She was quiet for about a minute, then asked, “When there’s the new heavens and the new earth, will it last an hour or a day or a week?” I wasn’t sure where she was going, so she asked again, “When the new heavens and the new earth come, will it be for a day or a week or a month?” “No, baby, the new heavens and the new earth will last forever, forever and ever.” “And there will be no sickness and no one sad and no one dying and no hate forever and ever?!” “Forever and ever.” “I wish the new heavens and the new earth would come right now.” “Me too, baby.”

I know that she will continue to struggle towards longing well. When she tempers her “Come, Lord Jesus” with “after I have my first kiss” or “after I can drive” or “after I get married”, I will understand. But I hope her simple, sweet faith will continues to encourage me as I keep learning to long.

The Princess and the Pea by Rachel Isadora (5/5) …the illustrations are truly engaging and beautiful and stand on their own merit, not just as a non-white version of a classic.

The Children of Noisy Village by Astrid Lindgren (4/5) A sweet story that many will probably think of as “Little House in Sweden.”

Mama Miti by Donna Jo Napoli, Illustrated by Kadir Nelson (5/5) The oil paintings and collage illustrations by Kadir Nelson are beautiful and striking, they seem to make a faraway world more real to readers, integrating African textiles and motifs.

Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Bryan Collier (5/5) Martin’s Big Words is a book that every family ought to own. It’s the best introduction to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that we have come across, something appropriate for even four or five-year-olds.

Freda Rosenfeld is The Breast Whisperer.

God said be fruitful and multiply and Yitta certainly did.

Where the Bar Ought to Be is an opinion piece about education, and how excellent, passionate teachers make the difference.

GINGERBREAD PANCAKES
(inspired by Kerbey Lane in Austin, but it’s been so long since I’ve eaten there, I can’t verify the authenticity)

Cream together:
6 eggs
2/3 cup brown sugar

Add, then mix well:
1 cup buttermilk*
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup coffee (brewed)
2 tsp vanilla

In a seperate bowl, combine dry ingredients:
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 Tbs. cloves
2 Tbs. cinnamom
2 Tbs. ginger
1.5 Tbs. nutmeg

Add dry ingredients to wet, mixing gently. When combined, mix in:
1 stick of butter, melted

This makes about 7-8 thick, plate sized pancakes. SUPER thick. Cut back a tsp of baking soda or so if you prefer less cake-y pancakes.

* buttermilk is easy to make: 1 c. milk + 1 Tbs. lemon juice or vinegar, I let it stand for a half hour or so, but you could probably push it to even 5 or 10 minutes in a pinch.

The stories are raw and real, and the protagonist, if she can be called such, is rude, overbearing and larger than life. To know Olive is to be flummoxed by her, and yet, like Henry readers find themselves undeniably smitten with her.

Loneliness, depression, longing and pain are all vivid parts of the lives of those documented, and sometimes things don’t end up the way you’d want them to be, but the book wasn’t without hope. Somehow, the weaving of these stories together mirrored the weaving of all of our stories to me, and gave me a glimpse of something beautiful.

Virtue is also apparent in the lives of these Crosby residents. Loyalty, faithfulness, kindness… in their small connections community is born and grows. And community sustains them through many hardships. It’s a lovely book, and is even able to talk about difficult things with grace and beauty, and I’d recommend it to almost anyone. (9/10)

Lexi has a *slight* obsession with Kit Kittredge. She’s been running around saying “Brilliant!” I love listening to her prattle on about Strawberry Shortcake, imagine, tell stories, and even recite catechism questions. She has so much personality, and I can’t wait to see what she will do with it.

Kate is doing so well in school, and has wisdom beyond her years and a sneaky sense of humor. She’s a great big sister and has a natural inclination to help others. I love hearing her talk about what she’s learning and what she wants to learn next.

From the first chapters, I was hooked, even though the novel starts slowly and develops over time. I suppose what pulled me in is how well written and translated it is and the dynamic and interesting characters. The mystery itself intrigued me, a classic “locked-room format in an island setting” as the protagonist, journalist Mikael Blomkvist, describes.

The titular character is a hacker turned private investigator who gives the novel a certain edge. She’s likely a woman with Asperger’s Syndrome, but in spite of her difficulties connecting with people, she is extremely sympathetic to readers, and forms an instant bond with Blomkvist that is genuine and believable.

The original title was Men Who Hated Women, and there is a fair amount of misogyny and some descriptions of violence, particularly against women. I didn’t find them gratuitous or excessive, but be forewarned. Eagerly anticipating the next two installments, I am also sad that Larsson died so young without being able to give readers even more to look forward to. (8/10)

An hour and cart full of groceries later, the girls hit their breaking point and melted down over who was going to get the orange juice out of the case and put it in the cart. (At least they fight about helping, right?) My nearest fellow customer glared at them, and then at me. I tried unsuccessfully to mediate and then, a man walked toward me.

He was an older gentleman, and he reminded me of my great uncle Joe and his posse of Italian old men. Dressed in one of those old man tracksuits, with glasses and shaggy hair, he approached me with a smile. He clasped both his hands around mine, and I felt something pass between us. When I opened my hand I found two small lollipops. I thanked him profusely, then handed the candy to the children, who in their preoccupation with juice had missed the exchange completely. “Where’s this candy from?” they asked. “That nice gentleman there.” They bounded over to say thank you, and he returned once again. I watched as he reached his hand into his unzipped pocket and pulled out a big handful of butterscotch candies, giving them to me. We shared a smile, and he walked away.

It’s funny, two minutes earlier I had been thinking about 1 John 4, where it says that love is from God, and everyone that loves is born of God, and knows God, and more than that, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us. When I least expected it, I found love in the dairy aisle at Super Wal-Mart. I hope to be that gracious, to reach out to the harried and discouraged, and to remind them that they are not alone. At minimum, I hope to be a little old lady with a big purse full of lollipops.

Parenting an infant is a baptism by fire. One day you have this tiny being with a stomach the size of his itty bitty fist, to feed and change and comfort all day and all night. One of the things that gave me clarity as we embarked on those early days with a baby was to think theologically about parenting, and come up with some ideas of family life that we could start to try to live out.

You are your child’s first view of God was one of the ideas I gleaned from Andrew Murray’s Raising Your Children for Christ. The one sentence I wanted to live out was “gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.” (I still think of this daily.) I also meditated a lot on how the girls were not just my daughters, but my sisters in Christ through baptism, the least of these in God’s kingdom in many ways. Having a view of their identity in our family, and to God, helped me to filter different ideas of child rearing and care that I came across. (more…)