First off, there are some new photos from late June and July on page 3 of the Summer 2006 Photo Album. Also, check out pictures from Adah's 4th birthday party here. Adah had a "Kitchen Tea Party" and it involved getting dirty in lots of sugary substances. Always a good choice with preschoolers.

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I've been getting the Organic Gardening magazine for the past few months (not sure how, I didn't pay for it), but I really enjoy it and it spurs me on regarding ideas that are hard, but ones that resonate with my granola, tree-hugging self (read this for more of what I've been thinking about lately).

I planted a few squash, pepper, tomato, and green bean plants early in the spring/summer and had a good harvest before the bugs/heat set in. I also got busy/sick/out of town and thus ended my gardening endeavor for the summer as the bed was consumed with monster-like weeds and bugs. I struggle because I want to grow vegetables, but I have a 5 month old and a 4 year old who keep me BUSY and it's HOT outside even at 8 AM. I am going to keep trying and maybe will learn more next year and be able to keep up with it.

I read an article by Bill McKibben in this months National Geographic that spoke to the need of a new type of environmentalism. He called it a "convivial environmentalism, one that asks us what we really want out of life." He was referencing a study that found that despite the material standard of living nearly tripling since World War II, the percentage of American's considering themselves "very happy" had remained the same. In other words, we just want more stuff to make us happy. He went on to state that more studies have found that what we seem to want is more community. The article was long, and I cannot repeat every point here, but it's enough to say that I ended it wishing we, as humans, (and me especially) could give up our SUVs, super markets, suburban sprawl, and general needless consumption and spend our energies on sustainable solutions for this world.

Of course, then I have to ask, why do I care so much about the earth? We'll talk about that another day.

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I did something funky to my back Tuesday morning that resulted in me spending the day in bed with ice on my back (thank you, Granny, for taking care of the kids!). The problem is getting better, but I'm not sure what I did or what is wrong. Either way, it's amazing how a back injury can make you aware of your bad posture. No digging up the weeds in the beds this weekend.

The hardest thing about blogging is narrowing to a single thought. My wife has mentioned the phenomenon of myriad thoughts racing through the skull and never finding an outlet (save for nocturnal connubial conversations.) When I sit down to write, or rather when the spare moment arises (it is not yet a discipline) and it occurs to me to write, my brain is almost immediately overloaded. There is so much I want to say...
Here are some of the topics I have wanted to write about:

• marriage - why it is an essential part of human character.
• honesty & freedom - the necessity of transparency for spiritual health.
• epistemology - what does it mean to believe?
• Christian morality - the smoking-drinking-cursing myth.
• action & immediacy- something I have already touched upon, and that I desire to follow up.
• blogging - it's harder to be honest when readership increases.

The list could go on ad nauseam. So, rather than pontificating into the cyber-ether on these topics (what is my opinion worth anyway?), here is my current mental state:

God is gracious and His mercy falls like rain. I am evil, born in sin, and I have discovered that we are all broken. Subject to the same privations and pains, we are all but fallen children. Hurting, groping, striving; a house of ragamuffins. (If you want to tell me that you are not, you are lying.) I have tasted Redemption; and it is both free and freeing.

I spent a few days last week in Palm Bay (Melbourne area, east coast) visiting my family. Here's a pic my dad took of Adah (PB & J, man).

Yes, the 5 hour trip took me 8 hours (most of which was spent with someone crying, take your pick), so I won't be doing that again any time soon (sorry, mom and dad).

Adah will be 4 next week. Today she told me that her red marker was going to marry her black marker. And then have the yellow marker as a baby.

Ranen has made friends with his feet. The kid is just a smile machine. I spend a lot of time looking at him, making funny conversations with him, and smiling back at him--which is why my house is a constant mess; a blissful mess, you might say.

I could be getting addicted to M & Ms, but accepting that fact is the first step toward recovery. And admitting that I have a bag of them in the kitchen cabinet...

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So much for all the surface stuff. Do I blog about how many horrible things I said today? Thought today? That I took Adah outside during the beginnings of a thunder storm so I could feel how small I am? That I think that a "Pampered Chef" is the antithesis of what I need to be? That I get frustrated that so many people need me and it encroaches on my selfishness? That I'm tired. Tired. Tired?

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The thunderstorm left in it's wake a beautiful orange sunset this evening, so I took Adah out to see it.