Below Zero

Greetings from beautiful Wisconsin! Right now we have plenty of snow on the ground, a bunch of dirty snow on the roads, and mountains of snow surrounding all parking lots and driveways! (Last night when I was shoveling the driveway I was having a little trouble finding anywhere to put the snow I scooped up. We surrounded our driveway pretty good when we were shoveling from the last few snowfalls.)

More good news is that we seem to be headed for a heat wave. Today our high temperature is expected to be 10 degrees Fahrenheit. To many of you, this may not seem warm at all. However, when you've been experiencing temperatures well below zero for the past several days, 10 degrees Fahrenheit feels downright balmy. Honest to goodness! It's 20-30 degrees warmer, and you can definitely tell. The first year we lived in Wisconsin, we had a week of subzero temperatures. Then one day I opened the back door and I felt a distinct warmth in the air. It was 22 degrees! Hooray! Yes, I really did feel warmth in the air. Call me crazy, but I really did.

My friends in Oklahoma give me strange looks when I try to explain this phenomenon to them. They think anything below about 50 is chilly. Since moving to Wisconsin, I have learned that anything above 20 is warm. Anything above 40 is really warm. Anything above 70 is hot.

But we could contrast this to the time we went camping in Oklahoma in July and temperatures were well over 110 during the day. We always felt great relief when it cooled off in the evenings...to the low 90's. I had never before thought 90 degrees would feel cool.

And frankly, it didn't. But it was a heckuva lot better than 117.

Contest at "TheInkLadies"!

All right, all you out there who like winning things: An LDS authors' blog that I contribute to, "The Ink Ladies," is running a contest. You can win a free book from one of the authors! (Like mine...and seriously, who could win a better prize than that??) Just match each author correctly with the weirdest gift they've ever received, and you win! It's not hard, it's lots of fun, and right now you have a very good chance of winning because there aren't too many other entries. Just go to theinkladies.blogspot.com and start matching away!

The Reason for the Season

When we were out shopping the other day, I decided to pick up a box or two of Christmas cards. Having them available in your home, after all, is a crucial step that must take place before the actual addressing of the Christmas cards and mailing them out. And frankly, I felt quite pleased with myself for even thinking of picking some up before Thanksgiving.

The store I went to had some really cute cards. But as I searched the shelves for that one particular style of cards that I felt good about putting our family's name on and sending to people all over the country, I made a startling discovery.

There were no cards that had anything to do with the birth of Christ.

There were cards with snowmen. There were cards with brightly colored ornaments. There were cards with Christmas trees. There were cards with presents tied with pretty bows. But there were no nativity scenes, wise men on camels, or anything else having to do with Christ.

I mentioned this to my husband, and he chided me for my concern. "What does Christ have to do with Christmas?" he said with mock seriousness.

Feeling a bit ornery, I decided that I would buy my cards somewhere else. I did find a couple of religious scenes at the next store I checked, but they weren't in styles I felt comfortable with. I finally bought a box of cards at the third store I checked. There's a picture of Joseph and Mary headed to Bethlehem on the front.

Sending out Christmas cards can be a wonderful opportunity to testify to others of the Savior and of His importance in our lives. As we turn our hearts to Him we experience the real meaning of Christmas.

Now the next step for me, of course, is to get those cards addressed and sent out. I know perfectly well that they won't do anyone any good if they're just sitting in the box. But I'm very good at putting things off like this. Any bets on how long it'll be before I tackle that project? New Years, maybe? Valentines? Easter?

Happy holidays, everyone!

Time Out For Women

I just saw the 2008 schedule for "Time Out For Women," sponsored by Deseret Book, and I just had to make a plug. And no, they are not paying me to do this. I noticed that they will put on an event in Oklahoma City in April, as well as a host of other cities throughout the year. You can check the schedule here at http://deseretbook.com/time-out/schedule.

But with my ties to people in the Oklahoma City area, I did want to put in my 2 cents worth. I attended the event in Minneapolis in September. I went because several other sisters in my ward were going, and I thought it might be a fun girls' day out. I was frankly a bit leery of the way things were set up, with several Deseret Book authors speaking to us in the auditorium and their books for sale in the lobby. Being an author myself, I know how these marketing things work.

But it was such a great experience. From the time the first speaker got up there, I was scratching down all kinds of notes in my notebook and occasionally (I admit it) bawling my eyes out. Because these people were able to address us in a unique position. It wasn't an official Church meeting, so they could address the whole spectrum of what it means to us to be Latter-day Saint women, struggling with our families and callings and jobs, and trying to do the best we can. I came away with so many ideas I could incorporate into my life and with a firm desire to seek out what the Lord really wanted to be doing, and to try to simply become the best ME I could be in my own special circumstances. I felt assured of the Lord's love and His desire for me to excel in all areas of my life--from other women (and a man or two) who were working through the very same things.

It was amazing. And I really encourage you all to go when you have the opportunity. And reread those notes you take, and keep on hangin' in there.

So that's my plug for the day. And by the way, I did not buy any books there. I did, however, buy a very cute Family Home Evening assignment board and a scripture trivia game for my family. And I still love them. (That is, I love the things I bought...and, of course, I love my family.)

Changing Truth

Well, one of the things I did this week was write a blog for LDSBlogs.com on "Things As They Really Are." At least, that's the published title of it. Since it's about truth, my working title was, well, "Truth."

So I hammered it out for a bit on my word processor, and then tried to close the window. Immediately a pop-up came up that said:

Save changes to Truth?

And that struck me as funny, since of all the things you can try to change in the world, you can't change the truth. That's the whole nature of it (and what my blog was about). We can try to change things we don't like, but once you start trying to change the truth, it stops being the truth.

But somehow I beat the system. Somehow, despite the true nature of it all, this week I accomplished the impossible. I successfully made (and saved) changes to Truth.

Jennie Hansen, Family Home Evening, and a Big Fat Newsletter

One of my more memorable posts this week for LDSBlogs.com has been my interview with Jennie Hansen. She was truly delightful to visit with, and several people have told me how much they've appreciated reading the interview. She's become a very respected LDS author over the years. Two of the three installments are currently up; one more is on its way.

I have to say that along with that interview, I'm pretty proud of myself for getting the jpegs of Jennie and her books to fit in with the published blog.

Another blog entry I put up recently was called "Family Home Evening Basics." I wrote that one after talking to a friend who is an LDS convert. She admitted that she didn't really know how to hold a family home evening. And it got me thinking...when you attend church enough, you might pick up on how to give a talk in sacrament meeting, or how to give a lesson in Relief Society. But family home evening is something you don't see modeled so often, since it takes place in the home. The good news about that is, since it takes place in your home, you don't have to worry that the family home evening police will arrest you if you don't do it "right." The important thing is to take the time for your family.

In other news, I've been compiling the LDStorymakers New Release Newsletter for this month and it's just about ready to go. I'm thrilled at all the books announced in it; the LDStorymakers members have been busy! So check it out (click here to subscribe) and find yourself some good reading material. You can also visit the blog version at http://ldstorymakersnewreleases.blogspot.com/. (And remember that even though you won't see my name on it anywhere, I put the whole thing together. Unless, that is, you don't like it.)

Am I Old Yet?

All right, all right. Even as we speak, my child is laughing at me for referring to a portable stereo as a "ghetto blaster." He thinks that's the funniest thing he's ever heard. Compound that with the fact that he sees no reason to carry one of those things around with him, in this day of the iPod. Why would you need to haul around something so huge with external speakers that force everyone else to listen to your music?

He thinks Pac Man is lame, too.

And if you think so, too...you're probably younger than I am.