Monthly Archives: September 2011

September 19, 2011 · 5:00 am

The Mess Maker

When I was pregnant with my second child, my husband jokingly said, “What if our oldest is actually the calm one?”

I laughed because there was No.Way. that could be true. Our oldest son was loud, dramatic, outgoing, and often times a bit too rambunctious, so I just knew that baby #2 would be calm, quiet and reserved.

Boy, was I wrong.

Our second son, now 2 years old, is the funny man. I have no doubt that he’s going to grow up to be the class clown. He’s into everything and I literally can’t take my eyes off of him or he’ll discover another way to create a ginormous mess.

He loves to get jars or bottles and empty the contents onto the carpets or furniture in the house.

Baby lotion. Baby powder. Peanut Butter. Shampoo. Toothpaste. Perfume. Hair gel. Vaseline. Baby wipes. Bubbles. The contents of any and all cups left within his reach.

Our carpets have seen better days.

“Mom, come look at your son!”

That is never the way I want to wake up, and whenever the five-year-old says something like that, I know whatever I’m supposed to be “looking” at isn’t going to be good.

This morning I responded to those words and entered the kitchen in time to see my youngest atop a chair, his hair greasy and glued to his head, his body slippery and slick, and my kitchen covered in the contents of an entire bottle of dishwashing liquid. An entire bottle. *sigh*

The five-year-old was laughing.

“What are you doing?!” I’m freaking out, mostly because my baby is standing on a chair.

His little hands were held out to me. “I’m dirty, Mama.”

Now, you might be getting all judgy with me at this point, thinking, “why doesn’t she just keep this stuff out of his reach?”

We’ve tried. No amount of height or locks or hiding can deter the child from finding something to make a mess with. He is the mess-maker. He is a ~~force~~ ~~brute~~ ~~storm~~ one-man mess making army.

And yet, I can’t help but love him. Even though he’d christened himself with dishwashing soap, I carried him to the bathtub, washed him off, and allowed him to re-start his day clean and fresh. He then refused a spoon and ate cinnamon cereal with his bare, sticky hands and then rubbed them all in his hair.

The smell of cinnamon lingered all day. I used it to remind myself that fall is coming.

Becoming a parent was the greatest thing that ever happened to me to help me understand the love that God has for each of us, his children.

No matter what kind of mess we make, God cleans us off. No matter what amount of dirt we manage to cake on, he rinses it away and gives us a fresh, clean start.

And no matter how many messes we make or what sort of filth we manage to create, the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ washes us clean and brings us to our Heavenly Father, from whom we can never be separated.

Love like that is a gift; it’s mercy. I’m reminded of it every time I clean up behind my little hurricane.

Yeah, I’m reminded of it a lot.

Share with me: What is the worst mess one of your children has ever made? How has parenting changed your view of God?

7 Comments

Filed under Parenting, The Christian Walk

Tagged as God, Jesus

September 16, 2011 · 5:00 am

Romancing the Sand

The rolling waves, the clean, soft sand, the briny wind and lazy, drifting clouds–it all presents the perfect locale for a romantic scene.

Like Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster in From Here to Eternity, or Amanda Seyfried and Channing Tatum in Dear John, the romanticism of the beach can wash over one like waves on the shore (cliched pun intended.)

So, my hubby and I decided to take a nice stroll along the beach in the moonlight. Hand in hand, we wandered along the water’s edge as the gentle waves lapped at our feet.

And sand birds swooped in after the tiny creatures washing ashore in the water.
And shells scraped against the skin of my feet.
And I held in shrieks every time seaweed touched me.
And the water made my skin sticky.
And the drunk people on the beach celebrated too loudly.
And I got paranoid about sting-rays and crabs in the shallows because we had seen some earlier in the day.
And sand blew in my face.
And I watched for jelly-fish washing up on shore.

So much for the moment.

I can appreciate the beauty and majesty of God’s creation when looking out over the rolling ocean or the moon reflecting upon the water. I’m not inhuman, but…

All my life, I’ve been a fair-weather friend of the beach. (I know that there are some of you who don’t want to be my friend anymore.)

I like the atmosphere of being at the beach, but I only actually like being on the beach for a few minutes, and then I’m done.

There are creatures in the water. Don’t tell me there aren’t–I’ve seen them. And I’m not a fan of creatures.

The waves can get really strong and it freaks me out–I don’t want my kids getting sucked out.

Sand is the most annoying substance on earth. It gets EVERYWHERE. Eating on the beach inevitably means ingesting at least a pound of sand, so a picnic is kind of out. And sand has a habit of traveling home with you. I’m still finding it in our house.

And since it’s a true fact that my nickname is Pale Hale, the sun and I aren’t exactly buddies. SPF 900 has to be reapplied about every 10 minutes for me to avoid looking like a lobster.

“Now I know why you like those vampire books,” my husband said to me as I sat on a blanket and watched my boys frolic in the water. “You look like you’re about to burst into flames.”

I ignored his snarky comments because I was measuring the water around my boys’ ankles. Is it deep enough for a shark?

So the whole idea of the beach being a place for a romantic rendezvous is kinda out for me.

When I look at the picture of Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster above, all I can think is, “they’re gonna get sand in some awkward places.”

Share with me: Is there a location that most people consider romantic that you don’t find romantic at all?

6 Comments

Filed under Just For Fun, Romance

Tagged as beach, Jennifer K. Hale, romance

September 14, 2011 · 5:00 am

Writing 101 — The Map

I recently finished reading How to Write and Sell a Christian Novel by one of my favorite novelists, Gilbert Morris.

The book was fantastic–chock full of tips, strategies, lessons, and encouragements all wrapped around the idea that writing is a gift from God that should be used for His glory.

I love that. It’s really the basis of what sets a mass market writer apart from an inspirational market writer. Who’s getting the glory?

“…it’s our privilege and our duty as Christian writers of fiction to write powerful stories which set forth a more excellent way.”–Gilbert Morris

One of the tools that Morris employs in plotting involves dividing your plot into sections, each section into episodes (each episode basically becomes a chapter heading) and then writing a summary for each episode, dividing it into scenes, etc.

Wow–that seems like a TON of work and yet nothing has been written in the actual manuscript.

I’ve never been any good at making myself outline. I did it in high school when it was required of me, but when I was in college and the professors wanted my thesis sans outline, the paper somehow laid itself out in my brain without my need to outline in detail. I might’ve jotted a couple of notes, but nothing like a detailed outline with headings and sub-headings and what-not.

I just didn’t need it.

And so far, I haven’t been very good at making any sort of overly-detailed plan for any of my manuscripts before I actually start writing. I jot notes, but I’ve never mapped out a highly detailed story–it’s always just sort of flowed and somehow come together.

But I’m a big fan of maps. The social studies teacher in me could stare at a map for hours, noting the distance between locations, topography, geography, the names and details–and I’m good at judging distance, location, and reading a map to get me where I need to go.

So why not map out my story in detail before I begin?

For some of you this might be a real “duh” moment, but for me, it’s the opportunity to try something new–to make me better.

The one thing I’ve really learned about writing is that a good writer is in a constant state of learning–always changing and evolving and adapting to become a better writer.

So I will go back to my days of being a good student and try Dr. Morris’ method of mapping. After all, like I said, I love maps.

And I’m excited to try something new. I have a hunch that I’m going to find all of this pre-writing as inspiring as the writing itself, if not more so.

Share with me: Are you an outliner? Do you know every detail of your story before you begin, or does a plot or a character sometimes surprise you as you write? Have you ever tried a new method that has become a staple in your process? What was it and how has it changed you as a writer?