MOVED!

Sorry to say it, but we've moved!

Come on over and find us at:

http://growingupgibson.wordpress.com

Five words I can't spell

As a writer, you'd think I'd be pretty good at a few things: grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.  But the truth is... there are a few words that still trip me up when I'm typing away. 

It's cool.

 Here are five words I can't spell. 

1. LISCENCE

correct spelling: license

2. ENTREPRENUER 

correct spelling: entrepreneur 

3. BURAUCRACY

correct spelling: bureaucracy

4. LEIUTENANT

correct spelling: lieutenant 

5. PREFORMANCE

correct spelling: performance 

--

Do any of these words trip you up? What are words you have trouble spelling?

p.s. Stay tuned for an update on our trip to Seattle!

p.p.s. Just so you know... next week Growing Up Gibson is moving to a new site! AND I'm going to be launching a pretty exciting project for December... stay tuned!

:)

{gif via wit +  delight}

Stop Trying to be Thankful

"Enter His gates with thanksgiving; enter His courts with praise."

Psalm 100:4

via wit + delight

I have a mantra about this holiday. Thanksgiving: all food, no pressure. It's the best holiday of the year, the one where everything stops, and the feast begins. The one where everyone goes around the table and says what they're thankful for. And don't we have so much to be thankful for?

But it's also at this time of year that I start to feel guilty and ashamed of how much I complain. If only I was more grateful, then I could be content.  Maybe today I should write out a list of 100 things I'm grateful for to really force myself to be a better person. No, 1,000 things!  Maybe tomorrow I'll post that list on my bathroom mirror, so I just don't forget. No complaining this week! It's Thanksgiving!  Get it together, Claire. 

But I'm starting to realize something. The more I try to be thankful, the harder it becomes. 

Each of us was born with an unbridled ability to rejoice. Have you ever seen a video of a baby laughing hysterically at something adults would consider completely normal? Have you ever seen fully grown adults cheering wildly for their team who just scored? We were created as vessels of overflowing joy. Great Thanksgiving takes no effort: it comes naturally.

So why now does thanksgiving feel so foreign? Why does so much seem to get in my way of a grateful attitude? Yesterday, Midtown's pastor Randy Draughn explained something that I just have to share because it touched me so profoundly.

When we try to be thankful... our list starts to look like this: "I'm so thankful for my job, my health, my family, my friends, my house, my food..." But the problem with staking all of our Thanks upon those things is that those things change. My job might be great one day, but what happens when I get laid off? My health might be okay today, but what happens when all the sudden it's not? My family is good right now, but what about tomorrow, when they get on my nerves again?

These lists are temporary, circumstantial, relative, and malleable. So when they change, so does my attitude. No wonder my Thanksgiving only lasts one day a year. I need to stop trying to make myself more thankful for the circumstances of my life. It's like trying to force myself to grow a little taller.

But there is a place where the well of gratitude is full and overflowing (and never-ending). When we step nearer to Jesus, thanksgiving is unstoppable. When I see my Creator, my gratitude is natural, easy, and true. It's like he turns on the fire hose of thanksgiving within us, and steps back to watch it spray out everywhere, all over the place.

So this Thanksgiving, I'm not making a list. I'm not going to try harder. I'm just going to try and step closer to my Jesus, and watch what he does to my heart.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Matthew 11:28-30

GUGG: The Year of the Gadfly

Tomorrow at 11 am (rain or shine, mind you), Brooklyn author Jennifer Miller will be hawking her wares in front of Imogene + Willie. There, she'll sell $20 copies of her book, The Year of the Gadfly, and hand out free cookies with every copy.

The Tennessean and Nashville Scene gave readers a good preview of the event (thanks to Jennifer's fearless Nashville PR guru—her twitter friend and mine—Kim Green), but you don't have to wait for the novelade stand, and you don't have to live in Nashville, to get your copy. 

That's right ladies and those two guys who read my blog, today marks the very first Growing Up Gibson Giveaway. GUGG. 

Whether you live in Nashville or somewhere across the globe—enter now to win your very own signed copy of The Year of the Gadfly. (And yes, I'll mail it to you!)

GROWING UP GIBSON GIVEAWAY 

Signed copy of 

The Year of the Gadfly 

by Jennifer Miller

TO ENTER

1. Tweet about this giveaway or tomorrow's novelade stand 
(use tags @clairecgibson + @propjen + a link)

[ then get some additional entries ]
2. Leave a comment below describing what you were like in high school

3. Follow me on twitter @clairecgibson
4. Follow this blog by e-mail (over on the right column)

A WINNER WILL BE CHOSEN
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, AT 5:00 PM. 

Good luck. 

Family Photos

So how do you feel about family photos?