Mary Pierce

APRIL THANK YOU NINE-BOOK GIVEAWAY: THE WINNERS ARE Joanne Kobussen, Janet Searl and Mary Lou Lowrance. Send me an email with your instructions for signing and mailing and I’ll get your books sent out. CONGRATULATIONS!

TODAY’S LAUGH: Spring in Wisconsin: unpredictable. Last week the temperature hit 70. Yesterday morning we got EIGHT inches of snow. (Hello? It’s the end of APRIL? That’s our bird feeder. Poor birdies.)

What’s a girl to do? The wardrobe demands - sweaters one day, tank tops the next - are ridiculous! And wearing a tank top before you’ve had time to lose your winter fat… ugh. (Which is why I haven’t worn a tank top in twenty years.*)

Yesterday as I fixed DaMama’s hair I said (okay, I whined), “Seventy degrees one day, thirty the next. Sunshine and gardening one week, shoveling and blizzards the next. How are we supposed to cope?”

“You just take it as it comes,” she said. Ah. DaMama’s wisdom, gained in 94 years of living.

TODAY’S ENCOURAGEMENT: “Just take it as it comes.” Sound familiar? “One day at a time” is the recovery mantra - a great approach to life, and age-old wisdom. “Don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own,” the Bible says.**

What trouble has you fretting about tomorrow? Job jitters, rocky relationships, financial fears, parenting problems, caregiving challenges? Any of those can twist us into knots with the “what if”s of worry.

Take DaMama’s advice: Just take it as it comes.

Just for today, breathe. Just for this moment, just for now - breathe in, breathe out. Repeat. Let tomorrow be tomorrow. You can do it, just for today.

Just take it as it comes. May you be blessed with sweet, sweet peace. (And pass it on!)
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*I wrote all about wardrobe woes in “Northern Girls” in the Mrs. Potato Head book.
**That’s Matthew 6:34 if you want to look it up for yourself.

TODAY’S LAUGH: I just caught the news online and had to read the headline twice: “FICTIONAL CHARACTERS TO BLOG.” Good grief! Enough REAL people jam the blogosphere every day without FAKE people blogging!

The big question isn’t who, but WHY? The answer is simple: to sell books. What Sue Grafton fan wouldn’t love a daily blurb from Kinsey Millhone? And I’d love to catch up with Ebenezer Scrooge or Captain Ahab. (But I wonder who’ll blog for them, since their creators have gone on to that big Borders in the sky.)

What fictional characters would YOU like to hear from? (I can’t wait for a “Cujo Speaks” blog.)

If pure profit is the motive, why not go beyond books to other fictional characters? Just imagine reading Mr. Clean’s “Dirty Little Secrets,” or the Pillsbury Doughboy’s “Poppin’ Blog,” or “Around the Net” from the Gorton Fisherman. My personal fave? “Mr. Peanut: Unshelled.”

TODAY’S ENCOURAGEMENT: Here’s a news flash: We have only one life to live. (The characters on that soap blog, no doubt.) Let’s spend that one life LIVING, not reading about the fake lives of pretend people!

Don’t get me wrong. Reading is FUN-damental and I encourage the buying of books. Many, many, many books. But read and enjoy the books and then remember why we’re here - to love and encourage one another - the real, live people we encounter every day.

Thanks, real live person, for reading this. I’ve taken enough of your time. Now go be a blessing to the other real, live people in your life!
////P.S. We’ve got a HOT discussion going - Check out the comments on this one and weigh in!

APRIL THANK YOU GIVE-AWAY To express my appreciation to my real, live readers, I’m giving away THREE SETS of When Did I Stop Being Barbie & Become Mrs. Potato Head?, Confessions of a Prayer Wimp, and When Did My Life Become a Game of Twister? (each set retails for $34) JUST IN TIME FOR MOTHER’S DAY!

ENTER OFTEN You may enter every day if you wish, one entry per verified email address per day April 1 to April 30, 11:59 p.m. CDT.

Two ways to enter: (1) Comment on the blog OR (2) Send me a note via the “Contact Mary” link with “April Free Book Drawing” in the subject line. (US shipping addresses only at this time.)

TODAY’S LAUGH: In our little town (pop. 60,000), one local morning TV weather includes shots from the station’s roof-mounted “Sky Cam.” Last week, the Sky Cam showed one lonely car on the street in front of the studio and the weatherguy said, “Traffic is flowing smoothly out there this morning.”

And then today, there were no cars at all. (Can you imagine!?) He said, after a slight pause, “Well, if there was any traffic, you woulda seen it right there!” Ha!

TODAY’S ENCOURAGEMENT: This is not exactly life in the “fast lane.” (It took awhile to adjust after years of big city living.)

But there is other “traffic” that has nothing to do with GPS coordinates. We can live a stressed out, fast lane kind of life–emotionally and spiritually–no matter where we are on the map.

Worry, overcommitment, fear, anger, unforgiveness. . . all can slow or even halt our forward progress.

How’s your traffic today? If your heart’s traffic pattern is too crowded and too fast, STOP! (You can. Really.) Imagine taking the exit toward a different life. Seeing it is the first step; what’s the next? This is YOUR life.

What’s one step you could take today toward saner, simpler living? Breathe. Take a minute to dream. Forgive someone. Pray. Call your grandma. Smile. Hug somebody. (That sunflower is Alyssa.) Laugh.

Try a different route. Slow down and enjoy the scenery.

May your life’s traffic flow smoothly today. And make someone else’s way a little easier while you’re at it!

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APRIL THANK YOU GIVE-AWAY CONTINUES Speaking of traffic, this website breaks records every day, thanks to you, and to express my appreciation I’m giving away THREE SETS of When Did I Stop Being Barbie & Become Mrs. Potato Head?, Confessions of a Prayer Wimp, and When Did My Life Become a Game of Twister? (each set retails for $34) JUST IN TIME FOR MOTHER’S DAY!

ENTER OFTEN You may enter every day if you wish (and lots of you are!), one entry per verified email address per day April 1 to April 30, 11:59 p.m. CDT.

Two ways to enter: (1) Comment on the blog OR (2) Send me a note via the “Contact Mary” link with “April Free Book Drawing” in the subject line. (US shipping addresses only at this time.)

Be a blessing to someone else today!

TODAY’S LAUGH: Just back from the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop in Dayton, Ohio, I offer these timeless laughs from the Great One herself:

“When my kids become wild and unruly, I use a nice safe playpen. When they’re finished, I climb out.”

“No one ever died from sleeping in an unmade bed. I have known mothers who remake the bed after their children do it because there is wrinkle in the spread. This is sick.”

“Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died.”

TODAY’S ENCOURAGEMENT: I miss Erma. She was that wise and witty neighbor who explained, at last, the mystery of the socks that disappeared into the dryer. She was that good friend who gave us all permission to be less than perfect–to only iron the side of our child’s clothing that would be facing the audience in the school play…

I doubt Erma woke up in the morning and said, “I think I’ll leave a legacy today,” but she left one. We all do.

I want mine to be like Erma’s–a legacy of joy and encouragement, offered up generously to my fellow travelers. How about you? Do you have a favorite Erma memory? Share it please.

And Erma gets the last word: “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me.’”

Now THAT’S how you leave a lasting legacy. Thanks, Erma!

(For more about the conference, check my notes link at left.)

APRIL THANK YOU GIVE-AWAY As a special thank you to you loyal friends (You’ve DOUBLED traffic to this site since January!)

I’m giving away THREE SETS of When Did I Stop Being Barbie & Become Mrs. Potato Head?, Confessions of a Prayer Wimp, and When Did My Life Become a Game of Twister? (each set retails for $34) JUST IN TIME FOR MOTHER’S DAY!

ENTER OFTEN You may enter every day if you wish, one entry per verified email address per day April 1 to April 30, 11:59 p.m. CDT.

Two ways to enter: (1) Comment on the blog OR (2) Send me a note via the “Contact Mary” link with “April Free Book Drawing” in the subject line. (US shipping addresses only at this time.)

Be a blessing to someone else today!

TODAY’S LAUGH: I just read this Chinese proverb: “That the birds of worry and care fly about your head…This you cannot change.
But that they build nests in your hair…This you can prevent!”

I’ve had a flock–or TEN–flying about at times. More than once I’ve allowed them to settle on me, make nests, lay eggs, and launch generations of babies. How about you?

What do you do when the “birds of worry and care” start circling? Ignore them? Run screaming to the nearest chocolate? Build a scarecrow? Surrender?

TODAY’S ENCOURAGEMENT: This week, when the buzzards of Worry or Care start flapping about my head, I’ll close my eyes so I can’t see them, cover my ears against the screeching, and take a deep breath.

Worry and Care have no power unless I give it to them. These things are temporary. Everything here on earth is. “This too shall pass,” I’ll tell myself.

Answers, strength, wisdom and peace–everything I need is just a prayer away. Everything you need is there, too.

THANK YOU: WOW! Traffic to my website has doubled since January of this year. And I have YOU to thank. Keep forwarding!

APRIL THANK YOU GIVE-AWAY: As a special thank you to you loyal friends, I’ll give away THREE SETS of When Did I Stop Being Barbie & Become Mrs. Potato Head?, Confessions of a Prayer Wimp, and When Did My Life Become a Game of Twister? (each set retails for $34) for you to keep or to give as gifts to a special woman–mother, sister, friend, grandmother JUST IN TIME FOR MOTHER’S DAY! (Click the books for a closer look.)

ENTER OFTEN You may enter every day if you wish, one entry per verified email address per day April 1 to April 30, 11:59 p.m. CDT.

Two ways to enter: (1) Comment on the blog OR

(2) Send me a note via the “Contact Mary” link with “April Free Book Drawing” in the subject line. (US shipping addresses only at this time.)

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for your support and encouragement! You are a blessing to me!

MARCH FREE BOOK WINNER is Heather “Mommymonk” - Congratulations!

RADIO: Listen to the Weekly Radio spots at the “Mary On The Air” link.