Giveaway Winner: All Mascara is Not Created Equal

Thank you for everyone who left a comment on the blog or Facebook page this week.  I loved reading your tidbits of advice and comments about friends you would like to share this book with.

I am excited to announce Cindy is the winner!  Thank you for leaving the following comment:

 I would love to share this book with a friend who is going through a difficult divorce right now. She needs all the affirmation and encouragement she can get.

Congratulations Cindy!  Please send me your mailing address through the Contact Me button above and I will mail it off to you!

All Mascara is Not Created Equal: Family Faith Resource Series

I am excited to share Jessica Landmon's new book All Mascara is Not Created Equal this month as part of our Family Faith Resource Series.  I met Jessica last summer at a women's conference.  She is one of those down to earth, easy to talk to, real woman who are such a pleasure to befriend.  She shared with me a book she was working on for woman that was a collection of tweet-like posts on "spiritual, practical, and humorous topics".  I couldn't wait to read it, and to share it with my daughter Sarah.

Earlier this month Jessica sent me a copy of the book.  I was so excited to sit down with a cup of coffee and read it - but that didn't happen, you see Sarah spotted it and the book was immediately whisked away to her room.  For the next few days Sarah kept telling me how great the book was.  When I went in her room to put away some clothes, I noticed she had written out several of Jessica's quotes on her dry erase board.  Oh how it warmed my heart to have Sarah filling her room with wisdom from a godly woman!  A few days later Sarah's friend suffered a concussion and was out of school for several days.  Sarah made the friend a card with quotes from "her new book."  This book is a hit around here!

Well I can now happily say I have had a chance to pour that cup of coffee and read All Mascara is Not Created Equal.  It is wonderful!  First, it is a lovely book to read through.  The layout and design are beautiful.  Each turn of the page is a treat.  Jessica wisely and playfully weaves tips on the importance of voting, with travel, and faith all on one page keeping her advise from sounding preachy but instead making it feel like you are talking with a friend.  I appreciate the advice Jessica shares for young women on topics such as gossip, individuality, and kindness.  Here are a few of my favorites:

"Women are on the same team.  Stop undermining each other and start supporting one another." 

"You are no one's doormat.  Make sure you let people know that." 

"If you aren't intentionally trying to draw near to God then you are intentionally falling away."  

With Mother's Day and graduations just around the corner I think this is the perfect book to bless another woman (young or old) with.  Jessica has generously sent me a second copy of the book for you!  In the spirit passing on tidbits of wisdom, leave me a comment with a piece of advice, or the name of a woman you would like to share this book with and you will be entered in the give-away.  I will draw a winner on Friday May 1st.  

To learn more about Jessica please visit her at Women Get Real .  You can also purchase her book from her site.  

I can't wait to read your tidbits of advice ladies!  Let's hear it! 

MidLife Joy Challenge #3: The Long Haul

The first two months of the MidLife Joy Challenge focused on throwing off, and letting go of the things that wrongly insnare us.  The next three challenges all have to do with relationships.  The April challenge is The Long Haul, let's look at who we are investing in as friends for the long haul - 10, 20, 40 years of our life.

Nearly 22 years ago the Lord gave me these ladies, my Miami Girls.

We spent the four years of college as rotating roommates, teammates, friends, and ultimately sisters.  We spent four years in the same college, doing the same things, and then we started to scatter - and I do mean scatter: geographically, spiritually, family dynamic wise, career wise... you name it we are a diverse bunch these days.  But we are in it for the long haul.  Do you have friends you are in it for the long haul with?

What does the long haul mean?  For us it has meant 6 marriages and a divorce, 13 kids and 3 miscarriages, 16 moves across three continents, religious conversions, cancer, and career changes.  The long haul has meant saying hard things out loud, and asking for forgiveness from one another. It has meant sacrificing money, and weekends to get together once a year (not always all of us - but we try). It means things have not always been rosey or fabulous.  The above picture was a girls weekend that was not all roses and sprinkles for me.  It was a hard season of big shifts happening within our group, and it made me face my insecurities, as well as some not awesome things in my own life.  

But that is what the long haul is about - creating friends who become your sisters.  The women who know your stuff and don't walk away.   These ladies KNOW MY STUFF! They can call BS quicker than anyone in my life because they can see through the veil of a smile and "I'm fine," that can so easily deceive an acquaintance or casual friend.  

In the world of Facebook where we all have 300+ "friends," and transient lives that move us across the country and world, it is easy to get our thinking wrong about what it means to be a friend for the long haul.  It means we are going to invest in 10, 20 or 40 years of friendship.  It means we will work through the painful pieces and still love one another.  It means we don't have to be in the same stage of life together, but can celebrate each other's stages.  It means picking up the phone and calling each other regularly.  It means putting a date and place on the calendar to get together - and then actually doing it.  It means choosing - actively choosing-  to have lived a life together.  

I have what I call my situational friends, and I love them too.  They are women with whom I am sharing this particular season of life.  I used to have a group of homeschool moms in Denver who met every month at my house for coffee.  What a life line they were to me during those days! I have moved now and no longer homeschool.  Those friendship naturally faded, not out of any ill intent but because their purpose was for a season - they were not meant to be long haul friends.  But to live a life of JOY I truly believe every women needs a few long haul friends. The women you can count on no matter what.  There is such JOY in knowing you are not alone.  

For this month's challenge, I challenge you to decide what friends you choose for the long haul. Make time to pick up the phone once a month and call them.  Make a plan to get together once in the next 12 months.  If you are reading this and thinking you do not have any long term friends - maybe you just have a string of women you have friended and then drifted away from, start praying that the Lord would show you who to invest in, and that He would strengthen and grow you so that you can be a long haul friend even when things get hard.  Just because you may be sitting at 40 years old without a long haul friend does not mean you need to sit at 60 years old without one.  Choose today to start becoming a long haul friend.  

Last weekend - celebrating 40 with four of my Miami Girls - We missed you Jenn! 

 I'd love to hear about your Long Haul Friends.  How do you stay connected?  Do you plan Girl's Weekends?  If so, tell us about your favorite one.