this is our gypsy camp

Tidbits: Catacombs & Cathedrals, Swim Lessons, Joel Osteen, 10 Gadgets, Photo Prompts

A little Engrish for your reading pleasure...

Yep. Three tidbits installments in a row. I'm definitely doing more consuming than producing on the Intraweb these days; Tidbits is my way of making up for that. I blame Numero Due, 100%. Well, and lack of caffeine. OK it might be 50/50. Also I've been busy and the weather has been beautiful. Looks like it's supposed to hold for this long weekend, as we go to another island to be beach bums; our group has rented out an entire hotel (sounds impressive, but there are about 10 of us).

• Catacomb Christianity and Cathedral Christianity - Russell Moore writes an interesting reflection on paradox in church history. "The kingdom of God is vast and tiny, universal and exclusive. Our story is that of a little flock and of an army awesome of banners*. It's a Christianity of persecution and proliferation, of catacombs and cathedrals."

• Swim lessons help minority children break cycle - "As [Wanda] Butts tried to make sense of her son's tragedy, she realized that she had passed her own inexperience to her son. Her father had witnessed a drowning when he was young and instilled in her a fear of drowning." The Josh Project (and others popping up like it) is a non-profit that provides low-cost swim lessons for kids, in an attempt to reduce drownings among populations that don't have affordable access to pools or lessons. Something like that would make a cool Eagle Scout project!

• Joel Osteen Worships Himself - I came across this on Rage Against the Minivan, and it so perfectly sums up my suspicions of him that I had to share here. (Despite its glaring misrepresentation of Puritans the first time it mentions them. Seriously. Read Valley of Vision, people.)

• 10 Gadgets You'd Be a Fool to Buy Right Now - For those of us not techy enough to hear these rumors in our social circles.

• In a Photography Rut? (Have kids?**) My friend Courtney has put out a 30-day creativity challenge with an idea for taking a picture of your kid every day. People always credit things like this for helping them move forward in leaps and bounds with their manual mode skills. (I wouldn't know--I've never stuck with one. Remember p52?) Looks like we're going to share the photos on Facebook starting June 1st. 

*Proof I'll never be Baptist: "Banners" just really don't get me that excited. (So rest easy, Mom ;-)

**Actually, this could be pretty amusing if you did it with cats or dogs.

Tidbits: Mother's Day recap: for the motherless, the childless, the afraid, and the hurting

I'm still at that stage in life where it seems a little ludicrous to be thanked and made much of for doing something I love intensely. I had a lovely day, thanks to my little family and chapel friends. I am so blessed in this area, although I have to say I am still travelling this pregnancy with cautious prayers--the gift of children can seem to good to be true sometimes. But this year I couldn't let go of the thought of those for whom the day is painful, and neither could the blogosphere. Here are some of my favorite reflections:

• Mother's Day for the motherless daughter - "You are your mother's daughter, created in your Father God's image. And nothing can break that."

• When I become a mother - another motherless daughter, thinking about the day she has a child

• Mother's Day for the Infertile - Russell D. Moore writes, "Regardless of how you do it, remember the infertile as the world around us celebrates motherhood. The Proverbs 31 woman deserves attention, but the 1 Samuel 1 woman does too."

• When Mother's Day hurts - "In recognition of the loss so many feel on Mother's Day, what if we reached out to another who carries that pain?" A mother who has lost a child suggests sponsoring a child who has lost a parent through an organization like World Vision (or, I'd suggest, Compassion, which always receives incredibly high financial accountability ratings).

And two bonus links for moms:

• The Habit of a Mother who Changes the World - Ever wonder where the mother goose gets the feathers to line the nest with (No? Well, have you now?) (Be warned--this blog contains the dreaded automatic music when you visit it.)

• Christ takes the preeminence, even in motherhood - A great reminder that motherhood is not the end-all and be-all of our existence.

Tidbits: Caramelized Onions, Reading, Pet Tip, HemLoft, Julia

• The lie of caramelized onions: It's a lie devious enough to bring about some strong language in this article, and to make me think (until I read this) that I'm just incapable of caramalizing onions. Well, here's the secret: it takes 10 times longer than recipes say it does.

• Why Christians should read literature (and even...::gasp::...fiction!). Why, oh why can't Russell Moore be the posterchild for contemporary American evangelicalism (whatever that means anymore)? I know some of you will get hung up on his comment about Fifty Shades of Gray, but please read on. It's worth it.

• Practical Pet Tip: Teach it to say your address.

• A very cool little building: The HemLoft 

• The Party of Julia:  A great analysis of that faceless cartoon woman lucky enough to have Obama's plan for her life inserting itself into every stage. (If you haven't seen the original, see it here. Prepare to be creeped out.)

 

Paddleboarding & Drinking: A Story in Pictures (With a Moral)

Hope you had a fun Cinco de Mayo. This guy obviously did. 

You might be pregnant... [1st trimester edition]

... if you've ever taken food out of your sleeping child's hand and eaten it.

...if you can smell last night's meal on the rim of the water bottle you were drinking from from 2 feet away.

...if you go around thinking to yourself, "That ain't no etch-a-sketch. This is one doodle that can't be undid, homeskillet," not because you don't want to be pregnant, but because that's the best description of it ever.

...if cheerios smell like peepee and peepee smells like...unimaginably awful.

...if the house smells just as nauseating(ly?) to you after the cleaning lady comes as it did before.

...if a hungry baby wakes you up at 6am every morning (no matter that said baby is chillin in your tummy).

...if when you're not sleeping, you're wishing you could be asleep, thinking about when you could sleep, or wondering why your body won't go to sleep.

...if food makes you sick, and no food makes you sicker.

...if you keep having to go to the doctor, but you're not sick (but wait, see previous entry).

...if this qualifies as a great picture of your kid:

(Obligatory adorable yet mysteriously dark and blobby picture of our 12-ish-week-old. Apparently the white stuff on his face is jawbone, which means that's a great profile shot...?  Ultrasound pictures don't come anywhere near doing justice to the experience of seeing that tiny being thrashing and kicking you, and hearing the heart beat so blindingly fast.)

Speaking of my kids, I got a little overexcited and decided to tell Eva that "Mommy has a baby in her belly!" when I picked her up from preschool. She stared blankly ahead for a second, then looked down at her belly, then proceded to have that reaction that women everywhere often do: "I don' havea baby inn my belly. My belly's bigger. I don' havea baby innerr?" Yeah, I don't think we have to worry about her "getting it" for a while yet.

Numero Due* is due (nyuck nyuck) November 2nd.

*Italian for 2, and also a good punny nickname, yes?

How To Take a Family Christmas Picture

I don't know if you'll think this is as funny as we did... (Well of course the first one's funny! My dad's a funny guy.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think I took so many pictures because the sun was dodging in and out of clouds, and I thought that if I made a zillion adjustments ahead of time the clouds would surely cooperate at the last minute (I thought wrong!) 

Tidbits: Child Memory, Eating the Apple, Pro Ultimate, Motherhood 101, New Reads

Here are a couple of Easter weekend pictures I forgot to share:

• I Remember Mama and Dada: What do small children remember? And why do memories stick into adulthood? (Answer: More than you think, and with parents' help.)

• Eating the Apple: Yeah, Challies already linked to this, but I'm doing it again. I've been particularly fed up with the technology rat race recently.

• Disc-y Business: Is America Ready for Professional Ultimate Frisbee?

• Motherhood 101: The First Year

And finally, two recently-discovered reads:

• Bugs on My Face - I am totally living vicariously through their motorcycle/sidecar trip through South America. Found through the ever-creative and adventurous Nola Ruth

• The Duffel Blog - Satirical military news, like: "Pentagon Study finds Beards Directly Related to Combat Effectiveness" (although their links to that story are currently broken :-(

Welcome, Happy Morning

I haven't had a whole lot of spare words recently, but thanks for stopping by today. Just wanted to share a couple of Easter pictures. Here's the sunrise service with the band playing:

Afterward we had breakfast and, of course, picture time.

Why, yes, that is the same dress as last year! But wait, I didn't post last year's picture, because...let's just say that I didn't pick my own outfit out the night before, like I should have. Kind of had a bag lady look going on.

 

 

Eva with her friend A. (We've been spending more time together and Eva now refers to this friend as "my A".)

A Baby Belly with a View

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to my beautiful cousin for letting me experiment on her!

 

Great East Japan Earthquake: One Year Later

A year ago today, the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami hit Japan. It was so huge it moved the earth on its axis. We were out exploring Okinawa (and had no idea what had happened), and I took this picture, which is what pops into my head every time I remember that day: 

 

 

Amidst all the sadness, we were blessed to be able to take in our very own refugee (an old friend of mine who is part of the JET program on the mainland), who put up admirably with our chaotic lives while she stayed with us. We hope to go up to Miyagi Prefecture and visit Awa some time this spring.

• Pictures from a year ago by Lee Basford

• One Year Later: Japan's Wreckage and Recovery 

• Japan's Tsunami: Then & Now 

• Before & Now pictures by James Reynolds 

• The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom (a documentary)

• A year on, no tsunami-hit community has clear plan to move to high ground

• Real-time online tsunami feed starts

• Cherry trees planted as tsunami caution for future generations

• Op-Ed Contributed to the Washington Post by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda "A Year After the Earthquake, Building a New Japan"

• Statement by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta on One Year Anniversary of Great East Japan Earthquake 

• BBC Documentary: Japan's Children of the Tsunami: