best of facebook 12/4

Attributed to "I love being a mom" on facebook.

 

 

best of facebook, Nov. 19

Attributed to someone named Denise Smith

Dedicated to my fellow moms, and my sisters in spirit. 

Best of fb: Those Moms

attributed to Money Saving Mom on facebook.

 

dedicated to Jessica

more fun with English

from No Agenda Homeschool on facebook.

(And look--they made "Homeschool" a compound word! I guess I'm not the only one who thinks that is logical.  What does it say about homeschool parents that we decide when we can override Websters.  Wait a minute. . . (googling) hey, it looks like homeschool IS an acceptable spelling, and according to Merriam-Webster, the preferred spelling!  And, hey, they say the first known use of "homeschool" was in 1980--it's literally a word created for my generation!  So I guess it's just the spell-check on DH's touchpad that is behind the times.

In briefly looking that up, my eye caught the online dictionary's suggestions for words that rhyme with HOMESCHOOL: ampoule, babul, befool, carpool, cesspool, Dame school, faldstool, gene pool, hangul, Kabul, misrule, old-school, self-rule, tomfool, uncool, whirlpool.  That's just a sampling of the words, but doesn't it read like a poem in itself?!)

Ah, a little word-nerd fun on a Saturday morning. : ) 

how i'm spending my last day(s)

I forgot, until blogs I read reminded me, that some people think the world is coming to an end tomorrow. 

Is that tomorrow morning, or tomorrow night?  Do I have one day left, or two?  Does God pay any attention to the International Date Line?  Would be nice to know, to prioritize my final activities. 

And is this going to be a pre-Tribulation kind of rapture end of the world?  You know, like in the "Left Behind" way.  In which case I would start giving away my worldly goods to friends who won't be joining me on the Jesus train.  Love you all--wish you were coming.  But if it's not going to be a big party for believers on the big train to Glory, and more like a doomsday scene ala 2012, then I'll just spend the day eating the best dark chocolate I have on hand, hugging my children, and waiting for the earth to swallow us up.

(and during my brief search to bring up that image, look what else I found:)

Heh. heh.

Ok, enough of the irreverence. 

The good thing about any crazy claim that the world is coming to an end is that it makes us stop and think--even if we immediately scoff at the idea, we did engage with the concept, however briefly.  Because to be honest, any assertion that the world is coming to an end. . . is true.  It is.  Or, I should say, it will.  Someday.  But I don't think we can ever be prepared with a specific date or time.  (A brief but succinct Biblical reasoning here, interestingly enough from the "Left Behind" authors.)

So, the world is someday going to end.  But you know what doomsday I expect sooner?  The collapse of America.  I know, I sound all extreme (esp. after that cartoon. heh.).  But this is a completely non-partisan opinion--all the leaders of our nation are making choices that just don't make sense, which are digging us into a pit I am not sure we will be able to dig out of.  America is still a baby nation, and the more I read about the history of the world, the more I know we are all part of one grand experiment, which might just fail. 

And you know what doomsday might come even sooner than that?  Whatever terrible and unexpected misfortune might strike our nation, our state, our town, our family.  I am sure some people in Japan thought their world might be at an end when the earthquake struck--I was just watching a documentary that said the "S" waves (the ones that cause all the damage) lasted more than 5 minutes.  That must have felt like eternity.  And of course the horrifying reality is that the lives of many people--many towns--abruptly ended that day.  Even with state-of-the-art early warning systems, the epicenter of the earthquake was so close that the people of Japan only had 60 seconds of warning.  They had no chance to really prepare.  And the tsunami warning gave people 20 minutes to evacuate--but a lot of the people could not get far, or did not know where to go to be safe.  The documentary said they imagine a lot of people were pulled back to sea when the wave retreated.  And that the nation would probably be having bodies wash back up on its shore for months to come. 

So horrible, so tragic.  So completely unexpected.

And then there are the strange, new lumps and spots showing up all over me and DH.  Both of us are at high risk for cancer, esp. melanoma.  We got checked out together once, about 8 years ago, but don't feel like we learned anything about our bodies, what to be concerned about, what to ignore.  Since then lots more interesting, unusual lumps and spots have joined the melee, and it's long time for us to get checked out by a doctor with better communication skills.  One of those things I keep meaning to do, but which I forget about in the day-to-day rush of life.  I seem to remember such things only when the offices are closed.   To be honest, maybe I have been forgetting because part of me does not want to know, if the truth is horrible to comprehend.  And yet, pretending my world might not come crashing down does not mean it won't. 

And then there is today.  Who knows that terrible accident might befall DH as he drives his 40 min. commute today, or any friends or family who are travelling, or which of my children might suffer an unexpected and unpreventable trauma.  You know the old, "you might get hit by a bus tomorrow so live for today" idea is really true.  We never know what tomorrow will bring.  We only have today. This moment.  Now.

So, how am I going to chose to spend my last (two?) days?

Well, first comes Japan Camp. ; )  But while it is on, I will try to delight in each of the children present, enjoying the unique ideas and qualities they each bring to the table.  I will try to be patient with their mistakes, their flaws, their seemingly endless fount of irritations.* ; )   I will celebrate with them.  I will be thankful for them, for their creativity, for their enthusiasm, for their childishness.   Then when our guests have gone, I'll keep the day low-key and family oriented.  I will be sure to cuddle and love on each of my children in turn.  I'll make sure to kiss them goodnight.  When DH comes home late from his men's event, I'll make sure he feels loved. ; )  And all through the day, I'll be doing all this with Christ at my side, aware of His love, thankful for His grace, only able to love these people who have been put in my life because of His love, which lives in me. 

And then tomorrow I'll wake up and start the loving all over again.  And I have a feeling I'll do the same Sunday morning. ; )

Ok, I won't be perfect at it.  But that's not the point--the point is the goal, the effort.  The striving for joy, the reveling in grace.  I've kept that quotation up at the top of my blog for a long time now, but that's because it continues to inspire me.  My life is this moment, these moments, all strung together.  I don't know how many moments I have, certainly not in this life I currently enjoy, so all I can do is live the fullest in each moment.

And that's not a huge, self-defeating concept, which is where my brain often takes it.  Living life to its fullest in this moment I have does not involve Martha Stewart-ish table settings or mouth-watering food, or sunsets on the beach, or the whole family one with nature in a creek or everyone laughing and giving loving looks while cuddled on the couch, or even us all being in a good mood at the same time. It means chosing to speak gently if possible, and give lots of loving touches and words, and to forgive quickly, and to always keep in mind what is most important right at this moment?  and then act on that.

And if I am wrong about the whole end of the world thing and tomorrow is really it, then I'll be in heaven and not washing one more dish or breaking up one more fight or wiping one more poopy butt.  Hallelujah!

See you on the other side.



*I'm talking about my children, not the others who come for the day.  Only our own children can push us over the edge so completely with their repetitious, ongoing tests of patience!

Yep, that's pretty much what happened

Yesterday, Holy Scripture. . . today, irreverent cartoon. I guess this blog is like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates--you just never know what you're gonna get. ; )

a brief history of baring it all

Finally, a posting worthy of dedicating to my big sister Rebecca! ; )

Ain't she cute? Ok, no that's not my sister, but this photo does bring back memories of the voluptuous teenager she was, very cute and curvy--I was more long and, um, sleek (the opposite of curvy, if you will).

This image comes from a fascinating photo-essay on Slate.com, about the history of the bikini. Two pieces (ha!) of information I learned from the article: First, when the bikini first came on the scene in Paris, the models there were so scandalized they refused to model it. So who did the designer find to model? A stripper named Micheline Bernardini, pictured above.

Second, before the bikini, women's swimwear took its modesty cues from the movies. Fascinating!

Notable quotation from the photo essay: A few years ago, Sports Illustrated dug up a 1957 issue of Modern Girl that declared: "It is hardly necessary to waste words over the so-called bikini since it is inconceivable that any girl with tact and decency would ever wear such a thing."

http://www.slate.com/id/2221241/?obref=obinsite

This is all the more interesting when contrasted with an article I read when visiting Susan in Colorado Springs (it was from a magazine in your living room, Susan--maybe a Newsweek?) that discussed the recent "alarming" trend among young French women to be more modest in their swimwear, esp. eschewing the topless beaches.

My own opinions about bikinis developed mainly from two realization: one, that most women look worse and not better when they bare it all; second, that I believe modesty is valuable, and want to instill an appreciation of it in my chidren.

We are not at all prudes around the house, partly out of practicality:

And partly because we are trying to teach the children to think their bodies and what their bodies do are good, beautiful, natural things. That their bodies are designed brilliantly, and should be admired for their miraculous qualities and their intrinsic aesthetics. That nothing about our bodies is bad except how we sometimes choose to use them to hurt or offend others. How our bodies and spirits are part of a whole person, and we cannot separate one from the other, and so what we do with out bodies affects our spirits, and vice versa.

Clearly there are so many ways we could talk about this subject and get really deep and profound, but let's just get back to the bikinis. ; )

Most of you probably have figured out that our girls will not be wearing skin-baring clothing until they are out on their own--what they do as adults will be completely up to them. But as kids, I have the perfect beachwear for them:

Not a great pic--taken when visiting a friend with a pool!--but you can see their swimwear, which is most decidedly modest. But that is not why I love these suits, which we get from a company out here in CA called Tuga Swimwear. I love them because:

--no more slathering on sunscreen! with these SPF rated suits and their sunhats they are protected fully unless we are out for a long time or in very intense sun, when we still need to lather arms and legs and faces. Esp. no more burned areas on shoulders and backs where regular suits rub off the sunscreen or where parent fingers sometimes don't get the lotion all the way to the edges of the suit!

--no more sand rubbing painfully in tender areas! No more sand in diapers! Even when the kids bury themselves in the sand!

--no sand in the crotch means no sand sneaking home in the suimsuit crotch to spill all over the bathroom floor when girls clean off in the shower! (ok, some still sticks to the fabric, so we still strip out on the back deck when we come from the beach--but nothing like my memories of the handful of beach we would be sitting on all the way back to Aunt Rosalie's house in, when we would strip in the shower and watch it go down the shower drain. Bring back memories, Rebecca?)

--we can go from playground to beach, etc. and the kids are more comfortable and ready for anything!

When the girls are older, they may not go for the full coverage swim combos anymore (the one-piece only go up to age 6 anyway, but I love the bike short/rashguard oldest sister G is wearing in the pic), but luckily it shouldn't be because they are not "cool"--because while California is the home of the bikini here in the USA, it is also the home of surfing USA, so a lot of the coolest girls wear rashguards and board shorts! Great white shark fears aside, I'll take a surfer girl over a stripper girl anytime!

So, there you have it, a bare bones (ha! i am really on a roll. a pathetic roll, but a roll.) perspective on swimwear past, present and future.

Photograph of Micheline Bernardini in 1946 courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Dedicated to my big sister, of the bikini worthy curves, who now has two beautiful and modest teenage daughters. ; )

you too?

Baby Blues from Thursday, May 14, 2009

Courtesy of Mom.

(click to embiggen)

roadtrip humor

http://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/20090610.gif