To My Surprise...There's A Book In Me!!!

I am utterly shocked, surprised and thrilled to suddenly discover a book in me! I have ALWAYS loved to write, as my readers know. But the desire for a book was never strong. I wanted and still want to write an ongoing column or article for a magazine or newspaper or e-magazine. The only time I recall wanting to write a book is every time I watch Little Women! Ha! When Jo sees her book for the first time....OMG!

This recent season of joblessness and much inner soul searching has been tough and wonderful at the same time. With time on my hands I have pursued the whole writing thing with a bit more seriousness. Two articles have been submitted to magazines online and off. I am subscribed to places that weekly email me about writing opportunities, what magazines want from writers etc.

One day last week I was out in my backyard journaling before beginning my day. I was complaining about accomplishing nothing the few days prior. The only good thing I could find that felt rewarding was that I gave some light encouragement and counsel to a young ministry wife who is a good Blog-Friend of mine. It was fun and something that comes easy to me after 30 years in all varieties of ministry leadership. She was grateful for my words.

I was journaling the above words and then, my journal reads like this........."OK just had a tiny imagination break just now and this is what I saw: a small How To book for minister's wives written by me. It would be all about releasing them from all the "shoulds" and false expectations that are placed on them by themselves and by others. It would tell them that God is just not as hard to please as they think He is!

Hmm what would the chapters be?..............."

And my Blog Friends, the next two pages of my journal suddenly filled up with eight chapter titles and 4 to 5 subheadings under each one! As if it had been just waiting to be released!! Crazy!

The next few days I did something that shocked me even more. I told all my good friends about it! The more I talked the more excited we all got and they encouraged me so much! Here is some background: I have helped Hubs be a youth pastor, associate pastor, interim pastor, senior pastor, college age pastor and ministry school overseer. On my own I have directed a nursery ministry, been head director of Sunday School, kids church, taught Sunday school classes to most ages including college, lead women's ministry & local ministerial women's group, blah,blah, blah on it goes!

And through it all I raised a couple boys and journaled every bit of it. I have sometimes wondered if all those years of stories, the good, the bad and the ugly were ever going to be pulled out again or were they just going to grow dust in my closet.

I journeyed from being a super uptight 'church lady' to a happy woman who walks in freedom with a butterfly tattoo and a motorcycle jacket in the last 15 years. My heart hurts when I read of young or old women who are still striving so hard to please God and other people. God is totally delighted in them already! And if He is pleased with them, who cares what the others think?

Anyway, there it is. My first baby-step so that this does not become overwhelming is to create another blog that will be geared specifically to Christians and ministry wives. To most people that life looks easy, but it is not. I hope to use that site as a practice place for my chapters and as a research vehicle to learn more about what young ministry wives are dealing with today. My new blog is called...Recovering Church Lady. Great name huh? Well, I think so! You are very welcome to join me there even if you are not involved in christian ministry, just be warned; there will be a lot of God talk over there! Ha!

Thanx to all of you for your encouraging words and fun insights!

Ah, The Sound Of Jackhammers in the Morning.....

It's a gorgeous Saturday, about 8:40 in the morning and my wake-up call ten minutes ago brought back memories of a sound I never thought I would ever hear again so close to my house and so very early on a Saturday morning!

The horrendous sound is still vibrating though my house as I sit here in the living room with my coffee and wishing I lived way out in the country or the beachside or the desert. The sound is JACKHAMMERS pounding into cement! Yah, nice way to wake up isn't it?

Remember the post I did recently about the noisy neighbor kids screaming in their swimming pool? Well, the weather lady on the news last night said that we will be entering the triple digits in the next few days, but I guess my next door people did not see that report because they are removing their pool!

How do you remove a "cement pond"? You tear it up into small pieces, haul those pieces away and fill in the huge hole with dirt. That fill-in dirt is what I am looking at outside my living room window right now. It is in 2 large dump trucks, all ready to go into the neighbors yard. But first..........

they have to JACKHAMMER the thing to tiny movable pieces! O man, that sound!!

Who would have thought I would be enduring such a crazy sound so very close to my bed, more than once? How many people are lucky enough to be awakened by men destroying cement, which by the way, was designed to last forever and stay exactly where it was put....forever!

My flashback is taking me back to the days when we lived in a tiny house (parsonage, for those who know what that is) right next to the tiny church we were pastoring. The backyard fence was simply large sections of chicken wire and wobbly wood posts. On the other side of the fence was a large cement company and up against the rickety fence was the spot where the cement trucks were cleaned out.

What could be so bad about the place where they washed their trucks, you ask? I will answer with another question? Have you ever wondered what would happen if a cement truck got delayed or the turning cement barrel stopped turning on the back of the truck? Yah....the cement hardens inside the truck. How in the world do you get hardened cement out of a cement truck?...........

Some poor guy has to go inside the huge barrel of the truck and JACKHAMMER it out........early in the morning!! Right next to my bedroom window! Good times.

So here I am, 15 years later, listening to my dishes vibrate in the cupboard. Actually my dishes are just sitting there peacefully, just sounded more dramatic that way.

It really is sad actually. I have wanted a swimming pool my whole life. I am not sure why my neighbors are removing theirs. I know that a built-in swimming pool is a lot of work and it may have been damaged or not cared for in the past. My neighbors are new here so I have no idea how the pool looked when they arrived, but they have been using it as I complained about in a previous post. Now I feel sad for the kids and the hot, hot days ahead here in the Sacramento area of California.

But 8 0'clock in the morning?