You are currently browsing the monthly archive for April 2007.
ben turned 6 yesterday. we celebrated with a camping trip to greer’s ferry. taido left with ben, cole and mary polly on thursday afternoon. grandpapa met them on his motorcycle. all day friday, friends trickled in to the campground to enjoy the sun, the sand, the campfire, and the testosterone. simon and i came up saturday morning with the cake and i almost felt like i was interrupting sort of a sacred rite. the camp definitely had the mark of guy-ness all over it. wet clothes everywhere, children without shoes, random food being consumed, sticks in the hands of almost everyone, opened presents laying randomly about (instead of piled nicely in the car with cards tucked into them so we would know who they were from). i thought, “maybe i should just leave the cake here and slip on out,” but the kids were having so much fun that it was a joy just to watch. over the course of the day, i heard stories from kids and dads about the night, about the water, about riding in the bed of a truck and on the back of a motorcycle. (of course, i got most of my info from mary polly, who is just brave enough to be the only girl among a pack of boys.) they had definitely celebrated in classic boy style. i heard a dad on the phone say, “yeah, most kids have sleepovers for their birthdays, but the chinos make you drive an hour away and sleep on the ground.” i hadn’t really considered beforehand the inconvenience it is to the parents to help their kids be a part of the campout. one mom even drove her son all the way up on friday morning to drop him off and then drove back up saturday morning to get him home in time for a ballgame. but i think it was worth it. i love to see boys get it all out of their system, getting dirty, wet and loud. there is a time for everything, and this weekend it was ben’s time to shine and play in the sun. thanks to everyone who helped make it happen, especially that taido who is a work horse at the campground.
i have gone to a bible study every week since i moved back to arkansas that i really love. i’ve studied the bible a lot of different ways with different groups and different materials…with just women, with men and women, with children…with books studies, with topical studies, with discussions about books written about the bible. there are as many different ways to study the bible out there as there are personalities. so what is special about bsf (bible study fellowship)? let me tell you. it’s very very straightforward…just you and the bible. you read the scripture. you answer your questions. it’s set up to do every day. you go to bible study on wednesday. you discuss your questions in a discussion group. (not a small group…a discussion group…i’ll come back to that.) you hear a lecture (which at my class is very good. her name is carla and she is precious). you pick up your questions. you go home and start over. it’s routine. it’s consistent. it can even be monotonous. but, i can honestly say that i have not ever learned more about the bible or studied as consistently in another bible study setting. if you stay in bsf (a lot of people drop out), you just do it. you get lost if you don’t, so you just plug through. as far as my spiritual journey goes, i have had a lot of ups and downs but one thing i’ve learned is that i am pretty much guaranteed for DOWN if i’m not reading God’s word. it’s that simple. i can still be down anyway, but i don’t have a chance without the words of God pouring into me consistently. bsf sets me up for success as far as studying the bible daily.
also, i love the preschoolers’ program (ages 2-6). it’s so good. this spring ben has enjoyed his last season in the children’s program at bsf and i just cannot say enough about how wonderful it is. i will definitely take simon when he turns 2. again, very bible based, very consistent. the teachers take so much time preparing to teach the bible story. and they really love those little ones, praying for them and encouraging the mommies. such a great ministry.
every week at bsf, they pass out these little invitation cards and strongly encourage us to invite people to come to bsf. so why haven’t i told you about bsf? why haven’t i invited you? well these cards are very small and i can’t quite fit all my disclaimers about bsf onto the margins of this little card. so i thought i would invite you now. but first i will tell you some of the things you might not love about bsf, so that you will not get mad at me when you show up and you are ushered to your seat. that’s right, you will be told where to sit. just like kindergarten. and that brings me to my next point. there are sort of, a lot of, well, for lack of a better word…rules. what’s crazy is that the rules that really bug me also contribute to creating the environment for consistent bible study that i love. for example, you can’t talk if you don’t do your lesson. and you can’t talk about anything except your lesson. that is why it is a discussion group, not a small group and definitely not a support group. you are talking about the lesson. no one is saying what their pastor said last week or worse, what oprah or dr. phil said last week. i love this because everyone is motivated to complete their lesson and i love hearing what the other ladies got out of their lesson. they are all from way different walks of life than me, which is another great thing about bsf. varying denominations, ages, races, spiritual maturity. but all these rules can be a little intimidating. especially because on your first visit to bsf, you don’t attend a discussion group. you go to what is called introduction class…also known as a boring recitation of the history of bsf and all the rules and guidelines. this class is more than i can bear…and i am sorry to send you to it, but you must endure it if you are going to enjoy the wonderful benefits of being in bsf. all i can say is, endure it with a friend and maybe you could get some material if you worked for a comedy channel or club that needed material for making fun of christians. that is a little harsh, but really. it is true. i have said that i wish somehow bsf could sort of ease up on things like strict attendance records and a very short window of opportunity to get your lesson for the following week, because it seems to hinder a lot of people from coming to something that is actually really good. but the legalism must preserve the whole thing from becoming fluffy. and incidentally, if you are a bsf-er, you kind of need something fluffy on the side to balance you out. because bsf is not fluffy. is is anything but. in fact, it is best to approach it as signing up for a seminary class, because, if you wanted to, you could get as much or more out of it as some people get out of a seminary education. and unlike seminary, it is free.
so consider yourself both invited and warned. the next two wednesdays are introduction classes for the fall bsf study, which is matthew. c’mon matthew! may 2nd and 9th. at cornerstone bible fellowship on warden road. 9:10am. if you wander in around 9:15 or so, come stand in the back with whitney and me and enjoy the singing of a very old and noncopyrighted hymn an octave higher than is humanly possible. you’ll love it!
today was a bad homeschooling day. actually the last two days have been really bad homeschooling days. you know how homeschoolers finish school by like 11am because they are able to complete everything so quickly. yeah…not so much. at the chino house we finished up at 3pm yesterday, and today…well, it’s 9:52pm and i’m still not sure everyone is done. but i’m sure as heck not about to get them out of bed to finish at this point. i had taken media privileges away by 10am, so i had no leverage the rest of the day. i spilled coffee all over my latin teacher’s guide. simon got his first tooth on sunday, so he’s crawling around moaning and drooling. no one even hears my voice anymore they are so used to it. when i sat down to read mary polly’s journal it was all about how heartless i am because i will not let her have any baby chickens or a puppy. i burst in to tears picturing myself as mean mean mean mommy. at one point today, i was asking myself if we have ever had a good day at this. you know how that is…when it’s bad, really bad, you cannot remember the good. this is called the downward spiral of negative thinking. i’ve been just a weensy bit frustrated with taido lately and earlier today i could not remember anything good about him. now i know there are good things about him, but i was able to spin them all in a negative light. so also it was with homeschooling. are you beginning to see a pattern??
anyway! when taido walked through the door, i told him what was for dinner and got in my car. i wasn’t even sure where i was going. i didn’t look in the mirror, because i didn’t want to talk myself out of leaving the house, but i can tell you that i looked bad. tear-stained, tired, same clothes as yesterday. you know the drill. i meandered over to home depot and i found some basil. my basil all froze a couple of weeks ago and it makes me sad when i walk past it. i pretty much bought all the basil that they had at home depot. if you want some, you should go somewhere else. then i picked out a pot, because all my pots are ugly. i just want one pretty pot, you know? and i got a few other things to plant. my yard looks really bad right now and i certainly was not about to transform it with a few little plants and one pot, but i could at least give myself something to look at…a new focus point. i have two friends putting in gardens right now. i think i just wanted to dig in the dirt. so i loaded up my stuff and started towards home. i have this candleholder that has been sitting in my living room for six months without a candle on top of it because the candle i really wanted for it when i bought the holder wasn’t on sale. i thought i would watch for it to go on sale. that was before i started homeschooling. i had time to watch for things. so i made one more stop and picked up a candle. it wasn’t on sale. i headed home. i entered the danger zone and made a very quick assessment of the situation…kitchen: disaster baby: diaper on backwards (they are new) kids: whiny. i ate a bite, nursed the baby and went out to unload my plants.
quiet. for the first time in too many days, quiet. i put my things in the ground. i dug in the dirt. i cried. i was quiet long enough to remember that we have indeed had some good homeschooling days, where my kids actually liked me and i liked them. and my husband is wonderful. a whole lot of the time. and it’s raining on my new plants. and tomorrow is a new day.
do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. romans 14:20a
yesterday morning i was doing my bsf (bible study fellowship) lesson, and i actually read those words in the bible. verbatim. the whole passage is about eating or not eating, drinking or not drinking and living in peace with others regardless of convictions about food or drink or sacred days. paul says several times in chapter 14 not to judge other believers for these kinds of things, small things. this is the context into which he speaks the words of verse 20. i had a conversation this week with a friend about how some of the earth-friendly choices we are trying to make in our families (especially those regarding food) can create a lot of tension for other family members. she said that she has gotten to a place where often she has to choose the relationship over the change she’s trying to implement. and when i read this verse, i thought, “she is absolutely right.” not that i am not still full-force gung ho with trying to be aware of how God is calling me to provide healthier options for my family and for the earth, but i certainly don’t want anyone to feel condemned by me. or even worse, unloved.
we are wrapping up earth week around here with a brunch today. a happy, healthy sunday brunch. our family eats sunday lunch at my mom’s house every week after church. it’s a wonderful gift that she provides tirelessly in the way of healthy food, a place to gather and time together as a family. she’s out of commission this week, so we’re having it here today. and i will be remembering this verse, because i believe that so much of the work of God happens around the table…with food. sharing a meal with people around a table involves so many things of God, things i love…community, provision, therapy, conversation, laughter, tears. i love to have people at my table, and i love to be at someone else’s table. i would be so sad if i did anything to destroy that experience. so, even though i will not be able to offer you artificial sweetener for your tea because i threw it all away, come on! you know i love you and you’re always welcome at my table.
if your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. romans 14:15a
ok i wanted to write last night about the evils of aspartame and msg, but after i gave my dad my rant at the hospital (my mom’s in for surgery, but she’s doing great), he went to wendy’s and bought a combo meal loaded with msg and a diet coke. there you go. why even bother?
so in an effort to be more positive on earth day/week, we are making granola. taido leaves today for castle bluff and it’s his absolute favorite snack to take on a trip, so we’re trying to sneak it in the bag. this is by far my most requested recipe, so i thought i would post it here for all to enjoy. go ahead and make some. eat healthy. live richly. don’t add any ingredients with msg or aspartame.
taido’s favorite granola
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup sesame seeds
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup slivered almonds
1 cup broken pecans
2 cups dried cranberries, blueberries, cherries, mango or any other dried fruit
½ cup maple syrup
¼ cup blackstrap molasses
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup canola oil
mix all ingredients in large bowl. spread in a large cookie sheet with edges (a jelly roll pan). granola should not be more than one inch thick. bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes, stirring every ten minutes. allow to cool completely before storing in air-tight container. enjoy!
ok i have to tip my hat this week to my friends who use cloth diapers since it takes like 500 years for a disposable diaper to biodegrade in a landfill! yea!! laura peterson and natalie carr!! (also, happy birthday to you natalie!) but i have just not been able to go there. the dirty, the washing, the maintaining, etc. last week i was actually considering borrowing a couple and giving it a shot, but then i watched natalie change kyah and i thought, “nope…can’t do it.” well, i am very happy to announce that i have made a discovery of something that is sort of a compromise between the two. i have just placed an order for my first box of gdiapers. they actually have a flushable portion inside the permanent liner pant of the diaper. and they are even cutie! they come in all different colors and patterns. simon can hardly wait for them to arrive!
ok, this may be getting a little old, but it is the theme of the week at schools across america and i was lying awake last night with these computer images from an inconvenient truth playing over and over again in my head of large ice structures melting and cities flooding (new york, san francisco, beijing, shanghai, calcutta…to name a few). it is exhausting really.
soooooo…today we went to wild oats to do research. i decided i was going to mostly read labels and choose just a few areas in which to go non-toxic at the chino house. here’s where i took the plunge.
area number 1: the laundry room (or laundry closet inside the bathroom, but you know what i mean). i read labels for a long time before deciding on the least expensive laundry soap and fabric softener. i will be comparing with a calculator, but really i don’t think it’s that much more than the regular stuff. the brand is ecover and i have since done some research on the company and it’s looking good to me, not just labeling, but really non-toxic. no more poisons in our clothes! (well, no more until i finish using the sam’s wholesale size box of detergent i already have).
area number 2: daily cleansing. this would include soap, deodorant (i know you can’t wait to smell me now…with oooh, natural deodorant!), toothpaste and lotion. it may fade after i take this book back to the library, but i just couldn’t get over the feeling that i have been slathering poison on my body (and on my kids…and even the baby, oh no!)
that pretty much covers my purchases for the day, apart from the normal ice chest full of yogurt. maybe next time i’ll switch my cleaning products. it was going to be a serious investment to do it today. phew.
so our trek to west little rock (we act like it is really far and only go about every six weeks…i think it takes like 15-20 minutes to get there, but still, why can’t we have our own in nlr??!!) was successful. the boys got haircuts (we are very faithful to eric gammill at supercuts next to wild oats) while simon, mary polly and i read labels…actually, simon hated it, but mary polly enjoyed giving her vote to everything with a planet earth on it…marketing lesson??
okay, last night the kids and i watched an inconvenient truth. we were despondent. i’m sorry for whatever mary polly says to you in the next few days about the car you drive. today the kids wrote about it in their journals and researched what we could do to stop global warming. taido rode his bike today to work with the kids applauding from the porch, no kidding. they’ve been giving him a hard time for driving a big mongo van. it was great.
mary polly drew this picture this morning. can you see the little girl crying because her ice cream is melting from the rising temperatures? or how about the polar bear on the bottom right who is drowning because all of the ice is melting? that’s my girl!
here are excerpts from the kids’ journals today:
last night we watched a movie about glowing warming. there was a funny scene. a sun man came to earth and then when the sun man was going back to the sun, these green guys said, “not so fast!” and punched the sun man down. also, a girl’s ice cream melted. it was a man who ran for president who was telling the people about the glowing warming. we should go around and tell people about the sun getting trapped by the leaks all over the earth. ben (5 yrs)
global warming is ruining our world! we need to take care of our world! some people don’t even care! mary polly (7 yrs)
if we want to stop global warming, there are a lot of things we can do. we can stop driving cars and stick to walking and bike-riding. you can plant trees. you can also stop littering. don’t smoke. clean your filters. also, you should not waist electricity. cole (9 yrs)
thank you Jesus that it is sunday morning and the sun is shining. two things i love! i fell asleep last night in the pit of despair (a slight exaggeration) after reading about half of this book yesterday. it’s all about how we’re destroying ourselves and our planet with chemicals and additives that we have created for our “convenience.” i’m sort of on a planet kick right now. i started watching planet earth on the discovery channel at anna’s last month and i became obsessed. since we don’t have cable, i’ve been going over to peter and whitney’s to watch it since i got back. it’s so amazing! also, a gal at our church wrote a great article in our newsletter for upcoming earth day and i followed her link to the first chapter of another book which i am ready to buy and read. it looks really fascinating. taido has been talking about global warming for a while now and i think i’m finally ready to get it over with and watch an inconvenient truth, which i have put off because i’m just not sure i can look at al gore for two hours. maybe it will be my first effort to bring the chino house towards earth day, and will spark other events for us this week. last night i was ready to start purging my house of products and run to wild oats today to buy all new toiletries and cleaning items and baby food. i am trying to put the brakes on a little bit this morning, because it is dangerous to give my dad any more mocking material than he already has.
i had this feeling last night that i do when i have a good visit with an old friend. this doesn’t happen to me as often these days as it did when i lived away from arkansas. someone would come for a few days and we would just talk and talk and talk, drink coffee, venture out in the beautiful rainy, green that is the incredible pacific northwest. then, inevitably, i would put them on a plane and drive home wistfully with my babies. that is exactly how i felt last night when i finished anne lamott’s new book, grace (eventually). do go and buy it. if you’re standing in the bookstore trying to decide by reading one chapter if you really want to own this book, read nudges (p.107). when i started reading anne, her son was a baby. now he’s 17 and i feel like he’s a distant nephew of mine, like i should send him a graduation present or something. i just love that she writes with the kind of honesty that makes you feel like you’re a part of her life. i know that has been said over and over about her, but it is really distinctive to be that authentic. (although one of the funniest lines i read yesterday was, “all i can say is, thank God there are no live feeds of our minds streaming online.”) a lot of my favorite anne lamott quotes are when she’s quoting her friends, like her friend father tom, “when i ask father tom where we find God in this present darkness, he said that God is in creation, and to get outdoors as much as you can.” or her pastor, veronica, who said, “i’m only a beggar, showing the other beggars where the bread is.”
one of the things i would like to learn from anne is that when she is going a little bit crazy in the head, she calls for help. she involves other people in her story all the time. in one story, when she has done something of which she is ashamed, she calls a friend, waking her up and tells her the whole story. it’s a confession, really…which is something we evangelicals shy away from…confessing our sins, out loud, to another actual person who might say, “you did what!” this is what she says about it.
she did not say much, but let me get my guck into the air, so it was no longer in the anaerobic rat chamber of my mind. and as i told her my bleak and embarrassing story, it felt like dirty clothes. i’d been trying to wash and dry it inside myself, in my embarrassed mind, which doesn’t really make much sense, laundry-wise. when you hang things outside, they get air, warmth, light; and you see that even with the stains and frayed collar, the garment has kept you covered and warm for a long time.
Recent Comments