to persevere: parenting stories and other geekery

I was taking the subway today. It was a hot and smoggy day, so I decided to be nice to the air and not drive my car to work and to my doctors appointment this afternoon. Anyway, on the way home I saw a billboard for National Geographic. It depicted a cross in black, on a red background, with the cross casting a shadow on the ground, except the shadow was of a question mark.

The tagline was something like “The secret they don’t want you to know.” Apparently it’s part of ‘Sacred Secrets Month’ at Nat Geo. (Please correct me if I don’t have my facts straight, I saw the billboard from inside the subway car, across the platform on the opposite track, so I couldn’t make out all the words exactly…)

Isn’t it ironic, that in a world where it is politically incorrect to say there is any truth, there can be a still be a secret that covers up ‘the truth’. So truth does exist, after all? You can’t have a mystery about something if there is no truth… otherwise you would solve the mystery only to find yourself holding nothing.

As I looked at the image, I couldn’t help but wonder, is the cross a question mark in my life? Is it a question mark in yours? Is it an enigma, or have you got it all figured out? It seems to me that I would be arrogant to say that I know everything there is to know about Jesus Christ, or even to suggest that we can know everything.

Jesus said “You are truly my disciples if you keep obeying my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32) In a time where we have little truth, we have little freedom as well. And so in place of truth we have experience. What have we seen? What have we felt? What have we tasted? We call ourselves Christ-followers instead of Christians. As we follow Christ, we experience a different kind of life. Shane Claiborne is a great example of how different that life can be. If you have time (50 min), check out one of his talks here.

I don’t know everything. I know that I’ve experienced grace in my lifetime that I never deserved. I know I’ve dreamed of God, felt His presence. I know I’ve seen things happen that are beyond what I’m capable to understand. So yes, the cross is a question mark in my life. It reminds me that for every thing I do know, there are more things I do not know, and that I’m ok with that. Because what I do know gives me the will to carry on.

technorati tags:faith, questions

Blogged with Flock

My iBook is back. I followed the guide here and the tips here, and got it back up and running today. Some minor disassembly, and a few rubber feet later, voila! iBook is back. Nance will be happy because she can still use the net while I’m working. I’m happy because the kids can bang on it and I don’t care. My wallet is happy because it didn’t cost me $700 to replace the logic board.

Here’s a picture of little brother next to big brother:

Hooray!

technorati tags:iBook, g4, logic, board, fix

Blogged with Flock

T is two and a half years old now, and she’s fully into the ‘terrible’ portion of the two’s. It hasn’t helped matters this past week that she’s been sick. Torn between expressing her growing independence and regressing to more secure baby-ways, a lot of ‘drive-my-parents-crazy’ behaviours have surfaced.

Going anywhere in the car has become a bit of a stressor.

———
T: “I don’t like the wind! It’s blowing my hair! Can you close my window?”
J: “But I thought you liked the wind!”
T: “No! I changed my mind! Please?! Can you close the window?”
J: “Don’t close mine, I like it open!”
T: “No!”
———
[later]
T: “My hair is blowing, Daddy!”
Me: “Oh, do you want me to close the windows?”
T: “No, I like it. I like it now. I changed my mind.”
———

Another problem is that T claims she “doesn’t like bumps” anymore. As in, anywhere we drive, if there’s the slightest bump, she begins to cry. I mean, there’s no where you can drive that there isn’t a bump. There’s a bump coming out of our driveway, ok? So it’s really impossible. And she now wants mommy to hold her hand.

———
T: “Daddy, can you go the not bumpy way?”
Mom: “T, Daddy will go the way he wants to, OK? He can’t choose where the bumps are.”
T: “Nooo! I don’t like the bumps!”
Mom: “T, we can’t do anything about the bumps, OK?”
T: “Mommy, hold my hand! Please?! Hold my hand!”
J: “Why does T keep changing her mind? Sometimes she likes the wind, sometimes she doesn’t.”
Mom: “Well…”
T: “No! Don’t talk about me!”
———

I keep telling myself, “5 more months, only 5 more months!”

We spent an hour outside doing some gardening. Well, mostly I did the gardening, while the kids ran about, getting into trouble and having fun. We discovered a new clump of spiderlings right on our back step. I’ve been trying to instill a neutral attitude towards bugs, rather than a fear of bugs, in the kids, so I brought them over to have a look. It helps that we just read Charlotte’s Web (J asked: “Where’s the egg sac?”) so they were familiar with the idea of hundreds of little tiny spiders all together.

Our garden needs major work… oh well… one long weekend at a time…

I just came across this in the news:
Heavy-duty car seats coming for bigger kids

Kids will be required to be in car seats up till 65 lbs, instead of the current transition point of 40 lbs. It seems that there will be new models of car seats that will support bigger kids, keeping kids in the full 5-point harness for longer.

Looks like we’ll be getting one of these new car seats instead of a booster like we thought…