A reflection on sin... and stinky potatoes

It's a smell that, when you've identified it once, you never forget.

Back when Lauren and I lived together in our single, working-gal days (for three years- longer than my son has been alive!), we once had a very unpleasant experience with our pantry.

For almost a week, we both kept smelling something that wasn't quite right in the pantry. Neither of us mentioned it to the other, privately thinking that the other one REALLY needed to learn not the throw away super-stinky things, and to take the trash out more regularly if one of us did throw something disgusting away. Each day, though, despite our clean trash can and fresh liners, the smell continued to grow and permeate the kitchen. Along with the smell came the fruit flies. After a few days, the fruit reached Egyptian-plague proportions. Individually, again, both Lauren and myself searched our own sections of the pantry to rule out the idea that either of us might be "responsible" for the smell and the pests.

Finally, when neither of us could stand the stench and bugs, we talked about it and went hunting together for the source. It turned out that Lauren had an old bag of potatoes in the very back of the bottom shelf, and these potatoes had almost completely liquified.

What? You've never seen liquified potatoes? Then you, my friend, have not lived. It's a sight-- and smell.

Fortified by the straight shots of vodka that I poured down her throat (to mask the smell completely AND to give her the courage to clean out the nasty mess), my brave roomie wiped and bleached and rinsed and bleached again. Soon the odor, flies, and muck was gone, and the pantry shelf was not only clean again, but it was even more pristine than before. It inspired us to wipe down the other shelves so that they, too, sparkled.

So, Lisa, what does this have to do with sin?

All too often, we know something is not right in our lives and we feel weighed down by the burden of sin, but we ignore it, or only take a cursory glance at the interior of ourselves. However, like the rotting potatoes, sin can overwhelm all that is good and pleasant in our lives. We need a way to identify sin in our lives, and sometimes we need someone else to help us see patterns that start us on the path toward sin. The more regularly we go to Confession, the better able we are to recognize the "stink" sin is creating in our life, especially if the priest helps us to see how to recognize the early signs of the sin starting, or the small steps away from God that lead to larger sins. Had Lauren or I noticed that the potatoes were starting to head south, we could have avoided the liquefaction, smell, and bugs. It's not enough to just throw the potatoes in our trash-- we need to bag them up, say sayonara to them when the trash man comes to take them away from the sanctity of our home, and scrub out the interior.

After coming home from my ACTS retreat this month, I opened the pantry and noticed a smell, despite the fact that I knew M had just taken out the trash. On the retreat I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Confession. Plus, without a cell phone for four days and around only women for that time, I was rested, soothed, and anxious to get back to my vocation as mother and wife without delay-- no more being lazy! I pulled out the bag of potatoes and examined each one as carefully as I had examined my conscience prior to Confession.

Hmm... nothing wrong at all with the potatoes.    

However, I was positive that I'd smelled that exact same stench before, and I wasn't going to let it take away from the order I wanted to create and maintain within my home. I pulled out almost everything from the pantry until, lo and behold, I came across a sweet potato that had soured. I knew it! I double-bagged it, scrubbed the pantry shelf, rounded up all the other trash in the house, and took the now-full trash bag to the garbage can outside. I refused to allow that foul odor remain in my home even one minute longer, ruining the smells of afternoon fall baking and morning cups of espresso.

Several months ago, I commented on Little Catholic Bubble about how a priest once explained sin to me, during the sacrament of Confession:

Imagine that you are a house. You were perfectly built, with strong foundations and walls. Each time that you sin, even secretly and known only to you and God, you add filth and decay to your home. At first, the effect is not pronounced or obvious to anyone else. But, over time, the foundation of the home begins to weaken and it can no longer support the walls. Your relationships with others suffer because you are so preoccupied with preserving your own "home" and hiding the decay from others. Confession serves as a Divine housecleaning service and gives you the tools to repair your foundation and put your home back in order. It also gives you incentive to keep it neat and tidy. Just like a good Spring cleaning, you WANT to keep the house clean (not sin... that's our analogy, remember) when it's so sparkling and pristine again. You've got the Ultimate Carpenter helping you every step of the way, because you've invited him back into your home to help you make things right.

 From 2002, at my parents' home. Lauren and I have been friends since 1996! 

*I recently put all of my photos up on a shelf and can't reach them very well, so I went with the first one I came across of just the two of us that I had digitized.

Best (free!) gift you can give a new mom

Call me. Anytime.

The caveat is that you HAVE to mean it. I'm talking 100%, I-don't-care-if-you-call-at-3:24-a.m.-and-I-was-up-with-a-sick-toddler-last-night, totally-sincere kind of meaning it.

The most wonderful thing anyone ever told me as a new mom came from my friend, J. We were fellow Girl Scout camp counselors and were bridesmaids in each other's weddings. Most special for me is that I was her Confirmation sponsor when she became Catholic!  After I had C, J told me...

CALL ME. Any time of day or night, if you're happy, sad, or scared or just need to talk, CALL ME. If you feel alone or need to talk about babies or anything but babies, CALL ME.

J's second son is just 1 month older than my daughter, so we were frequently nursing our children at night at the same time. I made the late-night call a couple of times, but just knowing that I COULD make the call made all the difference.

When Lauren adopted her sweet little girl, I told her the same thing that J had told me when I had my first child. Since I was up at night, off-and-on, nursing H (and e-mailing quick little notes back and forth with Leila-- hi, Leila!), I knew that no matter what time Lauren called, it was unlikely that I would be in a deep sleep. This free "gift" completely paid off when she called me late one night.

In this economy, sometimes the best gift you can give is your time and attention. And even better, this gift can be "recycled" and passed to someone else next!

Getting crafty: Baby gift

I wasn't able to attend the baptism of one of my best friend's (Hi, Lauren!) daughter (Hi, Abigail!), but wanted to give her a special, meaningful gift. Lauren is my daughter's Godmother, and I wanted my gift to Abigail to reflect how highly I regard that special relationship. Additionally, I wanted to commemorate the fact that Abigail is, forever and ever, in the eyes of God AND the law, Lauren and J's daughter.

I knew that I wanted to make something that would be very personal, and I started thinking about the different kinds of things I could do with photos. I thought about making a photo mobile for her crib, but she's too old for that now-- too dangerous past around 5 months. Then, I thought about making a photo album, but thought that Lauren and her husband might want to do that sort of thing. Finally, I decided that I wanted to make something that she could play with everyday, and see the people who love her so much.

I thought about decoupaging wooden blocks with family members' photos, but I wasn't 100% sold on the idea. Finally, I decided to make some sort of puzzle, and started looking at the shape-puzzle templates online. When I searched for a Melissa and Doug shape puzzle (I heart Melissa and Doug products!), I came across a website that had nearly the exact project I was imagining, with all of the steps included! (Update: I just fixed the broken link-- sorry!)

Here's MY take on the project!

 

I bought the above puzzle from ChristianBook.com. Not only did they have the best price, but it happened to be on sale for a tiny bit more, and I got free shipping because I had some other (sale!) items that I had already wanted to purchase.

 I glued and then decoupaged the shapes with 5 different patterns of coordinating scrapbooking paper. I thought about painting the rest of the puzzle (white? green? pink?) or writing a message on it (I ended up doing that on the back), but decided to make it really girly and cover it with the paisley paper.

On the back, I wrote the verse that Lauren and J chose for Abigail (my daughter "helpfully" bumped my arm when I was writing. Agh! I had to remind myself that Abigail won't notice and even if she did, she wouldn't care). :-)  The "Look at how many people love you!" was the theme that I was aiming for with whatever project I ended up doing. The hearts were added as an afterthought, because the HUGE Melissa and Doug sticker left that side of the board sticky when I peeled it off. The "Isn't that amazing?" was for my daughter, who, whenever I tell her that God loves her even more than Mommy and Daddy do, says, "Wow! That's a-ma-zing!" Again, I decoupaged the back.
And yes, I edited the photo to remove our names.

What it will look like when Abigail plays with it! I included Godparents, both sides of grandparents, aunt and uncles, Lauren and J, and Baby Abigail in the middle. I traced the photos from the shapes, then cut them out, glued them over the pictures of the shapes (stop sign, bus, etc), and then covered the photos with the matte Mod Podge (what I used for the entire thing).

What I would do differently: I wish I had used an x-acto knife (by the way-- I always have spelled that "exacto" until I just looked it up. Who knew?) and cut on a self-healing cutting mat. I used scissors for the most part and wasn't able to get it as precisely cut as I would have liked. Getting the paper around the knobs was a pain, too. If I could go back in time, I might have purchased the puzzle with the wooden knobs and then tried to remove them and then add them back at the end. Using the Mod Podge on the paper for the "frame" of the puzzle was also challenging-- I don't know if it was the paper or the fact that the glue underneath wasn't completely dry, but the paper "smeared" a bit, in that some of the print came off. I would have let it dry completely before attempting to cover the top, because I think the bottom was still a bit wet, so it moved as I brushed over it, making the paper too fragile to work with just then. Finally, I think that if I did this again I would paint the back of the puzzle white. My paint pens ran a bit because of the wood grain, and that annoyed me at first.

Overall, I love it! Both of my kids played with it to "test it out," and it got 2 thumbs (4 thumbs?) up. And, even more importantly, Lauren and Abigail love it!

So... what do you think?? I can see this being a great baptism, adoption, or 1-year-old gift. You could include family or just 9 different photos of the baby! You could do pets or photos of the baby's favorite toys/foods/places. You could give it as a shower gift, with a sonogram photo in the middle, or an "insert baby photo here" note. So many possibilities. :-)

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 11), the "Where have I been?" edition

Sweet Leila wrote me an e-mail, asking where I've been lately. I thought I'd answer her e-mail with a blog post. :)

1. Having LOTS of overnight visitors. Mom came for around a week to escape downtown Fort Worth while the Steelers were in town for the Super Bowl. She accidentally took little H's carseat back home with her, so my dad drove it down the next day and spent a few nights with us. Then, my MIL came down to watch the kids while I took care of the next Quick Take item.

2. Preparing for and having a colonoscopy. This is the 3rd one I've had in the past 10 years, and the only one where I was convinced drinking the prep solution (MoviPrep, which I referred to as MoviHell) might kill me. I kept vomiting it up at 4:30 am, and my loving husband was comically (very sleepily, in his defense) unsympathetic about my plight, telling me to 1) chug it all down at once (impossible), 2) stop throwing up in the sink (also impossible... I couldn't move), and 3) either drink it or go back to bed. Truly, this isn't meant to disparage my hubby-- he's just missing that sympathetic-to-his-wife's-pain gene. For instance, he didn't believe I was going into labor with H, since I wanted to shower and put on make-up instead of screaming; he slept through most of my active labor contractions at the hospital; and I'm pretty convinced that he thought I exaggerated all of my pregnancy and birthing pains. Ha!

3. Realizing that my online time and time I spend maintaining relationships with online "friends" (I only put this in quotes because I don't know many-- most-- of the friends in real life) is giving me an excuse to avoid forming new and maintaining old real life relationships. It was becoming unhealthy, and I decided to step back, the way I did with Facebook around a year ago. I still read many of the blogs and pop in occasionally to comment, but even needed to stop posting as frequently on my own blog because I was too interested in how many comments I had and how many people were reading.

4. Tying into #3, I've been questioning (yet again) the information on the Internet concerning my family, that I've put out there on either Facebook or this blog. I thought the other day about how I'm so glad that Facebook didn't exist when I was in college, because there are plenty of photos I'm more than happy to forget. Then, I thought about how happy I am that my mom wasn't blogging/updating every moment of my life, especially with photos of every awkward moment of my youth. Even when people take down their blogs, some of the cached posts can be found. While I don't post photos of my kids on the blog, I occasionally do on Facebook. I'm starting to think that it's not necessarily my "right" to expose them in that way, when they have no option, and when the photos may follow them, potentially for the rest of their lives. What if C runs for President someday, or H wants to start his own company? :) I think they are the ones who should be able to write their own stories, with or without photos. Thoughts on this? And would you have minded if your mom (or dad) posted thousands of pics of you online and wrote about everything before you had a chance to tell your own story?

5. Getting crafty. I've been finishing the kitchen countertops and reorganizing the kitchen, recovering the dining room chairs and our bar stools, planning some sewing projects for the kids, picking fabric to make new pillow covers for the couch and loveseat, making Valentine wreaths, and planning my spring and summer flowers, herbs, fruits, and veggies.

This took less than 5 minutes while my son was napping. I "Love" it.

These are berries from a tree in our front yard (see header). I've since added more berries and moved the wreath to the front door in case any berries fell off and H ate some. Just call me Mom of the Year.

6. Fishin' for rattlesnakes out of an old cistern. I wish I was kidding about this, but the snakeskin currently residing in my freezer confirms my story. As does this photo, with my FIL, hubby, and BIL (left to right).

I won't even explain what's going on here. Feel free to form your own opinions.

7. Trying tons of new recipes. I lost my HUGE recipe folder (ok, technically the freezer bag that I stuck all of my original and modified recipes in before I transferred them to my official recipe book.  This means I'm missing around 250 recipes) and my Macbook crashed (again), so I lost all of my bookmarks for online recipes that I like. I've decided to use this as a positive time to try new things and remodify recipes that I've made before from online recipes. I also realized that if I'd updated my cooking blog, I'd have a record of everything. Sigh. I've also been having fun with my Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book. I made a delicious boule this week and then used more of the same dough to make sticky buns for M last night, since he had a big morning today at work.

Homeschooling Discernment Series: Words of encouragement

It's been a while since I posted about homeschooling here (though I have some GREAT new ideas and thoughts thanks to visiting with a local homeschool family recently), but I wanted to post some encouraging words I received from one of my dearest friends. She and I worked together at a Girl Scout camp for a few years after high school and she was one of my bridesmaids-- and I was her Confirmation sponsor when she became Catholic!

She sent me an e-mail (confessing her lack of commenting-- for shame!) that gave me a lot of encouragement about thinking of homeschooling just one day and year at a time.

Okay, so I read your blog all the time and LOVE it, but am way to shy to comment it on it (I know, what kind of friend am I?).  So, I just had to give you my two cents from a working mom on homeschooling.  Hands down I think you should do it.  If for no other reason then because if you don't you will always wonder.  While you're working, you'll wish you were home with your kids (partly grass is greener syndrome).  Anytime something "bad" happened in school you will think to yourself "If only I homeschooled..."  and you will always wonder if you made the right decision. HOWEVER, if you homeschool and you love it and it's wonderful then great!  You made the right decision.  If you homeschool and it doesn't work out, no harm done, at least you know.  But take it from me, the thought will always be in the back of your mind and you'll always wonder "what if..."

Also, you are spot on.  The decision is not permanent.  I know a parent who homeschooled her kids until one son was in third grade and then enrolled him in public school when he was having trouble with his reading.  I also know another family (who has 8 kids) and the mom switches back and forth between homeschooling and public school and all of the kids are very well adjusted! They're all great kids!

So, not that you asked for it, but I just had to tell you I think you should go for it!

Thanks, friend! Such great advice and thoughts... I love you!

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 9)

1. This will likely get a post unto itself at some point, but if you smell dog mess, even if you can't see it, NEVER assume that it's a dog toot. You WILL step in it. With BOTH feet. On the 100% wool authentic ORIENTAL RUG.

2. I'm always surprised by the anti-Catholic hatred that is spewed around the time of papal visits. In this case, our Pope is in the UK now. Their newspaper comment sections are filled with absolute disgust for this man, and for our faith in general. I honestly can't comprehend the hatred of the Church and one of her servants.

3. My brother-in-law just clued us in to Arrested Development, which we're able to watch on our streaming Netflix. It's soooo funny! It's been a nice kids-are-in-bed-and-we-can-snuggle show to watch. Since it only lasts about 22 minutes, we can watch one or two easily without staying up too late.

4. This probably should have been #1, but... LAUREN AND HER HUSBAND HAVE A BABY! Welcome, Abigail Chiara! We all love you, precious girl! Please continue to pray for this new family and the birth family.

5. Cloth diapering has, thus far, gone pretty well. H was soaking last night, though, at a 1 am feeding. I'm not sure what happened. The thing I have to remind myself when I get discouraged by leaks, is that they used to happen with disposable diapers, too. They've rarely happened with cloth diapers at night when I have a hemp insert in there with the regular insert, though, so I really have no idea what went wrong... it didn't even seem very soaked in the diaper itself! Maybe I didn't do a good job adjusting it just right???

6. While I would rather have been outside with my family under more pleasant circumstances, I had a great time last night on the driveway, washing the Oriental rug (see #1). I pressure-washed the driveway and garage, laid the rug on the driveway, shampooed the rug with Woolite and rinsed it, then laid it on the clean garage floor to dry. M finished building the gate for our fence (he's so handy, that husband of mine! He built an entire fence himself for our huge yard... 2/3 of an acre!), C skipped up and down the driveway, and H sat in his highchair and ate. It was fun to all be outside together, even if it meant the kids were up later than I would have liked.

7. I foresee a busy, outdoor weekend as we try to restore order to our backyard after havoc wreaked by the torrential rain and the broken water main (oh yes... adding insult to injury) that re-flooded our backyard. On a happy note, my tomatoes are finally turning red, and I even have a few new (very small) green ones on the bush. I may have enough for all of us to eat 1 pizza. Drat those deer!

Homeschooling guest post TOMORROW!

I am very excited to have a homeschooling guest post tomorrow from my very dear friend, Lauren, from Magnify the Lord with Me. If you read either of our blogs with any regularity, you'll notice that we're constantly linking back and forth to each other. She thinks I'm funny and a great cook, and I think she's brilliantly gifted in all matters concerning faith and frugality. (And obviously we like each other for other reasons. I realize how one/two-dimensional that sounds...)

Lauren and I met in high school, at junior/senior prom. She was a grade behind me and we didn't know each other (though we found out later we'd actually taken a class together when she was in junior high and I was in high school!) before that. Anyway, her up-do started to become a down-do in the middle of prom, so I took her to the bathroom and re-pinned it all. That's all it took! We've been friends for nearly 15 years now. We attended the same university and then moved in together post-college when we both had teaching jobs in the same city. She taught at a Catholic elementary school and I taught English at a Catholic high school.

We went through a lot of changes over our three years of living together as we both dealt with difficulties in our personal lives. Seeing each other at darker moments allowed for even greater rejoicing when we both met our (then-future) husbands within six months of each other. We got to share in each other's wedding planning and then we got married two weeks apart! Since we've been married, we haven't lived in the same city and have only seen each other five times or so. She's my daughter's Godmother, and I can't picture anyone more perfectly crafted to hold my daughter's soul in her hands.

Lauren married a great man whose own personality provides balance to hers. They are both very faithful Catholics and wonderful people who have looked forward to starting a large family together. Unfortunately, they've had to struggle with infertility and tangled adoption processes (you can read about this on her blog-- Lauren's done a great job of chronicling their journey). But...

In just a few more DAYS they are hoping to adopt their first child, a precious little boy! So, even more than ever, the homeschooling issue is becoming a complete reality for them. Be sure to come back tomorrow and read Lauren's post-- it's GREAT!

Also, if you haven't already, be sure to "follow" Lauren's blog and my own. And we both LOVE comments! I always say that sometimes I feel no one is reading this (except Lauren, my most faithful commenter) and then I hear from real-life friends and blog friends and realize people are out there. So, follow and comment! Give me a reason to put my English degrees and creative writing classes to use!

You'll be hearing more from Lauren in future guest posts about the homeschooling curriculum she's planning to use, and any other topic on which I can get her to post! Also, I think I may have to write later about some of our funny moments from living together. We had quite the time together! (See other real-life friends... if you comment on my blog I write nice things about you...) :-)

Blogging confessions, part 2: "Blenvy" is dangerous

Blenvy (n.)-- 1) A feeling of discontent or longing that is aroused after reading someone else's blog.
2) The desire to live another's blog-life, to have her readership, to take pictures like her, etc.
3) The overwhelming desire to redesign one's own blog after seeing another's blog.
(Derivatives) Blenvious.

I coined this word (fun SAT word... neologism. It means a newly-coined word. Thank you for your patience. The English teacher will now sit down) back in 2006 when I first started reading friends' blogs. A quick Google search today revealed that some other people are using it, too, though. I'm going to pretend that I was the first person to think of it/use it in context/use it in conversation. I feel like Shakespeare now.

Pardon me while I adjust my frilly collar.

The thing about blogging is that while there is a presumption of honesty associated with it, it can be whitewashed to either present the blogger in a better light or to avoid the unpleasant truth. I think we're all a bit guilty of this. I have to laugh sometimes when I'm reading a real-life friend's blog and see either a dramatically revised history or complete omission of truth.

I can picture all of my friend's wondering... is Lisa talking about ME here? Don't worry guys. I'm not going to call out anyone publicly, lest I've misrepresented myself on here! Plus, I'm certainly not writing this maliciously (I happen to like my friends!), but rather to muse on this phenomenon of only seeing what the blogger chooses to present.

Knowing what I do know, though, about the actual facts that have been amended or omitted makes me realize that there's no point in feeling blenvious about the lives of those I only know from their blogs.

The woman with the hilariously witty commentary might use biting words with her husband and children. The woman with the fabulous photos might not make her husband's breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday, instead telling him to buy it himself. The woman whose spiritual life I admire so much might presently have her own demons to battle and a past she'd rather forget. The woman with the perfectly organized and decorated house might be having marital issues or health problems.

Or maybe she just does like I do and cleans the one spot she's using as a background in her picture...

Wishing for someone else's life is futile, because 1) it just ain't gonna happen and 2) there's a good chance that one's own life is just as exciting and wonderful as other people's real lives. So, in a note to myself as much as everyone else, stop being blenvious, kiss your family extra today, and enjoy the wonderful gifts and life you have!

This has been a message from your local Public Blogcasting Station

Blogging confessions, part 1: Art imitates life

I've been thinking... again... way too much.

But there's an interesting phenomenon occurring in my blogging-life that is perfectly echoed in my real-life.

I have no group.

It's been like this my entire life, and I don't know what it says about me that I can be a part of a group, but still very much apart from the group.

I went to a small Catholic school from kindergarten until the eighth grade, and I could hang out individually with almost any of the girls (and most of the guys), give or take a handful that I thought were mean.  When we went on to the Catholic high school, many of the girls from my junior high stuck together in a clique. I still hung out individually with them, but wasn't part of that group.

During this same time I played fast-pitch softball with a local team and was popular on the team, but given how they went to local public schools and I was in Catholic school, I was never a part of their group really.

I had two very close friends in high school with whom I was part of "LL and Cool J," based on our initials. Even then, though, each of them had their own groups of which they were really a part.

I was a cheerleader, in the Honor Society, in Girl Scouts (oh yes... even as a freshmen I had every senior on campus buying cookies from me come Spring! No way was I embarrassed, when every Varsity football player was scribbling down his number and cookie order), involved with Church, on Student Council... and yet I always wondered what it was that made me always feel like I was on the periphery of every group. I was eagerly welcomed in to pretty much any group I wanted, but never felt like a card-carrying member.

Even in college, in my sorority, I had a few very close friends, but once again they typically belonged to other groups. On the sorority Executive Council, five of the eight of us still hang out regularly... I was one of the other three. The same with the Catholic church organizations, orientation camps at which I was a counselor, freshman leadership groups, honor groups, etc... I watched as seemingly everyone else made circles of friends, while I felt like I was a Venn Diagram, intersecting the circles but not being a circle myself.

 (I'm the green "sustainability" intersection. Thank you to the University of Hawaii for having one of the first Venn Diagram images that I found on the web)

As a consultant for my sorority, I was forced to be on the periphery by the nature of my job. After that year, I taught high school and had friends, but still not a "group." If you look at the bridesmaids in my wedding, while they are all friendly to each other and very comfortable hanging out together, they're still "friends through Lisa" in that I'm not sure if they even have each others' phone numbers.

I've seen a huge number of my friends go on to join churches where they became a part of a marriage group that has lasted for 5+ years, or Moms groups that developed out of their churches that meet-up and even celebrate their childrens' birthdays together.

And now, to add insult to injury, I find the same thing occurring in the blogosphere! When I read the blog rolls of many real-life (RL) friends, I see the blogs of their RL friends, with whom I know they get together in large groups. Some friends from our church in the town in which we used to live have regular Bunko nights, and I see their names on the blogrolls and pictures of their weekly/bi-monthly/monthly get-togethers. It's interesting-- even though I have (had?) PCOS and took a while getting pregnant a second time, I don't feel like I can fit into the "Catholic IF" circle because I had no problem conceiving my first child.

Do I need a hobby? To start an Ulcerative Colitis group? Start an anti-Prednisone group? Find other stay-at-home-moms who are battling scorpions and potty training, hopefully with success in both areas?

Get off the Internet completely so I don't have to think about this?

Does anyone else feel this way?

(Crickets)

Maybe this is just me. Independent. Easily blending but never fully belonging. Not minding (much) being alone, even in a huge group.

I should have been a spy.

On my bookshelf

I am a self-confessed bibliophile (this is not something you need to report me for to Child Protective Services... it just means I LOVE books!). My former roommate, Lauren, tells this story about me:

(Using Lauren's words here...)

"Lisa would walk into the living room in the morning and ask me what I was reading. I'd tell her and we'd talk about it for a minute and then she'd go on with her day. Around lunchtime she'd come through again and ask what I was reading. I'd tell her the same thing I'd said a few hours prior.

Oh, she'd say, You're still reading the same book?"

Now, I don't know if that exact conversation really ever took place, but she always tells it just about like that. The thing is, I DO love to read (heck, English was one of my majors and I taught high school English for several years, and even taught a University English class!), but I rarely get to do it anymore. For the past few years, especially since having children, my reading has been limited primarily to parenting/children's health books (Hello, Caring for Your Baby and Young Child, 5th Edition: Birth to Age 5, I'm talking about YOU, my love!), marriage books, spiritual reading, and The Economist (ahhhh... I love me some Economist! And their punctuation... sigh. I can't get enough.). Granted, when I was nursing C every two hours right after we moved, I read all of M's Hardy Boys books from his childhood and all of my Jane Austen (and Janet Evanovich!) books, but besides those and a smattering of other books here and there, I've been rather book-free for a while.

However, the last month has brought some wonderful books into my life, books that made me think and laugh and think some more. Books that I wished weren't just library books, so I could make notes in their margins, and pick them up again on rainy days when the kids were napping.

1) Same Kind of Different as Me- It's set in Fort Worth (hometown shout-out!) and opened my eyes to a new world in what I'd always considered a very familiar world. Plus, one of the doctor's mentioned in the book was at my wedding, and another doctor in the book was my gastroenterologist! It's such a moving story and I'm still trying to process what I read and figure out how to incorporate the lessons I learned into my own life.

2) Animal, Vegetable, Miracle- LOVED this book. I read just a chapter a night, so it took me forever (forever for me means about 2 weeks). I'm thinking I may need to buy my own copy so I can reread and ponder and reread and do something about my ponderings. The book is nonfiction (like Same Kind of Different as Me) and chronicles a year in the life of Barbara Kingsolver's (Bean Trees, The Poisonwood Bible) family as they tried to eat locally by growing their own veggies and fruits, raising chickens and turkeys, and buying (almost) solely local-grown foods. This idea had already been tumbling around in my brain for quite a while, given that we have access to lots of fresh, local veggies and fruits (and olive oil and wine and eggs and cheese! I live in a great part of the country!). The biggest sacrifice for me personally would be...

Can you guess?

Bananas. 

Oh, how my entire family adores you, you gorgeous golden-skinned fruit!

The book really has made me think a lot about the cost of my food, not really in terms of what I'm paying with cash, but what I'm forcing the world to pay: water/gasoline/harmful pesticides used to grow and/or transport. Kingsolver has a great example about the calories (energy) used to transport some food vs the calories (energy) I am getting from the food. In some cases it's just ridiculous in its lopsidedness. Kingsolver makes very valid points about eating seasonally, and points out that we accept the fact that bathing suits are not for the middle of winter, but we still want to eat strawberries (or other such summer fruits and veggies) out of season. I know I'm going on and on about this book (it should have gotten its own post!) but one more thing: Kingsolver comments on how various locales around the world have stopped growing things that grow best there and growing a variety of things (different types of grains or potatoes, etc) in favor of growing what the "rich countries" want, which is damaging on all fronts and is a poor use of resources. Ok, I'll get off this topic now. Read the book and report back. I'll be looking online for heirloom tomatoes now...

3) Reed of God- I've mentioned this before, but Lauren is leading a discussion of this book about Mary. I'm sticking carefully to the reading schedule (one section a week), so I'm getting to read each section about five times a week! It's an easy-to-read book and despite being written on the eve of WWII, it is completely relevant to today's world. We're only on the second section, and discuss it starting on Thursdays, so there is plenty of time to jump on in! For the record, this is NOT a library book, which is good because my fines for writing all over the book would be astronomical.

I also read The Memory Keeper's Daughter, but found myself skipping pages at times because I could already figure out where the book was going, and I wanted to get to the "good stuff." 

Ooh... hummingbird outside. Gotta get out with C and bird-watch now!

Tip for success: Surround yourself with brilliant people

I'm so proud of my good friend Julie from grad school-- she was published in the Burnside Writers Collective! Julie is the gorgeous blonde you see above. She wrote a great article about The Christian Scholar in Academia. If you click on the link you can read it. Julie is a great Christian, a brilliant writer, a wonderful English 104 instructor, and is oh-so-funny! M and I both just love her. And to prove that she's incredibly cool... Julie attended a conference last summer in Ireland and presented a paper she'd written. I told you she was great! (And single... I'm always looking to set her up with a great guy... so if you know any... call me)