I've recently become a Wikipedia enthusiast. I've used it off and on for a while now, but recently I've begun to understand how useful it really is. (Strikingly analogous to my experience with the Web as a whole).
This recent wiki-fit began when someone asked why Dr. Cox hates Hugh Jackman. Being the Web-junkie that I am, my immediate thought was "we'll just google it", and the Google search led me to a Wikipedia article. Then the floodgates opened.

Recent Wikipedia articles that I have read (or skimmed):

• Gaelic
• Rock, Paper, Scissors
• Objectivist philosophy
• Weapons in science fiction
• Classical elements (fire, earth, water, air)
• Vorpal

Ain't the Internet great?

Look out, X-Men! We've got a new superhero in our midst. Adah told me today that she was "spidergirl," because she "liked to tie rope to things and tie things up." Now it is true, she has been taking any string-like substance and tying it to anything she can, but how did she know that much about spiderman? Perhaps just an educated supposition that something that is a spider must tie things up, or at least have string to tie things with? Crazy.

On other fronts, Christopher and I had our eight year anniversary earlier this week and it led to fun conversations about what we want to do with the next two years, five years, ad infinitum. Wouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall for that conversation? Too bad. ;-) But, I will tell you that we're going to try to make it to Rome, Italy for our 10 year anniversary.

The list of babies born to friends in the last three months:

• Ranen Zane Bennage, 02.17.06
• Autumn Theresa Fultz, 02.18.06
• James Cash Alley, 04.07.06
• Nena Janie Walworth, 04.16.06
• Aiden James Kagy, 04.25.06
• Abigail Lynn Kagy, 04.26.06
• Clark Thomas Mitchell, 05.04.06
• Jaden Michael Charles, 05.09.06

I have pretty sensitive skin. The years Christopher and I have been fortunate enough to attend the Cornerstone festival, I usually come back covered in a red, prickly rash from sun exposure. About five days ago I started itching a spot on my arm that turned into a large welt, and then moved to other parts of my body. The oil of the poison ivy plant...tenacious, indeed! I removed the few vines I found hiding behind the trees in my back yard today (I felt like one cleaning out radiation from a reactor breach).

Adah and Ranen are both doing well. Ranen will be three months today. I feel like I have blinked and the calendar flipped. I have been thinking a lot lately about how we are just dust and this is all "chasing after the wind." You might think it depressing, but it is focusing the perspective for me.

I harvested the first zuchini from my "garden" yesterday. I haven't tasted it yet, but I fear I may have let it get too big. Taste and see.

"You have a traitor there, Aslan," said the Witch. Of course everyone present knew that she meant Edmund. But Edmund had got past thinking about himself after all he'd been through and after the talk he'd had that morning. He just went on looking at Aslan. It didn't seem to matter what the Witch said.

"Well," said Aslan. "His offence was not against you."

The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe

Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.

Revelation 12:10

"You must be convinced of this, trust it, and never forget to remember. Everything else will pass away, but the love of Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Faith will be vision, hope will become possession, but the love of Jesus Christ that is stronger than death endures forever. In the end, it is the one thing you can hang onto."

Brennan Manning
The Ragamuffin Gospel
Chapter 4, Tilted Halos

Caution: This message will likely self-destruct the moment Sandra sees it.

Okay, so envy is not good. Not good. Rebecca Strickland got a way cool camera for graduation and here's some recent pics. Check out the Gallery...I may have more photos from that shoot up available soon.

The first is Ranen looking chubby cheeked. It't not a very flattering picture, but since I haven't posted any pics of him lately...

The next photo almost captured his cute, surprised "huh?" look...

And lastly, Adah and her "little silky," which has gone from being a 10"x 8" flannel and satin square to a number of flannel rags and one cut up square of satin. Don't tell her, but I'm slowly washing the little flannel rags and putting them away for posterity.

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Christopher told me the other night that my "writing style" for our blog entries was the type that I usually dislike in authors. G. K. Chesterton to name one. I will tell you now, though I have spent the last 9 years technical writing and the years before that studying and writing poetry, I don't think about how I write on this blog. I just write. For better or worse. Or worser. Just kidding. Seriousily, it takes too much effort to care about how I'm writing. I just want to write it down so that ten years from now, I can go through the backups on our server and say, "Oh yeah, that's what happened." Or, at least I hope I can. We're not exactly consistent with this thing are we?

 

"The gospel of grace calls us to sing of the everyday mystery of intimacy with God instead of always seeking for miracles or visions. It calls us to sing of the spiritual roots of such commonplace experiences as falling in love, telling the truth, raising a child, teaching a class, forgiving each other after we have hurt each other, standing together in the bad weather of life, of surprise and sexuality, and the radiance of existence. Of such is the kingdom of heaven, and of such homely mysteries is genuine religion made. The conversion from mistrust to trust is a confident quest seeking the spiritual meaning of human existence. Grace abounds and walks around the edges of our everyday experience."

Brennan Manning
The Ragamuffin Gospel
Chapter 4, Tilted Halos

Adah has more toys than she knows what to do with. I'm a neat-freak whose been drawn to the dark side of dust bunnies and piles of clutter (totally unwillingly, there are not enough hours in the day or strength to see it through). The other morning Adah had taken a piece of old rope she'd found in the garage and tied it to two ends of an old wooden ruler. She spent at least half an hour to an hour playing with this contraption, calling it a sign she needed to put around her neck.

I think I could get rid of 90% of her toys without her noticing. She'd notice, though, if I got rid of any dress up clothes.

Adah has been incredibly rebellious lately. Refusing to do simple tasks like taking off her pull-up and putting on underwear in the morning, or brushing her teeth before bed. I was a very head-strong, rebellious, selfish child; I would say uncommonly so. I understand the sin-nature, but I can't help but feeling that Adah, like me, has more than her share of the sin-nature. Why is that?

Ranen will be 10 weeks tomorrow. His reflux is still an issue and I hate giving him medicine 3x a day (he screams through it, not really an effective way to get the medicine down). Other than that, he's doing well...loves to smile and coo and has gotten pretty close to a belly laugh.

* * *

I was reading Adah a story out of a children's book about Jesus (her own prompting). It was the one where the children wanted to come and see Jesus, but the disciples told them not to bother him because, in the words of the child-friendly story, he was "tired" and needed to "rest" (total inference, see Mark 10:13-16, Matthew 19:13-15). Yet Jesus told them to "let the children come to me." It struck me hard, at that moment, how much I do not just let Adah "come to me." I understand this is not the thrust of the passage (as much as the object lesson of the kingdom of heaven), but for me, to see Jesus holding the children and blessing them, despite perhaps his physical condition and lack of time, was very convicting.

I need to be like Jesus...it doesn't matter that the dishes and laundry and dirt on the floor are piling up. The question is, does Adah know I love her unconditionally (whether she spills the grape juice or not)? I think my impatience and stern countenance belie my feelings and I want to bury that into the ground. I want to be known as a loving mother and not a mom who had a clean house.