OK, you guys made me so hungry with all your recipes that I could have eaten my own arm off. That was so much fun! I’m going to narrow my choices down at the first of next week and I also plan to keep going through the recipes over the Christmas holidays. I can’t express to you how much your participation blesses my life and watching you relate to one another is right up there with the best parts. My life is so much richer with you in it.

Michelle and I have our suitcases packed and we’re heading up to Rapid City, South Dakota for this weekend’s Living Proof Live. We are going in a day early because it takes several flights to get there and our arrival time on Friday would have left no time for a delay. A cancellation (sadly not unusual) would have been pretty catastrophic. As it is, we’ll fly out before noon today and get there tonight. I am super excited though. I can tell you in advance this will be one of my favorite groups ever. (I’m not sure I’ve said that many times before, come to think of it.) Travis, the team and I LOVE North and South Dakota. We have story after story and memory after memory from those two great States. Oh, how we pray Jesus will show up so powerfully and do such depth of ministry, restoration, and reconciliation that we remember it forever. I have said so many times that I believe in “events.” I believe that something can happen when we get away from our usual surroundings and go, in effect, to a “high mountain apart” with Jesus. (Matthew 17) Right there we  can see Him transfigured in such a way that marks our entire estimation of Him. Yes, those kinds of fresh revelations can happen any day and even amid our usual routine but there’s nothing quite like saying, “I’m going to spend the weekend with Jesus and I’m not coming home without Him.” I don’t think He ever turns us away empty handed when we determine to seek Him with that kind of tenacious spirit.

Anybody want to come to Rapid City for Living Proof Live this Friday and Saturday but lack the money for a ticket? Oh, please call us and come! My beloved coworker Kimberly told me a few weeks ago when we were in Spokane that some of the women who got free tickets to the event literally cried on the phone. (You don’t need to do that for us to appreciate the privilege though. Grin.) It moved me so deeply and even now I could get a lump in my throat over it. I want you to know that these free tickets are gifts from this entire blog community. Several years ago we established the Siesta Scholarship Fund and you cannot fathom all the tickets and materials and scholarships that have gone out of our office through the provision. We laughed yesterday that God seems to treat it like the widow’s jar of oil in the Old Testament. We can’t seem to use it up. I believe He has honored it.

So, if you’d like to come but can’t manage the cost of the ticket right now, there are 20 comps just waiting to be claimed. Call Living Proof Ministries at 1-888-700-1999 during work hours today or tomorrow and talk to either Kimberly or Susan. Remember that Houston is Central Standard Time when you place your call.

The entire staff of Living Proof Ministries is blessed beyond measure to serve you and every single one of us considers you a huge priority. The word “Siestas” is said multiple times around our offices every single week. (In fact, we’ve got something fun in the works for you right now that I’m excited to tell you about but that will have to wait. I’ll just keep you wondering.)

OK, gotta get to the airport! I love you, Girls.

Your blog mama.

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I love, love, love our Talk to Me Tuesdays! I had no idea how fun it would be. One of you made my day yesterday on Twitter by saying you couldn’t wait for it to be Tuesday so you could take in some good stories from the heart of Siestaville. (My paraphrase) I’m so glad this is working for somebody besides me. (And, yes, the writing is coming right along so this two-month commitment is accomplishing its goal.) One good thing about not posting so much is that we take a little longer to read the comments and I love that. So many people are putting their hearts out there. I want them to know it’s not pearls before swine.

OK, I’m totally pumped about today’s topic. I got my inspiration from watching Good Morning America this morning while I was putting on my mascara. They’re doing this “Count Down to Thanksgiving” thing and this morning they had on a chef to bring a few fresh ideas to the table. SO, with Thanksgiving in a little over a week, Talk To Me about one of your favorite holiday dishes and – listen carefully here – TELL ME EXACTLY HOW TO MAKE IT. Yes, the recipe or don’t even mention it. Don’t taunt me here. Take me to Cooking 101. A Holidays for Dummies kind of approach. That’s not to say you can’t give an elaborate recipe. Some of you Siestas are fabulous cooks. Strut your stuff (or your stuffing) here! Just make sure that your directions are really clear so we can follow them without calling you next Thursday at 11:30 AM crying while all our company is standing in the kitchen staring at us. Now’s the time to share our recipes so that we have ample opportunity to read through all of them and plan some into our Thanksgiving menu. (Yes, I really do have a Thanksgiving menu and I really can bake a turkey and make cornbread dressing. It’s one of the meals I do best. I can do fat food. I just can’t do healthy food. Keith’s parents officially handed the baton of family Patriarch and Matriarch to us several years ago so we host all four generations. Our holiday meals will be extra big this year since Keith’s sister and her family moved home from Japan so we’re moving lunch here to the ministry so that there’s room for all of us at one huge table.)

HERE’S THE REALLY FUN PART! Let’s each commit to work one Siesta dish into our Thanksgiving holiday (even if you’re not a cook and it’s the only one you make) so that we can have a little touch of Siestaville on our table. It will be a way to remember one another and be so grateful to God for this wonderfully quirky community. I’ll write a post right after Thanksgiving to let you share which one you chose. Be sure and give your name and city with your recipe so that your sister can point you out if she chooses your dish. And don’t be offended if no one chooses yours. I can think of two times in my entire adult life that someone outside my own family has asked me to share a recipe with them.

I’m really excited! Bring it on, Siestas!!!

OK, so this is not a recipe but I have discovered the world’s best sugarfree gum and I’ll taunt your taste buds in closing.

And just in case you want proof that this really is your very own Siesta Mama writing these Tuesday posts to you:

And she loves you like crazy.

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Good morning, Siestas! I just had a malfunction on the moderation page and, when I closed down and tried to reopen, I think it may have eaten about nine comments to the previous post. I’m so sorry if yours was one of them! I hate when that happens. All four Jones and Melissa, and I are packing up and heading to North Carolina to be part of a gathering near Asheville at Ridgecrest Conference Center. We are so excited to be together and to serve together. We also can’t wait to be with Travis who is family to all of us Moore/Jones/Fitzpatricks. We wish Angela, Jack, Lily Kate, and Levi were going, too! That would be the ultimate. We’ll also have so many other friends there – a reunion of sorts in a lot of ways. Anyway, you won’t waste a prayer on any of us. We never get this thing down. We pray not to get in the way of the Holy Spirit and that the pleasure of Christ will be upon us all. The group will be smaller than our LPL gatherings which means we’ll be able to see many faces and hug lots of necks. It will be water to our thirsty souls.

OK, so it’s TUESDAY! And that means it’s time for you to talk. Here is today’s topic:

Talk to me about a memorable time in your life when God broke through your hardheartedness, doubt, numbness or bitterness (or maybe even grief) with what almost seemed like a single stroke. In other words, has there ever been a time in your life when an event, a moment, or sudden revelation was used by God to crumble a wall that had long since been in place? I’ve been mulling over how a single God-ordained moment can change an entire season. If you’ve had one of those, describe it. After so many other things hadn’t “worked,” why do you think the breakthrough came like it did? (Keep in mind, some things just remain mysteries to us.) Take your time and think it through. Let it cause you some thanksgiving while you’re at it.

I will look so forward to your answers! You are dear to me, Sisters. May Christ be continually attracted to this community we call Siestaville.

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Hey, my darling Siestas! Keith and I are on our way back from our Cactus Ranch, rolling east on I-10. I thought about you so much and took a few pictures with you in mind. I put the first two on Twitter so, if you’ve already seen these, you can skip on down to the rest. This is where I had my Sunday morning worship service all by myself but, as cool as I think it is, it’s a poor second to  my home church. Church is about people. Not places. The Lord still heard my prayers and received my praise and I was able to intercede for Pastor Gregg as he delivered his sermons and Curtis as he taught his Sunday School class and, Tammie Head, one of my darling “mentees,” as she taught hers.

I got very amused after tweeting this picture because so many people were dismayed by this small piece of sausage on this big fire pit. Some even mourned how lonely it looked. The thing is, I was the only one eating it. It was jalapeno cheese, by the way. So dang good.

Now, here’s what I wrote to you late yesterday afternoon so keep in mind it’s a day old:

It’s a near perfect late afternoon. There is no sound except what nature makes. A north wind is shoving the first thoughts of winter into the Texas Hill Country even before she’s come to grips with Fall. Leaves are blowing off the trees before they’ve had time to turn colors. The crickets don’t know the time changed today and they’re waking up early for the night, chirping like we should be yawning. A fire is crackling in the big pit and the wind is keeping the flames high and the smoke heavy and oscillating. Both dogs are playing in the yard. Star’s feelings are hurt that I’ve put down the ball and picked up my laptop. She hates the sight of that silver apple rising up from my lap in the worst way.

The early evening sun is casting a shimmery gold over the field between the big red barn and me. It makes the pasture look soft and inviting, like you could take off your shoes and run through it barefooted in your long white flowing skirt with your wide brimmed hat in your hand, ribbon cascading from it. Hair extensions flowing behind you like you’re in a commercial where you’re about to meet the love of your life and be swept up into happily-ever-after. But you best think again, unless you want your feet to be cactus cushions, swollen up like honey dew melons, and the hem of your skirt to be embroidered in burs. We don’t wear skirts out here anyway.  It’s harder to see if you’re about to step on a rattlesnake. Hair extensions do sound exotic though.

I’ve walked I don’t know how many miles since we got here on Friday. I suppose twelve or so and mostly by myself. My man is in his element here so he stays busy and I read and go on long walks. I pray a while, then say my memory verses, then nothing at all. I just try to see what I feel. And try to just think my thoughts before God and see what comes of them. We’re moving so fast these days that it’s hard to know how we feel about things, important or otherwise. Our feelings get all cross-wise and we end up getting mad about something we don’t even care about and not caring about something we should be mad about.

We go back home tomorrow, thankful for a three-day weekend, and ready to see Jackson and Annabeth. They’re at the age where they change overnight so I don’t like to go long without seeing them. We babysat them on Thursday night before we left town and ate Lil’ Smokeys (cocktail wieners) and anything else of equal nutritional value that they wanted. Cookies. Cheetos. Whatever. AB was in the cutest outfit ever. I held my I-phone up to take her picture and she looked up at me and said, “Cheesth!” I nearly died. Jackson is unbridled delight and, with the least prodding, tells me all the scoop from inside the Jones home without even knowing it. And it’s always good. But, boy, is it funny.

Oh, my word. I can see a whitetail deer about a hundred yards from where I sit. A doe. (A deer. A female deer…) She must have seen Keith drive off in his pickup, kicking up dust for a while. The dogs are frozen stiff. Mesmerized. They’ve learned the hard way that, if they bark, the fun is over. There’s another. And another. Too dark to take their pictures. I love this time of day, just as the sun goes down. If I could freeze any time of day and make it last a little longer, this would be it. Just to give pause for one long moment at the end of every day, turn back the covers and say, “Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.” Psalm 116:7

I think of you so often, Sisters. I will touch base with you again tomorrow on Talk To Me Tuesday. By the way, I was greatly comforted by what big mouths we have here in Siestaville. Just think what could happen if God got a hold of all our tongues! I love you, Sweet Things. Fight the good fight of faith. Jesus is so worthy.

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Good morning, my favorite blog community! I was so thrilled to hug the necks of about 50 of you Siestas at the Spokane LPL. You can rest assured you are this teacher’s pets. Thank you so much for your participation here and for your genuine warmth when I get to meet you face to face. Your sincerity and reciprocal love comes across and makes me think again and again how God has blessed us here with something unusual and maybe not all together explainable. He’s so gracious and He meets our needs in all sorts of unexpected ways.

I have LOVED our Talk to Me Tuesdays! This topic ought to be fun, too. In fact, I might especially like this one since I am one who has often fallen victim to the malady that we are about to spotlight. Talk to me about a time your mouth got you in trouble. (Believe it or not, all of these have ties to the James study, whether subtle or outright.)

Ground rules:

*Keep it clean. Of course. In other words, if your mouth got you in trouble with profanity, please refrain from sharing it. Grin.

*If it involves someone else (and the nature of it means that it usually does) either don’t identify the other person(s) involved or make sure it’s fine with them for you to share it.

LET’S HEAR IT! I’m already smiling. Maybe that’s because misery loves company.

Lastly, you Houston area girls come to Living Proof Bible Study tonight if you can and help me welcome that darling young thing, Sarah Reeves, as our vocalist and worship leader for this event. Let’s make her so glad she came to serve us. We’ll also wrap up our series on Imago Dei and I’ll actually try to have more than one point we “get.” God help me. This session is very applicable and, if you haven’t attended either of the other two sessions, it would stand on it’s own. If you’ve never even come before on a Tuesday night, I think you’d get a word from the lesson. He’s spoken loud and clear to me even just this morning. May He be glorified.

I love loving Jesus with you, Siestas. Let’s press on toward the goal. He’ll be standing at the finish line.

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Good morning, delightful Siestas! We are revving up around here for our trip to the Great Northwest! We are so excited to see who God is going to gather and hear what He wants to say. Please, please, please pray for me to hear His voice speak through Scripture in preparation. I’m really jazzed about what I think I’m getting from Him so far but I’m also at that crisis point where it needs to all come together. Some information now has to get culled and what’s left has to take the form of an outline and fall into three messages with comprehensive points. That’s a Jesus job.

You will never waste a prayer on me or on Travis and the team or on the LifeWay event staff. We’re never more aware of our poverty of spirit that when we’re in that 24 hour countdown. We practically never have that “up to it” feeling.

Are any of you heading that direction for our Living Proof Live tomorrow and Saturday? I just found out from Michelle that we already have a whopping 5000+ ticketed for this God-event so far. My jaw is down on the floor. I’m hoping to see some of our wonderful Siestas there because I remember so well when we did the blog survey several years ago and were ecstatic to discover many of you from Washington State. We were so shocked we even did a shout out. Too expensive to come? Could any of you attend if you just had a comp ticket?? Yahoo, Siesta Scholarship Fund! That’s what it’s for! Call Living Proof Ministries at 1-888-700-1999 during work hours today or tomorrow and talk to either Kimberly or Susan. Remember, our time zone is two hours later than yours. We’ll fix up the first 15 or so of you who call.

You are all dear to me!

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Good morning, Sister Girls! It’s Tuesday and time to talk! I am so happy to have gotten the joy of connecting with you over the weekend. It was an unexpected gift on a rare lazy day. I’ve really been excited over how many sisters have chimed in lately for the first time. A heightened number of you have said in the last several weeks that you’ve been reading the blog for a while but you were commenting “for the first time.” I just want you to know that it’s the comments that turn this place into a community. Not the blog posts but the comments. That means it’s more your part than mine. That’s a pretty cool thing I think. All that to say, I love seeing somebody who’s been watching finally imparting. Welcome! You are freely loved here in the gracious Name of Jesus Christ. We cannot replace counselors or local churches or face-to-face, life-to-life friends but we gleefully do what we can do: encourage you in your walk with Christ.

OK, let’s get to today’s topic: Talk to me about someone Jesus brought into your life who really stretched you but won your respect. Maybe a very unlikely friendship or relationship that you know God brought your way to grow you and to open your eyes to the wide-sweeping work of the Gospel. Put another way, who sort of broke a mold for you? This should be fun. Only share a name where there is nothing that would make your person uncomfortable or embarrassed. This might be a good time to tell you that this community, because of God’s grace alone, gets an average of 10,000 independent hits a day. Only share what you mean to be public but, by all means, have joy in the process! Just don’t tell us a secret. Grin.

I love you dearly. I can’t wait to read these.

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Remember? I said that I reserved the right to get on here and write if I wanted to and if what I wanted to write didn’t take away from the James study. I do and it won’t, so there.

It’s a Saturday off after several really hard weeks of work. I relish the Life Today tapings once I get there because the studio audience is always fantastic and the PERFECT size. (150 maybe?) I am close enough to them to hear them groan or chuckle and to see puzzlement on their faces so that I know whether or not to clarify. I am close enough to see if any one of them has tears in her eyes and if something I said hurt too much to leave alone. I am right there to see the work of the Spirit when He moves at His own discretion and I’m on occasion left with chills standing straight up on my arms, all because I’m standing close enough to feel it. And because He let’s me. I love all these things about the Life Today tapings BUT they are just about as much work over a 20 hour period of time as I ever do. Even the skin feels too heavy on my bones to take back home with me. It’s so worth it but 5 one-hour teaching sessions is a hard task.

All that to say, having the next Saturday off is a beautiful thing. I took Thursday, too, but I had a lot to do out and about that day. I had fun but not exactly rest. I’ll often opt for the former over the latter but not today. Keith left early this morning for a sporting clays tournament and just shut the bedroom door and let me sleep in. I opened my eyes about 8:45 and said good morning to the Lord. I then smiled really wide at the thought of a first cup of coffee. It never tastes better than that first sip. Then I had my quiet time and reflected back on the evening before. CJ took Jackson “camping” at a friend’s land where a handful of dads around the same age brought their young sons and did all but sleep outside. That is my kind of camping, too. As my grandmother would say, “I’m right outdoorsy till I’m sleepy.”

AJ and Annabeth came and spent the evening with my man and me. I’m just not sure little kids are ever any cuter or funnier than around 21 months. She talks constantly and, of course, had the undivided attention of three adults. Everything she wanted read to her got read to her. She ate spaghetti like she’d been starved for a month and with such enthusiasm that she had to be hastily swept to the tub lest all in her path receive a baptism by marinara. I did not say maranatha. I said marinara. Aunt Melissa then called us all on Face Time  (I-phone 4 – it’s one reason we got it) and she, AJ and I howled our heads off. I like to wear different hats when I talk to Melissa on Face Time because it makes her laugh and, because I can see myself in the little square in the corner of the screen, it makes me laugh, too. First I wore a stylish little straw hat with a thick green ribbon around it that Melissa bought several months ago then I put on one of Keith’s cowboy hats. I just hate to be predictable.

Annabeth was scared of Face Time at first and hid all but one eye in Amanda’s shirt but now she totally participates and loves to talk to Aunt Melissa and to wave to her. It’s almost more than Melissa can stand and she invariably laughs until she gets a lump in her throat and wants to cry because she’s so far from home. She loves Amanda’s babies so much. Annabeth blew numerous kisses to her last night and even told her she loved her. (“LUH- do”) She even said something to her about “Jedus.”And that’s part of what had me reflecting during my quiet time this morning.

Annabeth thinks that the greatest part of getting ready for bed is rocking with Mommy and singing about “Jedus.” I love how her little mouth looks when she says His Name. I want them to love Him so much. That’s the one thing. The one thing I ask over and over and over. I don’t mean it’s the only thing I ever ask but it’s the only thing I ask like a broken record. If they – Keith, Amanda, Curtis, Jackson, Annabeth, Colin, and Melissa and others of our family yet to come – and I love Jesus, and I mean really love Jesus, everything else will be okay. I am convinced of that. We can get through virtually anything on love. I often ask God to spare my dear family of tragedy but not to spare us of His glory. Tragedies do sometimes come but we must never think for a moment that they’ve come lightly. We must steady our reeling selves to the anchor beyond the veil and know, when we know nothing else, that somehow, some way, glory must have been at stake.

I hope your Saturday is, at least in some way, a sabbath to you. I finished yet another Wendell Berry novel this morning and let the time pass without much notice. I finished a book last week that simply said, “Stop hurrying so much.” And I’ve been trying to practice that. Even both dogs are sound asleep right now which is no small wonder, especially as I spy a squirrel at the bird feeder in our back yard. Shoot. I might go back to bed myself.

On second thought, I’m starving here. When on earth will somebody around this house go to the grocery store???

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Hey, Siestas! Thank you for such an outpouring of support in my blog break. God has already caused it to bear fruit the way I’d hoped. He’s so faithful. I miss you so much and think of you daily. I hope to see some of you Houston area girls at Bible study tonight. I’m so blessed to serve tonight with my friend, Christy Nockels. OK, here’s today’s TOPIC for Talk To Me Tuesday.

Talk to me about a time in your own life when God called you to an area of obedience that was particularly difficult but ultimately (and surprisingly) led to joy. Limit your story to one meaty paragraph so we can read as many as possible. Let’s hear it! I surely do love you girls.

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