Category Archives: Family

7 Quick Takes: Back in Northern California

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

THE GIANTS ARE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES!!!!!!!!!!! That was an insane game tonight. I’m glad the Giants won but I am also glad that I got to watch it tonight and that St. Louis played pretty well. One of Jon’s higher ups used to live in Kansas City for a number of years and I’m hoping for a fun series for both our sakes.

— 2 —

NCIS binge. I’m taking care of my parents’ cats while they’re up with my grandmother and this means that I have access to TV. I only watched one episode of NCIS tonight but I’m planning a binge of it in the next week and a half. I’ve missed it and while I could theoretically watch on my computer, I don’t normally have a huge amount of computer time so watching it and my other shows isn’t happening right now… except being up here on my “Momcation”.

— 3 —

What is a “Momcation”? Essentially, I’m on vacation from being a mom for the next 10 days. It’s a long story as to why but I’m cat/house-sitting for my parents and Daniel remained down south with Jon and my in-laws. Don’t worry — my marriage isn’t in jeopardy. I’m doing my parents a favor and my in-laws and parents are happy that it’s giving me a break that I haven’t had in 5 1/2 years.

— 4 —

So what am I doing? I drove up yesterday and today, I did errands and went food shopping for myself. I’m planning to spend some time praying and journalling about how to move from the crossroads where I’m at in my life and I also have plans to have coffee with Rebecca. Oh yes… also catch up on all the TV I’ve missed, hence the NCIS binge.

— 5 —

Completely shocked. I weighed myself yesterday for the first time in months (the last time was at a doctor’s appointment) and I’m 3-5 lbs below my pre-pregnancy weight. I guess all the core work, the walking, and other changes I’ve made are helping? I’m wondering if I can’t increase that loss so that I’m down to my pre-Montana weight when I leave my parents’ house.

— 6 —

Just a thought. Is there any chance that a device could be created that stops all political ads on TV and in the mail once one has voted or submitted an absentee ballot? I voted this past week (permanent absentee ballot FTW!) and I really don’t need to hear about who wants my vote anymore.

— 7 —

Possible rain. Weather.Com claims we’re not going to have rain in the next 24 hours. My head disagrees! (I freaking love weather change migraines.)

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

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.

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.

What Marriage Is Teaching Me: September 2014

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Amanda just posted the link-up for this month so if you’re interested, go here.

I think this month has reinforced to me the necessity of taking time to act like a married couple. We’re living with my in-laws so there are some things we can’t do that we could do if we were living on our own. On the other hand, we’re actually getting to do things like have date nights because my mother-in-law is graciously watching Daniel for us so we can go walk through the mall and look at stores like adults, have conversations on whether or not we should try for more kids (my biological clock is smacking me upside the head and screaming “NOW! NOW! NOW!), and just focus on some of the aspects of our relationship that are really hard to work on because of Daniel. Jon has two weddings and supply-preaching this weekend in San Diego and I get to go with him and stay down there overnight. I’m looking forward to it so that we can talk, we can look into each other’s eyes, and have actual time together that isn’t solely focused on Daniel.

By the way, one thing I *REALLY* wish had been brought up in pre-marital counseling is the need to date your spouse and to build those times into the relationship because it is so easy to just go into crisis mode with regard to everything when you have a kid with special needs and it can really take a toll on both spouses.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: September 21, 2014

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Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY September 21, 2014

Outside my window… dark. I didn’t get onto my laptop today until Daniel was asleep. On the plus side, the weather is 20F cooler than it was last week.

I am thinking… about worship today. We didn’t end up doing the awesome Doxology below (our organist accidentally played the one to the hymn tune “Old 100th” instead) but I’ve got it stuck in my head anyway.

I am thankful… for my incredibly awesome mother-in-law watching Daniel so I could go do choir and church. I have to church-train him one of these days.

In the kitchen… I think my mother-in-law’s stuffed zucchini is still on the counter.

I am wearing… my Momcat shirt and navy running shorts.

I am praying for… a parish for Jon and some special intentions.

I am going… for a long walk tomorrow morning if my foot isn’t flaring too badly.

I am reading… A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren. A friend recommended it and I’m having a hard time putting it down.

I am hoping… to have a smooth week without too many major surprises.

I am looking forward to… this coming weekend when I get to go to San Diego with Jon where he is supplying at the church his great-grandfather started.

I am hearing… water going through pipes or something.

Around the house… I think I’m the only one awake.

A favorite quote for today… I found this today while reading A New Kind of Christian and loved it:

“Actually, if there’s one thing I wish I could tell every Christian about evangelism in the postmodern world,” he replied, “it would be about that word [conversation]. I would say to stop counting conversions, because our whole approach to conversion is so, I don’t know, mechanistic and consumeristic and individualistic and controlling. Instead, I’d encourage us to count conversations, because conversation implies a real relationship, and if we make our goal to establish relationships and engage in authentic conversations, I know that conversions will happen. But if we keep trying to convert people, we’ll simply drive them away. They’re stick of our sales pitches and our formulas.”

One of my favorite things… cuddles with Jon.

A few plans for the rest of the week: the only major plan is a lunch date with a family friend on Wednesday.

A peek into my day… So, I decided to use this space for my “What I Wore On Sunday” post again. 🙂

What I Wore on Sunday

I was going for something that would be cool under my choir robe. I ended up deciding on this:

Me with my modeling cat.

Shirt: Croft and Barrow (Kohl’s)
Pants: Sag Harbor (Kohl’s)
Athletic tape: Target
Shoes: Naturalizer
Cat: Freya

Here’s a better shot of my pants with the shoes. (Pardon the belly shot. I promise that I’m not pregnant — it’s just the angle of things.)

Pants and shoes.

For those wondering about the foot, it’s one of three things: a strain from overworking it, arthritis, or bursitis. In any case, I’m putting the principles of RICE into action and the compression part is being handled by athletic tape because there’s not a brace on the market that sufficiently covers it.

My taped up foot.

Hosted by The Simple Woman’s Daybook. Go here to see Emily and the other pretty ladies at Fine Linen and Purple (the host of the “What I Wore on Sunday” link-up).

7 Quick Takes: More Vaccine Fun, Prison Chaplain to the Nazis, and Library Love

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

More from Simcha. Simcha posted something on Dr. Deisher, vaccines, and autism today which is worth a read. She brings up one of the things that drives me batty about a lot of the “vaccines cause autism” hysteria: their science is completely faulty.

This is also why I’m in the process of developing a shirt that says: “Yes, my kid is autistic. Yes, we vaccinated them. No, they are not on the GAPS diet. Please go away.” People are obsessed with pseudo-science (the “vaccines = autism” portion) and while the GAPS diet/gluten-free diet does work for some kids, it isn’t a magical cure.

— 2 —

Baseball. The Giants continue to be behind the Dodgers, a trend I’m hoping will reverse itself as I’m living in Dodger country. The Dodgers usually suck so this is kind of surprising. On the other hand, a few of the main people have been out with injuries this season.

On the other hand, the Cardinals are the top of their division so at least one of my two teams has a shot at the World Series.

— 3 —

Minister to Nazis during Nuremburg trials. I read an article on Henry Gerecke, the LCMS pastor assigned to be the chaplain for the war criminals being tried in the Nuremburg Trials, and it was very interesting. One of the questions raised is why men would be given spiritual care when they obviously didn’t give a crap about the 6+ million people they butchered. I also found it interesting that Pastor Gerecke would not commune the 11 men sentenced to hang unless they met his standard of repentance and only 4 did.

I was telling my mother-in-law about the article and she told me about Sunday school lessons in her Lutheran church in the 1950’s where they laid out what Jesus said and gave the hypothetical situation of what would happen if the government told you to do something that countered what Jesus said. The fact that many of the most ruthless Nazi war criminals were Lutheran did not escape the minds of American Lutherans.

— 4 —

Flu shot. I got my flu shot this afternoon as did my mother-in-law and Jon. I thought I’d go to Walgreens because of the program I mentioned last week but I have to stay after for observation due to my egg allergy so it was easier to go to Target where my mother-in-law could stroll Daniel around. (Our local Walgreens is tiny.) (You also should go read Angie’s post on this.)

— 5 —

Library awesomeness. Ann-Marie blogged today on how getting an email from the library announcing your item is in is like getting a free gift. I totally agree. I’ve been checking the library site daily to see if Laura Childs’ new books are on there… and they are. Apparently, someone in cataloging jumped the gun and put them on. I had to call my local library and ask sweetly (because the website was refusing to let me put a hold on them) and they added me to the waiting list. Hopefully, I will be #1 on the list when they arrive!

— 6 —

ID bracelet. While Daniel can point out his name and address on paper, he still isn’t able to say them so I started looking into getting a special ID bracelet made for him a few weeks ago. After Googling a bit, I came upon the company Road ID and found exactly what I needed. The order confirmation and shipping emails were totally accurate and even included some interesting facts on California. We’ve had the bracelet for the last two weeks and Daniel hasn’t taken it off and lost it yet — something I think is great considering this kid’s penchant for stripping stuff like that off. I highly recommend Road ID and I have a feeling we’ll be working with them for a while every time we move.

— 7 —

Brett. I have received word that “Brett” is finally home in the States with his family. Woohoooo!!!! 2.5 years of serious prayers are answered.

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