Birthday Reveal

I had quite a few requests to find out what was in the box. It was this beautiful, made-in-America sweatshirt from American Giant (aka "the greatest hoodie ever made").

It's the most flattering hoodie I have worn. This means I will feel less guilty about wearing it every single day this winter. I'll just pop the cute little hood over my unwashed hair and carry on like I'm a super model. 

Also, I would never in a million years have purchased a sweatshirt that costs $89.00. This is why my husband has to wait for special occasions to buy me nice things. My only non-clearance, non-goodwill, non-borrowed-from-a-friend clothes have been gifts.

But that wasn't all. He bought me a new dyson. The one we got as a wedding gift was barely alive and we had been talking about trading her in. The attachment tube ripped, so we could only use it for vacuuming the floor. That just doesn't cut it with an old, dusty house.

Ahem, you may be thinking that a gift like a dyson is too practical or perhaps too sexist? Would it change your thinking to know that my husband cleaned the house top-to-bottom as a hint at the gift. What if I told you that he is the primary house cleaner in our relationship. What do you think now? Not a bad gift, eh? 

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! 

Psalm 90:12 - "Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."

Birthdays

November is my birthday month. If you're wondering why I'm thinking about it already (I mean, what am I, 5 years old?) it's because my husband is really fun.

For the last few years, he has purchased my birthday present months in advance. Then he gives me a certain number of guesses per week. Last year he even gave me a few hints, but I had no idea what was in store.

A ping-pong table!

For those of you who don't know me and my family, tennis is a big part of our lives. When I was a little girl, we played tennis through the cold Chicago winters at a local club or in the high school gym. With a full-time job, a family of my own, and a needy, old house, winters mean a break from tennis. While ping-pong doesn't replace my love of tennis, it sure helps me get through the colder months.

The reveal of my birthday present was especially creative. Paul cleared out our living room, started a roaring fire in the fireplace, and brought the ping-pong table into the main space of our house. We cranked the music, ate snackies, and rotated through ping-pong matches. It was a blast.

Now the ping-pong table has a room of its own in the basement. It's not nearly as glamorous as the living room, but thanks to my birthday gift, it is a well-loved space in the house.

Are you curious about this year's birthday present? Me too! It's wrapped and sitting on top of our kitchen cabinets. Paul gives me three guesses a week - no luck so far. Guess I'll have to wait until November.

Hobby Lobby Case Brief

I usually use this blog to update family and friends about our daily life and show cute pictures of Caleb. I'm going to depart into the land of law with this post. The departure may seem wholly unrelated to domestic life, but when two lawyers get married, discussions of law and politics are a regular part of our day-to-day happenings. I still don't want to disappoint the grandmas in our lives, so here is a recent picture of our cutie pie before I jump into the law.

One of the skills my students learn in the paralegal intro class I teach is how to brief a case. Case briefing is basically an exercise in legal reading comprehension and efficient writing. We usually brief Illinois appellate court decisions in class since they're relevant to my student in a jurisdictional sense and tend to be more manageable in length. I never assign U.S. Supreme Court cases. They're super interesting, but also 50-120 pages long, especially if you're going to read concurring and dissenting opinions as well as the majority decision. This is the same reason most people don't go to the primary source. It's much easier to have someone else tell you about it.

With all the press the recent Hobby Lobby case has received with varying reactions, I decided to read it myself. If I am going to read it, I might as well brief it. If I am going to brief it, I might as well share it.

Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., No.  13-354 (June 30, 2014). 

Facts: Hobby Lobby (and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp.) challenged the government's requirement to provide certain contraceptives through employer-provided group health insurance plans. The United States Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") created the regulation under the authority given by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (aka "Obamacare"). HHS exempted certain organizations from providing any sort of birth control for religious reasons; in particular, religious institutions and qualified non-profit organizations. No religious exemption was included for corporations; a conscious objection exemption was considered by Congress for corporations, but ultimately rejected. Hobby Lobby objected to four specific forms of birth control that allow fertilization of a woman's egg, but not implantation in the woman's uterus. It did not object to birth control methods that prevented fertilization. Hobby Lobby argued that as a private, closely-held, for-profit corporation, the requirement to provide these four "abortifacients" violated its (the corporation's) rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 ("RFRA").      

Issue: Do the religious protections in RFRA extend to private, closely-held, for-profit corporations and if so, does the government's contraceptive requirement for employer-provided group health insurance plans violate RFRA?

Holding: Yes. RFRA applies to private, closely-held, for-profit corporations because Congress designed those protections to be interpreted broadly, and, yes, the government's contraceptive requirement does violate RFRA because it is not the least restrictive means of serving the government's compelling interest.

Reasoning: The majority opinion tackles RFRA's application to corporations as a necessary first step in its analysis. The government argued that by choosing to incorporate their business, the Hobby Lobby family forfeited the protections of RFRA, which were designed for individuals. The majority looks at congressional intent to resolve the issue. RFRA was created to broaden religious freedoms for people beyond what the Court had articulated in prior case law. Additionally, Congress included corporations in its definition of "persons" under RFRA by not specifically excluding them. There's a statute that provides definitions for federal laws that don't otherwise specifically define terms (it's called the Dictionary Act). Under its definition "person" includes corporations. If Congress wanted to exclude for-profit structures, it would have specifically defined "person" to not include corporations. Since it didn't, RFRA applies.

The government also argued that Hobby Lobby could not "exercise religion" as a corporation because its primary purpose in existing is to make money. The majority disagreed and points to prior decisions where religious protections were provided to businesses (sole proprietors). It also points out that money-making is not the sole reason for running a business as recognized by state laws which allow corporations to be formed for "any lawful purpose." Furthermore, RFRA itself says that its provisions "shall be construed in favor of a broad protection of religious exercise." For-profit corporations can "exercise religion" as defined by RFRA.

Once the statute's application was decided, the government's contraceptive requirement came under scrutiny. The majority applied the legal standard as written in RFRA, which prohibits the federal government from making laws or regulations that substantially burden the exercise of religion unless it is the least restrictive means of serving a compelling government interest. The Court concluded that the regulation was substantially burdensome ($475 million a year in penalties for non-compliance) and presumed that providing contraceptive care to employees was a compelling government interest. This left only one remaining issue: was the regulation the least restrictive means of serving that compelling government interest?

The Court determined that it was not the least restrictive means of providing contraceptive coverage through employer-provided plans. Most persuasive to the Court was the fact that HHS had already created a strategy that would allow religious institutions and qualified non-profit organizations to provide group health insurance without having to pay for contraceptives, but still provide employees with access to contraceptives at the same cost as if they had been covered by the plan. If it works for non-profits and religious institutions, it can work for closely-help, for-profit corporations too. Thus, the regulation is not the least restrictive means of achieving the compelling government interest and, therefore, violates the protections as set forth in RFRA.

Concurring (Kennedy): Justice Kennedy adds a few remarks to make it clear that providing contraceptive coverage is indeed a compelling government interest and to reinforce that the exercise of religion includes "the right to express those beliefs and to establish one's religious (or nonreligious) self-definition in the political, civic, and economic life of our large community."

Dissent (Ginsburg): Three other justices joined Ginsburg's dissent, including: Sotomayor, Breyer, and Kagan, with Kagan and Breyer opting out of the final section of her dissent. Like the majority, Ginsburg looks at the two main issues, whether the RFRA applies to a for-profit corporation and whether the government's contraceptive requirement violates RFRA.

The dissent points out that if Hobby Lobby had tried to bring a First Amendment case (which it did not),it would have lost. The First Amendment is not violated when the government's law or regulation is neutral (not designed to restrict exercise of religion) and generally applicable (like paying your taxes or making drugs illegal). Furthermore, individuals are not afforded constitutional protection to "exercise their religion" when their exercising significantly impinges the rights of third parties.

The dissent disagrees with the Court's use of the Dictionary Act because the Act specifically states that it only applies if the meaning is not ascertainable from the context. The context makes it clear that "persons" as used in RFRA does not include for-profit corporations because for-profit corporations have never, not once, been recognized as having free exercise rights under the First Amendment.

RFRA should not apply to for-profit corporations. Assuming that it does, the corporations have not made a showing that the burden on their exercise of religion is substantial because the connection between providing coverage of these particular types of contraceptives through health insurance companies to independent decision-makers (the employees) is too attenuated to be considered substantial.

Finally, the least restrictive means is met, and the regulation should be upheld over the religious objection. The dissent argues that the majority's answer of the government shouldering the cost is not a viable least restrictive means because it leads to a slippery slope of religious objections from corporations. There is no least restrictive means available to for-profit corporations, an entity not equivalent to a religious non-profit organization.

A Decade-Later Honeymoon

Paul and I were married on July 31, 2004. In a few weeks, our marriage will be 10 years old.

When Paul proposed in November 2003, we were planning for him to start law school in the fall, but we didn't know where. We chose our wedding date, thinking we'd still have the first few weeks in August to enjoy a honeymoon.

Both in our last semester at Belmont University, Paul was busy completing law school applications while I researched possible honeymoon locations. Envisioning a relaxing time at the beach, I landed on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The idea of a national park in the ocean intrigued me. It sounded like an untouched paradise. We booked our tickets and contacted a friend of ours, who had been there recently, for travel tips.

By the time we both graduated from Belmont University in May of 2004, the honeymoons plans had been cut short. Paul would be starting law school in Minnesota toward the beginning of August - right smack dab in the middle of our "honeymoon." We cancelled our plane tickets, shopped for a Minnesota apartment and finalized the wedding plans.

The wedding day was unforgettable - we had a blast with our family and friends and were thrilled to start our life together. The honeymoon could wait.

Fast-forward ten years. We're mid-house project with an almost three-year old running around and jabbering up a storm. For the past ten years I have periodically reminded Paul that we still hadn't taken our honeymoon - sometimes in tender moments, sometimes in tense moments. It was sitting there, collecting dust and rattling around. Paradise . . . waiting.

Double-digits. I remember thinking we would know a lot about marriage by the time we made it to the big 10 - Ha! What can I say? I was naive. I've learned how little I really know. What I've learned so far is that marriage takes sacrifice and forgiveness; vulnerability and resourcefulness; humility and patience. It takes the Holy Spirit at work, revealing sin and sanctifying us. It takes prayer. Every minute of marriage is worth celebrating.

So we finally took that honeymoon to St. John.

I still have much to learn about Paul and marriage. I don't know what this trip would have looked like ten years ago, but ten years later, it came as close to perfect as I could have imagined.        

Progress!

We haven't had many updates lately, but that's because I wanted something drastic to show you on the house. We started working on fixing our garage before we moved in. Of the ten-page code violations that came with this house, fixing the garage was the most urgent since it was falling over and had holes in the roof. People looked at this and said, "Tear it down." But we didn't have a ton of money and we like old things, so we decided to restore it, one small step at a time, with lots of help along the way.

As purchased. It came with the tarp (and raccoon) and everything. 

The first step was to protect our neighbors. We hired our friend from church (Shawn Gray of Home Elements) to get it structurally sound. He does great, beautiful work (check out the pictures on his website). I don't think our project made the cut for his website because it was still an eyesore, but guess what?! It wasn't going to fall over and the holes in the roof were gone. Shawn and Edy (you'll see more of him) also ripped off the garage extension. At the end of that project, it looked like this:

Straight as an arrow and new cedar siding where the extension once protruded.

Lots of peeling paint to scrape on the backside. 

This version was luxurious. We could actually store things in the garage. Shawn even fixed the broken window and the raccoon had been relocated. We operated with this lovely version for over a year. To prepare for the monumental task of painting the entire house, we decided to use this little garage as our testing ground. It was our chance to work on our prepping skills - scraping, stripping, sanding, caulking, puttying, and priming. This was labor-intensive and we couldn't have done it without Edy's help. Here we are at work:

Man of my dreams and the hardest worker I know. That window behind him is on its way to amazing. 

He makes me laugh too, which is a good thing because when I'm hot, I get cranky.

Don't be deceived. Most of the work was done by Paul and Edy.
I included this picture to show you the true state of that 100 year old siding. 

Poor Edy. He did a ton of work, and we did not do a good job of documenting him at work. I will correct that in the future (as there is still an entire house to prep for paint). I'm especially disappointed because Edy looks so handsome in his work suspenders.

This is a cheat; he's actually working on our house. But those are the suspenders. Also,
Paul informed me that it's hard to get a picture of Edy because he moves so fast. 

Edy primed the whole garage. Look at this. It's so pretty.

We didn't get a picture of it, but those windows got a lot of love an attention, stripped down to the bare wood.

I was tempted to paint the whole thing white and be done - it was such a drastic improvement, but I'm glad I didn't.

Now to an insecurity confession: I was incredibly nervous about picking paint colors. I love, love design - reading design blogs and books, looking at magazine pictures, drawing sketches, pinning images on pinterest - but choosing exterior paint colors FREAKED me out. There were tears. What if I hated it? What if we had to do it all over again? What if? What if?

So I turned to one of my real talents: research. I narrowed it down to about nine potential base and trim colors. Then I bought samples in rounds (I forgot to take a picture of this stage). Here's the crazy thing, I ended up loving the very first base and trim color I chose. The rest of the samples just confirmed that they were my favorite. All that was left was the accent color. I did another round of samples and ended up choosing my neighbor's suggestion (thank you, Susan!), which I absolutely love. Here are the color winners:

Base color.

Main trim color - to match the gutters.

Additional trim color.

Susan's pick and our "pop" color.

After getting the garage ready to go (did I already mention how labor-intensive that was?), we had another church friend (Dave Lano of Lano Services) do the painting. This is fresh in my mind because it happened today. We absolutely can't stop staring at the finished project - AND - he and Mike did this in about six hours. It's perfect in every way. The garage is done.

Action shot. Paul turned around after taking this picture and they were done.

Look at that beauty! It reminds me of a doll house, a sophisticated one, of course. Props to Mr. Lano for suggesting that the amber color trim the inside of the windows. It is so cheerful.

A much prettier backside now. You can see the dovetail color under the eaves. It didn't get a lot of play on the garage because it doesn't have the same kind of Victorian detail the house has. Don't worry, it will get to show off soon.

Freshly painted garage door too - looks brand new.

One more for good measure. Plus, this is a little truer to the actual color,
which is darker than some of the other pictures show.

This post got kind of long. Let's just remember what the before looked like:

BEFORE

AFTER

Now for a day off - to sip a drink from the deck and admire our garage.

Reading

I haven't blogged since January. That doesn't mean I didn't think about lots of things to share with you all. It's just that doing those things got in the way of reflecting on them and uploading photos and videos to share (sorry, Grandma!).

Usually, I try to blog about things I don't want to forget, which almost always involve Caleb. Remember when I told you about his ABC Obsession? Well, the consequence is that he loves to "read."

I put that in quotation marks for several reasons. First, the child has an uncanny memory and wants to read a story five times - not just once. Second, he has sight words that he nails all the time and never tries sounding them out, words like: and, the, with, for, it. The other reason I qualify the use of the word "read" is because he is still working on sounding out letter combinations and grouping sounds.

Regardless of what constitutes independent reading, we're amazed. He's going to be three in August and has been "reading" since he was two and a half. Before you start feeling bad that your child doesn't sit in a corner with a book, listing every letter on the page and then going back to sound them out, you shouldn't. In my mind, this is the result of an obsessive personality focused on letters. We didn't do anything special with Caleb. This is just a part of who he is.

That doesn't mean that we don't encourage his love of letters and words. We certainly do. Ms. Tomi, who watches him three times a week, takes him to the library for a fresh load of books once a week and is willing to read the same story to him three times in a row (not happening with this momma).

My parents keep him supplied with fun new reads too. Like this one:

                                  

It probably helps that we don't have a t.v. and our down time looks like this:

Before you start wondering how socially awkward our two year old is and whether he talks with a British accent and goes to local book readings and quotes scripture memory verses at anyone who looks his way, you should know that he also does things like this too:

We love this kid. It's such a joy to be his momma.

On the Seventh Day, He Rested.

As much as this weather makes me want to curl up and hibernate under my covers, there's too much going on for rest. Paul's real estate practice is hopping, and I have been working on Saturdays - in addition to the rest of the week - to get ready for an important event coming up at school. Once the baby is down for the night, we pick right back up where we left off. More work. Then we're up the next morning and at it again.

Except for Sundays. 

Paul and I have long discussed our mutual desire to observe the Sabbath, to be intentional about protecting time for reflection and rest. If there has ever been a season where we might have excused this practice, this is it. It's also the time we most need it.

Here we are, alive and sane in the midst of a busy season. "Then he said to them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.'" Mark 2:27.

Working by the fireplace.

Caleb is studying penguins with Ms. Tomi.

Daddy's fellow cold-weather adventurer.
"Are you cold, Caleb?"
"No. I'm a Haske."

Adorable and color-coordinated.

Train day with friend Anthony.

Kids, cool dads, and a nice train conductor.

Adding a new element to our nightly Bible reading - the head lamp.

Playing inside because it is -10 degrees outside.

Friends from supper club. I look forward to watching these kids grow up together. 

That's all for now folks. If you're feeling worn out, take a Sabbath.