Up and Back Again

Aaron survived midterms, although he’s not so sure his GPA did. To put it out of mind we drove up north to Traverse City for night while AJ spent time on the farm with Grandma and Papa. Recent excitement there has been the cat bringing a live mouse into the living room and a herd of deer standing in the field, to which AJ exclaimed “Holy COW!”

We didn’t really do much up north that we couldn’t have done in GR (except maybe buy me dress boots for $26, woot!), but it was nice to get away to someplace else. We had uninterrupted talks and daydreams in the car, dinner out, a little jacuzzi time, and of course a couple episodes of LOST. And that equals relaxation, found.

Jeff

Baker Publishing Group mourns the loss of a colleague and friend, Jeffery A. Wittung. Jeff, one of Baker’s academic editors, was injured in a car accident on his way to work January 6, 2010. He passed away the evening of January 10. He leaves behind a wife, Marne, and two daughters: Ana (5) and Kate (1).

We at Baker Publishing Group will miss Jeff greatly, and we invite you to pray for the family Jeff leaves behind: his wife and daughters; his mother, father, and sister; his in-laws; and the extended family. They find comfort in Jeff’s faith and in their own, but their loss is severe.

Wordless Wednesday

Be Born, and Save Us Now

A Christmas Carol For 1862,
The Year Of The Trouble In Lancashire
George MacDonald

The skies are pale, the trees are stiff,
The earth is dull and old;
The frost is glittering as if
The very sun were cold.
And hunger fell is joined with frost,
To make men thin and wan:
Come, babe, from heaven, or we are lost;
Be born, O child of man.

The children cry, the women shake,
The strong men stare about;
They sleep when they should be awake,
They wake ere night is out.
For they have lost their heritage—
No sweat is on their brow:
Come, babe, and bring them work and wage;
Be born, and save us now.

Across the sea, beyond our sight,
Roars on the fierce debate;
The men go down in bloody fight,
The women weep and hate;
And in the right be which that may,
Surely the strife is long!
Come, son of man, thy righteous way,
And right will have no wrong.

Good men speak lies against thine own—
Tongue quick, and hearing slow;
They will not let thee walk alone,
And think to serve thee so:
If they the children’s freedom saw
In thee, the children’s king,
They would be still with holy awe,
Or only speak to sing.

Some neither lie nor starve nor fight,
Nor yet the poor deny;
But in their hearts all is not right,—
They often sit and sigh.
We need thee every day and hour,
In sunshine and in snow:
Child-king, we pray with all our power—
Be born, and save us so.

We are but men and women, Lord;
Thou art a gracious child!
O fill our hearts, and heap our board,
Pray thee—the winter’s wild!
The sky is sad, the trees are bare,
Hunger and hate about:
Come, child, and ill deeds and ill fare
Will soon be driven out.

Wordless Wednesday: Thanks-Full

And on the 30th Day They Quit

It’s the 30th and most importantly LAST day of NaBloPoMo. As far as quantity I only missed one day but I feel I owe you all an apology for missing on quality more often than not. I feel I accomplished the goal of making blogging happen but not the real goal of making my blog better, and I’m not sure there’s much point to that. When even I’m bored by me, why should you come back? I think I may have had better posts if I hadn’t been pushing to get something, anything up every day. So hopefully I’ll be able to maintain some consistency and capture better thoughts in the future.

Some of the ones that got away–things I should have blogged:

• AJ’s recent hairstyles/process
• things I’m thankful for
• missing Oregon / differences between places
• our new church / letting go of our “home” church
• new friends and old friends in a semi-new place
• how my thoughts on adoption have evolved
• all the awesome ideas you guys had at the beginning of the month

Maybe you’ll see some of these soon. Or maybe I’ll take the month off!

Shameless Promotion Friday

I’m not brave/desperate/crazy enough to go shopping today, but I have been mightly distracted by the wonder that is Internet browsing. So I thought I’d highlight the links you might have noted on the right side of this site for Amazon.com.

I have these links because I’m an “Amazon Associate,” which simply means that if you buy through these links, I could make a little pocket change to upgrade my coffee to a latte buy my kid boots, support my husband through seminary, support missionaries, etc.

So if, hypothetically, you were going to buy me someone you love a Wii game, her favorite Idol’s CD, a stupidly expensive wide angle lens, or some new moccasins size 8.5, clicking here to buy through my link would give me a little kickback as well. I can’t, unfortunately but obviously, buy for myself this way, so I will be looking for a way to make my shopping work for one of my favorite charities–and I’d be more than pleased if you went that route instead. Just make your clicks count for someone!

Fall Friday Photos

I have to post all these fall photos before Thanksgiving and snow come and I don’t want to see anything orange anymore.

Shall we caption them?

“Senior Sweetheart”

“Benchwarmer”

“Dutch in Michigan” “Who cares?”

(Just teasing, Dutch friends. Although I did shake my head in amusement during seminary orientation at the assumption that we would all find a detailed history of the life and ministry of Albertus Van Raalte both fascinating and in any way relevant to life outside this eight block radius. Having just come from unchurched Oregon I was feeling like wow, there’s white privilege/bias, then there’s being Dutch-o-centric, then there’s a level of suburban West Michigan Dutch Reformed Christian-educated navel-gazing that can just seem like a whole ‘nother world.)

-1

On the way home from church I realized yesterday was my official NaBloPoMo FAIL day. I didn’t blog. I worked in the library most of the day and I don’t think I even turned my computer on after that.

Obviously my momentum is fading since I am using this confession as today’s post. Yeah, I suck, but why should the Lions be the only ones? (Sigh. Glad I had a baby shower to go to today.)

Neighbor: Who are they [your husbands] watching?

Me: The Lions.

Neighbor: Who are they playing?

Me: Minnesota.

Neighbor: [Spontaneous uncontrolled laughter:] Hahahahahaha! I’m sorry…

Peer Pressure Pays Off

I’m in. No, not Facebook, because I don’t have time to mess with that because I have succumbed to peer pressure in another form: that of National Blog Posting Month, aka NaBloPoMo, aka WTFwasIthinking?month.

This means I do solemnly swear to post to this blog every day of November. (Quantity is job 1. Quality not guaranteed.)

I’m doing this because I feel like my blogging needs a kick in the pants–either I crank it up and get into a better flow or it’s going to continue to get pushed aside and fall off. And because if HabeshaChild, Paige, my brilliant-sister-in-law Piscis, and others I admire can do it–and if others can attempt to write a whole novel during NaNoWriMo–well, what kind of loser would I be if I didn’t give it a shot? The loserly loser kind, that’s what.

So here goes. Any requests?

Next Page »