Advent: God Comes Toward Us

May you be blessed with joy and peace, with sweet moments to remember, with the whisper of healing words as God comes near to you. 

Stained glass from St. James Episcopal Church, Perry, Florida

From The Greatest Gift by Ann Voskamp:

"This day, this night, the Light comes, and whose heart isn't kindled by ths Love that's a wildfire? The shepherds got angels, were lit by the angels. Everyone else that night got shepherds, heard the news from kindled, heart-burning shepherds who went and 'told everyone.' When your heart burns, you are a flaming match for other hearts. When you're a manger tramp who comes with nothing but your ragged heart and leaned close over that creche, when you've beheld his glory, the white heat of a Love like this--who doesn't tramp out of the manger and into the world with a heart glowing like hot embers in your chest?"

Wishing you Love.

Merry Christmas

Voices of Christmas

I love this beautiful book by Nikki Grimes. The Christmas story unfolds in the voices of all those who were a part of the miracle of Jesus birth. Eric Velasquez' illustrations capture the mystery and wonder in the faces of each character. A lovely addition to any Christmas collection.



The Innkeeper
by Nikki Grimes

"And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in band of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn."

See here!
My inn is splitting its sides
with travelers,
the spare rooms swallowed up
by Roman soldiers, merchants,
and who knows who!
Don't blame me.
The young girl with belly
round as a drum
was not the only one
forced to come to Bethlehem.
But, since her husband
rapped upon my door,
I led them to a dry spot
in my stable,
and a bed of hay
on which to lay themselves.
It was the most I could offer,
other than to share \my own, warm room.
And who would care
to do that for strangers?
It's's not as if they were royalty, right?
A stable would do for the night.

Tabatha hosts the roundup  at The Opposite of Indifference.

Pleasure Reading

I have quite a lot of projects going on at the same time, which is a bit unusual for December. I'm putting together a couple of proposals for an educational publisher. When I sent the query, suggesting three topics they might be interested in, I was surprised to hear back so quickly and to find that they wanted to see proposals for all three topics. So I've been pleasure reading children's books on my topics, formulating my ideas, and jotting lots of notes. Got one one them done and off today. Maybe we'll come back to this topic after the first of the year and talk about the process.

I'm also pleasure reading children's books for my nonfiction picture book that I wrote about in the last entry on this blogging/writing journey with Nancy I. Sanford. I've chosen Sequoyah as my topic for multiple reasons. I've already done a low level biography for State Standards Publishing, a small educational house, so I have already done some research and he's a pretty interesting guy to me, so why not use some of that research in another format? Nancy's latest post is about choosing titles from the pile of children's books I've collected to purchase, used of course, for referring back to when the need arises as I write.

I also have a pile of pleasure reading on the African country of Mali, on which I have a contract to write a third grade level book for State Standards after the first of the year.

My piles of books are taking over the house. And yes, I'm over my limit at the library, but shhhh! Don't tell anyone. I'm taking a stack back tomorrow. And yes, the weights are there for a reason. I need arm strength to carry all my piles from one place to another!