plagio

Alls I wanna say in this blog post is:

It is not polite to stare and make awkward comments. :) 

May I remember this when our son is done with his treatment. 

i love to read!

TGC Women's Recommended Reading

I read through this list, and though I've only read a few of them, I'd love to read more!

Photo Book

I made this book of just Carson smiling. It's hard not to smile when I look at these! Plus, I got it for free. Thanks, Kara!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Update: Summer 2012

Hello!

We've been getting settled in our house, and as a stay at home mom and wife I have never been busier! Phew!

Carson is growing up way too fast. He's on the speedway to mobility! I'm so glad we have a house that has more room for him to move around!

David and I have had a good summer as he doesn't work at Sacred Heart. We spend a lot of afternoons hanging out, doing yard work or chores, and playing with Carson. We get to see our awesome neighbors the Prestons too, and also the Wilsons!

It's great living in a town instead of a city. Louisville drivers are sooo impatient! I feel much less pressure as I drive around.

I will say that I do sense more racial tension here. :( The Af. Am and white communities are very distinct from each other and this place is a little more rural than Louisville. That's one of the things I don't like about living in a suburb.

On the plus side, we've been seeing way more of our church family throughout the week and not just on Sundays. It's refreshing to me. I actually feel like we are a part of each other's lives more!

Carson 4 months old

I LOVE these smiles. It's amazing how goofy I am willing to act to get one of these!

This is Carson at his 4 month check up, just loving the sanitary paper they lay on the exam bench!

On Being Relevant

My generation is sort of interesting. Well, I bet all generations were interesting when they were in their 20's.

The 90's yielded a lot of Christian cliches which are now mocked by us who are or used to call themselves Christians. We've grappled with postmodernism, homosexuality and the emerging church. We were in our teens when the year 2000 came and when 9/11 happened. There's also been a huge upsurge in evangelicalism and it's grappling with culture, between separating from and engaging in it. My generation is a few years out of college and ready to save the world.

All that to say... what's the same about my generation as with those previous is this: we all think we have something new and fresh to offer. We purposely want to reject what the previous generation did because it is old, harmful, restrictive, and irrelevant.

It's a lie that my generation has something new and fresh to offer. What's trendy or in style always changes, and those who are trendy like to mock those who aren't. What's theologically "traditional" and "new" has never changed in substance. If you study church history the same debates we have as Christians now they had then. There is always someone ready to deny what "has been" taught in church and there is always someone to fight against it. And then there's everyone else talking about it. It dies down, and several hundred years later it crops up in a different form with a different name.

It's a lie that my generation has something new and fresh to offer because,

"What has been is what will be,

and what has been done is what will be done,

and there is nothing new under the sun" (Ecc. 1:9).

Now that I have a son to raise, my perspective on my generation has changed. All day I care for, nourish and clean my son (babies have a lot of bodily fluids, I find). He is totally dependent on me. I don't have much time to sit around and navel gaze about what's the right way to "engage" in culture as a Christian. The time and money to buy the latest fashions is not available in large amounts...

When I read the Bible I find constant reminders of God's immutability. God never changes, and man does. While culture vacillates between new and old, right and left, stupid and stupider, God is still God.

As a mother I have to cling to God, not a culture or way of life. If my focus is on denying what my parents taught me, what good does that teach my son? If my focus is "not this, not that", what will the vacuum be filled with? I will teach my son my "Yes".

It truly is a waste of time to focus on denying and rejecting things. Cynicism is not the answer to the mistakes of the previous generation. I think maturity as a Christian is being able to move on from that and cling to God. That's what I'll strive for as a mother.

exciting/sad

Since Carson is napping and I have chicken on the stove, I thought it would be a good moment to think of the pros and cons of our moving across the River in May. But instead of it being a pro/con list it's an exciting/sad list.

Exciting:

-much more space

-our own yard/garden

-living by church friends

-living very close to Aldi

-owning a home

-room for more kids

-settling down for at least 9 yrs

-my work as homemaker expanding!

Sad:

-moving further away from my friends in Louisville

-leaving behind our first apartment

-being totally unfamiliar with our surroundings

-settling far away from our families for a while

-having to go up/down stairs hundreds of times a day (this should be on the exciting list, shouldn't it?)

-not living next door to other moms with infants

-making new friends will happen less

-we will be stuck there rain or shine