Author Archives: Jen

About Jen

Jen isn't quite sure when she lost her mind, but it is probably documented here on Meditatio. She blogs because the world needs her snark at all hours of the night... and she probably can't sleep anyway.

Life As A Mommy

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I’ve been lax about blogging lately because I haven’t had enough brain cells to do it, or (like right now) I’m typing one-handed because I have the big-eyed boy in my arms. (OK… I could put on my Moby wrap but I haven’t had a chance.)

I haven’t been to church in at least a month so I’m not having any really decent faith revelations. I honestly wanted to see my baby more than I wanted to deal with people and to make it to two care times, I had to skip the 11:00 service at Church #2. I prayed a lot on the way down and I listened to religious podcasts but I broke the Sabbath. (OK… sort of. I caught a midweek service some of the time before my month-long drought.)

I haven’t been out much since Daniel came home because we’ve had to quarantine him due to his compromised immune system. (Preemies have crappy immune systems. Ask me how I know this.) I’m home most of the time. I watch a lot of news when I can’t sleep and I’ve kept up on the outside world that way. Otherwise, it’s been a lot of getting out to make trips to the dump or to do things like get prescriptions.

My life does revolve around Daniel right now. I keep a separate blog for his stuff (located here) because I’d rather keep this blog about me and not post that OMG-HE-HELD-HIS-HEAD-UP-TODAY!!!!!! Mommy-blogging can get annoying and I’m respecting that some of my audience doesn’t really want to know the minutae of Daniel’s bowel habits or motor skills. By the same token, it was good to have the Caringbridge site so I’ve got Daniel’s blog up for people who want to keep tabs on him that way.

In terms of world events, I have been following the elections in Iran and my Twitter icon is green to show support for Mousavi. I think Ahmadinejad is on crack for thinking that the US sparked the protests and that Mousavi’s popularity was a plot by Obama but he’s always been a little daft when it comes to factual things… much like our last administration and Fox News. (Yes, I had to throw that in.) I actually care more about Neda’s death than I do Michael Jackson’s death.

So… that’s my world right now.

“The Unlikely Disciple”

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While I’ve had a sleepy dude on me, I’ve been able to get some reading done.

While listening to an episode of NPR’s “Religion Podcast” on my iPod, I heard about a book called The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University by Kevin Roose. His interview was pretty sweet so I decided to acquire a copy from Amazon.

The premise of the book is that Roose is spending a “study abroad” semester undercover at Liberty University, the evangelical liberal arts college founded by the late Jerry Falwell. While on a writing assignment with his boss, he visited Thomas Road Baptist Church, the church founded by Falwell, and found that he really could not communicate with the evangelical college students he met there. Realizing that this was a problem, he pondered the idea of spending a semester at Liberty as it was a foreign culture to him. He was able to arrange it and spent the spring of 2007 as a transfer student there. He lives in the dorms, takes part in prayer meetings, takes the core curriculum classes, sings in the choir at Thomas Road Baptist Church, and even goes on a short-term missions trip down to Florida over Spring Break to win the souls of the throngs of college students down there. He even does an interview with Falwell for the college paper and it ends up being the last print interview conducted by Falwell before he died in May of 2007.

I honestly could not put the book down and was forced to do it in order to get some sleep, to get the young prince to stop crying, or to eat — it was really that engaging. Granted, I’m a blog fan so I enjoy reading about peoples’ lives but this was definitely different. Kevin talked about his prep for heading to Liberty (his friend Laura doing a crash course on Evangelical Christianity for Dummies for him) as well as how he dealt with fitting in and not being conspicuous. One of the more interesting things was his attempts at not cursing — a book that had him using religious expressions instead of curse words which made him sound like a dork instead of blending in. 🙂

As a convert to Christianity, it was interesting to watch how his perspective on things changed as the semester went on. He doesn’t end up “being saved” but he’s moving toward that direction. He starts praying, he has a newfound respect for the Bible and for the faith, and he does start attending church occasionally. His friend Laura had told him that this semester could change him and I think it was a positive change.

The most interesting thing was his reaction when Jerry Falwell passed away. His interview had actually made him more human and I think having seen that side, Kevin was honestly sad when the news came down. I’m glad that he was there at the time because he talks about the two sides of the death. On one hand, Falwell was a monster to those with whom he disagreed (most specifically the GLBTQ community) and his death was a great thing. On the other hand, he was a person and definitely “not a hypocrite” (according to Kevin) and I think having seen him in person and talked to him, it was a real human being dying instead of this caricature in the media.

This is a book I’d recommend reading if you do want a semi-unbiased view of life in a hyper-evangelical environment. There’s no true way to be unbiased in this situation but Kevin does a really good job of it.

Daniel Coming Home — What We Need for Those Who Asked

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Daniel is coming home within the next week and there have been some of you who have asked what we need.

Well…

[+] We have a couple baby registries. If the item hasn’t been fulfilled, go for it!

Amazon.Com
Target

[+] Gift cards for Albertsons or Target or Wal-Mart would be great so we can pick up formula and diapers.

[+] If you are someone we know in real life and in real time, call and ask if we need help with something. Chances are, we might like to have help with some cleaning, cooking, or just spelling us for a couple minutes so we can shower.

Thanks. 🙂

What The…?

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CNN.Com: Alleged shooter’s ex-wife: He was capable of murder

So… the killing of Dr. George Tiller hits me on multiple levels.

1.) He was killed in church. Shouldn’t churches be sanctuaries from violence?
2.) The senior pastor of the church is a seminary classmate of mine (not sure if he remembers me but I remember him).
3.) Jon’s aunt is the assistant to the bishop of that synod and I’m sure is at least providing pastoral care in some fashion to the members of the church.

It’s one of those just mind-blowing things for me. I mean… I understand that some people feel that abortion is murder. However… murdering someone to show that murder is wrong? That’s a little twisted in terms of logic. There is no conceivable way to justify the murder of Dr. Tiller and those in the right-to-life community who claim to be able to do so are liars and guilty of the same sins of which they accused Dr. Tiller and other doctors who perform abortions. Life is either sacred or it isn’t. Pick one, people.

Pentecost Already?

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Daniel was born the week before Easter. It is now Pentecost. Time is seriously flying!!!!

Daniel updates are here. Succinctly putting it, he’s doing well and growing like a weed.

I’m working three days a week and spending the rest of the time down in Great Falls with the big-eyed boy. I’m grateful that my company and my management is supportive of all of this and that I can even do this. Once Daniel gets out of the hospital, I’ll have 2-3 weeks of maternity leave left and then I’m going to have to figure out a schedule for work that allows Jon to do his church stuff and allows me to work while providing care for Daniel. Daycare is a bit of an issue because Daniel is such a preemie so it might be a bit “interesting”. I know there is some outrage in the community because OMG I’m not quitting my job to stay home with Daniel and be a mommy and I’m not even addressing those people. Working keeps me sane (strange as it sounds) and I think we can (hopefully) balance things out.

Jon’s call papers are in and the bites we had aren’t panning out. That’s all I’m wanting to say and all I think people need to know at the moment. It’s probably good that we’re not looking at moving before August 15th because trying to coordinate Daniel’s care and a move right now is a little more than we can handle. We’re hoping Jon gets a new call in the near future though I’m chill with staying put at the moment if that is what God is calling us to do. I’m just hoping that we don’t have people in Jon’s congregations that try to force the synod’s hand or decide that the best thing to do is put the screws to us — that’s about the worst thing that they can do.

Some people have asked how I’m doing. The answer: I’M DEAD EXHAUSTED. It’s hard having Daniel down in Great Falls and trying to balance my everyday life plus trips down here. Yesterday, I fell asleep around Brady on the drive home (Jon was driving — I wouldn’t drive if I wasn’t able to stay awake) and then just barely got my pajamas on before I collapsed into bed and fell asleep again. I slept too late to make it to a church service this morning (then again, I don’t think I’ve actually ATTENDED a Sunday service in 3-4 weeks — I go to a Eucharist service on Wednesday at noon in Great Falls) and as I’m sitting here, I’m STILL tired. I’m having to remind myself that I can only do what I can do and that I’m doing the best that I can with the hours I have in a day. The people who think I should be doing more than I am need to trade lives with me for a day!