…yeah folks, sorry about that. :)  Look for a post in a few days to update on all we’ve been doing!

How many of us have old cell phones lying around in drawers?  Yeah, probably everyone.  Just looking quickly this morning, I found two and could probably dig up one or two more if I tried hard.

I was reading in my Women’s Health Magazine this morning about an organization that takes donations of old cell phones, rehabs them, and then gives them to womens shelters for survivors of domestic violence.  And postage is free - they send you a prepaid shipping envelope or box.  What a great way to recycle your old cell phones and help out.

Enjoy!

Some finished pictures.  We decided to paint the trim after all…so there will be a phase 3.  Stay tuned!

…are doing great with their 40 day Challenges.

And I’m sucking it up.

Sorry girls.

When we bought our house, nearly 3 years ago, it was very ugly inside.  I mean, retired couple, wall paper ugly.  But the price was AMAZING and we loved the layout, and we had a free place to live, so we spent about a month changing everything on the inside before we moved in.  We painted every room, we stripped wall paper (which my niece Amanda still b*tches about to ths day…you didn’t have to help kid if you didn’t want to), we re-carpeted. changed light fixtures and tiled.  Even though it was hard work, I LOVED every minute of it.  We moved into this fresh new house, totally designed (color wise at least) by us.

Well……..3 years later………I couldn’t take the color of the ceiling in the bathroom anymore (it was green, don’t ask) so a couple weeks ago I painted it white.  I’ve wanted to repaint our bedroom since the day we painted it baby poop brown.  Well tomorrow, that same niece who whines about stripping wallpaper is coming over to watch the girls so I can repaint it…a very very light sage green.  Today I spent most of the day taping the room and cleaning.  I am ready to go at 8:30 tomorrow morning.  Pictures of course will be posted when I’m done.

I now totally have the painting bug.  I think it’s a combination of starting projects again and watching Design Star on HGTV.  Poor Jonathan.  He hates it when I get “project minded”.  I give him WAY too much information, in too short of a time fram.

Anyway, wish me luck. We’re trying a low odor, eco friendly paint from Sherwin Williams called Harmony.  Expect a full review later.

1 year into our blog deserves a haiku I think

The Watson Highlands

Is One Year Old Today, WOO HOO!

Let’s now start year 2!

Yeah, I know that was lame.  But I felt like I should say something to commerate this day.

Have you seen those MasterCard commercials that feature Mr. Bill?

They make me laugh every single time.  :)  Now you can see what a warped sense of humor I have.

Madeline just popped her head over the gate (to the kitchen where the computer is) and said to me:

M:  Hi Mommy

Me:  Hi Madeline

M: I lub due.

Me;  Awwww

M:  Wheee my shoe (as she threw her shoe at me)

Other than the throwing shoe part, turns out my kids who were driving me insane 2 minutes ago, have redeemed themselves

…hurt.

The ubiquitous MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY scream that is.

Days like today I’ve heard it so much I want to change my name.

The girls have heard for most of the afternoon “There is no Mommy, there is only Zoul”  (extra points if you know what movie that came from…and Jonathan you don’t get to answer) from me.  They should be afraid, very afraid.

I guess the conclusion I’ve come to today is that the girls must nap in the afternoon for me to remain sane.  This means that I can no longer, no matter how tempting it is or how tired she is, let Madeline take a morning nap.  I always pay for it.

Anyway, now the girls are kind of sharing a book.   I stress kind of because there have been a few heated exchanges from them in the last 45 seconds.  Don’t get me wrong, they really do love each other and play well, but some days all Madeline wants to do is say NO in a very very loud voice and Claire just tattles on her.

Days like this I miss my full time job in a way.  But that way is so very tiny as I know this too will pass and tomorrow is Saturday.  Phew.

Turns out even Stay At Home Moms are workin for the weekend.

So I think I’m going to join Emily & Doug in their 40 day challenge to buy nothing except groceries (and gas).  Jen is going to join us too with her Target ban. It should be a challenge — no personal spending money, no kids clothes (I have a weakness, I’m sorry), no Starbucks, etc.

Now I do have to return something to Lowes and buy something different, but it shouldn’t exceed the cost of the first thing that I already bought, so we’re good to go.  And I do have to buy yarn for my Square of the Month Afghan, but I have spending money already set aside for that.

Who’s going to join us?

Edit:  These are Emily’s rules.  I like them.  And I added yarn.

1) Eating out is not part of this, but I am going to refrain from Starbucks
2) Gas is not part of this
3) Normal scheduled monthly payments, not part of this (like Netflix, subscribtions, doctor co-pays etc)
4) Services (like haircuts) are not part of this
5) Clothes/Shoes/Kitchen gadgets/electronics/toys/books/off the rack magazines/yarn ARE part of this

1. The couch eats hairbrushes.
2. Buying barrettes at the Dollar Store is not cost effective.  Even if they are 60 for $1, guaranteed you’ll only find 1 usable one in the entire package.
3. I will finally admit that I completely suck at making grilled cheese.
4. The South Beach Diet does work — 10 pounds in 2 weeks.
5. To avoid World War III, take two band-aids out of the box when one child has a boo boo.
6. My job is to clean the kitchen and the girls job is to watch TV…at least according to Claire.
7. I am allergic to sulfites, or something.  Every time I have more than 2 glasses of wine in one setting I have the worst Migrane like Wangover the next day.

The book Doors of the Sea - Where Was God in the Tsunami is a deceptively small book. At about 100 pages, and no larger than an average mouse pad (which is a comparison I can readily make from visual observation), it nonetheless contains one of the best summations of Christian responses to the problem of how a world which is supposed to be the product of a good and loving God nonetheless contains suffering and other evil. The book is an expansion of two articles, one for the WSJ and one for First Things on the same topic, and I recommend that you read the First Things article.

One of the great statements Hart makes both in his book and article concerns the arguments (railings?) against God by Ivan Karamazov, from Dostoevsky’s great work The Brothers Karamazov. Having set forth the arguments, Hart notes:

But Ivan’s rebellion is something altogether different. Voltaire sees only the terrible truth that the actual history of suffering and death is not morally intelligible. Dostoevsky sees—and this bespeaks both his moral genius and his Christian view of reality—that it would be far more terrible if it were.

Some other important discussions in the book, which I think will open up new avenues for my own personal exploration are the idea of the impassibility of God (that God does not experience pain or pleasure from the actions of any other being), the difficulty of reconciling free will with evil (if God created creatures with free will, and knew that they would then engage in evil, isn’t God somehow responsible for evil? And how can a good God be responsible for evil?), and so on.

Hart takes a very patristical approach to the question, and his response is one of a classic Christian and Orthodox theologian. As such, his thoughts may be unsettling to many outside of the Catholic or Orthodox traditions. However, to those inside such traditions, his thought is both lucid and illuminating. He is somewhat harsh (if his writing can be called such) with John Calvin, and Calvin’s assertion of the “idea of a God who can be called omnipotent only if his will is the direct efficient cause of every aspect of created reality.” (See Where Was God? An Interview with David Bentley Hart) Hart notes that this doctrine often appears in (to his mind) extremely mistaken responses of Christian theologians to the Tsunami of 2004 in the Pacific rim. Taken to an extreme, these responses took the Calvinist doctrine to its logical end by asserting (in various ways) either that suffering is necessary, and / or that suffering is created and used by God to some end. He makes a careful distinction between God’s ability to bring good out of evil, and suffering as some creation or tool of God. The distinction, he believes, is illustrated by the statement that Christ did not come to reconcile or explain death (evil) to humanity, but to conquer it.

Provocative, yet completely orthodox Christian thought (deliberate use of the small “o” there).

Michael Ruhlman is a chef and writer who was recently featured as a judge on the show, “The Next Iron Chef.” He also runs a blog - ruhlman.com - which is filled with excellent tidbits as well as memoirs about his travels and ideas. His book, The Elements of Cooking, has been reviewed quite positively and extensively, and is on my “sometime to purchase” list.

Meanwhile, check out the blog - http://blog.ruhlman.com/ruhlmancom/2008/07/elements-cast-i.html - most of his posts will echo today’s, which has helpful and intelligent commentary on cast iron cookware.

-j.