Drinking Icees, Slurping up forgiveness.

I check my Swatch watch when I wake up. It's darling but it always needs to be wound so the time can't be right. I putz about the bathroom and find my other watch. Oh mercy. The kids are both still in their pajamas. They've probably watched 286 cartoons between the two of them today.

"Guys, Mommy slept in. It's already noon. I'm so sorry." "WHAT?!" "We missed my swim lesson?!" "I know. I'm so sorry." "WE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!" "No, baby, we just wasted the morning. Mommy forgot to set her alarm." "Mommmmmaaa, I wanted to go to my swim lesson!" "I know. How about I make it up to you and we can go to Lake Winnie today."

***

The kids are moving in slow motion and all I want to do is reverse the clock, sit down and eat a bowl of granola and drink coffee and not feel frantic. Swimsuits elude us. Applying sunscreen is work.

"What's going on, Little Man? Can I help you?" "Mom, I just feel grumpy." I'm proud that he has accessed a feeling instead of casting blame. I sound like a self-esteem manual from 1989. "Mom, I'm grumpy because I'm sad I didn't get to go to swim lessons." "I know, Son. I hope you can forgive me. I messed up." "I forgive you."

***

We are walking back to the car. We have laughed, we have floated on the lazy river inner tubes several times. We have eaten funnel cake. We have had a good day. "Mom, I'm still really upset I didn't get to go to my swim lesson today." I don't remind him that he got to shoot down a colossal waterslide, drink a giant Icee, and ride all the rollercoasters he could handle for the last six hours. I don't tell him that a whole afternoon at Lake Winnie beats any doggie-paddle lesson any day. Instead I tell him the thing about forgiveness that is so hard to do. "If you forgive someone, you can't keep bringing it up. You know just like how God says when He forgives us, He casts our sins into the sea and doesn't remember them anymore?" "Yeah." "That's what we have to do."

***

The next day he is unlocking the front door and turns to me as he opens it. "I forgive you for sleeping through my swim lessons, Mom."

***

The day after that, he hugs me unbidden and says, "I still forgive you for sleeping through my swim lessons, Mom."

Keeping secrets

I figure now, in the season where we are reminded how the desire of ages was fulfilled in a cold barn long ago, that I can tell y'all about a little desire of my own that has been fulfilled. After a long road of trying to find a home for my memoir on our intercultural family, I'm thrilled to pieces that one Kalos Press has made an offer on my book and is eager to welcome "Mixed: Combining cultures, families, faith and awkward laughter" into its fold. I can't wait to tell you more about it.

Basically my feelings:

The title may shift but I am committed to this small press that has shown a strong dedication to new voices of faith --an attribute I was hoping for all along in a publisher. I'll look forward to sharing with you how this offer came to fruition and I'll be honored to share more about the prospective release of the book.

If you want to join in the ring-around-the-rosie: Be sure to keep up with me by Twitter @Kendraspondence or subscribe to our mailing list (on the right panel where it says "Be Cool, Subscribe") if you give two toots about the book ;) Even if you don't, I appreciate your readership here and your friendship on and off this matrix which privileges me to write out some of the crazy rattling around in the ol' head.

When DJ Tanner sends you a book in the mail

As part of the B&H Bloggers program, I received a free copy Candace Cameron Bure's latest book. I spent no less than three days laughing every time I saw it on the coffee table, which is where I thought it might have to remain. I could not in good faith review a book that was the farthest thing for me to reach for, even within the genre of spiritual memoir which is my fave. It just wouldn't be fair. A good book reviewer will be able to separate the person from the author's voice; to reserve critique for the author's character from the author's content.

I have very little against Candace Cameron Bure. I have listened to her talk at Liberty University. I appreciate the principles upon which she is unwavering as she makes decisions for her career and family. I just don't think she is exceptionally talented as an actress or inspirational speaker. I didn't have high hopes for her writing, though I give her credit for letting her co-author Erin Davis have a proper byline. (Ghostwriters get such a bum deal.) Most importantly, though, I was completely prejudiced against the premise of this book. I don't watch "Dancing with the Stars" which the writer uses as the framework for the events of this memoir, drawing spiritual insights from her time preparing for and performing on this reality TV show. The fact that Bure got a book deal out of a quasi-celebrity TV appearance seemed like--well, I think Uncle Joey's reaction is apt: Cut. It. Out.

Curiosity got the better of me, though. And you know what? This book is actually pretty substantive. The tone is sincere throughout. Bure clearly cares about the way she comports herself on and off camera. She took her role on the show very seriously and examined every decision through the prism of how she would be representing herself as a godly woman. There are moments that are really inspiring, like how she shares her and her husband Val's discussion about performing the seductive rumba and the implications for her as a daughter of Christ. The discussion on modesty was comprehensive and not pious. It was accessible, drawing from Proverbs, Psalms, and many parts of the New Testament. I think on these merits alone, the book is worth buying for a young person who is navigating the murky waters on modesty.

Still, the writing is pretty painful at times. In certain moments, it's as if DJ Tanner is writing the copy. There are sentences like, "Betcha didn't know that dancing could be such serious business!" Ay. Where is Kimmy Gibbler because we need some comic relief. Moreover, the premise is overall still vomitous. There is a lot of attention paid to social media reactions and the book is written with the assumption that the reader cared deeply about the show and about Bure's competitive edge. If you have a rabid DWTS fan in your house, this book might be for him or her. However, the spiritual insights within the framework of one season of one show was just not enough for a solid story skeleton. A book like Devon Franklin's "Produced by Faith" does a much better job using show business as a metaphor wherein the spiritual life is examined.

Bure's book can probably be read in about a week and is available in paperback.

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above (typically those to books) may be “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”