It takes a village, and two weirdos in Austin I guess

So, it feels a little odd writing this blog entry for many reasons and none of them are the point, but I'll keep it short because of that.  We're sponsoring a kiddo from Colombia through World Vision! Woot! I've been wanting to do this for ages, but lack of income and then forgetfulness kept us from that.  In any case, we're blessed to have money now, so we're blessed to give it.  Our kid is an 8 year old little girl who reportedly loves to run and race and her favorite chore is making the bed.  Apparently, I have things to learn from her ;)

Peace friends,

Malssss

Here's some info on our Colombia friend if you like: WorldVision - My Sponsored Child  I haven't clicked on this link myself, so I don't know where it takes you. It was auto-generated from WV though,  so I'm pretty sure its safe.

Booze Cruisin'

One of the perks of Russ's law student status is the occasional free stuff!  The law school/a big firm pay for each student section to go on a booze cruise on Lady Bird Lake every fall, and it might be one of my favorite things every fall.  It's free, it's on a boat, it's booze, it's a few of my favorite things.

A whole lot of work and not much interesting has been going on here this week.  I just thought I'd share that photo of my current place of residence.  We have meeting number 4 of our new church small group happening tomorrow night and per Rusty Welch's request, we're hodgepodging together a Venezuelan dinner!  Hopefully the food will go well, and the conversation will go better.  It's still early in our group and I think we're still working out some kinks in the flow of our discussion (obviously though, right? I mean, I wrote a stinking long post about it last week, so clearly, still working on it).

Happy Hump Dayyyyyyyyyyyy!

-Malsina

To yell or to speak softly?

I love hiking with Russ on the Greenbelt.  It is the best maybe 24 hours after a heavy rain fall.  Just enough time for the ground to (mostly) firm up again, but not too long after so that the smell of wet woods and greenery remains.  And, the creek is full enough that you can hear it running as you walk along.  We explored a new part of the trail today and chatted along the way.  I've had on my mind lately how I address sins of racism and gendering in my life.  Working at a school, I have a front row to ticket to the burgeoning racism and sexism in these young adults.  I address this in various ways in my classroom, mostly going along the the gentle but strong "calling out" tactic.  Still, I realized that I cannot make profound change in all the students I "call out."  I've also talked about this issue with adults and those conversations are less gentle and more strongly geared to highlighting the underlying prejudices in their statements.  Basically, I'm not scared to talk about race with folks; it is important to continue to bring that sin out of darkness into the light, so that we can expose it.

Here's my issue though: I've met to know some people recently who I believe are intelligent folk and aware of their privilege as white, protestant, straight folk.  I think they are aware at least.  Maybe I give too much credit, but I have to, otherwise, I'll lose hope in all of this.  In any case, that social awareness doesn't seem to extend to issues of gender.  They have made offensive remarks about gay men and said some other things that are just problematic gender assumptions.   It irritates the crud out of me but I'm not quite sure how to deal with it.  If they were even off-handed racist comments, I wouldn't have thought twice about my response.
"Hey, that's offensive.  What you are saying implies this-and-that about people of color and it is a gross generalization, and by gross I mean both large and icky."
Why aren't I as quick to respond in defense of my gay brothers and sisters?  I mean, I should have been.  I so strongly believe in acting toward righting the injustices of racism and sexism.  These things should be made to see truth, and have to be willing to be exposed to the social structure that formed us.  I don't know what I'm going to say next time I hear someone say something I believe is racist or sexist or homophobic.  I really don't have a clue, but I pray I'll respond firmly and with the hope that God wants them to see others as He sees them.  Just like with my kids at school, I just hope whatever I say makes room in their young brains for God to demonstrate his love for all people.

Loving the outdoors and paying the allergies price,
Mals

Texas Brews

This past weekend we drank to our hearts' content at Texas Craft Brewers Festival and while we were there the sky completely opened up and dumped all of its precious water bounty on us.  Luckily, we were sitting in the pavilion watching the blues band, eating chicken and waffles, and drinking delicious brews when the rainfall started.  We each had three beer coupons left at that point and we weren't about to leave the festival and all that beer behind, so we were grateful our shoe selections that day were more than up to the task of treading about soggy festival grounds.

Our sweet sweet reward.   As a good friend once told me, if they had had hops in Middle East, Jesus would have made a brew.  I've no idea about beer culture in ancient or modern Israel, but I agree.

Here's to you bloggies!

Mals

Maybe I Needed to Hear it Out-loud

LOOK HOW TALL I AM!! Almost as tall as that devastatingly handsome shadow next to me.  I love evening walks with my husband and the terribly cute Ms. Norris.

I think I needed to hear myself say my thoughts out loud to the interwebs to really hear them.  I had said them so often in my head that I overlooked glaring issues.  Like doing self-edits on something you've worked on for weeks, it was easy to believe all of the things I thought were true and good.  Needless to say, my perspective on our potential move to Houstonia is shifting and for the better!  I mean, why wouldn't I be excited to see and snuggle baby Ethan every dad-gum weekend??

Seriously.  Next time I will capture a sneeze on video and replay it 1000 times.






Enjoy your first week of fall my dear friends!

Sleeping with the windows open,
Mals

Wambrano Lately

It's almost fall in Austin and I am so grateful.  We had a downpour of rain yesterday which brought the temperature down to "amazing" (in the shade).  Russ had an editing meeting with his journal this morning so I hit the greenbelt and finally saw the creekbed full of water again after a very long and dry summer.  We've been busy or stressed or both lately, so fall and its outside pleasures are quite welcome.  Well, Russ has finished all of the crazy interview process and so far has a summer internship offer in Houston with a fancy pants firm and I couldn't be more proud of him.  I tell him this constantly.  All of that being more true than I can express to either you or my sweet redhead, I am struggling with this.  When we started this law journey, I often told Russ, "Here's my order of future residence preferences: Austin, Nashville, DC third because why not? next, the rest of America, finally, Houston."  And I said this probably, no, definitely, more than I should have.  I don't necessarily know what I envisioned for Russ and I in the next 5 or 10 years, but I never saw Houston or wanted to see it.  Perhaps God sees us there, for whatever reason, so I'll try to keep the faith, and try to see Houston, also.  This is all very "#firstworldproblems" of course.  Russ has internship offer/job possibility with a top law firm in a crowded job market at a time with relatively high unemployment nationwide.  I am such a whiner, right?  Yes.

Anyway, that's what's been happening in future-lawyering world, other stuff is less stressful and will hopefully make up for some of the whiney person stuff in the paragraph above.  We've launched a small group at our church along with another couple and it's going well!  We've been in Austin a little over a year now and are still looking for friend families, so we're excited about where this little group could lead.

Teaching is also going much better this year.  I finally have my feet on firm ground in my job and not only do I know I'm effective at my job, but I also feel like it.  It's a huge shift for my worklife.  That said, I still don't like it too much, but there are new possibilities on that front that I'll save for another post.

Lastly, and most importantly, I'm as close to an aunt as I'll be for the foreseeable future!  Meet Ethan, the sweetest baby west of the Mississippi:

The sweet son of one of best friends, Blake and her husband, David.  I love little E, and that redhead holding him.  That guy looks like he's ready to be a dad, am I right or am I right?! Y'all, my uterus is losing its tight, tight grip on reality.  Slowly, but very surely, losing its grip.  Russ says that weakening grip is making me hysterical with baby fever, which he means as a feminism joke that I won't bore you with that here (because I know you and you already get it).

Okay, this blog is long enough for today.

With lurve,

Mals

My playlist lately

I vary my musical tastes quite a bit--it's not really an option to stick to one genre with Russell around--but I always come back to folk.  So enjoy and then go get a free download on NPR!