Free market musings

Now, that is a scintillating title, is it not? This post is going to be a touch random, so I will start with the most important thing.

1. My friend Jamie is now an ambassador for Noonday Collection. If you don't know about it, you should. Women in the third world are being taught a trade, are being fairly compensated for their beautiful and unique work, and we get to play a part WHILE looking cute. Winning, all around.

2. I was remembering a visit I made to my friend Yvonne of Great Britain circa 1996, and I saw several posters on a bulletin board at her church encouraging Christians to buy fairly traded products. This is the first time I had ever heard of this concept, and my comment at the time was something like, "I just don't think Americans, even American Christians, will ever pay more money for a product just because it's helping people. We are too obsessed with bargains." I think that now, a mere 16 years later, there might have been a small shift in our attitude. Or maybe it's just the people I hang around with. Anyway, England had it figured out first. So, cheers.

3. I am so disgusted with the money that's being raised and spent on this presidential campaign. If a candidate were actually doing a good job, maybe it would not cost one BILLION dollars to convince people otherwise.

4. The husband got home late last night and spent approximately 30 minutes of his life, that he will never get back, trying to explain to me the concept of ceilings and floors as they relate to some economic concept that was on a test he'd just given to his students. I warned him that I have never been able to get my head wrapped around the subtleties of economic theory, but bless him, he tried so hard.

5. Harper yanked out her very own tooth last night. The husband was away, and he is the resident tooth puller. I told her that I would try, but that the whole thing makes me a little queasy. She had mercy on me and did it herself. The tooth fairy rewarded her with two dollar coins, instead of the usual one, for her bravery and gumption. 

6. Hudson, after several weeks of practice, is now able to expertly coordinate his arms and feet in order to perform an excellent jumping jack. I realized he needed some help after his first Taekwondo class. He looked like a marionette being operated by someone being repeatedly stung by hornets. Now? He looks like a cadet, much to his great pleasure.

7. Helena, when she is needing a little alone time in the bathroom will say, "May I please have some piracy?"

8. Well, we just got home from Walmart, where we bought supplies to make play-doh because apparently, today is National Play-doh Day. Do I want to make play-doh? I emphatically do NOT. Maybe we'll read the Constitution aloud while we squish our play-doh, because we didn't duly celebrate yesterday.

9. There is an article in the Wall Street Journal (September 12--because "news" is a relative term) about how Lululemon is suing Calvin Klein for stealing their patented formula for yoga pants and having the audacity to pretend they only cost $19.99, instead of the $98 Lululemon insists they are worth. The title of the article is "Downward Docket: The Yoga Pants War," which I thought was clever. Also, dear husband, is this a floor or a ceiling??

That will be all. The play-doh awaits.

Into the great wide open

I'm having some adjustment issues with the "home" part of homeschooling. So, I pat myself on the back with how proud Charlotte Mason would be, and we head outside.

We fed the ducks and went to the zoo on Wednesday. The Hermann Park ducks and geese were all looking a little rough, as though they might be trying to fit in with the homeless guys napping on the picnic tables.

I paid the extra money to walk through the animatronic dinosaur exhibit, because we hadn't done it all summer. The dinosaurs move and make noises and the kids giggled nervously and kept reminding each other that "they aren't really REAL because everyone know dinosaurs are extinct. Right?"

I caught a little bit of a movie called "Creation" about Charles and Emma Darwin last night. There was a scene in which their daughter Anna had to kneel on rock salt as punishment because she insisted to their local vicar that dinosaurs had indeed existed. It was thought provoking, and I might watch the whole thing at some point.

We took a break from the Great Church Hunt of 2012 (we've visited six different churches since we moved in June and I am all ready to just pick a place to settle. It's been encouraging to see the depth and breadth of the body of Christ, but the thought of putting forth the energy to build meaningful relationships with a whole bunch of new people is almost debilitating. So Sunday morning we got up and didn't quite make it out the door in time to make it to the church we've gone to the past two Sundays, so we decided to drive out to Brazos Bend State Park instead. We went to the woods because we wished to live deliberately, and all that. We saw an alligator in the river, and there were lots of these blue dragonflies. Harper and Hudson were allowed to carry their real knives on their belts. There was lots of Spanish moss draped on the trees. Helena was draped in Mardi Gras beads.

I am realizing some things about myself as we try to find a church. I remember reading a couple of years ago that Francis Chan's church worships in this outdoor pavilion thing (in part to avoid the exorbitant cost of a big building), an idea which pleased me greatly. Of course, that makes much better sense when one lives in San Diego (is that where his church is? It is someplace with Edenic temperatures year around, I'm pretty sure) and not Houston. But I love when a sanctuary is lit with natural light; when I can look outside and remember that we are a separate peace, but that we are still in the midst of the world. We don't have to worship in a dark cave. We are free to be seen and to see. I was listening to Rick Steves' radio show on NPR a few weeks ago and he was talking to some Europeans and asking them their thoughts on traveling in America, and one of them said our national parks are like our cathedrals. I think that's pretty profound. I think it's easier to remember what the heavens are declaring when you can actually see the heavens. God made alligators and Great White Herons and blue dragonflies and gigantic Cross spiders that are six inches across! He gave you eyes that can see and ears that hear and legs that hike and lungs that breathe deep. Sing halleluia! (Or maybe complain that you are tired of walking and that you wish we could stop in the gift shop. For a minute there, I was Ann Voskampian. Then my kids started talking and interrupted my ode.)

Anyway, if anyone knows of a liturgical church, preferably within walking distance to our house, with music that is heavy on cello and violin and ancient hymns, teaching that is expository and utilizes only original metaphors, people who are genuine, windows that are large (metaphorically, but also literally), ministry that is focused on the least...that about does it. Maybe you'll let me know? We are willing to surrender our weapons, if need be. Excepting our swords, naturally.

First things

Hudson did the slide at the pool and got to the side all by himself last weekend. SANS flotation device. It isn't pretty, but he did not drown.

Harper had her first real haircut Saturday, and then we spent the morning together and she paid $17 of her own money on a book about the periodic table she had seen and fallen in love with a couple of weeks ago. It came with a free flashlight that projects 4 different constellations on the ceiling, including Casseopeia and Pegasus. I think it might have to be confiscated lest she and Hudson never get to sleep with all of the faux star gazing. Also, we've just started reading Mary Poppins out loud which invites giggling and other shenanigans. Because perhaps if there is sufficient giggling, we might all float up to the ceiling and have our tea.

We've been concentrating on the work of school a bit more, and we've had one good day and one not so great day. Helena is actually surprising me with her ability to play with math manipulatives in an appropriate way for a rather long period of time while I focus on the other two kids. She enjoyed sorting the counting bears by colors today. And she also practiced writing some very wiggly 'H''s in the dry erase book.  Hudson is doing great with his reading lessons. His handwriting is also improving. Harper is determined to learn cursive because her friends in our co-op learned over the summer. She started weeping today after lunch when she couldn't perfect the drawing of the oriole she was working on. Which, granted, is tragic. I gently removed the offending drawing, and suggested she might need to focus on something else for a few minutes. A little while later, Helena was weeping because she couldn't seem to get her ballet costume and tap shoes on fast enough in order to dance along with the Beatrix Potter ballet DVD. Also very tragic. Then the dog started barking at me for no reason. And now she is squished into this small chair next to me sleeping and pretending none of it ever happened.

We took a family bike ride yesterday morning. Helena rides facing forward on this little seat on the front of my bike and gives running commentary on everything she sees, while occasionally calling back to me to make sure I am still there, awkwardly pedaling with my knees at a bizarre angle.

A friend told me this weekend how much better she is feeling on a gluten-free, dairy-free diet. I'd be willing to try it, except that every single thing I ate today (with the exception of the not quite ripe cantaloupe we ate with lunch which perhaps would have tasted better with a little gluten and/or dairy) was loaded with gluten and/or dairy and I really can't imagine such a radical shift. Plus no ice cream. Or cheese! Or sandwiches! That really is tragic.