considerable grace

Oh oh oh ... check out Samara’s Woolsters on Etsy! Can you say adorable?

I wonder if I can steal some pics to show you here ...



And, of course, if your tastes skew more towards gorgeous, redemptive oil paintings (rather than adorable Monster Woolsters), be sure to check out the current works on TJ’s website.

It’s amazing how many paintings are available there for such reasonable prices. When Taylor was exclusively selling through galleries ten years ago—when we moved here to Montana and first met them—these paintings would be priced literally in the $5,000-$6,000 range. Now you can snatch them up and share them with your friends for, what, $80 (small studies) - $1,200 (large, gallery-quality works)? Amazing!

Again, let me see if I can steal a few pics to share with you and tempt you to click on over:



Oh, how I thank God for artists like the Lyndes! They make life in this fallen world more bearable because they point us to something better to come. I truly hope you’ll support the arts (and support my friends) and buy a Monster Woolster (or fine art painting!) today.

With that, I’m heading to bed. Fred is still at Peacemakers, crankin' hard on the roll out of their new product. The girls are snoozin, as is Lili. And I’m beat. Happy, but beat.

G'nite!
— Tara B.

PS
In the interest of full disclosure—I get no referral fees or financial gain from pointing you to them. But it would BLESS MY SOCKS OFF if you would enjoy their creations. So. I’ll be sockless if you do.

PPS
Taylor does the most remarkable CUSTOM, commissioned, paintings too. So do you have a precious heirloom that you want to capture? A favorite vacation spot? Photo from Italy? Cabin in the woods? Contact TJ and Learn About Commissioning a Work! It could be the coolest Christmas gift you’ve ever shared with someone you love.

Here’s one example of a commission we had him do—Sophia with her blankie (crocheted by my Godmother), holding my teddy ("Besty") from my paternal grandmother, Eleanor Klena; our engagement photo is in the frame:



This one is from when Sophie started violin lessons at age two and a half. Her itty bitty violin was SO sweet! 1/32nd the size of a standard violin. I posed it next to my mother’s family clock and our family photos are on the wall:



Last one for tonight ... This one wasn’t actually a commission, but it was painted from a photo taken during our first Easter trip to visit the Lyndes in Helena and I LOVED how Sophie was in the background (in the little white t-shirt). Plus, it’s just such a happy memory:



I just can’t express how beautiful these paintings are in person. Photographs capture only 1/100th of the beauty of these paintings. The depth of the oil paint on the canvas? The changing colors with variations in lighting during the day? We look at our paintings and look at our paintings and never tire of just drinking them in. Even Ella loves to look at them!

Real Art. I hope you can have some in your home too. And with that—now I’m REALLY going to bed. G'nite and love—tkb

Even though Fred didn’t make it home until 2:30AM the night before (they’re pushing a big deadline at Peacemakers), we still stayed up late with Sophia last night, giggling and singing along to some of our favorite School House Rock videos:







I simply can’t get “conjunction junction” out of my mind!



Soph loved 'em and so did we.

A happy way to head to sleep to be sure.

G'nite!
– t

I really couldn’t care less about anything in the world than I care about soccer. But this post by Kevin DeYoung made me laugh. Esp. the “wonderfully egregious use of vowels” comment.

PS
If you’re wondering why I keep posting little blog entries it’s because Fred and I are staying up (too) late playing Wii on the last day of our vacation. So when he shoots, I surf. And vice versa. What an utterly unredemptive, yet entertaining way to kill off (too much) time.

(Watch to the end. It only gets better and better. SO FUNNY! And true ...)



HT: It’s Almost Naptime (who also has a funny post up about job interviews—if you are not familiar with my WORST JOB INTERVIEW EVER story from my law school days, I gave a quick summary in a comment on her post !!)

I didn’t really know if anyone would send me a “Now You’re Over the Hill”—all BLACK—40th-birthday gift or card ...

But Fred did bless me with a silly card (in addition to his lovey-dovey one).

Dear Amy L. gave me a gift that, apparently, I’ll be needing now:



And Samara blessed me with a lovely BLACK-BALLOON'D-BOUQUET:



Now I feel like I’m really 40.

My day was an enjoyable and exhausting combination of domestic diva work, writing, Christian fellowship, AND making a little bit of progress on our “decorated by hand-me-downs” home.

Specifically? I was finally able to remove our PINK and GREEN chairs from our living room:



They have been perfectly fine chairs for us and we are extremely grateful for the generous people who gave them to us. However, pink and green? Ahem. Not really something I would choose. ESPECIALLY in light of our very, well, colorful hand-me-down couch and pillows:



I am no artist or decorator (obviously), but even I know that merlot-colored-pillows and pink and green should never exist in the same room. (But they have for years in our home.)

Today, however? I became the grateful owner of the Rich & Susan Mattson — Melodee Mattson — hand-me-down chairs:



These chairs were apparently called PINK by a friend who shall remain nameless (Hi A!), but I would call them a nice, neutral beige-ish color. To paraphrase Crocodile Dundee:

"That’s not PINK!"



“Now THAT’S pink!”

Thanks, Melodee, for the chairs. And for the encouragement re: writing, too.

It’s 9:30PM and I’m just now trying to tackle our proposal again. Yes, the proposal that I thought I had done on Tuesday but has since then been re-done pretty much from the ground up.

I’m pretending I’m 20 years old again and able to cram for an exam or write an entire paper late at night. We shall see.

Hope your day was a blessed one!

Your tired friend,
Tara B.

We’re having a bit of a hard week around here. Nothing major—certainly not hard compared to most people in the world. But Fred is working with Ella to help her get back into the habit of sleeping through the night in her crib. (She did so for months but then got out of the routine recently. So now she’s learning to self-soothe and relax and stay in her crib all night.)

You know, I never thought I’d be the kind of mom that had a hard time with the whole baby-crying-in-the-crib-thing. But maybe I’m not as tough as some people thing because I just can’t bear it. So Sophie and I have been sleeping way downstairs in the basement so we don’t hear her cry, Fred comfort her (but not pick her up), etc.

(Fred’s a good guy to bear this burden! And Ella’s almost through it—just a few nights and she’s remembering how to just relax and sleep.)

Then I got a little bug—again, no biggie. But fevers wipe me out! And Pastor Jason and I have been praying for and striving to serve in a very difficult/sad conciliation situation—always hard. Our teen Sunday School class on the True Woman Curriculum is about to kick off, as is our summer women’s study on Ed Welch’s “Running Scared.”

Plus? I’m nearing the end of writing our book proposal. And. Well. A big project like this gets my head spinning and tempts me to fear. (Hence, the summer study. )

AND, of course, my real job is both wonderful and hard, overwhelming and relaxed/easy—all at the same time. (Am I sounding as crazy as I feel right now?)

But some days I’m actually calm. They usually start with Sophie and I curling up with Eleanor and reading her all of our favorite Sandra Boynton board books (!!) (and once Ella’s asleep, Sophie begs for “just one more” chapter of The Burgess Animal Book for Children (Dover Science Books for Children) and The Bible in the Wall). Yes. Yes. On those days, I feel OK.

Then I see the state of a sock drawer and I’m tempted to freak out.

(Silly ol' Tara. Sock drawers devolve. Entropy is real. Order to disorder. It’s just life. Take a breath. Say a prayer. Learn to laugh and let it go.)

That’s what I’m trying to do anyway.

Oh, and I’m also facilitating something I just can’t even believe myself. A CCC. For real! Even I can’t believe it. But I’m a pushover when my six year-old darling delight of my life gets SO excited about making the “super cool!” BASEBALL cupcake cake for Fred’s 40th birthday.

(40! Can you believe I’m going to be married to a 40 year-old in just a few hours? We’re grownups! When did that happen?)

I’m just hoping that our baseball CCC doesn’t end up like this one.

That’s pretty much the news from the Barthels. Hope your week is going well!

Yours,
Tara B.

For someone who doesn’t even like rap music, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this:



Maybe it’s because we did actually once SIT IN a Toyota Sienna (when we were at the Toyota dealer having our very old truck repaired).

Enjoy!

(HT: MIS)

Falling squarely within the “let’s tighten up that wording next time, Tara, so that you communicate in such a way that you CANNOT BE MISUNDERSTOOD” category ...

Today a woman (so gently and graciously) asked me to clarify what I meant when I said:

"My pastor is a demon."

OK. Seriously. I’ve been asked a LOT of questions over the years at women’s events and I have to say, to a certain extent, I’ve kind of felt like I’ve heard them all. At least in a big-brushstroke-kind-of-way.

But this? (Oh! She was SO sweet and SO kind.) “It’s just not clear to me, dear, what you meant by saying that your pastor is a demon.”

(!!)

Me neither.

So I stood there at my booktable, mind swirling, trying to come up with some sort of a semblance of a rational response. And then it hit me:

"My pastor is a D.Min. from Westminster Seminary" COULD sound a lot like “My pastor is a demon from Westminster Seminary.” You know. If your speaker was going TOO FAST and was INARTICULATE. Ahem.

So there you have it. No, my pastor is not a demon. And I will (hopefully) REPHRASE in the future.

Still shaking my head and smiling,
Tara B.

CakeWrecks has a funny little series going on the (Many!) misspellings of “Birthday.” As usual, you just have to see it to believe it:

Let Me Count the Ways

'Tis good to laugh. Out loud. Especially after working incredibly hard on stuff that requires some semblance of coherent thinking.

(If you’ve already friended me on FB then you know from my status update yesterday that I’m pushing hard to get Dave Edling’s and my book proposal done this week. Oh, my poor old tired, tired brain. I could really use some WD40 for my rusty synapses—what a cool invention THAT would be.)

As always, please use caution if you bop on over to CakeWrecks. This post is just funny—but some of their other posts can be off-color and definitely not appropriate for children (or, in my opinion, adults either).

Still—it really is good to laugh. Hope you enjoy!

Happy Friday,
Tara B.

PS
If you haven’t already learned about Rhema Marvanne, I encourage you to enjoy this recording of a truly beautiful and talented young girl:



And please do say a prayer for her precious, young heart—that she will always rest in Christ. With that much talent at such a young age? Oh! I just can’t even imagine the temptations she will face. But God is greater still! And wow. That child can sing.

Thank You, Lord, for beauty like this.

Our little Choza video is nearing 300,000 hits on YouTube, continues to hold the #1 Google hit (for “world’s most patient dog”), and just last week we received yet another television/movie request for permission to use the clip:



To quote Fred, “If I had known all of this would happen, I would’ve kept the movie running for a few more seconds.”

Her latest claim to fame is actually a MOVIE—so Sophie and I think it’s way fun to imagine people chomping on their popcorn in theaters and then THERE’S CHOZA AND SOPHIE. Apparently, the sequel to a movie about “Mission Impossible-Type” super-agent Cats & Dogs is going to roll little clips like ours during their credits.

I don’t think this is the type of movie we’d normally have any interest in, even though cutie-pie JEFF GOLDBLUM was in the original version. Still, we may Red Box it for $1 one day just to see Soph & Choza. It’s really a funny little aspect of our family’s life when email requests like this one arrive and I thought it might give you a chuckle too.

Hope your day is going well!

Yours,
Tara B.

I’m facing a very difficult situation. Feeling pretty hopeless, actually.

Was blessed to be in church this morning—fed by the preaching of the Word, the sacrament of communion, the fellowship of the saints. But still felt quite paralyzed. Didn’t see a way out. Couldn’t see a way out.

But then ... but then ...

I got a little $9.99 reimbursement check from our church’s secretary and in the envelope was a note. Actually? The very first ANAGRAM of “Tara Barthel” that I’ve ever seen. And a Scripture verse. And a little personal note.

I’m going to save the personal note and keep it just between the sender and me—because it’s like a hug to my numb heart right now. And I think I’ll just cling on to it for awhile.

But the anagram and Scripture verse said this:

Tara Barthel
Breath Altar
Living Sacrifice

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Romans 12:1

Well, there you have it. Grace in a reimbursement check envelope. All because of the wonderful KLV.

(A young woman, btw, who is not only beautiful but brilliant (CPA!), humble, wise, kind, FUN ... and, I think, not currently involved with any young man, just in case you might know someone who would like to court one of the finest young women I’ve ever known.)

(I don’t think KLV reads my blog—but just in case you do; Hi! And I love ya! And if that embarrasses you too much, just let me know and I’ll delete it.)

I’m going to rejoin the fam now. I just made everyone popcorn and kettle corn and settled them in for Pixar’s “UP.” (Well, actually, I think Eleanor had pears & sweet potato & milkies.)

G'nite and God bless,
Tara B.

As usual, the commentary is even funnier than the photos over at ol' CakeWrecks, but this final cake from today’s post had me laughing and laughing out loud:

“Poor AdamWithBlueFlowers. Grade school musta been murder.”

(Be forewarned if you poke around the site—some of the cakes are, well, not modest / not appropriate language-wise.)

Thanks, HalfPintHouse, for introducing me to:

Faces in Places

Delightful!

If this doesn’t make you smile, then I’m guessing you might rather follow Fred’s dream (of seeing every Major League Baseball team play on their home turf) than my dream (of hearing every major symphony in their own hall):



(But Fred liked this a lot too. )

(HT: My dear friend, BGK)

Even in my grouchy state, I can’t help but laugh at this G.K. Chesterton quote from a recent Pastor Alfred sermon on Revelation:

"Though Saint John the Evangelist saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his commentators."

(Can you tell I’m cleaning through piles of notes from the past few weeks?)

Thanks, Molly and Jennie for reminding me of just how (tragically) funny this video is:



(And yes, this is the video I was trying to describe to a few women at the event last weekend in South Carolina. But oh! I could never do it justice.)

A must watch—especially if you have a passion for true, gospel, biblical counseling rather than legalistic behavior modification via to-do lists (even two word to-do lists as illustrated by this classic video).

TakeYourVitaminZ posted this and I just kept grinning and shaking my head in the SLC airport ...

So even though I’m a tiny bit concerned it may be too snarky, Fred said it isn’t, so I’m going to post it.

Hope you enjoy! (And please know that I really DON’T have this view of most men in the church. Most of the Christian men I know are wise and gracious examples of servant leaders who work incredibly hard, often at great sacrifice. But I do like satire.)

One more flight to go,
Tara B.



From the best of Christian Radio comes an album just for you males in the church out there. It’s the best weepy, whiney overly-emotional spineless songs to encourage you as you battle through your hard and tedious life day after day. Titles include:

- My Parents are Making me Move Out

- Why Do I Need a Job?

- Responsibility is Not My Spiritual Gift

- My X Box Broke, Help me Through This Storm

- Why Do Girls Want a Man With a Job?

- I Spilled My No-Fat Mocha Latte on My Lemon Yellow Vest

- Mark Driscoll Yelled at Me and Now I Want to Cry

...and many more great titles to lift you up when darkness clouds your spineless, aimless existence.

(HT: TomInTheBox)

I’m going to sleep for the second time tonight—the first didn’t last very long due to my troubled heart. And this time, I’m going to sleep with a smile thanks to TakeYourVitaminZ’s link to this classic Bill Cosby scene:



True comedic genius.

I asked Fred this morning what projects he would be working on today so that the girls and I could be praying for him. And he replied that he had to edit a “meet the ministry” article that Tim Challies is doing on his blog about Peacemaker Ministries. Apparently it’s too long. So, of course, I had to say my favorite Mark Twain quote:

"I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time."

And then HE (Fred, not Mark Twain. Or Tim Challies.) countered with one of his favorite Mark Twain quotes:

"Substitute “d*mn” every time you’re inclined to write “very”; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be."

(Blush. Deacon Barthel!)

But of course he’s right. (Mark Twain that is.) I try to be very diligent about not using very. My AP English teacher, the inimitable Dr. Charmian Poe, (tried to) cure me of using “very,” misusing “that” and “which,” and (I was in the 12th grade before I knew the difference!), misusing “its” and “it’s.”

I guess you loyal blog readers know how well I’m accomplishing these goals.

Blessings on your Monday,
Tara B.

This morning I heard words that a person, well, really never wants to hear. Especially after having JUST brushed her teeth:

"Uh? Mom? The bathroom cup fell in the TOILET last night."

(Yes. The one you just used to rinse with.)

"But don’t worry. I rinsed it out with water."

(Oh. Great.)

Time to have a little chat about what we do when things fall in the toilet ...

Pastor Anyabwile posted this video and it made me laugh:



(Things I would just never have thought existed in the world ... What is UP with those tape measures??)

We’re battling some illnesses around here and for our family, that means sleepless nights as we try to comfort, keep fevers down, etc. etc.

I finally took both girls out of our room a little before 4AM so that Fred could (hopefully) get some sleep. The three of us snuggled in Sophie’s bed, talking, blowing noses, reading a little Little House, and then (thankfully) both girls drifted back to sleep again just before 6AM.

No way I was getting back to sleep — so I thought I’d try to be productive in the quiet hours of the morning. Hah. Instead, I totally lost myself clicking through to page after page of Awkward Family Photos.com.

If you decide to click through and have a gander, please use your own discretion/caution. I didn’t see any terribly inappropriate ads, but some of the photos were, well, cringe-inducing to be sure. But I seriously laughed until tears were streaming down my face.

Just like CakeWrecks, it’s the commentary that really makes the site work. 90% are hilarious. Some I don’t get. But here are two that still make me laugh:

"Susan would have had no idea there was any tension if it wasn’t for the burning sensation on either side of her head."

"It’s not easy to upstage the tree."

I haven’t laughed and CRINGED this much since the last really, really good CakeWrecks post ...

Want to laugh? Want to cringe? Check out this (stunning. funny. awful.) Tim Challies post:

Rich Daddy God

And if you do, just like you never want to skip the commentary on a good CakeWrecks post ... DON’T skip the COMMENTS on this post.

Oh my STARS but some of Tim’s readers hit it out the park:

- Monica: “Just throw in a Snuggie and it’s the Best.white.elephant.gift.EVER!”

- Joshua French: “Tim, thanks for this post. The overarching redemptive plan of Scripture has now come into clear focus as a result of this board game.”

- Barry Wallace: “Dear Jesus Christ I repent to you, I admit that I was lied to my lover and sold my friends just care about myself. In Jesus’ name I repent Amen. Back 3 steps.” I mean, who wouldn’t say amen to that?"

You really have to see the photos and read the entire post to understand JUST how awful yet laugh-inducing these two games are.

Tim’s one line ("This must be the face he made while Paul circumcised him.") is worth reading Challies.com every single day.

Avoiding my growing pile of actionable emails—
But having lots of fun with a rolling over Ella and a song-creating-Sophie!

Yours,
Tara B.

PS
Until THIS MORNING, Ella still refused to roll over in front of Fred. Three times yesterday for me and then NOTHIN' for Fred when he got home. Just a big smile, lying on her back, looking up. Nothin'. Then twice more on the bathroom floor while I bathed Sophie. Fred comes upstairs? NOTHIN'. Finally ... finally ... Fred actually saw her roll over this morning. Hooray and hooray. Now her REAL consumption of Golden Retriever hair will begin. (No matter how much you vacuum, no matter how much you try ... right, Golden Mamas? Please tell me that you know what I mean. )

Hysterical Santa-themed post over at the inimitable CakeWrecks:

Be Good ... OR ELSE

(Be sure to NOT miss the commentary and keep your eyes on the EYES. Oh my.)

HT: PureChurch for this link ...



(Totally reminds me of how Sophie the Peacemaker comes up and whispers, “Be a Peacemaker!” in our ears when Fred and I are stuck in a bad quarrel. Only this video is even a zillion times sweeter! Enjoy.)

Yes, I love all of the REAL traditions and details related to Thanksgiving: thanking God (not just being generically grateful), the amazing stories of Pilgrims and Native Americans, etc. etc.

But I also like to laugh!

So in that spirit, here are three things that always make me chuckle on Thanksgiving ...

1. Funny Cartoonists (like this one):



2. WKRP’s “Turkey’s Away!” Episode (Such a classic–especially for those of us who grew up in the 70’s. Hysterical.)

3. Turkeys on CakeWrecks (be forewarned—some CakeWrecks entries can be risque and use inappropriate language, but not these entries as far as I can tell) ... Oh, and I think that last year’s wrecks were way funnier—I laughed AGAIN.

Blessings to you and yours on this Thanksgiving day and every day!

Yours,
Tara B.

I haven’t read a blog in forever and I’m totally out of touch news-wise. But looking for a laugh, I clicked over to CakeWrecks at the end of the day today and was SO not disappointed.

It’s posts like this that keep me coming back:

"So Funny" in Bold with Exclamation Mark

Oh my STARS! But that’s good stuff. Hope you enjoy.

BTW—Fred’s home safe and sound, although we did almost die in a head-on collision on airport road minutes after he got home. Apparently, some Montanans are not that familiar with roundabouts and someone decided to GO THE WRONG DIRECTION on the brand-spankin-new roundabout by our little airport. Thank God Fred was paying attention and avoided the crash. (Shudder!) Maybe our little local news stations need to do some PSAs on the roundabout ("Traffic goes in ONE direction ...").

Heading to bed now—

G'nite and God bless,
Tara B.

From tears to laughing. Thanks, Cake Wrecks, for helping me to head into my duties, even on this horribly sad day:

Patriot Day

If you like baseball (or happen to be married to someone who does) and you like Cake Wrecks, you’re going to enjoy today’s post:

Forget the Ballgame! Just Take Me Out

(Oh, and don’t forget to click through to the “Related Wreckage” at the bottom of the post. It’s a classic.)

Ready to laugh?

Have you see the YouTube video “United Breaks Guitars” that has apparently gone viral? IT’S HYSTERICAL. I thought Eleanor Marie was going to come early I laughed so hard.

Here’s the video:



And the story behind the video: United Breaks Guitars

BTW–Fred wanted me to point out the peacemaking aspects of all of this. Apparently, the broken-guitar-victim-guy is really nice and not even looking for any money (wants the proceeds donated to charity or something):



But rather than trying to make any teaching points, I’m just laughing.

.......

(Male blog readers, you may want to skip this post. Total chick post. Well, unless you want to bless your wives with a gift certificate or something.)

........

OK. I hope that you don’t ever feel like I’m trying to sell you anything on this blog. I’m regularly asked to join teams and sell jewelry, makeup, skin care products, storage containers (oooh! that’s a hard one to say no to), etc. etc. And I always say no. And I promise I won’t ever make a DIME off of any sales of this product if you happen to click through and buy it ...

But oh my STARS! I love this shaving cream!

Bath and Body Works: Shave the Day (Silky Smooth Shaving Cream)

A tiny sample was included in a (lovely) gift basket I received from my mother in law for my birthday (THANKS, CHRIS!) and I went to use it, not really thinking a) I’d like it; or b) even if I liked it, I’d ever really care about it. I’ve really been a “use the cheapest shaving cream that exists” kind of gal for 25 years or so.

But I have to say, this stuff is amazing. I know it’s just about as non-important an item as I could ever recommend to you, but if you’re ever in the mood to try something new and you happen to be walking by a Bath & Body Works store, I encourage you to check it out.

Completely off-topic to peacemaking / living the gospel, but just in case it saves you all any time and frustration ...

Last week I finally grew SO frustrated with the delays and crashes associated with dumb ol' Internet Explorer that I (nervously) tried out “Google Chrome.”

I had no idea how it would work, but I gave it a shot and I’m SO glad I did. Pages load quickly. With a little bit of practice, the various features are intuitive and helpful. All in all? Two thumbs up!

And WOW! Is it saving me TIME. My old computer needs all the help it can get and rather than sitting around while IE takes forever to load (and then CRASH), I can just GET THINGS DONE.

(I bet this is how iMac users feel about those of us still waiting around for slow/crashy PCs ...)

Hysterical! I just love math geeks.

Tim Challies posted to a great article that analyzed whether the house from the movie “UP!” could really fly using only helium balloons. And if so, how MANY balloons would be needed?

Could Pixar’s House Really Fly?

Enjoy!

"Hey, Mom! What does Satan put on his toast?"

“I don’t know! What?”

“CINNAMON! Get it? SIN-a-min, because Satan has so much sin in his heart.”

Oh, that MakingHome Jess does it again!

One passing comment from her and HOORAY! Our little non-TV-family has access to even more shows than super fun Hulu:

PBS Videos

I’m looking forward to exploring when I’m up again on a sleepless night.

Hope your week is progressing well! I have had two EXTREMELY low energy days following three EXTREMELY lacking in sleep nights ... but oh well. I’ve gotten through them no problem and overall, I’m a very blessed woman. So I don’t want to complain.

Blessings!
— Tara B.

PS
In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that we DO actually OWN two televisions. One is a tiny one in Soph’s schoolroom where she watches Muzzy, Math-U-See (and the occasional “just for fun” DVD). The other is a relic of a gift from my law school graduation (thirteen years ago!) that, I think, may still be able to get two stations. But I have no idea how.

It’s been a long time since I looked forward to a movie–but I am looking forward to this one!

Up

We’ve sat as a family and watched all of the trailers—and laughed and laughed.

Plus, we feel a teeny-tiny-connection to its creator, Pete Docter, because he and his family are good friends with our brother and sister and niece and nephew (in Berkeley) and Fred once house sat for him and took care of his dog.

I was thinking about my little aside in my previous post (about how, in general, we just don’t put as much time and effort into the things that we don’t value), and in addition to the aforementioned COOKING, I also thought of DECORATING as something that fits that bill for me.

I really enjoy being in a warm and hospitable home–and I do try to help our home to be both warm and hospitable. However, I’m just never going to be one of those women who contemplates the color scheme / fabric / texture / furniture / accoutrements of a room for, you know, months and years. And THEN, slowly, carefully, builds the room bit by bit to be JUST SO. Trying one shade of paint. Then another. Mulling over and over the color of the drapes, the weight of the drapes, the exact tie back for the drapes. Trying one couch. Then recovering it. Then recovering it again. Placing one wrought-iron wall thingy. Then moving it. Then moving it again.

Nope. Never going to happen. I just don’t care.

BUT. One of those (I would call her VERY gifted) artistic, REALLY-cares-about-such-things-women DID give me THE WORLD’S BEST DECORATING ADVICE EVER and since I just shared it with a friend of mine the other day, I thought I’d share it with you guys too:

In order to learn what you REALLY like about color schemes, room design, fabrics, etc., DON’T go to paint stores, furniture stores, “decorating advice” websites, etc. It will only overwhelm you and you won’t be able to discern what you really like.

Instead, START A FILE. And every time you see something in a catalog or magazine that you instinctively say, “Oooh! I really like that.” TEAR OUT THE PICTURE AND PUT IT IN THE FILE.

Don’t do anything else. DON’T analyze it. DON’T think about it. Just tear it out and put it in the file.

Then, when you have a big file and it’s time to buy paint or re-do a room or whatever, TAKE OUT THE PICTURES AND LOOK AT THE THEMES. Because there WILL be themes. Trust me.

You may never have been able to articulate that you just LOVE white couches, but if you see a white couch in pretty much every picture? Guess what? You LOVE white couches.

Or, like me, you may never have EVER said to someone, “I really like rich, darker colors of paint on walls” — but when you do this little (easy!) project and find that pretty much EVERY room has rich, darker colors on the walls? Guess what? You LOVE rich/dark paint colors.

Seriously? This is the best decorating advice I’ve ever received and I encourage you to check it out. ESPECIALLY if you (like me!) fall into the “I really don’t care about this stuff / but I want to be hospitable” camp.

Because not only is this advice GREAT it’s EFFICIENT. Ahhhhh! Gotta love it.

Hope it’s a blessing to you–

Happy Wednesday!

Love,
Tara B.

Spring seems to really be here – so it must time to give Lilikoi a thorough Furminanting!

We just LOVE The Furminator and we recommend it to all of our friends who have dogs. Especially Goldens!



With a little bit of effort, you can make some SERIOUS progress on the loose undercoat of your dog:



(And yes, yes, I’m sure this post – like last year’s Furminating post – is grossing out all of my “THAT’S why we will NEVER have a dog” friends. )

Back to the chaos–

Love,
Tara B.

Fred finalized our initial inclination on Baby Girl Barthel’s name this morning. So, Lord willing, we’ll be welcoming soon dear Ella Marie.



It’s really fun to have settled on a name. We all enjoy saying “Ella” or “Ellie” or using her formal name (Eleanor Marie Barthel) when we talk to her. (Well, when we talk to my giantly kicking tummy.)

(BTW, just to let you know ... I totally don’t mind nicknames. In fact, I kind of like them. Ella/Ellie, Sophia/Sophie. Sounds fun to me. It’s just having a perpetually–and I mean DAILY, PERPETUALLY mispronounced name due to VOWELL CONFUSION that bugs the living life out of me. “TARE-UH” vs. “Tah-Rah” / "Kleeeenah" vs. “Klehnah” / "Bar-TELL" vs. “Bar-THell”. Blergh. I swore to myself at an early age that I would never do that to a child.)

So, we’re enjoying being pregnant and taking things one day at a time. But I must admit … as happy and grateful as we are (and we are!), we’re also a little overwhelmed at the thought of actually HAVING and TAKING CARE OF a baby. Our lives are just so “easy” with out little “disappears and read books FOR HOURS” little Sophie-bug. How in the WORLD will we ever have the energy for THIS?



(HT: dear, wonderful, Half-Pint House Megan.)

We’re trusting that God will, as always, provide (and help us to keep this child safe and loved and alive). And, if the baby is healthy and we’re not facing medical crises or some other trauma ... we will probably all laugh (again) more than we ever have in life just by being around a newborn. Babies crack us up.

Hope your Saturday is off to a great start! Fred is mowing the lawn (we had SNOW forecasted, so I’m THRILLED that it’s a gorgeous day). Soph cut and brought flowers and a card over to our dear little widow neighbor (whom we love). I’m trying to gear up to tackle the CHAOS of the basement

(I’ve been moving room to room, floor to floor, trying to get on top of the piles. But now I can’t see the basement. REALLY. It’s completely disappeared under piles of boxes, clothes, giveaways, throwaways, etc. But I HAVE to get it done in the next few days because we’re having our carpets cleaned for the first time EVER next week. I hear it’s a really good thing to do if you have a DOG and young children ...)

My problem is ENERGY. I was (again) up for pretty much the entire night. It’s been a week now of not sleeping and I’m really feeling it. My left eye twitches uncontrollably (which Fred says is a sign of exhaustion/not sleeping). And I’m just tired. Happy and grateful, but tired.

Oh well–guess that TOO is about to (happily) be our new lives, eh?

Blessings and love to you all —
Tara B.

(This is a post from TakeYourVitaminZ. Totally cracked me up–BUT, you really only have to watch the first 30 seconds of the video to have a good laugh. I have no idea why they made the video so long.)

"Jennifer and Jim kept getting huge water bills. They knew beyond a doubt that the bills weren’t representative of their actual usage, and no matter how they tried to conserve, the high bills continued.

Although they could see nothing wrong, they had everything checked for leaks or problems: first the water meter, then outdoor pipes, indoor pipes, underground pipes, faucets, toilets, washer, ice maker, etc. – all to no avail.

One day Jim was sick and stayed home in bed, but kept hearing water running downstairs. He finally tore himself from his sick bed to investigate, and stumbled onto the cause of such high water bills.

Apparently this was happening all day long when they were not at home. Knowing that few would believe him, he taped a segment of the ‘problem’ for posterity – see video."

Even though I have flown, on average, 50,000 - 100,000 miles a year for the past twelve years, I still try to remember to put down my reading materials and at least look at the flight attendants when they are doing their pre-flight safety demonstration. I can pretty much do all of the scripts of the major airlines (including the nuanced differences), but it just seems like the respectful and wise thing to give them my attention.

This past weekend, the lead flight attendant on one of my flights ended her announcements with the customary, “If you need our assistance during the flight, ring the attendant call button ...” instruction. But then she added, "And we will be sure to ignore you just like you ignored our announcements right now."

Eek! Most of the customers cringed a little.

Totally reminded me of this old, old essay that went around back in the late 80’s, early 90's:

Funny Things They Say on Airlines

"There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only 4 ways out of
this airplane..."

Pilot - "Folks, we have reached our cruising altitude now, so I am going to
switch the seat belt sign off. Feel free to move about as you wish, but
please stay inside the plane till we land...it’s a bit cold outside, and if
you walk on the wings it affects the flight pattern."

"As you exit the plane, please make sure to sure to gather all of your
belongings. Anything left behind will be distributed evenly among the
flight attendants. Please do not leave children or spouses."

After a particularly rough landing during thunderstorms in Memphis, a flight
attendant on a Northwest flight announced: "Please take care when opening
the overhead compartments because, after a landing like that, sure as h***
everything has shifted."

Part of a Flight Attendant’s arrival announcement: "We’d like to thank you
folks for flying with us today. And, the next time you get the insane urge
to go blasting through the skies in a pressurized metal tube, we hope you’ll
think of us here at USAirways."

Ahhhhhh, the joy of being a frequent flyer.

(I second Carolyn McCulley’s admonition to NOT miss the final line. Hysterical!)

PalmTreePundit linked over to this and Fred and I just laughed & laughed & laughed:



(And, yes, we ate Chik-Fil-A twice on our most recent trip and every day of our time at the Children’s Hospital in Aurora, Colorado in January. )

Yes, yes, I’m getting RIGHT back to work ... any second now!

But first I thought I’d click over to CakeWrecks to see if today’s entry was a good one. IT WAS.

When Common Sense Isn’t

If there wasn’t absolute PROOF that these cakes are REAL, who could believe it?

Amazing.

Good ol' CakeWrecks has made me laugh again:



Hysterical!

Oh, and no, phonics hasn’t really failed us. Soph’s a great reader.

I can’t believe I’m doing two of these silly blog memes in one week! I hope this doesn’t start a pattern–I would annoy myself and lose 85% of my 1,300 readers I am sure ...

But, yes, the “Google your name + needs” thing that keeps popping up everywhere intrigued me enough on a snowy day to at least try it. And given the (scary!) hilarity of my top hits? Well. I thought I’d better share it with you too.

Here is what “Tara + needs” according to Google:

- Tara needs to be in one place long enough to establish a trusting relationship with a good, interested, capable therapist.

- Tara needs a new nose.

- Tara needs to accept that no one is self sufficient all the time.

- Tara needs a fashion coach.

- Tara needs help.

So there you have it, folks. The lot truly is cast into the Google lap, but the Lord Our God knows it all.

Because I’m SURE I actually do need all of those things. Well, except the nose one. I can’t honestly say I’ve ever even once thought about my nose.

We’re settling in here for a snowy day at home–

Hope you are safe and well!

Yours,
Tara B.

Some days I really miss television. (Yes, yes, I would watch a LOT of t.v., I am sure, if I actually had access to it. I really am a very lazy person at heart.)

Take, for instance, a lot of David Letterman. Not all–sometimes I find him annoying/offensive–but a lot of his wit just cracks me up. Take his interview of the crew from flight 1549 for example:



Totally cracked me up when (during another sleepless night) I could use a laugh. Hope you enjoy.

(Oh! But please DON’T read the comments. I just glanced at ONE and cringed at all of the profanity. Ergh! I hate it. And of course there is a lot of wickdness on YouTue–so please only click through with caution. This video was just FUNNY, but lots of stuff on YouTube is simply awful.)

Trying to get back to sleep now–

Yours,
Tara B.

Although I am often tagged in memes, I don’t usually do them. And I decline EVERY SINGLE invitation I ever receive on Facebook–for a gift, group, cause, whatever. I just don’t go there, so please don’t ever take it personal.

But when my dear friend Joe Adams tagged me in this “25 Things About Me” meme that’s been, you know, everywhere, I felt compelled to participate because I’d do pretty much anything for him.

So here you go, 25 things about me:

1. Both Sophie and I almost died in her delivery. LONG story, but the gist is that by the time they actually got her OUT of me (by emergency c-section), my uterus had been torn and a major artery was nicked, so I was bleeding out; and she was blue and not breathing (her first APGAR was a 3!). But thank God for His grace and for EXCELLENT medical care! We both made it and after a little “infant resuscitation” (a medical bill we did NOT mind paying) and blood transfusion (for me), it only took a few hours before we both were fine.

2. Email is great. I use it constantly and I feel very strange when I have to do an event without email contact for even one day. HOWEVER, I love real snail-mail and I am one of the few people I know who still sends little notes and cards to people.

3. I spent time in Estonia and East Germany (East Berlin) before the fall of the U.S.S.R. (actually went through the real Checkpoint Charlie) and Slovenija, Yugoslavia and Outer Mongolia just AFTER the fall of the U.S.S.R—and I will always be grateful that I got to actually EXPERIENCE that part of history, especially meeting the people, rather than only reading about it a book.

4. I still remember faking being asleep as an eight year old so that my dad would carry me into my bed after a long car trip. I felt so safe in his arms! So I can keenly relate to Sophia’s reluctance to grow up (especially with the baby coming). We talk often about the blessings of growing up, but also acknowledge that, yes, it’s great to be a baby and be held/protected/cared for by someone bigger and stronger than we are. I explain how that desire for protection, provision, and care ("home") is a reflection of our longing for Heaven—that this life is not our real home—and it’s OK to be a little reluctant about growing older and having more responsibilities in this life. But just remember that God is always with us and He is sovereign and good as our Perfect Heavenly Father. Oh, and she asked me to promise that I would still cuddle with her when she’s a grown up. I said, “Absolutely!”

5. I truly believe that I survived the challenges of my childhood because God gave me piano/music. It was my escape and comfort, a true common grace, before I knew Him.

6. My junior year of high school, I wanted to try out for the speech team, but unlike the other kids who had really paid their dues and put in their time been learning and practicing for years on the J.V. team, I had absolutely no experience. So the teacher in charge gave me the hardest category (Original Oratory—where you write your own speech, memorize it, and then give it) thinking (she told me later) that it would scare me off and she’d be done with me. But instead I wrote a kick-butt speech on patriotism (inspired in part by my time in East Berlin and Estonia, see above), gave it at the first big tournament of the year—as a NON-TEAM member (so my points didn’t even count toward the team trophy), and WON. First place. I still can’t believe it. But here’s the worst part—by winning at such a big meet, I was put onto the team (into one of the two spots) and displaced a girl who had been on the team for YEARS. She was only EVER gracious to me and was such a good sport, but I still regret displacing her.

7. I am not a good cook, but I’ve PERFECTED chocolate chip cookies. Consistently. Even real cooks say that they’re great.

8. I have a profound respect for / fear of BUNGEE CORDS after one snapped the hook into my EYEBALL. I thought I lost the eye for sure–and my eye surgeon said that many people do.

9. I had horrifying night terrors as a child and would sleepwalk right OUT of my house. Once I even unlocked a HOTEL door and was down the hall, pressing the button for the elevator, when the slam of the door woke up my parents and they retrieved me.

10. I loved accompanying all of the musicals in high school. It was incredibly hard work to be at pretty much every rehearsal—singers, dancers, lighting/tech. But I loved it and I miss it. I wish I could somehow hook into the public high schools or community theaters here in Billings as a backup rehearsal accompanist or something. It’s not a good stage of my life to be the actual accompanist—plus, I doubt I’m good enough anymore—but I’d love to play even just a little.

11. I’ve had a bunch of surgeries (I think either ten or eleven) and I think general anesthesia is fascinating. (Only because, other than one, they haven’t been life threatening or crisis surgeries.) I find it so strange to “lose” a big chunk of time. And coming back to consciousness—either slowly or with a WHOOOSH? It’s very, very strange and interesting to me.

12. I once stayed up pretty much all night to get Space Invaders to roll over from 99,999 to 0 on the first Atari machine. It was quite an “accomplishment,” but one that had absolutely no purpose and absolutely no proof.

13. I hate the Lord of the Rings. I know. I know. I’ll probably get de-listed by a bunch of friends for that one (some of my friends are crazy LOTR fans). I thought the movies were predictable and boring. I’ve tried to read the book like five times but I can never make it out of Bilbo’s stupid birthday party. I do like some of the Christ-imagery and I’m sure it’s a work of genius. I just don’t care for it. (Kind of like how I don’t really care for C.S. Lewis’s “Space Trilogoy” which I read because I learned it was his favorite of all his work. But I didn’t HATE the Lewis books—and I did finish them in my first reading.)

14. One of my happiest memories in all of life was accompanying Libby Awe as she sang “Ride on King Jesus” for our Black Literature class for Dr. Paul Olsen.

15. I was smitten by Fred the moment I saw him. I still think his dark brown eyes are the dreamiest and kindest eyes I’ve ever seen. (And even though I still miss having ANY relatives with blue eyes like me, I’m thrilled that Sophie has them because they are so striking against her fair skin and light coloring.) Fred, with all of his weaknesses (and after 13 years of marriage, don’t we know each other’s weaknesses!?!), is one of the greatest men I have ever known. He is a man of faithful, consistent care and deep integrity. Plus, he is incredibly smart, gifted, and enjoyable—and the world’s best father. I can’t believe he married me.

16. I now do all of my scrapbooking electronically (using Picaboo) and I LOVE IT. I will never go back to double stick tape and scissors.

17. I think I would’ve gotten much better grades in law school if I had ever, even just ONCE, looked at a study aid. But someone told me during orientation, “Don’t use study aids. Read the actual cases. Learn to be an actual lawyer!” And I took the advice a little too much to heart. I really think I would’ve structured my exam response much better if I had read the cases AND used the study aids/outlines. Sometimes I still kick myself a bit over this, but then I remember that who knows what my life would’ve looked like if I had entered into the world of big firms/lots of money/golden handcuffs AND it was a good discipline to, you know, just read tens of thousands of pages of cases and TRY to actually learn.

18. It is so rare for me to actually comfortable around any people that when I do, I just CHERISH it.

19. I still feel guilty over the fact that one day, my senior year of high school, I realized with about ten minutes left to go in lunch period that I had forgotten to write a poem that was due the next period for A.P. English. So I got permission to go to the typing lab and, literally, in one draft, with one try, in less than five minutes, I slammed out a poem called “LITEWORKS.” (As an aside, I remember it used the word “dun” because we had just had that as a vocabulary word and I thought it was an interesting word.) Anyway, I not only got an “A" on the poem, my teacher submitted it to a poetry magazine (which paid me $100 to publish it) AND I won the ”Critic’s Choice" award at some high school literary competition as being “the best” of all of the genres (short story, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, etc.). I was so ashamed! And I still feel badly about it. The bottomline is that I am very, very lazy. Except for preparing for my piano performance juries and my Bar Exam, I can’t really think of times I’ve been diligent and worked hard. This sloth is shameful and I’m praying for the grace—and trying hard—to improve.

20. I terribly miss not getting to be involved with music at church anymore. Even since I was born again as a teenager, music has always been a huge part of my church experience—both as a participant in corporate worship (I love hymns! All five verses!), and as a member of the choir, handbell choir, accompanist, director of handbell choirs, etc. I miss it terribly.

21. I almost (accidentally) killed a woman, child, and myself in a terrible FREAK accident involving driving a golf cart when I was WAY too young to have been given that responsibility. To this day, I am overwhelmed with gratitude to God that He gave me the presence of mind (as like an ELEVEN year old) to order the (adult!) woman—with child on lap—to JUMP OUT of the cart at the last second and to jump out myself. The cart literally FLEW off of a cliff and crashed many feet below. I still shudder when I think about it.

22. I type freakishly fast. It’s one of the things that I do well in life and I hope to train Sophia (once we start training her on computers) to be a touch typist. It’s just so much more efficient to not be slowed down by your typing speed.

23. Fred and I laugh the most when we are around one of two couples: my sister and her Fred, or Samara and T.J. Lynde. These people are SO different from us and SO interesting, kind, loving, fascinating … we laugh and laugh and enjoy them with the true joy of deep and abiding friendship.

24. If I had more discretionary income, I might do better at this … but currently? I am SO behind the times when it comes to technology. It took me FOREVER to even START using mp3 files. (Someone taught me the term “mp3 reluctant” and wow! That was me—and I’m still no pro at it all.) I neither twitter nor crackberry. My laptop is ancient and we went a LONG time with only dial-up internet access (especially because we have no cable t.v.—YUP, we’re about to lose our two analog stations any day now). But I ADORE my Bluetooth and can’t imagine life without it. (But if my hands are free, I DO take it out at stores when talking to real live people because I think it’s rude to not.)

25. As I see Sophia “drop back” from us on family walks (if she does something wrong), or pull away to her room (to “punish” herself by being alone), I am overwhelmed with gratitude to God that I get to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with my beloved child. I totally understand what it feels like to want to pull away (run away!) and hide when my sin and fallenness and selfishness comes out. But that never actually deals with anything! It just leaves us TRAPPED. But oh the freedom of the Cross! That we can repent, confess, and actually BE forgiven? And then have a clean start, fully reconciled to God and neighbor? Oh! This is great and glorious news and I love to be reminded of it over and over again and I love to remind my daughter of it over and over again too.

I’m not familiar with this show, but when Pastor JollyBlogger puts a link up, I pretty much always click through.

I’m really glad I did. This made me laugh and laugh. Hope you enjoy!

Wow! That Jess is quite a blogger. This post has a bunch of things worth reading, including this link to (ostensibly) easy recipes.

Hey! Maybe I really CAN keep our family on a tightened grocery budget this year. Here’s hoping!

Blessings to you–

Yours,
Tara B.

Don’t you just LOVE friends?

Like my dear sweet Finding Grace buddy (who has become a friend in real life too!).

This is the email I woke up to. THANKS for making me laugh, Em. JUST what I needed to start a relatively stressful day.



(Make me so proud to be a lawyer.)

THANKS, everyone, for the prayers and encouraging words too. We’re all doing OK here. The unknown is a little challenging–but we have a sweet sense of the presence and care of God. And we’re SO grateful to have access to such world-renown medical care.

(Oh, and no worries about hospitals and me, Martha. I’m kind of the surgery queen–started with a series of operations when I was a child to correct some birth defects, continued through my teen and college years, and even into adulthood too. So we’re all about pre-op and post-op and tests, etc. Sophia, on the other hand, hasn’t been around many medical things, but she usually picks up our peace-level or stress-level, so I think she’ll be OK. She also talks openly about the things she’s concerned about and that gives us lots of opportunities to explain, comfort, and most of all ... pray.)

My first thought this morning?

"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?" (Matthew 6:25-27)

God is with us. Grace abounds.

Hope you enjoy a blessed Tuesday!

Thanks again and much love,
Tara B.

Ray Ortlund’s title for this comic nails it:



Our Intuitive Theology

So ... my happy new year started around 4:30AM with a coughing fit. (We have a bad cold beginning to move through the three of us. Blergh.)

But then I had a sweet four-hour stretch of organizing, closing out the year, and budgeting for 2009 before Fred and Sophie woke up. Time to shred, toss, give away, and archive! Hooray! This is always a hard time of year, but a rewarding one too. Doesn’t it feel GREAT when your files are all cleaned-out and ready for the new year? I love it.

But I don’t love THIS ...

After Sophie was up, I went to feed Lilikoi AND THERE WAS A HUGE, CREEPY, SCARY LOOKING BUG IN HER DOG FOOD DISH (!!!!!!!)!

Yes, yes, I know ... nothing like the (literally) DEADLY bugs that PalmTreePundit has to deal with on a regular basis or anything ... but it was still CREEPY.

After trapping it under a glass (with a plate on top) so that a) Sophie and I could investigate it more closely until b) Daddy woke up and DEALT WITH IT, I did what I always do when I am creeped out by some giant, nasty bug. I googled something to the effect of, “What is that creepy bug?!?” and immediately re-found the world’s best bug site:

What’s That Bug?

In a way, I hate this site because my skin crawls. But in another way I love it, because it really has helped me to identify some creepy bugs and (I’m batting 100% so far!) comfort myself with the knowledge that they are NOT dangerous. Just creepy.

Like this morning’s little buddy. Fred gave me a head start on the (genus? class?) after checking it out (and squishing it) by telling me it was a TRUE BUG.

(Fred used to collect and categorize bugs. A LOT. 4-H and state fairs and projects and whatever ... I saw some strange bugs on pins under glass when visiting his family during our courtship. My favorite EVER was an entry from 1977 or so that little Freddy B. had identified the location where the bug had been found as, “ON MOM”. Yup. That’s one cool mother-in-law. Can’t you just picture it? “Fred! Fred! Come quickly. There’s a cool bug on me.” "Coming, Mother!")

So after only a few clicks, I figured out that our visitor this morning is a Brochymena. Nasty looking (to me) but harmless (hooray!).

Here’s to hoping that your new year got off to a little less buggy start.

Back to hanging file folders, archival banker’s boxes, and my beloved shredder.

Yours,
Tara B.

So funny!

Christmas Cake Wrecks

With the exception of one family (that really had, I believe, to do with the parents way more than the family size), all of the large families I have ever known have been just like this one ... imperfect, full of love and gratitude to God, fun and funny (I would assume the ol', “you either laugh or you cry, so let’s laugh” comes into play there once you pass eight or nine kids) ... wonderful.

I always thought we’d have a large family. We’ve talked about it a lot recently and neither Fred nor I ever even conceived of only having one child. And who knows? Our situation may still change, but maybe it won’t. And of course, every day we have with Sophia is such a gift.

But I still LOVE large families! I love to be around them. I love the chaos. I love the love. And this video is a hoot. Hope you enjoy!



(HT: Mommylife!)

I assume that most of you have seen the original version of this video, but just in case you haven’t (or if you’d like to see the new version), here is “The Mom Song.” Otherwise known as, “Everything a mother says in 24 hours set to the William Tell Overture.”



Sophie used to LOVE watching this video. Over and over again. She did, however, have one clarification/correction ... she said that to really be what a mom says in a 24-hour period, the mom needs to say, “I love you” more.

We enjoyed a lovely evening at the Peacemaker Ministries Christmas party last night.

I was blessed to share a table with El Presidente, Ken Sande (and his lovely bride, Corlette), and BrittleCrazyGlass too:



Hope your weekend is a restful and fun one!

Yours,
Tara B.

So funny!

The Seven People You Meet in a Prayer Circle

(HT: Stuff Christians Like)

Thanks, Maretta, for the great advice to check out Tim Hawkins on YouTube! Fred and I are laughing away. I think my favorite so far is this one:



Things You Don’t Say to Your Wife

I’m trusting that all of my homeschooling friends like to laugh at themselves too. I loved this.



(HT: TakeYourVitaminZ)

Thanks for all of the kind emails and comments about my last post. Life is just a blast, eh? Nothin' but fun.

WELL ... since I can’t stop the sea from rolling onto the beach, I decided that one thing I could do is make my daughter LAUGH AND LAUGH. So I “elfed” our family (& Lilikoi & Scout).

If you haven’t yet “Elfed Yourself” this year, I hope you will! They’ve added new music options and it’s even more fun than last Christmas.

Here’s the Charleston version ...



And my favorite ... DISCO!



Ya' gotta cry or laugh, eh?
And usually in life, it’s both.

Hope you enjoy!

Yours,
Tara B.

Absolute hysterical laughter. Tears streaming down my face. The kind of funny you just have to share with someone–so I took my laptop over to Fred (plus he was wondering what all the hysteria was about). I need a tissue. SO FUNNY:

And Now a Word from Your Thanksgiving Cakes

(HT: Cake Wrecks–When Professional Cakes Go Horribly, Hilariously Wrong)

3AM. Happy Thanksgiving (technically)!

Soph just startled and called out for Momma. Valiant Fred did jump up (to his credit) and hooray (!), no medical trauma in the night. Just a muffin in need of a few minutes with Momma, so I climbed into bed with her and cuddled until she calmly fell back asleep.

'Course Fred was instantly back asleep. And Lilikoi didn’t really come to completely puppy consciousness during the whole adventure. I’m the only awake creature because, well, that’s just the way I am.

I’ve been meaning to post on Michael Horton’s (wonderful! and painful ...) Christless Christianity, so maybe I’ll do that in a few minutes.

I do have my very last paid writing work for the year due soon, so I may be diligent and get right on that.

But first? I thought a LAUGH might be the way to go. So thanks to the wonders of Google and Hulu, I found this hysterical Thanksgiving episode of “WKRP in Cincinnati”.

You youngsters might not recognize the 1970’s theme music and hair and clothes, but I found it a strangely comforting flashback to some of the happier memories from my childhood ... staying up all night playing the original Space Invaders until is rolled over from 99,999 to 0 again (no pause button on the black and white television, no sir!); our first VHS machine and microwave; watching “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “Happy Days” and “M*A*S*H”. (Television obviously factored very heavily into my formative years.)

But mostly? I just laughed and laughed. If you have 24 minutes and want to laugh at silly dialogue and a very silly plot, enjoy “Turkeys Away”.

Hope your resting now and that your Thanksgiving is a blessed one. We will head to church at 10:00AM for our “evidences of God’s grace” service–an annual favorite for our church family.

"Now thank we all our God,
with heart and hands and voices,
who wondrous things hath done,
in whom his world rejoices;
who from our mother’s arms
hath blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love,
and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God
through all our life be near us,
with ever-joyful hearts
and blessèd peace to cheer us;
and keep us in his grace,
and guide us when perplexed,
and free us from all ills
in this world and the next.

All praise and thanks to God
the Father now be given,
the Son, and Holy Ghost,
supreme in highest heaven,
the one eternal God,
whom earth and heaven adore;
for thus it was, is now,
and shall be evermore."

With love,
Tara B.

Pastor Anyabwile has been cracking me up over at PureChurch and today was no exception.



I LOVED this song when I was a kid – well, the original version (a la cowboys). I think it was the only career advice I ever received from my parents and HEY! Look! Now I’m a lawyer living in Montana surrounded by cowboys.

Blessed Friday to you!

Yours,
Tara B.

Hysterical post today over at CakeWrecks:

Undeserving of Congrats

Enjoy!

I’m saving this as a “favorites” for awhile and seeing how often it makes me laugh out loud. If the future is anything like tonight, I’ll regularly be checking in on a new blog:

Cake Wrecks

As Fred says, “It’s the commentary that makes this blog SO funny.” And he’s right.

(HT to HalfPintHouse!)

PS

*** WARNING ****
Some of the cakes are a bit, ummmmmm, risque. Most are just funny, but please BE WISE–especially re: children viewing this site.
***WARNING*******

PPS
Here’s one of my favorites. (Be sure to remember Fred’s reflections and click through to read the commentary.)

I’ve posted the great cartoons by Pastor Joe McKeever before, and this one was just too good to pass up. (I laugh every time I even think about it.)

Hey! I just saw that whoever friends me on Facebook next will be my 100th FB friend. Super fun!

G'nite,
Tara B.

I had a particularly productive Domestic Diva Day yesterday and Fred came home to not one, but two Crockpots simmering away:



And they both turned out delicious! Hooray! If you’re interested in tasty, easy meals, check out the recipes over at A Year of CrockPotting:

CrockPot Harvest Stew Recipe

CrockPot Brown Sugar Chicken Recipe

Sophie and I also had fun during the day making a “store” for her to play in. We had price tags (yeah-rah for post-its!), signs, aisles, a checkout lane, and bags too of course.

After dinner, Fred and Lilikoi were our first official customers ...





Downloading those pics just now, I saw two others that Fred must’ve taken when I was in Canada last week:



And with that, I’ll sign off and go back to “building, coloring, writing, and saying” a little Math-U-See with my lovie-bug.

Blessings!
– Tara B.

The (wonderful!) manager of my local NWA counter asked me to give him my “top ten” ideas for his upcoming family vacation to Orlando/DisneyWorld and this is what I came up with:

1. Do your homework in advance of your trip. Read the family-oriented Orlando websites. Visit the discussion boards and blogs for the parks and activities that you are interested in. Before you get to Florida, you should know: a) What your family enjoys; b) What your family can afford; and c) What parks/vendors can meet your goals and your budget. If you have that framework in place, then you can relax and just enjoy your trip.

2. Unless you’re staying at a Disney hotel and ONLY going to Disney properties, don’t rely on hotel shuttles. Fred and I messed this up and it ended up causing us both time and money. The hotels/resorts always oversell how close they are and how easy/convenient it is to get to the parks. I can’t tell you how many miserable people I saw waiting for hot, cramped, miserable shuttle vans. Just rent a car if there’s any way you can swing it!

3. Go in the off-season. Seriously. I can’t imagine going to Orlando during peak tourist seasons. It would be madness! We were there in October and there were hardly any lines—and it still was hot and “hard” in that very fun, but physically and mentally draining sort of way. Avoid the tourist times if at all possible.

4. Don’t over-schedule your time. Plan for downtime. The parks are great. Really. But they are huge and they require a ton of walking. Especially if you have young children, plan for time to just have fun and sit and be. If you’re always running to the next major attraction / show / ride, and you never let your kids just splash in the water play area or slide down the kids’ slide, you’re going to miss out on a lot of the real fun of your trip. It’ll be a temptation to push and push to “get your money’s worth”; but remember—your goal is to have fun! And that might mean just relaxing at the hotel pool or cuddling together and watching a movie.

5. Don’t miss Aquatica & SeaWorld! We loved all of our time at DisneyWorld, but we really had a blast at Aquatica and SeaWorld. We strongly encourage you to buy the ticket that gives you admission to both parks. It is good for 14 consecutive days—so you can even go to a Disney park in the morning before the crowds and then book out after lunch when things get crazy at the Disney parks—and go and enjoy the cool, refreshing, super-fun water rides at Aquatica! (Plus you can pay for parking once a day and go back and forth between SeaWorld and Aquatica—so it’s a really good deal.) I would recommend to Aquatica to everyone—families with babies to the elderly. We loved it.

6. Use the FastPass at Disney. FastPass allows you to get a ticket to return to a certain ride at a certain time—and it saves a ton of time. Read about it online and then do it. As you get to a new area at Disney, scope out the longest line for the best ride and get your FastPass. Then go and enjoy the other rides in that area and go back for your FastPass ride when it’s time. It’s easy and super fun.

7. Take a PHOTO of the BACK of your Disney PhotoPass Card AS SOON AS YOU GET IT. One of the fairy Godmothers in training told us to do that—and sure enough, if I hadn’t, I would’ve lost all of our photos. But because I had the number, I had the photos. I just entered it online and bippity-boppity-boo, there the photos were! (The PhotoPass is a little card that the official park photographers scan when they take your photo with a character or in front of a landmark, etc. Then you can go online and order the photos as long as you have the number.)

8. If you have a little girl who likes the Disney princesses, then go for ALL of the princess stuff. It’s SO worth it. We loved our Bippity Boppity Boutique adventure. We loved the Princess Lunch at Epcot/Norway (much better, I’ve heard, than the overcrowded/no-fun princess one at Cinderella’s castle). We loved getting autographs and photos. The actresses who play the princesses are astoundingly gracious and we had a super fun time with them.

9. Pack breakfasts and light, non-melting snacks & water and use lines/train rides/waits to “refuel” a bit. Yes, everything you’ve heard and assumed about how expensive everything is in Orlando is true. And yes, you just have to be prepared for that. However, we found two things helped us to save significant money and kept us all happier. First of all, we packed disposable bowls and spoons and then we bought cereal, juice, and milk. We saved hundreds of dollars on breakfasts alone—plus, we could get to the parks earlier in the day. We also used lines, train rides, any kind of waiting times to refuel with light, non-melting snacks (like fruit leathers, dried fruit, nuts, granola bars, etc.) and rehydrate with bottled waters we had also bought at the grocery store. (All of the parks let you bring in waters.) Meals were sporadic and we were expending a lot of energy—snacks and water made everything better.

10. Wear sunscreen (and sunglasses & sun hats). I know this seems so obvious, but based on the number of people I saw who were bright, bright RED due to sunburns, I feel compelled to mention it … Florida is hot and sunny. Before you leave the hotel in the morning and at multiple times during the day, use sunscreen. A sunburn will completely ruin your trip (and do lasting damage to your skin!). Be safe. Avoid the sun!

I have no idea why these numbers are giving me a wry smile this morning–
(And I can’t imagine they’ll be all that interesting to any of y'all ...)

But for some strange reason, I feel compelled to share with you that:

1. I’m about to become a million-miler on my primary elite frequent-flyer airline. I find this so weird. I’m currently at 995,453 miles and with nine flights in a ten day period, over one million I go. 'Course, I flew most of these miles back in my pre-Sophie days, but still. That’s a lot of TSA screenings, eh?

2. Our YouTube video of Choza & Sophie continues to be in the top three or so Google hits for the phrase “world’s most patient dog” and we’re over 65,000 viewers. I just can’t wait until it’s on the BBC’s “animals at work” television show in 2009. Too fun!



3. My sister is turning 40 next month. Her husband is turning 50. AND they celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary this year–so they’re calling it their "century of fun!"

OK. Enough irrelevancy for the morning. Time to get ready to go.

Hope you enjoy a lovely Saturday–

Yours,
Tara B.

I met Pastor Anyabwile!



It was such a joy! My face about split open, I was smiling so broadly. He is SUCH a giant for the Lord. And SO radiant in his joy in Christ—I don’t know how you could be around him very long without grinning.

You know ... I usually don’t know who is in the People magazine that I often flip through waiting in an airport. I just don’t know who they are and why they are famous.

But churchmen? I’m a groupie. A junkie. For sure.

- I once taught a Sunday School class at a large church and the teacher ahead of me was Sinclair Ferguson. Couldn’t believe it.

- I still smile when I think about the brief interactions I’ve had with Ligon Duncan over the years–and when I think back on being interviewed on his radio program. He would never remember me, but I remember him. So winsome and gracious. So warm and inviting–to everyone around him. What a great, great man.

- I spoke at a conference once with Henry Blackaby and that was pretty cool. But the poor professor was SO sick that we all felt terrible for him. He hung in there and blessed us all–but I think we all would’ve preferred that he climb into bed somewhere with a nice cup of tea.

- And of course there are my “actual in real life” churchmen friends (Captain Dave, Paul Jensen, my pastors, Alfred Poirier and Jason Barrie).

I think I could go on a bit, but I feel like now I’m just bragging.

And so I’ll sign off ... but if I can, I’ll post some princess pics.

Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. My cold has only worsened. My ears STILL haven’t “popped” from my flights last TUESDAY, and all of the congestion has given me a splitting headache that thankfully hasn’t moved into complete “MUST stay in a dark room and NOT MOVE” mode, but it’s been teetering on that edge for 24 hours now.

But I survived my workshops and DVD-related stuff yesterday (didn’t do great, but I tried my best!)–

AND (I can’t believe it because I really should’ve been in BED!), I even went out with Kali and Sophie last night. More on that when I have another minute.

Today is going to be very hard. I leave my hotel room at 8AM, teach three workshops, have a DVD/book-signing (with JUDY so that’s great!!), and go right into hosting a table at the banquet this night with Fred. Oh, how I pray that I serve well.

And I hope you enjoy a lovely weekend too!

Yours,
Tara B.

Joe Adams made me laugh (again) by posting a great “1950’s Yearbook” photo of himself on his blog, so I ran over to YearbookYourself.com and made photos of myself from the 1960's:



And one from the 1990’s that Fred would probably identify as looking (scarily) just like the version of me that he met in 1993:



So what would YOU look like in the 50’s, 60', or 70’s?



Smilingly,
Tara B.

This quote made me chuckle one of those “Hmmmmmm ... strikes close to HOME!” sort of ways:

"If you can’t be a good example, then you’ll just have to be a horrible warning." Catherine Aird

Remember that mistake our accountant made back in, oh, APRIL?

And then the SECOND mistake he made–to his credit, trying to help but not understanding one tiny (albeit important nuance) of the I.R.S.?

And remember how I freaked out (who me?!) and we had to come up with THOUSANDS of dollars to pay taxes that we DIDN’T owe?

Well ... finally ... yesterday (yes, almost SEPTEMBER), we received that huge interest-free-loan-TO-the-IRS back. I am SO grateful!! And reconciling off the month in Quicken will be SO much easier this month not having to juggle that cashflow challenge.

What a grace. Whew!
I am rejoicing in God’s provision and looking forward to getting to the bank.

Big Kindergartener Girl Day Today!
Fall is here.

Hope you have a great one–

Yours,
Tara B.

I can’t believe it–but it’s true. I actually joined Facebook.

I don’t plan on spending a lot of time there–but it’s already put me a little bit in touch with some “blasts from the past” which is quite fun.

Do you Facebook? Maybe we’ll bump into each other as fans of Peacemaker Ministries or some other overlapping interest. 'Twould be grand–especially for insomnia nights.

Love ya!
– Tara B.

Just in case you ever walk in on me and I’m SUPPOSED to be working ...
And you want a sure-fire TEST to know whether I am ACTUALLY, in fact, working ...

Just see if I’m listening to my “able to concentrate in any environment and block everything out” music:

- Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier (TOTALLY got me through undergrad, law school, the Bar Exam, my MBA, and writing Peacemaking Women)

- John Field Nocturnes

- Any of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas recorded by Maurizio Pollini

- (And if I’m feeling particularly chipper and hip–like right now ...) Old albums by Grant Geissman

I think my tired ol' brain just needs multiple things to process or else I lose focus.

Hope your Friday is going well!
– Tara B.

For my word-loving friends ...

Do you know about the Visual Thesaurus?

I didn’t until a few minutes ago (although I would have if I had actually clicked through an email that Ken Sande sent me back in 2007).

It’s pretty interesting and although I’m not ready to pay the subscription fee today, I’m definitely going to keep it in mind.

Click through if you’re a word lover–but don’t waste your “free trials” because you only get TWO.

Back to work now–

Yours,
Tara B.

I encourage you to click on over to Taylor Lynde’s ebay store and check out his current listings. Oh, there are some incredible fine art steals!!



Plus, in today’s post, he quotes what (by familial rumor) used to be my favorite song as a small child ...



("Make 'em be doctors and lawyers and such ...")

This past spring, a woman at one of my events made a lovely little dress for Sophia:



She gave it to our family as a gift, but I think that she also makes them to sell in order to raise funds to adopt a child.

If you know her (of if you ARE her! ), would you please drop me an email and let me know if I could possibly purchase a couple more for Sophie? It is her favorite and I love it too, so if I could get her another one, that’d be great.

Thanks, friends!

Yours,
Tara B.

I’ve been enjoying all of the Wordles popping up on blogs I read, so I decided to go and Wordle my own:



I’m not sure how “pink” and “cat” earned such prominent placements–but I’ll take the “God,” "Christ," and “Reminder/Reminded” any day.

Oh–and thanks for the encouragement re: Fred and me. We actually laughed and laughed tonight SO HARD and for SO LONG that it felt like the old normal. (I don’t think it would translate well as to WHY we were laughing so hard–it had to do with Fred playing tug and then ending up doing arm curls with our Golden, but I think you really had to see it to enjoy it as much as we did.)

It was great to laugh together.
You have to trust to laugh, don’t you?

Our family devotions and hymn tonight both reiterated how God’s mercies are new every morning. What a glorious truth.

Blessed Sabbath to you tomorrow!

Yours,
Tara B.

Have you ever met/encountered-in-real-life someone REALLY famous?

It hasn’t happened that much to me and I never thought I’d find it all that big of a deal. (I’ve always thought that big-time fame must not be that great of a thing–other than the good you can do because of it.)

But apparently, I get star-struck and glassy-eyed with the rest of 'em:

- Once I walked right past Daniel Barenboim on Michigan Avenue right outside of Orchestra Hall. I completely froze and with my jaw dropped could only blurt out, “Maestro!” He smiled in return.

- Dan Quayle’s wife, Marilyn, and her many Secret Service agents, walked right past me when I was at an ATM in undergrad. I kind of felt bad that I hadn’t gone to hear her speak but I did greet her warmly.

- Nadia Salerno-Sonnenberg smoked a cig in a practice room at my college back when I was still a piano performance major. (Who? Tara? Piano? Yes, yes ... that was a LONG time ago.)

I’ve driven three Supreme Court Justices from Outer Mongolia all around a tour of Chicago. I’ve prayed with Pastor John Piper before a big conference plenary session. And I’ve had some Christian conciliation cases with people whose names you would recognize–but (OF COURSE!)–names I would never tell anyone (who didn’t have a need/right to know). Not even Fred.

But my all-time big-time famous person interaction JUST happened a few weeks ago in the WorldClub in Minneapolis.

Sophia and I were heading toward the snacks and we walked right past Hal Holbrook and his assistant! Good thing Soph is such a cutie-pie ... I didn’t even feel that silly stammering out something along the lines of, “Wow! Hi! It’s an honor to meet you! We’re big fans. We LOVED you in The West Wing!” (He played a GREAT occasional character named Albie Duncan.)

It’s funny, isn’t it, how weird it feels to interact in “real life” with someone we’ve only seen on a screen or stage far away? I still laugh at my deer-in-the-headlights moments.

Hope you have a great Saturday!

Love,
Tara B.

So ... I had invited a friend to meet me this morning for a nice walk with Lilikoi on the beautiful rimrocks that surround Billings:



BUT THEN (scary music here), I happened to mention said walk to my other Golden Momma friend, and she explained that we just CAN’T go up on the rims "BECAUSE THE SNAKES ARE REALLY BAD THIS YEAR" (!!!!).

Yes, yes. That’s right. Apparently, you know, MINUTES from our home, THE RATTLERS are having their babies and populating up the nice trails we walked on all winter long. “My son saw a FOUR FOOTER recently,” mentions my friend (!!!!!).

I casually mentioned this little exchange at Fred’s softball game last night (thinking it was an amusing if not shocking anecdote), but the six people surrounding me (including CHILDREN) didn’t even BLINK. “Yup.” "Yes." “Oh, yeah. You can’t go up on Zimmerman trail again until winter. The snakes are really bad when it gets hot.”

So here’s the question I asked them:

WHERE DO PEOPLE IN MONTANA GO TO LEARN THIS STUFF?!?!

I mean, SERIOUSLY! I had just (innocently) invited my friend to (apparently) the WALK OF DEATH. Is there a book or something I should read to AVOID such things in the future?

(Totally reminded me of the very first time Fred and I ever visited Montana. Have I told you that story? How we were charged by a moose during rutting season, asked a native about it the next day, and received this casual reply, “Oh. Yeah. Well ... I never go on that trail unless I have MY GUN” (!!!!). Fred and I still laugh–somewhat nervously–when we think about it.)

Anyway ... no early morning rattlesnake-filled walk for me today. And for you too, I hope.



Happy Tuesday!

Love,
Tara B.

Wow! This is GREAT!

Someone has put up a website to help people reunite with lost memory sticks and cameras:

Found Cameras and Orphan Pictures

I lost every single photo and movie from a cruise that my sister took us on in 2005 (I still cringe when I think about it!) ... so who knows? Maybe my memory card will show up on this site one of these days.

(HT: MommyLife.net for the great link.)

(Oh! And BE CAREFUL! The “PostSecret” section apparently has very inappropriate photos.)

My original Thomas the Tank Engine for GIRLS blog post continues to receive a LOT of traffic.

I really think there is a HUGELY untapped market here and if I had money to invest (or any related SKILLS–like the ability to SEW), I’d jump in and start advertising on ebay or something.

C'mon Thomas! Where’s the PINK! Give us some LADY & Gordon & James & Percy in cool PASTELS or frilly skirts. We’d buy ‘em! We’d wear ’em! You could be rich(er) and our girls would be thrilled.

PS
To the recent commenter … no, I don’t think I could sell you her Thomas the Tank Engine Sun Dress. Made by beloved Grandma Chris?! That’s staying in the family treasures area. Sorry we couldn’t help out!

Oh, how I LOVE PalmTreePundit!!

Thank you, Anne, for linking to the giggle:

Prayers for Myers-Briggs Types

Here’s mine:

"INTJ: Lord, keep me open to other’s ideas, *wrong* though they may be."

I totally laughed at ALL of them! But especially:

- ISTP: God, help me to consider people’s feelings, even if most of them ARE hypersensitive. (This is Fred’s personality type! )

- ISFJ: Lord, help me to be more laid back and help me to do it EXACTLY right.

- NFP: God, help me to keep my mind on one th - Look a bird! - at a time.

(HT: Coffee Klatch)

I hope that your Friday is off to a great start!

My “pack” (Fred, Sophie & Lilikoi) are all still snoozing away and I am taking advantage of my FAVORITE (and most productive!) time of the day–early morning–to do some last minute prep for our family’s trip, Dryel a blouse or two (don’t you just LOVE Dryel?!), AND continue my efforts to TRY to prepare for to serve the church where I will speak next weekend (Thursday-Saturday).

Hence the prayer request ...

After a few days of FUN FUN CHICAGO FUN with my family, on Wednesday, I will go to the Milwaukee area to:

1. Share my testimony on Thursday night with a group of around 150 women (many of whom are seekers); and

2. (All day Friday and all day Saturday): Teach, facilitate group exercises and group discussions, and lead a (growing) group of church leaders and lay leaders who would like to learn better how to help OTHERS who are in conflict.

Peacemakers has graciously allowed me to use some of their materials–but I am creating all custom role-plays and exercises (with the HOPE that the church will get excited about the topic AND the model and then bring Peacemakers back to do a REAL “Peacemaking Church” initiative with their REAL Practicum training events).

ANYWAY ... some HUGE HUGE details changed as of yesterday morning, so I’ve been mulling and mulling and praying about how to “tweak” the structure/schedule/role-plays and now I have to leave on our trip WITHOUT EVERYTHING DONE. Eek!

In a way it’s fun and exciting. (Reminds me of the times I’ve served overseas organizations and missions organizations with similar trainings ... everything is last-minute and fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants and wonder-how-this-is-going-to-work-out and all that. (But it always DOES work out.)

But in a way, it’s a little scary and hard ... Rather than being in COMPLETE have fun traveling with my family mode, I also have to pull this together in the next couple of days. And I don’t see a long stretch of uninterrupted work time on the horizon. (I work best on big projects like this when I can just wall myself off, away from EVERYONE, and really CRANK.)

I do so long to serve them well! To encourage them in the gospel! Direct them to God’s Word and wonderful resources to help them to understand and OBEY God’s Word, etc. etc. So your prayers would be very appreciated.

Oh! And I also wanted to say THANKS to all of you BRAVE LURKERS who actually left a comment on our Free Stuff! Free Stuff! Giveaway. I know how hard it is to try new things (especially related to technology!) ... so great job!

AND ... I’d love to send the “runners up” a little goodie too, if you would like one. Just email me your real (mailing) address and let me know if you’d prefer the CCEF booklet “Pleasures” (my all-time favorite) OR a “Tara Teaching CD.” I’ll mail them off as soon as I get home from this trip.

OK! Back to work before our morning family cuddle-time starts. (I love mornings!)

Yours,
Tara B.

I just did a little online book shopping for Fred and me after reading CJ Mahanney’s recent blog on Books for the Beach. His list was a perfect fit for Fred and me because I love reading about WWII and Fred loves reading about sports.

We don’t actually have any beaches coming up this summer–but, Lord willing, we will be enjoying some swimming & snorkeling with Sophia this coming September (Florida’s Peacemaker Conference!) and December ("Cinco de Sophie"–Auntie Kali & Uncle Fred are taking us all to MEXICO to celebrate Sophia’s fifth birthday and swim with some dolphins). Fun fun! We are very, very blessed.

Once we get back from this big family trip (on June 23), we are really hoping to establish a calmer, more family time & “reading-filled” & conducive to exercise/healthy eating summer tempo. Moderation. A little bit at a time. Continued growth in grace.

Hope you are all doing well! And thanks for the hello comment, Karen! I met a woman this past weekend in Florida who said that she enjoys this blog but she’s never yet left a comment ... so I know it can be a little hard/scary to leave a first comment. So good job, Karen!! I am happy to hear from you. It really encourages me to know that I’m not just blogging for my mom and Fred to read.

HEY! Since we’re chatting about being brave and leaving a FIRST COMMENT ... how about a little giveaway?? I’ll do another post in two seconds and see if we can draw out any lurkers.

Love to all,
Tara B.

I saw this quote on a woman’s bag here at my women’s conference in California and thought it might bring you a chuckle too:

"Too blessed to be stressed!"

Amen?
Amen!

I am not usually a fan of Walmart. It’s not a big social-action issue for me or anything. It’s more that our local Walmart is dirty, overly-crowded, poorly lit, and staffed by surly people who seem to simultaneously hate AND know nothing about their jobs.

HOWEVER, I am a TRUE CONVERT to the online Walmart.com photolab.

My mom had asked for “real” photos (not digital/email) and usually I have to burn the files to a disc, pop over to my local drugstore, pay my $.18/ea to print them, put 'em in an envelope, head to the post office (since I’m not sure of the weight/postage), and send them.

NEVER again.

At the Walmart.com photolab, it took me MINUTES to set up an account, upload the photos, put in my mother’s address, and pay the TEENY TINY fee to have them shipped directly to her. PLUS, when I signed up for the account, the box for the email address had my absolutely FAVORITE thing–a privacy policy RIGHT THERE that said they would not sell, give, or use my email address for unsolicited mailings. Hoooooray! So sign me up.

My mom received the gorgeous prints in just a few days and I was THRILLED to scratch it off of my to-do list with a minimal amount of effort.

No, I’m not getting any kind of payment for this referral. I just wanted to be sure to let you know about this because it might come in handy for you.

(But in the interest of full disclosure I WILL tell you that one of Fred’s older brothers–Fred is the youngest of FIVE brothers–does work on the upper management team for the Walmart.com photo lab. Actually, that’s the only reason I even gave it a chance. I’m glad I did.)

Hope your Tuesday is going well! I had THREE girls here all afternoon after our little church co-op this morning, so it’s been ballerinas and mermaids and tea parties and forts. In other words, a nice day.

Joy to you–

Yours,
Tara B.

When Lili and I got back from our morning walk, I found THIS on the kitchen ceiling:



And THIS on our front door:



I guess Sophie wanted to transform our home into the restaurant “Red Robin” ... just for the fun. And she remembered that there were lamps over the tables (hence the kitchen art).

The other thing that made me laugh was the “mask” she made this past weekend when I was in Georgia. (I first saw it over the webcam.)



I guess Fred offered to cut eye holes so that she could, you know, SEE. But she liked the mask the way it was.

What a fun age 4 is!

Thanks for the giggle, Anne (and the temptation to BUY THIS!!):

T-Shirt of the Day

Leave it to BrittleCrazyGlass’s Molly to crack me up with a LUTHER quote:

Dressed for a Funeral

Thanks, Molly. A laugh was just what I needed right now.

I found these “really really really BAD preacher” videos HYSTERICAL over at Pastor JollyBlogger:





And this interview quite interesting (especially being married to a man who loves baseball):

An Interview with Ben Zobrist

(There’s a great West Wing quote about how “there is a certain age when a man realizes that he is never going to play professional baseball”–poor Fred. I think he’s reached that age.)

Hope your Tuesday is going well!

Love ya,
Tara B.

As we all cuddled on the couch this morning, Sophia brought “Grandpa & Granma” (Fred & me) her baby dolls ... sisters Anna and Elizabeth. We gave them bottles and lots of kisses and I think Lili became a bit jealous.

So she joined in the fun:



'Tis a good life, eh?

Randy Alcorn’s Blog often has profound/deep thoughts about life, death, sin, grace, suffering, generosity, etc. (His children’s book on Heaven really was a blessing last year when we lost Choza, our baby, and Grandma Marjorie all in the course of a few months.)

But today? No profound thoughts. Just a compilation of things, one of which made me laugh:

"With all the sadness going on in the world, it’s worth reflecting on the death of a very important person, which almost went unnoticed last week. Larry LaPrise, the man who wrote “The Hokie Pokey” died peacefully at the age of 93. The most traumatic part for his family was getting him into the coffin. They put his left leg in. And then the trouble started."

(Guess he actually passed in 1996. But as a momma who has enjoyed the Hokey Pokey many-a-time with her girl AND with her Hokey Pokey Elmo AND with the Polkaholics, the joke still made me laugh.)

After I webcam breakfast with Fred & Soph, I have just GOT to get some ghost writing done now before I head out for my event! I usually try to do it each week on my outbound flights, but I was just WAY too tired/zoned yesterday (and my Inbox was just way too full of messages needing a response) ... OR, the TRUTH? I was just lazy.

So ... back to work! Hope you enjoy a lovely day.

Remember! Though we are faithless, He is ever faithful!

Love and blessings,
Tara B.

PS
Here is the Easter pic they took of Soph and me. I hadn’t planned on getting my picture taken–or I wouldn’t have worn a big bulky green sweater and/or had my hair in its naturally “curls by Jesus” state.

So what does it mean that I REALLY enjoy reading things like this?

Chicago Style Q&A

???

Not only did I come home to TONS of laundry done by the Fredster (saint Fred!); he actually ordered the bills and paperwork AND put out our new bedroom linens too! Wow!



I still have to iron the bedskirt and find some curtains ... but OH! It is just such a more restful and “warm” room that the old COLD BLUE AND WHITE.

(For a flashback reminder ...)



We are very grateful to my sister and her hubby for the Christmas gift of a do-over on the room! What a blessing.





(I’m still marveling that I could find an “overstock.com” $99 steal on the entire bedroom set (including pillows!) AND Costco lamps AND that I had some old prints in the basement that all match the new paint color too. Add in a couple of end tables from–literally–GOODWILL and we have a new bedroom. Hooray!!)

G'nite and God bless,
Tara B.

My sister blessed me (yet again!) with a haircut in a groovy northside Chicago salon ...
And after a LONG time waiting for a cab (cabs are VERY hard to get in the snow!!), I totally knew that I could walk back to my sister’s home NO PROB.

So I bundled up and headed out the door. It was GREAT.

Three miles of Chicago urban delight.
If Samara or Fred had been with me, I would’ve popped into some tiny little tavern for a warm-me-up-toddy. (I don’t even know what a toddy IS!)

But instead, I just walked.
WAY faster than the pace of cars inching, inching, inching their way in the snow.

TOTALLY not cold ... it was SNOWY, but not cold.
Very, very happy.

It reminded me of my childhood–many of our childhood homes were in the Midwest and there was a LOT of snow in the 70’s and 80’s.

It was great.

I hope that you are all tucked in toasty-oasty warm ... safe and sound.

I’m going to wash up! And warm up! And head to bed.
Currently scheduled for a Saturday AM departure (yes, yes, all of the flights I COULD have been on this afternoon have been canceled, so it appears that we made the right call).

Happy Thursday night to you!

Yours,
Tara B.

If you (like me) think that you get credit just for owning books–
And if you (like me) keep buying books because you love 'em!
And if you have, say, five or six books going at any given time ...

You’ll enjoy this post from Pastor JollyBlogger!

Happy Sunday, all!
(And Hi Chicago! It sure was great to be with you.)

Much love,
Tara B.

I should’ve taken a photo ... but we were all in WAY too many layers ...

Lilikoi and I JUST got back from WALKING the girls to ballet class.

Normally this is not blog-worthy news ... but it’s like 20 degrees out and we have a LOT of drifting snow ... so it was quite an adventure.

I left plenty of time and bundled everyone up in enough layers that no one complained about the cold. BUT ... I just asked our neighbor if she would drive me BACK to pick UP the girls in like ten minutes because MAN! It was cold and slippery and the snow was DEEP and it was just too much for this Momma to do twice.

(Oh–and I had to ask our neighbor because there is just NO WAY that our little Honda Civic would make it through the drifts and snow-ruts. Cars and even SUVs are spinning out and getting stuck all over the place ... so I am going to take advantage of my generous neighbor’s Suburban for the return trip. You know ... one of these days, if we keep living in Montana, we are going to HAVE to just pray in a heavier, 4-wheel-drive vehicle for our family. These winters are insane.)

ANYWAY ... just wanted to share my snowy adventure with you! I’m sure my little pink-cheeked, happy ballerinas are having a blast and Lili is licking the snowballs off of her paw-fur at my feet. I’m off to find dry socks so the girls don’t have to get cold again after class.

Hope you’re warmer than we are!

Love and blessings,
Tara B.

Yesterday I (finally!) started to come around re: MP3 files and (as we did lots of other things) I ripped a bunch of my CDs to my laptop.

It will be SO wonderful to get to travel with a nice selection of classical, jazz, worship, Black chorus, bluegrass, and even one country album (can you believe it?! country? ME?! but it’s SO fun!).

There is one TINY problem, though ...

I’m not sure I’m going to EVER be able to listen to my Glenn Gould Goldberg Variations! He really DOES hummmmmmmmm along AS he plays! (Blech! Great pianist. Not so great singer.)

I never noticed it on my little stereo at home, but it shows up BIG TIME when I listen through my snazzy travelin-Tara Bose noise canceling ear phones. So I’m thinkin' I might end up skipping this album a lot.

How fun to tackle this little MP3 fear! And it wasn’t even hard. Sometimes technology actually works the way it’s supposed to. Yeah-rah!

Happy Monday, all!

Yours,
Tara B.

Happy Birthday Considerable Grace!



Three years old today! It been great to blog with y'all.
(A little southern there for our dear PalmTree Anne.)

Oh–and isn’t that the most scrumptious looking cake? If anyone were ever to throw me a surprise party for any reason ... a cool cake like that would, you know, not be unappreciated. (Hint hint. )

Happy Sunday, all!
And Happy Birthday blog!

Yours,
Tara B.

So what is it with me re: January and home repair projects?

Right after I hired a (great!) college guy (who is a skilled painter) to paint our bedroom,
Moved every single thing OUT of our bedroom and INTO Sophie’s,
Moved US into the basement for the week,
And watched this great guy (FINALLY!) get rid of the blue I have hated in my bedroom pretty much every single day for seven years since we put it in ...



OF COURSE, the hot water faucet in our bathtub BROKE and started spouting (pouring/gushing) HOT WATER ...
And after I called Fred to find out how to turn OFF the water to the house (actually not that hard to do now that I’ve “bravely” done it rather than my norm of waiting for Fred to come home and rescue me) ...
I THOUGHT I had a moment’s reprieve.

Until ... Soph came out of her schoolroom and said:

"There is water dripping on my FOOT."

(Not a good sign given the fact that our schoolroom is directly BELOW the bathtub that just blew a gasket or something.)

So one more frantic call to Fred ("What should I do?! Water is coming through the CEILING into the schoolroom!!") ...
And I just have to ask:

What is it with me and January and home repairs?

(As in: What could I possibly have been thinking?)

TOTALLY had to check my blog archives and, sure enough, the last time I tried to do a home repair project like this was the "Let’s surprise Fred with a re-done bathroom" adventure of January 2007.

I would have kept on meandering through my archives (somehow I can tolerate old blog posts whereas I can’t handle even MINUTES of having to HEAR or SEE myself teach–BLECH!) ...

But of course I have WATER coming in through my CEILING!

So no meandering.

Just one more quick January blog archive comment, though, before I wade back into the chaos of our home ...

January 13, 2008 will mark the three year anniversary of this blog. Yup. My first blog post ever (referring to “S.” who is, of course, Samara) was posted on January 13, 2005.

Weird, huh?
Who’d a thought we’d end up still together after three years?
Around 1,000 real visitors a week (not counting seconds-only-SPAMBOTS).
From all around the world.

What a privilege!
What a joy.

I start traveling to teach again in one week ... so I assume I’ll get back on point again re: women and peacemaking and all that.

But I just wanted to say hello and g'nite from the chaos of the Barthel home.
(Oh–and next January ... maybe someone can WAVE ME OFF OF any home repair ideas I might have. )

Blessings to you!

Yours,
Tara B.

Had a crazy-busy day today that culminated with the Peacemaker Ministries Christmas party and dinner in honor of our dear friend, Dave Edling’s, retirement from the Peacemaker staff.

We were so blessed to get to be seated by Dave & his beloved, Pat! Fred said, “Merry Christmas” as he switched my name plate with his so that I could sit right next to Dave. We laughed & laughed the night away.

One of the little “party games” they played included a list of “things no one knows about me” and the names of the various staff and spouses.

Fred’s TOTALLY cracked EVERYONE up. Absolutely NO ONE knew this about Fred. (Well, except ME of course.)

I received the Reserve Champion award for my chocolate chip cookies at the County Fair.

Hysterical! What a guy.

No one guessed MINE either. First they tried to tag me with this really really REALLY long-winded lawyerly description of someone who served on a teen jury in discipline cases in high school or something. Sheesh! And THEN they tried to tag me with being a CHEERLEADER in junior high. Hah! Talk about being at the disparate ends of the spectrum.

But here was mine:

I won FIRST PLACE in my eighth grade science fair with a project on erosion.

True story. And no one was more surprised than ME.



Hope you had a blessed, blessed day.

Sending you love–
Tara B.

I save funny essays / blogs / whatever in a file and when I hear that someone is in the hospital and could use a little diversion, I print it off and read them my favorites or send it to them in an email or snail-mail if they’re out of town.

They are mindless. They are not theologically accurate. They’re just silly and they have made me laugh for YEARS so I keep 'em.

Anyway–I sent the file to my friend whose son had emergency brain surgery last week and I keep cracking up over some of them–so here’s hoping I don’t lose too many of you wonderful blog readers by revealing my weird sense of humor.

Grinningly,
Tara B.

Bargain Children’s Books

- You Are Different, and That’s Bad

- The Boy Who Died From Eating All His Vegetables

- Bobby Was So Bad His Mom Stopped Loving Him

- Some Kittens Can Fly

- The Magic World Inside the Abandoned Refrigerator

- Strangers Have the Best Candy

- Daddy Drinks Because You Cry

- Controlling The Playground: Respect Through Fear.

Kids' Little Instruction Book on Life

"Never smart off to a teacher whose eyes and ears are twitching."
-Andrew, Age 9

“Wear a hat when feeding seagulls.” -Rocky, age 9

"When your dad is mad and asks you, ‘Do I look stupid?’
don’t answer him." -Heather, age 16

“Never tell your mom her diet’s not working.” -Michael, age 14

“Don’t pick on your sister when she’s holding a baseball bat.”
-Joel, age 12

“Never try to baptize a cat.” -Laura, age 13

“Never do pranks at a police station.” -Sam, age 10

“Never dare your little brother to paint the family car.”
-Phillip, age 13

"Remember the two places you are always welcome-church and
Grandma’s house." -Joanne, age 11

Things That it Took Me 50 Years to Learn (by Dave Barry)

- The most powerful force in the universe is gossip.

- The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above-average drivers.

- There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age 11.

- There is a very fine line between “hobby” and “mental illness.”

- If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be “meetings.”

- A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.

- When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy.

- Your friends love you, anyway.

- No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously.

(Please don’t take this post too seriously! Love–tkb)

Surprising Good

Couldn’t BELIEVE it when the friends who have the lab & Golden–where Lilikoi goes for her “puppy play dates”–told me that their neighbor came over the other night quite surprised to find THEIR two dogs rummaging all over the neighborhood, “while another Golden Retriever sat at the edge of their driveway looking quizzically at the other two dogs.”

Huh? Our Lili? Actually doing something GOOD? Weird. And rare.

Surprising Bad

(NOT bad in the NOT eternal/important sense ... just surprising) ...

When Sophie and I were running errands last week, I had to do a return at Ben Franklin’s. Minutes later, at Sears, I realized that the Ben Franklin’s clerk had not returned my Visa. No biggie. Accidents happen. No prob.

I quickly headed back to get my Visa–and the store clerk happened to be walking OUT of the store on a break. “Oh, yeah, you forgot your Visa,” she says. And then she proceeds to reach NEXT TO THE CASH REGISTER (right out in public where people are MILLING all around!) where my credit card is just SITTING THERE OUT IN PLAIN VIEW!!

I was so surprised I didn’t even say anything. So weird. I’m just glad nothing bad happened–eek.

(Sorry. No big life lessons here or anything. I’ve just been meaning to tell you guys these two stories. )

Well ... I received permission to post two (WONDERFUL!) pics of Golden Retrievers from readers of this blog, so here they are:



Sweet Meghan (no longer with us) and gorgeous Calum!

Here are our two ...



Choza (with a MUCH younger Sophia Grace)–Choza is no longer with us but her video on YouTube has had almost 22,000 views!

And our sweet Lilikoi ("Lili")–asleep at my feet as I type this:



Anyone else?? Any Golden Retriever owners out there who’d like to join this post??

(Oh, and yes yes ... I love your mutt & your lab & your whatever too. (Even your cat!) But just to NOT turn into a cute-animal-posting-all-night-Tara, only Goldens please. )

Love ya' and blessings,
Tara B.

PS
More pics keep arriving ...



Jonah & Sadie!

Totally cracked up at friend/prayer time this morning (we’re trying Mondays now) ...

One friend saw these sayings on magnets at an airport this weekend (returning from our denomination’s missions conference):

You don’t scare me. I have children.

(AND)

Speak the truth and exit quickly.

Ahhhhh ... hysterical. And SPOT ON.

Hope your Monday is off to a great start!
I touched YEAST last night. Photos and everything when I get a spare minute.

Blessings and joy,
Tara B.

Well ... I finally did it. I have officially changed my homepage over to iGoogle.com.

I’ve subscribed to the RSS feeds for all of you bloggers that I read regularly (and that HAVE rss feeds on your blogs).

The headlines and columnists I like to read? Added.

Search tools I use? Got 'em.

AND I took two minutes and organized them all ... FINALLY.

I’ve been hearing about how great iGoogle is
And I’ve KNOWN that I should do it (rather than just putting up with my lame Yahoo page that 90% of the stuff is outdated/unused/never even looked at).

And finally–sitting here in my completely darkened hotel room ...
with my migraine (I think!) GONE (I’ll know for sure when I try to get up and/or turn on a light) ...
five minutes before I need to get showered and head into my night ...
IT’S DONE.

Hooray!

Do any of you guys use iGoogle?
Wow. This almost feels as good as when I archive my hanging file folders 2X/year and shred shred shred / archive archive archive our family’s necessary paperwork.

Happy Friday!

Love,
Tara B.

PS
Our DEAR friend stopped by on Wednesday and blessed our socks off AND Sophie made her a beautiful Mosaic:



And then dictated a super-funny (to me anyway) story for her involving a cat, two genies (one gets caught in a closet–WITH THE LIGHT OFF!–and the other gets frozen in an ice cube), and a nap:



And my (wonderful) pastor and his wife went to the Reformation Day Party as Samson & Delilah:



AND we had TWO Dorothy’s to play with our Dalmatian:



What a good life. A great life. I am a blessed, blessed woman.

(HT brittlecrazyglass & apparently Tim Challies too!)

NOT what we’d call “biblical counseling” at all ...

Well ... I’ve seen this on other blogs, but I’ve never experienced it myself before today ...

I’ve been tagged by my friend, Sarah Joy!

"meme break…You have to open the book you’re currently reading on page 161 and read the fifth sentence on the page ... “

So ... the most recent book I read was this morning, ”The Complete Book of Arts & Crafts Grades K-4" and page 161 is actually (strangely!) the exact craft my friend and I are preparing for next week’s pre-K co-op! The fifth sentence reads:

"3. Place a leaf on your work space with the vein side up."

Now THAT’S stimulating, eh?

(I even braved a trip to MICHAEL’S with two four year-olds to get rubbing paper and yarn! No panic attacks or anything. Now seriously ... THAT’S growth.)

Other page 161’s in other books I have in the “reading” position around my house?

- “Presently a loud bumping noise overhead proclaimed her presence in Mr. Partridge’s office.” (Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers)

- (not exactly the fifth sentence–but it’s OH SO GOOD!) “The Christian world is ministered to by tired people ... Show me a great church and I’ll show you some tired people.” (The Call to Joy & Pain by Ajith Fernando, quoting Kent Hughes)

- “I wonder why the person put leaven in the loaf?” (Young Children and Worship by Sonja Stewart & Jerome Berryman)

- “What will you do if the other person does not confess his or her sins?” (The Peacemaker by Ken Sande)

- (again, not exactly the fifth sentence–but oh so good!) "I choose to be rude, Sir, and to be hard of hearing." (The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages by Harold Bloom, quoting Moliere’s Alceste in The Misanthrope)

I’ll stop there before I show how many books I REALLY have PARTIALLY read/started and reveal in even greater clarity how truly strange I am.

Now I’m supposed to “tag” five other bloggers, right? Hmmmmmmmmmm ... I’ll post their names here just in case they want to participate, but in the spirit of, “I never forward emails,” I won’t email them or anything. (No pressure! I can’t imagine they’ll have the time to participate even if they want to.)

How about Molly, Anne, Martha, Pastor JollyBlogger, and Shelley

OK ... seriously? I truly believe that this particular work I’m doing right now (serving on a peacemaker team, striving to help an entire church) is some of the BEST work I could ever have the privilege of doing ... but is also the SECOND HARDEST work I have ever (EVER!) done in my life. (Second only to parenting.)

So please know that we are working HARD and we take our work very, very seriously.

HOWEVER ... in the 50 minutes we had free over the dinner hour tonight, I also LAUGHED so hard that my sides literally HURT.

This is probably MOST do to the fact that one of the members of the team is one of my favorite people in the world–a man I consider a spiritual father to me AND who has been one of Fred’s and my dearest friends EVER–"Captain Dave."

(If you’ve ever heard me teach in any context, I’m sure you’ve heard me refer to him and how he & his wife have ministered to us over the years.)

But it also might have something to do with the fact that Dave had just told us about some hilarious SPOOF of The Four G’s that someone had sent him. (With all of these anti-peacemaking G’s like: “Get outta there!” and “Give it to him!” or some such things. I found it hysterical.)

ANYWAY ... laughing is GOOD. (Especially when you’ve been crying a lot and involved in some very intense conversations day after day.)

And that’s why I’m posting THIS video (with a big HT to SoloFemininity.com!):

Everything a Mom Says in 24 Hours Condensed to 2 Minutes and 55 Seconds AND Set to the William Tell Overture

I laughed out loud and even clapped at the end (it gets better and better as it goes on).

Hope you enjoy!

Yours,
Tara B.

Almost midnight ... still entering data but I just got this link from my darling hubby and I’m totally smiling.

(If you watch the video, scroll down to question 18–that' MY FRED!!)

OK–back to work.

Love ya,
t

At our friend/prayer group this morning, I made the off-hand comment that I was FASCINATED by my friend’s super-cool-very-rectangular PURSE and, if she was ever comfortable sharing, I would LOVE to know what was in it.

She immediately started to unpack it and show us what was in every pocket & zippered area & velcro’d section. It was SO fun!

So of course, the next woman did the same. And then the third. And then I pulled out my “fly 100,000 miles a year” carry-on (with my “MacGyver Just In Case” tiny little “everything I might possibly need on the road” pouch from some Clinique bonus) and my “I’m at home in domestic diva Momma Tara mode” purse.

Seriously? It was a BLAST!

I’ve never asked a girlfriend to show me her purse before–and I’ve certainly never sat with three friends as we all shared how we organize our lives and what our “must haves” are in our purses. Fun fun fun!

Did we pray much this morning? Nope!
But I’m still smiling and it’s been like ten hours.

!!

God bless, all!

Love,
Tara B.

Challies.com posted a sweet article on how we can all encourage our favorite bloggers. Hope you enjoy!

Oh–and Sophie and I are going to fly to Chicago in the morning. (It was a crazy night as I did laundry and quickly packed us up for the trip.) Thanks for the encouraging notes–and especially the prayers.

God bless!

Yours,
Tara B.

Last night as we were cuddled-up as a family after reading time, Sophie proclaimed that she knows “all about” celebrating the 4th of July. Here is her description:

"There are firetrucks in the sky.

They look like palm trees–but they don’t have the sticks. And they come in lots of colors.

They make sounds like, “Boom boom boom,” and some go “Fwsssssshh.”

I thought, “Not bad, kid. Not bad.”

So happy firetrucks and palm trees with no sticks, my friends!

Of course, actually ... Happy and blessed Independence Day! May we all remember the great cost that our founding fathers and families paid to establish our beloved country.

Independence Day: In the United States, a holiday, the 4th of July, commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on that day in 1776. (The Declaration of Independence: the declaration of the Congress of the Thirteen United States of America, on the 4th of July, 1776, by which they formally declared that these colonies were free and independent States, not subject to the government of Great Britain.)

Why is it that everything feels like a SPIDER just after one scampers across your workspace? (Even if you’ve squashed the poor thing into oblivion?)

Inquiring minds working hard in a basement want to know ...

Fred and I had a few chuckles last night as we looked at some of the search terms that bring people to this blog.

Many of them are what I’d expect:

- resolving conflict with women in a christian way
- christian ladies conference planning
- ways of showing love to neighbors
- women and peacemaking

But some just make me laugh and wonder what the story behind them could possibly be:

- names teach knitting machine s.l.c. utah
- snicky snacks
- rude women with strollers

But here’s my absolute FAVORITE search term that brought someone to this site:

the best thing you can do when you’re married is put your trust in God and pray alot for your marriage and be joyful towards your husband

Now THAT’S a great search term.



Hope you all enjoy a wonderful Wednesday!

I have so much to get done today–I’m praying that I will be diligent and faithful.

Yours,
Tara B.

No big (or small) spiritual insights here ...

Just a note to let you know that as of this weekend, I have officially switched from Netflix to Blockbuster and I am SO HAPPY that I did:

- Although my sister and “her Fred” (in Chicago) get their Netflix videos in ONE DAY, it has taken one WEEK for me to get mine (approximately 2-3 days for them to get my return and than another day to get a new one);

- But Blockbuster has this SUPER COOL feature where you can return your video to the STORE and they IMMEDIATELY send you your next online video out of your queue ... AND they give you a free rental RIGHT THEN THAT VERY MINUTE; and

- All of this costs the exact same as Netflix. To the penny.

Well ... my “working through old tv shoes on dvd while working out” brain AND my ol' MBA brain (which found the competitive advantage of Blockbuster’s brick & mortar stores fascinating) just couldn’t resist such a deal.

Guess I get to find out this week how Season 5 of “24” resolves! (Shhhhh ... please don’t tell me. No spoilers here. )

We’re enjoying such a sweet, quiet Sabbath.
A day at home.
What a gift!

Hope you are all enjoying a blessed, blessed day–

Yours,
Tara B.

Tomorrow morning, Sophia and I will leave the skyscrapers of Chicago and enjoy some Midwestern farm fields on our way to Morris, Illinois.

Morris was a small town when I lived there in high school–10,000 or so people–and I remember it fondly for many reasons:

- Most importantly, it is the town where I was saved by God that fateful night my freshman year of high school. (Thanks again to all of my high school friends who shared the gospel with all of us messed-up teenagers and befriended us and prayed for us!)

- It is the school where I have some of my happiest memories related to music (jazz band & swing choir & musicals & accompanying) and speech team (SUCH a long story–but WOW! How grateful I am to Mrs. Hughes and Mrs. Miller even to this day) and some really great friends who were true evidences of God’s grace to me during a tumultuous time of life (Brian, Kaleo, Chris, Carmen, Nancy).

- Of course, Morris is where my mom attempted suicide and I was called out of my physics class and had to go home alone and call 9-1-1 and pull her out of the oven and all of that. (So sad and scary!!) And then that very night I was tucked into Cindy (Livingston) West’s childhood bed in “Grandpa Paul and Grandma Donna's” home ("My Christian parents" who let me live there until I went off to college).

- And this wonderful “old, stodgy” (not!) conservative Lutheran church, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, became my FAMILY as I was fed by communion, preaching, corporate worship, prayer, the creeds & confessions, and ESPECIALLY the HYMNS. Oh, how I still love hymns and liturgy. Little ribbons tucking into specific pages so you can follow the service; sitting & standing & sitting & standing ... ummmmmmmmm ... there is something good about routine. Or at least there was something VERY good about stability and routine to that terrified, messed-up, scared, abandoned little teenage girl back in 1985.

ANYWAY ... it’s always strange and good and full of pathos to visit Morris.

Do you ever visit a “childhood home”-type area and have a FLASH/RUSH of emotions/feelings/thoughts as though you were still sixteen years old???

(I think of my first butterfinger blizzard (blizzards JUST came out during the 1980’s!) ... AND never feeling like I fit in at high school football games but going anyway ... AND driving my very VERY very old bright orange Datsun-B-210 that we called “Ducky” that men from my church kept running for years with their donated time and love and parts and duct-tape ... AND I think of how thrilling it was to have the one boy I really liked and respected and cared about in the entire school as me to PROM (we’re still friends to this day! He even has a daughter named Sophia Maria–fun, huh?) ... the highs of nailing a difficult accompaniment in a competition, the lows of being rejected by a group of friends I trusted and loved; Madrigals & French Club & short-term missions & every moment of every day scheduled in that frenzied teenage overachieving overinvolved sort of way ...)

You know, thinking about all that makes me REALLY grateful that I am 36. (Actually, I’ll be 37 in ten days because FRED turns 37 in two HOURS and he really “robbed the cradle,” eh?)

I’m glad to be 37.
I’m glad I’m not a teenager anymore.
I’m so grateful to be God’s child.
I’m so grateful for His Spirit, His Word, the Church.

I have a hard time believing that I have such a kind and gracious and loving and faithful husband and best friend.
And an amazing, snuggly daughter too? It’s just too overwhelming. Too wonderful. So sweet.

That I have such a close, true friendship with my sister? (And “her Fred” too?) What an evidence of God’s grace.
That I can say with assurance, “There IS a place for me in this world.”
(This is a good thing.)

I am not who I was.
And I am not who I one day will be.
But I am known. And saved. And being saved.
And, but God’s grace, because of Christ–I am loved and forgiven; justified and adopted; being sanctified.

Thank You, God, for Morris, Illinois!
I’m honored to bring Sophie there tomorrow to spend some time with the Livingstons and the Funtes ... and to have my present life (which is SO rich and dripping with grace) “bump into” my former life (where You were present and sovereign and good! but which was filled with so much sorrow too).

I love You, God.
Thank You for Your mercy.

Amen & Amen

Just a quick note to say hello from Chicago and let you all know that we’re having a grand time.

Sophie hasn’t stopped giggling yet as Uncle Fred and Aunt Kali shower her with love and attention and fun AND a great trip to the ZOO today.

And I was in my happy place too because when they all went on their zoo adventure, I got to stay home and ORGANIZE. Hooray!

(As you might imagine, with both of them working full-time jobs AND being with Marjorie every single day in the hospital for the last six weeks prior to her passing last Thursday, there were a few “piles” of “to-do's” around that I was MORE THAN happy to help out with. Filing? Writing checks? Paying bills? Sorting? Ahhhhhhhhh ... now THAT’s a vacation! )

(I know–I know–how weird am I??)

Anyway ... Grandpa Charlie and Grandma Kathy arrive tomorrow and then Sophie and I are OFF on our cross-Illinois to Peoria, pop into Iowa for some Whitey’s and friend-time, cruise on up to Galena/Dubuque for more friend-time, see Fred’s family, and then head back to Chicago adventure. I’ll be sure to let you know how it all goes.

Oh–and I’ve had TWO event inquiries since my pathetic little “doesn’t anyone want a speaker” blog posting last week! Isn’t that just great and merciful and all that? I’m excited at the possibility of serving.

God bless you all–
Happy Sabbath!

Yours,
Tara B.

In addition to launching our groovy PeaceGals discussion board, Fred and I tackled another technology task when I had him “cornered” on an island last week ...

He taught me how to look at some (anonymous) details about who visits my blog.

It’s pretty amazing & humbling & at times ... kind of funny too.

TRULY AMAZING
We’ve had over 3,000 visitors to this blog in April alone!

We’ve had visits from people from across the USA (Missouri, Washington, Hawaii, Georgia, New York, South Carolina, Oregon, Florida, California, Maryland, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Okalahoma, Illinois, Montana, and MORE!) ... and even from all over the world (Brazil, Australia, Taiwan, Canada, Finland, and MORE!).

I really thought that there were like THREE of us reading this blog ... my mom, Fred, and me (to proof read and look at the cute pictures of Sophia and now Lili).

Until I saw that–hey! someone is actually out there reading this thing!–I was thinking seriously about taking it down. (Back to journaling privately, eh?) But maybe I’ll keep it up for a little while anyway ...

HUMBLING
I was VERY humbled at some of the search terms that brought people to this blog:

- Help for Christian marriage restoration
- Cruel parents
- I’m struggling with sin will God forgive me?
- Christian marriage unhappy
- Jesus forgive me of my condemning sin; please change my black heart within
- why is it so hard for me to repent each time i try to
- In the bible help with bitterness toward a friend
- Struggle with turning from sin
- What does the Bible say about sloth?
- falsely accused how to respond
- Making amends mother-in-law
- trusting people that have hurt you as a christian
- I’m fat and tired and scared

Wow. Can you even BEGIN to think about the stories behind those search terms? I prayed for each one and I will continue to do so now that I know how to access this information. Truly humbling.

FUNNY
'Course, there were some funny search terms too:

- What do I do when I get frustrated
- dolphin tummies
- licking her shoe
- shnug puppies
- golden doodle
- girls thomas the tank clothes

OK–it’s late and we should get some sleep.

THANKS to everyone who stops by! Hope to get to “meet” you in a comment one of these days.

Love ya and God bless ya!
– Tara B.

PS
Have you joined PeaceGals and emailed me your snail-mail address to let me know you’ve joined PeaceGals and POSTED SOMETHING? I still have some FREE copies of The Peacemaker and When People are Big and God is Small to give away! So please join today.

If you ever try to join our discussion board and fail to get approved in, please email me and let me know.

We have to screen out TONS of SPAM every day and sometimes we miss a REAL applicant.

Thanks thanks thanks!

Your friend,
Tara B.

(HT to “Don’t Try This at Home” for the link. )

Does anyone else have AWAKE TIME between, you know, MIDNIGHT and 2:30AM?

Even when I’m really tired, I’m often awake during these strange hours.

Like tonight ... I woke up with an IMPORTANT (well, at least my subconscious mind thought so) idea/issue/question about the arbitration hearing I am running tomorrow (guess it’s TODAY now since it’s less than eight hours away).

Pulled down my laptop and files. “Resolved” the issue (thank You God!). But I’m still awake.

What do YOU do when you want to sleep but you’re awake?

I check in with Samara’s husband, TJ’s, PAINTINGS because that is always a balm to my soul.

I usually pop over to the NWA forum on FlyerTalk.com because that’s always a great read for frequent flyers.

And I check in with a few of my favorite blogs too.
(Do you have any blogs you check in on every day? Or often?)

Oh yeah, and I pray. It’s a good time to pray.

Anyway–I’m going to try to wind down again now and get some sleep.
Just wanted to say hi!
And thanks for the prayers too.

So many of you NEVER post a comment but you are faithful ENCOURAGERS to me via private emails ... and I am grateful for your kindness, love, and prayer no matter HOW (or IF) you ever contact me.

God bless you and keep you in Him!

Your friend,
Tara B.

BUT ... I think that we MAY have some great news to share in a couple of weeks ...

And it would have SOMETHING to do with my romantic, wonderful, thoughtful, sacrificing, generous, kind hubby’s surprise for me this morning:



And something MORE to do with this little love bug:



I’ll be sure to let you know how things progress ...

Of course, no dog could ever “replace” our Choza. I still miss her terribly!

But I’m SO excited ...
And tentatively hopeful!

(While we wait on the Golden Retriever breeder, we have to survive the next ten days as I arbitrate again on Wednesday, draft and issue my final ruling on the case, and complete my DVD study guide. FRED has to get a HUGE project done at work–and oh yeah, I’m working to complete my “Grandparents Guide to the (Barthel) Universe” with every piece of possibly important information that my parents could use when they come to take care of Sophia while Fred and I take our (first ever vacation without Sophia!) trip to HAWAII. (I’m speaking at a women’s retreat and we were able to get Fred a ticket for only 35,000 miles! Amazing!) THAT’S why we can’t bring her home TOMORROW ... I have to wait until we’re back from Hawaii on the 19th. Oh! I’m so excited that we might get this little pup.)

Happy Maybe Puppy Day!

Love ya,
Tara B.

I HATE email forwards. I don’t have time for them and I REALLY don’t want to receive them. (So PLEASE don’t get any ideas from this post and start including me on your “oh this is just so great I have to forward it to my pals” email forwarding list, OK?)

BUT ... all that to say ...

I found this in an OLD OLD file and thought it was just so sweet that I’m posting it for your enjoyment.

Happy Saturday to you all!

(Oh–and thanks for the prayers yesterday. The hearing went well, but has to be continued on Wednesday. Here’s hoping I can get the entire hearing done before Hawaii or else I’ll be arbitrating from a beach, eh? )

Love to all,
Tara B.

—-

“Young and newly married, I relaxed under a pecan tree on a hot Texas summer day, drinking iced tea and getting to know my new sister-in-law, Estelle. Not much older than I, but already the mother of three, Estelle seemed to me experienced and wise. ”Get yourself some girlfriends, Linda," she advised, clinking the ice cubes in her glass. “You are going to need girlfriends. Go places with them; do things with them.”

What a funny piece of advice, I thought. Hadn’t I just gotten married? Hadn’t I just joined the couple-world? I was a married woman, for goodness sake, not a young girl who needed girlfriends.

But I listened to this new sister-in-law. I got myself some girlfriends. As the years tumbled by, one after another, gradually I came to understand that Estelle knew what she was talking about. I remembered that she had said the word “girlfriends” with emphasis. As I went along, I discovered the subtle difference between friends and girlfriends.

You go to work with friends, go to dinner with friends, go to church with friends, belong to clubs with friends. You send friends greeting cards. You need friends in your life; all girlfriends were once only friends.

But a girlfriend is different. A girlfriend is not “just like a sister.”

Sisters have a distinct bond, sometimes good, sometimes bad. Sisters flow from family attachment, girlfriends choose each other. A sister also can be a girlfriend.

As a thank-you to my sister-in-law and to the other girlfriends in my life, I offer this praise of girlfriends. Here is what I know about girlfriends:

Girlfriends don’t compete.

Girlfriends bring casseroles and scrub your bathroom when you are sick.

Girlfriends keep your children, and keep your secrets.

Girlfriends give advice when you ask for it. Sometimes you take it, sometimes you don’t.

Girlfriends don’t always tell you that you are right.

Girlfriends might send you a birthday card, but they might not. It does not matter in the least.

Girlfriends laugh with you and you don’t need canned jokes to start the laughter.

Girlfriends don’t yammer about you behind your back.

Girlfriends pull you out of jams.

Girlfriends don’t keep a calendar that lets them know who hosted the other last.

Girlfriends will give a party for your son or daughter when they get married or have a baby in whichever order that comes!

And girlfriends are there for you, in an instant and truly, when the hard times come.

Girlfriends listen when you lose a job or a husband.

Girlfriends listen when your children break your heart.

Girlfriends listen when your parents' minds and bodies fail.

My girlfriends bless my life.

Once we were young, with no idea of the incredible joys or the incredible
sorrow that lay ahead. Nor did we know how much we would need each other. I want to tell younger women to take my sister-in-law’s advice.

Get yourself some girlfriends. You are going to need them."

Author Unknown

Saw this over at Mommylife.net and totally laughed. (Even after an EXHAUSTING night during which Sophie did not sleep but instead felt compelled to CRY and WHIMPER and WAIL all night in an inconsolable state. Which she NEVER does unless she’s getting sick. BUT she’s not acting sick at ALL this morning. So then I think, “ear infection?” But she says she’s fine; no fever. But then I wonder, “Should my relatives REALLY take her up a MOUNTAIN tomorrow while I speak at this event?!?” But I digress.)

Enjoy!
(And thanks, Barbara!)

As we were about to drive out of our garage last night, Fred realized that he didn’t remember where our friends lived. He was going to pop inside to check the address when Sophie piped up:

"Mom, Dad ... I’m pretty sure they live in MONTANA."

Nice. Thanks, dear. Very helpful.

Have you seen this video?

"

Amazing, isn’t it? So why is it so easy to feel like such a FRUMP when I run to the store, FEVERED AND SICK, at 5AM ... to think, "I’ve let myself GO" (rather than, “I’m human and doing the best I can!”).

You know–other than having sufficient cashflow to GO TO SEMINARY, I have to say that there is NOTHING about the lives of the “superstars” among us that I envy or would want. Can you imagine how hard it is for THEM? To always have people expecting poor Jennifer Anniston or Oprah or whomever is famous now to look “just right” ALL THE TIME?

Ugh!

How I pray for the grace to raise Sophia with a beautiful HEART!
Made beautiful by the blood of Christ.

(HT to Barbara Curtis for posting this video on her blog!)

Adventures with sugar and baking ...



Our super-fun small group meeting tonight (replete with gift packages for our troops!) ...



And last but not least, here is Sophia playing in her pretend glasses “just like mom” ...

Wow. So sorry I’ve been such a terrible blogger this past week–please know that I am eager to come up for air. Any day now, right?

!!

Just to let you know ... I’ll be taking over 50 packages to the post office tomorrow to send many of you a little thank you gift/prize for participating in our blog/discussion board/FrapprMap. I hope that they give you a little smile or two.

Regarding the gifts, please note:

- I assume that some of you will have duplicates (i.e., you already have the book / tapes / CDs / whatever) ... I hope that you can donate or re-gift them if that happens.

- Although our family budget tried to be as generous as possible, some of you will only receive a booklet or two – but two of you will receive $99 Group Studies and 2 more will receive signed copies of The Peacemaking Pastor. And the Vacation Bible School curriculum is winging its way to one of you too. Thanks in advance for understanding our limits with the “bigger” gifts. Wish we could do more to bless you!

- Last note: Sorry I couldn’t put a personal note in with the packages–but even with the media mail rate, my trip to the post office was still $100 (and if I had put in a personal note, I couldn’t have used media mail). Thanks again for your graciousness in this regard.

Seriously? I’m grateful for you all.

And I’m truly hoping that you’ll start participating in the discussion board even more ... my goal is NOT that I would be the one “answering questions” ... but that you all would be praying for one another and sharing your wisdom, grace, and love with one another.

Anyway–grandma and grandpa are here (arrived today).
I’m starting to dig out from the piles in my office.
And I’m hopeful that I’ll be writing again soon.

Joy to you all!

Yours,
Tara B.

PS
If I don’t receive snail-mail addresses from the following people ... sorry, but no prizes for you. So please drop me a line and give me your address if you’d like a goodie:

- Jean G (SC)
- Chris F. (NM)
- Leslie W.
- Elizabeth K.
- Andrew W.
- Rebekah D.
- April L.
- Cindy F.

OK. I promise to get back to real postings again soon. (It’s just going to be one more “really rough” week – and then I should be able to really come up for air again.)

But I want to get the super-fun-prizes out if possible ... and I THINK I’m ready to do the drawing. But I thought I should check with you guys first and make sure that I didn’t miss anyone.

SO ... if you did an Amazon review, posted a comment to our blog or discussion board, or joined our FrapprMap between September 29 and October 31, 2006 and your name is NOT on one of these lists (or all of them if you did all three), would you PLEASE email me immediately and let me know?

(Sorry that the discussion board and blog and FrapprMap don’t allow me to find this out “for sure” without having to ask you guys–but I don’t want to accidentally leave anyone out.)

ALSO: If your REAL NAME is NOT OBVIOUS by your login or the name you use online, PLEASE let me know too. (Otherwise, how can I send you a PRIZE?? !!)

Thanks, friend!
Love you bunches,
t

AMAZON REVIEW
S. Evans (MD)—actually Emily Evans
Elizabeth Kerr

DISCUSSION BOARD LOGINS
Susan Peeler
Leslie
Shannon B.
Jean G
Siety
Llesing
Dgendjar
Lisa Miller
Missy Lee
Tonfuf
Marilyn@covenant
Leslie Wiggins
MTMartin
Magistra
Susan P.
Grace Honeywell
Berta
Annie
JulieTX
JaniceM
Janice Mutchler
APMWalker
MMW-FL
Tara Slate
Beth
Julie Shelton
Shannon Bullock
Janet Smies
Chris Royce

FRAPPR
Iris Godfrey
Marilyn Woolard
Andrew Walker
JulieTX
Rebekah Dawson
Jessica Lisa
Vita Stites
April Little
Janet
Marilyn@Covenant
Shelley Gallamore
Nancy Lee
Rosemary Pratt
Berta
Shannon Bullock
Missy Lee
Pat Litchfield
Chris Finnegan
Siety Koopal
Jean Griggs
Nancy Sentell
Cindy Forehand
Judith Brauer
Chris Royce
Daphne
Lynn Miser
Leslie
Lindy Davidson
Shirl Huscher
Janice Mutchler
Emily Evans
heather
Rena
Connie Sullivan
michelle
jen kobayashi
kathy wargo
Nancy Sentell
Saunjack
APMWalker
Janet Smies

COMMENTS ON BLOG
Leslie Wiggins
Janice M.
Vikki McCleary
Berta
Nancy Lee
Janice Mutchler
Susan Peeler
Tara Slate
Kathy Wargo
Shannon Bullock
Janet Smies
Deb
Fran Clason
Jas
Jeff
Janice M.
Angel
Andrew Walker
Melodee

I’ll be flying on three planes tomorrow so I should have time to work through our little “participant list” for prizes in our latest drawing.

If you haven’t already EMAILED ME to let me know that you left feedback on Amazon.com, joined our FrapprMap or discussion board, or posted on my blog, please do so TODAY. (And please make sure I have your snail-mail address too!)

I hope to be able to post en route to MS tomorrow and get the gifts sent out next week.

Thanks, friends!

Love to you,
Tara B.

Seriously ... I love to get biblical and practical resources into the hands of women! And I NEVER give your contact information to ANYONE (not even Peacemakers).

SO ... take just a couple of minutes BY MIDNIGHT TUESDAY (this all ends on 10/31) and you could win fun stuff! Free stuff!

1. Start a new topic or post a reply on our online discussion board;

2. Review my book (“Peacemaking Women”) on Amazon.com;

3. Post a comment on my blog; and/or

4. Join our FrapprMap.

(And email me to let me know that you’ve done so!)

To read all of the details, just click here.

Love to all!
– Tara B.

PS
As of today, only a FEW women have participated so statistically speaking, you’ll probably win something! Hope you’ll participate–it’s fun.

PPS
Check out Sophia at our little local “Boo at the Zoo” adventure. (It was particularly fun to take her to Lowe’s and Linen & Things BEFORE the zoo because we had to run a few errands. She made a lot of people smile.)

Fun stuff! Free stuff! For only a few minutes of your time:

1. Start a new topic or post a reply on our online discussion board;

2. Review my book (“Peacemaking Women”) on Amazon.com;

3. Post a comment on my blog; and/or

4. Join our FrapprMap.

(And email me to let me know that you’ve done so!)

If you haven’t already participated, I encourage you to do so!
But the deadline is October 31, 2006–so don’t delay.

(Honestly? Not that many people have participated so the odds are EXTREMELY high that you’ll win a prize.)

I’ll copy some of the details below ... but if you’d like to read all of the details, just click here.

Love to all!
– Tara B.

* * * * * * * * * * *

To (hopefully) entice you (even a little bit) to follow-through on any (or all!) of the following ideas, our family has some goodies that we would like to share with you. (Are you sensing another “Tara Drawing”? You’re right!)

The goodies will, of course, include the standard “Tara CDs” and other peacemaking materials that you’re probably familiar with (including the $79 Peacemaker Ministries Leader’s PeacePacks!). But how about some new things too? …

Peacemaker Clubs—A Five-Day Vacation Bible School
Program for use with Puppets



Signed copies of my pastor’s (and the Chairman of the Board
of Peacemaker Ministries’) first book—The Peacemaking Pastor
(just published last month by Baker!)



“Four G’s of Peacemaking” coffee mugs &
“Slippery Slope” coasters (and I may even include some
“infamous” Mountain Mudd Coffee—a Montana favorite)

So how can you win?

Each time you do one of the following things and email me to let me know, I’ll enter your name in a drawing. (If you do three things, you get three entries. Two gets two, four gets four, etc. etc. Sound fun? Fair? I hope so!)

Here are my requests (and your chances to win!) … each one could take less than three minutes:

1. Start a new topic or post a reply on our online discussion board;

2. Review my book (“Peacemaking Women”) on Amazon.com;

3. Post a comment on my blog; and/or

4. Join our FrapprMap.

Sound doable?
Fun?
Helpful?

Can you see how the more we encourage, help, and pray for one another, the more effective we will be during this (often lonely & painful) life? I hope so!

And I truly hope to “see” you online soon!

(Oh, the drawing for prizes will end October 31, 2006—so don’t delay!)

And please do let me know how I can be of service to you—

Your sister in Christ,
Tara Barthel (& Fred & Sophie too)

I wrote a LONG (I’m sure TOO long) email to a friend this morning on the topic of blogging ... and while I won’t bore you with its entire contents, I thought I’d pass along my closing comments:

It’s rare for me to bookmark a blog and ever return. When I do, usually my reasons are:

1) I know the bloggers personally and it’s fun to read their thoughts/reflections and check back with them periodically;

2) I sense a careful, prayerful, deep-thinker behind a winsome, God-focused, well-written essay; and/or

3) The blog provides helpful information on a topic of current interest.

The blogs I NEVER return to are:

1) Rude, proud, ugly in heart, unloving, and/or filled with BAD THEOLOGY (ESPECIALLY the so-called “Christian” ones!);

2) Boring, stupid, poorly-written, daily, “I bought groceries. The kids are napping. Gotta go now!” reflections on lives without (apparent/communicated) careful reflections on God, the heart, laying hold of Christ, or any sort of eternal perspective; and/or

3) Obviously pecuniary (out to make money!). I’m all for people earning sufficient money to live simply and generously … but as my sister says, “You can be a counselor or a salesman, but not both.” If I think you’re recommending something just to get me to buy it, I’m not going to listen to you for very long on ANY topic.

So what about you guys?

Why do you bookmark a blog and return?
Why do you say, “Not for me!” and NOT return?

(I’m particularly hopeful that some of your “lurkers”–people who read but never post a comment publicly but often email me privately–will share! )

Happy Sunday to you!

Yours,
Tara B.

So let’s say that you think your toddler has an ear infection but you KNOW “they” say that you should try to wait it out with pain/fever meds and NOT run to your doctor for antibiotics (b/c overuse of antibiotics just leads to stronger bacteria overall).

But ... “they” also say that if her fever is over 102.5 and persists for more than four days ... bring her in. There could be complications, other infections, etc.

SOOOOOO ... you call up the best doctor in the world (we LOVE our doctor!!!) and bring in your precious lovie-muffin for a visit. Yesterday.

Daddy comes too (for moral support) and there you all are. Yes, fever. First ear, “Looks great! Pretty and pink. Perfectly healthy.”

(Uh-oh! Why did I burn another $100 on a doctor visit for THIS???)

Next ear?

- SO INFECTED THAT IT WOULD’VE BURST IF LEFT UNTREATED!

- Clearly bacterial (something about being translucent and viruses not lasting four days like that ... I don’t know ... I can’t remember ... things got pretty fuzzy after Momma heard the word “BURST.”)

So here is the important safety tip:

When the best doctor in the world (someone you consider a friend! he saved your life and your daughter’s life during her traumatic birth two years ago!) says, “Hey, Tara, want to see what an infected ear looks like?” (Because Daddy is holding lovie-bear Sophia.) SAY NO THANK YOU!!!!!!

Seriously. It’s GROSS.

I don’t know how you medical professionals do it. IT CREEPED ME OUT. BLEEEEECCCCCHHHHH!

But oh! How grateful I am for free samples of a great antibiotic.
Nurses who give hugs.
And a doctor who listens and counsels and takes care of us all.

We love you Dr. Hemmer!
And nurse Lisa!

And most of all, thank You God for helping our Sophie-bear to feel better. (Hopefully soon.)

Love to all!
(And remember–just say no to that glance down the otiscope!)

Your friend,
Tara B.

OK ... this might not be as funny to non-RMCC folks (Rocky Mountain Community Church, PCA–my home church) ...

But after reading this post (which continues in this post) from my friend Molly R’s blog, I just can’t stop laughing. So I thought I’d share it with you too.

(As a little “background,” the deacon she ended up calling, Lewis Vowell, is the one I refer to on my CD’s as the dad who says, “All my kids got their good looks from ME–because their mother kept hers.” AND the owl-catching-woman (Karen, his wife) is the friend who brought me over the cream of tartar and the recipe book for biscuits. Remember? They have Kerry Lou, Kelly, Karla, Clark, Corey, and Kayla. )

Thanks, Molly (& “Ainsley!”) for a great story.

Happy Tuesday, friends!
Be blessed!

This IS the day that the Lord has made.
And all our hope is in Him.

Your friend,
Tara B.

I posted this blog a few days ago:

"OK – I know you’re out there and I’d really love to get to see your picture on our FrapprMap!

Plus ... if only five more of you join, we’ll pass the 100-member-mark! Wouldn’t that be cool?

To try to entice you, I promise to send a present to whomever is our 100th member! (And 97, 98, 99, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105 ... you’ll all be automatically entered in our drawing for super fun free stuff!)

So please join today!

Love ya & g'nite–

Your friend,
Tara B."

And I’ve SO enjoyed the response!

We’re already at 103 members–and I’m ready to send a present to the person I THINK is the 100th pin: Shelley Gallamore Waukesha, WI, USA.

Shelley, can you please email me with your snail-mail address? Thanks!

And to everyone else–let’s go for 150! 200?!

Remember: everyone who joins by October 31 will be entered in our drawing for fun stuff.

Love ya & Happy Saturday!
– Tara B.

(Last week I sent this email to – well, pretty much everyone on my little “I’d like to stay in touch with Tara” list ... but it hit me today that some of you might not be on that list. SO ... I’m going to copy it here to encourage you to participate too! And also ... if you’d like to be ADDED to my list (for my periodic emails), please contact me at your convenience.)

(Last note ... I will NEVER give contact information/email address to ANYONE. I hate SPAM. )

—————————

Dear friends,

As I read over your names and pray for you yet again, I am compelled to ask: How can I help you to develop truly redemptive (authentic & gospel-infused & peaceful) relationships?

Some of you are long-time friends; others I have only recently met at my 2006 events or via my website … but for each one of you, our family would truly love to be a helpful resource as you grow in Christ and further peace in the Body of Christ (and help others around you to do the same).

Towards that end, I would like to encourage you to participate in my blog and our online discussion board by both posting questions and helping us find Christ-exalting, biblical, practical solutions as well.

(Some of our recent discussions have included topics such as: How to Handle Negative People and What Happens After Adultery … and we even have a Just For Fun section that has included some interesting topics ranging from guinea pigs to Bible resources. Now that’s quite a range, eh? )

...............

I would also like to help you to find the very best price on biblical peacemaking materials—especially if you have a group or ministry that is interested in studying biblical peacemaking. As many of you know, I can purchase a number of peacemaking resources at reduced prices—so if I can help to get these materials into your hands, I would love to do so. Please start by visiting the “Resources” page of my website (to see if what you need is there) and if not, please contact me and let me know what you need. I’ll do my best to serve you.

(Oh—and if you weren’t one of the 2,000 women that I personally handed a copy to at our denominational international women’s conference last week, you may want to take a minute to read my (very short!) article summarizing my survey results on women’s relationships and providing suggestions for promoting peace in your local church. This article may prove particularly helpful as you seek to introduce peacemaking to your church and ministry leaders.)

If you’re interested in hosting an event on biblical peacemaking, I hope that you’ll visit the “Speaking” section of my website—especially if you’ve hosted me in the past and were blessed even in some small way. I’m excited to share that (in response to requests for “repeat events”), I am developing a new “advanced/alumni” retreat that builds on my standard topics and delves further into the topic of “Becoming Who You Already Are—How the Gospel Transforms our Lives and Brings Us Peace.”

(I’ll give my first “advanced/alumni” retreat in Texas in November—so stay tuned for more details as I continue to tweak the content in the coming months.)

OK—let’s move on to the “fun stuff” now …

To (hopefully) entice you (even a little bit) to follow-through on any (or all!) of these ideas, our family has some goodies that we would like to share with you. (Are you sensing another “Tara Drawing”? You’re right!)

The goodies will, of course, include the standard “Tara CDs” and other peacemaking materials that you’re probably familiar with (including the $79 Peacemaker Ministries Leader’s PeacePacks!). But how about some new things too? …

Peacemaker Clubs—A Five-Day Vacation Bible School
Program for use with Puppets



Signed copies of my pastor’s (and the Chairman of the Board
of Peacemaker Ministries’) first book—The Peacemaking Pastor
(just published last month by Baker!)



“Four G’s of Peacemaking” coffee mugs &
“Slippery Slope” coasters (and I may even include some
“infamous” Mountain Mudd Coffee—a Montana favorite)

So how can you win?

Each time you do one of the following things and email me to let me know, I’ll enter your name in a drawing. (If you do three things, you get three entries. Two gets two, four gets four, etc. etc. Sound fun? Fair? I hope so!)

Here are my requests (and your chances to win!) … each one could take less than three minutes:

1. Start a new topic or post a reply on our online discussion board;
2. Review my book (“Peacemaking Women”) on Amazon.com;
3. Post a comment on my blog; and/or
4. Join our FrapprMap.

Sound doable?
Fun?
Helpful?

Can you see how the more we encourage, help, and pray for one another, the more effective we will be during this (often lonely & painful) life? I hope so!

And I truly hope to “see” you online soon!

(Oh, the drawing for prizes will end October 31, 2006—so don’t delay!)

And please do let me know how I can be of service to you—

Your sister in Christ,
Tara Barthel (& Fred & Sophie too)

PS
I know what it’s like to strictly guard my email address and (like you I’m sure!), I have neither the time nor the energy for unwanted emails. If you would prefer that I not email you again, I promise that I will not be hurt at all. Please just drop me a note and let me know and I’ll immediately remove you from my little “friends email” list. Really—I completely understand and I don’t want to be a hassle. Thanks thanks thanks—tkb

Tara Klena Barthel
929 Alderson Ave.
Billings, MT 59101
www.tarabarthel.com

The other day Sophie and I were listening to VegiTales and a song about mercy touched my heart and actually even made me cry.

I mentioned this to my friend and she told me this story:

"One day I was under conviction and kind of avoiding having my quiet time with the Lord. Out of the blue, my two-year-old daughter came into the room and said one line (from a VegiTale song) to me:

"Don’t play hide and seek from the Lord Who loves you!"

And then she left the room."

So I asked her, “Did you have a quiet time?”

“Oh, yeah!”

!!

Clammy hands
Fever of 101
Weak
Icky trips to the bathroom (TMI??) ...

Here’s what my sweetie-pie Sophie and Choza are doing to try to keep me entertained while I lie on the ground and try to keep them both alive until Fred makes it home:





(Sometimes a girl just has to wear ALL of her purses at once, right?)

!!

If only it weren’t a Deacon’s meeting night and I could hand-off the muffin-lovie-bear to Fred at the end of the day and go to BED.

But God is with us!

Sending you love (but obviously not a lot of deep blog content) –

Your friend,
Tara B.

I’ve been receiving quite a few personal emails from people who are visiting my blog this week for the first time, so I thought I’d give a little “tour” to (hopefully!) introduce some key components to you.

- FrapprMap & discussion group: In the upper right-hand corner, you’ll see a button that says, “Where are we?” and a link to our discussion group too. If you would like to visually SEE where we are located, the FrapprMap is a fun, free tool that you can join. I’ve also tried to make our dialogues more convenient for you by setting up a discussion board that allows YOU to choose the topics and post specific questions (rather than waiting for me to blog on a certain topic). Please do click through and jump right in! We would love to get to know you more.

- Search Past Blog Entries & Categories: Since starting this blog, I have posted over 300 entries on topics such as Christian Marriage, Peace with Food, Perfectionism & Shame, Suffering (and others too!). We also have hundreds of insightful comments from other participants for your review. If you are drawn to a certain topic, I encourage you to click on the list of categories or search by keyword–and then hopefully participate yourself too!

- My Resources: If you’re looking for a signed copy of my book or a (deeply-discounted) CD of my testimony or various teachings I’ve done on topics such as women & peacemaking, mother/daughter conflicts, holiday conflicts, or “Oceans of Emotions: Effectively Ministering Peace to Women” ... this is the place for you. Sophie & I love to visit our post office to keep your costs low (media mail!) and I’m happy to reduce costs for large/group orders. So please let me know how we can bless you & yours.

- Recommended Resources: These are some of the books that I (almost always!) sell out of my women’s retreats and conferences. You can click through on any book and it’ll take you right to Amazon.com. (Oh, and in the interest of full disclosure, I want you to understand that if you do click through to Amazon from my site and purchase ANYTHING (diapers, washing machine, or the books listed here), I do receive a tiny “finder’s fee.” It doesn’t cost you anything additional–but I wanted to make sure you knew that.)

- Tara’s Events: If you’d like to know where I’ll be and when, this is a brief list of most of my events. (Some events prefer that I not list them because they want to keep the attendance low/private.) Thanks to everyone who has dropped me notes letting me know that you are praying for me too!

OK, I think that’s about it for the blog. My general website is pretty self-explanatory with the tabs across the top ... you can learn more about my Speaking Services and Conciliation Services by visiting those pages (and I even have online forms for both events and conciliation cases too).

If I can help orient you further or serve you in any way, I hope that you will not hesitate to contact me.

Sending you my love!

Your sister in Christ,
Tara B.

Fred just snapped this camera phone pictures of Sophia Grace & me and we thought you might like to see a more updated photo of us together:



Happy Sunday!
Blessed Sabbath!

I’m baking cookies for our small group lunch (after church) and waiting for my “pack” (Fred, Sophie & our Golden Retriever, Choza) to wake up and join me in the kitchen.

Love to all!
– Tara B.

We’re home! We made it back from Minneapolis around midnight.

Our flight was delayed AND we would’ve taken a voluntary bump and come home this morning (for two free tickets!) ... but three drunk guys who are (I’m absolutely SURE) currently in a JAIL CELL were not allowed to board the flight and that opened up three seats and took us out of an oversold situation. Bummer (re: the free tickets) but HOORAY (we’re home!).

It’s so good to be together.

I have much to share about some things that are going on–but right now I only have time to share a photo:



My friend Sarah took this of the girls (Emma & Sophia) right before they left for church yesterday. (Apparently, Sarah has been dressing them alike all week while we were gone and she was caring for Sophie.) Like twins! SO fun! Thought you might enjoy.

Happy Monday!
May God be glorified!

Your friend,
Tara B.

Just thought you might enjoy seeing a few photos of Sophia Grace at our friends' home ...

She is happy as a clam! And we are so blessed that Auntie Sarah, Mr. Phillips, Samuel & Emma open their hearts and their home to her when I have to travel out of state.

Don’t know why I feel compelled to share this–other than to give you a chuckle or two ...

But our daughter, Sophia, has been sleeping with us the last few nights because she is fighting a cold and it’s just a thousand times easier for Fred and me to comfort her / help her get a drink of water / give her medicine when she’s right there.

But the temperature has dropped in Billings (praise the Lord esp. regarding all of our forest fires!) and MAN! Two year olds can have COLD FEET. They’re like TINY LITTLE BITTY ICE CUBES. And she likes to put them on US.

When we move her feet off of us she says, “But my feet are COLD and you are SO WARM!” (That is, our backs, legs, tummies WERE warm until they were ICED by her little size 8 feet.)

Funny, huh?
What a joy! What a blessing!
To have tiny little cold feet wake me up? Well – I’m a blessed woman.

Hope your day is going well! I’m working hard to get my speaker notes printed out and get us all packed up for the Peacemaker Conference this weekend.

(Fred and I leave tomorrow morning so I have to get our Golden Retriever packed up and off to our friend’s home AND Sophie packed up and off to our friend’s home AND us packed to take off ... all while trying NOT to cry. We’ve NEVER left Sophia before!! I know SHE’LL be fine ... but every time I think about it I cry. I didn’t think I would, but I do. I’m comforted, of course, in knowing that she’ll be with a family that loves her and who she loves. But my momma heart still aches. It’s good to ache sometimes.)

OK–back to work. Well, violin lessons first!

Love to all,
Tara B.

TOTALLY forgot my real camera!
(To my “credit,” I DID remember it LAST WEEK–'course we showed up an hour early for church and found out that Sunday School classes didn’t start until TODAY! Oops!)

But I thought you might enjoy even a couple of cell-phone-camera shots of Sophia Grace at her very first “class.”





Wow! What a gift of grace to have her sitting with other students at those adorable little plastic tables on those darling tiny plastic chairs; learning to play nicely with other children (a LONG way to go in that area); being blessed by our wonderful teachers Miss. Sherrie and Miss. Bethany (thanks, ladies!!); learning about God and His plan for our lives.

(Having NOT grown up in a church, I’m just LOVING all of these sweet evidences of grace.)

It’s all just so good. So very, very good. And we are grateful!

Thank You, Lord!

Love,
Tara B.

Did you know that if your toddler knocks over your toothbrush holder at JUST the right time (JUST as the toilet is being flushed), a simple (probably free from the dentist) toothbrush can INSTANTLY be transformed into a $90 toothbrush?

It’s true!

Just ask Sophia to tell you about the “gentlemen with the special tools” (from Roto-Rooter) who had to fish out our wayward dentifrice. Ick.

Hope you all enjoyed a wonderful day!

(I’m in the midst of an incredibly unpleasant project that I was hoping was going to take me a total of five hours and it’s turned into over 15. I HAVE to be done with it tomorrow–so here’s hoping.)

Joy to you!
– Tara B.

So I’m completely behind on laundry and cleaning for the week. No one’s complaining (thank You, God, for such a patient and sweet husband in Fred!) ... but I just couldn’t motivate myself to climb over ALL of the junk stuffed in our basement because of our big leak/flood ...



There IS hope for clean socks for the Barthels, though, because (once again!) our dear brother in Christ Ken Sande (yes, “the” Ken Sande) brought over his toolbox and his DETAILED knowledge of our house (he built most of it–we bought it from him in 2000) and SAWED INTO OUR CEILING/WALL at the EXACT RIGHT SPOT ...



So now if we can just find a replacement pipe (Fred’s at Lowe’s right now), we might be out of the great flood of ought six.



Of course, all the while the men were working so hard (thanks to Jeffrey Sande too!), Sophie and I were reading the story of Abraham & Sarah (Abram & Sarai – but Sophia is SO confused by the whole name change thing) in our super-duper FORT ...



All while webcamming with my sister & mother and listening to Click & Clack on the radio.

What a nice Saturday morning.

(Oh, and I should “confess” that I tried to make breakfast and COMPLETELY burnt the ALREADY COOKED sausage. Leave it to me, eh? But it was fun to try.)

Hope your day is great great!

Love,
t

I visited a blog the other day named something like,

"3 Steps Forward and 2 Steps Back."

Great title, eh?!

But I think the subtitle was even better:

"Falling on my face is still moving forward."

Well said. Well said.

I have a laptop again!

It’s not actually my old one (after that was shattered at the service center I wasn’t too hip to receive it back, even “repaired” as they said it would be) ... but it seems like it. It’s the exact same model and they “mirrored” my hard drive (whatever that means), so thus far, things are looking up.

(BTW – I have to say a public “GREAT JOB” to my local “GEEK SQUAD” team. I’ll be sending an official “thank you” letter and everything, but seriously ... these men took a TERRIBLE situation (I dropped off a perfectly working laptop with a wobbly “b” key and ended up losing my laptop forever) and made it the very best it could be. They were professional, gracious, and ultimately made me whole by providing (at no charge) a new computer identical to the one that the service center destroyed.)

One aspect of finally starting to get back on top of things again is hopefully starting to share more photos with you guys. Here are a few keepers from Sophia’s first violin lesson this week:



A 1/32nd violin! Can you believe it? What a privilege.

Well – I’d better get back to the mess of the Barthel home. (We found WATER IN OUR BASEMENT at 10:30 last night. Eek! And ICK! So we’re working hard to try to a) get things dried out and b) figure out what caused it.) Guess laundry and regular ol' dusting/vacuuming are going to have to wait a bit, eh?



Love to all!

Joy to you,
Tara B.

PS
Even in the musty “water in the basement” smell this morning, I was incredibly blessed as Sophie and I sat on the living room couch reading books and she spontaneously said, “It’s nice to be together.” Yes, yes, dear. Yes it is. Grace abounds! – tkb

OK – I’ll really wrap up our Mexico pics soon. I promise.

But OH! We had such an INCREDIBLY WONDERFUL time with our “dolphin discovery” that I thought you might be blessed too.

Here are just a few pics.
Sophie is STILL carrying around her stuffed toy dolphin everywhere she goes.

Love to all,
t

Thought you might enjoy a few photos from our trip ... hope so!

Here is Sophia enjoying her complimentary First Class upgrade (thanks NWA!) ...



And her first pony ride (at an Illinois fair with Grandma Chris) ...



Her favorite place to play ... in the pool with Auntie Kali ...



And a super-cool outing on a REAL SUBMARINE (based on her “God Thought of It First” book, Sophie likes to say how a submarine is like “multi-chambered nautilus, the water comes in and it sinks, the water goes out and it floats” ... very cute) ...



And one last picture of the whole fam ...



Love to all!

(Here’s hoping I can get back to sleep. The 2AM-5AM shift is so hard!)

Do you remember how we had a bunch of home repairs done while we were on vacation?

This is the mess we left ...



And the COLOR we came home to on our living room walls ...



(I’ve never had anything but cream-colored walls before. Cool! And thanks to everyone for your advice too. )

Hi friends! I’m just back from vacation and although I’m in the midst of chaos around here, I just wanted to say hi.

(Our chaos is even more than the normal post-vacation mess because we had a bunch of home repairs done while we were gone ... I’ll try to post some photos if I can. But that brings up the second (even worse!) chaos issue ... I put my laptop in for some MINOR repairs before I left and it was promised to be back and of course it isn’t. Eeek! So I’m working from an old computer and things are not, how shall we say, as efficient as usual. Oh well–minor inconveniences, right?)

Did you like how I “pre-set” my blog postings so that there would be a few while I was out of the country? I know they weren’t personal / daily life stories, but I wanted you guys to have something while I was unreachable. Hope they were a blessing.

I have to leave in a few minutes to take Choza (our Golden) to the groomers. Man! Does she need a bath and some clipping! But I’ll try to write more later.

I’ve been praying for you all–

Your friend,
Tara B.

PS
I’m still trying to get into my email accounts (no laptop!), so if you’ve sent me any emails or orders or event inquiries in the last two weeks, please be patient. I promise to respond just as SOON as I can. Thanks! – tkb

So Fred and I have decided to do some painting around our home. (We figure either we’ll stay in the house and enjoy the no-longer-falling-down-stucco and the freshened-up walls ... OR it will help the house sell if we decide to move.)

'Course, I’m still not very savvy about artistic things like PAINT COLOR.

So I was wondering if any of you might have some wisdom (or websites, books, articles, suggestions, whatever) to share with us ...

Here is what the outside of our home looks like now:



The (original) 1950’s double-hung windows (currently in dark green) are being replaced with white vinyl replacement windows. So what colors do you think for the body of the house, the trim, and the contrast color?

And here are a few pics of our inside living room / dining room:



I was thinking about maybe a brown or tan color for the walls (instead of the current cream/offwhite). I thought it might look particularly nice with the molding on the ceiling:



But I wonder a few things about (potentially) brown walls:

1. Would you do ALL of the walls?
2. What about the (attached) hallway and stairway? Is it OK to have that be a different color or do you have to continue the same color?

Ooooooooh – I wish I knew how to make a home feel as warm and hospitable as many of the homes I’ve been in. Although I try, I never seem to be able to “crack the code” and figure it out.

Any advice?
Thanks thanks thanks!
– Tara B.

Congratulations to everyone who won a prize for submitting a survey:

Vicki G. in KS
Helen S. in IL
Gail S. in OK
Shirley C. in TN
Lisa M. in PA
Lorraine B. in OH
Fran C. in OR
Luby B. in FL
Erin B. in AL
Anne M. in HI
Rena N. in BC Canada
Susan P. in SC
Cynthia M. in AZ
Amanda J. in TN
Sue H. in TX
Ardith F. in OR
Christine T. in GA
Amy F. in MD
Carmen A. in AL
Ravyna M. in TX
Jennifer W. in MD
Renee H. in IL
Joyce W. in AL
Lisa R. in VA

And our GRAND PRIZE WINNER (of the $79 Leader’s PeacePack) is:

Edie M. in NY

Congratulations to all and thanks again for sharing your insights and counsel with me!

Sending you my love,
Tara B.

Just a quick note to remind you all that TODAY IS THE LAST DAY to complete my survey and have a chance to win SUPER COOL (biblical & practical) BIBLICAL PEACEMAKING STUFF.

I’m going to give away AT LEAST one $79 Leader’s PeacePack and some other fun stuff too!

Surveys received after midnight today will still be used for my article, but will not be entered in the drawing.

Hope that you’ll all participate!

(Oh, and if your curious as to why I am doing this, I am writing an article for a large (5,000 women) conference this fall and I’m going to include the results in the article.)

Blessings and joy,
Tara B.

So you may recall that my friend Samara is an artist ... did you also know that her husband Taylor Lynde is an artist too? He actually supports their family entirely from his earnings from galleries and other sales.

His specialty is plein air realism impressionist and I do SO encourage you to visit his website. I know you’ll be blessed by his incredibly beautiful original oil paintings!

You may also be blessed to see the painting he recently did for our family. It was based on a photograph I had taken of Sophia Grace reclining in our living room:



Sophie is holding her children’s Bible and MY teddy bear from my Grandma Eleanor Klena (the teddy bear is named “Betsy”). Next to her are her two favorite “ki-ki's” (blankies) – one of them was hand-made by my Godmother, Anne Parat, for Sophie’s baptism. On the table you can see both of our study Bibles–and on top of one of them is Pastor John Piper’s devotional, Taste and See (we’ve been reading it during our family devotions–Sophie loves and prays for “Pastor Piper!” as she says often).

You can also see the picture that my sister-in-law, Penny Barthel, took of Fred and me when we were engaged (way back twelve years ago in grad school!) and the picture that my brother-in-law, Thomas Barthel, took when we visited his home in Zurich on our honeymoon. (Can you believe we were married eleven years ago THIS WEEK?! Time goes by so quickly.)

And of course, our long-legged (40 inches tall by age two and a half!), precious, lovie-bear Sophia.

So many precious memories. Now captured forever in an original oil painting by our dear friend. I can’t believe it. I’m overwhelmed.

Ready to see it now?

Here you go:



Thank you, Uncle TJ!
And thank You, God, for giving us the gift of redemptive ART and eyes to see and hands like Taylor’s to create such beauty.

SDG!
(Solo Dei Gloria–that’s how TJ signs all of his paintings.)

Your friend,
Tara B.

Hey guys!

I just found out from my publisher (Baker Book House Co.) that our book (Peacemaking Women) is going to be published in Korean!

How cool is that?

I’m excited and I wonder how all of our case studies/stories will look “in translation.”



Hope you’re enjoying a lovely Saturday.

Sophie, Choza, and I took a drive into the wilds of Montana jamming out to the “Click & Clack” theme song all the way. (We’re pining for Fred who returns this evening from an overnight hike in the Beartooth Mountains with some other men from our church.)

Joy to you!
– Tara B.

Did you know that my best friend, Samara, is a wonderful and creative artist? She is! She painted the “sky” in Sophia’s bedroom (complete with beautiful, fluffy clouds!) and we’ve received MANY precious and artsy gifts from her over the years.

But the one we received yesterday completely blew me away! Not only is it based on one of my absolute favorite photos of Sophia and our Golden Retriever, Choza:



It’s obvious that she even matched the colors to Sophie’s bedroom:



Isn’t that just GREAT????

I love her so much and miss her terribly. (For those of you who may be new to my blog, Samara moved away earlier this year.)

Thank you, Samara, for this wonderful painting!!

God is good!
All the time.

Love,
Tara B.

You know I travel a lot, right?

Can you believe what I saw recently?



And then, I couldn’t believe it when I saw this:



Wow! Who’d a thunk it?

(Fun stuff, eh?)

!!

(Oh, and many thanks to Barbara Curtis for suggesting this fun site on her blog!)

I hadn’t posted any pics of Sophia Grace for awhile, so I thought you might enjoy these.

Hope so!
Much love,
Tara B.

So my sister and her husband are taking us on another (super fun!) trip next month. (Thank you Kali & Fred!! )

And in between SCUBA diving and playing with Sophie on the beach, I’m looking for a lose yourself in it - totally enjoy yourself - can’t stop turning the pages book recommendation.

Any suggestions?

I feel like it’s been a million years since I read a book that I just couldn’t put down.

Thanks, friends!
– tkb

Today Sophia decided to wrap her little stuffed moose toy in some blankies (she called them swaddling clothes) and then ask daddy to baptize her (the baby moose, that is) “just like pastor,” and basically just take sweet care of her “baby moose” for the majority of the day.

I can’t even begin to tell you how blessed I am to peek in on her playing in her room as she “rocks” the baby moose and sings our special “Momma loves you. Daddy loves you.” song that I made up for her when she was a newborn. (Although Sophie then adds the “Sophie loves you.” verse too. )

Grace abounds.
The quietness of life.
The richness of a glimpse of eternity – even in a two-year-old’s bedroom.

Thank You, Lord!
Amen & Amen

Early this morning, someone (me!) got the strange idea that FISH would be fun to swim with in our backyard pool (AND they might encourage Sophie as she learns to wear her mask and snorkel).

Fun fun! Hope you enjoy the pictures ...

Hey again –

Just wanted to let you know that I sent off another batch of goodies today. (Keep an eye out, Chris, Deborah, Nicole, and Kathy!)

Oh – and congratulations Nicole! Your name was picked by our own Sophia Grace (just before her nap) and the Leader’s PeacePack is on its way to your home.

I’m hoping to write more soon!

Sending you love,
tkb

OK, friends! Biblical & practical peacemaking resources COULD be winging their way to you ...

But I REALLY need you to email me your snail-mail addresses! !!

I’ve heard from a few of you (thank you!), but if you want a gift (no pressure / I won’t send you junk mail or ever give your contact information to ANYONE), please let me know a) your address; and b) if there is a certain biblical peacemaking resource that you already have or would really like or would really NOT like? (Otherwise, a tape or workbook will probably be winging its way toward you as soon as I receive your mailing address.)

Still needing addresses for:

- Jen K.
- Leanna B.
- Tina
- Chris P.
- Karen
- Michelle (just joined June 2!)
- Jennifer

PLUS ... I think that the following people posted comments to our discussion board by June 1 and thus they are eligible for a drawing for the $79 Leader’s PeacePack! Whoooo hooo!

Again–PLEASE email me your snail-mail address! I’ll be sure to post the winner’s name as soon as we do the drawing after midnight.

-Jessie B.
- imn2jesus (who are you??)
- 3homemom (who are you??)
- Ruth M.
- Kim (who are you??)

(PLEASE, friends, let me know if I’ve messed up the count or missed anyone! I really just wanted to bless folks and bring a little freebies to your lives. I love free, GOOD, stuff. So please let me know if I need to fix any mistakes.)

Sending you love love love!

Your pal,
Tara B.

PS
Right now, I’m going to pack up the goodies for the people I have addreses for. But ... tomorrow I fly out of state and I’ll be gone for 11 days ... SO ... it’ll be a few days before I can respond. But that’s plenty of time for YOU to email me your snail-mail addresses.

PPS
If I don’t hear from imn2jesus, 3homemom, or kim by the time I get home (on June 15), I’m going to put Jessie B. & Deb W. & “guest” & Ruth M.’s names into a “hat” and send one of them the $79 Leader’s Kit. Nice odds! Not bad!

OH ... and there are still more goodies for anyone who will join our FrapprMap and get us up to 101 members! So please consider FrapprMap today.

THANK YOU for your patience as I have been SO delayed in getting our discussion area going!

I am, of course, wholly without excuse. Every day I would allow other tasks to float to the top of my to-do list (ah! lists!) and roll over the “try to do something with your blog & discussion area” task to another day.

Well–today’s the day. Tonight’s the night. (Er, it’s after midnight, so OK. Today’s the day.)

I’ve “officially” tried to give our discussion board a little more time and attention (and visible placement too).

One of the ways I’ve done this is to move over a bunch of my old blog postings to the various discussion board topics. I thought that they might be easier to find that way AND easier to comment on.

In the future, I’ll try to “double post” topics (to my blog and the discussion area) if I think they might be a blessing to you all.

Have I mentioned lately how much I appreciate you?
And that I’m praying for you?

Sending you love from a sleepy Tara!

Your friend,
Tara B.

OK, I’m ready for our little FrapprMap community to grow past 100 ...

!!

Fred & I have saved up and purchased a number of wonderful biblical peacemaking resources that we will gladly send to the next 43 people who join my FrapprMap.

(If you’re number 59-101, please be sure to email me your name and snail-mail (i.e., U.S. postal) mailing address and once we hit 101, I promise to send out the goodies right away.)

Joy to you, my friends!

Yours in Christ,
Tara B.

PPS
If you have a problem joining the FrapprMap and/or the Discussion Board, please email me and let me know! Sometimes there are problems with the SPAM filters ... and though we don’t want the icky ads for fake medicines, we definitely want YOU to get to participate!

If you’ve heard me teach, read my book, or read any past blogs, you’ve undoubtedly heard about the wonderful friends I have in my sister, Kali, and her husband, Fred. (Yes, yes. Two sisters. Two husbands named Fred. It’s weird–but that’s us!)

I thought you might enjoy seeing some pictures of just how much these two amazing people bless our Sophie-bear too ... I can’t help but smile at her joy.

Love ya!
– t

I really have a VERY hard time listening to ANY recording of my voice – radio, conference workshop, plenary, etc. (And it’s even worse with television interviews! Ick!)



BUT ... Fred thought that this interview I did with Rev. Dr. Ligon Duncan (of First Presbyterian Church, Jackson MS) might be a blessing to you all. So here it is for your listening enjoyment (and hopefully for your edification and encouragement too).

Joy to you!
– t

Sophia’s interpretation of the Easter story ...

"Jesus–all done tomb!"

Well said, dear. Well said!

PS
We’re in Helena now! Sophia and Scout are “sleeping” in TJ & Samara’s bed (giggling & talking) while Fred & TJ play videogames & drink a beer and Samara and I stuff Easter eggs and enjoy a glass of the most lovely red wine. Late night conversations follow where we marvel at the privilege of raising these precious children and of being called children of God ourselves. Oh, and we also rehashed stories from our “children of the 70's” childhoods. I laughed until I cried. Ahhhhh – it’s good to be with friends. Grace abounds!







PPS
Sophie and I fly out to see my dad on Monday. THANKS AGAIN for all of your prayers. He continues to face many medical challenges (still in a medically-induced coma, now battling a collapsed lung and pneumonia in the other lung & increasing blood pressure & lack of responsiveness neurologically) ... so we continue to pray! And we thought it best to get out there–also to be with my sister Kali who has been bearing an incredible load. Thanks again for your love and prayers!

What is it about two-year-olds who pick out their own outfits??

Check out Sophie ...



... pants & shorts & “My Grandpa is a Barbershopper” t-shirt AND boots. Too funny.

Oh yeah, and I was doing a little “puffy paint” arts & crafts too ... my continuing efforts at the artistic/fun stuff.

Love to you all!
– tkb

One of my recent women’s retreats had a brilliant cartoonist by the name of Craig Faust create some cartoons to illustrate some of our main teaching points. With his permission, I get to post them for you all! Hope you enjoy.

(Oh – and if any of you have any ties to the publishing / cartooning (is that a word?) industries, please do contact me if I can help you get in touch with Mr. Faust to take advantage of his gifts!)

Joy to you all –
tkb

It’s been a sad day (of course). But a blessed one too.

In addition to MUCH grace from darling Fred
and lovies from the Sophie-bear
AND mercies anew from God Himself ...

I read this HYSTERICAL blog. I literally laughed out loud on a day when I really didn’t think I’d be laughing.

Grace abounds!

Sending you love –
t

We had Sophia’s Easter pictures taken today (a tradition for us in honor of my maternal grandmother, Pearl Kroncke, who used to dress us girls up in pretty dresses & hats & gloves with new shoes & purses and the whole bit) ... and I thought they might give you a chuckle or two. Hope so!

Much love,
Tara B.

Last week we celebrated Great-Grandma Wieman’s 95th birthday and I thought you might enjoy seeing some of our family pics.



-Great-Grandma’s daughter is Chris Barthel (my husband, Fred’s, mom). Chris married Fred’s dad, Dr. Calvin Barthel, in 1959 and Cal died (from an accident) when Fred was a sophomore in college.

-Fred is the youngest of five brothers: Mike, Tom, John, Paul, and Fred. (Mike died in 2004 and lives in Heaven with Fred’s dad, Cal, and Jesus.)

-Tom is a musician and conductor with the Zurich Opera (yes, in Switzerland!) and three of the brothers are married with kids so Sophie is one of six cousins: John & Penny (with Calvin and Lucy), Paul & Janet (with Emily, Samuel, and Elizabeth), and Fred & Tara (with Sophia Grace).

Yeah, God, for the wonderful family legacy of Betty & Steinus Wieman!
And Calvin & Chris Barthel!

Amen & Amen

Have you tried to join our FrapprMap and been blocked as “SPAM” or for whatever reason?

(I just learned that two people had that problem.)

Please let me know! You can email me directly (tara “at” tarabarthel.com) if you prefer.

Thanks thanks thanks!
– tkb

Many thanks to each one of you who completed and returned my survey by March 1st!

At Bible study this evening, some of my friends randomly chose the following names to receive over $300 in free peacemaking materials:

- Hazel G. (MS)
- Connie I. (SC)
- Cindi F. (GA)
- Susan P. (SC)
- Dawn G. (IL)
- Kris R. (WV)
- Nikki B. (MS)
- Amie T. (TX)
- Marcia J. (FL)
- Carol M. (AL)
- Cindy F. (GA)
- Jenny Wa. (MS)
- Patricia L. (PA)
- Ann Louise E. (MO)
- Denise M. (GA)
- Tasha C. (MO)
- Debra L. (VA)
- Martha M. (MI)
- Mary A. (NY)

Fred will pop your gifts in the mail tomorrow (when I’m en route to Georgia).

I truly hope that these biblical and practical resources will be a blessing to you, your families, and your churches.

Please consider joining our FrapprMap so that you can tell us how the Lord ministers His grace to you!

(Oh, and I hope we can do some more giveaways soon – so be sure to check back. It’s fun to give things away!)

Sending you love –

In Christ Our Hope,
Tara B.

Well, my mom came through her surgery just great (thank You, God!) and my dad’s birthday is looming large too ... so I hope you’ll indulge a few more pics from our California adventure (since my email continues to be on the fritz). Thanks much!! – tkb

With my silly email not working, I’m not able to email these pictures to my mom. And since she’s going in for some surgery tomorrow (and my dad is later this week too!), I hope you don’t mind if I post some photos of Sophia enjoying our time in San Diego ...



And my best effort to hold my camera out at the end of my arm and catch both of us ... hah hah. Didn’t quite work the way I hoped ...

Hi FrapprMap friends!!!!

I’m SO excited to send out my little “thanks for joining my FrapprMap” gifts/prizes ... but I don’t know how to reach some of you. Eeek!

For the following FrapprMap pals ... if you’d like your gift, please email me (tara “at” tarabarthel “dot” com) and let me know your snail-mail address:

- Julie B from MD (with ADORABLE XiXi!)
- Kristin B from GA
- Nicole T from CA
- Mary Lynn E from TX
- Thelma H from SC
- Melissa R from AR (how can I not have your address somewhere??? sorry!)
- Janet T-E from TX
- “chrjames07”
- Peg from Morris IL

Thanks thanks thanks!

Much love,
Tara B.

PS
I still have 12 super fabulous really fun prizes/gifts to give away to the first 50 people who join my FrapprMap! Just scroll down and look on the right side for the “Where are we? Click here for our map” button. Fun fun! – tkb

PPS
Jennifer from St Louis – just joined! Thanks for the photo too!! Please let me know your snail mail! – tkb

In a silly effort to “entice” people to put themselves on my FrapprMap (just scroll down the right side of my blog), I hereby promise to send the first 50 people who put themselves on my FrapprMap some sort of “valuable” prize. (A copy of my book, “Peacemaking Women,” or a 5-CD set recording of my standard women’s retreat on peacemaking or an audiotape or booklet ... something fun for sure!)

Just be sure that I have your mailing address (so I know where to send it). You can email me your address if you (wisely) don’t want to broadcast your snail-mail address to the world.

See you on the FrapprMap!!

Love ya,
t

Hello to the FamilyLife Listeners who are checking out my blog!


(If you missed the broadcasts on peacemaking women, you can listen online at FamilyLife.com.)

I hope that you enjoy reading my past writings (you can search by topic or by any key words) and also that you consider adding yourself to my FrapprMap so we can see where you all are!

My website includes information and forms for my speakingand conciliating services ... but if you have any questions or if I can help you in any way, I hope that you will not hesitate to contact me!

Fred, Sophia Grace, and I all send you our love and prayers!

Yours in Christ,
Tara B.

PS
If you take my Peacemaking Survey and return it by March 1, 2006, you’ll be entered in our drawing to receive a Peacemaker Ministries LEADER’S KIT ($79 value–we’re giving FOUR of them away!) plus other prizes too! Fun fun!

PPS
Our Golden Retriever, Choza, says hi and sends her love too ...

Man! I’ve been bad about blogging regularly ... sorry about that!

Here are some pics from Christmas to hopefully give you a little chuckle or two ...

So here’s a query ...

When I was a little girl I just LOVED (LOVED!) my horse models. I would play with them for hours for YEARS and never grow bored.

So when our dear friend, Dave Edling (Cap'n Dave) gave Sophie her first horse models, I couldn’t WAIT to get my cherished box of models out for her to play with.

Now, the question ... Why is it that I remember there being SO MANY horses? Just a ton of horses? But when I got them out for Sophie, as precious as they were with their circa 1978 dust, there were not hundreds and hundreds, but just a nice, respectable number.

Is it kind of like how I remembered my Grandma Klena’s home to have a THOUSAND steps up to the porch (it took FOREVER to walk up them all!) – but in actuality, there were like 10?!

Or how I remember reaching into my Christmas stocking all the way up to my shoulder and not being able to reach the candy in the toe – but when I hold the exact same stocking now, it’s like six inches long?

Funny how much our perspective changes over time.





Cap'n Dave and Fred and Sophie ...

Sophia is becoming quite adept at stalling before naptime and bedtime ... “Eat?” (right after a big lunch) ... “Baby doll?” ... “Read book?” ... etc. etc.

But here’s my favorite ... “Clean? Pick-up?”

Ahhhhhh, you are a shrewd little two-year-old, Soph. You know what really ZINGS your mama. Sorting blocks? Putting puzzles back into their boxes? Fun fun fun! Mommy’s happy place.

(Of course what makes me rightfully sad is how often I stall my Bible reading, prayer, and worship ... to pick up / clean / organize. I should know better! I do know better. God have mercy on my soul. He does! He does! Amen.)

Samara makes these crafty projects SO fun!





I can’t believe that we ended up with such a cute little house! (Usually my efforts at such things result in messy, unrecognizable, but well-meaning blobs.)



OK, no lie! Fred almost didn’t get to see Sophie’s house because I a) put it in the car, and then b) went back inside for Sophia ... only to find that Choza (our Golden Retriever) was in the FRONT SEAT (which she NEVER does!) licking the roof and about to munch the chimney!!



(Yet another reason why NOT to eat gingerbread houses, eh?)

Montana weather sure is strange!

A few days ago is was MINUS 15 degrees. Brrrrrrrrr.
Yesterday it got up to 50 degrees! (Above zero, yes.)

The blue sky and fluffy clouds beckoned so of course Sophia and I headed out to the playground.
But what’s a trip to the park without friends?
So here come Auntie Samara & Scout & baby William too.

And a sled.

(If this were a movie, the scary music would start right here! Well, not really scary – but, “something is about to happen” music.)

Because of course we had to try out the sled. With the girls. And an adventurous Auntie Samara (whose knees still bend sufficiently to fold onto a sled–unlike mine) ...





We had fun ... but then we thought, “Hey! There’s even MORE fun to be had across the creek on that BIG hill!” (OK, now the scary music can start.)

Because of course the sled ended up in the creek (that was like eight inches deep) and Auntie Samara ended up sopping wet protecting the girls. (As I stood there holding William and laughing my roller-coaster “I'm-laughing-and-scared-and-happy-and-I-know-that-nothing-really-bad-will-happen-but-it's-still-a-little-tense-even-while-it's-fun” laugh.)

So of course Samara says, “Well, if we’re already wet, we might as well make snow-angels!”





Now I ask you ... in all seriousness ... could there be a better friend for me? Happy, fun, godly, wise ...

I’m tempted to be sad, but who can stay too sad for too long with such a friend?

(And with a daughter who sings “Baby Beluga” and cuddles close while asking me to make up more “Adventures of a Girl Named Sophia, a Golden named Choza, and a Pink Puppy named Pepper.”)

(And with a husband who comes home early from work–even though he is CRAZY busy there–because he could tell that I could use some extra time, care, attention, love, and grace.)

Today’s adventure? I think Samara mentioned something about decorating Gingerbread houses ... I’ll be sure to let you know how things go!

Have you ever been dressed by a two-year-old?

Ahhhhh – life’s little (huge!) joys ...

Well, I’ve hosted my first official “toddlers & cake & giggles” birthday party! (And lived to blog about it.)

Actually, it was truly a blast. I think the key is to invite fun, loving, and interesting people. Then, no matter what happens – it all works out.

Hope you enjoy the pics ...

Just for fun, we put up our tent in the living room. It’s been a blast cuddling in there – reading books on top of pillow piles, chuckling at Choza’s response (we were surprised that she wanted to be in there with all of us), etc. etc.

We’ll have to take it down by Tuesday because our Bible study would have no place to meet ... but I thought you might get a chuckle or two out of some pics. Hope so!

Love ya,
t

Our little Presbyterian church had their “Reformation Day” party last night. (To remind us all of the wonderful Gospel of Grace that was re-articulated so many years ago by Martin Luther ... and to give our children a fun evening on the day that most families celebrate Halloween.)

Sophia dressed as a little “poodle-skirt-clad-50's-girl” ... well, her skirt actually had a Golden Retriever (in honor of our Golden, Choza), and her baby doll and her baby doll’s teddy bear both had matching skirts too (with itty bitty teeny little Golden Retrievers on them.)

Everyone kept asking me, “Did you sew those?” and “Did you make those?” Yeah, right. I should be such a cool Momma. (That would be Samara and her adorably-clad family.) No, no, I only had the idea! My lovely mother-in-law did the handmaking honors. (Thanks, Chris!)

Anyway, I thought you might enjoy seeing our little Sophie-love and her “date” (Poppa with his pompadour) as well as the Samara/Scout butterfly team.

(By the way–did I mention how FUN it was to find toddler-sized saddle shoes on ebay???!! Ahhhhh, life’s little pleasures.)