And they will be my people

I did it. I finally read the Old Testament! . . . okay, some of it didn't have the best reading comprehension, like Job or Jeremiah. And I just skimmed 2 Chronicles long enough to convince myself that the name Nephi would have fit in with all the other biblical names. (Oh hey . . . did you know Ethan is a name in the Bible? I never knew!)

But yes. I finally read it. And to be honest, it's kind of okay that I waited to read it until I was a little older. I mean, I had read some for seminary and Sunday School and I had read Genesis a few times, but a lot of it would have gone over my head had I not been married, pregnant, and/or lactating. Also, the way I read it was 2 chapters on weekdays, 3 chapters on Saturday, and 5 on Sunday. If you do that, I would recommend reading the prophets and Psalms on the weekends otherwise you just get tired of the same old stuff.

Anyway, even though it was difficult to get through, I still learned a lot. Here's a smattering:

• The Old Testament prophets used lots and lots of imagery. Lots of it. I mean, a way lot. Thing is, they didn't have a lot of stuff to choose from, so their images were usually from nature or from the human body. For instance, something undesirable or disgusting was menstruous. And Jeremiah 30:6 made me laugh out loud. Oldest joke in the book, huh? (Yeah, I know I'm not mature.)
• Some of the imagery was powerful to me having been through labor and currently nursing a baby. Can a woman forget her sucking child? Goodness gracious no. Once my milk comes in, all I can think about is feeding my baby. Having this experience made Isaiah 49 much more powerful to me. Come to think of it, that's probably why they used the human body for so much imagery -- it's something we are all familiar with.
• Another symbol they used a lot was that of a marriage to describe the covenant between God and Israel. I grew a little tired of Israel being described the flighty wife because it seems that men are more likely to be flighty. But that's the Old Testament for ya.
• Politics. The Old Testament had a lot more politics than the Book of Mormon. I mean, it makes sense -- there were a lot more civilizations there than just Nephites and Lamanites. It was hard keeping track of everyone, even coming in with a pretty good understanding of Assyria, Babylon, and Persia. You throw Moabites and Ammonites and Philistines and Edomites and Egyptians and Syrians in as well and it takes a lot of work to keep track of them all. But I felt like it was usually worth the trouble to know who Pekah and Remaliah and all these people were and what they were up to because then the symbolism was made more clear.
• Idolatry! Oh my goodness there was so much idolatry! Basically ever since Moses led the children of Israel to the promised land, they got sucked in by every practice of their neighbors. It was really disheartening. It led to the destruction of both the Northern Kingdom and Southern Kingdom. I had never realized before why exactly Jerusalem had been destroyed and why Lehi had to flee. It was idol worship! It was sexual perversions and fertility rites and murder and human sacrifice and Baal and Ashteroth and groves and the whole nine yards.
• But what was even more disheartening was when I realized how easily we get sucked into idol worship, too. We worship the almighty dollar and food and Apple products and sports and celebrities and smart devices instead of God. Really. (Complete with the sexual perversions, I hate to add.) Reading the Old Testament made me realize how often we (even in the Church) disobey the first commandment to have no other gods.
• I was surprised by how patient God seemed throughout the Old Testament. The Israelites turned their backs on Him as soon as something interesting came along, but He withheld judgment as long as possible. Then it seemed pretty clear that He just let other wicked people punish them, but He didn't smite them himself. It taught me that blessings we enjoy are due to God actively protecting us, and that without His help we'd be scrambling.
• The idea of the covenant was drilled into my head over and over and over and over over the 1184 pages of the Old Testament (perhaps repetition is a good teacher after all). The whole book teaches about the Abrahamic Covenant -- "I will be their God, and they will be my people." (Zechariah 13: 9) We learn what it means that "I will be their God" -- that he will make the rain come in a dry land, protect a tiny, backwards culture from their neighbors, and make His children strong (Isaiah 49:25). And we learn that He always considers them His people, even after their infidelity (Hosea 2).
• In short, the Old Testament is about the Atonement. It is about God rescuing us after we willfully disobey and break the covenants. It is about returning to the source of life, the fountain of living waters, the One who travailed for our souls who will feed us with the milk of everlasting life. 

Columbus in . . . September

So, if you've read this blog a little bit, you've probably noticed I don't do a very good job on keeping up with the stuff we actually do. Just old stories and videos of Joseph and rambling.

But I've been feeling guilty for leaving this blog post unwritten for more than three months. I've had no excuse. None at all. So here it is. (clears throat)

We went to visit the Toblers in Columbus for Labor Day. And it was awesome. And Megan did an awesome job documenting it so I'll just redirect you there.

Eh, and here's some pictures I took.

Fun sidewalks

We loved Columbus!

Techno-baby

The headless hacker

Now, I know what the research says about kids and screens. It's been around since I was a kid (as if we needed another reason not to watch Teletubbies [cute as the baby  in the sun was]). We all know that kids under the age of three shouldn't look at screens.

But whatever. Joseph loves my laptop.

g8n yt  gfcgv gjfzdfcv  i,iuigu6fgyyhgnb nb h     hniy nb8h v  h bnm99oijk  mcjn m m  jk;ghc6gv gj  gvv6

only nearly headless, I suppose.

See what I mean?

I have mixed feelings about it. I mean, on one hand, it's hilarious what kind of changes he can make, but there's an alarm that goes off saying "bad mom bad mom babies shouldn't look at screens."  But I figure, we do a lot of other stuff, like reading stories, singing songs, playing piano, playing outside, folding laundry, tickle torture, and playing with friends, so a little bit of time with my laptop is okay. And if it's not, oh well.

Anyway, back to Joseph and my laptop. They have so much fun together. Here are a few of my favorite tricks:
-He loves seeing pictures of people on the screen. I think skype and video chat have really reinforced that. What this means is whenever he sees a picture (especially of himself) he gets excited and lunges toward it. (Incidentally, I'm wondering how confused he'll be about movies being real since they show up on the same laptop screen as grandmas.)
-He likes to press the keys. And pull them, come to think of it. I've had to stick a few numbers back on. But if you press enough keys, you can get some really random ones. Special characters and whatnot. One time while in Microsoft Word he opened equation editor and the next thing we knew he had informed us that A=pi r^2.
-Another popular key combination is ctrl v. I find urls, printscreens, and pictures of Joseph pasted throughout the document I'm working on.
-Even though I only have a laptop mouse that I use with my finger, he's pretty good at it. Especially picking things from the right-click menu. To illustrate: He opened up a folder with pictures from graduation, selected one, and set it as my desktop background. Yeah.
-and while he was at it, he renamed an icon on my desktop "jmo 9ihumn8hmkn878uh   mnmn  mikh    ftfht bgv5h6f65gfe56dc vnh gctyctbf vhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhvb6h tf  z czs vcf vge54d55frt3" and I actually thought it was rather fitting.
-my favorite, though, is when I decide that he's had enough fun and turn the monitor off. Suddenly the screen turns into a mirror! He starts smiling and laughing at the cute baby, lunges toward hpesoJ, and the next thing we know he's pressed a key and turned the display back on.

But who wouldn't want to get close to this little guy?

Past Family Newsletters

After I announced on Facebook that I was planning on doing a family newsletter, I realized I didn't know what to say.

Deep down, I know it's super easy. Say this: Kyra got a master's. Kevin got a master's. Joseph was born. Kevin started his PhD at Michigan. We've visited a few new places (Kansas City Temple, Bloomington, Indiana, Columbus, and Detroit). And then commence with a hundred or so pictures of the most beautiful baby in the universe.

But the overachiever in me wants something more interesting. Problem is, my interesting is spread all over the year on Facebook and in my blog. So I kind of want to say, "Just reread my blog. Skip the long boring ones. Go through all the albums of Joseph on Facebook. And while you're at it, go ahead and like some old funny statuses, because I'm proud of them."

Eh, we'll see what ends up happening. In the meantime . . . I asked my mom last night what they put in family newsletters. She responded with the 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006 editions. Some stuff made me laugh, so I'm going to share it here.

From 2000:
[Spencer] is very excited about his developing language skills and loves to play, “Repeat what I said and if you don’t figure it out I’ll just say it louder until you do.”

Jennie played soccer.  Her coach said there were enough aggressive and competitive people in the world and it was nice to have kids holding hands and giving hugs on the field.

From 2002:
If you come to our house, it’s assumed you’re an audience -- the girls enjoy planning and putting on “improv nights” and  “cousin performances” (Yes, yes we did. I feel so bad for my uncles.)

From 2004:
[Mom] even “volunteered” to coach Spencer’s soccer team.

Kaylie reached some preteen milestones: Young Women’s camp, contacts, and braces.  (Okay, this one isn't that funny, but the image that entered my mind as I read it was this [sorry Kaylie . . . I can take this down if you want]): 

From 2006:
We briefly went down to Capitol Reef and Grand Staircase Escalante for a few days of hiking.  It was wonderful and we were so proud of the kids.  In Peekaboo Canyon (a slot canyon), Spencer kept shouting, “This is so awesome!”  We got caught in a sudden thunderstorm and got to see how flash floods are created.  As we were hiking up to Hickman Bridge on a bunch of stone steps, Kiana asked if that was the “Grand Staircase.” (maybe you would have had to have been there to find it funny.)

[Kyra]'s a national merit semi-finalist, National Honor Society chapter president, science Sterling Scholar, Academic Olympiad team captain, and was 1st attendant for Senior Ball royalty.  (So the thing that makes me laugh to myself is that the thing I am still most proud of is the last one on that list. It feels good having won one popularity contest in my life.)

Currently [Mom] serves in Young Women as secretary, camp director, music specialist, and assistant Beehive advisor. (Okay, this one is funny because at the time my dad was a bishop in a student ward, and they still kept piling callings on my mom [she failed to mention choir president as another calling, or maybe they had released from that by this point]. One time she and I were on a walk and one of our neighbors rolled down the window of her car to yell, "Are you going to the church to get some more callings?" Good times.)

Hmmm . . . I didn't find anything funny that mentioned Leslie. Guess you'll have to send more, Mom!

Next stop, Vienna Boys' Choir

For years, I dreaded the day that Spencer's voice would change. He had such a clear, perfect soprano voice and it made me sad to think that he would be tall and skinny and deep-voiced.

Well, it happened.

Luckily, I've got another boy soprano to sing to me for at least a few more years:

Christmas songs

I have like 5 recent posts still in draft form which I ought to publish, but those all seem long and I wanted something to the point. The sooner I publish, the sooner Shel Silverstein will disappear from the top of my blog. Such a scary guy.

On Saturday, we had a Relief Society Christmas workshop. After the luncheon, they put together a little program which ended with us singing "Joy to the World." As I played it, I noticed that most people knew the first verse pretty well. But after the "rejoice rejoice" part of the 2nd verse, things fell apart. 1/3 of the women sang the 2nd verse, 1/3 sang the 4th verse, and 1/3 just kind of moved their mouths to the melody. It sounded great.

Then came the 3rd verse. Great, I thought. We all know this one starts out "No more will sin . . ." and then people should be able to figure it out from there. Nope. They didn't even start out there. It took just a few notes before the only sound was coming from the piano. That and people shouting, "We don't know this song! Stop playing!" Yeah. So I ended playing as gracefully as I could and scampered back to my seat, laughing.

Isn't it funny? We all proclaim how much we love Christmas songs, yet how many of us actually know more than one verse of the popular ones? I doubt I do. Maybe that will be a goal of mine this Christmas -- know all the words of at least half the Christmas hymns in the hymnbook. Wish me luck!