Oh, to be in England...

"now that April's there!" - Robert Browning

Here's where David had fish and chips last night:



The Eagle and Child (apparently known to locals as "the bird and baby"), where The Inklings regularly met for lunch on Tuesdays.

*ahem*

notjealousnotjealousnotjealousnotjealous

He's taking me there, he already said so. You are all my witnesses.

Realizations

(Another list, sorry. My writing has declined with the absence of one husband. Will work to correct.)

1. I realized about a month ago that many people probably gave little girls the name "Hope" last year due to the painful overuse of the term by the Obama campaign. I would like to go on record as saying that Maddie's middle name has nothing to do with politics whatsoever. 2008 was a year of rekindled hope in our family and in my life, and I wanted to use the opportunity of her name as a remembrance, a worshipful signpost in the course of time.

2. I have spelled and said the word "sherbet" incorrectly for my entire life up until this week. (Truth be told, I had to correct that typing of it, as well) I have always said and spelled it "SHER-BERT." If I hadn't volunteered for our church's cookbook committee I might never have realized the error.

3. As much teasing as my name caused me in elementary school -- Kelly rhymes with "jelly," "belly," and "smelly"-- no one ever attempted an insult using the word "deli." This came to me as I lay in bed doing a crossword puzzle last night.

Now that your life has been changed by this blog post, you may go on with your day.

Things That Happen While Daddy's Away on Business

1. Mommy stays up too late. Doing nothing productive, just avoiding going to bed alone.
2. The DVDs of "Jon and Kate Plus 8" go to the top of the Netflix queue.
3. Peanut butter and jelly becomes a viable dinner option.
4. Bedtime (for the kids) comes earlier.
5. Mommy makes a huge, overly-ambitious to-do list at the beginning of the time of separation, anticipating all the great things she's going to do while Daddy is away and won't he be so SURPRISED when he gets home.
6. Reality sets in and Mommy realizes that one or two things done on the list is pretty great, especially considering the five children and all.
7. Daddy calls and life stops. Everyone asks for their turn to talk, and Daddy patiently listens to everyone, even those who think that a nod or a shrug can be "heard" through the phone.
8. The house alarm sees a lot more activity.
9. Mommy tries to structure the days so that she has some accountability for keeping things on track every day. Visitors and playdates are helpful, and they keep everyone from bouncing off the walls.
10. Mommy spends too much time reading internet news reports about the swine flu and drags all five children through Quite Possibly the Worst Wal-Mart in North America at dinnertime to buy more bleach and Purell. (I'm laughing, too, but it really happened. Yesterday.)
    

Your turn....

Overheard

Scene: Family en route to Sunday evening church. While we love our children's program at church, we try to encourage the kids to learn their Bible for the love of it rather than the prizes and awards they get for it. So occasionally we have a pep-talk on the way to church.


Dad: So, we want to learn the Bible because it's God's word to us and it helps us fight sin, not because we can get things for doing it. When you're trying to learn the Bible, loving Jesus should be your number one goal. It's OK to take points for doing what you're supposed to, but I want you to remember that that's not why we do it. It's not the number one goal.

Andrew: Yeah. That should be like...maybe...hmmmm....

(long pause while we wait for it)

...goal number....

(still waiting)

eleven.

hack, hack, hack

The above title has nothing to do with computer hacking, in case you were worried. If I had to hack a computer, I would use a hatchet, so little do I know of computer thingies.

No, the "hacking" is pouring forth from the mouths of our children who have been struck down with the fever/congestion/cough thingy that's going around. I think David and I got about three hours' sleep each last night. It was a wild few hours what with all the medicine and home remedies flying around.

("thingy" usage count: 2)

Remember my Vicks'-on-the-feet home remedy? The one that worked every time? It was rendered ineffective by this strain of yuck. So, greasy hands and feet and socks for nothing.

Andrew's fever got high enough last night that he was breathing rapidly -- I know that's OK when a fever is present, but it makes me nervous. He was also coughing so hard this morning that he threw up. Poor thing is miserable.

And the washer's dying. And they can't come fix it until Thursday morning. AND there's a business trip looming on the horizon.

But in happier news, Maddie's tooth finally popped through her gum this morning!!!

II Corinthians 4:16: "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day."

Washington on Religion and Government

This speaks so clearly to how religion preserves a republic:

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?

--from George Washington's farewell address, September 17, 1796

When You Know the Notes to Sing...

I was catching up on the news this morning, getting a little hot under the collar about that sanctimonious CNN reporter who decided to lecture the protesters in Chicago yesterday (liberal bias? what liberal bias?), when I happened upon this on my friend Christina's blog.

And it made me happy. So I decided to post this instead.





Ahhh....that's better.
Who organizes these things? And more importantly, HOW CAN I BECOME INVOLVED IN ONE?

I Love These Guys

The latest offering from Rhett and Link:

Outtakes

The picture I posted yesterday is from a trip to the Concord Memorial Garden. I got only a few wispy, dreamlike ones like that one of Maddie. Mostly, the pictures looked like these:

Are we done yet?

Maddie crying, Andrew and Cameron trying too hard, Jonathan contemplating life

Nice picture of my friend's son, but what is happening in the background?

Not. Happy.

Oh dear.

And there it is again.

Boasting in the Cross

...every good thing -- indeed, even every bad thing that God turns for good -- was obtained for us by the cross of Christ. Apart from faith in Christ, sinners get only judgment. Yes, there are many pleasant things that come to unbelievers. But the Bible teaches that even these natural blessings of life will only increase the severity of God's judgment in the end, if they are not received with thanks on the basis of Christ's sufferings (Romans 2:4-5).

Therefore, everything that we enjoy, as people who trust Christ, is owing to his death. His suffering absorbed all the judgment that guilty sinners deserved and purchased all the good that forgiven sinners enjoy. Therefore all our bosating in these things should be a boasting in the cross of Christ....

And how do we become that radically cross-focused? We must awaken to the truth that when Christ died on the cross, we died.... When this happened to the apostle Paul, he said, "The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Galatians 6:14).

-from Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die by John Piper. You can get this book for free online.

Maddie at Eight Months

My Favorite Tweet of the Day

OK, I know it's Holy Week and I should be posting something profound but I couldn't resist passing this along from Albert Mohler. You know Al, the straight-laced, tie-wearing president of Southern Baptist Seminary:




He just tweeted this afternoon:

"just passed Fruit of the Loom plant in Bowling Green, KY. Impressive, but I have no time to stop for a briefing."

It got a giggle out of me, sorry.

Jesus Wants the Rose

H/T: JT

The Farm

Just some random shots of my grandfather's farm...

A great tree for climbing
(in the background is the "Big House," where generations of my mom's family lived before my grandparents started renting it out)

Same tree, different angle...chickenhouse in the background,
my tall redheaded niece in the foreground :-)

The barn

haywagons

Pack is Stolen

(I guess it's a Boston news day here on the blog)

Mom just sent me the following article:

Thief makes away with duckling from Public Garden

Any suggestions on how we might punish the thief?

Update: Happy Ending

It's Opening Day at Fenway!

Basketball, hockey and track meets are action heaped upon action, climax upon climax, until the onlooker's responses become deadened. Baseball is for the leisurely afternoons of summer
and for the unchanging dreams.
~Roger Kahn

Update: Game Postponed.

A Few More Pictures

After we were done in the barn, a small parade of children went up to the chicken house (the red building in back).

...and they brought back a few prizes...

Cameron wanted to carry his all the way home.

Extra-extra large.

The Ruin of the Beast

When People Are Big and God is Small

Fear Forgets God

This chapter largely focused on a fear of physical harm, although it also encompassed harsh words. Many people have experiences in their past which dominate the way in which they relate to people in the present. A history of abuse or harsh parenting could lead to a general feeling of fear, even when there is no present reality of danger.

Most of this feeling, says Welch, comes from the perception of what people are going to think or do. He gives an example of a woman who avoids going to church because she is afraid of what people are saying about her behind her back. She was mortified when her son's Sunday School teacher mentioned some behavioral problems in class, and she quickly jumped to thinking that the teacher presumed her to be a terrible mother and that all the women in the church were talking about her. A short conversation with one woman at church had morphed into a controlling force, keeping her from fellowship.

Many people, including the one above, learn this pattern of thinking after past experiences which leave them with a lingering sense of shame-fear. She felt she was to blame for past abuse and was confusing the shame from victimization with the shame of her own sin.

While I do not have past abuse to look at, I do have a similar pattern in my thinking. Many times I wrongly presume to know what people are thinking about me. I must say I hear many, many other women (and some men!) doing this as well. The verse that is helpful to me in these times is Philippians 4:8: "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

If we could stop and meditate on that first phrase: "whatever is true...", we will find that what we think might be true is not something we should be focusing on! Assumptions about others are not true. Our thought life would be better used meditating on the truth: the gospel, the needs around us, promises of God from His Word, and prayer requests we might be in prayer for.

The phrase that Welch uses again and again in this chapter is "biblically unchecked thinking." We could all do with more checks on our thinking, couldn't we?! A better understanding of repentance and forgiveness -- according to what God says, not the world! -- can help to supply a structure to guide our thinking into right paths.

What is God's view towards the victimized?

“Fear not, for you will not be ashamed;
be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced;
for you will forget the shame of your youth,
and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.
For your Maker is your husband,
the Lord of hosts is his name;
and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer,
the God of the whole earth he is called.
Isaiah 54:4-5

She must meditate on these loving promises from the mouth of God. If she thinks that she is beyond grace, she should be corrected. Such thinking is based on the unbiblical assumption that our works can either keep us away from God or move us toward him. It is a denial of grace itself. It suggests that there is some righteous act she must perform in order to meet God halfway. This, however, has nothing to do with the gospel of Jesus. The gospel is only available to people who know they are unclean.

When we forsake this wrong way of thinking and instead embrace what God says about us and our situations, we can step into freely praising Him for His grace and love towards us, His children. If we are truly able to forsake these wrong thought patterns, people become brothers and sisters to be served instead of idols to be feared.