oneFor lent this year we’re saying morning prayer with the kids three times a week. I had been doing an abbreviated form in the fall, plugging some memory work into the middle and letting the kids twirl while we sang, but had fallen into the ditch of Not Ever Doing It. So Matt has joined us in a gracious effort to get it back. twoMarigold would hog the whole time of prayer if we let her. She has lately been... Read more
We’ll be looking mostly at Matthew 6 this morning if you would like to turn there.So, first of all, what is Lent?Lent is the 40 day season of fasting, self-denial and self-examination leading up to Jesus’ passion, crucifixion and ultimate resurrection at Easter. It mirrors the Israelites 40 years of wandering in the dessert, the 40 days Noah and his family were in the ark and Jesus’ 40 day fast after his baptism. The Sundays in lent don’t count as... Read more
UribrdroororrwyefuuuuiàaQgp,tn,oUh f. .,vbHby4 m m. And now she is mad at me because I made her stop. Read more
Ermintrude received ‘skinny jeans’ for her birthday. She got all ready to go out and then lay herself down on the bed and shrieked for ten minutes or so. Then she was mad at me for taking a picture. Aren’t her boots cool? And here is her cake. Chocolate with pink icing and kisses on the top. Basically she licked all the frosting off and then ate the candies and then got down and threw her new blocks... Read more
We watched The Prince of Egypt recently in our usual lackadaisical weekly watching of A Family Movie. It’s either Big Trouble in Little China (whoops) or Gnomeo and Juliet (srsly) or well, other hits and misses. So I thought The Prince of Egypt was going to be about Joseph not Moses and I didn’t know it was a musical….but I tried not to feed into the general whining about all the singing. Alouicious finally stopped complaining when he realized the... Read more
Shocked by the horrific cold brought about by dressing up in a huge puffy pink snow suit, boots, hat, mittens and scarf and standing in the true nightmare that is a foot of snow for three and a half minutes, Big Fatty Lumpkin is this moment siting on my lap piercing the otherwise relative quiet with shrieks and trying to shove both her plump fists in her mouth to warm them up. I agree with her. Going out there is... Read more
I wrote this for the church this week and thought it pass it on to all of you. My psalm reading this morning just happened to be Psalm 32 which begins, “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” This strikes me as a perfect entrance into a Lenten season of repentance and self examination. The gift of... Read more
My very long time friend and her sister happened to write and illustrate a lovely book recently called Olive’s Balloon Adventure. Marigold received this book from St. Nicholas before Christmas and I would say that she and Gladys and I would highly recommend it for any little person who intends to do everything herself without help or interference from any living person of any kind. I meant to say this very thing here before Christmas on the off chance that... Read more
I’ve been mulling over the Christian concept of Work over the past many weeks, not least because we do so much of it around here, but more really because of our Sunday School program, Catechesis of the Good Sheperd. My own children have all come through Catechesis, Elphine, as in everything, paving the way. Way back then, I didn’t have any expectations and didn’t have time for anything either and was just really grateful for her to meet Jesus, the... Read more
The wind is howling in a bitter, raging way and I am huddled next to the plug in heater in the office at church while the children run crazed and argumentative laps up and down the parish hall. Maybe they are having an actual game but I was promised they were doing ‘laps’ ‘for exercise’. I’ve also been assured by everyone that every scrap of school work is done. And Matt is home cleaning the basement for exercise, not ‘exercise’... Read more
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