Andover Fun Fest

Last Saturday we met up with Eva's best friend Sadie and Sadie's family at the Andover Fun Fest.  It's nice being back in the far north metro so we're closer to Eva and her besties and I'm actually meeting up with Sadie's mom after work tonight- yay for mommy making new friends too :-)

It's like they're little mini Sex in the City girls in this photo...
gabbing about shopping and boys while sipping on a drink 

The Amazing Spider Man (it was, in fact, amazing)

I'll admit, I was not excited to see the new Spider Man movie.  I actually only did it to be nice to Jason but I'm sooo very happy that I did.  It was a fantastic movie and the casting of Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy was spot on.  Their on-screen chemistry was palpable Garfield is now my new skinny boyfriend.

For those of you who don't know, I have boyfriend categories- red headed boyfriend, British boyfriend, Latin boyfriend, UFC boyfriend, skinny boyfriend.... you get the idea ;-)

Eva's Book Review- July part 1

As I said last month, we focused on Native American books for the first part of this month. 

1. The Arrow to the Sun by Gerald McDermott

I think this one threw Eva off a little bit as it's sort of a mix between Pueblo Indian culture and Christianity.  It talks a lot about the father in the sky, and a virgin having a baby son and that son taking on ridicule and such.  Eva wasn't really picking up but I was throwing down, so I'll put this in the do not repeat pile but the illustrations are awesome.  Plus it's another Caldecott Medal winner and a book from my youth, so we had to at least try it. 

 2. The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses by Paul Goble

If you ask me, this is a sad book, as the little girl leaves her family to be with the horses forever.  The thought of losing Eva to a four legged creature is no bueno, but the point of the story, the letting your child run free and become who they are meant to be is touching.  Eva loves the horses in this book and talking about their different characteristics. 

3. The Woman Who Lived with Wolves by Paul Goble

Here's another Paul Goble book- interesting note on Goble, he was actually born and raised in London and moved to the Black Hills later in life, where he was adopted by Chief Edgar Red Cloud of the Lakota Tribe.  This book is a compilation of many stories from the Pawnee, Cheyenne, Blackfoot, and Lakota.  Eva likes the pictures and how the stories focus on nature, but she kind of gets bored with the stories.  The book is probably better suited for a 6+ year old but we figured it was worth a try. 

4. The Legend of Bluebonnet by Tomie dePaola

Here's another one that makes me sort of sad as a mom and I think Eva picked up on the depressing tone as well.  The story follows the Comanche tribe as they try to survive a horrible drought.  She-Who-Is-Alone is a little girl who has been orphaned after her entire family died in the drought; all she has left is her warrior doll.  The book tells how She-Who-Is-Alone offers her doll, her only possession, as a burnt offering in hopes of bringing rain.  "This wonderful tale of Comanche folklore explains the origin of the bluebonnet, the Texas state flower, while paying homage to the Comanche value and respect for family, community, and Earth. "  Very good book- makes me think that maybe I shouldn't shelter Eva from the realities of life so much... 

Color Run

Yesterday Eva and I did the Color Run with Maria and her friend Ally, and Ally's daughter Mackenzie.  The Color Run is a 5k race to raise money for homeless charities and as you run it, you are splashed with colored powder along the way. First orange, then pink, then blue etc until the end and at the finish line there is a huge color party and it's just rainbow pandemonium.

It was a ton of fun, despite the nasty 90+ degree weather and humidity, and I think we may have found a new tradition to begin!

Inside the color cloud!

Preggo belly all colorful :)

It took FOREVER to get all of the color off of myself and Eva

Amen!

Torn

Part of me likes this photo, a lot.  I take it as a call to action for every person. That you don’t need to be a religious person to serve the needy; that charity and empathy for the poor are not owned by people who call themselves Christian.  Every single person, no matter what they believe- or don’t believe- about the Almighty and the Hereafter are not just important, but imperative to solving the human crisis of our time.  I believe with all my heart that the person who goes to meet their maker having never stepped foot inside a church, but spent their years being a genuinely decent human being and helping their fellow man, will be welcomed with more open arms than the person who calls themselves a follower of Christ but lived their life in the pursuit of their own glory. 

That said though, good deeds are not what get you into Heaven.  And here is where the part of me that hates this photo comes in.  To me, the photo makes the same mistake that is so often made by both Christians and atheists alike- that you earn your place in Heaven by what you do on earth.  This is incorrect.  Grace is a gift freely given.  Nothing any of us do or could ever hope to do will earn us a spot in Heaven and the Christian who answers the question, “Why are you feeding the poor?” with, “To get into Heaven” is sorely misguided.  Their answer should be, “Because I’m called to serve the least among us” or “Because Jesus himself fed the poor” or even just a pragmatic, “Because having starving people in my community is morally unacceptable to me and I choose to feed this man rather than let him starve.”  The list goes on and on of reasons why it’s both moral and practical to help those who cannot help themselves, but Ticket to Heaven is not on that list.

I also don’t like the underlying message that you cannot be both Christian and intelligent.  I like to think- even with the weirdo extremists and Creationists and whatever the heck nonsense is out there these days- that there are many of us who dispel that idea.  I can objectively say that feeding the poor is socially beneficial because a person whose basic needs are met is less likely to become ill, which makes them less likely to be admitted to an ER, where they won’t be able to pay the bill, so as a tax payer I eventually end up footing part of that cost.  Or that a person whose basic needs are met is less likely to commit a crime, making my own community safer if there are not destitute people in it.  Or that feeding a child makes them more able to focus in school, furthering his education and eventually (hopefully) making him a more beneficial member of society.  Public health, crime, education- there are many secular reasons to feed the poor that I can intelligently think of, so to imply that Christians only serve in the hopes of getting into Heaven is insulting. 

We serve because we want to, not because we have to.  I like to think of it in a parent/child way; would God stop loving us if we didn't serve? Of course not. Just like I wouldn't stop loving Eva if she didn't do something that I asked.  But am I glad when she does listen? Yes!  It's the same thing with God.  He doesn't love us less if we don't serve, but He is glad when we do.  The parent watching their two children fight doesn't stop loving them, but the parent who watches their older child help their younger sibling learn how to eat cereal or tie their shoe has their heart filled with joy at the loving interaction.  

So, the photo is correct, an intelligent person does not need the promise of Heaven to see the merit is good deeds.  But the intelligent Christian knows that the promise of Heaven has already been given to us with Jesus' death on the cross. We don't serve to earn brownie points, we serve to please a God who already loves us more than we can imagine and to make this world a better place.      

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.  For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love serve one another.

~Galatians 5:1,13   

A Lunch in the Life of a Vegetarian

We've always given Eva a wide variety of foods so that she can decide for herself what she likes while (trying to) steer her clear of most junk food.  These days she seems to be going almost 100% vegetarian by choice. Other than the beef sticks we get from the deli, which we only get about once every other month, she couldn't care less about meat.  She'll eat a few pepperonis on a pizza or a piece of bacon once every few weeks but day to day she could live off veggies, fruits, milk and cheese.  And I guess I can't complain, it's just weird to me since I think I'd die in my first 48 hours without meat!

Here's a photo of her lunch for today: baby carrots and dip, blueberries, Babybel cheese, Stonyfield organic yogurt and she'll get milk from school. And for snack she has nutrigrain bars, her fav clif kid ropes and goldfish crackers.   


Maybe this is just a phase and she'll become a beef and pork eating machine in the next 6 months... stay tuned.

Eva's 4th of July

Tons of Eva pics from our week up at the camper with Baba.  We have a swinging, swimming, hula-hooping, blueberry eaten fool on our hands!