Grace for the Good Girl

 

 i am honored and tickled

& humbled and excited

to share with you

Grace for the Good Girl

by my friend

Emily Freeman.

i climbed in bed tonight with the manuscript that i received back in the spring.

we were supposed to sorta pace ourselves

& read a few chapters a time,

then follow up by

 answering a few questions at the end of each chapter on a specified date.

well

i could hardly put this book down.

tonight as i peruse the manuscript again

it brings a smile to my face to find it

 filled, line after line highlighted in neon yellow.

pages are dog eared

&

starred with my favorite blue pen.

i have written notes in the margin 

&  things like "AMEN SISTER!" beside some of my favorite parts.

i began prayerfully and thoughtfully "re-highlighting" my most favorite quotes

or pages in preparation for the release this month.

only to find that i had used orange post it note tabs

on 24 out of the first 36 pages.

that is how much i LOVE this book!

emily personifies the qualities i highly admire in a person.

it's easy for those of us who personally author a blog

to put our best face on for you to read. 

we tidy up our kitchen before we take the picture

& post the images where our family looks its best...as we would for any company that

we invite to our real life brick & mortar home.

but emily balances that perfectly.

emily is the real deal, my friends.

emily is fragile and yet brave at the same time.

emily is an artist whose words create a safe haven for a tender heart.

In Grace for the Good Girl

emily is that same, real deal, sweet girl

who brings a daily dose of hope through the words in her own blog.

as i often do when reading fiction,

i can 'hear' the characters in my mind.

emily writes in such a way that i truly feel as if we are sitting together

chatting and laughing, feet curled up underneath, holding a coffee cup with two hands,

hair falling in her face, sweet southern drawl and all.

she does that to me

& i think she'll do that to you too.

you'll feel like she knows you.

that she may even know your own 'good girl'.

in Grace for the Good Girl

emily will

 encourage you to lay down your lofty,

often times unattainable,

high expectations you've set before yourself,

to re-set your mind

& fully lean on His love.

and then she'll tell you it's ok.

that there is peace & healing in the "being found".

that truly living in His spirit is freedom.

that you can lay down that mask.

you can walk out , maybe unmasked for the first time, ever,

and truly live.

she'll tell you that your new life is in Christ-a new life, living outside of yourself,

outside of whatever good girl you must present to the world around you,

that He is "unoverwhelmable" 

that He can handle whatever you feel you must handle

that He has a limitless supply of grace

& love

& peace

for you.

that you are dearly loved

& that you can rest.

you can lay down that mask 

once & for all

and truly belong to Him.

& be 

be all He created you to be.

i'll introduce my own 'good girl' next post

& how i called her out 

thanks to emily's tender, sweet words.

oh & 

 i have a copy to give away this week too

so stay tuned for that!

Available September 2011 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, 

a division of Baker Publishing Group.

& ps.... emily
you know it didn't go unnoticed by me
& it makes me love you even more
that your name on the front cover
is in all lower case!
atta girl!!

jcrew goodness

(imges via jcrew)

Have you received the latest J.Crew and Crew Cuts catalogs?

if not, you're in for a real treat.
gorgeous

exquisite images

filled with ballerinas from the Mariinsky Ballet School

in Russia

and other lovely images from Saint Petersburg.

Crew Cuts features fantastic images of

The Winter Palace &

St. Basil's Cathedral.

Dan lived in Moscow for a while,

years ago,

working with Campus Crusade.

His daily walk took him right through Red Square,

walking right past St. Basil's Cathedral.

The day these catalogs came i was blown away by how stunningly

beautiful the buildings were and how clear and bright the sky appeared.

Whenever i think of Russia

i think of a dark, cold place.

while it is dark and cold during their long winters,

there are obviously many gorgeous gorgeous places there.

i think my favorite shot is of the little girl with all the matryoshka dolls.

dan brought back many sets of these little maiden dolls.

when we first married, the girls would spend much time

playing with these precious dolls.

i believe there are few things

more beautiful than watching 

a graceful ballerina.

madison danced for years.

i miss those days watching her on stage.

these wonderful catalogs inspired me to dive back in the archives

& pull out a few of my favorites.

sweet memories.

celebrating emi

i'll be honest with 

after years & years .....& years

of planning multiple birthday parties each year

i've grown to appreciate when one of my birthday girls

actually prefers the following plan.

1. their personal dinner of choice at home.

emi was pretty flexible on her wishes,

so we went with grilled tilapia

roasted broccoli (barefoot contessa's version)

publix potato rolls

&mashed potatoes

( her plate also had rice. sorry folks. i realize this is a starch foul but hey, she's the birthday girl)

 

2. bff joining us for birthday dinner at our local pizza joint

3. request for these!

& yay for me

we wear the same size!

4. & because we're all about celebrating birthdays

or anything , really,

by eating out

the birthday girl chose another destination for birthday dinner #3

with the fam

5. cards & balloons & candy

em is not a cupcake cookie eater. candy all the way baby!

6. a sweet personalized canvas

painted by caroline 

to match emi's room

while i loved those days of Madeline tea parties,

sleep overs, pool parties, ballet parties

Belle, Anastasia & Barbie character parties,

gymnastic parties for the entire class,

let's all go to the movie parties....

i really really love the days

of purchasing boots, grilling, eating out with bff's

lavishing the birthday girl with love

& calling it a day!

so you think you can dance, cheer and tumble

 

 while i may not have a house full of boys running up & down the stairs

slam dunking basketballs

& wrestling.

 i do have is a wiggle worm 10 year old

that if she's home,

she's tumbling

all day

every day.

 & two that are preparing for their first JV game tonight

& their first cheer competition next weekend.

what we do have is impromptu dance parties

 

we have big sissies that occasionally pick on little sissies

while the little sissy is tumbling outside.

 & one that is continually working on her strength and flexibility.

practicing round offs & back handsprings

 

one that may do planks

while mom is cooking dinner

 an audience of older sissies...again.

& then the latest,

practicing for a flash mob at school

(caroline was just having fun. the other two did indeed have a flash mob yesterday!)

too funny!