, I learned to be self-sufficient out of necessity. Toben was so ill that he couldn't meet my needs. He needed all of his energy to turn to God, to heal and become whole again. Self-sufficiency became a habit--one I become proud of, thinking I could get through anything--just me and God. But God created us for relationship--with himself and with others. And God created Toben and me for each other.

I am slowly giving up self-sufficiency. But no, that's not it. I can't just think, I got myself into this and I'll get myself out of it. Because that's just more prideful self-sufficiency. Instead, I have to get down on my knees each morning, face to the carpet, and ask God to pull me out. To peel off the layers of my pride and expose my need for him and for others. To give me a humble heart--"smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been." Because I want him to lead me to "the rock that is higher I" (Psalm 61:2), to the place of peace and refuge that Eustace called "perfectly delicious."

From Psalm 40:
I waited patiently for the LORD:
he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD...
I desire to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart...
may your love and your truth always protect me...
Be pleased, O LORD, to save me;
O LORD, come quickly to help me...
I am poor and needy;
may the Lord think of me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
O my God, do not delay.

Ava

I watched Ava all day. (She's my sister's little girl, adorable, and two.) We had coffee with Holly and her daughter Syndey this morning, read books and took a nap this afternoon, and took Audrey and Emma to and from school.

It hasn't been all that long, but I'd forgotten about the running commentary you tend to keep up when you're toting around a two-year-old. That and the habit of refering to yourself in the third person. So today I narrated most everything I did--JoJo's doing this or that.

And then there are those things that come out of a two-year-old's mouth that just make me smile. While driving to meet Holly: "Ava likes Jesus." So I had to tell her then and there how much he likes her back. And driving to get the girls: "Two hands, JoJo, two hands!" Took me a minute, but then I realized she wanted me to keep two hands on the steering wheel at all times. Something I have a hard time doing if the music's on, which it was!

I got lots of hugs and snuggles and kisses and I loved every minute of it. But I'm tired from all our activity and so I'm off to bed!

The book nearest you meme

Saw this over at Kristina's blog and loved the idea...

Take the nearest book next to you and answer the following questions:
(I'm sitting up in the loft, which has built-in bookcases lining the walls. They're ALL near me. So I picked the one I'm reading.)

Title and author?
The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader" by C.S. Lewis

Is the book dedicated to anyone? If so, who?
"To Geoffrey Barfield"

What is the first sentence?
"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scubb, and he almost deserved it."

Turn to page 47. Please share the first sentence of the first full paragraph.
"Necessary, unavoidable," said his Sufficiency.

***

I needed a book to read while I ate lunch yesterday and picked this one up. It's one of my favorites in The Chronicles of Narnia. I just love the part where Eustace turns into a dragon and the process of him becoming a boy again. We can peel and peel off layers of our "stuff," but until we let Jesus really deal with it, it just doesn't go away.

"Then the lion said--but I don't know if it spoke--You will have to let me undress you. I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back and let him do it.

"The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know--if you've ever picked the scab of a sore place. It hurts like billy-oh, but it is such fun to see it coming away...

"Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off--just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt--and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and knobbly looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me--I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on--and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious..."

Oh how I can relate to that...trying to fix my stuff myself and not doing much good and then letting Jesus just peel it off me. It hurts, but it's a good kind of hurt and afterward I feel so bare and tender, but so clean and fresh and new.

Reading this story of Eustace makes me more resolved the next time to let God deal with me first. To just get it over with so I can get to the "perfectly delicious" part without all the itching and scratching and futility of trying to fix myself on my own.

As Beth Moore would say, "Does anybody know what I'm talking about?"!

Back from Fall Fest

Oh, what a wonderful weekend it was! Thank you, Janna, for such a fun and relaxing time. It was great to spend time together and to make some new friends in such beautiful surroundings.

The drive up along Highway 40 and over Berthaud (sp?) Pass:

Gift bags waiting for everyone:

Delicious food that got better and better with each meal (thank you, Joy!):

Crafty projects on Saturday (tutorial coming tomorrow!):

The slow and snowy drive home Sunday afternoon:

Kristen was there too and took more than 500 pictures of the weekend. So I'll have to see what I can add once I see hers...

***

This afternoon I talked to my friend Terri in San Deigo who has left her home because of the fires there. Keep all those people in your prayers please!

Off to Fall Fest

My bags are packed and I'm off to Fall Fest in the morning after I drop the girls off at school. My ipod is loaded and I'm excited to have some time in the car all alone to sing my head off.

I'm not taking my computer; I'll be back on Sunday. Wishing you all a great weekend!

Here's a little something to get you in the fall spirit:

P.S. Vicki: I wore my black shawl today--thank you again. I love it!

Emma's blessings

Just had to share what I found in a pile of Emma's papers yesterday. Funny, her list is the same as mine would be!

I love that she knows her blessings all come from God.

Warning: Seemingly frivolous post here

Have you been to a Steve and Barry's yet? Oh my goodness. The one Toben and I went to today wasn't the greatest of their stores (Southwest Plaza in Denver), but they have some awesome stuff. Like great jeans for $14.98. Yep, you read that right. (I bought two pairs!)

I'm a little embarrassed to say how much I spent on the last pair of jeans I bought before today. Let's just say that the two pairs I bought today put together were waaaaay less than that one pair.

Anyway, you can't buy their stuff online, so click on the store locator to see if there's one near you. And then click on the Bitten line by Sarah Jessica Parker. Great, cute, well made, and inexpensive. A perfect combination.

***

As requested, I'll post instructions for the paper crafts (especially the wooden letters) we're doing at Fall Fest this weekend. I'll take bunches of pictures while we craft and put up a tutorial sometime next week.

Looking forward to Fall Fest...

My friend Janna hosts Fall Fest every year and this weekend is it! This year Fall Fest lasts for a whole weekend, instead of just one Saturday, so I'm headed up to Grand Lake on Friday morning. I'm going up a little early to help Janna get things set up.

I spent some time at her house this past Saturday working on some little goodies for everyone who's coming, and let me just say, Janna does things right. She puts so much thought and care into the whole experience...an invitation to Fall Fest is a wonderful thing!

We're working on paper crafts like these this weekend, so I need to get to the store sometime this week to stock up on wooden letters and scrapbook paper. I'd like to make some more As and Es for Audrey and Emma's rooms. And some Hs might be fun for around the house too. Plus, there's the ______ I've been working on for ______ for Christmas...

I've been sitting up here in the loft, working at the new table we got for it this weekend. (Pictures to come soon!) Janna asked me to do a devotional for Fall Fest again this year, so I'm organizing some thoughts for Friday night and thinking of some follow up for Saturday and Sunday too. I'm going to share some of what I'm learning as I've been writing this next book on spending time alone with God. It's always fun to see how ideas and lessons come from so many different sources as I write.

Audrey's just about out of the tub, and I need to go get ready to read to the girls. We started The Sign of the Beaver last night. It's a great read and I'm excited to share it with the girls. It kind of has a My Side of the Mountain feel to it--boy alone in the wilderness--and I LOVED that book as a kid (and as an adult!).

The perfect autumn morning

Okay, I know I just posted something within the last hour or so, but it is the PERFECT autumn morning and I just have to share the view...

I love it when the lawn is covered in leaves. Poor Toben; I'm sure he looks at it and just sees piles of lawn and leaf bags waiting to be filled. But it's so nicely messy that I hope he waits a while before getting to it.

I'm not nearly the photographer I wish I were (that honor goes to my sis), but it's so wonderfully foggy and cool and deliciously fall-ish out I had to try to share it!

Freudian slip

Last night, Toben and I were talking with a friend in pain.

"You know if you need help, you just pick up the phone and the calvary will come running," he said.

"Don't you mean the cavalry?" I laughed.

"Both," she said. "Calvary and the cavalry."

What a combination! And isn't that how it should be? Christ and the power of Calvary is there in our troubles; community as the cavalry should be there too.

I love the lyrics of this song, Mighty is the Power of the Cross:

What can take a dying man and raise him up to life again?
What can heal a wounded soul?
What can make us white as snow?
What can fill the emptiness?
What can mend our brokenness?
Brokenness

Chorus:
Mighty, awesome, wonderful
Is the holy cross
Where the Lamb laid down His life
To lift us from the fall
Mighty is the power of the cross

What restores our faith in God?
What reveals the Father's love?
What can lead the wayward home?
What can melt a heart of stone?
What can free the guilty ones
What can save and overcome?
Overcome

(chorus)

It's a miracle to me (2x)
and It's still a mystery (2x)
It's a miracle to me
The power of God
For those who believe

Mighty, awesome, wonderful
Is the holy cross
Where the Lamb laid down His life
To lift us from the fall
Mighty is .......
Mighty is.......
Mighty is the power of the cross

Thank You for the cross (2x)
Love the cross (2x)
So Powerful...... ohhhhh yeahhh
What can take a dying man?
And raise him up to life again?

Worship You Jesus
By your wounds we are healed
By your wounds we are saved
Mighty is the power of the cross (2x)
Thank You Jesus for the Holy cross

Send in the Calvary indeed!

More, please

Oh, it was such a fun day. Meredith is thoughtful and genuine and I'm so glad to have her as a new face-to-face friend. Holly is just brimming over with laughter and smiles. I was incredibly blessed to have the two of them at my table.

We talked and laughed and worked on a few projects and they left me wishing they could have stayed for hours and hours longer. As much as I hate it when time together with friends come to an end, I love that feeling of wanting more. (Holly, I know EXACTLY what you meant!)

We ate chicken salad (in honor of Anne and Diana, who said, "Wouldn't it be lovely to live at a hotel and eat chicken salad every day?") and sat at the table long past being finished.

And I had so much fun putting "Happy Fall" baskets together for them. I baked bread this morning, and had some peach butter I'd made this summer in the pantry. The last of the zucchini from my garden, autumn tea towels, pretty autumn napkins, and fabric pumpkins. (The pumpkins are such a fun project; I'll share directions over the weekend.)

I've realized how much I've missed having women over and providing space and time for them to sit and visit and be refreshed. I know I've said it before, but I really need to find a way to make this kind of thing a more regular occurance. That autumn tea party is still rolling around in my head...

I love company

I love, love having people in our home. Yesterday my mom dropped by unannounced; today both of my parents stopped by. How I love to stop whatever I'm doing and just sit for a few minutes and visit. Joy! (I say it all the time, but REALLY, if you're ever in my neighborhood, drop in for a visit!)

I also love planning to have people over. Tomorrow, both Holly and Meredith are coming for the day. I "met" these wonderful women through blogland. Holly and I have spent time together before. She and Meredith know each other (in "real" life too!) and I'm excited to finally meet Meredith face to face. Turns out we know some people in common...small, small world.

Anyway, the menu has been planned for a while; I did some cooking and baking today, the house is clean, the table set. I'm all ready except for a few quick chores on my to-do list in the morning. I'm excited just to sit and visit, to share a meal, to look out the window at the changing leaves, to linger over coffee.

Isn't it fun to be a woman? Seems like we can connect quickly, get to know one another on a deep level--all in a relatively short amount of time.

And wouldn't it be fun if you all lived within a short driving distance too, my table could seat more than it does, and we could all while away the day together...

Little bits of autumn

The weather is definitely not cooperating here with cool, crisp days, but I'm pretending it's cold outside and enjoying the little bits of autumn tucked here and there in our home.

I bought these little leaf picks at Hobby Lobby for 50 cents each, and have stuck them here, there, and everywhere. Such a small thing, but I love having bits of autumn color everywhere I look.

(Love those big picture flashcards..and Y is for yarn just had to be mine!)

(There are some great pictures of my mother as a child back there in the picture; I bought that adorable little pumpkin at La Grande Orange Grocery in Phoenix this weekend.)

(Tucked in an existing wreath, with another vintage vocabulary card.)

(Tucked into a little bookshelf near the kitchen and complementing my little garden gnome who loves to read and be defined by another vintage vocabulary card.)

(And some more by the door on your way out.)

And, finally, some real leaves. This purple mountain ash is my all-time favorite autumn tree. It turns gold and red and purple and orange--seemingly all at once. This one is in my backyard; the neighbors have one in their front yard that I see perfectly framed in my bedroom window.

Lunch at the Biltmore

After going to Open Door church this morning, Toben and I headed over to the Biltmore for a poolside lunch. Perfectly lovely--except for the girl who had a butterfly tatooed across her tush. No joke--from what I could see of it (and that was more than I really wanted to see!) it must have covered her entire derriere. That had to have hurt.

Nope, no picture. There are some things people just don't need to see.

We're now sitting at the Phoenix airport, waiting for our flight to Denver. I love going home from a trip. No matter where I've been and how wonderful it was, coming home is my favorite part. I'm anxious to see the girls, to sleep in my own bed, to give Mom and Dad the treats I found at Trader Joes. (Yes, there's a TJs here in Phoenix--I made a special trip just for my favorite popsicles yesterday afternoon. Yum.)

Weekend away

Toben and I flew to Phoenix this morning for the weekend. He's working with a company here and they asked me to come along so we could all meet. So here I am.

I survived the flight (you may not know this about me, but I HATE to fly--it makes me feel all hot and prickly and totally panic-y) by finishing Anne's House of Dreams. After leaving Anne and Gilbert on the bridge at the end of watching Anne of Avonlea the other day I needed to read once more what happens next. There are so many great quotes in this book. Here are some of my favorites:

Diana to Anne: "Married life has its up and downs, of course. You mustn't expect that everything will always go smoothly. But I can assure you, Anne, that it's a happy life, when you're married to the right man."

Anne to Gilbert: "I couldn't live where there were no trees--something vital in me would starve."

The schoolmater's bride to Captain Jim: "I felt dreadful when John and I quarrelled, but underneath it all I was very happy because I had such a nice husband to quarrel with and make it up with."

Captian Jim to Anne: "It won't take long to stay an hour."

Anne on books: "Our library isn't very extensive, but every book in it is a friend."

Captain Jim to Anne about Leslie's pain: "You know if we've got anything about us that hurts we shrink from anyone's touch on or near it. It holds good with our souls as well as our bodies, I reckon."

Captain Jim on a free afternoon: "I took a little trip today to the Land-of-nothing-to-do."

Captain Jim on Martin Strong: "He's lonesome. He hasn't many friends--been too busy all his life to make any."

Captain Jim on marriage and happiness: "Happiness for you all--though, mind you, I reckon, you'll have your troubles and worries and sorrows, too. They're bound to come--and no house, whether it's a palace or a little house of dreams, can bar 'em out. But they won't get the better of you if you face 'em together with love and trust. You can weather any storm with them two for compass and pilot."

And so many others too! If you've never read the whole series, do--you will love them.

Mental health day

Two nights of not sleeping well

+

Being gone from 7:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. yesterday

+

Girl Scouts this afternoon

+

a trip to Phoenix with Toben this weekend

=

A mental health morning for me

***

I cleared my schedule, left the laundry in the dryer (yep, it's still there from Monday!), turned on the fire place, and sat on the couch all morning to watch Anne of Green Gables and knit. It was just what I needed.

And I highly, highly recommend it to you too!

Confessions...

I needed that deep breath yesterday afternoon, because despite my best efforts lots of things didn't get done today--housecleaning, bread making, fridge cleaning, desk cleaning. The laundry's somewhat done, but there's still a load in the dryer, one in the wash, and another piled on the floor waiting to be done.

It was one of those days...

Think I may need to revisit my whole Monday schedule. Especially on Brownie Mondays (like today), I just can't seem to get it all done. And if I do manage to get it done I'm just not very nice to be around...

Think I need to go read to the girls to make up for tonight. Not getting home from school until almost 5:30 and then doing homework until dinner is just not anyone's idea of a fun day. But maybe we can redeem the day during the next 20 minutes or so.