Pilgrims at Oak Ridge

I felt the need for a slightly happier, less serious post up here. Hence a post about my sweet boy.   As much as I love the baby stage, as we're getting closer to the toddler stage he just gets more fun. Today was glorious. After Bible study this morning, we came home, ate lunch and then went out to enjoy the beautiful weather. We went on a long walk to a pond with some geese - Judah was enthralled - and then the playground. It has taken Judah a few times, but I think he's finally coming around to enjoying the swings. He was laughing and giggling the whole time. As you can see, I felt the need to take off his pants. The weather was so nice that I wanted him to enjoy it. And what better way to enjoy the sun than by not wearing pants? He is also getting more and more communicative. I have been trying to teach him the sign for "all done" that involves just raising his hands. Instead, he will very vigorously flap his arms for all he's worth to tell m...

This photo helps capture part of what is wrong with medicine today. I got what I am calling a little love note from our coding specialists at the hospital today:   What is a coding specialist you ask? Let me explain. There is an endless game played by insurance companies and hospitals. The insurance companies and government want to pay as little as possible. The hospitals want to make as much money as they can. Insurance companies and the government therefore have all these rules about how they will pay for this diagnosis but not that one. The people who make decisions about these rules are definitely not doctors. Hospitals therefore do everything they can to make sure they get all the possible money for each admission. For instance: Any doctor would understand that urosepsis means someone who is very seriously ill with systemic symptoms stemming from a bladder or kidney infection. But those who will pay have decided that if you call something "urosepsis" it means just a ...

My friend Rebecca wrote a great post about infertility that has me thinking. One of the hardest parts about infertility for me are the feelings of shame and inadequacy I struggled with. Children are (rightly) viewed as a blessing by the Christian community. It is easy to talk about how wonderful kids are, and how happy you are to be pregnant. These are all true and good things. What doesn't get talked about nearly as much in church is the pain and sadness that comes along with not getting children. Obviously, it's a touchy subject since it involves the most private parts of marriage. But when we were in the midst of our struggle to get pregnant, deep down I just felt ashamed and sorrowful. I feel that it's likely that these feelings were mostly coming from me and the way that I often forget that I am valued because I was made in God's image. Because I have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus. And not, as I am prone to believe, because of something I have done or not d...

As you can see, I am trying to make some changes to the ole' template. I was getting bored of our blog looking the same. I finally ditched the old template and upgraded to a new one. Hopefully I can make another header in the next day or so. Maybe add a photo? Any suggestions?

One of the worst parts about Jeff not preaching at our church is that I don't get to hear him preach. Selfish, I know. Having gone to seminary for a year and heard some of the best preachers in our denomination several times each week at chapel has forever spoiled me for good preaching. (Not to mention the last three years of listening week in and week out to one very, very excellent preacher) I'm a bit of a sermon connoisseur and have a hard time listening to bad preaching. Each week these days I really try to listen and pray that God will speak to me, because I know that he can use anyone and any sermon to speak his truth. But lately it's been so. much. harder. I can't wait until he's preaching again.

I feel like I'm pretty far behind the times, but in the fall I was on a big cupcake baking kick. Jeff got cupcakes for his birthday , then I made them again for Judah's baptism. I realized that I never actually blogged about the cupcakes I made for the baptism. And since I'm still having a hard time coming up with good things to blog about, I decided you can never blog enough dessert. First up: Vanilla Cake with Vanilla Frosting . Now I'm not normally a vanilla-loving girl, but these are not just vanilla cupcakes, they are vanilla bean cupcakes. With vanilla buttercream. And I love that you can make the frosting any color you want, which makes for a more festive party. I'm thinking these might make another appearance at Judah's birthday party. Next Up: Chocolate Cupcake with Raspberry Filling and Chocolate Ganache frosting Chocolate and raspberries. Need I say more? These were so good I am drooling thinking about them. I used a piping bag and actually piped the ...

I'm now on day 8 of a major cold, and going back to work tomorrow. Hopefully by then I will be feeling better..... As I'm not thinking about much besides my hacking cough, I thought I'd post on some super tasty recipes I've made recently. I'm not big on going all out to celebrate Valentine's Day - It seems silly to spend a lot of money on what feels to me like a manufactured holiday. I do like doing a little something for my valentine, though. Instead of buying chocolates, I have made him candy several times. This year, I did a combination of buckeyes , probably his favorite candy, and some oreo truffles . Both are fairly easy recipes to put together and they make a lot. Next up for some dinner: PW's Spicy Shredded Pork . Hannah put me on this recipe because it's a great one to do with the dutch oven. It makes a ton of delicious shredded pork that you can put into tacos or quesadillas. I could not get over how easy it was to make. Or how delicious. Next ...

This past week I finally got Judah checked out for his 9 month well visit. Here are his stats: Weight: 20 lbs., 30th percentile (I really was surprised this wasn't more, but I think if he hadn't had the GI bug and ensuing bad appetite he wouldn't have dropped down quite so much on the growth curve. That plus the fact that he is cruising/crawling everywhere now probably made him drop down some. Not that I'm worried about it - he's certainly eating well and growing.) Height: 30 in, 86% - still tall like his daddy Head - 49cm , 99% - yep, still with the big ole' noggin like his mamma At 10 months, he FINALLY has a tooth. From some research I did during residency, I knew it was normal for kids not to get their first tooth until 11 or 12 months, but when all the other babies his age already have 4 or 6 teeth, I was starting to wonder if we'd need baby dentures or something. His second bottom tooth looks like it's also about to pop through. He's ...

We are slowly recovering from a major dose of the cruds around here. It started with a major case of the puke-up-your-guts bug (which thankfully I mostly missed) and is ending with the head-cold-so-bad-your-teeth-hurt bug (which I definitely did not miss). Somewhere in the middle Judah developed his first ear infection and got his first tooth. If you didn't know, an ear infection plus teething = one very fussy baby. It's been a week. Thankfully Judah is pretty much back to his exceedingly happy self, and hopefully this awful cold I've got will be going away soon. In other news, we just got back from a quick overnight trip to Charleston where we had a free stay in a really nice downtown hotel, some good time spent with my brother and his wife, several tasty Charleston meals, and a nice walk along the battery this morning before we left. Hopefully a sign that better things are coming....

I'm starting to get it. The (semi) dreaded question. We used to get it before we were pregnant with Judah. Someone would see me holding a friend's baby or talking about my niece or nephew and it would come. "So when are you going to have kids?" Back when we were first married, I didn't think much of it. I'd answer breezily that maybe in a few years we would, or after med school, or whatever. Then came the long months where we were trying (unsuccessfully) to get pregnant but weren't telling anyone. Then I'd force a smile and say something like "we'll see." Of course after we started talking more about our infertility, those who knew us best didn't press us. There would still be the occasional inquiry by our more distant friends, and depending on my mood I'd either try to answer truthfully about our struggle or give a quick noncommittal answer to end the conversation. Now that Judah is almost a year, we are starting to get it again....

It's been a little quieter around the ole' blog lately. I enjoy having this space to be able to write, but I guess lately I just have other things going on. My friend Gray made what seemed to me a very reasonable resolution: to clean for 30 minutes each day, using either a product or a device. I am much more of a feast-or-famine type cleaner, frantically trying to clean everything in one big swoop while in between letting things just pile up. But 30 minutes is really not that long, so I am trying to do something every day. We'll see how long this lasts. In addition to trying to keep things a little neater around here, I am also trying to be much more diligent about personal bible study and quiet time. This is something I have struggled with for a long time. Of course, there is always an excuse as to why it isn't happening. I'm a med student. I'm an intern. I'm a resident. I'm pregnant. I have a newborn. I'm tired. You get the idea. I want Judah to l...

After more reflection on this post , as well a recent bout of a GI bug at our house, I've had a few more thoughts about the taste and smell of love. Sometimes, love smells like throw-up. The throw-up that you get on your shirt as you hold your retching, vomiting 10 month old as he gets sick on you for the third time in the space of a few hours, the throw up you clean off sheets, mattress pads, his hair, your hair, and the floor. Sometimes, it smells the dank, sweaty, and awful smell that only comes from the feet of people with poor circulation or diabetes, feet that I have been called to wash and care for. What does love smell or taste like to you?

After my last fairly wordy post, I decided to take it easy for this one. I really cannot understand why he is so much cuter when he wears his cubs hat. 10 months old! See how he's grown !

Does love have a taste? How about a smell? For me, I think it might taste like my grandmother's fried chicken or the chocolate cake my mom made for my birthday. Maybe it smells like the cinnamon toast we had with our oatmeal before school or the cool, damp air of the basement where we had our Christmas gathering every year. Or maybe it smells the sweet baby smell that Judah has when I'm holding him just before I put him to bed at night. For my mom, I think it tastes like coconut cake. Her mom used to make coconut cake every Christmas. I realize now that I didn't fully appreciate it at the time, mostly because I am not so much a coconut-loving girl. (See reference to chocolate cake, above.) She must have cooked for several weeks before we came, making chicken salad and pimento cheese and her beautiful coconut cake. It was pristine - flaked white coconut pressed around the outside, white coconut filling in between the layers. She stored it covered in saran wrap in t...

On our walk around the block tonight, Jeff and I were talking about the job search. I realized I'm a little more nervous about it than I've been over other situations. Interviewing for residency was a little nerve-wracking , but in the end, a giant computer (under the sovereign hand of God) basically decided our fate. This feels a little scarier for several reasons. When we moved to Greenwood, we were coming for residency, which was only for 3 years. As we look to our next job, it is much more open-ended. And the interview process itself seems scarier to me. Maybe it's because it's harder for me when it's Jeff doing the job hunting. Contributing, though, is the fact that interviewing for a pastoral job is different than other types of job interviews. It is a much slower process usually, since there are typically committee involved that have to meet and wade through applications and listen to sermons. We can send our info to a church and we don't even have a goo...