Facebook....finally

Okay, viewbies, head over to facebook and look me up. Invite me over. Or knock on my cyber-door. I'm really enjoying this communication avenue and look forward to seeing your face and reading your comments.

Pleasure

Greetings and salutations from the 75.7% organized office of my Chicago-land home office. All the bookshelves are filled (Priority #1 upon our arrival) and I located my old school, 3-ring binder with actual paper, speaking schedule two nights ago. Books and media inventory are all accounted for and a few pesky online orders which slipped through internet server cracks (hmm, are there cracks in space?) have been filled and shipped out for delivery.

Happy sigh. What a whirlwind it’s been as we packed up belongings and memories of fourteen years and settled into our new space in the bustling suburbs of Chicago. Par for Barnhill-spawnling course, the kids fearlessly sprinted out of their “major life change” starting blocks: Patrick is attending school and playing soccer for Harvest Christian Academy, his transition was seamless and he’s loving the food choices provided at lunch (is there anything more important to a growing 5’11” 13-year old boy?!); Kristen is soon to begin her junior year at Argosy University located nearby in Schaumburg—she’s looking to complete her Bachelor’s in Psychology and Master’s in Community Counseling; and Ricky Neal will put down academic stakes for two years at community college and then transfer to Liberty University for a degree in Political Science.

Meanwhile, Rick continues to work downstate while actively pursuing Human Resource employment within the Chicago-land area. He’s already mastered the art of the Metra & Amtrack and I’m counting down the days until details allow him to be home with me and the kids.

As for me? Well, my brain and spirit can barely contain the “this-is-so-right” assurance of following God’s leading in all these things. It’s an unshakable settled knowing of being dead-center where you need to be. No doubt some friends and family may still think me crazy but this all came down to "Put obedience where you say you say your faith is," crazy.

I’m evaluating (and re-evaluating) numerous details regarding the direction of my writing, speaking, and responsibilities within the community of faith of Harvest Bible Chapel. This fresh start has me examing a myriad of motives, goals, longings, and "in-the-light-of-eternity" considerations. I'm not at all sure what the end result will be but I rest knowing I don't have to. All that is required of me, yet again, is to obey.

Radio opportunities seem to be just upon the horizon and everything in me still aches and bellows (okay, I’m so not low-key when it comes to my passion for radio) for favor with producers, financial sponsors, entrepreneurs, and anything and everyone who desires to bring radically refreshing radio to Christian women everywhere.

Radio doesn’t care how much you weigh.

Radio doesn’t sum you up based on a clothing label.

Radio doesn’t form a cliché.

Radio doesn’t show wrinkles.

Radio allows women to get down to the basics of life.

I’d appreciate your prayers regarding this all-consuming passion. I can’t shake it. And I don’t believe I’m supposed to. If I’ve learned anything—if there’s anything I know to be true it is this: It is God who is at work in you both to will and to do His good pleasure. So I rest and smile; recalling the timeless Eric Liddell quote, “When I run I feel His pleasure.” Indeed, when I work in radio I feel His pleasure.

P.S. I'd love it if you'd send me an email and let me know the kind of radio-podcasting that you'd like to hear. So much of the "evaluating" I spoke about a few paragraphs before has to do with finding out what YOU like, what YOU need to grow in faith and life.

Home at Last

When's the last time you've heard of seven men unloading two 26-foot moving vans in under two hours? Amazing, huh? That's exactly what happened as Rick (The Husband), Kristen, Ricky Neal, and Patrick (The Spawnlings), Andy (The Boyfriend), and Ron and Rod (The Father-in-Law and Brother of Husband), wearily pulled into the driveway of our new home.

Much to our delight, strong, burly men (and one petite but mighty woman) of the Ministry Moving Team of Harvest Bible Chapel, stood ready to dismantle our jam-packed trucks into the spacious confines of our cozy abode. And I'm talking MAJOR moving items (i.e. piano, solid cherry two-piece entertainment center, antique secretary's desk, etc.,) and numerous boxes of downsized-from-what-it-started-out-to-be stuff.

Here it is less than 24-hours later and our place already feels like home. Granted there are small piles here and there but thanks to the service of those mighty men and lone woman, The Barnhill's (and Andy) are able to rest & set around the living room relaxing. Rick and I have already discovered Woodman's Market (i.e. a seeming football field sized building of everything you could ever need regarding food, produce, bakery, and a gadzillion other items).

I couldn't sleep at all last night.

Thinking of all the changes which transpired over the three-hour drive to the place we're going to land for awhile. Goodbyes to friends and friend's children. Goodbye to our home church of twelve years. Goodbye to the home we poured ourselves into as homeowners and parents. Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.

And hello to new friends; Dave and Terri, two of the aforementioned brawny and petite movers. Hello to the fellowship of believers within our new church family of Harvest Bible Chapel. Hello new school for Patrick and new teachers, new sporting opportunities, and new opportunities to stand around in the chilly-rainy-windy late Fall days of Illinois weather during soccer. Hello to growing "higher up and deeper in" with our relationship with Jesus Christ.

Heavy sigh.
Contented smile.
Weary final keyboarding as my 43-year old body begs for sleep.

Places You Will Find Me

Connie checked in via "Comments" and noted she looked forward to seeing me in the Chicagoland area. Well, I thought I'd do a short rundown of the most likely places that just might occur....

1. Barnes & Noble: I'll be parked in a comfy chair reading through one of following material types: Espionage; Spy; Humor (circa, Bloom County); Baking Cookbooks; Apologetics; and anything written by Elizabeth Berg or Jodi Picolt (with exception of her latest book. Oh, dear. What was she thinking?
2. Stein-Mart: Accessories! Purses! Home furnishings! Clothes I can't fit into 73.4% of the time.
3. Nordstrom's Rack: Shoes, my friend, shoes.
4. The Cheesecake Factory: please refer to Stein-Mart clothes disclaimer above.
5. Burnt Toast: see also; Stein-Mart disclaimer.
6. Downtown Musical: Jersey Boys here I come!
7. The Art Institute of Chicago Museum: You say Manet, I say Monet! Let's view them both. (Okay, that was a sad, sad, attempt at humor. Chalk it up to aforementioned blogpost packing mention.)
8. Pool at our Community Center: I may be able to get in a week or two before Fall temperatures force me to the...fitness center?!
9. Well, wouldathunkit! Fitness Center of some sort: I'm thinking Pilates or something 40-something friendly like that.
10. The warm confines of our new home: Getting to know and laughing so hard I snort with new friends.

Be sure to say hello if our paths cross!

One Tired Mother

Sorry for going under-the-radar these past few weeks!

My family is moving to the Chicago area and the extent of my creative writing has been a thick-line Sharpie on heavy-gauge boxes noting "BASEMENT" or "OFFICE." I'm walking around like the Hunchback of Prairie City as I've filled box after box with book after book after book after book.
I have a veritable reference library and fully intend to purchase enough book shelves to display them all upon settling in our new home.

So, my cyber-friends, I beg your continued patience as we move this coming Friday, set up house, and get the 8th grader in school on the 27th and the two college age spawnlings on the road to gainful employment and college courses. I shall do my best to get back in the posting groove post Labor Day.

Until then, enjoy the days and nights with those you love.

Summertime and the living is . . . .

a. easy

b. quiet

c. full of change

d. all of the above.

The answer is a resounding "d."

Easy as Rick and I found ourselves at home alone with Patrick (the first time in his thirteen-year old life): one ballgame a week to attend rather than two or three; one meal to fix on the fly as I'm sitting at my computer working; one ticket price for The Dark Knight. Yep, easy and cheap(er) indeed!

Quiet as Rick and I found ourselves home alone with Patrick sans his nearly-twenty year old sister who loves staying up late and discussing profundities of life and faith and his eighteen-year old brother who routinely practices his double-pedal and real life guitar hero skills. Yep, quiet leaving me more than a bit melancholy at times.

Full of change as we sign our names to the sale contract of our home and look toward our future as a family in the NW suburbs of Chicago. A future we smile and greet with arms wide open and full assurance of what is to come. A hope hard won from all which has come before.

"I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them." Isaiah 42:16

May you too find light in the darkness of change.

May you find smooth paths for your feet as you pursue your dreams.

May the irrepressible joy and peace of knowing there is a God who will never, never, leave you, inundate and saturate your life.

And remember, if you ever find yourself delayed at O'Hare International Airport or caught in a I-90/88 storm of Midwestern proportions, call or email! There will always be freshly-baked Tollhouse cookies and a friendly, cozy, "this close to Heaven" down comforter-laden bed to rest your frazzled mind and body.

Kick-Butt Spaghetti Recipe

My thirteen-year old, Patrick, is quite the cook. He eats up (sorry, couldn't resist) Iron Chef and a few months ago when I was checking in from a travel date he told me about a breakfast dish he had prepared for the family. "And the caramelized onions were awesome!"

Say what? Caramelized onions? "Where did you learn to do that?" I asked.

"Watching Bobby Flay," he proudly answered.

So...our goal, this summer as Mom and "only child at home" is to cook together. And Anthony's Pasta Sauce and Meatballs is our first dish. Oh. My. Word. Is it ever tasty! Right now it's simmering on the stove; the aroma wafting through the rooms and making us all drool. The spaghetti's about to drop but I wanted to get this posted so you too can enjoy.

And be sure to check back regularly as Patrick and I will be serving up more dee-lish items as the weeks progress. Now, go cook and prepare to swoon!