So Here's the Thing

Hi there.

You thought I forgot, didn't you?

I've been quiet here now for the better part of six months.  It has been a good quiet.  I have enjoyed living my life, teaching my kids, reading my books, loving my church body, and just quietly going about my days.

I haven't worried about writing things down to capture them.  I haven't looked at reader stats and tried to make sense of them.  I haven't wondered if what I said is going to kick off unforeseen controversy because I didn't say it *exactly* right -- or sometimes, because I did.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how I miss writing.  It stretches that word-loving part of my brain that lights up when I read beautiful prose.  Dorothy Sayers was once asked if she found it "easy to be drunk on words".  She replied, "So easy that, to tell you the truth, I am seldom perfectly sober."  I can relate to that kind of drunkenness.

Before I take up regular blogging again, I feel the need for a little shift.  I want a clean space to work.  Instead of clearing up the clutter over here, I'm going to move to wordpress.  I plan to privatize this place and make the new place my bright, clean writing room where the fits and spurts of my creative energy can take shape.

I will probably end up re-running some stuff from over here.  We'll still have the wonderful "overheard" category, because who can deny the hilarity of Things Kids Say?  We might even return to that old series called Proof of Life.  My wordpress space is underway but there's a learning curve for me.  It's not quite ready.

You can call this an apology for disappearing; you can call it an explanation for my absence; you can call it a recommissioning.  I'm excited about what's ahead.

Overheard: Political Edition

Scene:  Kelly and David going to bed after last night's town hall debate.  David missed most of it due to a church meeting.  Kelly describes it for him.

K:  Tonight's debate really alternated between making me furious and putting me to sleep.
D:  Oh, just like me!

What I Just Bought at the Grocery Store (a partial list)

For them:
2 boxes of Lucky Charms
3 frozen pizzas
3 bottles of vitamin water
2 bags of Fritos
Macaroni and cheese
Hot dogs
a 12-pack of Sam Adams Octoberfest

And for me (to share):
Four pounds of coffee
Two different kinds of creamer
Ghiradelli brownie mix


The Fall Women's Retreat is this weekend!  Yes, that's right!  Daddy will be taking off two days from work to do my job, so I can get away with my girlfriends from church. Next week it'll be back to vegetables and oatmeal...this weekend is irresponsible nutrition for everyone.

Jonathan Edwards' Final Words

Written to his daughter, Lucy:

Dear Lucy, it seems to me to be the will of God that I must shortly leave you; therefore give my kindest love to my dear wife, and tell her, that the uncommon union, which has so long subsisted between us, has been of such a nature as I trust is spiritual and therefore will continue forever: and I hope she will be supported under so great a trial, and submit cheerfully to the will of God. And as to my children, you are now to be left fatherless, which I hope will be an inducement to you all to seek a Father who will never fail you.

And Now, Some Frivolous Questions

Does it really make a difference that I use undereye cream? Am I going to notice a difference when I'm seventy, or would that time have been better spent going to bed two minutes earlier?

When will my four year old daughter stop talking like she is two?  We spent so much time on speaking properly, and now she has scrapped it all and started baby talk again.  Yucko.

Why is fall so AWESOME?!!  (nevermind, that is not frivolous.  It's because IT IS AWESOME.)

What is it about those little "pods" of laundry detergent that makes doing laundry somehow more accessible to my kids?  (For you faithful readers, we have taken a break from this stuff, and I might not go back.  The clothes started to stink, and no amount of Oxy was helping)

Does anyone know when season three of Downton Abbey airs over here across the pond?  I have a few Brits in my twitter stream and they're torturing me with the Downton tweets.

Not a question:  Fall is awesome in the South for the same reason that spring is awesome in the Northeast.  It's because you have experienced the same weather pattern for SO LONG that the relief causes you to completely lose your head in jubilation.

In conclusion:

College students in Boston sunbathing in 50 degrees

is equivalent to

Southern women wearing tall leather boots and scarves in 70 degrees

Overheard

Scene:  Older two boys completing their writing assignment.  They are learning to insert dialogue into their paragraphs this week, so we do a little role-playing to help them dream up dialogue.  What might Pope Gregory say to Augustine of Canterbury to ask him to go to England to increase the spread of Christianity?

Ben (for our purposes, the Pope):  Augustine, you must go to England.
Cameron (or, Augustine):  Why?
Pope:  To spread Christianity to the barbarians!
Augustine:  But they are rude!
Pope:  (blank stare)

At this point, Mom jump-starts things by saying, "you're right, probably at that point, the Pope said, never mind, you don't have to go."

Pope, trying again:  You may take forty monks with you.
Augustine:  May I take weaponry?
Pope, giggling:  No!
Augustine:  May I throw rocks at them?

...aaaaannnnndd, scene.

Overheard

Scene: Maddie is flipping through the Bible on the kitchen counter, watching Mom make lunch.  She asks at each picture, "who is this?"  Jonathan walks into the room and begins listening.

Maddie (pointing): Is this Jesus?
Mom (craning neck): No...that's Ezra.
Maddie:  Ooooohhh.  EZRA.
Mom:  Do you know who wrote the Bible, Maddie?
Maddie: Jesus?
Mom:  Yes!
Jonathan:  NOOOO, God did.
Mom is quiet.
Jonathan:  Well, Jesus wrote the second part.
Maddie:  Yeah, Jonny, Jesus wrote the second part.
Jonathan:  But I know who REALLY wrote the Bible, Maddie.
Maddie:  Who?
Jonathan:  Monks!
Maddie:  JONNY!  I don't care about monks!
Jonathan:  You don't care about people who wrote the Bible?
Maddie:  I DON'T CARE ABOUT MONKS!