Amy Writes

We were JUST talking about this. Picture if you will: a dozen or so brightly colored rubbery plastic ponies of varying sizes. All with shimmery hair and cutesy tattoos on their hindquarters, scattered throughout the main thoroughfare between kitchen and family room. They have been subjects of a game called "Stuff the Ponies in the Barbie Volkswagens," so the site actually looks like Godzilla's trophy wife went all DWI on the Miniature Pony Farm and left the scene. The command had been given to stable the ponies and impound the cars, but the cleanup crew was distracted by the salty, cheesy goodness of snacktime. I let it slide, as there were no new toys being added to the disaster. A second command was issued when it looked like snacktime was over, but I was informed that we were still eating and again, I let it slide. Then, visiting baby #3 woke up. She has a new game called "Zero to 130 in .3 seconds," or "I Have Been Awake For .5 Seconds It Must Be Time T...

I wanted to call your attention to something that is going on this week. Compassion International has taken 15 popular bloggers to Uganda to blog about their experiences visiting abject poverty. Two of them are heroes on my blogroll over there - Shaun Groves and David Kuo. Please go visit their blogs this week and be moved. Here's a list of all of the bloggers involved. Thanks!

I read this again today, and it's just too good not to post: "If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels , it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us , like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased ." From C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

A few months ago, Eden saw a Wonder Woman costume in a catalog. She cut it out, glued it to a piece of paper and affixed it to the fridge - a constant reminder of her big Halloween plans. To our knowledge, she had never been introduced to Wonder Woman - she just knows a cool costume when she sees one. And it is a very cool costume. We tell her that (every day) when she puts it on. She looks fantastic, ready for anything. So on Friday, she was thrilled to wear it to school. Wrist shields, gold headband & belt were in place - though we swapped the red & white striped boot covers that slide down her legs for her awesome cowgirl boots, which don't slide down her legs. She didn't walk through the hall - it was a confident, boot-assisted strut. We opened the classroom door to see... 9 girls dressed as Disney Princesses. 3 Belles barricaded her at the door, having perfected the Mean Girl snarl that says, "Didn't you get the memo? This is the year of the Princess....