I often have a hard time resting when things around me are messy or chaotic. How that plays out in real life is that in any small amounts of time during the day I have to rest (few and far between, actually), I find myself cleaning or straightening so that everything is neat before I…

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12715464_10153759488215783_7498680647124036942_n 1. I love library book sales. And by that, I mean I get excited weeks ahead and make sure I have some child-free time to go, because I love my little ones, but when I’m serious about buying books, I can’t have arms and legs pulling on me saying they need to go to…

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josh-ritter-the-royal-city-band-tickets_01-20-16_17_56017fed1a1d7 1. Matt and I have been waiting for Josh Ritter to come back to Birmingham and he’s finally coming!! It’s not until May, but the wait will be worth it. His recent album, Sermon on the Rocks (album art above), is awesome. If you don’t know who he is, check him out. His live…

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1. First things first. Unbelievable, shocking, knee-weakening, heavens-opening-up-and-shining-down news hit us out of the blue yesterday. We all cried tears of disbelief and relief and thankfulness. As my mom said, the English language doesn’t have enough words to explain how we feel. “Thankful” falls pitifully short.   FullSizeRender That above is my mom. This is how…

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Seriously. I’ve been throwing around “a year and a half” but really, it’s only about a year and two months. That’s crazy. So I need to stop saying a year and a half. Closer to one year sounds much closer. In the interest of full disclosure about how this whole publishing process works, I’ll tell…

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I realize that I run the risk of offending and/or alienating some readers by what I’m about to say, but I’m feeling strongly about it today, so I’m just going to go ahead and say it. I think outlines, especially rigid ones, can hurt the writing process instead of help it. There. I said it.…

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The kids went back to school this week–woohoo! It was a “short” week, meaning four days of school instead of five (and two instead of three for my preschooler) but the parental readjustment to making lunches and getting myself dressed before 8 more than made up for whatever shortness the school people intended. I have…

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*Note: Instead of posting my “Friday 5” on Friday, I’m posting it today, the day before Christmas Eve. Chances are I’d forget to post it tomorrow or Friday, so today it is.** Apparently this is the time of year that anyone with a blog and/or half an interest in reading posts their “best of” lists…

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Everyone knows the process of publishing a book is a long slog. Even I know that and I’m still at the bottom of the hill. Maybe a few steps up from the bottom, but significantly closer to the bottom than I am to the top. I always like to read about how a person goes…

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