+ baby - internet

Now, of these two things one would think the baby would have adjusted our life more... but that is not true. At this point baby just keeps me up at night some (but no more than I was up the 3rd trimester anyway), poops (but really takes no time to change), and cries (but is no noisier than Jude).
However, our internet has been down the last week and until this point we had not consciously admitted that the internet is our lifeline: source of information, entertainment, and connection to other people (especially with Jarod off work, me not able to move faster than a decrepit old woman and temperatures and humidity hovering around 100 degrees that requires us to keep baby mostly indoors).
Our week off line has probably helped us to bond better with each other and baby -spending hours talking, playing games, and goofing off with the kids. But in the last 8 hours of reconnectedness to our lifeline we have found out these pertinent pieces of information and now have the ability to pass them on to you:

Lanolin is indeed made from the grease pressed from sheep's wool.
"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" does not have anything to do with LSD... so let it go
There are many false TB tests each year... so don't worry if you get a big bump from your skin test
"Body Worlds" is a museum exhibit put together in Germany using the remains of only willing donors - while "Our Body: the Universe within" - a similar exhibit - may have obtained their specimens in a more questionable manner.
ETC...ETC... aren't you glad we got the internet back???

Well, Jarod is waiting for his turn again so I must go, but lucky for you we have no photos of us kissing our computer... just some shots of baby I had time to take while off line.





P.S. - Jude quickly abandoned my idea of 3 pirates who don't do anything and has been busier than ever with lake trips, train trips, and parties with the other people in his life... thanks son...

I have some photos...

LUCY JOAN TIPPY 7/18/08




You have no idea how long winded I could be about this week but I think I'll just let the photos speak for themselves... mostly... Here are some of my favorites... (you can click to enlarge and comment at the end)



My mom even brought my 92 year old grandma in to meet her... and it went really well. It just amazes me how much the simple existence of a newborn makes everyone else's life better.


Some people say they look just alike - others don't think they do at all - I don't know... you decide


Hey - look what I grew over the weekend!


Last but not least, I have decided that the new theme song for my life is the Veggie Tales, "We are the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" - Now I haven't seen the movie and I am not a fan of the VT in general but that song cracks me up. Considering Jude's obsession with pirates, and the fact the Lucy usual only has one eye open (like a pirate Jude says) and the fact that I was barely presentable to the world by 3 this afternoon... and I CAN'T DO ANYTHING with this incision .... I have decided the three of us will do nothing for a very long time to come. So feel free to come on by and join us....

never inevitable

(HOW I WRITE MY BLOG – Whatever has been on my mind all week and finds it’s way to the keyboard in 15 minutes – SO HANG ON.)

SHORT VERSION: THERE IS STILL NO BABY.
Nice trip down memory lane though – photo of Jude with Jarod days after he was born and photo of the two on Hugo’s due date.


LONG VERSION:
This week has brought nothing that was originally expected… namely a baby that is now 4 days overdue and showing no signs of hurry. And in contrast to being surrounded by new life and it’s joys, we found ourselves in the midst of a funeral – a funeral of 1,100 people come to pay tribute to the life of our amazing friend. We saw friends that we hadn’t seen in almost a decade (am I old enough to say that?) and “caught up” on life stories that to this point we had only been imagining. And may I just say that I am far too hormonal for any of this.

And it hit me this week that I have become too comfortable with the idea of the “inevitability” of my “good life.” Some of our friends have come upon bad times. Friends much smarter than us are in great debt. Friends far more humorous than us have found themselves lonely. Friends far more talented than us are at dead-end jobs. And as they laughed and smiled about how, “Good we looked” and “how good life was treating us,” and how they all just knew, “we’d be happy together forever,” I couldn’t help but be humbled anew that it is only by God’s grace that we indeed are truly and deeply happy. And the hard times may come – maybe this baby will be deformed and maybe we will make some financial decisions that destroy us forever and maybe, even maybe one of us will be murdered. But thus far God’s grace has been sufficient and may it ever be. My good life was not inevitable - it is a miracle. Now if I can just spread the miracle….

So here are some moments of joy from even the last two weeks…



Few things in life make me happier than seeing Jarod with his friend Pete from "back in the day," our friend Casper or with his sister... his skin and smile just seems to fit better when he is with them.



And I have some pretty cool friends myself...


Not only does this picture remind me that Kansas contains true beauty but it is hilarious to know that some not very bright people have been convinced that Ks is doing it's part to stop global warming by putting up very large fans to cool things down

My friends don’t get murdered

There is a certain part of me that lives in denial of the evil that exists in this world. This part of me disbelieves that people not only drive drunk but they actually drink while driving. It is the part of me that doesn’t believe that parents can also be thieves – thus I have now had 2 strollers stolen - because I refuse to put locks on them. And it is the part of me that is still saying, “My friends don’t get murdered,” four days after we learned that one of the most passionate, motivated, intelligent, and inspiring (not to mention entertaining) of our friends from high school was killed by an ex-boyfriend. Three days after they found the on-the-run murderer who killed himself in jail – and only two days before her funeral, part of me really truly doesn’t believe any of this happened.

I guess it is the part of me that is still semi-ok with bringing another little helpless baby into this fallen and evil world sometime this week. It is the part of me that protects myself from my own lack of faith in a truly Sovereign God who in the midst of the reality of deep evil is working all things together for His glory and our good. It’s a naive part of me that died long ago in the majority of people who have been faced head-on with this kind of evil much earlier in life. I don’t know whether I should attempt the 4-hour journey to the funeral and finally face reality straight on or if I should sit in expectation of this little one to come – painting more onesies and pretending for a few more years that my children can be protected from a reality of evil that I am not strong enough to face.

Habakkuk 1:2-4
How long, O LORD, must I call for help,
but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, "Violence!"
but you do not save?
Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and conflict abounds.
Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice is perverted.

Habakkuk 3:17-19
Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior
The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to go on the heights.

women of yesteryear

Last week Jarod went to visit his grandmother in Iowa (Whom I have previously referenced as the woman who was willing to eat a dead pigeon rather than see it go to waste). As Jarod was getting ready to leave she generously offered him dozens of canning jars for me to use this summer. Being the ever protective and practical husband that Jarod is, he declined the jars.
“Thanks grandma but I don’t think she’ll be needing those this summer.”
“Why not?”
“Well with the new baby and everything…”
“Oh, I canned with all four of mine.”
“Grandma, times have changed.”
“I understand, a polite way of saying, ‘No’”
“Thanks anyway grandma.”
As he recounted this conversation to me, I once again became fully aware of my rampant schizophrenic thought life:
“What was she thinking? Seriously, I’m already tired enough!”
“What was he thinking? I could can if I wanted to… I could – I have plenty to can.”
“Obviously, her children were not born in the middle of a Kansas summer… obviously she has forgotten what it is like.”
“Obviously, Jarod has no idea what I am capable of and he hasn’t been eyeing the plethora of apples and pears soon to freely fall into our hands.”
“Yes, times have changed – I don’t need to can – it isn’t even economically practical anymore.”
“So what if times have changed, Jarod – there is still produce to put up and mouths to feed – and it is my job to do that - so butt out and bring on the jars.”

Aaawww… sweet mental illness – sweet super markets. Times have changed but here is what I am wondering. Have we? I mean, could the most competent among us (that would be Sommer who raises 7 children and still manages to shave her legs every day) go back in time 50 years? Could we, if we had to, wash all our clothes, including newborn diapers, by hand while putting up enough food from the garden we tend to feed a family (not reduced in size by birth control) through a winter without reliable heat or transportation? Could I have been my grandmothers? If not, is anyone studying this downward adaptation to see if we are de-evolving ourselves? If I could be as competent as previous generations of women, why do I feel like one more child in disposable diapers – with a washing machine - is going to push me to my limit? Is it just completely true that God only give us as much as we can bear?

So the conversation within me continues:
“We should move 3rd world – see what we are really capable of – stop taking advantage of pre-made meals and electricity. We are responsible to help our children be better and stronger than us… we gotta get out of here!”
“I should see about getting cable TV and scour the internet for delectable bon-bons and leather sofas… if I am gonna de-evolve I should do it in style.”

We’ll see how the summer goes…


hey at least I can make my photos look vintage ... even if I couldn't be (Thanks for the tip Jessica - and everyone else really should try http://labs.wanokoto.jp/olds)


the awesome grasshopper mask Jude made at library accented by the frog galoshes handed down from cousin Laurel... thanks guys... now he's just a little bit weirder...

goofing off and growing

Jude’s helmet fetish is well known. The official helmet count is 10 but this yellow bucket serves well as a, “soccer helmet,” he says. (Although, I have seen him use it for both basketball and golf, as well). See Alison, our non-protective ways are turning him into an over-self-protective child. I’m sure he’ll be in therapy for that.

I had some time to take photos this weekend of “how my garden grows.” And a shot of “how the belly grows,” for my mama who is far from here. (Don’t worry mom you aren’t missing anything)



(You should’a seen this pregnant woman run to get in this self-timed photo!)

Jarod and Jude were in Iowa this weekend for Jarod’s great uncle’s funeral. In fact, this weekend was so devoid of people that at one point I thought, “If I have this baby, Bob and Mark are my nearest of kin to be in the delivery room.”
On Friday, we had an ultrasound (#4) just to “make sure everything was ok” because I am still measuring small (2 weeks small – plus or minus 2 weeks… so basically a hospital donation of $500). Anyway, haven’t heard anything. Baby is head down though…. And I am feeling “crafty” so something’s gotta be up…



The cradle and my "crafty" onsies - would it be too rude to make one that says, "baby talk is annoying" ?

SPECIAL ADDITION: Because I can, because I have time (you SO don’t have time to read this).

So, I am a binge reader and a verbal processor (which means I puke the things I have read all over the people around me). Unfortunately for you, literally everyone I know is either gone or busy this weekend which has led to an excessive binge read unlike any I have had since the days when I was learning to nurse Jude and I read everything I could get my hands on – including the “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.” So here I purge (because lucky Jarod is gone).
But first let me explain how and why I read… because I don’t think it is healthy. First, reading was very difficult for me as a child. I did not like to read but in early middle school, Jay, one of my handicapped brothers who cannot read nor count to 3, asked me if I liked to read.

I said, “no.”
He said, “You should.”
“Why.”
“Because you can.”
OOWWW

So, then I started reading… and slowly I grew to love it. By 8th grade I was staying up late on Fridays and waking up early on Saturdays to finish Jannett Oak books. I would get addicted and would sit inside on nice days – on busy days – with my head in a book. This was so NOT ok with my mom. Just like everything else done for pleasure, I learned from my mother that reading is something to be put off until, “everything else is done.” And since “EVERYTHING” is NEVER done, she packs 15 books she wants to read for any 2-day trip she goes on.

Since I am slightly obsessive-compulsive I either get addicted to reading or doing and one is always “interrupting” the other. To make a complicated situation worse, I am also a purger of things so every time we move I get rid of books. I also hate to buy thing and love the idea of the library – so I don’t have books at home just to “pick up when I get a chance.” However in the last two years Jude and Isabella have totally destroyed my ability to use a library since I spend 1 hour in the children’s department and then drag them “quietly” – for maybe like 3 minutes to the adult section. With one on each hand I attempt to judge the “New arrivals section” by the spines of the books – take 2 and run. This is a pathetic use of a library – I feel shame at the admittance.

So this week I grabbed 2 books. I can read. I had time to read. Even if what I read makes NO sense – this is how I got here in the last 72 hours.

I have been studying the word “kingdom” every time it is mentioned in the NT. I just worked through Matthew and it is mentioned a ton! And it is far more complicated than I thought but I am making some good notes.
And it is perfect that I am reading this because the first book I picked up is, Amish Grace. It is the perspective of 3 professors on why the Amish people were so quick to forgive after the 2006 school shooting. The reason the “Kingdom” study is so handy is because Amish theology leans heavily on Matthew and of their practical theology is lived out in a 2-kingdom paradigm. So, basically I totally have always wanted to be Amish even though I knew nothing about their doctrine I figured I would be kinda’ close. But Jarod was right… I can never be Amish – not because they speak Pennsylvania Dutch or because my kids would have to stop going to school in 8th grade but because I really can’t submit to their doctrine – at least how it was interpreted by these 3 professors. Ok but my “not Amish doctrine” has nothing to do with this…. There are parts of their doctrine I think are right on.

The second book I picked out is Globalization and Grace and it is like this really heady and boring theological treatment of how religions impact their cultures in an extreme way. I would so not be in it still if there were not so much food for thought on my current “Kingdom” binge.
So here basically how the weekend in my head has gone - my “mental map” as Max Stackhouse (the Globalization author) would put it. Jesus’ main message was the “kingdom of God.” Christians are supposed to be following Jesus, but most of us don’t even think about this “kingdom” much less realize, like the Amish, that we have switched “kingdoms”. And that by the grace of God this new citizenship should totally revolutionize who we are today. Instead we really like to focus on some future kingdom of God that we are not at all responsible for but that will just appear. Now I really agree with the common theological concept of the kingdom as “Here and not here – now and not yet.” But I really think we lose focus of the here and now part of it.
The Amish don’t and they have created a culture that accurately reflects a lot of the teachings of the Kingdom of God here on earth. Obviously, individualistic consumerist American culture does not. Now, Christians (and non-Christians alike) want to say that Christianity has not created our current culture – that it is secularized – but this Stackhouse guy is arguing (and I think pretty accurately) that it has and will continue to shape what our culture becomes. A lot of modern academics thought that as societies advanced “religions” would fade into the past but instead there seems to be resurgence in spiritual and religious fervor (which is scaring the pants off of some).
This is where the globalization part comes in. It is happening – no matter if we like it or not – this “new world order” or whatever you want to call it - is a culture in the making and the question is what forces are going to create and sustain this global culture?
We have seen on a small scale what a “here and now” practical kingdom theology among the Amish can do. It has created a culture in which forgiveness is placed over revenge and bitterness, community over self, love over hate, etc, etc, that even in the worst circumstances – which generally bring out the worst in us – their culture had prepared them to come out together in love and grace.
Then we see from history that the theology we follow creates the culture we inhabit today – and no one is really pumped about the culture of today. We have this chance in globalization to make a theological paradigm shift to a “Here and now” kingdom theology that could create a better culture. If Christians, if this Christian, embraces something that goes a little bit deeper … I won’t be perfect but maybe I could be a little more Amish. Well it just made me want to tell someone… and if you have any book suggestions (on anything) that would be great… ‘Cause I think I’ll go to the library tomorrow without any kids. Oh and if you are a Christian I suggest looking at the “kingdom” in Matthew…