Easy as Pie

Habbakuk meditation

I'm afraid of heights and get a serious case of vertigo every time I cross a bridge. So, imagine me trying to navigate the rim of the Grand Canyon trail on my honeymoon. It's a narrow walking trail, loaded with travelers, with a shear drop on one side of almost two miles down.  My hard shoes tended to slip on the loose gravel.  It was all I could do to hug the wall and keep moving. Then a goat hopped onto the trail observing me with curiosity. The outside edge of his hoof is hard and protective on the sharp rocks, but the inside is soft and fleshy allowing him to feel what is under its feet.  He bounded fearlessly from shelf to shelf, along impossibly steep angles as if he was suspended on a bungee. He was made to do it...I wasn't.  That much was clear.

 

Before I knew the Lord, I hugged the wall of my life just as tight as I did in the Grand Canyon.  I built high walls between me and other people, fretted about the future, and desperately need to be in control. The world made me cynical and pride kept me trusting in my own intellect.  I had hard shoes on but wasn't making much progress along the trail. These days, my life in Christ has given me "hind's feet in high places". Life is hard, but in the most difficult circumstances the Lord continually enables me to bound fearlessly along impossibly steep and sheer cliffs, just like I was made to do it.

 

He's changed me, not the Grand Canyon.   Like Habbakuk...I can look at all the evil and sorrow and injustice in the world and still feel like singing.

 

"The Lord GOD is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds' feet, And makes me walk on my high places. For the choir director, on my stringed instruments."  Habbakuk 3:19

Highland Games 2009

 

 

 

  

Fun at Lake Padden

 

Ski to Sea Grand Parade

 

Marianne Uhrig and Aunt Sally                  Levi and waylon waiting for the parade to start

Memorial Day 2009

 

 

And thus be it ever when free men shall stand

Between their loved home and the war's desolation,

Blessed with victory and peace may the heaven rescued land

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved thee a nation.

 

And conquer we must for our cause it is just,

And this be our motto; "In God is our trust".

And the Star Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

 

 

 

 

 

Jr. Ski to Sea parade

We have been entering our kids in the Jr. Ski to Sea parade since1997. Wyatt was two years old in his first parade and he, Jed and Ira wore Viking costumes. They ended up in the paper the next morning and we were hooked. Every year, we've tried to outdo the next by making costumes and building floats.  This year we made a minature float for Nellie to ride on. It's theme was a salute to the Union of our 50 states...as this is the Anniversary of Statehood for Alasaka and Hawaii. We're sure on that because our family made an entry in the parade 50 years ago to welcome Alaska and Hawaii!

Our float was made of plywood on top of a wagon that we could easily pull. I covered it in blue material, and sparkly blue fringe. We used Christmas tree stands to hold the uprights for the 50 state flags, and cut out all the letters for the signs. All the boys helped with the assembly and Nellie did all of the painting.  A borrowed cargo van from Yeager's helped us transport the float to Cornwall Ave on the day of the parade. Boy, were were glad to see sunshine after a solid week of hard rain!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breastfeeding and modesty

   Having nursed five kids well into their toddler years, I have had a lot of time to ponder this issue.  Factoring in weaning months,  that's about 10 years of not being able to sit with the congregation on Sunday because I had to lift my shirt at some point during the service.   I've had many people suggest that I pump before church because nobody minds sitting across from a quiet, bottle feeding baby. Such folks don't understand that nursing babies don't like cold milk from a plastic nipple, and that my milk was going to come down every hour whether I had pumped or not. They don't know about clogged milk ducts and the excruciating pain of engorgement, and how nursing on demand is good prevention. And well, they don't really want to hear about that.  They just can't see why I don't hand the baby and a bottle over to the nice ladies in the nursery and enjoy a break from the burden in my arms.

 

    I have Christian sisters who regard this as an offense to God...to quarrrantine nursing mothers who have been honored by a visit from God in conceiving/bearing a soul fresh from heaven...or to strongly suggest that they be separated from their infants during the service for their own good and for their baby's own good.   Yes, some churches have tiny, dim lit room where mothers can go to nurse. But many do not.  Many a nursing mother is forced to sit on a toilet in a closed stall in the women's restroom with their baby drinking, so the rest of the church can get on with their worship. Is it right to make mother's feel shamed for nurturing this blessing with their bodies in daily sacrifice?  Is it wrong for the church to suggest that separating mothers and nursing infants is spiritually beneficial ? Doesn't El Shaddai nurse and comfort His people? Isn't it a beautiful picture of a spiritual reality?

 

    On the other hand, our culture clearly equates the breast with sex. There's no getting around it. No matter how hard men (and some women) attempt to acknowledge that babies do need to nurse and 'there's nothing wrong with that", they also can't shake the visual (even if it's covered with a blanket).  Nursing mothers have  a very different point of view, but we're a very small minority. My four sons have seen their siblings nursed at home and don't think twice about it. But, we have to be sensitive to those who don't see it as we do. When guests or friends arrive, I excuse myself to another room to nurse.  

 

    I once was visiting Justice Clarence Thomas at the Supreme Court with my husband and 8 month old son. We were having a nice lunch in his office when I told my husband it was time to feed the baby. Justice Thomas immediately jumped to his feet and fled the room. I chuckled and found his secretary.. who showed me to the bathroom. Justice Thomas returned to chat with my husband but worried about me, and kept sending his secretary to me asking me if I needed anything... a basket a fruit, a water bottle, tea? He was obviously conflicted about what was proper, and how to treat a guest because he is a very kind and proper man. There are those who sincerely don't want to offend, and feel that nursing mother's must be provided for and given privacy in order to honor them.

 

    We're seeing a slow and wide turnaround where our culture is returning to nursing after 50 years of promoting bottle feeding. But with most couples intentionally limiting the number of their decendants to 2 kids, and also putting them on bottles and solids earlier, there still isn't a a whole lot of public nursing going on in or outside the church. This combined with an increasingly sexualized culture, will likely keep nursing behind doors for mothers who are concerned about embarrassing others by feeding their child. The so-called radicals will always be there, insisting on their right to flash a breast and nurse openly without a blanket smothering their child's head.  The stares they generate with "nurse-in" protests only fuel a self-righteous zeal to be free to do as they choose.

 

    So, as I hide myself away as I nurse, I consider it an act of love and sacrifice. Love for the weaker brother who might stumble, love for the child in my arms, and love for the God who made them both. The sacrifice of my body in serving my child reflects the sacrifice of fellowship I feel in not being able to sit in the congregation and be spiritually fed along side my brothers and sisters.  I am literally pouring myself out as an offering.... in the service of another, not just on Sunday mornings, but 24-7.  Jesus said that whatever I do for the least of these, I do for Him, so these ten years of nursing have been a rare and wonderful opportunity to serve Him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank your lucky stars

One of my husband's friends sent him an email attachment that gave us both a chuckle. The attachment said something like, "Next time you feel like yelling at your teenager, be thankful..." Then it showed a close-up photo of a teen's face covered in piercings and gruesome tattoos, with a cigarette dangling from rotted teeth.  Any parent, after seeing the photo, would likely count their lucky stars if all that was driving them batty that day was their son's perpetually messy bedroom or his need to shower more frequently.

 

While I was at the pediatric dentist this week, I had one of those "thank my lucky stars" moments, too.  We were there early because it takes quiet a while for five appointments in a row. As my kids were seen, each in turn, from 16 year old Jed down to 3 year old Nellie, I sat in the waiting room watching other parents come and go with their kids. The first walked in the door carrying an infant and towing a 12 year old girl. The girl was light on her feet and gestured excitedly about the toys in the waiting area. She gestured because she could not speak. Her facial deformities were too severe. The entire right side of her face, from forehead to chin, sagged and twisted in grotesque angles...obviously the result of a major birth defect.

 

Over the next two hours, I saw four more parents come in. One with her six month old son and her four year old son. The four year old was in an infant seat...so autistic that he had to be carried.  His screams from the exam room literally brought me to tears. They were full of terror...absolute terror.  Then a big burly man walked in the office with his Down's syndrome son, and another woman behind him with her daughter who's mouth and nose were deformed and swollen from surgery on her cleft palate The final parent struggled through the door with a reclining wheelchair carrying her son with cerebral palsy.

 

I discovered that day that the early morning appointments aren't just for large families. They are also for special needs kids, who would rather not come later in the day or after school when they will have to sit in a crowded office and be stared at.  Dr. Bisese was great with my kids. She was amazing with these.

 

I went through an emotional roller coaster that morning. Feeling an immense pity, sympathy, sorrow, admiration, and awe.  Then I was hit with wonder at my own beautiful, healthy children bounding out of the exam room and cheering each other at their united lack of cavities. (It meant a trip to Burger King).   Was it wrong to feel such relief again that they were "perfect"? Had I lost some of that wave of gratitude that washed away all the pain in the delivery room when my children were born and I counted their fingers and toes and considered myself blessed?  How quickly we lose that feeling of dodging a bullet!  How soon we learn to become annoyed by their happy, playful noises and exasperated by their childish demands on our time and attention.

 

Instead of thanking my lucky stars, I was reminded again to be grateful to God for my quiverfull, and to regard the aches and inconveniences of parenting from a newer, more humble perspective.  God bless the parents who love and nourish children that a growing number of Americans would rather have seen aborted in our "better dead than disabled" culture. May His presence be a comfort through their repeated trips to doctors and fears for the future, and may His promises give strength to weary hands that are up all night. There is someone who sees and someone who knows.  Jesus has a message for you; "Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me."    

 

 

 

New hair cut

After four years of having my kids trim my hair over the sink, I decided to 'take the plunge" and get a real cut at a salon.  My hair was very long and all one length, and I wore it either pulled back in a pony-tail clip or in a single braid. She trimmed about 10 inches off of my bangs, and about 4-5 inches off the back and sides, and layered all around. Then she put foil highlights in.

Nellie loves the new look because (with bangs) she says I look like her.  :) Ira likes it because it's more glamorous and still "long". The boys aren't so sure. They keep doing double takes when I walk in the room like they don't know who I am!

What's on YOUR playlist?

She likes "Sleeping Beauty" and "Cinderella", but the most requested DVD on Nellie's list has got to be...

 

She even has a stretchy "Creature" toy that she carries around with her favorite Beanie Baby dog...