7 Quick Takes Friday

1. On Saturday my best friend, Gretchen, and her husband, John, were visiting from Alaska and had a party at Gretchen's parents' house. It was small -- only four adults (and two kids) other than me -- but lots of fun! We played a trivia game called Wits & Wagers, which was made all the more fun by the fact that we didn't have the instructions. My project365 photo for Saturday was Gretchen and John:





2. Gretchen was asking me about the kids and school, and asked if we've gotten Aoghdan tested for ADD yet. We had planned to get him tested next after Mark, Anna, Seamus, and I were all diagnosed, but we haven't yet. Sometimes I think he shows signs of ADD, but other times I think that even if he were diagnosed, I am not sure I'd want to medicate him. Any symptoms he might have don't seem to be seriously affecting his life, definitely not to the extent of the difficulties the rest of us have, which makes me wonder if he'd get enough benefit to make the side effects and risks of the medication worthwhile. Of course, I haven't spoken to Mark about this yet; I'm just thinking out loud here.

3. We had an interesting breakfast conversation Wednesday morning. Anna saw this movie that attempted to "explain" certain events of the Bible, and she's been asking us questions about it. I've become very curious to see this movie, called Exodus Decoded, as some things she's told us seem to contradict the Bible while others apparently stretch the facts to "prove" the Bible. I'm more of a simple faith girl, myself. The Bible says it, I believe it, that's good enough for me.

Our conversation also wandered into the area of evolution. Mark and I do not believe in macro evolution, and have taught our children our belief that God created the world just as stated in the Bible. (As homeschoolers we do plan to teach evolution in high school, as we consider it very important for our children to understand current scientific theory, even if we believe it to be incorrect.) We were discussing how some Christians believe that evolution is the process that God used to create the world, Mark mentioned the "gap theory," and somehow we ended up talking about whether a "day" in Genesis is a a period of 24 hours, or whether "one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day." (2 Peter 3:8) I pointed out that Genesis does not actually say that God created the world "in six days." (Not those specific words.) What it says is that first God separated the light from the dark, calling the light day, and the dark night. (Genesis 1:4-5a) Then it says, "And there was evening and there was morning, one day," (Genesis 1:5b) and then, "And there was evening and there was morning, a second day," (Genesis 1:8) and so on. (Genesis 1:13,19,23,31) In other words, first God created and named the parameters by which we currently mark day and night. Then, for the rest of the story, the passage of time is not only called by those names, but specifically marked by the coming of evening and morning. Maybe, in those first days, somehow the Earth's rotation took much, much longer than 24 hours. Maybe. But I really don't see how anyone could claim that "day" did not really mean "day," when God was so very specific about it.

4. You may know that I am very interested in Orthodox Christianity. I've been thinking lately about how the western church has been wracked by one split after another. The church I attend does not belong to any denomination, and is modeled after the first century church, but it is still part of a movement that basically broke off of Presbyterianism, which itself was a split from the Church of England, which split from Rome under Henry VIII. The roots of factionalism among Christians goes back much farther, of course -- see 1 Corinthians 3. But from the outside it doesn't seem like the Orthodox Church has had as much of a problem with splits and fractions. Maybe I am totally wrong on that; I'd love to have more information.

5. On a slightly related note, I've recently come across a question that I see asked every so often: "Why would any woman not want to identify as a feminist?" For me, the answer is very simple. I do agree with one of the basic precepts of feminism, that men and women are inherently of equal value. It's just that everywhere that feminists and I agree, my beliefs are derived directly from Christianity. (Obviously I cannot agree with any feminist idea that contradicts my faith.) The spread of Christianity has always brought positive social change in regards to the status of women and children. It's not hard to see why, considering Christ's emphasis on servant-like love and sacrifice for the good of others. This makes the feminist label kind of pointless for me; that I am a Christian tells you everything you need to know.

6. Around here, we all agree that washing the dishes is my most important household chore. (Obviously, paying attention to and loving on my kids doesn't count as a "household chore.") There are nine of us, so we dirty a lot of dishes and our tiny kitchen can be quickly overwhelmed by the mess. Plus, my wonderful, amazing, awesome, did-I-say-wonderful husband cooks dinner almost every night, and he hates to cook in a messy kitchen. Clearly the dishes should be my first priority every day, but too often I get to the end of the day and they are still not done. I admit it -- I hate washing dishes. It's boring and never-ending work, and since I am a little taller than average (not so tall you'd notice, but the average height of an adult woman in the US is 5'4", and I am 5'6"), bending over the sink like that makes my back hurt. But I think there's more to it than that, since I have been trying really hard to make sure the dishes get done first, and I'm not really succeeding. I think part of it is that, while the dishes are important, other things tend to be more urgent. The dishes only have to be done "today," but if the baby needs a change, the kids need help with school, or the little kids go outside and get covered with mud and need a bath, that has to be "right now." Some days I feel like I go into the kitchen first thing in the morning to wash the breakfast dishes, get interrupted by something "urgent," and get back to finish the dishes just before Mark gets home from work.

7. I have a few Lightroom plugins that I really like that are donationware, and I'm trying to decide how much is appropriate for a donation to unlock the full versions. I'd really like to show my appreciation for such cool plugins! if you use Lightroom, you should check out LR2/GMail, LR2/TreeExporter, LR2/Mogrify, Jeffrey's Lightroom to Facebook, and Jeffrey's Lightroo to Flickr.

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