Sugar Chests, Good friends, and MOVING DAY!

Last week some good friends from Colorado were in town and we met for lunch at Pucketts in Franklin (delicious place with a really fun atmosphere), then they showed me the fabulous "find" Willma discovered––a beautiful sugar chest (circa early 1800s). Would love to know the history behind this piece!

Willma Heckman and her daughter, Jenny. (Willma absconded with a packet of sugar from the restaurant so she'd have sugar to put into her sugar chest. She's so funny...)

Me and Willma at Pucketts

Jenny and me before they went (or should I say continued) shopping in Franklin, and I went back to writing

Today is MOVING DAY! The movers arrive in a little over an hour, and I can hardly believe the day is finally here. We ran down to Atlanta this past Friday and spent the weekend packing and moving my Dad. Rained the entire day on Saturday when we were packing furniture into the truck. A mess (but thank you Charleston and Charlie for all your help, we couldn't have done it without you)! We arrived back to Franklin late Sunday night and just parked the truck and trailer in the driveway and fell into bed. I spent yesterday cleaning the "new" (not really new but new to us!) house, arranging last minute details for the move, and now today...to make the transition! 

By the time Dad arrives on Friday, we hope to have his "area" downstairs somewhat in order and ready. But I told him not to get his hopes up...I've got last edits to make on Within My Heart tomorrow and Thursday. And yet, some of the "loose ends" of life in recent months are coming together, and I couldn't be more grateful to God for His Master Hand in all of this. He truly is gracious and faithful beyond words. Thank you, Lord, for the way You work in all things.

I'd appreciate your prayers for a safe move today and that the threatening thunderstorms would hold off until Mom's lovely white sofa is safely back inside. ;)

Much love...

Life...Edited

It's a little after 2AM on Tuesday morning and I'm deep into final edits on this next book, the "last look" I'll get at this manuscript before it comes back to me in galley stage before it goes to press. With the benefit of time having passed, I'm able to see the story a little clearer and it's amazing at how a sentence or paragraph that I thought was so crucial to a scene...isn't.

So I'm tweaking here and there. Removing sentences, moving things around, taking things out (did you just hear that scream? It was my editor, Karen), and now I've got this brief document full of stuff that I need to work in elsewhere. Maybe. It's information that either the character, or the reader, didn't need to know (or ponder) at that point in the story. It slowed the pace. Or simply wasn't crucial to the scene. So, it had to go––to my Final WMH Excerpt File.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could do that with life? Simply review life and decide, "Um, no. Let's not do that there. Let's move that event here. It'll fit much better with the flow and my schedule will accommodate "fill in the blank" much better then. And heavens, let's not let that happen at all!" But as we all know, life doesn't work that way.

Life comes, sometimes in sputters, sometimes in a gentle flow, and sometimes in torrents, and we deal with things as they come with God's strength while, with His grace, keeping our eternal perspective. But you know, in the midst of everything––the highs and lows of life, the "troughs and peaks" as C.S. Lewis phrases it in The Screwtape Letters––it's definitely the thinner times of life, the troughs, that draw me closer to God.

If you haven't read this book, get online today and order a copy. It's a forever book. One you'll read again and again. Chapter 8 is a personal favorite. I ran across my first copy (held together by a rubber band now) while packing and kept it out to read the parts I'd underlined during my college days. They still resonate within me after all these years, as does my firm belief that nothing happens to a believer in Christ that doesn't first filter through the loving hands of their Heavenly Father. Nothing. So, I'll leave the "life editing" safely with the Master Storyteller. He writes with a point of view I simply don't have.

A quick update on the family––

Last week we celebrated our son's 21st birthday. Can hardly believe my baby boy is so grown up. We ate at the Olive Garden (delicious) then came back home to celebrate with a buttermilk pie that didn't turn out as well as I wanted it to. I couldn't find my recipe so used another. Not a good move. So, Kurt, I owe you another pie, buddy. As soon as I unpack my pie plates.

Kelsey and Joe were slightly less thrilled when I whipped out the camera that night.

Ah well...they got over it.

We're about half moved at this stage and will finish up next week. We'll also make a quick trip to Atlanta to move Dad's stuff here. Plus I'm finishing these edits. Things are hopping, but it's all good. God is gracious, and He's been so generous in allowing our house to sell so quickly, especially in this market, and to have Dad and Mom's condo sell quickly as well. I'm grateful.

Continued blessings...

Better Than a Hallelujah

A dear friend (waving to you, Darla) sent me a link to Amy Grant's newest song and after hearing it, I downloaded it immediately. It's blessed me repeatedly in recent days. The words resonate within me with where I am in life right now. I hope you'll take a minute to check it out here.

As Darla wrote in her note to me, God loves the truest cries of our hearts. Amen, sister! "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart the Lord will not despise." (Psalm 51:17)

I pulled an all-nighter night before last to finish up some edits on Within My Heart, and am so happy to have that part of this book's journey done. I'm drained in relation to that, but am also filled up because so much of this past year of life--the good and bad--found its way into those pages, so it really reflects where I've been and where I am right now. Maybe that's why it was so difficult to write. Who knows...

Remember, take a listen to Better Than a Hallelujah, and blessings on your week...

Blessings this Easter

Praying you have a blessed Easter today! That God will draw you closer in some special way, and that you'll "see Jesus" with fresh eyes as the disciples did...

"After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.


The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you."


So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me." (Matthew 28)