Hey Siestas! I haven’t had a chance to just shoot the breeze with you lately. It’s Friday night and Keith won’t be home for a while. I’ve got the Olympics on and my feet propped up and I thought I’d touch base with some of my favorite girls on earth. Here are a few random things going on in the life of your very own Siesta Mama.

1. Keith and I are totally in love with our puppies! If what we were looking for was some high life in the Moore home, we certainly got it. Most of the time our house looks like we run a daycare center. Between Jackson and 2 puppies, we have toys from pillar to post. Star and Geli are crazy about each other and most of the time insist on playing with exactly the same toy, one biting one end and the other biting the other end. They even like to share the same chew. I’ve never seen anything like it. Geli stays with Keith during the week days and Star goes with me to work so we have a very enthusiastic reunion every workday evening. We still miss our old girls so much. I bawled about Beanie again just a few days ago. But we are so thankful to have these new babies to spoil. Geli is honestly one of the cutest puppies you’ve ever seen in your life. I’m talking ADORABLE. Star, on the other hand, is the smartest. (And, yes, she’s mighty cute, too, but Geli honestly is gorgeous. German Shorthairs are beautiful specimens.) You can’t believe what my little smarty pants has accomplished in three and a half months however. She can sit, fetch, jump, walk on a leash, bring me the leash, and come give me kisses when I ask her to. She constantly tries to anticipate what I’m about to do. Every morning when I grab the keys, she heads to the car and hops right up in her seat. Loves to even sit in Jackson’s carseat in my SUV so that she has a good view. Danged amazing. I’m nuts about her. She is the mascot of Living Proof Ministries. My whole staff loves her. She knows exactly who offices where. When she’s full grown, I’m going to get her one of those capes like the mascot at Texas A & M wears only ours is going to have “LPM” on it. Yep. She’ll be darling. As it is, she wears a different color bandanna every day. I have lots of nicknames for her: Starry Starry Night, Rock Star, Starlet, Stardom, and on patriotic holidays, Stars and Stripes. If she’s running really fast, she’s Shooting Star.

2. I am getting to catch my breath for five minutes after a hard summer. I appreciated one of you commenting that I seemed rested or peaceful (you used the word “soft” – I’m going to take that as a compliment as long as you don’t mean my arms) in the most recent Siesta video. You were so sweet to notice. It has been a difficult couple of months for a number of reasons and what you discerned was that I’ve recently come out from under a considerable measure of the stress. We are putting the final editorial touches on Esther and, before we know it, it will go to print after eighteen months of work. I will miss it so much but I will also be very relieved to see this baby girl birthed. I am never happier (ministry-wise) than when I’m working on a Bible study because I so love the process – hard as it is – BUT wrapping one up and getting it to print on time and in tact is always extremely stressful. Add to that about a dozen other things – some of them personal and painful – and you’ve got yourself a challenging summer. Thank you all for your prayers. You will never waste one on me. Please say another for me and for all of us who will seek the Presence of the Lord next weekend in San Antonio. I want to see Him there so badly.

3. Curtis, Melissa, and I are doing the neatest thing this Fall. The sanctuary at our church has been under reconstruction all summer. Since we weren’t positive they’d finish on time for our Fall study, we decided we better do something smaller for one semester so we weren’t dependent upon the sanctuary. For the last year or so the fire’s been burning in us to construct and teach a Bible intro class to a smaller group we could really invest in. I want to know my class members names, for crying out loud! I’ve been dying to teach my own rendition of the series I took years ago in my twenties that lit such a passion in me. And I don’t even have to tell you that this subject matter is right up Melissa’s alley. When we considered that we might not have access to the sanctuary in time to begin, we knew the time was NOW. We’re calling it “Lit” based on the verse out of Jeremiah where the Lord says, “Is not My word like fire?” We’ll teach things like where the Bible comes from (transmission) and what on earth you do with it (Bible study methods). We’ll go back to some basics and actually learn the Books of the Bible (yes, to a song, and, no, not by ourselves in front of the class!) and find out all sorts of cool things about how the Word of God got into the hands of regular people. Melissa and I are team teaching a “graded” class of 18-25 year-old young women (she’ll be able to make 5 of the 10 classes) and Curtis is teaching the same material (one week later) to an ungraded class of both men and women. I’ll be looking in on his class and getting to know them a bit and he’ll be looking in on mine and doing the same. The whole semester will be a team effort. We kept the classes small so we can really invest in these lives. It’s a free course but we took sign-ups this time since we had limited space. Both classes are full (which surprised me, by the way. I wasn’t sure how many people would be interested in a Bible intro course) but I thought you’d get a kick out of knowing what we’re doing and might stop and pray for us. We’ll wait and see if God has any further plans for this concept. I don’t know if we’ll end up working it into a series to be published or not. We’re just going to give our all to these two groups and let God take it from there. Oh, Sister. God completely changed my life with the study of His Word. I want every person on earth – particularly every woman I encounter – to know the transforming power of Christ and the Truth that sets the most hopeless captive free. It was the turning point for me. Even this morning in research for this course, I wept over the beauty of Christ displayed on the pages of Scripture. I am convinced He will give ANY willing soul an insatiable love for Him and His Word…a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know Him better.

Well, Starzy (my favorite nick name for her) is about to wet her pants (no, she doesn’t really wear any. She’s smart but not that smart) so I better sign off and go out in the backyard with her. It’s been storming so she might need some moral support. You know how women are about going to the ladies’ room in groups.

Oh, and our Little Fig is a darling little Lemon now! Amanda’s feeling better every day. Thanks for praying! We are already falling in love with that precious one and can’t wait to hold a newborn in our arms again.

I love you guys so much. Have a great weekend! And believe God for something BIG. He’s so capable.