The weather has warmed up. This is not good for me as during this season of life, my internal thermostat is already more toasty than I would like! I am sweating my way through my forties and, I carry "Africa" on the inside! These days, I feel like a crock pot on low simmer - always warm, just about to reach a boil!

There are the occasions that I do boil over though,and when I do, people better clear the room! This usually happens about 4:30 AM and poor Phil gets covers thrown on him, fans (I have 3 in our bedroom) turned on full blast, and excessive and dramatic sighing coming from my side of the bed!

So, I went with my friend Alicia to the health food store and bought "Womens Liberty Tea." This blend of licorice, angelica and wild yam roots is supposed to help my hot hormones chill out. It might help if I could drink it! It tasted so pungent that I went back to my local air conditioned Starbucks and resumed complaining!

Continuing along the path of new tastes, another friend, Kellie, bought me some Buffalo meat from the health food store. I must admit, I was hesitant to say the least. But, that stuff is really good! It cooks like ground beef, the texture is similar, and it's so much healthier. Phil thought it was great and we should begin buying it instead of ground beef until he heard it costs twice as much! If I told him it would help the hot flashes - and therefore protect his mortal frame when he is within hitting distance during one of those sweaty episodes from - well, you know - he might go for it!

I spent lots of time (at 4:30AM) reading a great book this month. It's called "The Innocent Libertine." I don't usually read fiction by living authors, but this one was given to me by my beloved mother-in-law Diane Yates, and so, so good! It's about the early days of our nation, the slave trade, and the notable nonfiction character, Wilbur Wilberforce is part of the story. If you saw the film "Amazing Grace," you will really appreciate and enjoy this book.

April has also been the month to have the inside of my home painted - the fun kind of painting . The piano room is painted faux. It supposedly looks like an old library - a caramel parchment! My office now looks like a coffee shop, I am in heaven! And my whole house is now covered with shades of bagel, macadamia, honey, caramel...I don't know really what it looks like, but I am tempted to lick the walls! Maybe that helps hot flashes, hmmm??

And, my friends, April was also my month to get a mammogram. When was your last one? Don't put it off.

So, give these things a taste test:

1. Womens Liberty Tea

2. Buffalo meat

3. The Innocent Libertine by T. Davis Bunn and Isabella Bunn Bethany House

4. Faux painting in your home

5. A Mammogram

During my Junior year of college, I was transported to a place of wonder. It happened in an unlikely setting - an old, musty classroom in Borbe Hall. In my British Literature class, Dr. Blakemore settled in a chair beside the podium, pulled out a worn, tattered book of poetry and began to read "Ode On A Grecian Urn."

The lyric he read with such reverence and deference awakened an appreciation and a need for beauty within me that had lay dormant for years. I couldn't really explain why his tone, pausing, sighs, and almost whisper of some of the lines just suspended me in the catch of his voice. All I know is I have never forgotten it.

Well, actually, the memory had fallen to an obscure place in my mind, until recently as I read CS Lewis' Surprised by Joy

Lewis writes of his school days and harkens back to one of his finest recollections. He warmly speaks of his "Honey - Tongued" teacher, whom the students called "Smugie." He was crowned with gray hair, wore spectacles and every word on his lips turned to music, something midway between speech and song.

Lewis credited his old school master with introducing him to the enchantment of poetry - how it should be "savored and mouthed in solitude." Smugie once told his students concerning a particular line from the master, Milton, "that line made me happy for a week."

It got me to thinking, have I read/experienced something so beautiful lately that it "made me happy for a week?" What I heard in that classroom over twenty years ago made me happy - truly happy. The kind of happiness that is less of a feeling and more of a recognition of the transcendent. Decades later, my professor's reading of Keat's line, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty" still haunts me. It has brought me happiness for decades.

Beauty is intended to bring happiness. But, it's up to us to look, listen, relish, observe, feel, and participate in its presentation. Lewis says: "Beauty is not democratic; she reveals herself more to the few than to the many."

I want to be part of that privileged minority, don't you? Oh, to savor the revelation of beauty - oh, to feel deep eternal happiness in its wake!

Question:

If you could go anywhere in the world and do anything you wanted to do without having to worry about the cost what would it be?

Amanda G.

Answer:

Wow - what a question! My first thought is to take a walking tour of bed and breakfasts in Italy. It would be fabulous to meander through vineyards and explore Tuscan architecture, eating the finest pastas, and burning all the calories on the next day's trek! But, if I were only granted one trip, I think I would choose Israel. I would love to walk on that cherished land with a spirit - filled, highly educated, passionate Godly teacher as my guide. Of course, it would be most fun if my closest friends were able to go along too. And did I mention, we would all stay in a five star hotel!

And now, my friends, the "Beans" are officially spilled!

1. I am seeking to record a new CD this year. Please pray for God's perfect provision for a producer, studio and songs.

2. As the process for finishing up my most recent book continues, please pray the Lord would guide all those working on the project.

3. Most importantly, thank you for continuing to lift up my family. Clayton, Connor and Phil are the most important aspect of my calling and I never want to neglect them because of the urgency of deadlines and traveling.

Each month we will give away something from the JenniferRothschild.com Store. All you have to do is click on the link below, to let us know you were here. Your name will automatically be added to a random drawing to win.

 

The winner from the last issue is Maria Munoz. She wins Jennifer's long awaited Audio Book of Lessons I Learned in the Dark.

Maria Munoz, please email us your mailing address.

Jennifer Rothschild is the cover story for the May/June Issue of Today's Christian Woman.

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