Archives for February 2018

Weekend Roundup, February 16, 2018: Post Valentine’s Day Edition (a.k.a.The Ninety-Sixth Day of First Grade Isn’t A Thing)

02.16.2018 by Nicole Kristin Twedt //

Hi Friends! Welcome to the February 16 edition of the Weekend Roundup. A Weekend Roundup is what happens when I share with you the work of a few Hope*Writers from around the web.

Are you a fan of Valentine’s Day? I’m all for love but Valentine’s Day is not my favorite holiday, and it is Hallmark’s fault. I have a problem with red and pink together. Just no. Furthermore, I can’t stomach waxy chocolate (give me the good stuff or go home) and Conversation Hearts make me gag, unless they are of the sour variety which are surprisingly hard to come by.

I’m not really such a downer concerning Cupid and the Day of Love. It is just that I worry too much for those who are spending Valentine’s Day alone. I wonder if those who are single, divorced or widowed know they are loved by a mighty God who loves them with a never ending, unstoppable love? Do they know they are just as worthy as those who are married or in a committed relationship? You see, I spent my first twenty-five Valentine’s Days without a significant other. I know, I know, being unlucky in love is nothing compared to being widowed. But I remember the sting I felt when everyone else was getting flowers and going on romantic dinner dates, while I wondered if anyone would ever love me for me. Ironically, a fun (or scary) fact about me is that my husband and I spent our first Valentine’s Day together as a couple a month after our wedding day. Anyway, I wish I had Niki Hardy’s Love Letter From God when I was single. Even now, it’s impossible for me to read this letter without getting teary-eyed. It’s what happens when I read a piece filled with beauty and truth, the reminder that hope always rises to the surface.

Did you know that Valentine’s Day fell on Ash Wednesday this year? Even if you aren’t from a liturgical faith tradition, I think you will find this essay by Leigh Sain to be a refreshing take on Lent. I shared Leigh’s work on my Facebook page earlier in the week. I’m sharing it again because it is that good.

Now for a fun-filled blog post perfect for the week of Valentine’s. Mary Carver writes about missing romantic comedies in this fabulous essay. You can read it here . I read Mary’s post seated on a clear plastic chair in the waiting room while Steven got two of his teeth extracted in preparation for braces. It was a lovely way to pass time. Speaking of romanic comedies, they don’t make them like they used to, do they? My heart forever belongs to When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle and surprise, surprise, another Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan film, You’ve Got Mail. But my ultimate favorite romantic comedy is About Time with Rachel McAdams and the guy who played General Hux in Star Wars VII and VIII.

Enough about love. I adore the following article by Kelly Beckley Shank about what it means to be brave. You can click here to read it. If I wasn’t seated in the waiting room at the pediatric dentist’s office, I would have cried when Kelly wrote, “You’re in the middle of the messy kid years. Every day feels like a fight that you’ll never win, but every morning you get up and try again. That’s brave.” Perfect for the mama who spent a good chunk of yesterday afternoon on the phone with the vice principal of the elementary school talking about a recent incident having to do with a little boy, a urinal, toilet paper and the ceiling of the boy’s bathroom. You don’t want to know.

My final recommendation is an essay by Vanessa Hunt from At The Picket Fence. Not only is the message an important one, Vanessa’s storytelling and imagery alone is worth giving it a chance. Check it out.

I was going to give a bonus link in the form of a shout out to Dorina Lazo Gilmore for a job well done. Dorina recently published her second Bible study, Flourishing Together, and I am on her launch team. Yet it looks like I will have to tell you about Dorina’s life-changing Bible study later. Lauren is screaming from the dining room because someone ate four of the Sour Patch Kids off of her One Hundred Days of School project, which needs immediate investigating because everyone knows that the Ninety-Sixth Day of First Grade isn’t a thing.

Weekend Roundup, February 9, 2017: Last Person On The Planet Edition

02.09.2018 by Nicole Kristin Twedt //

Hello lovelies! It’s 3:42 p.m. on Friday afternoon before Valentine’s Day. The kids are in their rooms cleaning. You don’t want to know the state of disaster their rooms are in. I’m not one to talk. I still have a Christmas tree in my living room. The goal was to keep the tree up through Epiphany, but I’m determined to get it out of here before Valentine’s Day. After all, I have standards. For now, my little dog is sleeping in her bed that’s turned inside-out for some reason and I’m sipping Tony’s Coffee in one of my Starbucks tumblers, the stainless steel one with the stenciled-like poinsettia. Seems like today’s theme is Christmas, which I totally dig. (Who doesn’t like Christmas?) I should probably pour what’s left of the coffee in the sink. Like a child sneaking a can of Coco-Cola before bedtime, nothing good happens with I drink coffee in the afternoon.

Our tree adorned living room. This photo is from Christmas Eve. Everything looks the same minus the presents under the tree and the stockings on the couch. Oh, and I put away the vacuum cleaner. Progress.

I don’t have a ton of time to share this week. I meant to write this morning but after I helped in Steven’s class I ended up at Ulta to find the perfect flat iron. I never found the perfect flat iron so off to the library I went. I had to return a book (Young Jane Young) and pick up no less than eight books from the hold shelf. Next I stopped by Central Market where I unknowingly paid $17.26 for five sweet potatoes. Ufda.

Moving on.

Many of you know that a Weekend Roundup is what happens when I share the work of my friends at Hope*Wrtiers. But this week I’m going to shake things up a bit by throwing in a few podcasts and a Facebook live video.

I’m going to start the way I always do by sharing an essay from one of the Hope*Writers. In Failure Is Necessary, Crystal Stine writes, “Failure is tricky. The world tells us we should avoid it at all costs, and for a long time I only did activities I knew I would be good at for that very reason.” Yep, Crystal’s statement pretty much sums up the bane of my existence. If, like me, fear of failure is your mode of operation, you may want to give this essay a read. Crystal poses a question at the end of the post that hits particularly close to home. I’m amazed that someone who is not bothered by a fully trimmed Christmas tree in her living room on February 9 worries about failure. But really, in the world according to Nicole, the only thing worse than failure is people not getting along.

Another article that grabbed my attention is one by Bethany Boring. Despite her last name, Bethany is anything but boring. I bet that joke gets old. This one grabbed me because the author was born deaf with vision-issues, heart issues and a short right arm, yet is going to Ukraine to extend love to special families. In the article, Bethany links to two videos about orphans and the forgotten in Ukraine. I have yet to watch them, but will soon. I have a feeling the videos will remind me a little too much of the beautiful people I met in Romania in the summer of 2003 and 2004. Here’s the link to the blog post about Bethany’s upcoming trip and her ministry, Step Out and Thrive.

Even though I linked to Karen Gauveau’s work in the last Weekend Roundup (read it here), I can’t help but do it again. I simply can’t get enough of Karen. Her work is what happens when humor meets heart. In this article, Karen writes about her easygoing third child after two strong-willed older children. An easygoing child after two strong-willed older children? Now where have I heard that before? Hmm, reminds me of life with Emily, Steven and Lauren before Lauren turned three and suddenly became not-so-easy. Enjoy this tender (and funny) post over at Lightly Frayed.

It’s now time to spice the Weekend Roundup up with what I call bonus material. Jamie Ivey and Jen Hatmaker both had Candace Payne on their podcasts recently. Have you heard of Candace? I hadn’t. Though I’m probably the last person on the planet who never clicked on the Chewbacca Mom Facebook live video. Here ya go. If you’re not on Facebook, you can check out Candace’s video on YouTube here. I promise this four-minute video will make your day. When you’re through, check out the following podcasts to listen to Candace share her story and talk about her book. Here’s the link to listen to Jamie Ivey’s chat with Candace on The Happy Hour With Jamie Ivey, and here’s the link to hear Candance and Jen Hatmaker gab on For the Love! With Jen Hatmaker.

Friends, it is time for us to part ways until the next Weekend Roundup. I should have thrown dinner in the Instant Pot a half-hour ago, after all. If I were one of those kind of bloggers I would post an original recipe of what we’re having for dinner, accompanied by stunning photographs and step-by-step instructions just waiting to be pinned on Pinterest. But that’s not the way I roll. Who has time for Pinterest when your life goal is to take down the Christmas tree before Valentine’s Day? Don’t get me wrong. I fully appreciate those kind of bloggers. I’m beyond grateful for the food blogger I found via Google. She taught me how to steam sweet potatoes in my Instant Pot like a lady boss, which is fortunate because dinner tonight just happens to be sweet potatoes masquerading as taco shells, served with spicy ground beef and taco trimmings. (Think baked potato bar, taco-style.) The Twedtlings, I guarantee, will not be impressed.

Weekend Roundup, February 2, 2018: Groundhog Day Edition

02.02.2018 by Nicole Kristin Twedt //

Hi friends! Happy Groundhog Day! I had myself a little consult with Google to find out if today is Groudhog Day, Groundhog’s Day or Groudhogs Day. According to the fine folks in Whatever-it’s-called, PA, the first one is the winner. But who really cares? Anyway, I have much to share with you this fine Friday in February. My mind is going in a million directions. (Hello adult ADHD!) I’m more scattered than usual because it’s been awhile since I’ve had a good night’s sleep. The hours from 11:00 to 5:00 have been dicey since Greg and I started co-sleeping with one of our babies.

Co-sleeping? Wait a minute. I thought your children were in elementary school, you may be thinking.

I’m not talking about the children I birthed. Oh no, the eleven, nine and six-year-old are sleeping just fine. I’m talking about the eleven pound fur baby (who technically has hair not fur, but WHATEVER). Never in a million years did we think we’d share our bed with a non-human mammal. But co-sleeping with Chloe is what’s happening these days. I’m loving every second of having our sweet dog in our bed, except in the middle of the might when I’m not sleeping because the sweet dog is in our bed.

Enough about my nighttime woos. If you’re new to this corner of the internet, you should know that a “Weekend Roundup” is what happens when I share the work from a few of my friends at Hope*Writers.

The first piece isn’t exactly an essay or blog post or anything like that. Alana Dawson announced that she’s starting a podcast called Moms Want More. You can listen to the intro here. I hardly need another podcast in my life, but I find the subject of moms wanting more intriguing. Now that the Twedlings spend several hours a day at a magical place called elementary school, I have a bit of free time to establish a loose writing schedule. But someday I’d like to take my dream of the writerly life a bit further. Anyway, this podcast is for women like me who want to follow a dream but also happen to be in the middle of the muck of parenting and life.

Speaking of life with kids, how many of you are parenting teenagers? Anyone, anyone? We don’t have a teenager in the house, but I loved the following article by Karen Gauvreau. In fact, I embarrassed myself in the school parking lot the other day with all the LOLing coming from my van as I read Why Parenting Teenagers is Exactly Like Having a Mammogram. I don’t even have a teenager and I’ve never had a mammogram, but the article was absolutely hysterical. I shouldn’t have laughed about it. I recently learned that I’m middle-aged, which means the mammogram is on the horizon. Anyway, Karen’s latest article is titled Marriage: Where Mopping Is the New Sexy. You can find more of Karen Gauvreau here.

I’m not one to rock the boat. In fact, I will risk everything to ensure smooth sailing. Lanie Anderson isn’t rocking the boat either. However, she lovingly and respectfully disagrees with John Piper’s statement against women teaching seminary in her thoughtful essay, “John Piper, Jesus And A Woman’s Place.” You can read it here. Highly recommend. Lanie is a new-to-me writer. She also happens to be a youngish seminary student pursuing a master’s degree in Christian apologetics at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

As for me, I’ve been busy driving three kids to and from school, and basketball practice and Girl Scouts. Cookie season is about to start. I’ve spent quite a bit of time (for me) on social media trying to persuade people to buy Girl Scout cookies and to gush about Jamie Ivey’s book, If You Only Knew: My Unlikely, Unavoidable Story of Becoming Free, which released on Monday. It’s one of my favorites already. Not just the part about becoming free, but the message that even those who are free in Christ will mess up but are not failures. Anyway, I set out to write a review of Jamie’s book but felt God nudging me to share my own story to freedom instead. The links are below the image of the goose (or duck?) lifting off to flight.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

The Instant Pot just beeped, announcing that dinner is ready. Those of you who know me in real life know how much I feared my Instant Pot in the beginning. The darn thing stayed in the box for the first year. I even named it Voldemort or “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.” I finally dusted off the Dark Lord’s box in January. I’m pleased to announce that we haven’t had a single explosion in our tiny kitchen due to the Instant Pot, as I once feared was my destiny. In fact, Emily and I changed the Instant Pot’s name to Mrs. Weasley. Anyway, we need to eat quickly because Steven has a basketball game at the middle school, and we have snack duty. I’ll publish the Roundup when we get home because everyone knows it is stupid to announce to the world that you are stepping away from home for a basketball game on a dark Friday night in February.

P.S. Do you have a story to freedom to share? What about a dream you have in the middle of the mess and muck of life? Do tell! Oh, and have a wonderful weekend!