a life beyond running shoes.

okay....so it was NOT complete misery. let us now praise famous men. this is one of those books that shows up on lists of influential books of the twentieth century. so, my book club decided to give it a try. also, one of our members is going to be teaching a course this fall on the depression & post-depression era. she had a list of books that she is trying to get through before solidifying her syllabus and we thought we would help her out. we all choose this one as it sounded interesting. i almost gave up around page 20 BUT then i got a character name around page 50..... but then finally gave up around page 130. i only made it a quarter of the way through the book. no one finished. **i feel as if i need to clarify though. it is not that it is not a good book or worth reading..... it is just a tough writing style and was not what we were expecting. it is the story of three tenant farmers & their families..... i expected their story. not really so much plot.... again, i...

i am 4 days from my due date. i thought i would go early..... i have not so far. i realized around 4:00pm on friday that i had not thought through my dinner menu past thursday. i just assumed that i would be in hospital having baby girl..... we decide to go out for dinner. celebrate our family of four before we get to celebrate becoming a family of five. that is a strange thought - a family of five which means that we have three kids. that sounds strange to my ears. i am excited to meet this little lady that is joining our family. i can't wait to see the ways that she makes our family more complete... the ways that god will bless us because she is becoming part of "us." i am excited to see how the boys grow and change with a little sister.... i am excited to see how my husband is a different kind of dad with a little girl.... how i am changed as a mom.... but for one night, we ate as a family of four in our favorite restaurant and enjoyed the ease of just being with ...

what i thought was going to be a rough day ended up being so much harder than just rough. my husband had an early meeting so i was on breakfast duty...no biggie. i can give up an extra half hour of sleep. honest i can! while the boys watched their tv time, i made homemade blueberry muffins. YUM! i figured out that my littlest does not like actual blueberries, so i thought i would be a genius and hide them in yummy muffins with a bit of banana and lemon zest. survey says: neither boys liked them. dandy. proceed with day....head upstairs to get clothes on. peanut locks the bathroom door just as i am about to shower locking us all out of brushing hair, teeth, or using the potty. wonderful. husband is still in meeting so we have to wait about 45 minutes to reach him to figure out how to get the door unlocked from the outside. thankfully, no one was locked on the inside! door unlocked! mommy gets a shower....just as water heats up, little bit clocks the snot out of peanut....te...

just in case you got all excited that i had delivered.... or got angry that you had not heard the news.... good friends of our had their baby 10 days ago.... i am 8 days from due date. we took the boys over to greet her to the world and see what they would be like around a baby. these are some of our closest friends and so it was a both boys wanted to hold her and didn't want to give her back even when she started to cry. i'll take it as a good sign that maybe there wont' be any biting of the baby for at least the first few hours she comes home from the hospital. for those interested, i have had a few contractions - in the middle of the night - but nothing to wake anyone else up. it will be a long week trying to find things to be creative with the boys especially since it looks like a cold week. thursday and friday look warmer but with rain. we'll keep you posted!!!

in my attempts to become more of a lover of my home...... as i have been venturing over the past couple of years in learning how to cook seasonally, bake, and take care of my home.... i have come to a new depth. i tried to make my own bread. i have many friends who do this and have done this for years. for me this was scary, uncharted territory from my grandmother's generation. well, it is a work in progress but one that i think i enjoy. i'll keep you posted.

i in fact finished this 700 page book in less than the time allowed by my local library. when i was checking it out i thought to myself.... i will never be able to finish this. i was completely forgetting that it is juvenile literature, that half of the week i spend at least a couple of hours awake in the middle of the night, and that i have very little else going on as i wait for baby #3.... and i always enjoy a good adventure story no matter how tedious and long winded i think his battle scenes can get. also, some of the "history" in this episode got a bit... whatever... having to do with the dragons power tied in with the elves history and blah, blah, blah. it is a good thing that i don't feel compelled to run out and finish up this series because the fourth installation is not out yet. of course, i will read it when i does come out.... but i can wait. and just to clarify....it does make for good middle of the night reading!

today we adventured our way to the brooklyn botanic gardens. i'm not sure we really saw anything since spring is far from springing..... forecast was a high of 44 but we never really got there while we were outside in the weeds and bamboo trees...especially since we had spotty sun with mostly clouds. of course, i don't think the boys really minded since little bit never once put his gloves on. we did venture into the green houses today..... which i had never been in since we usually go when the weather is warm and sunny and who wants to go inside on those days. i wanted to go inside today!!! the boys could have cared less! we saw banana trees, mango trees, the desert oasis, and lots of folks doing water colors. then we had a total melt down getting off the bus and walking the one block home. ah.... can anyone say naptime!!!

we have had beautiful weather this week and got to go out to the playgrounds after two months of almost never going outside. this is peanut and one of his friends. they are about six weeks apart. of course, little bit thinks his is in the mix with them. we actually got to ride our scooters & bikes plus didn't have to put jackets on. i mean who doesn't have to wear a jacket at the beginning of february. i realize that this week will be short lived! the weather will get cold again and i am sure that we will have more snow.... but for this week it was such a nice reprieve from all of our indoor projects.

my hubbie got to go to long beach this past weekend to attend his cousin's wedding. of course, i was totally jealous since he was a mere 40 minutes from my mom, an hour from my dad, and just about and hour and a half from my sister......but then again, that makes it about me. he had a great weekend and got to hang out with one of his sisters and brother-in-law who was officiating. of course i am thankful: 1. to not have been on a plane for six hour 2. to not have to find something to wear 3. to not have to figure about what to do with my two kiddos here at home the boys and i watched lots of movies!

so this morning the boys and i hovered around the house until it was time to head out to my doctor's appointment. we got all bundled up with hats, gloves, sweaters, extra shirts. it was 18 degrees outside. we left early because parking by my doctor can be non-existent. we got ourselves loaded in the car that we have been hosting all winter. as we pulled out of our street, we saw our favorite UPS delivery man, carl. i rolled down the driver's side window (the only one of the four that works) to wave hi. of course, we exchange pleasantries of how long till i am due (4 weeks), how are the boys (fine), and see you soon. we turn the corner and i try and roll up the window. it doesn't. all i can do i laugh... i mean really?! i call my husband to see what i should do. without being able to offer any help, he suggests i come by his office to see if he can pull it up somehow since i am limited in my ability to exert any energy or any leverage. he couldn't do it...... what...

someone has requested to see what the belly is doing these days..... despite my love for all things maternity right now (especially underwear), here you go. with only 4 weeks to go, i am getting to the point where i am uncomfortable all the time. she is pushing up on my ribs and makes it extremely difficult to find any position worth staying in for any amount of time.... but as i complain, i am thankful to have gotten a good night sleep last night, sinus infection is dissipating, and i feel rather good... finally!!!

means that i get to finish books at 3 in the morning that i have been working through for a while. i started this book in november when my husband brought it back from a conference he went to. i was a bit insulted thinking that it was a subtle way of telling me that i don't keep a clean house. it is not. in fact, this might be one of the best books i have read in a long time in relation to christian living. i found it to be one of the most encouraging and challenging books i have read for the practicality of making & creating a home.... not just a house but a place of hospitality. "how much more hospitable it would be if our homes were routinely to be places filled with satisfying meals, with shirts warm from the dryer, with smoothly made beds--not because we are trying to win the housekeeping prize but because these are good and pleasant ways to care for one another and ourselves." it is not about "baking for jesus" but about seeing the job i have creatin...

i have been working through it for the past year (as with many of the nonfiction books i read). i have read his new york times magazine articles but they are about twenty pages. this was an undertaking.... but well worth my time and energy. section one was a bit scientific with strands of corn and hybrids and technical language. at some point, after skimming through some of the technical language, he moved on to what it means that there is a food industry that is largely based on my ignorance of how it actually operates. compelling! section two was totally engaging because i found it fascinating to learn about how farms work. to read about farms that raise animals to live like animals and really what it is that god intended when created eco-structures. it was amazing to see how it all worked together. section three was purely enjoyable. it is his journey of foraging for food and i was intrigued by the mushroom/fungi stuff he learned. how cool! here was one thing he said that i was ...

i think his language is super cute!!! translation: i bonked my booty on micah's bed.... swinging. this is the boys room. we came up to get our snowpants on but we missed the snow. it has already changed to rain and is all slushy and melty. plan #2....bake cookies!

we just met this past weekend and discussed joshua ferris's then we came to the end . it was one of those discussions that we could all agree that finishing was a chore. we discuss some interesting this about it, read some of what we thought were the only funny parts, and concluded that we appreciated it more because of our conversation. if i had been left to myself, i would not have finished....nor would i have even made it half way but having missed the last three book club meetings i was compelled to get through most of it. while i'm not glad i did, it was mostly good to discuss together. our basic conclusion was that we did not understand how it was one of the top ten books of 2007 other than it was different, unique, and stylistically original. but i typically like my books to have plot and character development. happy reading!

today marked our first worship service.... in our home. the flatbush church project meet, sang, heard the word, broke bread, and celebrated christ together. it was a frenzied week of lots of hands on deck from buying chairs to setting up chairs to clearing our entire living room to taking care of our sick kids elsewhere. it was pretty amazing to think that a year ago we were still trying to decide whether or not this house was feasible or wise. twelve months later, god has so ordained that we got to sing our praises to him in this very same living room. we were singing: "To see you high and lifted up Shining in the light of your glory Pour out your power and love as we sing Holy, Holy, Holy" and i thought that it is amazing that we were singing his praises in our living room, in this community, with these neighbors. god is really amazing.

we actually got out for dinner last night. it was the first time since july that we planned a date. that is sad. we spent too much, ate too much, but enjoyed ourselves totally. we did the tasting menu..... the conversation went like this: wife: should we do tasting menu - it is six courses? i'm not sure my tummy has room for six husband: no, we don't need to spend that much money wife: true.... but we do need to spend that much time out [the note under the tasting menu said to allow around two hours for dining] husband: true....and since it will be a while till we do this again.... let's try it. wife: why don't you get the wine pairing and i can just take sips. husband: good idea. course 1: crab bisque with butternut squash ravioli and smoke cream fraise course 2: braised octopus salad course 3: homemade pasta with duck confeit and trumpet mushrooms and a sour cherry reduction course 4: pork belly and mushroom with a perfectly seared scallop course 5: salmon with p...

so if i don't think about it and write it down, i'm afraid i won't do it. i posted a while ago a list of books that the average american has read 6. i would like to get through some of that list, but there are other books that i would like to read this year: tale of two cities - dickens omnivore's dilemma (finish it) - pollan the unsettling of america - berry the chronicles of narnia series - lewis little house on the prairie - alcott [i have never read these] revolutionary road - yates dominion - scully unaccustomed earth - lahiri orthodoxy - chesterton of course, none of these are on the list to help me feel smarter or more accomplished. nor could this list be more varied. anyone want to chime in on books they would like to read this year? just curious. and just a plug for how cute my kid is..... here are some pics on sarah's blog .

the book of jane . so the twist is that the main character is a christian woman. it is chick lit's version of the book of job. does it work? for lighthearted reading... perhaps. as for profound theological truths.... not really. but i guess that it not why one would read chick lit now is it? although, the character does ponder how "though he hides it well, god must still be in charge." which is a truth at points in life i have thought but mostly when seeking out the psalms or other passages from the bible. i guess it was just strange to read a total chick novel - with loss and gain of love, city scenes, emails, phone calls, dates, etc. - through the perspective of a christian character which in turn means that there was no sex. none. and the language was clean - refreshing! i've never read one of these before... it made for quick bus reading, i have to admit. also, i just met "anne dayton." if at the beach....i would pass this along to you.

we had fun snow yesterday. of course, it wasn't until the afternoon that it starting sticking and we could actually go out play in it. it was 5:30 and the street lights were on..... but they had fun. they even got pulled along the sidewalk sitting on the snow shovel.... daddy is quite creative! of course, there was another funny incident that occurred that i was not able to capture on film. i came home from teaching on thursday (only one more week to go!!!) and my husband was in the kitchen finishing dinner prep. it was very quiet.... where are the boys? i called out, "hello boys." in unison, "we're upstairs pooping." giggle, giggle. i slowly (i am 32 weeks along) make my way up the stairs and sure enough there are two naked boys sitting on their respective potties. peanut on the normal toilet and little bit on the kiddie potty....they are both pooping. a riot!!! of course, little bit gets up every two second to point and say, "see mommy, poop....