Shameless Posting About My Children

I get really irritated when my favorite bloggers don’t post ever day, or worse, take a whole week off from blogging. In that same spirit, I offer my deep regrets for taking almost a whole week off from posting. Thing is, I preached Sunday after not preaching in a long time, and I kept meaning to post my sermon, but then I added and adjusted so much as I was actually speaking, that I decided to bring it home and fix it, but then someone walked off with it during coffee hour, and Lord knows where it is now. So, of course, then I meant to try and fix it from memory, but that hasn’t happened either. Anyway, I think it was a perfectly fine sermon, and maybe someday you’ll get to read it.

Also, just as we were all getting over a vile cold, E caught some throwing up bug. She’s been home from school for two days and will stay home again tomorrow to get some more rest, by which time I’m sure someone else will be throwing up often without prior warning. The fall/winter season is definitely here.

But we’ve been having a good time nonetheless. For example, E informed us this evening that God can make people sick, but he can’t heal them. ‘Well’, she amended her statement, ‘he can but he lets doctors do it.’ She has heard about the Israelites getting sick in the desert for complaining and it has made a big impression on her (being sick and all). She organized tea for us this afternoon-a lot of plates carefully arranged on the coffee table, three empty (not sure why), one with 4 grapes on it, one with 6 tiny biscuits smeared with jam, peanut butter and nuttela, one full of cookies. She took the plate of grapes around carefully to ask if we’d like more. Very hospitable. But then she made us sing ‘Now the Day is Over’ and ‘The Lord told Noah to build him an Arky Arky’ and afterwards told a long and complicated ‘Bible’ story holding a copy of Mansfield Park instead of a Bible. Then she got really bossy and tried to make us all take a rest, which I refused to do and everything broke into chaos. She really misses school. But I’ve been happy to have her home for a couple of days. We miss her when she’s not here.

And A’s powers of reason are becoming more sophisticated. The kiddos are not allowed to say they don’t like whatever they’ve been given to eat at the table. So tonight, careful not to say that he didn’t like it, he explained, very carefully, that the chicken in front of him was made from milk, ‘the kind of milk that I don’t like’. Very clever, I thought.

And the baby smiled yesterday, after giving it obvious and crucial thought. Plus she slept through the night one time, which was amazing. I’ve never experienced such a thing, with babies. Imagine, sleeping through the night instead of eating every hour.

And R is his own solid self, agreeably wandering around the house muttering ‘yes’ to himself quietly. Its his favorite word, although ‘cake’ comes a close second.

So, you see, I’ve been covered in children, and not even reading anything online. And its been, frankly, refreshing. Let the Anglican World wreck itself, it doesn’t need me reading about it to make anything different.