the tweet heard 'round the world: a few words about segregation and educational options
Mon, Aug 23 2010 09:04 AM
| christen, general life, personal, little rock, olive, christian subculture, theology, arkansas, lucy, family, popular culture, children, current events, max, politics
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By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled;
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard 'round the world.
so begin's ralph waldo's emerson 1837 masterpiece, concord hymn. the line that closes the stanza, of course, has become a cultural idiom. the shot heard 'round the world is in reference to the american revolutionary war, specifically the battles of lexington and concord. indeed, those shots reverberated around the globe and set our nation on a new course.
and then—on august 21, 2010—there was this:
worth not just a read, but extended reflection for LR people / RT @GOOD: Are students pre-segregated before high school? http://su.pr/9msbx1
ryanByrd
ryanbyrd
which was immediately followed by this:
in addition to what the @GOOD article says, it's also worth reflecting on "self-segregation" (parents who put their kids in private school).ryanByrd
ryanbyrd
ah yes, the tweet heard 'round the world.
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more sheepishness: a few thoughts about our culture of fear
Wed, Jul 14 2010 08:02 AM
| christen, general life, personal, olive, christian subculture, theology, church, jesus, lucy, family, popular culture, current events, max, politics
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the bible's a funny thing. and so is following that guy jesus.
at best, they're frustrating. at worst, they're maddening. even illogical. counterintuitive.
you see, in scripture, we're referred to as sheep. basically, mindless followers that roam without proper self defense or the ability to find the way on our own. we just sorta hang out with the flock and go where the shepherd leads.
we're sitting ducks. but, you know, in the sheepish kind of way. (a shmuck?)
quite frankly, sheep should be frightened.
but the bible's a funny thing.
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one month down: new pictures of max
Wed, Jul 7 2010 07:58 AM
| christen, general life, personal, olive, lucy, family, children, max
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better late than never, right?
it's hard to believe, but tomorrow, july 8, max will be one month old. wow. at the risk of total cliché, time has flown by. it really does seem like yesterday that we were going to the hospital to prepare for his arrival. and now, fast forward a month…and we're just now taking pictures of him. yes, in the household of a photographer (christen), we're just now getting around to it. i guess that's just how it goes at this point…
it's hard to believe, but tomorrow, july 8, max will be one month old. wow. at the risk of total cliché, time has flown by. it really does seem like yesterday that we were going to the hospital to prepare for his arrival. and now, fast forward a month…and we're just now taking pictures of him. yes, in the household of a photographer (christen), we're just now getting around to it. i guess that's just how it goes at this point…
so i'm the dude who crashed little rock family's mommy blogger story
Tue, Jun 29 2010 08:03 AM
| christen, general life, personal, olive, little rock, work, lucy, family, max, blog stuff
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greetings. welcome to the blog. maybe you're here because you saw me in a little rock family story about the top local bloggers. i'm the large, hairy woman in the middle. you know, the one who looks like the offspring of a lumberjack and a grizzly bear. yeah, that's me.
the lone dude.
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of max and men: teaching a boy to be a man
Sat, Jun 12 2010 08:53 AM
| christen, general life, personal, olive, lucy, christian subculture, theology, family, popular culture, children, max
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in the event that you've slept through the last several days or haven't read my blog (or decided to unfollow me in the midst of gratuitous labor tweeting…), baby byrd #3–max ryan byrd–squirted into this world on tuesday afternoon. weighing in just slightly under the minimum tonnage for aspiring sumo wrestlers, all 9 lbs, 3 oz of max has spent the last couple days acclimating to his new home. big sister olive and even bigger sister lucy have also been acclimating to having a new human being in their home, especially for the fact that this new human being is a little boy.
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the new baby byrd has arrived: first pictures of max
Wed, Jun 9 2010 08:58 AM
| christen, general life, photography, personal, olive, lucy, family, children, max
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well, he's here…
yes, max ryan byrd made his triumphant arrival yesterday at 1:16 p.m. if you weren't aware, we were scheduled to induce yesterday morning (on the awesomely, numerically nerdy 6/8/10) and things went very smoothly. christen was incredible and literally up to the point of pushing, she was calm and really didn't experience too much pain (relatively speaking, of course). the pushing went well and all 9 lbs, 3 oz (!) came plopping out just like he ruled the joint. :)
yes, max ryan byrd made his triumphant arrival yesterday at 1:16 p.m. if you weren't aware, we were scheduled to induce yesterday morning (on the awesomely, numerically nerdy 6/8/10) and things went very smoothly. christen was incredible and literally up to the point of pushing, she was calm and really didn't experience too much pain (relatively speaking, of course). the pushing went well and all 9 lbs, 3 oz (!) came plopping out just like he ruled the joint. :)
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pre-max: a lucy and olive photo retrospective
Mon, Jun 7 2010 09:38 AM
| christen, general life, photography, personal, olive, lucy, family, children, max
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tomorrow—tuesday, june 8, 2010—max ryan byrd will be born. we've been scheduled to induce and while we're not big fans of inducement, it's definitely a relief after what has been a month of constant anticipation. it's a little strange knowing the exact date of your child's birth, but it certainly does allow for a little planning that we didn't have when lucy and olive decided to pop out a couple weeks early.
with max's impending birth, the focus will largely shift to his arrival. for older children, it can be a difficult adjustment. lucy did pretty well with olive and i expect olive to do alright, but i thought i'd give lucy and olive the spotlight one last time before max jumps into the scene (and subsequently steals it).
with max's impending birth, the focus will largely shift to his arrival. for older children, it can be a difficult adjustment. lucy did pretty well with olive and i expect olive to do alright, but i thought i'd give lucy and olive the spotlight one last time before max jumps into the scene (and subsequently steals it).
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baby watch 2010: lucy lu turns 3 and a free max mix
Tue, May 18 2010 09:02 AM
| christen, general life, personal, lucy, music, family, children, max
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ok, which cliché do you want? how about time flies when you're having fun? or maybe it seems just like yesterday that she born? of course, there's she'll be all grown up before we know it. there's plenty others i could throw at you and quite frankly, many are true. the fact is, our little lucy lu turns 3 years old today and many of the age-old sayings that seem a little worn out ring true for me today.
rampant religion roundup: lifeway christian stores, jennifer knapp and johnny piper
Fri, Apr 23 2010 02:38 PM
| rant, christen, church, news, emergent, jesus, eikon, theology, music, favorites, popular culture, current events
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last month, the calvinist legions of bloggers hit the interwebs to lambast their chosen messiah, john piper, for what they viewed as a theological slap in the face. piper did the (apparently) unthinkable and invited rick warren to be one of the featured speakers at his desiring god 2010 national conference (in addition to speakers such as the SBC godfather al mohler and the treading-on-thin-ice-because-now-you're-making-films-with-that-rob-bell-company francis chan).
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a final farewell from Fat Ryan -OR- my plan to lose the equivalent of a 10-yr old
Sat, Jan 23 2010 02:26 PM
| christen, general life, personal, humor, weight loss, family, popular culture, children, food
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hello friends,
Fat Ryan here. yes, this is the same ryan that's been bringing you this stunning blog content since the year of our lord 2007. yes, this is the same ryan that you see every day or that you interact with on twitter every day or that you think longingly of each day. but i'm now referring to that guy as Fat Ryan.
and the Fat Ryan is singing.
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our sweet little olive turns 1
one year. wow.
it's nearly impossible to avoid all the necessary clichés with this type of post. it feels like yesterday... time flies... she'll be a teenager before you know it. blah blah blah. the reality, though, is that all the clichés are true, really.
it does seem like just yesterday that we were taking off for the hospital at 1:30 in the morning and seeing olive for the first time just a little after 5 a.m. (you can read the overview of those events here). time does fly when you have a sweet little girl that turns 1 without you realizing that even a day or a week has passed. and yes, the reality that she'll be all grown up very soon sets in when you begin making plans for that first birthday party.
when churches attack!: scaring the hell out of the masses, pt. 2
last week, on halloween, i blogged about the phenomenon over the last 20-30 years of churches putting on what's commonly known as hell houses. to put it lightly, i didn't really give them a glowing endorsement. :) you can read it in its entirety here.
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a little byrdy told me about a place called etsy
i'm really excited to be blogging about this particular piece of information (i've been meaning to do it for a few weeks now..) and i hope you'll find it beneficial.christen has started an etsy store.over at babybyrds.etsy.com, christen has created a really great store that features, generally speaking, children's print items such as custom wall prints and custom diaper bag tags. as a parent of two
eureka! six years of wedded bliss.
a couple days ago, christen and i celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. it's hard to talk about anniversaries without instantly sounding cliché or resorting to your standard fare summations of your love for your spouse. so, trying to avoid that as much as possible, i can truly say that i love christen much more now than i did 6 years ago. it's a different love, but it's certainly much deeper and
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my piece in little rock soirée: a day in little rock
let's do some word association, shall we?what words pop into your mind when you hear 'ryan'? if you said sophisticated, upper class city magazine, then you would have been the literally only person in this world to make that connection.well, that connection, in fact, has been made. several months ago, i was approached by the fine people at little rock soirée about writing a piece called a day in little
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father's day pictures
Sun, Jun 21 2009 09:59 PM
| christen, photography, personal, olive, lucy, family, children
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ok, christen told me my previous post about father's day was "depressing" and "weird." in fact, i believe she read it and then said, "wah waaaaahhh". so, i'm going to redeem it with a couple pictures she shot today in our backyard.despite the fact that lucy was being a grade-A terd, we managed to get at least one semi-usable one (although she demanded she hold an old rusty hose nozzle she found). olive
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father's day thoughts: count your blessings...or curses...
let's talk a little father's day theology.today is a great day. as stated, it's father's day. for me, as the father of two beautiful little girls, this day is less about being honored and recognized and more about me stopping to think about how beautiful and incredible my daughters are and the impact they have on my life. i've certainly done that today.one thing i notice, though, is that days like
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lucy lu: summertime on the farm
Sat, Jun 20 2009 12:56 AM
| christen, photography, lucy, children
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christen took the girls to her grandma's house last week and shot a bunch of photos. i'm experimenting with some various photo techniques and textures, so here's just one i messed around with a little bit.lucy tends to turn off the usual lucy hilariousness and charm, but for these, she decided to show the smile. so, here ya go. (click to see larger)
lucy and olive hit the pool
Wed, Jun 10 2009 05:33 PM
| christen, photography, personal, olive, lucy, family, children
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we hit the pool a couple days ago and needless to say, lucy and olive had a blast. christen blogged about it over at babybyrds.com (where she's put a couple updates as of late) and i thought i'd throw up a couple quick pics of the girls here.
my two moms
primarily, i have two moms in my life: my actual mom and my wife—the mother of my children. so, i thought on this mother's day, i would pause and say how much i love both of these mothers (although not in this way...) and share a couple thoughts about each of them.i thought in keeping with the theme of two, i would list two characteristics about each of them that i most love/respect/appreciate.[cue
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an olive update
Thu, Apr 2 2009 12:16 AM
| christen, photography, olive, family
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it's been awhile since i've given any kind of update on olive or shown any pictures. while there have certainly been things i could have given an update about, there definitely have been no new pictures...until now.christen shot some yesterday while lucy was away at the grandparentals (which is necessary in order to have any semblance of a successful photoshoot with olive) and they turned out great.olive
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facebook promotes sibling love
ah, the love between a brother and sister. it's a beautiful thing, especially when it plays itself out for the whole world to see on facebook.now, i don't do facebook. it's just one more thing for me to have to do (although, as a matter of full disclosure, i've considered it long and hard simply for networking purposes). christen, though, has done it for a long time and has the facebook iphone app.
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ash wednesday sacrilege
ok, so hopefully not sacrilege, but we should never take ourselves too seriously.so, today, in fact, is ash wednesday, and i thought i would drop in for a quick little fun post. on a serious note, ash wednesday is something that's only been on my radar for a few years. i grew up in a faith tradition that didn't even acknowledge the concept of ash wednesday. unfortunately, anything that even slightly
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swedes, spouses and shepler's
christen and i had quite the weekend. for those who follow me on twitter, you are well aware that we had a weekend away in dallas. for those who don't follow me on twitter, let me now inform you that we had a weekend away in dallas. :) alright, now that we're all on the same page, let's proceed with a recap.1. ikea. ah yes, ikea. indeed, the large blue and yellow box was the guiding force that led
oh! christmas tree
these days, we're on a little slower schedule than what we used to be. last weekend, we bought a christmas tree. tonight, a full week later, we decorated it. it took us a week to muster enough energy to actually throw some freakin' balls and lights on our goofy tree. needless to say, it's been a little hectic around the byrd household as of late.anyway, the tree stands, in all its glory, decorated
power vs. love: the psychology of a man |||amp; his bride
i am a subscriber/regular listener to tony campolo's podcast, across the pond (here's the itunes link). as i believe i've stated on the blog before, campolo is one of my top few favorite theologians/speakers/authors/etc.—bar none. his thoughts on a number of issues have really helped me to put shape to some of the things that i've been working through over the last 4 or 5 years.today on the podcast,
new olive pics!
Tue, Dec 2 2008 11:22 PM
| christen, photography, personal, olive, lucy, family, children
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we finally got a chance (read: olive was awake, lucy was being nice and me & christen felt like doing it) to shoot some more pictures of olive (and lucy) today. these are the first ones we've done beyond the hospital pics, so we were excited to finally do them. also, as you can see, we did some with lucy and olive together. they turned out really great. (don't worry, although there were a couple
olive's first (real) trip out of the house
tonight, lucy went and hung out with aunt ann while christen and i took olive out to dinner. thanks to the ol' iphone and the great app, camerabag (itunes store link), we got this photo:
babybyrds.com updated!
hey everybody, make sure you fly (ha ha...get it, "fly"...because you see, it's babybyrds.com...you know, like a bird...how they fly...ha ha.....) on over to babybyrds.com! christen has finally gotten a chance to do some updates and talk about the whole olive experience from her point-of-view.it's about time she updated it...i mean, what's she doing with all her time? feeding a newborn? looking after
more pics of olive: day 5 (already!)
update time:i fee like time is flying. it's almost been a week! this is my first blog since saturday, so that may give you a little insight as to my time availability for blogging... i finally have a few minutes, so i thought i would offer a few updates and put up a few new pics.olive: she's looking more and more beautiful each day. her skin is gorgeous, her hair is shiny and beautiful and she's starting
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a quick pic from olive's first night home
hell freezes: my wife's a blogger!
Sun, Nov 16 2008 03:32 PM
| recommendations, christen, family, children, websites, blog stuff
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as i told you all yesterday, babybyrds.com is up and running (and some improvements have already been made from the time i posted it). i posted the first little ditty on there, but today, christen has entered the blogosphere! indeed, hell has frozen (because of all the months that christen has made fun of me for be a goofy blogger).she posted a humorous/horrifying story that you should definitely go
babybyrds.com!
Sat, Nov 15 2008 10:55 PM
| christen, personal, olive, lucy, family, children, websites, blog stuff
| permalink
i'm excited to let you guys know that we got babybyrds.com up and running tonight! this will be the home for all things christen and ryan offspring: namely, lucy and olive (but we're sure there will be more to come down the road...). primarily, this will be the place that christen blogs, but i'll hop on from time to time. we'll be putting pictures, updates, video and whatever else seems to be entertaining
