Love List

"Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise." (Philippians 4:8 NLT)

Taking a cue from Meg, I am creating a "love list," that is, a list of things I love, or at least that I think are pleasant. It was difficult to do at first-- I guess I'm not feeling especially nice or optimistic, or loving. Maybe I need to do this more often!

So here goes: I love...

...crunchy leaves in fall
...the smell of line-dried clothes
...the smell of buttered popcorn
...kisses from my husband
...hugs from my kids
...the sound and smell of rain
...watching a mama cat care for her kittens
...campfires
...pancakes on campouts
...a clean bathroom
...not having a headache
...a good night's sleep where you feel like you were far, far away and now it's good to be back
...rope lights on the back porch at night
...chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven
...eating Dove chocolate
...eating Dove chocolate ve-ry slo-ow-ly
...a stimulating conversation
...people who make me laugh
...hearing my own opinion expressed by someone else who said it better than I could
...getting real mail, as in, packages and letters, versus bills and junk mail
...getting real emails, as in, real messages from real people, versus forwards and junk mail
...memories of my kids when they were little
...my wedding ring
...the way my husband feels when I hug him when he's wearing his fuzzy warm vest
...being outside on a beautiful day
...wearing good, comfortable shoes
...compliments on my clothes
...music that makes me feel melancholy in a happy sort of way
...a good story
...a cold shower when I'm hot and sweaty

There, I did it! Thirty-- THIRTY!-- things I love. I'm feeling a little better already.

What a Wonderful, Diverse World

I think I have whiplash.

Last week I went through my enormous list of bookmarked blogs and divvied them up. I made six folders, labeled with the days of the week, and arbitrarily put blogs into them. So now I have my Monday blogs, and my Tuesday blogs, and my Wednesday blogs.... Today is Saturday, and I just read through my Saturday blogs and discovered a diverse miscellany of human experience. Of course I have read these blogs before; and they passed my criteria of blogs worth re-visiting, but I hadn't read them in juxtapostion. And, as I said, I think I have whiplash. Take a look:

Tea and Cookies has a couple of mouth-watering posts about donut peaches, and a green fast food chain called "Burgerville."

Owl Haven is written by a mom of I-forget-how-many-kids (a bunch), and her newest posts are about the great deals she got yard-saling.

WhyMommy, at Toddler Planet, is celebrating life with her two young children. After being diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer in June, she wasn't sure she even be here by now-- but she is!

Learning Curves is written by a college calculus teacher. She writes usually about the ups and downs of classes and students and lessons, which I find fascinating. But one of her posts this week was about how she hates children and can't understand why anyone would give birth. She herself has had her tubes tied to avoid that unthinkable possibility for herself.

Marsha, at Family Adventures, is asking about genes vs. upbringing in the lives of adoptive children.

See what I mean?

Thirteen Videos/DVD's Our Family Likes to Watch

Here is a list of videos and DVD's we own and love to watch. When winter closes in, I'm sure we'll be digging some of these out to view again.

1. Hoodwinked. Creative re-telling of the story of Little Red Riding Hood, with lots of great lines that have become part of our family conversation. "Can I have coffee??"

2. Robots. Fun story, great graphics. (Okay, we don't actually own this one, but we sure helped our friends get their money's worth out of their copy.)

3. Fly Away Home. This one has a lot of "real" to it. Real geese, real hang gliding. Based on a true story about guiding a flock of geese to their wintering grounds.

4. Veggie Tales. Nearly all of them. The first time we had one home to watch, years ago, we all watched it together, and I remember saying to myself, "Anything that makes the fourteen-year-old and the four-year-old both laugh has got to be good."

5. 3-2-1 Penguins. From the makers of Veggie Tales. Just a lot of silly stuff with a good message.

6. Instructional video for the Robland X-31. I know-- we are weird. This is a crack-up, even to me. We don't even own a Robland X-31. It's a huge many-tools-in-one gadget for a woodworking shop. I don't remember how we got the video-- I think maybe Hubby was dreaming and somehow got the video to better dream-- but we love watching the guy on the video demonstrate how the machine works, and especially we love listening to his wonderful Swedish accent: "Now we're getting really tricky."

7. On Any Sunday. A film from the 70's about the world of motorcycling-- racing, trials, motocross, just dinking around. I don't know if this movie had anything to do with it, but not only do we have a motorcycle for every male in this family, we also have a couple of our guys enamored with the 70's.

8. How the Grinch Stole Christmas. We don't have this one anymore, because when MB3 was little he was having way too much fun memorizing and using the names and insults in it. (Remember the song about the grinch?) Maybe now that he's 16 we can watch it again!

9. Toy Story. This one has a lot of insults and fighting in it, so we had to put a limit on how often it could be watched. See number 8. But it has a great ending.

10. Moody Science videos. For years we watched these over and over. Now I think we have them all memorized so nobody watches them anymore. The lonely videos are sitting there waiting for the grandkids-- assuming there is such a thing as a video player by then!

11. Mark Lowry, Remotely Controlled. Mark Lowry is a Christian comedian/singer. In this video he spoofs the world of television. It's a crackup to see the audience singing along with his medley of old TV theme songs (like, The Brady Bunch, Gilligan's Isle, Flintstones.) Even I knew most of those songs. Isn't that pathetic? We also like his video "Mark Lowry Goes to Hollywood." A lot of his stuff is very funny.

12. Michael Palin travel videos. We have "Around the World in Eighty Days," "Pole to Pole," and "Full Circle." We not only like going where he goes, but we like listening to his British accent. (We love listening to people talk who have accents. We're funny that way. In fact, once I was attending a large conference with afternoon "breakout" sessions, and I had to choose which session to attend. At first I was stymied by all the choices, but I could only choose one. When I had it narrowed down to three or four, I chose the one being taught by a lady from New Zealand-- just so I could listen to her accent! You can laugh...)

13. Victor Borge's Birthday Gala. Mr. Borge is pretty old in this video (it was his 80th birthday) but still funny and talented.

Last weekend some friends came over and brought the movie Monsters, Inc to watch with us. We loved it! Now I want to own it...

What are your favorite things to watch?

Well, we don't bungee jump either...

When Hubby and I were first married we decided that one thing we would not buy for ourselves was a television. Since then we have been a TV-free home, with only one exception, and that was the day of 9-11, when we bungled together an aluminum foil antennae for our cheap all-in-one video player/TV. Once the crisis was over, we threw away our fancy antennae and went back to life as usual, watching an occasional video.

We have always tended to be on the cutting edge of backwater fads. We were one of the first families in our area to homeschool, and definitely the first family to homeschool completely from Day One to Year 13. And we were also one of the first around to completely forgo the doubtful pleasures of television. People at church-- our only social outlet at the time-- would ask,

"Hey, did you see (fill in the blank TV show) this week?"

I'd say, "No, we didn't."

And in answer to their blank stares I'd add, "We don't have a TV."

They usually looked at me as if I had said, "We don't have indoor plumbing."

*GASP!*

Admittedly, this was before the whole evangelical campaign about limiting television viewing because of all the evidence that too much TV was bad for kids, and for grownups, and for families, and for intelligence. But really...why the shock? I used to say, "Well, we don't bowl either. So?"

(We have actually gone bowling occasionally since then; thus, the substitution of "bungee jumping" in my title.)

People are no longer shocked that we have no television. Instead, they are more likely to congratulate us for our commitment and values, which I think is almost funny. We're not doing anything different now than we were then, but then we were weird and now we're not.

So anyway, today I read this post, about the author's choices of which television programs she wants to watch in the new fall lineup, and she asked what our choices were, and if we don't have a list, what are we going to do instead?

That, I thought, is an interesting question. Since we're not watching TV, what ARE we doing?

I know we're spending one night a week at worship team practice, and maybe another night or two at some other outside activity; and sometimes we have company. But I think she means, "How are you spending your free evenings at home?"

Well, I could make us look good and say we spend our evenings reading classic books, sometimes aloud, and playing board games. But it wouldn't be true. I would also love to say we spend time in our garden, or taking walks, or playing frisbee in the yard, but that wouldn't be true either. We HAVE done all those things, at one time or another in our years of being a family.

But the season of life we're in right now looks much different. We are now in "The Computer Age." On many evenings at our house you will see six people on computers doing various things:

-playing Age of Empires, or Need for Speed
-blogging
-reading forums
-browsing ebay
-coding, as in, designing websites for pay
-researching
-watching interesting stuff on YouTube
-catching up on MySpace
-chatting with friends
-checking email
-reading book reviews and excerpts on Amazon
-shopping

And we're usually running back and forth to see what each other is doing: How's your game? Are you winning? Hey, come watch this cool video clip! Look at this awesome widget for sale. Let me read you a funny joke someone sent me. Hey, Mom, check your email; I just sent you a link.

{Pause for laughter-- we're communicating via email ACROSS THE HOUSE....! Oh the joys of technology......!}

Oh, and often someone is going "AARGH!" because they're a)losing a game, or b) having troubles with their computer, or c) getting frustrated over coding difficulties, or d) impatient with how slow a YouTube video is loading.

And now as I sit here on this particular night, I look around to see how accurate my list is at this moment. Right now I see:

-Person #1: playing Age of Empires
-Person #2: blogging
-Person #3: shopping online
-Person #4: working on his train set (hey! a non-computer activity!)
-Person #5: making a list of essential gear for a campout (another non-computer activity!)
-Person #6: discussing person #5's list. (cool! real conversation!)


Wow. Three out of six doing something NOT on the computer. I may have to be careful. The Age of Bungee Jumping could possibly be just around the corner.

Payback Time

This morning, hovering between sleeping and waking, I had some odd thoughts.

For some reason I found myself remembering the Bible story of the children of Israel when they were slaves in Egypt. When God gave Moses instructions about their escape, one of the things he told them was this:

"21 And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and it shall be, when you go, that you shall not go empty-handed. 22 But every woman shall ask of her neighbor, namely, of her who dwells near her house, articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing; and you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.” (from Exodus 3, NKJV)

Now why in the world would God tell them something like this? Basically, he told them to take things that didn't belong to them. It wasn't exactly stealing, I guess, since they asked first, but still. Isn't that bad for God's reputation? He's telling them to take stuff!

Plus, it just seems like an audacious thing to do: As you run away from your slave masters, ask them for their clothes and their jewelry to take with you.

So as I lay there in bed thinking about this, I asked God, "Why would you tell the Israelites to plunder the Egyptians?"

And almost before I finished asking the question, the thought popped into my brain,

"It was their wages."

If you look at it that way, I guess, yeah. It was the paycheck for 400 years of forced labor.

What do you think?

Today's Horoscope/Test/Autograph

Okay, pendulum swing from yesterday. Yesterday I was on a rant. Today, I'm feeling more lighthearted. It's a new day, and since my rant I found a lot of lovely people blogging. The world looks like a much better place.

A while back I spent an evening with my daughter taking crazy online tests, hoping to find out something nice about myself I didn't know.

The tests are a little bit like yearbook autographs. You hand your book around for people to sign, hoping now you'll find out what everyone thinks of you, and instead you get something that sounds like a newspaper horoscope. "Your (sic) bright and cheerful. Good luck in all your future endeavors."

However, out of all the dumb tests I took, three actually came pretty close, so I copied the results into my blog Notebook, in case they might come in handy some day.

So. Following are my three best test results.

You Have A Type B+ Personality

You're a pro at going with the flow You love to kick back and take in everything life has to offer A total joy to be around, people crave your stability. While you're totally laid back, you can have bouts of hyperactivity. Get into a project you love, and you won't stop until it's done You're passionate - just selective about your passions

Do You Have a Type A Personality?

The most accurate thing about this one is the last sentence: "You're passionate - just selective about your passion." I seriously only have so much energy to go around, so I pick and choose what I want to go whole hog after. Oh, and the part about being laid back and then hyperactive? I told someone recently that I cycle between being WonderWoman and a chia pet.

Brainy Kid

In high school, you were acing AP classes or hanging out in the computer lab. You may have been a bit of a geek back then, but now you're a total success!

Who Were You In High School?

Actually, while I did ace my one AP class, I never hung out in the computer lab. In my day it was all 1's and 0's, or something, and I could never figure out what was going on. One of my friends was way more geeky, and went from being a straight-A computer student, to being the best computer student in the whole school, to being a student assistant in the computer classes, and eventually ended up as a computer programmer in the army. Now THAT'S a brainy kid!

What Your Pizza Reveals

People may tell you that you have a small appetite... but you aren't under eating. You just aren't a pig. You consider pizza to be bread... very good bread. You fit in best in the Midwest part of the US. You like food that's traditional and well crafted. You aren't impressed with "gourmet" foods. You are dependable, loyal, and conservative with your choices. You are a flavorful and bold person. You should consider traveling to Spain. The stereotype that best fits you is redneck. Your friends secretly agree.

What Does Your Pizza Say About You?

I've saved the best for last. This is absolutely me. Except, I don't think I'm a redneck. I live in Nebraska; it's not far enough south. And, I've never once considered traveling to Spain. Italy, yes. Spain, never. I don't know why.

So there you are. If my yearbook were here, you could copy everyone else's entry and write "To the nicest girl in class. I never really got to know you. Stay sweet."

Oh wait-- now you do know me a little. I'm the brainy girl with a B+ personality who eats pizza.

What the.....?! #$*&!!

Okay, now I'm mad.

Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time in the blogging world. I enjoy wandering around visiting people. If I find someone that strikes a spark with me, I bookmark their blog so I can return to it and see what else they have to say.

But there are so many people blogging, and I have only so much time, so I can't let my list get too long. Even with constant weeding, I have upwards of seventy blogs I read! That's at least ten every single day, and what with catching up on everything they've written, and following links from their pages to other interesting pages, and following links from THOSE PAGES..... well, that makes a considerable time investment.

So I have set some guidelines; a sort of rule-of-thumb, for blogs I bookmark.

1) Is the blogger interesting?
2) Does he or she have a way with words?
3) Are they nice?
4) Are they able to communicate without overuse of foul language?

I follow those almost unconsciously, and pretty much in that order.

It's strange, but many of the interesting blogs seem to be written by people who have no descriptive words at their disposal other than f***, or s***, or c***, or a**, all sorts of other words that thirty years ago were considered "bad" words. "Nice" people didn't talk like that.

Now, I realize times have changed. Language is always pushing the envelope, and bad words slowly get absorbed into the mainstream, and then we have to find new, shocking, offensive words to express our distaste for something. One example is the word "screw." When I was a teenager, that was as bad of a word as the f-word. And now everyone I know uses it, including my pastor, as in "Boy, I sure screwed that up." Another word I absolutely hate is "suck." That was another terrible word that showed up on bathroom stalls. It was the ultimate insult to tell someone they "sucked." But now my teenage boys use it all the time to say things like, "This amp sucks; we need a better one."

That being said, I still dislike reading too much bad language. I can handle, even though I don't especially like it, an occasional foul word used appropriately, for emphasis. After all, sometimes a person has to say SOMETHING. On the other hand, I know what f*** means, and I don't appreciate having that image conjured up for me in every sentence I read. It's like force-feeding me pornography. I also know what s*** and c*** is, and I get really tired of having my nose rubbed in it every other word. Maybe I have too good of an imagination, but the world gets really ugly when you constantly have porn and poo flashed in your face.

Okay. So. Why am I mad? Yesterday I'm reading blogs. Some interesting, some not interesting. Some clean, some not clean. I run across a guy's blog. He's interesting, he's funny, he enjoys being a dad; I enjoy reading his stuff. He uses the f-word a LOT, but I decide I can put up with that because I'm enjoying what he has to say. He seems nice. I continue on, reading post after post, and then, it happens. He writes a series of "memos to the world at large." Here's the memo that bothered me:

Occasionally I have heard mention of my site as being inappropriate due to my casual use of profanity. Several readers have even e-mailed me and accused me of contributing to the coarsening of the English language. To those critics, I would respond that my discourse merely exemplifies the vaunted precedent of valorizing the oral vernacular. I would further add that language is a living tissue, which must occasionally suffer the rupture of subversion in order to convalesce with more structural stability. So to those prurient guardians of the linguistic gates who are offended by my occasional use of the F-bomb? Well, you know what you can do with yourselves.

Well, as a matter of fact I do know.

I was doing my best to overlook something that was offensive to me, for the sake of the man and what he had to say. It's his blog, and he can cuss if he wants to....

However, beside the fact that his use of big words does not really say anything-- "oral vernacular" is not the point-- now I know what he thinks of people like me: I'm a "prurient guardian of the linguistic gates" who is "offended" by his "occasional use of the F-bomb"! And "you know what you can do with yourselves"! (By the way, I think he needs to re-read the definition of "occasional"....)

Yes, I know exactly what I can do-- delete you from my list.

Too bad. He seemed nice; just don't cross him.

Sadly, he's not alone. There are many others like that. They are nice until disagreed with and then-- HooBoy! You'd better duck. Fast.

And that's what makes me mad. I know they don't mean ME, personally. After all, they don't even know me, right? But if they did know me, they'd find out quickly which of their pigeon holes I fit into, and then they WOULD insult me personally.

And what makes me madder: If my friend of the "f-bomb" would read this, he would probably flame me, and somehow this would be all my fault for being offended and insulted. After all, that's just the way the world is, and the way he is, so GET USED TO IT! Well, I'm trying. But you're not making it any easier.

And what makes me even madder is that it's considered good to be bad, and bad to be good. The more foul your language and the more crass your conversation, the better you are: You're up-to-date, tolerant, realistic, and politically correct. However, if you dislike foul language and try to focus on positive things, you're a namby-pamby, prude who is hopelessly out of touch. *scream!* *tear hair!*

And another thing!-- no one apologizes for bad language any more. It's up to each of us to "get over it." (On second thought, someone did apologize to me, sort of, not too long ago. After unleashing a long string of obscenities, he said, "Pardon my french," to which I replied, "I'm sorry, we don't speak french here.")

I try not to show my age or my prudish-ness and I try to give people grace. However, it's a big world, and there are lots of people in it, and I reserve the right to delete from my list the blogs of foul-mouthed, offensive people-- no matter how interesting-- and keep looking till I find nice, interesting, clean-mouthed people who write well, and don't insult me.

There. I'm still mad, but I'll get over it.