I got a New Website!

A new website may not seem exciting to those of you who are savvy in the tech world, but I am not, so it is to me. My previous website was built in 2008…. can you believe that? And it disappeared into the cyber never-never land when they tried to process my hosting fee on a debit card that died a painful death months ago. Then I didn’t get to it in time and it is GONE. Just like that. Don’t let your website disappear by procrastinating updating your debit card number! Learn from my mistakes, people.

To the rescue came my incredibly talented and intelligent sister-in-law, Jennie, who is a computer geek and so good at it. She simply “whipped up” a new site for me. It’s sharp, clean and direct. She amazes me and I am grateful we married into the same family so we could be sisters.

Go have a looksie: LindaCrosby.com

Hot pink, black and some Kelly green thrown in for contrast. Makes me happy.

Thank you, Jennie! You da bomb-diggety!

 

Miss Potter Strikes Again

If you have been around MySister’sJar for any length of time longer than three days, you are probably aware of my fascination with the movie Miss Potter.  I  L O V E  it.  That is all.

All around me little hints of my favorite film show up to bring a smile to my heart if not also to my face.  A wooden hedgehog in a craft store yesterday.  My watercolor paint brushes standing lonely in a smudged jar.  A vintage, faded-yellow-with-time envelope that was mailed to my grandmother in 1928.  A stuffed Peter Rabbit in his blue jacket with brass buttons in TJ Maxx.  Everywhere.  Even at the river last Monday.  I took a picture of my shadow because it reminded me of Beatrix.

I imagined Beatrix saying her first lines from the movie, “There’s something delicious about writing the first words of a story.  You never quite know where they’ll take you.  Mine took me here….” as she was sitting beside crystal blue water in the Lake District.  Here she is wearing the outfit for my shadow:

Okay, it was mostly the hat, but it DID remind me of my fellow author/artist/lover-of-nature bosom friend, a couple generations removed.  My nature journal brings joy to my soul.  I cannot draw nearly as well as Beatrix, but it is inspiring to try.  The smell of the eraser.  The rainbow of colored pencil crayons in the RIGHT order in my prisma-color box. The challenge of copying some little tidbit that God created in nature for US!  Yes, for us to admire and marvel at… and draw in our nature journals.  :o)

Do you have a favorite movie that shines reminders to you everywhere?

I am Strong and Healthy (repeat)

I am strong and healthy.  I am strong and healthy.  This is what I quote to myself out loud when the first signs of sickness raise their feeble heads in my body.  Be gone plugged sinuses.  Get thee behind me, nasal drip.  My offspring stand clear when they hear their mother muttering, “I’m strong and healthy!”

The S&H phrase has been my mantra all day.  Many a cure have been applied, sniffed, soaked up and swallowed to no avail. So as the red numbers read 12:34 a.m…. the green tea in the kitchen cupboard called to me.  You know I’m not healthy when I drink tea.  Tea reminds me of wet cardboard.  Hot wet cardboard. Yes, I have tried chai and it simply tastes like sweet hot wet cardboard.  But I digress.

So I have been reading adoption blogs while waiting for my cardboard-flavored tea to get down to “children’s temperature”, as a kind Starbucks employee once described MY temperature of choice. Whatev!  Lately I have been messed up by a book called 7.  Yes, it’s a single digit number title.  Kind of like 1984, but with only one digit. At a later date when I am truly strong and healthy, I will expound on this tome and impress you with my knowledge of things I have only read about.

Anyway, the author, Jen Hatmaker, adopted two older kids.  I can relate.  She had three bio kids at home… a girl and two man-children.  Same same.  And aside from her story and her tales of woe leading up to the referrals, etc., I have been experiencing AMG… adoptive mama guilt.  Tonight I came to the trusty home computer (in the family room for ALL eyes to see what anyone may be viewing online….. side note: once I sat on the couch that is 10 feet behind the screen… and behind the viewer’s back, I used binoculars to READ THEIR MAIL!  Yes I did.) and after reading a few adoption blogs I realized I NEED to confess and repent of some AMG.

But as I leaned forward to see the keyboard in the dark of the night, my nose dripped in my green already-gross-tasting tea…. and I decided to lament the whole scene and blog about AMG tomorrow…. when the sun is shining and I am strong and healthy.

Goodnight.

Another Year Older… Another Year Wiser…

My birthday was shared with Jesus’ resurrection day this year.  Awesome!  Another year of my life has come to an end, but I certainly do feel wiser in the health department after my 45th year. I have figured out a few things (that’s the wiser part) that should contribute to living another 46 years (at least!)  Hey, I obeyed my parents and the Bible promises a long life for obedience.  :o)  That’s what I keep telling my kids anyway!  Six small meals a day really does keep the doctor away.  I know I switched that up a bit from the original prose, but it works for me. 

Allow me to share the joy in a photo essay…. then and now.  This coming Sunday I will have been eating six small meals per day for A YEAR!  A whole stinkin’ year!  I can’t hardly believe it either!  Here is my 45th birthday picture….. please refrain from snorting coffee through your nose when you behold my loveliness seventy-seven pounds ago. At least I was sporting a cool jacket and coordinating jewelry.

Here is this year’s birthday picture…. and “the difference?” you ask.  I ate the cake last year… I didn’t this year.  My mom made a darling peeps cake that was reported to be delicious.  I didn’t feel deprived.  It was a major victory in the weight-loss journey I’m traveling.  Next year, I’ll taste the cake, but for right now I didn’t need to.  My new mantra is “Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial.”  So true.

So as my next year begins, my plans include finishing writing a book of our adoption journey, getting into a regular fitness routine and daily praying diligently and intentionally for each of my children.  Not that I haven’t prayed for them up until now, but I got the book The Power of a Praying Parent and realized that I needed to up the ante.  Fighting in the heavenlies is where the action is.  I’m all over it!  Feel free to join me!

The World just got a little Smaller

For the first time since we have been home from Colombia (15 months ago) we Skyped with our Colombian friends who live across the street from the house we rented.  Oh, we miss them.  Oh, we miss Cali.  Oh, we need to go SOON!  They asked when we are coming to visit.  The plan in the back of our heads is when Nora is older… but how older?  I don’t know.  I told our friends maybe when she is 12.  That’s four years out…. that seems so long not to visit with them and hug their necks.  It was so heartwarming to see their smiling faces and hear their rapid Spanish…. that I can hardly understand!  And of course it was on a night when I looked THE WORST! I had a massage earlier and my hair was greasy… no make-up.  But I’ve never smiled so big!  Nora came and said hello to them and asked why they weren’t speaking English.  In her logical little mind she speaks English… and she used to be able to understand them… so they MUST speak English!  Oh boy.  We need to get her back into speaking Spanish before we travel.  Skype made the world just a little smaller this week!  Thank you, Skype. 

WordPress, who posts this awesome blog you are reading, recently started a new feature that shows where your readers are on a map of the world.  This expanded my view of this humble blog and made the world just a little bit smaller in my mind.  Last week there were readers on MSJ from 54 different countries!  I couldn’t believe it either.  This brought even more questions to my mind…. do they read the English language?  Did they stumble on MSJ because of pictures that have been posted?  Are they all service men whose US wives tell them to read MSJ?  Do they come back and read again?  Are they copying down my insightful ideas and spreading the love in their own country? And where in the world are Myanmar, Anguilla and Seychelles?  So as the world shrinks and we begin to sing a round of We are the World, I wanted to extend my international WELCOME to the many faces who come here!  I am honored and humbled (and stunned, quite frankly!) 

300,000 TODAY!

Yes, in the next hour or so, the hits on this humble blog, My Sister’s Jar, will surpass 300,000.  The number is astounding to me.  Let me give you some back history… several years ago (I just tried to figure out what year it was, but I’m 45 and can’t remember things like that… sigh) I attended a writer’s conference in New Mexico where there were several seminars one could take in.  I perused the list and chose several… the ones I recollect include: contract negotiations, writing the perfect proposal, selling your wares to publishers, adding humor to your writing and narrowing down your pitch to elevator length.  Distinctly I remember reading one particular description that caused me to guffaw and roll my eyes.  Ready?  It was simply titled “Blogging”.  My thoughts at that time included, but were not limited to the following: Who would spend all that time writing for invisible people?  Who would read some random person’s ramblings? How do people even find “online journals” to read? And WHY would anybody care what a stranger is writing? What is the purpose of blogging? And so on. And so on.  That was during my PBL (pre-blog life).

Upon my arrival home from the conference, my husband and I met with a couple whose lives are engrossed with computers and programming and podcasts and tweeting and a whole bunch of other techy stuff I do not understand.  BUT, he explained blogging to me… and I didn’t stick in one little toe to test the water… I did a cannonball into the deep end of the internet writing swimming hole. 

Those questions I asked myself earlier about blogging have not all been answered.  I still do not understand exactly where 797 people come from in a single day who read my blog.  It is inspiring to me, and quite humbling, to be frank.  I often ask my husband, “Who are these people?” When someone comments, I get a little hint as to who they are… where they are from… how they stumbled upon My Sister’s Jar.  But those are precious and few.

My prayer is that people will be inspired by stopping here to live life to the fullest and possibly take a jump into some of my favorite topics: family, marriage, laughter, writing, adoption, homeschooling, being a Christ follower, raising boys, sewing, traveling, gardening, losing weight, traditions, America the Beautiful, saving money, and being a mom.

I’ll wrap up this bit of blogging hysteria with a meek and awe inspired THANK YOU, to my dear readers who keep coming back to read.  It’s for YOU, invisible friend, that I keep rambling on (and it is cheaper than therapy for me!)  XOXO

Another Book in the Making

Years ago I was wide awake one fine morning at 2:00 a.m.  There was a book idea running amuck in my mind.  It was causing me to lose precious sleeping hours, so I succumbed.  Climbing out of bed, finding my journal and making my way to the bathroom I was determined to write down every blinkin’ thought, so I could get some much-needed rest.  Quietly I closed the door and flicked on the light.  After eye-adjustment-to-the-brightness time elapsed, I indeed jotted down every blinkin’ thought…. and there were 60 of them, much to my blurry-eyed surprise.  Each one a story pertaining to my life of weight loss, gain, loss, gain, loss, gain… and God.  That night I named the book Squeezing Laughter into a Leotard: Devotions for Above Average Women, and then I crept back to bed in the dark of the night and slept like a baby.

Three years ago I wrote a blog mentioning this book-to-be:  https://mysistersjar.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/wrapped-up-in-elvis/  During those three years, I had a part-time job filling out adoption paperwork and getting fingerprinted.  So no progress has been made as of yet.  I think only one of the stories is actually written down in black and white.  And once again, I’m in the great battle of food/appetite control.  The PERFECT time to write about the frustrations that chubby people face day in and day out.  REAL stories that women can relate to….. like falling off the wagon with rice krispy treats and not wanting to step on the scale tomorrow morning.

Currently, I’m down 54 pounds since April.   That sounds all great, yet I have 46 to go…. and I got slapped around by Snap, Crackle and Pop tonight, so I’m not feeling real successful at the moment.  Through the past six months, I’ve been able to identify my trigger points that cause me to eat foods that are permissible for me, but not beneficial.  Here’s the short list:

1. When I’m sick
2. When I’m alone
3. When I’m mad
4. When I’m on the phone
5. THAT time of the month
6. When I smell peanut butter 
7. Before an adoption home visit
8. When I see clutter
9. Seeing Green Corn Tamales on a menu
10. When I’m on a long vacation
11. After a friend has died
12. After a homeschool graduation
13. After cooking a meal
14. When I should be in bed
15. At birthday parties
16. When visions of sugar plums dance in my head

Like I said, that is the SHORT list.  Thanks for humoring me and reading to the end.  Hahahaha. 

Tomorrow is another day to live victoriously with my choices and my new and improved health!

We Have a Winner!!!

Forthwith the results are in from the amazing third blog-a-versary of My Sister’s Jar Free Book Drawing conducted with the utmost officiousness right here in my family room.  Hence, a photo-journal of the event found itself necessary.  Here are the entries for the drawing:

For anonymity, they were folded with care…. EXACTLY the same:

Next they were placed in the snowman bucket with care:

The movie UP! was interrupted so the Colombian princess could come out from under her cheetah print blankie and draw the winning name…..

And the winner of Laughing in the Midst of Mothering and Laughing in the Midst of Marriage is………….

……………COURTENAY!!!  Whooo Hooooo!  Congratulations, Courtenay!  I will contact you to get your address!

Thanks for playing, ladies!  It was fun!

FREE Give-Away! It’s my Blog-a-versary!

Yes, My Sister’s Jar has been filling up the pages of the internet for three long years now.  Wow!  And for ONE of my faithful readers, including anyone new who happens to find MJS today, I’m giving away a copy of each of my books: Laughing in the Midst of Mothering and Laughing in the Midst of Marriage.  Both books are guaranteed to make you grin, if not/and/or loudly guffaw while holding your belly while tears stream from your eyes from the hilarity of the stories.  Really.  I’m not just saying it because I lived through them either.

Yes, you read that right… TWO FREE books!  Wow!  Generosity is seeping from my pores today. Here’s how it works.  Leave a comment with your name in the comment section below.  I painstakingly copy all the names onto paper, carefully cut them into strips, fold them so there’s no cheating, drop them into a light blue snowman bucket, and then….. drumroll please….. one of my darling children reaches in and picks out a name.  I broadcast the winning name on this blog in the comment section, as well as the next blog.  So you have to be okay with your name being broadcast. Well, you could use a fake name, and then simply notify me before I mail the books as to your truthful name.  I privately email you for your mailing address, which is NOT broadcast for all the world to see.  Free contest starts now and ends at Feb. 2, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. (Members of my family are not eligible, nor people from Guam or Madagascar…. just kidding….. not kidding about my family!)

Thank you again, from the bottom of my heart, for being faithful readers to this overworked homeschool mom/author.  It does my heart good each night as I check the blog stats and drift off to sleep with happy thoughts that I just might have made someone smile today with these words I type.  You guys ROCK!

Happy Three-Year Blog-a-versary!

And my sweet husband adds, “You can buy the books at www.cbd.com.”   I’m not a saleswoman… I’m a mom!

My Name is Linda and I’m a Project Junky

And I’m OK with that!  I ALWAYS have a project or two or seventeen on the go.  When I don’t have projects, I feel lost.  I wander the house in my pajamas wondering what I should be doing.  Lately, since returning from Colombia with our new daughter, my project in my head was “keep life moving forward as normally as possible.”  That’s pretty well all I’ve done for five weeks…. and it’s been exhausting.  We are homeschooling.  We are going to church and to our neighborhood group.  I am grocery shopping and going to the library weekly.  Oh, and I’m teaching once a week….. Arizona History to a bunch of homeschooled high school kids.  (I guess you could consider it a project!)  But it has taken me almost 3 weeks to read the novel sitting on my bedside table.  They usually only sit there for 4-5 days.

However, (notice the switch from survival mode to productive mode here!) my mother found a darling little wooden chair on clearance (of course) with a cupcake-shaped back that will fit Nora’s tea-table perfectly!  Originally I thought that two chairs were sufficient, but her teddy bear always occupies one, so guests sit on the floor.  Three chairs are needed.  The cupcake chair needs some sanding and painting and tightening and hole-filling.  A PROJECT!

Last month my sister was in town putting on a bridal shower for her best friend.  My sister is the decorologist for parties!  She’s the bomb, baby.  Her creativity reminded me how fun it is to decorate and throw parties.  And lo and behold, a friend of mine has a birthday next week!  She thinks I’m taking her to breakfast, but I’m doing a full-blown pink and turquoise owl-themed party.  Today I’m off to find cutesy plates and polka-dotted napkins and ribbons and placemats.  A PROJECT! 

Here are just the cupcakes my sister made for the shower:

A   N   D  .  .   .  .  .  I have once again been inspired to start writing.  A little birdy put the seed in my heart… the watering began… and I’m off writing on another project.  This is a book that I have had on my heart for a long time.  About two or three years ago I was having visions of stories running amuck in my mind which prompted me to get out of bed at 2:47 in the morning, find a notepad and jot down ideas.  Locked in my master bathroom for an hour, I outlined the entire book!  This week I dusted it off.  A PROJECT!

My name is Linda and I’m a Project Junky!