I enjoyed the retreat, thanks for asking. After the retreat on hospitality I did spend some time practicing it, and life is a little busy across the board. Rare morning naps, so I may try to catch up on some book posts!
Posted in family life
I really need to post about the books I’ve read lately, but I’m going tonight to hear Andi Ashworth and hang out with the women of my church and sleep without children nearby.
Posted in books, family life
A blur of children, a hint of the red dining room with the crazy linoleum.
Posted in home sweet home, photo love
I uploaded some pictures of the playroom to flickr with lots of notes.
My favorite thing about the playroom is the vertical storage of a HUGE Ikea bookcase and Rubbermaid bins. It helps all the toys stay organized and helps the kids play better.
Still a work in progress.
Posted in home sweet home
Many hours of deliberation. Factors to be weighed, opinions to read. A choice. The wait. Expectation. Naptime. The hiss of brakes. A thud at the door. “Perfect timing!” Dragging in heavy weights. Gathering tools. Blue Bell for fortitude. Instructions without words. Days worth of turning clockwise.  Anticipation. Completion.  “Good afternoon, mommy! Where are you?” “Oh mommy, a table and two chairs! One for Lexi and one for me! You found them!”
Posted in family life
+ I finally finished painting the dining room (2 weeks, 3 coats of red paint, after the primer, with a roofer in the middle.)
+ William Willimon preached at our church. Why a Methodist bishop preached at a smaller-side-of-medium PCA church that meets in the late afternoon/early evening on Super Bowl Sunday is a mystery to us, but we enjoyed it.
+ I made “dorm food done right” for dinner in honor of the Super Bowl: pesto pizza with chicken and sundried tomatoes, my mom’s buffalo wings & the blue bell flavor Jen recommended. I make pizza often, but the rest is a total treat.
Posted in family life
For some time, I’ve been having a blogging identity crisis. I don’t know what to write about and what not to write about. I feel like this blog is a pretty poor reflection of who I am in many ways. I like theology and I think about it pretty frequently, but this is not a theoblog, nor will it ever be. I am a mother, but I don’t feel like this blog quite fits in with the bloggin’ Christian momma crowd. I think quite a bit about a variety of issues, but this blog is not where I process those thoughts.
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Posted in general
I never would have made it to China. But this nifty tool told me where I’d end up. Thanks, Anne!
Posted in technology
Have some money invested? Want to make a difference in Darfur? Consider divestment. http://www.sudandivestment.org/home.asp
Posted in culture, in the news
What a beautiful article. If you don’t subscribe to Comment, you really ought to. And be sure to tell your friends how to sign up or else you’ll find all your issues ‘missing’.
50 Things I love about life in NYC by Linnea Leonard Kickasola.
I’ve never been all that interested in macroeconomics, but intrigued by the title, I gave Small is Beautiful by E.F. Schumacher a try. It was a long read, but a good one, and I culled interesting insights from every chapter. Schumacher’s visionary simplicity with the largest elements of society were radical 30 years ago, but incredibly relevant, then and today.
A fair portion of the book is spent emphasizing the way our economy is unsustainable and how quickly we use up our natural resources. Schumacher also explains how little consideration was put towards pollution until it was too late. In the folksy way of a 60s radical, he speaks about the importance of the land in a way that is neither hollow nor flippant, but full of wisdom and grace.
“The whole point is to determine what constitutes progress.” What is progress? What should aid to the third world look like? These questions are where Schumacher particularly shines, explaining a need for intermediate technologies to improve the quality of life for everyone and not just investments which only improve the quality of life for the highest classes and leave the lower ones even more destitute.
No system or machinery or economic doctrine or theory stands on its own feet: it is invariably built on a metaphysical foundation, that is to say, upon man’s basic outlook on life, its meaning and its purpose. I have talked about the religion of economics, the idol worship of material possessions, of consumption and the so-called standard of living, and the fateful propensity that rejoices in the fact that ‘what were luxuries to our fathers have become necessities for us.’
When I read quotes like that one, I couldn’t help but think about what the economic implications of Christian thought are, and how few Americans I know, least of all me, embody them. (10/10, from the library.)
The girls have been sick for almost a week and now I’m sick and just plain crabby. I’d really love some gatorade. Too bad I didn’t ask Mike to bring me some when I sent him to the store earlier today. :o/
Posted in family life