I’m camping, so now’s my big chance to live without AC, electricity, and indoor plumbing. I love camping, so I know I can make it for 3 nights, but I wonder how long I’d last in the “real world” without my creature comfort. Oh, and here’s something fun: We’re making cobbler in a Dutch Oven over the fire. I can post the recipe, if anyone’s interested.

So, what are you up to this weekend?

What do you think about Amish courtship? Could you keep your own engagement a secret for so long? Would it be romantic, or too difficult? Tell us what you think!

*This fact excerpted from A Pocket Guide to Amish Life

 #1 Schedule your time carefully. Make a weekly calendar so you don’t miss a doctor’s appointment, dance recital, or the neighborhood cookout. Keep certain times “off limits.” Don’t sign up for meetings, exercise classes, or volunteer work if it interferes with the family dinner hour, Sunday morning church services, or other events you hold sacred. Make sure each day includes personal time, whether it’s a solitary walk, devotional reading, or rocking in the porch swing. Figure out how to manage housework, yard work, bill paying, laundry, grocery shopping, and the like (a little every day, or one day for each task, etc). Don’t allow internet surfing, answering e-mail, chatting on the phone or texting to steal too much time. Set limits on “time-robbers” so your sense of serenity doesn’t suffer.

#2 Prioritize your tasks. If you work outside of the home, discover ways to take care of errands during your workday, such as shopping for gifts on your lunch hour or chatting with mom during the commute (using a hands free device, of course). Shop for groceries and stop at  the post office or dry cleaner on your way home to prevent needless trips on your day off. If you work at home, treat it like a job–schedule working hours and stick to them. Otherwise you won’t get any truly “free time.” Regarding your social life…pick and choose carefully. Don’t feel you must accept every invitation, volunteer project, or committee meeting. Learn to say “no” unless you truly wish to devote the time and energy.

#3 Multi-task, but only if it’s productive. The only time I dust is during phone calls. I check voicemail while walking the dog. I group errands into one trip to free up uninterrupted time for writing. But don’t make the mistake of balancing your checkbook during your son’s ballgame if he’s expecting you to watch him play. You will fail at both tasks. Be sure to allow “down time” every now and then to watch a sappy movie, read a book, or play a game of checkers with a child. If you’re feeling stressed, recharge your batteries.

#4 Lower your standards. I can live with weedy flowerbeds as long as my bathrooms are clean. I don’t like clutter, but dust doesn’t bother me. I take store-bought brownies (dusted with powdered sugar) to parties so I can have time to write stories about women who love to cook. You can’t do it all. Repeat that as a mantra every morning. Give up the notion that you can do it all and compete with the Food Channel gurus. But if cooking happens to be your pleasure, find another area to be mediocre in, and don’t apologize.

#5 Release the outcome.  Put your future in God’s hands instead of looking too far into the future. If you dwell on what you need to accomplish by the end of the week, month, or year, you’ll become discouraged. Like every monumental project we tackle, whether building our own house or hiking the Appalachian Trail, if we fully understood how arduous the task we would never begin. Create a schedule for yourself that accomplishes your goals in small increments and stick to it. Never compare yourself to others. Pray for guidance and then listen to your intuition. This is God talking to you. Invite Him to take the helm of your life. If your goals are part of God’s plan then you cannot fail…whether it’s climbing Mount Everest, learning to speak Japanese, or writing your first book.

I’ll be waiting at the door with a warm Midwest welcome! Mary Ellis

The National Cathedral

We’ve just returned from two weeks on the East Coast and all I can say is – wow!  In two weeks, we visited or drove through a total of nine states, spending most of our time in Vermont, Washington D.C, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

We’ve faced 94-degree weather and thundershowers, long lines, heavy traffic, a chirping GPS, really good pizza, really cranky innkeepers (not ours, thankfully!), clam chowder, pomp, circumstance, and big giant robots.

And no, I’m not kidding about the big giant robots.

My favorite part?  Visiting the National Cathedral (above).  I took 174 photos there – and about 1,000 for the entire trip.

I think I’ll be sorting through photos for a while.

Also discovered this -

They know ice cream in North Carolina.

It’s the lovechild of the bowl and the waffle cone – the waffle bowl.  I love the idea.  Tricky to eat, but sometimes that’s the way conceptual art works.

The best news?  Simply Sara is done.  I know I said she was done before, at least I think I did.  But now she’s really done, going to print done, completed acknowledgements and final edits done.  I’m a little delighted.  And VERY excited thinking ahead to the next book – I’ll keep you posted on that!

So the big giant robots?  Well…I don’t have pictures.  They confiscated my camera at the BMW factory in Spartanburg, SC.  But they were big, and giant, and they threw sparks when they welded, and I won’t ever, ever forget them.

I did get this photo in the museum though -

A BMW airplane engine.

Thanks again for all of your entries for the Simpy Sara Baking Contest!  They were tons of fun to look through, and I absolutely love Rhonda’s winning recipe – I can’t wait for you to see how it works in the book!

That’s it for now – I think my sweet hubby’s woken up from his nap

The reason I’m talking about the conference here on this blog is because one of the sessions I’ll be teaching focuses on Amish fiction.  Called “Amish 101”, the class includes an overview of the genre and the current state of the market, followed by an A-Z rundown of Amish life, practices, and beliefs.  As the Amish fiction genre expands and more and more authors consider trying their hand at writing it, I thought it would be helpful to provide a full understanding of the “big picture”—i.e., why the Amish live the way they do and why their world is such an interesting place for Christian writers to explore.

For more information, check out the ACFW website, where you’ll see that the conference is shaping up to be awesome, as always.  I can’t wait to go.  Hope to see you there too!

A: I write generation-next contemporary fiction. My books usually center on normal people learning to live, laugh, heal, and trying to understand the concept of God in a crazy world.

I’m married to a wonderful engineer who keeps me from losing my mind (when you write fiction, this is big). I have too many books. I love British humor, bright colors, German chocolate, crossword puzzles, lipstick, cupcakes, cherry blossoms, and notepads with magnets on the back.

Q: When did you first discover that you loved to write?

A: I don’t know that I ever had a particular moment of discovery–I’ve always written and told stories. My mom’s saved my earliest attempts. They were illustrated. Finding out that I was good at it–that was big. I was 14 or 15, and at my first writers’ conference. I showed my manuscript to author Bonnie Leon, who told me it was “publishable.” That put everything into a very different perspective. Writing wasn’t just that thing I did in my free time. It could be a career.

Q: What are some of your hobbies/interests?

A: I’m into a lot of things, but I think most writers are. I love making stuff–knitting, cooking, photography. I grew up in a very artsy family with a lot of music and a lot of art. While I grew up on strictly classical music (some jazz later on), I’ve really gotten into indie-pop in the last couple years. While researching for another book project years ago, I discovered a love for film. We also finally bought me a motorcycle helmet and jacket, so I’ve been riding with Danny lately. I do have my endorsement, so maybe soon I’ll start riding on my own again!

Q: What’s the best vacation you’ve ever taken? Or the dream vacation that you’d like to take?

A: Danny and I went to Banff after my brother’s wedding last year. It was amazing. I loved it. There were mountains enough to keep Danny happy, and there were hot showers (Okay, mostly. The water was kinda weird), good food, and cute shops enough to keep me happy.

My dream vacation is to take a month or two to tour Europe. The UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Greece–I want to see them, and I don’t want to be rushed! Maybe it will happen someday

Q: Tell us something funny or random about yourself that not everyone knows about you.

A: I really love llamas. They’re just funny looking. My husband and I honeymooned at Black Butte Ranch in Oregon, not far from Sisters. Well, Sisters has a bunch of llamas outside of a Best Western (I’m not sure what the story is on that). My sweet husband took me to see the llamas and stood back while I took pictures of them to my heart’s content. Link to the best shot: http://tinyurl.com/y9rkezu

**************

A New Normal

Recently, I dined in the home of one of the families whose lives were directly impacted by the incident. Though the tragedy itself was not mentioned, I couldn’t help but notice the sadness that still lingers in the mother’s eyes, the heavy feeling of loss that permeates the entire family. Certainly, they have continued on in the world of the living. Their gleaming floors, healthy animals, and overflowing gardens attest to that. For the most part, family life seems back to business as usual, their youngest child laughing at the dogs’ antics, their teenager flashing a shy smile at his girlfriend.

But despite the years that have passed, the whole family is obviously still learning to adapt to what psychologists call a “new normal,” one where children can be victims of a senseless crime but life goes on anyway. For this family and indeed for all the Amish families touched by the tragedy, forgiveness is something they did in the beginning, yes, but also something they must do over and over, sometimes each new day.

Among the Amish, the tragedy at Nickel Mines has come to be known as “the Happening.” They don’t talk about it much anymore, at least not with outsiders. The schoolhouse has long since been torn down, its replacement built in a different style at a different location. No longer the Nickel Mines School, it has been christened New Hope, a name that resonates with optimism for the future despite the past. Of the five victims who survived the shooting, one lives with impaired vision, they’ve all had numerous surgeries, and one suffered extensive brain damage and is confined to a wheelchair. All five are currently living at home with their families, going on with their lives.

My best impression of how the incident has impacted the Amish community at large came from a conversation with another Amish woman, one who wasn’t directly connected to the victims or their families but grieved nonetheless. She and I weren’t even talking about the shooting but about the Ordnung and infractions of rules and differences between districts. According to her, Nickel Mines put everything into perspective.

“We used to bicker more, have disagreements about this little rule and that little rule and who did what differently in which districts,” she said. “Then something…bigger happened, something terrible,” she continued, her voice faltering for a moment, “and we realized all the arguing was so pointless. There were far more important matters in life.”

I’m so happy for Erik and proud of this amazing new book that shines a light on all that the Amish bring to the world of business.  Learn more at his website, where you can also download a sample chapter.  Given the fascinating topic, massive research, and excellent writing that went into Success Made Simple, I predict big things.

Congrats, Erik, and best wishes for a wildly popular book. You deserve it!

Anyone else planning on watching?