Hope*Writers – Page 3

Weekend Roundup: Stomach Virus Edition

09.25.2017 by Nicole Kristin Twedt //

I’ve come to appreciate a cup or two of strong coffee each morning. Piping hot and in my favorite stainless double insulated travel mug, the lady boss of all my travel mugs (of which I have many) is how I like it. If a morning is particularly lazy and I have nowhere to be, I will splurge and use the hand-painted Polish mug from my sister-in-law Julea, a birthday present from my early thirties. The mug is actually from T.J. Maxx. But it was hand-painted in Poland so I call it the Polish mug. I love the mug (and Julea) so much that I tracked down its sisters from every T.J. Maxx in a ten mile radius to form a perfect set of six. Or I’ll fill a steaming cup of Tony’s French Royale (or Tony’s Espresso Noir when I’m feeling fancy) to the brim of one of three bird mugs: the turquoise mama bird and her nest of eggs, or the lime green mug with the whimsical bird outlined in white, or it’s fraternal mug-brother in blue.

Speaking of the whimsical bird mug in blue, I recently learned from Instagram that Kate has its identical twin. It’s worth mentioning that Kate’s mug is the more exotic of the two. Her mug is from San Luis Obispo. Mine, I’m sad to say, is from Central Market. But I can imagine it came from a far-off place other than China. I stole a screen shot of Kate’s mug for this blog post, but I have a feeling it isn’t Kosher to do so. Excuse me while I delete the screen shot from my photo library.

Back to morning coffee.

The simple fact that I’d abandoned a tumbler full of Tony’s coffee should have been the first clue that trouble was brewing on Saturday.

I will spare you the details and just come out and say it: there was a reason for my coffee avoidance. And it had nothing to do with a pregnancy. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on which camp you belong to, I am not pregnant (or trying to be). But that’s not what I’m getting at. No, this coffee avoidance had everything to do with The Great Stomach Virus of 2017.

Friends, I’m going to fast forward a few days because no one needs to read about my run-in with the stomach bug.

So here we are on Monday. As Melanie Shankle says, Monday is the new Saturday. I agree. Which is why I’m not feeling the least bit bad about publishing a Weekend Roundup on a weekday.

First off, here’s a lovely essay by Leigh Sain. You can read about it here. I’m not a fan of Walmart but I adore Leigh’s essay about her recent encounter with an elderly saint at Walmart. Leigh’s story pretty much sums up everything I love about grocery shopping. I never love the idea of grocery shopping, but once I get there, the kind of stuff Leigh writes about happens on a regular basis. I’m telling you, the aisles of Fred Meyer, Central Market and Costco is where it’s at. Let’s not forget about Trader Joe’s.

Up next is another one from The Hippo Chronicles. I’m a huge fan of Elli Johnson’s work. In fact, I’ve linked to Elli’s essays in previous Weekend Roundups. Elli is my age (okay, maybe a smidget younger) and writes regularly about life with anxiety. Here ya go. Now drop everything and take in her words like breathing in a giant breath of fresh air.

If you’re more of a type-A check list type of gal or guy, the following post kinda-sorta goes along with Elli’s essay. I still haven’t figured out if I’m type-A or B. Depends on the day, I guess. Or the moment, which probably means B. Anyway, Jill E. McCormick shared a similar message on her blog from a slightly different angle. You can read about it here. It’s about what to do when you’re overwhelmed with responsibilities.

I was intrigued by the title of the next Hope*Writer essay: That time I stalked Lisa Harper by Erin Whitmer. Here it is for your reading enjoyment. I probably shouldn’t tell you why Erin’s plug about her essay caught my attention in the first place. I’ll give you a hint to wet your pallet: My fascination with this essay may, or may not, have everything to do with one dreadfully boring summer between sophomore and junior year of high school. One of my high school besties (who shall remain nameless) and I drove shamelessly through Seattle’s Blue Ridge neighborhood in a fire engine red Subaru wagon fueled by snacks from Safeway in hopes of glimpsing a certain someone at home. We practiced the fine art of stalking on a semi-regular basis that summer, I’m sad to say. Come to think of it, the Subie was more tomato-red than anything. We were too cool to care.

Once again I’m linking to my dear friend, Jody Lee Collins. Jody wrote this essay several years ago for (in)Courage about giving up on “quiet time” with God. Jody is a kindred spirit and her words come from a tender place. I’m linking to the original version here because I’m proud of my friend. Here’s a link to Jody’s website if you want to read more. By the way, Jody has a book releasing soon. You’ll hear about it later. I can’t wait to tell you about her labor of love.

Speaking of friends, my friend Emily, the ring leader of Kindred Mom, featured an essay on her site last week by Tia McNelly. Honestly, Tia’s words grabbed me from the start. I’m not entirely sure if Emily shared this essay with the Hope*Writers. I’m sharing it anyway because it’s that good. Here’s a sample to get you hooked: “In the sunshine of a crisp April morning in the Appalachians, I smoked my last cigarette. I knew it was my last cigarette because I knew I was pregnant and once I took a test, that was it.” You can read more here. You’re welcome.

Andrea Wolloff’s essay is the final essay in this poor excuse of a Weekend Roundup. Andrea shared a truly lovely essay about God, and “how he sets our calling in us when we are little and full of wonder.” Yes to this.

When I was a little girl I adored playing school. There’s no words to describe the joy I got out of creating a daily class schedule, which I’d print in my very best handwriting on the oversize green chalkboard in my bedroom. Or was it a blackboard? All I know is that quite a bit of time was spent coming up with seating arrangements and imaginary class lists, alphabetized of course. Another biggie for me was spending time nurturing baby dolls, especially my ten Cabbage Patch Kids, yes ten. (A wee bit obsessive-compulsive, don’t ya think?) And what about Barbie? My neighbor Sharon and I played for hours and hours with our Barbies on the cold cement floor of the daylight basement of my childhood. We played the day away beneath the staircase where my Barbie house was stored. The really interesting part about my Barbie days is that I invested more time in rearranging Barbie’s furniture and thinking up story lines for her life with Ken than I did actually playing with them. As an adult, my greatest love has been teaching preschool and kindergarten, becoming a wife and mama, and realizing that I’m a writer with a constant story happening in my head. Oh, and I spend quite a bit of time trying to transform our home into a sort of sanctuary from the word. In other words, I’m moving furniture.

Enough about Barbie and me. Back to Andrea. As a writer, Andrea is new to me; but I love what she has to say. I appreciate her essay and look forward to reading more from her in the future. By the way, you can read Andrea’s essay here.

That’s all for now. My little dog is fast asleep by my side. So is my husband. Have a wonderful week. Tomorrow is supposed to be a beautiful fall day, at least in the Pacific Northwest where I’m from.

P.S. I have a few book reviews in the works. Stay tuned. I haven’t had time to actually write these reviews, not yet, but they’re long overdue and coming your way! Let’s see if I can type-A myself into making it happen.

Weekend Roundup, September 17, 2017

09.17.2017 by Nicole Kristin Twedt //

I didn’t offer up anything on the Hope*Writers’ share thread this week; but it’s not for the lack of wanting to write. My soul is just about always burning to write. I just didn’t have the time.

It’s just these last seven days have been filled with mundane tasks that needed to happen. More than I needed to write.

Like the trip to the Girl Scout Shop at the end of the week to get the badges and pins for Lauren’s new Brownie vest for the troop’s Bridging ceremony (where the girls move up, like from Daisy to Brownie or Brownie to Junior or from Junior to Cadet). Then I had to spend quite a bit of time sewing patches on a rather ugly brown vest. Well, that’s not exactly how it went down. It was more like this: me lugging the iron down from the coat closet because iron-on badges is thankfully a thing. I have to confess, I had to dip into my stash of Badge Magic to bind the majority of the badges because Badge Magic is also a thing (thankfully). By the way, whomever the genius is behind Badge Magic, that lucky soul is my new favorite person. Ever. Badge Magic, in case you haven’t heard of it, well, it’s sort of like a magical spell that kinda sorta turns patches into stickers. Of course, like any good mother, I recruited artsy-crafty Emily to lend a hand. She did most of the work. After all, as sanity-saving as it is, Badge Magic also happens to be a pain in the derrière, a real tool.

Back to the Hope*Writer shares that lead into Weekend Roundups. When it comes to Weekend Roundups, if I don’t share anything there if I don’t share anything here. Translation: I’m only required to share the work of two other writers if I choose to showcase my own work. And like I said, this week I’ve got nothing.

But a funny thing happened. What started as a requirement has turned into a labor of love, which is strange because I normally don’t read other people’s weekly shares around the web. In fact, I delete, delete, delete when they find their way into my inbox. But I enjoy writing them. Creating a space to share the work of others provides me with purpose, focus even and a glorious excuse to write. And for me, writing is like breathing. We all know everything goes better if one is properly inhaling and exhaling.

It’s long past 10 o’ clock on a Sunday, closer to 11, yet it’s time for another Weekend Roundup. Consider it your nightcap.

The first essay I’m going to share is a little ditty that Shawna Letellier wrote on Kate Motaung’s Five Minute Friday Blog about what she learned being an unknown first time author. It’s called Book Launch Advice from a First-time Author. You can read about it here. Most of my in-real-life friends are not writers so this one may only appeal to a few of you. But I really liked what Shawna had to say. Her words were nothing short of encouraging. I have big dreams, you see. I know I’m not really supposed to admit my wildest of wild dreams out loud, kind of like how a spoken wish isn’t supposed to come true. You know, like wishes made while blowing out birthday candles or as you drop a hopeful coin into the wishing well-type fountain at the mall. But I don’t believe in that. I believe in faith, hope, plenty of prayer, God’s timing and a lot of hard work. So I’m just going to say it. I want to write a book. Someday. When? Who knows. This is my someday maybe dream.

It seems like everyone is writing on their friend’s sites lately. Here’s Crystal Stine’s essay on Tricia Goyer’s site: Walk It Out Stories: An Indefinite Delay. Here ya go. Highly recommend this essay to anyone feeling a bit lost, torn even, over not begin able to live out a calling or serving God in the way you’d like. I’m not in this season, but boy could I relate when the kids were tinier. I couldn’t even play a single song on the piano from start to finish without a little one sneaking under one of the beds in the girls’ room to snack on fruit-flavored chap stick. Strawberry seemed to be the flavor of choice there for awhile. But even now, there are days that I’d rather just write to my hearts content but I kind of have to stop and make dinner, shuttle the kids to and from school, and make a somewhat decent, if not halfhearted, attempt at the battle of the laundry situation, and all that jazz. I don’t think it’s what Crystal meant. Her essay is more about learning to be still before God. Nevertheless, my ADHD mind related to this one.

I really liked Jennie G. Scott’s To the Parent Without the Right Answers. Hmmm, perhaps it’s because I don’t have the answers either. In fact, people who have all the answers are annoying. And boring. Anyway, you can read Jennie’s post here.

Okay, so this next item of news will take a little work on your part. You know how I keep bringing up Dorina Lazo Gilmore in nearly all of these Weekend Roundups of mine? Well, Dorina just published a new book, actually a Bible Study. It’s called Glory Chasers. I just bought it and you should too. No, really. I already have it in my hot little hands. I’m going to work through Glory Chasers with two friends in the next month or so. Here’s a link to Dorina’s website where you can get the book for yourself. Or head on over to Amazon to snag your copy. That will do. But if you’re on Facebook, head over to Dorina’s author page to view the book trailer.

Friends, I have to go. I had book club on Friday and I’m still recovering. I’m beat. I’m simply not as young as I used to be. If tomorrow morning is going to be somewhat successful, I’ve got to get my beauty sleep. ‘Night all.

P.S. It’s finally raining!

Weekend Roundup, September 8, 2017

09.08.2017 by Nicole Kristin Twedt //

Here’s a Weekend Roundup that wasn’t pulled together at the last minute or late at night. A real shocker, I know. It has everything to do with the kids being back in school. Hello regular writing time! If I’m being honest, it’s more like semi-regular writing time. Come to think of it, this could be the first thing I’ve thrown together since the start of school. I’ll take what I can get.

Moving on.

Before I dive into sharing the wonderful words of fellow Hope*Writers, I’d like to thank you for praying for Steven and our family as we settled into first, third, and fifth grades. I was greatly encouraged by the comments you left on my Facebook page.

By the way, Steven had a great first week. It’s nothing short of a miracle; and I am thankful, so very thankful. While I was blow-dying my hair on Wednesday morning, Steven came into the master bathroom.

“Mom,” he began, “It took forever for me to fall asleep last night, and I’ve been up since 6 o’ clock!”

“Why were you up late, Buster?” I asked.

“I was sooooo worried about school,” he answered.

Of course he was.

Six o’ clock is a solid hour before Steven’s LEGO Ninjago alarm clock grants him permission to get out of bed. Not a good start for the first day of school, especially for a boy who needs his beauty sleep. But then he zipped off to feed the dog, as happy as can be. Later my friend Dana pointed out that it was a huge step for Steven to articulate his worries in the first place. Actually, it’s a GINORMOUS step in the right direction. Is that even a word?

Steven-in-the-middle went on to have an excellent first day. Our guy adores his teacher (so do I). It doesn’t hurt that he likes several of his classmates and is already comfortable with them. Since the night before the second day of school, he’s been sleeping well and happy each morning. He’s hasn’t been in so much as a bad mood, which is usually the first sign that worry is taking over. If you are wondering what the fuss is about the start of the school year, I have two words for you: childhood anxiety.

I’ve been around the block enough times to know that anxiety is an ongoing hurdle. We’re working through it. There will be battles ahead. For now, however, we get to breathe a sigh of relief and offer up our hands in praise and thanksgiving. He is good to us, so good. And because of his tender care and affection, he’s helping Steven be brave when life is hard.

The girls also had successful first days. Overall, it’s been a good week, and we’re excited for fall. Well, it was a good week minus a few meltdowns from the Tiniest Tiny, and the whole sequin-covered cat ear headband debacle with Emily. Did you know cat ear headbands are even a thing? Apparently so. But this isn’t a tween fashion blog. You’re welcome for that, by the way. Because I could write all about my first experience at the teenybopper store, Justice, otherwise known as Boutique de Rainbow Glitter and Unicorn Vomit.

I opened up a bit about childhood anxiety last week. Here you go, you can read about it here. But if you’ve got an older child, like a high school-er, then I highly recommend Lindsey Hausch’s essay, To the Kid in High School With Social Anxiety. It was featured on The Mighty last week. Honestly, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for those struggling with anxiety in late elementary to middle school to give it a read.

I loved this essay by Greer Oharah. It’s about living now and writing later. I really love the name Greer, which has nothing to do with anything. I’m not sure that I’ve heard Greer as a first name. It’s safe to say there will never be a fourth Twedtling. But I love coming up with hypothetical names for another child. Speaking of names, now that the big 4-0 is approaching in the not-so-distant future, I decided it was high time I put away my copy of The Best Baby Name Book in the Whole World. Perhaps I should reconsider. Just this morning I gave our plum-colored BOB Revolution jogging stroller to a family at school. In terms of baby gear, we all know what happens when you give away the good stuff. Anyway, Greer is a lovely name and she wrote a lovely essay for all you writers out there. As someone who’d rather spend time writing before cleaning the toilets and paying the bills, this was a refreshing and encouraging read. And beautifully written. I definitely struggle with balancing writing time and taking care of my family and home, and being a functioning member of society in general. I’d rather just write.

The next essay is titled The Day I Screamed at God: My Messy Awakening to Kindness and it’s by Hannah Savage. It’s about the day Hannah basically screamed at God and learned that her stormy emotions could not shake God from his steadiness. Stormy emotions? Now who does that remind you of? Don’t say it.

It would hardly be a Weekend Roundup without an essay from Dorina Lazo Gilmore, don’t you think? Her essay, Celebrating a Heaveniversary: 10 ways to honor a loved one’s death came at just the right time. I’m usually not one for advice-style essays, but this one is dear to me. You see, earlier in the week I had the guts to finally publish something I wrote after my dad’s 21st heaveniversary back in March. It’s a few blog posts back. I’m not going to link to it because I really want you to read Dorina’s essay. Her words broke my heart and offered hope at the same time. I identified so much with Dorina’s experience. I have to say that I was challenged to look at and approach next year’s heaveniversary a new way. If you’ve lost a loved one, or if you know someone who’s living a new normal without a loved one, please head over to Dorina’s website.

Edited to add: I haven’t checked my email since this morning. Which means I missed out on most of the blog posts I subscribe to via email. Lucky for me, Jody’s essay was also on Instagram. Jody is a champion encourager and an eloquent wordsmith. I have known her less than a year, but Jody is a true friend. And in case you didn’t know it, she’s the midwife of this blog (her words, not mine and, yes, there’s a story behind her claim to fame). I wouldn’t want you to miss this stunning tribute to September Eleventh not 9/11.

Well now, that’s about it. Have a glorious weekend. I hear we might actually get a bit of rain. At least it’s my hope and prayer. I know, I know, how often do you hear a Seattle girl praying for rain? But the wildfires continue to rage in my beloved home state. We really need rain. Please hope and pray along with us. We’re miles and miles from the flames, but it’s heartbreaking all the same.