If we were having coffee, I’d introduce you to Miss Isabella Heaton… formerly known as my Reece’s Rainbow Guardian Angel child, Kaia.
Isn’t she adorable?
If we were having coffee, I’d tell you about torquing a muscle in my neck while holding Daniel’s head still so his audiologist could take molds for hearing aids. I’ve been getting intimate with some Flexeril and Aleve (which I’m not supposed to have) ever since. It was for a good cause though — the bear child will have hearing aids in 3 weeks. God willing, it will help with him developing speech.
If we were having coffee, I would tell you about breaking my keyboard. My H key was sticking so I pried it up to see what was wrong… and broke part of it off. I need to go track my new one and see when it should be arriving…
If we were having coffee, I would tell you about the amazing visit I had with my family this weekend. Mom and I went to Whole Foods with Daniel, took him to the local nursery where I had him find me flowers and things that were certain colors, got lots of coffee at Peet’s, and had fun attempting to avoid the heat. My dad was also adorable with him. (He and Daniel just understand each other.)
Thanks for having coffee (or tea) with me. See you next week!
“Mom of the Year” material here. Just a word of advice: if your child has been terrified of car washes in the past, it’s not incredibly good to take him through one because “he might have gotten over his fear”. It’s sensory hell and in addition to your kid flipping out to the point that they puke, you’ll also have a headache from the screaming.
Fasting for peace. I’m not sure what I’ll be fasting from because I’ll be with my parents but I’m taking part. There’s also a beautiful prayer here. (HT: Fr. James Martin, S.J)
Al Franken delivers. A couple weeks ago, I posted about some harmless political fun. He offered to let people vote on what Minnesota State Fair food he would eat in a virtual postcard to supporters. The verdict: deep-fried pickles with chocolate sauce. To spare you having to surf to one of his donation pages, I’m embedding the video below. (The actual eating of the pickles is at 1:18.)
And no, I don’t live in Minnesota — I just like Al Franken. 🙂
Wow. When Jon went to pick Daniel up today, his teacher asked why we hadn’t told her that he knew all his capital letters. Ummm… because we didn’t know? It sounds like someone has been paying attention during Circle Time! Go Daniel!
Hot hot hot! It’s supposed to be in the triple digits this weekend. Seriously, I’m wishing it was December in Montana with sub-zero temperatures. I hate heat. At least when it’s that cold, you can put a ton of layers on. When it’s this hot, you can only take so much off.
A wine alternative. We have several winemakers in our parish (we’re a cow town in wine country) and Jon will sometimes be gifted wine by some of them. A couple of them know that I don’t drink so I was surprised when I got a call from the wife of one of the winemakers, telling me that she had something for me. The “something” turned out to be two bottles of really good sparkling cider because she didn’t feel it was fair that Jon always got wine and I never got anything. I was seriously touched by this but this person is incredibly conscientious about making sure that people feel included so I shouldn’t have been surprised.. She is one of the few people in the parish who is allowed to have my cell phone number and I keep a couple messages from her on there to listen to when I really need to hear that I’m loved. (She left a message the first night Daniel was in the hospital in January and I cried when I heard it because I totally needed to hear that she and her husband love us and were praying for us.)
Helping Jenn become a nun. I am blessed to have been a part of this.
A family (wishing to remain anonymous) offered to take over her student loans so that she could enter on August 28th. This is a huge sacrifice on their part and Jenn has asked that if people would like to make a gift toward paying them down, it would help them out tremendously. (She writes the BEST thank you emails too.) She has a blog here if you’d like to keep up with what is going on until her entrance on August 28th.
Send Liliana a birthday card. This kid kicked cancer’s butt and all she wants is a birthday card. She loves receiving mail and this would really make her happy. Details are here.
Brett still needs a mama. Iris finally has a family committed to her and they are in the homestudy stage. Kaia has met her family and they are in love with her!!! 🙂
It’s a girl! Some of you know that I used to be part of the ELCA so I was watching news of Churchwide Assembly with a cocked ear because we would be electing a new presiding bishop (the head of the ELCA). On the fifth ballot, Elizabeth Eaton, the bishop of Northeastern Ohio Synod was elected, beating out Mark Hanson (our current presiding bishop) and Jessica Crist (my former bishop from Montana).
I was never a fan of Mark Hanson for many reasons so I’m glad that he’ll be gone. My feelings about Jessica are mixed. Her assistant to the bishop threw us under the bus in Montana and there are some who feel that more could have been done for us. Thing is… Jessica always treated me like an actual person vs. “the wife of the pastor at _____________ Parish” and I appreciated that. The reason I would have been chill with her being elected bishop was that when she found out about me having Daniel, she hauled butt to the hospital (at 7 a.m.) and my first lucid memory after my night of trauma and c-section is her sitting by my bed, holding my hand and explaining to me that I had just had a baby. I don’t know that I will ever be able to express how much it helped to have her there, considering that it was during a period of 36-48 hours where my memories are hazy. That kind of pastoral care is rare. She also did a good job of talking to the congregations who wanted to leave over the sexuality decisions in 2009 despite the fact that they were really rude to her and pretty much just came to the meeting to find out the process to leave the ELCA.
Anyway, my friends who have served with Presiding Bishop-Elect Eaton are happy for her but are really sad to lose her because she was an awesome bishop for them. I think that speaks volumes about her fitness for the job — that her pastors are bummed to no longer have her as bishop. I also have Facebook friends who are talking about “the stained glass ceiling being broken” and I’m trying not to roll my eyes too much. It’s a church that is used to female bishops — Jessica Crist is the head of the Council of Bishops so you can’t tell me that there are no women in leadership. I mean, it’s cool that Presiding Bishop-Elect Eaton is the first female presiding bishop in the ELCA but it’s hardly surprising.
Cat-bribing. I’m down in southern California with my in-laws for Jon’s birthday and I have their cat Arthur in the guest room with me. Once he realized my mother-in-law wasn’t going to come sleep with him, he vanished under the bed. I grabbed a thing of cat treats and shook some onto the cat spread next to me. Guess which kitty is now next to me munching on cat treats? Yep… Mr. Mama’s Boy. I’m hoping he stays. He is a fabulous cuddler even if I did get a cat bite infection from him in January.
Praying Compline. It was suggested to me a time ago that praying one of the Offices daily would scratch a liturgical itch. I chose Compline because I can pretty much guarantee that I’ll have some quiet time after Jon puts Daniel to bed to sit and pray. It’s been a really good discipline because it gives me something that calms me at the end of the day and a time when I can really let loose and pray about the things on my heart. Seeing this article today just affirms what I’ve been feeling with this.
The story behind “Lord, I Need You” from Matt Maher. Why yes, I’m obsessed with this song. How can you tell? Anyway, the song reminded me of the hymn I Need Thee Every Hour. It turns out that I was right and there is a connection.
My yearly donor call from Planned Parenthood. I was talking with Thomas when the phone rang.
J: Jen C: Caller
*phone rings* J: Hello? C: Hi, my name is _________. I’m from _____________ and we’re calling on behalf of Planned Parenthood. J: Can I cut to the chase? I’m pro-life so I’m afraid I’m not the person you want to be asking for a donation. C: Thanks for letting me know that. You do realize that only 3% of what we do is abortions, right? J: Totally aware of that. I also know exactly which facilities perform abortions, which perform aftercare, and which just do clinical things. I’ve worked with kids for 10 years and considered that knowledge valuable. C: I’m glad you’re so informed. Anyway, I’m calling to ask if you can make a $150 donation today. J: I can’t. It’s not in the budget and it’s not a donation I could make without talking to my husband and I’m positive that he wouldn’t approve of it. C: *haggles with me a bit more on maybe making a smaller donation* Well, thank you for not hanging up on me and hearing me out. I also appreciate you being so polite. J: No problem. Have a nice night.
I’m not posting about this to glorify myself or paint myself as a virtuous person. I had someone actually ask me to post my transcript of the call.
Brett still needs a mama. Iris finally has a family committed to her and they are in the homestudy stage. Kaia has met her family and they are in love with her!!! 🙂
Prayer Request. The middle brother of a high school classmate passed away almost two weeks ago from a series of seizures. His memorial service and funeral Mass are on Friday and Saturday. I know Craig (my classmate) would really appreciate if you would keep him, his sister-in-law Krystine, his niece Nicole, his nephew Dante, and his parents in prayer because these next few days will be brutal.
Prerequisite baseball Quick Take. the Giants have won two games in a row to take their series with Philadelphia this week. They have been the cellar-dwelling team of the NL West lately so I’m hoping this starts an up trend.
Will all the Harry Potter fans please stand up? I saw this on the Internet today and loved it. I wish J.K. Rowling would write some books about the characters’ adult lives.
If you look over at my sidebar, you’ll see a beautiful little girl named Kaia. She is an orphan and her adoptive family just traveled to meet her for the first time. I didn’t know if I’d hear from her adoptive mom so I was really happy to get the following email today:
We met her yesterday & had our 2nd visit today. She is wonderful. She is so sweet & smart. Even after our second visit she started picking up on a few English words! She has a speech delay, so we may have to get some therapy for that. The level of Hep C has become lower in the past couple of years. She already considers our son as her brother & has called us mama & papa a couple of times. We cannot wait to get her home!!!
Serious cuteness. When Jon was about to pull into the driveway this evening, Daniel rushed to the window to watch and started singing “da da da da da” to the tune of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. As Jon walked around the house to get the garbage cans to put out, Daniel followed him around the bank of windows and then rushed to the door when Jon started unlocking it. When Jon came in, Daniel took his hands and started bouncing. It was totally fun to watch.
Brett still needs a mama. Iris finally has a family committed to her. Kaia has a family committed to her who will be traveling to her country and will meet her tomorrow! Click on their names to see their Reece’s Rainbow pages.
I might be getting a little verklempt… Thank you to Beth Anne who shared this with me on Twitter. The ones involving cats are lovely but they’re all good and may cause a little water to leak out of your eyes.
Real life. So my chest cold *did* turn into bronchitis and by Sunday, I was sick enough that my parents were terrified of letting me drive home by myself. On Monday, I went to the clinic where my FNP wrote me a script for antibiotics and an inhaler as well as giving me the option of also having a Rocephen shot. I took her up on it (mostly because my life would suck immeasurably more if Daniel got this) and of course, the shot *would* have to be given in my rear end. (It’s probably good that I was too sick to reflect on this at the time because I think prudish me would have been blushing and hugely embarrassed as it was the male student nurse giving it.) I was also too tired and sick to think of curse words to say (the shot hurt like Hades) and was instead going through the Jesus prayer to try and keep myself calm. The injection site is still sore a few days later but the shot was a good thing — I turned a corner within 24 hours and am almost back to normal today.
Some good news. Thomas of Fuller Life (formerly known as “Strong Catholic”, “Identified Catholic”, and “Listening for the Shepherd”) has some BIG NEWS. He’s been a little vocal about it all week and I’ve been mocking him mercilessly so I figured I’d give him some link love as a way of making it up to him. I’m also under orders to pounce on his naysayers like a “mama lion” (or is it “friend lion”?) so please go give him some congrats and please don’t make me screw up my gel nails.
With Simcha on this one… Apparently, there has been some grumping in the Catholic blogosphere (where I hang out because there aren’t any Lutheran bloggers like me) about the confessionals at World Youth Day in Rio because they aren’t “pretty”. Simcha Fisher takes them to task and I’m with her on this one — yes, they aren’t as aesthetically pleasing as Gothic cathedral but seriously… THAT’S NOT THEIR PURPOSE!!! I’d personally rather see hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of young people having the opportunity to engage their faith and seek forgiveness for their sins than something that may be aesthetically-pleasing but not functional.
The topic for this week: if I were to win the lottery…
[+] I’d take the cash option. I’m with Becky on this one. It’s more money than I think I’d ever see in my life and I would be investing it so that the amount grows over time, especially if it was hundreds of millions.
[+] I would pay off all our debt and that of my parents and in-laws. Both sets of parents made a lot of sacrifices for my husband and I and it’s the least we could do to help them out. As for our debt, it would be nice to wipe the slate clean and not have a car payment, student loans, or credit card bills.
[+] I would set up a trust for Daniel. Best case, he will have something to help out when he gets older. Worst case, it would fund his care if something happened to Jon or me.
[+] I would re-train as a respiratory therapist. I actually do better when I am working because it gives me some structure and I’d love to be able to do something I love. Unfortunately, this means re-training so I’d like to be able to do so without having to figure out financial aid.
[+] I would give a huge chunk away. I would definitely tithe it but I’d also want to do things like build schools in third world countries, help to re-hire laid-off teachers in Sacramento, fund a preeclampsia study, fund autism research, and make a large number of Kiva loans. I’d also help out a bunch of families with their adoption expenses.
I don’t think I’ve ever bought a lottery ticket on my own but it’s nice to dream sometimes.
Now go see Becky and what everyone else would do if they won the lottery.
