Saturday, June 18, 2011

Summer Reading

Summer in the pacific northwest... It is wet today; a damp, drizzly sort of rain is falling which will keep us from drying out too early - and keep us from preparing for August...the dry, windy month that helps us completely forget (albeit, only briefly) that winter is real.

I am considering my summer reading "plan", having just finished Atlas Shrugged, and in so doing decided to take a walk through the past to see where some of my former favorite authors are hiding...

Anne Lamott, Ruskin Bond, Donald Miller, Anne Jackson, Shauna Niequist... countless other authors have made my lists throughout the years. I am going to revisit some of these good friends - and pick up some new ones along the way during the summer of 2011, if I am may be so inclined:

Anne Lamott: Bird by Bird
Ruskin Bond: Rain in the Mountains
Donald Miller: A million miles
Anne Jackson: Permission to Speak Freely
Shauna Niequist: Bittersweet
Kathleen Norris: Acedia and Me
Lynne Hybels: Nice Girls don't Change the World

I am also going to read The Life of Pi, and the curious incident of the dog in the night-time...

Girls

I am a mom. This means I usually end up talking about my kids a great deal. I decided perhaps I should get that out of the way now, so as to discuss some of my other favorite things...

First things first. There have been days along this parenting journey that I wanted to get in my car and drive as fast as I could in the opposite direction and never look back. I have come to see this is normal, so if you ever feel that way, you aren't alone!

Second, I truly love my girls. The older they get, the more interesting life gets! I never fully planned the notion of motherhood, so when it happened, I found myself in a brand new adventure. I read, and read, and read some more. I found some styles of parenting which fit my grid, and I practiced them at a level comfy for all of us. I stayed at home until I felt like I could do something part time, and I did something part time until full time work became a reality. My number one parenting belief is, "get to know your kids as individuals." I think that a lot of people try one size fits all approaches to their kids (like many other things) and I discovered that wasn't our reality!

To weave our Oregonian address into this, I will just give a shout out to God for creating such an amazing place to live and raise a family. One hour to the beach. One hour to the mountains. Fair enough shelter from the wind and harsh weather. An excellent valley climate for yards and gardens. Occasional snow. Quirky people that live in the Metro area so my girls exposure to the world isn't quite so narrow. My favorite thing? Not having to teach the girls to pump their own gas, thanks to the law of the land! Jake can teach them if they drive to Washington, ha!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Deactivated

I was thinking along today, and decided to deactivate. There is a rhyme and a reason for this, but I won't get into it here... Here, I will discuss the concept of deactivation -

I found this definition online: deactivate [diːˈæktɪˌveɪt] vb
  • 1. (tr) to make (a bomb, etc.) harmless or inoperative
  • 2. (Physics / Atomic Physics) (intr) to become less radioactive
  • 3. (Military) (tr) US to end the active status of (a military unit)
  • 4. (Chemistry) Chem to return or cause to return from an activated state to a normal or ground state
To make harmless or inoperative - this would imply that the object which you are deactivating is dangerous. To become less radioactive - to me, this suggests poison.. interesting... To end the active status of a military unit - suggesting a purposeful season. To cause to return from an activated state to a normal state.

This last one is the one that symbolizes best my decision to deactivate.

You see, there is this element that I realized is rather potentially harmful. A bit radioactive, if you will... and I find it fitting that the term used to end your friendship with this element is to deactivate... Hmm...

"He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity." Proverbs 21:23
Or my paraphrase "He who guards his keyboard and the send key keeps himself from calamity"