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.

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

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?

What Peeta and Bill Self have in common

I'm a little behind this week and still dealing with a minorly sick kiddo (should I be concerned about a lingering low-grade fever 2 weeks after croup attack?) and also watching a lot of basketball (Rock Chalk, Jayhawk!), as well as seeing this little unknown indie movie called The Hunger Games. In between all that, here's what got me thinking this week:

Amy Simpson :: What The Hunger Games Taught Me (and the Church Should Have) about Men

Why was Peeta’s love so compelling? Partly because he’s a wonderful character, partly because love is always compelling, and partly because I have issues. I have a hard time believing that men have the capacity to be genuinely loving.

The Kansas City Star :: Self has shaped the Jayhawks into muscle

Bill Self took this job only after his father called him soft. There is so much of the coach in this story. Nine years ago, with Roy Williams’ shadow still very much engulfing Kansas basketball, Self was unsure he wanted to deal with all of that.

Jamie the Very Worst Missionary :: Hugs for Jesus

Eventually, one of them found her way over to where we were sitting to offer a Jesus hug. Being a non-toucher, in general, I quickly declined. “No, thank you. I'm....I'm good.” And when my sweet, affection-loving friend finally relented to the poor girl's persistent (insistent?) offer to give her a hug from Jesus, I knew immediately that I had made the right decision.

The Tiny Twig :: How to Have Awesome Bangs

Oh! And, Megan said not to wear heavy bangs with a side-part…it’s just too much going on. It’s best to have your heavy bangs and then let your hair fall naturally from the crown of your head. [me: this bit of advice will change my life!]

 Rachel Held Evans :: "Will you always believe in Jesus, Mama?"

I paused, trying to decide how much of my backstory would be helpful. How could I explain that the doubts that had once made me an agnostic hadn’t completely resolved, but that I’d instead learned to embrace mystery and ambiguity? How could I tell him that sometimes it still felt to me that God wasn’t there either?

In the end, I chose a simple response. “Yes, buddy. Always. I’m in this for good. I don’t always understand everything, but I’ve chosen to follow Jesus.”

So did you see the Hunger Games? Did your favorite basketball team win or lose? What have you been reading?

For your reading pleasure...

What I've found, read, and learned from this week:

Jamie the Very Worst Missionary :: The Tourist Gospel (from February, but I'm counting it)

So, all of this has got me thinking about what happens when, as Christians, we let ourselves be so far “set apart” from the world that we end up looking like a bunch of tourists, instead of the ones with the answers.

Her.Meneutics :: The Best Naked Pregnant Woman on a Magazine Cover

I bet that plenty of readers will see this cover and still think Jessica Simpson should be ashamed. Certainly some will read this piece and believe that I should be ashamed! But I choose to see this cover—this beautiful picture of a naked and pregnant woman—as an Edenic reprieve from the shame that women are saddled with.

Olive Tree :: Birthday Suit in a Turkish Bath (another oldie from February, but so good)

When it was our turn we laid our towels on the slab.  My bath attendant came up and motioned for me to take off my bathing suit. 

“I can’t do the body scrub with your bathing top on,” she said. Scary. 

I took a deep breath, and actually took off my top.  Amazingly I didn’t die from embarrassment. 

mama:monk :: Because grace is brave and it always wins

You’re 16-years-old and the boy who kisses you beside the light blue Chevy Spectrum under the moon has berry-thick boy lips, his knuckles rough and cut from punching walls. He is all man, you think. And somewhat good. Becoming better.

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What did you read and discover this week?

The week(ish) in review

this picture is unrelated to anything below, but i like it. the end.

Here's what's been keeping me up late at night, bringing some tears, making me eat ice cream, and growing my heart:

so much shouting, so much laughter :: words like weapons (forget not your name)

A porn-soaked culture values
sexy, submissive, and available;
a bar set canyon low and
unreachable all the same. 

He hated her more than he loved her

Her.meneutics :: What the 'After-Birth Abortion' and 'Personhood' Debates Have in Common

However, chief among the satire’s many objects of correction (for correction is the purpose of true satire) is rationalism, a worldview that depends entirely—like the journal article—on human reason at the expense of human emotion, human spirit, and human love—let alone eternal principles that transcend even these.

IRL* in real life with Jamie Jo :: Furlough Boot Camp: Getting the Lil' Soldiers Ready

I'll never forget the time we went up with one teen and his big ol' afro, and other teen with his long stringy hair. It was still a struggle to not consider "What will people think?" but I forced myself to look at it from God's standpoint. No sin was being committed. Their hearts were good. Why should I require a haircut just to please our conservative support base?

Rachel Held Evans :: Rush Limbaugh and three evangelical blindspots

This is the blind spot that allows some of the same Christians who refuse to watch R-rated movies to suspend their judgment as Rush Limbaugh makes crass, vulgar, racist, misogynistic, and homophobic remarks on his radio show. So long as he’s speaking the truth about politics, they seem to reason, it doesn’t matter how he delivers it. So long as he is right, it doesn’t matter whether he is decent or kind.

Goins, Writer :: The Best Way to Pursue Your Life’s Work

The only other option is to kid yourself. To create a lofty goal or aspiration and never practice, only dream. This will leave you (and others) feeling disillusioned. 

Don’t do this. Your passion deserves better. Instead of going big, go small —really small.

I was also going to post a link regarding Kony2012 (which has been lighting up my twitter and facebook feeds), but the post has since been taken down. Loads of controversy lingering over this...

All in all, this was a good week on the interwebs. Anything going on in the real world I should know about?

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.