It’s official. We are covered in the white stuff here in SE Minnesota. I mean covered! It started Friday night with sleet and ice and by Saturday the snow was blanketing everything. I believe our total was 13.5 inches by Sunday. Right now we are getting a reprieve, but rumor has it Wednesday could bring round two. ….and I love every minute of it!

Saturday night our family hosted an impromtu pajama party. Two other families on the cul-de-sac stomped over in their jammies and snow boots. It was a BYOD party and everyone showed up with their favorite juice or pop. Then we broke out bags and bags of popcorn and watched Flushed Away.

On Sunday most churches were cancelled. This is a rare thing, but I was relieved. A few of the biggest churches stayed open, but not ours. Whew. My comment to my dear husband was that if the MN Department of Transportation had issued a blizzard warning and asked for NO one to be on the road, who were we Christians to be disobeying. Would risking our lives and the lives of others on the road, after the experts told us not to be there in the first place, make us more holy??? I think not. We had great Bible study time at home and service…well, let me tell you!

We spent a good share of our day outside digging out. We dug out ourselves first, as we were no good to anyone else if we couldn’t get to them. Then we worked on the new neighbor (who is moving in as I write this). We didn’t know who they were, but we had a great opportunity to be a welcoming light to them. As I shoveled their walk and Mike worked his way through knee-high drifts with the snowblower, we prayed for them. I was tickled to meet them today and have faces to attach to my prayers.

Can I just tell you how cool it is to see two or three snow blowers gathered in the middle of the cul-de-sac, planning their strategy to serve their neighbors…in HIS NAME! Too cool. After the City plow came through and left us all with hip-high piles at the end of our driveways, I thought Mike would drop. Instead, he rallied and cleared out 6 driveway ends. That’s my man!

Today we are a little sore. We are treading with tender steps, but our hearts are light. Jesus came to serve and yesterday, for a little while, we were blessed to look a little bit like Him.

Wedgewood Grey is the second book in the Black and White Chronicles. The first was Abiding Darkness (August, 2006).

No, this isn’t a continuation of my post a while ago called “Stolen Time.” That was about the end of 2006 and this is about really stealing some time. I’ve been doing that quite a bit lately and thought I’d share. I can’t tell you what a treat it is to steal special moments by yourself and with those you love. This is a recipe for good relationships and better mental health.

A couple of weeks ago it started with my dear husband and I stealing time alone at Panera for lunch and mega cups of coffee. We sat with our journal in which we list all of our godly priorities, goals, dreams, and plans for the year. We fill this journal in every year. We cover everything from ministry to health, and homeschooling to marriage. Most of all I cherish the time to look back over previous goals and dreams and celebrate those God has seen fit to see through. Mike and I get a glorious opportunity to affirm that we are on the same page…literally.

I’ve also been stealing time with each of my children. Life with a pre-teen is…different. I must say we don’t always see things the same way, but I am really enjoying my daughter’s insights and glimpses of her growing maturity. The best part is that she has grown into shopping! Praise God!

I love to see life from the eyes of 4-year-old and 6-year-old boys. Can I just say that they say the funniest things?! i.e. Today Caleb (4) asked how he should answer the telephone when he is allowed to do so. I said, “Should I just say, ‘Hello. Tiede Presidents.’?” Okay, that is too funny. Of course I told him YES!

This weekend we stole time as a whole family and went to Kalahari Water Park in the Wisconsin Dells. What a huge blast that was and they even got ME on 4 water slides. That’s huge, given my fear of heights.

Before we left for the weekend I stole the day on Saturday with a friend to write. Actually, other than breakfast said friend and I didn’t really speak. We were in a “quiet room” at the library, but we both got a bunch accomplished.

So, have you stolen time lately? Have you taken time by yourself to read a book? (I read 2 this week!) Have you spent special time alone with your family or friends? I’m telling you, it feels good. It creates some balance in my otherwise chaotic life.

Tomorrow…I will tell you about my adventure at the laundry mat. Tonight I’m still recovering and can’t talk about it rationally. Ah, yes…this will be material in a book.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sally E. Stuart is the author of thirty-four books and has sold more than one thousand articles and columns. Her long-term involvement with the Christian Writers’ Market Guide as well as her marketing columns for the Christian Communicator, Oregon Christian Writers, and The Advanced Christian Writer, make her a sought-after speaker and a leading authority on Christian markets and the business of writing. Stuart is the mother of three and grandmother of eight.

ABOUT THE BOOK

For more than twenty years, the Christian Writers’ Market Guide has offered indispensable help to Christian writers. This year, for the first time, this valuable resource comes with a CD-ROM of the full text, so you can search with ease for topics, publishers, and other specific names.

The 2007 edition also includes up-to-date listings of more than 1,200 markets for books, articles, stories, poetry, and greeting cards, including information on forty new book publishers, eighty-three new periodicals, and thirty-four new literary agents. Perfect for writers in every phase, this is the resource to get noticed–and get published.

It contains listings for: 695 periodicals, 228 poetry markets, 355 book publishers, 133 online publications, 29 print-on-demand publishers, 1185 markets for the written word, 321 photography markets, 31 e-book publishers, 122 foriegn markets, 112 literary agents,and 59 newspapers.

It also gives you comprehensive lists of contests, writers groups and conferences, search engines, pay rates and submission guidelines, editorial services and websites.

Christian Writers’ Market Guide is a “must have’ for any serious Christian writer that is looking to get published!

Visit Sally’s website

Ready to hee-haw, slap-a-knee and thoroughly enjoy a great historical romance? Then pick up Petticoat Ranch, Mary Connealy’s debut novel. I’m telling you, this is a fun read. You can’t help but delight in Sophie Edwards, a strong, fiesty Texas woman raising her four little girls alone. Then along comes mountain man, Clay McClellan and…well…bless his heart…he’s helpless with all those girls and their fightin’ and cryin’!

The spiritual take-away from this story is strong. “‘Vengeance is mine,’ saith the Lord.” Connealy does an excellent job of shedding light on the dark side of revenge. She also weaves a message of the power of prayer throughout the story.

I loved her characters and was caught up in Sophie’s wild schemes. Only a state as big as Texas could serve as the setting for a story with such big appeal! Buy it today and read more about Mary Connealy and two additional books which will release in 2007!

This is the new Cup of Comfort devotional that will release this April. I have two stories in it! Fun!

Bethany House Publishing has a short, fun survey in which you choose your favorite cover for a book. Do you know what appeals to you in a cover? Ever thought about it? This was a fun thing to do. I discovered that I was certainly drawn to one cover over the other 2. I won’t tell you which, however, as I don’t want to sway your decision. Try it! Click on the link below and let me know in a reply which cover you chose. Then I’ll let you know what I voted for!

http://www.faithinfiction.com/phpsurveyor/index.php?sid=8

Have you walked through fire lately? Hot, isn’t it? No fun. Never has been. Never will be.

Lately I’ve spent a lot of time in the book of Daniel and most of us know that story. Remember? Dan’s three buddies are thrown into the furnace by King Nebbie’s hench men…who, by the way, burn up when they toss the bound men into the fiery pit. King Neb stands near to supervise and sees four figures in the flames. Shad, Mesh, and Abed are brought out of the furnace and…surprise!…they not only aren’t burned, they don’t even smell like smoke.

Beth Moore says when people of God face a fiery trial they are either delivered from the fire, delivered through the fire, or delivered by the fire into His arms. Can I hear an “Amen!”?

We all face fires. The Tiede family is facing a bit of a scorcher right now, which is why there were so few blogs in January. My heart is being squeezed as I pray for several women who are also in the furnace; Jen, who had a double mastectomy recently and whose prognosis is not what we’d all hoped and prayed for…Suzie, whose 2 year old is still struggling and whose husband was in the mo-ped accident. He will be in a rehab. center for nearly 4 weeks and they have no short term disability…for Heidi who is possibly facing a recurrence of Wegener’s disease…a very painful and dibilitating illness…for a homeschool family who recently gave birth to a baby boy with Down Syndrome. (I know first hand the blessing this child will be to the family, but they are still in a difficult place right now.) Fires. Hot spots. Painful.

We are never alone in the fire. There is always that fourth figure. Me and “the three”…the trinity, that is.

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” Isaiah 43:2

In college I used to spout the motto, “That which doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.” I didn’t really know what that meant in a spiritual sense. I do now. God can extinguish your fire, but He may choose not to. Walking through fire can and will refine you into a beautiful and useful vessel that carries God’s grace lessons to a world in need of His truth.