Natural Gifts

An online friend of mine was widowed years ago as quite a young woman. She has 6 children. Her eldest is married and she is a little younger than I am.

She posted that her eldest and his wife are expecting their first baby. She's going to be a grandmother! She is so excited and I am so excited for her!  She and her husband had kids younger than Kevin and I did, and it is totally appropriate (and good and fine) that none of our kids are married yet.  Naomi is just 20.  And I'm not in any hurry for them to marry and have children. I want it to be in God's timing. But still.  Grandbabies are awesome!

So my friend mentioned that she was going to stop dyeing her hair in honor of being a grandmother.  Apparently without hair color, her hair is pretty much silver.

Mine is not.  This very recent pic shows me with natural hair color. I have some gray, but it is hard to see.

So, there is nothing wrong with gray hair at all. I have friends who are gray at 40 and that is totally cool. I'm kind of glad that I am not all gray because if I was, people would probably assume I am Rose's grandmother and that would feel awkward.  I mean, I had her when I was 44. Plenty of 44 year old women ARE grandmothers. So it is reasonable.

I was staring at my (dark) hair in the mirror and thinking, hmmm, why is my hair still dark?

Did I do anything to have dark hair at age 50?

Nope.  Nada.  Zilch.

My mom held onto her dark hair for decades.  She grayed slowly.  And she looks great in silver hair, by the way.

So genetically, I am predisposed to having dark hair for many years.  Kevin, who is younger than I am, is much grayer than I am. On him, it looks very distinguished and handsome :-).  I'm sure I will look fine in gray but right now, I look pretty young, if I do say so myself.

Anyway, it got me thinking about characteristics that I am happy about which I just HAVE, not through effort but just because of genetics.

I'm tall -- short is fine, but as a matter of fact, I'm tall and I rather like being tall.

I'm thin -- genetics.  The kids are way thinner.  We have some quick metabolisms in the family line.

I'm smart -- genetics.  My parents are smart.

I'm organized -- I don't know if that is genetics, but I was born this way so yeah, I just naturally am organized.

And of course, I have some weaknesses and problems and challenges.

I'm diabetic -- again, genetics.  Diabetes runs rampant in my maternal line. I used to feel guilty about it, like I caused it by poor eating habits in my 20's.  And honestly, I did eat a very high carb diet and that was probably bad for me, but reality is that genetically I was strongly predisposed towards Type 2 diabetes.

I'm a homebody -- in some ways, this is fine.  I will admit sometimes I am irritated at myself for finding it SO hard to get out and about.  I have friends who run their large families to fun events frequently.  I took our 3 Littles to the local library a few days ago and while it went fine, it wore me out!

I am not artistic -- It is truly pathetic in some ways.  Like, I am stick figure bad.  All six of my girls, including ROSE, are stronger artists than I am.

And on it goes.  Some strengths, some weaknesses.

What I need to do is be humble about my gifts and patient (while working to overcome) my weaknesses.

Re diabetes, I've been tightening up my diet. I think I am doing better and hope for improved A1c numbers (a measure of blood sugar over the last 3 months) when I'm checked next.

Re getting out and about, sometimes I just need to do it. I need to thank God for being able to stay home with the kids and that I have a great minivan that safely gets us where we need to go.

Re being smart -- I am. I really am.  I grasp science and math concepts quickly.  I write well.  I have worked on all those things but I have kids who work harder than I do and struggle far more than I ever did.  I can be thankful and even proud of my accomplishments, but I should not be arrogant.  If I lived in Regency England, I would probably be disdained because in that era, high society women (not that I would probably be a high society woman, but whatever) were expected to paint, draw, play the pianoforte, and sing.  I can sing, but everything else would probably have been a wash.

Enough rambling...

Do the Next Thing...

The last couple of weeks have been busy, especially with medical appointments.  Isaac and Miriam had their yearly well person checkups.  (It seems silly for Isaac, especially, to call his checkup a well child. He is a giant.)

Two kids had orthodontic appointments.

Today I have to run Isaac to the eye doctor.

And then, life is busy.  The big kids are running around working and going to college.  I'm teaching the next 5 kids and dealing with 3 littles who quarrel sometimes, play nicely other times.

I have been tired.

When I'm tired, it is sometimes difficult to figure out what to do next at home. There are a million things I could do and sometimes I am tempted to just collapse as I try to figure out what to do next.  My rule in those moments is, do the next thing.

If a room is a disaster, work on tidying it.  I may not have time or energy or inclination to clean it all, but every little bit helps.

Every little bit helps. It really does.  If there is a disaster somewhere and I take 60 seconds to work on it, that is better than ignoring it.

Do the next thing...

Family Pictures

Isaac the Engineer

Isaac and Naomi are enjoying a particular video game which is on one hand a strategy game, and on the other hand a rather graphic game about killing people.

So yeah...

It is fine for them, but not for their little siblings.

We told Isaac he could only use one particular computer to limit the chances of the little ones seeing the game.

It was not his favorite computer.

So he went to work.

Try.  Kids could peer under the blanket.

Try two.  Awkward.

Try 3: too short for a 6 ft. 3 inch tall young man

Try 4:  Success!

Intelligence and Belief in God

I am hoping to write a series of philosophical posts about God and Christianity and intelligence and science.  Making time is challenging but I figured I might as well start and see how it goes.

So this post is about intelligence and belief in God.  Obviously.  Because of the title of the blog post :-).

There are billions of people on the earth and some of them are very smart and some are very intellectually limited and then there is a huge range in between.

Being limited intellectually, by the way, isn't meant to be an insult. God loves intellectually disabled people with a special love, I believe. Their faith is often very pure.  God has a lot to say about the faith of little children and I think that includes individuals whose minds are like children even as adults.

It is sadly common among scientists to say that "believing in God" is stupid.  That only idiotic people would believe in  miracles, in a virgin birth, in resurrection, in the basic core foundation of Christianity.

This is the truth, though -- no one, no matter how intelligent, is entirely rational in his or her beliefs.  No one.  We all are emotional and spiritual beings. We all have a past. We were all raised in certain ways. We were exposed to certain things.  We have certain bents.  Believing in God is not just an intellectual exercise, it is extremely emotional as well. If there really is a God out there, then that changes our place in the universe in profound ways. Some people, like me, find that comforting.  Others find it revolting.

I grew up in a Christian home.  That was my foundation.  But neither of my brothers is a practicing Christian, so obviously that wasn't the whole answer as to why I am a believer in Christ.  But it is a factor, for sure.

If you look across history, there have been some very smart atheists, some very smart Muslims, some very smart Christians, some very smart Buddhists.

I reject that intelligence, in and of itself, is a reason to believe someone's conclusions about God.  An intelligent person may well be able to understand deep things that others cannot.  A genius certainly can understand things that I cannot.  BUT even a genius has his or her own worldview.

I am a pretty smart cookie.  I have a Ph.D. in engineering.  I did extremely well in college.  I have a scientific bent and am, I think, a quite logical person.

I appreciate my intelligence because there are things I have studied and can understand that help bolster my faith.

But if I say to someone, "Well, I have a Ph.D. and I know that Christianity is true because I'm smart" I hope that person would flog me with a wet noodle.  That is not enough.  I mean, we can talk about the science (I intend to in future blog posts) but just my stupid Ph.D. isn't enough to prove I am right.

Many smart people have been, and are, wrong.  That is reality.

So I guess I'm saying, let's be humble.  Let's also not trust that someone knows what he or she is talking about scientifically, socially, etc.  We need to ask God for wisdom (if we are so inclined) and seek truth.  Scientists from all walks of religion have contributed valuable things to our understanding of the universe.  But let's be clear -- being religious doesn't make me stupid.  Being an atheist doesn't make you (if you are an atheist) stupid.

Birthdays and January 2nd

Part of me just r..e..l..a..x..e..s on January 2nd.  We have so much going on at the end of the year and then New Year's Day so today it just feels good to rest a little from so much celebrating.

We had so much to celebrate though!!!

Naomi is 20.  How can she be 20?  I am sure countless parents have thought the same thing a billion times but REALLY!  I remember when she was born like it was yesterday!  She was 5 lb 15 oz of adorable cuteness.  Now she is all grown up, working, studying for a security test which should help her get another job, and is saving for a car and an apartment and all those important adulty things.

Miriam is 14!  She was also very cute at birth. Of course.  People say newborns aren't usually that cute but MINE WERE.  She was our biggest girl baby at 6 lb 12 oz.  Obviously we had little babies.  Miriam is precious, beautiful, vital, and so much fun to have around.  Like all of our girls, she is quite an artist.

Isaac turned 17.  He is HUGE now.  6 ft. 3 inches tall!  125 lbs dripping wet.  So he's obviously very thin as well. He eats, I promise you he eats!  He was 7 lb 1 oz at birth.  Daniel beat him at 7 lb 4 oz but for years he was the biggest Kendig baby.  Now he is by far the tallest person in the house since Kevin and I top out at just under 5 ft. 9 inches.  Isaac is a gamer, big time. He's also a deep thinker.  He has a quirky sense of humor.  He likes math.  (Thank you, Lord, for a kid who LIKES math!)

We love our kids.