Gladys wrote another poem this morning. She was irritating me a lot just at that moment, what with the complaining and whining and general sense of total dissatisfaction with reality. I thought maybe if I wrote it down for her she would stop with the whining, which turned out not to be the case. Basically the age of five I have never found to be awesome. Anyway, here is the text of the poem followed by the frame and picture... Read more
Yesterday the remains of last summer’s sun flowers in my back garden were pecked over by a couple of those lovely little fat birds that figure so romantically in all the Tasha Tudor books. Do you know, the three waves of guilt that tidal-ed themselves over me were, in order,Why can’t I remember the names of those little birds?!Why am I not calling a child over here to look at them!?AndWhy haven’t I pulled out the Tasha Tudor books? There... Read more
Well, here it is. Friday. And I haven’t blogged or done much of anything interesting exceptonecope with the laundry room. I mean, really really deal with actually doing the laundry, folding the clothes and putting stuff in bins that’s just in the way. twoStart to make sour dough bread again but this time fail so much as to actually end up throwing it away.threeTake three days off from school for six children to have the stomach bug. One after another... Read more
Can’t believe it’s nearly March. Can’t believe how unrelentingly grey and cold it is outside. Irritated that the children take off their coats when they get into the cold car because they are so afraid of being “too hot”. They wander around the house in t shirts and shorts and open the door wide open to see ‘how warm it is’. Matt, after asking me what the weather would be like all week and hearing that it would be largely... Read more
Being rather a creature of habit it takes an act of God, or the valiant shoving of a friend (not that those are necessarily different) to get me to do new or different things. In this case I have been making bread in exactly the same way for about 14 years–the precise way my dad showed me when I was at the point of wanting to make bread. Well, I mean, of course, I’ve made adjustments–mainly on the size of... Read more
So many sensible people are giving up Facebook and other Things Like That for Lent that I’ve been vaguely unsettled that it never occurred to me to pursue such a course. I do spend a fair amount of time online but its pretty concentrated to particular moments in the day and for particular purposes. I would never categorize myself as Needing To Give It Up. Anyway, my real guilt lies not in the amount of time online nor in the... Read more
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
Preventing Grace
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