places i don’t belong. and why. and celebrating pagan holidays with your catholic children during lent.
places i don’t belong and why:
dressing rooms because even in seemingly normal places like marshall’s. the music is too loud. and annoying. it’s hot. i get claustrophobic. and i have not lost enough weight for anything i’d really like to wear to look good on me.
facebook because i am not cool enough. i tried to go on there today and accept a bunch of friend requests that i had. mostly from family. a niece in college. a cousin out of town. my youngest son’s godmother. but there are still all these faces of people in high school. and their words. friends then. but there is really no connection now. so what is the point? all of the really cool people are still cool. and i am just sort of a ghost. not wanting to say anything for fear of sounding like a nerd.
i do hate that word. it’s not a grown up word.
but what can i say?
i guess that is why i love this little space here.
i belong here.
so those crab-green onion and cream cheese stuffed wontons (lightly fried in olive oil. garlic. ginger and black pepper) could be the reason i don’t do so well in fitting rooms. but we won’t discuss that at this time.
my kids love celebrating anything so of course we belatedly(is that even a word?) celebrated chinese new year. everyone wore red. my girl wore flowers in her hair. we ate oranges for wealth. beef and broccoli along with our wontons. read a cute little story that had a darling bald chinese baby that max just loved. made paper dragons from this printable.
i didn’t do all of the things i had planned. but sometimes a little impromptu celebration is good enough. they kept telling me how much fun they had. and it was fun.
but tomorrow we are back to our fasting.
and that, my dear friends is how you celebrate pagan holidays with your children during lent. with the intent of exposing them to just a little bit of another culture.
they might become missionaries someday.
one never knows.
oh! and we did pray for the chinese people who do not know the ONE TRUE GOD.
andeverythinginitsplace.wordpress.com 
We do this kind of thing all the time. We had plans for Chinese New Year, but since it fell on Valentine’s Day, we went with that instead…but we consider it part of our Geography studies.
The cream cheese-crab-wonton thingies look divine…recipe forthcoming? Email it to me…sooooon!
P.S. I picked up the Mason-Dixon Knitting book at the library yesterday just so that I could be reading what you are reading. It’s fun, isn’t it?
Regan, it is just that you don’t feel comfortable that makes you cool to me! Set yourself apart. I’ll be your facebook friend, cause I always want to hear what you have to say.
Love this post. I can so relate to Facebook, although the other thing that amazes me is that us uncool nerds all seem to be happily married and with lovely families whereas the “cool kids” are still living like they’re 19. I wonder who really got the better deal?
And I second the recipe request, those look YUM! 🙂
I can relate to the dressing room experience … I want to go in, but I can’t right now. I need to shed those last pounds first. Then, I’ll happily skip on in. And buy what fits well, finally … And I am not on facebook for the same reason, but for others, too. I feel like I’m one of the three people in this world who aren’t on, but that’s ok. As much as it is tempting sometimes to just check it out, I think I’m better off staying far, far away from it. But that’s just me. Your Chinese New Year photos are gorgeous! I’m glad you had a fun family time, and I love how you incorporated praying for the Chinese people who do not know God. That was a nice twist.
Happy Wednesday!
okay, friend me on fb lady!
but, i’m in the desert during Lent = no fb until Easter Monday 🙂
and i’m not going through withdrawl like i anticipated. yay!
dressing rooms really stink. actually, my weight does. depressing. hmm, i’ll work on my soul… equally depressing!
have a blessed day regan dear!!
i don’t really get facebook either. i joined, but really. if i didn’t like you/you didn’t like me in highschool, why do you want to be my friend now? and then it seems as if people just post their blog posts to facebook? which i may end up doing. but otherwise, its seems to be one more place to waste time on. and its not like i have all that time in the first place…
The wontons do look yummy … Chinese food is a favorite around here & in my extended family, too. Crab cream cheese are our favorite.
On FB, I feel pretty much the same. I’m not the same person I was in hs. Most of my contacts/conversations are with friends who I met later in life so we have more in common. Honestly, it’s one of those ‘things’ that took quite a bit of my online time right away, but has now faded. It helps that I have messages forwarded to my email. I find many of the entries from friends funny, so it’s a little laugh here and there throughout the day … especially the updates about kids. I prefer blogging.
Haven’t seen the inside of a dressing room for quite some time! I like to buy and try on at home, but that’s so much harder when we live far away from major shopping.
No one is truly who they wholly are in this media . . . we are all such vastly different folks, after all. FB, to me, is just another way to wile away precious time. It’s not a bad way to spend a few minutes here and there, greeting friends/catching up with others, and looking at pictures . . . but I limit the time there as well as blogging now. I have peace of mind and heart now that I’ve put things into perspective. You can FB me if you like, but I won’t be offended if you don’t. I haven’t room in my heart or thoughts to be offended – only room to love you and others where they are! I wonder why some of my classmates have friended me . . . we never “hung out” in high school, nor after, so why? But, since I’ve nothing to lose by them peeking into my life, I allow it. They need to see me as I am, I suppose: ever-changing to be more acceptable to Christ on the final day. No less, no more, but constantly working out my salvation through the murky waters of humanity.
HUGS, my dear friend across the Pacific!
Your blog is beautiful! Those wontons look so good, I drooled all over my keyboard. Goodness!
As for Facebook, I know what you mean. I am on there, more than I should be. It amazes me all these “friends” from high school. It reminds me just how much I have changed since then. I am a COMPLETELY different person. I think sometimes I shock them with my conservative views. I have had to hide others who are so liberal I am tempted to actually say something back, lol. One thing is there are more people to offer prayers for special causes I offer up, which is always good…. and maybe more people to convert, lol. I have to say, though, the more time on Facebook, the more I am loving my blog and the beautiful people I meet there.
I am very very nerdy myself. I stay away from Facebook too. It’s for the best.