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"The saddest thing about life is that you don't remember half of it."
When Donald Miller's life came to a halt after a very successful book was published he had a hard time even getting out of bed. But when two movie producers show up at his door proposing to turn his memoir into a movie he was intrigued enough to invite them in.
What follows is his attempt to change his life into something that people would want to watch. And with that he leads us on a journey of introspection and purpose.
I found myself looking at my own day-to-day life and wondering if I was making a difference at all. And also questioning whether it was really necessary to make my life into something that people would want to watch.
Either way this book was interesting enough that even now I find myself remembering parts of it and pondering a bit. Good or bad I'm always a work in progress and a book that helps me to look at it from another angle is a good thing.
A GIVEAWAY!
A first for my blog! Thomas Nelson Publishers has graciously sent along a copy of this book for me to give away to one of my readers.
To enter, simply leave a comment on this post and let me know something you've recently read (since I'm always looking for book recommendations). I'll close this on Monday, October 5 at 8:00 am Central Time and use a random number generator to choose a winner.
When I heard that yesterday was the first day of fall I had to rush and get this post up. Watermelon tugs at the summer memories and now that we're looking October in the eyes I need to get one last summer treat posted before I turn to pumpkin and apples (of which I cannot wait!)
There is nothing watermelon about these cupcakes other than how they look. The cupcake itself is just a strawberry cake mix. Before mixing the batter I reserved about an eighth of a cup of dry mix that I tossed about an eighth of a cup of chocolate chips in. Ordinarily mixing chocolate chips in flour will keep them from sinking in the batter, but you can see the chocolate chips above happily nestled at the bottom, so it didn't work for me this time. I guess this means my watermelon seeds were easy to eat around. :)
I also used canned frosting with a few drops of green food coloring. There's a few green sprinkles on top to add to the illusion of the watermelon rind.
Most important of all though is to remember your 'style' while eating a cupcake. A girl simply must sit on her mommy's lap with her foot on the table while having a cupcake. And a Clifford apple juice should be nearby in case one gets thirsty.I just love being a Grandma - or should I say MawMaw? :)
So many different ideas of what to put for the title of this post, but really I think the photo above speaks for itself. We had such a wonderful time out 4 wheelin'.....up until the point that we discovered the dropoff in the pond. And no matter how good your 4 wheel drive is it can be a real challenge to try and drive through the oatmeal like substance that sits on the bottom of a new pond after over a week of rain.
Really, we were driving along the edge and you could even see the bottom when suddenly - out of nowhere - we went over a submerged cliff. And I'm here to tell you that the water level can rise very fast when you don't particularly want it to.
We were fortunate to find a guy riding a large atv with a winch to pull us out. He's from Minnesota and I think he was kind of tickled to pull us out as it was his "first time to pull somebody out of a pond." And equally fortunate to have a plethora of advice from many a person. The best was when we were told "why, I don't think I woulda drove through a pond when you don't know how deep it is". Really.
One thing's for sure though - I have not had so many gut wrenching belly laughs since I don't know how long. Because if you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?
Good times.....
I love how even at just over two years old Brooklyn already loves the lake. She is learning how to use her sea legs to walk in the boat and the sand beneath her toes is no longer as 'yucky' to her as it used to be.
We're also starting to see a few diva-like qualities coming out in her. Do you see the pose and the princess wave in the photo below? And I love her backwards cap and wearing her shades.
I do want to point out that she isn't actually tubing behind the boat or in deep water. She's on the tube, but the water probably only came up to our knees and she had quite a bit of family around her - naturally.
I don't have any deep pearls of wisdom from my BSF intro class to share with you. And in fact, I haven't even been assigned to a discussion group yet so I can't tell you how much I love the ladies in my group yet. But I know I will.
What I did come away with Monday night was a deep sense of warmth. I can't tell you the last time I felt this way in a group of around 300 of my closest friends. ;)
One of the sweetest moments came with the first hymn we sang. Bible Study Fellowship is inter-denominational and it was illustrated perfectly with the first song, The Church's One Foundation. Oh what a breathtaking sound to hear all these ladies lifting their voices to the Lord. We sang and during this song the lady next to me reached over and patted my hand. Father, you have led me to the perfect place.
When the ladies all went to their discussion groups those of us that were new sat in on an introductory talk and filled out our registration forms. Now we wait for our group and to begin the study. Can I just say again that I can't wait?!
"The saddest thing about life is that you don't remember half of it." 
