Memorial Day Weekend

Friday evening, I flew to Houston so I could speak at a women's leadership event on Saturday. My family joined me later via car. They got the raw end of that deal, as they dealt with slow traffic for much of Saturday. Reason for slowness: It rained all weekend. And Texas drivers don't do rain.

While we were in Houston, the weather kept us out of the pool, but it didn't stop us from having great fun with our friends, Karen and Barney Giesen. If you wonder how we spent most of our time, check out the photo. We also worshipped at the interracial City of Refuge Church; enjoyed a visit with Leigh McLeroy, most recently author of The Beautiful Ache; met most of Karen's family; and made good use of Karen's new vibrating recliner.

Oh yes--and for brunch on Monday morning, we made ziplock omelets. Yummy and easy. Here's how:

Have each person write his or her name in permanent marker on a quart-size plastic freezer bag. Then put a big pot of water on the stove and bring it to a full boil while you prepare the following ingredients: cheeses, ham, bacon bits, onion, green pepper, green olives, black olives, tomatoes, hash browns, whatever.

Have each person throw into his or her bag the desired omelet ingredients. Then add two eggs (or to reduce cholesterol, a couple of egg whites). Mush it all up to combine, and then make sure to get all the air out of the bag.

Place the bag into rolling, boiling water for exactly 13 minutes. (You can cook six to eight omelets in a large pot. If you need more, just put another pot on the stove.) At the end of thirteen minutes, open the bag and the omelet rolls out easily.

If you’re anything like me, your attempts at stove-top omelets usually result in "egg stuck to pan followed by scrubbing." But using this method, the omelet was perfecto.

(The winner of the tween book was Kelley.)

Tween Time?

My friend, Paul Pettit, just published a book for parents with kids between the ages of eight and twelve, Congratulations, You've Got Tweens! I endorsed the book, which is a great little guide. And that means I also ended up with an extra copy to give away.

Life as a tween's parents has its ups and downs, for sure. Case in point: A couple of days ago, still suffering with a respiratory deal, I decided to take a short nap before picking up my daughter from school, two miles and a busy intersection away. But when I opened my eyes, I realized I was 30 minutes late to get her! I tore out of the house and wheeled my car out of the driveway only to find her within ten houses of home carrying her violin and backpack. I threw open the door and exclaimed, "Oh, honey! I'm so sorry!"

I expected her to berate me--to tell me how worried she was or how scared. But, no. She cheerfully jumped in and said, "That's okay, Mom! I needed the exercise!"

Love her!

Then last night, we went to a fancy-schmancy hotel to celebrate the end of school. If you live near (or have visited) Dallas, you know the spot--the restaurant in the big ball at the top of the Hyatt that overlooks the city at night. At the end of the evening, as we waited for my husband to get the car, I looked around to find her. And I discovered our girl and her tween friend leaning over on their bellies into a fountain in the lobby, stretched full out legs akimbo, scooping out money for themselves.

Oy! Tweens!

What geeky stuff did you do as a tween? Leave a comment and I'll draw your name on Tuesday. I will donate a copy of Paul's book to the winner's favorite library (personal, church, school, or community).

Near Houston?

Tomorrow I'm scheduled to speak in Houston at a women's ministry event. It's not too late to join us for the HERCall Ministries conference (cost is $40). You can get more info here. If you're in the area, come on!

Read Any of These?

Christianity Today has announced their 2007 Book Awards with twenty-two titles that “bring understanding to people, events, and ideas that shape evangelical life, thought, and mission.”

Apologetics/Evangelism
The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, Francis S. Collins

Biblical Studies
Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony, Richard Bauckham

Christianity and Culture
The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World, Miroslav Volf

Christian Living
Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? Philip Yancey

The Church/ Pastoral Leadership
Simple Church: Returning to God's Process for Making Disciples Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger

Fiction
Dwelling Places, Vinita Hampton Wright

History/Biography
Upon the Altar of the Nation: A Moral History of the Civil War, Harry S. Stout

Missions/Global Affairs
The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible's Grand Narrative, Christopher J. H. Wright

Spirituality
The Divine Embrace: Recovering the Passionate Spiritual Life, Robert E. Webber

Theology/Ethics
The Shadow of the Antichrist: Nietzsche's Critique of Christianity, Stephen N. Williams

Awards of Merit

Apologetics/Evangelism
Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense, N. T. Wright

Biblical Studies
The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made, Mark Dever

Christianity and Culture (tie)
Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical's Inside View of White Christianity, Edward Gilbreath

Who's Afraid of Postmodernism? Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church, James A. Smith

Christian Living (tie)
The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus' Essential Teachings on Discipleship, Dallas Willard

Jesus Mean and Wild: The Unexpected Love of an Untamable God, Mark Galli

The Church/ Pastoral Leadership
Why Church Matters: Worship, Ministry and Mission in Practice, Jonathan R. Wilson

Fiction
Winter Birds, Jamie Langston Turner

History/Biography
A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan, Michael Kazin

Missions/Global Affairs
The New Faces of Christianity: Believing in the Bible in the Global South, Philip Jenkins

Spirituality
Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading, Eugene H. Peterson

Theology/ Ethics
Evil and the Justice of God, N. T. Wright

Ups and Downs

If you are looking for an online Bible Study group, I'll be leading a SoulPerSuit discussion of Esther starting in July. Watch for future announcements here or at the SPS blog site. If you haven't checked the SPS blog lately, I highly recommend that you do. Give the right side of your brain some attention.

This week I've had what is becoming my bi-monthly respiratory infection. Yesterday was pretty bad. I've been sort of out of it, you know. Case in point: I make my own granola, and we had run out. So I sent my husband to buy the ingredients for me. Then I dragged myself out of bed to make it. And don't you know I cooked it for two hours too long. And because I can't smell anything, I didn't realize it was burning. Ever had black granola?

So I got back to bed after cleaning all that up (scrubbing pans takes some elbow grease) only to find that the cat had barfed all over my sheets. Special, huh?

Fortunately, I feel better today.

The winner of the CD is Gioietta. (Please send me your snail mail info via the contact form on my web site at aspire2.com.)

She is not the only winner. My husband won a 42" plasma TV from one of the vendors he met in Vegas. It is supposed to be delivered tonight. Like I said, I feel better today!

Query Clinic

As editor of Kindred Spirit magazine, I sometimes receive some badly written query letters. I received this one yesterday:

Dear Sir,

I am an aspiring young writer who would like to write for Kindred Spirit [not italicized]. Although, I have never read your excellent magazine I am sure that it is very good. I have never been published before but all my friends tell me that I am not that bad of a writer. I have written an article which I think you will enjoy. It is about Jesus walking on the water and Peter getting out of the boat and walking to him and stuff and how he starts sinking in the water and then you can just imaginge the other disciples are like freaking out and Jesus is like frustrated and disappointed because Peter doubted etc. etc. etc.

My opening line is a real hooker. "It was a dark and stormy night." I think this really sets the mood and catches the readers attention.

Anyway, write me back and let me know what you think.

Turns out one of my writing students crafted this as his joke-intro before going on to tell me he landed a writing internship at a Dallas weekly.

If you ever wonder how not to pitch an article idea, this pretty much sums it up. What's sad: I have received worse queries than this (fortunately, only a few), which writers intended as legitimate pitches.

What's wrong with it? You tell me. Choose one thing and comment on why. I'll throw your name into a Tuesday morning drawing for a new CD of WOW Gospel #1 hits.

Bono's Acceptance Speech

My friend Heather J. sent me this link to Bono's acceptance speech (sermon?) at the NAACP Awards. Can I get an "Amen"?

Christy

With Christy Award news in the air, I thought now might be a good time to talk about the book for which the awards are named.

My introduction to it came in my girlhood when my sister and mom read it. Later, my mom sent me (and I read) The Helper, also by Marshall. And I loved the movie, "A Man Called Peter," about the author's husband.

But my personal involvement with the book itself started only six years ago after I received some good news: Lethal Harvest had made the Christy Award finals in the mystery/suspense category. Never mind that our first novel was up against books by T. Davis Bunn (who made the finals in more than one category) and James Scott Bell (who won). We made the cut! On the night of the fancy-schmancy awards banquet in Atlanta, each finalist received a lovely medallion and a copy of the commemorative edition of Christy by Catherine Marshall.

I brought the book home, stuck it on my shelf, and forgot about it. Until this spring. That's when Edify Media sent me a review copy of the "Christy" video. We watched it as a family and really enjoyed it, so I decided to give the book a read.

But, to be honest, I expected Polyanna.

I was wrong.

In Christy (based on the truelife experience of Marshall's mother), nineteen-year-old, cultured Christy Huddleston leaves home to teach in a one-room schoolhouse in the Smokies. Talk about culture shock. Christy comes to know and care for the mountain people in all their wildness, pride, abject poverty and dark superstitions. Oh, yes, and their appreciation for beauty and truth, as well.

In her primitive setting, Christy frequently finds her faith tested, and complicating her life is the love of two men. The biggest surprise: the author explores the trauma of rape, a sensible view of sex, and doesn't back away from earthy subjects.

Only after I read the book did I learn it has sold millions of copies and topped literary guild selection lists since its release forty years ago. The Collectors Edition offers some special treats: sixteen-plus pages of memorabilia from the Catherine Marshall estate, including original manuscript notes, letters, character sketches, journal passages, and--my favorite--photographs.

The biggest surprise to me: the literary quality. Marshall nailed character descriptions and emotions. I found myself grabbing my writer's notebook and taking notes constantly as I learned from her masterful pen.

This book isn't one to read to the first-graders, but this grown-up found it immensely satisfying.

You go, Mary-girl!

It's May, and you know what that means in the book world? Time to announce awards and winners.

As far as such announcements go, Mary DeMuth is having a fab month. So far she's received a nomination for a Retailer's Choice award, and she is also a Christy Awards finalist in the "First Novel" category for her superb read, Watching the Tree Limbs. (You can see the list of the other finalists here.) Winners will be announced in Atlanta on July 7 at a dinner keynoted by Lauren Winner (love her).

The Christys are named for Catherine Marshall's bestselling book, Christy!, on which the TV series by the same name is based. (I just finished reading the commemorative edition of that book. More on that in a future post, but it was a great read and edgy for its time.)

In case you don't know, the Christys have been called the Christian Oscars. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call them the Christian Pulitzers for fiction. Or the Christian National Book Awards. Whatever you want to call them, they're big stuff.

What makes a book Christian? It reflects a worldview in which the author "does justice, loves mercy, and walks humbly with God" in a world in which the triune God reigns as Sovereign. That does not mean all characters believe. Or even that the characters talk about Jesus all the time. But hope and redemption are key themes. Think Chronicles of Narnia.

Congratulations, Mary! I'm not at all surprised, but I am excited for you!

Plan Ahead for Summer Fun

Summer’s coming! My guest columnist, Carrie Patterson (at right, with kids after a day of fossil-hunting) has some great ideas for how to fill the parenting days with something other than television. Carrie teaches home-schooling seminars in Vancouver, Washington, and is an expert on turning free time into opportunities for edutainment.

GAME NIGHT
My Jonathan likes to host game nights in our basement. Our church has a strategy game night on the first and third Friday nights and it's open to anyone. Jonathan is usually the youngest one there, but really enjoys it. Months in which there is a fifth Friday, he hosts a game night at our house and invites a few friends. Everyone brings a snack and game to share. They usually go from 6:30–10:30 p.m.

HALF SLEEPOVER
One of my daughter, Julia's, friends did this once and we loved it! The girls all brought sleeping bags, pillows and pajamas. They made their own pizzas for dinner, then got in their PJs and rolled out the sleeping bags. They watched a movie (they chose Rogers & Hammerstein’s “Cinderella”), had popcorn and snacks. Then at 10:30 or 11:00 PM their parents came and they went home. It was as much fun as a slumber party, but everyone slept in their own beds, went to bed at a decent hour, and were not grouchy the next day.

ARTS AND CRAFTS DAY
Get craft kits at Michael's or order them through Oriental Trading Co. and have the kids make something. If one of the moms knows how to crochet or knit, they can start a project and then if they do end up watching TV, they can work on it. Also, check local craft stores (Lowe's, Home Depot, etc.) and see if they have a kids’ craft day. Would they be interested in starting/continuing a scrapbook? Sometimes scrapbook stores have kids’ classes, or families could host it once a month.

PHOTOGRAPHY
Read a little bit with kids in a beginning photography book about how to take good pictures. Get each one a disposable camera and take them to the zoo. Let them use the whole camera taking pictures, get them developed and then a week or so later, sit down and analyze them. Another idea would be to take pictures of their activities all summer and make a scrapbook for the summer of 2007.Last year we studied local history and visited local historical places,had the kids take pictures and put it together in a book. They had to find out info about the place and do a journal entry, too.

COUNTY FAIR
See if the county fair has open class categories that kids can enter. Have them each choose something to enter and work on it. (Grow flowers or tomatoes in a pot, sew an apron, decorate a T-shirt, take photos, learn to set the table, embroider, cross-stitch.) You might also check the county extension agent for materials to use. Anyone can purchase them, even if their child is not in 4-H and they are good quality, economically priced. (I have a whole library of them!)Then there is the local library reading program and the Barnes & Noble summer reading program that provide rewards for reading.

THEATER TIME
Local theaters have free movie days once a week. Check the web for information.

The possibilities are endless. Enjoy!

Eight Things about Me

My friends, Christina and Mary, tagged me yesterday. First, the rules:

1. Each tagged “player” starts with eight random facts/habits about him- or herself.
2. A tagged person must write a blog entry about his or her eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of the blog, the tagged person must include eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Leave them a comment telling them they're tagged and to read your blog.

Here are my eight random facts about myself:

1.) When I was little, my goal in life was to grow up to be Diana Ross. Whenever I would sing, my four siblings would say sarcastically, “Swing it, Diana.”

2.) Somebody has actually paid me to sing in a recording studio. More than once.

3.) My husband and I attended the Grammy Awards at Radio City Music Hall the year Whitney Houston racked up a bunch of awards, and Bono made a drunken fool of himself. (He’s come a long way, baby.)

4.) My first dog was a collie named “Folly.”

5.) I was on drill team at Wakefield High in Arlington, Virginia, when our football team played W. T. Woodson, made famous by “Remember the Titans,” and I can verify that the cheers in the movie were the actual ones chanted at the time. Ew. Ah-ah. Ew-ew, ah-ah.

6.) That same drill team performed at the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony in 1975, and I got within feet of President Ford. (That’ll date ya, huh?)

7.) Speaking of presidents, my husband and I almost got ourselves arrested the day of Ronald Reagan’s Inauguration when we set down a box of tracts in a park across from the White House and a couple of SWAT teams showed up to check it out. (Later that night my husband also crashed one of the inaugural balls in a tux, but I digress.)

8.) I have been in all but one of the fifty United States. Alaska is left. We really want to go there, but have you priced cruises lately?

I'm tagging Benji, Erin, Heather G, Rhonda, Lance, Jacob, Kelley, and Lynzee.

Thoughts on The Road

The most disturbing thing I heard about the Left Behind series was not that every book after the first had the feel of rushed writing and even more rushed editing. Not even close. The comment that most jarred, concerned, troubled me was this: "After reading the Left Behind series, I think it might be kind of cool to get left behind. It sounds exciting." And why not? The main characters drove brand-spanking new, fully-loaded cars, drank clean water, and had access to the coolest technology ever.

If you want a more realistic vision of the post-apocalyptic world, read Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer-prize-winning novel, The Road. But expect his story to haunt more than it entertains.

Ash replaces dirt. Concrete replaces forests. Black waves replace blue. Death replaces life. Only food canned before the unnamed horrific event is fit to eat. And people kill for it. And eat each other.

(A couple of times I had to suspense disbelief--how could the dad fry eggs if all the chickens died? How did they carry the amount of water they would have needed? And where did they get it if all the streams were contaminated?)

So why read such a bleak book full of future shock?

Engaging storytelling. Gripping images. Masterful use of the language. And ultimately a look at the truth: that even if the world should come to an end, these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Creep Alert!

What do you get when you mix the Brontës + Dickens + Austen? Moors, murder, and madness in a story woven by Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale.

In this literary page-turner, a lonely, bookish daughter of an antique book collector gets chosen to write the biography of a bestselling author. This author, more of a recluse than Emily Dickinson, dwells in a Wuthering-Heights-type house, and the tale she unfolds both fascinates and sends shivers from spine to fingernails. When the story catches up to real time, the suspense kicks into overdrive.

My chaplain friend, Lin, recommended The Thirteenth Tale back when I was recuperating from surgery last November. (I can always count on Lin to nail a book recommendation--last time: The Year of Magical Thinking.) I finally got around to reading Setterfield’s debut novel this week, and I have to say Lin’s reputation is solidly intact. I stayed up far too late devouring it, but then, isn’t that what the good novels do—remind us that a story well-told is worth even more than a good night’s sleep?

Foster's Ten Counsels in Spiritual Formation

Today I posted a blog entry over at the SoulPerSuit blog site, the other blog to which I contribute. As I wrote it, I could look out my hotel-room window at snow-capped Pikes Peak. It's about time. I've been in Colorado Springs for three days now, which started with board meetings for the Evangelical Press Association followed by the EPA national meeting. And frankly, I was beginning to doubt that they had mountains here. I got drenched and windblown. But when the fog blew off this morning, the view made up for the gloom. And despite the lousy weather, the conference has been great.

Last night we heard from Richard Foster, probably best known for Celebration of Discipline. He shared with us Ten Counsels in Spiritual Formation:

1. Do not define spiritual formation in terms of various practices. Having a quiet time, studying the Bible and journaling are all great. But they are not the same as being Christlike.
2. Do not focus on curriculum-based solutions. Curriculum should always serve ideas, which serve relationship.
3. Do not aim at outward action but on the interior life.
4. Do root spiritual formation in the Great Commission. Disciple the nations. A disciple is an apprentice. "Teach them to observe all that I have taught."
5. Do think internationally. Always think of the whole human family.
6. Do think in terms of the church universal.
7. Do give sustained attention to a balanced vision.
8. Do draw from The Great Tradition. Think Moses. Luther. Catherine of Genoa. The devotional masters.
9. Do take the long view. We think in terms of lifetimes. The soul will live forever. Vast numbers are committed to the long view. Invest in them.
10. Do develop the highest possible Christology. Increasingly our dependence should be on Him and off of us.