Southern Living Yankee

If only the events of this year could be packaged and tossed out so easily. Some of you know details of how sin manifested itself in our family this year. For those who don't, there's no need to speculate, just know that if God prompted you to pray for us it was because we dearly needed it. I'd never come face to face with such betrayal, selfishness and sheer degeneracy before. I truly thought the human race, as a whole, was simply misguided, hassled, bewildered, lost; not bent on hell. I lost my innocence this year. I grew up. I looked evil in the eye. But I experienced grace, too, because of this year. Where sin abounds, grace is abundantly available. It manifests itself in a husband holding his wife when her heart is breaking, the wife remaining confident in her husband's godly intentions and good judgment when he's second-guessing himself. Grace works conviction into the heart; it releases forgiveness, seventy times seven. Grace allows one to listen to God and r...

Are you still looking for a Christmas present for your spouse? Well, here's something better than a diamond or a set of gold clubs: "A Weekend to Remember." Tom and I went last weekend, and it was fabulous! We laughed . . . we cried . . . we even went on a date! (Nutcracker Ballet at the historic Ohio Theatre in Columbus--beautiful! The guy knows how to take my breath away!) We recommend it so highly we signed up to be group coordinators so we could give discounts to everyone we know. Go to our website at Family Life to read more about the conference and find a location and date that works for you. Then, whenever and however (by mail, phone, or online) you register for the conference, be sure to enter our group name Hardy Party for your very significant savings! Questions? Just email me. WRITING UPDATE: Total failure! I missed my writing day last week and my days off this week are the 24th and 25th so it's highly unlikely I'll get to write. The good news is tha...

Visit this website to see what God is up to in leading a friend of mine to donate her kidney. Surgery is tomorrow, so please uphold Christine and Toby in prayer, also their families. They are looking forward to Christmas in a very special way this year! There's a lot more I could say about all the amazing things God is doing around here--my heart is full, but so is my day! And I know you are the same way. I'm just glad you popped in to see what I was up to. I'll post more next week. Until then, thanks for checking in on me. Grace and peace to you.

I bought the blue package a while ago at Sam's Club. I bought the pink package last week. I finally got around to putting the pink pak away ---and found the blue pak. Both packages claim "9 DOUBLE ROLLS=18 REGULAR ROLLS." I don't have my receipts, but I'm guessing the pink pak cost MORE than the blue pak. Good bye Quilted Northern Soft & Strong, Hello scratchy cheap stuff! This ticks me off! I refuse to flush more money down the toilet! Are the politicians running the toilet paper companies, too?

Hear ye, hear ye, y'all. Please, before sending me the next email/chain mail/FWD letter of "don't-ever-buy-from-this-store", or an Amber alert, pervert alert, or cut-off finger in the restaurant alert, check the accuracy of the story on this website: http://www.snopes.com/ (Hey! Be sure to come back to my blog by clicking on your "Back to" arrow.) Snopes stands for "s'nope, that's an urban legend that you just swallowed hook, line and sinker." Most of those email stories are very emotional and/or very alarming and fear inducing--so that feeling "I've got to do something about this!"--that's my red flag that sends me to snopes. I check most stories before I pass them along and it's saved me some embarrassment--make that "a lot" of embarrassment, because the majority of the email fwd junk out there is just that: junk. Here's a nice link for your holiday shopping: consumer information . This link gets you ...