booky

i almost hate to admit it, but I’m a canon press junkie.  only a poor canon press junkie (i have to spend all my money on a mortgage and organic whole milk).  in which case this makes my heart go pitter pat.  but then again, so do most sales.  like my husband says, “just because it’s 75% off doesn’t mean you have to buy it.  and no, you didn’t save any money, you spent money.”  pshaw.

here are some of my favorites:

how to be free from bitterness is a must read for any human being.  and building her house just looks so dang nice on the shelf.   it should have it’s own little rack.  you could hang it.

future men is my favorite from the wilson family series and is a must have for raising boys.  against christianity is very thought provoking and a good read-over book.

the wilson family series has a lot of practical, easy to read advice.  that for some reason, you most likely haven’t heard anywhere else…  for a glory and a covering is fundamental marriage etiquette, “my life for yours.”  just to sober you up a bit and get you to quit your whining.

and some peter leithart books.  oh my.  i couldn’t put down a house for my name, it just made me giddy.  the way he peeled back layer after layer in the old testament making it make sense at a whole new level.  and easy to read to boot.  i think it was actually written for family study.  anyways, i would love to get my greedy little hands all over 1 & 2 kings.

and here’s some that i haven’t read but want to.  i did listen to the interview with debbie maken on getting serious about getting married.  that lady scares the poo out of me.  if i was a single christian, i would be afraid (very afraid).  blessed are the hungry unpacks some of the significance around the lord’s supper.  which i would love to dig into.

a great mystery is peter leithart having a go at marriage.  i love the way he unpacks a subject, he just seems to hit things from so many different angles that you start to wonder if you’re looking at the same thing.  how did he see that?  it’s insane.  and if you do check out canon press don’t forget their audio sets.  the party is just getting started.  if i had $125 to my name i would gobble up marriage as manifest glory.  i would.  marriage is more than mars and venus getting along, it’s god showing himself to the world.  unless you screw it up, of course.

wise words is another peter leithart book for kids.  this time going through proverbs.  i need this book.  but i have a few years while the pudding in my children’s brains sets up a bit, so i can wait.  and trinity and reality is self-explanatory.  the trinity is the funnest/bestest subject out there.  the perfect, inscrutable building block of life.  …god as a monad breeds conformity, god as gods produces chaos, god as trinity overflows in love.  (all while tying up the justice vs. mercy, unity vs. diversity dilemmas nicely.)  and it doesn’t bother me that at the heart of it there is a paradox.  did you think you could put the essence of god in a box, tie it up and stamp “god” on top?  i would be more worried if you could understand it.  anyways, the trinity always kicks around the ol’ brain.  it’s like playing with the best good out there; it’s in everything, goes everywhere, it’s what’s left when you boil everything down and it never gets old (unless you thought we were going to diagram sentences for eternity.)  fun fun.

so yes, i am a canon press junkie.  and even though i’m not a calvinist (i’m a little weirder that) it does seem like they have more fun than everyone else.  in fact, everyone else gives me the willies.  my favorite is when mark driscoll portrayed jesus walking into a christian book store, jumping up and down on all the michael w smith cd’s while the self-help section went up in flames.  but yes, most christian book stores make me nervous.  with canon i feel like i could close my eyes and pick a book and it would still be good.  try it, you’ll like it.

that poor megan, geez

my sister-in-law up and went to ireland.  just like that.  she brought me back pictures.  i tried to explain to her all the home furnishings she could have bought instead of an airline ticket and a car rental, but she wouldn’t listen to reason.  she’s like that.  so here you go.

i don’t know the stories behind any of the pictures but if you have a question ask and i’ll have her tell you.  i do remember the caption for the one with her in the pink sweater.  it read, “i’m so happy.”  (as she rubbed her hands together greedily…or maybe she was just cold.)

oh yes, and the caption for the crosses read “a bunch of dead nuns.”  so if you do have questions, i hope they’re not too specific…

not so fast

i guess i do have to blog.  even though i’d rather slip into shiftless anonymity…  in my pajamas.  oh well.  my mother-in-law showed up at my house, camera in hand, insisting that the blog continue.  which might be contingent on me posting more pictures of her delightful grandchildren.  though, at the present, i think i will just share my self-migratory mood meter (is that fair?).  and really, i don’t think it’s self-migratory.  i do have my suspicions.

*i* leave it at indifferent.  but after having my dad flip the laundry room door over because the door knob was “too high” or having my mom tear up half the lawn into the flower beds – it somehow works it’s way over to “naughty”.  and if i stay up too late on skype i’ll wake up in the morning to find it hovering over “chatty.”  i think the current status is a result of my divide and conquer mood.  where i try to landscape, remodel, clean, and cater, all at the same time while only succeeding in making messes in all quadrants and being bossy.  sad but true.  maybe someday i will achieve “spunky” status.  or maybe i should just take it down and hide it.

i don’t believe it

my camera is gone.  sayonara.  i think it had something to do with leaving it on the front porch.  anyways, i am bummed.  i am also not buying a new camera.  well, not until i find $400 laying in a ditch somewhere.  so, as far as blogging goes, i guess that get’s me off scott free.  though sadly you won’t get to see pictures of my new carpet, freshly landscaped yard or beautiful children, for like ever.  too bad.  but i will leave you with this, since i have never posted pictures of my wedding.  have i?

that’s because the event still traumatizes me and i haven’t got over how ugly i looked in the whole 12 pictures we took.  fortunately, the older and uglier i get, the more appreciative i become of what now passes as less ugly.

and why is it that while i get older my husband just gets hotter?  i’m practically ripe for a nursing home and he looks more like hugh jackman every day.

the chairs mavis stalked

i try not to buy any furniture because i am saving for a pottery barn couch (arm+leg).  that is why i have six craig’slist watchers set to furniture on my igoogle.  so i can become good at fending off temptation.  and i am very good, to a point.  these babies came by, and while i was tempted by their dark, grainy, craig’slist thumbnail – i successfully said no.

only i changed my mind a month later.  unfortunately, by that time, the lady had given the chairs back to the vendor, but promised she would get me her number.  she didn’t.  so after a week of fighting off visions of chairs in my subconscious, i broke down and emailed her again.  and she finally sent me the vendor’s number.  only it was the wrong number.  after another week of harassing a lady who insisted she wasn’t rita – i gave up and emailed the lady again for a different number.  which she gave me.  except no one lived there except a very strange answering machine that i talked to a lot.

suffice to say, eventually the day came when the chairs and i got to meet.  they weren’t their grainy, craig’slist thumbnail at all.  they were all that was fab and they had to be mine.  they also didn’t have the same craig’s list price tag that lured me in in the first place.  what was i to do?  other than hand over all my money and take them home?  to my eagerly expecting husband, who was even more thrilled when i told him never to sit on them.  don’t even think about it.  but don’t you love them?  i think they will flank the window and my white pottery barn couch will go along the wall.  i have a large, gilt, champange frame i want to hang above the couch with our family picture in it.  i also think the chairs will jive nice with my almost ugly lamp and new curtains.  everything still needs a little help, but now i have a better idea where i’m going.  and i think it will be fun.

kandidish giveaway

*miriam would be the winner.  “hooray, hooray!”*

my friend kandi has put up an etsy shop.  you should be excited.  lately she has been working on these little miniatures, which are hard not to like.  she is also letting me give one away, so pop over to her shop and let me know which one your heart desires.  i’ll draw a lucky number friday (a week from today).

my favorite thing about kandi is that she lives and breathes art.  she is so freaking natural at it that she makes you nervous.  if i was going to paint something i would approach such a venture with great trepidation.  she just has at it.  you should see her when she quilts.  she grabs a wad of fabric and makes like edward scissorhands.  “kandi!  where’s your ruler, where’s your rotary cutter!  what the hell are you doing!?”  and then it turns out more beautiful and unique than you could have imagined.  i just can’t bear to watch.

the upside of this is that she thinks nothing of custom work.  she doesn’t ever seem to get burnt out and she would take painting over endusting any day.  so i don’t feel bad when i send her links to all my favorite jellyfish paintings and say, “kandi, i would like a little of this with some of this and the colors from this and i want it 4 feet by 3 and i would like it to glow…please.”  well, not too bad.  this is the next best trick and you should try it.  (we did it for our christmas cards.)  send her a picture and she turns this:

into this:

well, not exactly.  i couldn’t find the original photo but i’m sure you get the idea.  if you ever need an artist on call, kandi is your girl.  she can do anything; sewing, scrapbooking, ceramics, watercolor, acrylic and oil, charcoal, pen and ink.  she’s not trapped by any style and can be as realistic as she is abstract.  so if there is anything your fanciful mind thinks up, she can do it.  she is also very affordable.  so if you have always wanted your family portrait in glowing oils hanging above your mantel, take this as a sign.

to a thousand generations

i went in for my ultrasound yesterday to find out that baby number four didn’t make it.  it was strangely gut wrenching to see my tiny baby on the screen and to be told that she didn’t have a heart beat.  there isn’t anything worse for a mother than having something bad happen to her children, no matter how small they are.  but i do believe this baby will be waiting for me.  if it could be said, i think god errors on the side of grace.  children of believing parents are children of promise.  children made holy (1 corinthians 7:14) and children of a god who is faithful to those who love him, to a thousand generations.  god doesn’t have an eye just to saving individuals but to saving families.  his hand and his promises aren’t just for me, they’re for my children.  and it’s not my husband and i that raise our children to the faith, but the spirit of god that we have entrusted them to.  we trust him for this one as well.

dinah risete, may 1,  2009

samson caetano, february 28, 2010

jemimah thaise, november 28, 2011

“Father we thank you for this little baby and his precious little life. No matter how short it was we know it was Your design. We know that he never knew anything, and that his only connection is with his parents and grandparents and family. His eternal life depends on us. We look forward to seeing him in heaven. How wonderful it will be to watch him grow up in that perfect place. May we all be faithful in Jesus’ name, Amen.”  ~ Granddad, 2010