Seriously? You Call This Humor?

Every so often, I find a pretty funny thing on the Onion. Often their humor is lame. Many times, the articles are mediocre attempts at satire.

But lame humor is one thing. Complete irreverence for the suffering of others is another.

I can't believe their "American Voices" post today that laugh in the face of Tim Russert's sudden recent death.

It's really quite disgusting to make fun of someone so shortly after passing.

Humor doesn't have to come at the expense of those who can't defend themselves.

Seriously. Grow up.

A Run for My Money

It's been a little while since I wrote much about our little one, but today she just showed so many new skills that I can't help myself.

Here are some recent milestones in little Ashlyn's development:

1. Falling off the couch headfirst.
2. Climbing into the cabinets.
3. Playing in the toilet water.
4. Climbing into the bath while the water's running, while fully clothed.
5. Sticking letters on her head.
   

This is where it gets fun!

When the Living's Easy

Today was quintessential summer.

And I've had Sublime stuck in my head because of it.

After a couple of hours of school, the girls and I headed to the pool to catch up with our neighbors. It was the intense sunny time, so we lathered on sunscreen and dipped in the pool for some cooling down. After about an hour and a half, Ashlyn began falling asleep in her intertube, so I decided to head home and give her a proper nap. She slept for 2 1/2 hours. Amen!

During that time, Eve played here and there, but eventually went outside to run around with the kiddos across the hall. This is where summertime burst in.

Playing outside for hours on end. Dripping with sweat and loving every minute. Coming in for rushed drinks and bathroom breaks.

It made me happy to see my daughters with a normal and healthy childhood.

And it's days like this that remind me why being home is the best thing for all of us.

It's Official... I'm Too Old

The saying goes, "If it's too loud, you're too old."

Well, count me in with the crowd of fogies, I guess.

Last night, Billy and I took the girls to an all-city worship night at Shae's Express coffee house. I wanted to go because 1) I like being with Billy and he was going, and 2) I'm running tech this morning at Chase Valley, and you can't really worship God all-out when you have to concentrate on getting the slides up at the right time.

Unfortunately, I didn't really worship that much last night. I tried, at times. But as I said, I'm now too old, and I couldn't stay my mind or heart on God for the commotion on the stage. I was too busy hoping that I wasn't causing permanent ear damage to my baby by keeping her there.

There was one catalyst for bringing me to worship, though, and that was an old man who was twirling orange flags. Honestly, it creeped me out slightly at first because here he was this sixty year old with a bit of a gut twirling flags like a high school girl. But honestly, it was a beautiful expression of worship. It captivated me and both my girls, and I found that I could worship with my soul a little bit more easily when I watch him instead of the band.

I wanted to catch him after the set and tell him that I appreciated him. But I had to make a bee-line for the bathroom, and when I got out, he was gone already.

In My Reader

In college, my friends made fun of me for holding the record of least movies seen... or heard of for that matter. It didn't really bother me. At that time, I found that most movies failed to hold my attention for 2 hours, so they really seemed like a waste of time. I'd much rather sit and watch 4 episodes of Seinfeld back to back to back to back.

Anyway, as I peruse the many offerings the blogosphere has to offer, I have come to the conclusion that my pattern has continued, and I'm nominating myself for the award of least blogs in your reader award. It seems like most bloggers I come across follow significantly more blogs than I do.

Again, this doesn't bother me. I see no need to go out and find more blogs because most of the ones that I've tried out have failed to capture me. I may subscribe for a while and then delete it from my reader because what I thought had potential really ended up in the lamer category.

But I thought I'd share the top blogs that I've found... ones that I have subscribed to and faithfully read for several months.

Number 1 blog: Billy Chia. Okay, okay... I know. I'm in love with the author, so it's a little bias. But in fairness, I fell in love with him over e-mail, so it's his writing that first captured my heart. I happen to love his blog, too. I think that he offers good insight that goes beyond the triteness that I find everywhere else.

The First Runner Up is... Shaun Groves. I will admit that I have never actually heard any of his music. But that's just because I don't like Christian music. Nothing against him... just his genre. Regardless, I love his blog. Billy and I agree that he has a good mix of serious posts that prod deep with questions and light-hearted family fun posts that give you a glimpse into his home life and his love for his wife and children. He's got a good sense of humor and strong ethics.

Tied for 3rd: Misty and Jessica. These girls are both moms that are in similar stages of life as me. Misty has an older elementary girl who she homeschools. Jessica has a son around Ashlyn's age. These blogs are completely relationship blogs for me. We comment on each other's posts religiously, and the benefit I get from reading them is simply to have some friends. That is reason enough.

Finally, a new blog that I've come across that I can see myself liking and I hope that I'm not disappointed -- Nury Vittachi. The few recent posts I've read have been pretty hysterical. Of course, the first one I read was linked to by my sister. It dealt with linguistics, and we all know what a sucker I am for a linguistics post. (And I am not joking at all, either.)

So, there you go... the blogs that made the cut for the pickiest reader in cyberspace. (Does anyone still use that term?)

Crappy Mom

My 16-month-old got a sunburn on her arms today because we were at the pool for 2 hours, and I only applied sunblock once. Needless to say, a lesson was learned, but I still feel like a loser.

What Do You Do With Truth?

"You can never be the same after the unveiling of a truth. That moment marks you as one who either continues on with even more devotion as a disciple of Jesus Christ, or as one who turns to go back as a deserter." --Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Why Apartment Living Beats the Snot Out of Owning a House

When Billy and I moved here, we had lots of people encouraging us to buy a house, but we opted for an apartment instead. Oh, I am so glad we did!

Here are some reason I like renting an apartment instead of owning a home:

Yard Work: We have the best of both worlds here in the apartment. We have a grassy field out our back door for the girls to run around, but we don't have to mow it. We also have a little tucked away area between our patio and the air conditioning unit where I plan to put some plants next year. But if I don't get around to it, it's not a big deal, because landscaping isn't something I have to maintain while renting. So, if I want to, I can. If I don't, then I don't have to. Who can complain at that?

Cooling Off: We just got back from swimming in the complex's pool. It opened 2 weekends ago, and we've been making nearly daily trips to cool off for about an hour at a time. Not to mention that living on the bottom floor of an apartment building seems to keep us cooler than living in our one story house did. It's currently 92 degrees here, but it's quite comfortable in our apartment without the a/c on. In fact, the only times I've used the a/c so far has been while cooking dinner or working out. Those are times you tend to get extra hot, so I've needed the cool-down. Hopefully, this will reflect well on our bill this summer. (Of course, we'll have to see if this is still a good thing come winter, when our hot air rises!)

Size, location for our money: For the same amount of monthly payment, we could get a $100,000 home loan at the current rates (according to mortgage-calc.com). This is about what our last house was worth, and trust me, we are not wanting to go back into the kind of house you can get for $100,000. It will either be so old that we'll constantly do repairs, or so small that we'll literally trip over each other on the our way to the 1 bathroom (been there... trust me, I don't want to go back!), or in a location that is too busy for my tastes. So, here for a comparable cost, we gained 400 square feet, including one bathroom, and we have no responsibility for repairs, and we have a nice suburban feel with a lake to walk around.

Seriously, if renting this apartment, isn't a gift from God, I don't know what is.

Merchandise Credit is from God

...so are 3 hour long gymnastics camps.

Oh, seriously. It was heaven on earth. No one who knows me would ever doubt my undying love for my family, but gosh is was good to drop Eve off for an extended time at her gymnastics studio.

Ashlyn and I headed over to TJ Maxx to use a Merchandise Credit voucher we had left over from a gift we returned. See, those stores that let you get cash back when you return a gift just screw those of us that are overly responsible with our money. If we get cash, it immediately goes into our budget and ends up paying for something like rent or lights. But I had no choice today other than to go and buy something that I would never buy for myself - ever.

We've had this card since Christmas, and Billy insisted that I take today to get some new pajama pants, since mine have no fewer than 5 holes in the upper legs and, ahem, other areas. I ended up getting the pants, a father's day present, sandals for Eve, and a pair of goggles without spending a thing.

It was nice to get a treat and not feel guilty about where my money should be going.

So, thank you, God, for merchandise credit.

Beautiful Day

I'm about to unveil the extent of my dorkiness. Mark this day on your calendars, it won't happen again. Billy will love this. He accuses me of always wanting to look cool and not doing fun things because I'll look like a dork. He's right. But here, in all my dorkdom, let me tell you about my beautiful day.

As you faithful readers know, I've been gearing up to be organized. With a new baby and selling a house, schedules flew out the window. But now that we're fairly settled in the new place, I've been aiming to get some structure back in our lives. Oh, my gosh! Is it ever glorious!

Last night, I spent some much-needed time planning my week. I use Google Cal, and I have 4 calendars that I keep. Here's what my week looked like online:


So, here, I have my green events, my red reminders (i.e. anything Billy doesn't need cluttering up his calendar view), my purple meal planning, and Eve's pink. Google rocks and e-mails me one agenda for the day to print out and reference.

The day was highly organized, highly productive, and highly full of scheduled fun (and delicious food, I might add).

Commenting on my brilliant rigidity may now commence.

June Goals

Here's how I did on goals for the month of May:

• Work out 3 times a week - eh...it was more like 2, but it was something, at least.

• Pick out photos for Ashlyn's first year baby book - we're up through 8 months on this one.
  

• Figure out a scheduling/calendar system that works for us - looking good...Billy and I use GoogleCal to coordinate between the two of us, and I have a separate calendar book for taking with me. It's a little cumbersome to have both, but since I don't have a way to carry Google around, I have to use both for now.

• Read a couple of non-fiction books - The Emerging Church and Why We're Not Emergent. I also read The Bridge to Terebithia.
  

• Change address on magazine subscriptions - I called mags to do this, and found out that the post office did this one for me! How sweet of them.

• Use the decluttering calendar a couple times a week - Ok...so I only used it a couple time this month. The result is a couple of very organized dresser drawers. Long overdue!

• Spending Fast Update - We did it! The only thing that we bought that was not a utility or food was a bathing suit for me. I know, I know...it doesn't seem like a necessity, but trust me... when your plan is to stay home as much as possible all summer in order to save gas, you have to take advantage of the complex pool. I thought about putting the purchase off until June, but I was at Wal-mart getting diapers (total necessity!) and I figured I should just go ahead and get the suit to save another trip.
  

June's Goals -
Continue "real" exercise 2x a week, but also add in mini-sessions 2 evenings
Find out about new car and drivers' licenses
Decrease auto fuel usage by 10% (in terms of dollars!)
Figure out some ways to eat healthy and cut the grocery bill
File all my crazy papers/shred unneeded ones
Finish choosing photos for the baby book

Book Review: Why We're Not Emergent by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck

I found out about this book from my old buddy Dan Kimball. It's a critique on emergent that he recommended as a fair look. You can read Dan's review, too. But read mine first.

The Set-Up

This book is written by two very different guys. One is a theology-loving logical kinda guy. He's a 30-year-old pastor in a college town. The other is a story-telling journalist, artsy type. He goes to the pastor's church.

In the intro, they tell the reader that they won't try to combine their personalities into one voice; rather, they each wrote separate chapters, and the rest of the book kinda flip-flops back and forth chapter by chapter.

The Good

These guys did tons of reading to prepare for this book, especially the pastor. His source list was insane long. I have to give a lot of credit because it can be really difficult to trudge through books that go against your deep-seeded convictions. It can be an angering process and an overwhelming one, too. But these guys kept at it and really had some determination.

They also presented their concerns with love. I thought their hearts were very much in the right place as I read their beefs with emergent. I've read lots of critiques on the "movement" and this one was by far the nicest spirited commentary. So many of the critiques lose all credibility because they appear to be rants showcasing a laundry list of grievances and sentencing participants of emergent to hell.

These guys were consistent in their overarching complaint: emergent is an over-reaction against an extreme example of conservative (and I would add - unChristlike) Christianity. These guys point out that emergents offer false dichotomies based on reacting to judgemental, stuffy, legalistic Christians. In shifting so far the toward liberty, they are just as guilty at straying from the Christian message.

The Bad

These guys did tons of reading to prepare for this book. While I admire their persistency to trudge through this, I thought everyone knew that emergent is a conversation and you have to talk about it for years on end to understand what anyone has to say. I say that mockingly, but honestly, I would've appreciated if these men had had conversations with some of the guys whose books they quoted. As it were, the journalist "interviewed" people who were probably not qualified to give much opinion, certainly not any expert opinion. For example, his story about how post-modernism hasn't really taken over the culture to the extent that emergents claim it has was based on a conversation with a college kid. That doesn't really hold a lot of water for me. I mean, how much did you really know as a college kid?

In fact, I'm not really sure the journalist added much to the book except some clever style. Not to say his clever style wasn't appreciated. I actually quite enjoyed his chapters. But I think the book as a whole would have been better if they hadn't separated the chapters by author. As it is now, the book has 2 kinds of chapters -- boring ones with tons of great information (by the pastor), and interesting ones with no real point (by the journalist). Had they worked to use the pastor's info and the journalists style, they could've had a book that was great, instead of just good.

The Verdict

If you're looking for a critique of the emergent church, this is a good choice. Though a bit difficult to trudge through at times, it is generally easy to read and clear. It presents a fair look and offers better solutions to the problems that emergents are also trying to solve.

I recommend it as part of your investigation into what the emergent church is.

My New Calling

Okay...maybe I won't be going into graphic design full-time, but I am pretty excited about the graphics that I made for this morning's worship service at Chase Valley.

I used to mess around on Photoshop and do goofy things like this:



But then I met Billy, and he showed me how to actually use the program, and now I can do cool things like this:

original photo by *hiro008

May Goals

Well, it seems like life has settled down again. It's good to be back together as a family, and we're pretty much settled in except for the stuff that never had a place in Indiana, and will take forever to get a place here in Alabama.

So, I'm looking for a bit more structure to our days, and I thought a good place to start would be in monthly goals. Sure the month's half over, but I've been working on these all along anyway. I just thought I'd share them with you.

Goals for the months of May:

Work out 3 times a week
Pick out photos for Ashlyn's first year baby book
Figure out a scheduling/calendar system that works for us
Read a couple of non-fiction books
Change address on magazine subscriptions
Use the decluttering calendar a couple times a week
Open a bank account down here

Book Review: The Emerging Church by Dan Kimball

The Set-Up

Kimball writes about where the church needs to go in the post-modern era by dividing his book into 2 parts. The first part is an overview of post-modern thought and the "crisis" that the modern church is in as they look at reaching upcoming generations (as well as those crazy hippy fogies who are more post-modern in thought). He gives a thorough and interesting synopsis of where our culture is and why that affects the church.

Part 2 is more of a methods book, although Kimball is careful to say that using methods without understanding the background of culture will turn out a disaster. He goes through several functions of the church (i.e. corporate worship, evangelism, discipleship, leadership structure) and discusses how these may need to change as the church engages the post-modern mindset of those around us.

Throughout the book, Kimball has included comments by about 5 or 6 people who read the manuscript. These are not just quotes that go along with his ideas, but they are people's comments about his words. Most are in agreement with him, but he was mature enough to also include some comments that disagree with his point, or expand his point to include something that may seem omitted. The commenters include Brian McLaren and Rick Warren.

The Good

First, I have to say that I love Kimball's heart in this book. So many times, I get frustrated with "emergents" (or friends of them, whatever that means) being condemning of the modern church. It bugs the crap out of me to have people use the same arrogance in their emerging rhetoric that they accuse the staunchy theologians of having.

But Kimball's heart is amazingly humble and generous. He quotes the adage that goes, "In essentials - unity. In non-essentials - freedom. In all things - charity." I feel like this really is his way of life. He criticizes without condemning, and he encourages all the while.

Another thing that I liked about the book was that he is aware of the risk of consumerism, even in positive changes. He emphasized over and over that the changes he's made must be made to put the focus on Christ and cannot be made solely to cater to the people we're trying to reach. He seems to understand how easy it is to head that direction and maintains that consumerism in the church is harmful, whether it's cheesy bumper stickers or deep spirituality of candles and incense. Consumerism is consumerism, and it needs to stay out of the church. In this vein, he also speaks against the "corporation" structure of many churches. Amen!

Lastly (although I could go on and on about "the good"), Kimball's theology is just very sound. We hear so much about emergent theology being wayward and post-modern itself. But Kimball is clear that theology is important and doesn't need to be sacrificed in order to reach new people. While methods may change to provide a deeper spiritual experience, truth is truth and the Jesus of the Bible is that Truth. It was relieving to read this strong focus on Jesus being the only way to heaven and a relationship with him being the only way to spiritual growth.

The Bad

The one thing that stood out to me the most as a negative in this book was the lack of variety in Kimball's methods. On one hand, he speaks to diversity, but on the other, his methodology indicates that ancient-future is the one way that post-moderns will feel connected. In honesty, I just can't see a lot of people liking the intensely deep, mystical, dark thing all the time. I tend to be deep and melancholy. More so than a heck of a lot of people I know, but I don't think week after week of dark depth is what would be effective toward a holistic spiritual growth. I realize that this is what has worked for his church, and this is what he uses in his community, but I would have liked to hear some other methods that work in other churches that reach to post-moderns.

Another thing that I wasn't crazy about with his methods was that many of them seemed very "Jesus and Me" worship. I'm sure I missed something here because community is so important to post-moderns and is talked about so much in the emerging movement. But a lot of Kimball's examples talked about people leaving their seats to go do something on their own, be it give offering, take communion, or pray. I tend to believe that corporate worship ought to be corporate. If I wanted to pray alone in the dark, I'd put on a CD, light some candles in my bedroom and pray. Being in the community gathering should be about communally worshiping God. It's not just me and Jesus. It's a family of believers worshiping together, and there's something about that kind of worship that cannot be done alone.

The Verdict

This is a fairly old book... that is, it's from 2003. But these days that's ancient, right? I mean, there's so much new stuff coming out everyday that most of the stuff in Kimball's book is now over-discussed. But this book is worth the read.

For one thing, it gives a good impression of what the emerging church can be when it holds fast to doctrinal truth and returns to depth of worship and relationship. It shows that these two ideas are not mutually exclusive. Even though this book was written previous to a lot of the current criticism over the emerging church, it's a good counter to show that the phrase doesn't just point to the liberal whackos who don't want to know anything with certainty. For this reason, I've recommended it to a friend, who has heard a lot of the criticism but none of the positives.

It's also a great read for people who haven't yet heard or investigated the term. I've already recommended it to my mom.

Spending Fast

Now that we're down here and getting settled, Billy and I have had a chance to look over our money stuff.

The move and related things (house repairs, organization needs [read: a kitchen trash can and such], bedding for Eve) have caused us to spend more than we normally do. Add to that an obnoxious bill for car repair, and we're downright tired of shelling out the cash.

So, we decided last night to participate in a "spending fast" for the month of May. This means that we won't be spending any unnecessary money.

"Necessary" will be categorized as anything that would make creditors come after us if we didn't pay. We will be paying rent. We will pay for power. We will pay for gas and groceries, although our efforts will go toward decreasing these expenditures.

"Superfluous" spending would include things like picture frames that I really want so I can hang up family pictures. These are only $2 each at Wal-mart. But $2 here and $2 there is what ends up adding up to big bucks in the long run.

I will be waiting to buy curriculum for next year until June. I'll also have to wait on getting Ashlyn's year-old pictures printed. (Heck! She's already 15 months, what's 30 more days???)

If we want, we can choose to write down things that we wanted to spend money on. Then, at the end of the month, we'll see what we really wanted by seeing if we still want it.

The idea for this came from My Simpler Life.

New

My church has been focusing on newness in Christ for the last several weeks, and today, the sermon series wrapped up with "New Strength." The biblical example was Gideon and his 300 men.

I've appreciated this whole series because my friend Elaine has pounded into my head over the last year that I'm a new creation. I've spent a lot of time learning about what that means. I've begun to understand how to take that truth -- which I've always "known" -- and appropriate it in my daily life. It takes the head knowledge and adds to it a knowledge of experience.

My church has talked about several different areas of life that our new identity and the power of Christ's resurrection in us. Some of the include

New Relationships
New Freedom
New Attitude

As I think on these phrases, I remember that the Gospel message is truly revolutionary.

Proud

Just wanted to invite you all to take a look at the current issue of Evansville Parent magazine.

It's always full of fun and helpful articles, but I'm particularly interested to know your views on my article in this issue. It's on page 15.

Here's a link to the 2nd half of the magazine. My article will be on page 2 of this electronic copy.

First Impressions

So, we've been here about 2 weeks. And I figured it was high time to get back to blogging. (Disclaimer: No promises here about how often I'll post at first, cause I still have boxes that need my attention, but it's getting significantly better!)

A few things have stuck out to me as first impressions while acclimating to the area:

1. It's super easy to find your way around here.
Pretty much everywhere I've ever gone has involved the interstate. You basically hop on and take it to your exit. Sure there are a couple of turns once you get off, but all in all, the interstate makes for a quick and easy drive.

Sometimes, it's too quick for my country-girl tastes. Coming from Indiana, I'm used to lots of open fields with 30 mph speed limits. The fastest limit in Evansville was 50 mph on the Lloyd. (The interstate up there doesn't count cause people only used it to leave town for the most part.) So, I get on 565 and see signs for 70 and it kinda freaks me out. Plus, I've never had to merge so much in my life.

2. Our apartment complex is awesome.
We have a huge lake that has been the highlight of our living experience so far. Nightly walks are a great way to get exercise when you're low on childcare. Ashlyn's taken quite a liking to the ducks, and Eve is convinced that she can call the beaver up to us by speaking Beaver language she learned by watching The Chronicles of Narnia too many times.

The complex is also in the process of renovations. Our interior renovation was complete before we moved in, but now we're scheduled to get a screened in porch sometime this summer.

The downfall of the apartment living is having a weird upstairs neighbor who vacuums at 9:30 at night and doesn't speak English.

3. There's actually stuff to do here.
Now, this may not be fair to Evansville. This could be just that I grew up in Indiana and take for granted stuff that goes on, but I doubt it.

It just seems like there's more culture here than Evansville has. This weekend, we went to an amazing art festival called Panoply. It was beyond fun.

Other interesting stuff includes The Big Read, Thursday Night Concerts, and Big Spring Jam.

Looks good to me.

4. My new church rocks.
Sundays are amazing. This goes without saying, as I get to worship God being led by the hottest leader ever. Not that worshiping God is about how hot the worship pastor is, but you know....

Plus, I'm super excited about the sermon series that I got to come into. It's called "New: the power of resurrection for today." I think that the single biggest grower in my recent faith journey has been learning and studying about my new identity in Christ and what it means to have him living through me. I'm geeked that this is the message that my pastors have chosen to preach starting on Easter.

So, am I liking it here? All in all, I'm down.

Clothes that Fit

The last few months, I've been hardcore about working out in order to (1) get in better shape, and (2) not be forced to buy a new wardrobe. I'm convinced that buying new clothes because you're fat is a big waste of money. I'd rather spend my money on the gym.

So, for a year, I was wearing a rotation of no more than 5 shirts and 2 pairs of jeans (actually, the 2nd pair, I only purchased in December, so most of the year was 1 pair of jeans).

But 2 months ago, I enlisted Blake at Bob's Gym to help me cut the blubber, and I couldn't be happier, as today, for the first time, I'm wearing pre-pregnancy clothes that fit again.

Okay, okay...they don't fit quite the same way. The waist of the jeans digs in a little and you can see a fat roll or two through my shirt. So, I still have a few inches to go. But I'm wearing them. And I am actually going to wear them in public!

The workout didn't just help my body shape and size, it also increased my fitness level. I went down 4% in fat percentage, I have better cardio health, and I increased my upper-body strength by 230% (based on a push-up test).

So, I owe a huge thanks to Blake for making my workouts challenging and fun, do-able and effective.