May had been a month full of me talking a lot lol. I decided to give it its own special post because every week there was something new going on. From leading a group discussion about boys for the young ladies at our church to being on panel for Afternoon With Authors at Leaves Book and Tea Shop, its been fun, its been real, and its been an enriching time for growth. I can’t wait to share all that’s been happening so let’s get into it!

Kalon 31

Some months back I was approached by our pastors wife to be a speaker for a program offering for the young ladies at church called Kalon 31. According to Webster’s dictionary “kalon” means “the ideal of physical and moral beauty especially as conceived by the philosophers of classical Greece.” For our specific program it related to the virtuous woman described in Proverbs 31 who is a God fearing exemplary woman of her time.

As Christians, we also seek to be God fearing and virtuous, not going about our lives pretending to be of superficial moral character, but actually being made refined into Christ-like persons and the evidence being seen in the fruits we bear. It’s a high call that only with the help of the Lord can we even hope to become. To assist with the journey there was an assigned reading “So Long, Insecurity” by Beth Moore. It had various chapter’s regarding things that often times, if we are honest with ourselves as women, we ALL struggle with.

None of the instructors knew which chapter we would be teaching from upfront. Instead we were each asked to pick a month that would work for us and then later we were given the chapter number that corresponded with the month we chose. This is how I randomly got stuck teaching on the topic of boys 😂🙋🏾‍♀️. Even though I felt wildly insufficient at first, after more prayer and reflection I was up for the task.

Each session included a team building activity, learning a life skill, and teaching through the chapter subject. For my life skill I chose boundaries because it was a perfect mediator between healthy relationships, especially those with boys.

For the activity I made up a game called Boundary Ball Egg Spoon Race. The objective was to balance an egg on a spoon and drop it in a basket after a short walk while holding hands with a friend. The bubble balls the girls wore represented their own unique boundaries. Hand holding represented showing respect of their partners’ boundaries while accomplishing a mutual task. Whichever pair got the most eggs in the basket in 2 minutes won. Maintaining this goal successfully required that the girls communicate with each other and build one another up through encouragement.

After the team building exercise we all headed inside to cool off and work on how to actually create practical boundaries for relationships. Each girl grabbed a notebook and I had them write out important relationship values. Things like privacy, integrity, trust, and honesty seemed to be of most importance among the group.

Next I had them write out boundaries based on what each person primarily valued. I went around giving scenarios of someone crossing a boundary and they practiced confronting and responding to the pretend infringements. I made sure to reiterate that because everyone has dignity, value, and worth, it’s important that we help people learn what is and isn’t acceptable for how we would like to be treated. The girls seemed to really connect and be encouraged to continue making and respecting boundaries.

After a quick lunch break we sat encircled again for the last part of the session to talk about boys. Boundaries worked as a great segue into the topic because it can be difficult to regulate how to even respond to a male who’s brain is naturally wired so differently than a female.

We got to talk about daily ways we could keep our thoughts from wandering into obsessive territory about boys. I came up with things like keeping an eye out for what we allow into our hearts and minds through what we watch or what we listen to. We also came up with practical ways to engage being friends with boys on a basic level. And in real life perfect timing there was an opportunity to walk with one young lady in setting boundaries for her own situation that day 🙌🏾. We came up with a step by step process and create a boundary that she felt comfortable with.

It was so wonderful to get a chance to lead this particular session. Not only did the young ladies connect with each other, I felt like they learned something that will continue to be of benefit as they grow. I got some takeaways of my own as well since this is practice for when my own daughters start entering into preteen/teen life 😭

Career Day Adams Elementary

I have never been sought out to do a career day, but this year my sister who is an Assistant Principal asked me if I would come and speak with her schools’ students about my journey to becoming a self published author. At first I wasn’t sure it would be such a great idea for me. To a lot of people’s surprise, I don’t really like kids lol. Like I respect them and get along well with them and of course I love my kids, but I’ve got to be honest, given a choice I usually run from an opportunity to be around them in favor of just about anything else.

Since I had just “conquered the world” of hosting Kalon 31, I figured maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to talk with kids about something I never even thought I would be doing in my life anyway. I’m so glad I chose to do it! Our Career Day group was assigned to speak with roughly 100 4th Grade students and guess who was going first 🙋🏾‍♀️. As the kids filed in I could feel my nerves amping up. After they settled in, I was given the floor to kick us off.

I walked the kids through my presentation of how I had a challenging teacher in college that was going to squeeze every drop of possible greatness from our writing assignments. I engaged them by asking if they ever had any difficult teachers. A lot of hands went up and I made sure to encourage them to listen to even the challenging teachers because one day they might come to do something great they otherwise wouldn’t have had they not been pushed.

I shared with them how even after I wrote my poem for Mama Braids I didn’t immediately pursue publishing. Instead I went on to graduate, get married, have kiddos and then 15 years removed I decided to push to make Mama Braids into an actual book. I walked them through the difficulties of finding an illustrator, working during Covid, and what happened after I finally launched.

Towards the end I read Mama Braids so they could see the fruits of all my labor. Before I left we did a couple of Mad Libs as a group. If you’re unfamiliar with Mad Libs, they’re fun quick fire writing blurbs where you fill in the blanks of nouns, adjectives, and verbs to make a silly short story. I would ask for a word and then pick a kid to answer. I had no shortage of participation once they saw kids brave enough to engage got a gummy snack pack treat.

Career Day ended up being a huge success! I would have never given this a chance if it wasn’t for my sister asking me to participate. I feel like I really added some value to the lives of the 4th graders I got to speak with. Hopefully one day they will write their own stories and go on to possibly be an author as well ☺️.

Afternoon With Authors

My final speaking engagement came at the end of the month with me as a panelist at Leaves Book and Tea Shop. Every month Tina (the owner) gathers a small group of writers and has them come and speak about a topic of her choice. This months topic was writing for fun and I was so excited to get the chance to discuss how I keep my writing enjoyable.

When I first arrived, I settled in and met two other local authors who were also on panel. One was Kimberly Packard who had written several novels and even won an award for Best General Fiction in 2013. Risa Brown was the other panelist and she wrote a book which I jokingly said had “all the tea” about the post academic lives of Texas Wesleyan students of 1891-1901.

We got to sit and gab about the joys of writing in all its aspects. Questions like “What are some of your writing rituals?” to “How do you write when you’re not motivated?” were among the topics of discussion. I actually came away having not only answering a lot, but learning a lot as well.

For example, two of my writing rituals are reading everything I write back to myself out load to make sure it doesn’t sound crazy and writing on my phone while sitting on my bed under a cozy blanket. Kim Packard recalled learning from someone else that being under a blanket is comforting and feels safe and that’s likely why I do it. I couldn’t have agreed more! In fact while I’m writing this blog I am in my bed under my blanket. I’m so predictable 😂.

The session lasted probably an hour. I stuck around afterwards to sell some books, engage with some of the audience, and answer more questions. It felt very exhilarating in the aftermath of it all. I had been nervous about being on panel even though I had already spoke at two previous events; it’s like my body wouldn’t help itself.

Still, I’m so glad I didn’t back down from any opportunities to speak. Who knows what’s next for me in the future. Maybe all these sessions are just prepping me to be ready at any time to speak on things that are beneficial on a larger scale. I wouldn’t mind it.

So those were all of the May activities that kept me hustling throughout the month. In addition to everything in this blog, I had a whole other juggling act with my oldest kiddo. She enjoyed a field day, had her first ballet recital at her new dance school, graduated, and so much more! I look forward to sharing on my Part 2 post.

Til next time, happy reading ☺️