Two Words

As I zoomed along the highway, singing along to my own personal Sara Groves radio station, God was planting a seed.  This long stretch of desert road is actually fertile ground for a lot of God's little kernels.    It was on this same dry sweep of land that the idea of this blog was planted.  Over the past year and a half, God has used this long and lonely stretch of road to water and nurture this writing adventure.  And this past weekend's trek was no exception.

As I set the cruise control in the car and settled in for the drive, I was not only excited and anxious to get away for the weekend, I was also hoping (with great expectations) for some direction as to my next writing series.

I have been feeling a little uninspired in my writing.  A bit dry, literarily speaking.  I just finished my series in February, Snapshots of the Heart, and I while I loved the challenge of that series, it wiped me out!  Add to that the busy-ness of spring-time ... kid's school activities in full swing, MOPS meetings to finish with enthusiasm, VBS planning beginning (already?!?) and the usual "go, Mom, go!" of life ... and this little garden of writing is under threat of neglect.

But, this gift of writing is a tender plant that I want to care for, water and grow.  It is precious to me.  And I'm a happier mom, wife and woman when I've had time to cultivate this plant.  So ... then question becomes what to do?

In God's faithfulness, He gave me a new little blossom to tend to.  It's small.  It's still just a seed in my mind.  It's settling into my mind and heart and taking root.

I love when God is tangible!  When you know in your heart you've encountered Him!  This answer to my scattered prayer for inspiration is a gift and a reminder of His intimate care of me.  I don't have all my ideas growing just yet, but I know I'm being nudged by God to faithfully use this gift He's give me.

Even if the only words I have right now are "small things".

Small things.  Stay tuned to see how thought this grows ...

And what about you?  
God planting any seeds lately?  
How are you cultivating them?

Happy To You!

Little Lydia loves her Leap Frog alphabet show, "The Letter Factory".  In just 30 minutes (watched ad finitum) she has learned that the, "'F' says fffff, the 'F' says fffff, Every letter makes a sound, the 'F' says fffff."

Now go back and sing that line about the letter "F" to the tune of, "The Farmer in the Dell" .... and you'll be singing it the rest of the day!  And you have 25 other letters you can substitute to keep you busy.

But, Liddy being Liddy has to spice it up a bit.  She finishes off her "fffff" with her rendition of "Happy Birthday" (Happy to you!) and then with an additional "fffff", "fffff's" out her imaginary candles!  Much to the delight of her older siblings, "Ha, ha, hee, hee!  Do it again, Lydia!"

And, because she loves when people cheer her on, she does.  Again.  And again.

Along these same lines, I wanted to say a quick thank you to all my readers here at Snapshots!  You are my cheering squad, and because of your encouragement, I keep coming back to the keyboard to write something new.  And I marvel that you keep coming back to read it!

I realized a few days ago that yesterday was my blog's first birthday.

(Happy to you, Snapshots!)

I was quite surprised that an entire year's worth of words had spilled out into the blogosphere to be read by you.  There were a few other feelings, too.

I am ...

• Grateful for the opportunity to put my thoughts down on paper.  (It gets pretty crowded in my head.)
• Joyful at being able to chronicle a year in the life of the Kellums.  (And some weariness at seeing how busy that year was.)
• Thankful for my readers.  That's YOU! (And my commentors ... it's fun to hear from you, too!)
• Honored that God has allowed me this place to share about my life with Jesus.  (This is one of my favorite parts!)
• Humbled that any of you experience any encouragement, delight, help, or even a good laugh because of my mere ramblings.  (This is by far the the scariest part!)
• Astonished that God continues to give me inspiration in my writing. (I have yet to run dry of things to write about ... oh, to have the time to get it all on paper!)
• Tickled Pink about the opportunities I've had to write! (My words, face and name at in-courage and in the MOPS MomSense Magazine, July/August 2011 ... eek!)
• Inspired to keep writing and looking for opportunities to "put myself out there". (Okay ... maybe this is the scariest part!)
• Overwhelmed by the sheer thought of how to reach more readers with my blog.  (I'm a pretty quadrorillianth fish in a GINORMOUS pond of bloggers!  See the -Ism to the right.)
• Challenged to refine my writing and hone this gift that God has given me to invite others to pause, ponder and celebrate life's littlest moments with me.  (I would love this blog to be a bench where you feel free to come and rest a moment.)
• Curious about what else God has in store.  (What will He use little ol' me for?!?)
• Excited about the next 260 posts in the coming year!  (That's a nutty number!)

It has been a fun year!  Here are some of my favorite posts:

What if my kids never learn table manners?
What if my life had a soundtrack?
How motherhood transformed/revamped/remodeled my life.
How can we see real, actual, tangible change in our lives?
What a day in the life of Mommy actually looks like.
The "bummer dude" parts of motherhood.
Keeping motherhood fun ... mostly!

Thanks for taking the time to read again ...

I'll be here all week!   Don't forget to tip your waiter.  :)

Keep the Main Thing ... the Main Thing

Our Borders store here in town is one of the 200 closing across the nation.  Bummer ... I hate to see the big banners "Store Closing!", "Everything Must Go!", "Nothing Held Back!" draped across the front of the building.  And soon the store will be one big empty space waiting to be filled ... so sad.

Now I can't claim to have ever been a big spender at Borders ... but I was a frequent browser.  Of course, that means I just might have contributed to their current problem!  Oops!  Anyway, I have always enjoyed strolling through the stacks of books, scoping out potential new reads, looking for fresh titles from my favorite authors and doing all of that with a café au lait in my hand!

After we read the news of the store's closing, my husband and I talked a bit about how's and why's of it's current dilemma.  Keeping in mind that neither of us are economists :) we came up with one possible element in their business plan that might have led to their financial problems:  over-diversification.

Our shopping ... er, make that browsing experiences at Borders revealed that you could buy just about anything there.  If you were looking for a book, perfect.  If you were shopping for a newly released DVD, no problem.  If you were looking for a CD by an old favorite, bingo.  If you were shopping for stationary, pens or journals, head to the front.  If you were looking for an aloe plant, head back to the kid's department.  What?  An aloe plant?  Yep ... right back there between the puzzles and the easy reader books.  Like I said, over-diversifaction.

It would appear that in their attempt to provide a little bit of everything, they lost themselves in too many things:  books, movies, music, coffee and shrubbery!

In the same way, I want to be careful about not over-diversifying myself here at Snapshots.  And that's easier said than done.

As I begin the process of networking with other bloggers, visiting other sites and discovering the vastness and variety of the blogosphere, it is easy to get caught up in the hundreds (or possibly thousands) of topics, themes and interests out there.  Oftentimes I find myself reading a new-found blog and thinking, "Oh ... that's a good idea!" or "Hmmm ... maybe I should try something like that."  While there is the potential for this practice of "seeing what's out there" to enrich my writing, sharing and posting ... there is also the risk of my blog being transformed into a site that has too much to say in too many ways!  I want to steer clear of the temptation to try to appeal to a wider audience at the cost of losing my purpose in writing here at Snapshots.

In light of that, I have recently started to re-evaluate my purposes in blogging.  Why did I start?  What is my purpose?  What is my focus?  What is my motivation to keep at it?

My desire, more than anything, is to capture and celebrate the little moments of life ... and share that with whoever wants to sit for a moment and celebrate it with me.  Along those same lines, I hope to direct my readers' attention back to God ... the Giver of all these celebratory moments!  I think that if I can keep my eyes focused on these two main points, the rest of the "stuff" will just either fall away or fall into place.

Here's to keeping the main thing, the main thing ... and not going down the same road as Borders!  I hope to be around and writing for a good long time - sharing encouraging stories, passing on helpful Mommy-tips & tricks and salivating over delicious menu ideas.  That's what makes my blog, well ... my blog!

Thanks for reading today ... and coming back tomorrow!

Although ... I do think I'll have to stop by and pick up that aloe plant.  I think it might come in handy this summer, what with all the skinned knees that we typically end up with once we're running around in shorts!


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Be sure to pop over to the sidebar and check out "What's for Dinner" and "Trekking Thru the Bible".  I'm back from our Spring Break and ready to get back to our "normal" life ... whatever that is!