New Beginnings

My husband and I  have recently become  new parents with the birth of our daughter. I love being a mom, even with its challenges. It is amazing the tremendous joy and fulfillment our little girl brings. As a new mom, I have less time for reading and blogging…and whatever time I do have for reading, I page through mothering books. Not sure how often I will write here or even what form my posts will begin to take in this new chapter of my life. But I do not plan to disappear from the blogosphere completely.

(I also had to return Dawkins to the library, so I don’t know when I’ll ever pick up on him again.)

The New Puritans

I joined a blog called the new puritans as a contributing author. It is enough to write for one blog, so I plan only to double post related entries over at the new puritans blog. This blog is still my home and will therefore remain slightly more intimate on occassion. If you’re interested in discussing doctrine and theology, and related topics with a group of young, reformed writers/musicians/artists, you might visit the new puritans.

A Sign of the Times

Sweet relief for those who dread wealth.

I see this billboard on my commute home from work everyday. You know the economy is in recession when an advertising slogan attempts to give you peace about the threat of poverty. I at least found it humorous. I feel so much better now, knowing that I can remain poor the rest of my days, or at least until this popular franchise discontinues their rich beverage.

This would never make sense in a booming economy.

Where did I go?

I guess after a long silence I am supposed to explain to you where I’d been. I have no plans to close this blog, but I don’t promise to write consistently either. I haven’t had energy to get online, much less to read, and my brain is no more. Why? I’m pregnant. And that’s all I have to say about that.

Sketchbook

I just created a new page [Sketchbook] and posted some of my artwork. No degree, just talent. Take a look if you like.

Observations From Without

You know how you gain perspective on your own culture, after you have lived for a time somewhere else?

(For those who do not know–I was not always reformed in my faith. I grew up in an anabaptist denomination [COB] and was relatively active in my church. I associated more with mennonites than with cobbers, but aside from government and mode of baptism, the two denominations are very similar and both belong to the anabaptist heritage. Six years ago, however, I encountered the doctrines of grace and came to embrace reformed theology. Consequently I do not engage so much in the anabaptist community like I had for so long in the past.)  

This past weekend was really the first time in six years that I was again immersed totally in anabaptist fellowship. 

Things I observed FROM WITHIN the anabaptist culture:

1. They like to eat, they’ll give any reason for a pot-luck. (Little wonder, they are after all, masterful cooks.)
2. They (worship?) diversity and community.
3. They wish they were ethnic, particularly third-world.
4. They are green.
5. They like to wear sandals a lot, if not run barefoot. 
6. They are very compassionate towards the poor and outcast.
7. Some of them like to look poor and outcast. : )

Things I observed FROM WITHOUT six years later:

1. All of the above.
2. The women are dominant.

 

The women were CONFIDENT and OUTSPOKEN. Many of them wore loud colors or over-sized jewelry. They were noticed. They had style. Some (of the more “hippyish” sort) were less fashionable, but no less dominant. They had CONTROL.

The men on the other hand, were meek and soft-spoken. They wore very basic street clothes. Nothing bold or attention-getting. Many of them silent. If they spoke at all, you had to strain to hear them. They were whipped.

Made me glad for the man I married. A real MAN. Someone who is full of God’s grace, who loves the Word of God and understands his ordained responsibility (RESPONSIBILITY!) to be the head of his household. 

I love my anabaptist friends dearly. I hope my above observations do not offend anyone. Please forgive me. I only found it remarkably interesting.

Dragons and Dinosaurs

When I lived for a year in Europe I learned that you can’t take everything you were taught at home or in school for granted. [For example: In the states we learn that there are seven continents on the globe. My Swiss host father, however, insisted on five. The Swiss do not count Antarctica, and they lump North and South America together and count it as one. Neither one of us was incorrect in our count, we just identify the continents differently. Funny how "known facts" aren't necessarily "known FACTS" across the globe.] 

In that case both of us were right. But that is not always how it is. Sometimes only one can be right, and the other one must be wrong. So it was in the following exchange… 

My Swiss host brother at the time was really fascinated with dinosaurs. He had dinosaur t-shirts and toys and bed sheets and books… I looked through one of his books one day and couldn’t believe what I was reading!

This family believed that dinosaurs and man existed TOGETHER!!!!! 

WHAT??!

 

Everybody knows that dinosaurs became extinct long before man walked the earth! That’s what I learned in school and I accepted it as fact without question. (I didn’t question things too much then.)

Of course I was reading a foreign language, so I could easily have been mistaken. So I pursued the topic with my host mother (again in german) to find out more. Our conversation made me even more curious. She gave me quite a bit to consider…

It is very curious that numerous legends from all over the world(!) speak of the same fire-breathing creature. How did they all come up with so similar a beast?  

In the book Dinosaurs and Creation, Phycisist Donald B. DeYoung reminds us that heat/blaze firing phenomena is not necessarily absent from the animal kingdom. We observe similar stunts in creatures today. The electric eel is capable of producing enough electric voltage to start a spark (in the right circumstances). A chemical reaction within the Bombardier beetle creates a boiling-hot liquid/gas, which is expelled out the abdomen for defense. And every animal, just by the natural process of digestion, produces a flammable methane gas. (And my husband’s band could prove it as they used to get a kick out of igniting their own farts… Boys!) 

Archaeology has uncovered numerous dinosaur skulls containing hollow chambers and crests. We can only make guesses about what purpose these cavities served for the beast, but it is possible that chemicals collected in these hollows allowing the beast to breath smoke or perhaps even spark a blaze. Who can know?

Some petroglyphs may be interpreted as dinosaur-/dragon-like beasts. Even breathing flames? Who knows. Again, we can only guess about the drawings, no one (not even scientists) can seriously know for sure what is actually depicted in these peculiar petroglyphs. But it does beg the question—WHAT kind of animal inspired these drawings? Did man actually encounter such creatures??

Obviously none of these above discoveries prove anything…but it does spark interest. (couldn’t resist the pun). Is there any reason why there couldn’t ever have existed a creature who breathed smoke or fire-like blazes from his nostrils? I didn’t live way back in the dinosaur age. (According to some scientists, no human ever did. Are those scientists insisting they have all the facts about what existed MILLIONS of years ago, even before man ever walked the earth??) 

I do not claim to have the facts about creatures that are long extinct. I don’t believe anybody can claim that. But I seriously cannot rule out the possibility of “fire-breathing” dragon-like beasts. And I am convinced that humans and dinosaurs were contemporaries. The Bible describes dinosaur-/dragon-like creatures. I know a lot of people interpret these beasts as the crocodile or the mammoth or whatever. But those interpretations are flawed, they don’t really match the descriptions. I believe the Bible is a reliable and complete source. I believe these beasts really existed as they are described–even flame-breathing creatures such as the leviathan.  AND I believe man has encountered these beasts.

And now you all think I am out of my mind. That’s okay. Maybe I am.

Fleetwood

This is my dog. She weighs more than I do. Listens better too.

 

Murder She Wrote

If you had walked into our house a couple weeks ago, you might’ve thought our living room was a murder scene. Our playful great dane broke her claw in my husband’s bare foot. (You’d think we’d learn by now to wear SHOES!!) It hurt him more than it hurt the dog. The good news is the claw did not remain lodged in my husband’s foot. It dangled from the animal’s paw. This is disgusting I know. I didn’t have the guts to take the clippers and snip it off. I made my husband do that. The break was above the vain and blood was all over the carpet. Our dog kept running around playfully like nothing happened. We got her to settle down, washed her paw and confined her in the kitchen until the bleeding stopped. Thanks to Oxi-Clean I was able to clean up all the blood on the carpet without any problem.

Don’t worry, the dog is okay and her claw will grow back. My husband is okay too. He left to play another show with his band as planned. The band’s guitarist suggested drilling a whole in the claw and wearing it as a necklace. I think I’ll send it to my cousin instead and tell her it’s a shark’s tooth.

I burned my finger

This morning I did a very stupid thing. I tested the iron with my finger to see if it was hot. I KNOW! that was a really dumb thing to do! You don’t have to affirm my stupidity. I guess I could file a lawsuit against the manufacturer, but that would be ridiculous. I know better than to touch a hot iron, so the burn is well deserved. I honestly do not know what I was thinking. Maybe I wasn’t quite awake yet. Of course after burning my finger, I certainly woke up.

With the immediate onset of pain, my lungs ballooned insisting on more oxygen. I rushed to rinse my finger under cold water for several minutes, gently glazed on some neosporin and protected it with a bandage. After a couple hours the pain really started to surge and I found myself gripping my hand and inhaling deep for relief. It felt like my finger was fused to the hot iron and I couldn’t pull away. A relentless burning sensation, I was ready to buckle over and cry, but I was at work.

Although the burn on my finger is a very minuscule and unworthy taste of what Christian martyrs burned at the stake would’ve endured for the sake of the Gospel, I couldn’t help but think of their testimony to the Faith. It is a humbling thought. At least it shut me up about the pain.

My brilliant co-worker asked me “why don’t you take pain killers?” Honestly I did think of that but for some reason I didn’t think that would help. I take pain-killers for menstural cramps or headaches. I never took it for burns before. (Isn’t that the classic trigger on a new idea–listen to me rationalizing like a stubborn old fart!)

I immediatly took my co-worker’s advice. And yes, it does work. What a difference. Clearly I am not the sharpest tool in the shed, least of all today.