Books

I often end up editing library books as I read to Sara if I don't get the chance to preview them. Some I just close and say they are mean. Arthur was one of those. On the second page of Arthur and the True Francine Arthur's friend Buster says of one of the teachers, "He sleeps in a coffin and drinks human blood." What?!! Why would a children's author include that description? I also disliked Pinkalicious. Sara loved the concept of everything being pink. I also thought the idea was cute but we can do without the negative attitudes modeled in the book. Sara comes by that naturally and she doesn't need more material. The other thing that annoyed me about that one was the way green vegetables were portrayed, as "yuck" food. The the pink "yummy" food was sugary, nutrition-less crap.

I just finished reading Nurtureshock which presents and discusses a bunch of interesting research on various parenting topics. In a study on sibling relationships, the researcher concluded that having children read books such as the Berenstein Bears which deal with sibling conflict actually results in a negative impact on their relationships because of the negative modeling. The books always resolve the conflict and the kids in the story learn to treat each other better but the majority of the book is devoted to the conflict and includes a lot of negative modeling and that is the part the kids pick up. We have closed a couple of Berenstein Bear books. The other thing that annoys me about them is the way Papa Bear is portrayed like a doofus while only Mama is the competent parent. I can usually manage to edit that out.

Reading Children's Bible Stories is also interesting. In the story of the plagues on Egypt when Pharaoh would not let God's people go the final plague is that the firstborn sons will die. The Children's Bible we have says they will disappear which I thought was an appropriate way to put things for a 3 year old. I have never realized how much violence there is in Bible stories.

Poor Little Waif

My mom told me that when I was a month old my dad's godmother came to see me and bring a baby present. She was an old Finnish lady who looked at me and said in Finnish, "Oh poor little waif. This is such a miserable world." My mom speaks Finnish so she understood what the woman was saying and thought, "what a thing to say to a new mom" but she says the older she gets the more she understands what the woman meant. There is so much suffering in this world.

As a mom I love my babies so much and want to protect them. They are so innocent, helpless, and dependent when they are born and I want to keep them safe from sickness, pain, and mean and evil people. I almost don't want to have anymore kids because I hate to bring them into our world. I wonder if God had similar feelings sending his son -- helpless babe born in a barn in a sinful world, so innocent and perfect. And God knew he would suffer and die in this world.

Last night my friend graduated from Divinity School. The president gave a commencement address on Christ's sufficiency. He told the graduates they would come across people in ministry for whom they would have nothing to offer...parents who lost a child in Iraq or Afghanistan, people with a terminally ill loved one. All they could do is point them to the unlimitless power and love of Christ. He is enough.

I just got my alumni class notes from college and read that the youth pastor of the junior high youth group I worked with during my senior year of college lost his wife to cancer this past July. Now he is single-parenting two little boys.

There was an article in yesterday's paper about how a Florida man was exonerated after 35 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit. He was sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping and raping a 9-year-old boy. Officials used modern DNA testing to determine he could not have been the rapist. He says he is not angry because he has God. I guess he has learned the sufficiency of Christ.

I love and delight in and am thankful for my children and I am glad that there are two of them to go through life together. I hope to raise them to be salt and light in this world. Knowing that they may choose not to follow Christ is heart-wrenching but I pray that they will. I wonder if rather than bringing more children into this miserable world we should adopt some children who are in need. Not right now--I don't have the energy--but if we were to keep having babies we probably never would. There are many "poor little waifs" who need a loving home "in this miserable world."

Newman's Own Butt Cream

While we were at my parent's house for Thanksgiving, Isaac needed a diaper change so I went upstairs to grab the changing pad, a diaper, and wipes. While I was going through the luggage I also grabbed the bottle of Newman's Olive Oil and Vinegar Salad Dressing I had brought with me for dinner. I plopped them all down on the T.V. room floor ready to change the diaper. My brother Nate surveyed my set-up and inquired, "Where did you read about that?" assuming the salad dressing was going to be part of the diapering routine. My brother has seen me come up with enough unusual ideas it didn't seem out of character for me to be lubing Isaac up with the Olive Oil and Vinegar if I had read about it somewhere. We had a good laugh about that.