Hello Readers, Writers, and Friends,

I know I told you all about the amazing ANWA Writer’s Conference I will be teaching at in September. What I did not tell you is that I will be teaching at the end of July at the Kanab Writer’s Conference in Utah. The class is entitled The Writer’s Workout and it is going to be all about using writing exercises to make you a better writer.

I am so, so excited!! And if you are in that neck of the woods, there will be so many other great classes and activities, you simply must join in the fun!

IN other news, my toe is doing much better. I have yet to test it’s durability with anything like dancing or planks or standing on tiptoe to reach objects way up high, but in a few more weeks I hope to give it a tentative try.

In other, other news our car died. We have many children and therefore the need for a great big beast of a vehicle to haul them all around. We decided on the way back from Fourth of July gatherings that few would take a long scenic ride home. From one vantage point this might be considered a mistake, as the washboard dirt roads proved too much for our radiator and then the engine. There were repeated stops and starts, crying children convinced we were never getting home, and one rather terrifying stretch where we were coasting very fast down a steep incline in an effort to gain enough momentum to get over a hill on the other side.

But there are many ways that this experience was also a blessing. We found out our car was driving in a precarious state in a way and time that allowed us to get to safety, and be together as a family while we did it, rather than me being stranded with a child in the middle of the freeway. A much more dangerous proposition and the likely outcome if we’d kept driving the car for much longer.

It gave us an opportunity to teach our children that freaking out in the face of difficulty is never helpful and often makes things worse. We got to demonstrate and discuss as we waited for the tow truck that everything is figure-out-able. That we use our minds and our resources to get through sticky situations. As well as the power of prayer to bring about miracles in the form of pulling into a gas station just as the engine died completely, as well as to bring us peace the face of trial.

I hope each of you are doing well.

Look up. Move forward.

~Anika