Orange

We spent some family time in our old hometown of Orange today, mostly at the Orange circle. That place is so darn charming. Owen's verdict on the day: antique shops where babies can't touch anything, not so much; eating cucumbers off of parents' tostada at Felix's, yeah! Aaron and Amanda's thoughts on the day: most stuff in antique stores is fun to look at, but not something we'd want to keep looking at every day; you don't always have to be an eavesdropper to hear some crazy/icky stuff, because some people talk nice and loud; it's fun to be remembered at restaurants we haven't visited in a long time. We loved living in Orange. There's just something about it. It'd be great to live there again at some point.

Here comes treble

I've been wanting to get back into voice lessons for a while, but have hesitated due to being such a penny-pincher. It's really bad, you guys. Aaron can't believe how excited I get about coupons, or how upset I get if we accidentally leave one at home. He laughs at me for being so crazy about getting deals. Babe, you laugh right now, but just wait until the end of our lives when you realize I saved you a good $50 on froyo over the years. Boom.
Enter Living Social, my new bff (Groupon is pretty sweet, too). A deal popped up on there a few days ago for eight private music lessons for only $98 (about a 70% savings). When I saw this, my skin started getting clammy, and my heart began to race! Such a steal, but what if it was too good to be true? I called the music studio the next day to figure out the fine print, and it was all good. Now all I have to do is choose a teacher and schedule my lessons. Woohoo!
In all seriousness, I would have gotten back into lessons pretty soon even without this deal. I've missed being in vocal training, especially with leading music for the women's group at my church twice a week. I love singing way more than I love deals, and I find so much joy in working on and improving my craft. It's pretty silly of me to be so miserly about all this. Aaron has been encouraging me to just find a teacher, and I'm really glad this deal came up to motivate this cheapskate. I know that vocal training is a good investment in my ministry and vocation. Hopefully I will be able to keep making myself pay when my eight discounted lessons are up and I have to start paying full price! Ughhh, full price... I don't even like to write that phrase.

Who likes reading instructions?

Aaron used an excellent idea during his message at our church's high school group tonight. He read through a large portion of Psalm 119, and had the students holler and cheer whenever they heard any word designating the scriptures, like law, instructions, decrees, etc. (all words which don't typically inspire much glee in our culture, of course). The point of this was to help them experience the enthusiasm and love the writer of Psalm 119 had for God's word. It got really loud in that auditorium tonight! It reminded me of the time Aaron and I read through the book of Esther on Purim with our families, complete with the traditional booing and cheering. There is something really soul-stirring to me about reacting to God's word verbally as a community. It's a beautiful thing.

Marching on

My friend and fellow blogger, Gaby, has challenged me to beat my illustrious December record of twelve posts during this lovely month of March. I think I ought to give it a go. Shhh, don't remind me that we're already halfway into March.
So here's a little update: My son is starting to walk. This is both adorable, and terrifying. Oh, and he also opens doors now. It's funny to have to tell visitors to lock the bathroom door so our one year old doesn't walk in on them. In more introspective type of news, God has been showing me some ways I need to be more disciplined in taking care of my soul. It's good to sense His pursuit of me. My favorite thing about life lately is having some great conversations and dates with Aaron. That guy is a lot of fun. I'm really grateful to family members who help us have a break from the little dude sometimes. (Is it bad that we are already talking about being empty-nesters? I promise you that we love Owen to the moon... It has just come up in conversation somehow!)

*I wrote this post before the Japan tsunami happened. (Yes, that tells you how long it takes me to post things sometimes. I had to go back and say "halfway into March" where it had originally said "a few days into March".) Let's keep the people of Japan in our prayers.

Excuses

I failed at posting every day in December, clearly. At least the idea got me to blog more often than I have in a long time. So why'd I stop posting, you might ask? Oh, I'll tell you, and thus accomplish the dual purpose of telling you about the rest of my December, and giving you weaksauce excuses about why I quit posting. It'll be exciting! Read on!
A few days before Christmas, I dropped my phone/blogging device into a cup of cranberry juice mixed with Sprite (a.k.a. a classy spritzer). That was not a good feeling. Remarkably, the dude who helped Aaron at the Apple store gave us a free new phone, when it should have been $200 (and he even said, "Merry Christmas". Who knew Santa is really a twentysomething Apple geek workin' undercover in Brea?). So, yeah, I guess my phone fiasco would excuse me from two days of blogging, since we only have Internet on our phones at home, or zero days of blogging, since I could have just stolen Aaron's phone to blog. Anyway, dropping my overpriced phone into a cup of juice like a professional spaz was a bummer experience, which got much better when I heard I got a free phone. Full disclosure, I did cry a tiny tear of joy when I heard the news. (Anyone remember my post about Aaron's likability to the general public? I'm sure some of that came into play in this free phone incident. He's like a younger, cooler Mr. Rogers with sweet sideburns. How are people supposed to resist that?!)
The rest of my December consisted of finishing (ahem, starting and finishing) our Christmas shopping, family Christmas celebrations, our fourth wedding anniversary, relaxing with Aaron and Owen, and not blogging. It was great! I hope that each of you were able to enjoy time with your families as 2010 came to a close, and that God is near to you in this new year. My 2011 goals for this blog are to make it look better for y'all, and to post more often, of course. NaBloPoMo 2011, here I come... If I can beat my December record of 12 posts, I'll be thrilled! Thanks for reading!

Should we shut up and hug? Punch each other in the face? Or...

It would be interesting to do some research, and make a diagram of some sort to show where my friends, family, and I agree and disagree on a variety of moral, political, and theological issues. Okay, so that'd be interesting to me; it's fine if you think my idea sounds about as intriguing as cleaning your oven (who even does that regularly, anyway? If you do, props). The most interesting result from such a project, though, would be something of which I'm already pretty sure: that none of those I surveyed would think identically on every issue.

I find it fascinating that there is a lot of divergence of opinion among my nearest and dearest, and many of them are Christians like myself. There's a lot of gray out there, and I like talking about it, whether with Christians or those of other belief systems. I also like that as a Christian I am called by Jesus to love my neighbor, whether he or she agrees with my points of view or not. What does this mean, though? That's a gray area of its own. One of my professors at Biola, Dr. Murray Decker, really got it across to me that every relationship needs to be full of both grace and truth, and that Jesus exemplifies this for us. I love that. It's really difficult to be full of grace and truth, and it's not made any easier by the fact that we as people can disagree on a lot.

Dr. Decker also pointed out, quite astutely, that most people gravitate toward either grace or truth in the way they conduct themselves. Try thinking of five people in your inner circle and deciding as quickly as you can if they tend more toward grace or truth in their interactions with others. Was it fairly easy to decide? Now think about yourself. Where do you land? I know that I tend to be more about grace, and my lack of truth in my relationships has been very detrimental at times. I've had an abundance of ungraciousness toward people too, though. When it comes to having differing viewpoints with people in our lives, it seems to me that it can be pretty easy to either clam up to give a sense of harmony and security in the relationship, or fall into character attacks and making it all about who's right. I know I've done both, too many times to remember or count. I'm still learning from Jesus about all this relationship stuff.

Let's all keep trying to discern the truth in a world with a lot of gray going on. I want to hear your perspectives on life. Coffee's on me next time. :)

Happy birthday, Jesus. Sorry your party's so lame. Actually, it's pretty fun.

Tonight was our church's high school ministry Christmas party. There were ugly Christmas sweaters. There was sweet music. There were some fun Christmas-themed "Minute to Win It" games. There was a stop-motion Lego movie of the Christmas story, made by a student in our group. There were lots of people hanging out together who I love very much. Sometimes youth ministry is the best party in town.