I don't like waiting. I'll admit it. Especially when I sense something good just around the bend. Sometimes the anticipation is sweet. Other times it's almost unbearable. Agonizing. Like waiting in line for Splash Mountain at Disney World in 100 degree heat. (No fast passes included.) In 2003, at the encouragement of a friend, I sent a package of children's songs I'd written to a publisher for consideration. I thought it would be rejected within a few weeks. It wasn't. But it wasn't accepted either. So I waited and waited. Then I waited some more. Weeks turned into months, months…

Have you ever been stuck dangling from the top of a roller coaster? Our family recently vacationed at a theme park and, being a roller coaster aficionado, I couldn't wait to ride the new coaster. It promised to be a dizzying, speeding bullet with large twists, loops and a stomach clenching drop. As we rounded the corner to get in line, I stopped short with surprise. There at the top of the roller coaster's 162 foot peak, one of the cars was stopped cold. A group of engineers scurried around the car, tugging and pulling but to no avail. People…

Barney Fife. Scarlett O’Hara. Inigo Montoya. Huckleberry Finn. Hannibal Lecter. Atticus Finch. Sherlock Holmes. Elphaba. Luke Skywalker. All great characters with vibrant and memorable personalities. All a complex mix of flaws, quirks, dreams and failures. Here’s the thing about finding characters…predictable characters are dull characters. I think most would agree that the above characters are all interesting, memorable and larger-than-life. So what can you do when your characters seem lifeless and limp? 1. Find a trait from someone you know as a jumping-off point. Mark Twain based his character Huckleberry Finn almost precisely on his childhood buddy Tom Blankenship. “In…

Ah, the infamous 'comfort zone'. We crave it. We want it. It gives a sense of security and well-being, doesn't it? But here's the thing: the comfort zone is actually quite deceptive. It gives us the illusion of security, the illusion of happiness, of comfort. But oftentimes it's nothing more than a lie spilling from the lips of the enemy because hewants us to be complacent, ineffective and, quite frankly, too comfortable to get up off our backsides and do something. You see, great heroes of faith, the men and women who have changed history and shook up the world…

We did it. We took the plunge. We are homeschooling and I've got to say, it's been rewarding. Exhausting, fun and challenging but rewarding. There were a few tears, a few "I don't understand..."s and brief moments of meltdown, but I'm feeling better now. The girls are doing great too, by the way. In the homeschooling world, I keep hearing about theoverwhelming stress of picking out curriculums. The anxiety of finding the perfect learning style for each child. The expense, the juggling, the exhaustion...I've recently realized that although it took me months to find a plan that was best for…

I'm a lot more spiritual after I've had caffeine. I know it's sad but true. I've lost count of how many times I've joked about it. It usually gets a laugh because we all know what it's like to stumble out of bed, hair tangled and blinking through puffy eyes, unready and unprepared to face another day. Sunlight seems like an offense. We mumble and grumble through our morning routine, grouching at loud noises or quick tempers. We snap for others to leave us alone until we've had our coffee, our Mountain Dew or whatever our stimulant of choice may…