I’ve been rather closed mouthed about my writing project.  I’ve been writing a book for Zondervan and it releases November 1st of this year.  I didn’t want to say anything because up until I hit the 3/4 point in the process I wasn’t sure I was going to complete it.  I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to throw in the towel and give up, quit. 

It was painful reliving certain memories and writing about difficult things in my past, but I also re-lived God’s grace to me.  Hind sight is such a gift and I enjoyed seeing God’s hand, once again, in my life.  The book is titled “What Women Tell Me: finding freedom from the secrets we keep”.  I weave my story throughout the book and intersperse snippets of emails from women I’ve heard from through my years of hosting Midday Connection. 

I can’t tell you how great it feels to be on the other side of this BIG project.  My prayer is that God will use the book to touch women and draw them closer to Him.

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This won’t be a shock to any care giver or former care giver who finds this blog post.  Care giving is hard work and exhausting.  It’s also rewarding and heartwarming. 

My father had emergency open heart surgery this week and I was able to go and visit and be a support to my mom.  She has recently experienced significant hearing loss.  I thought I was heading to Florida for one reason, and to help care for one person, and I really was going to help care for two people.  I became a translator to my mother.  Repeating all of the Dr.’s and nurses comments to her, not to mention the comments of visiting friends and family.  I had to remain alert to inform my mother when someone came into the room.  People would come and go if she wasn’t actively watching the door.  On a positive note, she gets hearing aids in just a few days.  Thankfully, the day before I return home she’ll be outfitted with her aids.

I will have only participated in 5 days of caregiving before returning home, and I’m exhausted on day 3.  My hat is off to all of the diligent care givers who hang in there for weeks, months, and years.  If you know of someone who is giving long term care to a loved one, if you are able, arrange to give them a much needed break. 

I’m grateful for my limited experience this week.  I’m sure I’ll be called upon to give care again in my life.  I realized for the first time how much the care giver is the advocate for the patient, and if the care giver isn’t present, the pateint doesn’t always receive proper care.  Pray for those care givers you are aware of.  Pray that God gives them strength and energy and puts people in their lives to remind them to care for themselves, and even to help them do that.

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I confess it’s been a really tough year for me to get things done on time.  I’ve been writing a book for Zondervan which will come out next fall, and that seems to have me constantly playing catch up.  My question is…..What does “on time” mean when it comes to taking down Christmas decorations?  Mine are still up….each evening I still turn the lights on and enjoy the beauty of the Christmas tree.  I figure I might as well enjoy it…..I can’t find an uninterrupted time frame to take down the decorations.  Maybe that’s my problem….maybe I just need to bring the bins in from the garage and just chip away at it until the job is done.  Please tell me there is someone else out there that still has their Christmas decorations up!!!

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I enjoy watching tennis.  The U.S. Open always marks the end of summer for me.  I’ve managed to rope my son into watching with me and he’s become a tennis fan too.  Last night we watched with special interest one of the women’s semi-final matches. 

We’d been watching the return to tennis of Kim Clijsters, the once U.S. Open champion, and young Belgian who left the sport to start a family.  Now, 18 months after the birth of her daughter Jada, she finds herself back in the sport and maybe back to a skill level even she didn’t anticipate so soon.  Clijsters played Serena Williams in her semi-final match and won.  She didn’t just hang around for a while until Serena crushed her, she stood toe to toe and traded powerful ground strokes with Serena.  With each passing successful service game that Kim Clijsters had, Serena became more and more frustrated until a foot fault was called against her and she erupted into a tirade. 

Clijsters got the better of her and that wasn’t written into the script Serena had read.  Serena, in her frustration, couldn’t take it anymore and had to find someone to blame.  The object of her wrath was a tiny, female lines person who called the foot fault.  Serena said profane, threatening things to her and because of it had a point taken away, or rather awarded to her competitor, which might not seem like a big deal except it was match point.  This was not exactly the way Kim Clijsters wanted to win the match either.  I think everyone knew Kim was going to win, just not this way.  The disappointment for me was the way it happened.  The unsportsmanlike conduct that Serena Williams exhibited was a disappointment to me and to her fans. 

But beyond that, when I caught a portion of Serena’s press conference afterward she took no ownership of what she had done.  She talked about how she lives life with no regrets, and that she had already put the incident behind her and didn’t plan on talking about it any longer.  I kept thinking that if she had just said, “I really blew it.  I let Kim’s great play get the better of me.  I didn’t keep my emotions in check.  I’m really sorry and I hope it won’t happen again,” how much more sympathy people would have given her.  We’re all human.  We all make mistakes.  But it’s my hope that as we try to model right living for those who are watching we’ll own up to the mistakes we make. What do you think?

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Have you ever done something that your husband hasn’t known about?  Nothing bad, exactly, just maybe a bit sneaky?  O.K. I’ll fess up.  I just bought new pillows for Mike and me because our other ones were flat as a pancake.  I bought firm pillows because that’s what we like.  But, when your old pillow is flat, and you get a new firm pillow, you want to know what happens?  At least I’ll tell you what happened to me.  I got a crick in my neck.  My neck killed me for days.  I looked Mike’s pillow over and it didn’t appear to be as tall and fluffy/firm, so without telling him, I switched.  I didn’t think he’d ever notice.  The next morning after the sinister switch, he asked me if I thought the pillows were to high, too firm.  I could sense I was about to be busted.  I didn’t even wait for more questions, I told him I switched the pillows thinking he wouldn’t notice.  We’ve gotten some good laughs out of this….but I’m wondering if anyone else has done anything like this?  Have you thrown away that ratty old tee shirt when he wasn’t looking, or something like that?  Let me know.  I think this would make a fun “open forum” program on Midday Connection.

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So my husband is bionic now. He had a defibrillator installed because of an elongated heartbeat.  He loves the fact that he’s a bionic man, and I’m sure will never let me forget it.  But, for the first month of being bionic, he can’t lift his left hand over his head, can’t lift more than 5lbs and has various other restrictions.  He’s also loving that fact.  “Mike, can you unload the dishwasher?”  “No, I think I have to raise my hand over my head for that.”  “Can you grab me a paper towel?”  “Can’t help you, have to raise my hand too high for that.”  It’s going to be a long month!  Bottom line, my husband is doing great!  The surgery was routine and successful and he’s back to his same old humorous self……actually that part of him never went away, just check out my facebook page photos of Mike and his defibrillator surgery.  ‘Friend’ me and you can see them.

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Not to dwell on my television habits, but I’m a big fan of Lost.  I’ve watched it from the beginning and it’s become a favorite that our family stops and watches together.  I don’t always ‘get it’, but I’m fascinated with where they’ll take me each week.  I’m convinced that Benjamin Linus is the best character on television today.  I see all kinds of Christian symbolism in Lost….at least I think I do.  Are you a fan?  Why?  Am I nuts….or are the Christian overtones?

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The economic news keeps getting worse.  The Dow continues to drop, and everyday I hear of more friends losing jobs.  At first it was a friend of a friend, but now those losing jobs are people I know.  I can put a face to the problem.  What do you say to them?  What kind of encouragement can we offer?  I don’t want to give the pat answer, the cliche that is of zero comfort.  All I’ve been able to say is “I’m sorry, and we’ll start praying.”  As weeks and months roll on, though, I’ve been thinking of other things that I can say…like, “Do you need anything?  Food, money, clothes?  My husband and I had this conversation today…..we asked if we would tell our small groups, our close friends, if we were really in need of food.  Maybe it’s the gender difference, but I said “yes”, and he said, “no”.    I thought that’s what community was for, but I know not providing well strikes at the core of who a man is…..so I’m thinking gender is the difference in our answers.  I think these are the times to have uncomfortable conversations with friends who may be hurting financially.  These are the times to get closer and go deeper as the body of Christ.

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I grew up in cold weather climates.  I spent the first 13 years of my life in Maine and Pennsylvania, but I think I was made for warm weather.  Can you say Aruba, Bahamas, Grand Cayman?  I wish I had a vacation home on one of those lovely Islands…..but alas, I’m in Chicagoland enduring one of the snowiest winters in a number of years.  Thankfully my son is old enough now to be a real force in shoveling, and this year I “stated”, shoveling is for men…..so my husband and son have done all the work (most of the time).  How many of you wish you lived where the climate was warmer…..at least warm enough to melt snow within a day, and shoveling was never needed?  Did I tell you we are in the middle of receiving 4 - 9 inches of snow right now?

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I spent this weekend near Harrisburg, Pa visiting my brother.  I hadn’t seen him in 2 years and I knew I was overdue for a visit.  I told him I wanted to follow him around and do what he normally does in the course of a weekend, so we shot pool with a friend of his, went to Saturday’s Market…..which took us 3 or 4 hours to walk through, went to a friends house to play dominoes and listen to Prairie Home Companion, and watched “The Last of the Mohicans”, the classic movie.  Lastly…..he took me to the firing range for target practice.  This was a first for me.  It was sort of scary…..and loud…..but I knew my brother would be glad I did it…..so I did.  If grocery stores went away and I had to forage for myself for food……I probably could, at least that’s my sense after my first target practice.  The things we do for family!

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