Tina The Storyteller

I think I may have started out my blog this week with Some Mondays, well, it turned out that some weeks are kind of crazy.  I would not say that I was the nicest person this week.  I tended to be more crabby than caring, and more scary than sympathetic.  No excuse, just the way it was this week.  But today has made up for a lot of my misfortune from this past week.  We had one of those mornings were things turned out pretty well, redeeming some events that had turned out poorly the last time we tried them.  For instance, the last time we tried to go to the farmer's market in town, everyone went home in a huff.  And by everyone I mainly mean me.  But today it looked more like this And we all ended up finding something that we really liked and were able to bring it home with us.  Including veggies, beef jerky, and jewelry.  After we came home, Hannah and I went to the pool and had a great deal of fun.  It wasn't crowded yet, ...

It has been a quick week.  Things have gone by within a blink. Or at least it kind of feels that way. I am thankful for direction and the opportunity to follow it. I am thankful for my dear sweet husband who takes the time to set down his iPhone and listen to me. I am thankful for a sweet little girl that has been recovering from an ear infection and taking her meds with no difficulty. I am thankful for Tinkerbell who has taken up sleeping with me most of the night, but not in an obnoxious way but in a non-obtrusive warm cuddly way. I am thankful that God has brought me through so that I can proclaim his goodness. What are you thankful for?

I've been determined to work on the novel lately.  Convicted to edit the work that has laid before me for a few years now.  I've been reading lots of inspiring things to help push me along like Self Editing for the Fiction Writer and  Notes to Aspiring Writers .  I've been coming to the realization that I need to change the title of my book and most importantly, I've been thinking way too small.  I have been focused on a book and what to do with that book.  But God has been revealing to me that the book is just a tool, something to spread a message, one that is deeply a part of the book, but can definitely have a life outside its pages.  The story of Nate was created while I was in the midst of suffering from sever depression and if you've read the story, you know that Nate has depression that not only affects his family, but more specifically Nate himself. Last night, as I brainstormed words for a new title, I landed on one that stru...

The Blessing is amazing! Where do I even begin to tell you about all the goodness that is contained within its texts? There is a blessing waiting for you and God desires to pour it out upon your head, and better still, God wants to use you to share His blessing with others. John Trent and Gary Smalley have created a book that shares the biblical understanding of blessing and how that blessing can be shared in the lives of those around you. Using the story of Jacob and Esau from Genesis, the basic understanding of a blessing is laid out and then the individual parts are explained in further detail. But one of the best parts about  The Blessing  is that it does not just encourage you to bless others, it also encourages you to look at your own life and whether or not you have received that blessing and what to do if you have not. Chapters have insightful questions that help you get to the heart of your personal blessing. The book is filled with stories of how the blessing ...

Sometimes, I think twice actually, Monday is a day when our home is clean and I don't have any catch up work to do.  But most of the time, pretty much every time, it's a day where I have to catch up.  I don't enjoy doing the dishes when I have my family around, I'd much rather spend time with them.  And so, the dishes go undone for the majority of the weekends.  And for some reason, Monday has become laundry day.  I've tried to change that and only ended up with even more work for myself the following Monday.  I could very well complain about that, but then I'm the only one to blame, because I'm in charge of getting the house in the shape that I like it.  Yes, other people can help me with the tasks, but the home is my responsibility.  I'm the one that chooses if we live in a tidy home or a chaotic one.  I'm the one that has to come up with the plans and then make them happen. And the truth is that our home is really only a flat out disaste...

Oh man, I KNOW that I admitted to the fact that I turn things into something much bigger than they are and I honestly thought that the application to my crafts was what I was supposed to apply it, too.  But then I remember something else that I have been turning into something more than it actually is.  Can you guess what it might be?  Have you noticed anything about Fridays on my blog?  Yup, no House of 8 Nates posts.  I've been stalling on that very thing, too.  The funny part is that what should be the hard part, writing a novel, is long done with and yet here I sit, with no completed book.  I'm pretending that it is going to take a very long time for me to polish up what I already have.  I'm pretending that it will need more work on my part to clean it than it took to create it.  Maybe I get that idea from my home.  It seems that the care and cleaning of the home has taken far more time than the building, but then I forget that it ...

I've got a lot that I'm thankful for this week... I am probably really really thankful for the fact that we got something new to deal with the tangles that were a daily part of our lives since Hannah has been growing her hair out of her head. I am also thankful that we were able to get in to see the doctor and find out that H has an ear infection which is now being treated.  I am thankful that my sweet husband and I were able to celebrate ten amazing years of marriage.  I feel almost like a newlywed!  I can't believe it's actually been ten years. I am thankful that I have a blog and readers!

My daughter has exceptionally long and tangleriffic hair.  We constantly complain about the need to brush it and the pain involved in removing the tangles that pretty much show back up as soon as she moves her head.  We've been using Paul Mitchell's Lite Detangler with pretty good results.  She gets fewer tangles when we use and we use it every time we brush.  But there was still moments of complaining.  Yesterday, I hoped over to Amazon and looked at their recommendations for me and saw this It is called Tangle Tamer .  I was suspicious, but then I looked at the reviews, there were 36 of them starting from a few years ago to within hours of me buying it.  Every single review was five stars.  No fours, no threes, no twos, not even a single one.  I had to have it.  And for 10 bucks, that's the cost of one bottle of detangler!  It should be here tomorrow, I'll let you know if I love it by being extra thankful for it on Thursday!

One of my favorite movie lines is from Finding Nemo, when Dory says "Just keep swimming"  I think I like it because it's true for life, too.  If you aren't where you want to be, then just keep on swimming and eventually you'll be someplace new.  I often forget this when I create things, like sewing or knitting.  I LOVE having finished but having to finish is not my favorite.  I can get the energy going to get started and take out the majority of the work and then stall when it comes to completing the task.  I tell my self it takes a lot of effort and time and that I don't have that type of energy.  For instance, last summer, I started a sundress for Hannah.  I hit a snag and because summer was over, I just let it sit until I had more patience.  The longer it sat, the more I was certain that I was not going to be able to complete it.  The project became more difficult in my mind to the point that I was almost certain that I was no longer...

Tomorrow makes 10 years exactly since I made one of the best decisions of my life! I am very excited to be celebrating our anniversary this year.  Not that I have any plans on what we will do that day, but I am happy to see the day arrive. To prepare today, I'll be cleaning the house, and preparing my testimony for tonight's campfire at church.  If I get it written out, I may come back and add it here later today.

One thing I definitely remember is the fact that I was sick as a dog and was told to stop talking by the doctor.  I also remember that my dorm room which was pretty much a loft, was not packed up and a bunch of assorted family members were cleaning and packing and putting things into a uhaul and moving me and Joel out of our little rooms and into a little apartment.  I remember that I went out one day with my future in-laws, best friends, and we saw Atlantis and ate at Johnny Rockets.  I remember how I was struck by the differences between Northwesterners and Southerners.  I'll share some more memories later this week.

I have not been taking pictures this summer, but we have definitely been making some memories.  We had a great week at VBS.  Hannah loved it this year, she still was not too fond of the singing, but there were lots of other wonderful things that she really enjoyed, especially the bead making, wood working, and the planting. Right after VBS we headed down South for two weeks.  We spent a week with my mom, and got to hang out with my nephew, got to the beach, went to a serpentarium where we saw numerous snakes and my mom talked to the alligators.  We played in the pool and had a wonderful relaxing time.  Then we got to spend a week with my dad outside of Hotlanta.  We made it to the aquarium and saw the Dolphin Tales show.  Both were excellent.  We got to see dragons and mermaids at the Fernbank Natural History Museum.  We spent some time at a water park and even caught a showing of Mr. Popper's Penguins.  It was a wonderful whirl ...