education matters.

Click {here} for all our education related posts. Read below for an introduction to those posts.

I love education. I love the difference it makes for those in poverty. I love the difference it has made in my own life. I love seeing it spark interest in my children. 

In high school, I was the kid who wrote the newspaper articles about school board meetings, but I think I would have watched them even if I didn't have to. I entered college with credits from advanced classes in high school, and then I took all the classes that interested me...which meant I ended up graduating a year early by accident, because I fulfilled my degree requirement early without intending to do so. After college, I taught special education - mostly writing - and worked with Teach For America to support their teachers. In December 2010, I earned my Master's of Arts in Education (Special Education: Learning Disabilities & Autism). And now I do some work with homeschooled students, not because we need the money but because I love it.

And, speaking of homeschooling, that's what we're doing for now. Lee and I are prayerfully deciding year by year, so I'm not sure what we'll do next year. But we're doing some formal preschool homeschooling now, and it works well for our family.

All that to say this: education matters. And it's one of my passions. I write a bit about everything from homeschooling to ed policy, from grad school to grade school, and more - read 'em {here}.

a haven of comfort

Click {here} for all our home-related posts. Read below for an introduction to those posts. 

(And, if you clicked here expecting to go to the main site rather than a sub-site about a home, go {here} for the "home" you were looking for or click "main" above.)

In Titus 2:5, young women are directed to be "busy at home" - and I love to heed that. When I was growing up, we rarely had friends or family in our house. That wasn't a bad thing; we were all so busy with commitments in our community that we were seldom home other than to sleep.

Now I want my home to be a haven of comfort, both for those who live here and those who pass through. As we do projects around the house - big and small - we post them {here}, in hopes that they will encourage you to make your house into a home.

knowing that healing will come, not knowing when

Click {here} for all our health-related posts. Read below for an introduction to those posts... 

While they don't define me, my health struggles are part of who I am. I once prided myself in being healthy, playing water polo in college and lettering in swimming and golf in high school. If I was a dude, I would have fit the bill to be carried off to Babylon in Daniel's day.

No longer. Now my list o' conditions includes:

• rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
• Hashimoto's disease
• something causing peripheral neuropathy, not related to my other conditions

Of the three, RA is the one that is the hardest to manage and live with and the one that sends me to my knees regularly (well, not really to my knees, 'cause kneeling hurts. but you get my meaning - it spurs me to prayer). Here's a description of RA from the Mayo Clinic link above: "An autoimmune disorder, rheumatoid arthritis occurs when your immune system mistakenly attacks your own body's tissues. In addition to causing joint problems, rheumatoid arthritis can also affect your whole body with fevers and fatigue."

In other words, my immune system treats the lining of my joints as if they are germs to fight. As that lining - called synovium - swells, my bone wear away. I was diagnosed just after I turned 26, and because of the amount of bone erosion I experienced in the first few months of the disease, doctors have described my RA as "severe" and "aggressive."

In simple terms, when my RA is acting up, I stay as still as I can in the morning when I wake up because I know that's the only pain-free moment of the day. Once I move, I feel that all my joints are stiff and sore for more than an hour in the morning. And I hurt. A lot. I have to ask strangers to unbuckle my kids from their carseats or to unscrew the cap on my gas tank because I can't do it by myself. I do hit the gym, but each workout is planned around that day's limitations. It's not the life I planned.

There is hope here, though. And I'm not just talking about the hope of finding the right combination of treatments, which I do think will happen in the next few years. The hope I cling to is that I know healing will come. God promises it. I just don't know if it'll come on this side of heaven. Until it comes, we're asking God to teach us through this.

And He is teaching us. And I love that. So I wouldn't erase the pain and IVs and blood tests and MRIs of the past few years, because through them I have gained sweet intimacy with my God. Praise Him for bringing beauty from ashes!

All of my health related posts (including some about your normal childhood viruses) can be found here, but you might want to start with these:

• About what my health problems have taught me and my husband (written in the first year of diagnoses)
• About the difference between facts and truth
• About being okay with health trials if they reflect God's glory
• About the power of music and the paradoxical intertwining of trials and blessings

Speaking of gas masks

Because of his role on a state Urban Search & Rescue team, Lee has one (but not the bra one). Because of Jocelyn's curiosity, she wanted to try it on.

 

And as a quick update on Lee's US&R work, he has been asked to apply for the same federal team that his boss is on. The team he served with during the ConAgra blast in Garner is a state team rather than a federal one, and he will continue to serve on it no matter what happens with the federal team. Pray for us as we do feel convicted that he should apply (and knew that a few years ago, which makes the decision about whether or not to apply now a no-brainer) but as we also know that this particular team was deployed to Haiti immediately after the earthquake and to New Orleans for Katrina and to many other places in need. Usually advance notice for deployments is days or even hours, so it could make life interesting. Lee would love to shine for Christ on that team, and I'm on board with that 100%. The realities aren't gentle, but they do demonstrate why he's needed and why he's applying.

I. kid. you. not.

This is just too good to pass up.*

"In the face of a disaster, are you prepared? Not unless your bra doubles as a face mask." Read the rest from Time here. Evidently, it can filter out chemicals like those at Chernobyl.

And my favorite quote from the designer of it during her acceptance speech for the Ig Nobel Prize, "Ladies and gentlemen, isn't that wonderful that women have two breasts, not just one? We can save not only our own life, but also the life of a man of our choice next to us."

For $29.99, it can be yours. 

(Thank you, Josie, for sharing this. You rock.)

*Edited to add: I meant too good to pass up on mentioning. I have no plans to acquire this unmentionable.