Discovered yesterday why the house is falling to bits, well, part of the reason. It's not because I've totally given up, although really I think I have. It's not that my standards are too high, although probably they are and I should relax and be less of a jerk. It's not that the little girls are destructive, although they completely are. It's that Elphine, imperceptibly, has become my right arm. And her falling into sickness and sadness has dealt me... Read more
Those of you have visited me lately might have noticed my dining room table sitting out on the front “porch”. It’s not really a porch. It’s a sort of covered entry place, certainly not big enough for a dining room table. I painted the table last year but didn’t get around to spraying polyurethane or anything on it. So, of course, little children ground their forks and knives into it and made it look lots more pretty. Stupid kids. So... Read more
Sheets of rain are spreading themselves over the hill in front of me, obscuring the flaming trees of red and yellow. Grey over shadows us all. The boys are listening to The Two Towers, the little girls are fighting with each other, Elphine is in bed listening to Anne of Green Gables again and playing majong on her iPod. She had a fever last night, a fact I did not discover until she came home from youth group and tried... Read more
Monday Went to the doctor. Probably am having allergies, bad ones, for the first time in my life. Opted not to find out more about anything. Will just take Zyrtec, or something, and try to cope. Found myself charmed, as I was leaving, to be thanked for my service to humanity by staying home with so many children. Went to Aldi. Went home. Took a long walk. Family movie. Maybe the children practiced piano but probably not. Tuesday Woke up... Read more
One The trees are beginning to flame, one by one, into red and gold. Trying not to think about the long leafless months ahead. When I’m in the middle of them I don’t mind so much, but I dread them as the leaves fall and flitter, one by one, to the grave. Lots of my time is spent examining other people’s windows and the positions of their trees and evaluating how much sunlight they can expect in the winter. So... Read more
I’m about to start the Great Fall Clothes Change Over of 2014, like maybe tomorrow or something. First we have to go try to pick some raspberries, if possible, and write some letters. Then I probably have to deep clean the house and write a book and work in the garden and paint the bathroom. Then I should probably clean out some closets at church and visit someone in the hospital or something. And bake, I should bake. How much... Read more
I have lately been interested in the natural out working of those small throwaway decisions that comprise the vast sea of the ordinary work day. You know how it goes. You begin to do one thing, are reminded in the middle of it that you were supposed to do another thing, drop what you're doing to go attend to it, are interrupted on the way by a child who needs a bandaid, forget both tasks, stand there wondering what you... Read more
Day Thirty-Six II Kings 4:10 Let us make a small room on the roof with walls and put there for him a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp, so that whenever he comes to us, he can go in there. Elisha has found a convenient and hospitable place to stop in all his various ministry travels. He once passed by and the Shunammite woman “urged him to eat some food” so that, whenever he came there, he visited... Read more
I have lived at church the last three days, as I always do at the start of a new Sunday school year. There isn’t any other way around it. Every year Matt is frustrated and mad at me for having such a huge task to do in such a short time, but there’s really no way to do it before that moment. Rooms are needed all summer. The stuff has to sit there until it’s needed. Of course I could... Read more
Notes 9/8-9/12 Monday Rose from my by bed twice. Once to take a shower and then, much much later, to collapse into a chair and pretend to watch Monday Night Football. Matt cheated the children out of their Family Movie Night by changing it into Family Football Funtime. Only Romulus had fun. Everyone else sat brooding, though Alouicious seemed satisfied in his usual anxious sarcastic way. I read a nice long article about how teetotalers die earlier than people who... Read more
Preventing Grace
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