41 of 52

I feel more of a sense of accomplishment about finishing this book than I do about reading all of the previous forty. First of all, it's 542 pages long. Second of all, it's inspiring.

I will say that if you decide to try it, you should be prepared to find not only the story of Bonhoeffer's life, but also a great deal of German church history and World War II history. The scope is very broad.

Prior to reading this book, I knew of Bonhoeffer as the author of "Life Togther" and "The Cost of Discipleship". I knew that he had been involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler. I imagined him as a stodgy, overly intellectual German theologian. After reading this book I find him to be much more than that. And, after reading this book I feel compelled to read more of his writings, and also to read Karl Barth and Jean Lasserre.

hearty lentil soup

I make this soup a couple of times each fall/winter, because it's so quick and warm and healthy and filling. This makes 4-6 servings.

1 lb ground turkey, or lean ground beef
1 1/2 cup dry lentils
1 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped onion
6 cups spicy V8
about 10 oz canned mushrooms, drained
2 cubes beef bouillon dissolved in 3 cups water
1 tsp salt
ground black pepper to taste
cayenne powder to taste
dash Worcestershire sauce

1. Brown meat in a big soup pot, breaking into small pieces as it cooks. Drain and return to pan.

2. Add all remaining ingredients. Cook on high until it boils. Reduce heat to low and cover. Simmer for about an hour, or until lentils are tender, stirring occasionally.

growing young

I woke up this morning with a heavy feeling. I can't remember the dream I was having, only that at the very end one of my college friends showed up, and I said sadly, "I feel old."

"Me too," my friend said.

When I woke up, a Rich Mullins song was in my head.

...We are children no more, we have sinned and grown old
And our Father still waits and He watches down the road
To see the crying boys come running back to His arms
Growing young...

30 Rock and my life

4.16
Jenna: My dreams are getting worse. This one was so graphic! Kenneth and I were married and living in Indianapolis! We had kids!
Tracy: What kind of sick mind dreams that?!
Jenna: It was disgusting!

17 weeks

This pregnancy is going so much faster than the first one! Only three weeks until our ultrasound.

also

Rosie asked me to take a video of her this morning. (We were hanging out in the church foyer for part of the sermon.) She's wearing her new dress, and, in case you can't tell, singing "ho ho ho save me, i joy lord," her own version of a classic.

this week

Rosie got new giraffe mittens and a hat from Aunt Birdie

which was good, because it was a cold week.


This weekend has warmed up, and so we're still getting out and about.

Julie

More than a year ago, way before she was interested in dolls, I made four of them for Rosemary.

Now she had learned their names and enjoys them a lot. So last week, after I made her a new dress (pictures later), I used the scraps to make a matching doll. I'm a little embarrassed that she and her doll have matching dresses, actually. How "little house on the prairie" I've become.

Anyway, I made this doll from a new pattern - she's shaped more like one of Rosie's store-bought dolls and less like her homemade dolls. But when I was finished, I hated her hair. The bangs were much shorter than I'd planned. (She is named Julie because when Jack first saw her he said that she looked like Julie Andrews.)

Rosie didn't mind the funny hair.

But I did. So today I made her some pigtails. I think it's an improvement.



Rosie's favorite doll, however, seems to be Holly, the doll I made out of old knit Christmas stockings. She has a head that's too small and kind of creepy embroidered features. There's no accounting for taste.

Why I Am Mad At Donald Draper (spoiler alert)

If you've seen Sunday night's season finale of Mad Men, you know that recently-divorced Don Draper went from a one-night-stand with his secretary to proposing marriage to her in a matter of weeks.

He missed his chance. He could have changed.

Just six episodes ago, Don had one of those pivotal moments that rarely come in life. An awakening. A memento mori. Anna, the one person who really knew him, died, and for once we saw an honest, vulnerable Don, evaluating his own life.

And for an instant, he changed. He stopped drinking (short-lived; and then he just stopped drinking "too much,"; and then he seemed to forget his resolution entirely). He didn't jump into bed with the first woman he saw. He started swimming laps and journaling. He told his girlfriend (who was, for once, a mature, intelligent woman instead of a youthful barbie) who he really is.

And we all wondered, for a moment, if redemption and change were possible for our alcoholic, workaholic, self-centered, fearful, promiscuous anti-hero.

He was poised, as his girlfriend Faye said at the beginning of last night's episode, to accept his past and his identity, stop running from it, and become a real human being.

But that option wasn't as comfortable as continuing to live in the lies he'd been embracing for so long. And so he proposed to his secretary, basically explaining to her that he was in love with her because of the way he felt about himself when she was around. She'll make his life easier with his kids. She's young and pretty and fawns over him. And she doesn't know who he really is; she hasn't seen him at his worst. So he can keep pretending like it's not there.

I know I'm getting a little ridiculous, here, but: Please don't squander your chance for change. Don't let your desire to feel good, to feel good about yourself, make you change those convictions you had in the moment of truth. Don't reason yourself out of the promises you made, the changes you began.

Don just continues to be the cliche that we all know as the man from the sixties: divorced, with a new trophy wife, addicted to cigarettes and alcohol and work and women, too "manly" to be vulnerable or honest.

He was so close.

40 of 52

A 2010 Newberry Honor book, this tells the story of 11 year old Calpurnia, who is growing up in a wealthy farming family in Texas at the turn of the 20th century. A nature lover, Calpurnia scorns the traditional female role that she sees in her future, and spends more and more time studying the natural world with her grandfather.

Since I'm a sucker for spunky young female heroines who defy conventions, I expected that this book would be right up my alley. I was disappointed. The plot is not tightly woven together, and the characters lack some originality. Plus, the story implies that the "intellectual" work of the mind is greater than the other valuable works of the traditional female roles at that time, which I found off-putting. Can't we value both?

As a side note, the author is a practicing doctor, lawyer, and (now) novelist, which kind of blows my mind.

And as one more side note: maybe next year I will read all the Newberry and Caldecott winners that I've never read...

abc's

Our girl really loves to perform. I'm pretty sure I know which side of the family she gets it from.

family bike ride!

Thanks to Aunt Patty and Uncle Tim, we have this wonderful bike trailer. Today we finally bought a bike for Jack, and got the trailer hooked up to my bike. Rosie wasn't a bit scared to go for her first ride. She wore her new boots and took her little friend Michelle and her cup of grape juice along for the ride.

15 weeks

some of Rosie's favorites

Rosemary knows how to use my iphone. She can unlock it, choose the photo album, and then watch videos, all by herself. I have a little toddler piano app she likes to open too. Playing with my iphone is definitely in her top ten favorite pastimes. I kind of worry about the effect it might have on her to watch these little video clips of herself over and over again.

She loves to watch the videos of herself swimming with G-Daddy.

We had a great time with Uncle Jim during his visit last week. Of course it was a pretty slow, sleepy little week in Upland, but I think that was ok.



Another thing Rosie likes right now is pigtails. When I first put her in pigtails, she took 34 pictures of herself on photobooth.


She also likes to wear a "hairband" on her arm, because I always have one around my wrist. It really makes her look like a rock star.

39 of 52

I bought this cookbook because over the last year or two, one of our favorite tv shows has been the "River Cottage" series, which is nearly impossible to find on dvd and was introduced to us by some friends in Seattle.

This cookbook is designed to be used by families, so that even the youngest kids can participate and learn how to cook the basics. With kids in mind, each section has a "project" families can take on, like making homemade butter. It's also filled with interesting facts about the histories of different foods and the farming techniques currently used. It is unabashedly in favor of free range eggs and meats. I think it would be a great cookbook for any family to use for the basics, and it was fun to read.

ok

The great thing about people coming to visit you in Upland, Indiana is that you can be sure they have no ulterior motives. If they're coming to see us here, then they are really coming to see us; there is nothing else to see. When we were in Seattle we could never be sure. Grin.

On the other hand, I guess Mom and Dad were visiting us mainly because of the True Woman conference in Indianapolis last weekend. Ah, well. There goes that theory.



Mom left on Wednesday, and on Friday Grace came to visit us. Well, to visit us AND to present some research at a conference in Michigan. Shoot.

Grace and Rosie and I drove to Ypsilanti on Friday and spent the night there, then drove back to Upland on Saturday. Somehow Grace managed to escape without my ever getting a picture of her. But I do have the view from our hotel

and the coat she brought from Taiwan for Rosie


Jack took Grace to the airport this afternoon, and when he returns from Indy he'll be bringing another visitor, Uncle Jim, who is arriving by Greyhound tonight to stay for a week. He, at least, is just coming to see us. And hopefully to babysit so that we can go see "The Social Network".

Frankly, with all the driving I've done in the last two weeks, beginning with driving 45 minutes each way to see my OBGYN two days in a row, back and forth and back and forth and back and forth (etc) to Indy and the Indy airport, and ending with the driving to Michigan and back, I'm feeling totally frazzled and like I want to sit on my own sofa and eat ice cream and not talk to anyone for a few days. I'm fine if the winter blizzards go ahead and start and keep me trapped this week (seems like they might, with lows in the 30s already!). Of course then I'll probably switch from ice cream to brownies, warm from the oven. Or, what the heck, both.

I guess I'm a homebody after all.

Here's my girl:


And here's my belly, at 14 weeks:

And, PS, I do love having my friends and family come to visit. Thank you for coming to our boring middle of nowhere Upland.