What I Learned in October

May your weekend be a kind friend offering rest, hope and healing. May the anxieties yanking on your heart  turn to peacefulness resting in it. And as you turn over your circumstances from one hand to the other, may you hear your Father say yes, even here, I am with you.

What I Learned in October:

1. Leeana Tankersley’s book Brazen: The Courage to Find the You that’s Been Hiding is a new favorite. It doesn’t release until April, but I received an early copy to read and endorse. And let me say I was positively thrilled to endorse this beautiful, affirming book. It is a gem, and I will write more about it later, I’m sure. But suffice it to say that if you have ever felt the need to apologize for your own existence in this world (hand up!), then this book is a must read. I adored it. Preorder yours on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

2. Some women have a different hairdresser cut their hair every single time. Well, at least one woman I know does. Recently while having lunch with a friend, two different women came up to tell her they liked her hair. This friend has a super cute short haircut, and it’s darling. When one of those women asked her where she gets her hair cut, she told them she goes to a different person every time. And what’s more, she usually goes to one of the inexpensive places like Great Clips or Super Cuts every time. Honestly, I was floored–especially at the idea of having someone new cut my hair every single time. When I asked her why she goes that route instead of finding the same trusted person to do it each time, she told me that’s what she used to do. But anytime she has consistently used the same person, she finds they get complacent and cut her hair the way they want rather than the way she wants. So, she prefers the gals straight out of cosmetology school who are experienced with newer techniques and eager to please the customer. I’m not sure I’m ready to go to a new person every time I get a haircut, but part of me thinks she may be on to something!

3. Many folks are discouraged to write because of the size of their platform. After writing this post, I learned lots of people wanting to write a book are especially discouraged if their platform is small. If you have a modest but meaningful platform and still desire to publish a book, perhaps my story in that post will encourage you.

4. When Calls the Heart returns for a Christmas special in December! First of all, do any of you watch this show? It’s based on a series of books by Janette Oke–an author that takes me straight back to my growing up years. My daughter and I love love love the show. Yes, it’s a bit cheesy and sentimental, but make us care. So far, two seasons of When Calls the Heart have aired on the Hallmark channel, and Faith and I thought we’d have to wait till February when season 3 airs to watch again. But a friend clued me that a two hour Christmas special will air December 26th! Cue the Strong girls happy as larks over this! So if you need us the evening of the 26th, you know where we’ll be.

In other television news, my husband and I started Parenthood on Netflix. We love it.

5. I have a dreadfully annoying habit of calling people by the wrong names. Y’all, I do this more often than I want to admit, and this month it dawned on me this is an issue.

Case in point: While at the Allume conference a couple weeks ago, I had the pleasure of getting to know Kendra Adachi, someone I had mostly conversed with online till seeing her at the conference. I adore Kendra and her blog and admire her writing so much. In my opinion, it’s hard to write funny, but Kendra does it well. Anyway, I called her *Kara* repeatedly until Caroline (Check out Caroline’s blog too–she is such a kind, gentle soul. Her writing will put you immediately at ease, just like Caroline does.) casually pointed out to me her name is Kendra. And I wanted to just melt under the table because hello big dumb loser. Instead Kendra, Caroline and I just laughed about it for 10 full minutes. (Sadly, this isn’t the first time I’ve repeatedly called someone by the wrong name at Allume. #dork)

6. LifeWay had an entire (in)courage endcap in their stores for most of October. Last week, my husband and I took a quick trip to Denver, and it was fun to stop by the LifeWay store and see several books written by (in)courage authors hanging together. Speaking of LifeWay, my publisher is kindly offering a $50 LifeWay gift card to one dear soul. To enter, just take a picture–any picture–of my newly released book Girl Meets Change in a LifeWay store. Add your gorgeous mug to the photo or just take a pic of the book on the shelf–whatever your little heart desires. If you are like me and don’t have a LifeWay store in your town, feel free to snap a picture of it online. Tag it with #GirlMeetsChange as well as #lifeway and post it on instagram, facebook, and/or twitter. One winner will be chosen next week from all entires to receive the $50 gift card. Happy fall, y’all!

That’s all for me! What did you learn in October? Head over to Emily’s for more “What I Learned” rundowns.

Have a great weekend, friends. xo

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