The pages I flip
Not too long ago, I posted about my favorite genre of books & some friends I’ve found therein. I got some wonderful suggestions via comments, and have already enjoyed Steinbeck & Walls, as well as recently beginning Walking on Water by Madeleine L’Engle- a suggestion from a well-read friend of ours, Hillary. L’engle is best known for her work with children’s fiction including A Wrinkle in Time. I do intend on tackling all of the “commentor’s suggested reading list”- these merely represent the ones I have located. For some reason, I don’t order things often; I like to find them….
I'm up to a 15 minute jog
photo credit: aithom2 I am not sure when I physically peaked- although it must have been around the time I bench pressed the bar, sans weight, in 7th grade- but I do know that I have been in my own personal, physical valley for the last couple months. Having bounced back from a recent bout of pneumonia with the thumping reaction of a Play-Doh ball, I have found myself sucking air as if it weren’t around, every time I ventured out with my Nikes on. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never pretended to enjoy jogging- only doing it because the…
an update. a list. and a reach.
I have been holed away in my new- bland but beautiful- office searching for great works with special needs kids here in the states and abroad. I thought I would share a couple of the ones I have connected with, for you to check out: Nathaniel’s Hope (Orlando) Miriam Center (Haiti) Maria’s Big House of Hope (China) Anders has taken to sleeping through the night. Hazel is talking in sentences and picking up new words constantly. Ginny is making jewelry and entertaining ridiculous notions of Alabama beating Arkansas in a couple of weeks. I am maturely calling the hogs while…
with every season
A follow up report on the bottle. Good news: Anders is happily taking a bottle now. Bad news: as children often do, there is no logical reason why he switched teams from haters to takers. Thus, we are thrilled, but anyone desperate for helpful hints or tips must look elsewhere. Thanks still to all who offered help. Tomorrow is a welcomed occasion at the Mooney house as football season is upon us. We live in the shadow of Razorback stadium, wake up to ESPN Gameday, and bicker constantly about Arkansas vs. Alabama. Ginny dresses the kids in Alabama gear while…
Guest Post on Life Rearranged
photo credit: Podknox I have guest posted here this week dealing with wrestling with God in the aftermath of loss. There’s also a way to support the organization that we started to help special needs families & their children. So feel free to send your friends on over & let’s see if we can raise some money for 99 Balloons. With rEcess starting back in September, we’ll need some funds for volunteer dinners, supplies, and such.
life on the frontier(s)…
photo credit: Torley Upon returning from Michigan, the Mooneys (I know, I know there’s a cult by that name) have entered into a new era of life on a few different frontiers. First of all, the kids are each in a new phase that is, admittedly, a little easier on mom & dad: Anders is sitting up, wanting to crawl, getting teeth, and sleeping much longer at night. He is off-the-charts gi-normous for his age and elicits laughter when we tell people he is only six months old. Those who don’t know his age assume he’s a “slow bloomer” since…
friends of a daunting nature
I have made my way back to balmy Fayetteville; Ginny and the rascals stayed on in Michigan for another week, so I am busy watching movies, reading books, and sleeping in- as well as trying to appear as unpathetic in public as possible in their absence. In an effort to tell better stories, I have been reading some memoir/essay style books from folks who are masterful at bringing you into their world through ink on a page. This assignment, for me, is like asking Ginny to taste test various chocolates; these style books are my favorite. Here’s a list of…
Four tomorrow
He would be four tomorrow. Sounds like a cliché line cut from a country music song, and I desperately wish I could be more poignant, but my mind will not oblige, as I cannot seem to move past these five words. He would be four tomorrow. Or rather, is it, he is four tomorrow? Though, with all I am, I believe he’s in a place where time itself is only a memory. Four years wouldn’t be what we would be celebrating anyway. He would be 1,461 days old tomorrow. And I am confident that we would be singing out on…
beautiful things
still heavy on the drugs, rest, and fluids. but I can feel some life creeping back in. found this somewhere in my time on the couch and thought it expressed a longing we hope in.
Matt & Ginny start the second half of season 1 with a seemingly simply question: What is a good life? An entire episode focused on the life of a man known as Bulldog– told through the eyes of his brother, Chris Wheeler. It is a journey of Chris beginning to see a person who was…
In the age of television talent shows galore, our hosts attend one that manages to flip the narrative of what a talent show is & could be. Chelsea, Jordan & Claire want to sing at the bEfriend talent show hosted by 99 Balloons, but to do so they will have to overcome their fear of…
Matthew Lyle & Ginny Mooney continue the discussion of healing and the church by delving into the lives of their friends with disability who do not want to be healed, cured or fixed. When they stumble upon an article, written by Madeleine Ryan, entitled Dear Parents: Your Child with Autism is Perfect it is though…
When the loss of a child becomes a nationwide, prayer movement to #wakeupolive what does it say about the church and its relationship to healing? to suffering? In the first part of a two-part series discussing healing & the church, Matthew Lyle Mooney along with his wife, Ginny Mooney, set out to discuss the awkward…
Summer is here. At 5, 6 and 8 we got rascals riding bikes and swimming at a skill level whereby we are not in constant stress. I told Ginny sometime some summer not long ago that I was done going to pools. With 3 that cannot swim alone, I can only act like I’m listening…
I’ve worked hard to develop a new habit of carving out Monday mornings to sit and think and pray and grasp for some semblance of sanity before I cannonball into the week that will eat my lunch if I let it. It’s a rebellious act of counter-intuition as weekends are supposed to be the very…
We’ve reached that point in these beloved Ozarks where we’re just all waiting around for the good weather. We get all four seasons here; just enough of winter to know we don’t want to move north; which we needed no help knowin’. Being bone-tired of Ole Man Winter being a hanger-on is all you’re allowed…
I often look at my backside in the mirror. I move quickly past the place that you imagined I was seeking and find the splotchy spot just above the bend of my right leg. It’s my biggest scar- remnants of days I spent riding my Honda 80 dirt bike for hours on end along the…
Check it out, Ginny & Lena are in the current edition of National Geographic. A while back, a wonderful photographer followed our family around for a few days in order to capture photos illustrative of an article on brain development…fascinating article and wonderful pictures (we think). _____________________________________ If…
Against my better judgment, Ginny convinced me last Monday to sit beside her and watch the American Music Awards. I begrudgingly complied- mainly due to the fact that I love her and if she invites me to sit close to her, I do it- every time. I’m a sucker that way, but that doesn’t mean…