Are you hemmed in and belted up?

Everywhere I turn recently, it seems I'm reminded of how God "hems me in." Psalm 139 is a favorite, and I love verse five in particular. "You hem me in before and behind, and you lay your hand upon me." (NIV)

I love how Eugene Peterson paraphrases verse five in The Message, "I look behind me and you're there, then up ahead and you're there too––your reassuring presence, coming and going."

Last week a friend shared this ad encouraging people to wear their seat belts. Chances are good you've seen it. It's been viewed millions of times on YouTube. Even if you have seen it, I'd encourage you to watch it again. But this time…look at it through the eyes of God hemming you in before and behind. At Him being behind you and then in front of you, keeping your road safe with His reassuring presence and love.

The expressions on the family's faces are so touching. The love and laughter, then the surprise which quickly escalates to concern. I'm reminded of how much God loves us. How He's given us His Spirit to restrain us, to empower us to do His will, to follow His lead.

Are you familiar with the song He Loves Us? It's one of my favorites. We sang it in church this past Sunday and I just stood and let the promise wash over me, knowing how undeserving and unworthy I am. Click the link below then just close your eyes and listen to the David Crowder Band and let the promise sink in, let God hem you in with the reminder of how He loves you.

On a writing note… My editor, Karen, and I have a phone meeting this afternoon at 2:00 to discuss where we can begin cutting A Lasting Impression as the story came in "just a tad longer" (we exaggerate here in the South) than what I/we thought it would be. Yikes! I'm sharpening my scissors even as I open my mind to see what's extraneous to the story and what should stay.

All for now, and praying you're hemmed up and belted up too! If you've gotten a reminder of God's love and care recently, please share! I'd love to hear about it.

Another one graduated!

Woohoo!! Our son graduated with honors from Belmont University on Saturday and we couldn't be more proud! Had a wonderful day yesterday, then had his reception and party at the house today.  More fun! Here are some family pics following graduation…

Our family

Our kids

Our kids again, doing what…I'm not exactly sure

Proud parents with the graduate!

Our family and my sweet Dad

And the newly graduated son!

Whew! Two kids graduated from college. Doesn't seem possible. Where did the time go? And now some quick pics of earlier years…

Kurt with Claudette (his sweet Gran, and my sweet mother-in-law) when they were at Bear Lake in Colorado in 1992. Claudette passed in 1995 very suddenly from a brain aneurysm, and we still miss her.

Kurt and Kelsey with my parents, Doug and June, at that same lake. We loved our trips to those gorgeous Rocky Mountains. Now Mom is Home too. What treasures heaven holds!

Blessings on your week and to all of you who have kids graduating too!

The power of a song, and a mother's love

Do you know how you can hear a song and you're immediately transported back to a time and place?

The song Flying Over Africa from the movie Out of Africa just came on as I was writing (it's in my Music to Write to playlist), and it took me back to Memphis 1985 when I had gallbladder surgery, and Mom came to stay with us to help take care of me since Joe was in doctoral school and working on his dissertation. Plus, you know…you just want your mom at times like that.

I'd spent a week in the hospital recuperating. Those were the days when they cut you from one end to the other to get your gallbladder out. Not pretty. And I remember Mom standing by my bedside in the hospital as I "worked through" coming off of some pretty heavy pain medication.

That next week at home she and I quickly grew bored of being in the house, and we headed to the theater. She loved watching movies as much as I do. I remember she drove, at least at first, because I didn't have my doctor's permission to drive yet. But she was driving way too slowly so I told her to pull over. We changed seats, getting so tickled, just laughing, and then I drove the rest of the way.

Once we were at the theater, we got a huge bucket of popcorn and our cokes and settled in for Out of Africa. The cinematography was breathtaking. That train slowly making its way across the plains in the opening scene, steam chugging from the engine. And the music. Mom and I were both swept away. Robert Redford coming on the screen helped that too, I'm sure.

What precious memories. I'm crying a little even now as I type this, but they're happy tears. I'm so thankful for a mom who loved me enough to come and stay with me for two weeks while I recuperated from surgery, and I love that we laughed so much throughout the years. I love that she was one of my best friends. And I love that she's waiting for me even now, praying me Home.


I've never been to Africa. She never got there either. But one day, on the New Earth, we're going. Together.


               Mom and me in 1985                                         And again in 2007

Sprinting and some favorites

I'm still sprinting my way toward "The End" on rewrites of my next book, and I'm keeping some pretty late hours. I don't know why but I write best (and by that I mean I'm my most productive) between the hours of 10PM and 2AM. Maybe that's because those are the hours during which I first started writing.

I was working outside the home at the time, so I'd put the kids to bed and then write from ten to two, crash for a few hours, get up, and start all over again. Anyway… Night before last, I wrote until almost four o'clock then fell into bed. Then was promptly awakened a little after seven by this:

Sort of cute, but also a little disturbing. He was just sitting there, staring, waiting, wanting his kong.

During these long bouts of writing I take occasional breaks to fill myself back up. Those breaks include caffeine and sometimes a quick scene from a favorite movie or TV show, or a favorite song. I put my headphones on and crank up that volume, and oh…it's like a mini concert. Mandisa stopped by the other night to give me one such concert.

Listen as Mandisa describes the story behind The Truth About Me, a fabulous song on her recently released album (every song is a winner!):

I went for three mile walk the other night and actually kept going for another half mile just so I could listen to Stronger and These Days (two other songs on that same album) again. It's been a long time since I've downloaded an album that's blessed me so much.

I mentioned I watch quick snippets from favorite movies or TV shows. I love watching "reveal" scenes where a truth is finally being unearthed. I study the expressions, the non-verbal cues, the emotions that are conveyed without a single word. And the dialogue in the following scenes––fabulous! Pointed, curt, painfully honest, "custom" to the language of that relationship. Here are a couple of my favorite scenes:

From Sense and Sensibility 

From Pride and Prejudice (the Colin Firth version, of course)

What are some of your favorite scenes from movies or a recent favorite song? Tomorrow night around 2:37AM, I'll need a break. So 'fess up!

Tammy

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Robin Lee Hatcher today!

Robin, blessings on your day, dear friend! 

(Click to send Robin a birthday message)

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there. I'm missing my precious Mom today and have already flipped through some pictures, remembering fun times we spent together, conversations we shared (especially in those last days), all while I'm also thinking of how the best is yet to come! And how she's praying me Home even now. I love you, Mom!

Erma Bombeck possessed such fabulous wit and insight, and one of my favorite writings of hers is Why Don't You Grow Up? I kept it close at hand while my kids were growing up, and read it often. Bombeck's words helped give me perspective as a mother. They still do.

Why Don't You Grow Up

By Erma Bombeck

One of these days you’ll shout, “Why don’t you kids grow up and act your age?”

And they will.

Or “You guys get outside and find yourselves something to do. And don’t slam that door!” 

And they will.

You’ll straighten up the boy’s bedroom, all neat and tidy, stickers discarded, bedspreads tucked neat and smooth, toys on the shelves. Hangers in the closet. Animals in their places. And you’ll say out loud, “Now I want it to stay that way."

And it will.

You’ll prepare a perfect dinner with a salad that hasn't been picked to death and a cake with no finger traces in the icing and you’ll say, “Now there’s a meal for company.” 
And you’ll eat it alone.

You’ll say, “I want privacy on the phone, no pantomiming going on behind me. No demolition crews. Silence! Do you hear?”
And you’ll have it.

No more plastic tablecloths stained with spaghetti sauce. No more bedspreads to protect the sofa from damp bottoms. No more gates to stumble over at the top of the stairs. No more anxious nights under a vaporizer tent. No more sand on the sheets or Popeye movies in the bathroom. No more iron on patches or wet knotted shoestrings, or rubber bands for ponytails.

Imagine. A lipstick with a point on it.

No baby sitter for New Year’s Eve. And washing only once a week. Having your teeth cleaned without a baby on your lap. No PTA meetings. No car pools. No blaring radios. No one washing her hair at eleven o’clock at night. Having your own roll of Scotch tape.

Think about it. No more Christmas presents out of toothpicks and library paste. No more sloppy oatmeal kisses. No more tooth fairy. No giggles in the dark. No knees to heal. No responsibility. 

Only a voice crying, "Why don’t you grow up?"

And the silence echoing, “I did.”

    _____________________________________

Now off to enjoy my own Mother's Day, and praying (for you moms) that you do yours too!

dailycristo.com

Wow! What a fabulous new website––DailyCristo––from author Athol Dickson. 

In summary, DailyCristo is a growing collection of links to fascinating articles and essays, with occasional commentary from a Christian perspective. It exists to inform, intrigue and inspire thinking believers who want to interact with the unbelieving world in highly relevant ways. DailyCristo matters for the reason art and literature matter, the reason politics and government, science, archeology, religion, ethics, culture, people and all good things matter: DailyCristo is about learning to see ourselves and our neighbors for who we really are, and who we hope to be.


Check out DailyCristo.

If a picture paints a thousand words...

Remember that great old song by Bread? Well if you do then you're old. ;)

As I'm writing this, it's late on Monday night/Tuesday morning, and I've got another thirty pages or so of A Lasting Impression to edit and cut and tighten and slash and put back together and rearrange and stress eat over before heading to bed, so I'm going to share some quick pics from recent life and hop back to writing.

Know what these are? Heaven-in-a-box!

A sweet friend sent me DeBrands Truffles recently with a note tucked inside that said "Just cause you're loved." Isn't that sweet? It meant so much to me.

After taking some pictures of the edible works of art, I cut them up and have been savoring them a little bit at a time. In fact, I "hid" them in the "foil and saran wrap" drawer and forgot about them until I went to post these pictures and then I thought, "Hey! I still have some bites of those left!"

Who says growing older doesn't have it's upsides?

Another sweet treat…

Last Tuesday, dear friend and writer Brandilyn Collins was in town, so Gayle DeSalles (another great buddy who lives local) and I met her for dinner at Stoney River. Such fun and so delicious. We laughed and talked and shared. I left filled up and re-energized! Brandilyn has a new book out, Over the Edge, and I've already started reading it. It's fabulous. Great plot! But it is making me a little itchy. Read the first chapter and find out why.

Skip ahead to Saturday (and speaking of Brandilyn's book)… I noticed Jack had a knot on his throat (embedded tick? Ack!), so I asked Kels to take him into the vet. He was due for his vaccinations so the vet administered those and then Jack proceeded to have an adverse reaction to them and spent Saturday and Sunday lethargic with fever, not eating and hardly even moving. Bless him…

I took him back to the vet yesterday morning and after an injection of anti-inflammatory meds (and a trip afterward with me to Sweet CeCes, froyo will cure anything), he's feeling some better again. Still not 100%, but getting there. I sure do love that little guy. 

Lastly, Kelsey came over this weekend and made these heavenly Itty Bitty Cinnamon Roll Bites she saw on Picky Palate. Oh gracious, gals! They are delish! And so tiny. Hardly any calories.  

Here's the recipe, and be sure to browse the site. Picky Palate has some great recipes. Just please, no salivating on the screen.

Okay, 1866 is calling. Blessings on your Tuesday, friends!

P.S. The truffles are officially gone. Now if I could just figure out why I'm not losing any weight.