I want to thank all of you who’ve emailed me with your encouragement. So many things are up in the air about where my “home on the web” will be, or if I’ll even have one.

Yesterday was both a happy and sad day for me. I attended the “Thanksgiving Feast” at the preschool where my children have all attended. This was the 8th year in a row for me. In many ways, nothing has changed — the food is always the same, the songs haven’t changed much, there is an energetic joy in the room filled with happy preschoolers, parents, grandparents, and teachers.

Yet for me, I knew this would be my last — next year, we won’t have any children at this preschool. What sustained me was the thought that I can always write about these happy times, when the kids are older and I have a quiet place to sit and reflect. Which I don’t have now.

A chapter ends … a new one begins.

I feel the same way about this blog. So much is up in the air. I want to eagerly press forward with some things in my writing world — yet the little people in my home need me more than anyone else right now.

I want to thank you for your friendship, prayers — and patience! As I’ve thought about losing my blog, I’ve been sad thinking that it’s the only link I have with many of you who have become personal friends over the past two years, scattered though we are.

More than anything, I want to finish up writing about my Beth Moore Bible study journey. That will be four more posts, I hope.

Meanwhile, I’m thankful to have family Thanksgiving celebrations to look forward to.

I wish you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving!

[Edit 11/30/07: I was able to buy my domain name back at auction, so this site should remain unchanged — I think.]

Well, here I am again.

After a few days of despair at losing my domain name, I pulled myself up off the floor, and went shopping for a new name.

This site is no longer owned by me, so I’m not sure what will happen to it. If you’d still like to keep up with what I’m writing, please make this change in your blogrolls or on your RSS feeds.

My new site name will be:

Book Club Connection
www.bookclubconnection.net

I’m in the process of working with my host server to get this transfer taken care of — and I’m learning more than I ever thought my poor mommy brain could handle. It really helps to have a host with a REAL telephone number, so I can talk to REAL people. (Yes, I even sobbed into the phone and they responded with comforting words.)

Live and learn, eh?

The lesson here: if you change your email address, make sure your domain name people know about it! And don’t let your domain names expire, or they might get snapped up like mine were.

The exciting thing for me is that I’m long overdue for a design update, and now I have a great excuse. I’ve loved my design here, but after two years, I’m ready for a change. I definitely plan to return to those great folks at ewebscapes. I don’t know how long this will take.

Why Book Club Connection?

Well, I spent some time over the weekend browsing through my archives, and I made some discoveries. The topics I most enjoy writing about are books, faith, and motherhood. What I love about book clubs is that I strongly believe books are tools that offer people (especially busy moms) a reason to get together, cut through the small talk, and dig into some deep discussions about things that matter.

My grandmother played bridge with her friends; today, I like to read books and discuss them with my friends. A great book is not meant to be read alone; it’s meant to be shared!

I started writing here with a passion to connect with other moms; yet dare I say that many of my readers here aren’t moms. I do have some male readers, and I also reach many women who aren’t mothers. So I think it’s time to move on.

With Book Club Connection, I want to reach out to parents, teachers, librarians, bookstore owners, and even teens and kids — offering them fun ideas for connecting people and books. When I jotted out some ideas for articles I’d like to write on this topic, I easily thought of over 50 ideas!

My site will still be a blog, so I’ll toss in my occasional musings about whatever crosses my mind. Plus, book clubs have to have food, right? So we’ll need refreshment ideas and recipes! And if you have a book club coming to your house, you’ve got to get your house cleaned up and organized — another topic I love writing about (to keep myself motivated).

So maybe not all that much will be changing, except the name and design.

Thank you so much to those of you who’ve written to encourage me. I appreciate your kind words.

Let’s keep in touch! Join me soon at Book Club Connection!

I have enjoyed writing here so much over the past couple of years, and I can’t thank you enough for the emails you’ve sent recently about this Bible study. I’m always overjoyed when I find kindred spirits.

I’ve just found out the disturbing news that when my email address changed over the summer, I wasn’t able to be informed that my site domains were about to expire. So, guess what? I no longer own this site anymore.

Someone also bought the site with my name and put up a new website that has nothing to do with me. I’m really upset about this.

I’m hopefully going to be able to keep my archives under the new site name, www.mom2momconnection.org, but I have no idea what the person who now owns my domain will do with it.

I hate to sound overly dramatic, but I don’t know if I’ll ever write online again, and I would appreciate your prayers!

Blessings,
Heather

I just realized that today is my two-year Blogging Anniversary. Happy Blogiversary to me!

I was scared when I published my first post, October 2, 2005. It was titled Come on In. I thought I might blog two or three times a week, but it became a daily addiction habit.

On my first blogiversary, I interviewed myself, highlighting some of the bright spots of blogging. Man, I had a lot going on here a year ago. I was writing columns, hosting blog tours, interviewing people, and I was super active in visiting other bloggers out there.

This year, God has put it on my heart to take a step back. I don’t really know how long this will last, but I’ve learned I need to discipline myself to only blog once a week. As I’m typing right now, my two-year-old is standing next to me, singing and asking me questions. So I type a word. Stop. Type another word. Stop. Again. Stop. I need to go put supper in the oven. I try to stay off the computer when my husband gets home from work — and I’m too tired to write anyway after we get our five kids to bed.

October is a glorious month here in Georgia, with cooler weather refreshing my spirit and inspiring me to do new things. This month, my “new thing” is learning to be diligent in saying “no” to everything that pulls my focus away from my home and family. I can justify going to my Beth Moore Bible Study and blogging weekly about this because it’s like stopping in to recharge my batteries. Then I’m back out into the world.

I miss you, bloggy friends. I’m sorry I haven’t been around lately to read and comment on your blogs. Another season, perhaps? Thanks for keeping up with me here. Oh, how I wish I had more time to write…

I can’t believe this is my first time posting in three months. How are you? Is anyone there? I’ve missed this place — and you people.

I hope you had a great summer.

Our schools started back last Friday — so we’re slowly adjusting to our new schedule. But preschool here doesn’t begin until after Labor Day (early September), so my posting will still be light for a while.

Although I don’t have kids swinging from the chandeliers, I do have them jumping on my back while I write … which can be hazardous to my productivity.

Yesterday, I actually found myself belting this command: “Stop it! You may NOT swing on the pantry doorknob!” Several times throughout the day, I had to reassure my four-year-old that he’s from earth — not Mars (as his older sister told him.) And yes, he can wear his dinosaur costume when we pick up his brother at football practice, but he can’t wear his Storm Trooper mask in the grocery store — because he KNOWS it makes his baby sister cry. (And no light sabers in the car!)

I do have so much I want to tell you about our summer — but it’s not over yet!

My current most exciting piece of news is that I SAW and HEARD Beth Moore speak in person at Women of Faith last weekend. WOW!!

I really considered quitting blogging until I heard Beth Moore — but she got me so fired up again.

A group of moms at my church will be starting her Daniel study in three weeks — and how in the world can I dig that much into the Word without sharing it here? Every single person who has done that study has told me the same thing: “It changed my life.”

Well! I do miss writing here — but blogging is like eating chocolate for me. I can only indulge in small bites, or it becomes an addiction. My plan is to try to limit myself to posting twice a week, and only when my children are at school.

For now, I hope you’ll check out the new August issue of Christian Women Online — especially if you’re a fan of Mandisa! My last Book Buzz column is here — I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my stint as a reviewer and wish I could do it forever, but someone new will be taking this over — and I pray she’ll be as blessed as I have been. (My shelves overflow!)

For all of you writing parents out there, I hope you’ll check out my “Parent Muse” column at Spirit-Led Writer on how to find time to write while surrounded by kids. I’ve also been posting monthly over at Writer … Interrupted, and my latest tip encourages parent writers to pen a letter to someone who needs a bit of a boost. You can read it here.

I’m off …

(And in case you see a woman in the grocery store followed by a light saber-wielding dinosaur in a Storm Trooper mask asking if he’s from Mars … um, that would be me.)

I want to thank the devotional writing team at Laced With Grace for honoring Mom 2 Mom Connection this week as their featured blog. That was very nice!

Since this is my last week of blogging for the summer, but maybe longer, this was very encouraging to me. (Thank you, sweet Iris!)

Mary DeMuth tagged me for a blog meme, 8 Random Facts About Me. Hey, you’ll have to go check out her list and see the cover of her mom’s devotional book in KOREAN! Mary, I hope your dream will come true of leading praise & worship someday — you should do it!

Here’s how you play:

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.

2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.

3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.

4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

OK, here goes:

1. My favorite snack is this Atkins’ Protein Bar. It tastes like a chocolate candy bar — yet it’s got enough protein to prevent that sugar high-low thing that makes me crash.

2. We have six chickens right now. I could seriously spend all day watching our chickens peck around the backyard. They’re so much fun to watch! Our two-year-old daughter calls them “chich-ens.” And she runs around trying to “catch the chich-ens.” She caught one yesterday and sat down and petted it for about half an hour. Poor chicken!

3. I want to go to Venice someday. I have several paintings of Venice on the walls of my house. I love looking at the canals and boats — I dream of gliding along in a gondola someday with my husband.

4. I’m reading Caddie Woodlawn out loud to my daughters right now, another Newbery winner that I missed reading growing up. It’s by Carol Ryrie Brink, who wrote about her grandmother’s childhood growing up in late 19th-century Wisconsin, told from a first-person point of view. It’s great!

5. I went to the same high school as the actress, Julia Roberts, who was two grades ahead of me. We did NOT have a drama program at our high school — but she was good at making political speeches for school elections.

6. I have trouble motivating myself to exercise, so I’m keeping track of how many miles I walk/jog on the treadmill. I’ve figured out it’s 268 miles to reach one of my favorite beaches (Tybee Island), so I subtract from that number every time I treadmill. My goal was to walk to Tybee by the end of May — then I’d fit into my old bathing suit — HA! It’s looking like I might get there by September, when pool season will be over and I can once again hide in my sweatpants.

7. I just finished reading Tracey Bateman’s novel, Catch a Rising Star, book one in her Drama Queens series. It was funny! If you like to watch soap operas, you’ll love this one.

8. I spent a summer driving a delivery truck in Lake Tahoe, California. I worked in a copy shop and had to deliever flyers and marketing materials to Caesar’s Tahoe. Lake Tahoe has got to be one of the most beautiful places on earth.

That’s my eight. Now I’m supposed to tag eight of you. Hmmm … if you’re interested in this meme, consider yourself tagged — and let us know you’ve blogged it!

During the summer of my freshman year in college, a friend of mine shared these verses with me. I read the whole passage, from Romans 7:7 to 7:25, over and over again. How could Paul know exactly how I was feeling? That there was a constant battle going on within me. The War Within.

For the first time, I began to feel like the Bible became my daily Bread; I would die without it. At the age of 19, I devoted my life to studying God’s Word and to following His call on me to teach it to others. In college, I taught Bible studies in my dorm room. In my 20s, I taught the Bible in a Japanese Christian church. I started a ministry for international students that met weekly for prayer and spiritual growth.

In my 30s, I’ve been frustrated at my lack of time and energy. Being a mom is so consuming — especially when I have five little people who need me for everything, constantly. I’m so thankful for the ways the Lord has blessed me, yet the War Within never leaves me — as I battle so many issues.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve written less and less about myself as time has gone on. I’ve focused mainly on external topics: books, people, movies, culture. I’ve felt less comfortable lately in revealing my personal thoughts in this format. I can’t really explain why — perhaps it’s just the terrifying immediacy of reaching an audience. I often need time to process things I go through — and I also appreciate a “gatekeeper,” such as another writer or editor who first reads my work before it’s published.

I know that in order for me to really do the kind of writing I’d like to do I must take some time away from this blog. It’s not the posting itself that takes up time; it’s all the correspondence that goes on behind the scenes. I’m receiving more and more press releases and requests from authors, publicists, publishers, etc.; and since I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, I spend a lot of my creative energy responding to people in polite, positive ways.

In college, I learned this spiritual equation:
Delayed Obedience = Disobedience.

I want to do what God wants me to do, yet I also want to do what I want to do! It really is a war within. I’m confused right now — and I wrote a friend last week that I’m dealing with most of my stress at the gym. Whereas it used to take me a mile of running to process my emotions and feel energetic again, now it takes two or three. Maybe I’ll be a size 4 by the time I get through this stress!

I’ve told a few people through email, but I’ll make it public here that I’m not going to be blogging after May 18th. At this point, I’m not sure if it will just be for the summer, or if it will be a more permanent change. I will definitely let you know.

Some of you who read here are old friends who only connect with me through this blog. And there are many of you who are new friends I don’t want to lose touch with. I’m sorry to disappoint you if you truly enjoy reading here, and especially if you’ve linked to me. I can’t tell you how much you’ve encouraged me!

I still have a couple of interviews to post, some more books and movies to share about … and then, I will log out of Wordpress. Until further instruction.

This is one of the sweetest things ever.

I’ve been a reader of Amy’s Humble Musings blog ever since a google search on the word “humble” led me there — nearly two years ago.

Amy is sick — very, very sick — with a sixth pregnancy. Too sick to go anywhere near her computer. So her husband has taken over her blog!

This just makes me smile — if you want to know what it’s like for a rocket scientist (really!) father of five very young, homeschooled children to manage a home while his wife suffers through morning (all-day) sickness, you’ll have to visit.

I hope the Scotts will one day write a book together on marriage and family. They’re BOTH wonderful writers!

Please keep Amy in your prayers!

Carol of She Lives blog honored me with a nice surprise yesterday. She gave me a Thinking Blogger Award because she says I challenge her to “think about my writing as a writer rather than just about blogging as a blogger.” Nice!

So I’m encouraged to pass along this Thinking Blogger Award to five writers who make me think. And I happily salute:

Sallie of A Gracious Home — who is a school teacher turned stay-at-home mom and has become a mentor to her many blog readers. If you haven’t yet read her seven-part Forty by 40 series, it’s wonderful! She recently shared 40 bits of wisdom she’s picked up during her four decades of life. By the way, Sallie, Happy Birthday!

MomKori of Smile Smile — a delightful Japanese mother of two who lives and writes in English from Nara, Japan. Her blog is a joy to read! I always pick up something new about Japanese culture and daily living. Since I made many trips to Nara while I lived in Japan, I love “visiting” MomKori through her blog — she lives in a beautiful city! (Long story: my husband proposed to me in Nara!)

Gina Conroy of Portrait of a Writer Interrupted. I love Gina’s writing because we’re in the same season of life! She’s a busy mother of four who desperately loves her family, but also desperately loves to write. Her passion for reaching out to others led to the founding of Writer … Interrupted, an encouraging site for writing parents who must write … in between … life.

Ruth of “It’s True,” Sighed Roo. Ruth is my Canadian friend who constantly reminds me of the joys of early motherhood when I visit her blog. She writes about her sweet little daughter who is about the same age as my youngest. These days go by so fast, and Ruth is taking time to savor them!

Blair of Scribblings by Blair. I love keeping up with Blair’s weekly goals, which encourage me with my own goals. She’s a busy mother of four who blogs in between homeschooling and enjoying her role as wife and homemaker. I’m looking forward to having one of Blair’s books on my bookshelf someday!

There’s my five — hope you can visit some of these amazing thinking bloggers!