The Swearing in

This is a painting by Jacob Lawrence that I really enjoy. It is from Carter's inauguration I think, and seems like it is pretty appropriate for today as well. It is all about the people. All different shapes, and colors. Not a great copy of the file, but you get the idea. Yes we can. I will write more when I don't have a crying baby and wild two year old on my hands.

Epiphany

Epiphany is when the wise men arrived and saw Jesus for the first time after his birth. Most scholars agree that Jesus was a "young child" when they arrived instead of an infant and I wonder if Mary and Joseph hung around in the stable all that time cause you always see them there with the shepherds in the pictures and you'd think that by that time the shepherds would be pretty tight with the holy family, but they always look as awestruck as the wise men. Then there is the whole fleeing from Herod part and you wonder how long that big star was up in the sky. It is all very chronologically confusing to me. And you've got to wonder what Mary was really pondering in her heart. Was she thinking, "What a mistake this Joseph was. Talk about no plan.. Oh let's just show up in Bethlehem and hope we can find somewhere to stay. Oh I guess you'll just have to go through labor on the back of a donkey. Oh this barn with poopy hay looks good. Hey why don't you use this slop trough to put the King of the universe in?" I'm sure she had buyer's remorse more than a few times with that one. I get pissed if Josh and I go on a date and he doesn't have a plan, cause we sit around saying I don't know what do you want to do?...but Joseph takes the cake this time. Having a baby right before Christmas has been a sobering reminder of the hardship that Mary overcame. She has to do the whole birth thing and then face her "postpartum" stage in a poopy barn. Talk about grounds for postpartum depression. No lactation consultant, no midwife even, just "All Star Joe" over here to figure it out with her. I'm sure she was having a hard time trusting the angel's words. But if she had been unwilling.. if she had given up or bailed on even one detail of the way it happened, what a different implication there would be. As it is anyone is welcome, the poorest most insignificant person could enter without threat and receive. God's plans are a mystery and looking back on the past year and ahead to the new one, I'll be interested to see what absurdity God will make good.

Hot Wheels

So I didn't get a Christmas present this year (not entirely true.. a David Sedaris book and a gift certificate to Esther's) because Josh and I have been talking about getting a new car. Considering that our current car is 30+ years old and becoming increasingly smaller with the size of our growing family, we decided to get something a bit bigger and newer to ease Josh's mechanical anxiety. We researched a number of vans and SUVs (neither of which I wanted to drive) and came up with the Mazda 5. It seats 6 and gets 30+mpg on the highway. It is smaller than a van, but bigger than a wagon. The back 2 seats fold down for added cargo room and for even bigger cargo space the 2 middle seats do too. We will most likely not use the 3rd row seating except on special occasion, but I'm pretty stoked to have a car this "new". The newest car I've ever owned is a 91 Ford Ranger that I bought in 2003, so a 2006 car in 2009 is pretty exciting. It also has 2 rear sliding doors, which will prove to be the avoidance of much parking lot strife in the years to come with 2 boys getting in and out. We're so thankful to be able to afford this right now and will be selling the aforementioned Ford Ranger, so if you know anyone wanting a truck, give us a holler. Oh ya, ours is black and awaiting a name.