Posts filed under 'trials'
Adjusting to a new “normal”
My days used to be pretty predictable. As much as I dislike monotony, I must admit our house had a consistent rhythm. My time possessed a routine. Of course, these were the normal days.
I would wake and get the family ready for the day with showers and clothes and breakfast. We would enjoy a leisurely morning of the kids playing nicely together and me getting some writing done. I’d work on a few projects, book reviews, blog posts … check my favorite blogs. I’d update facebook and twitter and maybe look for a new craft or recipe to try. The afternoons were equally delightful errands, household chores and trips to the zoo or parks.
Life has changed.
My husband, who typically stalks me on facebook and twitter, complains each night that he no longer knows what’s going on in our house while he’s away! I have been online very little lately. I haven’t blogged in two weeks. I am adjusting to a new normal.
I am tempted to say this new routine (or lack thereof) is just the house stuff and soon it will all settle back to what it used to be. But I’ve been saying that for six months now. “Oh, when we get past this milestone, things will calm down.” And then something else happens to stir our anticipated calm. We raise hope for a respite from activity just in time for the next milestone to remind us our “normal” has changed.
Gone are the days of calm routine. Single-tasking is a thing of the past. Drama abounds and I am finding a weird sort of serenity in that consistent unpredictability. This is my life now.
Our latest drama: My mom graciously drove more than 700 miles from her home to ours to help us unpack and fix up the house. What was meant to be just a few days will soon be three weeks. She was here less than 24 hours before we had to take her to the ER with stroke symptoms. Her “vacation” has included four nights in the hospital, seven new medications (including a weekly injection), lots of naps and a whole new diet. She’s adjusting to a new normal, too.
Add that my mom is now living with us to the list of recent adjustments.
This was not the best year for me to host a Read with Me challenge.
Maybe the point of all this was simply so that I could encourage some of you to do it. My mother-in-law, who is doing this with us, is so excited about it! She’s already planning to do it again next year. Rick, who doesn’t want to admit he’s part of this nearly all-girl challenge, reads almost an entire book a day. It’s fabulous! He’s loving it. I’m loving seeing him love it. I’m sure there are more of you with testimonies of great encouragement.
But as for me, I’m getting nowhere fast.
Let’s see … I am in Romans 1 (the beginning of March), Joshua 10 (beginning of April), and Psalm 59 (the middle of March). I can admit I’ve skipped ahead and read through Esther already and I am at least in the right month for the Gospels. I’m up to John 10. All told, I’m a combined 14 months behind. I may finish this challenge before I turn forty, but that may be pushing it. At this rate I’ll need more than six years.
I don’t want this, my first post in two weeks, to seem negative. That is not at all my intention. I’m not upset about this new “normal.” It just is what it is. The redemptive truth is that no matter how my life changes, God never does. He is always the same, eternally faithful, good god He has always been. He is my God and He is awesome.
So how are you doing?
4 comments July 23, 2010
My Tale of Real Estate: (Hopefully) Nearing a Conclusion
Now sit right back and you’ll read a tale,
A tale of real estate.
I’ve never seen Gilligan’s Island,
but think the theme song’s great!
Okay, now that THAT tune is firmly planted in your subconscious, I will confess the truth. Much to the dismay of my uber-fan brother-in-law, I’ve never seen a complete episode of Gilligan’s Island. I did, however, play Mary Ann as a camp counselor. You know those fun little start-of-the-day skits the counselors do to embarrass themselves entertain and teach the kids? Yup. I can’t remember if Gilligan’s Island was the theme for that week or what. Regardless, I was an adorable Mary Ann while my then-boyfriend played the gorilla. It was fun. I wish I had pictures of that …
Has anyone noticed my ADD this morning? I think it’s in high gear. What is this post supposed to be about? Oh, right! An update on our house situation!
Let’s see … we started this in April – right? Our house was on the market for three weeks when we got an offer. After some negotiations, we came under contract. Just hours after that, our buyer left the country — for two weeks. Unfortunately, just days after she returned, her mother passed away. Then she became very ill. All this left us in a torturous state of uncertainty. Her home inspection was postponed three times. Every deadline was missed or moved. Inspection issues were excessive and argued to the point of absurdity. All the while, we were under contract for our new house in a precarious state of contingency. Our new mortgage was secured and daily moving toward its expiration, while our buyer had yet to start her mortgage process.
Each week that passed reminded us that we are in control of nothing. Fortunately, we know the ONE who is in control of everything! One moment everything was great, the next everything was falling apart. We went from having no sale to having a sale and a purchase and an unexpected tax refund to having two houses to having none. On more than one occasion my husband believed we would be homeless before the end of the summer. It seemed details consistently built up beautifully only to be knock-down seconds later.
Long story short, we had to surrender our new home and take a firm stand with our sale contract. (Read: an ultimatum.) We were fully prepared to re-list our house and find a rental, if necessary. Convinced of God and His power, we found peace and a rather bizarre state of fearlessness. That’s when everything fell into place. The owners gave us an extension on our contingency. The buyer moved into action. Even the mortgage companies came together. Our inspections (yes, plural — I think we’ve had a total of six on our sale and one on our purchase.) passed as well.
So where are we now? Philadelphia. 
Well, not exactly, but kind of. The dates work out so that we actually are homeless for a while, but that’s okay. We’re staying with family and counting the days. Eleven. In eleven days we should have the keys to our new home. In eleven days we should be done with all this hub-bub. In eleven days I can breathe a sigh of relief as I acknowledge none of this has been in vain.
But I’ll not wait eleven days to praise God. He has been — as He always is — immeasurably faithful through this whole process. He has brought us to deeper understandings of His Scriptures, to a closer relationship with Him and each other, to a closer walk with Him. He has orchestrated details and made Himself seen by those who do not yet believe in Him. Our agents, even our attorney, said they’ve never dealt with such a crazy case of real estate. Now they have seen that chaos evolve into order, all while hearing us proclaim His sovereignty and rest in His grace.
God is so good. In the face of all we’ve endured, the heartaches, the uncertainty, the disappointments and the triumphs, I will CHOOSE to say “Blessed be the name of the Lord!”
That’s my tale.
7 comments June 17, 2010
Chaos, meet Stress. Now multiply.
God is good, always and forever. Of this I have no doubt. I know fully that He is in control, and I praise Him hourly for that truth. But even living in the knowledge of that truth, life can be chaotic. Oh. My. I don’t want to focus on the insanity of my week and the weeks to come, but I do want to give you a quick update — and explanation of my absence.
I also want to ask for some help.
Update first. Within the past week, my emotions have run the gamut of extreme discouragement to unbelievable high and utter exhaustion. We eliminated several options from our list of potential new homes, started to fall in love with our current house again and then found a house that we LOVE only to discover we may not be able to have it.
The house is PERFECT. Beyond perfect. And on the lower end of our range, so we’re thrilled with that, but they’re not accepting any contingent offers and (needless to say) we’ve not yet sold our house yet, so we can’t make an offer yet. On top of that, they’ve already received two offers, but haven’t accepted either yet. But that’s not what worries me. We discovered that the family is selling because of divorce. This thoroughly breaks my heart. I’ve actually spent more time this weekend praying for their marriage than I have praying that we would get the house. In all honesty, I would rather have their family restored and we live in a dumpy place, than to see another family (whose bookcases were lined with Bibles) torn apart. Three kids … Oh, it just saddens me so!
Saturday morning we cleaned like mad for a house showing. (Remember the possible for-sale-by-owner family?) The minute they left, we got to work deconstructing our first floor. You see, our hardwood needs to be refinished before we list. In order for them to refinish the floors (on Wednesday) we need to have everything out of there: all the furniture, draperies, nicknacks, books … EVERYTHING from the living room, master bedroom and dining room. It has all been tucked Tetris-style into our kitchen, basement and garage. Rick and I have taken Ellie’s room hostage while the kids fight over who gets to sleep on the floor in Zach’s room. (I’m really not sure why we bought him a bed. They both would rather camp out on air mattresses!) After we moved all the furniture, we then stripped the carpet from the bedroom. (PRAISE GOD the hardwood underneath is in good condition!!) We visited two more houses then drove down to Philadelphia to pick up the kids. (My mother-in-law, being the amazing woman that she is, kept the kids for the night so we could work quickly without pinching fingers, toes or hearts.)
Today is Monday and I am wiped out.
Here is where I need your help.
- Pray for me. And my husband and our marriage and our kids and all of that. I told Rick this weekend that I’m so grateful for him and the strength of our marriage because stuff like this seeps into the tiniest cracks and can create massive damage. I don’t want any cracks. So far we’re doing great, but the Enemy loves us to boast about things like that. He sees it as opportunity. So, yes, I covet your prayers.
- Be patient with the blog. I have so much to say, but very little time to write these days! I promise to post when I can, but I offer no guarantee of regularity in the next couple weeks.
- Read with Me girls: Anyone want to take a Friday Check-in post?? I would love to spread this out, at least for the next couple weeks. I’m still reading — in fact, I’m almost caught up in the New Testament! — but I’ve not been able to post our regular check-ins on Friday mornings. Can you take a week for me? Let me know when and I’ll post a schedule so people know where to go. I don’t want our group to fall apart. We’ve come far together and we’ll only complete it if we stay together!
That’s all I have time for right now. Like I said, I have much more to say and I hope to share it with you all soon. Is it weird to say I miss people who live in my computer? Is it too late to worry about how weird you think I am?
Have a nice day.
6 comments March 22, 2010
Adventures in Real Estate
Not long ago I told you we would soon begin a new adventure: selling our home and finding a new one.
This is our first house. We’ve been here six years. It has served us very well and we like it, but it’s time to move on. The kids keep getting bigger (in direct violation of my instructions). We had never intended to stay here forever anyway. We bought this as a starter home and are ready for a — what do you call the next one? A “settler’s home?”
That sounds a little too pioneer-ish for me. I am no Laura Ingalls. I’m more like the nice version of Nellie, but after she moved back to the city with her husband. What was his name? It doesn’t matter. My in-laws are light years better than hers. Remember the yelling? Ugh! Of course, this relates to the show and not at all to the books. The real Nellie never was nice. Maybe I am Laura, but only after she became an author and moved to the city. Hmm … This is what you call a ridiculous, irrelevant tangent.
If anyone can tell me what the next house is called, I’ll give you a prize.
So last week we had the realtors (Yes, plural. We have a team working for us.) to assess our house. It’s a two-part process. First they come and tour the house, asking a million questions and making a few suggestions. About a week later they return with a massive portfolio filled with all kinds of info about your neighborhood, your competition, what they’ll do for you, and what they think you should list your house for.
In between Part 1 and Part 2, we had some adventures. If this is just the beginning, I’m really not sure how I’ll survive this! Sit down; I’ll tell you a story, hopefully without any more of those awkward tangents.
A friend expressed interest in the house. This is fantastic because we could do a for-sale-by-owner which would save us the realtor fees and commissions. This friend and his wife were supposed to come on Saturday. (Part 1 had taken place Tuesday afternoon; Part 2 was scheduled for Monday morning.) We worked like crazy nearly killing each other and our marriage in perfect harmony to make sure the house looked better than usual its best. Meanwhile, the weather was insane! (You may have seen the storm covered on Nightly News or other worthy reports. Some local schools STILL have no power, four days later. It feels like driving through the aftermath of a tornado. Really nuts.) Just before our friends were due to arrive, Ellie came downstairs very excited about something: “There’s water in my room, Daddy! Come look!”
Now, our roof is fine. Absolutely fine! We’ve had it checked. But there is an attic vent just above the girl’s room that, when high winds combine with torrential rain (once every three years), water goes up the vent instead of down and then she gets a few drops in one tiny spot. Regardless, we do NOT want to show the house with buckets on the floor. Doesn’t quite make the best impression.
Fortunately for us, the storm was so bad that our friends never made it. The highway was closed due to downed wires, trees and flooding, so they made it out of the city just in time to turn around and go back to Manhattan. That was Saturday.
On Sunday we made a list of the open houses we wanted to visit, four in total.
The first two had no electricity.
The third one needed way more work than we can afford.
The forth one (the one that most interested us) looked like this:
Oh, you can’t see it? That’s because there is a GIANT TREE on top of it!!!
Here’s another angle:
They say there’s no damage to the house and once they get the tree removed, they’ll be happy to show it to us. They’re actually thrilled with this development because it will allow more natural light into the library.
TANGENT ALERT: Did you hear that? LIBRARY. It sounds so cool, doesn’t it? “I’ll take my tea in the li-brary, please.” I get giddy just thinking about it. Currently the Dennis Library consists of several boxes and two tall bookcases lining the garage and our upstairs bathroom, so any place that can store our books within actual living space (without needing nice-smelling candles) would be a delightful step-up. So, now, if they could only get that tree off the library …
We came home determined to laugh about it, thank God it wasn’t on our insurance and try again the next day.
The next day, however, was Monday. Monday brought with it all new adventures: the meeting with the realtors.
The meeting went very well. I desperately wanted to pray, but remembered that I was not at church or the kids’ school and therefore not exactly with like-minded Christians. While prayer would have been great, Rick agreed that it was a little too early to pull out the Jesus Freak membership card while trying to get these people to work for us. After initialing a dozen spots, selecting at least four important dates, and signing several papers, I joyfully walked them out before starting to pace and pray and hyperventilate just a little.
That was when my adoring, oh-so-compassionate husband decided to pontificate a few scenarios. “You know, babe, we really don’t have to move. This is a very nice house and if we don’t have any more kids, this works great.”
I glared at him smiled timidly. “What’s that, sweetheart?”
“What do you think? Should we have a third?”
Have you seen My Cousin Vinny? I would post a clip, but the language is deplorable, so you’ll just have to remember the scene at the cabin when Marisa Tomei stomps her foot while mentioning her biological clock. “Is there anything else we can pile on the top of this pressure cooker?!??”
Yeah. That was me on Monday.
After getting me a sandwich bag, a bowl, and carefully walking me to the open front door to get some air, Rick admitted it might have been a bad time to bring it up.
This is going to be a fun adventure.
11 comments March 17, 2010
Mama Loves: Angels in Disguise
My weekly exercise in positive blogging, Mama Loves is Philippians 4:8-9 in action. Learn more at this post.
Mama loves angels in disguise.
Last Thursday I woke with this prayer: “God, I’ve done it again. I overbooked myself today. Forgive me and please help me make it through the day with me and my children all in one piece.” (more…)
8 comments April 14, 2009
Hairy Races
Fine hair runs in my family. My husband’s family is blessed with gorgeous, shiny thick hair. My brothers have beautifully thick curls. My mother, grandmother and I (and doubtless generations of disappointed women before us) suffer with stick-straight, floss-fine hair. My poor granny also boasted white hair since birth and a receeding hairline that has made us all worry about drive-in movie theatre foreheads.
Ellie’s hair, unfortunately, comes from my side. The girl has gorgeous color and curls to die for, but it’s fine. I don’t mean thin. She has a lot of hair; it’s just fine. If you’re not afflicted with such you may not understand the trouble this causes. It tangles horrendously and can take hours to comb through.
In college I drove with a friend, windows down. I subtly collected all my hair into my hand and held tightly. She didn’t understand and told me to let go. We weren’t going that far and my hair would be fine. We arrived at our destination twenty minutes later, her hair still beautiful and perfectly neat. Mine, however, had been replaced by a huge nest made from straw by a schizophrenic bird. This is the future to which my genes have doomed our daughter. Add this to her curls and every bath day invites torture and lament.
Combing her hair is painful for both of us. Removing the messes takes patience, gentleness, diligence and usually some help – like a life-saving leave-in conditioner.
Sometimes it’s easier to ignore the tangles. Rather than suffer through her crying and my impatience, I’d prefer to pop it all up in a ponytail and forget it. But the tangles always grow. Left untended, they get worse.
Sometimes it’s tempting to only remove some of the rats, the bigger ones, and let the smaller ones wait for another day. I mean, isn’t forty minutes of combing enough? If it’s not done in that timeframe, then maybe it really doesn’t need to be done. If the top layers look nice, the rest can wait – right? I admit: sometimes I give in to this temptation, but come next bath day, I have to answer for my haste with greater diligence.
Why am I telling you all this?
Because the messes in our lives are the same. We may be tempted to let them be, ignore them or just save the conflict for another day. But we need to deal with our problems. Yes, it takes work and will likely involve pain, but the alternative will cause more pain. We need to remove the sin from our lives, no matter how big or small. I’m not saying all of our tangles are related to sin, but if it is, then we need to root it out. If it’s not, we still need to deal with it if we want to continue to grow in our faith and be used by God to our greatest potential.
There is good news! Just as I would never tackle Ellie’s hair without help, we cannot tackle our problems alone either. To do so is futile, setting ourselves up for failure. Praise God we have life-saving help! No leave-in conditioner, but rather we have a pool or resources. Prayer. Faithful friends. Encouraging Scripture. God-fearing teachers and leaders. Accountability. Best of all: the Holy Spirit on our side who knows our weaknesses. When we remove the tangles that encumber us, we can run faithfully the race laid out before us. We can be champions!
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
- Hebrews 12:1 (NIV)
1 comment April 6, 2009
All my cares
I haven’t blogged much lately, and I’m sorry about that. It’s not that I haven’t had much to say; it’s just that what I have to say probably shouldn’t be published for all the world to see. What could be published, for some reason, won’t align itself in any cohesive manner within me. I’m left simply praying, “God help me.”
Within the past three weeks my grandmother died, my mom came for a visit (we only see each other twice a year since she lives and works 800 miles away), my daughter turned five (an emotionally-chaged age considering my family’s abusive history), my estranged father contacted me after ten years of silence (seemingly with the sole purpose of attacking and berating me), and I finished teaching a 5-month Bible study on Ruth. I am exhausted and I don’t know what to do with most of this, especially the situation with my dad.
“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,
that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your
anxiety on Him,because He cares for you.
Be of sober spirit, be on the alert your adversary, the devil,
prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences
of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.
After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace,
who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect,
confirm, strengthen and establish you.
To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
- 1 Peter 5:6-11 (NAS)
Many things pop out from this passage: we will be exalted when the time is right; we are under attack; be strong because the weak go down first; we’re not alone in our suffering nor our experiences; God will be glorified. But I keep tripping on one little phrase: “… casting all your anxiety on Him …” Not some of your anxiety, not a few of your biggest cares, but ALL.
This is where I struggle. I want to handle things on my own. I want to just take care of the little stuff and then let Him handle the big stuff.
The next phrase always corrects me: “… because He cares for you.” He doesn’t care for some of me nor only when I do the right things or after I’ve already handled the small stuff myself. No. He cares for me unconditionally and without fail. He is beyond faithful in His pursuit of me! He cares for me so much that even the “little” things are big things to Him.
Once again I beg God to take it all from me. I don’t ask to be released from trials, but only that He would loosen my prideful grip in order to accept His help and wisdom. Take my cares and show me what to do with them.
4 comments March 12, 2009
Mama Loves, a condensed version
Normally Tuesday mornings start with Mama Loves, an exercise in gratitude and positive perspective. This week, however, my planned post is postponed.
My laptop in on the fritz. Yes, I believe my beautiful Ruthie, whom I love and can’t live without, is dying. She has gone everywhere with me for two years and now, sadly, I think she’s worn out. Why does this affect Mama Loves? Well, all my stuff is on that laptop (my graphics, pictures, programs, writing stuff*) and I can’t access it until I can wake her up, so that puts me on The Man’s computer, a viable substitution, but just not the same.
The positive side of this situation? Hmmm … I’ll likely waste less time today. I may need to get a new laptop soon. That’s kind of cool … expensive, but cool. And I get to play around with the hubby’s computer fortress. Who knows what fun stuff I’ll find here in the frigid corner of this basement? I’ll probably get to play my guitar today! That’s definitely cool.
Mama loves challenges. Mama loves surprises. Mama loves that God is always in control.
* Don’t worry: I have backups of all my book proposals, manuscripts, outlines and notes. I just haven’t backed up my other stuff. Can you guess what I’ll work on as soon as Ruthie comes out of this coma?
Add comment January 20, 2009
Snowballs
We saw our first snowflakes today. The kids were SO excited!! Ellie wanted to run out and play immediately. Unfortunately, the short burst of seasonal quirkiness ended before we could find her mittens. That’s okay by me. I’m not quite ready for winter yet. Especially if it, in traditional northeast fashion, decides to stick around through March. Besides, today I’m dealing with a completely different kind of snowball.
I mentioned last week about the leaky roof and new ceiling construction. Well, the guys finally finished the job yesterday. Shortly after they left, I got busy preparing the room to be repainted.
Three and a half years ago I decorated the room with trains. When finished, it looked like this.
Cute – right? I thought so. Perfect for Zach’s first room, but not exactly suited for a dining room, which is what this room will soon become.
I started taking down the trains, 3-D wooden things I painted and nailed to the walls when Zach was born. The 12th piece brought with it a patch of wallpaper. You may remember the adventures we’ve had with wallpaper in this house. After finding one too many surprises, I decided to paint over the wallpaper in Zach’s room rather than subject myself to another round of Homeowner’s Roulette. But now, since the train pulled one tiny little piece, this simple cosmetic paint project snowballed into a much bigger job.
I started taking down the wallpaper to find holes. And the snowball grows. Fortunately these are much smaller than the ones we’ve encountered in the past. Then I found this.
Some days I really miss renting. Sure, we had a creepy landlord, but we didn’t have snowballs. We didn’t have the responsibility of caring if there were snowballs. We could make a phone call and forget it. As a homeowner, there is no one to call. Well, except our contractor who, I’m sure, loves having clients like us who buy houses like ours.
But then some snowballs are worth the effort.
“And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.” – Romans 5:3-4 (HCSB)
This is not hope as in a wish, but hope as in an utter, unrelenting confidence. In other words (my own words), trials encourage perseverance which, when it grows, snowballs into character which, the more it’s tested, snowballs into an undoubtable faith in our salvation. That’s a snowball I’ve love to manage.
How awesome would it be to never doubt your faith? To never think you’re crazy for believing in a God you can’t see or a direction you’re not totally sure He’s given you but you think He might have. These trials are a good thing when they snowball into an unshakable faith. But the only way they can do that is if we persevere. Our perseverance allows the trials to do their work, adding layer upon layer of character to us and our faith.
Sound off. What snowballs are you managing? Are you persevering? If not, what is preventing you from attaining that ultimate hope?
2 comments October 29, 2008
MIA
Hey. I wanted to let you all know why I’ve been absent this week. If you’ve been watching the news at all, you’ve heard much about Lehman Brothers and the Wall Street choas. Well, my husband works for Lehman Brothers. At least he has for the past seven years. This week has been … eventful, to say the least. But I’ll be back to my regular blogging self in no time. In fact, tomorrow I’ll announce the “new ‘do” winner along with the date of The Big Cut.
For now I just want to share a couple verses with you.
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
- Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)
This peace that defies understanding, it’s tangible and kind of scary. When all this happened with Lehman Brothers, I wasn’t worried. In fact, I didn’t even think twice about it. I was and am so fully convinced that God is in control, that none of it fazed me. My husband lost his job, our sole source of income, and yet I wasn’t worried about a thing, not our mortgage or Ellie’s school payments or groceries or health insurance or anything. It was just another day with an awesome God at the reigns. Peace saturated my entire being. The peace was so overwhelming, it was almost frightening.
When the news broke, our phone started ringing off the hook. I received dozens of emails each day offering encouragement and prayer. Each person I spoke with was completely amazed at the peace God gave me. The more people I talked to, the more I started to freak out. If everyone else was worried, shouldn’t I be worried too? This is, after all, my life and my family. I should be the one most terrified by the possibilities and the reality surrounding me. All of a sudden panic and fear replaced the peace.
Why? The situation hadn’t changed.
But my perspective had. I took my eyes off God. Rather than focusing on Him, I started looking at the situation.
This incomprehensible peace is of God. No other explanation exists. But we canot possess it if our focus strays from Him. Let me encourage you to keep your eyes on God. Those around you may not understand how you can be so confident and at rest; you may not understand it yourself. But don’t take your eyes off Him. He is our Source of strength and peace. He the only thing worthy of our attention.
2 comments September 18, 2008
