The Longest Day of my Life

Today is the longest daylight hours of the year.  I am in Canada.  The days are longer here than in the Southern United States.  Therefore today is the longest day of my life.  And the shortest night.

I have just confirmed for all my random readers exactly how much of a dork I am.  You are welcome.

Thursday Thankfulness

This morning I sent an email to my music BFF with the subject line "Food."  It has encompassed my craving for an amazing Mediterranean restaurant near her, bacon of the month clubs (Praise the LORD for the New Testament), and finally this recipe which is on repeat at my house.  I suggest a Pinot Grigio.

Really, what's not to love about an email chain related to food.  Unless you back up to yesterday where we had an email chain about "Les Miserables", actresses who do controversial roles to get Hollywood's attention, and our love of all things Broadway.

Of course then you could back up two days to our chat where her boss made her pack up her things, walked her to a coffee shop, bought her drink and told her to work there the rest of the day.

So, today I am thankful for gmail.  And friendship rooted in music, food, theater, and a deep love of our Lord.  And for the fact that this friendship was grown and strengthened through gchat when we were living half a world a way from each other and keeps us in contact now that we are in the same time zone.  

Quick Update & Intentional Giving #2

Yes, I'm alive.  Very much alive, very much ENGAGED, but more to come on that.  I promise not to bore you with details you don't care about, but I will give you some details.  Like I bet you want to see a picture of the Mr.  Am I right?  Yeah, I thought so.  You'd probably also like to know that I no longer live in the low country.  Yeah, updates, updates, updates.  However, it is more imperative that I do an intentional giving update first because you can participate and have a chance to win an ipad 2!

In my last post I talked about supporting my friends who were adopting internationally.  This time I want to focus on a couple who are adopting domestically.  I love that I have people in my life that God is guiding down the same road but through different paths.  It's always amazing to see Him work out who He wants to raise the baby in China and the baby down the street.  Like Peter & Tanya, I met Matt & Tricia through church.  Tricia is a rock star when it comes to helping with the children's ministry and she has now taken over my beloved job of scheduling the volunteers.  (Saying extra prayers for you Tricia!)  Even if you can't make a donation now, take the time to stop and pray for those families who are waiting on babies with paper pregnancies and even lift up those who have just brought new ones home as they acclimate themselves to a new environment and lifestyle.

So until the next post be thinking of ways you can pay it forward, with even the simplest thing like holding open a door for someone.  

Intentional Giving - #1

One of my goals for this year is to be more intentional with my giving.  I want to be able to share what I have with people and organizations I feel passionately about and believe in what they are doing.  I will be giving to organizations who use their money wisely and don't contribute the funds into other organizations in which I do not support.  In an effort to be accountable for this, I plan on blogging about 24 of these opportunities.  I want to share opportunities that may encourage you to give or make you think outside the box on options for helping out your neighbors near and far.  I realize that in the grand scheme of life in the United States and even more so in the grand scheme of life on planet Earth I am blessed.  I have the privilege of working in an industry that provides me with a paycheck that I feel should be shared.  My life goals are not to be a millionaire, but to be able to provide for myself and give above and beyond what the standard is.  So without further gibberish, here's the first of my 24 opportunities.

I love kids!  I don't have any of my own nor am I in a position in my life where I want or need a kid.  However, my friends are having them left and right and I LOVE IT!  But I also have friends who are adding to their families through adoption.  And let me tell you, knowing someone who is adopting will change your life.  The first intentional donation I am making for this year is to the Bring Will Home fund.  I met Peter and Tanya through my church and their passion for orphans and adoptions is almost contagious.  Spend any time around them and you will be changed: you may not want to adopt but you'll want to help someone adopt.  So I would challenge you to this: find someone you know who is adopting and help them out.  Whether it is through contributing items to a yard sale fundraiser they are having or just skipping that $5 latte and giving that money to them, you will be blessed, they will be blessed, and a family-less child will be blessed.  And if you don't know anyone who is adopting, but you want to help someone out in this way check out Peter and Tanya's journey here.  I'm sure once they are done fundraising they'll also know more families who are working their way toward adoption and every penny counts.

A Tale of Two Country Mice

This morning I got up at 6:15 and knowing I had a lot to do, decided to get started on my day.  I made my coffee and a bowl of oatmeal and sat down at the dining room table to get some work done.  I was hitting send on an email when I saw a mouse dart next to me along the baseboards and go into a corner behind some bags.  I thought "Great, there are mice in the house (again*.)"  So I go into the kitchen to see if I can see the mouse in the corner or if there's a hole in the baseboards that it went into.  The reason I do this is because I have some poison I could stick in the hole then some stuff to seal the hole.

Now that I am relocated to the kitchen looking into the dining room, I see nothing.  Of course.  And that's when #2 darts out from under the stove and heads toward the refrigerator.  Right. Next. To. My. Foot.  I screamed.  And ran to the living room and called my dad.  He's the only person I knew who would be awake around 7 in the morning so it seemed logical.  And he laughed at me.  I knew he would, but I still needed to talk to someone for I feared I was nearing heart-attack status.  I mean a mouse just ran Right. Next. To. My. Foot. And I was wearing houseshoes.  Like those are going to protect my toes.

So while I'm standing in the big living room talking to my dad mouse #2 runs AT ME.  I am not even kidding.  So I screamed.  And I said "It's running around, it's running around."  My dad (ever the intelligent one) says "Are you talking to me?"  "YES!  Who the heck else would I be talking to?"  Um, for those of you who are confused, I don't make it a habit of talking to mice who are running at me.  So the mice turns and runs into the computer desk (which was slightly funny) and then runs onto the hearth where I quit following it.

At this point, I wrap up the conversation with my dad and go take a shower.  Because if there's one thing I know, if have a heart attack and die due to these mice, I don't want to smell when Britt** gets here for the body.

* For those of you who don't know me in real life, we had a mouse infestation in the garage and house at my grandparents this fall and dealt with it for the better part of a week trying to get cracks and holes sealed and replacing seals along doors.  We thought it was under control.  It is not.

** The people who own the funeral home are friends of the family so yes, we are on a first name basis with them.

P.S. It's over an hour later and my blood pressure is still elevated.  I know this because I normally have low to normal blood pressure and at this moment I can FEEL it pumping through my veins.  I've earned a second dose of caffeine today because I know once I calm down I'm going to be exhausted.

Lots of Love

A couple of years ago my niece grew her hair out and donated it to "Lots" of Love.  That was how she understood us saying Locks of Love.  Those who know me IRL also know that I have been growing my hair out.  What started of as more of something that was a burden (finding someone who can cut my hair the way I like it is hard, especially with the natural wave it enjoys) turned into me also growing my hair out.  My philosphy on this was "Why not?"  I mean let's think about this.  I'm in my early 30s, I am physically well, and I can grow my hair out.  Some child out there is young, not physically well, and has no hair.  Why wouldn't I became the bigger question.  So I grew it.  And grew it.  And grew it some more.  My hair is really think, yet appears thin.  So it was a lot of hair on my head.  And I am not a girly girl, so out came the hot rollers if I needed it to have any body or style.  And for the first time in my life I had long hair.  Wowsers, what a difference long hair is.  Flashback a couple of weeks ago and I decided to go in for a trim.  Just for kicks and giggles I had the lady measure my hair.  When she said it was long enough to donate and I wouldn't be bald as a result, I finally decided it was ok.  And this is what I'll be sending in to "Lots" of Love to help someone who otherwise would not have hair.

Note: If I pull out the curl, it measures over 12 inches.  Wowsers!

Also, there is no after picture.  If you know me IRL you know I don't do well with having my picture made.  So you'll just have to wait until I'm felling "worldly pretty" and then I'll see what I can do.

Dangerous Mercy - A Book Review

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Dangerous Mercy David C. Cook (October 1, 2011) by Kathy Herman

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Suspense novelist Kathy Herman is very much at home in the Christian book industry, having worked five years on staff at the Christian Booksellers Association (CBA) in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and eleven years at Better Books Christian Center in Tyler, Texas, as product buyer/manager for the children’s department, and eventually as director of human resources.

She has conducted numerous educational seminars on children’s books at CBA Conventions in the U.S. and Canada, served a preliminary judge for the Gold Medallion Book Awards of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association , and worked as an independent product/marketing consultant to the CBA market.

Since her first novel, Tested by Fire, debuted in 2001 as a CBA national bestseller, she's added sixteen more titles to her credit, including four bestsellers: All Things Hidden, The Real Enemy, The Last Word, and The Right Call.

Kathy's husband Paul is her manager and most ardent supporter, and the former manager of the LifeWay Christian Store in Tyler, Texas. They have three grown children, five almost-perfect grandchildren, a cat named Samantha. They enjoy cruising, deep sea fishing, and birdwatching—sometimes incorporating these hobbies into one big adventure.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. —Matthew 5:7

When eighty-five-year-old Adele Woodmore moves to Les Barbes to be near the Broussards—and her namesake, their daughter—she wants nothing more than a comfortable, quiet life. Employing men from Father Vince’s halfway house for the homeless to do odd jobs and landscaping, she delights in the casual conversation she has with them, the fledgling friendships, and the idea that she is helping them get back on their feet.

A series of murders in Les Barbes has cast a pall over the town and, in fact, one of Adele’s handymen becomes a person of interest to the police. But Adele cares for these young men, she knows them, and continues to show them kindness in spite of her friends’ concern. And then one day a murderer walks through Adele’s defenses, sits down at her kitchen table...and they begin to talk...

If you would like to read the first chapter of Dangerous Mercy, go HERE.