just let my heart be alive

Things for which I am thankful, in no particular order:
- my husband
- family and friends
- grace and mercy
- diet coke
- whist, especially when played with my parents
- chicken noodle soup
- the cross
- hot chocolate with whipped cream
- good stories
- sleeping in
- Rockband
- warm food and clothes
- facebook
- TV series on DVD
- allergy medicine
- New England and chances to visit
- road trips
- fall colors
- soft pillows
- video games
- rest
- conversations
- love.

For what are you thankful today?

I just saw a grown man roller-skating down 7th street. With bright red roller-skates. No joke.

How fantastic is that?

“How’s your soul?”

That’s the question one of my professors used to ask, instead of “how are you?” or “how’s it going?” or even “what’s up?”.  It’s the kind of question that looks past the surface and deep into the inner life, a question that demands both honesty and vulnerability.

Recently, I’ve come to the conclusion that my soul is not doing so well, and  I need to be more intentional about taking care of it.  And that’s where you come in: I need recommendations for things that will help me feed my soul.  I need your most life-changing, challenging, and/or encouraging books, movies, and music recommendations.

These recommendations don’t necessarily have to be “Christian” things – theology books or movies, worship music, etc. – but should be things that will help me to experience the world through the lens of Christ (if that makes any sense at all).

So anything (from C.S Lewis to J.K. Rowling to Jane Austen, and from Ingrid Michaelson to John Foreman to Chris Tomlin, and everything in between) is welcome.

So, what have you got for me?   Ready, set, go.

I officially won the title of “Best Wife Ever” last night.

Yesterday was a friend’s birthday, so we went over to their place for a small party, which was definitely my kind of party – there was cheesecake (lots of cheesecake) and a chick flick.  (Mmmmm cheesecake.)  mikey was planning to go see the Pacquiao – Cotto fight at a bar with another friend.  I was going to stay at the party and stuff my face with cheesecake.  Sounds like the perfect night for both of us, right?

Well, said friend canceled on mikey at the last minute.  The poor boy started trying to figure out how else he could see the fight and had more or less sadly resigned himself to watching it at home online… and in a flash of uncharacteristic selflessness, I said to mikey, “Well, what if I go to the bar with you?”

And so, after several moments of convincing him that I was indeed serious and not just toying with his emotions, we set off for the fight.  I left cheesecake and a chick flick and good friends to go watch a boxing fight in a bar.

And that, my friends, is how I won the “Best Wife Ever” award.  Ta-da!  (applause, applause.)

**Note** In all fairness, it was not as selfless as it may seem, for the following reasons:
1. At the party, they were watching “the Proposal,” and as I am neither a Sandra Bullock nor Ryan Reynolds fan, I was not terribly interested in the movie.
2. I had already had 2 slices of cheesecake.  Thus, the stuffing-of-the-face had already occurred.
3. We spent two fun-filled hours at the party before going to the fight.  And the wonderful friends at said party?  We will see all of them tonight at church.
4. I am not entirely opposed to the bar scene (in fact, I find it kind of entertaining).
5. We had pretzels at the bar.  Resume face-stuffing!
6. I got really into the fight, cheering and gasping in all the right places, and rejoicing as Pacquiao completely dominated.  I enjoyed myself.
7. I was spending time with my wonderful husband.  Not even the friends-and-cheesecake combination can compare with that.

I’ve been “reading” this book for months.  I got it some time last year, and finally finished it tonight.  I would pick it up and read a few pages, then put it down again.

I’d give this book an A- overall.  And the ‘minus’ is only because it’s not what I expected it to be at all.

Lauren Winner converted to Christianity from Judaism.  In this book, she puts forth several spiritual disciplines which Jews celebrate better than Christians.  Her purpose isn’t simply to expound upon spiritual disciplines and why they’re important or how they’re done, nor is she aiming to put Judaism on a higher pedestal than Christianity in any way.  She is simply speaking from her personal experience, reminding Christians of the heritage of their faith and perhaps pointing out some aspects that have been lost over the last couple millenia.

I really enjoy books about spiritual disciplines, as they remind me how much closer and more intentional God desires me to be.  Books such as these also challenge me, because they remind me of how distant and unintentional I often am.

While this book wasn’t the life-changing how-to that I expected it to be, it did change my perspective on spiritual disciplines and remind me of the grace that is given through tradition and ceremony.  I needed that reminder.  Good book.

It was more than two weeks ago that my parents drove down here to DC to bring mikey and me a bookcase.  For those two weeks, the only books that were on that bookcase were the Harry Potter books mikey bought me for my birthday.  Our excuse was that all our books wouldn’t fit on the one bookcase, so obviously we should wait until we get a second one, so we can get it all done at once.

Last night, we finally went to Ikea and bought another bookcase.  I was pretty excited.  On our way home, I kept saying things like, “we have a bookcase!” and “can we put books on it tonight?” and “yay!”   Yeah, cool, I know.

Look, there it is, in the box.

For the record, this thing was heavy!  I had a very hard time helping carry it up 3 flights of stairs.

There’s my cute husband, hard at work putting this thing together.

I helped, too!  A little.

It took about 30 minutes to build the bookcase, which isn’t too bad (much better than the stupid pantry-shelf thing we bought back in July).

And there it is, built and standing upright!

It’s taller than the other one, but it works.

We readjusted the shelves after this picture, since apparently I can’t measure anything, even with the help of a tape measure.

Once we had the shelves finished, we had to unpack our books and put them on the shelves.  And by ‘we’, I mean ‘I’.  But of course, I made mikey help.

There was some strategic organization involved, such as:
“do you have more fiction or Christian books?”;
“where should textbooks go?”;
and, my favorite, “does Bernie Mac go under fiction, or Christian?  or do we need a new category?”
(We decided a non-fiction category was neccessary in such a case.)

As you can see, it’s still a work in progress; maybe someday it won’t look so messy.  We have less books than I thought we did (to be fair, all mikey’s comic books are on their own bookcase in our bedroom) so the second bookcase looks pretty bare.  But that’s okay, just means there’s plenty of room for expansion.

I just sewed on my first button.

My coat from last year was missing a button, and I wanted to donate it to the big clothing drive Bridgeway242 is participating in next weekend.

I feel so domesticated. Weird.

On Halloween Night, Chipotle gives out free burritos (or “boo-ritos,” as they call them) to anyone who dresses up as a burrito, burrito bol, or taco.

I love Chipotle.  I love free food.  Therefore, free Chipotle is pretty close to the best thing ever.  Dressing up in tinfoil and going to Chipotle has become a bit of a Halloween tradition for mikey and me.

Unfortunately, neither of us got our free burritos yesterday.  [Well, Maria treated us, so technically, we did get free food.  Thanks, Maria!]  My soccer game ended too early, and the Chipotle we ate at were sticklers for the “after-6pm” rule.  mikey went through the trouble of coming up with a tin-foil costume, but the lines were too long for him to get a burrito before the Wizards game last night.

However, here are some pictures of my super-cute, tinfoil-Harry-Potter husband for you to enjoy!

Here’s a posed shot, with his tinfoil glasses, tie, and wand.

We decided that a tinfoil robe was just too wasteful.  Plus, we ran out of time.

Of course, you need an action shot.

So, here’s our Tinfoil Harry Potter casting a spell on the people at Chipotle, putting them under the Imperius Curse and forcing them to give him as many free burritos as he wants.

Check out the concentration in his eyes.  Kinda scary.

Well, I think he’s cute, anyway.