Lexical Light

Prepping for the East Texas Christian Writers Conference

That's what's on my brain now. Looking forward to learning & teaching at East Texas Baptist University in Marshall, TX for the ETCwc.  I'll be speaking about social media and blogging, including how to decrease your blog traffic by not posting. :) 

Lindsey Nobles' Thin Place Story

"Beautifully blurry" is a new favorite phrase to describe a Thin Place, courtesy of Lindsey Nobles in today's post at MaryDeMuth.com.

Dance with My Father (Thin Place contest submission)

Back when I was a child, my father would lift me high and dance with my mother and me. He'd spin me around until I fell asleep, then up the stairs he would carry me. I knew for sure I was loved. I'd like to say those words are mine, inspired by childhood memories, but they're not. Luther Vandross wrote and sang them.

A father's love is almost mythical to me, though I grew up with two dads. One was absent, the other harsh.  For whatever reasons, neither one fulfilled the emotional role of a father. I don't remember feeling loved by either of them. So, I cultivated a thick skin of low expectations and apathy in an attempt to protect the daddy-daughter part of my soul that longed for affection. The calluses meant to defend tender spots worked. I managed through life well enough. However, the healthy tenderness required for intimacy remained hidden within a calloused heart.

Some of that hardness is sloughed off during a worship service at church. Raising my hands as I sing, I'm suddenly dancing with my Father - my  arms lifted to God like a young daughter reaching up to dance with Daddy. As I sway, I envision a little girl's black patent shoes on her Daddy's feet. I feel as if I am standing on God's feet as He enjoys my presence. There it is - a thin place in this daughter's heart. As I dance with my Heavenly Father, my Daddy God (Romans 8:15), I know for sure I am loved.

This is my submission to a Win a Kindle 259 Word-Memoir contest as part of a social media tour for Mary E. DeMuth's new book Thin Places.

 

Blog Recommendations for my Friend

To my friend who may be need some more blog material while she's up nursing her cute little baby, here are a few of my favorite blogs:

Mommylife.net - Barbara Curtis is mom of twelve, home schooled for 8 years, has authored several books for moms and has tons of great content. She's also one of my main inspirations for blogging and writing.

Lifenut.com/blog- Mopsy/Gretchen is another favorite and online friend from the early days of my blog. She has 7 kiddos, all wonderfully quoted and depicted on her blog, and one more little one on the way. We both like Elf, Wheel of Fortune and have Charlie Brown Thanksgivings. We also drive buses. She has the "red brick" and I have the "great white." She will make you laugh and cry as she shares her life. Oh, yeah. I was born in Denver and she lives in Denver. :)

Liberty- Christy is my real life friend from a home school co-op. She has 3 BOYS and shares hilarious stories about them. (Do they know that, Christy?) She's also a deep thinker and a U2 fan.

Lynn - is another real life friend. She is a worshiper, not just a singer, but a worshiper. Her posts are thoughtful with a bit o humor thrown in. Simply reading her blog has made be want to worship God on more than one occasion

So, there ya go, my real life friend who needed some more reading material. I'm happy to help.

It's His Birthday, We Get Presents

"Mom, if it's Jesus' birthday, why do we get presents?"

Each year the kids bring up the paradox of celebrating Jesus' birthday by giving each other gifts. That doesn't make sense to a kid brain. We don't do that for other people. In their experience, when you celebrate a birthday, you give the birthday person a gift.

We use it as a reminder of Jesus" love for us.

3 for 1 Blog Post

Ahhhh. This 20 minutes of calm brought to me by the Round Rock Public Library and the RR Y. Since they are so close to each other, Ninjaboy & I were able to zip down here and enjoy some computer time. I usually discourage the kids from getting on the library's computer becuase they get plenty of computer time at home. So, it's a treat for Ninjaboy. The condition was he must complete a blog post before perusing the web. He wrote a nice post about his new bike.

So from just 20 minutes w/my blog I get 3 benefits:

blogging

being at the library

teaching

Suhweet.

Tweaking the Blog, Tweaking the Blog

One of my current blog goals is to clean up my sidebars. That's why I'm moving a lot of my Typelists to my Blog Closet. (Look in the sidebar.) I'm using Typepad Pages to store my Typelists. I will miss the pictures of the books from Library Thing, but I Have this urge to clean up my sidebars. Go figure.

Dr. Wannabe, Paging Dr. Wannabe

Dr. Lexie. Yep. Part of me wants to get a doctorate in something so I can be Dr. Lexie. It would take a long time since only have a bachelor's degree. I don't even know what kind of advanced degree I would want. I have no long term career goal that requires a doctorate. Finally, there's no way I'm going back to school now. I'm trying to school my children. So, what gives?

I've tried to check my heart & make sure it's not a pride thing. I don't think it is. It must have something to do with how much I enjoy being on a college campus.  Since I worked full-time through college I didn't have the stereo-typical "college experience," so I don't think it's a longing for the good ol' days thing. I just like being on campus and learning stuff.

Aha! Maybe it's not prideful, but perhaps I do want something "official" for my learning. According to the quick MotherStyles quiz I took about personality, two of the ways I'm energized, as an INTP person, are by taking a class (iNtuitive me) and objective validation (Thinking me) of my competence. Now the Dr. wannabe thoughts make sense.

Thankfully, I have a paradigm and a plan to scratch the Doctoral itch. You can read about it tomorrow soon.

I Learned How to Trackback!

Whoo-hoo! I think understand. 

When I found this video at You've Got Your Hands Full I had to share it. Of course I gave the proper credit via a HT (hat tip), but I figured out how to let Linda know I had liked her post so much I blogged about it.

Here's how I did it:  (This is mainly for my reference. I know the majority of you don't care. Bad blogger, ignoring my readers.)

At the bottom of the post is a Trackback section that includes a Trackback URL. Copy it. On my post, look for the "Send a Trackback to these addresses" box. Paste the Trackback URL. Ta-da. Now my post will be referenced on her post under the Trackback section part that says " Listed below are links to weblogs that reference How tidy are you? Life's too short to iron, isn't it?:"

I see why people like them know. It's a quick way to let the blogger know you liked their post and to let other people read what you wrote about the topic.

Hooray for learning something new.  My blog education continues.

My 2nd Blogiversary State of the Blog Address

What does 2 years of online life equate to in real time? I'm sure somebody has figured a formula out for it, kind of like dog years. Until I find that formula, I'll just use a "real" life analogy and say I'm a blog toddler. I can walk pretty well, but still take quite a few spills. My ability to communicate is increasing, but still borders on babbling at times.

Before I started blogging, I had only heard of it a few times. About the time I started, Forbes ran an article on it. Now, 2 years later, blogging is a well known, widely accepted medium. Again, Forbes mentions it in their 90th anniversary issues, focused on networks. (Not that I had anything to do with either of those things!)

My blog goals for the next year:

*clean up my sidebars (bars, not burns)
*Slurp my blog into a book via Blurb.com
*utilize the "post ahead" feature on Typepad to post regularly
*continue to work on writing quickly & concisely
*have my blog earn it's keep with Google Adsense and Amazon Associates

Blogging, including reading blogs, is one of my favorite pursuits because it gives me a mode of expression as well as food for thought.

Thanks to those of you who read, comment, and lurk. You're part of what makes blogging fun. BTW, I think the gift for the 2nd Blogiversary is Electronics.

Just because I'm a nerd, here's the link to my 1st Blogiversary post and my 1st Post Ever.

Truth in Blogging Disclosure: I used the Time Warp feature on Typepad, i.e., I wrote this on the 26th but posted it on the 19th since we were out of town on the 19th. It's kind of like posting ahead of time, except it's backwards. :)