Starlight Writer

11 Questions on 1/11/11

January 12, 2011January 12, 2011 Diana B.1 Comment

Last year I answered 10 random questions for 2010. I thought it’d be fun to go back and answer them again for this New Year. To change things up somewhat, I added a question and modified some of the original ones just a tad. And despite what WordPress’s clock might lead you to believe, I’m publishing this in the 11th hour of 1/11/11.

1. A Verse (or three):
What are a few verses of Scripture that you are meditating on lately?

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Ephesians 4:29

“All Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” 2 Timothy 3:16

“We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard so that you may also have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.” 1 John 1:3

2. A Voice:
What are two quotes that have inspired you lately?

“When we speak, it must be with the realization that God has given our words significance. He has ordained for them to be important… God has given words value. So we must do all we can to assign words the importances Scripture gives them.” -Paul Tripp

“Every conversation we have with another person carries this marvelous potential of passing on the grace of God.” -Carolyn Mahaney

3. A Laugh:
What are two things that have made you laugh lately?

Yesterday the girls were playing with homemade paper dolls. Linnea had made a mermaid outfit for one of the dolls. She kept referring to the top as a bra. “It’s a bikini top,” I cringed as I corrected her. A few hours later when the girls were again playing with the dolls, I overheard Linnea correcting Laurel. “It’s not a bra! It’s a zucchini top!”

Also, Dave Barry’s review of 2010 totally cracked me up earlier this month.

4. A Food:
Link us up to a favorite online recipe!

Shortcut Stroganoff – We had this last week for the first time in quite a while. It’s so yummy!

5. A Flick (or three):
What movie(s) do you recommend renting?

Oh, I can’t list just one, which surprises me because I’m not a big movie-goer. Letters to Juliet and Ramona and Beezus were my two favorite movies of 2010. PluggedIn Online offers helpful reviews of both movies. I also really loved the HBO movie Temple Grandin with Claire Danes (also available on DVD). Temple is quite an amazing person. I helped edit some of the articles she wrote for BEEF magazine when I was on staff there. Plus, I was thrilled to see issues of BEEF magazine show up in the movie! Yay for BEEF and yay for Temple!

6. A Family:
What’s your best home-building tip?

Don’t reserve special meals just for times when company is coming to dinner. Treat your family to the extra-special stuff, too! Lighting candles, lowering the lights, using the fancier napkins and playing soft background music during dinner makes everyone feel especially loved.

7. A Chore:
What’s your best house-cleaning secret?

Pretending to be Cinderella’s step mother allows you to (A) amuse your children (B) get away with speaking in grouchy voice while ordering your children to do housework and (C) share the house-cleaning workload with those small people you love. (If only it worked with my husband, too!)

8. A Shop:
Sell us on one of your favorite online stores!

I am totally digging Two Peas in a Bucket — mostly for their digitial scrapbooking kits and fonts. Love them! (Thanks for the tip, Kate!)

9. A Prayer:
What’s one thing that you’d like blog-readers to pray about today?

Pray that we would fix our small eyes on Jesus, that we would allow Him to transform us, and that we would look for the beauty of enormous things in 2011.

10. A Product:
What’s one great product that you’d like to tell the world about?

For Christmas I got a Savvycents wallet, and I LOVE it! Its super-nifty tab dividers make me feel so organized! Dave Ramsey may or may not agree that it’s fashionably frugal, but I’m willing to bet his wife would agree! (Thanks for the tip, Alice and Chris!)

11. A Song:

“What Love Really Means” by J.J. Heller inspires me to love my loved ones simply for who they are.

May God go with you in 2011!

A Charlie Brown Moment

January 9, 2011January 9, 2011 Diana B.1 Comment

Growing up, one of my favorite characters was Charlie Brown. I didn’t read the comic strip, but I loved the specials on TV. Truth be told, I lived vicariously through Charlie Brown.

The complicated social struggles Charlie Brown was having with Lucy and Snoopy and all his friends weren’t really what entertained me. I didn’t understand most of that. What entertained me was the idea of hunting for the great pumpkin in a pumpkin patch, the idea of buying a Christmas tree in the snow, and the idea of kids casually ice skating outside on a pond as snow falls softly and piano music plays peacefully in the background. It all just seemed right to me.

Without Charlie Brown, I would have thought all pumpkins came from the grocery store and that ice skates were only used indoors by under-dressed children with a white-knuckle grip on the half wall that surrounded the rink. But Charlie Brown enlightened me, and I am thankful.

Not long after we moved to Minnesota, I found out that Charles Schultz, creator of Charlie Brown, was from St. Paul, Minn. I also discovered most of the reasons I am enamoured with Minnesota trace back to something that happened in a Charlie Brown TV special. Or Grumpy Old Men. But mostly Charlie Brown.

All this to say: I had a Charlie Brown moment yesterday. Not an exasperated, I-am-fed-up-with-Lucy kind of moment, but a magical, joyful moment enjoying something quite simple.

Yesterday, I went ice skating for the first time on a pond and for the first time in about 15 or 20 years. Our family went to Centennial Lakes in Edina for a friend’s birthday. It was 11 degrees and brutally windy outside, but the frozen ponds where we skated were tucked behind a shopping area, which blocked the wind. Plus the sun was shining brightly, and that kept us warm. While we skated, music played quietly from the deluxe warming house nearby. It was simply a magical experience. Or maybe the magical part was that I, by the grace of God, managed not to fall on the ice! Either way, I am inspired to do some more ice skating soon!

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Words I Can’t Edit

January 7, 2011January 7, 2011 Diana B.Leave a comment

Pleasant words are a honeycomb,
sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

– Proverbs 16:24 NIV

As a writer and a former editor, I am very much a lover of words. I am enamoured with books, fonts, thesauruses, logos, notebooks, pens, libraries, storytellers and book stores all because of words.

Earlier this week I blogged about writing God’s words on the wall, and typically I post my own words on my Facebook “wall” once or twice a week. Those and the words I put down on paper are all thoughtfully and carefully shared. Chalk, pencil and keyboard make controlling these words rather simple. Erasers, back space keys and delete buttons serve me well.

The words that depart from my mouth, on the contrary, are much harder to edit and revise. Once they are said, no eraser can remove them. Perhaps that’s why I struggle with them. I can’t bully them into being eloquent. I can’t make them behave. I can’t make them sound right. Afterwards, I can only stew over them, fret about what else I should have said, or play editorial games with myself — like how I would have worded something differently if I could go back in time.

Especially with those people I love the most, I’ve been struggling with my spoken words lately.

Deep down I want all my words to be sweet to the soul and healing to the bones, especially those spoken to my children and my husband. That’s a God-given desire I am sure.

But more often than I like, my feelings of frustration or annoyance or irritation season my words with bitterness instead of sweetness. I hear them and almost don’t recognize my own grumpy voice. As they echo in my head, I wonder, “Did I really just say that, like that? What’s wrong with me?”

Operating in my own strength, I certainly can’t control my words and attitude. But the fruit of Spirit includes self-control. What’s more, I can ask God for specific help.

“Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips.” -Psalm 141:3

As He promises in 1 Corinthians 10:13, God always provides “a way out” when I am tempted to speak unkind or harsh words. It’s my responsibility to act on that exit strategy, of course!

This week God has also led me to three excellent resources on the power of words and significance of using them wisely.

The first is Watching Our Words from the mother-daughter team of Carolyn Mahaney and Nicole Whitacre at GirlTalk.

Secondly, in today’s broadcast over at Focus on the Family, speaker Florence Littauer shares the power of encouraging words. I listened and was encouraged!

And last, Steve Murphy at HOMESCHOOLING TODAY magazine chimed in with this article, World-Building by Words.

May these words encourage you also!

Word Up! It’s the Writing on the Wall.

January 5, 2011February 11, 2012 Diana B.5 Comments

When I was a small child, I loved to play quietly, all alone in my bedroom. Sometimes I’d play there contentedly for hours. My mother used to say that’s when she would worry about me most. Evidently, sometimes I was “up to no good” all alone in that pink room at the end of the hall.

On one such occasion, I was up to no good with my crayons, happily drawing pictures and letters on my bedroom wall. I thought I was decorating it beautifully. But when Mama found me, she spoke in quite an irritated tone, with her hands perched squarely on her hips and her jaw set back in an underbite. “WHAT do you think you are doing? Why are you writing on the WALL?”

Though startled by her reaction, I replied quite confidently, “It’s my wall. I can do whatever I want to it.”

My confidence sounded a bit sassy, I suppose. That’s the day I learned that my bedroom actually belonged to my parents. They had paid good money for it, and while they generously allowed me to sleep there, those four walls actually did not belong to me. That’s also the day I learned that we only color on paper. It’s a good household rule, and it’s typically upheld in my current home, for which my husband and I are paying good money.

Those pictures and letters I wrote on the pink painted drywall of my childhood bedroom were erased somehow. My daddy probably had to paint over them, and I never did write on those walls again. But my urge to write on the wall was never erased. And thankfully, there seems to be an exception to this household rule. Sometimes it’s okay to write on the wall. At least, sort-of on the wall.

A few years ago for Mother’s Day, my husband and children painted three large canvases with black chalkboard paint and hung them up on our dining room wall. Now, to my great joy, I get to write on the wall!

And what’s more, I have the confidence of knowing that Scripture encourages such behavior!

Deuteronomy 6:5-9 says: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

Okay, so a wall isn’t exactly a doorframe, but it’s the same idea. Writing on the dining room wall is a wonderful way to get God’s Word up in my house and uppermost in my thoughts. It’s really a tool for Scripture memorization. As I sit at the table with my children, three times a day, I can stare at those words just like I used to stare at the back of the cereal box. I study them. My daughters study them, too. Typically we have three verses up each week — the one I am memorizing and the two my children are memorizing for Sunday School. What a handy way to review these verses with them!

Of course we aren’t memorizing Scripture simply to please our Sunday School teachers. I want those words planted in my heart and their hearts for good because I firmly believe hiding God’s Word in my heart pays big benefits. As 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” And as Joshua 1:8 says, “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

I love that Scripture memory allows me to pray God’s Word over my children, use His Word to fight the enemy’s lies so I can resist the temptation to sin against God, and meditate peacefully as I drift off to sleep.

What’s more, two of my earthly heroes have much to say about what we, as believers, are to do with the Word of God. First, Ann Voskamp at A Holy Experience offers these three lovely posts on the significance of words and God’s Word: Living into a Good Story, Why Your Words Matter Most and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Bible Memorization.

Also, John Piper offers this post on the Why and How of memorizing Scripture. And he preaches in the video below on why we need to take up the Sword of the Spirit and diligently commit it to memory.

http://seg.sharethis.com/getSegment.php?purl=http%3A%2F%2Fstarlightwriter.wordpress.com%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D3448%26action%3Dedit%26message%3D1&jsref=&rnd=1327812647945

Our Twinkling Little Piano Star

January 3, 2011January 3, 2011 Diana B.1 Comment

Above is Laurel, age 5, twinkling at the piano, sometime in December. “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” is the first song she has learned to play since her “pre-reading” piano lessons began one wonderful week in late October with Miss Amanda.

Miss Amanda actually only taught her the first half of the song. Laurel learned the second half from Linnea’s piano teacher the day before our homeschool Christmas program, at which she performed the song before a live audience. It followed quite nicely after Linnea’s performance of “We Three Kings.” You know, “Star of wonder, star of light, star with royal beauty bright…”

In typical Laurel fashion, she played the entire song with complete confidence and generously added a few extra notes whenever she pleased. It made for quite an entertaining version of the song.

5 Star Links for New Year’s Eve

December 31, 2010 Diana B.Leave a comment

What do you do on the last day of 2010? Here are some words — ideas, thoughts and encouragement — to ponder for the coming year.

1. The Vision Forum’s How to End the Year gives three important things to do.

2. Wendy at Proverbs 31 Ministries offers this New Year’s Prayer devotional.

3. Consider joining one of these clubs at GirlTalk to help you grow in spiritual discipline in 2011.

4. Resolve to memorize Scripture in 2011 and find encouragement and accountability from the lovely Beth Moore.

5. Ask yourself, where will I live in 2011? Then join Ann Voskamp in The Only Place to Really Live.

Happy New Year!

10 People Who Inspired Me in 2010

December 29, 2010December 30, 2010 Diana B.Leave a comment

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” – Hebrews 10:24 NIV

About a year ago, I shared in this post how friends of ours had spurred me on toward love and good deeds. As I reflect on 2010 and continue to thank God for their friendship and encouragement, I thought it’d be fun to share some other sources of encouragement and inspiration that might just inspire and encourage you, too.

1. My husband, Michael, always inspires me, and for so many reasons. In August I blogged about 15 reasons why I love Michael. I should also note that in the first three months of 2010 Michael lost 65 lbs., and he has kept them off! Yay! But of more significance than his weight loss are his spiritual gains in 2010. He has clearly grown closer to the Lord — through prayer, Bible study, and Scripture memory — and that truly inspires me! What a blessing to have a strong spiritual leader in our household.

2. Our pastor, Steve Anderson, is a wonderful, encouraging pastor, as well as leader of the small group in which my husband and I participate. In November while he was serving as a short-term missionary in Nicaragua, I blogged here about how thankful I am for Pastor Steve and his lovely wife Sharon. They are truly wonderful people who bless us each week. When he returned from Nicaragua, Pastor Steve told us an amazing story about handing out baseballs and Beanie Babies to the children there. God performed a miracle that day! You can listen to him tell the story if you click here. It starts at 19 minutes into his sermon “Whose Stuff is All This Anyway?” By the way, you can find out more about short-term missions and adopt-a-pastor opportunities in Nicaragua by visiting Repairers of Broken Walls.

3. Andreas Custer is the Student Ministries Director at our church. He’s a great guy, and while our family doesn’t yet have any students in his ministry, his contagious passion for the Lord and inspiring manner spills over and touches our family regularly. After visiting Gettysburg and other Civil War battlefields this fall, Pastor Andi preached this really dynamite sermon about fixing our eyes on Jesus in the same way soldiers fix their eyes on their battle flag. The key Scripture passage he used was Philippians 3:7-21, and he explains that those who have their eyes set on earthly things, in contrast, are enemies of the cross.

4. Karen Wistrom at Family from Afar is a working mom with four children, two biological and two adopted, and is a child sponsorship coordinator for Children’s HopeChest. Besides raising money for all sorts of orphan-care projects, she traveled to Ethiopia this fall — for the third year in a row — to minister to orphans at Kind Hearts, where our sweet Dawit is. Thanks to Karen, we were able to put together this little care package for Dawit in August, and then a couple of months later Karen sent us pictures of Dawit receiving it. Yay, Karen!

5. Samantha at Little Goody 2 Shoes is an 11-year-old who is selling bottle cap necklaces to raise money to buy shoes for orphans in Ethiopia. We bought a few of them that say Kind Hearts, and they are so adorable! To date, Samantha sold 314 necklaces and raised enough money to buy 103 pairs of new, custom-made shoes for orphans at Kind Hearts and two other orphanages in Ethiopia. Way to go, Samantha!

6. My own daughter, Linnea, at the ripe old age of 7, decided to donate 11 inches of her hair to Locks of Love in February. She was so brave and so passionate about giving to a little girl in need. That was a lot of hair!

7. Author Ann Voskamp at A Holy Experience is a farmer’s wife, homeschool mother of six, and an amazingly gifted writer. She faithfully uses her gift for God’s glory. I am so eager to read her latest book, 1,000 Gifts, which will be released Jan. 25.

8. Writer Holley Gerth at Heart to Heart with Holley is another writer whose words transcend into the spiritually inspiring realm. She also faithfully uses this gift to point others toward God.

9. My beautiful and sunshiny friend Alice, who recently moved to our little town, totally inspires me to be a better mom and to more intentionally play with my kids, especially while they are still willing to play with me! Alice is outgoing, full of life, and truly a fantastic cook and baker. All those traits come in handy as a stay-at-home mom to three handsome and energetic boys, all under the age of 5! While the girls and I were over for a visit last week, Alice gave us all flashlights, turned off the lights, and asked us to hunt for stuffed animals that had been hidden around her kitchen and living room. This “jungle-safari” version of hide-and-seek was great fun! Thanks for being so wonderful, Alice!

10. And last, but certainly not least, is Jodi, another beautiful friend of mine who inspires me to be a better mom and not neglect my creative side. Jodi is a tea-drinking homeschool mom of five children, ranging in age from 1 to 13. She also teaches art, jazz, and tap dance lessons. My daughter is in one of Jodi’s art classes and adores every moment of it. If I were to write a biography about Jodi, I’d entitle it Everybody Loves Jodi. She is creative, encouraging, sweeter than pie, and everybody loves her! Last I checked she wasn’t sporting a red cape, but she is truly a super woman, empowered by God.

Now I’m shutting my laptop and heading off to play Little People with my 5-year-old, so it’s your turn to share.

Who has inspired you in 2010? Do tell!

21 Entertaining Things Said (or Done) in 2010

December 29, 2010December 29, 2010 Diana B.2 Comments

I just reviewed my Facebook status collection for 2010 and compiled this list of entertaining things said (or done) by my children in 2010. Hope it makes you chuckle, too!

1. Laurel, age 4, laments that it is just “too deep to play outside.” Never mind that the windchill is 4 degrees.

2. Laurel got up from her afternoon nap sniffling and said, “Mommy, my nose is all stuck up.”

3. Setting the table at dinner time, Laurel carefully covers each fork with a napkin. Then she announces, “Ssssh! The forks are sleeping.”

4. Laurel at the Arboretum: “Stop, Mommy, I think I have a piece of nature in my shoe.”

5. Here’s a new, summery way to mop the kitchen floor: Shut only the screen door while your 7-year-old waters the flowers on the patio. She’s never been a wild child, but give her a garden hose with a spray nozzle and WATCH OUT!

6. Linnea, age 7, was folding laundry and saw me set up the ironing board. Looking utterly shocked, she said: “Mommy, there are CLOTHES you have to iron?” I guess she thought we only had an ironing board to accommodate her fuse bead craft projects!

7. While we were babysitting 5-month-old John at our house yesterday evening, Laurel asked, “Do we have to give him back?”

8. Shortly after I put gel in my hair this morning, Laurel comes in and exclaims: “Mommy! You smell good. You smell like Benadryl!” Yep, that was so the fragrance I was going for today.

9. Laurel’s table manners must have drowned in the pool this afternoon. At supper after swimming lessons, she kept wiping the jelly on her fingers on her clothes, in her hair, and seemingly everywhere else but her napkin. Ick! “Don’t wipe it on your dress!” Michael yelled. Big sister Linnea chimes in, on Laurel’s behalf, “It’s actually a skirt, Daddy.”

10. I tried to be discreet when I tossed the decapitated potty-training baby doll into the trash can. But as the garbage man drove off this morning, Laurel came running inside, sobbing uncontrollably. “The broken baby doll is going to get all burned up at the dump!” Thank you, Toy Story 3. Sigh.

11. Laurel, while eating goldfish crackers for an afternoon snack, says: “Mommy! I need some water to drink so my fishes can go swimming!” So the chocolate shake and the iced tea I had already given her didn’t do the trick?

12. Michael just came home with half a dozen ears of fresh sweet corn, and now the girls are begging to help him “shuffle” it.

13. After quiet time yesterday afternoon I found Laurel in her bed, obviously just waking up, and I asked how her nap was. She replied: “I didn’t take a nap. I was too busy resting.”

14. Praying at lunchtime, Laurel says: “…And thank You, God, for creating the animals so that we can have animal crackers to eat…”

15. Laurel read her first sentence today: “See me eat.” She was so proud of herself she sprung off the couch and bolted into the next room to tell Linnea the exciting news.

16. How clever is Laurel? At the drug store this morning, she stops in the candy aisle and says very seriously, “Oh! We HAVE to get some raspberry chocolate candy for Sassy.” Sassy is her teddy bear.

17. Our breakfast conversation this morning — Laurel: “I just don’t like cannonballs.” Me: “Huh? What do you mean? Jawbreakers?” Laurel: “No, you know, cannonballs — people who eat other people. Why DO they do that?”

18. This morning as Michael was scrambling eggs and pulling the tortillas out of the refrigerator, Linnea asks, “Daddy, are you fixing a breakfast pinata?”

19. While I was helping Linnea fix her hair this morning, she sniffed and said, “Mommy, you smell good. Like jellybeans!” I guess that’s an improvement over Laurel’s thinking I smelled like Benadryl a few months ago…

20. Thinking about Advent at the dinner table this evening, Linnea says, “So, tomorrow is…” And Laurel quickly chimes in, “the last day of not getting any presents!”

21. In the middle of a Costco shopping trip this afternoon, Linnea wonders, “Mommy, what is ‘scratch?'” After I reply with a bewildered, “Huh?” she clarifies, “You know, scratch. You always say that you make pies and things from scratch. What is it?”

A Quiet, Simple Christmas Eve

December 25, 2010December 25, 2010 Diana B.Leave a comment

It’s Christmas Eve and I have time to blog because we have no family visiting this Christmas, and no relatives nearby expecting us for dinner.

Of course family isn’t really what we celebrate at Christmas anyway, as much as we dearly love all those grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins who have decided against braving a frightfully White Christmas in Minnesota.

No, Christmas is about Jesus, celebrating Him and worshiping Him. Sometimes it’s easier to remember that when Christmas is simpler, quieter, and settled comfortably in a picturesque, snowy white background.

Every year our little family of four worships at our church’s 4 p.m. Christmas Eve candlelight service. The girls love getting all dressed up for the evening. Most years my husband participates in the worship band, playing guitar and sometimes singing. This year he also played the mandolin. The music was beautiful. Reverently the service closed, as is tradition, with everyone singing “Silent Night” by candlelight. Seeing my children’s hopeful faces glowing in the candlelight, that’s my favorite gift.

Back at home, with the pot roast still simmering in the slow cooker, the girls endure posing for a few photos.

And then they ask — for the 100th time today — if they can open presents. They typically exchange gifts with each other on Christmas Eve. Perhaps someday when they are grown and have families of their own, this tradition will continue.

At dinner we light all five of the Advent candles, and the girls eagerly lead our discussion the story of Jesus’s birth. Linnea wonders about all the many details the Bible doesn’t tell us in this ancient story. A deep thought for an 8-year-old.

Once the dinner dishes are cleared, I mix up some bread dough and tuck it under a towel, letting it rise. The girls like to think of the dough as sleeping when it is rising, so they tell it “goodnight” and blow it kisses. I tell the girls it’s almost time for me to tuck them into bed, too. Already sporting their matching striped pink pajamas, they beg for a story. Of course, I was already planning to read one.

Tonight we read Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S. Buck. Written in 1956, the book was a gift given to us last year by my dear friend Kate. And what a lovely story it is about a son who gives his father, a dairy farmer, a gift they both treasure for years to come. Be sure to read this heartwarming tale!

Next my husband reads the story of Jesus’s birth from Luke 2 and Matthew 1. We talk about favorite Christmas memories and the best gifts ever given or received. Then we ponder together what it would have been like to see Jesus as a baby. My husband decides he’d want to see the angels that appeared to the shepherds and the glory of the Lord that shone around them. Five-year-old Laurel is still pretty sure she doesn’t want to have anything to do with angels. (Click here to read about her recent angel trauma.) Will we ever convince her that real angels help protect her?

After prayers comes bedtime for little girls, and then comes stocking stuffing, cinnamon roll rolling and gift arranging for us grown-ups. As the evening closes, the tree boasts way too many gifts beneath its boughs, and all through the house the smell of cinnamon rolls lingers.