30 Days, Day 4

Day 04 - Your views on religion


Everyone in the world has some kind of religion whether they realize it or not. Whether they belong to an organized religion or simply worship themselves, everyone is devoted to something that shapes their worldview. I once heard it described that Christianity is like no other religion because it is not based on a certain philosophy or set of rules for a way to live your life in order to achieve some kind of reward. Many might read that previous statement and immediately react, "Not true!" Allow me to elaborate: Christianity is not a philosophy. Christianity would not exist but for the historical facts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (Some people who call themselves Christian might not believe all those things, but essentially, you have to believe it as Truth to be Christian.) 


Christians don't achieve salvation by following a certain set of rules. "What about the Ten Commandments???" What about them? They are God's Law that we are utterly incapable of keeping by our own power. If not for the saving work of Jesus Christ, we would be lost forever. We rely totally on His grace and mercy. We try to abide by the Law, but we constantly need the Gospel. 


So my "views on religion"? It's good to have religion, and even better if you worship a higher power. But Religion alone doesn't really do much for your immortal soul. Some might call me religious, but I think it's more accurate to say I'm baptized and I strive always to be mindful of what that really means.
I'm going to abide by the narrow scope of this question, noticing that on another day I'll be asked about my beliefs, and leave it at that.



Day 05 - A time you thought about ending your own life
Day 06 - Write 30 interesting facts about yourself.
Day 07 - Your zodiac sign and if you think it fits your personality
Day 08 - A moment you felt the most satisfied with your life
Day 09 - How you hope your future will be like
Day 10 - Discuss your first love and first kiss.
Day 11 - Put your ipod on shuffle and write 10 songs that pop up.
Day 12 - Bullet your whole day.
Day 13 - Somewhere you'd like to move or visit
Day 14 - Your earliest memory
Day 15 - Your favorite blogs
Day 16 - Your views on mainstream music
Day 17 - Your highs and lows of this past year
Day 18 - Your beliefs
Day 19 - Disrespecting your parents
Day 20 - How important you think education is
Day 21 - One of your favorite shows
Day 22 - How have you changed in the past 2 years?
Day 23 - Give pictures of 5 guys who are famous and who you find attractive.
Day 24 - Your favorite movie and what it's about
Day 25 - Someone who fascinates you and why
Day 26 - What kind of person attracts you?
Day 27 - A problem that you have had
Day 28 - Something that you miss
Day 29 - Goals for the next 30 days
Day 30 - Your highs and lows this month

My Kid Can Read 2

This is a follow-up to the previous post: Lily has a travel Aquadoodle. That was the original toy we used to show Lily what her name looks like. Tonight she made it clear that it is known not as "Aquadoodle" but as "L! Lily!"

That is all.

My Kid Can Read

No, she can't read. But she does now recognize her own name, which I think is pretty awesome.

It started as just a habit that both Erich and I have. If Lily happens to have a crayon and paper (not very often yet as she doesn't know how not to make a mess), we will write out her name and say it. "L-I-L-Y. Lily!"

It didn't take too many repetitions before she approximated the same actions. "L! L! Lily!" she says with perfect little Ls as she swipes the pencil or crayon in vertical lines.

She has a book called The Parable of the Lily. Tonight, during her usual refusal-to-sleep routine (still ongoing, actually), I decided to test her. I pointed to her name in the title and asked her what is says. "L. I. Lily."

At least she's smartish. And pretty cute. :)

30 Days, Day 3

A month later, I'm finally continuing! I kind of stopped wanting to do this meme because I started to realize how teenagery the questions are, but I don't care at the moment. Lily went to bed SHOCKINGLY early tonight, so as a result, this little blog gets some attention!


Day 03 - Your views on drugs and alcohol


I enjoy the occasional beer, wine, or mixed drink. I think it's easy enough to abuse alcohol, but any mature adult should have proper judgment as to how much is just enough. I used to get buzzed or drunk in my early twenties, and while I don't regret such behavior for the most part, it's a lifestyle I consider entirely behind me as I'm now a grown-up. And anyone could skip that time of their life and not have missed anything; it's not a rite of passage in my book.


Drugs outside of alcohol are much harder to define, and I don't have the experience or knowledge to make a strong case for one particular drug-worldview. I know for certain that the government and the legal remnants of Prohibition are poor guides for the given safety or danger of any given drug. Some things are illegal which shouldn't be, and others which are legal (like alcohol) can be just as dangerous. I don't think it really makes sense for manufacturers to have to mix straight-up pain killers like hydrocodone with a liver-toxin like Tyle.nol to make it "less likely to cause dependence." There will always be abusers; why put at risk the livers of people who actually need a higher dosage for their given level of pain?


Again, I don't know nearly enough or, frankly, care enough to get on a soapbox. But what I do know about drugs and regulation makes me lean just a little bit more Libertarian than I otherwise might.



Day 04 - Your views on religion
Day 05 - A time you thought about ending your own life
Day 06 - Write 30 interesting facts about yourself.
Day 07 - Your zodiac sign and if you think it fits your personality
Day 08 - A moment you felt the most satisfied with your life
Day 09 - How you hope your future will be like
Day 10 - Discuss your first love and first kiss.
Day 11 - Put your ipod on shuffle and write 10 songs that pop up.
Day 12 - Bullet your whole day.
Day 13 - Somewhere you'd like to move or visit
Day 14 - Your earliest memory
Day 15 - Your favorite blogs
Day 16 - Your views on mainstream music
Day 17 - Your highs and lows of this past year
Day 18 - Your beliefs
Day 19 - Disrespecting your parents
Day 20 - How important you think education is
Day 21 - One of your favorite shows
Day 22 - How have you changed in the past 2 years?
Day 23 - Give pictures of 5 guys who are famous and who you find attractive.
Day 24 - Your favorite movie and what it's about
Day 25 - Someone who fascinates you and why
Day 26 - What kind of person attracts you?
Day 27 - A problem that you have had
Day 28 - Something that you miss
Day 29 - Goals for the next 30 days
Day 30 - Your highs and lows this month

30 Days #2

Day 02 - Where you'd like to be in 10 years

I would like to be right here or not too far away. I hope that we're in a comfortable enough place to do some traveling. I really want to go back to Germany some day. I assume we'll be in a new house in 10 years, as we're in something between a small starter and a 10+ year house right now. I also assume I'll have three or four kids 10 years from now, and that sounds nice. I can't say a lot more right now because there are just so many questions. I've got some ambition, but mostly I just want to be content. My list for where I want to be in one year would be much longer, but ten? There's a zillion variables. Too many to fathom.

Day 03 - Your views on drugs and alcohol
Day 04 - Your views on religion
Day 05 - A time you thought about ending your own life
Day 06 - Write 30 interesting facts about yourself.
Day 07 - Your zodiac sign and if you think it fits your personality
Day 08 - A moment you felt the most satisfied with your life
Day 09 - How you hope your future will be like
Day 10 - Discuss your first love and first kiss.
Day 11 - Put your ipod on shuffle and write 10 songs that pop up.
Day 12 - Bullet your whole day.
Day 13 - Somewhere you'd like to move or visit
Day 14 - Your earliest memory
Day 15 - Your favorite blogs
Day 16 - Your views on mainstream music
Day 17 - Your highs and lows of this past year
Day 18 - Your beliefs
Day 19 - Disrespecting your parents
Day 20 - How important you think education is
Day 21 - One of your favorite shows
Day 22 - How have you changed in the past 2 years?
Day 23 - Give pictures of 5 guys who are famous and who you find attractive.
Day 24 - Your favorite movie and what it's about
Day 25 - Someone who fascinates you and why
Day 26 - What kind of person attracts you?
Day 27 - A problem that you have had
Day 28 - Something that you miss
Day 29 - Goals for the next 30 days
Day 30 - Your highs and lows this month

30 Days #1

A few of my LJ friends did this a while back. I'd like to do some more blogging, but I don't want to have to think of anything original, so this seems like a good fit for me right now. :) It's 30 days of prompts. Ready, set, go!

Day 01 - Your current relationship

I have so many relationships, but I suppose this is asking about my significant other. Erich and I have been married for three and a half wonderful, eventful years. We've been a couple for almost six years and we've known each other for eight years. That's over a quarter of my life. (What? No... really? Um, yep.) We are extremely compatible, and, for the record, I would say compatibility is the one thing anyone should want most in a relationship. It's a boring word, but it encompasses so much. We have the same religious and political views. We want the same things in our family and complement each other well in the parenting department. We make each other laugh every day. We communicate easily and don't get bored with each other. We challenge each other. I couldn't imagine being with anyone else; he's my favorite person in the whole world. I really don't know how much more there is to say!  My current relationship is awesome.


Day 02 - Where you'd like to be in 10 years
Day 03 - Your views on drugs and alcohol
Day 04 - Your views on religion
Day 05 - A time you thought about ending your own life
Day 06 - Write 30 interesting facts about yourself.
Day 07 - Your zodiac sign and if you think it fits your personality
Day 08 - A moment you felt the most satisfied with your life
Day 09 - How you hope your future will be like
Day 10 - Discuss your first love and first kiss.
Day 11 - Put your ipod on shuffle and write 10 songs that pop up.
Day 12 - Bullet your whole day.
Day 13 - Somewhere you'd like to move or visit
Day 14 - Your earliest memory
Day 15 - Your favorite blogs
Day 16 - Your views on mainstream music
Day 17 - Your highs and lows of this past year
Day 18 - Your beliefs
Day 19 - Disrespecting your parents
Day 20 - How important you think education is
Day 21 - One of your favorite shows
Day 22 - How have you changed in the past 2 years?
Day 23 - Give pictures of 5 guys who are famous and who you find attractive.
Day 24 - Your favorite movie and what it's about
Day 25 - Someone who fascinates you and why
Day 26 - What kind of person attracts you?
Day 27 - A problem that you have had
Day 28 - Something that you miss
Day 29 - Goals for the next 30 days
Day 30 - Your highs and lows this month

Somebody Call a WAAAAAAmbulance!

Why does a blank text box on the internet seem like a strong invitation to complain? I spend  most of my time pretty happy and content. But I don't really need to vent when I'm happy! And there's always at least one person to share it with.

But when I'm sick, miserable and tired of life I'm usually also feeling alone. I just feel like someone out there has to listen and be sympathetic and then. . .that will somehow. . .help, I guess? I can't tell you the number of Tweets I've composed in my head and forbidden myself to actually type for fear of giving the entire Internet the impression that I'm nothing but a miserable complainer.

That being said, I am so SICK of being SICK. I know I'm not alone in this assessment: This has been the worst winter ever for sickness. For as long as I can remember, I would get sick once or twice a year. In adulthood, this would usually end up being a fall cold and a late winter cold, and if I was really unlucky I would get a fever and really have to lie down, but that wasn't an every year kind of thing. In this household of three, someone has been sick continuously since early January. And I'm not even going into the viruses of last calendar year. I held off on getting sick this year until mid-February, but once I got started, there was no stopping.

Around February 17, I started feeling the tickle and I knew I was getting the cold of which Erich had just suffered the worst. I felt bad for close to a week and then it tapered off into manageable but annoying congestion. Fearing a sinus infection, I made sure to blow my nose and keep it clear! What a JOKE, because two days after the congestion finally seemed to end, I started feeling bad again. That was a Thursday. By Saturday evening, my ear hurt. By Sunday, I was experiencing the worst pain of my life, and that is not an exaggeration. I probably should have gone to the ER, where I would have been prescribed pain meds that were up to the task. But I went to the doctor on Monday morning and confirmed the diagnosis: severe middle ear infection, perforated ear drum and infected ear canal. I was completely useless and in severe pain for about three days, and I still felt pretty crummy for a complete week.

Just after my 10-day course of antibiotics ended, I was suddenly congested. Another cold! This one seemed milder, so I rode it out. But today, a week later, I feel sick again. Not still. AGAIN. Sore throat. Sore body. Actually, my throat's kind of on fire. Lord, have mercy!

So, Internet, I'm feeling pretty miserable right now. Thanks for listening.

I'm Out of Here

I'm going to go on a vacation. Since a real vacation just can't happen right now for a million reasons, it's going to have to be a pretend vacation. Right now, I'll take a pretend vacation over no vacation at all.

I'm going by myself. I hop in my luxury car for a leisurely two-hour drive through no major traffic to a tropical beach. As soon as I arrive at my hut, I slip into the most comfortable swimsuit in the world, and I don't even care if I look good in it because there's no one around for miles. After I take a dip in the 70-degree water, I park myself on a chaise with a cooler full of beer and a stack of books I've been meaning to read.

When I get sleepy, I take a nap. When I get hungry, I eat delicious and nutritious fresh foods which have required no preparation by me.

Erich and Lily are allowed to visit. Lily is always in a good mood, and when she's sleepy, she lays down in her own little bed which she likes and takes a nap or sleeps for an entire night as the case may be. When she's hungry, she eats normal big girl food with her full set of teeth. Erich and I enjoy a candlelit dinner in which no one throws any food on the floor, and even if someone does, I don't have to clean it up.

I wear beautiful sundresses. My hair gets that ocean wave. My skin gets suntanned. At no point am I the least bit cold.

Coughs, colds, runny noses, ear infections, antibiotics, and ibuprofen are all unheard of and/or unnecessary. (Imagine such a magical world!)

This vacation lasts for one month and not a day less.

Thanks, Imagination. That sort of helped for a few minutes.

Baby New Year

Lily is One! This seems to hold more significance to me than New Years this year.

I've been doing a little spring cleaning on the ol' Facebook and Google Reader. Once I start purging a bit, it's increasingly easy to be merciless. I don't want to give up FB entirely, but I also don't even want to see a single entry that I don't at least moderately care about. I defriended a bunch and I hid even more.

As for Reader, I'm moving further and further away from my previous way of thinking, the idea that it's really no big deal if I just scroll past entries on a blog I'm subscribed to because it's worth not missing something that will interest me. That may even be true in a mathematical analysis kind of way, but psychologically it's way too taxing. And the busier my almost-walker gets, the less I want to feel obligated to spend a certain amount of time on the internet.

And while I'm at it, I don't want to keep my netbook on the dining room table any more. Instead of reading the books and magazines I enjoy, I end up wasting too much time on the internet on things that rot my brain, watching the mess grow in my vicinity, losing the will to clean it up so my husband and I have a decent area in which to dine. If do my internetting on my comfy chair with no mess-catching table nearby and no easy ability to eat a meal or a snack in the meantime, I'm disinclined to stay too long. (That's the working theory at this point, anyway.)

This is less a resolution than an epiphany--fitting, given the season! But really, I know I need to waste less time on the internet. It's time to change my habits to support that idea.

I'm feeling like I'm on a roll. Life isn't all roses all the time, but for the first time since I got married, I feel like my daily habits aren't making me fatter by the week. Having an increasingly mobile youngster has everything to do with that. I think it would be foolish to waste this window of well-being. I'm going to keep pushing onward, making daily, tiny improvements, because at this moment, I think I can.


(...until I, by my works, gain heaven! Hahahaha, I kid.)

New Year's Survey

Cuz it's fun, that's why!

1. What did you do in 2010 that you'd never done before?
Had a baby!

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I wanted to get in shape for real, and I did, sort of. Right around September, I had some real muscles. Then I stopped exercising for many reasons and lost even more weight and have decided that I'm doing well with eating when I'm hungry, stopping when I'm full, and chasing a toddler.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
MEEEEE! Also, my SIL, Erin!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
My grandmother.

5. What countries did you visit?
I don't recall that we went anywhere more exotic than Indiana. Wow.

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
A home free from dust? I really don't have a big wish list. We're having affordable home improvements done, which was my wish last year. We are blessed.

7. What date from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory?
January 8th, the best and worst.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Kept my kid alive. I'm proud that I've been able to breastfeed her whole life and have been saving money by cloth diapering.

9. What was your biggest failure?
I suffered from good patient syndrome at the end of my pregnancy which blah blah blah blah blah.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
One sinus infection. Nothing horrible.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Anything that kept my family fed, clothed and clean in a practical way. So many baby items are great and indispensible, so I couldn't pick just one.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Erich for his excellent support. I just love that guy.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
People who criticize other people's parenting choices for stupid reasons. I hate Mommy Wars, and I hate getting drawn into them even more.

14. Where did most of your money go?
The house and the kid.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Having a baby. Erich's days off. Galena weekend. Christmastime.

16. What song will always remind you of 2010?
Anything performed by the cast of Glee.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? happier
ii. thinner or fatter? THINNER!!! THINNER THINNER THINNER!
iii. richer or poorer? same

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Sleep.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Procrastination. That has always been true. (Keeping the exact same answer from last year.)

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Christmas Eve: Erich played trumpet for 7:15pm church, Lily refused to stay asleep and so hung out with my dad while the rest of us went to 11pm church with me playing organ and Erich and I sang in choir.
Christmas Day: Played organ and sang for 9am church, hung out with parents the rest of the day. Lily opened her "Santa" presents and we watched movies.
Second Day of Christmas: Big party with my side of the family after playing organ for three services. Lots of food, presents, and fun.
Third-Eigth Days of Christmas: Visiting Keller side in IN. It was at times relaxing and chaotic but always nice.

22. Did you fall in love in 2010?
Yeah, I really love that little girl who came into my life.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Lost was great. We still like Community, 30Rock, Office, Outsourced has been fun. I have a big new soft spot for Glee.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
The obstetrics establishment.

26. What was the best book you read?
The Time-Traveller's Wife. So good!

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Mostly musical shows on TV, like Glee and The Sing-Off.

28. What did you want and get?
New flooring on the main floor. I was so glad the carpet was gone, it took me a while to be thrilled that the hardwood looks good.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Harry Potter #7, Part 1. One of the only movies I saw in the theater.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Erich and I went on a rare date to a Spanish restaurant. I turned 27.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I have no idea.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?
My personal fashion concepts are always so practical. In the past I've attempted to hide the fat and then look as good as possible while pregnant. This year looking decent, hiding fat, and being able to nurse easily and modestly were the driving forces.

34. What kept you sane?
Usually my mom, who would provide and extra pair of arms to deal with a baby.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Maybe I've finally grown up or something, but I have almost no connection to celebrity pop culture these days, and I don't miss it.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Birth rights and breastfeeding rights. Feminist stuff, actually, minus the abortion stuff.

37. Who did you miss?
All the family and friends I don't get to see often enough.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Lily!

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010:
One very important aspect of parenting can be boiled down to constant risk assessment.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your whole year:
Pick a lullaby, any lullaby.