You know what’s hard?
Make-up work from school after sick days.
You know what else is hard?
Knowing that you forgot to get your kids flu shots and now all four have gone down with Influenza B. Everyone is recovering, but it’s been a long two weeks.
You know what makes it better?
Hi-C juice boxes delivered in bulk from Grandma!
What gets you through the sick days?
As my sweet friend Tiffany reminded me this morning, it is the beginning of our Birthday Month! As one of my gifts, Dan is taking me to see Gungor’s Beautiful Things tour on the 26th. Yay!
In pre-celebration, let’s watch a little Gungor, shall we? This song is probably one of the closest I’ve found to musically capturing my testimony. I love it.
Look at that ring! It isn’t my favorite part exactly, but it represents my favorite part. And it is stunning! It includes my favorite stone – aquamarine; I wrote about aquamarines here. Not only is the ring beautiful, it is also marketed as Fairtrade Fairmined Ecological, a line of jewelry in which I have a growing interest. It means the gold for the ring was bought at a fair price from a traceable source. Likewise, the aquamarines and diamonds are from community-based mines that meet specific standards for health, safety, and value. This ring is on the hand of Livia Firth, owner of the London boutique Eco Age and blogger for Vogue, and, although you may not have heard it before, that name might ring a bell after last night’s Oscars.
Colin Firth won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and Livia is his wife. I haven’t seen The King’s Speech but I have it on good authority (from people I trust) that it is worthy of the acclaim it has received. And as much as I love Colin Firth (Mr. Darcy), his win wasn’t my favorite part either. His speech was my favorite part.
My favorite part of the Oscars is always when the winners give speeches that acknowledge the relationships that have culminated into that moment. I love when they celebrate someone most of us do not know and recognize them as their source of strength or inspiration. Somehow you can tell when the acknowledgment is genuine and when it is forced.
Genuine moments from last night included a winner telling the story of how his mum ignited the idea for his winning movie, another winner smiling back tears when he met eyes with his wife, and Firth himself thanking his wife, “who I hold responsible for this and, for, really everything good that’s happened since I met her.”
You can see more of Firth’s wife, Livia, at this fashion website. The photos (including the one above by Jason Olive) are gorgeous and portray a couple consistent with Firth’s humble speech. He is proud, you can tell, to show off his treasure, just as she is proud to wear hers.
Maybe it’s because my sister is emotionally broken by the effects of chemotherapy and the reality of cancer.
Maybe it’s because my daughter has grown an inch since November.
Maybe it’s because I’ve recently watched the blogs of two relatively well-known Christian women go dark after their lives were devastated by divorce.
All I know is that some things don’t feel quite so important anymore.Things like platforms and networks and recognition.
I love to hang out with visionaries, people with big dreams and big faith and big ambition. Sometimes I think I’m one of those people. But lately, I’m embracing small.
I don’t want the dreamers to stop dreaming. I just think this is a pretty good dream: Living well. Growing children. Cultivating faith. None of it is easy. Most of it doesn’t come naturally.
But I’d rather have a small life that is beautiful than a big life that doesn’t work anymore. It’s not that I think the two are mutually exclusive, but I’m pretty sure anyone with a big life that works is there because they were faithful to spiritual cultivation when it was small.
The problem with visionaries is that sometimes their vision takes priority over their living well, and that won’t work forever. They may be left with a lot of vision but no one with whom they can share it.
Things that are important right now?
- family dinners
- memory verses
- hand holding
- game playing
- keeping promises
What’s on your important list right now?
. . . really working for me right now.
1. For inspiration: Anthology Magazine online. I’d love to splurge on the print subscription because the feel of this site is fantastic. Engaging subtitle: “Living with Substance and Style”! Look to the right-hand side bar for a preview of the current issue.
2. For making life easier: E-mealz Mealtime Makeover. Women, don’t hate me when I tell you this, but my husband is the brain child here. He found this program via Dave Ramsey and decided to give it a try. He printed his first shopping list on Friday, bought everything he would need for meals this week (evenings), and has cooked us something new each night since then. We use the Weight Watchers plan, but there are tons of options: gluten-free, low-carb, vegetarian, etc. Or, choose a plan for a specific store. It costs $5 a month for all this prep work and the weekly plans are designed to cost around $75 per week. So far we’ve loved every meal. In one he switched out a broccoli salad for a regular lettuce salad (I’m not so much for the broccoli). Look at him, already a culinary genius!
3. For a challenge: blogging. It started because Mom and Serenity needed something new to read everyday in the chemo pod. It resulted in me realizing I actually have more ideas when I’m blogging regularly. Also, I needed to remember that I don’t have to be the best blogger with the highest stats, I just need to give of what I have been given. And that’s a lot. Thanks for showing up here, friends.
Since Sara asked yesterday, feel free to click those little “retweet” or “share” buttons on the left side if you like a post. And don’t be shy, you are welcome to comment any time. Don’t let the regulars have all the fun! : )
I know there is some debate about the usefulness or redemptive qualities of Facebook, but I am personally a fan. However, I do have certain qualifications for my Facebook interactions that I thought might be useful to others. It isn’t a gold standard or anything, but it is the way I work it.
To me, Facebook, like any other website or communication medium, is a tool. And a tool can be used well or abused. A chainsaw, for instance, is best used for cutting firewood, although it has made a small name for itself in the roadside murder gig as well.
These are my Rules for Making Facebook Useful:
1. No games. None. I delete or block all these applications. That’s not what Facebook is about for me.
2. Stay positive. I realize most people skim through their Facebook feeds to see the highlights of others’ lives. If you are doing that in the line at the bank, you don’t need to add my stinky attitude to your stressful morning. If I don’t have something positive to say, I just say nothing. Recently Serenity and Mom sat for hours and hours in a chemo pod and Facebook was one of their best distractions. Thinking of them reading my updates helps me ask, “Will the person reading this find joy or death?” I want to be honest about my life, but I don’t want to burden you needlessly with my trivial daily inconveniences. You have enough of your own.
3. Value others. I won’t complain about a co-worker, a service provider, or any other person specifically. Why? Because they are people. (This is a post for another day.) However, I also value myself and my time. When a particular friend fills my Facebook feeds with low-brow content, obscenities, or other filth, I block freely. Be gone! In real life I may have to deal with you, in virtual world, I don’t. (This is also not to say I am only Facebook friends with people just like me. This is about what is going into my mind on a regular basis.)
4. Avoid Conflict. I’ve learned this the hard way. Facebook is NOT the place for intelligent, thoughtful debate. Save that for face to face. Tone is too difficult to detect in print and people will type way more than they will say in person. Feelings get hurt. Don’t engage conflict. Comment on cute babies, congratulate on new jobs, but walk away quickly from theological or political debates. No one wins. If I don’t agree with someone’s statement in a status update, I simply don’t comment.
5. Be True. Being happily married is tough enough, we don’t need to add Facebook drama to that! Extramarital affairs have never been a personal fear for me, but I can’t close my eyes and pretend it isn’t a real problem in our world. For Dan and I, we have each other’s passwords so when we send private messages we can always read them (although we rarely do). We talk about our Facebook interactions, even small ones, so there is no room for suspicion. I also know my personal weaknesses (and that isn’t easy to admit) and I avoid certain triggers.
How about you? Do you Facebook? Do you have rules for yourself?
Do you wish some of your Facebook friends had rules? : )
