My genius friend Cindi McMenamin (see her words of wisdom to me in this post,) has allowed me to give away one of her latest books When Women Walk Alone 30 Day Devotional.

Cindi’s 31 days of encouragement and blessings for women is just the right size to tuck in your purse or glove compartment for an on-the-spot pick-me-up any time of the day. Discover God’s love for you and his abundant grace.

In order to be entered into the drawing, I want you to bless the rest of us. I shared on Monday how God showed up when I was feeling week – I would love for you to share a time when God showed up for you. It could be as simple as a friend calling at just the right time with a word of encouragement, or a new sense of peace in a situation that has been feeling out of control.

Check out Cindi’s website here.

Enter by Friday at 6 PM PST and I will announce the winner on Monday.

I felt that way back in January as I was preparing to launch my new talk for The Marriage Project. you may remember that the day before I was to present that talk for the first time, our row of townhouses caught on fire.

After being relieved that everyone was OK, my next thought was, “How am I going to finish this speech?” (Now if you’re thinking, “Wow, it is the day before your speech and everything is not neatly wrapped up, printed, and put into a labeled folder?” Well, you and I can’t be friends.)

The night before, I called in the cavalry. I wrote to a bunch of my speaker friends and asked for prayer.

And they prayed. Oh how they prayed.

I went and spoke and it was a Jesus-is-the-only-one-who-could-pull-it-off kind of morning.

After speaking, two people booked Roger and I to come and speak at their groups. Right while I was standing there. Several women came up and talked to me about how the message hit them right where they were struggling in their own marriages. It was a morning that only our Maker could pull off.

When I reported this back to my prayer peeps, my friend (and fellow Harvest House author) Cindi McMenamin sent me and my fellow speakers this reply:

Kathi (and her praying friends):

Your experience paralleled what I read this morning from J.I. Packer’s “Rediscovering Holiness”: “The Pattern is that the Lord first makes us conscious of our weakness so that our heart cries out, “I can’t handle this.” We go to the Lord to ask him to remove the burden that we feel is crushing us. But Christ replies: “In my strength you can handle this, and in answer to your prayer, I will strengthen you to handle it.” Thus in the end our testimony, like Paul’s is: “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” …For only at the point where the insufficiency of natural strength is faced, felt, and admitted does divine empowering begin.”

God was truly strong in your weakness. Way to go, girl. Way to go, God!
Love, Cindi

Doesn’t that just kill you?

“For only at the point where the insufficiency of natural strength is faced, felt, and admitted does divine empowering begin.”

Do you feel ashamed of your weakness? Of your feelings of being overwhelmed? I need to recognize and face my insufficiency every single day, admit it and ask God for His empowerment.

What area do you need to feel His strength today?

Hey ladies – it has been quiet here on the blog this week. I have been working and speaking but mostly I have been writing.

I have a new book, “The Me Project” that is coming out at the end of the year, but it’s due in three weeks.

Oy to the Vey.

So my HP laptop and I have become one. But not in a bloggy sort of way.

And that makes me sad ’cause I miss you girls.

So here is a way for me to stay connected with you, and stay focused on the whole putting words on paper thing:

1. Would you pray for me? Just for today? Here are some of the things I would love prayer for:
   * That I would meet my deadline for this book – April 1
   * That I would write effectively and in a way that honors God but also reaches the hearts of women reading the book
   *That I would continue to honor Roger and the rest of the family in the process (in other words, that I don’t go all witchy on my family…)
2. Can I pray for you? In the comments, please leave your prayer request. I promise to pray for you! If your prayer is too personal and you don’t want to leave it in the comments, e-mail me at info at kathilipp.com and I will pick it up there.

Thanks my friends. I consider it an honor to pray for each and every one of you and to get to know you better!

The irony? Some of the first people who answered were my friends on Facebook – one of my biggest time suckers if I’m not careful. (Anyone else? Or am I alone in this?)

I know you are going to expect me to say things like “Give up 30 minutes of TV,” and for some of us, that may be required, but I also know that your 60 minutes of Glee may be the only real downtime that you have. (And by downtime, I mean watching Glee, folding laundry, paying bills on your laptop and packing kids school lunches in the next room…)

So here are a few things that have been working for me lately. (As technology changes, so does my list of how to save time.)

1. Getting Groceries Delivered  When I’m on deadline for writing a book, and showering suddenly becomes optional, I go to my saved list on Safeway.com and have my groceries delivered to me. Sometimes I get coupons in my e-mail for free delivery, and sometimes it costs me around $7. But, if $7 can be traded for a shower, I’m on board. Another variation on this is to swap off with a neighbor for that mid-week Oh no we are out of milk and peanut butter. Be sure to give detailed lists so it doesn’t create more problems than it’s worth.
2. Making the Kids Do It  OK, if your child is 18 months, skip this tip. Wait – no! Read it! Be planning in advance when your kids can take over certain chores – dishes, garbage, vacuuming, sweeping and mopping. Training ‘em early, train ‘em young, train ‘em often…
3. Limit Computer Time  I am now trying to give myself a two hour window each night where I don’t get on the computer for work, play or Facebook.  When 90% of your job is on your HP laptop, that can be a challenge, but I have found that if I know I am going to have a definite end to my work day, I tend to get more things finished than if I fool myself into believing I have all night.
4. Make an Appointment with Your TV  Remember when we were growing up and we knew we had to be home on Thursday nights because that was the night that The Cosby Show was on (OK, maybe it was just me who had a thing for Heathcliff…)? Now I never know what night anything is on because our TIVO is recording something, every moment of the day. How great – I can watch anytime I want. The problem? I can watch anytime I want. I am setting aside some time to watch the shows I really love (Modern Family, Kell on Earth, 30 Rock etc.) and shutting off the TV so I don’t watch hours of Dateline on ID. (OK, if I am sick in bed with a cold I will have an ID marathon…)
5. Nighttime Routines Setting the coffee the night before, putting out my walk-the-dog tennies, packing up my bag to put by the front door the night before, all of these little items not only get me out the door faster in the morning, but they let me sleep better the night before as I don’t wake up every three minutes thinking to myself “Wait, did I remember to…?”

Q4U – What is the best time-saving tip you have been using lately? Please share your wisdom in the comments below. I would love to put together a resource of all the best ideas – won’t you contribute your brilliance?

So I asked readers of my newsletter what some of their favorite kid dates were. Here are just some of my favorite answers… (more to come over the next couple of posts.)

We have several things that we do with our kids in tow, but I have one favorite date in mind.  We order in a pizza, rent a movie, start a fire and roast some marshmallows (maybe even do smores), blow up a mattress and watch a movie by the fire with the kiddos.  We then put the kids down to bed and sleep in the living room on the blow-up mattress by the fire by ourselves.  It is a lot of fun and makes great memories for the kiddos too.

MISTY CARRUTH

We go to a local shopping area in Allen, Texas.  They have a really big fenced in outdoor play area for the kids. There are also restaurants and ice cream/coffee shops nearby.  We get dinner/dessert for all and head to the play area.  There are picnic tables and all inside.  So, we let the kids run and play and hubby and I get a date while the kids occupy themselves with the play area.  We can see them from one end to the other when we sit in the middle.  It never seems to be crowded and because it is outdoors you get to take advantage of stargazing while enjoying each others company.

Janeen

I like to get a bunch of nickles and little Dixie paper cups and head to the local fish hatchery where we buy fish food and feed the fish.  There are rows and rows of fish and they fight for the food.  We love doing that.

We love to go to the drive-in movies and get a  pizza or subs sandwiches and have a tail gate party before the movie stars.

Linda Kaehler

Q4U – What are some of your favorite kid-appropriate dates?