Monthly Archives: October 2014

7 Quick Takes: Best Week Ever

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

REAL public health challenges. Here are 6 diseases that should worry you more than Ebola. I’m thankful that I’m current on my vaccines for 3-4 of them (measles, pertussis, and influenza/pneumonia). I can attest to the scariness of RSV though — Daniel has had it twice (nearly killed him the first time) and had to be vaccinated for it during his first year of life because the fatality risk was so high.

— 2 —

Vote early! Vote often! I just got my absentee ballot in the mail. The gubernatorial race here isn’t even close (Jerry Brown has a 20-point lead over his challenger) and neither of our senators are up for re-election so I think the only tight races are the ones for the various House seats and maybe for some of the propositions? I don’t have access to TV so I haven’t been forced to watch all the political ads.

— 3 —

An interesting argument. One of Jon’s seminary classmates linked a blog post about how a growing church is a dying church. I’m inclined to agree. We get asked frequently in call interviews how we would grow the church and “attract young people” but very rarely is the congregation doing anything themselves to actually make their church a welcoming place. (I’m not talking about doing things like replacing the organ with a rock band and watering down the theology — I’m talking about being actually friendly to outsiders and making people feel like it’s a place where they’d like to belong.)

— 4 —

Cynthia Jeub speaks out. I remember watching Kids by the Dozen on either TLC or the Discovery Channel and seeing the Jeub family of Colorado. Apparently, things weren’t so rosy in that household and daughter #3 Cynthia is speaking out. I’m watching the blogs on this one to see how this all turns out. I’m saddened to hear what Cynthia is saying because I hate seeing abuse or hearing about it in any form.

— 5 —

New blog. I’m starting a blog separate from this one that is related to health issues and my journey to develop healthier habits. If you want the URL, email me (jen at grace-filled dot net).

— 6 —

Baseball. The Giants beat the Nationals to advance to the NLCS and the Cardinals did the same to the Dodgers so I now have my two favorite NL teams playing each other. I’m not going to lie — I’d like it if the Giants won this best-of-seven series and went on to win the World Series but I’ll also root for the Cards if they do the same. I think my greatest joy is the Dodgers being knocked out as I’m married to a Dodger fan and I live among them down here in southern California. Maybe I should start wearing all my Giants gear when I leave the house… (Relax, I only have two pieces.)

— 7 —

Prayer request. I would muchly appreciate it if you could lift up some serious prayers for the Lenaburgs as they are dealing with the reality of Courtney’s last days. Mary (Courtney’s mom) is one of the most amazing people I’ve been blessed to know online and has the same sense of humor that I do (pretty dark given what we both deal with on a daily basis) and I wish I could take the pain from her.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: Blessing of the Animals Edition

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Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY October 5, 2014

Outside my window… dark. It was near 100F today which I think is hideous, even for October. I miss my -20F temps (not including windchill) in Montana!

I am thinking… about worship today. It was the Blessing of the Animals for the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi and people brought their pets to church to be blessed. Most people brought their dogs, a few (like me) brought cats, and one family even brought their chickens!

I am thankful… for Edda doing so well at church this morning. I didn’t know if she’d be OK or if I’d have to send her home with Jon partway through or what was going to happen. She was pretty content to stay in her crate and nap. I barely heard a peep out of her.

In the kitchen… lemon ricotta ravioli from Trader Joe’s for dinner tonight.

I am wearing… my Momcat shirt and black capri sweats.

I am praying for… a call for Jon, healing for various people, and some special intentions.

I am going… to have some pretty epic errands to do tomorrow morning on account of Daniel having a surprise three-day weekend.

I am wondering… why people still believe all the lies about a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Yet another study on the subject was just disproven and the claims were retracted. (HT: Simcha Fisher) I think I need to start making tin foil hats for all the people who spout these lame conspiracy theories.

I am reading… Evolving in Monkey Town by Rachel Held Evans. It’s a re-read.

I am hoping… my walk goes well tomorrow morning and resting my foot this weekend has helped.

I am looking forward to… various things this week.

I am hearing… mostly silence given how late it is.

Around the house… again, silence as I’m the only one up.

A favorite quote for today… “Human will becomes truly our own when it is wholly God’s, and this is one of the many senses in which he that loses his soul shall find it.” — C.S. Lewis

One of my favorite things… my choir director’s face upon finding out that he’d have to play the “arky arky song” during the blessing of the animals. (He hates it.) Given the ferocity with which he was playing the postlude by Mussorgsky, I think he was working out his frustrations on the piano afterwards. (He has a Masters and DMA in piano performance and is a piano professor at Azusa Pacific so we get some pretty amazing preludes and postludes on Sundays.)

A few plans for the rest of the week: errands, Daniel’s IEP on Tuesday, and whatever else comes up.

A peek into my day… Edda being blessed by Rev. Kelli Grace.

Edda being blessed at church.

The cute story behind this picture: the little boy is Rev. Kelli Grace’s grandson (she so does NOT look old enough to be a grandma) and at the end of the blessing, I heard her say “Do you see the ‘at’? Can you say ‘God bless the ‘at’?'” I looked up and her grandson had his fingers stuck into Edda’s crate and my princess was nuzzling his fingers. His mom told me later on that I had completely made his day because he loves “ats”.

Hosted by The Simple Woman’s Daybook

Five Favorites: Fat Girl Gets Fit

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Five Favorites

Why yes, I am a hugely self-deprecating person. However did you guess?

One

Fitness Blender. They have every kind of workout imaginable from kickboxing to yoga/pilates to HIIT. I’m not enamored with their kickboxing one as I’m a taebo groupie (and have been for 10+ years) but I’m looking forward to trying some of their other ones out. Their website is here and their YouTube channel is here.

Two

MapMyRun. Given my foot injury and a few other medical things, my go-to cardio right now is walking. MapMyRun.Com is awesome because it allows me to track the course I walk and it will even keep track of things like my diet if I so choose.

Three

Athletic tape. My injury is not in a place covered by normal ankle supports or braces of any nature so I’ve been going the athletic tape route. It’s helped thus far and has also removed all the callouses and dead skin on that part of my foot.

Four

Saucony running shoes. I originally got them because I’m on my feet so much and they’re comfortable but they’ve also kept my feet happy and blister-free through all the walking/chasing Daniel/being peripatetic.

Five

My core ball. I don’t think I could actually do things like crunches or oblique twists lying down with the lower back issues I have as a result of the fibro. Doing them on a ball makes them manageable.

Go love up Mary Kate and the others.

7 Quick Takes: Some New and Some of Last Week’s Leftovers

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

How Contagious Is Ebola? It turns out, not very. Unlike measles or mumps, you have to seriously come into contact with bodily fluids containing the virus. Measles and mumps also have vaccines to prevent them, unlike Ebola and a few of the other diseases mentioned.

— 2 —

Giddy. My boys (the Giants) are in the playoffs after beating Pittsburgh! My other boys (the Cardinals) are playing Jon’s boys (the Dodgers) and of course, I’m rooting for the Cardinals in that one. Ah… I love October — I just wish I had a TV so I could watch all of this.

— 3 —

Girding up my loins. I thought this was an interesting show of what it actually meant to “gird up your loins” back in the day. It satisfies my “history geek” side.

— 4 —

The War on Rosh Hashanah. I’m very thankful that my friend Neil posted this on his Facebook. It should give me something to be self-righteously indignant about until after Thanksgiving when I can obsess about the War on Advent.

— 5 —

The Benefit of Family Dinner. A friend of my bloggy friend Calah wrote this and I absolutely love it. (It’s about how eating dinner as a family saved her.) Calah expounds on it and I can relate. It’s really hard to eat a family dinner because everyone here is on a different schedule with work, medication, and childcare. We do manage it on occasion and it’s something I’ll be making an effort to try when Jon gets into his next parish.

— 6 —

An interesting view on waiting until a later age to date. I love Michelle. I love her blog. I love her family and wish I could be adopted in because they are so insanely cool and they seem to have so much fun! The particular post I’m sharing is on why one should wait until age 16 to date. She’s Mormon so it is written from that perspective but I found a number of her arguments compelling.

— 7 —

Super Woman. On days I torture myself on my core ball, I usually go for a 1 mile loop around the neighborhood for the purposes of getting some cardio as well as getting in some prayer time. (I pray for people while I walk and usually I’m walking a 5K.) I run into a lot of the same people every morning and one of them is an older man walking a dog. He jokingly asked me which lap I was on and I told him that I was just doing my 1 mile loop because I was going to go do a bunch of core exercises.

His response: “You must be Super Woman!”

Dude, you totally made this fat girl’s day.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

C.S. Lewis in My Inbox

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This was in my inbox this morning for my daily portion of C.S. Lewis’ writings. It’s from A Grief Observed which is probably the best book I’ve read on grief:

‘It was too perfect to last,’ so I am tempted to say of our marriage. But it can be meant in two ways. It may be grimly pessimistic — as if God no sooner saw two of His creatures happy than He stopped it (‘None of that here!’). As if He were like the Hostess at the sherry-party who separates two guests the moment they show signs of having got into a real conversation. But it could also mean ‘This had reached its proper perfection. This had become what it had in it to be. Therefore of course it would not be prolonged.’ As if God said, ‘Good; you have mastered that exercise. I am very pleased with it. And now you are ready to go on to the next.’ When you have learned to do quadratics and enjoy doing them you will not be set them much longer. The teacher moves you on.

For we did learn and achieve something. There is, hidden or flaunted, a sword between the sexes till an entire marriage reconciles them. It is arrogance in us to call frankness, fairness, and chivalry ‘masculine’ when we see them in a woman; it is arrogance in them to describe a man’s sensitiveness or tact or tenderness as ‘feminine.’ But also what poor, warped fragments of humanity most mere men and mere women must be to make the implications of that arrogance plausible. Marriage heals this. Jointly the two become fully human. ‘In the image of God created He them.’ Thus, by a paradox, this carnival of sexuality leads us out beyond our sexes.