It’s Tuesday! You might expect my husband, Timothy, to share his favorite links from the past week today, but I asked him kindly (mandated him) to take a day of rest since he has a cold and coughs so much our cat meows at him constantly.

I offered to write up his links if he agreed to rest, including skipping the six hours he spends weekly on his links (six hours! He’s a dedicated guy). But instead of sharing his favorite links of the week I’ve decided to share mine, in no particular order. His version of the links will return next week. Until then, enjoy these posts that I, Allison, have curated. Guest links: here we go!

1. Feelings Are Hard

As soon as I dreamed the impossible dream and decided (yesterday afternoon) to share my top links this week, I had just clicked on a link titled “Taylor Swift Gets Crazy Murdery With Knives And Axes in ‘Blank Space’ Video.” If you haven’t heard, Taylor Swift is taking over the pop world and is making late-twentysomethings extremely uncomfortable with their sudden, uncontrollable love of her new sans-country-sound CD “1989” (IT’S JUST SO CATCHY). Her new video for ‘Blank Space’ depicts love gained and love lost, which for men and women, of any sexual identities, is a reality. This article is paints Taylor as an insane person who dates people only to hurt them. This stereotype MTV paints of a woman dating in a purely irrational state is in poor taste and dehumanizes women. In the video Taylor is courageously putting herself and her emotions out there to empathize anyone who has had love gained and love lost, which I’m guessing, is a lot of people.

So, kudos, Taylor, for looking a little crazy, and a lot emotional, which, newsflash, we all are.

2. Adults Matter (More Than Kids?)

The most influential factor in a kid being religious to growing up to be an adult who is religious is… (drum roll please) parents! Not pastors, not teaches, not a particular style of worship. It’s parents. Take a look here, from the Huffington Post, David Briggs, and Association of Religion Data Archives. So why do we pump so much money into children, youth and family ministries and not adult/life-long learning ministries? Hypothetical question – well, actually, a real question. Really real.

3. Blatant Plug

What if we created a financial workshop that is not about money? Prime question that we talk about in the Better Halves workshop I’m facilitating at brightpeak. I started working there last month, and it’s a great place to be. Good people wrestling with how do we talk about faith and finances with young people and young families that makes sense, doesn’t intimidate, and makes us all grateful and confident in the end. Check it out if you and your significant other want to join December 1st in Minneapolis! Spots are filling up!

4. Distractions

This is Buddy. Someday I won’t wake him up for snuggles, but today is not that day.

5. Is she/he nice to your waitress?

So I spend far too much time on Buzzfeed quizzes than I’d like to admit, but this page came by and I couldn’t resist. A fun take on “What to look for in lifelong partner” kind of list. Laugh along and read with your person. Included: baby wombat doing laundry. Also, here’s another article that lit up my Facebook feed about two key traits in a lifelong partner.

6. Dogs love dogs too

In other animal news, back home in Seattle there are two special dogs up for adoption. They are inseparable (adorably and practically) as one is blind and the other his, well, seeing-eye dog. I immediately tagged my mom hoping that she’ll finally get a dog, well, in this case, two. But how can you not get these two!! I’m sure someone else has adopted them already, I hope they find their forever home.

7. Oh my gosh this is so cute

Searching for a cute but practical wallpaper for your laptop background? Look no further, Oana Befort is here! She creates adorable wallpapers, and other things, here. Currently I have “November” up, but I kind of want to replace it with “July” because who doesn’t want to think about watermelon in November (especially after it snowed 4 inches yesterday)?

 

8. #pointergate and why KOMO4 is better

Timothy and I were watching the evening news last week and witnessed some extremely poor journalism that has swelled into what is now called #pointergate all over social media. The reporter shared that the Minneapolis mayor shared a “gang sign” with a “known criminal” (for midterm elections last week), even though it’s pretty clear she is pointing, and not endorsing gang activity, violence, etc. I just saw this today – if you want to sign a petition that is asking for an on-air apology, sign here.

For more on this story, see Shaun King’s report, this story from Minnesota Public Radio, and Nekima Levy-Pounds’ perspective. For more on this story, simply search #pointergate on Twitter.

9. Parents and kids and kids and parents

I don’t know whether to call this heart-warming or heart-breaking, but this is a commentary piece from Chester Wenger, an older man who serves the Mennonite church (link to friend Hannah Heinzekehr, thank you!). He shares his story of parenting a gay son, and other children who are allys, and other children who struggle with loving their gay brother. Get the tissues. Thankfully there were tissues nearby when I read it because Timothy has a cold, and thank you Timothy for sending me this link (see I got one of yours in!).

10. Just you, just me

Since Timothy and I have one car and more than two jobs between us, we spend a lot of time in the car together. Sometimes I play Pandora, and this song came on which made me happy. Listen:

11. I didn’t burn dinner

It’s the small victories in life. Like, a mexican cassarole that I found on Pinterest and Timothy liked it. Get one of those head of lettuce balls and use leaves instead of little tortilla shells. TASTEY. Check it out. One pound ground beef (or turkey), salsa, sour cream, can of tomatos, onion (or powder), black beans, corn, YUM. Freeze the rest in a flat zip lock bag because it makes LOTS more than for two people.

Ingredients (directions here):

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12. Sitting all day is bad for you

Here’s a seven minute practice that helps with your posture and being nice to your back, shoulders, and lungs – check it out here. Quick and doesn’t require super bend-y-ness.

13. Happy dance

This is so wonderful. Babies dance. Adults somehow learn to stop dancing – but this son and mom duo prove this wrong; a professional dancer shows that he gets his moves (and energy) from his mom! Prepare to smile and note the last word they sign is “love”:

I hope you enjoyed this my links from the past week. Even as I wrote this I had to remind Timothy that he was still sick and he should stop organizing hymnals. Hope your week is off to a good start and I added to your que of fun/inspiring/thoughtful links to visit. Timothy’s version of the links will return to normal next Tuesday. Until then, thank you to all Veterans for serving, and blessings on your week! -Allison (for Timothy)