Can I Make 2016 “The Year”?

Today I remembered that I’d blogged about 2016 being “the year” … I’ll have to reflect a little bit and decide if I think I accomplished what I hoped to.

Glimpses of Me: Choosing Motherhood

My mind screamed for a break from the work I was doing, even though I’d finally gotten into a good flow, and probably should have stayed focused.

But that’s how my world is now, right? Unfocused. Scattered. Distracted. Tired. So very, very tired.

And so, against my better judgment, I saved the document I was working on and robotically clicked over to Facebook. As if the monster of social media would hold some sort of new inspiration for me. (more on the addiction of FB later).

But for once, because I’ve slowly chosen to start following more inspirational type people/pages so that the time spent on FB is SLIGHTLY worthwhile, it did.

I saw two quotes back to back. The first:

Whatever you’re facing, GOD IS BIGGER. (Emily of emilyburgerdesigns.com)

I read it and I thought, TRUTH. God IS bigger than my poor eating, my aptitude for lethargy and laziness…

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“Mom! You’re on a book!”

“Can you believe it?” I said to my 6 year old son, Joshua.

“What, Mama-believe what?” he asked sweetly.

“Look–look who wrote this book!”

He looks closely at the pictures on the back cover. “You! You and Grandpa Bop!”

My four year old daughter, Rebecca, came running over to join the excitement. She exclaimed, “Wow! You and Grandpa Bop!”

Yep, it’s a family affair. I never thought I’d work in a family business, and I never thought I’d share a byline with my dad. But I do. And it’s pretty cool.

Launch day is upon us. Our publisher came to us a a year ago with ideas for a “relaunch” of all things QBQ, plus a brand new product: The QBQ! Workbook. EXACTLY what I’d been dreaming about doing since joining the QBQ, Inc. team 8 1/2 years ago. I. was. stoked.

After many hours at Starbucks, pouring over my dad’s bestselling book, QBQ!, creating questions, spacing lines, editing content, writing summaries, sitting back and reflecting and trying to hit every type of learning style with different varieties of questions and exercises … and then hours and hours and hours of back and forth with the editors, and publishers, and graphic artists, and lay out people–people I’ve never met who live very different lives than I but who are equally excited about the launch of this workbook–it’s here. Launch day of The QBQ! Workbook is here.

For years, I felt we had a gap. This gap between our QuickNote list (blogs) and awesome list of books, and the training system that we offer and our live, QBQ! sessions. There was a population of people in between–huge fans of QBQ!, but not with an organization or corporation who had the resources to bring in our training system or one of us to teach QBQ!

The QBQ! Workbook fills the gap. This workbook allows individuals–retirees, stay at home parents, employees of small companies–to engage more deeply with the QBQ! book, and take the principles to a new level. The heart and soul of the new workbook is to help individuals take their love of QBQ! and personal accountability to an even deeper level, through thought provoking questions, and reflective exercises.

What’s next on the horizon? I have no idea. I can’t think much past tomorrow, and whether my son will take hot or cold lunch, who will comb my four year old’s hair while I catch a flight to Chicago to share QBQ! with another fine group of people, and whether or not the one-year-old will sleep through the night for my husband. So I’ll take each adventure with QBQ, Inc. as it comes, and enjoy every single minute of the ride.

 

Mother’s Day: Here It Is Again

In honor of the approaching Mother’s Day and all those women who yearn to be mothers….

Glimpses of Me: Choosing Motherhood

Mother’s Day used to hurt my heart.

Over three years and two kids later … it still kinda does.

Mother’s Day hurts my heart because I remember. I remember how it felt to wake up on that dreadful morning, knowing I needed to paste on a smile and go to church. I would try to view it as a day to honor my own mom, and grandma, and mother-in-law, but deep down, it just flat out hurt.

It still kinda hurts because, as God is a God who works all things for goodand continues to place women in my life who are battling the often all-too-silent battle of infertility, I am connected with a handful of women right now who desperately desire to be mothers and for whatever variety of circumstances, are not yet.

Keep on hoping, future mothers

It hurts, to see mothers become mothers when they didn’t…

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What A Year!

My husband posted a blog today that reflects on our huge last year. Instead of rewriting the same stuff myself some time, I’ll just reblog his thoughts!

ERIK LINDEEN

This week I’ve been thinking a lot about all that God has done in the last 12 months.

It’s been quite a journey to get to this point! After many years of wrestling with God’s call to plant a church, Kristin and I decided to face our fears and trust God and take the scary step to plant Mosaic Church.

On December 20, 2014 we moved to Maple Grove, MN. We decided that we were going to put down roots and invest for the long haul, so instead of choosing to rent for a while and see if this thing worked out, we were blessed to be able to buy our first home. We were committed- no matter what happened with the church plant.

Two months later we held our first informational meeting for people interested in knowing more about this new church we were starting. 4 people showed up…

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Stop Growling at your brother!!

Tonight while we were out to dinner with our little brood, an older couple who had spent their whole dinner sending smiles and coos our direction, stopped by our table.
The man said hi to the children and told me Becca reminds them of their granddaughter–talking non stop, a mile a minute.

The woman said, “Your kids were very good, considering their ages! You two were definitely in charge. A lot of times, I see families where the kids are in charge, but not here. You have a good little family!”

We thanked them and said goodbye.

Her words meant a lot to me. We’ve been sick for what feels like weeks, our kids were being loud (as kids usually are!) and we were working hard to engage them while we waited for our food instead of just snap at them and tell them to be quiet. And stop growling at each other. And crawling under the table. 😆

It’s always nice to have your effort recognized! And it’s so great to have such good kids.

Seasoned parents, if you see a young family successfully maintaining the chaos out in public, it would do that mother’s heart so much good if you paused, smiled, handed her the baby’s blanket off the floor and said, “You’re doing a good job.”

Can I Make 2016 “The Year”?

My mind screamed for a break from the work I was doing, even though I’d finally gotten into a good flow, and probably should have stayed focused.

But that’s how my world is now, right? Unfocused. Scattered. Distracted. Tired. So very, very tired.

And so, against my better judgment, I saved the document I was working on and robotically clicked over to Facebook. As if the monster of social media would hold some sort of new inspiration for me. (more on the addiction of FB later).

But for once, because I’ve slowly chosen to start following more inspirational type people/pages so that the time spent on FB is SLIGHTLY worthwhile, it did.

I saw two quotes back to back. The first:

Whatever you’re facing, GOD IS BIGGER. (Emily of emilyburgerdesigns.com)

I read it and I thought, TRUTH. God IS bigger than my poor eating, my aptitude for lethargy and laziness, my seemingly unbeatable determination to be inconsistent and unable to change. He IS bigger than my child’s sleep habits or lack thereof, my internal turmoil of what to focus on first, my daily feeling of failure as a mother/housemanager/employee/wife. God IS bigger, I thought as I read that post …. but okay so what? He’s bigger but … what? How? I’m so stuck!

I scrolled down and saw the next quote:

God invites us to come as we are, not to stay as we are. -Timothy Keller, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan

God loves me as I am. BUT He calls me to grow. Change, Surrender. Shed. Release. I’ve been coming as I am. Wait, scratch that–I’ve been STAYING as I am. Where I am. I haven’t even been COMING to Him. I haven’t been moving at all toward my Savior who wants to help me, wants to use me in my full potential. Who wants only good for me, and who DIED to SAVE me from myself and this meaningless life.

In the last few days, I’ve been moving toward Him again. Remembering to pray. Reading the Word. I’ve fallen so out of habit. I’ve let the various shifts in my life recently derail me completely from the good habits I had. So I’m trying. But even then, there’s so much that COULD be improved in my life, I don’t even know where to start. And knowing me, I’d try to tackle it all at once, it wouldn’t go perfectly, so I’d throw up my hands in frustration, make a tray of Rice Krispie Treats, and drown my sorrows in Facebook and Netflix. Anyone with me?!\

I want 2016 to be the year where I look back and say, “2016 was the year!” The year where I ACTUALLY CHANGED. The year where I ACTUALLY MOVED toward HEALTH–spiritually, physically and emotionally. Where I was ACTUALLY ME again.

I haven’t blogged in a very long time. And I’m in no way saying I’m going to start the habit up again. (No need to have one more thing to list in the “I didn’t actually do it” column of life.) But here’s my public declaration. In some way, some how, 361 days from now, I’d like to be able to say “2016 was the year that I ____________.” What that blank is is yet to be determined, I guess. Join with me, and pray with me, as we seek to move TOWARD our Savior and truly CHANGE.

And also, here’s a list of 13 questions from us at QBQ.com to help each of us reflect on 2015. This activity will help make 2016 the year! http://qbq.com/accountability-13-new-year-questions-to-ask-if-i-want-to-grow/

“But that wasn’t the PLAN!”

Oh man, I wrote this almost a year ago, and feel like I could write it exactly again! Same struggles today!

Glimpses of Me: Choosing Motherhood

Marriage to my husband Erik, and parenting have taught me two truths ….

Not at all the evening I expected … I expected a family dinner, playing at the park with my kiddos while Erik was at band practice, early bedtimes and some time to myself just chilling.

Instead, Erik got trapped at Guitar Center for WAY longer than expected on the far West side of Madison, so I had to scrap dinner, drive 30 minutes, scarf down food with the kids and hubby, then haul the kids back to our side of town, get the promised McD’s 50 cent ice cream (since they were delightful angels at the guitar store for over an hour … ), work off the sugar in the playroom by dancing and doing headers with a mini soccer ball, wrangle the toddler to bed, and convince the 4 year old that, no, he doesn’t need…

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“Will the airplane run out of batteries?!”

Joshua after learning earlier this evening that Mommy, Becca and Andrew are going on a trip without him …

“Mama? I just weally weally don’t want your and Beccas and baby Andrew’s airpwane to, um, … Cwash….”

After affirming his concern and explaining it’s okay to be nervous but planes are quite safe, I reminded him to pray to Jesus when he’s worried.

“Ok mama. But mama, wike a long time ago, when you go on trips, and I wonder if the airplane is old and runs out of batteries and you cwash…Will your plane run out of batteries?!”

Oh man, these kids and what they process in their minds. And often it’s too easy to steamroll over them.

There’s always the to-do list: dishes to wash, laundry to fold, suitcases to pack… I really “don’t have time” for this.

And yet, laying here in the dark, typing this while Joshua’s hand iron-grips my forearm as he finally drifts off to sleep … I know this is what I needed to do with my time this evening.
THIS is motherhood. You’re witnessing the making of a mother.

Week 32: I Didn’t Plan This

Today, I am 32 weeks with my third child. My third precious baby who kicks and wiggles and dances within me (causing me much discomfort, I might add).

5 years ago I was 32 weeks pregnant right around this time with my first born–Joshua. I found this old blog with some thoughts from my first “Week 32,” so I thought I’d repost as I’m now 32 weeks again with another blessing!

Glimpses of Me: Choosing Motherhood

It wasn’t long into college before I realized that I naturally mentor. I naturally teach, guide and counsel. Do I do it well? Well, that’s a whole other topic. But I realized quickly that I am a “developer of people,” as one skill set test creatively put it.

So, I always assumed that I would mentor people. First I wanted to be a high school guidance counselor, then I did become a R.A., and that led me to setting my sights on some sort of role in Student Life on a college campus. I tutored a young girl in NE Minneapolis and pondered a non profit path. From there I moved on to academic advising, got involved in youth mentoring through youth group, and poof–

Here I am shepherding women who struggle with infertility.

What?! I didn’t plan this …

I figured I would develop life plans, help choose colleges…

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2014 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 13,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.