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"I realized there's one big, legitimate fear that I haven't heard anybody mention: what's the effect of our collective paranoia on the kids? Yes, these very kids we want to be so self-sufficient, responsible, confident, happy and creative (not to mention not food-obsessed). They're growing up thinking these weirdly weenie views are healthy and normal."
Read more...
Honestly, I've never found a children's Bible-story book that I really loved. The stories all seemed a little dry, and they're typically presented in a preschool-ish way that doesn't interest older kids. Spiritual applications are often watered down, if they're present at all.
So, with a hefty dose of skepticism, I followed my friend Megan's recommendation recently, and I ordered my kids the Jesus Storybook Bible
If you've read this blog for any length of time, you know that I'm pretty frugal, and it's rare that I will tell you something is a must-have. You also know that I generally don't do book reviews. But this time I'm making an exception, because this book is a must-have. I've never seen a children's Bible story book like it. I've never seen any children's book like it. Case in point, there's this from the opening paragraph:
God wrote, "I love you" -- he wrote it in the sky, and on the earth, and under the sea. He wrote his message everywhere! Because God created everything in his world to reflect him like a mirror -- to show us what he is like, to help us know him, to make our hearts sing.
-- p. 12
The Bible stories are presented with one goal in mind, and it's explained in the book's subheader: Every Story Whispers His Name. Beautifully and seamlessly, the story of Jesus is woven through every Old Testament story, explaining why we needed a Savior in the first place. The stories are the same ones parents have been reading their children for ages, but there is some hefty theology mixed in--seriously, there is some meaty stuff there. And while that might make it sound difficult for a child to follow, I can assure you that the opposite is true. These stories challenge the kids, but the gorgeous, lyrical language pull the kids right along. Here's an example from the story of Noah, in which the meaning of the rainbow (compared earlier to a warrior's "war bow") is explained:
God's strong anger against hate and sadness and eath would come down once more -- but not on his people, or his world. No, God's war bow was not pointing down at his people.
It was pointing up, into the heart of Heaven.
-- p. 47
We've been reading two or three stories a week, and my three boys are absolutely riveted. They don't move a muscle. The rich content of these stories has generated some of the deepest spiritual conversations we've ever had with our kids, and I'm convinced it's because they're seeing Scripture presented in such a fresh and authentic way. (Amazon advertises a target age of 4-8, but I disagree. My oldest son, who is almost ten, has been eating it up. I've actually learned from it.)
One more example, because this is so good I have to include it. This is from the story of Christ's crucifixion:
"Papa?" Jesus cried, frantically searching the sky. "Papa? Where are you? Don't leave me!"
And for the first time -- and the last -- when he spoke, nothing happened. Just a horrible, endless silence. God didn't answer. He turned away from his Boy.
Tears rolled down Jesus' face. The face of the One who would wipe away every tear from every eye.
-- p. 304
Even the illustrations and fresh and powerful. The drawing of what it might have looked like when Adam and Eve left the garden brought tears to my eyes.
If I sound ridiculously excited about this book, it's because I am. I can't think of a book I'd recommend more highly to any family, in fact. It's available at Amazon
My hands dug at the ground tentatively. It had been some time since I'd been able to think beyond my next breath, and productivity felt foreign. But there I sat, on my knees, in a flower bed in my backyard, breathing the chilly November air and thinking of spring.
It was the late autumn of 2002, and I was emerging, ever so slowly, from the darkest time of my life. For months I had been paralyzed by depression and anxiety. But as November arrived, and the earth began to fall asleep for the winter, something inside me began to awaken. Medication, prayer and the love of my family had pulled me back from the brink, and I stepped out of my "bunker" blinking in the sunlight and walking very slowly. But I was walking. Gently forward, each day a little easier than the next, I was moving toward Hope.
And so it was I sat in my flower bed that day, overcome by the need to get my hands in the dirt. I had some hyacinth bulbs that had been tucked in my fridge for some time, and I knew I needed to get them in the ground before the first freeze. I turned the bulbs over in my dirty hands--they looked like misshapen onions, with brittle flakes coming off the sides and dead-looking scraggles sticking out of the tops. I stared at them for some time, marveling that something beautiful would shoot out of that clumpy, brown mess in just a few short months. But with faith in my soil and my Miracle-Gro, I tucked a few bulbs into the ground.
I sat back and patted the ground where they were buried. They were powerful symbols to me of my own journey--something ugly and dead-ish, held in the hands of a Creator who wasn't afraid to get His hands dirty.
My bulbs lay still and waited for spring. My heart waited with them.
And spring indeed came, both to the hyacinths, and to me. In an explosion of electric blue color, those gorgeous bulbs gave me their very best that March. And I, further down my path of healing, was able to rejoice--in the beauty of a blue flower, in the warmth of spring, in the faithfulness of a God whose mercies are new again and again.
Those dark days are now a distant memory, and my steps are no longer slow and tentative. Sometimes it's easy to forget just how dark those times were. But then every year spring comes, and every year that plucky hyacinth shows his face to me, reminding me of my long journey toward hope. He appeared this weekend, and I greeted my old friend (though not for long, as he was mowed down by an unforgiving GI Joe truck).
I laughed, and I remembered, and I gratefully turned my face to the sun.
(Sorry, non-Lost watchers, but this is an excruciatingly long post. If you're looking for Works-For-Me Wednesday, just scroll on down.)
I feel like I just watched an old episode of Murder, She Wrote: shady characters, creepy murder, classic whodunnit. Except, of course, Angela Lansbury never BURIED ANYONE ALIVE at the end of the show. Was that the creepiest thing you've ever seen? I'll be up all night thinking about it.
The episode is getting panned on the message boards, but I actually liked it. It was refreshing seeing a beginning, middle and end to a Lost episode, don't you think? And seeing another "view" of the entire time on the island (from Nikki and Paolo's viewpoint) certainly gave a sense of cohesion we often lack in this show.
A few points for discussion...
Speaking of the Lost message boards, you need to see the list of "100 Greatest Lost Mysteries" compiled by someone with the username of HurleysChins (and that's all the info I have on this person; I wish I could give him/her more credit, because this is a fantastic list):
1. What are the Others/Dharma doing on the island?
2. What is the smoke monster?
3. Where is the island?
4. Why do all the characters seemed to have run into each other before the flight?
5. What is the "sickness"?
6. What's the deal with the 4-toed statue? Who were the original inhabitants of the island?
7. Why is Hanso (from LE) trying to infect people from a virus? (from the Sri Lanka video)
8. What/who is causing the whispering?
9. What are Walt's special powers? Why was Walt talking backwards? Why did he appear soaking wet?
10. What is causing all the hallucinations on the island?
11. Why is Desmond able to predict future events?
12. What happened to Michael and Walt?
12. Did Desmond really travel back in time, or was it just another different type of hallucination?
13. What is the big construction project that the Others working on?
14. Who is "him"?
15. What exactly was the Incident?
16. How did Locke, Eko and Desmond all escape the hatch before certain death? Why was Desmond naked, and how did he get from the hatch to the jungle?
17. How did Locke regain use of his legs? What caused Locke to briefly lose the use of his legs on the island?
18. Why are the others unable to conceive children?
19. Who is Jacob? Why does the video refer to Jacob in the past tense?
20. What caused the Nigerian plane to crash on the Island?
21. What is the significance of the eye close-ups?
22. Why did Juliet want Ben dead?
23. Why were they brainwashing Karl? What is the purpose of the clockwork orange video?
24. How did Locke become paralyzed?
25. Why did 'Henry' say he'd come for Locke?
26. Why are there Polar Bears on the island?
27. What is the Dharma Shark?
28. Is Alex Ben's biological daughter?
29. Why did Radzinsky make the blast door map? Did he really kill himself? Why?
30. Who was the man with the eyepatch? And where was the video feed coming from?
31. What is in the vaccine that is/was being injected into Claire?
32. What happened to the the Black Rock? How did the Black Rock get so far inland?
33. Why was Penelope looking for an electromagnetic anomoly? What will she do now that she has found it?
34. Was Libby sent by someone to give Desmond the sailboat?
35. Why were there so many survivors from the crash?
36. Why was Libby in the mental hospital? Did Libby recognise Hurley from the mental hospital?
37. What do the others mean by "good person"/"good people"?
38. Why did the smoke monster kill Eko?
39. Why did the Others want to take Kate and Sawyer?
40. Are Hurley's numbers really cursed? How?
41. Why did the entire sky light up when Desmond turned the failsafe?
42. Who was Libby's husband David? Any connection to Hurley's Dave?
43. What is the relationship between the Valenzetti numbers (or Valenzetti equation) and the Swan hatch?
44. Why were so many Dharma stations abandoned? What happened to the replacements for the Swan? If it was so important, why was it left to fend for itself?
45. Why did the Others burn Kate's clothes? Why did they burn Colleen after she died?
46. Is Rose's cancer really cured?
47. Lift up your eyes and look North - What will be found there?
48. Did Ben allow himself to get captured on purpose? If so, why?
49. Why was the Swan hatch under quarentine?
50. What happened to Jack's father's body?
51. Who removed Yemi's corpse from the Nigerian plane?
52. What were the surgeons in the medical hatch going to do to Claire?
52. Why is Alex helping the Survivors?
53. Why were the Numbers broadcasting on the transmitter? Who originally broadcasted them and why?
54. Can Jin now have children? Is he really the father?
55. What is the purpose of the Flame hatch?
56. Why was Locke so curious about the origin of Sawyer's name?
57. Why was Desmond in the Army prison?
58. What happened to the real Henry Gale and why?
59. Why did they take Michael's blood?
60. What is the cable used for they find on the beach that led them to Danielle?
61. Why did the psychic lie to Eko about being a fake? Why did he buy Claire a ticket for flight 815? What did he see?
62. Was Locke really "immaculately conceived"?
63. Are Dr. Candle/Wickman the same? Why did his name change? How did he lose his arm between videos?
64. Who spoke with Jack via the Intercom to try the door? Why was he hearing his father through the intercom?
65. Who is Brennan? What are the keys that he has?
66. Did Henry do something other than enter the code?
67. Why was the orientation film edited and why were the missing parts in the other station hidden in the bible and simply not destroyed
68. Who/what brought the girl in Australia back to life?
69. Who was Sawyer talking about when he said I love her while recovering from his infection?
70. How did the VW Van get to the middle of the jungle?
71. How did Kate's horse (or one identical to it) get on the island?
72. What has Juliet been working on with the Others? Does it have something to do with the pregnant male mouse?
73. Was Hurley's Lottery rigged?
74. Why was there a glass eye in the arrow hatch?
75. Why have so many people lost their arm (Montand, Wickman/Waxman, Ray Mullen)
76. What was the "Hurley Bird"
77. What was meant be "The computer must'nt be used for anything else". What else could the computer be used for?
78. What is the significance of the mark they put on Juliet?
79. Why was there a pile of unopened logs from the pearl in the middle of the jungle?
80. Where does the Dahrma food drop come from?
81. How did Kelvin know Desmond had arrived on the island? Is Kelvin really dead?
82. Why were there blast doors and a huge stash of guns in the Swan?
83. Jack's tattoos: "He walks amoung us, but is not one of us". What does it truly mean?
84. Why did the monster kill the pilot?
85. What happened to Locke's Helen? Did Locke take the $200,000?
86. Was Edmund's death an accident? If not, how could Mittelos have arranged such an accident?
87. What was the purpose of the Arrow hatch?
88. What was Ethan doing at Rachels, Juliet's sister?
89. Who were Adam/Eve, the bodies found by Jack in the caves?
90. What did Fenry mean by "We already got more than we bargined for from Walt" on the dock?
91. Why were the Others wearing costumes at first? If it was to fool the lostaways into thinking they were primitive, then why?
92. Where was the radio signal playing "Moonlight Serenade" coming from?
93. How did Mr.Paik know Jin & Sun were planning to run away?
94. What was in the pit Locke was being dragged into? Why was the monster trying to drag Locke into it?
95. How come Walt looks at a picture of a bird and one turns up dead and then he reads a comic with polar bears and they turn up?
96. Was someone in the Pearl hatch just before Locke entered? Was someone watching them in the Swan from there? What was the stuff we saw on the side table?
97. How did such a rare bottle of whiskey make it to the island? Is it from Widmore's stash?
98. What happened to the passageways on the blast door map? Are they still there?
99. Why were all the hairbrushes gone after the crash
100. If the Swan hatch imploded, why did the hatch door go flying out to the beach?
Excellent work, HurleysChins (whomever you may be)...Losties, talk amongst yourselves.
Go read this by Fiddledeedee. Just go.
We mommas use whatever tools we have at our disposal, right? And if the testosterone coursing through the veins of our little boys can be harnessed for our convenience, we should go for it, right?
I sure do.
Recently I stumbled across a really easy (and oh-so-funny) tip to get my boys to help me with things like carrying laundry baskets, moving furniture, bringing in groceries, etc....without a moment of arguing. Here's an example of how it works:
Me: Stephen, I need some help moving these boxes to the garage. [Long pause here while I appear to be re-assessing.] You know, never mind, I think these might be a little too heavy for you.
Stephen: [Popping up eagerly from the couch.] Too heavy? Those aren't too heavy! Let me try!
Me: [Insert overly dramatic skepticism here.] Are you sure? There are a lot of them.
Stephen: Aw, that's easy, Mom, I can do them all...
Presto. I get eager help from the boys, and they get an ego boost. Works for me--every time!
Have an idea you'd like to share with all of Bloggityville? Leave your link below. WFMW guidelines can be found here. If you don't have a blog, you're welcome to leave your WFMW tip in my comments section.
Remember that next Wednesday is WFMW: The Car Edition. Give us your best tips for handling life on the go. How to entertain the kids in the car, or keep up with your little league gear, or how to stock an auto first aid kid...let us know what works for you.
My new favorite clothing store I referred to earlier is Bass (as in the shoes, not the fish). Their clothes are fantastic--well-made, affordable, cute and (best of all!) comfortable. What really stinks is that while you can buy their shoes all over the place, their clothes are only available at their outlet stores (according to the sales girl; I've sinced looked around all over the web and I think she's right). It's worth a drive. Chilihead doesn't know it yet, but I will totally be making her go with me here sometime this summer so I can raid their store again.
I'm home and rested and chock full of blog fodder from my wonderful weekend in Austin, TX with Hubs.
We headed south Thursday morning and spent the afternoon and night in Dallas. Our hotel was perfectly nice, except it was hosting (I couldn't make this up if I tried) a convention for Scottie dog owners. It turns out that if someone is a devoted enough dog owner to attend a national convention, he's devoted enough to bring his dog with him. So there we were, on our first getaway in ages, in a hotel full of DOGS. Always one to turn lemons into lemonade, Hubs kept me entertained by barking every time we walked down the hall, setting off a chorus of barks in the neighboring rooms.
I love that man.
We left Dallas Friday morning, heading further south to Austin. We were there for the wedding festivities of a close family friend. We stayed at a gorgeous hotel, just steps away from the University of Texas ("in the belly of the beast" my UT-loathing Hubs kept muttering under his breath). Here's a picture of where we stayed (it was straight out of Southern Living):
It was the kind of place with his-and-her robes hanging in the bathroom, bazillion-thread-count sheets and a view like this from the balcony of our room:
Here are some more pictures (and I swear I'm not rubbing it in, it's just that we so seldom stay in hotels that aren't, you know, next to a Shoney's, I thought I should commemorate the occasion for posterity):
As I said, we were there for a wedding. We spent plenty of time R&R-ing just the two of us, but we did some celebrating with friends as well. Friday night was the rehearsal dinner, held at a place which (we were told) is a hang-out of Matthew McConaughey's. We two-stepped and boot-scooted and Cotton-Eyed-Joed until our feet hurt. Here's a photo of Hubs and me all dressed up for the occasion (and no, we're not so dorky that we walk around Texas dressed like cowboys; it's how the invitation told us to dress):
Those fabulous boots I'm wearing were on loan from the ever-stylish Chilihead.
Saturday morning we had Tex Mex for BREAKFAST (they do that in Texas, evidently) and then did a little sight-seeing. Undoubtedly, the funniest part was a walk through the flagship Whole Foods store--I have never seen such organic-ness in all my born days. They had organic jelly beans, tampons and dogfood. ("Why do dogs need organic food? Don't they eat their own poop?" Hubs asked.) Actually, the observations of my conservative, no-nonsense, Republican husband were hilariously priceless. We walked through the courtyard (yes! a grocery store with a courtyard, which should tell you something) among all the folks eating their hummus, wearing "Give Peace a Chance" shirts. Hubs told me he was resisting the urge to plop down next to them wearing a Haliburton t-shirt and chugging a Budweiser.
Have I mentioned how hard this man makes me laugh?
Saturday night's wedding was breathtaking and romantic and gorgeous under the open Texas sky. I had many mushy wedding thoughts, but they're all worthy of a blog post of their own, so I'll save that for a later date.
There's a lot more I could tell you (like my leisurely to visit to the mothership The Container Store; or the four--yes, FOUR--adorable skirts I found at my new favorite clothing store; or the gorgeous hotel tile-work I'm trying to figure out how to replicate in my kitchen; etc. etc. etc.) but this is much too long already. Here's the nutshell version for those of you who skimmed to the last paragraph (and I don't blame you): fun time, awesome Hubs, long naps, good shoes. The End.
Let me throw myself on your mercy for some advice, because I'm just as befuddled as I can be.
There is a major north-south street in my city; on one side is a big church, and directly across is a high school. Corrie and I were minding our happy little business this morning, toodling down this street, when a funeral procession pulled out of the church. Along with the rest of the cars on the street, I pulled over to a complete stop, out of respect. When the procession was past, I moved on along, but for only a few seconds--because what to my wondering eyes should appear, but blue lights in my rear-view mirror.
I was pulled over for speeding in a school zone. I was, according to the police officer, driving a wildly reckless 35 mph in a 25 mph zone. He wrote me a ticket, without a dollar amount, because school zone infractions require (lovely!) a court date. Next week I get to go alllll the way downtown at 8:30 in the morning to plead my case.
And I don't have the foggiest idea what to do. I'm just as dull and law-abiding as they come, except for my one and only speeding ticket 16 years ago. But I've watched enough Law and Order to have quite a little case prepared for myself, including:
Okay, seriously, though...how does this court-date stuff work? Do I even try to say anything in my defense, or do I just smile and nod and show the judge my paperwork? And is it a major faux pas to take a toddler with you to a court date? What if she throws a sandwich at the judge? Would I be jailed on assault charges?
Y'all help me figure out what I should do.
I'm home (and oh, I have blog fodder) but I'm way too busy playing catch-up on laundry and kitchen and back-to-school stuff to post anything today. Instead, let me direct to you some interesting things being said elsewhere...
I'll be back tomorrow with a report and pictures of our fabuloso long weekend (assuming none of them make me look too chubby--if they do, you'll have to give me a couple of extra days to Photoshop off 20 pounds).
