Categories Recap

Recap (2017.01.21)

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In my spirit:

  • Rejoicing in progress
  • Praying for so many friends and family members with health concerns
  • Continuing to delight in hearing my daughter’s voice sing praises to God or recite memorized Scripture

In the living room:

  • Pompoms, pompoms everywhere! I got some pompoms to use for a color-matching activity with Tirzah Mae – and she’s found plenty of other uses for them. The most recent has been to make soups – she stirs them up in a pot, ladles them into bowls, stirs them some more to cool them off, and then serves them to her parents or her brother.
  • I’ve been getting back into exercising and have been encouraged that things are getting easier – it’s time to either pick up my weights or work out to faster music or both!

Louis eating table food

In the kitchen:

  • So far, using a cycle menu is wonderful. I’m finding that there’s more than one day a week where I don’t want to cook – and that my recipes generate enough food that incorporating an extra day of leftovers is probably worthwhile. Thankfully, I have at least one recipe on each week’s cycle that doesn’t include fresh ingredients that’ll go bad if I skip it.
  • Daniel made this Bacon Cheese Ball for a snack day at his work and it was delicious!
  • Daniel brought home some stale hot dog buns that had been sitting around at his work and I tried an overnight Blueberry French toast recipe with frozen blueberries and cream cheese chunks to use them up. Definitely going to add that to the repertoire of breakfast recipes.
  • I used a new technique for making my homemade tortilla chips (brushing just one side of a corn tortilla with canola oil, stacking up a whole stack of the tortillas, and then cutting them into sixths before sprinkling with salt and chili powder and baking at 350 F on full convection for 14 minutes.) In contrast to previous attempts where I oiled the tortillas after cutting, I ended up using only a single tablespoon of oil for 20 tortillas. That translates into 0.7 g of fat (6 calories from fat) per serving versus 7 g of fat (63 calories from fat) per serving store bought tortilla chips. People, that just saved me 57 calories per serving (and how many of you eat just 6-9 chips at a time? We’re talking something more in line with 200 calories in a real-life serving.)

In the nursery:

  • Louis continues to become more and more mobile – he’s rolling and scooting all over the floor :-)
  • I started putting Louis to sleep in the nursery (as opposed to the bassinet in our room) this past week. We’re still too early to tell how it’s going, but I am looking forward to having our room to ourselves again.
  • We’ve started putting on a Seeds Family Worship CD for Tirzah Mae at naptime and bedtime. She loves turning on the CD and it’s a delight to hear her singing God’s word – yesterday it was “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened. And I will give you rest, I will give you rest.” Balm to a mother’s ears (in more ways than one.)
  • I’m working on being consistent with training and discipline, being clear about when I’m giving an instruction versus asking an opinion or offering an option. As someone who tends to use “asking” language when I’m making a request (“Would you like to change Louis’s diaper?” I’ll ask my husband, when I really mean “I’d really like it if you’d change Louis’s diaper”), it’s been something of a transition.

In the craft room:

  • My biggest “craft” this past couple weeks was making Tirzah Mae a color matching activity to go along with Donald Crews’s Freight Train. I cut train cars out of felt and have pom poms for Tirzah Mae to match to the train cars. I expected it to be an activity she’d play with for a couple days before I put it away for a rainy day – but she’s been playing with it multiple times a day for a week now and showing no signs of stopping. Hooray!

Playing with her color train

In the garden:

  • I spoke to a master gardener friend and she encouraged me to check my charts because I might need to start my broccoli seedlings soon. Maybe I should check those now? Looks like February 8 is my date, so I better start figuring out where to source my seeds.

In the library:

  • Great People of the Bible and How They Lived by Reader’s Digest
  • Paul: In Fresh Perspective by N.T. Wright
  • True Community by Jerry Bridges
  • As They Grow: Your Two Year Old by Diane O’Connell
  • Spiritually Parenting Your Preschooler by C. Hope Flinchbaugh
  • Honey for a Child’s Heart by Gladys Hunt

Hugging a rolling pin

Added to the TBR List:

Around the web:

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In blogging history:

Categories Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday: Progress

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Sometimes I get so caught up in the day to day struggles (dishes, laundry, not sleeping consistently for a couple of years) that I forget that we are making progress. Sometimes slowly and steadily, sometimes in leaps and bounds, sometimes in fits and starts. But progress is being made.

This week I’m thankful…

…for increasing helpfulness
Tirzah Mae now consistently helps with cleaning up the house, wiping up spills, setting the table for meals, clearing the table after meals, and dishing up her own food. She takes such joy in being able to close the dishwasher and empty the dustpan. She is growing in ability and in obedience – and it is wonderful to see.

Swinging, a favorite pastime

…for increasing vocabulary
Tirzah Mae is also growing in communication skills. She has spent the last week identifying colors (which means only the red cup will do – but which also means I’m able to communicate instructions or directions more clearly). She is able to tell things she remembers, to identify things she’s thinking about, to communicate what she wants or needs. It makes life so much less frustrating when she can tell me what is bothering her instead of trying to guess vainly.

…for increasing mobility
Louis has started to roll in earnest and to scoot a little – which means he spends a lot of time amusing himself with whatever he can find on the floor. His increased mobility means more work for me making sure the floor only contains acceptable items, but less work because he entertains himself for greater periods of time.

Louis eating table food

…for increasing order
It’s so easy to get discouraged with the state of my home, with how never-ending the task of “picking up” is. But our home is becoming more and more orderly. The house gets “picked up” daily, the dishes don’t pile up, the bed gets made. The toilets don’t have rings, the underwear gets folded (eventually). The house is coming into order.

…for increasing patience
There was a time, not so long ago, that I’d snapped at the kids every day by the end of the day. I’d get frustrated and impatient with them, I’d snap at Tirzah Mae to “just…” whatever. I’ve been praying that God would work the fruit of patience in my life, that he would put a guard over my tongue. And he has. By God’s grace, I am holding my tongue more and more – and even better than holding my tongue, I’m feeling and acting compassionately with my children. This is the work of God – an ongoing work, but one that is showing progress.

I’ve been reading Ephesians in preparation for this semester’s Bible study on Ephesians, and have been struck by Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian church:

“For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,”
~Ephesians 1:15-17 (ESV)

It’s so easy to only pray when things are going horribly – and to just plain forget to give thanks. But Paul hears of the Ephesians’s faith and love and this causes his heart to swell with thanks to God and with petitions for the Ephesians.

As I think of the progress my children, my home, I myself am making, I too am moved to thanksgiving. God has shown abundant mercy to our family – I pray we would continue to know Him more and more with every passing day.

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

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Theology tells us that man is depraved (Definition: “morally corrupt, wicked”). Every human is born with original sin. Yet despite man’s depravity from birth, the world is not wholly evil – it does not, has not degenerated into utter chaos and anarchy. Why is this?

Theology has an explanation for that as well. Common Grace is the grace of God that is present for all men, whether they believe the gospel or not. Common grace is responsible for all the good that unregenerate sinners do, and for the restraint of evil through means such as conscience or societal constraints.

But what if man’s innate evil were NOT constrained? What if it had free will to do whatever it chooses without fear of conscience or law?

If this were true of the whole world, surely the world would not last long – everyone would murder everyone and, after a brief period of chaos, all humanity would be obliterated (and that’s just speaking of the natural course of unrestrained sin, without discussing God’s judgment upon sin.)

But what if it was just one man who was evil without constraint? What if, indeed, one were able to split himself into two, with one half unrestrained evil and the other half still the restrained recipient of common grace?

This is the premise of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (even if Stevenson chooses not to couch it in such explicitly theological terms.)

Does this surprise you?

It certainly surprised me.

The names “Dr. Jekyll” and “Mr. Hyde” are so well-known, so frequently thrown around to mean simply two separate personalities that I believed this book to be about multiple personality disorder. In fact, I’m almost certain I read something once that described J.R.R. Tolkien’s Smeagol/Gollum character a continuation of the literary fascination with multiple personality disorder typified by The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Yet this book is quite emphatically NOT about multiple personality disorder. It’s about unrestrained sin and trying to find a way to avoid the struggle Paul describes in Romans 7:21 “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.” Except that Dr. Jekyll wants to find a wholly natural solution to this problem (apart from the supernatural answer God gives to the problem of sin at work in our bodies: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7:24-25a ESV)

Discovering that this book was not what I’d expected was an altogether pleasant surprise. Also a pleasant surprise, this is a short book, coming in right around 100 pages, and quite readable. As a result, I highly recommend it to people such as myself – people who are pressed for time but who want to think deeply about the human condition and who desire to be “well-read”.

Rating: 5 stars
Category: Classic fiction
Synopsis: Dr. Jekyll tries to separate his “evil” side from his “good” side, with unexpected results.
Recommendation: Highly recommended

Categories 2016, Following Christ

2016 Goals in Review: Prayer

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The primary goal in my “relationship with God” category was to “cultivate confident dependence on God by establishing a vibrant prayer life”. I resolved to do this by 1) establishing daily times of prayer, 2) establishing a method for recording prayer requests and answers to prayer, 3) experimenting with prayer “styles”, and 4) reading books on prayer.

I was helped along greatly in this goal by our Tuesday morning women’s Bible study, which happened to be going through D.A. Carson’s Praying with Paul during the spring semester. Having my “public” Bible study and teaching correspond with my current spiritual goals kept me focused and provided both tips and accountability. For example, my Bible study discussion leader mentioned the “PrayerMate” app, which I looked up and found to be helpful for objective 2, which was “to establish a method for recording prayer requests and answers to prayer.” Also, although I wasn’t required to, I read Carson’s book (rather than just the discussion guide) along with our study – allowing me to complete just one book on prayer this year (objective 4).*

So Tuesday Connection helped me with objectives 2 and 4 – but what about objectives 1 and 3?

I never did end up doing anything with objective 3, unless you count using Paul’s prayers as a model for prayer. I didn’t do any prayer walking or praying published prayers or following specific formats (Adoration – Confession – Thanksgiving – Supplication, for example). It just didn’t seem to fit this year. And that’s just fine.

Objective 1, to “establish daily times of prayer”, got off to a good start. I resolved to pray consistently with Tirzah Mae before our meals and snacks and before her bedtime, to pray during my personal time in the word, and to pray while doing dishes. At the beginning of the year, Tirzah Mae and I were eating 3 meals and 2 snacks daily (pregnancy while breastfeeding is a doozy!), affording me plenty of opportunity to pray. Dishes were a convenient “peg” to hang prayer on – they’re something I have to do daily and they’re a rather mindless activity, which allows me plenty of opportunity to pray.

But then Tirzah Mae got older and started “helping” with dishes. What was once a relatively solitary and mindless activity (for me) became a busy activity, requiring all sorts of brain work as I attempt to keep Tirzah Mae from dumping all the dishwater on the floor or from putting dirty dishes in my rinse water or from transferring muck from the dirty dishes onto the clean dishes drip drying in the drying rack. That prayer time, where I had been making most of my petitions and praying over the requests (recorded in PrayerMate), disappeared. It took me most of the second half of the year to find a new rhythm – and this year I’m picking up my intercessory prayer during my after-breakfast and after-lunch cleaning times (Tirzah Mae only helps with segments, allowing a little more time for prayer!)

So what is the state of my goal to “cultivate confident dependence on God by establishing a vibrant prayer life?” I certainly wouldn’t say that my prayer life is vibrant at this point. But I also wouldn’t say that all has been lost. Establishing the habit of prayer (even though part of it, daily petitions and intercession, fell by the wayside for a significant portion of the year) has indeed served to help me cultivate confident dependence of God.

One of the reasons I chose prayer as my spiritual goal for the year was because I was noticing in myself a significant tendency towards self-reliance. I felt that I could do things on my own – and, when I couldn’t, I despaired. That wasn’t what I wanted though. I wanted, and still want, to live a life of dependence on God – a life that recognizes my need for Him and hopes in Him. Last year’s focus on prayer has helped in that. Where once I went to my phone to text my husband in despair or to Facebook to write a frustrated post or where I once gritted my teeth and cleaned the house/parented/pounded out the letter/whatever with a bad attitude, I find myself more and more turning to God, breathing those little Nehemiah prayers “So I prayed to the God of heaven.” (Nehemiah 2:4b ESV).

By the grace of God, this was a good goal – with a good outcome. I pray God would help me continue to grow – both in dependence and in prayer.

*While D.A. Carson’s Praying with Paul was the only book on prayer I completed last year, I did read about half of Spurgeon on Prayer and Spiritual Warfare and was greatly encouraged by Spurgeon’s reflections.

Categories Book Reviews, Homemaking

Cookbook Review: Classic Rachael Ray 30-Minute Meals

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While I enjoy complicated techniques and fancy ingredients on the occasion, I generally have three priorities in cooking. I like my recipes cheap, quick, and tasty.

Which is why I’ve been selecting cookbooks from the “quick” section at my local library.

Rachael Ray features prominently in this section, and I chose Classic Rachael Ray 30-Minute Meals for my first foray into the world of Ray.

Rachael Ray book cover

The Recipes

With 500 or so recipes, this book doesn’t skimp like some do. The recipes are divided into 4 broad categories: Everyday, Parties, Date Nights, and Kid Chefs. Each recipe contains a side-bar “menu” that includes the entree and suggested sides (recipes for sides may or may not be included depending on their complexity: “Green salad and Crusty Bread” does not have a recipe.) Some recipes include a little blurb with recipe descriptions or personal stories, but not all recipes do.

I tagged quite a few recipes in the “everyday” section as interesting (most of the party recipes were a bit too fancy for me, see above) – and I tried three recipes altogether.

Our family loves curry, so I was eager to try Ray’s “Curry in a Hurry”, which used golden raisins and mango chutney for sweetness (rather than the coconut milk we often use in our curries). I tried it with green curry paste and added extra vegetables (green peppers and sweet potatoes if I remember correctly.) We found that it was INCREDIBLY mild and quite sweet. I suppose we shouldn’t have been terribly surprised – green curry paste is much milder than red curry paste, so we’ve often felt the need to add more green curry to recipes (especially those written for the generic American). Also, both sweet potatoes and bell peppers tend to be sweet vegetables, so… Even so, while the idea was interesting, the reality wasn’t even compelling enough for me to try modifying it for future use.

The second recipe we tried was “Mamma’s Broccolini and Ricotta Pasta”, which was very easy to put together, but lacked something in oomph. Perhaps it was because I used frozen brocccoli instead of broccolini (does broccolini have a stronger flavor?), but we ended up loading this with Parmesan cheese (not in the recipe at all) to give it a bit more flavor – and still found it pretty bland. Sad day.

The third recipe we tried was much more successful. “Chili for ‘Veg-Heads'” is a vegetarian chili recipe with three different types of beans (black, red kidney, and refried beans) as well as peppers and onions. I love me a vegetarian chili, but Daniel likes to have meat in his meals, so I added a pound of ground beef but otherwise made this as written. Daniel conceded that it was good enough to use as a base for developing our own recipe (hooray! I’ve tried a half dozen or so chili recipes over the course of our marriage, none of which merited such high praise – the most common complaint Daniel has had is that my veggie-loaded chilies are too sweet.) As written, the chili is VERY mild (do I sense a theme?) – so most of our modifications have involved adding heat by mixing up the pepper types and/or quantities. I’ve included our favorite rendition below.

Overall thoughts

From the recipes we tried, it appears that Ray really does deliver on the 30 minute promise. Even with cutting up vegetables, I was able to complete the recipes we tried in half an hour. So that’s good. As far as my other two priorities: cheap and tasty? Eh. Many of the recipes call for unusual ingredients, which are generally more expensive (both because they’re harder to find and because you’re more likely to have ingredients left over that you can’t figure out how to use.) As far as taste goes, the three recipes we tried all ended up on the bland side. Then again, we tend to like highly seasoned dishes – so your results may vary.

As far as health goes, I was not tremendously impressed with the suggested menus, which were starch-heavy and vegetable-poor. Skip one of her starches and add an extra vegetable side (or two) if you want a balanced meal. Also, Ray apparently has no idea what constitutes “healthy”, so just ignore anything she says about health (thankfully, she mostly avoids discussing it.)

How is this book for browsing? As mentioned above, some recipes have little blurbs, others don’t – which means you often have to read through a recipe in order to get a sense of what it’s like. You may or may not enjoy that. There are full-page photographs every 5-6 pages (or so, I didn’t actually count), and smaller photos more frequently than that – but a fair number of the photos are of Ray rather than the food, which I find HIGHLY disappointing.

Overall, I am not impressed with Rachael Ray (based solely on this cookbook – I don’t have any other knowledge of her or experience with her.) She fails at two of my primary criteria for recipes (cheap and tasty) – and provided a sub-par recipe reading experience. Again, your results may vary.

Sample Recipe: Chili for Veg-Heads
Liberally adapted by Rebekah Garcia :-)

  • 1 lb ground beef or pork
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1 medium bell pepper, seeded and chopped
  • 3 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced (or 4 tsp pre-potted minced garlic)
  • 1 tsp beef base
  • 1/2 tsp liquid smoke
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 quart diced tomatoes
  • 2 cups black beans (drain and rinse if using canned)
  • 2 cups kidney beans (drain and rinse if using canned)
  • 1.5 Tbsp ground cumin
  • 1.5 Tbsp chili powder
  • 0.5 Tbsp Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
  • 2 cups refried beans
  1. Brown ground beef or pork. Add onions, peppers, and garlic and saute until onions are translucent.
  2. Add rest of ingredients and heat through. Serve with your choice of chili toppings.
Categories Faith, Parenting

Must Christians Homeschool?

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After listening to R.C. Sproul, Jr’s audio series Training Up Children”, I am quite sure of what Dr. Sproul Jr’s answer to that question is. I am also quite certain that I disagree.

First, Dr. Sproul’s position.

Dr. Sproul began in Deuteronomy 6:6-9 (an excellent place to start when discussing a parent’s responsibility toward their children, by the way.)

“And these words that I command you today shall be on your hearts. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

~Deuteronomy 6:6-9 (ESV – Emphasis mine)

Dr. Sproul (quite rightly) extrapolates from verse 7 (bold above) that parents should speak of God to their children throughout the course of their lives, not just during a time of formal devotions or family worship. From here, he takes a giant leap to say that parents must homeschool their children in order to be with them at all times.

This, I believe, is an inappropriate conclusion to draw from this passage.

This passage clearly speaks to the important role God intends His word to play in the lives of his people. God expects that His word be not merely external to His people but internal (“shall be on your hearts”.) God expects that parents will diligently teach His word to their children, not merely as formal instruction but as part of the everyday-ness of life. God expects that His word be always before His people (bind on hands, between eyes, on doorposts and gates.)

What this passage does not speak to is whether parents and children should always be together.

As a thought experiment, let’s explore whether one can be obedient to Deuteronomy 6:7 while sending their children to a “state school” (Sproul’s term). We’ll start with the various contexts in which parents ought to talk to their children about God’s word.

“When you sit in your house.” Do parents of children in a state school sit with their children? It depends. Do they eat meals with their children? Do they sit in the living room together after supper? Do they sit together in a car? They may or may not, but there is nothing inherent in sending your children to school that precludes parents sitting with their children.

“When you walk by the way.” Do parents of children in school drive their children about? Do they walk or ride bicycles about? They may or may not, but there is nothing inherent in sending your children to school that precludes parents from traveling with their children.

“When you lie down and when you rise up.” Do parents of children in school put their children to bed (or send them to bed, depending on their age)? Do they wake their children up or see them when they wake up? They may or may not, but there is nothing inherent in sending your children to school that precludes parents from being with their children during bedtime or wakening.

Interestingly, although a majority of Israelites of the day would have engaged in some sort of agricultural activity, God does not say that parents ought to talk to their children about God’s law while milking the cows or tending the sheep or collecting manna. Nor does he say that craftspeople ought to talk to their children while sewing, weaving, or throwing pots, despite the reality that many crafts were done as a family. Instead, this passage refers to everyday activities that parents and children are likely to share regardless of profession or position or socioeconomic class. And even if parents and children don’t do them together, every person on the face of the planet sits down, moves around, goes to sleep, and wakes up. And every person on the face of the earth does these things regularly.

What this passage has to say about parents’ obligation to train their children in God’s word is simply this: Parents ought to diligently and regularly speak to their children about God’s word in the course of everyday life.

Dr. Sproul thinks that Deuteronomy 6 insists that parents be with their children all day every day homeschooling them. He allows that there will be some delegation – for example, his son was going on a trip to the zoo with Dr. Sproul Jr’s mother and sister while Dr. Sproul was giving one presentation – but he denies that sending one’s children to school is an acceptable form of delegation. I have two problems with this. First, as I argued above, I believe that Dr. Sproul twists this passage to imply a necessity of parents and children being together at all times. Second, if Dr. Sproul’s interpretation of this passage’s implications is indeed true and parents must be with their children at all times speaking to them about the word of God, then I see no reason why “delegating” to the children’s grandmother and aunt is an acceptable exception.

This is not to say that there are not significant advantages to homeschooling. This is not to say that some parents may discover that homeschooling is the best way for them to diligently teach their children the word of God. But homeschooling is not necessary.

Let us not put burdens on the believer that God does not.

Must Christians homeschool their children?

No, they need not.

Categories Recap

Recap (2017.01.07)

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In my spirit:

  • I’ve been rejoicing in Emmanuel come – and longing for Emmanuel’s return to “bid envy, strife, and sorrow cease, fill all the world with heaven’s peace.”
  • Frustrated with the “2016 was an awful year” news stories. As if who is elected president of the United States (or whether Britons decide to stay in the EU) is what makes or breaks a year. (For the record, I was a never-Trump-er – and I think 2016 was a great year.)

In the living room:

  • I took down the Christmas decorations yesterday and Tirzah Mae was devastated to see the stockings packed away. For my part, it feels nice to put the house back together again.

In the kitchen:

  • I’m starting a four week cycle menu for the winter instead of coming up with a new menu each week. This is my first week, but menu planning and grocery shopping was already SO much easier since I already had the menu written. I have high hopes for this.
  • I’ve cooked lasagna maybe once since Daniel and I got married – but I had odds and ends I needed to use up after Christmas so I threw everything together into a garbage-can-style lasagna dish. It was GOOD. Problem is, there’s no way I can replicate it, since it includes things like “leftover cheese ball”. However, the experience has encouraged me to think more about adding vegetables to both the sauce and the cheese mixture (that one had spinach in the cheese mixture and peppers and onions in addition to tomatoes in the sauce.)

Tirzah Mae in her Christmas dress

In the nursery:

  • Louis has started eating solids (just in the past WEEK.) When we left for Christmas in Lincoln, he was still exhibiting tongue-thrust and only minimal interest in food. Now? If we’re eating, he wants some.
  • Tirzah Mae is currently obsessed with turning on light switches, washing her hands, and brushing her teeth. The heady power of being just a little bit taller and having access to a step stool means I’m racing to keep one step ahead of her (Nope, you can’t apply the fluoride toothpaste to your brush by yourself!)

In the craft room:

  • Having my family over for Thanksgiving forced me to get my craft room cleaned up – and Christmas made me glad it was clean. I made Tirzah Mae a Christmas dress, Louis a Christmas vest, and hemmed up a dated skirt for my own Christmas outfit. And I made Tirzah Mae a Christmas stocking, since the “Baby” stocking now goes to Louis.
  • I probably don’t do arts and crafts with Tirzah Mae nearly as often as I ought – but even just our few adventures with painting have convinced me that I need some way to deal with the onslaught of “art” in our home. Birthday cards have offered a solution. I’ve bought a bunch of blank greeting cards, and for January, we’re punching shapes out of Tirzah Mae’s paintings and then gluing those shapes on the fronts of the cards. Family members get a card and some of Tirzah Mae’s art – I get rid of a few paintings. Win-win, I think.

Louis in his Christmas vest (also Tirzah Mae)

In the garden:

  • I got a grow light for Christmas this year, so I’m looking forward to starting my own plants this year (I had some serious sticker shock after I bought plants last year!) But gardening is still a ways off as we’re currently enjoying a cold snap with highs in the mid 20’s.

In the library:
Currently reading…

  • Acts from the Bible
  • Church History in Plain Language by Bruce Shelley
  • Paul: In Fresh Perspective by N.T. Wright
  • Your Two-Year-Old: As they Grow by Parents Magazine
  • Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Added to the TBR List:

Around the web:

  • A Flexible Goodies Policy – You want your kids to eat healthy foods, but you don’t want sweets to become a forbidden fruit that they hoard and binge on. What’s a mom to do? Dietitian Maryann Jacobsen has some excellent suggestions.

In blogging history:

Categories Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday: Winter Light

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Sometimes blogging silence means inactivity, as thoughts and words and actions slow to flow like tar. Other times, blogging silence belies activity as life lived takes precedence over life recorded.

While the former has frequently been true of my own winter silences, this year it is the latter that is most true.

For this year, this winter has been my BRIGHTEST winter since I began blogging some dozen years ago.

This week I’m thankful…

…for Winter Blues and light therapy
After reading the section on light therapy in Norman Rosenthal’s Winter Blues, I purchased a therapy light and began using it. Light therapy has made a huge difference in my energy levels and quality of life even as the days grew shorter and shorter this fall. Thanks to light therapy, I’ve been able to maintain household routines, to continue to interact socially, and to experience wonder this winter.

Louis grinning

…for baby smiles
Louis is the happiest baby. He smiles, he laughs, he smiles some more. He loves diaper changes, hugs, tummy time, and toys. He adores his big sister and laughs when she tickles him (even if she’s sitting on his belly while doing it.) He dotes upon his papa and gazes at him with unabashed admiration and joy when papa gets home from work. Even as I write this, Louis is playing his own form of peekaboo on the floor beside me, grinning every time I look over and cooing when I’m not looking to encourage me to look. His smile is a light that makes me shine too.

…for preparation for people
We had my family (an extra dozen people) over the weekend after Thanksgiving – and the preparations for their coming gave me the motivation to complete all sorts of projects I’d been procrastinating on. Making curtains for the picture window in the living room. Organizing my craft room. Unpacking the rest of those boxes in the basement and getting them put where they need to be. With the extra energy afforded by the lamp and the extra motivation afforded by the prospect of family coming, I got more done this winter than most – and productivity always brightens my day.

Tirzah Mae smiling

…for a toddler voice singing
I’ve been singing to Tirzah Mae since she was born, but she only rarely joins in. In fact, I don’t know that I’ve ever heard her join in. But this Advent she started singing all by herself. She’d cuddle her dolly and begin to sing:

“Away in a manger
No crib for a bed
The little Lord Jesus
lay down his sweet head
The stars in the manger
look down where he lay
The little Lord Jesus
asleep on the hay”

Not only this, but “Jingle Bells” and “It’s Raining, It’s Pouring” and “Baby It’s Cold Outside” (just that one line) and “Frere Jacques” and at least a half dozen other songs with recognizable lyrics and tune.

Hearing her sing – and especially hearing her sing about Jesus – delights my heart and brightens my life.

…for Emmanuel
The song that Tirzah Mae sings the most, and the line she repeats most often, is this:

“Rejoice, Rejoice
E-ma-a-an-u-el
Shall come to thee
O I-i-is-ra-el

Of all the things that have brightened this winter, this is the most wonderful.

God with us. Emmanuel.

I am thankful that

“The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone.
You have multiplied the nation;
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
For the yoke of his burden,
and the staff for his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian.
For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult
and every garment rolled in blood
will be burned as fuel for the fire.
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.”

~Isaiah 9:2-7 (ESV)

God has made Himself to shine before us in the person of Jesus Christ.

That is reason to give thanks. That is reason to rejoice.

So I do and so I shall.

“Rejoice, rejoice –
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.”

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: Winter Blues by Norman Rosenthal

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My mother took me to the doctor nearly every year of high school. I listed off the same complaints: decreased energy, depressed mood, weight gain, dry skin, general malaise. We asked that the doctor check my thyroid. Thyroid disorders run in my family after all. The doctor would ask more questions, would order a lab draw. A few days later, I’d get the results and discover that there was nothing wrong with me.

Every November, when the letter came announcing my normal lab results, I’d wonder what was wrong with me – because there clearly WAS something wrong with me, whatever the lab results said.

And then, one year in college (if I remember the timeline correctly), the doctor gave me a depression questionnaire and announced that there was in fact something wrong with me.

Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD.

I started taking an antidepressant, and within a couple of weeks I felt better (by winter standards) than I’d felt for years. By summer standards? Me on an antidepressant still didn’t come close. But it was enough to convince me that this was indeed my problem.

Since the diagnosis of SAD ten or so years ago, I’ve experienced a couple of episodes of major depression and have read about depression in general. But I haven’t read any books on Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Winter Blues

Until this year. This year, I read Norman E. Rosenthal’s Winter Blues – and it changed my life.

Dr. Rosenthal was the researcher who first described seasonal affective disorder, a cyclic form of depression which varies throughout the year based on light exposure. Winter Blues describes the discovery of SAD and its features, discusses the diagnostic criterion for SAD (including a number of charts to help patients understand their own seasonal patterns), and details the treatment of SAD using phototherapy, psychotherapy, and pharmacotherapy. Additionally, Rosenthal includes a variety of case studies of seasonality throughout history, in modern times, and in language and poetry.

It is the section of phototherapy, the area where Rosenthal did a great deal of research, that changed my life. After reading the section on phototherapy (sometime in October), I ordered a Lightphoria 10,000 Lux Energy Lamp from Amazon (link is to Amazon, not an affiliate link). I’ve been using the light (which is smaller than ones described in Rosenthal’s chapter on phototherapy) approximately 30 minutes daily since the light arrived on Halloween. For the first winter in almost fifteen years, I have had the energy to work steadily throughout the day without collapsing into overwhelmed-ness. Interestingly enough, while the lights had a significant impact on my energy level, it did not fix my mood. My mood continued to decrease through November until I initiated my usual winter antidepressant. The combination of the two modes of treatment has resulted in the best winter I’ve had for at least a decade, maybe even two. My mood and coping has been so markedly different that my family remarks on the change.

Using my therapy light
Using my therapy light while working on this blog post

This is not to say that I am an unequivocal fan of this book. Rosenthal’s language can be a bit flowery for my taste at times (at least for what is essentially a self-help book. Give me the facts, I say.) More distressing, while much of Rosenthal’s discussion of treatments is evidence-based, he recommends that SAD sufferers limit carbohydrates despite having only anecdotal (versus empirical) evidence of that strategy’s effectiveness.

Overall, though, I recommend Rosenthal’s Winter Blues for sufferers of SAD and those who suspect they might have some form of seasonality. Sections of this book may also be helpful for family members and friends of those with SAD.

Rating: 3 stars
Category: Medical/Psychology – Self Help
Synopsis: Rosenthal describes seasonal affective disorder and its treatment with an aim to help sufferers cope.
Recommendation: Recommended for those who suffer from seasonal affective disorder or possibly for sufferers’ close family and friends.