February 2008

Good friends are hard to come by. The friends that I have are God appointed friendships and I don’t know what I will do without them when I move.

Yes, we will still be friends but no longer in the same town. No longer down the road. No longer a few minutes apart. It will be more like two hours apart. The best place to meet will be an hour for me and an hour and a half for them.

I pray that I will find friends in our new town but I know that the new friendships will pale in comparison to the ones that I already have.

I mean really…these people won’t know my secrets (mainly because I won’t tell them any secrets) and also…who will drive two hours in the evening to pick me up and take me back home. No one but the ones who already love me.

I love you Best Friend. There will never be another friend like you.

Susan May Warren has done it again only instead of being in Russia, she’s bull-riding with Rafe Noble.

In less than eight seconds, he lost his title, his career, and his best friend-all on the dirt floor of a noisy rodeo arena.

Katherine Breckenridge just wants to make a difference by running her mother’s charity foundation. But the mysterious disappearance of a half a million dollars has forced it to the brink of bankruptcy. Her last chance to save it is the annual fund-raiser, an event that’s destroyed by an out-of-control Rafe Noble.

Desperate to rescue the foundation, Katherine heads to the Noble family ranch to enlist Rafe’s help in raising the money he cost her in lost donations. What she doesn’t know is that Rafe is broke-in cash and in spirit-and helping her could end up costing him his life.

Rafe is the kind of man we all dream of. He’s handsome, tough and he knows it. Come on…he’s a bull-rider for goodness sake. What girl wouldn’t fall all over him? Rafe has danger written all over him. For some reason, we women find that attractive in a man. Rafe is the kind of man that our mothers warned us to stay away from…or is he?

Head over to Rafe’s blog to see what he’s up to and to read an excerpt from the book.

About the author: Award-winning Susan May Warren recently returned home to her native Minnesota after serving for eight years with her husband and four children as missionaries with SEND International in Far East Russia. She now writes full-time from Minnesota’s north woods. Visit her website at www.susanmaywarren.com.

This is super cool-watch the book trailer.
Win a steak dinner with Rafe contest!

I have officially started potty-training. The potty chair is in the living room and the underwear is on.

Oh the joys of potty-training. I am so glad to be able to help yet another child on their way to being potty-trained. Not really. I don’t like potty-training. I don’t like it at all.

I started potty-training our eldest child at the age of two because I refused to have two children in diapers. It didn’t work. He wasn’t ready and it was a horrible experience. One I learned from but horrible nonetheless . Eldest child was miserable and I was miserable so I stopped. He knew what to do but didn’t care if he sat in it or not. It didn’t matter if he was in a diaper or in underwear, he would go in them and be just fine. What made him finally start going in the toilet was he wanted to go to school. So I took him to visit the Pre-K and told him he couldn’t go to school if he wasn’t potty-trained. That did it for him. He was instantly potty-trained after that.

Second child was a little bit easier. He would go in his potty chair as long as it was in the living room so that’s where we kept it. Eventually I was able to move it to the bathroom. He would have stayed in diapers and kept messing in his underwear if I would have let him. Nothing was working. He didn’t care about going to school so that didn’t work either. I didn’t ever really find a motivator for him. I just told him one day that I wasn’t buying diapers anymore and he would have to wear underwear. After a couple of days, he found out I was serious and lo and behold…he was potty-trained.

Now I have youngest. She is almost two and a half and has gone back and forth between potty-training and not potty-training. I have bought big girl underwear and had the talk about not going pee-pee or poopy in her pretty underwear. Will it work? I don’t know but I have to start somewhere.

I don’t really want to potty-train her. It’s exhausting and I’m tired. I’ve potty-trained two children already, can’t she just potty-train herself. No. She can’t. It’s my responsibility to take care of her and part of that entails potty-training. I know it will be a huge relief once she is potty-trained.

The first day was great. She peed in her underwear (as was expected) and tried to go potty in her potty chair. She’s learning and that’s all that matters.

I’ve told my friends that if they want to get together for coffee I will have to do it at my house because I am potty-training my daughter. I have to stay consistent. If I don’t, I will only hurt and confuse her and that’s not what I want. I want potty-training to be a pleasant experience. Oh. And Lord. Please let it go quick.

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
ADAM

(Thomas Nelson April 1, 2008)by
Ted Dekker ABOUT THE AUTHOR:Ted is the son of missionaries John and Helen Dekker, whose incredible story of life among headhunters in Indonesia has been told in several books. Surrounded by the vivid colors of the jungle and a myriad of cultures, each steeped in their own interpretation of life and faith, Dekker received a first-class education on human nature and behavior. This, he believes, is the foundation of his writing.

After graduating from a multi-cultural high school, he took up permanent residence in the United States to study Religion and Philosophy. After earning his Bachelor’s Degree, Dekker entered the corporate world in management for a large healthcare company in California. Dekker was quickly recognized as a talent in the field of marketing and was soon promoted to Director of Marketing. This experience gave him a background which enabled him to eventually form his own company and steadily climb the corporate ladder.

Since 1997, Dekker has written full-time. He states that each time he writes, he finds his understanding of life and love just a little clearer and his expression of that understanding a little more vivid. Dekker’s body of work encompassing seven mysteries, three thrillers and ten fantasies includes Heaven’s Wager, When Heaven Weeps, Thunder of Heaven, Blessed Child, A Man Called Blessed, Blink, Thr3e, The Circle Trilogy (Black, Red, White), and Obsessed, with two more…Renegade, and Chaos to be released later this year.

ABOUT THE BOOK

He died once to stop the killer…now he’s dying again to save his wife.

FBI behavioral psychologist Daniel Clark has become famous for his well-articulated arguments that religion is one of society’s greatest antagonists. What Daniel doesn’t know is that his obsessive pursuit of a serial killer known only as “Eve” is about to end abruptly with an unexpected death-his own.

Twenty minutes later Daniel is resuscitated, only to be haunted by the loss of memory of the events immediately preceding his death.

Daniel becomes convinced that the only way to stop Eve is to recover those missing minutes during which he alone saw the killer’s face. And the only way to access them is to trigger his brain’s memory dump that occurs at the time of death by simulating his death again…and again. So begins a carefully researched psychological thriller which delves deep into the haunting realities of near-death experiences, demon possession, and the human psche.

“As always with a Ted Dekker thriller, the details of ADAM are stunning, pointing to meticulous research in a raft of areas: police and FBI methods, forensic medicine, psychological profiling-in short, all that accompanies a Federal hunt for a serial killer. But Dekker fully reveals his magic in the latter part of the book, when he subtly introduces his darker and more frightening theme. It’s all too creepily convincing. We have to keep telling ourselves that this is fiction. At the same time, we can’t help thinking that not only could it happen, but that it will happen if we’re not careful.”

New York Times best-selling author Ted Dekker unleashes his most riveting novel yet…an elusive serial killer whose victims die of unknown causes and the psychologist obsessed with catching him.

My thoughts: I am a wimp. I don’t like anything that I think might scare me. I actually quote “God has not given me a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and a sound mind” quite often. I’m a wimp, plain and simple and proud of it. Well, maybe not proud…

Anyway, what does this have to do with Adam? Nothing except that it was written by Ted Dekker (who by the way is almost considered a god to some in my region). Ted Dekker. He writes suspense, right? I’m not sure but I saw the movie trailer for Thr3e at church and it was enough to keep me away from him. Never mind that we own Saint and I’ve read part of it and was fine. Thr3e freaked me out and I was staying away from him.

Until Adam. Adam intrigued me. Adam sparked my curiosity. Adam begged me to read it. So I did.

I was scared at times and said my verse over and over. I tried not to read at night which didn’t matter when I read, I still remembered what I had read. I survived Adam. Adam is still twirling in my mind trying to process it. Adam will be with me for several days as I am reliving it, processing it, and filing it away for future use.

Me: I need you to go pick up your toys.

Child: Nobody cares about me.

Me: Nice try. Nice try trying to manipulate me into letting you do what you want.

Later in the evening…

Child: Can I have a cookie?

Me: No. I’m getting ready to fix dinner.

Child starts throwing a fit.

Me: I was going to let you have a cookie for dessert but since you’re throwing a fit…

Child: Nice try. Nice try mom trying to manipulate me into doing what you want by making me sad.

Our Love and Logic advice backfired. What now? Needless to say, I thought it was pretty brilliant of him.

I recently had the pleasure of reading Death of a Six-Foot Teddy Bear by Sharon Dunn recently. I had read about Sharon from her posts at Faithchicks.com where she blogs with other Christian authors. Her books looked interesting and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity of reading a mystery involving Bargain Hunters (reminds me of my mother-in-law and her eldest daughter). Besides, with a title such as Death of a Six-Foot Teddy Bear who could pass this up. Part of me wanted to read the mystery and the other part of me wanted to get inside the minds of ladies who are looking for the best bargain (a trait I don’t possess, it must be because I am so impatient).

About Sharon Dunn: Sharon is the author of Death of a Garage Sale Newbie and the Ruby Taylor mystery novels including Sassy Cinderella, which was voted Book of the Year by American Christian Fiction Writers. She earned a bachelor’s in television production and a master’s in history. Sharon lives with her husband and three children.

From the back cover: Ginger and her husband, Earl, are in for a wild ride in Calamity, Nevada, along with the other BHN ladies - college student Kindra, mother-of-four Suzanne, and sassy senior Arleta. They came to town for the Inventors Expo and some outlet shopping, but instead they endure lost luggage, broken air conditioning, and a long line of people angry at hotel owner Dustin Clydell. With the Inventors Expo and the Squirrel Lovers convention both in the same town, the Wind-Up Hotel has somehow overbooked.

Before the night is over, a man in a teddy bear costume is found dead, the Inventors Expo is canceled…and the authorities want to talk to one of the BHN ladies! What else could possibly go wrong? Once again, the Bargain Hunters swing into sleuth mode to solve the murder - and this time, clear one of their own. Along the way, Ginger discovers something even better than a bargain.

My thoughts: Based on the title and description of the book I was looking forward to a light read and laughter so I drew a bubble bath and settled in for some serious reading. Sharon delivered on both accounts. Death of a Six-Foot Teddy Bear had me guessing to the end on who committed the murder and I couldn’t believe how much trouble one woman could get into. Wait. I take that back, I can believe that because I am related to such a person. It was hard for me to imagine Ginger as the main character because I would think of my relative. (That is a compliment by the way.)

One thing that stood out to me is we can become so focused on achieving our dream that we lose focus of God. God can place the dream in our heart but it’s also up to him to deliver through on it. We can’t force our dreams to come true.

Thank you Sharon for letting me be a part of your Blog Tour.

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
My Name is Russell Fink
Zondervan (March 1, 2008)
by
Michael SnyderABOUT THE AUTHOR:Michael Snyder has spent the bulk of his professional career in sales, has fallen in love, and continues to struggle with the balance between art and vocation. He’s never investigated a murder, much less that of an allegedly clairvoyant dog.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Russell Fink is twenty-six years old and determined to salvage a job he hates so he can finally move out of his parents house for good. He’s convinced he gave his twin sister cancer when they were nine years old. And his crazy fiancée refuses to accept the fact that their engagement really is over.

Then Sonny, his allegedly clairvoyant basset hound, is found murdered.

The ensuing amateur investigation forces Russell to confront several things at once-the enormity of his family’s dysfunction, the guy stalking his family, and his long-buried feelings for a most peculiar love interest.

At its heart, My Name is Russell Fink is a comedy, with sharp dialogue, characters steeped in authenticity, romance, suspense, and fresh humor. With a postmodern style similar to Nick Hornby and Douglas Coupland, the author explores reconciliation, forgiveness, and faith in the midst of tragedy. No amount of neurosis or dysfunction can derail God’s redemptive purposes.

A couple of my favorite blogs are BooMama and Rocks In My Dryer. Right now both of these ladies are in Uganda blogging about what’s going on over there. They are with a team working with Compassion to blog about the work Compassion is doing in Uganda.

My heart goes out to them. I have been reading the teams blogs so I can get a better picture of what it’s like. What amazes me is families of 5 or 6 living in a 6×6 room. That is there home. They might have cardboard for walls and a sheet for a door.

In the left sidebar you will see a Blog Compassion Uganda button. I encourage you to check out the blogs during the tour.

Last year Best Friend and I were doing a Bible study called Soul Strength by Pam Lau. In it was A Test for Self-Examination by John Wesley. These questions were so great that I wanted to share them with you.

A Test for Self-Examination by John Wesley

1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I really am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?
2. Am I honest in all my acts and words or do I exaggerate?
3. Do I confidentially pass on to others what was told to me in confidence?
4. Can I be trusted?
5. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work, or habits?
6. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?
7. Did the Bible live in me today?
8. Do I give the Bible time to speak to me every day?
9. Am I enjoying prayer?
10. When did I last speak to someone else of my faith?
11. Do I pray about the money I spend?
12. Do I get to bed on time; and get up on time?
13. Do I disobey God in anything?
14. Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?
15. Am I defeated in any part of my life?
16. Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy, or distrustful?
17. How do I spend my spare time?
18. Am I proud?
19. Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisee who despised the publican?
20. Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold resentment toward or disregard? If so, what am I doing about it?
21. Do I grumble or complain constantly?
22. Is Christ real to me?