Did You Know Lent Was Half Over?

I never knew what Lent was growing up.  At least, I don't think I knew.  My church growing up wasn’t liturgical and I don’t remember ever talking about it.  Perhaps it was there, somewhere in the back of my mind, the knowledge of the forty days of fasting leading up to Easter weekend, but it had no weight of meaning for me.  

After eight years of being home-schooled my parents sent me to Catholic high school, an eye-opening experience in so many ways.  One in particular was becoming more familiar with the liturgical calendar: feast days, special masses and, of course, Lent.  What I saw during those four years didn't give me a high opinion of the tradition.  Watching classmates complain about how much they wanted a soda or pizza, but couldn’t because they’d “given it up for Lent” was not a ringing endorsement.  When asked if they believe in Jesus they say no, but choose to give up soda for Lent, which ends up being such a sacrifice that they have to complain about it?  Really?

The spring of my freshman year at UNH I roomed with a high school classmate.  Lent came around and instead of giving up things like pizza or soda she took something on.  She read The Purpose Driven Life, it’s 40 chapters fitting perfectly into the 40 days of Lent.  

I wish I could say she inspired me to become more aware of Lent and what it can mean to me as a follower of Jesus.  But every year Lent rolls around, and it’s half over before I even knew it began.  I could beat myself up (I forgot again), start my 40 days now, give up more things to make up for half the time, but that would just be me trying to add my deeds to what Jesus did on the cross.  He died so I could have grace.  Amazing grace.  Grace that forgives my worst actions, as well as my forgetfulness.

I do believe Lent is important.  It gives us time to look forward to what is going to happen at Easter.  There is nothing more glorious or exciting than Jesus’ resurrection.  When He said ‘It is finished’ it really was finished.  Done.  Forever.  No “to be continued pending what you give up during Lent”.  Or any other time of year for that matter.

So today, the 20th day of Lent, with 20 more days to go I won’t beat myself up for forgetting Lent again.  I won’t try to give up twice as many things to make up for it.  I will remember that nothing I do will add to what Jesus did on the cross. 

His grace is enough.

It is finished.

Answered Prayer

I have a good baby.  I’m not just saying this because she’s mine.  I mean it, I have a really good baby.  She’s happy, smiles all the time, babbles and coos.  Plays by herself when I put her down, plays with me when I pick her up.  Bounces in the bouncer, rolls over on the floor, rarely cries and when she does it’s usually for a reason (like gas) and she falls asleep when I put her in her crib.  Yes, you read that right.  I turn off the light, turn on the fan, sing to her, pray and put her down.  That’s it, she falls asleep.  Maybe not right away.  Sometimes she babbles to herself for 15, 20 or maybe even 30 minutes, but she doesn’t cry and eventually she falls asleep.

I’m not lying, others have commented on this phenomenon.

So last night in my action track (kinda like a Bible Study group), we were talking about prayer.  We were asked to share stories of answered prayers.  There were some great stories about prayers being answered.  Then the conversation moved on to how the heck Paul was able to “pray continuously” (seriously, are you praying right now as you read this?  Didn’t think so.)  I remembered this quote from G.K. Chesterton:

“You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”

I shared it with the group and went on to explain that when I first read this quote in my writing group action track (which I miss very much) Cora was just a month or so old.  I was challenged by it and decided to say grace throughout the day.  Well, the only time I remembered was right before her nap.  “Grace” is usually short and sweet and to the point so I would say “Jesus I pray that you would bless Cora’s nap, help her to sleep well and give me patience if she doesn’t”.  Then I’d kiss her and put her down.

Since birth she was a pretty good baby, sleeping 5 hours the first night home which freaked me out because I slept too, but naps were hit or miss and some nights were better than others.  She first slept through the night at 6 weeks old (by sleeping through the night I mean a 6 hour stretch), but I didn’t realize it until last night but that was about the time when she settled in and slept well both during the day and at night.  I was asked recently ‘what I did’ to get my daughter to sleep through the night.  I now have an answer, I prayed.

So which prayer did God answer first?  The sleeping through the night or my increased patience?  Judging from my attitude towards my dog right now, I’d say I’m still working on the patience.  So here goes: Jesus, I pray that Ronon would go to the bathroom quickly because it’s cold, and give me patience if he doesn’t.  Amen.

On Using BabyWise

I’ve been composing this for a little while now.  Trying to keep it from being a rant.

I didn’t realize BabyWise was so polarizing until I read some reviews of the book.  People seem to either love it or hate it.  It is either the best thing since sliced bread or paramount to child abuse.  Most of the criticism (especially listed here) talks about dehydration and the infants failure to thrive, obviously very serious issues.  My problem with that is more with the parents, not the book.  It is a book, a guideline.  It is not law.  No one is forcing you to follow it and no baby fits a book 100%.  Where’s the common sense?  Where’s the maternal instinct that says ‘my baby is hungry, f** the book, I will feed her’?

I first read the book when I was pregnant.   There were sections I read but that didn’t stick with me.  I remember times in the first few weeks when she would cry earlier than the 2.5 - 3 hour schedule.  After checking her diaper and trying to soothe her I would get ready to feed her.  My husband questioned my actions but I did it anyway, my baby was hungry.  After feeding her, I went back to the book and re-read the sections that described the feeding schedule for the first few weeks.  Suddenly it popped out at me: “if your baby is hungry, feed her”.  Over and over and over, like a refrain through the multiple chapters.  “If your baby is hungry, feed her.  Then figure out why she was hungry early.”  They even state it twice in one paragraph in the ‘Problem Solving’ chapter.  

There was also a section on jaundice that I don’t remember reading that said a jaundiced baby will need to eat more often, 2 - 2.5 hour intervals rather than 2.5 - 3 hours.  Cora had jaundice and her bilirubin numbers didn’t even out until she was over one week old.  It wasn’t information that stuck out to me until I needed it.  After re-reading parts of the book I felt much more prepared and able to handle at least this one aspect of motherhood.

BabyWise is good advice.  But it is just that, advice.  Take it with a grain of salt.  You don’t take the grandma at the grocery store’s advice as if it’s law (or at least you shouldn’t), don’t take this as law either.  I have found it to be valuable advice, especially early on, but I also find myself moving off from it now.  According to the book I should be stretching Cora’s feedings to be 4 hours apart.  I’ve been trying for a few weeks now to adjust her schedule but it has been much harder.  She’s more fussy and has woken up from naps early, and hungry.  

I’ve tried to figure out why and the conclusion I’ve come to is that her metabolism is higher.  My husband’s is, so it fits.  She’s a petite baby who’s never ‘packed on the pounds’ as some babies seem to, though her growth has been consistent.  So, after taking into consideration the advice in the book, I’ve made the decision as a parent to not follow the book to the letter.

One of the most helpful parenting/feeding advice came from a different book that I also recommend: Secrets of the Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg.  She said “start as you mean to go on”.  In other words don’t do anything now you don’t want to be doing when the child is 4 years old (like allowing them to sleep in your bed) and do start doing the things you want them to do when they are 4 years old (like eating at allotted meal times and taking naps).  Looking at my decisions in the light of this advice has made it easier.

And yet I have only scratched the surface.  I have so much more to learn. 

To Kindle or not to Kindle

I love books.  The summer after my senior year in high school I worked at The Book Warehouse, boxes and boxes of cheap books. I constantly had a stack of books behind the counter that I was going to buy once I got paid.

When I first heard of the kindle and reading ‘ebooks’ I was skeptical, and pretty certain that would never be me.  But this Christmas I asked for one.  Well, I said I think I would like one.  Which was closer to the truth, I was still a little skeptical.  But it looked convenient, especially for travel.  And I always like to have a book with me because you never know when you will end up waiting long enough to want something to read.

I’ve had it for a couple months now and here are the pro’s and con’s.

What I like about the kindle: 

-It’s very portable.  I don’t have to choose which book I may be in the mood for when I leave the house.  I can take multiple books with me; with the 3G I am taking them all with me.  

-Even if I’m reading a thousand pager, like The Count of Monte Cristo, it takes up the same amount of space in my bag.  

-No one can tell what I’m reading.  I can read sappy Christian romance or War and Peace all with the same cover.

What I don’t like about the kindle: 

-No one will be impressed I am reading War and Peace instead of a sappy romance.  No one will know if my copy of a favorite classic is creased and worn.

-There is no weight of thousands of pages making an indent on my hand.  I haven’t decided if this is a pro or con.  Perhaps it belongs in both categories.

-A book doesn’t get a dead battery.  Which is especially annoying when you forget to charge it like I did today.  Sitting in a coffee shop with no book is worse than having to pick just one to bring with me.

-The question of “what are you reading?” can no longer be wordlessly answered by holding up the book.  I must interrupt my reading to answer, that is if I want to admit what I’m reading.  So here’s another pro - I can lie and say I’m reading War and Peace.

(I've never actually read War and Peace, it just sounds impressive.)

I also still have a problem buying books for the kindle.  So far I have only downloaded free books.  When my free library loan of the Fellowship of the Ring expired with two chapters left to read I couldn’t bring myself to click the ‘buy this book now’ button.  I don’t own it yet so it wouldn’t have been superfluous.  I had to check the physical book our of my physical town library from a real life librarian in order to finish those two chapters because I decided if I’m going to buy the book I want it to be a physical copy not an ‘ebook’.

I do like my kindle, and will be reading from it later today.  Once it's charged of course.

Cooking with Cast-Offs

First a few of my friends went Paleo.  Then my sister.  Then my mom.  In a nutshell (a Paleo approved nutshell that is), Paleo = eat meat, and fruit, veg, some nuts are okay but not all, no grains, no processed foods, and no foods a caveman wouldn’t eat.  Basically going back to a hunter-gatherer diet.  Both my sister and my mom are chronicling their Paleo recipes on their blogs (check them out!).  The food looks good but I agreed with my dad when he said a caveman wouldn’t use leftover pizza as a doorstop and that he hunts in the fridge and gathers what he finds.

I love carbs.  I’m a mac and cheese girl.  I love fresh baked bread so warm the butter melts.  (Why yes I did just make some today.  From my mother’s Molasses Oatmeal recipe no less.  After I got rid of the dead mouse in my kitchen.  Story for another time.  It was as gruesome as it sounds.)  So no, I can’t go Paleo.  Here’s another reason.  My mom would have no one to foist all her non-Paleo food on if I did.  

I dropped my daughter off at Grandma’s last week for my first day back to work.  As a New Year’s resolution mom was eating Paleo and had bags of non-Paleo food (canned beans, cereal, cake mix, canned soup, crackers, etc) to get rid of.  Pushing aside the thought that my mom’s purging her ‘unhealthy’ food by giving it to her daughter, I gladly took the free food.

Not to be outdone, I decided to chronicle my own recipe.  I made dinner that night with some of the ingredients.

So here is my very un-Paleo dinner.  It was yummy.

(Recipe basics from the back of the Campbell’s Cheddar Cheese soup can.)

Cheesy Chicken Chili 

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 lb chicken cut into cubes

1 large onion, chopped

1 large green pepper, diced

1 large red pepper, diced

1 can Campbell’s Condensed Cheddar Cheese soup, plus 1/2 can of water

(I usually just measure in my hand so I’m not sure the amounts of spices)

1/2 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp. chili powder

1 can kidney beans

Farro (or other rice/grain) prepared according to package

Heat oil in skillet and cook chicken until browned.  Set aside.  Saute onion, peppers.  Stir in soup, water, spices.  Heat to a boil.  Add cooked chicken and beans.  Heat thoroughly and until chicken is cooked.  Serve over rice/grain.

The finished product.  My husband and I both really liked the Farro.  We thought it was much better than brown rice.

A Piece of Writing is Never Finished

I started re-reading Lord of the Rings and because I was reading on my kindle I ended up reading the bits at the beginning "Notes on the Text".  I usually just skip past introductions and forwards except in Lit class when we had to, or I could use it as a source for an essay.  But I didn't skip this one and I learned something new.  Tolkien was plagued by misprints (the editors 'corrected' his writing by changing dwarves to dwarfs and elvin to elfin, among others) and he rewrote vast parts of the book each time it was reprinted.  For over 10 years he rewrote parts of the novel (it is really one long book in 3 volumes, not a trilogy).  So with Tolkien as my example I decided to revise my last post.  I had written it quickly, trying to get it up before the game got too embarrassing.  So here is a revised version.  Sometimes revision comes quickly: cutting and slicing at unnecessary words; other times it is slow going, reading the sentences over and over hoping for inspiration on how to make it cohesive.  Usually the difference is whether I like the piece or not.  I didn’t particularly like this one, both because I rushed it and because we lost.  But I did find I answered the question differently after thinking about it more.

When I was a kid, Psalty the Singing Songbook sang to ‘do your best and let God do the rest’.  To my six year old self that meant making half my bed and letting God do the rest.  Obviously that didn’t work.  Now I understand it a little differently.  It is the paradox of knowing that God has given me the ability to accomplish something and also completely relying on Him for my strength, for without Him I am thoroughly inadiquate.  God does want us to do our best with what He has given us.  But He also promises to never leave us or forsake us.  

There have been a lot of comments about God not caring about football and that He has a lot more important things to do then help the Broncos win football games.  But is that really true? Does God care about football?  I pray before I go to work.  There are many things that try my patience as a teacher so every morning I pray for patience.  Patience for the children, for my co-workers, for myself when I make mistakes that seem inevitable.  Yes, God has given me compassion for children and talent to work with them; but I still need His help to get through a day sometimes.  Is Tebow praying before the game any different from me praying for patience before I go into school?  He is using his God given talent in the career he has chosen and praying for God to be glorified through it.  What could be more important to God than one of His children asking for His strength to walk out the path He has set?

Given that, I now say yes, God does care about football.  Because His creation is involved.  We are His creation and God cares about people.  He cares about Tim Tebow (Tom Brady too for that matter).  He loves Tim Tebow (and yes, Tom Brady too).  Not because they win or loose football games but because they are His creation.  He loves them just because.  Perhaps the more important thing God has to do than helping the Broncos win football games is reveal Himself to the high school quarterback who is hearing Tim Tebow glorify God.  God doesn’t leave Tim Tebow just because he steps on a football field.  God is his strength no matter what he is doing.

So before the game I prayed for Tebow.  I prayed that whether he wins or not he would watch his character most of all.  Win or loose that he would feel the love of Jesus.  That he would be able to focus and do his best when needed.  But most of all that win or loose, Jesus would be glorified.

Would God say He loves football?  No, He would say He loves you.

Does God care about football?

Well, the quick answer is probably no, not really. So what about winning games?  There have been a lot of comments about God not caring about football and that He has a lot more important things to do then help the Broncos win football games.  But is that really true?  God does care about people.  He cares about Tim Tebow (Tom Brady too for that matter).  He loves Tim Tebow (and yes, Tom Brady too).  

I pray before I go to work too.  There are many things that try my patience as a teacher so every morning I pray for patience.  Patience for the children, for my co-workers, for myself when I make mistakes that seem inevitable.  Yes, God has given me compassion for children and talent to work with them; but I still need His help to get through a day sometimes.  Is Tebow praying before the game any different from me praying for patience before I go into school?  He is using his God given talent in the career he has chosen and praying for God to be glorified through it.  What could be more important to God than one of His children asking for His strength to walk out the path He has set?

When I was a kid, Psalty the Singing Songbook sang to ‘do your best and let God do the rest’.  To my six year old self that meant making half my bed and letting God do the rest.  Obviously that didn’t work.  God does want us to do our best with what He has given us.  But He also promises to never leave us or forsake us.  God doesn’t leave Tim Tebow just because he steps on a football field.  God is his strength no matter what he is doing.

So before the game tonight I prayed for Tebow.  I prayed that whether he wins or not he would watch his character most of all.  Win or loose that he would feel the love of Jesus.  That he would be able to focus and do his best when needed.  But most of all that win or loose, Jesus would be glorified.

Does God love football?  No, He loves people.