"Lord You are my hope 'cause you've created in me a heart that lives the victory that You've already won."
-Watermark (emphasis mine)

All Kinds of Revolutions

These days, I live in a bit of a bubble.  A mommy-o-sphere, if you will.  My days are spent in the company of Dora, Wonder Pets, Seeds, and two adorable children, while the world, it seems, keeps raging on.  I have never joined, nor plan to join Twitter, and though I'm pretty avid texter now, I only began less than three years ago in order to communicate with my sister.  The books I read tend to be older, and I'm still listening to a lot of the same music that I was in 2006.  I sent an email to my very hip, fashion forward best friend from college last week telling her how happy I am that styles have come back around to wide leg pants and bright colors, both things I have still in my closet from 2005-2006 (AKA the pre-pregnancy, pre-nursing, pre-gaining and losing lots of weight up and down years).

So, it's pretty safe to say that a lot of things happen culturally that I am totally unaware of.  However, every once in a while, my little bubble gets popped by new things, and it usually pours when it rains.  Take the whole Rob Bell situation.  I was completely unaware of it until a 2AM feeding Miller while surfing the internet rabbit hole led me to article after article about it.  I don't really feel qualified or informed enough to comment at this point.  What I do know is A) I really hate that it's causing divisions whether real or imagined in the visible church, and B) I think I need to read the book to make a fair judgement call.  If there's one lasting thing that grad school gave me, it's that I cannot take anything at face value.  And, since I'm currently trying to tackle Anna Karenina, other books are just going to have to wait.  (Well, other than the other book I'm reading.  But it's more like a series of blog posts.  But I digress.  Moving on.)

Also, there's this completely unrelated movement wherein runners are moving to low-profile running shoes.  A lot of them are those "five-finger" shoes that have separate sections for all of your toes.  My mom encouraged me not to knock them if I haven't tried them, but I'm not sure how I would feel about separate places for all of my toes.  They kinda like each other.  After talking to a guy at an outdoor store today, though, I want to do more research.  Eventually.  What I do know is that I LU-UHVE my new running shoes.

Finally, I'm reading One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp.  Talk about revolutionary people!  This book is changing the way I think and see everything.  Everything.  It's hard to explain but when one of the dear friends in the Bible Study where we're discussing this book called it revolutionary this morning, I knew exactly what she was talking about.  Don't read it if you want to stay the same and wallow in your life.  The book is so challenging to me about living my daily life and being thankful in ALL situations.

Other than that, the biggest change I'm making is to all natural deodorant.  So far so good, but it's not summer yet, so we'll see.

"I don't know nothin' expect change will come.  Year after year what we do is undone." -Patty Griffin

Logorrhea

Els' vocabulary is exploding these days, meaning that my world is very, very rarely quiet these days.  Girlfriend not only loves to talk, she demands an audience.  There is very little that she doesn't say now or at least attempt to say.  She's also discovered the wonderful world of questions this week.  Now everything is, "Where we goin' to, Mama?,  "Who you singin' to, Mama?",  "What Mama doin'?"  She has for several months referred to herself as 'Ana.  So I also get a lot of, "What does Ana say?"  "Where Ana go?"  "What Ana doing?" (To which I reply, "I don't know, what IS Eliana doing?")  It's wonderful and challenging, and sometimes quite overstimulating for "Mama."  The "why" game has also begun.  I thought she was too young for this....

One of my favorite things about her words is the fact that she says several things with a British accent for some reason.  "Someping huts, Mama," for something hurts and "not wuking" for not working and the like.  She also says moe-wuh for more, drawing out the word like a true Southern girl, but ending up sounding more New-Englandy to me.  

She is truly becoming more and more interested in her little brother too, always asking, "Where baby at, Mama?" when he's not around.  Or "Why dat baby crying, Mama?"  She says "Muh" for Miller and has recently taken to my nick-name for him, calling him "Muh-man" for Miller Man.  Also, I caught her singing to her baby doll one of the songs that I sing to her yesterday.  Melt.  My.  Heart.

I love every new thing she does and says.  Every stage, although increasingly challenging, gets better and better and more fun with my sweet girl.  It's so fun to hear a little about what she does when she goes to church nursery or "school" (aka Mother's Morning Out one day a week).  She can tell me what she did and whether or not she had a snack and even what said snack was.

That little Muh-Man is lots of fun too right now.  He's getting into that "smiley" stage and he's a smiley man.  I am constantly humbled by how much he loves his Mama.

I will leave you with a picture of the two having tummy time together.  "Wook Mama, I habing tummy time too!"

From the Weekend

It's my party and I can look surprised if I want to.

A happy blue monster after his bath.