Quick Takes Friday #2
Life Updates, the best soup, a pep talk, a must-see interview
I’m currently working on some writing about subjects that takes time and discernment. Time is precious and fleeting and I’m amazed how some of you make tremendous progress with so little! I also need good discernment because sometimes I feel compelled to speak into delicate spaces but am unsure if it’s true wisdom or just my own unsanctified desire. Many past articles have been put into draft and died there, as it should be. I’m working now in that space (with my husband) to discern where I might really be called to speak even if it means poking a bear or two.
In the meantime, here are some life updates and links which may be helpful to you…
WHEN KIDS GROW UP AND DO COOL STUFF…
We attended the opening exhibition game for our city’s semi-pro men’s volleyball team and saw our son’s first pro touches. He’s proof that expensive life-sucking travel club sports aren’t the only path to achieving goals. Do I miss endless hours in the gym and natatoriums, cheering my kids on? I do. Yet stepping away was an important and healing step for our family. Congrats to this kid for walking a hard path with courage... and also for becoming a dad for a second time! His second little princess is safely growing and preparing to make her grand entrance in the spring.
First photo is of my husband and two of my sons. Video is of my son getting a kill and probably of some of my family cheering.
SPEAKING OF FAMILY SPORTS…
We discovered pickleball in late summer and we’ve been having a blast ever since. I assumed that pickleball was just for retired Floridians who join clubs and wear special shoes. Not so, friends! We simply descend on the public courts (my apologies to the clubbers) and fill them with our kids and their spouses and cousins.
It’s something of a cross between tennis and ping pong. Or if someone blasted you with a shrink ray and then put you on a ping pong table.. but outside and with a bigger paddle and ball. It’s 48 degrees? If you live in the Midwest, this is temperate… get out there!
Going back to special shoes…
It turns out that pickleballers do wear special shoes but it seems that the adults in our family have a preference for a different kind of shoe. Five of us recently turned up wearing our barefoot athletic shoes and we didn’t even plan it. You can find the HSF and Prio Xero shoes HERE.
For thirty years, my feet were encased in stability shoes, inserts, and sometimes braces. I wouldn’t get on any court without them. I have spent the last few years shedding those devices and healing my feet. I had no idea how much healing was possible. Now I live in barefoot or neutral shoes.
ALL THE SOUP FOR YOU!
We recently had a family soup competition and I made an Olive Garden copycat called Zuppa Toscana. I doubled the recipe (of course) and made my own chicken broth for the base. So delicious! The competition was cancelled last minute (after we arrived) by a revered family member who insisted that it took the fun out of enjoying and eating. I strongly disagreed (see our successful pie contest) but demurred and just enjoyed a lot of soup.
Also, I need a new crockpot. The lid is broken and I somehow melted the words off the nob. Duct tape absolutely suits my domestic style but it’s really not ideal. I found an amazing soup tureen on FB marketplace that was shaped like a hen but did not buy it. It wouldn’t have traveled as well but I would have earned the most points for style.
YOUR STATE IS NEXT.
Urgent. No matter where you live, please pay attention.
The abortion amendment to the Ohio Constitution passed last week, bypassing the conservative legislature and moving the state from abortion restrictive to the radically permissive. Move over, California. Babies can now be murdered all the way to birth. Additionally, parental rights have been restricted, children left vulnerable to predatory sex and medicine, and the abortion profiteers freed from safety measures which protect women. The pro-abortion campaign was well-organized, well-funded, and lied boldly. Tragic.
Even though Ohio is so red that it voted for Trump, it was low hanging fruit for this ballot measure because changing the constitution only requires a 50% plus one populace vote. Is your state safe? NO. They have international money and they have passion that Christians don’t overwhelmingly have. Armor up.
I randomly looked up conservative states to see if similar ballot initiatives are in the works and all of them did. Here’s Florida. They already have about half the signatures needed to put this on the ballot.
Your state may be conservative but all they need is votes. Roll that around in your mind for a bit, check out the language of the Ohio amendment, and then contrast with the propaganda that the left bankrolled in Ohio. They were counting on voters being passive and easily duped. They were dead on accurate.
In Ohio, they were bringing in activists to get signatures well before most pro-life people knew what was going on. In my area, they went to all community events. They were well-spoken, well-dressed, often from out of state, and willing to deceive in order to get signatures. Get busy, friends. Now.
Thank you to all in Ohio and across the country (including Democrats) who worked to stop this wicked amendment, especially my oldest son who did so much to help Ohioans (especially young adults) understand the language and make informed decisions.
WOMEN AND KIDS ARE BEING FED TO THE GOD OF PROFIT
In 2016 I was offered a late-term abortion of my completely healthy child by a respected physician working for a Catholic hospital. After a two hour ultrasound that I was bullied into, in which it was determined that my baby was healthy, he said the child might be born ugly or with too many fingers. He must have seen the shock on our faces at his suggestion because he added with a shrug…
“But maybe you are a pro-life kind of people.” Yeah. Maybe.
He must be delighted with the results of the Ohio voting. Now he won't have to worry about hiding his kickbacks or back door butchering.
I encourage you to watch the following interview between Matt Fradd and former abortionist, Dr. John Bruchalski. We must become sensitive to life again. To children, to women, to fathers, to all impacted by violence to innocence. I cried through a lot of this interview, but I’m grateful for the grief. I’m grateful to be alive enough to feel it.
May God forgive us for our complicity and tepidness. Jesus, please heal us where we are broken. Restore us to wholeness so that we can rise to our purpose, to love and to be loved. We trust in Your mercy.
A HEALTHY CHRISTMAS
I’m going to wrap this up so that you can go watch that video, but I don’t want to leave without updating you on my continuous conversion to God through proper care of the body. I’ll save the details for another time, but briefly:
Covid wrecked my health for the last two years. In that time, I also had severe injury to my hip and have at times struggled to walk. I have been working so hard at strength, mobility, recovery, pain management, and care of pre-existing autoimmune conditions. I recently returned to a more careful diet that is delicious and beautifully healing but which sadly excludes the gourmet cookies regularly being churned out of my kitchen. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be well! But it ain’t always easy.
What motivates me in this moment? Pickleball (not even kidding) and the increased agility and strength I feel in movement. Gratitude for life and God’s design. My husband and kids. Feeling mentally well. And being emotionally and physically free from attachment to all the gorgeous sugary stuff that accompanies the holidays. There is a time for splurging. Now is not my time. I’m at peace. Thanks be to God.
May the peace of Jesus Christ be with you during this most blessed season.
Melody
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It's amazing that you shared about your foot journey. Though I didn't have any problems (overtly ~ as I believe everyone who wears "normal" shoes actually does have problems... they're just insidious until much later in life....), I believed all the research about the benefits of barefoot shoes and foot health, so I bought a pair. Then another. Then another. Now, I find that I can only wear barefoot shoes!!! I wear "normal" shoes to Mass, but other than that, it HAS to be barefoot shoes. Once you adjust, and your feet get stronger, you realize how horrible your feet feels in regular shoes. I highly encourage everyone to make the switch.