Earth Day Article

I wrote this for an upcoming publication at work, thought I would share. Thanks Jill for the resources!

The Christian’s responsibility in the “Resource Recession”

 “Recession” seems to be the new buzz word these days. Everyone is worried about their 401k’s not having enough money to carry them through retirement. People are losing jobs, cutting coupons, carpooling and doing whatever they can to conserve their resources in these hard economic times. It seemed like it came out of nowhere, but the more research that was done, the more we saw that this crisis had been brewing for a while.

 

We can learn a lot from the economic situation we are in right now and apply it to other areas of life- the most obvious one to me is the world we live in. Whether you believe that climate change is a result of man’s actions toward it or not, there is no denying the fact that we use the earth’s resources as if they will never run out. If we keep at this pace, the world we hand our grandchildren is going to be a big disappointment to them.

 

In the beginning, humans were given dominion over the earth- not domination. The Hebrew meaning of the word “dominion” means “higher on the root of a plant”. Dominion is not unrestricted use of the earth’s resources- it is taking care of that which holds us up. If you destroy the root, you kill the whole plant. Many Christians have gotten away with not caring about the planet because they believe that God will destroy it at the end of all things- but the fact remains that Christ will return, and you have to ask yourself “How am I going to hand this gift of His Creation back to God?”. Yes, He will restore the earth and it will be made new, but that doesn’t take away from our responsibility to care for it. If I applied that thinking to everything, then I would not pay my bills, keep my body healthy, vaccinate my child or come to work. While we are not of this world, we have to live in it, so why not take care of it?

 

It’s interesting to me that the first covenant God made was after the great flood. Genesis 9:8-17 tells us the details of this covenant, and it repeatedly says that God is establishing it with man and every living creature of all flesh. This shows that God has lovingly created this world, that he cared enough to save animals and plants along with man on the ark and that He loves His creation. If I created something- say, a clay pot- I would care about it. I would do what I could to protect it from getting dirty or breaking. How much more would a loving and just God care about the life that He created?

 

We have a Christian responsibility to conserve. Turn off the lights if you are not using them, recycle, don’t print tons of copies of things that you can have electronically, do all your errands at once to reduce your drive, don’t encourage the toxicity of our world by dumping trash where it doesn’t belong and releasing harsh chemicals into the air. Just as we care about our 401k’s and our bank accounts and will do whatever we can to ensure that they will be there in the future, we have a deeper responsibility to the environment. The earth provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetite. We must live Christianly in all aspects of life, not just in church or at work or in relationships with other people. It must permeate everything we are and everything we do. God requires it of us- how can we not bow before him and obey?

Never Forget…

I have never been to New York, the Pentagon or Pennsylvania, but every year on September 11, I weep for the memories of those lost. I don’t know anyone who died, I haven’t been to ground zero, and I have no idea how I would have reacted if I had been there. I do know this: I am an American, as were they. No matter your ideas on whose fault it was, no matter what political party you belong to, no matter your religion… I think we can all agree that these attacks were horrific and changed our lives forever.

I was a sophomore in college on 9.11.01. I was getting ready for class, in the shower actually when the first plane hit. My entire shower caddy for no reason at all just fell off the shower head and all of my toiletries landed on my toes. Annoyed and in pain, I muttered to myself, this is not going to be a good day. 2 seconds after I had wrapped myself in a towel and prepared to apply my makeup, my roomate’s sister barrelled into our dorm room and frantically told me to turn on my TV. I tuned in just in time to see the second plane hit. It took me a long time to realize that this was real, this was really happening. But why? At 19 years old, I had not educated myself about the world much- except to know that I had lived in foreign countries due to my dad’s job, I spoke spanish and had a wider worldview than many of my fellow students at my tiny Christian college in Bethany, OK. I knew what it was like to live outside of the USA, and because of my sadness while I was gone, I was a girl who LOVED MY COUNTRY, still do, and could not understand why anyone else would hate it.

That day was crazy. Everyone panicked and booked it to 7-11 to fill up their gas tanks because relatives were calling with stories of $10/gallon gas and fears that Oklahoma City would be hit again. Chapel was cancelled, we all gathered together and cried and prayed and tried to make sense of it all. There were rants of the end times which made me mad and scared… I got a call from my aunt that my cousin who worked in the Pentagon was unreachable. That’s when I lost it. I went to the park and sat in my car and railed against God, the Muslims, the world. I didn’t feel any better. I didn’t feel any safer. I went back to my room to see images of desperate people flinging themselves off of buildings because they’d rather die like that than burn to death. I threw up. My aunt called to tell me that my cousin was alive and well. I went to class that night, where no one could concentrate. All of the emotion was dizzying, and just thinking of it today overwhelms me. I cannot imagine what it must be like today for those who were actually there and survived, for those who lost someone close to them, for those who saw it from their rooftops.

Time has calmed me- I know that God has a purpose for it somewhere, even if after 7 years we don’t know what it is. I know that not all Muslims are crazed Jihadists. I know the true depth of sacrifice our troops make to ensure this doesn’t happen again. I don’ think I’ll ever be able to not cry when I see the images from that day. I will never be able to really convey what my heart and mind were going through that day. I will always instill respect and love of country into my daughter, I will always be grateful for the sacrifice of people who put people and country above their own lives and fight to keep America safe. I will always remember the heroes of 9.11.01, and I will never forget.

Click here to remember with me. What about you? Where were you on 9/11 and how did it impact you? I’d love for you to share…

Happy Birthday Miss Kat

Aubrey’s birthday isn’t til next weekend, but since we are going out of town, we’re having her party this Sunday. I can’t wait! I’m mostly excited about putting a cute little party hat on her and watching her dig into her personal little cake, fashioned by the very talented Abbi Z. I love having a reason to have people over, and this is a very special one. A year ago today, I was so swollen that I could barely wear flip flops, my back hurt constantly and I was cleaning everything from the blinds to the dog. I have to say, I HATED being pregnant and would be perfectly happy to never go through that again, but it was totally worth it. Miss Kat is my greatest accomplishment and she has been a joy in my life. She makes me want to be a better person, and to make her world wonderful and safe. I hope to see you all at her party this weekend. Whatever you do this weekend, have fun, wear sunscreen, and be nice!

 

If you are bored and have another 5 hours left til your weekend, check out this article.

People are strange…

Well I haven’t posted in awhile because I have been busy doing lots of mundane things that aren’t worthy to write about- just living day to day life and waiting for the weekend. However, Aubrey’s first tooth has made its grand debut and I must say, she isn’t a fan and probably wishes for it to go back where it came from so she can be fed from a bottle for the rest of her life. I keep telling her that that probably won’t go over well with the fellas when she’s 15, and then Ryan tells me that we should keep bottle feeding her to keep the evil males away from his princess. I, however, am a fan of the Famous First Tooth. Its so teeny and white and cute! It kind of made me sad because its like, she’s not a baby anymore, but it also made me excited because I could see (albeit hair full of mush) in my near future a child who can feed herself.

All that to say that the tooth, it makes her chew on her fingers a lot. The child does not understand the concept of the teething ring. I have literally bought about 5 different rings- brightly colored, different textures, refrigerated, not refrigerated, Baby Einstein for crying out loud! and she just throws them to the ground because hey, she needs those fingers free for chew toys.

Yesterday Ryan brought her up to work and we all went to lunch together. While standing in line waiting for a table, a rather large older man came out the door with some other large old men and made the usual “She’s so cute!” comment to which we replied, “Thanks!” and to which Aubrey kept gnawing on her hands and drooling. Then homeboy goes “Oh! Can I suck on that finger too?”

Blink. Blink. Blink.

No you cannot suck on my 11 month old daughter’s fingers, you pedopheliac freak! Good Lord people, I mean seriously. Seriously? It was weird. People are strange. I can’t wait til she gets older so I can teach her how to give sickos like that a swift kick in the pants.

 

*Side note: I write this with a smile on my face bc when you get over the creepiness, its funny. And I am not going to train my child to go around kicking everyone who says she’s cute. I’m going to train her to first ask “Are you a democrat?” and then she can use her own judgement on how many times they need to be kicked*

Let’s go green! Only, can I do it from indoors?

I have been bugging Ryan since mid-March about planting a garden this year. Last year it was severely neglected due to the little squirming baby we brought home in June, but I didn’t have time or energy to care. Now the squirmer is perfectly happy to sit in an exersaucer for a half hour and sleeps 11 hours straight, so it was time to get started on “yard of the month”.

Last Friday we went and bought all the plants and flowers and mulch that we would need. And with the price of food going up this summer, I got a couple of tomato, pepper and mint plants. I wanted to go all out and get enough to make a fresh salad everyday, but I have no clue what I am doing when it comes to gardening… so I started small. My next door neighbor is one of those guys that knows everything about everything and his entire back yard is practically a Whole Foods produce section, so I guess I could have asked him. But the squirmer, she is still only 11 months old. Maybe next year. I’m sure by then he will be selling ethanol to fuel our cars out of his garage.

Anyways, I was excited about the pretty flowers and plants until Ryan said, “Okay, first thing we have to do is rake up all this old mulch and pull the weeds out.” To steal a line from Dooce, Blink. Blink blink. Okayyyyy. Sure thing. I put on my cute new pink gardening gloves and got to work. Only, it really is work! Its hard and dirty and sweaty and itchy! Those are NOT a few of my favorite things. But after a couple of flowers had been planted and I could see it all coming together, I started to relax and enjoy the beautiful day and the sounds of the wind and the smell of the dirt. By the time our garden was done, I was mapping out the backyard’s transformation.

I think my newfound eco-friendliness has opened a lot of new doors for me. The other day I needed to go to Dollar General (a little store about 5 blocks from my house) and instead of hopping in the car, I strapped Aubrey into the stroller and walked. It provided some great time with Aubrey, exercise and a break from the ordinary. Finding little snippets of just being a mommy is rare, so its something I want to make an effort to do more often.

I have said this so many times, going green doesn’t have to be extreme. It doesn’t have to be expensive. In some cases, it can save you money. It is more of a change in lifestyle than going out and buying a hybrid car (even though I really, really want a Prius). Some easy suggestions to start changing your habits are:

• Turn off the lights if you aren’t using them
• Unplug an appliance when its not in use
• If you are in traffic, turn off the car. It emits less carbon if you stop and start the car than idling.
• Turn the thermostat up (or down in the winter) when you leave the house for the day
• Make your own household cleaners
• Take showers instead of baths
• Use re-usable shopping bags
• Recycle

These are just a few of my own suggestions, but you can click here and here and here for more! See? All that eco-knowledge, done right from the comfort of my office

The aftermath of a robbery, ear infection and amoxicilan allergy

Sleeping in your house the night its been broken into is not something I would recommend. Every little noise made me stop breathing and I was certain the evil ones were lurking outside of Aubrey’s window, waiting for me to fall asleep and snatch away one of my most precious possessions. I think I got about 3 hours of sleep that night- after I inhaled the remainder of my Tylenol PM- but I was READY to go to work the next day, for the sole purpose of NOT being in that house. After all, it got robbed in the middle of the day so why would I want to hang around for round 2?
After dropping Aubrey off at daycare and telling the babysitter that hey, you might want to lock the door to your garage, I went to work and promptly began my research on home security systems. I found one, called, got a good deal, referred my sister-in-law and got an even better deal, and still could not breathe easy. I had a panic attack that night and Good Lord, I hate those. I haven’t had one of those since the pressures of college and of boyfriends had during said college years. I have always been one to get scared, to watch the news too much and assume that every rapist and murderer has me next on their list. So you can imagine how my irrationality increased after this incident.
But yesterday, the nice man from the security company came to my house for 6 hours and drilled holes in my ceiling from the attic and wired the doors and every window and a bunch of other stuff that was totally worth dipping into Aubrey’s college fund. I now have little red lights that let me know every time I enter a room, and chimes and such to let me know that hey, I opened the door. And then, hey, I just shut the door. I am so eco-friendly. Last night, I slept like a baby.
They might have taken some of Ryan’s hunting stuff, but they didn’t get it all so just be aware, if you try to scare me by creeping around my house, or toilet paper my house or shaving cream my car, I have weapons and I know how to use them and I am one paranoid, irrational homeowner… so consider yourself and your toes warned.
I know that I am supposed to have faith in the Lord, the He no doubt DID protect Aubrey and I the day of the robbery by us not going home right away. I know that it was only “stuff” that was stolen, and I could really care less about that. I wish that I could say that I place all hope in the Lord, that I could lay down at night and fall fast asleep. I wish that I could let the dog out to pee every morning without fearing that a man is standing there with a gun. I know that as a Christian, fear should have no place in my life. But you know what, I’m human, a flawed one at that, so yeah, I’m scared and having a little keypad that calls the police in 2.5 seconds DOES make me feel safer. I was talking to a lady at work about it today and she told me to read Psalms 91 tonight before I go to bed. We’ll see if that helps. Anyways, I’d love your thoughts on this. How does one know in their head that God will protect them (and if He doesn’t, its in His perfect will and there are better things awaiting us) but fight that natural, perhaps evolutionary urge of survival?

On a lighter note, sort of, Aubrey got another ear infection last week. Just like last time, the hot cougar soccer mom doctor (Ryan LOVES taking Aubrey to the doctor:) ) prescribed amoxicilan, which Aubrey has been taking for 8 days. Well, yesterday I get a call from Aubrey’s babysitter sounding a bit, well, panicked. “Um, just wondering if you noticed that Aubrey is covered in red spots.” Um, no I did not, otherwise I WOULD NOT HAVE TAKEN HER TO DAYCARE, WHAT DO YOU TAKE ME A FOR A HEARTLESS FOOL? So I commence the freaking out, calling the doctor because oh-my-god my 10 month old has the chicken pox, how did she get the chicken pox, I can’t miss 8 days of work and she can’t go to daycare with the chicken pox… you get the point. The nurse assured me that without a fever, it was not chicken pox (even though my mother swears that my sister never had a fever with HER chicken pox, cue freaking out). Ryan went and got her early, just in case.
Don’t you hate it when your kid doesn’t feel good and there is really nothing you can do about it except sit in the floor and scratch your eyes and cry with them? And then they look at you like woman, you are not covered in red welps and don’t truly know my misery so why don’t you just quit being a baby? I gave her a bath, patted myself on the back for remembering to give her the medicine for her ears, fed her and put her down.

I wish I knew how to insert pictures here because this morning when I woke her up, Miss Aubrey looked as though she had been in a fight. Her little eyes were swollen and the red welps had multiplied overnight. I felt so bad for her but she was in a fabulous mood. My mother-in-law was coming to take her to the doctor so I didn’t have to worry about the looks I would get from other mothers at daycare, like ahem, why did you bring your leper to daycare where it can infect my child with that disease?

Long story short (and by now its like, whats the point?), my excellent parenting skills in which I administer prescribed medicine to my child twice a day like the doctor said were actually harming her. She is allergic.to.amoxicilan.

Say whaaaaat?

Yes. What kid is allergic to amoxicilan? I have a special relationship with amoxicilan because it got me through those 6 years of living in smog infested cities, smog infested so badly that if you went out for a jog and blew your nose, your snot would be black. Seriously. I had tonsilitis EVERY SINGLE MONTH of my junior year that we lived in Santiago before my parents (God love ‘em) FINALLY decided to let me get my tonsils out. On my birthday. Thanks mom.

So you can imagine my shock at the allergy, and feel my relief that my child was not infested with a flesh-eating disease or, worse, the chicken pox.

That is a battle better fought in first grade, when you know how to scratch and whine and get your mom to give you lots and lots of ice cream. I’ll be sure to blog about it when it happens.

I HATE SWEAT! (so why did I just join a gym?)

Well after about 6 months of playing the “I just had a baby” card, I decided to put the cookies down and purchase some Slim Fast. That’s okay with me bc Slim Fast kind of tastes like cookies. But seriously, since I had Aubrey I have been thinking a lot about the future, the values I’d like to instill in her, and the example I will set for her. I started to care about things like the environment and what kind of world she is going to get handed as an adult. I started to care about eating organic food (as much as I can afford, anyway) and planting my own garden. I started recycling anything and everything that is recyclable, and I got my office to go along with it.

                                        

One thing that I completely ignored, however, was the whole exercise, get-off-your-rump thing. I’m not so great at that. I absolutely HATE to sweat. HATE IT. I will do anything to avoid it, including running the AC (not environmentally friendly, I know. I’m a woman of contradictions) while I blow dry my hair in the middle of January. I get so irritated in the summer when I shower, spend an hour doing my hair and makeup only to step outside and my scalp immediately undoes all the product and blow-drying and clean feeling that I have infused into my hair. I get so irritated when I get my makeup to cover every blemish that I inevitably get in the summer due to SWEAT and my big ugly pores and as soon as I step outside my forehead gets shiny and oh how I hate it when my upper lip sweats. GAH!

                             

Needless to say, when a local gym made a deal with my employer for a discount membership, I promptly deleted the email and told myself that Slim Fast and Special K would do the trick. Ryan, however, had a different idea. He mentioned that we should do it together (its like $30/mo for both of us) and that it went along with my whole “wellness living” kick. I agreed, almost even got excited about it, and then for a few weeks we forgot about it. Until Wednesday, when Ryan said, “Hey, let’s go up to the gym at lunch and sign up” to which I said, “Okay but I want to eat first” which, I know it was lunchtime and its appropriate to eat at lunchtime, but I felt guilty. Whatever, I ate the food and then we went.

                             

I actually like the facility, the childcare is clean and I would feel comfortable leaving Aubrey there for an hour. So I kind of started to get pumped, remember that I used to be able to look forward to bathing suit season instead of dreading it, and that before the baby I could shop for a size that didn’t make me wonder if I am technically obese.

Today I am going for the first time (Ryan has been every day, punk) when I get off work since we get off early on Fridays, and I have already conjured up a massive headache and major fatigue. I don’t wanna go! I wanna go home and take a nap! But I will go, and after a week of hating it, I know I will actually look forward to it. At least I have a workout buddy.

Plus, doesn’t this mean I get to run over to Target and get workout clothes? I think it does!

                                      

Text-personality

So this morning in our avoidance of work, some of the girls were sitting around talking about motherhood, the kiddos and husbands. You know, pretty much my whole life! I don’t know how we got around to it but the subject of text messaging came up. I don’t know about you, but I love whoever invented the text message (along with the person who came up with the baby swing, Dr. Pepper, mascara and DVR). I am not really a phone person so if I have a one word sentance I need to convey, I text. Instead of going through the “hi, how are you, I’m good, etc. oh by the way, what was the name of that restaurant you liked so much?”, you send the text, “whats the name of the restaurant you liked” and you get the answer “Taco Bueno” right away and you know where you are going for lunch.

Ah yes. the modern life is full of modern conveniences. But how has that affected our relationships with people? Instead of going through the process of finding out how someone’s day is, caring about them, we just text what we need and move on. The art of the telephone conversation is dying, and I am not really doing much to revive it. I am sure I will regret texting Aubrey to pick up milk on her way home from after-school practice so much when she goes to college and I long to just hear her voice. Instead she’ll text me (or whatever they come up with by the year 2026) “hey mom, just met a boy. luv ya” and not answer the phone when I call to find out if he is a Harvard grad who has a full grasp of 4 languages, homes in Italy and Japan and comes from a family of devout Christians.

Maybe I should stop trying to make my life so convenient sometimes. Something to think about…