Years ago when I would sit in my sales office thinking up book titles, I never really had any serious thoughts of writing.  I was never a creative writer in school.  I never pursued it in college.  I was never even much of a reader.   Back then it was more about me being silly and getting through the monotony of the work day.  I didn't realize at the time it was a desire the Lord had put in my heart- a desire that began to burn stronger a couple of years ago.
I woke up one morning with a message in my heart.  A message that I wanted to send my "Girls".  Back then my Girls were the ones I went to church with on Tuesday mornings.  We belong to a womens ministry called HomeMakers.  To try to explain HomeMakers is difficult- for you will never truly get how impacting it is until you experience it.  It's kind of like trying to explain the Grand Canyon to someone.  They can picture in their minds a little bit what it's like, and be quite impressed, but not fully realize how magnificent it is until they see and experience it for themselves.  "I never imagined how inspiring, beautiful, and life changing something could be!"  That is the response I would expect from someone who experienced.....I mean really experienced, HomeMakers.  It is Grand Canyon good. 
So, as I was saying, in the beginning my Girls were my HomeMaker Girls.  They were in the small group that I co-lead.  I woke up one day with a message burning in my heart and I just had to write it down and mail it to the Girls.  It wasn't even scriptural.  It was a quote from Bill Phillips, author of the book Body for Life.  It's somewhere in my e-mail archives, but I'm not even sure which quote of his it was.  He has a few that I really like.  I shared a little story and I tied it into the quote.  It was fun.  I thought it was a one time deal.
The next day I woke up with another message.  This one was a quote from Neil Diamond.  Yes, Neil Diamond, as in Sweet Caroline, The Jazz Singer, Neil Diamond.  It was a line from one of his songs "Save a little room for God".  Still no scripture, but this message did have a more spiritual tone to it.  Actually, I would argue that "save a little room for God" is scriptural, as in First Commandment scriptural.  It's just the Neil Diamond translation....which is like the Message Translation, only with a Jewish singer/songwriter flair to it.
So this happened daily for about a week.  I would go to bed thinking nothing.  I would wake up with a burning message in my heart.  A message that I had to share with the Girls.  Being the genius that I am, I started to think, "maybe this is something I am supposed to do every day.  Maybe I should approach this with some purpose."  So I did.  I started praying and reading my Bible before bed, asking the Lord what it was He wanted me to share with the Girls.  It was fun.  It was exciting.  The Word came alive to me in a way it hadn't for a while.  I had just finished reading the One Year Chronological Bible.  For one year, I did not ask the Lord what I should be reading.  I just followed the designated reading for each day.  I did however ask the Lord to reveal to me something special for me to think on for each day -which often proved difficult during the days spent in Leviticus.  I mean how much does one need to know about bodily fluids and strange skin diseases?  Its just not right!
I loved this nightly Bible time.  I was excited for the Word God brought to me to share with the Girls.  I loved sending them out in the morning.  It was my own little ministry within our HomeMakers ministry.  It made me feel like I had a special assignment from the Lord.  It also made me feel like maybe I was actually learning a thing or two about being a Christian.  I was figuring things out.  I was no longer one of the baby Christians, feeding off the words of everyone else.  I actually had my own words.  Good words.  Words that were Holy Spirit inspired.  God trusted me with His words!  In a million years, who would have thought that possible?  Certainly not me.
One day my friend was telling me about the website her and her husband had bought.  I had no idea how to do such a thing.  It sounded like a pretty big deal.  Turns out, it's not.  For $9.99 I got myself a website.  I had no idea at the time what for, I just felt led to get one.  Since I didn't know why I was getting one, it was also hard deciding what to name it.  How do you name something that you are not sure of the purpose of?  Do you see my dilemma? 
For awhile I thought I was going to sell t-shirts.  I'm serious.  I had all of these catchy phrases I wanted to put on t shirts for women (kind of like the book titles).  Don't ask me how I came up with this idea, it happens a lot.  I get whacked out crazy ideas.  Then I get whacked out crazy excited about them.  And then I forget all about them until a friend brings it up and I say "Oh yeah......I don't know what ever happened with that."  Anyway, I had t-shirt ideas.  There were two that were my favorite.  My first one was "Real Women Eat Cake".  That's it.  I wanted a pink t shirt, and across the bust it would read in brown letters "Real Women Eat Cake".  You see, I was so sick of dieting and trying to fit the mold of what the world says we should look like, that I wanted to rebel.  I was sick of eating 2 point Weight Watchers carrot cakes.  I wanted real cake. I wanted chocolate cake with chocolate truffle frosting.  I probably wanted 2 slices of it.  There was a problem however.  As much as I wanted to rebel, I was stuck.  I was still in the midst of my own weight loss battle.  I was still figuring out what my ideal weight is....according to the Lord....not according to the book that tells me I should weigh 12 pounds less than I do right now!  As much as I believed that real women eat cake, I was still trying not to!
The other slogan was "Don't be a Cupcake".   In my mind I was trying to convey that as women we should not settle for a smaller version of the real thing.  We should not be small.  We should not be wrapped in pretty foil and set out for display.  We should not be self contained.  We should not be limited.  We should not be a single serving. No.  We should be the real deal.  The full deal.  The whole cake.  Women are much too complicated to be cupcakes.  We need at least eight slices- one to represent each of our moods, needs, and emotions!  I envisioned this shirt to been green camouflage with pink writing. 
I tried this slogan out on a few friends and it didn't fly.  "I like cupcakes" they would say.  I would argue with them - "don't you get what I am trying to say here!  It's not about the fact that you like to eat a cupcake.  It is fine to eat a cupcake....just don't BE a cupcake!"  My wit was lost on them.  They couldn't get past the fact that I was dissing on the cupcakes.  A year later women everywhere were wearing "Sarah Palin for President" t-shirts. Come on, you think that is making more of a statement than "Real Women Eat Cake?".  It's just not right.  My career as a t-shirt sales woman was over before it started.
I still had to come up with a domain name for my website.  Personally, I was still trying to figure out who I was, and what I was created to be.  "You need to know who you are in Christ", I heard preachers say all the name.  As much as I understood that....I also didn't.  It would often frustrate me.  Sure, I confessed the scriptures that talked about who we are in Christ, but that didn't mean I understood who I was in Christ.  It often takes a while for me to move from mental logic to heart revelation.  Eight years after giving my life to the Lord, I was still figuring out what exactly that meant (other than the fact that I will one day be in heaven).  To be honest with you, I am still learning what it means to be child of the Most High God.  I don't think we ever stop learning.
So I didn't exactly know who I was.  I did however, know who I wasn't.  I wasn't phony.  I wasn't conforming.  I wasn't going to go with the crowd.  I wasn't going to be who the world told me to be.  I had already done that. It turns out the world simply wants us to be burnt out, tired, lonely, and fat.  Mostly so it can sell us something to make us refreshed, energized, comforted, and skinny.  Unfortunately, all of the world's products are short lived and leave us feeling more burnt out, tired, lonely, and fat.  I was done with all of that.  This time around I wanted to know what God wanted me to be.  More important than being perfect, I wanted to be real.  And I wanted to invite other women to be real with me.  And so, the name became www.whatrealwomendo.com.
I believe it was the Holy Spirit that brought me the domain name.  I also believe He understood what my heart was saying when I wanted to sell "Don't be a Cupcake" t-shirts.  I secretly even believe that one day I will sell those t-shirts......unless some bigwig at The Gap or something sees this genius marketing slogan and steals it.  In which case, my writing is proof that I thought of it first! 
So I now had a name.  What Real Women Do.  Cool.  Now what?  In setting up my page, I discovered there was a place for me to blog.  Now let me confess something to you all right now.  I have been out of the corporate world for 8 years.  My life has been centered around my family.  I know more about  Sesame Street and SpongeBob than any adult woman should ever know (but most adult women of small children do know).  I have read Good Night Moon and Biscuit books more than I have read anything without pictures.  The only pie chart I have looked at is an actual pie right before I inhale it while my family is sleeping!
 My computer use up to this point had been strictly a survival tool.  A way to stay connected when I thought I may be engulfed in all things pre-school.  I could grocery shop, Christmas shop, and e-mail.  I was a suburban HomeMaker.  My world was small.  I liked it that way.  I knew life was happening outside of Ham Lake Minnesota, I just didn't have time for it.  I was unaware of the details outside my small circle of influence.  I had no idea that there were people, called bloggers, all over the world.  This was new to me.  So I set up my "blog".  In fact, it is still the only part of my website that I use.  There are a lot more tools available to use, but I still don't have the need (I have no t-shirts in print).