DAWGS

These are my "dawgs" all dressed up and ready to go to the party at their school today.

P.S. This was super easy--take a hoodie (preferably one you got for a dollar on clearance at Wal-Mart) and get creative with felt!

thoughts on sprained ankles

Ezra wearing "shoe" pajamas

• 29 pounds is really very heavy. It doesn't matter how much you switch from arm to arm. Still heavy. 
• Taking toddlers to get x-rays is among the top five things I recommend avoiding if at all possible. 
• When you meet a parent carrying a child with a sprained ankle, something NOT to say: "I've heard that a sprain is worse than a break." Also: "I've heard that sprains can take three weeks or more to heal." 
• "Put ice on the ankle and elevate it for 20 minutes five or six times a day."--not so easy to do with a toddler 
• If you're 31 years old and you call your mom crying and narrate the horrible x-ray experience, she might be awesome enough to get your dad on board and drive six hours to help you out. 
• Slides can be dangerous. It might be best just to stay home and keep your child wrapped in bubble wrap. 

Really, Ezra is doing much better. He is starting to stand again and took a few steps tonight. So it's been a week--we're hoping he'll be back to normal in another week. This one must have really hurt because it takes a lot to keep this kid from running at full speed on most days. Thanks for the prayers! Also, thanks to my parents for being heroes! 

Quote Of The Day: "No, pee! No, pee! Don't come out yet!" --Isaiah (spoken while running to the bathroom)

this little guy

This guy sprained his ankle yesterday. Can you believe it? I took him to the doctor and they checked him out and prescribed tylenol, ice, and rest. He is really having a hard time, though. Lots of crying, refusing to stand up, and wanting to be held all the time. Thankfully, he only woke up a few times in the night.

Please say a prayer for quick healing for him! Also, please say a prayer for me as D. will be out of town all weekend. In the Bahamas. Sometimes life isn't fair.

New words this week: "Chase." "Go." "Bike." "Tut tut." (as in "Tut tut. It looks like rain.") I know. He's a prodigy, genius and also incredibly handsome. We are so blessed!

wow.

Read this. Such a thoughtful, insightful post about adoption. The truth is that all of us who are followers of Jesus should already be doing all we can to care for the orphans in this world--whether they are our next-door neighbors or our neighbors in Africa. I think it's important to acknowledge that adoption is complex, but it is also beautiful. Sometimes the hardest things are the most beautiful, right?

Quote of the Day: "Excuse me guys, if it is pink, then it is. Now stop it!" --Isaiah

New Word of the Day: "nake." (Snake.) -- Ezra
P.S. We are at the science museum. Don't worry!

fall shmall

You might have fall, but we still have 87 degrees out. What, you say? You wouldn't like an 87-degree- October? Well, I say that I will be laughing at you when we are playing at the park in January! I hate to be cold, love to play at the park in January, and 87 degrees is relatively cool if you think about it. If you live in South Georgia where July and August are like an inferno. So, in celebration of 87-degree October, please enjoy these photos, which I actually took in September. 

New Feature

I think the Quote of the Day is my most popular feature. Because this blog is well-read enough to justify language like that.

Anyway, I am adding a new feature. It is called "New Word of the Day." Little brother is starting to talk quite a bit himself, and he is coming up with a new word just about every day.

Sunday's New Word of the Day: "poon." (aka "spoon")
Monday's New Word of the Day: "Salsa."

Quote of the day: "Tomorrow I'm gonna be in a band. I'm gonna be the drummer and I'm going to play the drums as loud as possible." --Isaiah

Quote of the day: "When I am a grownup, I want to be the one in charge." ---Isaiah

on Story

I recently read this article on cnn. Basically, author Kenda Creasy Dean, who D. and I heard speak at Asbury Seminary's chapel, says that most teenagers in America today are "fake" Christians. She says that parents are raising kids whose faith is "a watered-down faith that portrays God as a 'divine therapist' whose chief goal is to boost people's self-esteem." 


I have been thinking about this article for weeks, and I've been thinking about one thing Dean mentions. She says that parents must live out a radical faith in front of their kids. Here's a short excerpt: 

"What can a parent do then?

Get 'radical,' Dean says.

She says parents who perform one act of radical faith in front of their children convey more than a multitude of sermons and mission trips.

A parent's radical act of faith could involve something as simple as spending a summer in Bolivia working on an agricultural renewal project or turning down a more lucrative job offer to stay at a struggling church, Dean says.

But it's not enough to be radical -- parents must explain 'this is how Christians live,' she says." 

I have been thinking about this idea of radical faith in terms of my own life, and in terms of the idea of story. I recently read Donald Miller's book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. 

I love the way Miller talks about story, and the way he asks us to live a better story. I want so much to live a life of radical faith out in front of my children and in front of the students D. ministers to and mentors. 

What Dean is saying is basically that when parents live into the story of God and invite their teens into that story, they are giving them the gift of authentic faith. I want this kind of radical faith to be part of my life.

What does that look like? 

Right now, I feel like the moves we're making are small. I have been feeling so convicted lately about my materialism and my desire for material possessions. We are trying to let go of a lot of the possessions that we would like to buy or own and change our habits. And I am asking Jesus to change my heart regarding material possessions. Christmas in our house is going to be small this year. I believe with all my heart that a small Christmas is a good gift for my children. 

I also feel that a radical step (for me) happens every day when I sit down to write my dissertation. Every day this is hard. It is challenging, and I have to push aside feelings of self-doubt and inadequacy. Sometimes even a daily task can be a radical step. 

I have lots of dreams about living out a radical faith for the future as well, and D. and I are prayerfully seeking Jesus to discern how we might fit some of those dreams into our lives. 

I am so grateful to my parents who took my brother and I on missions trips for Christmas several years in a row, and who invited members of our local migrant community into our lives. I think these radical acts had a huge impact on me as a teenager. 

MeeMaw and Pop

My mom sent me this picture of my MeeMaw and Pop that she found recently. Aren't they glamorous? It is so fun to see them this way--so young and charming. Maybe I look a little like her, too? I miss them both so much and I wish I could sit down today and ask them to tell me their stories. MeeMaw was quite eccentric in her older days. She collected owls, she liked the color brown best of all, and she could not stop doing yard work. Pop liked to laugh. My best memory is his giggle when I blew bubbles in my milk; it was a laugh full of glee. I wish I could sit down with this young couple and hear their stories and dreams!

guess who?

D. will be thirty (3-0) tomorrow! Kind of exciting, isn't it? 

I am so grateful for this man every single day. I love him! 

his promises are true

This song has been so powerful for me recently. It is such a beautiful meditation on marriage, but it it also reminds us that

"we bear the light of the son of man /
So there’s nothing left to fear /
So I’ll walk with you in the shadow lands / 
Till the shadows disappear /
Cause he promised not to leave us /
And his promises are true"





I promise this three minutes is worth your time.

on holiness

D. and I are both graduates of Asbury College, now called Asbury University, in Wilmore, Kentucky. (everyone who reads this blog knows that, I think.)

In Hughes Auditorium, on Asbury's campus, the words "Holiness Unto the Lord" are inscribed above the pipe organ. I tried to paste a picture here, but I live seven hours away, and I was afraid I was stealing someone else's copyright.

As a college freshman, I really had no idea what this phrase meant. "Holiness Unto the Lord." Hmmm... that sounds great. Inspirational. Intimidating. Yes.

I had the chance, as all Asbury students do, to take a class on Christian Theology. Mine was with Dr. Miller. He's the best, in my opinion. Our textbook for this class was entitled Grace, Faith & Holiness: A Wesleyan Systematic Theology.  What I remember from that class is that a lot of other people fell asleep while I mostly stayed awake because (a) I loved Dr. Miller's lectures (b) I am a dork, and (c) I drank a diet coke every day right before the class. The other thing I remember is that we talked about the concept of holiness, and that I began to understand why the words "Holiness Unto the Lord" were inscribed in such a prominent place in Hughes. My friends whose parents and grandparents went to Asbury probably already knew or had at least some kind of understanding, but this was new to me.

John Wesley, theologian, founder of Methodism, and most importantly, follower of Jesus, talked a lot about holiness. He said that all followers of Christ are called to live holy lives. Here is a quotation from one of his sermons:

And being taught of Him who was meek as well as lowly in heart, we shall then be enabled to "walk with all meekness;" being taught of Him who teacheth as never man taught, to be meek as well as lowly in heart. This implies not only a power over anger, but over all violent and turbulent passions. It implies the having all our passions in due proportion; none of them either too strong or too weak; but all duly balanced with each other; all subordinate to reason; and reason directed by the Spirit of God. (1872) 


I remember struggling with this idea as a college student. I am called to be holy, but this feels impossible. Unreachable. I cannot do this, so maybe I should just not go to chapel during Holiness Conference and take a nap. But I remember that one day during Dr. Miller's class on Christian theology we talked about how being holy doesn't meant that one doesn't sin. It means that a person responds with grief when he or she sins and asks for forgiveness. It means that this person is ready and willing to reconcile with the one he or she sinned against. Okay. Maybe I can do that. 


These days, this teaching means a lot to me. When I look back at that quotation and see that Wesley mentions a "power over anger" and "having all our passions in due proportion," I am convicted. A certain three-year-old has the ability to make me very, very angry. Sometimes I do not speak to him in love. Sometimes I yell. Sometimes I lose my temper. A certain toddler is getting to the age where he begins to test his mother and push her buttons. He refuses to lie still for a diaper changing resulting in poop. Everywhere. This frustrates me. Exhaustion only serves to multiply these feelings. 


Tonight, at bedtime, I apologized to both of my children for the times today when I responded in anger. Ezra can't talk much, but he hugged me close. Isaiah said, "Thanks, mom. I love you." Then he gave me a kiss on the cheek. 


I am so grateful for this teaching about the importance of reconciliation that stuck with me from those long lectures on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. I pray that I can live a holy life, even if that means that I am willing to apologize when I wrong the ones I love. 

on being a TV Nazi

It's true. I am a TV Nazi.
I always told myself I wouldn't be... mainly because I did not want to be like my own mom and dad.

In my house growing up, we always had only one TV. (shocking!) There were no TV's in kids' bedrooms, there was no cable, and my parents carefully selected the shows and movies we watched. They were always suitable for the entire family.

Yes, I grew up on PBS. I found This Old House and Wild America to be very entertaining as a child. This was pretty much all we were allowed to watch. Well, we did watch Little House on the Prairie sometimes too. I am learning that it is pretty much inevitable that I will be a lot like my parents, and the truth is that they really are amazing people, so I don't mind being like them.

As D. and I have talked and thought about the habits we have in our home on a day-to-day basis, we have thought about some of the following things:

We want to teach our kids to live into God's story. This story is living, alive, and active. Watching TV can be a passive activity. It doesn't engage our minds and our creativity in the same way that having conversations, reading books, playing outside, making crafts together, and really just living together do.

a boy engaging in active play

Having the TV on can be a way to avoid relationships rather than to practice living into healthy and intimate relationships. When the TV is on, there is always background noise, there is always something else or someone else entering into our lives at home. Whatever is on TV has a way of dominating the conversation and dictating what goes on in the room.

Relationships are more valuable than tasks. Sometimes when I have a lot of tasks or chores to get done around the house, it would be so much easier to turn on the TV so the boys would not try to "help" me sweep the floor or clean the kitchen. Or so that they would not argue as they play together, causing me to have to intervene. But the work of parenting is about much more than keeping a house clean or keeping kids fed--it is about cultivating healthy and intimate relationships with our children. This work is valuable whether we have something tangible to show for it at the end of the day or not.

laying by the open window and feeling the cool breeze first thing in the morning

There are other habits and practices that can invade our lives and have the same impact as watching TV--the internet and the mobile phone, for example. We don't have it all figured out, and we make a lot of mistakes, but we are doing our best to be intentional as we practice living into God's story.

a conversation

A few nights ago, Isaiah and I were reading together from The Jesus Storybook Bible. (Yes, I've written about it before, and yes, I will write about it again.)

On this night we read the story of the Prodigal Son together. This was our first time to read this story together as we are mainly focused on the stories of David and Goliath, Jonah and the Whale and Jesus dying on the cross. (He wants to read about Jesus dying on the cross all the time. This is a bit puzzling to me.)

The story of the Prodigal Son is very important to me. One reason for this is because Henri Nouwen's book, The Return of the Prodigal, had such a significant impact on me.

So after reading the story, I look over at Isaiah and I say something like this: "Isaiah, I want you to know that no matter what, I will always love you. You can always know that I will be waiting for you to come home to me and that I will run when I see you coming."

Isaiah looks at me very seriously, and says something like this: "Ba ma da ka da ka!" (Gibberish.) He then cracks up laughing.

So I try again, with the same result the second time.

Hmmm.... I'm sure it's all sinking in. At least I hope so.

Our Weekend in Pictures

Quote of the Day:
"Look at this ice cream. It makes vanilla water for you to eat." --Isaiah