An antidote to the iAnnoyance

After this angsty post last week, I knew I also had to admit how I contributed to the problem of our family interacting with technology too much and each other too little.  I admitted that I spend far too many hours clicking away on my laptop, content to hide behind some guise of work or relaxation. But if we are all doing the same, who has any reason to do differently?

So I did something different. I convinced my mom that we would bake banana bread together. She loves, loves banana bread, and has also recently expressed interest in baking. It took some talking into because she was tired after church and wanted to rest the afternoon, which worked fine as I left the house to catch up with a friend. But after dinner, we pulled out ingredients, mixing bowls, and measuring cups. We had my little brother drive us out to get baking soda (seriously, no one in this house bakes!), and at 9 pm we made banana bread, with my favorite recipe pulled up on my laptop screen and the occasional tip or "this is how I usually do it" passed along.

An hour and a half later, I laughed as my mom seemingly ate ever other piece as she cut the fresh-baked loaves. She was so delighted, the bread was so good! Even better, I gushed, "Mom, this is what I love: just doing things together. No computer, no iPhone, nothing fancy...just doing things together." And even though that triggered her mildly-sad reaction that she forgot to take a photo, it was far too late to ruin anything. I had intentionally and successfully spent an evening with my mom, so much that she didn't even have a chance to think of the people with which she would share this. That was probably the best way I could have spent my second-to-last night at home. It took foresight, it took some persuasion with my mom...but I am proud and pleased. So is my mom, who admitted that she is more confident in making this after we first made a batch together. "That's the point," I think I said aloud, but the inward reaction was probably more like, "Success!"

As a bonus, I jokingly mentioned to my mom that she could easily make another batch, since we had so many bananas laying around. But she took it seriously, so the very next day, she made more banana bread and passed it along to some friends. She's since happily forwarded me the texts she has received in response.

Twenty four years isn't too late to bake with your mom for the first time. Twenty four years is far too young to give into another week spent staring at a screen instead of spending time with each other. And so I write this as a reminder to myself...almost in a sense to think of family time creatively, much like I often find "things to do" just to create time with the students I work with...this could work, this has worked, and this is too incredibly simple not to try.

Milo, music, and Philippians

On the difficult days, remind me of nights like this. 11 pm in comfy pants, manuscripting Philippians, drinking warm Milo and looking up references and definitions. Asking, "How is knowing Christ a 'surpassing value'?" or something like that. I love Philippians. I love the gospel.

Butterflies

When I did my bug project in high school, I decided I didn't like butterflies anymore. After I caught the winged creatures, let them sit in my kill jar, and proceeded to pin and dry them, I discovered their eyes were bulging and pretty ugly up close. Since then, I just really haven't been a fan. Then today as I was watching M. and E. play outside, one flew by. The orange butterfly darted among the flowers, spending just enough time to stick it's hair-like proboscis into the flowers, reminding me briefly about the Magic School Bus lessons about nectar and pollination. Its paper-thin wings swooped up and down as it landed (can you use to word "swoop" when the object described is but a few inches long?), then fluttered quickly when it took off to the sky again.

Delicate, rhythmic, focused. I want to describe the movement of its wings as "crisp", which is also my favorite adjective for autumn weather. I'm laughing a little to myself that for the past six years, I haven't liked butterflies because of the bug-eyed observation I made in freshmen biology. And the fact that at twenty-three years of age, it's okay to consciously change my mind back. 

amazing day #8

Singing Old McDonald while babysitting M and E. I let them fill in the animals, and the first choice was a sssssssssnake. Then for the second round, this is what I got:

A: "And on that farm he had a..."
M: "Dragon!"

Sounds that followed: "whhhsshhh, arrrr, mmmmmmr" here, there, everywhere!

Amazing Day #6

Spending the whole day sabbathing with my best friend. Much needed physical rest, delicious food, soul contemplation, life dreams, and challenging prayers.

31 Amazing Days

The 31 Amazing Days challenge is going on with This Ordinary Adventure, a book that I'm very much looking forward to reading. With a subtitle "settling without settling" and descriptions like "trying to live out Jesus' extraordinary teachings in the midst of the mundane," the Jeske's remind us that...life here is amazing? I haven't read the book yet so I can't say. Anyway, I digress. The challenge they've put forth is simple: Each day of October, do or notice something amazing. And an Amazing Day can be really anything: "something fun, dangerous, faith-filled, or just good."

The optimist in me loves the idea but at first, thought it was for other people. After all, I already find joy in the little things. I already appreciate life, and D and I have already penned our relationship as an adventure. I already walk barefoot and stand on tables and pluck dandelions to blow them to the wind. 

Yet I must admit that it has been awhile since I've felt the ground under my bare feet. And I wonder what people think of me when I stand on tables, sing to myself in Winco, or stop in the middle of the sidewalk to stare at a scene...and perhaps lately, asking those questions have stopped me from living life full [and silly]. This realization came as I found myself perusing through the contributions on the facebook page. And even though I haven't done much out of the ordinary in my own life this month, I'm starting to notice. I'm noticing the joys, the little things that could (should?) be celebrated, the things that are good for my soul and make life full. I'm noticing more than I did a week ago, and I want to share it (this may also be the plight of those of us on blogs and social media: always wanting to tell people). So five days late, I think I'm officially in. 

The over-achieving-too-optimistic one has had some marvelous moments and is occasionally listing more than one amazing thing per day. I hope that is okay.

1. Playing in Ultimate league
2. Overheard a sophomore RA James say to a student, "Our small group is having an ice cream party...you should come." James has only been to small group once but already considers himself part of the community!
3a. Taking time to really talk and listen to M. and E. while babysitting
3b. (or is this 4?) Called D at 1 am (on Oct 4) in all honesty, frustration, and emotion...and after the serious stuff worked itself out, we let the conversation flow normally. Not about things we had to catch each other up on, not about when we would see each other next, not about "oh I forgot to tell you"s (so many of thse). Just about really normal things, like how I did in Frisbee this week, the photo projects we're contemplating, or the Giants. 
4. Hosted 18 students in our not-so-big-living room to watch Hunger Games, complete with a projector.
4a/5 (I need to stop having amazing days at 1 in the morning. It makes keeping track of them difficult). Decided to break my personal rule of not having students sleepover because one of our girls has been crashing with a guy friend when she's had to pull late nights and just can't do the commute. So my roommate and I made signals at each other across the room till we were on the same page, and then I said, "Hey, why don't you just crash here?" She brought her guitar too, so I feel asleep to the sounds of beautiful acoustic worship.

Today's amazing day: Taking a break in the middle of my work-from-home day to make a cup of hot Milo (first of the chilly season, hooray!!) and eat the last of the tau sah peah (mung bean cookies) I brought from home. So worth it!

I can't promise to blog everyday, but I look forward to the rest of the month. It's a roller coaster of a month, with going out of town frequently and prepping for the conference at the end of the month. It feels like it's going to be busier than ever with not a lot of room to breathe. Once in awhile, I'll do something amazing (write that blog? print those pictures?) for the challenge, but other times, I think I'll just have to notice it, because amazing things are already happening.