True to my 2013 goal, I’ve been guest posting quite a bit this month. Here’s where you can find me:

Over at  Laura Vanderkam’s blog, I’m sharing about how A Saver Learns to Spend. This one is for you who want to know how I homeschool my kids and still get some work done. From the post:

I’ve had a little household help for a few years; I’ve known for a while now it was time to hire more. But I’m a born saver: I love the idea of paying someone to fold my laundry, but I also love keeping my money in my own bank account.

I tried to convince my inner Saver that hiring help would let me get more work done, for more profit, but this line of reasoning remained unhelpfully abstract.

The breakthrough came when I realized this decision was about more than money. It was about choosing between two different versions of my life…

Read the rest here.

Over at Inspiration-Driven Life, I’m talking about conflict. Specifically, about The Fight we had 10 years into our marriage that we just. couldn’t. resolve. From the post:

I remember what it was about; it doesn’t matter what it was about. All you need to know is this: we couldn’t work through it.

We disagreed, and though we talked and talked and talked about it, we couldn’t figure it out. We were stuck.

I was beside myself that I couldn’t get him to see things my way. Because I was right, and he was being a jerk. And maybe a little stupid. Because otherwise, he would have agreed with me. Obviously.

What I didn’t know–though I probably should have figured it out by then–is that many conflicts in marriage aren’t solvable…

Read the rest here.

I share two of my favorite April reads over at Booking It for Life as Mom…and so do Carrie and Jessica. (You can also link up your April reading.) If you’d like more details on Surprised by Oxford and My Ideal Bookshelf than I shared on twitterature, head on over!

Thanks for following me around the World Wide Web!

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Oh, Boston. You are in our thoughts and prayers tonight.

From Photographer as Storyteller, Story Chicago blog:

During the tragic collapse of the Mississippi Bridge in Minneapolis in 2007, I went there to film.  This story was at the center of “if it bleeds, it leads” news for the day. I stood on the banks of the river in shock, witnessing all of this carnage around me. But if you turned your back to all the chaos and looked around, there was another story taking place- the mother holding her young son who was shaken and scared. The elderly man who was setting up a table to make sandwiches for volunteers. That was the story. The major tragic event is certainly important, but the real story is how the community, the people, came out to support and help. It is easy to forget that.

From Help, Thanks, Wow, Anne Lamott:

“But where do we even start on the daily walk of restoration and awakening? We start where we are. We find God in our human lives, and that includes the suffering. I get thirsty people glasses of water, even if that thirsty person is just me. My friend Tom goes through the neighborhood and picks up litter, knowing there will be just as much tomorrow. We visit those shut-ins whom a higher power seems to have entrusted to our care–various relatives, often aging and possibly annoying, or stricken friends from our church communities, people in jails or mental institutions who might be related to us, who benefit from hearing our own resurrection stories. My personal belief is that God looks through Her Rolodex when She has a certain kind of desperate person in Her care, and assigns that person to some screwed-up soul like you or me, and makes it hard for us to ignore that person’s suffering, so we show up even when it is extremely inconvenient or just awful to be there.”

From In a U-Haul North of Damascus, David Bottoms:

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Way back in January, I shared the Read the Classics in 2013 challenge from the Huffington Post blog with you over on the MMD facebook page.

Had I actually accepted this challenge, I would be dismally failing at it. Thankfully, that’s not what we’re talking about today.

What I’m really interested in is how the author defined a “classic,” and it goes like this:

“A classic is any book that is not a new book, one that merits re-reading, 5, 10, even 100 years or more after its publication. The library of the tiny, liberal arts college I attended had the words of John Ruskin etched just outside its doors: “All books are divisible into two classes, the books of the hour, and the books of all time.” It is the latter of these categories that I refer to as classics, books that are not the books of the moment.”

I like this definition.

What you may not realize is this definition uses the same categories I use to decide what to cover here on MMD. Not just in books, but in life, there are topics of the hour, and topics of interest for all time. Topics for now, and topics for always.

Hot lipstick colors for spring? Of the hour. Looking good with what you’ve got? For all time. 

Whether to breastfeed at the mall? Of the hour. Figuring out how to fit a new baby into your family’s rhythms? For all time. 

Finding a great book to gift to a kid you love? Of the hour. Teaching the next generation? For all time.

This is what this blog is about. The best posts here–the ones that resonate with you the most–happen at the intersection of Now and Always. They combine the timeless and the timely.

It’s my pleasure to talk about those things here with you. Thanks for reading, and thanks for letting me give you a peek behind the scenes today.

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I’m joining my friend Leigh Kramer today to share what I’ve been into this month.

Bookish

Leigh inspired me to take a photo of the books I own that I haven’t read yet. I stacked mine up and was shocked at how few there actually were! I think this is because I 1. Only included mine, not Will’s (although I did count the kids’ books); 2. Only included the ones I’m sure I want to read; and 3. Live right by a library.

(Also, I’ve been turning up books I forgot to put in this pile all week.)

Movies & TV

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is drawing to a close. I’ve been iffy on the last few episodes, but I’m curious to see where exactly they leave things at the end. Hank Green has almost promised another classic-ish series to follow this one and I’m definitely paying attention to that announcement.

I also loved what Ashley Clements, the actress who plays Lizzie Bennet, has to say about the power of story.

We’ve been watching The Gilmore Girls at my house. I never saw it the first time around, but we’re halfway through Season One and I’m really enjoying it so far.

I quit Once Upon a Time because I was losing patience with it, but I’ve heard the past few episodes have been amazing. Yes? No?

Catching My Eye Online

The Adverb is Not Your Friend: Stephen King on Simplicity of Style at brain pickings.

The Great Social Experiment at Whole 9 Life explores what happens when we ask the strangers we encounter everyday unscripted questions.

Brené Brown’s interview with Oprah is incredible.

An old college friend shares why he left World Vision for finance.

On the Blog

Best conversation starter: Grown-Ups Shouldn’t Finish Books They’re Not Enjoying

Most likely to resonate: Bread and Wine and a World of My Own

Most popular: A Dissenting Opinion on the IKEA Ektorp Sofa

Most likely to make you cry: The Peculiar Sadness of Somebody Else’s Happy Video

For more “What I’m Into” posts, head over to Leigh’s blog.

What are you into this month?

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I’m just back from the Killer Tribes conference in Atlanta, where I got to mix and mingle with some amazing people, connect with old friends and make new ones, and geek out discussing storytelling, writing, and blogging all weekend.

The speakers this year included Ben Arment of Story Chicago, Crystal Paine of Money Saving Mom, John Saddington of 8BIT, and Kristen Howerton of Rage Against the Minivan.

The speakers all covered different topics, so I was surprised at a common thread that ran through so many of them: that the negative things that happen to us can be–as Ben Arment said–tragedy, or they can be trajectory.

I’ve seen this principle play out in my own life. For one (rather dramatic) example, my firstborn had cancer when he was a toddler. I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone, but I was flabbergasted by the sheer number of good things that came out of that time.

We don’t think our personal tragedies are going to birth beauty. But they can. They do.

Ben Arment said, “Frustration, sorrow, and heartache are unbelievable motivators. Frustration is a gift. My prayer for you is that great frustration would befall your life.”

I’ll be doing a lot of fun, practical conference follow-up this week. But I’ll also be reflecting on the things that are bringing me frustration, sorrow, and heartache.

And you better believe I’ll be dreaming about how those negative things can be turned into something beautiful.

Can you think of a time when frustration, sorrow, or heartache have brought about good things in your life?