Lessons from Narnia

As I mentioned in an earlier post, our family is reading The Chronicles of Narnia. We have made it to the middle of the fifth book and honestly, I'm waiting for AC's interest to wain. She has started moving around a lot while we read, which I usually take to be a product of boredom. Also, I often wonder how much she is actually understanding about the book. The vocabulary is advanced and much of the phrasing is one of an earlier time. Add to that the symbolism and I sometimes think that Matthew and I may be enjoying it more than her. But, apparently, I have underestimated her.

We had reached the part in the book where the character, Eustace, has become a dragon and realizes how badly he has been behaving towards the others. He has treated them with arrogance and contempt and has seen their actions through the ugliness of his eyes, not through the purity of their intent. After becoming a dragon, he begins to change his ways and is more helpful and thoughtful than originally. One night,while lying away from the others, Aslan comes to him and he immediately feels fear and distaste towards Aslan. (For those of you not familiar with the story, Aslan is the embodiment of Jesus)

This is a crucial part of the story, one I was not sure AC would understand, so I stopped to take a moment to explain, but before I could even begin, she exclaimed, "Oh, he's like Kylie! He's a good person, but he hasn't ever been told about Jesus! So, he's scared?" (Kylie is a little girl who was in Anna Cate's class last year whose father was Native American and still follows the spiritual religion of his tribe)

Yes! Exactly! What a big cognitive leap to make for a six-year-old! I was so proud that she was able to not only understand the symbolism, but apply it to real life.

I'm also glad that she sees that believing in Jesus and being a "good" person is not the same thing. I hope she sees that making the right choices should be a byproduct of her faith, but that not all Christians are "good" and not all nonbelievers are "bad".

Thank you, C.S.Lewis, for a wonderfully adventurous tale and the lessons we are learning from it.

Five for Friday - Five for the Earth

This summer, Disney began a huge campaign to get children involved in efforts to save the Earth. Anna Cate, already a huge nature lover, took everything they said to heart. So, we started making some changes in the way we do things around our home. Here are some of the changes we have made to "Save the Earth"...

1. Canvas Bags. I used to hate to get behind someone who used canvas bags at the grocery store because it seemed like it took so much longer for the cashiers to fill them with groceries. I don't know if the structure of the bags has improved or the cashiers are just more familiar with them, but it actually goes quickly AND I only use three canvas bags instead of the ten plastic ones.

2. Bento Boxes. A friend showed me these cute little boxes and I admit that their cuteness is really what first encouraged me to use them. But, using them has really decreased the number of plastic sandwich bags we use. I have actually not even had sandwich bags in the house for about a month now, which is huge considering all we once used them for.

3. Propel Packets. One day I looked in the garbage and was amazed at the pile of water bottles. The next week instead of buying Propel in the bottles, I bought the little packets and again decreased the plastic usage of our home. A side benefit to this practice is that I can limit the amount of the mixture that is added to AC's water and in turn limit the amount of sugar she is drinking.

4. Recycling and Reusing Art Supplies. Family Fun magazine had an issue devoted to ways a family could reuse household items to create wonderful little art projects. Some of the ideas really inspired me. So now, instead of buying new products for art, I search the house to first see if we have different items that I could use as substitutions. One of my favorite "recycled" projects we did was bracelets whose beads were made from old magazine pages.

5. Unplugging IPOD and Cell Phone Chargers. I'm not really sure how much energy this practice actually saves, but Anna Cate has assured me it is A LOT. So, I unplug them and if I forget, she climbs up on the counter and does it herself.

I'm pretty sure the changes we have made are not going to result in closing in landfills anytime soon, but it is nice to know we are at least thinking about protecting the wonderful planet which feeds and houses us. And, I agree with Edmund Burke who is quoted as saying, "Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little."

Cracks of Happiness

A crack has formed in the tiles that lay along the original foundation of our kitchen. Matthew and I have discussed it many times and have always viewed it as something that needs to be fixed. We see it as an imperfection that should be erased. During dinner tonight, Anna Cate pointed to a line in the granite on the island and told me that she loved "cracks and divots of all kinds". I asked why and she explained that cracks allow the "love to come up". She went on to say that happiness sometimes gets stuck, but a crack lets it come through. So, when she sees cracks, it makes her feel like love and happiness are all around her.

I like that idea. I think she has taught me to see cracks and lines in a totally new way.

You Make Everything Glorious

David Crowder wrote a song that contains the following lyrics,
My eyes are small
But they have seen
The beauty of enormous things
Which leads me to believe
There's light enough to see
You make everything glorious...

As I sang along to it today, I realized that those words best explain the vacation we just experienced. Because, although our eyes are small, we were able to see some incredibly beautiful and enormous things that point to God's unbelievable artistry in all He has created.

Our first day in San Clemente, we embarked on a whale-watching tour. We weren't promised any sightings, but were told that they generally see one or two on any
given day. So, Matthew gets Anna Cate set up at the very front of the boat, we're cresting the waves with the wind in our hair. I really kind of imagined opening my arms like Rose in the movie Titanic. Matthew points to a buoy and there are five California sea lions basking in the sun on top of it. Everyone takes lots of pictures and we continue on our way. A few moments later, a lady yells, "2 o'clock! 2 o'clock" We all turn in time to see the spray coming up and a huge grey body rolling over just on top of the water. Then it disappears and we can see a faint blue glow underneath the water's surface. The captain begins explaining what the whale is doing and how long we should expect it to be under. The next time it surfaces, we are more prepared. We watch the water spout up, the rolling and then the fluke comes straight out of the water and we are able to see it, facing us. It was truly amazing. One enormous creation down, and it was truly "glorious".

We were also able to see several dolphins swimming up to and around the boat. They looked to be playing in the waves, which made Anna Cate just giggle and giggle.


On our second day, we drove to Los Angeles to see the tar pits in La Brea. Thousands of years ago, during prehistoric time, the pits were part of the natural landscape of California. As prehistoric animals walked around, they often fell, slipped or unknowingly walked into the pits and found that they could not get out. Very unfortunate for them, but exceedingly cool for us, because full skeletal remains of these creatures have been excavated, cataloged and displayed. We saw hundreds of wolf skulls, eagle legs, saber tooth cats and woolly mammoths that had all been recovered from the pits. Seeing that far into the past really tends to put momentary troubles in perspective.

Finally, we spent a day at the San Diego Zoo. We saw many cute and interesting animals. We saw an anaconda that was easily seven feet long, an anteater that weighed more than Matthew, a baby gorilla that was half the size of Anna Cate and many more. We watched the gibbons being fed and laughed at how the male held his lettuce in his toes and broke it off with his hands to eat it. We laughed and looked at one another in awe as we took in all the glorious creatures God had created. We left with blisters on our feet, but a happy aura around us all the same.


We arrived back at the beach in time for Anna Cate and Matthew to take one final dip in the ocean. While they were running on the beach, they looked out to see dolphins playing in the waves. As I settled AC into bed that night, I opened her window to see the most beautiful mix of deep purple, bright pink and orange coloring the sky.


Sure, the vacation contained it's share of grumpiness and sassiness, but that's just what happens when travelling with Matthew. I know those snags will be forgotten as we continue to grow and learn, for as the songs continues...


You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours,
So what does that make me?

Five for Friday - Five Favorite Summer Reads

This summer was different and exciting in that Anna Cate was able to spend time reading to herself. This new ability allowed me to actually spend some daylight hours reading what I chose to read. I tried to use the time to read a variety, some light reading, some intelligent reading and some reading to learn and inspire. Of the many books I devoured this summer, here are my favorites.

1. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. Incredibly written with flawed, yet memorable, characters, this book ruined fiction for me for several weeks. I just couldn't find characters that intrigued me the ways the ones in this novel had. It is also centers around circus life, an arena I had never given a second thought.

2. Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. I did an extensive project on the Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche in high school. So, when a friend mentioned that this book was Lewis' interpretation of the myth, I was immediately interested. It centers on the selfishness of human love and our inability to see ourselves clearly. I am honestly surprised that this book hasn't gained as much notoriety as many of Lewis' other works.

3. Love and Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs. To be fair, I began reading this book in the Spring. But, because I did not complete it until the summer, I am including it in my list. It really made an impact on mine and Matthew's relationship and the way we view one another's needs. The idea that genders view the world differently is not a new one, but his explanation of the way we react and why, was truly eye-opening for me.

4. Another Mother's Life by Rowan Coleman. This book I picked up not even sure that I was interested in reading it, but I am glad I gave it a chance. The characters in this book struggle with issues from long ago and attempt to decide if they are living the life they were meant to lead.

5. Lighting Their Fires by Rafe Esquith. I have long thought that we spend entirely too much time teaching children what they need to know instead of who they need to be. This book focuses on fostering qualities in children that society as a whole is losing. Some of these traits include time management, humility and selflessness. The author explains why the traits themselves are important and also gives suggestions as to how to encourage these traits in children.

Each of these books really gave me a chance to think about different issues in life and I think that is probably why I chose them from the others. I would like to include that Anna Cate and I completed three of the books from Chronicles of Narnia together this summer and that experience is one I will treasure forever.