I haven’t been willing to believe that there’s a war on women in America today. I tend to prefer the use of the word ‘war’ to include actual physical violence, like what’s going on in Iraq and Syria, not some sort of nebulous, unverifiable, micro-agressed hurt feelings. But I’m ready to change my mind. As charming as it was to watch Star Wars in the presence of an enthralled nine year old super fan, it was an equal measure of... Read more
Yesterday we finally got out to see Star Wars. The terrible drama of needing to watch the movie but never having an actual moment, was precipitated by Romulus getting to see it the week before Christmas as part of a birthday party. It was as if God himself had been handed to him in a gift bag with a light saber on the front. Excitement doesn’t even begin to cover it. Once we understood that he would be seeing this... Read more
Christmas isn’t over, as I am being daily reminded on Facebook, but the initial fierce and frenzied pace of feasting has subsided and I am lapsing into the more reasonable way of just lying around praying silently for other people to feel like standing up to clean. One year I was so overwhelmed by the Feast of our Lord, by the paper and toys and food and candy and cookie crumbs, that I shoved almost all the presents, and a... Read more
The Word, the Light and the Likeness. Each one of them is enough on its own. They are so basic, so essential that it is easy to pass over them and not see them for what they are. Each one of them can be likened to a tether by which we are connected to God. If you let go of it, or pass over it, or discount it, you are going to not understand who Jesus is. John writes, “In... Read more
Some rushed baking this morning, and the washing of children, the fiddling with tights and hair, the admonishments not to squabble, and finally the muscling of them over to church for the pageant at five. If you’re anywhere near Binghamton I hope you’ll join us. There will be singing and the story of the incarnation, and candles and Silent Night. And then I’ll have to herd the children home, after everyone else has gone and face the business of getting... Read more
After bashing two beloved Christmas Carols and being accused, by Matt, of hating Christmas, I thought I’d take this morning to reveal a guilty and terrible pleasure, one which Matt himself has maligned. It’s not that I hate Christmas, it’s that he needs to let me celebrate the kind of Christmas that I love. And the kind of Christmas that I love includes Evie. I know. I suppose some of you will click away and never read this blog again.... Read more
I’m supposed to be writing something a tiny bit more serious, and not for here, so I only have a short, rushed minute to complain about another wretched Christmas Carol. And don’t worry, it’s not always going to be the bad ones. Tomorrow I will probably grow lyrical about some that I love. But today, the First Noel. Ugh. Here is the first line. The first noel the angels did say When I first was trying homeschool, I picked a... Read more
To kick off this week of Christmas extravaganza craziness, I thought I’d make a few pointed remarks about that beloved carol, Away in the Manger. This little gem is a staple of Good Shepherd’s Christmas Pageant–a little venture I have devoted myself to over the last ten years. The pageant is essential for Christmas–the heaps of children banging into each other with wings and sticks, the nervous, dull intonation of the announcement of the Angel of the Lord, but most... Read more
One true thing that I have sometimes heard about motherhood, especially the mothering of very young children, is that the days are over long but the years are too short. Each day can stretch itself out in an endless string of troubled minutes, the tasks, the tiredness, the vexations spread out before you so that you fear that you won’t make it. There isn’t enough sleep and the revolving circle of hunger and discipline and dirt make each day it’s... Read more
Not very many links this morning because of being up till midnight with the Great Present Wrapping Extravaganza of 2015. It’s important to get out all the presents and wrap them before Christmas Eve so that you can discover, to your horror, that in getting all the children everything on their lists (and stopping to ask yourself what on earth were you thinking) you have committed a grave error. The child who asked for twenty Star Wars toys, the child... Read more
Preventing Grace
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