I don’t even know how to begin this post. It’s been so long since I blogged that I almost forgot how to log into my site.

I’ve had several people ask me why I haven’t been blogging. I love and appreciate that anyone actually cares. The easy answer to that question… and please don’t tag me as being super spiritual… I just haven’t felt led here.

There are days when I have actually sit down to blog–to apologize for my absence and share something of worth here.

And then, so clearly and firmly, the Lord leads me in another direction.

Think I’m crazy if you want. It does sound a little crazy. Why would the Lord care if I’m blogging or not blogging? Well, I think He cares deeply about how we spend our time. And I was spending a lot of my time blogging while neglecting a project and purpose HE put in my heart.

I’m deep into my next novel, and still praying every single day that somehow, someway, God blesses the first one with publication. It’s easy to believe that the world has forgotten about me… that the publishing world is impossible to break into… that because it hasn’t happened yet, it won’t.

But the truth is… my life isn’t in the hands of a literary agent. Or a publishing house. If the creator of the universe chooses to do something with my writing, He’ll do something with my writing. The waiting is killer. And the struggle to be positive even more impossible. But if I believe that book isn’t about me, but rather the One who gave it to me, how then could I doubt its possibilities?

What I could use from you? Prayers! Please pray for God’s hand on my writing.  That none of it is mine and all of it is His. That I wouldn’t lose heart or lose hope. That I’ll be patient and wait on Him. That I’ll have the fortitude to stand whatever criticisms and setbacks come my way. Because they will come.

So I’m not giving up on this blog. I’m just working on other things… bigger things… for now anyway.

If I’m being 100% honest, I always question myself whenever I think I hear from God. “Was that me? Or was that really God? Am I making this up? How can I know for sure?” I tell Him all the time things would be a whole lot easier if He would just speak with me like He spoke with Abraham or Noah. (But then again, that would probably totally freak me out.) But even if I just sorta THINK I’m hearing from Him, I want to be obedient. I’m not gonna risk it. I want to do His will. Not mine.

And so… I’m digging in to finish this novel.

If you’re interested in keeping up with my life and my family’s daily chaos, I tweet! A lot. You can follow me at twitter.com/ang_slaughter.

See you soon.

I just looked back over this series of text messages from last night between me, Matt, Sarah, and Gigi (Matt and Sarah’s mom) and started laughing. In my living room. All alone.

We just can’t help that we’re this hilarious.

Poor Gigi. How does she put up with us?

(The blue bubbles are me.)

I wonder if we’re as funny as we think we are.

Nobody answer that.

So hard to believe that my kids started school yesterday.

It’s not easy for me to get used to this ultra quiet house. And it’s not that I don’t enjoy it. I do. It’s just that I genuinely miss them. I love those sweet things.

Yesterday I failed to post their annual ‘First Day of School’ pictures. I thought I’d make up for that today.

Here they are. All ready to go!

Continue Reading…

After I redid the girls’ room earlier this summer, I knew it was time to move on to Jeb’s room.

Poor guy was still in his converted crib. Technically it was a toddler bed, but I think it’s safe to say the boy is no longer a toddler.  Just another reason I’m a slacker.

But I REALLY wanted him to be in a legit big boy bed before school started today.

We made my deadline by the skin of our teeth–as in LAST night.

I knew I wanted to go with a really outdoorsy, natural, super rustic look, and each time I came across a picture of the wood pallet headboards, I was always drawn to them.

So the other day I sent Matt in search of some pallets. He came home successful, and I loved his FREE finds.

After a little sanding, sawing, pulling out nails, and hammering that didn’t take more than a couple of hours, Jeb had his new big boy bed. (P.S. Matt did all the sanding, sawing, pulling, and hammering of course.)

 You’ll have to excuse Faulkner. He thinks he owns the place.

These two horses and their moose friend are staples. Continue Reading…

Last Sunday night, our church had a volunteer training night.

I’ll pause here for a moment and say I am SO excited about our future as a church. I can feel amazing things on the horizon. God is doing something big–something, I believe, we can’t even anticipate. And I’m super pumped to be a part of it.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to get to help out with a skit for some of our pastors during volunteer training night.

Since the theme of the evening was ‘Olympic’ in nature, specifically, ‘Be A Game Changer,’ I wanted to do something that related.

Last week, I ran across an idea and ran with it.

We had about 30 minutes of practice time before their live performance. TOTAL. And I’ll be honest, after one run through, I got nervous. Synchronization and gracefulness, key elements of their ‘routine,’ weren’t coming as easy to the guys as I had anticipated. And the scary part… Matt was in the lead. YIKES!

But in the end, I’ll have to give it to those guys.  They pulled off a hilarious performance that’s just too funny not to share.

So enjoy. We all did.

When Belle was 5, we started working on her memorizing all the American presidents. (Ahhh, the pitfalls of growing up the child of a mother who did her undergrad studies in history.)

Back then, she made it all the way through Lincoln before losing interest.

This week, I showed her the video of her saying Washington through Lincoln, and she was pretty impressed with her little self. Immediately, she wanted to learn them again.

I told her if she made it all the way to Obama we’d made a Build-a-Bear trip. (If you thought I was better than bribery, you were sorely mistaken.)

Ever since, we’ve been working on memorizing our country’s past leaders.

Currently, we are to Woodrow Wilson, and she’s still going strong.

So HERE SHE IS at 5.

And here she is today. (P.S. Just as we began, Jeb ran in with an “announcement.” Enjoy that.)

Love my president-saying girl.

1.)  I’m just not ready for school to start. I love having my kids home with me. (Most of the time.) There have been a few days this summer when I wanted to drop them off in a remote forest and run (NOT REALLY! Chill.), but for the most part, I have enjoyed them so much and hate to see them go back to school.

2.)  I found this cookie cutter at Sullivan’s Mill in Silver Dollar City. I’m sort of over the moon about it… which makes me weird I’m pretty sure.

Sullivan’s Mill had a wall full of cookies cutters. I could have hung out in there for an hour or more, but for SOME reason, my children and husband weren’t as excited as me about a wall full of cookie cutters. Slackers.

Continue Reading…

Sunday was my sweet Estella Dru’s 8th birthday.

I just can’t say enough about my girl. She is so much like me as a child–unsure about herself, desperate to feel special and loved, easily bothered, forgets nothing, will go to great lengths to be noticed, loves deeply, loyal to a fault.

I love that girl so desperately, and yet, she presents me with my most difficult parenting challenges. The Lord knew what He was doing when He allowed me to be her mommy. I have grown so much and LEARNED so much from her about grace and patience and unfailing love. And I have absolutely no doubt she is going to do amazing things for the Lord. NO. DOUBT.

So when she told us that for her birthday, she wanted us to go to Silver Dollar City, we made it happen.

And we are so glad we did. We had an amazing time together and laughed so much that my cheeks are physically sore today.

Here’s my birthday girl holding one of her presents (a new doll she is extremely proud of) on our way to Branson. (P.S. She wore that crown ALL DAY.)

We made a quick stop at Branson Landing to walk through Bass Pro and grab dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack. (Birthday girl’s choice.)

Continue Reading…

First off, I have been a bad blogger, and I apologize.

I’m going to MAKE time and do better. Thanks for sticking around.

Now that’s out of the way…

Several years ago, I made a discovery after watching an episode of AFV. My girls could NOT say “gift certificate.” You can watch their attempts here.

Yesterday, out of the blue, Jeb attempted to say “gift certificate” himself, and could. not. do. it.

Of course I had to capture it, and also, just for good measure, I got him to say, “Arnold Palmer.” (If you have no idea why, you can go here.)

So much fun we have.

Last night at 8:30pm, Estella Dru says, “Oh, hey, Mom. I forgot to tell you. I have to dress up like a pirate tomorrow for camp.”

Blank stare.

Seriously, child? It’s bedtime! UGH!

I left Matt to get them all in bed, loaded myself in the car, and drove to the local Wal-mart hoping to find an eyepatch, a red bandana, and a sword of some kind.

After an extensive search, the only item on my list Wal-mart had in their gigantic store was the bandana.

Seriously!!???

Frustration.

I knew if I came home empty handed, Estella would be crushed and disappointed.

As I considered driving to a bigger Wal-Mart, I remembered the dollar store just across the street. Hope sprang new!

As I walked in the store, I was cheerfully greeted by a severe voice that warned, “We close in 15 minutes.”

Thanks, Embittered One.

Almost immediately, I spotted a styrofoam sword. Yes!

But still… no eye patch.

Really really REALLY not wanting to drive to another store, I determined I was just going to have to get creative.

I picked up this….

Continue Reading…