One night a few months ago I sat down with the little man to say prayers before he went to bed, and after some end-of-the-day observations – including but not limited to a declaration of the deliciousness of a Zaxby’s Nibbler as well as the mad survival skillz of Bear Grylls – he bowed his head.

“Lord,” he began, “thank you for this good day. Thank you for our family.” He continued with some specific requests, and right before he ended his prayer, he said, “we pray for Sharon and Wilter, and God, we pray for the needing.”

At that point I almost put my hand over his and said, “Oh, buddy – I think you meant needy, not needing.”

But before I could lift so much as a finger, it hit me: he’s exactly right.

After we finished praying, I walked out of A’s room with tears in my eyes. He had no idea, of course, but he’d given me the words to articulate something that had been weighing heavy in my head and on my heart:

This world is full of needing.

And that needing? It overwhelms.

We’re surrounded by people who are needing; they need comfort, they need healing, they need helping, they need peace. In the last week I’ve talked with friends who are struggling in their jobs, in their marriages, and in their families (it’s not like I’ve been sitting on a bench and holding a sign that says, “TELL ME YOUR PROBLEMS,” by the way – this is just real-life stuff that comes up in conversations). Today, in fact, I visited with a friend who’s facing a long-term illness. And the needing certainly isn’t confined to other people; we’ve been fighting a few unexpected battles in my own family lately. I know all too well that as much as you remind yourself of John 16:33, John 14:27, Romans 8:28, and countless other passages – as much as you rest in the Truth – the needing can still be discouraging. It can wear you slap out if you let it.

But.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about God’s sweetness to us in those seasons of needing. Maybe it’s a phone call at just the right time; maybe it’s a divine appointment with someone who has experienced similar circumstances. If we pay attention, we’ll see evidence that not only is God with us – He is for us. He’s writing a story way bigger than any of our circumstances, and He’s using the needing for our good and for His great glory. Scripture makes that very clear (and oh have mercy do I ever cling to that assurance sometimes).

This week in Tanzania the Compassion bloggers have witnessed the needing in ways they probably never imagined. I love that Compassion provides a way that we can stand in the gap for families and connect them to a local church that will help meet their physical, emotional and spiritual needs. They will hear the Gospel. Many of them will come to know the Lord. And when they walk through an unexpected time of needing – above and beyond their day-to-day challenges – they’ll have a local body of believers who will walk with them and pray for them. If not for Compassion, they might never know that kind of comfort. They might never know that kind of community.

As for us – the folks in the land of high-speed Internet, air conditioning, and telephones that act as our personal assistants (though I should probably point out that, as best I can tell, Siri does not speak Southern) – life looks a little bit different, at least on the surface. We live in a land of indulgence and convenience, and sometimes our struggles stem from impatience as much as anything else. But at the end of the day, our deep-down needing is what connects us to our brothers and sisters on the other side of the world, to men and women we’ve never met, to mothers and fathers who, like us, lose sleep over sick children, who worry about making ends meet, who hurt when relationships fracture.

I don’t know how to say this in a way that’s particularly eloquent, so I’ll just say it like I hear it in my heart: let’s tend to the needing today. Maybe that means we’ll encourage somebody we love. Maybe that means we’ll sponsor a child who lives thousands of miles away. Maybe that means we’ll take time to intercede for somebody who shares a prayer request. Maybe that means we’ll mend some fences.

But this much I know for sure: the needing is all around us, sweet friends.

Let’s love each other well.

Tonight has been one of those times when Facebook has pulled me into its stifling vortex and refused to relinquish its hold. I don’t know why I barely glance at FB for weeks and then suddenly feel compelled to catch up on the lives of people I haven’t seen in approximately ten years, but that’s exactly what I’ve done tonight. It’s been every bit as productive as you might imagine.

In equally earth-shattering news, I have a cereal-related issue that’s puzzling me. I’m concerned that the squares in Cinnamon Toast Crunch seem somewhat smaller than I remember them. The taste is delicious, as always, but I’m pretty sure that the squares used to be bigger. If you have the inside track on any Cinnamon Toast Crunch trade secrets, I can assure you that your wisdom and sound size-of-cinnamon-squares counsel will be deeply appreciated here.

Which reminds me.

I know that from time to time we like to keep each other abreast of various snack cracker options, so I wanted to share this news with you. A few weeks ago I made a discovery that is outside of my normal Cheez-Its / Triscuits / Sesame Thins wheelhouse, and oh, it has been a delightful find.

DELIGHTFUL.

It has the consistency of a cracker but the flavor of a pretzel – but it’s not trying to be a cracker and a pretzel at the same time like those Town House cretzel prackers that came out a couple of years ago. Pretzel Crisps are a pretzel through and through in terms of flavor, but the thinness makes it more like a cracker. Delicious. And it looks like there are lots of flavors, so that’s always an exciting development in the snack cracker / pretzel / cretzel / pracker industry. KUDOOZ TO YOU, Pretzel Crisps!

(Speaking of “kudooz” / Ramona / RHONY – is anybody else watching Real Housewives of New Jersey and pretending like they aren’t?)

(Good. That always makes me feel better.)

(I’m pretending not to watch, too.)

(I don’t know when I’ve ever not watched such a sweet-mercy-Bessie-would-you-get-a-load-of-this-trainwreck hour of television.)

(Not that I know anything about it, of course, since I’ve never seen it.)

All righty. I guess I’ll shut down the computer and do something productive. Like watch Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives. Or maybe even Dancing with the Stars.

Very busy here. Clearly. Very busy.

Love,
Me

p.s. The Compassion bloggers are in Tanzania this week, and you do not want to miss their posts. This post by Maggie is absolutely beautiful, as is this post by Kelli (I highly recommend following every blogger’s Tanzania posts via RSS feed). They’re on the Twitter, too.

Normally I set aside a pretty good chunk of time on the weekends to work on writing stuff. So far it’s been the best way to keep making forward progress without adding to the busy-ness of the week (work and school and practices and whatnot seem to keep us hopping). But one day last week, when D told me that we had two soccer games scheduled for Saturday, I realized that I just needed to go ahead and surrender to a no-writing weekend. We already had tickets to see State and Alabama play baseball Friday night, and I didn’t want to spend the rest of the weekend feeling crazed because I was scrambling to find a three- or four-hour window to finish a chapter that I feel like I’ve been working on for approximately seven and a half years.

It’s only been about a month, truth be told.

But still. I’m pretty sure that the chapter is trying to kill me.

Anyway, I didn’t try to push and rearrange and finagle like I normally do when I’m struggling to find a little patch of writing time. I just told myself that this weekend was off-limits – no writing – and do you know what?

IT WORKED.

Granted, that chapter is still trying to kill me – but that is okay. Because we had the best, most relaxing weekend.

Late Friday afternoon we drove over to Tuscaloosa for State’s baseball game. Here are some small, blurry pictures that do a very poor job of capturing what a fun night it was.

No, really. It is MY JOY to share my gift of photography with the Internet.

Please feel free to contact me if you’d like to have these stunning images printed and also framed.

The little man took a buddy with him to the game, and they had so much fun. They were worn out by the end of the night, but when it comes to young’uns, that’s sort of the goal, isn’t it?

Hallelujah.

Saturday morning we slept late, and I actually got about an hour’s worth of writing done while Alex was reading. At some point I need to write a post about the sheer volume of books that have overtaken our house – he tucks them away in every corner and every cushion – and it thrills his daddy and me to pieces. For the longest time I worried that he wouldn’t love to read, but that is officially not the case. At some point down the road there may be a slight tendency to hoard books, mind you, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

We spent Saturday afternoon burning up on the soccer field, and since I was busy reapplying sunscreen and trying to stay hydrated, I didn’t take any pictures. At one point I was so desperate for shade that I took my chair and pretty much sat in the woods, but I am happy to report that the sun didn’t get any of us. I give all the credit to God and Neutrogena Sport Face. It is a sunscreen wonder. I carry it in my purse at all times in case of a sunscreen-related emergency.

Saturday night I took Alex and a friend to a high school play-off soccer game while D went to see The Avengers. Once we found a place to sit in the stadium, I looked out at the horizon, and I’m telling you what: sometimes the sky in Birmingham just takes my breath away.

Some guys we know (and love) were playing in the game, and it was so fun to watch them and cheer for them. Alex has inherited my Sports Crazy gene, and when the game went into overtime, he had to get closer to the action.

That right there is a child whose mother thinks that volume and proximity can alter the outcome of a game.

I believe my work here is done.

Our team lost in double overtime, and I don’t mind saying that I’m still carrying some lingering sadness as a result. BECAUSE THAT’S NORMAL.

Last thing.

This afternoon we went to Costco (note to self: NEVER AGAIN on a Sunday afternoon), and I found a book that has completely captivated me.

Since I didn’t grow up here, reading about what used to be where and how certain parts of town were developed is fascinating to me. I love this place so much, and every single day I am mindful of how grateful I am to live here.

Does that sound weird? That probably sounds weird.

Anyway, late this afternoon I sat down and read and soaked up a little bit more of the history of this town that I am so thankful to call home. It was the perfect way to end a weekend that reminded me over and over again that we have roots here. We have people here. For this season of our lives, this is our place.

And as corny as it sounds, it’s so much more than I ever dreamed.

Have a great week, everybody.

I am a big-time creature of habit when it comes to jewelry. Almost every single day I wear hoop earrings, my wedding rings, and that’s-it-the-end. Occasionally I’ll wear a bracelet, but I usually end up taking it off after a couple of hours because it bugs me when I type. I like necklaces, but unfortunately I’m not gifted in the area of knowing which necklaces and shirts look best together.

So hoop earrings and wedding rings it is. Day after day after day.

For the last four or five years, I’ve favored one particular pair of hoops. I found them at a shop in Homewood (Homewood is a community here in Birmingham, and you should definitely go shopping there if you’re ever in town), and they were $7. SEVEN AMERICAN DOLLARS. I bet I’ve bought them at least five different times (to replace lost or broken earrings), and the last time they were EIGHT American dollars. So obviously they are very fancy.

But I love them. And they go with everything.

I just can’t say enough good things about them. Their self-esteem must be through the roof.

But a few weeks ago, I was sitting in Panera, minding my own business except for the fact that I was doing some full-on, full-out people watching, and I spotted a pair of earrings that captivated me right away. I thought about using the Google to see if I could locate a similar pair online, but then I decided to walk up to the counter all casual-like and ask the girl who was wearing said earrings if she remembered where she bought them.

I’m pretty sure that approaching strangers to ask where they purchased their accessories means that I’ve officially turned in to Martha. FOR YEARS we have given her a hard time about stopping someone in Target to ask where they got their umbrella or striking up a conversation in the check-out line to ask if someone’s scarf might be available in turquoise or making a beeline for a stranger in the Belk shoe department to ask if they’ve ever run across a version of the shoe they’re wearing in a slightly flatter heel but with more of a pointed toe, A POINTED TOE!

Well, apparently I learned from the best, because before you could say, “SIMMER DOWN, MARTHA,” I was on my feet and walking up to the counter and telling a darlin’ 20-something girl how much I loved her earrings and BY THE WAY, did she happen to know where I could find a similar pair?

The girl knew her stuff, and within all of a minute she told me that she’d found them at Engraving by Carol in Mobile, they had a website, and I should definitely check them out.

I’m pretty sure that I found the website and ordered the earrings before that cute girl had even fixed herself some coffee.

The earrings arrived last week, and I think they’re so cute. They’re a nice change-o-pace from the hoops, and as an added bonus, they’re monogrammed – which is every Southern girl’s love language.

So that’s about all that’s going on around here. I’ve (mostly) worn the same pair of earrings for over four years. Then I bought some new earrings that are a huge step-out for me because they’re not hoops. Clearly I am wild, crazy, and living on the accessories edge.

Do you ever get in a jewelry rut, too?

Once or twice a month I’ll get an email from someone who’s planning a vacation and wondering if I have any recommendations about where to stay / where to eat / what to do in the Gulf Shores / Orange Beach area. I’m not an expert by any stretch of the imagination – we only travel down that way two or three times a year at the most – but I thought it might be handy to have the info in a blog post since I’m not always a very strong emailer.

We also love Destin / San Destin / 30A, by the way, but we haven’t been down there in several years. I’m sure some of y’all have great recommendations for that neck of the woods (or beach, so to speak), so feel free to chime in with your favorite spots in the comments.

All righty. Here we go.

Where to Stay –

1) If you don’t mind a short walk or shuttle ride to the beach, Caribe is great for young’uns. They have three huge outdoor pools – two with big water slides – as well as indoor pools in every building. AND there’s a lazy river. We go every summer with my cousins and their kids, and what’s so fun is that you can rotate from pool to pool during the day and kids never get bored. The condos are huge with super-nice kitchens. We rarely eat out when we stay there because it’s so easy to pick up fresh seafood and cook, but there’s a good on-site restaurant called Cobalt that’s a five minute walk from the condos.

The Caribe has three buildings, and we like Building B. That pool is the easiest (to me) in terms of keeping an eye on small kids, and at night it’s rarely crowded. We are fans of the nighttime swimming.

If there’s any drawback, it might be that it can get a little loud next to the pools. Most of the big groups are families, though, so even if they get a little lively, it’s not rowdy. Does that make sense?

2) Turquoise Place is another great place for families, and it’s only a few years old. We’ve never stayed there, but I’ve heard raves about it, and it looks stunning from the outside.

3) Lots of folks here in Birmingham like the Phoenix properties. We’ve only stayed there once, when the little guy was about eight months old, but location-wise it was great. Phoenix West is the newest one, and it seems very nice.

All three places are really close to everything you need. There’s a new-ish Publix that’s in the center of Orange Beach, so you won’t have to go far for groceries.

4) If you go through Orange Beach and cross over the Florida line to Perdido Key (it’s all of 5 miles from Orange Beach – not far at all), there’s a place called Indigo that is absolutely beautiful and has gigantic condos. There are two pools, all sorts of amenities, and gorgeous beach front.

5) Another great place in Perdido is Beach Colony. It’s not in the thick of things as much as some of the places in Orange Beach because it’s at the end of the highway (before it loops back over the bay), and we love it. There are only four units per floor, it’s never very crowded, the pool is great, and there are all sorts of fun places to eat nearby. There’s another new Publix right over the bay bridge, and it’s also convenient to Walmart and Target (maybe y’all plan better than I do, but I always wind up at Target when I go to the beach).

Where To Eat –

Keep in mind that I don’t like to eat anywhere with a wait longer than about 25 minutes. If my option is to wait a sweet forever for a table, I’d rather stay in the condo and fix a grilled cheese. SO, you might not see some of the more popular spots on this list, but that’s because the popular spots typically involve waiting.

(When I can muster the strength, I will tell you about the time we waited almost 2 hours for a table at a really popular place in Perdido, only to leave 15 minutes after we sat down because the table next to us was so loud.)

(Sweet memories.)

(Also, I am a mamaw.)

1) Fisherman’s Corner – Perdido Key

The atmosphere is super-casual, and the food, which has a Cajun flair, is really special. Go early to beat the crowd, and save room for bread pudding.

2) Doc’s Seafood Shack – Gulf Shores or Orange Beach

Doc’s is one of my brother-in-law’s favorite places, and he raves about the hamburgers. The fried shrimp is legendary.

3) Lillian’s Pizza – Perdido Key

If we’re at the beach, we’re going to have pizza from Lillian’s at least one night while we’re there. Delicious.

4) Tacky Jack’s – Orange Beach

Yes, I know it’s tourist-y. But the kids in our family love it, and you can typically get a table at lunch without a wait. I love to sit outside on the bay, and we really like their sandwiches and burgers.

5) Lartigue’s Seafood Market – Gulf Shores

It’s not a restaurant, but when we’re planning meals for the cousins’ beach trip, we know that we’ll get fresh shrimp from Lartigue’s at least three times while we’re there. They have amazing seafood that they’ll steam for you, and oh my goodness – it is out of this world. Take cash, though, because they don’t accept debit or credit cards.

There are also some wonderful, couple-y restaurants, but I didn’t list any of those because we’re usually in family dining mode. However, if you’re on a little getaway with your hubby, try Cafe Grazie or Zen – and I hear that Villaggio Grille is excellent, too.

What To Do –

We mostly stick with sun, swimming and sand when we’re on vacation, but here are a few options if your kids (or you!) start to feel a little beached out and need a change of pace (and at least once a trip, somebody in our family needs a change of pace).

1) Adventure Island – They have putt-putt, go-karts, bumper boats, etc. – and it’s a good size if you’re going to have to keep up with little ones. They also have ice cold air conditioning and an Icee machine inside the arcade, oh hallelujah.

2) The Track – It’s a little bigger than Adventure Island, and there’s more stuff to keep your older kids entertained.

3) Tanger Outlets at Foley – There are approximately four kajillion stores in this outlet mall. Give or take a quadrillion.

4) Deep Sea Fishing – Someone at your condo will be able to recommend a favorite charter boat. Surprisingly, deep sea fishing isn’t really my thing, but my sister-in-law’s brother and his boys absolutely love it.

5) The Wharf – There’s a huge Rave movie theatre there, not to mention a great line-up of concerts. Shopping, too!

What suggestions do y’all have for folks who are traveling to beaches in this part of the country? Any favorite spots that I neglected to mention?

p.s. – Nobody asked me to mention any of these condos or restaurants or activities. This isn’t a sponsored post or an affiliate post; it’s just me rambling about places I enjoy at the beach. Just FYI.

I’m not sure what this tendency says about me and the very particular nature of my crazy, but sometimes, when I really want to procrastinate, I like to click over to the YouTube and search for old Miss America clips.

It fulfills me on so many levels.

I also like to search for clips from old Mississippi State football games, but that’s usually if I’m trying to get motivated. If I’m feeling stressed and need to calm down a little bit before I start to tackle whatever task is at hand, I go straight for the Miss America moments. They are a soothing presence in my life. A healing balm, if you will.

I first saw this clip from the 1991 Miss America pageant back in January, I think, and it dawned on me tonight that it’s just plain inconsiderate that I haven’t posted it yet because IT IS A GEM. I love the double-breasted suits, the rapping (in my mind the entire rapping segment is a veiled tribute to the “Opposites Attract” influence of the incomparable Paula Abdul and MC Skat Cat), the contestants in their Sensible (Leslie Lucks?) Dresses, the vogue-ing Miss America dancers, the bouncy authority with which Gary Collins and Phyllis George walk down the runway, THE WHOLE THING.

Really, the only piece of the 1991 Opening Number puzzle that troubles me is that I can’t figure out if the contestants are wearing Silky Reflections hose in Travel Buff or Pearl. It’s a tough call. I’m thinking that it’s Travel Buff, but I’m not ready to make a definitive ruling just yet.

So I guess I’ve figured out my plan for the week: take care of my people, go to work, do a little writing, and resolve the matter of the 1991 Silky Reflections shade once and for all. I’m also going to work on my scatting and maybe practice that kick move that once of the dancers does at the 4:36 mark.

What can I say? I’m feeling inspired.

Have a great Monday, y’all!