Breathe

If you’ve popped over here after being at the She Speaks conference, you’ll see I am on a blogging sabbatical til next week. (Details below) Hope you loved the conference and that you’ll connect with me on Twitter or Facebook and back here soon. :-)

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It is with a slight sigh of relief, coupled with a twinge of sadness, that I write this post.

I need a breather.

Ever been there?

Life is starting to spin faster than your little legs can sprint; faster than your brain can function; than your heart can process or spirit can pray?

You feel the nudge to let something go, but you really don’t want to, for the thing you hold tightly in your hand is a thing you adore.

My ‘thing’ is this blog.

However, some things (and several someones) need me right now.  So, I need to free up time to be available.

My July is always slammed with our Proverbs 31 She Speaks conference and my duties there. (Speaking three times, spear-heading a drama, planning and carrying out our team’s two-day training session before the conference with many special guest speakers).

My boys’ baseball schedules are in full swing, one that requires out-of-state travel.

I have the manuscript of my next book due November 1st and I am not where I should be in writing it.

And finally, oh please be praying for I’m weeping as a type this, my sister-in-law, the one I interviewed here about her journey through breast cancer 5 years ago, has now been diagnosed with bone cancer.

She is not only my sister-in-law, but a very close friend and my kids’ second mother. And, she is also the victim of an unwanted divorce who now lives alone, with her two precious adult children many states away.

I’d been feeling for a while that I needed to take the month of July off from blogging due to the demands of trying to juggle ministry and family in the right order.

With a nudge from my friend Marybeth (who is also taking July off) and a great post she linked to on taking a sabbatical by Michael Hyatt (CEO of Thomas Nelson), I was sensing God telling me it was time to drop off the radar for a while.

Then the tragic news about Thais came three days ago.

The following morning during my time alone with God, I turned to where I am reading in the book of Matthew and the very next words I was to read said,  “When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.” Matt 14:13

What “had happened”? Jesus had heard the tragic news of John the Baptist’s beheading.

He heard.

He withdrew.

Oh how I needed to see that in black & white.

So, I am at peace with stopping blogging for July. I will miss you but I don’t want to miss out on what God is telling me to do. I need to focus on my family right now. After all, how can I encourage you to live your priorities unless I am doing it myself???

So, I’ll be back here in August.

In the mean time, I will breathe.

I will still occasionally post Twitter updates which appear on the sidebar here, but other than that, I’ll be taking a blogging break and Facebook fast.

If you think of it, would you pray for Thais? Or leave a comment for her here and I’ll be sure she reads it.

Thanks so much for the ways your comments and presence here encourage us weekly—–me most of all. I love tackling life together with Jesus as our guide.

I’ll miss you, but will see you back here in a month.

And, I have to admit, I am looking forward to seeing less of my computer perched on my office desk and more of the outdoors where I can sit, pray and have a thought to myself!

And I’m excited to not be tied down if I want to head to my sister-in-law’s for a stay (she lives 1 1/2 hours away).

So, I’ll leave you with a few pics I snapped recently of where I live.

It is where my heart lives too.

God bless you my friends!

 

My office that the hubster painted a robin's egg blue, Ralph Lauren shade called 'sanctuary'. Desk from Craiglist. Reconditioned Mac and yes, that is a real working corded phone.

 

Father's Day bistro set we bought Todd in 1999. Love taking the laptop out there to write.
Back deck, where we eat many of our summer meals. See the bell? It is how I call kids home for supper, usually Spence and his friends from the creek.
Some of my herbs. Lavender alongside oregano in the ground. Chocolate mint, sweet basil and lemon verbena in the terra cotta pots.
Potted annuals in a stair step made from old barn wood.
Chaise lounge from a garage sale nestled between pots of tomatoes for salsa.
Our side yard of perennials and a birdhouse made from a leg of an Ehman family dining room table that was over 100 years old.
Our back yard fire pit. A favorite early morning place to read my Bible, pray, cry, etc... I think I'll be spending a lot of time here this month.

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