I don't know about you, but I love to laugh. Throw my head back and just roar from deep in my belly.

However, life isn't always funny. It can be hard, especially for those who are called to follow Jesus.

One of my favorite quotes is from Oswald Chambers. In My Utmost for His Highest he writes, The saint is hilarious when crushed with difficulties because the thing is so ludicrously impossible to anyone but God.

Don't you love that? We can laugh, not because life is funny, but because things are so utterly out of our control that all we can do is laugh. It's saying, I give up, Lord! I surrender. You're God and I'm not.

That's why I've chosen the proverb that says, She can laugh at the days to come as a sort of trademark for my life.

In a nutshell, here's who I am:

I'm incredibly average, basically clueless, always self-centered. I believe that a day without hairspray is chaos. I love the rhythm and cadence of words and the art of putting them on paper. I'm a lifetime member of Weight Watchers. My favorite things include watching lizards play on my front walk, eating sushi, Bare Minerals cosmetics, flying to different cities (and eating great sushi). I love cake with buttercream icing, Reformed theology (Go, Martin Luther!), and knowing that there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

I especially love writing and speaking about the incredible grace of God and the amazing truth that He smiles on those He loves.

More of who I am:

I'm currently on staff at the Citrus County Chronicle, a daily newspaper in Crystal River, FL, where I'm the Religion editor and feature writer. I also write a weekly faith column called Grace Notes, which also runs in about a dozen other papers. (You can read it on this site.)

Plus, I'm a blogger for Today's Christian Woman at www.todayschristianwoman.com beginning June 1, 2007.

I also write books and speak at retreats and dinners (or lunches, even breakfasts) for Christian women's groups. I'm a member of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association and have appeared on radio programs such as Family Life Today and Renewing the Heart.

In my other life I live with Barry, my husband since 1975. We have no pets-we have furniture. But we do have two daughters: Alison (grown and married and the mother of our granddaughter, Caroline) and Laura, a student in Charlotte, N.C.

A Christian since age 23, I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ in the ladies room of the supply warehouse at Loring AFB, Maine. I'd love to tell you more about that sometime. I'm a member of Seven Rivers Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Lecanto, FL.

What else do you want to know? If you think of something, e-mail me.

Thanks for reading this far!