Lame Update of the Week

I have finally kicked my cough, though once I finished some rush work on Sunday, I still was low on productivity. Somehow I was still in a fog this week, and Wednesday I was an emotional wreck. Finally yesterday I was able to make progress on my Young Life talk for Monday and some work. Really really need to work lots this next week before the cash flow issues get out of hand.

We got a gianormous TV this week. I mean really ridiculously big. Someone from church was looking to get rid of it and offered it to us. Does my husband ever turn down free electronics? Of course not. And when did he start moving out the old TV and messing with all the wires and receiver? Oh, on Tuesday, just as East Coast polls were closing. NOT COOL. I started getting twitchy watching static as Ohio was about to be called, but he got things plugged in in time for everything important. Waltino was here for a while helping with the TV, the eating of chili, and the exchanging of celebratory terrorist fist jabs (offered for Aaron's bemusement).

No word yet on Waltino's bid for write-in mayoral runner-up. Perhaps it's in a recount. We concede nothing.

Tomorrow our super TV will hopefully bring us the sight of the Lions' first win--though I have stopped holding my breath and almost stopped caring. Unbelievable, I know. Call it a case of "You have to laugh at yourself, because you'd cry your eyes out if you didn't."

Speaking of the Lions losing . . . my mom is coming out for Thanksgiving, only two and a half weeks away.

Meanwhile we are missing my cousin's wedding in Florida and the funeral of one of Aaron's aunts, in Michigan. Of course both families would like to have us present and we would love to go, but that's not remotely practical or possible at this time. The un-joys of living far away. We send our thoughts and prayers.

That's all the update I can muster right now--I should be working.

My Punkins

Too much going on to post anything else picture post...Anna with Daddy and her punkinbear!

Wordless Wednesday

Small Town Values

My girl America, stop can't you see
It's not the circumstances that determine who you're gonna be
But how you deal with these problems and pains that come your way

It's for you that I pray with hope for a brighter day
And so I say, your deliverance is coming

Don't stop believing, my girl America

Mat Kearney, "Girl America"

Get out and vote!

Saturday Bullet-in

Bullet point post!

• I am still sickish. This cough is just hanging around. Annoying to self and others.
• I got really behind on my work (what else is new?) and will need every hour I can squeeze out of this weekend. Thank goodness for Deadline Savings Time!
• We had something going on every night this week. Again. (Result: see above.)
• What I'd really like to do today is sit on the couch with roasted pumpkin seeds and watch about five hours of the TV shows we haven't had time to watch. (See above and above and above.)
• Homecoming festivities were grand. Anna wore her pumpkin vest and hat getup last night. Because she doesn't get enough comments about her cuteness already--riiiiiiight. She was terribly wiggly and tired by halftime, though, so we bailed out early.
  
• I have a billion pictures to go through so I can post some and yes, send to relatives. Hopefully soon.
  

Wordless Wednesday

Early and Often

I turned my ballot in today. Signed, sealed, delivered (after a slight delay...)!

I would have done it Friday but I messed up the envelopes. There is a security envelope and an outer envelope you sign; I put my ballot in the outer envelope thinking that one went in the security envelope, then realized that's all wrong and it's smaller. Yes, I'm a person who goes out and reminds other people to vote and can even tell them where to check on why they didn't get a ballot, but I'm too incompetent to fill out my own!

Fortunately it was no problem, thanks to our early/mail-in system. I just went in to city hall to see what I should do (answer: reseal outer envelope and sign to indicate I'm the one who taped it up), and because I turned in my ballot there instead of the drive-though drop box, I was able to obtain the coveted I Voted sticker! I am so easily bribed. Like a patriotic four-year-old.

This is why I am glad to see so many states allowing early voting this year. Already people are waiting three, six, eight, almost twelve hours to vote. And there have been some problems with machines and ballots. Can you imagine the chaos and lines in some of these places on November 4 if there had been no early voting? I am sure we'll see problems in some places, especially with the expected heavy turnout, but at least a lot of places have been able to work out the kinks before then without anyone losing their opportunity to vote.

So I heartily encourage you to take advantage of early voting or turn in your mail-in ballot early if you can. As my dad likes to say . . . vote early, vote often!*

P.S.: I celebrated with an elitist fair trade organic latte from my small-town mom-and-pop real American coffeeshop (I'm so confused). Oh yes I did.

* Technically my dad is a politician, since he holds elective office. But rest assured he is hardly the Mayor Daley of Allhomers Township!

Overheard in Youth Work

Smart aleck announcer 1: The quarterback takes a knee! And . . . she hands it off? Umm, I know it’s Powder Puff but I’m pretty sure that ends the play.

Smart aleck announcer 2: Actually, rule 34a of Powder Puff states that when the quarterback takes a knee, it’s an automatic turnover.

The girls dominated tonight. Seems like they always do.

This Week in Here

I'm feeling much better, thanks y'all. (Can I say y'all? I should move somewhere that will make me qualified to do so, because I'd like to.) I even made it out canvassing for several hours Saturday--another gorgeous day!--and ended up no worse for wear. Sunday Aaron preached a doozy of a sermon, if I do say so on his behalf, and we had Frontline with, again, at least 30 kids.

We had an announcement at church reminding everyone that they can bring food for the local food bank anytime, not just communion Sundays when we usually encourage it. Aaron also mentioned in his sermon, when talking giving each person dignity, about how we have kids who not only load up on snacks but also quietly ask leaders if they can take food home because they don't have food there. I don't mean they don't have Oreos--I mean they don't have peanut butter. Tuna. Canned beans. Anything to stave off the embarrassing indignity of your stomach growling for all to hear.

Sure enough, after Frontline one of the girls was weak and dizzy and actually fell down. She hadn't eaten. We made her have a couple crackers and juice and bagged up some canned food. Sigh.

(Of course she was flirting with a boy on the way out and swung the bag at him, I think, and it broke wide open--talk about indignity! Don't you miss being fifteen?)

Another busy week here. It's homecoming week, which is all kinds of crazy around here. Tonight is the girls' Powder Puff football game and our now annual Young Life tailgate party/crowd riling event. Aaron and Waltino will be doing their famed (and/or dreaded) John Madden impersonations from the booth, because after all, "Powder Puff is one of those 'once-in-a-lifetime' things that happens every year." Tomorrow is something involving boys called Meatball Volleyball; I'm not sure exactly how "saucy" they'll be but I already feel a little bit icky. But we'll go laugh at them too. Support your local fake sports!

Also, SmallPort residents, be sure to write in Waltino for mayor. Our goal is to get him enough votes that his name gets in the paper. Because what's more awesome than a guy that's not really running getting like 5 percent of the vote? And that really wouldn't take too many . . .

Welcome to Camp Wannahockaloogie

I have the sickies today. Started with a funny tickle in the throat--allergy/sinus drainage thing. By last night I was feeling hot and cold and blah, didn't sleep well, had a couple nasty coughs this morning.

I am actually feeling a bit better now, although I haven't achieved any real productivity yet. Maybe I will be able to keep my voice--sometimes I start to lose it with this kind of thing, and I need it for the busy days ahead, including canvassing, Frontline, and homecoming week festivities such as Powder Puff.

Time for some soup and then I really do need to get a lot of work done today.

Wordless Wednesday

Surviving Weekends; Alienating Babysitters?

That was a really long short full weekend. (Kind of like this post. Sorry. Everybody needs an editor and I'm too tired to be mine.)

Friday is normally Aaron's day off; he had to go in to work, and I went to church for a while to get some things ready for our big congregational workshop Saturday. (Then we had a really nice evening with friends, but that is beside the point because I'm trying to garner sympathy here, okay?)

Saturday I went to church at 8:00 a.m. (I know!) for our 9:00-2:00 meeting. I had to give the first part of the presentation, trying to act all smartypants with my PowerPoint and my statistics and my worksheets and my making the people hold up their fingers so they would remember what number group they're in (a very sophisticated business technique). We had a great turnout and everyone seemed pleased with the discussions, so I guess all went well--but that's just draining when you're largely responsible for making sure it does.

Rescued the babysitter, put Anna down for her nap, entered catatonic why-aren't-I-napping-too? state. Got Anna up and bundled us up for the youth group bonfire on the beach. We had about 25 people enjoying hot dogs, s'mores, football, and (in Anna's case) getting sand all over themselves. It was chilly at first but the wind actually died down and it was really nice to be out there. (Photos to come.)

I brought Anna home for a bath, and by the time Aaron got home she was running around like a crazy, diaper-clad Tazmanian devil: spinning, dancing, falling down, crawling back and forth under the dog, and doing her favorite cheerleading moves (the Irish Rumble). She was so hilarious! We just sat around laughing at her and shaking our heads at her insane antics.

Sunday we had church (again! in the morning, again!), then watched football, if that's still what you call it. Anna was a wicked combination of overtired and stubborn and didn't fall asleep until 4:00. I don't know what was up but after about an hour she woke up screaming . . . and pretty much didn't stop for an hour.

Aaron had to leave just after she got up and she FREAKED. OUT. and wouldn't settle down. She was in almost constant meltdown, falling apart at any little thing or no apparent thing. She didn't want to eat, wouldn't really let me eat, had no patience and a hundred demands. I had worried that the weekend would be too busy for her (babysitters and going places and teenagers--all beloved but exhausting) but wouldn't you know it? I couldn't skip Frontline because we would be splitting up the guys and girls and I had to be on the "panel" for the guys' discussion.

Somebodyerother's Law: The only time your child will need you to stay home will be the one time you cannot skip out on being somewhere else. Or to put it another way, if there is a function you must attend, your child will choose one hour before that function to FREAK OUT.

Now mind you I'm not mad at Anna for this. She clearly was overtired and needed some quiet time at home. I'm not sure if/how attachment factors into the clingyness and anxiety that seems to show up at such times but if us going off and doing things makes her feel insecure/needy, well, that's not her fault either.

So at 5:30 I called the lady from church who was going to watch Anna during Frontline and said I didn't know exactly what I was doing but didn't think I should take Anna to her house (where she's never been before). I thought maybe I'd go late and leave early and have somebody amuse Anna at church for as little time as possibly necessary. Now mind you we'd already had a little confusion and changing of plans that morning as to the evening's arrangements. So I felt like a real schmoe telling this lady who obviously now was all ready and excited to have Anna over that I wasn't going to bring her. But I really felt like if I took her to this new place and then left, there would be total meltdown that I would be paying for much longer than the hour and a half.

Anna did settle down by about 6:00 and I called back and said if you could come to church and watch her during the discussion part, that'd be great, and if not because you've written me off as a weirdo indecisive paranoid advantage-taking freak who can't understand the concept that you wanted to be at your house because it's not easy for you to get out and about, that's okay, I'll ask someone else who is there or whatever since this is really all my fault and problem anyway.

Okay, I didn't exactly get all that out. I don't know what I said but I hope it sounded somewhat humble and intelligible, and mostly I hope that she doesn't think it was about her or her house at all and will be willing to try again another night. It really wasn't--truly Anna was not in a good state and I didn't want her to think I was punishing her for it. But how do I explain the attachment issue connection when I'm not even sure if there is one? Objectively I think she was just tired but in my gut I think if I'd pushed it there maybe could have been some attachment implications. Or whatever you call her velcroed to my leg crying for three days. I don't know, maybe not, but I didn't want to put her (or me) through it.

People with attachment/adoption experience, what do you think? Am I fully or only partially nutters? I need some parental affirmation here!

Of course Anna was a bouncy little angel the whole time in the nursery, thus ensuring it seemed like she would have been fine anytime anywhere. Oh well.

The good news is that even though we had to be gone again Monday night, she had a grand time with the friend who came over and was good today despite being up late again.

The further exhausting and scary yet exciting news is that we had at least FIFTY-THREE high schoolers at our first Young Life Club on Monday, practically busting out the walls of the little clubhouse. May I remind you that this was the first club and there are only 225 kids in our high school--a fifth were there. And I'm pretty sure it was the rowdy fifth! Oh, lordy . . . what the heck are we going to do with them all?!

Whew. For some reason I'm tired. Thus I'm publishing this in its ridiculously long and wordy state. If you made it this far, you are now probably as tired as I am!

Donation Total!

Thank you to everyone who left a comment on my Blog Action Day donation challenge post! Many of you had great ideas for little things to do to help those struggling to provide enough food for their families and to support organizations around the world. I encourage you to check out the comments.

And the grand total? Your comments here and at the EOR blog (thanks for the cross-post!) "earned" a $30 donation from me split between Ethiopian Orphan Relief and our local voucher program. And even better, my mom and my friend Jem have each pledged to match my gift, so this simple, small exercise is making three times the difference! Not bad for something I threw out there on a whim. Way to pay it forward, friends!

Follow-up: World Food Day and "Please" Campaign

To follow up on yesterday's post: today is World Food Day as recognized by UNICEF. You can find information about the day and current food security challenges on their website.

I would also like to highlight efforts by Compassion International to addresses the strain the global food crisis is putting on families and communities where they work around the world. Having had the opportunity to visit the child we sponsor in Ethiopia, I can assure you that their work impacts not only the sponsored child but their family and community as well and that every penny you give is accounted for and used as directed. So if child sponsorship is not for you, Compassion is still an organization you can trust if you want to make a donation to their Global Food Crisis Fund. You can learn more at the website for their new initiative called Please.

Just another idea for you. Meanwhile, leave your comment on my last post to increase my poverty-fighting donation by tomorrow night!

Blog Action Day: My Poverty Action Donation Challenge

Today is Blog Action Day, and the 2008 theme is poverty. You can read some of the thousands of participating posts on the Blog Action Day website.

As you've probably been noticing recently, global poverty is one of the issues that tugs at my heart, and I try to be an advocate for fighting poverty through the work of charities, through actions in my community, through organizations working around the world, through pushing our leaders to make and keep promises on these issues, and by blabbing to you all on a regular basis about how the dots connect in my life and our common life in this common world.

Why my harping? Because 26,000+ children die from poverty-related causes every single day, and many people don't give a shit. What's worse, to paraphrase the venerable Tony Campolo, some of you care more about the fact that I just said shit than about those 26,000 children.

I truly believe that looking out for those with less is the right thing for us all to do (see: Golden Rule, interconnected global economies and environment, etc.) and, more specifically for those of us who call ourselves Christians, caring for the poor is the best way we can reflect what Jesus was about, do what he told us to do, and really understand the heart of God. Why else those 2,000 verses about the poor, more than any other subject?

I don't believe there's any one right way to fight poverty, though. You may feel a desire to help in a different way than I do, and that's a good thing, because different actions help in different ways. Child sponsorship can't get a government to forgive another government's crushing debts, but political advocacy can't let a little girl know she matters enough that someone remembers her birthday. Some people and groups take care of wounds that are gushing right now, while others try to find the source and stop it. We need it all.

What can you give?
Advocacy.
Charity.
Even just a bit of empathy.

Here's what I will give back today:

For every comment on this post, I will donate $1 to Ethiopian Orphan Relief or our local SLR voucher program (donations split 50/50 -- and I suppose I must set some limit!). For every comment sharing what you are doing or will do to fight poverty, I will donate $2.

Will you write a letter to your sponsored child? Email your state representative? Take some extra food to the food bank? Repeat this same challenge on your own blog? Get involved in something, let me know, and watch my gift grow! Game ends Friday at midnight PST. The real challenge never ends.

Come back soon to read the story of my Ethiopian schoolgirl friend. She says so much more than I ever could.


Links for further inspiration:

"Being Poor" by John Scalzi
"Working Poor Problem Getting Worse" (MSNBC)
The Girl Effect (start with this sweet video)
"I Repent" (Holy Experience blog)
Blog Action Day 2008

Wordless Wednesday: Multitasking

So This Is What the Weeks Look Like Now?

Yikes.

We are moving full tilt into insanity season around here. At least one of us has had something going on every night for ten days straight, and it's the same through next week with the exception of Friday. Young Life is starting up, Frontline is going strong, there's all kinds of school events, and these days we both have church meetings too. (Added bonus: Aaron's back is killing him.) I am trying to be organized by planning meals ahead so it can be something easy on busy nights, so I don't have to cut into my work time to get dinner ready, but I think we'd better get used to the kitchen looking like this:


Okay, clearly we're already used to this. But I do try to draw the line at cultivating mysterious fungi.

Anna was clingy and whiny and grumpy as all get-out today and I hope it's not because she's been with so many different sitters lately. I think she was tired and is getting another tooth. But Mamaaaaaa she says. Maaahahahahaaahmaaaa, noooooo, don't go to the bathroom without me, I'll diiiiiiiieeeeeeee.

It's really not her most charming mood.

Of course we took her with us for a YL meeting and she could not have been happier to run around and dance and play with everyone. You'd never know she'd been grumpy, unless you'd been in the van ten minutes earlier when she thought we weren't going to be joined in five seconds by Daaahaahaahdaaaaa.

What is this? Some sort of anxiety or missing us, or just a moody toddler?

I hope that if she's better rested tomorrow and I give her some extra attention if she needs it she'll be more mellow. Even extroverts need some quiet time. Or their mothers do, anyway!

Why I'm Doing What I'm Doing Tomorrow

We get a rinky-dink free mini-newspaper every week. These items made up the front page this week:

• Housing Crisis Pains Hippieville
• Dental Van to Offer Free Clinic
• Number of Homeless Youth Grows [on pace to be double last year's number]

And this sign has been on our church door for a couple weeks:


These vouchers, which several local churches give out, are for emergency help with gas, utilities, food, medical expenses. It has never been able to help everyone. Now there's nothing left to help anyone, until the next month. Too many people needing help. Too many problems.

This is a tough place to live in a lot of ways, for a lot of people. Fishing and logging are no longer major industries; the work that's left is very seasonal and service-oriented, which means it goes away in winter and when the economy suffers. My wise friend who knows the community and the medical/insurance world well observed, "This is the worst I've ever seen it," in terms of families struggling to find work, get insurance or medical care, to just make ends meet. And that was a couple months ago. All signs point to things getting worse before they get better.

Meanwhile I watch the news and read the blogs and follow the campaigns. I fret about our budget and the church's budget and whether this investment we made in our home still holds any equity and how we'll ever obtain health care if our situation changes and the kids taking home food the church has collected after youth group because their cupboards are bare. I feel alternately disgusted and inspired and alarmed by the things I hear and see and read. I'm sad, I'm upset, I'm hopeful, I'm determined.

And I'm not going to let that be the end of it.

I am going to do something.

Tomorrow I am going canvassing to register voters and talk to people about Barack Obama and other candidates. I've never done anything like this before. Never been involved in politics at any level beyond voting and a couple of local school or community issues meetings. But like I told the guy when I stopped by the Democratic office today, if I say this is so important, I have to do something. I need to harness and channel my angst and my obsession and my desperate hope into something productive. I need to know that if I'm disappointed, it's not because I didn't do anything. If my kids ask me someday what happened in 2008, I want to say: I did my part for what I thought was best.

I can't explain in this one blog post why this election feels so important to me--other than to point you back to the problems above and your own nightly news--or why I've chosen the candidates I have. And I'm not going to try, because right now I'm not asking you to think like me. I'm asking you to act on what you think.

I honestly want everyone I know to vote, no matter how they'll vote. Most people have an opinion on how things should be, but far too many Americans don't follow through on this fundamental way of expressing our views.

So let me practice my spiel on you:

• Are you registered to vote? Are you sure? If you've moved or haven't voted in a while, you should verify your registration before the deadline, just in case. Oregon's deadline is this Tuesday, October 14.
  
• Do you know where you stand on issues?
• Do you know where the candidates stand?
• Will you be sure to vote on (or by) November 4?

That's really all there is to it, this voting thing. But this democracy thing? That requires a bit more of us to work at its best. I'm looking forward to seeing it from another angle--to see what we'll observe in neighborhoods, what stories people may tell, what people are concerned about, who I'll get to know. I'm sure it'll be interesting, if nothing else.

Report to follow, film at 11.


Disclaimer: These thoughts are the sole property of the person who just happens to be the sole owner of this blog. They are not intended to be partisan (see section 6b, "vote for whoever you want") but if you feel they distract you from your sole goal of seeing how cute my baby is, feel free to pretend this post never happened. Those of you who would like to discuss this topic or others, feel free to leave a comment!

Twenty-One

Anna is 21 now. Months, that is, though it seems it will be years before we know it. One day a week or so ago we couldn't stop staring at her--has she grown inches and months in one day? Maybe it was what she was wearing or her hair ("six-five, with the afro six-nine..."), but she seemed oh so grown up all of a sudden.




Favorites at 21 months:

• Words: water (pronounced "dowww"), hi, hot, football
• Food: cheese, fruit, pizza
• Clothes: shoes, because they mean going somewhere; half-removed pajamas
  
• Activities: running, dancing/spinning, sitting on dog, looking at pictures of herself
• Sport: "Foobaaaaaall!" (raises arms in touchdown signal)
• Places: Beach, playground, Aaron's office or nursery at church
• Toys: balls, books, Magnadoodle, baby doll, coasters, slammable drawer, food
  
• People: Dadadadadada! (as he's called when he comes home), MAMA! (as I'm summoned downstairs to say goodnight), cheerleaders, teenagers, church ladies, and our friend the big rough redneck Dreamy Lumberjack (go figure)
• Mode of protest: Full body sprawl

She is working on words but seems to be more into motions/actions. For example, she'll strum on her stomach like playing the guitar when she sees one or a picture of one (or a violin) or to indicate where one is, like the front of church where Aaron plays. She can point to lots of body parts but not say them. She does a lot of very insistent pointing and patting and dragging you by the finger to indicate what she wants or where she wants you. I don't know if this means anything about her speech or learning style or not--is she a physical learner, perhaps? But she is slowly increasing her vocabulary too and certainly chatters frequently and sometimes incredibly loudly.

If she's upset she will do the toddler full body sprawl, spinning around if she's holding your hand and throwing herself onto the ground. This was charming when she tried it in the post office, but unfortunately for her didn't embarrass me.

Generally she's very good in public though. She will test us at home and if necessary gets a time-out in a chair in the corner. Recently she got about five in a row because when Aaron told her to put her books on the bookshelf (yes, she knows how) or she'd get another time out, she kept choosing the chair. Literally. She went back to it. Of course when he put her in it she realized that she wouldn't rather be there. She still tried ignoring him, though, so he kept at it. Quite an entertaining show they put on for me, really. SuperNanny would be proud of my man!

She is really into Winnie the Pooh and football. If she sees anything football related--game or commercial on TV, picture of football or helmet, football players on the back of the box of crackers--she says "Foobbaaaaaallll!" and raises her hands like the touchdown signal. She also knows how to push a small football behind her through her legs when I say "hut hut!" (I am training her for the oft-overlooked position of long snapper, since it is an important specialization with relatively low risk of injury, less glory but still plenty of cash to take care of her momma in her old age.)

She loves to go to the school playground and go on the slides, go for walks out behind our house, and help me pick eat the blackberries around our house.

Best of all, she loves hugs, cuddles, tickles, and us.

Is that a teenager scarfing down all our pizza?



Must be. She has the pouty face down.

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday Sad-Day

Knock knock!

Who's there?

Owen.

Owen who?

Owen sixteen! (0-16) The Lions stink!


Unfortunately, they also no longer know who to fire. Hmm.


UPDATE: Through the wonder of Google's 10th anniversary time machine, you can search the oldest websites Google has stored and find the Lions' website from 2001, when they celebrated not being the NFL's first-ever 0-16 team, having won their first game of the season in . . . December. Oh dear lord.

Ask and Ye Shall at Least Get Your Question On Record

I was almost proud of our Congress over the last week. They were told they had an emergency and given a crappy bill, and for once they did their job, going to work turning it into a better bill as fast as possible. They worked together like serious grownups—well, then they didn't, but I think that was just a lame cover-up. (Hey, I did say almost proud.)

The more important lesson is that making our wishes known makes a difference. Citizens went ballistic over the original bailout bill, thinking it was rewarding the crooks, and the House killed it. Citizens went nuts again this week after the market tanked, saying they need to do something, and they are getting it done.

Shaping our democracy is about so much more than November of every four years. Call your representatives, write letters, tell them why something is important to you, and they are likely to listen, especially if enough people do it. Whether it's because you convince them on the merits or they just want to do what their constituents want almost doesn't matter. Just make them get it done. Give them the political will by proving that it's our will.

This is what the ONE Campaign is all about. This is what Bread for the World is all about. This is what groups from Save Darfur to the one saving your local school help us do.

We didn't get a question about global poverty, hunger, genocide in Darfur, human rights and/or religious persecution, or the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the first debate. I understand that because the format did not allow for many questions (only 8) and some of them were diverted to the economy. But the next debate is a town hall format with questions from the audience and submitted over the Internet. If enough people demand that these questions are asked, they will be. Later we must demand that the answers are followed through on.

What would you ask if you had just one question?

Wordless Wednesday

Not the First One to Try It

Is this article about my husband?

"MySpace gives pastor ‘prophetic’ edge"

Pastor Alton, who cultivates a reputation as a computer illiterate techno-phobe, is actually an avid reader of MySpace pages, blogs and personal websites of the people in his congregation.
"I appear, shall we say, un-hip," he says. "Therein lies my advantage."
Though he publicly refers to the Worldwide Web as the "Worldwide Waste" and e-mail as "sin-mail," in his home office is a bank of computer screens with more than 170 bookmarked sites — personal web pages, blogs, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, Flickr and more. Each week Alton surfs the sites for hours to find evidence of questionable behavior by people in his church. He jots offenses down and incorporates them into his Sunday sermons.

Wait, no. My husband doesn't try to hide his geekery!


Source: Lark News. Always amusing. Always timely.

Meet Our New Babysitter

Yeah, I know. I can almost see her getting dumber. Or at least losing the ability to speak in first person. Elmo make baby talk annooooooooying!


But she just might be spending some time with this monster (heh) this week because I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO READ A CALENDAR. I thought I was going to be really busy with work and things this week. Then today I realized that I miscalculated a deadline and October starts this week and I'm INSANELY SWAMPED. I have a ton of work to do and Aaron and I both have youth and church meetings and events scattered all over the place. D'oh!

And yes, I know I said back in the happy easy theoretical pre-toddler theoretical parenting days that I wanted to keep her off TV until she turned two (as recommended). We made it to about 16 months, okay? Desperate times call for desperate measures. Besides, as a bonus, I'm picking up a few Spanish words. It's like going back to escuela.

But do they have a course in calendar reading comprehension?

Save the Economy, Save the World?

"It is extraordinary to me that you can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can't find $25 billion to save 25,000 children who die every day of preventable treatable disease and hunger."

—Bono, at the Clinton Global Initiative summit, 9/24/08

Another strange and scary week in the world. It's hard not to be at least a little nervous about our nation's finances and the value of our investments and homes. It's hard not to think that $700 billion is an INSANE amount of money.

But you know what? When something is important to you, you can always find the money.

It's interesting to observe what we choose to use our money (or our credit/debt, actually) for, especially when compared to what people think we are or say they would like us to use it for. If you ask Americans how much of the federal budget goes to foreign aid and development, most people think it is one of the largest spending areas. In reality, although the U.S. pledged in 1992 to give .7 percent of gross national income to development, in 2005 the actual amount was .16 percent. Those decimals are correct—less than one percent.

In 2000 the UN set out the Millennium Development Goals for reducing global extreme poverty by making achievable gains in education, clean water, child mortality, fighting disease, and health care for women and children in particular. The goals are specific, and more importantly, they are achievable. If the world's rich nations raised their development funding by just 1 percent, we could cut extreme poverty and hunger in half by 2015.

We haven't done it.

I went to a Bread for the World workshop on this about seven years ago, when 2015 seemed long off. Now we are halfway there and many of the gains that have been made are being erased by the global food crisis (sudden unavailability of and exponential rises in prices of staple foods) and other factors. Now with our economy requiring a massive infusion of (imaginary?) cash, what will happen to the will to invest beyond our borders?

I know the world is complicated. I know changing spending habits is hard (just ask my own checkbook). I know priorities can sound good in the abstract but get trampled by the tyranny of the urgent.

But I also know that millions of people are suffering, thousands are dying every single day, and we can do something about it—if we want to. Because when something is important to you, you can always find the money.

So in the midst of all the economic nervousness and financial pinching and political drama and excessive pondering thereof of which I am as guilty as anyone, I am trying to keep perspective. I am trying to remember that I am blessed to be able to send a small-to-me, huge-to-her birthday gift to a girl in Ethiopia, even if I feel like I should cling to every ten dollars I can. I am trying to remember that a few dollars more for junk foods I don't really need is nothing comparing to a doubling or tripling in price of the already meager staple foods some live on. Yes, it could still get really bad here. But we still have it really, really good.

And as America turns to the standard bearers of our major political parties for some confidence, some direction, some vision for the future of our country, I will be listening to what they say about our world and hoping for Just ONE Question on global poverty in our increasingly interconnected world. I hope they both say yes, we'll find the money, because that's important to us.

Although it's easy to forget, that's important to me.

Save the economy? Yes. Then, please, let's do what we can to save the world.

Detroit Rejoice!

This morning I got an email from my husband regarding a hot rumor. The subject line:

:-D :-D :-D I hope this is true!!!!

What could reduce my plentifully manly husband to the emoticonography of a 14-year-old girl?

The rumor, soon proved true, that in a glimmer of hope that in response to the cries and prayers and public displays of agony of many, Detroit Lions General (mis)Manager Matt "31-84" Millen has at long last been fired.

Hope is restored that the Curse of Bobby Layne may finally be coming to an end.

The season, however, probably remains lost. (See, I am finally learning to lower my expectations.) But we still feel a lot better!

Ahh, memories . . .


How'd all that work out?

Oh yeah. Joey got fired (again) today too. Mmm, irony.

Wordless Wednesday

On the Fifth Day There Was Silence

We girls had a good weekend without Aaron home; it went fast. I took Anna to the high school football game Friday night. We left in the third quarter when we were losing 40-0. Sadly, this was not the worst football we saw this weekend. Why do we torture ourselves with the Lions again? FIRE MILLEN. Twice on Sundays.

The biggest parenting development around here is that we seem to have found a nap time routine that is annoying but works. Eventually. And that's good enough for me.

Anna has always needed to be held to fall asleep for naps, although for quite some time she has put herself to sleep at night just fine. When she went down to one nap in the afternoon, usually by the time she got her milk snack, she'd fall asleep drinking it. But when she didn't, she'd need to be held/rocked until really asleep or she'd make sure she stayed awake all afternoon by standing up in her crib screaming.

Needless to say, this sound was not conducive to reading for comprehension. So because my work time is precious, I would always make sure she was asleep before putting her down. Sometimes Aaron wouldn't, and she'd scream bloody murder, and I'd want to drive my red pencil into my eardrums.

Lately she has not been falling asleep as easily, and I need her to learn to sleep on her own in the daytime too. She is just way too big and heavy for the holding and bouncing her while I'm standing up thing, plus we should get her off bottles of milk (she will tolerate a Nuby cup instead of bottle, but prefers this babyish routine with the bottle, and that's supposed to be gone by age 2). So I was looking for a time when I could afford to be thoroughly annoyed by prolonged crying sounds rather than needing every minute possible to work.

Thankfully, my husband is more stubborn than me—he let her cry a few times and it has started working. Sure, it takes 45 minutes to an hour of alternating between babbling and screeching . . . but eventually she falls asleep! In fact, here's a little live-blogging of today's nap timeline:

2:05 Left her in her room, sleepy. No noise on my way out.
2:11 Sounds of clunking against crib. "Mama!"
2:14 "Maaaaaamaaaaaa! Waaaaaaaa! Maaaamaaaaaa. Aaaaaaaaaaagh!"
2:23 Silence. Victory in record time?
2:24 Nope. "Waaaaaaaaaaa!" She realized she was almost asleep, God forbid.
2:32 Silence again. And this time it holds!

Thirty minutes is definitely a new record, so I hope it means that after five straight days she's getting the idea that it's not necessary or effective to holler for an hour a day.

Is it wrong that I feel no sympathy for this crying, just mild amusement? Hey, I respond with plenty of heart when it's real crying—this is really just manipulative noise. In fact she even started the manipulation in July, at my parents' house, when she realized that telling us when she had a wet diaper might get her out of her crib to be changed. But then right after Aaron changed her she pointed down there and said, "Stinky! Stinky!" again. Liar, liar, stinkypants on fire!

We're onto you, Stinkypants. And we're willing to trade an hour of annoying noise for two hours of nap. We're the parents. We will win. Our motto: Always Be Victorious!

We Just Arrrrrrrrre!

Why be everyone talkin' crazy this day?

Talk Like a Pirate Day it be!

Okay . . . but . . . why are all these pirates so grumpy?

WE JUST ARRRRRRRRRRE!


That is my favorite joke ever (because I'm a huge dork). However, my favorite presentation of a pirate joke ever was when my friend and I were riding in a full Sears Tower elevator and some guy shouted out, "How much did it cost the pirate to get his ears pierced? Buck-an-ear!" (Why are these pirates so random?)

As for this holiday, I appreciate it, but remember not to get carried away. In related news, I would like to take this opportunity to say in defense of the state of Oregon that this pirate family you saw on Wife Swap—blimey! We think they're nutters too.

Aye aye!

Getting Sit(ter)uated

Where have I been all my life? Oh yes, I have been chained to my computer again, until today, when I escaped to forage for groceries and things to wear with my new red corduroy jacket (which I adore despite my lack of a fashion clue what to do with it). Unfortunately during my many work hours I was easily distracted by shiny things like news! information! interviews! disasters! sudden plummet in office temperature! Sesame Street spoofing Monty Python! Lions fans wailing and cursing their quarterback and coach (why didn't we see that coming?)! Since my work was paid for the project, not the hours, well, I think I made minimum wage this week. Sheesh! (Going back to hourly this week—so I will actually stay focused. I'm distractable but I'm an honest biller!)

I'm kicking off this next round with three days of solo parenting, since Aaron is going to Young Life leadership camp with the other leaders and some kids. Boo hoo, I'd like to go, but Anna wouldn't be so easy to sneak in this year (as she was last year), and anyway, I need to be at a church workshop for our pastoral search committee. Yes, you can say it: SUCKER. But they needed as many people as possible and I like to think I can be kind of useful in the writing of reports (although last time there was a church self-analysis, ahem, didn't work out so well. We do not speak of it.).

All these things gearing up as we get into fall suddenly has my calendar full and my brain spinning with wondering how am I going to do it all? and who's going to watch the kid while I do? All the youth work obviously involves Aaron and me at the same time. Last year I took Anna along to Frontline, which worked semi-okay but won't work any more and limited my usefulness. I didn't do anything with Young Life except help with planning, but I want to try to get back into it.

That means activities that require me to get a babysitter Sunday nights, Monday nights, Wednesday nights if we start our small group study back up, and possibly whenever we decide to have our church meetings, if it's not a time when Aaron can be home. Not such a problem except that during those times all of the young people will be where we are, so I have to find, you know, real grownups.

And all that work I've been doing in the evenings? Most of it's going to have to get done during the day somehow, because if I'm not off somewhere, probably Aaron has a meeting or there's a school sports event that he/we should attend to connect with kids. But life's getting too freaking expensive, so I should really be upping my hours, not cutting them back.

I think I can hear what all of you who are smarter than me are saying: And just how do you think you're going to do all that?

I have no earthly idea.

Excuse me while I go burn my day planner in effigy.

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday: This Far

This far will you come but no more.
This far will you come but no more.
Who holds back the raging sea?
Who keeps trouble far from me?
This far will you come but no more.

"Should you not fear me?" declares the LORD.
"Should you not tremble in my presence?
I made the sand a boundary for the sea,
an everlasting barrier it cannot cross.
The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail;
they may roar, but they cannot cross it."

Jeremiah 5:22

Lyrics from The Innocence Mission, "I Was in the Air"

Friday Night Lights

We didn't stay through the whole game so I can't report the final score, but I can tell you that we were leading in turnovers turned over.

And that the senior class is raffling off two cords of wood.

And that I had a somewhat hard time not giggling at the patriotic leprechaun.

The Best Time for Summer Is Fall

I think this is my favorite time of year: end of summer, beginning of fall. The days are still warm but the evenings and mornings are beginning to bring the crisp smell of autumn. The morning sun is relaxing but the bustle of school days and fall sports is invigorating.

We have had warm, sunny weather over the last week, and since it's after Labor Day, we locals are reclaiming our beaches. Around here we consider the beach crowded if we see more than two people within a half mile of us when we go. I've taken Anna a few times a let her cover herself head to toe in sand, which she loves. She also loves wading into the water, even though it's 55 degrees. Why are children impervious to cold when near water? And what's so tasty about sand?



This morning I worked at a nice new coffeeshop/cafe down by the docks. Lots of people were crabbing off the docks and heading out fishing. That's fall. That's SmallPort. I love it all. (Except the guy who brought in fish smell with him. You, sir, are on notice.)

Tonight is the first home high school football game, one of our favorite things about small town life. The weather's great, we should see a lot of people we haven't seen much in a while, and hopefully Anna will have a great time. We just hope the Fightin' Irish do not require a name change to the Frightened Irish or perhaps Blighted Irish. They were a bit, uh, blocking avoidant and scoring challenged last year.

More shots from our beachside photo shoot!

Wordless Wednesday

Zen and the Art of Looking Things Up in the Chicago Manual of Style

I've been spending a lot of quality time with good ol' CMS 15 this week, feeling the zen of its glowing orange cover and rebuilding my love-hate relationship with section 7.90, Hyphenation Guide for Compounds, Combining Forms, and Prefixes for Those Who Care about Such Things.

I'll tell you a secret about being an editor: It's not about knowing how to spell and punctuate everything. It's about knowing when to look it up.

I didn't memorize the dictionary; I have multiple dictionaries on hand. That's because (1) I'm an editor, not a spelling bee champ, and (2) just when you think you know what one says, a publisher asks you to use a different one, and lo and behold, further confirmation that English is a ridiculously nonstandardized language. That's why editing will always be as much art as science and how a surprisingly right-brained and not-detail-obsessed person like me can (I like to think) still be pretty good at it.

Every time I work for a different publisher, I have to retrain my brain a little bit. Each has its own style guide, ideas about whether the dictionary or CMS should take precedence, and house-specific exceptions to CMS, not to mention that each project can have its own exceptions even to the house rules. The last week's rush project had me looking things up on all fronts—probably more than really necessary, but I get a little paranoid when working for someone I haven't worked with much; call it that old freelance insecurity again. But occasionally verifying what I think is right is good for me.

What I really need to work on is starting out strong with my projects. I apparently work better under pressure, but I'd be so much more productive if I could knock off the procrastination so I'm not under the gun by the time I get into The Zone—the kind of focus where I lose track of time as the pages fly by.

Unfortunately, access to The Zone is somewhat inhibited by the presence of The Child.

Another semi-rush project up next. Bring me The Zone and the zen!


How about you? Are you a procrastinator—recovering or proud? What helps you get in your Zone?

A Quick Post While I Continue to Avoid Other Things

My current state in bullet form:

• I am getting quite behind on my rush project.
• I should not be blogging.
• I should not be reading any part of the Internet.
• I should not be paying any attention to the 379 things in my Google Reader (probably including your blog posts I haven't commented on—sorry).
• I should not be going shopping with girlfriends tomorrow even though baby girl really needs pajamas her feet are not busting out of and I really need the sanity only girlfriend time can bring.

I am doing all these things.

I am sooooo mavericky like that.

Wordless Wednesday

We don’t need a mommy war. We’ve got real battles to fight.

I’ve stopped my involuntary crying, but now I have a new problem.

I can’t stop thinking about Sarah Palin.

I think that as a VP candidate, she’s a train wreck for oh so many reasons.

As a mother? I think she seems to love her family, I assume she has plenty of competency and resources to care for them, and beyond that, it’s none of my goshdarn business. But the blogosphere is filling up with questions and opinions about her family situation, her work/family balance, whether or not it’s sexist to question her work/family balance, and so on. Do you see where this is headed?

Yep. Too late. I saw those dreaded, inflammatory, useless words in a headline today: “Mommy War.”

Sigh.

Come on now. We all make compromises in life—to make ends meet, to advance our careers, to follow our passions, to live where we want to live, to deal with how one family member’s actions affect the others, to decide how to focus our time and energy. We have some nonnegotiables, and the rest is constant readjustment, looking for the balance.

In that, Sarah Palin is no different than Michelle Obama, or Joe Biden, or me. Or a million other women and men who are trying to walk the minefield without starting a “war.”

If you want to talk family and politics, let’s talk about all the women and men who whose work/family choices aren’t really choices.

Let’s talk about the parents who don’t have a spouse who can help support the family and how an American can work full time and still earn less than the federal poverty level.

Let’s talk about the women who go back to work right after they give birth not because they are ready but because they can’t afford not to or are afraid they’ll lose their position.

Let’s talk about the families with a child or adult who has a disability, chronic condition, or other preexisting condition that requires care denied by insurance—or who can’t even get insurance because no one will sell it to them due to their condition.

You want to talk about teen pregnancy? Instead of putting a microscope on one family, let’s talk about how even in the best-intentioned and most-attentive family, kids are being crushed by pressures and insecurities most adults have no idea about; let’s talk about how adolescents today are being systemically abandoned by a society that is so narcissistic and adult-centric that it leaves kids on their own to figure out how to become adults—then wonders why they try to grow up too soon yet get stuck in adolescence longer and longer before they really do. (For research and explanation read Hurt by Chap Clark.)

There are plenty of issues having to do with families and children and work and policies that we can and should talk about. These aren’t mommy wars; they’re issues for our whole society—because no one’s family lives in a vacuum. It’s not just how we each build our families; it’s how we want to shape our world.

If we spend all our scrutinizing each other’s choices, we won’t have enough energy left to work for the people who don’t have any choices. We’ll never get anything done except arguing.

I personally don’t think Sarah Palin is the right person to be nominated to be second in line for the one who sets the course for our country. But I don’t think arguing about how the course she is taking may affect her family is helpful for women or for the decisions our country has to make about policies and direction. A “mommy war” over Sarah Palin won’t end oil dependence, stop genocide, or educate kids for the global economy. If we let this time become a battle between women, we’ll never win the fight for our children’s futures.

We don’t need a mommy war. We’ve got real battles to fight.

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy...

Sometimes following the news is just too much. Or just too bizarre. What's happened over the last five days?

Nominations and speeches and rallies capturing us and surprising us and being scaled back.

Hurricanes and levees and the traditional reckless endangerment of weathermen.

All manner of revelations leaking out of Alaska.

All hell breaking loose in the Atlantic.


That's a lot for a holiday weekend.

But since like many a freelancer I am actually laboring today, for now my time crunch will spare you a blogging dump of my spinning mind. It's enough to say: Happy Labor Day, everyone. Stay safe, Gulf and Atlantic shore residents.