Welcome Home, Pippin

I have so many thoughts... so many unpublished, unfinished "drafts" from the last couple of weeks... there has been much musing, spiritual and otherwise... there have been many tears...

But, I can't tarry, waiting for all of them to get processed and finished and posted. The kids are asking for a photo post to share our news... we have a new canine member of our family.


We took to heart the admonition of former President Ronald Reagan: "The best way to get over a dog's death is to get another soon."

So, here is introducing our new little friend, Pippin. He is a cocker spaniel rescue from the local pound, and he is so sweet and gentle and soft and dear. We are very much enjoying getting to know him, and very much enjoying having a dog in our home again. We still miss Little so very much, but we are happy to have another soft fuzzy friend to love on...

And so it begins...

A California pastor and his wife have been ordered to stop holding a weekly Bible study in their home. A dozen or so people meeting for dinner and a study of the Word together is apparently being dubbed a "religious assembly" and therefore needs a "major use permit" to continue. They are fighting this in court, for all our sakes.

"The county asked, 'Do you have a regular meeting in your home?'
She said, 'Yes.'
'Do you say amen?'
'Yes.'
'Do you pray?'
'Yes.'
'Do you say praise the Lord?' 'Yes.'"

Can you imagine? Read the entire article here.

Remembering Little

Part of the way I've been handling the grief of the sudden, tragic death of our sweet Little is to work on a "memory book" about her. It has been therapeutic for me, and a huge blessing to the kids, now that it is here. You can view a copy of it online here.

A highlight of the book, in my opinion, is an article I found entitled "Do Dogs Go to Heaven?" by Randy Alcorn. Before you scoff, know that he quotes theological heavy-weights like John Piper and Joni Eareckson Tada, and leaves you with more than a little hope that you might get to see your special animal friend again one day...

Goodbye, Little

I am writing with the sad news that our beloved pet dog, Little, was struck by a car and killed this evening. I would like to ask you to pray for our children, who are deeply sad and grieving... but especially for OG.

Little had run away across the road in front of our house, and OG went after her to try to retrieve her. Little decided to play a game of "I can make you chase me" (this was one of her favorites) and darted across the large highway beside our house into the median. OG, fearful and worried that Little might get hit by a car, called her to come back. Although Little was not an obedient dog, and would literally NEVER come when called, she turned and headed back toward OG. She ran right in front of a car, who apparently swerved to try to avoid her, but could not. Although Little was not run over, she was struck by the car and passed under it - and OG did witness the whole thing. She heard the yelp and both heard and witnessed the impact.

We were having Bible study/music practice at our home at the time. OG ran into the house by way of the front door, screaming.

OG is our quietest, most introspective child, so we want to pray for her a healthy processing of this whole experience, without any undue guilt or self-blame. Please also pray this same thing for the woman who struck Little. She stopped (as did the car behind her who witnessed the whole thing), and she was pretty distraught. Several people waited and cried and talked with us ("us" being our family and the many members of the worship team who were at our house when it happened) while we waited for the Animal Control emergency vet to arrive and confirm that Little was dead.

We were able to talk together and process things, and we were able to bury Little - with her favorite chew toy under her head like she liked to sleep - but the children are still quite sad and are having a hard time getting to sleep.

They are asking hard "why" questions and are not sure how to engage them.

Please just pray for our family as we move through this night and these next days of grief. We're so thankful no people were hurt, of course, and yet we're missing our sweet little friend of a dog.

The one who touched me first...

One of my Mother's Day greetings this morning was a poem. I have included it below because it makes me smile, and because I think the idea of the final line is profound.

M is for the nine long months she cared for me as a part of herself.
O is for the very one, because of course that's what she is.
T is for all the time she spent just for me.
H is for all the help she gives me when I need it.
E is that she empties her money box to feed and clothe me.
R is for being ready for what I have to say and do.
When they are together,
they spell something I would not be here without.
Mother.
The one who touched me first.

Let me remember this, too...

"Remember that the world is full of youngsters who have some sort of handicap that they must overcome. You apparently have a speech defect. I am sure you will overcome it, in time.

There may even be some slight advantage, at your age, in not being able to say anything. It compels you to be a good listener. The world is full of talkers, but it is rare to find anyone who listens."

- wise observations from E. B. White, The Trumpet of the Swan
(New York: Harper Collins, 1970).

Hmmm...

I just read the following quotation on a sweet friend's profile, and it has started me thinking...

“People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.” - Audrey Hepburn

So thankful that God, at least, can pull this off... so grateful for mercy...

"I'm your density"

Seventeen years ago today I pledged to spend a lifetime with my sweetheart... my best friend... my 'crush'... my destiny...

(I can't even say that without remembering George McFly, adoringly declaring to his crush, Lorraine, "I'm your density"!)

Amid the craziness of the day, one of my sweet daughters brought us a gift and card she had made. This is what it said:

Dear Mom and Dad,
Happy Anniversary!
I hope it is a great one!

17 years of generosity,
17 years of admiration,
17 years of fighting,
17 years of hanging up the phone in fury,
17 years of love.
I love you!

Song of Soloman 2:2 "Like a lily among thorns is my darling among maidens."

I'm glad to see that she has a realistic picture of love... has a realistic portrait of faithfulness...has a security born from knowing that her parents really did mean the "until death us do part" part... has a common shared experience that demonstrates that difficulties-dealt-with don't mean death to a marriage, but actually strengthen it... that "fighting" - having a disagreement and then working through it all with honesty and grace and forgiveness and mutual forbearance and respect - is a sign of a healthy marriage...

We went to a "communication for couples" seminar a couple of weeks ago. One of the things we heard - and truly believe - is the message that, "Absence of conflict is not the sign of a healthy marriage. Working through conflict is the sign of a healthy marriage."

And I would go so far as to say that it is the sign of a healthy anything... a healthy friendship, a healthy family, a healthy church, a healthy individual....

So, here's to 17 years of love, indeed.

Little Bells and Morning Pillows

I am increasingly becoming aware of what probably should have been a self-evident fact long before I reached 42 years of age, and that is this: that whatever I just listened to, or experienced, or dwelt on before I go to bed for the evening, will remain on my mind, making its mark - for good or ill - even as I drift off to sleep.

"Sleep is a time when the brain rehearses recently-learned material," says James D. Walsh, Ph.D., director of St. Luke's Hospital's Sleep Medicine and Research Center.*

So, with that in mind, we are going to try to listen to and review our Scripture memory verses and catechism memory songs just before going to sleep at night. I recently read somewhere (though I can't remember where) that your brain will repeat/rehearse the last thing it heard before going to sleep something like 3-5 times, even after you have actually fallen asleep. Imagine!

In that same vein, I also just became aware of some free, non-copyrighted, public domain children's devotional books available online. They are materials written by hymn-writer Frances Ridley Havergal. She was a 19th century English religious poet and hymn writer.

Little Pillows, or Good-night Thoughts for the Little Ones, is a classic collection of one-month's worth of brief bedtime devotions for children. Author Carol Brandt tells us that, "In Little Pillows Frances' intent was to give children biblical truth to think about as they went to sleep. Each truth was to be like a little pillow - something comforting and supportive to rest upon during the night. She teaches through vivid word pictures that bring everyday images to a child's mind, thus linking the spiritual to the child's world. This is child evangelism as it should be: plain, simple, truthful, without manipulation or deceit."

There is a companion volume of morning devotions called Morning Bells. At the beginning of this second book, also written "with Aunt Fanny's love" for her nieces Sybil and Helena, Frances herself wrote: "But in the morning we want something to arouse us, and to help us to go brightly and bravely through the day. So here are "Morning Bells" to waken up your little hearts, and to remind them that we must not only rest in Jesus, but walk in Him. If the motto of Little Pillows might be 'Come to Jesus,' the motto of Morning Bells might be 'Follow Jesus.'"

You are free to copy them, print them, or share them in any ways you like as long as you do not do so for any profit or material gain. Should you prefer it, they are also available for purchase through many online distributors, including this one.

* See complete article about sleep's improving memory and learning.

Ink-on-Laundry, Logs-in-Eyes, and Other Unwanted Stuff

Upon the removal of a load of clothes from the dryer a few mornings ago, I discovered that there was ink all over many of the items from a pen that had been left in the pocket of one of my family members when he placed his pants in the laundry basket.

Let's skip the discussion about whether this was primarily a failure of said individual who owns the pocket (and the pen), or a failure of the chief laundress in the home who does his laundry. I am mindful of two things which lead me to do so.

The first is something I remember from Dead Right - a short educational film with a clever-pun title which they showed back in my 1980's junior high health class - which made the noteworthy point that you could be "right" and still be "dead." (In the case of said educational film, it was by stepping out in front of a moving car while insisting on your prerogative to be in the pedestrian crosswalk.)

The second reason I skip the "blame discussion" is that I am learning - slowly and painfully and incompletely and probably far too late in life - that it is equally as dangerous as stepping out into the crosswalk in front of a moving car, to consider one's self "more right" than another... any other... in this case, the "offender" who left the pen in his pocket.

So, philosophical musings regarding "rightness" and "blame" mercifully laid aside, the fact remains that I was still the one handling the resultant ink mess.

Following is a detailed discussion of how I treated each of the three items that were worth trying to get the ink out of. (By this I mean that they were not sleep clothes or undergarments, which I decided not to try to treat due to the sheer number of items affected.)

All three of these items are now completely clean and clear of ink.

I soaked all of them over two nights in a solution of warm water and OxiClean. (I put a couple of scoops in a sinkful of water, so this was a pretty strong solution.) One of the stains I also doused with Goo Gone before soaking it in the OxiClean. Another I treated with hairspray before soaking it. The third (the least-stained one) I simply put in the OxiClean solution with the other two.

All three, washed today in warm water with the other light-colored clothes, are completely ink-free.

I remember once, years ago, trying to help a bachelor friend who had called me with a query about how to launder an antique quilt (made by his grandmother) which he had accidentally stained with ink. This was pre-Internet days (yes, I'm that old), and I looked in a book I owned entitled How to Clean Practically Anything. (This is a terribly useless book, by the way, not even worth the $.01 you can get it for on Amazon.) The hairspray they suggested using as a stain-remover for ink was terribly ineffective, and my friend grieved both the loss of his grandmother's quilt and the failure of his homemaker-type friend to help him.

Now, twenty years too late for my friend's quilt, I've found something that works to remove ink. I have put the information out there for any of you who may ever need it for some unfortunate laundry disaster in your own home.

Oh, and by the way, if the "unfortunate laundry disaster" you encounter should involve fresh strawberry stains (think strawberry picking with a two-year-old who is eating more than she's putting in her bucket), you can get them out in a jiffy by pouring boiling (yes, boiling) water through the garment from the backside of the stain. I first tried this tip from my friend Cheri with great skepticism, as I had erroneously heard years earlier that hot water would "set any stain." It has not failed once over the past fifteen years of strawberry picking-and-eating.

I have yet to try the laundry tip my friend Gloria sent me (mostly because I can't find a store near me that sells the nifty spray bottle she mentioned she'd bought), but I'm always happy to hear of - and to pass on - things that worked.

Happy laundering!

"Hoping and assuredly believing..."

Among the various and sundry undergraduate and graduate studies I have enjoyed or endured, there was an entire semester class on the person and the works of William Shakespeare taken at the College of William and Mary.

Never once was there even the suggestion that Shakespeare might have been a Christian. Common references in his works to Roman Catholic or Protestant ideas (such as purgatory, heaven, and hell) were dismissed as a writer's patronizing nods to the prevailing cultural sentiments of his day.

Bearing in mind that - just as people say all sorts of spiritual things about their loved one's faith (relatively imperceptible during life but now declared decisively upon their death), people also often adapt all sorts of spiritual perceptions of themselves when their thoughts turn to the impending reality of their own deaths - I offer the following surprising declaration from William Shakespeare in his last will and testament:

"I commend my soul into the hands of God, my Creator, hoping and assuredly believing, through only the merits of Jesus Christ, my Saviour, to be made partaker of life everlasting."
- William Shakespeare, (1564-1616)

Sharing Recipes

Today, in response to the fact that there were two recipes which folks were asking me for, and one recipe which I was wanting to get from my sister, I created a new Blog. If you are interested in yummy food, you might want to check it out. Let me know if you ever want to join the community of recipe-posters. It is certainly easier than repeatedly sharing those more-popular, most-requested recipes individually!

Nods to Johanna's small group, which has a similar site of its own and from whom I shamelessly swiped the idea.

Happy cooking!

Out, damn'd spot!*

I got an email from a friend today that I just have to share. In case you, like me, did not know this thing...

Laurie,
This made me think of your avocado story. [She's referring to this.] It made me wonder if other people know this. Did you know you can get just about anything out with hydrogen peroxide? I bought the little spray bottle of it that they sell next to the huge bottles and I keep it filled and near the laundry basket. I just spray any spots with it before it goes in the basket. (I also add a little to the load via the bleach dispenser.) Anyway, grape juice, vegetable oil, grass, blood, it all comes out. I don't even rub.

Hooray for friends who share stuff!!

* "Out, damn'd spot," is a quote from Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's Macbeth.

Let me remember this...

"It's a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful.

Some parents go further. They become so blinded by adoration that they manage to convince themselves their child has qualities of genius.

Well, there is nothing very wrong with all this. It's the way of the world. It is only when the parents begin telling us about the brilliance of their own revolting offspring, that we start shouting, 'Bring us a basin! We're going to be sick!'"

- wise observations from Roald Dahl, Matilda (New York: Penguin Books, 1988).

Laughing Out Loud

No time for any serious musing, pondering, or processing. I'm still just trying to unbury myself since our return from Minneapolis. There is much to consider and decide, but not until we can walk through the house and the laundry is done and the students' papers are graded and the photos are uploaded and the meals are planned and the birthday gifts are bought and, and, and...

However, there's always time for silliness that made me laugh out loud. It is rare to come by things that make tears stream down my face and my tummy hurt with laughter. Even if it was just that I am punchy with lack of sleep, these were hilarious to me.

"The Fierce Urgency of Pork"

I just read an interesting piece by Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post entitled "The Fierce Urgency of Pork." If the new "economic stimulus package," and all the shameless-insertion-of-shameful-extraneous-spending contained therein, doesn't infuriate you, I don't know what will. The inconsistency? The hypocrisy? The idiocy?

Whatever you think of the author (most liberals will dismiss him as a conservative wacko, while many conservatives will find him a bit too liberal for their liking), the points he makes regarding the President's newest actions are well-taken. Here it is, in his own words:

"A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe."
-- President Obama, Feb. 4.

Catastrophe, mind you. So much for the president who in his inaugural address two weeks earlier declared "we have chosen hope over fear." Until, that is, you need fear to pass a bill.

And so much for the promise to banish the money-changers and influence-peddlers from the temple. An ostentatious executive order banning lobbyists was immediately followed by the nomination of at least a dozen current or former lobbyists to high position. Followed by a Treasury secretary who allegedly couldn't understand the payroll tax provisions in his 1040. Followed by Tom Daschle, who had to fall on his sword according to the new Washington rule that no Cabinet can have more than one tax delinquent.

The Daschle affair was more serious because his offense involved more than taxes. As Michael Kinsley once observed, in Washington the real scandal isn't what's illegal, but what's legal. Not paying taxes is one thing. But what made this case intolerable was the perfectly legal dealings that amassed Daschle $5.2 million in just two years.

He'd been getting $1 million per year from a law firm. But he's not a lawyer, nor a registered lobbyist. You don't get paid this kind of money to instruct partners on the Senate markup process. You get it for picking up the phone and peddling influence.

At least Tim Geithner, the tax-challenged Treasury secretary, had been working for years as a humble international civil servant earning non-stratospheric wages. Daschle, who had made another cool million a year (plus chauffeur and Caddy) for unspecified services to a pal's private equity firm, represented everything Obama said he'd come to Washington to upend.

And yet more damaging to Obama's image than all the hypocrisies in the appointment process is his signature bill: the stimulus package. He inexplicably delegated the writing to Nancy Pelosi and the barons of the House. The product, which inevitably carries Obama's name, was not just bad, not just flawed, but a legislative abomination.

It's not just pages and pages of special-interest tax breaks, giveaways and protections...
(Read the rest of the article here.)

Having a "Case Number"

So, here's what I did about it...

It will accomplish nothing but make me feel better, I'm sure, so I'm not one of those "good people who do nothing" from the Edmund Burke quotation. ("All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.")

February 4, 2009

To whom it may concern:

I am disappointed and angry about the sexually-explicit commercials that aired during the Super Bowl.

We were hosting a family-friendly Super Bowl party in our home, and a roomful of children and adults were shocked and embarrassed to see the scantily-clad women you chose to air during this broadcast.

There is enough raunchy stuff on TV. Please keep it away from the eyes and minds of young children enjoying "the biggest football game of the year" with their parents.

Dear Consumer,

Thank you for contacting the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). This is an automated message to confirm that we have received your correspondence. We will review your information to determine how we can best serve you.

If you need to send additional information, you may reply back with this email, leaving the case number in the subject line, or contact us at our toll free phone number 1-888-Call-FCC (1-888-225-5322) and reference the case number.

The Federal Communications Commission

"... the rotting corpse of Christianity ..."

Why I'm Homeschooling, Reason #286:

"I am convinced that the battle for humankind's future must be waged and won in the public school classroom by teachers that correctly perceive their role as proselytizers of a new faith: a religion of humanity that recognizes and respects the spark of what theologians call divinity in every human being...

The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and new -- the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism, resplendent with the promise of a world in which the never-realized Christian ideal of 'love thy neighbor' will finally be achieved."

- Humanist author John J. Dunphy, from "A Religion for a New Age, The New Faith of Humanism and Teachers" in The Humanist magazine, Jan-Feb 1983 (Vol. 43, No. 1)

Weary

"Laura loves her little family,
And she's the kind of woman who loves them with her life.
But sometimes in the evening,
When the world rests on her shoulders
With four walls closing in,
She'll close her eyes..."

From "Saved by Love" by Amy Grant
(on the 1988 album Lead Me On)

Keeping the Clicker Close!

Well, it is certainly interesting to me that this prolife commercial was deemed inappropriate for airing during the Super Bowl we watched last night, while all the half-naked women parading around were deemed just fine.

It sure made for an interesting family-centered Super Bowl party...