Wherein she attempts to defeat Ecc. 5:3

"A fool's voice is known by many words" Ecc 5:3b

The last twelve months have been such a rich time in our lives. We've started homeschooling, moved into a house, had a baby, visited the NICU while said baby was healing, started unpacking, continued working on the house, continued homeschooling, continued working on the house, continued unpacking, finished homeschool, continued unpacking, continued working on the house, continued unpacking, continued working on the house...

It feels like there has been A LOT to process. And while I'm one who processes "verbally", as it were, it has seemed like a year to be silent here, for the most part, and reveal fool-ishness elsewhere.

But we are all doing well - growing in age and, hopefully, wisdom, too, and I find that I'd like a bit more of a record of who we are and what we are doing than I've had over the last year here. So maybe now is the time for more words. We'll see...

My Lenten "sacrifice"

I gave up facebook for Lent. It was a fairly easy sacrifice, though I expected it to be more difficult than it actually was. I found that I really enjoyed the silence in my life and that, when I wasn't being filled with online interactions, I actually sought out real humans friendship. Amazing how that happens... :)

One of the best side effects of giving up facebook was that I tended to not think very negatively about a lot of people. I've realized that there really is virtue in our grandmothers' teaching, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." I realized as I thought about this during Lent that there are some key people in my life whom I really, greatly admire and one of the things I have always loved about these individuals is that they didn't share all of their opinions with all people. I don't know why the internet gives humans the permission to share things that normal, well-adjusted people wouldn't share in polite society, but it does. I don't need to share what I think about every subject all the time. I realized that it's a good practice to guard speech, in real life, and online, and that there are many subjects that really require relationship with others before most people are able to breech said subjects. Peggy Noonan, Eugene Peterson, and some others get a pass. Most of the rest of us should probably still our fingers when something pithy comes to mind.

During my facebook-fast, I also found that, honestly, I just didn't think about a lot of people I "saw" all the time on facebook. And what I discovered was that I didn't miss them. I don't mean that in a spiteful way. It's just that those people are not in my everyday thoughts. And I realized during Lent -- I don't think they're supposed to be. I think relationships are supposed to be at different levels of knowledge and intimacy.

So, I logged in to facebook again in the evening on Easter. I was on it for about 7 minutes. I read about some friends I hadn't thought about for 6 weeks or so. I looked at some pictures. Then I deactivated my account again. I just don't think it's a wise thing for me. And leaving it behind is not much of a sacrifice.

10 blurbs for Tuesday

1. I made pancakes this morning out of a store-bought mix. It is supposed to be a hearty whole grain, good-for-you mix and is priced accordingly, but it just stinks. I like my real pancake mix much better. Granted, it needs to be stored in the freezer, but at least it makes pancakes worth eating.

2. My mother has become the hero of this pregnancy for me. She is watching the kids literally every day as I go to the doctor or chiropractor or so on. I am amazed by what a difference it has made to live by my momma. This is, by far, the easiest pregnancy I have experienced. I think that comes down to three things -- First, I have been on a low dose of blood pressure medicine from the second trimester and my bp is good, still. Second, I am no longer the pastor of 150 needy people and third, I live by my mom. Most of these days, I'm inclined to think that #3 is of at least as much influence on my ability to cope with the final weeks of being prego as the other two.

3. Today, I went to the accupuncturist to try to get the baby to turn. It was an interesting experience. He stuck in the needles, which for the most part did not hurt, turned them a few times to make sure I could feel them, and then left me alone for 15 minutes. Emmeliese didn't move much until I started to do some deep breathing towards the end of the time. Then she was moving a whole bunch. Afterwards, I felt a little odd, but it was a decent experience. I'll go back for another session on Thursday.

4. We celebrated Annalivia's birthday tonight. Her birthday is actually tomorrow. I think at this point four years ago, I was about to get an epidural that would only numb one side of my body. I was listening to Taize Instrumentals and thinking about what it would mean to be a parent. I had no idea.

5. Annalivia got a new dress from my mother for her birthday. We went out to show Grammy Adaline the dress and take her some cake before the party. Annalivia is going to wear the dress to school tomorrow. She is over the moon about this dress. I'll post a picture of her in it tomorrow.

6. Daniel has taken to pretending to be a kitty a lot of the time. And whenever he climbs up on us for love, he pretends he's a cat. I have no idea why he has to pretend he's a kitty cat to express affection for us, but he does.

7. I mentioned the other day that Daniel sticks lots of things in bed with him. Last night, he went to bed well, but then we heard him rummaging around in his bedroom. We went in and found approximately 30 of his little metal Thomas trains in bed with him and his arms were loaded down with more. He was ticked when we took them out. Tonight after he went to bed, he got up, but only picked up three -- Harold the Helicopter, Bertie the Bus and James with his tender. I tried to take the tender out of the bed, but he was insistent that he stay. I guess it makes sense. How could James possibly go anywhere without his tender?

8. Tomorrow begins Lent and I'm giving up diet soda and a majority of my internet time. I'm limiting internet to nighttime only after the kids go to bed.

9. We're also picking up a new family worship time during Lent, the centerpiece of which was to be a cross candleholder, fashioned out of branches. I hadn't found branches until today when I drove by Annalivia's preschool teacher's house and saw several by the curb. I called to ask if I could have them and Dennis is going to go pick them up, as I type. We'll have a cross candleholder, after all! Lent is saved! :)

10. We have flowers pushing their way up through the ground at our house. On Monday, we glimpsed them through the snow. It was such a great sign of spring bursting forth! Tomorrow it is supposed to be in the 50's again! Hurrah for new life!

Narnia

I am so excited to see Prince Caspian when it arrives. I am a big fan of the Narnia books, and I really liked the last movie, and -- I'll admit it -- I was a huge fan of the BBC series on Wonderworks on PBS. I'm ready for Caspian.

And in the meantime, I'm enjoying listening to this set. I just love it. The Magician's Nephew brought me to tears. I highly recommend it for any other Narnia-philes out there.

Mental query to friends/ family -- is it in Eureka that someone has a NARNIA license plate? Or is that here?

Thank you!

Thanks, friends and family, for all the birthday emails, phone messages, and facebook messages. I worked all day until 8:30 this evening, but it's been a good day. I have had a very blessed 33rd year. Y'all are part of the blessing.

My arm injury has made me gimpy enough that it is sort of hard to type and I need to save up for church typing, so I think I'll just post photos and few words for a while. Which will probably be a nice break for all of us! :)

Thanks again. I feel loved.

I have seen it ALL!!

Saw this at Tia's cleverly-named post "Someone Knit a Sweater for Satan". Wow.

Local news

Tonight, for the first time since October, we watched local news as we wait for election returns. I had forgotten about how utterly stupid local news can be. We have a station in the Quad Cities that has a "LIVE. LOCAL. LATE-BREAKING" tag. That's supposed to be a good thing, but this station does the most ridiculous live reports ever. Tonight, at 10 p.m., they had a woman, bundled up in her parka standing on a city street with sleet pouring down around her. She was reporting on the lack of salt for city streets. And to illustrate the subject, she poured some ice-melt out of a cut off milk jug saying it was "the only salt the street see" in the next few hours.

Why in the world did this poor reporter need to be outside? Is live news really that necessary?

I think not.

My cool brother in law takes on the political juggernaut

My cool brother in law, Geoff, is near the center of this storm in Iowa (or here or here), where he's an active part of the political landscape. He's a pastor. He's a good guy. He doesn't lie.

But they do.

Snippets.

• Daniel has graduated out of the travel system car seat. That means he weighs 22 lbs. He is a CHUNK. It's crazy how different he is from Annalivia. He is in 12-18 month clothes as he approaches his 9 month birthday. Annalivia was wearing 12-18 month clothing when she was 2 years old. Annalivia was always a 50th percentile child and for girls that's less than boys. Daniel has been at the 75th percentile and he's right on track, I guess. He seems huge. But maybe that's just because I tote him around.
• The farm that Dennis and I have coveted for almost 5 years went on the market this weekend. We have an appointment to see it on Saturday. If it is to be ours, a number of truly miraculous events will need to occur. We'll see how it all unfolds.
• We had a great visit from Annalivia's godfather, Jimmy, this weekend. It was lovely to see him.
• I preached a terrible sermon while Jimmy was at church. There were many mitigating factors, but it just stunk big homiletic doo-doo. One of my favorite parishioners came up to me afterwards and gushed on about how great it was. Then she called me today and talked to me again about how much it helped her and spoke to several circumstances in her life. I'm so grateful that God works. Even when I don't.
• Flylady and I are friends again. I'm sort of doing what she tells me to do. Whenever I do that, life goes so much better. I should just listen to her all the time.
• My childhood best friend and her husband, one of my dearests from seminary, and their family, are moving to the twin city across the river from me. He is going to be the associate at the Disciples church over there. I'm excited. Friends! Here! Less than 3 hours away! I'm giddy with excitement.
• I thought Annalivia was getting better at sharing things with other kids. She had done REALLY well at some different public places sharing toys and, um... intellectual property. But today I had some blood drawn at a clinic in Dixon where they have one of those intricate bead toys attached to a table and when we were leaving, she ran over to it and pushed a child who was considerably younger than she was who dared approach it. The mother looked like she was about to slap Annalivia so I grabbed her and apologized profusely while moving quickly towards the elevator. Luckily someone was holding the door so we had a pretty fast getaway.
• Today while hanging out at our favorite bookstore, Books on First, in Dixon, a place we go at least once a week which is entirely too often, I found out that Dixon has a free concert series put on by the Episcopal church called The Canterbury Concerts (I love those Episcopalians and their gift for naming.) I also found out that our area has a community concert association and we can pay for a subscription and get tickets to some very cool concerts. Last year, Eileen Ivers was one of the featured guests. I think we'll try to subscribe next season. I'm so heartened to find out, after 7 years of living here, that there is some underground cultural opportunities. Lovely.
• Today I got to meet Andrea for the first time! Our husbands drive to work together, so we probably should have met in person long ago, but we met first via blogs. Andrea is young and gorgeous and has a very handsome husband and beautiful, probably very well-behaved, children. (right, Andrea?) Her children were so sweet and her blog has a precious picture of them.
• We met Andrea when we all happened to be at Woods' annual Halloween thing for the kids of employees. This is the first year that we made the trip. Annalivia did pretty well saying, "Trick or treat, please." But not so well with, "thank you," "hello," "I'm fine, thank you," or any of the other social niceties. Daniel was just pretty happy, which was good.
• On the way home, I got to drive the van by myself and Dennis took the kids in the truck. 35 minutes of me-time. I spent most of it talking to Dad. It was lovely.
• We are now into week 4 of no television at our house. It is interesting how my desire for media has diminished to almost nothing. I used to be an information junkie -- on the internet a lot, listening to NPR constantly in the car. Now I get online in the morning, sometimes, to check email and then when the kids go to sleep. I do my blog-jog, but don't comment usually because it takes too long. So apologies to Heather, Amalee, Jan, Jill, Amy, Amy and Jim, Andrea, Kalin, More Cows, other Andrea, Dusty, Geoff and Holly. Among others. I read; really, I do. Keep writing.
• Even though I watch no television and spend less than an hour on the computer, I never get to read. How do you folks with 20 children find time to read? I need to know the secret.

Edited to add: The arm is better (thanks, Julie, for asking). I have a short cast on it and will, hopefully get it off on Nov. 7. The bone graft site is not so good. I still have burning, aching, shooting, prickling, any-other-sort-of-adjective pain every time I walk or stand for more than 2 minutes. I hobble around a lot, but I am choosing to believe that it will all be ok in the end. I'm alive. That's what this has kept in constant focus for me. I'm alive to enjoy my family. And that's more than enough.

Saying "sorry" like we mean it

I had a conversation with Sublime Aunt this morning in which we discussed an apology she had recently received from an offender. The apology was one of those, "I'm- sorry- if- I've- done- anything- to- offend- you" sort of apologies. The apology that was actually called for in the situation would have been an "I'm- sorry- that- I- was- a- complete- and- total- disrespectful- idiot- and- allowed- my- offspring- to- be- the- same. - Period" sort of apologies. But that's not what she got.

Recently, on several blogs, I have seen Christians behaving badly and making assumptions and declarations about other commenters. When their behavior is pointed out to them, they have given explanations rather than apologies. And it happens in the church all the time!

I feel so bothered and annoyed when I see this sort of thing. Explanations and excuses are not apologies, nor is an apology pretending that the other party is responsible. I know that saying, "I'm sorry. I was wrong," and then ceasing to say anything else is a very difficult thing for humans, but it is absolutely essential. I've been on both the giving and receiving end of a half-apology. Neither spots are fun and the wrong's hurt still remains.

So. Friends, bloggers, idiots-who-live-near-my-aunt, etc... let's just say we're "sorry." Ok? Like we mean it this time.

Ken Burns and the pulse of America

Has anyone else noticed an increase of information about WWII recently? I don't know whether it is just because I'm listening/looking for it, but I've been seeing and hearing a lot of interesting reflections lately.

Personally, my interest was piqued reading about Ken Burns' new documentary, The War. I had read that it was in the works and about the controversy about the lack of info included in the piece about Latino involvement in the war. Then a couple of weeks ago, I saw a preview after Masterpiece Theater's showing of Foyle's War, with one of my English celebrity boyfriends, Michael Kitchen. As much as I am enthralled by Michael Kitchen's portrayal of imagined WWII era events, I'm more excited to see The War. It looks like it will be a great program.

Today, I heard a really interesting program from a local NPR program featuring the oral histories of WWII vets in the Quad Cities area. Today I caught the program at an interview by an army nurse. It was just fascinating. I didn't want it to end, but the secondary interview was a guy responsible for transmitting the news that the Ludendorff Bridge was still intact to headquarters. Amazing stuff.

It reminded me about a member of my congregation, Smitty, who passed away a couple of years ago. In the War, he had been under Patton and drove a half-track tank. At some point, his unit came into a city that the Germans had abandoned and Smitty found an abandoned, broken German motorcycle which he fixed up. He had a great time zipping around on it until his commander asked to see him. The commander told him that he was not to drive the motorcycle anymore and that it was to be delivered to him by the next morning. Smitty knew that the commander just wanted the bike to be able to drive himself, but he also knew that he couldn't disobey the order.

So when the commander woke up the next morning, he found a German motorcycle outside his door. There was a problem with it though. It had been run over by a half-track.

Anyway, I'm glad Ken Burns is doing his documentary and glad that others are capturing these stories and glad that it is moving to the front of consciousness. If not the nations' consciousness, then at least mine. These are important stories. And they need to be told.

Mr. Loudon Wainwright

I don't think I've gushed here about how much I like the voice, style, etc. of Loudon Wainwright. I found him when I was in seminary and the cool NPR station at the University of Kentucky (WUKY) converted to "adult rock" programming in the afternoon. It was basically like listening to a daily music sampler of somewhat obscure music. From them, I met Paul Kelly and The Kings of Leon and KT Tunstall and Mason Jennings and Badly Drawn Boy. They mixed this with Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan and the Beatles and Colin Hay and Marianne Faithfull and to this day, I try to listen to their afternoon programming via the web whenever the children are taking naps and I remember to do so. (For some reason this music doesn't seem to work with awake children for me.)

Anyway, I met Loudon there and loved his music. And tonight I heard a new song, "Daughter" on World Cafe and realized that I'd like to get his new album, however, it's written for the new movie Knocked Up and there's something about owning "music inspired by the film 'Knocked Up'" that bugs me. I know, I know. I pre-judge. I'm like that. But if someone else in the family wanted to get it and burn me a copy and just write the name of the album on the cd with a Sharpie -- that I'd be ok with.

And fyi, the voice of Rufus Wainwright (L's son) drives me nuts.

Perhaps stranger things have happened

Or maybe not. Read this. Watch your back.

Sooooo LOST

So I watched the season finale of LOST tonight. I just resent that show so much for sucking me in and not letting me go.

Do Americans not have ears?

Ok. I am officially revealing myself as an American Idol viewer this season. So far, I've seen this season and season 1.

Tonight, Melinda Doolittle goes home with third place. She and Lakisha, who received fourth place were my favorites.

I understand how this little Blake guy can be in the competition, but HOW, HOW, HOW can this Jordin Sparks be a contestant still? She is consistently sharp and her voice is just grating.

And why do I care? Ugh.

The Dark is Rising

The Dark is Rising is one of my all-time favorite juvenile book series. It's hardly exclusive to youth, like all good juvenile books. In fact, I re-read it last summer when I was first pregnant with Daniel and on the couch non-stop.

I just read that The Dark is Rising has been made into a movie of the same name and will be released in fall of 2007. I'm looking forward to seeing how it has been adapted for screen. It looks like it is being directed by a Hollywood outsider and filled with a cast of Brits, so I'm hopeful. It could be a very good movie.

Happy anniversary to blogger and me

Today marks one year of blogging! I began this blog the day after my 31st birthday, inspired by lots of other cool chicas to create a place where I could process life "out loud."
Through it, my world has become so very much larger. Thank you to all of you who read and/ or comment. You have been quite the blessing.

Former Eureka Boy Hits it Not-so-Big

I recently googled a kid I knew growing up and found his blog. This kid is far too cerebral for me to actually understand, but here is a hilarious video he starred in. It warrants sharing.

Young Clergywoman Conference

A groundbreaking conference for clergywomen under the age of 40 is being planned at the Cathedral College of Preachers in Washington, DC from Aug. 6-10. The conference is a preaching conference open to ordained and lay women.
There is a SIGNIFICANT amount of grant money available. There is not, however, childcare arrangements, which limits the possibility of folks like myself being in attendance. While I'd like to post a whole rant about this, I recognize that this conference is in its infancy and can't be perfect right away. It does, however, look like a GREAT event, so please, if you have the time available, consider attending and applying for financial aid, if needed, RIGHT AWAY. (FYI -- grant money is based on your church's budget, not your personal finances.)
Go forth and preach the good word, sistahs!!

Three reasons why I've not been here... and may not be for a bit

1. Life has been so incredibly full of, well... life, these last two weeks.

2. In the midst of triumphs and struggles being encountered by friends and loved ones and to a much lesser extent, us, taking time to type one-handed posts while juggling Daniel and ignoring Annalivia has seemed a poor and irresponsible decision.

3. I've been using the time when I juggle Daniel and ignore Annalivia (I hope everyone realizes I'm being facetious) to read some books.

I'll be back very soon.