Thoughts of the past year

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

The year of 2008 has been an interesting, exhausting and emotional year. Starting the Her Freedom show, pregnancy and the ongoing adventure of life brought many sleepless nights and exhilarating days.

If you had told me in January 2008 that the radio show would take off like it has, or that I would be a mom this April I would not have believed it!

I owe the success of the radio show to you my listeners, my amazing producer MT. the loving support of my husband and the grace of God. My hope is that together we can continue to bring you subjects and shows on the topics that you care about.

I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to an amazing 2009! Together we will continue to support each other and help lighten the load of the people around us. We're in this together ladies!

Holiday Stress?

I don' t know about you, but I'm feeling it! Last night I had a list a mile long that I was attempting to get through before midnight. Send the last packages, write the Christmas party shopping list, finish the cards, etc... the list goes on.

Then today I started all over again with another list, and then I sat down. The first thought that came to my head was WHY!!! Why do I find myself here every year! So, instead of making another list for this Christmas I started making a list and a spreadsheet for 2009 to plan for that Christmas so I'm not crazy again!

There's so many tools and resources out there for planning and organizing, I don't know why I haven't done this before. I've got the first 10 months of next year, each with a task or assignment for that years holiday so shopping is scheduled to be done by September 1st! Now, let's see if I can stick to it...

Back to reality of this year, I've still got to run to the post office today and I'm missing one gift...
well, here's hoping for a better season in 2009, especially since I'll have a little one needing a lot of my attention I'm sure. Organization here I come!

Baby Boy

Here's a picture of our baby boys head. You can see his nose and mouth in the upper right. I know these things are hard to read, but it's still fun to see! He's really coming alive these days, kicking and moving around most of the day. I think I'm in for an active child!

Now if we could only decide on a name for the little guy! We want something strong and masculine but not anything common. I don't want him to have 3 other boys in his 1st grade class with his name! Ideas welcome!

It's a Boy

Well, if you missed it on last week's broadcast I announced that we're having a baby boy. I'm pretty excited about the concept of a mini-man around the house! I'm sure I'm in for a few surprises as he was a pretty active baby on the ultrasound.

Yes, life is going to change for this child-free household! Baby proofing has begun already. It's amazing how many things we've collected through the years that will need to be relocated.

As we're now in the holiday season I often find myself thinking about how this is the last year that I can quietly sip on my hot cider as I sit with a book, or sit writing my book! This time next year I'll have someone else needing a lot of my attention. So, I'm savoring every quiet moment right now!
And in those quiet moments, I plan to complete my book this January so we can begin editing publishing shortly after! If I don't get it written now, I'm sure it will be a few years before I can devote this kind of time to sitting quietly in once place!

Dear Diary

I'm going to be adding a new section to this blog. A daily diary entry from a woman going through a very difficult time. This is going to be a audio diary, so you'll want to come back each week and listen to what's happened in her life since the last entry.

She'll also be calling into the show each week to share her diary entry for that day live. This is going to be a heartfelt look into another woman's life. Something for us to think about, and an opportunity for her to hear your feedback or advice on getting through this tough spot.

Stay tuned for more!

Problem with Sex?

Sexual addictions are far too prevalent in today's society. This weeks show is all about sex addictions so I thought I would post a few stats that prompted me to create these two shows.

	Pornography Time Statistics
	Every second - $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography
	Every second - 28,258 Internet users are viewing pornography
	Every second - 372 Internet users are typing adult search terms into search engines
	Every 39 minutes: a new pornographic video is being created in the United States

Adult Internet Pornography Statistics
Men admitting to accessing pornography at work	20%
US adults who regularly visit Internet pornography websites	40 million
Promise Keeper men who viewed pornography in last week	53%
Christians who said pornography is a major problem in the home	47%
Adults admitting to Internet sexual addiction	10%
Breakdown of male/female visitors to pornography sites	72% male - 28% female

Women and Pornography
Women keeping their cyber activities secret	70%
Women struggling with pornography addiction	17%
Ratio of women to men favoring chat rooms	2X
Percentage of visitors to adult websites who are women	1 in 3 visitors
Women accessing adult websites each month	9.4 million
Women admitting to accessing pornography at work	13%
Women, far more than men, are likely to act out their behaviors in real life, such as having multiple partners, casual sex, or affairs.

However it's not all about porn, there are many reasons people get trapped in addictive lifestyles. We'll be talking about all aspects of this growing problem and what you can do to help someone you love or to find help for yourself.

Tune in to listen to Dr. Mike Bird from Wings of Grace Counseling Center, as he shares his expertise on this issue.

Baby Daddy

Last week on the Her Freedom show we announced the baby on the way. And of course MT could not resist playing it up the entire show. I don't think I've ever heard some of the music he used! Also last week we talked about Men and how there are just way to many weak, "nice" men. This really made me think about how my relationship with my husband has changed in the past 18 weeks since I've been pregnant.

I'm a very strong person with a lot of opinions. Yes, I'm sure that's a surprise! But since I've been pregnant I've taken a step back and have been allowing my husband to have more input in the decisions related to the pregnancy. It's been very interesting to see how he's really risen to the occasion and been quite opinionated. It just goes to show you that if us strong women let them, our men will rise to the occasion! So I encourage all women to experiment! Pick something that has been bothering you and try taking a step back. And be patient! If he sees that you're serious about trusting him chances are he'll take action and surprise you.

Man Hands

One of the things that attracted me to my husband was his hands. They are large, rough and masculine but not neglected and gross. I'm sure to some of you that sounds strange, but to me a man's hands tell me what he's capable of doing. I wanted a man who could change a tire or shovel a driveway, wash dishes and fold laundry too! I know, I didn't want much at all.

But the bottom line is, I didn't want a feminine man who had never broke a sweat or savored the fruit of his own labor. Yes, this seems primitive and "hunter-gatherish" but that's just me.

This week on the Her Freedom show I'm going to be talking with Laura Dobson about real men and where they've all gone. This is going to be a great show!!! Believe it or not, I used to be a died in the wool, man hater. I did not discriminate between a male cashier or a male boss, I hated them all equally. The male species equaled pain for me and I was bound and determined to inflict the same pain upon them. I'll tell more about this story on this show this week. TUNE IN! 9:00 am (mst) on www.castlerockradio.com

Brand New Show on Castle Rock Radio

Ryan Dobson will be launching his brand new radio show "KOR KAST" today at 1:00 pm mountain time. Be sure to tune in today for the first show. Then catch him every Monday live at 1:00 pm on www.castlerockradio.com. Learn more about Ryan Dobson and his new show at www.ryandobson.com

Grow or Die

I heard a great message about the law of grow or die that's really got me thinking. Basically the law states that we can not remain the same in any aspect of our lives. We are either growing and improving and investing our knowledge or we are effectively "dieing" in that aspect of our lives. The more I think about this, the more I agree. Think about your relationships, or a specific relationship, maybe your spouse; is that relationship the same today as it was a year ago? Of course not, it's either improved or worsened. This is challenging to me in many aspects of my life. My relationships, my intellect, my finances - am I utilizing these gifts or blessings to the best of my ability, or am I going backwards or dieing in any of these areas?

Book Of Tears

For those of you who don't know it yet, I'm releasing a book this spring, along with another grand surprise that I'll tell you about later. Writing this book has been an amazing journey of recollection and memories. Some of them wonderful and many of them heartbreaking. So, as I'm doing this I'm asking myself "why?". "Why am I putting myself through this?", or often is "Why does talking about this or remembering details bother me so much, I thought I had dealt with those things already."

The answer is because I think telling my story will help more people than it's hurting me to write. I feel like I have so much inside me that's just aching to be released, aching to get out and do something more productive than causing pain. I feel like this book is something I have to do. But, I also really want to do it. Just some days are harder than others to get through just a few pages.

Today I came across this relatively new artist, Meridith Andrews beautiful song. Her message in the song is also the message of my book. Although God took me through the darkest nights of my life, he was still there. Because if he wasn't I wouldn't have made it through them. That was one of the hardest things to realize, that God "let" them happen to me. But in all fairness, my decisions caused a lot of my pain but despite that God didn't leave my side. HE walked through the pain with me and cried with me every tear, felt every heartache so that I would know the depth of His love for me.

So Much Pain

There's so many women in the world that have experienced enormous amounts of pain in their life. Some of it we've done to ourselves by making bad choices and some of it has been brought on by other people.

This week I heard a story of a young girl, 9 years old, that was impregnated by her mothers 26 year old boyfriend. I can't even imagine the amount of pain that young girl has gone through and will go through as a result of her mothers decision. The mother is now in prison as well as the rapist, the babies father but that young girl still has her whole life ahead of her. I just want to take her into my arms and tell her it's going to be ok, and she will make it through this.

It's bad enough to be sexually assaulted at any age, but then on top of that to be pushed into motherhood at nine years old. I can't even fathom. It makes me just so angry to see the selfishness of man and now that young mother has no one to turn to in this world.

Ok,I need to talk about something a little more upbeat and hopeful!

Speaking of finding hope in the midst of life. This week on the Her Freedom show Deanna Allen from Daughters of Destiny will be my guest. You don't want to miss this!

Check out her video:

Bebo and Britney

Something about this song really hits home for me. Maybe not so much personally, but it's so true that society has trashed these poor girls lives and then wondered why they can't pick up the pieces. Jesus loved the broken, Jesus loved the lepers, the adulterers, the tax collectors.

Yeah, they made some bad choices, and got caught up in the money and fame but who wouldn't in their shoes. I'm not a Brittney fan, but my heart does ache for her and young starlets like her. If only they knew the true lover of their souls, they would not be on this endless search for acceptance and love only to end up scraping themselves up off the pavement over and over again.

Once we realize that we don't have to prove our worth to God, we've captured the essence of his love for us. No matter what we've done it's never too late, God has not forgotten us even when we try to forget about Him.