Well, I missed my own birthday.  My blog birthday that is.  As of February 14 2009, I’ve been blogging for a year!  It has been an extremely fun outlet for me, a place to vent, think, process, laugh, and meet people.  I’m glad I have one or two readers, but even if people didn’t read, it is a refreshing thing for me to do.  I’ve always wanted to write, and this has started me on that journey.  So, thanks for stopping by.  I’ll be up to more stuff in the next year!

Okay, well, I’m the only person I know who hasn’t listened to the new U2 album, which hasn’t even come out yet.  Maybe I’m exaggerating a little, but friends have downloaded pirated copies, and others have heard it on XM radio.  Me, I’m old school, old-fashioned, or just plain stubborn.  I’m holding out for Tuesday.  I’m still a huge amount of offended for the guys.  They’ve worked on this album for the last two years, and they took precautions not to let it leak out.  Yet hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people have pirated, free copies of the album before it has been released for sale.  Argh.  It aint right. 

I feel a bit better knowing legal action is being taken.  Check out this article about the current lawsuit involving four Swedish guys who run Pirate Bay.  I’m also sure that real U2 fans will still buy the cd, and they won’t be hurt too badly by all this free loading. 

Here is one of my all-time favorite songs from them.   Enjoy, compliments of Nexxus and Modernista:

 And here is an amusing version of the same song (how did they come up with this stuff?!):

The irony.  Looks like the recording companies have disabled embedding of their U2 videos.  So, you’ll have to go directly to you tube to watch.  Thanks a lot, pirates.

These shoes would make my youngest daughter’s heart dance and leap for joy.  I’m telling you, she would be in paradise.  Found the picture at Fairy Shoe Princess.  Yesterday afternoon, I took my three kids out for a fun jaunt as a treat.  We went to McDonald’s (I didn’t eat), then to the mall to eat a cookie and ride the carousel.  After the fun, I wanted to stop in a favorite store and see what was on the clearance rack.  I found a dress for my 6 year old, a cute pair of pants for the 4 year old, and a fun headband for either, all for $20. 

But my Mollie (4) found something else that stole her heart and wouldn’t let it go.  She found shiny pink slippers with a colossal pink gem on the top.  She needed them.  She craved them.  She carried them around the store and to the counter.  She had to have them.  Problem was, I had just bought her some shiny pink shoes at Target the week before.  I said no.  I put my foot down.  Not buying those shoes.  Well, I paid my $20 for my bargains, and she was still holding onto them.  I had to tell her that the alarm would go off if we left and she was still holding the beloved shoes.  So, out of shear terror, she let go of them.  BUT she was not happy with me!

In the car, she let me know, in no uncertain terms, that she didn’t like me right then.  I clearly explained that we can’t get everything we want, and it can be hard at times.  Her response (with an attitude): ”You just need to go to Dumb School to get even dumber.”

Somehow, miraculously, I didn’t laugh at the time.  I made it home and gave her a stellar time out and talking to.  But, I can’t quit thinking about that comeback.  Not an attitude I want to see in her, but you’ve got to admit it is comical.  I mean, where did she come up with that?  She is four, not fourteen.  When I told my husband the story this morning, we both had to turn away and die laughing.  What ever am I in for in the teen years?!

In only a week and a day, U2’s first new album since the grammy-winning How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb in 2005 will be released.  I am counting down the hours and minutes. What is so incredibly amazing about this band, is that they are not content to simply play their old hits. No way, after 33 years together and 22 years on top of the world as the biggest band, they continue to strive to make great music, full of lyrical wonders and instrumental genius.   Here is a great article about the making of the new album over the last two years.  If there is a theme to the album, Bono says it is peripheral vision, which I’m guessing means knowing what is going on around you and responding to it.  Hmmm.  Oh, and I love what he says that makes this Irish group stand out - joy.  They are a surprising commodity in a rock-n-roll world of rebellion, anger, sex and drugs.  They like what they do, and they have fun.  Bono says, “Joy, for me, is the spilling over of a life well-lived.”  Well, I’m glad I’m getting to live mine during their lifetime, because they inspire me and give me a lot of enjoyment, as well as cause me to think about gigantic things such as justice and poverty and living a big life.

You can already watch the video of the first single to be released, Get On Your Boots.  I had the chance this weekend to listen to a pirated version of the new album.  But I just couldn’t do it.  I gotta wait for the real thing.  March 2 in the UK.  March 3 here in the USA.  I’m getting on my boots and heading to the nearest music store! 

Sometimes I ask myself this question about my parenting.  The answer is usually much less than desirable in several random areas.  For example, last night, when my mother called to ask me a question, my 8 year old son picked up the other phone and began talking loudly into it while I was trying to answer her.  Not to be outdone, my 6 year old daughter interrupted him to scream a loud hello into the phone.  His choice words to her were a bit lacking in kindness, “Put down the phone, you rat.”  Or what about last night’s sit down dinner?  One after the other three kids did something vexing.  Jonathan prayed a silly prayer.  Anna kept on burping out loud.  Mollie informed me that kids don’t put their napkins in their laps - they keep them by their plate so they can reach them better.  Note to self: no formal dinners with children for another decade.

Okay, okay.  “Uncle” already!  I give.  I can’t be a perfect parent.  I can’t raise my kids faultlessly, on their sweet days, nor on their beastly ones.

However, I can continue to attempt to emphasize the right things.  By the way, I take a rather laid back approach to this parenting thing.  Don’t get me wrong - it is dreadfully important to me.  I just almost went insane trying to do it “right” my first year or two at the profession.  I’ve learned to enjoy it a bit more, and I take a kid-friendly approach.  We paint on our windows.  We jump on our couches.  (Sometimes.)  We  build forts with blankets that take up the entire den.  We watch t.v. and take naps snuggling together.  You get the idea.

I’m just hoping to continue emphasizing the important things, and eventually the other stuff will either be forgotten or hopefully we’ll all laugh about it.  (Definitely not winning any parenting awards here.)  So, what is the important stuff?  I don’t know - kindness (not ours to each other, but God’s toward us), the grace and love and power of God, things like that.  I overheard a conversation yesterday that put a little swing in my step.  In the car, my 8 year old and 4 year old were talking.  It went something like this: 

Mollie (4):  Once there was this really good angel.  But he wanted to be God.  He is a meanie head, and I hate Satan.  I had a dream that he was trying to get me. (I know, I know this is heavy stuff for a 4 year old.  It gets better.)

Jonathan (8):  Don’t worry, Mollie.  God will put his mighty angels around you at night, and Satan can’t bother you. 

Mollie:  I used to dream about baby angels after mommy would pray that for me.  I thought the angels were snuggling with me and they had pacies too.

Let me tell you, we all had a hearty laugh about that one.  Angels with pacies.  Definitely some theological issues there.  But the love of God had translated.  She was a baby, and even then God was meeting her.

How am I doing?  Some days I have no idea.  Others I feel okay about it.  Still different days, it is so hard and I’m failing so much I want to quit.  Maybe a better question is, “What is God doing in spite of me?”  Now that one I can see plainly.  And it is good, good news.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. . . so what exactly is kindness?  We hear a lot of talk about kindness these days.  I was watching American Idol last week, and one of the contestants and Paula Abdul were discussing how they believe there is a shift toward kindness going on in the universe.  (What?!)  For years now, it has been popular to think about “practicing random acts of kindness.”

And yet there is a kindness in the heart of God that goes beyond wishful thinking and simple efforts to do nice stuff, as great as these ideas might be.  There is a kindness in the heart of God that startles his long lost creation.  We expect him to be distant.  We expect him to be mad.  We expect a lecture of how much better we should be doing and all the vices we need to overcome.  And he comes in kindness.  After all, he is not interested primarily in our behavior.  No, he won’t settle for that surface stuff.  He wants our hearts.  And he wins them with kindness.

It is his kindness that leads us to repentance.

Think of the woman caught in the act of adultery.  The act.  Caught.  Makes your heart pound thinking about it.  (By the way, the religious leaders of Jesus’ day who wanted to stone her were beyond hypocritical - it takes two to tango, but apparently it was okay for the man to be participating in such an act of betrayal because they sure didn’t do anything to him.)  But as this woman was caught, shame pulsating through her body, her accusers dragging her into the public square, Jesus walked onto the scene.  They wanted to know what this “teacher” would say, what he would do.  “Doesn’t the law say the adultress is to be stoned, Jesus, huh?”

He bent and scribbled in the dirt.  Jesus doodled with a stick or his finger in the dirt.  A pause in the drama.   Now, picture this, the crowd was ready for a good show.  It could get boring in those small dusty towns.  No violent movies to entertain.  No internet pornography.  No fast-paced lives.  This was as good as it got.  They were primed and ready to watch, and engage in, a bloody, gory show.  The death of an adulteress.

Then, after the pause, when they were sufficiently filled with quietness, curiosity, and wonder, he stood and spoke.  And what he said surprised everyone.  “Sure, go ahead and stone her, but let the person who has never sinned throw the first stone.”

Kindness.  Stunning kindness.  Kindness to the accusers.  Kindness to the adulteress.

The word in the Greek, chrestotes, means goodness of heart.   It is God’s goodness of heart that leads us to repentance.  And repent they did.  They each slowly, one by one, dropped their stones and walked away.  His goodness of heart melted their angry, proud, self-righteous hearts.  It also saved the life of the woman.  And I bet she loved Jesus a lot after that brief encounter. 

What does it mean to repent anyway?  I’ve heard a plethora of sermons about how repentance means to stop certain behaviors and begin “doing right.”  But I don’t buy it, although that may sometimes be a fruit of repentance.  To repent simply means to come back to God.  Over and over and over.  And that is as simple as it gets.  His kindness, his goodness of heart, makes us want to come back to him.  Even as we are caught in the act of adultery.  Or anger.  Or pride.  Or with our hand in the cookie jar.  We do not have to get cleaned up first.  We can’t.  We just come as we are.  And his kindness, his goodness of heart, his wholesomeness, makes us want to come.  Yearn to come.  Need to come.

And I just bet it will make us want to be kind to others.  This is the fruit of His Spirit within us.

Okay, my wonderful husband just made me oh-so-happy!  He was in a nearby town today for a financial seminar, and he brought home this month’s copy of Q, with 30 pages of oh-so-savory U2!!!  Yay for me.  I know what I’m doing tonight. 

By the way, I’ve been searching for the magazine ever since I heard back in December that it would be coming out.  At first I just hopped over to a local store and thought I’d pick one up.  Then I realized it wasn’t going to be here in our small town.  Next I searched the web, but couldn’t find anywhere to order a single issue of the magazine.  Finally, I found a store (”Barnes and Noble, I love ya!”) that carries it.  Well, then the fun really began.  I’ve been tormenting those poor booksellers nearly every day.  I knew they would only get a few copies, and I knew they would go fast.  And I knew there was no where else to get the thing.  (It is published in England.) 

Anyway, today was the blissful day when after my spiel they said, “Yes, we have it.”  I couldn’t believe my ears.  “You have the one with U2 on the cover?!”  I said in unbelief.  You gotta understand, I know the magazine guy on a first name basis now.  And at long last I have the blessed treasure in my hands. 

Just had to share. . . with other U2 enthusiasts (or maybe I should say other obsessed fans).  This is the year their first new album is coming out since 2004.  It’s also the year I’m turning 40 and definitely catching them on their tour.  And this is the night I devour a magazine, like delectable chocolate..

If you care to read or see more, check out the site of Q.

This is what my four year old Mollie said to me this morning on the way to her school.  I laughed, ”You’re right, Mollie.  I do not look beautiful.”   Gotta love the honesty of kids.  No make up and not enough sleep, I guess. Hmmm, maybe I need a spa day.  (Yeah, like that’s going to happen anytime in the next 15 years.)  Oh well, beauty is just black-eye deep, right?

I wanted to be the first to wish you a happy Groundhog Day! 

We had fun this year making our predictions.  Anna colored two pictures, one of a groundhog with his shadow and one without.  Then she asked everyone, family, friends, and neighbors, which they thought it would be!  We posted our forecasts on the fridge and waited.

The funny thing is we had our story wrong.  Everyone was thinking that if the groundhog (Punxta-whatever-his-name-is) saw his shadow today, a sunny day, that would mean an early spring.  The opposite was true.  If he sees his shadow it’s 6 more weeks of winter.  Guess the shadow scares him and he goes back in to hide for 6 more weeks!

You can read about the real thing here.  And he says 6 more weeks of winter!