In Celebration of Women and History

by Suzie Johnson

March is Women’s History Month. Today is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. It would also be my grandmother’s 94th birthday. So in memory of my grandmother, Clara Mae Brinton, born March 8, 1917, I’d like to take a quick tour around the world to see not only what was happening that year, but what milestones were reached by and for women.

• January 10: Women suffragists began the first known picket line, picketing in front of the White House for the right to vote. Picketing continued for six months, and on March 4th – inauguration day – President Woodrow Wilson drove right through a group of over a thousand women protestors without ever acknowledging them. August 28th, while again picketing the White House, ten women were arrested. Between 1917 and 1918, over five hundred women were arrested.

• January 31: The original Dixieland Jass Band (founded in 1916) made the first jazz recording for Columbia Records. It was re-recorded on February 26: for Victor Talking Machine Company. Before the year was over, Jass would be changed to Jazz.

• Feb 10: Johanna Westerdijk a pioneer in plant pathology, became the first female professor in the Netherlands.
• March 3: Though women didn’t yet have the right to vote, Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress. Four days later she voted against entering WWI. Later in the year, she opened congressional debate on the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. It passed the house in 1917, followed by the Senate in 1918 to become the 19th Amendment.
• March 15th: Tsar Nicholas II abdicated his throne, setting into motion the tragic end to the Romanov family just over a year later.

• March 17: Loretta Perfectus Walsh became the first active duty woman in the United States Navy, as well as the first woman to serve in any branch of the US Armed Forces in a non-nursing role.

• On April 6: The United States entered WWI, against Germany.
• May 29: Future president John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born.
• June 8: Some reports say Walt Disney graduated from high school on this date. Others say he dropped out of school (where he drew cartoons for the school paper) to join the army. The army rejected him because of his age, so he joined the Red Cross and drove an ambulance he decorated with his own cartoons.

• July 17: King George V changed the name of the British Royal Family from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (also known as Hanover) to Windsor due to the war and anti-German sentiment.
• August: Five years before she was appointed as the first Dean of Women at Howard University, Lucy Diggs Slowe won the first women’s title at the American Tennis Association’s national tournament in Baltimore, and became the first African-American woman to win a national title in any sport.
• October 16: The Chicago White Sox beat the New York Giants in the World Series Oct 16. Two years later, the celebrated team was at the center of one of the biggest baseball scandals ever, known as the Chicago Black Sox. (I added this baseball statistic in honor of my grandmother. One of the funniest memories I have of her was not long before she died. She was 81, and we were watching a baseball game together and the players cleared the benches in a full-out brawl. My grandmother raised her fists in the air and with a look of utter glee on her face said, "I just love a good old-fashioned donneybrook." I miss you, Grandma.)
• Nov 3: The price of U.S. postage stamps increased to three cents.

And last, since we all love to read: Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard bought a small hand-press with the intention of publishing their works and the works of their friends (including Sigmund Freud and T.S. Eliot) under the name The Hogarth Press. The first book published was Two Stories by Virginia and Leonard. Today a signed first edition can sell for more than $37,000.

Other books published that year were:

• New Adventures of Alice by John Rae (inspired by Lewis Carroll)

• Anne’s House of Dreams (Anne of Green Gables – book 5) by L.M. Montgomery
• The Lost Princess of Oz (Oz – book 11) by L. Frank Baum
• His Last Bow by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

• Once Upon a Time by A.A. Milne
• The Setons by O. Douglas
• The Camp Fire Girls Larks and Pranks (Book 5) by Hildegard G. Frey
• Abraham Lincoln by Wilbur F. Gordy
• The Soul Of A Bishop by H.G. Wells
• Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant (Part 1 and Part 2) by Ulysses S. Grant
• A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband With Bettina's Best Recipes by Louise Bennett Weaver, Helen Cowles LeCron

I just love that last title. It's so ironic that it was published the year women were picketing the White House for the right to vote.

Do you have a favorite historical woman you enjoy reading about? My favorites are Jane Adams, Amelia Earhart, and Nellie Bly.

Fun fact for the day:

I had a little help writing this post....

Suzie Johnson has won several awards for her inspirational novels, including the Maggie, Lone Star, Heart of the West, and Beacon awards. She has also placed in the Touched by Love, Finally a Bride, Linda Howard Award of Excellence, and Virginia's Fool For Love contests. She is a member of ACFW, RWA, and is a cancer registrar at her local hospital. The mother of a wonderful young man who makes her proud every day, she lives with her husband and little kitten on an island in the Pacific Northwest. And although the beaches are rocky instead of sandy, lined with Madronas and Evergreens instead of Palm trees, and the surf is much to cold for wading, it is still the perfect spot for writing romantic fiction. You can visit her personal blog at http://suzieswritingplace.blogspot.com/.

Spinning Together the Mystery Ingredients

by Jennifer AlLee

Several years ago, when my husband had to change careers, we went through a bit of a cash crunch. As a result, we cut back wherever we could, including our cable TV services. It wasn't until we bought our house last November that we upgraded to more than 12 channels. Now, I've found a few new shows (new to me, anyway) that I simply love. One of them is Chopped.

Chopped is a Food Network series in which chefs compete to make wonderful meals out of mystery ingredients. Each round is a different timed course - appetizer, entree, and dessert - and each course has its own basket of mystery ingredients. One chef is eliminated in each round, and the final chef standing wins the title of Chopped Champion... and $10,000.

I'm not a cook. I don't understand how a lot of foods work, therefore, I don't enjoy cooking them. So it surprises me how much I LOVE this show. What I like best is watching these truly talented chefs working with bizarre ingredients, some of which they've never seen before. One time, the entree basket contained baby bananas, black eyed peas, poblano peppers, and ostrich steak. Not only do they have to use all these items, they have to incorporate them into a cohesive, tasty, visually appealing dish. It's no wonder these chefs are sweating buckets by the time the round is up.

(I'm not kidding about the sweat... sometimes it's dripping. And I can't help but wonder if any of it falls into the food... but I digress.)

Sometimes, a chef looks in the basket and immediately knows what dish to prepare. Other times, he's clueless and has to wing it. And then there are the times when the chef knows exactly what he wants to do, but something goes wrong and he has to adapt and whip up a Plan B. All in just thirty minutes.

I may not know how to cook, but I've had a little bit of experience with throwing together things that don't seem to mesh. Once in college, I made dinner for my roommates out of what was in our cupboard. I combined sliced hot dogs, a can of Veg-All, and mayonaise. In a pot. On the stove. Yep... hot mayonaise. Oh, and the reason I was cooking is because my roomies were sick at the time. This dish did NOT make them feel better.

So... my cooking concoctions haven't turned out so great. But there are other areas where weird mixes are a good thing. As a reader, some of my favorite books contained surprise components. Currently, I'm reading a book that has an omniscient narrator. While this device was commonly used in classic novels, it's not something you see much of anymore. In fact, most writers are advised against trying it. But for this novel, it works. It infuses another bit of flavor into the narrative, a little surprise punch I didn't expect. Bravo!

In general, I think many of life's most delicious moments come with a marrying of unlikely ingredients. My actual marriage comes to mind. On the surface, my husband and I probably seem ill-suited for each other. But we are the perfect balance of sweet and sour, spicy and subtle, loud and subued (I won't tell you which one of is which.)

The older I get, and the more mystery ingredients I pull out of the basket, the happier I am that God wrote the cookbook for my life. I may not always get it right... my sugar might be burnt, and my sauce might separate... but most of the time, I end up with something tasty on the plate!

Silly question: What's the oddest concoction you ever put together in the kitchen? How did it turn out?


Serious question: What mystery ingredient has God thrown you that you're the most thankful for?

JENNIFER ALLEE believes the most important thing a woman can do is find her identity in God – a theme that carries throughout her novels. A professional writer for over twenty years, she's done extensive freelance work for Concordia Publishing House, including skits, Bible activity pages, and over 100 contributions to their popular My Devotions series. Her first novel, The Love of His Brother, was released by Five Star Publishers in November 2007. Her latest novel, The Pastor’s Wife, was released by Abingdon Press in February 2010. Her upcoming novel, The Mother Road, will be released by Abingdon Press in April 2012. She's a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Romance Writers of America, Christian Authors Network, and the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance.

http://jenniferalleesite.blogspot.com/
http://thepastorswifespeaks.blogspot.com/

Sprouting Seeds Winner

Last Monday, my post was about sprouting seeds in February and I promised to give away some seeds to 3 winners. But at the end of the contest, only one person left their email address indicating they wanted to be in on the draw.

So by acclamation, the winner is... Jake!

Congratulations, Jake. Your seed package is heading out of town on Monday's 5pm run.

And thanks for visiting us too, eh. :D

Anita Mae.

Give Generously. Love Extravagently. Serve Faithfully.

by Gina Welborn

Last night, hubby and I went to an anniversary party. The media minister of Grove Avenue Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia, was being honored for twenty-five years of service. The Victory Hour is television's the longest running religious broadcast. (55 years and counting!)

Imagine twenty-five years at one job.

In the business community, that's no biggie. But serving the same ministry position for the same church for that long . . . we're talking rarity. What's the average lifespan of a pastor at a church? Two years? Five? Certainly not twenty-five.

Our media minister didn't start out in the ministry, though. Didn't even go to seminary. He was working at a non-church-related production company, when the pastor of the church asked him to fill in because the guy who had been doing it left. So Mark agree. For six months. Once those passed, he agreed to stick around for another six months. Next thing he knew, he was a full-time employee.

During Mark's anniversary party, someone said, "God prepares you for the things He's preparing you for."

That got me thinking. What would God be doing in me to prepare me for?

A month or so ago, a lovely Australian writer, Theresa Fuller, decided not to renew her RWA-FHL membership. I e-mailed her privately to tell her I was sorry the group didn't meet her needs. See, Theresa wasn't sure if she wanted to write young adult stories for the ABA market or CBA one. We chatted about the difference between writing with a biblical world-view and writing an inspirational. Eventually I admitted I couldn't give her the help she truly needed because I don't read YA fantasy novels, but I could help connect her with writers who could. And I did.

Theresa sent me a sweet note this week thanking me for helping her join Romance Divas, an online writer's forum (my first writer family). She's in the mentorship program. Yay!!! She said she felt like she was "finally emerging out of a deep dark hole." Why? Because she wanted to learn to write better, she wanted answers, but she wasn't finding anyone willing to give her a hand up.

She didn't think I could understand what she'd felt like.

I did understand. Because I was Theresa once . . . until someone gave me a hand out of that deep dark hole I was in, and then another person did, and then another. I still see God bringing people in my life to give me that needed hand up. How deep is this hole?

Listen, how can I accept someone's help and then not be willing to help another person in return?

Think about the people over the years that God has brought into your life to bless you. Now when was the last time you helped someone for no other reason than because someone helped you once? In fact, when was the last time you helped someone and it cost you, whether that be time, money, emotions, etc. It's far easier to help when it doesn't cost us anything. The true testiment of a giving heart is to give at a cost . . . or at least to give knowing it will gain you nothing in return.

I haven't yet found a verse of scripture where Jesus said, "Give as long as it's convenient."
God prepares us for the things He's preparing us for.

I challenge you this week to join with me in looking for opportunities to do something nice for someone.

Give generously.
Love extravagently.
Serve faithfully.
No matter the cost.

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. ~Jeremiah 29:11

~*~
GINA WELBORN worked in news radio writing copy until she took up writing romances. She is a 2009 ACFW Genesis historical romance finalist and a 2007 RWA Golden Heart® inspirational finalist. This Oklahoma-raised girl now lives in Richmond, Virginia with her youth-pastor husband, their five Okie-Hokie children, and a Sharpador Retriever who doesn’t retrieve much of anything. Her first novella, “Sugarplum Hearts,” part of the HIGHLAND CROSSINGS anthology, will be released by Barbour in January 2012.