Dumbledore is not Jesus

NOTE: I AM NOT ABOUT TO GIVE AWAY ANYTHING FROM BOOK 7. HOWEVER, IF YOU HAVEN'T READ BOOK 6, DON'T READ THIS. AND IF YOU ARE A FRIEND OF MINE AND HAVEN'T FINISHED BOOK 7, HURRY THE HECK UP SO I CAN TALK TO SOMEBODY.

When I finished book 6 of Harry Potter, I thought, "Oh please let Dumbledore be a Christ figure". And then recently a friend told me that J.K. Rowling (the author for those few of you who don't know) was a Christian. And so as I read book 7, I looked and hoped and searched for signs of Jesus. I won't tell you if I was saw those signs, but I can tell you, without giving away anything, that I was not satisfied in my search. Why? Dumbledore is not Jesus. And neither is anything else that I vainly look to for distraction and comfort. If I really wanted to find Jesus, I was looking in the wrong book. Why do I do that? Why do I look everywhere else for salvation?

I'm back

Ok, so I am going to get serious about this blog thing...I hope. While I think of something else to write, here is an email I sent a while back that has gotten rave reviews. Sorry to those of you who have already read it...(Of course this is all a vain attempt to make it onto my friend Stephanie's list of "My friend's blogs". She won't put anyone on the list who doesn't actually write on their blog. So, Steph, this one's for you....)

Who knew?

Daniel has learned a very valuable lesson:

Make a big mess, get it all over yourself, and then you get to have your favorite thing...a bath.

But, here is a helpful tip that I have learned. If your child, say your 20 month old son, were to take a bottle of cooking oil and pour it all over your kitchen floor, do not use towels, mop or your normal way of cleaning up a big mess. Pour cornstarch over it. Or, if it was a very big, very full bottle of oil and you don't have enough cornstarch, try flour. (I used self-rising, but I think any kind would work). Your kitchen will then look like a blizzard hit it, but you can then sweep up the mess and then use the mop.

Another tip: If said son were to run all over your hardwood floors (trying to escape your wrath) and get little oil footprints everywhere, you can use a lemon on small spots to cut the oil and then clean it up.

Now, if I can just get that lovely cooking oil smell off of Daniel....Maybe I should roll him in flour...any suggestions?

Life Lesson

One of life's earliest lessons should be, "Don't act holier than thou". Because when you do, you are guaranteeing that you will eventually be doing the thing that you were so 'holy' about.

For instance, my husband has been addicted to 'the net' (as he lovingly calls it), for a while now. He has a blackberry aka 'crackberry' (as i unlovingly call it) for work, that he never puts down. Well, not never, but when you are acting holier, you tend to make the offense seem worse than it is. Anyway, he is always emailing and reading blogs. Checking blogs over and over and looking for new blogs to read. I did not understand what in the world could be so fascinating as to turn his attention away from wonderful, holy me. Now I know.

12 hours or so into being an official blogger, I am walking around thinking of potential posts in my head. Is this normal?

It's the end of the world....

My favorite song to sing to my children is not a nursery rhyme...it is REM. Whenever they don't get their way and have a meltdown, I find it amusing to sing to them "it's the end of the world as Lainey knows it, and I feel fine." I feel like I am being a funny, clever mom. I am looking down at them and saying "oh you silly child. If only the world really was all about not getting that candy. If you only knew how trivial that is compared to the rest of life."

And then I realized that God has been singing that song to me my whole life. "Oh silly, dramatic Amanda. Will the world really end if this doesn't happen like you want it to? This is so trivial"

Lainey, my almost 4 yr. old, was talking to my Dad the other day and telling him about all of the exciting events coming up in her life...first there was her ballet recital and then her birthday, and then her friends birthday and then Christmas and then....she thought for a moment... and then heaven. At that point she looked up at my dad and said "Do you think you're going to make it there?"

Now there's some perspective for you.

Here goes nothing...

I am a little amazed that I am actually doing a blog after so many jokes about people being addicted to them. I caved.

Last week I ran into an old friend in the airport. I hadn't kept in touch with her or any of my other friends from that time in my life (RUF at U of Tenn). She began giving me updates on everyone and mentioned facebook. This morning, I dove in, created a profile and began finding people left and right that I have been wanting to catch up with for forever. It was awesome...until I started having questions on what things meant or how to work it. And then I remembered how old I am. And then I realized I am quickly becoming the old person who doesn't know about, or understand, all of those high tech things the youngsters of today use. I am determined to not be that person. So here goes the other attempt to get 'with it'.

Ironically, I don't know whether or not I even want anyone to read this....

Wow, that is a lot of learning about the world wide web for one day...this 31 year old needs to go to bed....