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.

Errrrrrrrr

Oh man. My brain is fried. Do you ever have those days where you have a difficult time having simple interactions with people? Where you struggle with formulating normal-sounding sentences to say in a conversation? I'm having one of thems. I think some chocolate pudding will help me sort things out.

Oh, weekends. I heart you.

Preface: This post was originally intended for Sunday night, but my frustrating (yes, it was free) blogging app on my phone had other plans. So, that means I only missed two days in a row of blogging, not three. Still a failure, just a slightly smaller one. Plus, I already missed a day. Yes, I am awesome at blogging daily.

Saturday:

Owen got his first Christmas tree.

Aaron and I had fun driving around and talking in the car between errands while our little teether took a mega-nap in his car seat.

Instead of decorating Owen's first Christmas tree, Aaron had to go back to the tree lot to exchange our defective tree stand. Woo-hoo! 'Twas not the stuff of Christmas poems, or songs, or movies.

Once Owen fell asleep, we watched some Parks & Recreation. That's a pretty funny show.

Sunday:

I made cupcakes for the first time in quite a while.

I got to celebrate a dear friends' birthday with an all-day extravaganza. Lunch, dinner, games, a Christmas concert, and lots of goofing around happened.

Owen ate two large oranges. His diaper this morning was, to put it mildly, frightening.

I was reminded of the joy and goodness of friendship.

It was a good weekend.

Silly girl

I struggle with being (I hate this phrase) a people-pleaser. I remember blogging about it a while back, but I'll be honest, I'm too tired to look up my old post. Anyway, I've noticed that in trying so hard to please this person or that person, I inevitably disappoint someone else. Pleasing everyone is just stinkin' impossible. For example, when I try to do everything that students invite me to do as a youth ministry volunteer, my husband and kid suffer. In the words of Elphaba from the musical, "Wicked": I'm limited. (Side note: I love that musical, and I don't care how dweeby that makes me. Aaron likes it too. Don't tell him that I was the one who ratted him out.) Yep, I'm limited. I only have so much time and energy (of course, right? But I have to remind myself of this). Why do I try to do everything that people want me to do, and even things that I imagine people might want me to do? I'll tell you: it's because I'm terrified of people being upset with me. I will run myself into the ground to avoid the feeling of letting someone down. How terribly unrealistic! I recently backed out of a weekly ministry commitment, because I realized how hard it was on my husband, my kiddo, and my own sanity. It felt weird to do that, and I probably did disappoint some people. I feel good about my decision though. I'm going to have more energy to give to my marriage, my kid, and even to the people I had to stop serving. Sweet.
Does anyone else have a difficult time with this?

Teefies

As of this afternoon, my 10-month old toothless wonder has the official beginnings of his first tooth. We won't have to buy baby dentures, after all. Cool... We can put the money we saved into his braces fund. :) It was an exciting, but tiring day, so this will have to be a short post! Mama out.

Seven

Today was not such an easy day, and I'm not gonna hold back about it. My kid pooped his pants seven times. One of those times, it exploded all over his last clean pair of pants. Another of those times, he pooped right after his bath, which was intended to cleanse him from the stench of the prior poop. I need to go take a long, hot shower right about now. It was also not the easiest ministry day. You know what though, I think the poop was worse! Hehe.

There were great parts of my day, too, lest you think it only consisted of poopy pants. I watched a documentary called "God Grew Tired Of Us" while I ate lunch with Owen. It tells the story of three Sudanese refugees who are selected to come to America so they can attend college. It pretty much broke my heart. I was sobbing on my bed while Owen ate Cheerios next to me. I'm sure he thinks I'm a weirdo. The love that these people have for their families and fellow refugees is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I feel like they gave me an understanding of real community. There were also some really funny and interesting culture shock incidents, which illuminated how bizarre America can be. Please check it out! It's worth your time.

Also good in my day: walking into Owen's room this morning, and there he was, standing up in his crib wearing only his diaper, with his zip up pajamas laying there next to him, unoccupied of course, and- wait for it- fully zipped. Aaron and I could not stop laughing. Either he's the next Houdini, or the neck of those jammies is a little too generous. It was so cute, I think it cancels out the seven ba-dumpadumps. Well... I'll have to think about that.

Dates

As much as I love being a mom to my precious lil' boy, it's wonderful to get away with Aaron sometimes and be "just us" for a few hours. Tonight, I got to be Aaron's date at his office Christmas party. It wasn't a fancy schmancy romantic outing, but it was fun to just hang out with cool peeps, eat some good food, and laugh a lot. No one can make me laugh like that guy does. I think parenthood has given me a new appreciation for any time I get to spend with my hubby. My definition of a "date" has really broadened. I still love when we go on more traditional dates, but even running an errand together while Owen is with the grandparents can feel special. Heck, even Arby's could work (not Weinerschnitzel though. The Schnitz is where I draw the line. No offense to any readers of German heritage). Aaron, I just gotta say I absolutely love being around you (yes, even when you talk about "boy stuff")!

Bruxië

Last night, Aaron and I were leaving Orange after a fun day of hanging out in our old hometown. Owen was fussing a bit in his car seat, which was nothing unexpected, considering the hour. We were heading south on Glassell, the street that is home to Chapman University, when we spotted the sign of a new little food stand where the Dairy Treet used to be (yes, Treet). Bruxië, said the sign. Whaaa? I haven't seen an accent like that since my high school French class! On to the important part: the sign also said three other words. Gourmet. Waffle. Sandwiches. Aaron spontaneously turned into the tiny parking lot. "Let's do this", he said, or something else rad to that same effect. I was feeling conflicted at this point. The mom side of me was saying, "Aaah, baby is cranky, get home get home get home NOW." The wife side of me was saying, "C'mon, give in to your awesome husband's awesome plan, you needlessly worrying goon!" Then there was the foodie side, which was saying, "Waffle sandwich." So, it was two against one, and I got out of the car.

The menu was intriguing, with plenty of sweet and savory options, and nothing priced above $8. We decided on a fried chicken waffle sandwich, and a plain ol' Belgian waffle with syrup. The waffle sandwich was weird and delicious, made up of a very light, not very sweet, thin and crispy waffle, with a slightly spicy piece of boneless fried chicken, some tangy, vinegary coleslaw, and a dose of sweet chili sauce. Oh man, I'm going back for another one of those bizarre sandwiches as soon as possible. It was killer. The plain waffles were the same as the "bread" of the sandwich, airy and crispy with a bit of a churro-like consistency inside, and served with a side of real maple syrup. Side note: I love real maple syrup. Aaron is more of a fake syrup fan, and finds the real stuff too sweet and watery. Feel free to share your thoughts on syrup in the comments. I love me a good syrup debate! Owen was pretty good throughout the meal, too, and charmed one of the employees with his beard of squash baby food. 'Twas a Roberts victory.

Aaron, thank you for making us stop at Bruxie. You are fun, and you have good parenting instincts. Readers: check this place out next time you're in Orange, and in the mood for a fun culinary experience! Bruxië, I don't know how to pronounce you, but you have stolen a piece of this foodie's heart (or stomach, but that sounds gross).

Bruxië
292 N. Glassell St.
Orange, CA 92866 bruxie.com

Go me

Welp, I completely forgot to blog yesterday. No gold star at the end of December for me. Maybe I'll try for two posts today... Hmm... That sounds overly ambitious for a mom of a 10-month old. I make no promises!
Last night, I went to a women's Christmas event at my church. It was a lot of fun. I love intergenerational things. They are an awesome part of life, along with Slinkies, lizards, and meals one didn't have to pay for, to mention just a few. I'm glad that heaven is going to be intergenerational to the max ("Hello, nice to meet you, oh, you're from the 4th century B.C.? Solid. Fist bump!")
There was a musical guest at the event, and she was great. She accompanied herself on the piano, and serenaded us with some beautiful and reflective Christmas music. It's inspiring to me to see people work hard at their music and use it in meaningful ways. It gives me energy to keep working on my musical goals. For example, the Sufjan Stevens concert I was able to attend in October has been fueling my creative energy for about a month now. That concert needs to be a whole blog post of its own. I'll post on that sometime this month (if I don't forget like dumdum yesterday Amanda did).

Just thoughts from my day, yo

Owen is starting to find humor in throwing his food on the ground when he tires of eating it. Black beans + carpet = hilares, apparently.

My tiny young small itty-bitty little baby sister just got her first car. Oh my. *sniffle*

I'm weird with food. I get bummed out when I'm eating with someone, and I know they're not enjoying their meal for one reason or another. I want people to enjoy their food! It's freakishly important to me! Is this a disorder? Aaron says yes.

I got to lead a new song for women's Bible study this morning. It was a lot of fun, and seemed to draw us in to God's presence in a special way. I feel grateful to God for that.

My anxiety levels seem to be at a new low. I think the main reason for this is learning to sometimes say no (without guilt) to social commitments and ministry opportunities, if I just don't have the time or energy, or it will hinder me from taking care of my own family. It's been a long struggle for me to be able to do that. This is a much better way to live- what was I thinking? I've been such a spaz. Aaron's phlegmatic ways are slowly wearing me down. Babe, you win. Relaxing is awesome.

Some day, I would like to live not in Orange County. I love my peeps here, though. Not to mention the abundance of great cuisines and restaurants (there I go with the food talk again). Alright, I gotta go get a snack. Nighty night.

It's December,

and I'm going to try to post every day this month. Thanks, sidebar friend Louis, for posting a facebook status that gave me the idea. Also, thanks to my phone for being super awesome, and ensuring that this post will show up on December 2nd. Apparently, daily December blogging is a thing some people do after NaBloPoMo. I didn't do NaBloPoMo. Obvs. See, I'm not legit, like the champ bloggers of the blogosphere are, but I'm still gonna try to do this. My main motivation is something that Aaron said to me a few months back: "I miss you blogging". That guy is so cute. And motivating. And, very cute.
I wonder what strange things I'm going to end up posting throughout this endeavor. I'm predicting a lot of unnecessary commentary on delicious or undelicious foods that I ate that day. You can't say I didn't warn you.