{think Gomer Pyle when you read the title because that’s how I sound}

I’ve mentioned here before that I am the Techie Girl over at She Seeks (a division of Proverbs 31 Ministries targeting 18-29 year old women). Now, I have to tell you, I love my P31 peeps to death, but really I had no idea why God has me working on a site targeting this age group. I’m so not in that age range any more, and really? I don’t feel like I have anything to offer up but my techie skills.

But last week I sent an email to Lisa W. who is the team leader of She Seeks and we started talking about Valentine’s Day. Yeah, I know it’s over, but I’m still talking about it. I’m talking about it over at She Seeks today.

That makes me nervous and feels really funny. This is the first time I’ve officially written something for someone else that will be somewhere else other than the ramblings of this blog. Years ago when I made the statement on this blog that I am a writer, I don’t think I even dreamed of writing for another site like this.

I remember what it was like when I was in that age group. Even though I’m older, I’m still getting good stuff through the devotions over there and I think you will too.

Go check it out. If it sucks, I give you complete permission to lie to me

PS. Duck so didn’t listen to me. He brought home a dozen red roses for me and a red rose for Doodle. He says he never agreed to the deal I thought he had — I realized I was just talking and he never said one way or another. I love you Duck but you’re hard-headed

Kimberly @ Raising Olives {must look up the story behind the name sometime} bought my ticket to BlissDom. She wrote this line in an email to me:

If you think about it, I’d love your prayers that I will keep my priorities in all of this and that Blissdom will ultimately benefit our family.

It struck me. That’s precisely what I am praying for all my friends who are going. In my massive BlissDom tips post, it was my first bullet point. It really deserves it’s own post.

In case you didn’t know it, God wants to be involved in your life — every part of your life. He’s into details. If it matters to you, it matters to Him. Prayer is our way of communicating with God — that means listening as well. My prayers for weeks were “God let me know in an obvious way if I should be going to BlissDom or not.” I add that obvious part into a lot of my prayers. And you know what? God answers in really obvious ways. See, I don’t want to miss what He has for me, so when I’m questioning what I should do, I always ask for obvious answers and that I’ll know are from Him.

I truly believe that He closed the door on me going because Kimberly needs to be there instead. But the praying can’t stop there. For me, I need to continue to pray that I won’t miss the opportunities God kept me here for. For those going to the conference, I’m praying for you too. I’m praying for your families who might feel left behind to be able to survive their time without Mom. I’m praying for you to learn the things God would have you to learn about yourself, about your blogs, and about other ladies. I’m praying that new relationships will be made and that old ones will solidify even more. And I pray that if any of you start to struggle with anything that God would send you your very own BlissDom Angel.

Pray for your blog. Pray that God would lead you to not only write the things He’d have you to write, but that you would have the graphics on there that He would have. Pray for your readers, especially the ones who don’t comment. The ones who may be suffering and feeling like they are alone — pray for them to get a little bit of comfort from your blog, your words. Your blog may be the only one they read. Don’t let that pressure you, but consider it an honor to write what God lays on your heart to share.

If you’re writing a blog to make a little money, pray about that too. God wants us to get paid for our work — though I still struggle in this area. Pray about how God can be glorified through you making money. Are the ads appropriate material for your readers? Do you share advice that will build up marriages and families? Do you know there are ways you can do that and not specifically mention your faith? Perhaps that’s in God’s will too. Maybe you share information on being frugal and one of your readers feels comfortable enough to start a dialogue with you about faith.

God has not called me to be a frugal blogger — I have no talent for clipping coupons. God has not called me to be a home blogger — I have no talent for decorating. I’m not really sure I can be put in a box and given a title — I know God can’t be put in a box. I pray whatever you see here on this blog is what He would have me to share. Oh, and I trust that He will bring about the people who need to read it — especially if it’s just one person. Because even if you were the only one on this earth that needed saving, Jesus still would have died for you. You are that important. But it’s not just about being saved, God is concerned with the details of your life. So pray about every aspect of your blog.

I know this may sound like I’m just a praying guru, but I’m not. I go through stages where I pray consistently and times when it’s just a quick 30-second “God please keep me from killing someone” prayer. Don’t envy me or compare yourself to me. That will do neither of us any good. If you do struggle with prayer time — especially if you like to wait until last thing at night and fall asleep before you finish your prayers, I want to encourage you to get a notebook. Get a really pretty one if it will help make you feel better. First thing in the morning — even if you have to wake up 5 minutes earlier — write out your prayers to God in the notebook. Just start small. Open the dialogue. He’ll be there.

Don’t worry about how messy your handwriting is — He can read it. Don’t stress about how much you write. Don’t worry about messing up the notebook or making it ugly. Don’t worry about scribbles and mistakes. You’d be surprised at how much it will bless your day.

So much to say, so little time Here’s some bullet points for ya. You’re welcome!

• I mailed half of my Women of Faith stuff out today. So Mandy @ Pennies and Blessings, Heidi, Jenny 86753oh9 and Punkinmama — your stuff is officially in the mail. Please let me know when you receive it! To Charlene @ A Virtuous Woman and Annabelle @ Christian Momma my sincerest apologies. It will be Monday before I have a chance to mail yours. Ran out of mailing supplies
• I want to specially thank Charlene @ A Virtuous Woman. She won 2 days of giveaways and wrote me an email to say give one of them away to someone else. Well, it just so happens that the new official winner of Sheila Walsh’s All that Really Matters book is a lady I know in real life. One that I had no idea read my blog until she left a comment on that post. So congratulations Monica! Now you don’t have to be mad at me
• Monica is a lady at Doodle’s school that I know well enough to say “hey” to — when I talked to her today and told her about the book, she thanked me for my blog. Ya’ll … that floored me. My blog? She thinks it’s neat. I told her that it felt good to be writing again like I believe God wants me to do. I mentioned getting overwhelmed at reading other blogs and the mentality of “well they said it so I don’t need to.” Monica confirmed God’s calling for me. She said “I don’t read those other blogs. Write for me.” Thanks Monica for sharing that with me today. You blessed me more than you know
• For my BlissDom ladies, I’ll have a post up Monday with tips for ya’ll. Shoot, I might have to make more than one I’ve got so much to share! So check back then to look for it. And even though I’m not going to BlissDom any more, I’m still going to keep the MckLinky up — so link up and get to know some of the other ladies going!
• I’ll be disappearing from the blog and Twitter this weekend. We’ve got a lot of good stuff going on, and I’m going to try doing life off my computer and with my family. I hope you make that kind of time this weekend as well.

Months ago when the tickets went on sale, I jumped on one. I was on the fence. There were some bloggy friends I would love to see again and some that I would love to meet. I wanted Duck to go with me — after all, he’s my cowboy. Can’t go to Nashville yet again without my cowboy!

So I put it on the calendar. As the weeks progressed, other things got added to the calendar. Like the Upward Basketball schedule. Duck and I are coaching Doodle’s team again this year. I really enjoy it, but our practices are on Thursday and the games on Saturday. Ok, I thought. I can miss one practice and one game. But Duck can’t. Not really. Oh, and Upward pictures are that Saturday. Hmmph. I don’t want to miss those too.

Then Duck’s on-call schedule was released. He put the dates on the calendar. Yep, he’s on call that week. So he’s really, double-y triple-y out of going. And that was the final feather that knocked me off the fence onto the side of not going. See, Duck’s on-call weeks are very stressful to him. I need to be here to run things. I need to be here to run practice and the game if he happens to be called into work.

It’s not that he couldn’t handle it. Seriously we are blessed with great grandparents that take Doodle and do what’s needed. But I need to be here. I’ve been praying for quite awhile that God would lead me one way or another — that if I go, He’ll work everything out. If I don’t go, He’ll work everything out. And He has. I have His peace inside me that I need to be here {see an obvious pattern?}. I’ve already sold my conference ticket to another Christian lady who said I was an answered prayer. While God was closing the door on me going — He was opening the door for her to go. Seeing as how the conference is now sold-out, I can see how He used me buying that ticket for His good.

Don’t get me wrong. I not only need to be here, I want to be here. Maybe I will meet ya’ll next year if the scheduling falls just right. I still have some advice I’m going to give ya’ll who are going and I’m definitely praying for all my friends who will be there.

Go enter my Women of Faith giveaways (ends today!) and I’ll be back tomorrow with the winners, and BlissDom advice!

Procrastinate much? Me neither

I’m having fun looking back through my archives. Initially I was thinking not much happened in 2009, but when I went back to read, I realized a lot happened in 2009! My memory sucks so it’s just validation as to why I should be blogging in the first place — to help me remember!

I’ll try to keep this short and painless for you

January

I hate resolutions. In January I picked 3 words and I’d still pick the same 3 words for this year! I was reminded of a day when I was ready to lose my cool, but Doodle was the voice of reason. I finally wrote out why I big-red-puffy-heart-love WordPress.

February

The beginning of February had me preparing to go to BlissDom ‘09. When I got back, I had way too much to say. Good news? I’m going back to BlissDom ‘10 in a few weeks I did my usual tribute to Valentine’s Day (which I hate by the way). I still feel like I’m way cooler online than in person. The most wonderful transition of all occurred — PC to Mac.

March

I still see hurting people. The State of Doodle address is pretty much the same.

April

The Invis-a-shield is still always up. The tears fell and Duck left a longer comment than my post.

May

Robin made me do it — or at least she really encouraged me to sponsor a child. Those types of conversations started in the car on the way to Chick-fil-a. Played some ball.

June

Another Mother of the Year moment. I went into a funk I’m not sure I ever came out of I celebrated Doodle’s 10th birthday and 13 years of salvation.

July

First day of fifth grade. My conference going advice. More conference going advice. Totally embarrassed myself with a real, helmet-hair, no make-up picture during a Blog Hop party.

August

She Speaks brain dump that links to all the other brain dump posts. Wondering just how I can get back to exuding peace again. I shared what I’m missing in conferences and lo and behold, someone comes up with a Christian Women Blogging Conference this year (glad someone was listening — and hoping I can go to that one too!).

September

A mild crisis was adverted when I had to get my own Cokes. Remembered 9-11. Catching up and going horseback riding.

October

Celebrated 13 years of marriage to My Genius Better Half. The joys of giving anonymously. Arguing with God … again.

November

I asked if you can do ministry online. God’s sense of humor. I asked questions about Women of Faith.

December

My parents celebrate 41 years of marriage. I keep beating myself up over mistakes. Took a break from online things to do life offline.

This has been a blessing for me even if it’s not for you. I went back and remembered, cried, laughed and also thought — who in the world wrote this? Oh yeah, me! I remember I like to write. I need to get back to writing on here. Why I need constant reminders of what God’s taught me, I’ll never understand. Sometimes I look at the Israelites in the Old Testament who walked in circles for 40 years and scream “why don’t you remember?” Then I realize I don’t remember either. I’m so thankful God’s forgiveness and grace are new every day — because I need it!