FAQ

I’m hoping to clean out my inbox this week and get to some blogging. Hang tight. Please let me know if you’re waiting for a reply but never hear from me. I answer all my email, but lately, some emails are disappearing into the abyss. It seems to happen more frequently to people with Yahoo accounts. …It just occurred to me that you wouldn’t be able to email me to tell me my email isn’t working, so leave a comment instead.

There are some questions that surface repeatedly, so I thought I’d take a minute to share them. Here they are with some of my answers.

Is your husband really a rocket scientist?
Truly. He programs the screens that engineers look at to launch the Atlas V. It seems pretty impressive, but Greg assures folks they’d be shocked if they knew exactly who is walking around with liquid nitrogen. Some payloads are Top Secret and some are just satellites, but either way, we’ve never seen where he works. Funny, right? For all we know, he could be sitting at Starbucks everyday trading stocks online and reading Mad magazine. But he wouldn’t do that. He’s not into comic books.

The reason you might not guess that he is an engineer is because he is really funny– and not in a dry, pocket-protector-sort-of-way. He’s also not very neat, so he defies the stereotype in many ways.

My kids get a very good science education here at home.

If your husband launches rockets, how will you do that in Kentucky?
About 18 months ago, Greg was offered a permanent job on the Atlas V project. He turned it down in favor of working tenuous, flexible (read: less paying) contracts so that we could move to the country and grow lima beans. He works for a small engineering firm on short-term projects. Nothing is certain; everything is contract-to-contract. When one ends, sometimes there is lag time. He’s worked as many as four jobs at once. It’s been a crazy life. But we did it for the chance to walk away one day from the rat race while the kids were still at home. At least, that was the plan before the housing bubble burst, stocks went down, and a lease-purchase agreement with [grrrr...] went nuclear.

Greg still accepts contracts at the Cape on the Atlas V and will continue so long as they need him. It’s our philosophy to make hay while the sun is shining. (That sums up all I know about farming.) The work won’t always be there. We’re preparing for the drought that may or may not come.

Why didn’t my comment appear?
It probably got caught in the spam folder. I don’t delete comments. My feelings don’t get hurt from drive-by assaults or passionate disagreements. Other people have different philosophies about that, and I support and respect what they want to do on their blogs. As for me, I don’t censor. I have time to write only occasionally, and I don’t want to spend it moderating discussion. My readers are intelligent, and they don’t need me to filter for them. I love it.

Can you write about x, y, and z?
“x” usually stands for a discussion of quiverfull theology. “y” usually stands for loneliness in motherhood. And “z” usually stands for hyperemesis and/or difficult pregnancies.

I have extensive experience with all of these things, and so it does seem like I’d talk about them more. I’ve blogged for over three years now, and I’ve never done the requisite birth control post—where I’ve been, where I’m at, and what I believe the Bible says about it. (Heh, my stats are low and I could use the boost.) I’ve held back about how a houseful of preschoolers can contribute to loneliness in women. And I am still very raw from my experience last year with a dangerous case of hyperemesis.

From the beginning, I’ve tried to talk about subjects I know. I’ve failed many times in that regard; feel free to point that out. There is a lot of chatter about anything, everything, and nothing. For many of these things, I am in a process. I find it is better to yammer on about things I know for sure. It is true that the process is also important, but I like to get a few steps ahead before blathering on about things I shouldn’t.

That said, it’s been a long time in coming, but I hope to write about those things soon.

Another angle is that my website is just a personal journal. It was never meant to instruct, teach, encourage, or inform. (Hey, I’ve got enough legal problems at the moment.) Sometimes it’s a side effect, but really, I think it is best to receive those things from people who know you and your needs. I’m not a counselor and I don’t play one on TV. Some moms need to get tough with their little tykes, especially the kind that bite and spit. Some moms need to show more mercy and grace to those sweet ones that Jesus died for. I can never know which category you’re in. I can surmise from lengthy stories, but there are always other dynamics. People are complicated.

I have a comment about something I read on your sideblog….
Later today I will start a permanent thread where you can talk about it. I will link it in the sidebar. Sound good?

Here is a link. I hope you enjoy it!
Thank you to everyone who keeps my sideblog interesting. My sideblog (the links in the sidebar under the heading, “Also Worth Visiting”) is the best feature of this site. I know all the men don’t visit here to gaggle over pictures of my two-year-old. The reason I have great links is because you send them in. Keep them coming.

When can we talk about baseball again?
OK, nobody really asked this, but I’m itching to tell you all about it.

McGregor is pitching and catching for Little League this season. He is also continuing on with Team COMBAT (usually center field and relief pitching), which is a competitive team that travels. They have been dominating in the tournaments, taking first place in the last two. I feel bad that we’re moving, because I think their team could go all the way in the next few years.

They were taking shots for their team sponsor, COMBAT. You think they’ll use it in an ad if the text is upside down?