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Showing posts from August, 2012

Rick McKinley Talks Good Sense; In Related News, It Gets Dark When the Sun Goes Down

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I just finished listening to the second sermon in Pastor (Dr.) Rick McKinley's latest sermon series, "Love. Sex. God"  Predictably, it is awesome.  But it's not awesome because it's predictable. His advie is counter-cultural, especially counter to the culture of Portland, Oregon.  Portland is a very "progressive" city and prides itself on its tolerance, its diversity of ways of living, and being weird.  Truly, there are bumper stickers that say "Keep Portland Weird."  But in Portland, what would REALLY be weird would be to be a person who believes in (and practices!) reserving sex only for the covenantal marriage of one man and one woman.  Such people would likely be seen as quaint (at best) and more likely as regressively puritanical and out of touch with reality. 
And here's his even WEIRDER idea: Christian parents are actually doing their children a disservice when they encourage them to put off early marriages.  To paraphrase Rick, i…
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Oh, Wuby...

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"OH WUBY!"
This refrain has been issuing forth from Ruby's lips often these days.  Of course she has heard me say it, and now she's saying it herself.  Usually it's when she's pitching a fit or doing something she knows she shouldn't be doing.
For instance:
*Taking off her eye patch.
*Getting out of bed at naptime/bedtime, turning on the light, and playing instead of sleeping.
*Rubbing yogurt all over her arms, face, and hair as if it is some kind of amazing anti-aging cream.
*Throwing herself down on the ground in a doctor's waiting room, store, parking lot, etc.  because she doesn't want to leave.
Just a few examples.  I suppose all this should be making me excited that work starts next week (at least, meetings start on Monday and kids come the following week).  But I'm not.  I know it will be fine when I'm there.  I'll enjoy my colleagues and the kids, as I always do.  But I'm not looking forward to being away from my kids, n…
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Torticollis, Scoliosis, Plagiocephaly, Oh My!

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My little Maxy-moo went to the pediatric physical therapist today.  Thank God, they had a location in Oregon City...his pediatrician was prognosticating that the only location that would take Max's insurance would be out in Gresham, and I wasn't looking forward to an hour commute each way.  Also I'm thanking God because they scheduled it on a day when Allen was off of work, so he was able to come with me and hear what the PT had to say.   Her name was Rachel, and she was very nice.  She did an evaluation of Max and determined right away that he did indeed have torticollis which was causing him to hold his head tilted and rotated.  As a result, he also has plagiocephaly (the fancy term for having flat spots on his head) and she wants him to wear a brace (you know, those funky helmet things that you sometimes see babies wearing) to help with that.  Thank God she's addressing it now, when he still has several months of prime head growing time, and the brace will encourag…
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Reflections on Weddings, Friendships, and Love Not Being What You Think

Don't you wish there was a Money Fairy?  She would generously (or perhaps even sassily) bestow cash upon deserving recipients for non-emergent but still pressing desires.  If there were a Money Fairy, and she had come to visit me a few months ago, I would have asked her for the requisite cash to attend two weddings this summer.
First, I would have hightailed it to Colleen Smith's wedding, which was on July 21st in Colorado.  Colleen was part of my circle of friends in high school.  Oh Colleen, how shall I describe thee?  Colleen is one of those girls who looks just as good in rock climbing gear as in a formal ballgown with elbow-length gloves (although she'd much prefer the climbing gear, thankyouverymuch!)
She was such a tomboy in 7th, 8th, and even 9th grade.  She hated wearing skirts, heels, and wouldn't be caught dead in makeup.  She was all legs, rather scrawny even, with braces and long hair kept in a ponytail or a bun.  She didn't give a rip about fashion …
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Book Review: Hometown Prophet

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I just finished reading Hometown Prophet by Jeff Fulmer, another book I received from Speakeasy.  It sat on the shelf for a while with all the busyness of my life, but the other day I saw it and realized, "Eeeek! I'm pretty sure I'm close to my 30 days deadline for this review," so I sat down and made a concerted effort with it.  It was a pretty quick read; the writing style is simple and straightforward.  
The protagonist is Peter Quill, a thirty something guy who has been something of a drifter (spiritually and materially) and settles back into his mother's house in Nashville and goes back to the church he attended with her when he was younger.  He also begins to have extremely vivid dreams which turn out to be (spoiler alert!) prophetic and all come true in some way.  At first, Peter is not too excited at first to discover that he is a prophet of God.  His prophecies make him very unpopular with the local Christian bigwigs.  As the blurb on the back says, &qu…
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Still awake...

I so should be sleeping right now.  Really, I should.  I didn't really get a nap today and have been waking up early lately.  Oh well.
Random thought for the night/wee hours of the morning:
There are way too many awesome names in the world and I can't possibly have as many children as names I like.  It would lead to a family of Duggar-esque proportions (and NO they would not all start with J.  What the HECK people?  Jinger?? Every time I see that, I think Jing-er, not Ginger).
True story: when I was about 8, I received two dolls for Christmas.  There was a boy and a girl.  I was promptly asked what I was going to name them.  I agonized over this for the better part of the day.  I had to pick just the right names, because I wanted them to be good.  But which ones?  I finally decided (and announced to my parents and grandparents) that I would not give them permanent names, but would instead rotate through as often as necessary so that they could always have a name I liked.
Wh…
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