An Adventure...

Today I had the blessing of volunteering to chaperone my son's 6th grade class on a field trip to San Francisco. After a little driving adventure, we finally made it to the De Young Museum to see the King Tutankhamen Exhibit.

It was truly fascinating, and sad. Hearing all their beliefs and superstitions, and how each would declare a different "god" supreme, and even themselves as a "god.

The artwork, treasures and various elements that accompanied a Pharaoh's burial was quite amazing. The one piece I admire the most, and could not get a picture of, was a golden chest that depicted King Tut with his young wife...and it had many scenes praising her and her devotion to him. Amazing to think, that he became king at age 9 and died at age 19.

Just to add a funny note, before we left for the field trip...I had to show Nick Steve Martin's old King Tut routine, since he had never seen it.

Played a little song in our minds during the day. :)

The Girl Effect...

During this time of the United Way campaign at many of our workplaces, I wanted to share a great cause that some may not know about. www.girleffect.org. If you take a few minutes to educate yourself on the impact of this cause, you might want to steer your giving towards those charities that can make a difference to young girls around the globe.

Here is a document that articulates the "girl effect" far better than I can. http://www.girleffect.org/downloads/Girl_Effect_Your_Move.pdf

Today, 600 million overlooked adolescent girls are 600 million chances for long-term change. Today, less than half a cent of every international aid dollar is directed to them. Today, there are successful, girl-focused programs ready for more.

Here are eight programs that are built on positive change. They’ve seen girls’ lives improve – and how one girl’s success ripples out to her family, community and beyond. Each of these eight is based on either a proven success, or a powerful insight. Each offers either a scale-up or a start-up opportunity. Each one touches a part of the world where girls are particularly vulnerable. Each one represents a high return on any investment.

SOFEA / BANGLADESH

BRAC BANGLADESH: From burden to breadwinner– for $26

In Bangladesh, almost 90% of girls are married before 18 in some regions. Here, BRAC pioneered a microfinance program for girls in 2004. Three years later, 40,000 adolescent girls had gained the confidence, skills and capital to run their own businesses and manage their own resources. With ducks, tomatoes, embroidery, these entrepreneurs paid their school fees, delayed marriage and often paid their siblings’ tuition — all for $26 per girl. The program’s next phase is called SOFEA. Its operating model builds in financial sustainability, so one-time investments can benefit generations of girls to come.

ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

BRAC TANZANIA & BRAC UGANDA: REPLICATIN G SUCESS FOR GIRLS ACROSS BORDERS

In its SOFEA project in Bangladesh, BRAC proved girls don’t need much to unleash the girl effect. That pilot demonstrated that with a $150 loan, skills training and a support network, girls started businesses that immediately benefited themselves and their families – and provided incentives for everyone to delay girls’ marriage. In a south-to-south transmission of knowledge, this project brings that success to Uganda and Tanzania, where 70% of girls are married before age 18 in some regions.

SHE’S A RURAL ENTREPRENEUR /PARAGUAY

FUNDACIÓN PARAGUAYA : A girls’ school that pays for itself

A school that all local girls can attend, regardless of income. A school that’s a functioning farm, where girls grow the school’s revenue stream – and become agricultural professionals, gaining skills and expertise that their farm worker fathers never had. A school that’s fine-tuned to the needs of girls. A school that will support itself in five years. That’s the vision of Fundación Paraguaya: a triple bottom line of social, economic and environmental returns, for the entire community.

ADOLESCENT GIRL INITIATIVE / LIBERIA AND BEYOND

THE WORLD BANK AND PARTNERS: What happens when girls are a national priority

Africa’s first female head-of-state saw what the rest of her continent’s leaders have not: adolescent girls are more than victims in war-torn, post-conflict nations. They are part of the solution. With the World Bank and the Nike Foundation, President Ellen Johnson- Sirleaf is linking girls’ skills training to real jobs in the sectors that need them the most. Girls win, their families win – and so does the whole of Liberia. This initiative extends that approach to Afghanistan, Rwanda, Nepal, Sudan and Togo, with the support of the governments of Australia, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, UK and Milan, Italy.

BERHANE HEWAN /ETHIOPIAUN POPULATION FUND,

THE POPULATION COUNCIL: A goat gives a girl a chance, and she does the rest

If you are 15 years old in the poor Amhara region of Ethiopia, there is a 43% chance you are married. You are another mouth to feed, and your dowry will bring income to your family. This program goes to the heart of those harsh economic trade-offs. In its pilot, families received an incentive to let their girl go to a girl-centered safe space: a $25 goat. After two years, 97% of participants were still in the program, and 11,000 girls had gained life skills and self-confidence, delayed marriage and stayed in school.

GRASSROOTS GIRLS INITIATIVE / MULTICOUNTRY

A CONSORTIUM OF GRASSROOTS DONORS: Community-driven change for girls

Across the developing world, there are groups working inside village walls and family compounds. They are grassroots organizations, and they are one of the most effective ways to reach girls. But their proximity to girls’ lives is also their barrier in gaining support: small and remote, it’s difficult for outside organizations to find and support them. The Grassroots Girls Initiative fixes that: this is a direct funding pipeline to hundreds of girl-focused organizations closest to a girl’s community.

YOUNG WOMEN IN ENTERPRISE / KENYA

TECHNOSERVE: Girls team up to create safe income generation

In Nairobi’s harsh urban slums, girls are six times more likely to be HIV positive than boys. That devastating number reflects girls employing the only economic asset they have: their body. Young Women in Enterprise starts simply: a group of girls gets together and learns basic business principles. From there, they move to collective savings and loans – and their own businesses. From there, these young women can make choices about their lives, in environments where few individuals have that power.

BE! AN ENTREPRENEUR / INDIA

GOING TO SCHOOL INDIA: Finding entrepreneurs-intraining in India’s poorest communities

A girl living in poverty is already an entrepreneur-in-training. To simply survive, she has already learned to be resourceful. A negotiator. A networker. She could be further down the path of economic possibility than she – or anyone else – realizes. Except the Indian non-profit Going To School. Through their program Be! An Entrepreneur, a mass media campaign teaches girls and boys to see their skills. It’s accompanied by an investment fund that will support start-up capital for social businesses of young entrepreneurs in India.

At least check it out at http://www.globalgiving.com/girleffect.html

Proud of where I work....

There are times when I am so pround of where I work. Where I have worked for the past 18 years. It is hard to believe I have worked somewhere for 18 years! My company has paid for both of my degrees, a well-compensated job has allowed me to adopt, twice, has given me benefits through both of my pregnancies, allows flexibility to volunteer at my children's school's and even pays the school a grant for the hours I volunteer. Just this past year they added an adoption benefit, that partially reimburses adoption costs. I have challenging and fun work and have made great relationships and friends. I have been truly blessed to work at Intel. Time and time again, I see my company reach out to the community on a daily basis as well as in major crisis, through volunteering and giving time and money.

What made me proud today, is the Intel site in Vietnam. Below is a video of that site. I love that Intel chooses to set up operations in countries that can truly benefit from the opportunity of employment and commerce. Vietnam is one of those countries. I know some people feel that corporations started or owned by American entreprenuers or boards should keep their work in the US. I am one to disagree. I do not believe a US citizen is any more entitled to an opportunity or income than a citizen of ANY country. We are all people. All with needs. All with desires to support our families and sustain life. So I say bravo, when my company invests their resources in a country that is in far more need than we are.

Intel has opportunities and investments all over the globe, including the US. And I see the Vietnam site, as well as those in many other countries with economic needs, as a good thing. A benefit for all.

Bravo Intel. You make me proud.

Gettin' these for Christmas.....

Aren't these the most darlin' things? These little slippers are from Satch & Sol, And are just too cute. SouleMama is doing a give-away of a pair.

Although I may not win the giveaway- I am putting this on my Christmas list to get for the kids. They have them from baby size through adults.

Won't this look so cute, with the hand-made pajamas I give them on Christmas eve> I am going to get the boys the grey "Woof" ones and my darlin' girls the flower ones..

Hmmmmm...what should momma get?

It's Friday! Breathe it in!

Friday Friday Friday....latte on my desk, autumn in my heart! YES!

A good day! We have a soccer game tonight, Nick has an audition at a children's theatre group, and then a hotdog roast in the backyard with mom and dad. A good day!

So here is a little of what has been mulling around in my mind:

The fragrance of crushed fruit.

I was reading a couple days ago, in the devotional I am doing (by Beth Moore on the life of John), and that particular days verses were Rev 2:8-11 about the church in Smyrna.

"To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:

These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death. "

Beth shared how the plumbing architecture of the city of Smyrna, according to historians, made it so the bay waters caused a bad smell over the whole city. That most of the Christians lived in the slums. But "from the hidden slums, however, rose a fragrant incense of great expense. No perfume is more costly and more aromatic to God than faithfulness of believers who are suffering." (p. 321)

"I will accept you as fragrant incense when I bring you out from the nations and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will show myself holy among you in the sight of the nations." Ezek 20:41

"For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing." 2 Cor 2:15

So I was thinking....about being rich and about suffering. I have been so much more aware lately, of a changed perspective on how favored and blessed we are in the US culture. Even the poorest among us is often much better off than most in many other countries. Whether its from learning the plight of many of the poor and orphans of the world, or through several books I have read lately, it is hard for me to get upset or overly despairing over any of my problems, when I think of how far worse it could be.

And yet, I was also thinking how all suffering is relative. I believe people are resilient enough, that we can grow pretty much accustom to anything. Suffering may well be temporary. It feels like suffering, until we become accustom to it. Suffering for one person is different than for another. So when we think of suffering, in one sense, it is enlightening to compare and realize, this may not be so bad, yet in another sense, this is the life we have been given, the row we have been assigned to hoe, and how we handle the suffering on our row is our personal challenge.

We do not ask for suffering, or greater suffering, yet we should not ask for it all to be removed, for life to be a breeze, for no personal challenges to come our way...how else will we develop richness? How will we know what true riches are?

I just finished the book, "Also Known as Harper", by Ann Haywood Leal. I loved it. More written for 4th to 7th graders perhaps, but I enjoyed it. It was about a mother and her two children, who became homeless and the people they connected with, and the lessons they learned and the sifting of priorities in a young girls heart. I highly recommend it. In the end, she was truly rich in what mattered. Her family, and some good caring friends.

In the devotional I read, it asked: "What things do you desire to be rich in?"

And I thought: The fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, meekness, self-control, goodness, faith. That is what I want to be rich in. When I suffer, whether my suffering is a cranky child, or three little picky eaters who refuse to eat after momma's plannin' and cookin', or living from paycheck to paycheck, or .....not getting to spend on my every whim, or many far worse, far more serious, far harder challenges that could (and some will) cross my path... when I suffer, I want the suffering to squeeze the fruit of the spirit in my heart, so a fragrant juice comes running out. A perfume toward heaven and a refreshing to those around me.

That's what I want. That's what I want to be rich in. That's what I want to breathe in. I want to be impoverished in the material and mental distractions of this world and rich in God and family and living fruit.

What things do you desire to be rich in?

In my book pile.....

I know I have been posting a lot about reading lately....I am on a reading binge. :) Where else can you easily {and inexpensively} travel around the world, through time, experiencing other's thoughts and wisdoms, and change because of it?

Katrina over at Cadapillar Days, is having a fall reading challenge...

So here is what is in my book pile to read, along with about four or five books on writing.....

I am right now in the middle of "Velva Jean Learns to Drive" by Jeannifer NIven, and loving it!

Reading Storm....

Reading, reading, reading......I have been reading up a storm. Novels....which I blogged about recently. Here are my most recent reads and what I thought about them.



A Mercy, by Toni Morrison. Set in early America history, post 1776, pre-civil war, it was a puzzling read. The language was really clunky and thick, hard to wade through a lot of the time. The time line was all jumbled, forward, backward, sideways, backwards again. And each chapter, written from another character's perspective, was hard to understand who was narrating. It is a short read, troubling and left me me with a dissatisfied taste. Unfinished, like a dangling ball of yarn off a half-knitted sweater. I don't read reviews on a book until after I finish the book myself. In reading the reviews on Amazon.com for this book, I have to agree with many of the readers who gave the book low marks.


That said, what I like about the book/story was a step into another time and place, the unsafe, hard, and precarious life of women (and men) during this time frame. The isolation, hardships, fear, and struggles to just exist and make a living. The connecting, helping, coming together of the various women and men in the story, was drawing, yet dismaying with the utter falling apart of each one. The book ended with a sense of hopelessness. Perhaps, without God, who was glaringly absent from the book in any real way, that is all life did hold: precarious, self-reliant hopelessness. Even the touch into anything of religion or God in was a hopeless venture of judgement, isolation and withdrawal. A sad and unsatisfying read over all. I guess even a Nobel Prize winner can write something that misses the mark.





Elizabeth Berg's Dream When You're Feeling Blue is an enjoyable story and walk into World War 2 America, and three sisters/women, their dreams and passions.


The challenges and sacrifices of life at home, while the men were at war, was simply told, without a question on the "rightness" of the sacrifice. A good perspective reset, for what we often feel we can and cannot live without in our current times. The spirit of patriotism, the uniform clad war hero, the letters to and from home, the loss and the family sacrifice all touched me and made a rich story.


I highly recommend this book and enjoyed the characters of strong women during a changing time.






The most recent book I read, recommended by my friend Stephanie, was Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. Except for two especially raw, sexual passages, the rest of the book was a delight that I sped through in two days. Following the lives of a small circle of circus workers during the US depression era, as well as an older (93) year old man in present times, the story battles with the conflicts of connection, caring, isolation and usefulness.


My heart was tugged with the fate and challenges of the older man, living in an "assisted living" home, overlooked by his family, sensing his slipping away and the contrast to his earlier, full, and dramatic life. The view into the circus life, the hierarchy, classes, connections and dangers, was fascinating.

Life can be lived out in so many different ways. It feels like to me, living in my homogenized suburbia, that modern life can get bland, flavorless, at times. Focused on the mundane.

I love, through books, to live other lives, times, lifestyles, countries. What a blessing a good read is.

One day away......

It's one day away. Fall, autumn, my favorite season of the year. The time of knitting and pre-Christmas secrets, sweaters, football games, apple cider, crunchy leaves, cooler weather, pumpkins, apple pie, longer evenings, candles, firewood, and backyard smores.

I love everything about it. Wait all year for it. And soak in every minute of it. I know the weather isn't quite there yet, but it will be, soon.....

One thing I miss, being single, is feeling safe enough to go hiking in the woods. Maybe I need to borrow some friend's big dog. But I long to talk my kids on nature hikes, and just don't feel comfortable venturing off the beaten path alone. Isn't that sad? {could be worse, I know, could be worse.} Maybe someone should start a "rent-a-dad" business...Just someone to go on a hike with us, scare off the "bad guys". :)

Anyway, we will squeeze in some nature where we can. At work, four of us are heading up to Apple Hill Friday afternoon, which I am thrilled about! And Friday night, we have an evening soccer game with Tadpole as our family star.


This weekend, I sat in one of my favorite Adirondack chairs on the back patio and leisured my way though my current copy of Country magazine. Just the cover alone was enough to invite me for a walk!

We have two book reports to do this week. Taddy is just finishing "How to steal a dog" about a homeless family, and Nick is finishing Inkheart. For Tad's report we are making a fold-put brochure of sorts, and for Nicks.... a life-size fandango puppet of one of the book's characters! Oh fun! ;)


On the edge of fall and life is good. Thank you Lord for fall, for bringing it around each year, and the hope and excitement it brings.

I'm off to get a pumpkin spice latte!

Change is in the air.....can you smell it?

Ch-ch-ch-changes....

A lot is happening, changing....

First...about 3 months ago, I said I wanted to make some changes with myself.... to I cut my hair, and since then I have lost 21 lbs! Yea...I have more to go. but happy aoub the progress.

My children are all older. I know, a change that happens every year, but 6,9 and 11 just feel so much older than 5,8,10. They are all at the same school now, their new school, and so far things are going great. My oldest man is actually taking 7th grade math, and using deoderant! (I know I can hear him now, OH MOM! You did not write that, did you???!!!!) :)

My blog is going to undergo some changes. I hired a wonderful blog designer to give me a make over, so stay-tuned for a fresh new look.

I am over much, most {all?} of my illness, so feeling well all the time is an awesome change.

We have a new VP at work, for our organization, and I am interested to see what changes that will bring.

And the season is changing, at least on the calendar, fall starts on Tuesday....I hope the weather catches up with the calender. We are planning our first trip to Apple Hill, which always feels like fall to me.

Our dear Angela will be leaving us on December 1, which is a major change! How will I get along without her? I know I will adjust, but it will be different.

I am thinking, in the fall, to move to a smaller home, closer to my children's school. Not sure if God will have that in the plans for us or not, and moving is surely not fun, but that change might e nice.

So here I sit on Friday, full of change.... I actually enjoy most change. We all need a little stirring-up in our environment from time to time.

Hope you have a great weekend. We are soccer-game bound!

Ethan...

I finished reading, several days ago, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton.

I read here and there one person or another referring to it, Anita Shrieve stating it was her favorite book that launched her into writing, and I had missed it in highschool, if our high school read it.

The day I finished it, I thought, "Huh. Well. I don't see the big deal. Interesting, but hmmm."

After a few days, it grew on me. I found myself thinking back to it often. I read an "introduction to Ethan Frome" which reminded me why such as avid reader as I HATED high school English. I hate over-analyzing a story with intellectual hypothesis, and this theory, and that interpretation and why the rock was grey and where the path turned left, rather than wound left... sigh..

I love to read a book with my soul. Not dissect it.

So my soul has wound back to Ethan Frome quite frequently this week.

-The harshness of his life, the shabbiness it became, a different time, a different lifestyle. Slower pace, less enticements.

-The electricity of attraction. So often, in modern romance, we charge on through all those little things, and blasted on past, we never look back, or savor them. The pace of our {my} life is such that there is not much I get to {take the time to} savor. I want to change that. Some how.

-Hopelessness and the sense of being trapped. I can find myself in a trapped situation at times, or what feels like trapped. But I find I do not lose hope. I may have to hold on and wait and work my way through for a while to get out. But I truly do understand that sense of trapped without an option. With my hope in God, trapped is a different word. I remember in my 20's, a time when I had walked away from God, I was draw to an author/speaker's work, Leo Buscaglia. One of the things he said, {quoting another} that use to bring me hope, was "Nikos Kazantzakis says, "You have your brush, you have your colors, you paint paradise, then in you go." Do it!! Take orange and magenta and blue and purple. . . and green, and yellow--and paint your paradise." I have always held onto the hope of change.

Now I can say I have read Ethan Frome. I read there was a movie made of the story. I may have to search it out.

A delightful read: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

I just finished reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society By Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (Aunt and niece).

And it is absolutely delightful. I loved this book (hated to see it end) for SO many reasons:

-the setting, post WW2, (and during) Channel Islands between England and France

-the format, the story unfolds entirely through letters written between the characters in book.

-the subject of writing and editors were a large part of the story, which made it interesting as well.

-the simplicity and authenticity of the characters lives. It made me want to pack up my bags and move to Guernsey Island.

-Juliet, the main characters growth and choices, as the story progressed.

-a delightful surprise for me tucked in the corner of the story was that of a single woman adopting a daughter.

-Besides writing, reading was a major theme of the story line and how reading impacted their liives.

I wish there was a "this is what happened next" book on the horizon. However, the author died prior to the book finishing production and her neice handled edits and saw the book through.

A delightful read and a touch into a piece of history, Germen Occupation of the Channel Islands, seldom written about. I highly recommend it!

When Love is Difficult...

I am working my way through a devotional on John, 90 Days with the Beloved Disciple (by Beth Moore). I am on Day 57. I started it December 4, 2008. :)

I have been struggling with trying to teach my son (and myself) how to love, even when someone might not be acting very “lovable” or when there are no feelings of love there. Our natural love falls so short and I find it so hard to remember to fake it, let alone have my son grasp that concept. And faking it seems so.....well fake!

A question in today's devotion lesson was: What have you done with tough relationships? I realize with some tough relationships, I now totally avoid the person. With some others, I distance myself from and disengage from the emotional connection, so their behavior does not impact me. With those I care about and don't want to disconnect, I struggle, pray for them, pray for me and try so hard to be loving and act that way, even when I do not feel it. (fake it?)

With some people, it is not that I find them unlovable, but that they act unlovable at times.

Beth shares to “forget faking it!” Ah-oh. Then what do I do? She goes on to say that we are called to the real thing: “While loving others God places in our paths will never cease to be challenging, the key is learning to draw from the resource of God’s own agapao (love) rather than our own small and selfish supply of natural phileo or fondness.” (p. 275)

I wrote in the margin: how?

She goes on to say that agapao begins with the will. To make a “willful decision to agree with God about that person and choose to love”

I can understand making the decision to agree with God about that person. Regardless of the person’s behavior or personality that might not sit well with me, God thinks this person is precious. So I can agree with that and choose to WANT to love them, but how do I actually love them, in that gnarly moment, without faking it???

Beth goes on to talk about how agapao has an element of sacrifice and it is will over emotion…..but not until the final paragraph did it all come together in a way that made sense to me. A way to get a handle on it, without faking it.

“God’s chief goal is to deepen each of our relationships with Him. And He knows that if we don’t see our need for Him, we will never understand how sufficient and wonderful He is. Therefore, He continually challenges us to live beyond our natural abilities. He knows that challenges like loving someone we find difficult will place the obedient in the position to come to Him constantly for a fresh supply of His love. We have to pour out our own toxic and preferential affections so our hearts can be filled with His affections. As we ask for our cups to overflow with agapao, the liquid, living love of God will not only surge through our own hearts; it will splash on anyone nearby. “ (p. 275).

With a house full of kids, that I may have natural affection for, but with little personalities that can rub each other and momma the wrong way at times, and too often all rubbing at very exact, same second, tromping all over the top of each other, I need God’s constant in-pouring of love. (You have not because you ask not?) In the middle of the moment, be a God-whisperer. Breath up: love in, love in, pour the love in, breath out: gentleness, love and wisdom. I see I need to, in the moment, be cognizant of the need for me to run to the source, that second, rather than run on my own fleshy response. I think that is part of the whole abiding in Him, abiding in the vine... having that heavenly flow constantly pouring in. Oh, I want it. I want to stay more connected more of the time every day.

That is probably WHY I have a house full of little ones! (and am always desiring more.) I thought it was to help them. But learning to love on them is helping me.

“Dear friends let us love on another for love comes from God. “ I John 4:7

Ode to Summer (Unwrapped)

When is summer over?

My kids keep asking me that. Especially Mary.

Way back in my day (ancient times) school did not start until after Labor Day. That marked the end of summer. School for my children started in Mid-August and temperatures have been in the upper 90's and 100's still. Heard there is more hot air coming this week.

So I don't know when summer is over, officially. Since we are past Labor Day, I guess one way or another, it is over for us. So, like another blogger I saw, I want to chronicle a bit about this summer.

It was a cherished one full of good times and blessings unwrapped.