How the heck did you have the time to write a book?

*I promise this will not become a book blog. Just like it isn't a Mommy, China, cooking, homeschool or family blog. I will remain content in the "random" blog category because I hate labels. Clearly. But this week I'll do a few posts and giveaways to get the book thing rolling. Then more stories about enemas in starbucks and Chris Farley in spandex.



So, I've been asked more than a few times, "How the heck did you have time to write a book?"I jotted down a few things that I thought of while taking a bath.

1. It was my sanity. I've discovered about myself that I need a side story to my daily grind. I need to have a creative something that I can work on and donate some brain cells to.

2. I read a great book by Anne Lamott called "Bird by Bird." She emphasizes the value of writing a little each day. So, I did just that. (I love this book except that one entire chapter uses a certain cuss word to describe her first draft. I almost recommended to a mom that her aspiring novelist daughter read it until I remembered this particular chapter. I don't want to be the person guilty of introducing this English word to her poor daughter. I'll leave that to Youtube.)

Each morning, I'd find an hour or two and write. My routine was coffee, my porch, Sara Groves and the background noise of chanting grandpas doing tai qi.


3. I am passionate about the topic. When you are deeply convicted in something, it's amazing how the time seems to find itself. If I truly believed in dying my wonky gray hairs that have taken up a front row seat along my temple, you better know I'd find the time to do that.

I desperately want people to understand what it means to accept a calling to be overseas. I want them to laugh both at us and with us as we expose our foreignness in every country we land in. I want to remind people that you don't have to be afraid if you truly believe that God is that big.

So when you believe those things, you redeem the time in other places so that there is space to write.

And...I got rid of clothes so that I didn't have much laundry. That helped too.

4. Lastly, my loving husband looked at me as I started writing and said, "If you start this, you must finish it." I'm an ENFP, which means I love to brainstorm and start projects. What I don't love is finishing them. I just kinda close my eyes and hope someone more talented and organized comes along to help me finish the task. As a child, I tried to hand copy the book "Wizard of Oz," and make a functioning trash can out of tooth picks. You can now see why my husband threatened encouraged me to not start unless I would finish.

If there is something you feel called to do, but can't for the life of you figure out how to make that happen, my advice would be pray and then get creative. If God is behind it, things will work themselves out as you go along. I'm thankful and humbled that He'd allow someone who can't even use a comma properly to write a book like this.