In mid August I finished my third summer reading challenge from my friend Amy’s blog. Amy gives a list of 25+ categories to read from. The challenge is to read seven books during the summer. Participants choose a “penalty book” as the eighth book and if you don’t read it, you lose two books. The…
Thirty days into my summer reading challenge and I’m excited to say I’ve read five of my seven books. I’m less excited to say I am suffering through my penalty book. I will be posting about that when I’m finished. For now, let me say, there’s a reason it’s my penalty book. I’ve listened to…
Last month I mentioned that I had chosen the word “motive” for 2026. A few comments made about that post got me to thinkin’. Several people interpreted my confession as a motivational one. And that is certainly true a lot of the time. The misunderstanding opened up a discussion. Motivation is having a strong propensity…
We are an entire month into 2026 and I, (to the chagrin of friends) have not yet chosen my ‘Word for the Year”. As I looked over last year’s note on 2025’s word, I noticed I started out strong. I journaled, I jotted scriptures and quotes, I was all in. The last entry about the word…
Sunday, August 31 is We Love Memoirs Day. Memoirs are not autobiographies. Memoirs are more emotional based, although the feelings are as factual as dates. Marion Roach Smith observes, “People have written about themselves since people could write.” Without the memoir genre, “We would not know about the lives of the disenfranchised. That awareness alone…
My friend and fellow writer, Amy, https://www.messymiddle.com/2025-summer-reading-challenge-is-a-wrap/ started a summer reading challenge to inspire herself to read more. She’s so creative and talented when creating these things, you can’t help but join in. This summer she celebrated the Reading Challenge’s ten year anniversary. Amy provides 30 categories and challenges her readers to read 7 books from those…
Last year at this time I was lamenting. I was fighting a spiritual battle that seemed to have no reason. The rug had been pulled out from under me. The summer missionary trip that had consumed me for 20+ years was suddenly cancelled. Leaving not only me in confusion but over 100 children in foster…
Every Oklahoman has a story about today. I am no different. Thirty years ago today, around 9:20 am, I emerged from my little interior, windowless office in an elementary school to return a preschool student to his parent. She hurried him out the door without a goodbye, his daddy was an Oklahoma City firefighter. I…
My friend, Donna, lost her husband several years ago in the summer. As the holidays approached she opted out of decorating, refused invitations to holiday gatherings and retreated into sadness. “I don’t know how to get through it,” she told me repeatedly, “ I’m just trying to endure it!” Nothing I said or did seemed…
Five close friends lost their husbands during the past year. Four of them were sudden and unexpected. The fifth was told they had three months; she got five days. These husbands were godly men, men who had served the Lord their entire lives with honor and integrity. They and their wives KNOW a reunion is…
