I want to join the D.A.R., not Facebook.

My mother is the family genealogist, and I have picked up a great deal of our family's names-and-dates type of history from her.  Many an afternoon I spent as a child wandering graveyards looking for specific relatives with my mom, clipboard in hand, ready to write down even more dates and locations.

As an adult I treasure family recipes and stories about the ancestors on the family tree, even more than I treasure the specifics of the cradle to the grave set of dates.  It is also fun to use my great grandmother's crochet pieces and teach my little girls what a doily is!

However, I have zero interest in certain other things, namely, joining Facebook. I will not do it.  I have no inclination to do so.  I am opposed to how it is changing discourse in our culture, and wastes precious minutes of people's lives.

This week my parents flew out for a visit with our family, and my mother and I did a little research after I announced:

"I don't want to join Facebook! I want to join the D.A.R.!" (Daughters of the American Revolution)

I really wanted to know, am I eligible?  After a little bit of studying the various branches of my family tree  and choosing which branch to lead us back to someone who fought in the Revolutionary War, we found it!  I am indeed eligible, as my great great great great great grandfather was John Dow, whose family had already been in the colonies for 2 generations.

Anyway, I look forward to learning more about him, and also to someday joining the D.A. R.  It is not something that is a priority to me just now during this phase of motherhood, as every ounce of my energy is put toward being a wife and mother and our first 2 children are both under age 3.  But!  I'm excited!

Unsettled

Life is just packed with important doings - like finding a way to do a Bible time with the little girls in the mornings (which is working out well)

and the Important Things In Disguise - like keeping house despite all the forces which conspire against that monumental task

and the Invisible-but-ever-so-real-undercurrents-of-thought - which accompany us every minute and help shape attitudes and actions.  Lately I've been full of thoughts on finding community; I struggle with feeling rooted, or not so rooted, as we know that we will be moving at some point in the future.  Whether we'll be leaving in the next month or the next couple of years depends on the vicissitudes of my husband's career.  This unsettled feeling bothers me, because I long for the peace that I imagine comes with settling someplace for good.  Of course, a hundred sermons and devotionals on dwelling in peacefulness above and despite circumstance echo in my head!  We aren't supposed to let circumstance determine how joyful or peaceful we are....

but it would still be wonderful to

-live near-ish to old established friendships and family members
-plant a garden in our own yard
-or even have a yard, I suppose
-really settle into a church, knowing that we will dwell alongside these fellow believers for years to come

oh, excuse me, am I rambling?

In the meantime, I am blooming where I'm planted (at least I hope I am) and am enjoying palm trees, wearing sandals and sundresses during all but 2 and a half months of the year, and all other good aspects of our urban desert home right now.  I've even continued to settle into our apartment: I've hung up 4 more pictures on the walls and installed even more hooks where I've needed them....all the while thinking, "Heather, should you bother installing this? are we moving next week?"

very unsettling.