progress, a puppy, and pendragons

I have writing progress to report! This makes me so happy! Can I get a gold star?

I sat down last night and started editing the first chapter of my children's novel (It's complete, but not ready to go out yet. Still needs lots of cleaning up, cutting, and character voice). So my writing progress this time isn't how many words I wrote, it's how many words I cut. I worked on the first 2400 words and managed to cut it down by 282 words (which is slightly more than the recommended 10%). I also re-wrote some sections, including the first whole page. The dreaded FIRST PAGE! It must be perfect - most people browsing through a bookstore will only read the first page (or even just the first paragraph) of a book before deciding to put it back, or read more.

Topic #2: the puppy. I broke down and let B get a puppy. Now we haven't had very good luck with dogs so far in our marriage. We've tried a few - his sister "rescues" dogs at the vet clinic she works at and has tried to place several with us. We decided we weren't going to try any adult dogs anymore, they come with too many problems, and we have too many kids to have a problem dog on top of it. That was also my reasoning for not getting a puppy - as if we aren't overwhelmed already with 4 small children running around the house! But B heard about these black lab/rottweiler pupppies at the pound, that there were 9 of them that needed adopting. He brought home an application. He begged me, just go look at them. I said, no way. But then he did a smart thing. He left the application in my purse, and said "I'm leaving it up to you." I would have continued to fight him if he had tried to insist, but when he just gave up and let me decide... well then, awwww shucks... so, now we have a puppy. B, of course, is completely responsible for cleaning up ALL his messes. And 2 weeks now into this adventure, he's keeping his word.


His name is Remington (Remy). He really is heart-meltingly cute. I will report back in 6 months with whether or not I still have a soft spot for him - let's see how much of our house he chews up-

Topic #3 - Pendragons. I really don't have any reason to mention pendragons except that I've always thought it was a neat word and it seemed to go with the post title. What exactly is a pendragon? I envision a tiny dragon the size of a match, and if you try to write with it, it flames out. Personally, Ithink my definition is better than Wikipedia's: Pendragon or Pen Draig, meaning "head dragon" or "chief dragon" (a figurative title referring to status as a leader), is the name of several traditional Kings of the Britons.

In my last blog I had also mentioned parenting frustrations and foolish New Year's resolutions. I'll skip the parenting frustrations, for now (last week was bad, but this week has actually been great with the kids), and as far as resolutions, I've NEVER been able to keep any of them, EVER, for more than like 2 weeks, maybe, probably not even that. So this year I found this quote on one of my friend's Facebook posts and decided to adopt it as my new philosophy: "I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the year's."

Nevertheless, I did commit to three things this year. One, I signed up for Beth Moore's scripture memory challenge - memorizing two verses a month. I've got Galations 2:20 memorized and now I am working on Matt 9:12-13. Here goes: Jesus said "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. (check) But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Then, I also decided to try to do a Bible read-through this year. I haven't tried this since 2005 (only got about 1/3 of it read), and I haven't actually completed a read through for 12 years now. The first month is always easy, because Genesis is fun to read. I wonder how motivated I'll be when I hit Leviticus. I think this time I'll try to jump around more, for variation.

Finally, I signed up on TrackDiet.com to try and keep myself motivated to lose weight. It's been two weeks now, and I haven't logged back in yet. Hmmmn...

I'm hoping that the first two challenges will help me on the spiritual side, so I can be more successful on the physical side. But really, it boils down to prayer. That's the only way I can fight the call to the pantry (or, right now, the vending machine...)

Inspiration

I was cleaning up old emails out of my inbox when I discovered this one, the final NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) encouragement for 2008. Re-reading this email today was providence, I am sure, because I need that motivation to get back into writing mode - haven't written anything for 2 weeks now (other than blogs). Next time I write a blog (which will be about parenting frustrations, foolish New Years resolutions, and puppies), I WILL have writing progress to report!

From NaNoWriMo:

Jobs. Having a job is one of the greatest, trickiest things you can do as an adult. Employment brings perks like challenges and growth and (sometimes) money. But the longer you work at a job, the easier it is to confuse what you are doing with what you can do.
This is true whether you're a dental hygienist, a stay-at-home parent, or Sirkka-Liisa Anttila, the Forestry Minister of Finland. Because careers tend to be all about specialization. Human beings, on the other hand, contain multitudes. Each of us has a wealth of talents spread broadly over domains both marketable and deliciously impractical. The tricky part is that we tend to develop the former at the expense of the latter. Passions become hobbies. Hobbies become something we swear we'll get back to when we have more time. Or when the kids are grown. Or when the stock market recovers.
Which means we leave unexplored many of those paths that ultimately make us feel most alive—the moments of creating, building, playing, and doing that lead to extraordinary and unexpected things.
Like writing a book.
Or, more loosely, postponing the must-dos of the real world to spend 30 days exploring an attractive, improbable dream.
Giving ourselves that time is so important. Because the world can wait. It's what the world does best, in fact. It was hanging out for 4.5 billion years before we arrived, and it'll be waiting around for another few billion after we're gone.
Our dreams, however, have much shorter shelf-lives.
If there's one thing I've learned from running NaNoWriMo, it's this: Whatever you think you are, you are more than that. You possess a fearsome array of skills and abilities, and the most satisfying of these may be completely unknown to you now. Your curiosity is a dependable guide; follow it. Put yourself in unfamiliar places. Kindle passions. Savor the raw joy of making things, and then remake the best of those things until they take someone's breath away. Wrestle bears.
Actually, skip the bear-wrestling.
But do keep trying big things, okay? Sometimes we can wait so long for a clear sign that it's time to begin, that the opportunity sails right past us.
Life is so short. Adventures beckon. Let's get packed and head out on a new one today.
I think it's time.
ChrisNaNoWriMo

dancing and dreams

I signed up for the 2009 Scripture memory challenge at Beth Moore's blog. My first verse to memorize: Galations 2:20. Okay I am writing it now by memory: I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body (check) I live by faith in the Son of God, (check) who loved me and gave Himself for me.

We are back in Laramie after a lovely week in Kansas preparing for and then celebrating my niece's wedding. The highlight of the wedding, for me: my little Starlet "dancing" with the groom.


When the bride and groom were having their first dance together, the wins both trotted out onto the dance floor with them. While Serious started dancing solo, toddler-style, Starlet went straight to the groom and tugged on his pants until he picked her up!

My stepdaughter really wanted to read my rough draft of my 2nd novel while she was here visiting for Christmas. I warned her it was REALLY rough - I haven't even spell-checked it yet! - but she blazed through the 160 pages and said she really liked it. She really got into my two main female characters and asked if she could assign them fashions, and cars (Kell gets a Lincoln Navigator; Rowen gets a BMW). It was very satisfying for me that she really liked my book - even a half-finished rough draft - but it was also exciting for me that she was reading my first Christian novel. It is full of Scriptures and my characters' ups and downs with their Christian walk. I even had Rowen and Pete share their testimonies with each other in one scene.

I had also had an interesting conversation about dreams with my stepdaughter. We both seem to recall our nightmares better than good dreams, though I have had several wonderful dreams that I call my "heaven dreams" because I believe I was dreaming of heaven (or at least, completely beautiful, otherworldly places; rainbows are something I usually see in these heaven dreams). As I was reflecting on the good dreams vs. the nightmares, I realized that all my nightmares occur within houses, whereas all my good dreams occur in natural settings, usually with water (and rainbows). There are websites that offer suggestions for dream interpretations - for instance "Dreams relating to a house often refers to various aspects of the Self. When trying to analyze the house in your dream, consider also how the house is kept and the condition of it. The rooms in the house relates to facets of your personality" - which makes me wonder if when I dream about aspects of myself, it turns into a nightmare, but when I am dreaming about aspects of God (my heaven dreams) the dreams are heavenly beautiful...

My most favorite dream (after my rare heaven dreams) is a semi-awake dream, not a day-dream but what is a called a lucid dream (wikipedia). All of my story ideas have come from lucid dreams, and are often developed a later points through more lucid dreaming. On the long drive to Kansas, I had a lucid dream about a brand new story idea. I'm still searching for a name for it...right now in my notes I am calling it "Reading in Love" (a take on "Falling in Love") because it is a story of a love between two people that grows from reading a book... not altogether an original idea, I know, but it's my twist on the idea.

So, thanks to "Reading in Love" - my writing progress last week was 1262 words.

Christmas, New Years, Weddings, Hanging Beds, Parrots, Drinking Games, and other assorted adventures

Christmas in the family of little women and a couple beleagured men shall be summarized as usual: it was wonderful, we survived, we are all very poor now. My Christmas project this year was to create (with the help of the girls) our very own Advent Calendar. I wanted a nativity scene calendar, though I had to add a few extra Christmas symbols (candy cane, Christmas tree, poinsettia plant, wreath, bells) in order to come up with a total of 24. But the main point of making our own Advent calendar was so that I could spend a little time each day talking with the girls about the Biblical meaning of Christmas.

A couple days after Christmas we loaded up the minivan till it was dragging its tailpipe and headed off on the 10 hour drive to Salina, Kansas to visit B's family, celebrate the New Year, and prepare for a wedding. Right now we are sharing a house with 15 people, 8 dogs, 3 cats, 2 parrots, and a squirrel. Okay, not so bad as it sounds; the dogs and cats are mostly outside and the squirrel lives in the garage (M.G. works at a vet clinic and often rescues animals). Another interesting aspect of our visit is that B and I are sleeping in T.G.'s hanging bed (all humans younger than 30 years have been relegated to air mattresses). I still have to hear the whole story about this bed, where the idea came from, but there is this huge wooden frame that a regular full size mattress (and box springs) are hanging from, by ropes. Kind of like a gigantic, stiff, well-padded hammock. B and I were a bit dubious sleeping on such a contraption - especially since we are quite heavier than its regular teenage occupant - but fortuntely the contraption did come with four legs that could be swiveled down to provide more stability.

B.'s niece is getting married in less than two days, so for the past few days I have been involved in the fascinating process of altering bridesmaid dresses, assembling corsages and bouquets, making endless bows, and watching a wedding cake being built. I am amazed at the amount of equipment, sugar, and time goes into making a wedding cake. Also, the amount of food that 15 people can go through in a single day.

I thought my days of playing drinking games had ended with college, but here I was 15 years later on New Year's Eve playing "Presidents and A___oles" with an assortment of ages from 70 down to 13 years. Now, don't be shocked, the underage participants were drinking Sprite, and most of the rest of us were refilling with soda, too. I am so happy and proud to announce that you can have an absolute BLAST without anyone getting drunk. My favorite part of the game was the little green man rule. When the president declares this rule, every time you take a drink, you have to first flick the imaginary little green man off the top of your drink, then take a swig, and then hurry up and recapture the little guy and place him back on top of your drink before you can proceed with the game. Another fun rule was having to say something like "yuumm, I like peanut butter cookies" every time you take a drink, or "excuse me, I farted," every time you put your drink down.

I have more to share later about interpreting dreams, what is underneath girls' pony tails, good books and movies, and of course the wedding itself, which is this Saturday.

Christmas letter 2008

Here are a few highlights and funny moments from our family in the past year…

Blaze (7 yrs old) made two Valentine’s Day cards for B. and I – when I asked her why B.’s card was so much bigger than mine, she said it’s because he is taller than me!

My stepdaughter (13 yrs) came up with a new game for the twins: she pinned Serious’ binky on Starlet’s pants so when Starlet was crawling or toddling around, Serious would chase her to get her binky.

Dreamer (4 yrs) calls Grandma and Grandpa’s dog “Butt” instead of “Buck” – she couldn’t say “k’s” until just recently. We took care of Buck for a couple months while my parents were in Hilton Head, and I admit we kind of worried what the neighbors thought when Dreamer was outside calling “Butt! Here Butt!”

B. took an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) course last fall. The girls loved playing with his stethoscope, listening to each other’s heartbeats with it. Blaze says Serious’ heart sounds like a giant in her tummy.

Stars comes up with a new name for my job – Geographic Information Designer. I like that a lot better than GIS Analyst. One of my daughters might be taking after my love of all things map-related: Dreamer made a “map” of the neighborhood and when went for a walk she would tell me where we were on the map.

One of our friends call Serious and Starlet“Twin and Twinner.” Other nicknames “Thing 1 and Thing 2” and “Pete and Repeat”

Stars rides one of our calves, Larry – afterwards B. says Larry will need to go to a “cow counselor” to recover from the traumatic experience.

Spring Break in Hilton Head, SC – thanks Mom & Dad for hosting all seven of us! Highlights of our trip: riding bikes in the surf… Blaze and Stars becoming expert lizard catchers… Blaze digging up a crab when she thought she was digging up a pretty shell and getting pinched!

We had a bit of an adventure in May when a tornado hit parts of Laramie. My stepdaughter and the rest of the kids at the junior high sat in the halls for a couple hours – the tornado passed right by her school! It also passed near our house – a couple of our neighbors lost their garage and barn roofs. All we lost was our wheelbarrow and our electricity for a couple days.

B. has gotten so good at roping that cows aren’t good enough for him anymore – he is roping elephants, now. Well, sort of. He has taken to practicing his roping in the house, using Blaze and Dreamer’s rocking elephant.

Serious crawls out of her crib, gets a cup from the bathroom, fills it from water from the toilet, and tries to dump it on Starlet in her crib!

Our summer vacation is the B.'s father's family reunion in Long Prairie, Minnesota. Blaze and Dreamer can’t wait to be old enough to ride the tube behind Grandma and Grandpa B’s boat. I stay busy trying to keep the twins from falling in. Dreamer tells Grandpa B “Look, there’s a rainbow!” Grandpa says – “have you been up there painting in the sky?”

Stars wins Grand Champion in the halter class at Fair and gets to go to State Fair in Puyallup, Washington (near Tacoma).

B. was pounding nails to hang a picture, when Dreamer told him “Daddy don’t spank the wall, the spiders will come out!”

Stars and I share “Twilight” frenzy in anticipation of the fourth book arriving in August, and then waiting for the movie in November! (It was worth the wait)

Dreamer asks me who our King is. I say we don’t have a king, we have a President. “No”, she insists. “We do have a king! God is our king!” (Yes, anyone who knows us fairly well knows that we are Jesus freaks. Amen!)

We are thankful for another year of many little blessings running around our home, many messes to clean up, and few frustrations and trials to keep us appreciating the important things. Not money, not the economy. But family, and friends. We love you all and look forward to hearing from you all! 

Followers of Jesus

If you ask 10 different people to give a definition of Christianity, they'll give you 10 different answers. Rather than calling myself a Christian, to be more specific I prefer to call myself a follower of Jesus.

Like Jesus, I reject many things about “organized religion” (man-made attempts to reach God through rules and rituals)*. Like the folks at at AllAboutGod.com, I believe religion has kept more people from the Truth than anything in history.

I started out "religious" - and became disillusioned with it. I felt church-goers were mostly hypocrites; and besides, there is no proof of God, or proof of really anything else in the Bible - other than some of these people did exist historically. It all happened so long ago, how can you trust that the Bible is an accurate historical record, and not biased by the different perceptions and interpretations of many men? And for that matter, if there is a God and if he's supposed to be good and wise and all-powerful, how come there is so much suffering in the world? These are all questions that turned me into a skeptic during my high school and college years.

But at some point, people generally face one or more the following:

• you realize just how difficult and complicated life is
• you start to quesiton the meaning and purpose of your life
• you're faced with your mortality and wonder where do I go when I die?

In my case, it was the first two that caused me to begin the transition from "skeptic" to "seeker".

There isn't any proof out there, for the skeptic/seeker. Many of the arguments that believers use are flawed. It comes down to a matter of faith. There's lots of different faiths to choose from. Why should Jesus be the answer?

He's the answer because he's the only one who loved us so much, even the most wretched of us, even those of us who hate him, that he gave up his life for us. And then he conquered death by rising again, so that we might have hope of eternal life, too. Every other belief system in the world says you must achieve a certain level of goodness or holiness, or meditate long enough, or give enough of your time and money or go on some pilgrimage to earn enlightment or eternal life. Jesus is the only one that said, "no, it's a gift. I freely give it to you." No works at all, just faith, and a repentant heart.

What does it mean, to be a follower of Jesus? Matthew 16:24-25: Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it."

Following Jesus means surrendering your will to Him, and thereby gaining assurance of eternal life. Why is Jesus worthy of being the lord of our lives? Wasn't he just a good man, or a wise prophet and kind healer? Actually, he didn't claim to be a "good man", he claimed to be the Son of God. Here's how one my friends put it, loosely quoting from C.S. Lewis: "I think that one of the most quintessential questions that one must ask is this: Is Jesus who he said he was? There’s no gray area---either he was telling the truth--he died for our sins, was resurrected, appeared to many witnesses, and is the only way to heaven….or, he was the most egomaniacal, self-deluded liar that ever existed."

Matthew 9:11-13: While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees [the self-righteous] saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

If you don't think there is anything wrong with you, that you are basically a good person, then you're healthy. You don't need a doctor.

But remember this: when the Jews were about ready to stone a woman for adultery, Jesus said, "he who has no sin, throw the first stone." And one by one, they all dropped their stones, and walked away.

Some of my blogs related to following Jesus:

Worldviews, or, what is truth? (April, 2009)

Thinking about how hard the Truth is (February, 2009)

Whip lashes (October, 2008)

Speeding tickets (October, 2008)

My testimony (March, 2008)

Teenage trauma (February, 2008)

*You might ask that if I "reject many things about organized religion (man-made attempts to reach God through rules and rituals)" - then why do you go to church? Well, the short answer is that's what followers of Jesus are asked to do, in the New Testament. The long answer is.... forthcoming in another blog, someday!

musings on Narnia

Like many other Narnia fans, last Tuesday as soon as the Prince Caspian DVD was available I trotted right off to buy it, and watched it again that same night (I saw it twice last May, but that wasn't enough!)

I loved the movie, and I could write pages and pages comparing and contrasting it to the original book which I love even more. Basically, the movie is an adventure: the book was that, but oh so much more. Where it falls short is very subtle. Here is just one example: in the film, Aslan tells Lucy, "Every year you grow, so shall I." In the book, Aslan says, "Every year you grow, you will find me bigger." There is a totally different meaning in these two phrases. A Believer understands that one of the major realizations we make as we grow spiritually is that God becomes ever bigger, greater, holier, awesome... the way the film says it, it's just not the same.

Still, I am eager for the next movie, the Voyage of the Dawn Treader - even though it's not due out until May, 2010. So eager in fact that I re-read the book this weekend. The very best part was Eustace turning into a dragon, and then Aslan turning him back again - a beautiful picture of what Christ does for us not just when we are saved, but each time we realize we are hopelessly lost when we try to do things on our own, instead of through God.

At first I was kind of Hoping that "The Horse and His Boy" would be the next Narnia movie out, since it's my favorite, and also since it's the only other movie where Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy are all present (if briefly). But after re-reading Dawn Treader, I am just as excited to see this one brought to screen. NarniaWeb.com "your complete source for Narnia movie news" confirmed that Dawn Treader is indeed the next movie in the making and I also found this interesting article In what order should the Narnia books be read? which also relates to the order in which the movies are being produced.

Back to Prince Caspian again for a moment: here is an excerpt from a Christianity Today article comparing the movie to the original themes in the book. The whole article is worth reading but this was the point that I thought was so important because it relates to another classic fantasy that I think the film makers meddled too much with:

Because Aslan is so remote from them, the Pevensies are forced to figure things out for themselves, with varying results. Peter's hunger for power and glory leads him to act just as rashly in Narnia as he had been acting in England—but since he is leading armies into battle now, his rashness has lethal, devastating consequences. What's more, he is strongly, strongly tempted to make a deal with the devil, as it were, to achieve his goals. (This may be the biggest, most potentially controversial change to a once-noble character since Faramir felt the lure of the Ring in Peter Jackson's version of The Two Towers.) However, some important and powerful themes do emerge, as Lucy reminds Peter that they need to actually look for Aslan and be faithful to what they already know of him, if they are ever to actually see him.