New In-Home Private Consultation Business

What makes me feel the most useful? What is my favorite thing to do? What do I feel I excel at? The answer to all those questions is another question: "What books do you recommend for me?" I would love, love, love to suggest reading material for people for the rest of my life. I realize I do that for free here on my blog, but I'm talking about a PERSONALIZED reading list--based on your personal preferences and interests. Would anyone pay for that service? I don't know, I just know that I LOVE it when I come home from my friend's house with a reading list. (I have some really smart friends.) You could tell me what kind of writing style you like to read. For example, I like to read writing where you really feel like you know the author--where you can just see the look on their face when they say something, or hear the funny tone of voice they use to say something. That's what I like to read, and that's how I like to write. I am reading a book like this now. It's called Heaven Without Her by Kitty Foth-Regner. The author investigates many faiths and their beliefs about the afterlife after her mother dies. She comes to a conclusion based on all her findings, but I won't spoil it for you just in case you read the book. This book is a real page-turner. (I just wanted to put that silly saying in here because it's so ridiculous. Have you ever tried to read a book WITHOUT turning the pages? Ludicrous!) I'm going to keep reading, and keep thinking about ways to develop my business idea.

Career Move

I'm currently working on building public interest in, and awareness of, my friend Wendy Hagen's book, Totally Desperate Mom. It is working. In all humility, I must say, I ROCK at this public relations gig! Just by carrying the book around tonight, I had several people flipping through the pages. One was a total stranger. (There are definite advantages to being unintimidating, and having a nice smile and a sweet-as-sugar personality -- just don't ask the friends who really know me about the personality.) So, in my always-working enterpreneurial how-can-I-make-money-with-this mind, I thought of the various ways I could turn this into a money-making venture. This seemed to me a more legit way of making some sweet moolah than charging an entry fee at my house. My concern, though, is, what if someone pays me to write about their book on my blog, and carry their book around, but I think the book STINKS?! What if it's not awesome like Totally Desperate Mom? I can't encourage someone to go waste their time and money on a book I don't like; and if I like a book, OR it is written by a friend of mine (in the case of Totally Desperate Mom, both apply-I like it--a lot--and it was written by a friend of mine), I want to promote and endorse it for free. I faced the same dilemma when I was considering a career in massage therapy. I love to give massages to my friends and help them relax, but I can't take their money. I'd have no problem taking money from strangers, but I don't want to give massages to strangers. I guess it's just my lot in life to do nice things for free . . . or at a loss, which was the case when I left the corporate world to pursue a small home business walking dogs.

What a Day! New friend, new book, new book BY my new friend . . .

I just finished Lisa Whelchel's book on friendship. In it, she suggests asking a friend what celebrity they would take to Disneyland. I thought about how I'd answer that, and my answer was quite revealing. I would take my friend, the former child star and the author of Totally Desperate Mom, Wendy Hagen. (Please, Wendy, don't feel the need to pay me for that excellent plug I just gave you.) Now, my friend is cool and all, and she's an author, which is rad . . . but I doubt she'd be recognized or asked for her autograph. (I could be wrong, since her book is so amazingly fantastic and humorous, too, and should be considered a must-read for all.) (Again, no need for any pecuniary show of thanks.) So, what does this say about me? (That's OK for me to say since this is MY blog, essentially my autobiography.) Well, my choice shows that I value friendship, and that I don't care much for glitz and glamor.

Just so that you can know more about my daily life, since you ARE reading my autobiography, when my highly-anticipated book came, I also got a package for Mr. M, and a package for our neighbor. I went to my neighbor's house, to give her her package, and when she opened the door, I saw that she was holding a package. She instantly saw my package and asked if I had received a package for someone else, also. She told me she had gotten a wrong package. She said, "I got this package for _____________." I told her that was our alias, and also that I had gotten her package. We exchanged boxes, and all was fine. And now I'm going to get a nice cup of tea and sit down to read the wonderful Totally Desperate Mom by my friend, Wendy Hagen.

It All Started in History Class

There I was, in a Catholic school during those tumultuous jr. high years when you had a best friend at 10 AM, and she became your worst enemy at 11 AM, and then you were best friends again by noon. Years came and went, and then 10th grade came, and with it, history class. The subject was the Reformation-the time in the 1500s when some daring men and women went against the super-power of the Roman Catholic church with their own ideas of Christianity. These brave men and women were thorns in the side of the Roman church, rabble rousers, troublemakers. To me, these brave men and women were heroes. The Reformers held firmly to the Bible, and to the belief that it should be made available for all to read, "even the ploughboy in the field." I started to do the thing they had died for; I started to read the Bible for myself. I started going to a church that taught only from the Bible. I gave my life, my heart and my intellect to Jesus. I read more about my Reformers, and their constant cry of "By faith alone, in Scripture alone." That was 20 years ago, and I still find myself fascinated by the Reformers and indebted to them for the pains and persecutions they endured in order that I would be able to read the Bible in 1985 and learn about God and His Spirit and His Son, and about how to have my soul saved forever.

Lisa Whelchel, Will You be my Friend?

Since today is my best friend's birthday, I thought it would be most appropriate to write about friendship. Friendship is something I have long been very interested in, especially since a very close friend of mine moved out of state to pursue a homosexual lifestyle, and has wanted nothing to do with me since. This makes me sad. We were good friends, and I loved her like a sister. I wish we could still be friends. I can only guess she didn't value a purely platonic friendship. In a statement about how Christians can minister to homosexuals, John Piper said that we Christians should help homosexuals to rediscover healthy, non-erotic friendships with people of the same sex. In my quest to see what good friendships look like for other people, I am reading Friendship for Grown-Ups by Lisa Whelchel. It is one of the best books on friendship I've read (and I've read quite a few!) Lisa's book tells of her heartbreaks and joys in friendships. I can tell from some of her writing that she's read some of the same friendship books I have. Me, reading the same book as a celebrity! A celebrity having some of the same problems and questions I have!

Happy Birthday to my best friend (who is not Lisa Whelchel)!

"Just another manic Monday."

Having no job nor children, I often feel I have to justify my existence. That has not been hard to do today. Our molehill project has become a mountain. Mr. M decided to redecorate his office to make it a more pleasant place to pay bills. So he got a hardwood floor up there. And paint. And a new vanity for the small bathroom up there. So, we paid a crew to put in the new floors, and we paid a painter to . . . wait for it . . . paint, and we had plumbers out to install the vanity. Then, Mr. M decided he'd like a separate air conditioning unit to keep his room cool. So we hired an electrician/drywall guy to run wiring for the new a/c, and to make some holes in the walls for it. The new a/c unit needs a place to be, and the only logical place is in the back yard, next to our monstrous 8 by 5 foot cactus. So Mr. M and I went to work in the yard, trying to trim the cactus and clear some weeds. We quickly realized the job was over our heads (literally and figuratively), so there are paid professionals in the yard right now. This has been a great annoyance to Rufus, (and probably to the men working), so I took him for a walk. We went to the park. We came home. Our neighbors' big dog was sitting in our yard. So Rufus and I led Sammy to his house. I knocked and knocked and rang the doorbell and finally opened the door and yelled. No one was home. I tied Rufus up, and opened their door, and led Sammy into his house. It is not yet noon. Who knows how many other professionals will come to do something or other, but I will be here, supervising our home improvement and keeping neighborhood dogs where they belong.

Murphy Brown

Do you remember the 80s sitcom, "Murphy Brown"? Murphy Brown was a ruthless career woman in a high paying job. When I was younger, I wanted to be Murphy. Now that I think about it, I don't recall Murphy having any time for friends or family. She came home to an empty house. When she got tired of coming home to an empty house, she adopted a baby. Then things got really busy, and she had no one to help her. She had her full-time, all-absorbing career, and she had a baby, but she was too tired to enjoy either. I suppose (everything being perfect in TV-land), that everything worked out fine, but the more I think about it, the less that life style appeals to me.

Moral Ambiguity

In Isaiah 5:20, God condemned the Israelites for calling good evil and evil, good. It is no secret that this is still the case. I see it every day. A very popular license plate frame says, "From 0 to bitch in 30 seconds." Really??? Is that considered a virtue, now? I'd rather be "known by my gentleness". (Phil. 4:5.) ( . . . and kindness, forgiveness, peace, patience, joy, and all the other qualities and attitudes that God deems virtuous.) There are many such instances of evil being called good, such as taking any firm and definite stand for what you believe. I believe without doubt or question that homosexuality is wrong and unnatural. Many people would curse me for having a belief that will not be changed. Another evil prevalent today is rejecting and disrespecting authority. God calls us to obey our leaders and pray for them. Good things are daily misrepresented as evil. I believe it is good and right to wait until you're married before you share a home or a bed. But then how will you know if you and your mate are compatible? You won't. You'll trust God and you'll love each other and "bear with each other" (Eph. 4:2) no matter what. I also believe it is good for me to love my husband, and only him, until I die. Some may say this is naive, or that I am limiting myself and stunting my personal growth.

These are just a few examples of how society has gone topsy-turvy, and has rejected God and His perfect plan for our peace. I think we all need to search our own hearts to see whether we are living lives and thinking in ways that please God, and we also need to stand apart and not accept, approve of, or embrace that which God detests. We cannot afford moral or religious ambiguity.