Baylor University Archives

Spring has sprung and here in Texas that means it’s getting hot and muggy already. School activities are ramping up into high gear as the days on the instructional calendar tick away.

Another month has gone by. It happens all the time, but these days I am very aware that the months turn into years.

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One more school year with my Allie at home and then she will step out into new adventures without us. It’s hard to believe.

Physical therapy appointments and exercises filled the first part of my month. Unfortunately it only exacerbated my sciatic pain. I received a second sedated epidural injection on the 19th and wait impatiently to see if it offers me any additional relief. In between I worked a little, banquet dress shopped for Allie (she has 4 to attend), and got to hear her choirs perform their UIL show twice! We also watched a digital premiere for Baylor University with Allie (her current first choice for college) and started planning some in-person visits!

Easter Treats

Our church held a special Maundy Thursday service during Holy Week and we attended Easter service Saturday night with Chuck’s parents so we could drive out to spend Easter day with my parents, my PawPaw and my sisters’ families. There was food (of course), confetti eggs, an egg hunt and cooking with Aunt Kristen (a holiday favorite for the kids). And on Good Friday Shelby had an egg hunt with Best Buddies.

Allie Rose and a whole slew of her smart friends were inducted into the National Honor Society in a ceremony that left much to be desired. But an honor for her none the less. Then the next night she starred as Giselle in a one act play of Enchanted. I am more than a little biased, but I think she’s the perfect princess! Watch a short clip https://www.facebook.com/1363398330/videos/298641175786727/

Updates on the Hubs

Chuck still had a few doctor’s appointments sprinkled in there. He is trying to eat a little more by mouth so he can eventually evict the feeding tube, but swallowing still hurts a lot. He also has some lymphatic swelling getting in the way of his throat. So we have applied for insurance coverage on a new device to help with this. We are having fun with how good it looks. My sisters deemed it his luchador outfit (think Nacho Libre). The wrestler names they have suggested: El Detallista – The Retailer (he works for WalMart) or El Sobreviviente – The Survivor. I think I like the later!

April Entertainment

I did not mention any books in my round up last month. That’s because I’ve been struggling to get through one for the last 6 weeks. I’m not sure why except that I’m still taking medication for my sciatica that makes me sleepy. And most of my reading time is in bed at night. First Women: The Grace and Power of America’s Modern First Ladies by Kate Andersen Brower seemed like a perfect book for Women’s History Month, but now that month has come and gone. I loved Brower’s The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House (highly recommend), and this one is full of interesting stories and details. But it jumps around so much from one administration to another and back again that I get whip lash. I’m still going to finish it; hopefully before another month has gone by. I have trouble quitting on books – whip lash and all.

We talked my sister Kristen into going to see Uncharted with us. A surprisingly clean movie – which is hard to find these days. And it was fun. A very Indiana Jones-like escape. And we tried a couple of new shows on broadcast TV. Good Sam might be a new favorite, although not without issues. We haven’t watched a medical drama since ER but this one has an interesting twist. And The Thing About Pam was good if you like true crime. We tried Only Murders in the Building after hearing good things but the language was a little much for us.

One particularly sedentary day hubby and I watched two movies. I didn’t like either one, for very different reasons. Free State of Jones, although a good historic story, was so gory. We followed it up with The Fighting Temptations for something lighter. It was lighter, but not compelling at all! We then landed on a documentary on Hulu. Captive Audience: A Real American Horror Story shows promise. At least the first episode grabbed us.

Before May Becomes Another Month that Has Gone By

On the day this post goes live, Allie’s show choir puts on their annual Jazz Show. It’s always a highlight. Her solo and her general outlook is Accentuate the Positive! I hope you can as well today. I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Let me know what captured your attention. And as always, I thank you, I love you and I hope May treats you well!

And now for this week’s featured post from the link up!

Grace and Truth’s own Tammy Kennington put so many of my feelings into words. I don’t live in a state of dispair, but have definitely felt it these last few years. She expressed it – and prayed for it – better than I could. Read Two Prayers to Help Overcome Bitterness When You Struggle With Sorrow.

1. Share 1 or 2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. (No DIY, crafts, recipes, or inappropriate articles.) All links are randomly sorted.

2. Comment on 1 or 2 other links. Grace & Truth linkup encourages community.

3. Every host features one entry from the previous week. To be featured, include this button or link back here on your post (mandatory to be featured, but not to participate).

We encourage you to follow our hosts on their blogs or social media.

MAREE DEE – Embracing the Unexpected
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LAUREN SPARKS
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LISA BURGESS – Lisa notes
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TAMMY KENNINGTON – Restoring hope. Pursuing peace.
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You may have seen on this blog a time or two that I watched the mini series Little Fires Everywhere. I remain fascinated by it. Brene Brown, a sociologist whose research I also find fascinating, recorded two podcasts about the show and the novel it was based on. I downloaded and listened to them right away.

In one episode, Brown interviewed the book’s author. The second featured Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington, the lead actors in the Hulu series. During both, the insightful host introduced an interesting concept – your hometown as a character in your story. The author set the book in her own hometown, Shaker Heights, Ohio. This picturesque hamlet is one of the first planned communities in the United States. Designers thought themselves very progressive by voluntarily integrating before most of the rest of the country. At that time, racial unrest and violence had already occured. This dark past was pushed under a rug as financing became available for black residents to move into white neighborhoods and vice versa. Buses carried white students to black schools and black students to white schools.

The self-satisfied occupants of Shaker Heights claimed to be color blind and ignored differences and previous history in favor of looking the part of an equality based utopia. Because of this, the Shaker Heights community still struggles with the same issues of race and class we see in the rest of the nation. It strives to maintain the picturesque facade with rules. The lawns can be only 2 inches, and house paint color is regulated. In the movie, Mia’s rent house displays the importance of appearance. The duplex, from the outside, looks like a single family residence. But physically and metaphorically, slapping a coat of paint on something without fixing the foundation makes for a problematic existence.

I realize that my family of origin, other people I surrounded myself with and many other factors helped mold my morals, beliefs and overall worldview. But I decided to take a look at my own hometown and try to analyze how it might contribute.

I was born in Waco, Texas (which refers to itself as the Heart of Texas) in 1973. Waco occupies space about halfway between Dallas and Austin. I could get to either one in about 90 minutes by car. So even though the population measured just a little over 100,000 in the town proper, big city attractions sat in easy reach. Now, years later, Waco is it’s own attraction thanks to the rise of the Gaines family and Fixer Upper.

The name Waco comes from the Hueco Indians, an arm of the Wichita. They occupied a village there until white settlers drove them out. In 1912, a prominent citizen brought back a group of the Hueco to participate in an exhibition of the city’s annual Texas Cotton Palace Exposition and Fair. (The Cotton Palace Pageant still exists today.) Event planners fabricated a village of teepees for them to live in, taught them war dances to perform and dressed them in a strange conglomeration of modern and native clothing. In 2014, over 100 years later, city leaders and historians invited tribal leaders back to work on restoring connections and developing better relationships.

With these racially nefarious underpinnings, I wanted to research Waco’s historical relationship with black Americans. In 1916, a black teen confessed to murdering a white woman and was tortured, mutilated and burned to death. In what is now called the “Waco Horror”, 15,000 spectators watched including police and the mayor. Officials made strides toward repentance 100 years later by finally publicly condemning the lynching.

In spite of these things, people of different colors lived harmoniously all around me. The north side of town (my neighborhood) was a former air force base. The military originally established the school I attended for air force families and was, therefore, integrated many years before other schools in the area. And until 1990, Waco was home to Paul Quinn College, the oldest Historically Black College west of the Mississippi.

Waco is also home to Baylor University – the oldest and largest Baptist school in the United States. It’s nickname? Jerusalem on the Brazos. And churches of different denominations line the streets there. It’s no surprise that my Christian doctrine leans toward the conservative.

I could explore much more here. From the serious – this mostly middle class area did not prepare me for the challenges of living in a more affluent area with a more affluent mindset. To the silly – Dr. Pepper was born there. I worked at it’s museum and love the sweet beverage still. It’s all more than you would care to read. But my introspection begs me to ask if you’ve ever considered your hometown as a character in your story.

Can you think of one characteristic of your hometown that may have shaped who you are or something you believe? I would love to hear about it in the comments. Please. I’m bored here in quarantine. 😉

And now for this week’s featured post!

I don’t know what it’s like to have Fibromyalgia, but I do know what crippling disappointment feels like. Maybe you do to? Especially right now? Click over and read what Jennifer Ross of teawithjennifer.blog has to say in the post Layers of Disappointment. Her experience + the encouragement of God’s word spoke to my tired, frustrated soul. Thanks for ministering to me, Jennifer.

And thanks for sharing! Here’s a button for your blog:

1. Share 1 or 2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. (No DIY, crafts, recipes, or inappropriate articles.) All links are randomly sorted.

2. Comment on 1 or 2 other links. Grace & Truth linkup encourages community.

3. Every host features one entry from the previous week. To be featured, include this button or link back here on your post (mandatory to be featured, but not to participate).