Tongue Tied

I did not set out to be a homeschooling parent. Nope. No way. To be truthful, I didn't really think much about the how and where and such of educating our children till after Thing One was already born. I'd sort of always assumed we'd send our kids to the private Christian school we went to (though I never confronted that pesky issue of $$$). But when I was pregnant with One, that school closed. No matter, I still had years and years before I had a child ready for school. We'd be moved out of our rough neighborhood by then, of course. Or maybe we'd find a private school and lots of money by then. Ha. None of those things happened, and as Thing One got older, the very idea of sending him to the mini-thug factory this neighborhood calls a school actually hurt to think about. So, there were no other options. I bit the bullet, thinking that it was going to be a horrible journey. It's really not that bad. I'm glad we started young, so I had presch...

I'm still thinking about what I wrote about last week, and I've been trying to pinpoint, other than the obvious reasons from the Bible, why this church on church bashing stuff irks me so. I want to get to the bottom of it, because on the one hand, I know that there are still many groups of Christians out there that are lost in the rules and need compassion on others, but I also know that the pendulum swing to the other side where we attack and complain about those people isn't going to make anything better. Here's what I've come up with: 1. Painting with too narrow a brush  Public (and the internet is public) condemnation of a specific group (insert "evangelicals", "fundamentalists", or even certain pastors and churches by name) is not really useful to the conversation. When you paint a target on people, others will raise up their defenses and be wary of you. Sadly, many will join with you in the shooting. As believers, we are responsible for ...

Anyone who knows me personally knows that I am well versed in sarcasm. In our family, it's something of a love language. A well timed quip will make us feel as warm as if someone had just declared eternal love to us. Being clever bonds us. However, I will say that I spent many years learning the difference between funny sarcasm that unites a group and biting sarcasm that is hurtful. I still don't have it mastered, but at the very least I've learned that when I'm not sure how it will be taken to shut it down.  Just don't say it/blog it/facebook it. I try to get into the heads of the people around me and think, how are they going to take this? I have the least amount of worry with my immediate family members, because I know they will rise to the task and meet my sarcasm in a blaze of glorious counter sarcasm. Anyone else, I pause. I must be growing soft, though, because more and more I'm not finding things labeled "satire" as funny as I used to. Perh...

Time for the annual report. Here are the highlights of my favorite things of 2012. Media : Movies:  The Dark Knight Rises (of course), The Hunger Games (never as good as the book, but at least the casting was perfect, unlike some other  movie adaptations), The Avengers, Brave Television/Drama: Fringe (you shall be missed) Television/Comedy: Modern Family Song/Secular:  I Won't Give Up (Jason Mraz) Song/Sacred: Losing (Tenth Avenue North) Band: There was a lot of TobyMac played around here this year. My boys are fans. Book/fiction:   Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson--A Jane Austin-y delight. I'm rereading it now. Book/nonfiction:  I'm not done with it yet (you know me and nonfiction), but The Christian Atheist by Craig Goeschel is very good so far.  Website: Colossal Food: Restaurant: San Chez Recipe: My boys call it "Miss Chicken". Recipe here . Spice: Rosemary Beverage: French...