I noticed that Staci Eastin over at Writing and Living listed her most-viewed posts of 2011, which prompted me to look up what my top 5 posts were last year.

Even though I only have about 30 readers these days (you think I’m kidding), I was still beaming when I saw these posts rise to the top of the list – they’re my favorites, too!

1. You wanna do WHAT at Qwest Field? – The post about me getting out of God’s way when it comes to my kids’ faith.
2. Books: Where Do Babies Come From? – This post is actually from 2008, so clearly I know how to tap into the Google juice.
3. All My Favorite People Are Broken – a tear-jerker!
4. You May Call Me Mrs. President – about the best birthday present ever.
5. The Seattle Nice Is Alive and Well In Portland – about a hilarious evening out on the town in Portlandia.

By the way, you should read Staci’s book, The Organized Heart – a really great book on organizing that addresses the heart rather than the methods.

I loved this post – Beware of the List – over at Writing and Living. I, too, am a non-list person surrounded by list people (*cough* Bryan *cough*). I could make a list all day long of what I need to do, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to look at it.

Seems to me like lists are best used by List People.

However, I’m turning into quite the List Hacker.

For instance, I use a daily Bible reading plan, but I’ve been working on the same one-year plan for three years now. It gives me structure, but I don’t obsess over it religiously.

I loved Staci’s book, The Organized Heart, because it reminded me that organization isn’t about making lists and following rules, but about worshipping God in everything I do.

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Also read Bare Minimum Mode over at Conversion Diary about being intentional with your seasons of downtime. I get in this mode often, but I usually find myself here, rather than making a conscious decision to pull back.

When I’m in Bare Minimum Mode the priority tasks important to my family are: laundry, grocery shopping, and family dinner. The bathroom may be gross and the living room full of clutter, but by George we’ll have clean clothes and a hot meal.

What are your priority tasks when in Bare Minimum Mode?

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I’m terrible at making transitions. I don’t know anyone who is, really. Are You Wearing Bungee Cords? is a great post about living in the moment and fully crossing the bridge into whatever is coming next.

No, son, the F-word actually won’t make your life better : Conversion Diary.
I would not have chosen this particular battle with my own kids – I’d much rather they just know the word and eliminate all the mystique. HOWEVER, I fully appreciate the whole Garden of Eden drama thing.

My son immediately mistrusted my motives. The more he thought about it, the more the word seemed better and my intentions seemed worse.

Knowledge is power. Isn’t that how the saying goes?

I totally saw myself in this post. I’m pretty quick to mistrust motives and question intentions. Especially when it comes to Bryan, who, ironically, has never displayed any evidence of malicious intent (though he can sometimes be a jackass by accident). I also need to know every detail of What Went Down – I’m never content with a conversation summary because there just might be a detail I need to know!

And my son? Oh boy. He takes it personally when I don’t know the answer to one of his (very complicated and insightful) questions, like I’m out to sabotage his ability to know.

It’s very easy to get caught up in a need for knowledge, but the desperation of it can be poisonous to our faith in the One who knows everything. Really appreciated this post.

The Danger of Moralistic Parenting | The Resurgence.
I loved everything about this post, then realized at the very end that it’s an excerpt from a book I just ordered on the Kindle. WIN!

An excerpt from the post:

Certainly the faith that has empowered the persecuted church for two millennia isn’t as thin and boring as “Say you’re sorry,” “Be nice,” and “Don’t be like them.” Why would anyone want to deny himself, lay down his life, or suffer for something as inane as that?

I really struggle in sorting out my role vs the Holy Spirit’s role when it comes to my children’s conscience. My parenting style is built on a solid foundation of being a control freak, so I end up requiring some sort of proof that the kids are really truly sorry for what they’ve done.

This has turned them into great actors – Ruthie especially. She gets that striking George Clooney gaze from the top of her eyes thing down really well. And sadly, this often satisfies me. I know it’s highly possible she’s just telling me what I want to hear, but in my lazy moments I’m okay with that.

(If I haven’t mentioned this before, parenting is hard. It requires effort. I don’t always feel like doing it).

It’s only recently that I’ve admitted to myself I’m not actually the Holy Spirit.

I wrote that last sentence before I found this post from THREE YEARS ago, so I guess this is something I’m fairly slow at learning (ya think?!). Here’s an excerpt:

My first instinct when Ruthie gets this stubborn is to make her life as miserable as possible until she cries UNCLE and repents. In my imagination we play a game of chicken to see who lasts longer – me or her. Forcing behavior seems to be what I am most comfortable with, though I know intellectually it’s the worst way to parent.

I had a revelation awhile ago. I realized that Ruthie is a person, not merely an object I own or control. She is a person with a conscience who can feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Or not. I realized there are more consequences to our actions than just the circumstantial ones, that she is growing up not only in body, but also in faith. I realized that I won’t always be able to make her feel sorry, that sometimes she will rebel against repentance and have a hard heart, and that there’s not really anything I can do about it in the moment.

I’m ready to be over the whole control freak thing. It’s what makes me take things so personally and respond with unholy anger. I’d much rather just parent obediently and trust Jesus with the outcome.

I can’t wait to read the whole book!

What happens when you let your children have it all their own way?.
A friend posted this to Facebook and a discussion ensued. It’s an interesting experiment, but I think it spoke to me more about my own bitchyness than it did my kids’ ability to govern themselves. After all, it’s our job to shepherd them in the right direction, but we can’t do that if we let them do whatever they want.

I’ve seen first hand the logical conclusion of that lifestyle.

But I think this mom had the same realization I would have had – that I say NO a lot simply because I’m lazy or inconvenienced by my kids’ request. I can’t say YES all the time, but I know I could say it more. Here’s an excerpt:

Experiment nearly over and I feel I have proved a point — one that is very interesting to all of us.

For a start, by the end of the week the children are imploding. My acquiescence to everything has meant that they are not only buzzing with e-numbers and sugar, but are exhausted, too

But I have also learned some important lessons. The hassle of clearing up the kitchen after they have made a cake is nothing compared to the joy I feel when I hear them laughing so freely.

They just wanted to have fun, to laugh more; to not have every request quashed by a negative.

They also, I think, really started to understand why I create boundaries in their lives, because as much as they don’t like them, they are lost without them.

A Portrait of Christ from Jeremy Cowart on Vimeo.

This video is around 6 minutes long, but watching it is well worth the time if you have even a jigger of appreciation for art.

It’s pretty crazy how I stumbled into writing and producing animated web videos, because while I’m a great writer*, I don’t know a lot about how the animations are actually, well, animated. I should say, I know generally how they’re made, but I don’t know the specific strokes and clicks.

So even though the medium is different from what I create, it was jaw-dropping to see it all come together.

p.s. I found the video via Don Miller’s blog.

*Don’t you love how I stuck that in there so nonchalantly?

Yes, I realize it’s not Friday, but I was sick, and I still haz links to share.

10 Lessons from Angry Birds that can make you a better CIO
I love Angry Birds & thought this was a very insightful article on leadership. Point #3 resonated with me personally, in terms of my temper. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve hit the reset button before my first bird even hit the target – I just KNEW it was a bad launch! Likewise, I feel like I’m finally in a place where I can abort my temper before it really even hits its intended target. Not all the time, but enough to make me think I really do trust this Jesus guy after all.

The article came to me by way of Geek Wire.

Ben Kingsley, on portraying Holocaust history (NPR)
“I think it’s just very important to embrace tragedy as a real part of our lives….Western civilization is a civilization determined to outlaw tragedy. If removed, the interpretation of tragedy, and the presentation of tragedy, promise shaman, who’s sitting by the bonfire – you’re telling the tribe nothing of real life. And it doesn’t prepare us as adults. It’s infantilizes us, and it dodges an enormous responsibility.”

When Ruthie was three, her grandpa died. A few years ago our beloved dog died in our living room as the kids snuggled around her. Elderly women stand outside a nearby abortion clinic with signs, and my son asks why that baby in the picture is turned inside out. They now have friends whose parents are divorcing, and they ask why so-and-so’s mom and dad don’t live together anymore. Earthquakes and tsunamis are wiping out thousands of lives.

My kids observe tragedy all the time. I can’t hide it or protect them from it – or maybe I can, but choose not to. I think it’s possible for my kids to keep their innocence without becoming ignorant. I don’t go looking for scary stories to tell them, but when they see the scary stories being written all around them, they need a language to interpret them through. Jesus gives us that language in the Bible, which is full of death & betrayal & murder & tragedy. But he also gives us a language of hope & life & grace. They can’t truly appreciate the Easter moments of life without somehow experiencing or understanding the tragedy of Good Friday.

Changing Education Paradigms
I’ve watched this video several times since it was posted. I feel like I need to keep reminding myself how important it is to be involved in my kids’ learning, even if we’re not called to home school. It also made me realize that Thomas is an innovator, and at barely six years old he blows me away with his curiosity, creative problem solving, and ability to MacGuyver his way through a challange.

My Life Changing Diapers
This post really struck a nerve with me. In fact, I’ll probably end up writing an entire blog post in reflection. I’m not sure how a selfish person like me was allowed to parent children, but I feel like 99% of my anger issues come from the frustration of not being able to do whatever the hell I want because of these meddling kids.

I absolutely do not feel called to have more children while Jesus works this out in me, but I definitely understand that my heart seeks to please itself at the cost of serving others. I think I’ve finally hit the bottom of myself and find this reality so gross that I’m this close to praying something drastic like, “Lord, please give me a heart that’s willing to serve others.”

All the churchy people in the room just gasped because they know I’ll soon be drinking service from the fire hose.

Coffee Drinks Illustrated
My personal favorite, other than a basic cup of black coffee, is the Espresso Macchiato. This is how a real Macchiato is made, and I hate it when a clueless barista makes me a giant cup of milk sweetened with caramel. Blech.

Percolator Flickr Group
I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I downloaded a new photo app called Percolator. This week I discovered a Percolator photo group on Flickr. Browsing here makes my brain happy when it can’t write technical scripts any more.

Social Robots raise moral, ethical questions
Interesting story on NPR about people who are so distraught over human relationships they crave non-human companionship.

Fonts In Use – Black Swan posters
I wish I was better at font design, so I’ve been looking around for resources to help me learn. I came across these Black Swan posters on Fonts in Use and like them better than the typical movie poster.

Planting Dandelions: Field Notes From a Semi-Domesticated Life
A blogging friend of mine is due to release her memoir next month, and I can’t wait to read it. My copy just came in the mail this week – thanks Kyran!

Photo Apps Are Like Crack
With the addition of these two, I now have around six or eight photo apps I use regularly. I’m sure Jenny has infinitely more – she’s the only person I know who takes more self-portraits than me.

By the way, the best feature on the iPhone 4? FRONT FACING CAMERA. Yeah, I’m a big fan of myself.

Last night Bryan and I stepped into the bar of a fancy schmancy steak house to dine with the common people, but happy hour was in full force, and all the tables were taken.

Directly in front of the entrance was a large round table suitable for about eight people, and the server asked if we minded taking one side of the table while the couple behind us took the other side.

Sure. No problem. We’re community kinda people.

The table was huge and the room was loud, so there wasn’t really any awkwardness re the couple we ignored across the table. But they were only there for drinks and appetizers, and left after about an hour.

Almost immediately, another couple pounced on the vacated spot across the table. Well, a couple and her mother. I attempted to smile and make eye contact with our new table mates, but to no avail.

And then I heard the daughter say, “I’m just trying to spread out a bit,” as she placed her jacket on the chair between us.

I can’t explain why this alarmed me since she could very well have just wanted the chair to hold all her stuff, but my Spidey senses were alert as I sensed a hostile takeover on the horizon.

Sure enough, another couple arrived – the gal sat next to me and her husband sat next to Bryan. We were now a full table, and still no one acknowledged we were there.

I was beginning to think we were slipping into an episode of Portlandia.

And then the most glorious thing happened – more guests arrived, hovering around the table, and one of the young men introduced himself and shook our hand.

Him: “Hi, I’m so-and so, and you are?”

Me: “Uh, Jennifer?”

Him: “Great to meet you – how do you know the birthday boy?”

Me: “Ah, so this is a birthday party then!”

Him: *confused face*

Mother across the table: “Oh they’re not with us, we’re just sharing their table. But you’re probably more polite than we’ve been.”

Me: “True story.”

Mother across the table: “Well, we were just trying to give them their privacy.”

(notice how she’s still not talking to me?!)

Me (to Bryan): “I think that privacy wall was breached the moment they added ten more chairs to the table.”

Bryan (to me): “We should just start telling them about Jesus. That always clears a table.”

Me: *maniacal laugh*

So there we sat, eating steak and onion rings in the middle of a birthday party that crashed our table.

And then the second most glorious thing happened: Bryan struck up a conversation about mobile web development with the guy next to him, and they went on and on about shit I didn’t understand.

I did not mind this distraction, though, because by that point our dessert had arrived and I was able to eat three bites of Bananas Foster for every one of Bryan’s.

I don’t know who this Foster is, but I sure like his bananas.

As we were paying the bill, Bryan said he was going to hug the birthday boy and wish him a happy birthday as we left.

I dared him.

I readied my camera.

But in the end, he opted for a wave and a head nod.

Regardless, I think this goes down as one of our best dinner memories EVAR.