Shannon Yee

Appetizer
Describe your laundry routine. Do you have a certain day when you do it all, or do you just wash whatever you need for the next day?

I used to have a routine… Now, I just wash as many loads as I can when the pile gets too high to climb over or I run out of clothes for Josiah.

Soup
In your opinion, what age will you be when you’ll consider yourself to truly be old?

It gets older each year… probably 76 years old would be old.

Salad
What is one of your goals? Is it short-term, long-term, or both?

I want to connect moms to God through MOPS this year.

Main Course
Name something unbelievable you’ve seen or read lately.

Nothing unbelievable. But, something truly amazing: I am a princess – the child of the King!
Dessert
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how happy are you today?

8.

Appetizer
On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest) how much do enjoy watching sports on television?

3

Soup
If you could completely memorize any one work of fiction, which one would you pick?

Harry Potter, because that would mean I have a great memory – It’s a lot of words, and I enjoyed reading it.

Salad
What is your favorite breakfast food?

All of them, but if I must pick one: eggs.

Main Course
Name something fun you can do for less than $10.00.

Go to the zoo.

Dessert
How long does it usually take you to fall asleep?

10-15 minutes, unless I had coffee in which case it’s closer to 3 hours.

This will be a spoiler, so if you plan to read Book 7 and haven’t yet – fly your broom somewhere else…
For those who aren’t planning to read it, I hope you will; it’s fabulous. I love fiction. It’s been far too long since I’ve read and I have missed it. I love living vicariously through books and I love the relaxation and refreshment that I enjoy while reading. But, I hate the way that I cannot do it all – keep up with everything else I need to do or want to do and spend copious amounts of time reading.

One of the areas of my life that suffered most that week was sleeping, so I may not be very coherent in this posting…

My thoughts in no particular order or sense:

I think my favorite part of this book was the strong biblical symbolism. The most amazing of which is Harry’s resurrection. It seems like all is done; he willingly sacrifices himself and dies to save everyone else. Then, he is resurrected and returns, as Christ will, to end the battle once and for all – to bring the final victory and destroy the enemy completely! There is also the inner battle Harry faces to trust Dumbledore and obey, even when it seems like his way isn’t good and that he didn’t or doesn’t know everything – Harry, like so many of us Christians, is tempted to trust himself and do things his own way. Another example of biblical symbolism is the choice to follow and fight. Each person has a choice to make – will we trust Christ as our Savior and fight with Him or will be join forces with Satan, by default?

There is a strong connection in my own life between bitterness and obsession and I would venture to guess that they are often related. My bitterness was due to lack of forgiveness and anger that consumed me. I wanted justice, vengeance, and I wanted things to be made right, to fix what could not be fixed. In the end, I had to choose to let go of my desires and wishes and forgive this person that hurt me and so many others. It seems like each of the Harry Potter books has a strong element of obsession with the wrong thing leading to evil. It is when we are obsessed with the right thing (God) that we are free to do the right thing (obey Him) – I believe this is true and biblically supported (Phil. 4:8, John 8:32).

The theme of brotherly love is one of the things that makes Harry Potter so successful, IMHO. The rocky, real, but so very deep relationship between Harry, Ron, and Herimone is one that every kid longs for and some even have a taste of. It is a key to lots of other great book series, like The Baby-sitter’s Club. I, of course, could readily relate to Herimone, the smart, but too quick to speak and very proud, strong female. I also had a very good guy friend that I fell in love with and eventually married. He, may or may not, like the comparison to Ron, but I’ll make it anyway. The brainy types often fall for the slightly awkward, talented and intelligent, but not overly so, somewhat lazy (laidback?) sidekick. I feel really priviledged to have had several close knit groups of girlfriends – different girls/women with different places & stages of my life, but I am still really close with almost all of them and count those relationships and all of the experiences that accompanied them – for good or bad – as a true blessing.

I apparently am a sucker for romance and found myself aching for Harry and Ginny. I appreciated the maturity of these teenagers to set aside, even deny, their desire for the greater good. I also appreciated Harry’s birthday present from Ginny, as I personally find that a passionate kiss on the mouth is amazing… The whole love story left me remembering my dating years and being so glad that they are over. Desire doesn’t end with marriage. As a fanatic for happy endings and full closure, I loved the hint of passion and joy in the marriage of the grown Potters – or maybe that wasn’t even in the book and I added it between the lines!

Another classic element of a good book (and biblical) is an epic battle between good and evil. There is nothing quite like the good guy beating out the bad guy, especially when the bad guy is really bad and the good guy is a lot like you or me. It feels good for justice to be served!

These themes were things that struck me and reasons that I will probably start over and re-read the entire series: sacrifice, friendship, love, second chances, puzzles, and prejudice. This last theme of prejudice is particularly interesting to me. It seemed like Harry didn’t get it until he finally got it – at the very end, that people and things are not always what others believe them to be. Some people are bad, but others are really good and have had bad experiences, like his cousin, and Snape and even the Malfoys and their house elf. I don’t agree with this 100% because I believe that all people are really bad (by nature, we are sinners), but I believe that God redeems all who call on Him and therefore all can become good. The general lesson in this theme is something that I really do agree with and am becoming more passionate each month, which is that everyone should be treated with kindness and love and given many chances and much forgiveness.

I found a few articles on biblical symbolism in Harry Potter, that I didn’t read until after I wrote this… You may find them interesting, I did.

Harry Potter 7 is Matthew 6

Mugglenet

Appetizer
What is your favorite kind of pie?

Cheesecake – does that count!?

Soup
Name something that made you smile this week.

Eila wearing a princess skirt, crown, shoes and necklace while carrying a wand and purse everywhere and calling her self a “dollerina”.

Salad
What do you do to cool off when the weather is hot and humid?

Go inside someplace air conditioned and tell my kids to stop touching me.

Main Course
You receive $1,000 in the mail with a letter that says you can only use the money to redecorate one room in your home. Which room do you pick, and what do you buy to spruce it up?

The kitchen: a new table, stove/oven and counter top, if possible also something for the backsplash – but $1000 probably wouldn’t go that far…

Dessert
Fill in the blank: My _________ says __________, but I __________.

My back says: Go to bed!, but I still sit here at the computer.

I am very proud and also full of pride. I think there is a big difference between these two things with proud being a good thing and pride being a very bad thing.

Some people see the root issue or sin as unbelief or lack of faith and some people see it as fear (which I believe is a lack of faith) and others see the deep sin at the basis of our lives as idolatry and others see that root as pride. I think there are great arguments for all of these and in my life I can see that any of these could be true. For me, idolatry and pride are the same as my main idol is myself and so that seems to win out, but maybe pride is really an unbelief in God’s sovereignty and goodness… Anyway, pride is an egregious sin that God detests.

On the other hand, I am also proud. I’m so proud of my husband and the way he takes care of our family and uses the gifts that God has given him. I am also very proud of my kids, especially when they do or say things that are kind, sensitive and wise. Right now, Eila and Josiah are playing together and laughing hysterically, and I feel such joy and love and so proud of them. Maybe this proud feeling I have is really a godly jealousy for them to do right. I’m most proud of those around me when they are glorifying God and submitting their lives to Him, which is what I want for myself as well. Also, I’m proud of my loved ones as I see them being successful and persevering. I think it is a boasting in the Lord rather than in them or in myself for whatever.

Apparently, it’s National Immunization Awareness Month. I have long found the topic of immunizations very interesting and have done lots of research on it. One of the main reasons for my interest is because of Eila’s mild negative reaction to a series of vaccines when she was 15 months old. We were unable to determine which vaccine was responsible and that left me very uneasy about administering any shots at all.

I read and worried a lot about the supposed link between vaccines and autism. For a blog about that info, see AutismVox. I also worried about the possibility of problems with too many diseases being introduced into such a small system. In the end, I decided that for our family the diseases and risks of not vaccinating are much greater than the risks for getting these shots. For my own peace of mind, I do just one shot at a time – in case of a similar situation to Eila’s, I just don’t want to repeat that unnecessarily.

When Josiah was diagnosed with asthma at 3 months of age, I was worried about immunizations having played a role. I do not believe that they had any negative impact at all, but still at the time, I wanted something specific to blame. Again, fears as a mom outweighing the facts of the situation.

In all of my research and talks with other moms, I’ve come across every opinion and reason to vaccinate and not to vaccinate. My chiropractor is ardently against it; one of my best friends & nurse is totally for it. I have met people with family members affected by the diseases that vaccines prevent and I’ve met a person who is in the rare severe negative reactions to an immunization. There is no clear cut answer, except to trust God with our children’s health and to seek His wisdom for this decision. Ultimately, God is the Great Physician. He’s the only One who can keep my kids healthy and protect them from infections of any kind, but I think he’s given the wisdom to some scientists to make these vaccines as a response to the great suffering in the world because of sin, so I’m going to use it.

As an adult, there is a recommended schedule as well. Here’s a quiz to see if you are up to date. Sometimes it seems easier or more important to take care of our kids health and we moms neglect our own check-ups. I am guilty of this and maybe one day I’ll make it to see my doctor…

Sometimes I wonder what I do as a stay at home mom… I’m at home very little, so the title in itself is a bit off, but maybe I should be home more. I’ve been thinking lately that having kids so young is really fun when I take the time to enjoy them and play with them – doing what they want, which is to play with me, while we are at home. Often when we’re at home, I need to cook, clean, or they need to eat or sleep. There could be a lot more time for playing if I looked for it rather than trying to move ahead with my plan for the day.

For instance, this past week was VBS, which was amazing in so many ways, but we were out of the house by 8:45am and gone until 12noon every morning. When we got back, it was lunch, then naps, snacks, and then whatever I had planned – shopping, errands, meeting with various people, but no playtime. As soon as we got back again, it was dinner time and then time to sleep. I know that this week was an exceptionally busy week, but I still can’t help but wonder if I’m just letting good opportunities to have fun and enjoy this time with my kids pass me by.

This fall we’ll have something almost every morning, every week and several afternoon commitments too. I don’t want to miss out on the next year, so I think I need to start really evaluating what fits in with our family priorities and then cutting out things that don’t matter as much or where the timing isn’t right. A few years ago, I made a list of 5 life goals/priorities and they still hold true. The test is if I can really be honest about the opportunities and their value to the goals that I believe God has for my life. One of those goals is to be a loving wife and mother, which for me, can only be done by being at home – really being at home.

Appetizer
Describe a toy you remember from your childhood.

I used to love roller skating in the basement… oh, the memories.

Soup
On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest) how observant are you?

7, the question is can I keep my observations to myself

Salad
Where would you rather be at this very moment?

Hiking in the mountains

Main Course
When was the last time you learned something new?

10 minutes ago – the internet is a great place to find new info

Dessert
Fill in the blank: I have ____________ but I haven’t ____________.

I have eaten dinner, but I haven’t had dessert. So, away I go.

Appetizer
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how polite are you?

5. I’m not usually rude, but neither am I terribly polite, unfortunately.

Soup
What was the last thing that made you laugh out loud?

Brian pulling Eila up into the air by her legs and hearing Eila scream with delight at the whiplash.
Salad
Who is your favorite cartoon character?

Ariel?

Main Course
Tell about the funniest teacher you ever had.

I’d have to say Mr. Daly, not because he tried, but because he really didn’t!

Dessert
Complete this sentence: I strongly believe that ______________________.

I strongly believe that God is good and right, even when I think I know better…