A secret project I’ve been working on

I’ve been working on a secret project since the beginning of January. I’m no good at keeping secrets, so I’ve been bursting at the seams to tell you all, but I had to wait until a bunch of details were in place before I could do so.

And the day has finally come.

The secret? I’m writing a book!

How it all came about was a crazy, bizarre set of circumstances and I’m still pinching myself that this is really and truly for real.

Writing a book has long been on my list of “things I hope to do someday”, but it was one of those big dreams which seemed very much out of reach right now. So, the idea’s been tucked into the back part of my brain and left there. I figured once my children were older, it’d be something I might pull back out and pursue.

Well, God had other plans. In November of 2010, a vice president at a publishing company happened to stumble upon my blog. He emailed me the same day and asked me to call him about a book deal.

When I got the email, I wondered if it were a fluke or a prank. But no, investigation showed he was the real deal. I was incredulous that anything would come of it, but Jesse and I decided to go ahead and call him.

I was shocked when I called him and he basically said, “We’d like to offer you a book deal. What do you want to write on?”

He was very thorough in explaining how it would work, what they were expecting from me and the time frame they were thinking. I just sat on the other end shaking my head. This can’t be for real.

But it was real and I had to face reality and decide whether I wanted to take the plunge into a completely unknown world. It was daunting and I was scared.

Jesse and I spent the next few weeks praying about it and seeking the counsel of people who know us best. I was a lot more hesitant than Jesse as I could only imagine what effort would be required to write a 50,000-word manuscript in a short time frame. But Jesse continued to assure me he thought I should do this and that he would be right by my side as my biggest supporter and cheerleader (which he totally has been!)

I knew I’d have to delegate some of my other responsibilities in order to devote time to writing a book (I’m not superwoman!), so I prayed that if God wanted me to accept the book deal, He would provide an assistant for me. It was a tall order because I was looking for a very specific skill set in a person as well as a certain type of personality and I was really not sure anyone in our area would fit the bill.

God’s pretty amazing at answering “tall orders”, though. That very same week, God brought Megan into my path. She had all the skills and qualifications I was looking for, she was already considering a job change and she and I just “clicked”. I hired her in January and she’s taken a huge weight of responsibilities off my shoulders so I can focus on writing, blogging and being a wife and mom.

With all the lights staying clearly green to us regarding the book deal, I accepted the publisher’s offer in January and embarked on this new adventure. Truly, I’ve loved almost every moment of it, even if it has been a little grueling at times.

My manuscript is due to the publisher on May 1, 2011 — yes, about five weeks away. Needless to say, it’s crunch time around here and I hope you’ll bear with me if you email and don’t hear back from me until after May. I promise I’m not ignoring you personally, I’m just pretending my email is not piling up so that I can focus on cranking out this manuscript.

In addition, for the next five weeks, I won’t be posting weekly menus, likely won’t be sharing details and pictures of my shopping trips and will most probably not be posting quite as much. I’ll still be sharing lots of deals, great guest posts and reader tips and writing posts as I’m able, but if you don’t see updates quite as often or I don’t have a chance to respond to your comment, you’ll know why.

Never fear, once May 1 arrives, I should be back to my usual posting schedule. (And you just might hear a big sigh of relief coming from this part of the country!)

Thank you, in advance, for your patience. And if you think of me, I’d so appreciate your prayers as I finish up this project.

If all goes as planned, the book will be available for sale in January 2012. All of my profits from the sale of the book will be donated to Compassion — a ministry our family whole-heartedly believes in and is thrilled to support.