Friday will be Annalyn’s last day with her babysitter, and on Monday, she’ll start full-time daycare.I’m really excited for her. And sad. And nervous. And feeling a little bit like I’ve got whiplash.

Emotional whiplash.

Every time I think about it, I feel differently. I know we’ve made the right choice and that this is best for Annalyn and for our family.

But she’s been going to this babysitter for two years. Two years! For two years, it’s been her second home. Her second family.

And even though she’s going to learn so much and make new friends and get consistent physical therapy at her new daycare, I know she’ll miss her friends. We both will.

I feel this back and forth about almost every decision I make regarding Annalyn. Should we potty train now or later? Use Pull-Ups or only big-girl panties? Call the doctor about her runny nose or wait it out? Move her to a twin bed or keep her in her crib as long as possible?

Even when I know (KNOW!) the right answer, my heart still wavers. And it’s been like this from the beginning. You know what I’m talking about, right? Bottle or breastfeed? Disposable or cloth diapers? Stay at home or work?

Sometimes – like, for me, the working question – we don’t really have an option. But when we do? Ugh. Being a mom, being the grown up – it’s hard!

Have you struggled with any big decisions lately (parenting-related or not)?

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Random.org picked #31 – Jenn Calling Home – to win a copy of Matthew Paul Turner’s Hear No Evil.

Congratulations, Jenn! E-mail me your address, and I’ll ship it to you.

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On Monday, I said this on Twitter: “My mom said my brother’s lost a bunch of weight. So I’m back on the healthy wagon today. Is that bad?”

According to my friends on Twitter, that is not bad motivation at all. As a matter of fact, two of my friends suggested we put our bloggy powers to work and start a weight loss competition.

I’m kidding. We don’t have special bloggy powers.

We are, however, holding a weight loss competition.

For the next 10 weeks, Jessie from Vanderbilt Wife, Ashleigh from Heart & Home and I are going to be making healthy choices and talking about it. And then we’re going to tell you if we’ve lost weight and how much. Kind of.

I can’t be more specific than that, because we’re each going about weight loss differently. For example, Ashleigh and Jessie are big believers in whole foods. On the other hand, I’m a fan of food that comes from a can or my freezer and gets cooked in the microwave.

But no matter how we differ in food choices, exercise plans or calorie/point/carb counts, we’re all aiming for the same thing: healthy, lasting weight loss.

And we’d like you to join us. Every Friday for the next 10 weeks, we’re going to host a carnival called Losing It (and Not Just Our Sanity). I’ll tell you if I met my goals for the week and what percentage of my body weight I lost.

(Sorry, friends. I only share my actual weight with my Weight Watchers leader. And . . . strangely enough, I pay for that privilege . . .)

If you join us, you could not only lose weight, but you could GAIN a prize! Anyone who links up at least six of the ten weeks will be eligible to win a six-month subscription to The Six O’Clock Scramble (a meal planning service), a Weight Watchers pedometer, and a gift card to Dick’s Sporting Goods.

The winner? The person who loses the biggest percentage of body weight!

What do you say? Are you ready to make some healthier choices over the next 10 weeks? I know I am! Here are my goals:

• Drink 10-12 cups of water a day.
• Stick to my weekly allowance of points (Weight Watchers).
• Exercise three times a week.
• Lose 20 pounds during our competition.

Who’s in?

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A couple weeks ago, I flew to Nashville. (I may have mentioned it a time or 12 . . . you know . . . for that conference? Yeah.)

While I love traveling and was excited to go to Blissdom, I was not excited to get on a plane. I just don’t enjoy flying. (And that was before the whole Southwest/fat people/PR disaster thing that has me completely paranoid about my next flight.)

However, this time was different. I arrived at the airport with more than enough time to spare (I was not about to relive my missed flight from August!), and settled into my seat at the gate. From there I moved into my very own row on the plane, and after collecting my two bags, I parked it near a window for about an hour.

And the whole time, I was reading. And possibly looking a little weird, because more than once, I found myself laughing out loud.

It’s not unusual for me to lose myself and all track of time in a good book. But it is unusual for me to be so caught up that FLYING doesn’t even phase me.

The book? Hear No Evil by Matthew Paul Turner.

A month or so ago, I read his memoir about growing up in a fundamental Christian home, Churched. It was good, but not quite as funny as I’d expected. (It was more eye-opening than anything, because honestly, I had no idea churches like the one he described still exist outside of movies and TV shows poking fun at Christians.)

Hear No Evil, on the other hand, did not disappoint in the humor department. If you’ve read Matthew Paul Turner’s blog (Side note: Can I call him Matt? Does he really go by the full name? What if I shorten it to MPT? I just don’t know…), you know he leans toward the sarcastic side of funny.

And if you read this blog, you know that’s my kind of funny.

Hear No Evil tells the story of MPT’s journey in the world of Christian music. From a teenager whose mom forbids him to buy an Amy Grant tape to a journalist interviewing Amy Grant herself, this story is funny yet touching, relatable yet surprising, an easy read yet somewhat thought-provoking.

Here’s the summary, but keep reading for the giveaway part:

A collection of wise, compelling, and often uproariously funny essays built around the experience of music as a transformational element in a moment of truth, Hear No Evil mines Matthew Paul Turner’s humorous memories of his evangelical youth and invites readers to groove along on his journey.

From attending forbidden contemporary Christian concerts to moving to “Music City” Nashville, Hear No Evil chronicles Turner’s “life soundtrack” which morphs seamlessly into the stories of people, places, and experiences that have taught the music-editor-turned-author some new things about God, forced him out of his comfort zone, and introduced him to a fresh view of grace along the way.

If you’ve ever had the opening bars of a song transport you back in time or remind you of a pivotal spiritual moment, Matthew Paul Turner’s honest—and frequently hilarious—musings will strike a chord. Straightforward and amusing, Hear No Evil is an exploration of a life of faith lived to a personal soundtrack.

I’M GIVING AWAY ONE COPY OF THIS BOOK. Leave a comment for a chance to win. Leave a separate comment if you subscribe to this blog for a second chance to win. And leave a separate comment if you follow me on Twitter for a third chance to win. And leave yet another separate comment if you’ve joined my Facebook page for a fourth chance to win. I’ll draw a name (a.k.a. use Random.org) on Sunday.

That’s a lot of chances. I’m just sayin’.

Does your life have a soundtrack? Tell us in the comments (all the many, many comments) what song – or songs! – would be on your soundtrack o’life.

Disclosure: This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

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