I’m excited to tell you all about a conference for women showing up in a few cities in 2012!

Abundance is a new event being put together by Lifeway Women. And it’s coming to my neck of the woods April 27-28th in Eden Prairie, MN at Grace Church.

My only prior experience with a Lifeway event was the Deeper Still conference I attended in Birmingham, Alabama in 2010. And if Abundance is anything like Deeper Still, I assume it will be lovely. They really do an amazing job of putting on an event, people!

But this event is intending to be different, too. It’s still going to include the Bible teaching of other Lifeway conferences, but is adding another element of action.

I’ve met with the event coordinators for Abundance, and they’re really hoping and praying that in each city they can highlight local ministries doing the work of the Gospel in their communities. And they want to connect women with those organizations and encourage them, out of the abundance they experience in Christ, to join in!

And can I just say that Sara Groves (one of our hometown gals and one of our favorites!!) is going to be bringing a performance. So happy about that! And if you know anything about Sara Groves, she’s basically the perfect person to share her music at an event that’s meant to inspire action. Sara and her family are extremely active in the relief of the oppressed (mostly through Food for the Hungry and IJM). I know she’ll inspire us and ignite a passion to get our hands dirty. She’s contagious like that.

I hope you’ll consider registering. Aaaand I hope I get to see you there!

Flip it open…

He’s even concerned for my safety while using this largely untested prototype:

I’ve been doing all my blogging on it lately…

Look at the paragraph that starts with Whitsun. Then they wrote about ME and how we name our children!!! Whoever, you are, Jodi, thanks for submitting us!

I’m always honored to be mentioned in the same blog posts as Beyonce! Makes me want to dig out some gold glitter stilettos and (attempt) to shake my jelly!

(by the way…I do not think you’re ready.)

In case any of you are late to the baby-naming party, Beyonce & her man Jay-Z had a baby and named her Blue Ivy. Kinda cute, I think! She didn’t consult me on it, but that was probably because she didn’t know I was available.

Here are my posts about baby-naming, for any of you curious out there!

• Our Child-Naming Philosophy

• Why Morrow John?

• About Our Twins’ Names

And, Beyonce, whenever Baby #2 is on the way, get in touch and I’ll consult (if I’m still available).

I had walked out of the room for a minute and then found all three of them up on the bed when I came back. I have no idea how they did that! And then they were all rockin’ out and dancing together. It was awesome.

This is why I rarely have bloggable thoughts. Imagine this kind of energy, all day, every day–awesome and exhausting.

[image via]

Anyone want to win a copy of the new Sara Groves album Invisible Empires?

Yeah, I thought you might.

I have 10 copies to give away this week!

Here’s how you can win:

Simply “Like” the page for this site on Facebook.

You can visit the page or just click “Like” below!

See how easy that was?

On Friday I’ll pick 10 winners from the people who’ve “liked” and send you a message with your download code!

If you had already “liked” my blog page on Facebook, but don’t want the album download, just give the code to someone who does! Merry Christmas!

I’m very excited about this particular giveaway. I first heard Sara Groves at a concert I went to back in 2008, right in the early days of fighting through depression and PTSD after losing Felicity, our daughter.

As I moved through that very painful stuff, God ended up bringing particular songs into my life that hit me right where I was, right with what I was dealing with. I ended up compiling quite a playlist of these songs and they were a lifeline for me. Not surprisingly, for those of you who know her music, Sara Groves made it onto that list a number of times. I love that she doesn’t bypass really hard things in her lyrics. She even takes on bioethics on this album. Not many people singin’ about that, I imagine.

You can hear for yourself what was on her mind in crafting this new album:

PS-She gives props to Laura Ingalls Wilder in the interview. Remember how we love her???

My favorite songs on the album are “Miracle,” “Open My Hands,” and “Finite.” Any of you want to share your faves?

Thanks so much for reading and supporting this blog. Hope you win!

Anyway, he wrote a really funny post about how he’s been trying to manage the incessant potty humor going on between our two oldest boys.

BONUS: There’s a short video, too!

Happy Friday, everyone. Next week I’ll have a fun giveaway, so be sure to check back!

WORLD LEADERS! BE ADVISED!…you need some help out of a jam you’re in? Just ask a bunch of women.

(We would at least have lots to say about how they should deal with their dry hands anyway… And who doesn’t need help with that? Come ON!)

It just struck me funny that response came out of the woodwork! And the more I reflected on it, it reminded me of a couple things about people:

• They generally like to be helpful.
• They love to tell their experiences.

Isn’t that what communities do? They help each other and share their stories. Most times, they help each other by sharing their stories.

But seriously… I’m thankful for this little (maybe not so little?) community here. You all wanted to help me with my dry hands. It’s sweet. It really is. Thank you.

I hope you got as much help as I did from those answers. May we all have healthy hands this winter!

Who knows what we’ll help each other with next?

I still use Google Reader for subscribing to blogs, but just recently discovered something nifty about it!

I was scrolling through my “All Items” view, and Abraham pipes up, “Hey, did you know if you hit “J” it’ll take you down to the next post?”

I tried it, and wow are my scrolling fingers ever-so-glad I did!

Of course you’ll still scroll through a post you actually want to read but if you see the title and it doesn’t interest you???

Just “J” it on your keyboard and you’re onto the next!

[flickr photo via photosteve101]

And I’ll throw in one bonus tip for you, just because I like you:

If you accidentally pass one up and go, “Doh! I actually wanted to see that one!”, no worries! Just “K” it on the keyboard and you’ll go back to the previous entry in your feed!

Cool, huh?

Do you have any Google hacks I/we should know about? Do tell!

Marla was in town for a speaking engagement and found a few minutes to stop over at my house and chat! It was a blast. I’m sooo glad it worked out for her to come!

We sat in the gorgeous fall afternoon and talked blogging, speaking, life, schooling… like old/new friends.

Then all too soon, it was time to go. Which of course means “Get a picture! We have to take a picture!”

Then we started talking about how funny it is to meet people in real life from the internet and how they always surprise you in some way or another–height, voice, accent, hair (aHEM… Shaun Groves). It was at this exact moment that I turned to her and said,

“Yeah, I knew you’d be tall. How big are you?”

Then *SNAP!* goes the camera.

Thankfully we had a good laugh about it. Marla has a sense of humor (thank GOD!) and didn’t get offended by my blunder. I guess I’m so used to talking to toddlers that I forgot I was talking to an adult!

The internet has made the world so small in some ways. Personally, I’ve had good experiences meeting people from the internet, which was such a scary no-no thing 10 years ago.

I’ll never forget hearing about what BooMama said right before the Compassion Bloggers reunion last December.

(And you have to conjure up your best deep-South accent)

Well, y’all…time to go meet up with a bunch of people we met on the internet…”

Have you met up with online friends in real life (IRL, if you will)? Does it still weird you out?

I’ve been telling my friend Jill that I want to link to her blog for ages now! I’m just waaaay behind on all my blogging goals, so here it is at long last.

If you like children’s literature (or your kids do), you should check out Orange Marmalade.

(Jill is the third from the left. Aren’t they a great-looking crew, by the way?)

Why you should check out Orange Marmalade:

• Jill’s really smart about lots of things, including children’s literature.
• Jill has had a faithful career as a home school mom to those four kids, and they did lots of reading together.
• She showcases a wide variety of books for kids, most of which I would’ve never heard of without her!
• She offers suggestions for poetry, nonfiction, holidays, etc.
• She writes thoughtful posts about plot and why she likes the book.
• She usually includes what age she’d recommend the book for.

So hop on over and check out her literature selections for kids. I think you’ll be really happy you did.