Hello old friends! It's never too late to join me over at the new place - karenohuber.com. Here's what I've been working on over there:

LET'S TALK ABOUT THE NEW BLOG

I'm writing slower (hello, lazy writer). I'm filling up notebooks with a lot of rubbish and contemplating what direction the blog and my work away from the blog will go, and how. I don't want to fill up your browser with nonsense. My hope is to offer a fresh perspective on faith and cultural issues, promote the things I care about, and share stories from our life here. And plenty of pretty pictures of Ireland. And the kids. And sometimes the dog. And coffee.

BURNING THE LOVE LETTERS

I hastily buried letters under pillow and covers, trying to compose myself. How to tell them what it was like to discover at 19 the person you were meant to spend the whole of your life with? How to explain the humid hormone factory that is a Bible college campus? How to admit that - stupid as we were - we wouldn't change a thing? We'd walk this same road a thousand times over to be where we were that day: surrounded by the memories and the children and the life we were living. The story we were writing.

LET'S TALK ABOUT THE OLD BLOG

TRIW was never particularly focused, but I liked that. I felt freedom to "pour it out in a poem to the King... and occasionally yell." The river ran the gamut of mommy to faith to lifestyle to culture to transition to expat to re-pat to whatever-type blog. Many good conversations were had, great Jesus-y and internet-y connections were made, and it provided a tiny amount of pocket change (like $20/year, which just barely covers my yearly haircut). And then, the river ran dry.

IT'LL BE GRAND :: THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF MY IMMIGRATION DEBACLE

The immigration office is filled with those who have no other place to go. Non-profits are set up for the very purpose of counseling immigrants and refugees in navigating this new home because their old one is lost to them. They have come here for safety, for security, for their children, for a future. Many have come fighting for their lives. This is not us. So I make myself aware of the priceless gift we have of choosing where we want to live. And how, when 2016 comes and we may in fact have to leave, we have someplace to go. Families who will take us in. New countries we could pursue if we wanted to. Our life will go on.

You can add www.karenohuber.com to your feed reader, ex. Feedly or Bloglovin, or sign up here to receive posts via email.

Writing this blog was such a big part of my life - nearly all of Jack and Ella's life has been documented and every bit of Asher is on these pages. So the archives will stick around for awhile. But still, I hope you'll keep reading after the jump - and add your own words and ideas to the mix. :)

A little bloggery design

Remember how my friend Nicole let me redesign her logo and banner over at her blog? Well, another brave soul asked me to redesign the WHOLE of her blog. I so enjoyed working with Dawn and her fun family blog, Dawn's Cottage Corner. She was very patient with me and had a good idea of what she wanted, creating a Pinterest inspiration board with design elements she admired.

As you know, I have next to no professional design skills, but I'm somewhat skilled at faking it. :)

I used the "Simple" template on Blogger and just customized fonts, accents, colours and images.

Anyway, pop over to Dawn's blog and give her a nice hello. Thanks for letting me work with you, Dawn!

Click on my Writing & Design page to view more of my freelance work.

If these banks are going to burst

So by now you've probably noticed a few changes around here. I've been a longtime admirer of Carrie Loves and somehow managed to win one of five blog templates she was giving away. Carrie let us choose our own template and then graciously worked with me on the colour scheme and any technical difficulties. You'll also find some new buttons and links to the side, showing you around the place a bit more. I hope you like the new look as much as I do... I find it calming, yet spirited and inspiring.

I also wanted to thank you for all the visits, comments and encouragement for my #31days series: at home in Ireland. It was such a treat to share more about our newish life here, show you around our home and hear some of your own stories. I had no idea I had such strong feelings on laundry, heated water and European fashion!

Now that October is over, this area of my life feels a bit spent. I'm tired of writing about moving, transitional struggles or being done with childbearing (I'm sure you're tired of reading about it, too!). And I'm looking forward to writing about other things, though they may not end up here. I'll still be around, posting a couple of times a week; I'm just not sure about what yet, and I have no idea the direction it will take. It'll still be a river into words, it'll still be a poem to the King, there will still be some occasional yelling. But I may be trying something new...

Do you like how non-commital and non-specific I'm being? Yeah, that's how my brain feels, too: an unruly tide of ideas, unable to focus on anything particular, falling quickly on one notion before flitting off in the opposite direction.

If these banks of my heart are going to burst, I want to spill beauty. I'm hoping November will give these things room to swim, and I'll be able to share the process here with you.

But now I must jet as I'm off to a final creative writing class celebration. We're a great gang of mums and grand-dads and storytellers and friends. Yes, I think we're all friends, now. And writers, too.

Five Friday Favourites

1) We're back to school! Ah! This is obviously my favourite thing about this week, but really, it's the picture that will last a lifetime:



2) Jen Hatmaker's "Spicy Families" blog post. I so prefer her way of looking at families like hers and mine, as opposed to my way of looking at us: crazy, weird, improper or out-of-control.

Me: THERE COULD BE VIOLENCE IN THESE STREETS – we’re near the end times! We need to figure out how to be more precious. I don’t even think our kids know any hymns! How are we supposed to break out in spontaneous family worship?? WWAVD?? (What would Ann Voskamp do?) Remy told me Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey “because he was so rich.” We are raising dullards. Let’s just throw in the towel.

3) Stephen Colbert's Daft Punk segment. Yes, this is like three weeks old, but I was in Germany and I've got three kids and it was SUMMER, remember? We don't get Hulu or other such free streaming tomfoolery here, so I actually had to buy the episode. Best $1.99 I've ever spent.

4) Guys with Fancy Lady Hair. Just click, please. You won't regret it. Ever.

5) This week was filled with friends. A birthday party, a playdate, a coffee. And there is really nothing else that makes this place feel more like home than when I laugh hard with a kitchen table full of people or have someone to share a latte with or can shove five kiddos into the back of their car because it's raining and the five minute walk home would just not be as fun. Life with people... Ok, so this is my favourite.

What are your Friday Favourites?

Five Friday Favourites

1) Duh. My sister's engagement! Jessica & Nathan got engaged last weekend and are planning a Memorial Day Weekend 2014 wedding. So excited for them and also already planning our American Holiday. :) Can. Not. Wait.

2) Palace Talks Signing with Record Machine... :: Speaking of Nathan, he owns a small record label out of Kansas City and here is a fantastic article about one of his bands, Palace, and their relationship with Nathan and his label. I don't want to gush, so I'll let the band do it for me.

3) Take Courage | Jennifer Ebenhack :: An old college friend and I have reconnected online through our blogs and I love it! Jen and I were both Kansas girls in the Moody Chorale, and then she found herself in Haiti, living and ministering through a 9-year adoption process culminating in the Port-au-Prince earthquake. She is encouraging, thoughtful and vulnerable. Please go visit her blog and give her some love.

4) Fox Books Files For Bankruptcy | The Onion :: Sad news from the Upper West Side. Fox Books, "...once known as the “Big Bad Wolf” for its ability to put independent bookstores out of business by wooing customers with its sharp discounts and designer coffee," has filed for bankruptcy. I can't speak for everyone, or the Little Shop Around the Corner, but I will miss never actually stepping foot inside this imaginary mega bookstore. Save Fox Books? [i love that this article combines some of my favourites lines from You've Got Mail, including "the lone reed," "bottles of olive oil," and "Jeffersonian purity." :) ]

5) Computer Camp :: This is the eldest, our proud computer geek. For as wild and fast as his sister is, he is reflective, creative and focused. He's already started his own blog (just for family and close friends, at the moment) and has hopes for becoming a writer, an artist, or a video game designer. Whatever he ends up being, I'm so glad there are programs and activities out there for him!

So those are my top five for this week! If you've got your own Friday favourites, comment below. Or write your own blog post - if you do, you can use this handy button to join in on the Friday fun!

<a href="http://www.riverintowords.com/search/label/five%20friday%20favourites/"><img src="http://i1249.photobucket.com/albums/hh507/jackandellasmum/fivefridayfavebutton_zps879fe232.png" width="200" height="200" alt="The River Into Words" /></a>

Five Friday Favourites

I've gone back to the list-making. My creative juices have run dry and all I've got left is this tiny little attention span and the need to type fast about nothing at all. Which brings me to my newest series:

Every Friday I want to share five favourites of mine. And I want you in on the action, too. Leave a comment and lemme know: what are your favourites this week? And, like everything else, we'll see how long this lasts. You know how great I am at follow-through.

Here we go:

1) Carrie Loves :: I've been following Carrie's blog for awhile and I absolutely love her style, her bloggery DIY's and her quick, creative posts. I got my little social media icons from her, figured out how to center my right hand column from her (can you help with my margin situation?) and stake out her etsy shop like a creeper. Check it out and give her some love.

2) My Imaginary Well-Dressed Toddler Daughter :: Kristen at Rage Against the Minivan gets all the credit for sharing this amazingly wonderful, satirical and acerbic take on kids couture and pinning culture. I don't dress half as nice as these munchkins do, nor could I write the captions for each pin the way Tiffany does. Case in point:



3) This is Our City :: Speaking of Pinterest boards, I repin from This is Our City's board more than any other. Hopeful, urban, redemptive, artistic. All things I love. I wish I could hang everything on my wall, go everywhere, patronise every enterprise.



4) Feedly :: If you view blogs via Google Reader, I'm sure you've seen the literal warning sign that it will cease to exist come July 1. No need to freak, though. You can easily, seemlessly transfer the blogs you read (hopefully mine!) to Feedly. I've been using this reader for awhile now and love its crisp clean layout and use of white space. I've even taken to organizing the blogs I read into different categories. Give Feedly a try and lemme know what you think.

5) Arrested Development on Netflix :: Confession time. I am not super loving the 4th season of Arrested Development, now available for streaming on Netflix. Matt and I were superfans of the show when it first came out, have the boxset, can whistle the theme song by heart. But there's just something, well, heartless about these new episodes. All that being said, I am happy to have the Bluth family back and my favourite ep so far has been the Gob back story with the best show within a show: "And As It Is Such, So Also As Such Is It Unto You."

Ok, so it's your turn. What's got you excited this week?

No affiliates linked above. These are just things I love and want to share with you. Enjoy!

Blogkeeping (or Housekeeping for the Blog)

Hey friends! Quick Saturday post to share a few things with you.

1) The sun has been out for like 3 days straight, in keeping with the time change here in Ireland known as Irish Summer Time. I just hung out laundry for the second time this week! True story.

2) I'm still slowly stumbling through the blog design e-course and while I am loving the process, I'm so impatient to implement changes to the blog in style and format. Thank you for being patient with me as I write randomly, change up the layout frequently, and post sporadically.

3) The most beautiful thing I read all week: You are as Valuable as the Orphan by Amber C Haines. Read. It.

4) I can't remember number 4. If you're so inclined, you can meet me over on Facebook. I've got a wee page with some loyal friends (and if you have already "liked" it but aren't seeing my posts, make sure you click "Show in News Feed" under the like button).

5) I'm contemplating writing a post and/or series on parenting a child with low confidence, anxiety or fear issues. Me and a number of my friends have one (mostly boys, surprisingly) and I'd love to hear your story if you find yourself coping (or not coping) with this. You can comment here or email me at karenohuber (a) gmail (dot) com

6) This weekend marks 3 months back in Ireland. While I miss my friends, my sisters, this awesome musical festival happening in Kansas City this weekend, and our church families, I'm so thankful to be here. Thank you for coming with me.

***

What's on your mind this weekend? Big plans?

Sometimes I design

In my previous incarnation I was a lowly amateur graphic designer, meaning I whipped together church bulletins, logos, business cards, the occasional HIPAA manual and a really colourful U2 fansite (don't judge). I freelanced, emphasis on free, and today still enjoy doing a few small projects here and there for my friends (and my mom).

I am a total photoshop novice (even though we've had it on our computer for ages, I find it overwhelming and never seem to find the time to take a proper class or tutorial on it), so the majority of my design work is done in MS Word for Mac. Yep. Lame. But that's how I roll. And my friends don't seem to mind as you know, it's free. :)



My best lady friend, Nicole, whom you've all gotten the chance to know and love, has a fantastic user-friendly blog on living naturally. Nicole's on her own journey towards finding the diet, lifestyle, and home that suits her and her brood of boys best, and I love seeing what she comes up with. I often pick her brain on what she's cleaning with this week or how her garden thrives under harsh boy conditions. And when she gave up wheat, I knew I needed to empower her decision with a new look.



The overall look - and idea - of Nicole's blog is clean, simple and natural, like her. I hope you'll pop over and say hello and even try a recipe or two. Yesterday I tried her apple (or pear) sauce and it was a hit. And if I - being so culinarily challenged - can do it, anyone can. Also check out her reviews! This girl inhales books like no other. I should know... she makes me read almost all of them.

Helping Nicole has inspired me, too. I'm currently enjoying the Blog (Design) Love e-course offered through A Beautiful Mess, and while it's taking me more time than I realized, it's so much fun and totally worth it. I can't wait to show you the end result... whatever that ends up being.

***

Do you have an hidden talent on the side? What is your creative outlet?

The dying macbook's one last gasp

So here it is, friends. 2012 is coming to a close and we are days away from moving overseas. I told you how God worked me over hard this year. I'm so glad He used you, my dying macbook, and three sticky kiddos to show Himself to me, over and over.

Mega thanks to (in)courage for allowing me to share my thoughts on 7 with Trash nerd (reflections on waste and creation care), thus making it my top-read post of this year! For reals, people, get on this book if you haven't already. I plan on reading it out loud to Matt on the plane...

Honourable mentions go to:

A gentle reproof over white coffee, in which my son schools me on faith.

In defense of the silent dissenter, in which I attempt to love my neighbours more than politics.

I was ugly :: 31 days of messy parenting, in which Asher came to us.

The piano wall, in which my husband destroyed a piano and many (if not all) things were made new.

So here we go: a new year and a new home and starting again, again. I will see you soon... this time, from Ireland.

***

If you blog, won't you share with me your favourite post from the year? Or was there a book, movie, article that stayed with you?

I've been domained

Hey Friends, just a quick note to let you know I've moved... kinda... you can now find me and my ramblings at

http://www.riverintowords.com

If you visit the old blogspot link, you should be redirected, but this here is where I'll be camped out for the foreseeable future. Hope to meet you there.

Happy Friday Autumn Eve!

So, as you can see, I maybe redesigned the blog a little bit. Still not entirely sure I'm happy with it, but when I get stressed, I procrastinate. And when I procrastinate, I mess with design stuff. Turns out, graphic design has changed a lot in the, oh, 11 YEARS(!!!) since I graduated college. Thankfully the paste and cut shortcut buttons remain the same.

Let me know what you think. Anything else you want to the see on the blog? Not a fan of the colours? Does the background make you dizzy? (I picked it specifically because it reminded me of our bathroom floor tiles in our first Chicago apartment. Strange, much?)

Oh, and tomorrow AUTUMN arrives! And then it's October! And then I may or may not be participating in the 31 Days of... challenge again. I'm fine-tuning some things, but I'll give you a hint as to what it might look like:

Happy Friday Autumn Eve, everybody! How are you celebrating?

Margin, boundaries & breathing room

As you can see, I've been messing around here a little bit. This is what happens when I'm overwhelmed with things (namely things I should be writing about, but somehow can't)... I move things around, play with design, add white space. I guess you could say it's my own version of therapy: adding margin, finding boundaries, making breathing room. 

Or maybe I'll just buy a premade template off Etsy.

But now, in honour of these last few hours of summertime, we're going to our happy place: Loose Park in the city. Maybe we'll see you there.



So how do you find margin, boundaries or breathing room? I could really use some pointers!

On searching for family

So I'm spreading my wings a bit and writing over at Sarah Bessey | the intersections of a spirit-filled life today. I'm so grateful she was willing to host this piece, which was a bit of an experiment for me. Not just the guest posting, but the opening of a door in my writing that has remained closed since, oh I don't know, the 4th grade?

She grasped my hand as we stood there on the brown grass, while wild boys raced round us on wild boy business. In that moment, I was her mother, and we were a family, and it didn’t matter that at the time I had no father, and my own mother was on the other side of the state.

Come hang with Sarah and me to read the rest.

Diets, politics, and homeschooling (oh my!)

Found myself back to being a curious bystander to a lot of blogs and articles this week. Here's a round-up:

Simple Mom : Is your "healthy" diet making you sick, tired or fat?

Note: the girl and I suffer from eczema big time (and she seems to have several food intolerances). we're too cheap to do allergy testing, so I've recently started eliminating some suspicious foods, as Camille prescribes... but I'm afraid of cutting out dairy, cuz, you know, i need it!

Her.Meneutics : Why we can all opt out of the "war on women"

Frankly, I’m tired of both sides using violent imagery to describe the difficult decisions that I, and my sisters, make every day, and I’m tired of seeing those decisions reduced to bumper sticker ideologies that can be exploited for political gain.

This Is Our City (Christianity Today) : An Unexpected Choice: Why We Traded the Public School for Homeschooling

My initial reaction to the nudging I sensed in my heart—that God wanted us to give homeschooling a fair evaluation—was unequivocal: "No way, God." But the more I struggled against it, the more I sensed his answer: "Just look into it."

A Deeper Story : Stupid wait time

Tears began to stream down my face as the pastor continue to speak about how it takes only a momentfor God to speak His promise and it takes only a moment for the promise to be fulfilled, but the time that passes in between those two moments – the reversal time – is time immeasurable. It’s always the longest. Agonizing, hand-wringing, soul-stripping waiting.

Matthew Paul Turner : I'm tired of... God?

Tired of being pigeonholed or labeled or categorized or limited because my conversations about God aren’t the same as other people’s conversations about God…

These last two posts hit me deep in my uncomfortable heart. Anything do that for you this week?

On the day I started a Facebook page

On the day I started a Facebook page (which was yesterday), I had almost instant buyer's remorse.

"It'll be me and 5 friends who feel sorry for me and then I'll say something off-hand about alcohol and someone will unfriend me, or call our employer, or stop supporting us (all of which has actually happened), and then I'll have to censor, and do I really want more readers, because sometimes I just complain or cry or write love letters to the lock on my bathroom door, and really, what do I have to offer about faith and motherhood and transition that wiser women haven't noted before me, so maybe I should just delete it and let it go."

But I kept it anyway, and as of this count have 13 friends who "Like" the blog, so that's like a 150% return on my initial risk assessment (that might be fuzzy math). And it's not so much about the readers, or the Likers. It's about community and accountability and maybe seeing where and how God might allow me to write, work, or serve in the future.

And rabbit holes are fun.

And so is moving outside your comfort zone.

So Outside Comfort Zone, I'm Karen. And I write. And occasionally I yell. But it's still a poem to the King, and to you. And to anyone else who has a river of words flowing from their thirsty souls, just waiting to spring forth into the wide open sea. Or in this case, Facebook.

what I read this week

Spent an inordinate amount of time this week catching up on blogs, film and book reviews, and other pop culture things. A wee list of the good stuff:

Her.meneutics : Why 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' hurts women (a misnomer of a title, but an interesting discussion)

I’m not saying Salander (or the book or the movie) should be boycotted, rallied against, or tarred and feathered. As Christians, we too often fall into the twin traps of demonization or idolization.

Books & Culture : Talking about REAL marriage

Men are to be tough in business (there will be no questioning of American economic norms in this book) and tender with women and children, who are weak. Wives are "crystal goblets," beautiful and fragile; men are "thermoses," strong and protective.

Emerging Mummy : In which [love looks like] a real marriage

You follow when I step out to a new place and I know when to slide into your new turn as a shadow and you lead us both through but usually, it's just us...

Urban Faith : Forgiving Kim Jong-Il

When we asked him why he prayed in this particular way, he replied, “He’s a bad, bad man. I don’t love him. I hate him.”

Tall Skinny Kiwi : 9 reasons NOT to plant a church in 2012

The people most likely to join a new church plant are usually those with some kind of church background - the de-churched, pre-churched, ex-churched, which means ignoring really lost people and duplicating the ministries of existing churches.

(in)courage : Goals make us available, not perfect

But practical goals should never be the measuring stick that determines our worth.

Her.meneutics : Grieving a lost child

It connected us a thousand years into our past and a thousand years into our future, like a blueprint for a person—one who will never be repeated, never recreated.

My beef with Stuff Christians Like

I've got a wee beef with this recent post from Stuff Christians Like, entitled rather troubling, "Girls that have a past" and then subsequently subtitled as, "The unofficial identifying girls in church who have a past scorecard".

My beef isn't because:

a) I'm a girl with a past (though I kinda am, but not much of one and presumably didn't score very high on aforementioned scorecard because of my fear of white shorts);

b) I dislike SCL or its writer in residence, Jon Acuff (SCL is something I usually really like, so much so that I read portions of it outloud at dinner parties and sleepovers); or

c) Because I'm a feminist (though, again, I kinda am, but more in the way of Leslie Knope as opposed to Nancy Pelosi).

Instead, my beef is due in large part to:

a) The post saying it's meant to "call out" guys who think this way and keep such scores, but instead invites "girls" to tally up their own scores to see how they measure up;

b) Limiting the categorization of girls with a past to such profound outward signs of promiscuity as hoop earrings, a desire to drink, and tardiness;

c) Stereotyping the good girls as legalistic, un-marry-able prudes (who, in fairness, love a good orphan);

d) The host of this party, Jon, having to consistently defend, clarify, and define the post as "satire" and yet still claim it as "truth," not that he would know anything about that, as he married a good girl; and

e) The uninspired writing of a piece of satire without a clear beginning, middle or end, with no justifiable or redeeming conclusion that pierces the soul with wit, poignancy AND laughter (as all good satire must), and still also manages to reference Kim Kardashian.

I love SCL, and up till now, highly respected and learned a great deal from Acuff. But this post uses a common misconception as an excuse to judge - and laugh at - all women based on their looks, their facebook profiles, and their favourite verses (to name just a lousy few).

No wonder so many people have such a hard time going to church; we're not even safe among God's people.

31 days of LIVING in transition :: resources {day 30}

Ah! We're almost done with these 31 days! And I feel like I haven't been super great at sharing much wisdom or offering much camaraderie. So on this day, I wanted to point you toward some blogs and resources where I find such things like wisdom and camaraderie and other ideas for living with intention while permanently living in transition. (If you've been around, these links probably aren't new to you, but want to make sure and draw attention to these fabulous women.) Enjoy!

the experts
The Missional Mom
Simple Mom
GypsyMama
Nesting Place

friends working or living in similar contexts
The Task at Hand
Branson Family Blog
9,000 miles from Kansas
On the Far Side of the Sea

Now, back to loving on the wee sick one, prepping for some kiddo halloween fun (I usually start the preparations one whole day before), and worshiping with our church family this morning. Oh, and hanging some curtains! More on that tomorrow... 

blogger design woes

Is this new blog layout super lame? Kinda. Am I hoping to fix it? Yeppers. Do I know what happened to my old design? No idea. Hit me up if you have a burnin' passion for designing blogs on the cheap (read: free).

Stay tuned... and eat an apple.

Bloggiversary

I just spent the last few minutes reading through the first few blogs of this now 1 year old blog. My first thought was, "Wow, I used to be a really good writer." My second thought was, "I'm so glad I had a place put some of this stuff, emotions, thoughts, ideas, silliness." My third thought was: while there is a LOT of a hard stuff (sometimes overwhelming, all-consuming, truly terrifying hard stuff), I love Ireland and I love what we do. The hard stuff (hopefully) comes and goes, but I do love it here.

Thanks for joining me on this journey so far. I hope there's much more to come...