A Wednesday List....Hurricane Harvey edition

It's been a weird few days. Maybe you've heard about the catastrophic weather event happening in South Texas? To recap: Hurricane Harvey, hitting the coast at a category 4 and moving very slowly inland where it decided to camp out over Houston and dump record breaking levels of rain on the nation's fourth largest city -- a place that is prone to flooding under normal circumstances. Thousands stranded and displaced. We have been very lucky -- our neighborhood got some high water in the street, but houses remained dry. Streets and buildings and homes not far from us are flooded, but we are okay. Of course, it's the kind of few days that generate a lot of thoughts to process, and you all know how I like to best process things...

1. I've mostly spent the past four days feeling extremely grateful. Grateful that my family was together and safe, that we had power and water and food and even a luxury like working Internet. I've been thankful for first responders, community volunteers, meteorologists, and friends and family who check on each other. And a special shout-out to the two meteorologists to run www.spacecityweather.com, providing factual, current, non-sensational updates and forecasts. 

2. While there have been some disheartening accounts of people behaving badly, it's been inspiring to see and hear people rallying around each other and reaching out to neighbors in a very broad sense of the word (have you heard about the Cajun Navy? Yeah, that's just pretty awesome). Stressful circumstances can bring out the worst in people, but they also bring out the best too. 

3. There's nothing like a natural disaster to remind you that your not in control. It's an exercise in trusting God and leaning on Him. 

4. Along with being out of control is that feeling of being helpless. Of watching heartbreaking news footage or hearing the reports of damage and flooding and knowing it's not over by a long shot, but knowing there's nothing you can do at this moment. But sometimes one of the best ways to help is by staying out of the way and not adding to the chaos (especially when you've got two toddler/preschoolers in to think about). So I wait, knowing that one day the sun will come back, and opportunities will pop up for me to get my hands dirty, and I simply pray that I will see them and jump in with both feet. 

5. It's hard to think about life beyond the twilight zone bubble, but I know we'll get back to regular day-to-day life eventually. We'll stop watching too much tv (sorry kids). On a side note, I didn't finish the book I'd started which surprised me a little -- we've had a lot of extra down time, but not as much with keeping routines somewhat normal for the kids, plus I'm rewatching Friends right now too -- but I'm about halfway through Buried Heart, by Kate Elliott. Things are getting good!

5. I've been really touched by all the friends checking in on us, some I expected to hear from and some I didn't. Each text or message was a real bright spot. 

Please keep praying for Southeast Texas, and hug your loved ones today!

A Wednesday list

1. We have family visiting from out of town this week! I always love family visits, especially when they are long enough to be leisurely.

2. The littlest munchkin turned 2 yesterday (thus the family visit). It surprises me every time I think about it! But I hear that's how it goes with kids. He's a pretty cool kid (even with the beefed up toddler emotions). He's funny and silly and affectionate and joyful.

3. Reading-wise: I read Girl on the Train recently. More accurately, I read the first two-thirds and skimmed the last third. I was spoiled on the ending, and while that doesn't always mean I don't finish a book, sometimes it does. Overall it was was a pretty good mystery, but not my favorite. After I finished it I shopped my own bookshelves and finally picked up a book someone had given me to read several years ago. I gave The Heart is a Lonely Hunter a solid chance, but it's going to be a DNF for me. Party of my problem may have been the writing style -- it was written in the forties and the phrasing and style felt a little clunky -- but nothing really sparked my interest enough to keep going. It wasn't really depressing, but definitely leaned toward melancholy. I have a guess that any book written post WWI and pre-WWII probably leans that way, and if I were feeling scholarly I might seek out a large sample size of books written during that time and put my theory to the test (I mean...think about Hemingway). But I'm not feeling all that scholarly so....

4. I picked up Buried Heart, by Kate Elliott, the third in a trilogy I'm looking forward to finishing. I'm also slowly working my way through Business Boutique by Christy Wright and would like to get started on my pre-release copy of Finish, by Jon Acuff. Naturally, with all these books I want to read, I'll probably waste time re-watching episodes of Friends on Netflix.

5. I'm pretty much over summer. Let me rephrase that: I'm over sweating and trying to keep my house from being run over by bugs. However, the reality of living in Houston is that we've still got a ways to go. So I'll say it and take a deep breath and then accept reality and try to find some silver linings (like the nice long growing season in Texas and the plentiful and cheap fresh and delicious produce). Because there's no point in getting too worked up over something that you can't change.

A Monday list

The past two days I've felt alternately angry, sad, and helpless in the face of hateful, racist, violent words and demonstrations. I know that the rally in Virginia isn't an isolated event, just a large and high profile one. It's a heartbreaking reminder that there are people who, for whatever reason, have let hate and anger and fear take root in their hearts. Who don't believe that we are all created in God's image, and that our differences are what make our world interesting. It's a reminder that people all over the world believe the answer to their problems is the existence of someone else -- someone "other" -- in the same space. We see this conflict played out time and time again, but it gets no less devastating. So here's my list for today, the things I'm reminding myself...

1. Pray. Pray like I BELIEVE it. Pray that people's hearts would change in the way that only Jesus can change them. Pray for Christians to be bold, compassionate, loving, and humble.

2. Pay attention. Pay attention to any opportunity I have to be a light in this dark, dark world. Maybe that's reaching out to a neighbor, giving time or money to organizations already fighting the good fight, teaching my children one day at a time to be loving and respectful of all people, or speaking out if I hear someone saying things that are hateful.

3. Follow Jesus to the best of my ability, in the circumstances I find myself in. The reality is that I will do more good occupying my own space well than in fretting over what I can't do at this moment. Am I loving my neighbors well? Do I see an opportunity to bless a friend struggling with grief, to take a meal to a sick neighbor, to be kind and friendly to that kind of weird person at church who is feeling lonely and outcast?

I think I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the fact that I don't know what it's like to have such hatred focused at me, and because of this words often fail me. I don't want to spout platitudes or be condescending in an effort to mean well, but what I will say is that I am sorry, I am angry, I hurt for you, and I can't imagine how you're feeling. I hope I can live my life in a way that is the opposite of hate.

"By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the worlds' goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth." I John 3:16-18

"Save, O Lord, for the godly one is gone; for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man. Everyone utters lies to his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak. May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts, those who say, 'With our tongue we will prevail, our lips are with us; who is master over us?' Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan, I will now arise,' says the Lord; 'I will place him in the safety for which he longs.' The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on teh ground, purified seven times. You, O Lord, will keep them; you will guard us from this generation forever. On every side the wicked prowl as vileness is exalted among the children of man." Psalm 12

A Monday list

1. I took a big dream baby step today: I bought a domain name! Because I'm not in the mood to reinvent the wheel, www.amandaloveswords.com is now mine, all mine! And after way too much reading and a few attempts to make things harder than I needed to, I redirected the domain to this existing blog. One day I may try to develop an online portfolio -- which would require a bit more of an advanced web site than a simple blog -- but in the meantime, I think the simplified domain name looks a little more professional when I'm trying to do writer/editor/proofreader-type networking.

2. I've been in the mood for a true rainy day, and got my wish this morning. Granted, because it's August in South Texas that means that it's going to feel like a literal jungle outside, but it is what it is.

3. I started The Girl on the Train this weekend (the book). It's not the kind of mystery/suspense novel that I usually gravitate toward, but a friend read it and passed it on, and if someone I know physically hands me a book to try, I am more inclined to at least give it a go. (which reminds me that it's been at least three years, maybe more, since my friend Rita gave me a couple of books to read, and I still haven't cracked them open yet. Oops. Of course, one of them she said she didn't like, which isn't exactly motivating).

4. July seemed to last forever, but now I'm wondering how we're a week into August already. The kids are going to be starting a two-day-a -week Mother's Day after Labor Day, and there are a couple of other things going on that first week of September. So I think the forward-thinking-looming-deadlines-giant-list-making is taking my gaze off of the every day here and now.

5. Last week the kids and I checked out a little local used book store that's just a few minutes from the house. They had an adorable little kids section with big floor pillows and a little table and chairs, and now Christina keeps asking to go on a "bookstore adventure."  Because I was trying to manage the kid chaos (and explain to Christina the difference between borrowing books from the library, which we do every week, and buying books from a bookstore) I didn't really look around the adult section too much, but it seems to have a pretty decent variety, especially for a small store. I'm looking forward to making another trip soon.

Happy Monday!

Reading...The Martian

The nice thing about reading popular books a few years after they're published (and after the movie adaptation comes out) is that there's no hold on the libarry copy and you can read it right away! I'd heard good things about The Martian by Andy Weir from both science fiction and non-science fiction fans. When it popped up as a recommendation on Overdrive (an app to download ebooks from your local public library) I checked it out, and really enjoyed it.

The book is essentially a stranded-on-a-desert-island survival story, but with a lot more science. Mark Watney is an astronaut who gets left behind on Mars when he and his crewmates are forced to evacuate their mission early due to a dangerous sandstorm. Mark is assumed dead -- which is how he gets left behind -- but it turns out he survives the storm very much alive. Mark is a great character -- likable and believable, like someone you'd want to hang out with back home. So it's easy to get invested in what's happening. It really felt almost like reading a memoir of what happened to a real person. The secondary characters filled their roles well -- real people who were worrying and working to get Mark home.

You can tell that the author is a scientist -- or at least a big fan of science and space travel. There's a lot of science as Mark explains in his log what he's doing and how he's doing it, and lots of insights into rockets and astrophysics and all the things necessary to space travel. While there are a few times where I -- who doesn't know a whole lot about science or physics or math -- got a little lost in the numbers, it didn't hinder my enjoyment. Occasionally I just kind of skimmed over those parts, reading enough to get the gist of what was going on. But for someone who really digs science, I'm pretty sure they would find some of the more detailed explanations a nice addition to the story. And i do think it lent a lot of realism to the story, grounding it in reality and making it seem -- like I mentioned above -- like it could be based on a true story.

Bottom line: great read, and I'm ready to see the film adaptation