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Navigating Conflicting Advice When Experts Disagree: Sifting Through Multiple Options to Find What God Wants
If you’re one of the 19 new friends from last weekend at Mount Hermon to join this blog party, welcome! If you’re a regular reader, let’s give a golf clap to the new people! (tap, tap, tap) This week I returned from the Vision Christian Writers Conference in the Redwoods where I taught two seminars, hosted a lunch table twice, took classes, and stayed mentally engaged for five days. I connected with young people, old people, beginning writers, professionals, semi-famous authors, and everyone in between. And I only put my foot in my mouth once! Progress, friend. Tiiiiiny bits of progress. Of course, my faux pas made me want to…
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15 Favorite Family-Friendly Flicks to Watch at Home With the Kids This Weekend
There are tons of great animated movies that we adults can love right alongside the littles, but this is a list of our family’s favorite real-life flicks when our kids were in elementary and middle school. Depending on your strict meter, most of these are for ages 8/10 and up, and they’re all rated G or PG. Even when I got a movie recommendation from a friend, I still jumped on a review site to double-check how appropriate it was for our kids. My favorite is pluggedin.com from Focus on the Family, but crosswalk.com, movieguide.org and kids-in-mind.com are also great. In alphabetical order, so no one gets their feelings hurt……
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When it’s Finally Time to Launch Your Business Idea. Small Starts are Better Than No Starts, Right?
Well? Are they? If you answered with a resounding, “Heck yeah! Go for it!” then you might not deal with issues of insecurity, perfectionism or strong aversions to failure. I always looked in awe at our neighbors in Baja who thought up an idea for a business, gathered a few supplies, and opened the following month. Or week! It made no sense to my cautious brain how you could be prepared that fast with a game plan toward success and a plan B to pivot if needed. But that’s coming from someone who cringes at the thought of failure, or being completely wrong, or launching something that isn’t ready. And…
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Favorite Books & Music of 2019
Don’t you just love a good list that you don’t have to come up with yourself? I’ve compiled my favorites for ya, fat-free and full of flavor, so all you have to do is click the pics and join me. Great books are the gifts that keep on giving through this new month, year and decade. Feliz Año Nuevo, Amigos! Books 1. Braving the Wilderness, by Brené Brown The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone I mostly feel like I belong, and I feel fairly courageous, so I didn’t think I needed this book. #wrong So. Many. Great. Points. 2. The President is Missing, by James…
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October Bullying: White Boys in Baja, Brown Girls in Cali
He acted like it wasn’t a big deal, but we knew otherwise. “I got kicked in the stomach today.” I felt objectivity fly out la ventana while my blood pressure rose. “Why, buddy?” “I don’t know. I couldn’t understand them.” When we sent our tall, pale, strawberry blonde boy to school in a black-hair-rules culture, we knew it might be rough. Not speaking the language basically made him feel deaf and mute. Whether the other kids talked, whispered or yelled didn’t make a difference; our child had no friends and no idea how to make them. So he climbed trees, ate, walked, colored and played alone. The learning curve of…
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The Hungry Games
(Shared with permission) Age: nine Child: mine Attitude: fine Until it wasn’t. When one of our kids got in trouble for a garden-variety no-no, I figured the next steps would resemble the rest. Too tall to spank and not naughty enough to ground, I sent him to the back room where his timeout minutes matched his age. He knew the rule: any yelling or screaming made the time start over. Normally, regret bubbled and his demeanor recovered before I returned. But this time it elevated from mad to angry to ballistic in way less than nine minutes. In a house on a foundation, the muffled sounds of fists beating floors…
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Not Your Grandma’s Kind of Ghost: Writing and Editing for Someone Else
We stood in the aisles of the gigantic dining room, huddled in a loose swarm, chatting and anticipating the afternoon. Ropes course? Zip lines? Creek walk? Yes. Two groups of friends from the Temecula Valley were all at Mount Hermon’s family camp together but had never met, so a common friend did the introductions. “Carrie, this is Becky… and Mike.” “Hi, nice to meet you.” “They’re the ones with triplets.” My eyebrows shot north without warning and I smiled. “Ohh… I’ve heard about you guys. Have you been here before?” “Nope,” said Becky. “First time. We actually don’t know why we’re here. God told us to come so we came.”…
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Because You Live Here, That’s Why: Kids and the Battle of Chores
I crafted a plan. I felt prepared. I started with the basics when he started walking and talking. My voice sounded cheery and I easily herded the little man into my camp. “Can you please put Finding Nemo back in the movie cupboard?” “Where does your stuffed orca go? No… not there, silly.” “You want to clean the kitchen with mommy? Sure!” Chore time with one toddler felt easy because he actually wanted to help. And the jobs were like him—short and sweet. Then we moved to Baja, birthed another baby and adjusted to living in the land of dust and mud. The harder chores required more direction, but my…
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Dangle Your Modifiers In Someone Else’s Fairytale, Por Favor
Once upon a time there was a lovely faculty member, and she was the fairest smarty pants in all the camp. “Kill the adverbs and avoid split infinitives.” Totally nodding my head in agreement, wise instructor lady. Love your class so far, but if you call on me I might have to break up with you and slip out the double doors. Your basic writers conference gives you tools to become a better writer. Tips to hook your reader. Insights to hone your craft. But when you attend the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference, you get a whole lot more than basic. And when one of your instructors is the Senior Acquisitions…
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New Baja Blogger on The Block: How the Writer in Me Wants to Connect with You
What do pink hearts, a spotless house, and baby bunnies have in common? They’re all things you won’t find here. What you might find: confessions, reviews, recommendations, how-to’s. What you’ll definitely find: an optimistic wife and mom who misses friends, consumes avocados in bulk, deals with guilt, yields to power naps, loves to write, and doesn’t fit in with the locals. Today’s chores are being ignored, my desk is somewhat organized, and this computer keeps providing ink. Being qualified is subjective and I’m crazy about community, so I step out and begin to post. So what’s on the horizon? Shenanigans south of the border. No, I won’t be reporting from Papas…
