As a mom of girls, I’ve spent a fair amount of time thinking and praying about their future spouses. Of course I pray they will each find a Godly man who cherishes them, a man who will courageously lead his families through the trials and tribulations we all endure at some point.

But I also pray they will find life partners who patiently listen and give wise counsel, especially during times when an emotional outburst might occur… Just in case you’ve never had one of those (emotional outbursts), I’ll give you an example.

About a month ago, I was in the middle of a major problem with a client project. It was huge. It was big. It was painful. The problem was made monumentally worse when I discovered my secret stash of chocolate had disappeared.

Tsk. Tsk. Before you tell me about all the starving kids in the world, and that I shouldn’t get so worked up over a few candies… let me explain a few things.

During the week in question, I had missed an important email and ended up losing three days of work time. By Thursday of that week, I realized I needed to somehow fit eight hours of work into a mere three hours of time. I was really stressing. I wanted chocolate. No, I NEEDED chocolate. I tore apart my refrigerator looking for a bag of peanut butter cups leftover from our summer trip to Hershey Park. I KNEW there were at least three left, but I couldn’t find them.

I instantly decided someone (one of the seven other people in the house – my husband, our two girls, and four houseguests) had eaten my chocolates. Definitely. They were STOLEN!

So now I wasn’t just worked up about the work I wasn’t going to get finished on time, I was plotting a path of destruction through my house to find the culprit and hold them accountable. I called my husband at work and told him we needed to hold a house meeting that evening, complete with judge (me) and jury (me). That conversation went something like this:

ME: My chocolates are gone!

HIM: They are probably just misplaced.

ME: No! Someone snuck in here when I wasn’t looking and ATE them!

HIM: So what? There are starving kids in the world you know…

ME: Someone needs to PAY for this crime!

HIM: I could really go for some wings right now… how about I pick some up for dinner?

Yada yada yada. And so it continued. He eventually convinced me to wait it out… that they would eventually show up, and even if they didn’t, that it was not worth accusing anyone in the house over. Of course I felt otherwise, but I agreed to trust him.

I am ashamed to admit I stewed over those dumb peanut butter cups for at least a week. Eventually, I did forget about that (after I had replenished my stash). And then it happened… I *found* those three peanut butter cups. In the refrigerator. Behind some other stuff. Still in their wrappers. Not stolen. Just in time to ward off another emotional outburst.

I write all of this as a round-about tribute to my husband – the man who kept me from making a fool of myself by accusing my kids and my friends of something they clearly did not do. So today, his birthday, there are a lot of reasons I am thankful God gave him to me, just one of which is his ability to provide wise counsel just when I need it. Happy Birthday Wyeth!

Today I want to link to a post by Angie Smith about avocados, grocery carts, and opportunities to minister to others. (Don’t worry, it’ll make sense when you get there.) But before that, I want to tell you a little about how I got here, because Angie plays a part in this story.

The “here” I’m referring to is this blog. My first web site was located at willardesigns.com. I thought it was clever to combine the d and the end of my last name with the design at the beginning of design, but most folks just got confused and couldn’t find me. Nevertheless, I used that domain for showcasing my professional work for quite a few years.

Eventually I started doing more writing, although most of it was technical in nature. (i.e., I write books for tech geeks or those aspiring to be tech geeks. Glamorous, I know.) The willardesigns.com mantra just didn’t fit. Plus, I’d always had a problem with passing myself off to be some huge company where really it’s just little-ol-me.

So I let go of that domain and registered wendywillard.com.

At first this site was just a copy of my old Willardesigns site. But eventually I switched to using a WordPress blog so I could easily update the readers of my books about new web technologies. Indeed, if you signed on to this site a few years ago, it was all Photoshop and HTML talk around here.

Gradually, I started writing about more personal, less technical topics. As I did, the category list on the left side grew to mirror the varied aspects of my life, including topics like Foster Care, Cooking, Nicaragua, Life with Kids, and Faith.

Once, I received an email from a woman who had read one of my HTML books. She was fascinated with how I had integrated my personal life with my professional web site. She asked if I was worried I might lose some potential clients because of the personal views expressed on my site. She did have a good point, but I guess I had finally come to the point in my life and my career where I didn’t care. If someone doesn’t want to hire me because my kids aren’t perfect, I take mission trips to Nicaragua, or I like the music of Laura Story, that’s OK. It probably wouldn’t be a good fit anyway.

When I look around the web at some of the other women whose blogs I frequent, I see a few things in common. First, they all are real women who post in an honest way about the stuff life throws at them. But also, each of them challenges me, whether it’s in how I cook for my family, how I spend my money or my free time, where I focus my professional efforts, who I hang out with, or just what I’m pondering.

Angie Smith is one of those women. In fact, reading her blog helped encourage me to write more honestly and more frequently here, if for no other reason than to provide an outlet for the stuff I’m thinking about. Recently she posted about an experience she had in the grocery store. It was one of those moments where God used a series of seemingly unrelated events and a perfect stranger to make her realize something important.

Her story challenged me. Her story inspired me. Her story encouraged me.

I hope I can – at some point – do something like that for you.

“Friends are the family we choose for ourselves,” writer Edna Buchanan once said. I consider the “family” I’ve gathered — with five kinds of pals I count on for completely different things — among the wisest choices I’ve made. If you can find even one who embodies any of the characteristics that follow, you can consider yourself fortunate.

In case you haven’t read it, I’ve included the a link to the original article.

Burford lists the five categories of friends as: The Uplifter, The Travel Buddy, The Truth Teller, The Girl Who Just Wants to Have Fun, and The Unlikely Friend. I’d like to expand on her thoughts a bit…

1. The Uplifter
This friend is more likely to say “yes” than “no” regardless of the situation. She’s willing to watch your kids when you need a break, and sends you notes of encouragement when you’re feeling down. She is a perpetual source of positive feedback.

2. The Travel Active Buddy
I’m guessing there are not a lot of 30- and 40-something moms who jet-set off to St. Lucia with pals (as the original author suggested). Instead, I think this friend is the woman who joins you for a late-night chick-flick when you need a few laughs, or the one who cycles beside you regularly at the gym. There may not be a ton of deep conversation with this buddy, but that’s OK because the silence (while you’re being active together) is comfortable. You enjoy that this woman is just there with you when you need to get out of the house.

3. The Truth Teller
Burford wrote, “Intent is what separates the constructive from the abusive. Once you’ve established that the hard news is spoken in love (not in jealousy or malice), you’d be smart to seek out this woman’s perspective.” I agree. In addition, for Christian women, this friend is the one you can count on to give you sound advice from a Biblical perspective. And when you’re finished talking, she prays with you about the situation. We all can benefit from a few Truth Tellers in our lives.

4. The Girl Who Just Wants to Have Fun Who Has Been There
This friend is the one you turn to when your husband loses his job and you don’t know how to handle it, or when the school wants to set up an IEP for your child but you don’t even know what those three little letters stand for. You may have met her through your kids’ activities, church, or some other family event. In any case, she has a family like yours, and can offer suggestions when some aspect of your family is cause for concern. Why? Because she’s been there. This mentor is a great person to help guide you through a new experience.

5. The Unlikely Friend
We all have unlikely friends. You know, those who are quite a bit older or younger, of a different race or religion, richer, poorer, or just part of a completely different social circle. As Burford wrote, the friends “have added richness to my life that only variety can bring.” Amen to that.

As a good (yet unlikely) friend once told me, every now and then you need to take stock of your friends. You should always surround yourself with a few in each of these categories. But perhaps more importantly, we need to make sure we are acting as these types of friends for the other women in our lives. So while you might have a couple of great girlfriends who are the mentors in your life (The Girls Who Have Been There), who are you mentoring? And while you might have several women who uplift and encourage you, who are you uplifting?

We were all thrilled to find out Kez not only survived, but has been caring for hundreds of refugees in a field near her home (or what’s left of it). She has been able to secure additional supplies for her refugee camp, and continues to care for them as she is able (with God’s help). She is blogging about how this catastrophe has changed her life and the lives of those around her. Here’s a brief tidbit of her latest post. Please keep Kez in your prayers and click through to read the rest.

A new life – I used to have a life. It is gone. Can you imagine that? Everything that you knew, everything that made up your day – gone. Now, I have a new life, but it does not resemble my old life.

I used to have a job, several jobs actually. They are gone, buildings disappeared into piles of rubble and patients disappeared to the countryside. Now, I have a new job, but it does not resemble my old job.

I used to have friends. They are gone: dead, injured, or evacuated. Now, I have new friends, friends that I love, but they do not resemble my old friends. (Continue reading…)

So when I came across Rollip, I figured it was worth sharing. Rollip is a tool that offers cool photo effects online, so you don’t have to purchase or learn how to use Photoshop. Instead, you simply select the desired effect and upload your photo. You are then given the option to download a web-quality version, or purchase a high-quality version ($2.99 for 15 photos).

I tried a couple of effects – vintage, line drawing, and so on – to see how it worked. For the average mom playing around with pictures of her kids, I think it would work quite well. Check it out at www.rollip.com. Happy filtering!

I recently came across another blogger’s a list of 62 “intelligent and integrated logos for type lovers.” View his collection see more inspiring concepts.

What a novel concept: an established cosmetic company finally giving away a gift that connects with its target audience. And guess what… not only is this promotion free to customers, but it will garner Estee Lauder more brand awareness than the cheap makeup samples they have been giving away from decades.

Here’s how it works: women can visit the Estee Lauder makeup counter at participating department stores beginning October 16 to receive a free makeover and photo shoot. According to a spokesperson, “The photographer will do some minor retouching – nothing crazy – print out the picture and also e-mail it to the customer.” The resulting photo can then be used on Facebook and other social networking venues. Bravo to Estee Lauder for thinking outside of the box to come up with a promotion that just might get the average 30-55 year-old woman to venture to their makeup counter for the first time in ages. And who knows… a few might even buy something (or so they hope). At least we’ll all get nice profile pics .