Category: Uncategorized (Page 96 of 188)

• We’ve been working on requests sans Whiney Voice (I know! I’m one to talk right now!). He’s getting it, sometimes he’ll stop partway through and ask with the right tone. It’s adorable. We’ve also been working on his tone when talking to Miss M. If she doesn’t respond I mention that perhaps if he asked a bit nicer, she’d oblige. And it works nearly every time. So for the moment, we’re pleased with progress. 
• Potty training is daytime complete and nighttime not close. We’ve tried a few times to go diaperless for naps and night (he even requests to wear the undies then instead of a diaper) but he wakes up soaked. He never wakes to pee, even when we ask him to come out. Not sure about how to do this one… and we wanted it to be mastered before moving into the Big Bed because toddler bed sheets are much easier to change the full sized sheets. 
• He can also name his pottying. Sometimes he has to “toot” and other times it’s “just water.” 
• When it’s “just water” he likes to potty “on the bricks” (outside the house). He’ll show any of his friends willing to watch how to pee on things. I guess we all need a marketable trait…
• He’s also been quite the chatty cathy. Full sentences, asking questions, explaining how things work… it’s adorable. 

• She’s getting quite verbal as well. Phrases you can understand: doggie, daddy, mamamamam, Uh huh (for yes; her brother did the same thing), thank you, here-go, nana (as in the ba-nana) and mo mi[lk]. 
• We’re a full-fledged walker, except to move from surface/level to new surface/level. She can do the stairs down now (she’s been a pro at up for a while), but we have to get her started and turned the right way. 
• She’ll eat anything and everything. Last night was her first dinner of pizza without me insisting on a vegetable first. 
• We dug out the baby she received as a gift when she was born; the way she’ll carry it around and hug it is absolutely adorable. 

This one weighed in at last appointment at 5.5 pounds. Apparently that’s quite average, though I know women who give birth to babies that size. So I vote that we’ll be ready whenever. Mostly for my convenience. 

This seems like such a minimalist update, but well… it’s hot and the computer on my lap isn’t exactly cooling things down. I think I’ll go avoid the to do list and sit in the breezy florida room and read. 

Warning: thoughts that follow are deeply theological and question the nature of humankind. (Note: I started to write “mankind” and switched to “human”. Anna G, I’m sure you’re proud.)

I started my morning with Ephesians; I was blessed enough to join a group of like-minded individuals to plan camps for several years and we used Ephesians 6 at least twice (and I believe it’s making another appearance this year, sans me. Not that I was really required in the first place). So this chapter is something I’m well-acquainted with; we read it daily while there, not to mention the months of planning prior to kids showing up with their flashlights and bugspray. But this morning it jumped out at me: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” 

I’ve always immediately jumped to the conclusion that this verse was trying to say: we’re not fighting with humans, but with Satan. And I think it does: it starts with “not flesh and blood” and ends with “spiritual forces in the heavenly realms”. So I think this is still a fair reading, but the Billy Mays in me says, “But wait! There’s more!”

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world… in taking a look at the context of the passage in the chapter and within the book, it follows a pattern of instructions to followers: Wives submitting to husbands, husbands doing right, children submitting to parents, slaves to masters, masters doing right. If we were to do a key word study here, we’d be underlining the word “submit” a whole lot. (I know, not a popular concept in our context). Then the passage leading into my italicized verse says, “be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power….”

I see a theme that, from the view in my living room this day and age, I’m really not able to fully grasp. Submission… power… authority… in America? Ha. I’ve decided that when I just sit down to read this section, I’ve missed the first 1.5 hours of the movie. I don’t think we grasp what power struggles exist in other cultures and communities (including that which the events of the Bible take place). Nor do we understand how it was intended. 

Power and submission and similar themes have interested me for a while, and allow me to intrigue you further by saying I went back to the start to find some supporting thoughts. I returned to Genesis to try to get an idea of how it was intended to be. By sitting them next to my Ephesians section, a few phrases stood out like the 6am rising sun: Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. 

Rule? 

Interesting note that you may not be aware of unless you tend to think and read about food and biblical issues way too much: we (humans) did not eat meat until after the Flood. Though it’s been allowed since we got off the boat – so you can still confidently chomp into your burger – Adam, Eve and their immediate family were vegetarians. And, as I read 1:30, so were the creatures. “And to all the beasts of the earth…I give every green plant for food. And it was so.” 

So, we are to rule the creatures. But not eat them.  

They are not there for our sustenance, but we exercise authority over them. 

My 20th-century American mind says, “if not put there for my own greater good, then why do I rule them?” What good is power and authority if I don’t come out the winner?

Which is probably the exact problem. 

I haven’t done a word count yet, but I see the 2 readers still with me starting to fade, so allow me to make a large jump in order to wrap up with a few questions from left field. 

Also common through the book of Genesis is the idea of creating order out of chaos; there are lots of structural arguments behind chapter 1 to support that (I’ll spare you details). So what if that was God’s intention of power? Creating order out of chaos. We are like God when we “rule” the land by giving order and purpose – meaning – to those in our midst. Validating their stories. Giving direction. Inspiring. I mean, isn’t that what the best leaders do, even now in our current understanding of power and submission? Don’t we tend to follow those who encourage us to live to our fullest capacity? 

And did you really think that that when I was talking about vegetarian animals that we’d end up here? 

Those are my Deep Thoughts for the morning. It makes me wonder, as a parent, how I am to “rule” the household. How can I inspire and instruct not for my own benefit but for the glory of those I’ve been charged with. And at work (though I don’t “rule” anybody there… but some people do. So perhaps they consider this.) 

I just looked at the painting KLR made me so many years ago… I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. Perhaps that desire, that motivation, that understanding of power is what was intended. As husbands “rule” wives and parents “rule” children and masters “rule” slaves and people “rule” their pets, it’s less domineering and demanding a certain outcome but rather an invitation to join something that excites and fulfills and puts order to the chaos of life. 

It’s just a thought.   

I know, no one asked my opinion. But this is a blog. It’s what I do. I opine. 

I think it’s best for everyone that Jimmy T takes an exit. Here’s my reasoning:

1. First and foremost, Ohio State University is an organization of higher education. It’s a body of people who are dedicated to shaping and developing the lives students. I think the university should choose very carefully, then, what leaders influence these young people and the message they bring. (I could go off on a tangent about what it means that our society associates sporting events so highly with an entity that supposed to be about the chemistry and literature, but I’ll save that for another day). 

1a. This means teaching young people that your actions do matter, that you can’t just sweep your mistakes under a rug and hope SI doesn’t uncover it. Fess up, own up, pay up – learn your lesson and move on. A commentator made a comparison to “it’s what any of us would do for our kids…” and I question the logic behind parents doing just that (though, I do think this might be some sort of greater micro- or macro-cosm of what we’re teaching young people nowadays because I think this is a more comment experience that what we might realize). By aiding and abetting, we aren’t offering our young people the opportunity to learn the valuable lesson of responsibility and accountability. I’ve spoken to a gaggle of teachers and those who work with a younger generation who would agree: we’re not doing anyone favors by dealing with it for them. We can be supportive, loving, forgiving and help ease the burn, but we shouldn’t habitually be teaching young people that you can avoid the heat. Parents – and I do think Tressel is a father figure to many of his boys – should carefully weigh the long-term effects of an attitude of Daddy Fix It. 

2. I read on FB today that “Tressel just cared for his players too much.” Boo. Hickey. Sticks. He cared about the surface area on his body most commonly used to sit upon. If he truly cared about the long-term development of his students, see 1a. I’m not saying he doesn’t care about his kids – I’m positive he does – I’m just saying that they weren’t his primary reasoning. 

2b. Then he lied. Not an action typically associated with caring about others. 

I think Tressel’s a good coach and probably a good person. I’m enough of a cynic to say he’s probably not doing anything that 92% of those in similar situations aren’t already doing. But I’m not sure it matters. Rules – even stupid rules, if that’s what you want to argue – are rules, and all parties involved knew them. And the NCAA, if it wants to be taken seriously on these stances, must enforce to the full extent if it wants players and coaches to know that it is serious. Like the first day of class, the first one to test the lines and boundaries will probably endure a stricter punishment and be made an example of. But that’s classroom management.  It’s sending a message to gain respect. It’s saying, “If you want to play in my club, here are my rules. Or take your ball and go home.” 

So despite the fact that Jim’s a good guy and a great coach, I think OSU made some wise decisions. Sure, there are lots of variables and he’s not the only one who knew and took these actions. But that’s the essence of leadership; taking the fall, and [even if eventually] owning the mistakes comes with the job description.