Amy J. Bennett

Happy 7th Birthday, Lexi!

November 3, 2011 by Amy 12 Comments

She crawled in my bed at 6:00 this morning. I told her Happy Birthday and she said I’m 7! It’s a big girl number. And 7 is God’s favorite number! That girls makes me smile. She’s like one big ball of joy. Until she isn’t. And she’s crying and near screaming over something little like not being able to cut a straight line.

She lives on hugs and kisses. She says her hobby is watching TV. She adores animals, especially puppies. She can’t get enough of Tucker’s ears, saying they’re the softest part. She collects stuffed animals, much to her parents’ chagrin. She’s obsessed with Barbies. She designs outfits and can’t get enough of her mother’s closet. She always picks sequins and glitter. Always. She could eat McDonald’s every day. Or Wheat Thins and cereal. She still cuddles her white blankie at night. She loves having her own money and is always sure how she’ll spend it. She prefers clean scents but really is happy as long as it doesn’t smell bad. She’d run around without a shirt and socks all the time if she could. She loves her sister and would be lost without her companion. She’s all girl but orange belt at Tae Kwan Do. She likes order and rules. She prefers to learn through song.

I’ve never met anyone like Lexi and I’m so glad I get to be her mom.

Did I mention she likes taking video of herself when no one is looking? This one’s for you, Lexi, when you’re old with 4 kids and trying to film videos while the kids nap…

Entangled: The Introduction

November 1, 2011 by Amy 14 Comments

I debated. I texted. I couldn’t decide what to share with you today. The intro. An excerpt. The video. The web site. The testimonials. So many choices. But it feels right to share the introduction this week. This will give you a little more detail about what happened but doesn’t divulge the whole story yet.

On a recent October afternoon, my coworkers and I were headed to a corn maze, and I was legitimately scared I was going to get lost. I could just imagine retracing the same path countless times, never finding a way out, calling for help and no one answering. I was sure I’d be spending the night in the gloppy mud between spindly stalks of corn. OK, maybe that is a bit dramatic. It turns out the owner stands on a bridge and all I would have to do is raise a flag, which had been given to me at the start line, and he would lead me out. But it got me thinking about life. Sometimes we enter paths we don’t want to follow; some of the same ones over and over, all leading to dead-ends. We don’t know how to get out. At some point we have to raise our flags and ask for directions.

A few years ago, I headed down paths I never thought I’d find myself on. At times, it all felt like a fun game, and I was content to lose myself in the maze. But when I finally wanted out, I realized I was stuck. I kept retracing my steps because what should have felt like the wrong way had quickly become familiar. In just a few short weeks six years ago, I found myself emotionally checked out of my marriage and checked in with a person with whom I worked. I wondered if I had missed my real soul mate. I was sure I had found the real fairy tale I’d been looking for all my life. I was having secret conversations, dreaming about a guy who wasn’t my husband and wondering how I got there. And night after night, I found myself lying in the mud not willing to raise a flag for help.

God finally found me in the mud and mire and through his spectacular grace led me out of the entangled mess I had put myself in.

Maybe you know how it feels to question your husband and your marriage. Maybe you know how it feels to have feelings for someone else. Maybe you know how it feels to hide your text messages and Facebook account because if your spouse saw it, you’d be mortified and just a little afraid you’d lose everything. I’ve been there. Lost in the middle of the cornfield.

I know it’s scary and confusing right now. This book is my attempt to shout from a bull horn on a bridge to the middle of the field where you are and give you the directions out. Because there is a way out. But some of it is not easy. The path out is bumpy and even painful at times but I can tell you how good the freedom feels when you find your way out.

So will you walk with me? I need to tell you about a time I got lost in a cornfield.

I hope you see that this book is not just a self-help book but a chance to share with you my story. I hope you’ll choose to walk with me. 10 days and counting.

Weekend Recap

October 31, 2011 by Amy 3 Comments

We ended up having a very full weekend. Saturday started off with a bang at the Renaissance Festival to celebrate my niece’s birthday. The last time we went I think I might have been a little shell-shocked. The Renaissance Festival is serious stuff! This year we went early and didn’t deal with the hours of traffic and crowds. The kids were in a great mood and were happy to sit to watch many of the different shows. We saw some poetry reading, Celtic musicians, jousting and even some belly dancing. There favorite by far though was meeting Twig the Fairy. She was the cutest fairy that put a rock and fairy dust in their hands upon meeting them. She didn’t speak but giggle, smiled and did some sign language to say thank you. I haven’t figured out yet why she didn’t speak (fairies don’t speak? perhaps she’s deaf? saving her voice during festivals?) but her enthusiasm communicated everything. If you go, be sure to try the soup in bread bowls. We snacked on that during the jousting and it was the perfect lunch.

That evening we had dinner and cake to celebrate my niece’s birthday. By Saturday evening I was pooped! We did manage to get a round of Monopoly in and I have to say, the new electronic version using cards and the machine is pretty fun. All the swiping helps fill my need to run registers at Target.

Sunday’s theme was fall festivals! After church and lunch we went to my mom’s. But not before we had costume drama. About two months ago I bought both of them genie costumes at the consignment sale and made a grave mistake by letting them play with them in the meantime. Emma’s costume is completely missing. Not to be found anywhere. And since it was so cold, I had Lexi wear tights under her costume. Lexi and tights and layers don’t get along well. We eventually had to bag the genie outfit. They both ended up wearing dance outfits a family friend had given them and named themselves fairies.

My favorite part about the first fall festival was all of us playing a round of Bingo in one of the rooms. They had it rigged somehow that we all won at one time. It was hilarious when we all screamed Bingo together and realized what had happened.

Sunday evening we headed over to Scott’s parents’ church where we used to go. The kids had fun seeing their friends, eating a bunch of food and playing games. And it is always good for us to go back and talk to the members we miss seeing every week.

A very full weekend, indeed. I hope yours went well and you have a good start to your week!

A Saturday Morning Hello

October 29, 2011 by Amy Leave a Comment

Source: anthropologie.com via Daphne on Pinterest

A random adorable shoe

I don’t normally post on a Saturday morning but I wanted to say Hello. My blog has been in the midst of switching hosts the last two days hence no posts. Big props to Jason for helping me out. He and his wife are the ones that took over OTHBlog from me and he’s been trying to convert my other sites for quite some time.

For you bloggy, techy folks, I switched from a dedicated server on Surpass to Dreamhost VPS. At peaks, the dedicated server would not hold up and it costs roughly 5 times as much as Dreamhost. I hear it’s been working well for OTHBlog so we’re gonna see! I think they have a Halloween special and you can get an entire year’s worth of hosting for $9.24. No affiliate link there, just a friendly FYI. Not that affiliate links aren’t friendly, but you know.

It’s probably been a good two days not to post as we were super busy with no time to post. Thursday night we had some family pictures made to use on the Christmas card. Oh, and speaking of, since the blog was down, I emailed the winners from the giveaway. Congrats again to Jo Ann, Liz and Nichole! After our photo session, we went to Beef and Brady’s to eat with my parents and then went home to quickly do homework and hit the hay.

Last night the girls and I had errands to run and ended up at Target. The girls are coming up on their birthdays quickly and had gotten some gift cards to Target as gifts so of course they couldn’t wait to go spend it. Since I’ve been cracking down on the toy-buying around here and they have to use chore money, buying just any toy they wanted was a huge deal. And it was quite interesting watching them work out the math. Emma, who had been begging me for colored dry erase markers saw they were $10 and said she didn’t want to spend her money. I asked her why, if she was just begging me to buy them she wouldn’t buy them and she said, yeah, but that was your money. Aha! Lexi put down a toy that would have cost all her money and chose 3 smaller ones. We still ended up with Squinkies in the house but at least it seems they are finally figuring out the value of money.

Today we are supposed to go to the Renaissance Festival. It’s rainy and cold here though so I’m not sure if it’s going to happen. I guess we’ll see and I’ll report in my Weekend Recap on Monday. See you then!

A Commuting Thank You

October 26, 2011 by Amy 5 Comments

Just a quick thank you from the road. Yes I was safe, no worries! I’m posting this much later!

Introducing Entangled

October 24, 2011 by Amy 25 Comments

I have so many things I want to tell you about writing this eBook. And I suspect, in time, I will. But for now, I think the cover will speak volumes as an introduction and hopefully excite you about reading these chapters of my life that I’ve never fully divulged on Permission to Peruse, or otherwise. So without delay, here is the cover of my eBook:

Thank you to my friend, Melissa, for the design

Hopefully that communicates a lot about the direction of the book and doesn’t stun you too much. I am both terrified and ecstatic. God certainly led me to this point and I’m so excited to see what He’s up to. I’ve set the release date just a few short weeks away on Friday 11/11/11.

In the meantime, I would love it if you could go like the Facebook page so I can get an official URL. While you’re there, I would love it if you shared the Facebook page with your friends. If you’re on Twitter, be sure to use the hashtag #Entangled. Lots more details to come in the next few weeks!

Weekend Recap

October 24, 2011 by Amy 5 Comments

Lexi at her party on Saturday. She said the cream was banana-scented. Cracks me up!

We enjoyed a very laid-back weekend. The kids were out of school Friday so I worked from home and let them have a play date all day long. It’s amazing how kids can busy themselves for hours together. They had a fantastic time, although their bathroom and my closet were victims of the fun. Friday night we went out to Ruby Tuesdays and all enjoyed the salad bar. The kids were off to Scott’s parents for the night so you’d think Scott and I would have a great date night planned but no, these days we head straight to sleep. I still can’t believe I’m always the first one up these days.

Saturday morning I was up early doing edits on my eBook (I’m showing the title, cover and release date tomorrow!!) and then I convinced Scott to go with me to finally meet and have coffee with Sarah Cunningham. I read her book Picking Dandelions (go buy it!) a few months ago and connected to so much she was communicating. I knew we’d get along and at least from my perspective, we did just that over the next two hours. She was a great encouragement to me as an author, I enjoyed getting to know her a little more and it was great getting an update on One Thousand Premieres. If you haven’t checked that out yet, please do so. They are planning to retell the story of David and Goliath in a modern way and I am so psyched about it.

After that, we were off to the mall so I could get some jeans I could actually fit. Over the summer, yes, I let a few pounds creep on. And honestly? I’m not that motivated to work them off. I was happy to find Express had their jeans on sale AND I had a coupon.

Saturday afternoon Emma decided to stay over at Scott’s parents while Lexi went to a birthday party. We were all back together by dinnertime so I made some Tilapia and we played Monopoly.

Sunday morning was the normal these days…church, CVS and lunch. While Scott went on a bike ride and Emma stayed at Scott’s parents again, Lexi and I hung around the house (read: I worked on my book and she watched TV). Last night again we stayed in. We played Twister and Scott built a fire. Somewhere in the mix, Emma and Lexi were playing on our hammock and I think some strings got tangled and pulled and Lexi lost a tooth. Thankfully it was a baby tooth but oh the drama! We never did find the tooth. Last evening some friends came over to enjoy the fire that wouldn’t burn…all the wood was too green. Scott improvised by burning some paper and it didn’t matter anyway, we were having a great time talking.

So that was our weekend. I hope you had a great weekend and start to your week!

Breakfast in Bed

October 21, 2011 by Amy 5 Comments

The girls are off of school today and I’m working from home. I thought I’d give myself extra bonus points for still getting up early. It was still dark outside and I had a batch of pancakes going and K-Love playing in the background. Even though I usually have to drag the girls out of bed, they both stumbled into the kitchen at normal wake-up time. “Girls! Go back to bed, I’m making you breakfast in bed!” They’ve been begging for weeks since their grandmother sent home their trays. Their faces lit up and they dutifully went back to their room.

After it was all prepped, I carried their trays in and let them eat, getting a kiss as a thank you. I glossed over complaints about the chocolate milk not tasting right and even replaced Emma’s fork she didn’t want.

I went back to the kitchen to finish the batch and then walked back in the room to see how they were faring. I knew there was trouble when I saw a plate, off its tray and directly on the carpet. “Did something spill?” Lexi was quick to say, “Yes, Emma hid it under those pajama pants.” And sure enough some pajama pants had been wadded up to cover some syrup and pancake. I didn’t handle the next few minutes well really. I was more upset they had tried to cover it more than they had spilled it. But I wasn’t really happy they spilled it either.

Probably lots of morals to this story. Pride comes before the fall. It’s better to try and fail than not try at all. Parenting is hard. More proof we’re born with a deceitful heart. No good deed goes unpunished. I don’t know which one I was supposed to learn but I do know I learned a day off school, working from home and PMS aren’t really a good combination.