Rocky

We watched the original Rocky movie tonight. It's one of those movies that's on the top-100 list as all-time great movies. We've been meaning to get to it, thinking that it's one of those pop-culture things the kids should have a clue about (like Gilligan and the Skipper, the Brady Bunch, and It's a Wonderful Life).

Now I'm wondering WHY this is considered one of the all-time great movies. There are a lot of sports-oriented "root for the underdog" movies that are much better. There's a significant amount of bad language, enough that it wasn't just "some." I have only two guesses as to its elite ranking. First, it may have been something to do with ground-breaking effects (like 2001: A Space Odyssey). Second, it may have been because of the liberal movie-snobs who like stories that show the seedier side of life. We would've been better off watching Anne of Green Gables again, or a Sandra Bullock movie or old Beaver reruns.

Revenge

Today some obnoxious little 10-yr-old girls decided to pick on Andrew during his paper route. "Hey, paper boy, give us a paper." "Hey, paper boy, what are you doing out today?" "Hey, paper boy, ..." and other stinky little-kid type of mouthiness designed to make the other kid feel like he's 3" tall.

Andrew chose not to respond in kind. He smiled and waved cheerily at them. The response from the brats was "Hey, paper boy, aren't you gonna talk to us?" and "Hey, paper boy, is that all you're gonna do?" He kept a nice smile on his face and just kept walking along his route, delivering the papers, showing no sign whatsoever of being perturbed with their attempts to belittle him.

And, boy oh boy, did that ever annoy those little girls!

When I picked him up, he related the tale with relish. He said their words did make him feel bad. No logical reason for it, but that was their intent, and it wasn't wholly ineffective. But he didn't want to retaliate and be ugly and stoop to their level of meanness. Nevertheless, it gave him much pleasure to see how irritated the girls were with his response. If he'd snapped at them or teased back, they would've been pleased. Nothing could've bugged them more than his smile and friendly wave.

I told him how proud I was of him. He's feeling very grown up these days. He needs to shave now and then. And he turned in his 1040 form with a check for his Social Security taxes. And he responded in a very mature way to some little twerps. What a grown-up!

Snowstorm

The cars are driving past the house are going about 30 mph instead of 65. The snow started about 7:00 here tonight, and is already piling up and drifting. I hope Philip makes it home from work safely.

We had plans with friends for tomorrow. A birthday party was put off from early February due to bad weather. Now we're postponing again. Bummers; we wanted to see Bartletts! A certain child who will remain unnamed try to convince me that we might as well try to go. After all, if we're not going to get there, we might as well Not Get There after having made an attempt rather than just give up before we even try. Because, if we try, we might actually succeed in Getting There, and we most certainly won't get there if we don't even try. I explained to him that Not Getting There could involve a ditch, a tow truck, a significant deductible on car repairs, increased car insurance premiums, and possibly physical damage to our bodies. My version was that, if we're not going to make it to the get-together, better to Not Get There by staying safe at home rather than Not Get There by sitting in a ditch waiting to be towed.

But I'm going to have to venture out to the nearby village to do paper route. And to buy yeast. We're nearly out of bread. I started soaking the grain to make a couple of batches of bread. And then discovered that there's no yeast in this house. (And don't anybody remind me that I already discovered that on Wednesday!!! Because I forgot. I'm old. I can't remember anything. In fact, I'll probably go to town to do the paper route, and still forget to buy yeast.)

St Sava's

Our fieldtrip today was to St Sava Serbian Orthodox Cathedral. It's probably the most beautiful building I've ever been in. The only thing that compares aesthetically is the Library of Congress in Washington DC, except that it extols an entirely different religion than the cathedral in Milwaukee.

"Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses" is clearly demonstrated in the plethora of mosaic icons. All the walls and ceilings are done in mosaics. There are traditional Orthodox saints, and there are saints specific to Serbia. There are church fathers and apostles and evangelists. But the ones I love the best are the Bible stories. So many Bible stories all over the walls in mosaic, and in the windows in stained glass.

The inside of the dome over the nave is one big icon of Jesus. At first I really liked it: Jesus looking down, watching over His people. But tonight, after praying the Creed with the kids at bedtime, I'm rethinking it. We so often think of Jesus' ascension as being His "going up" to heaven, sort of "away from us." Pastor has been making the point in the last couple of years that Jesus ascension is not a geographic ascension, "going away" to heaven. Rather, it is an ascension of office, like the king ascending the throne. The king isn't going anywhere. He's not necessarily going "up" (although sometimes there are a few stairs involved to make the point obvious). He's just being elevated to His position of power. I suppose the icon in the dome of St Sava's doesn't necessarily represent Jesus being "up there" in heaven. But the deacon did explain that the Greek church is more about heaven coming to earth, whereas the Serbian is more about earth benefiting from what goes on in heaven. That perspective would be consistent with my initial thoughts about the icon of Jesus in the main dome over the nave.

What's in Your Fridge?

Jane started this and tagged everybody.
I'm sure that all of us have lots of stuff in our fridges, so list just five things in each category. Pick what makes your fridge original, embarrassing or average. It's up to you; I've chosen to pick some of the odder things. (It'll give y'all something to laugh at.) I'm tagging Katie and anybody else who wants to play --except Coral who's not allowed until after tests.


On the Shelves: whole-wheat home-made tortillas, leftover baked yams, leftover clam sauce for pasta, eggs from happy chickens, and whey.

Drinks: I only have five different things at the moment. Milk, Irish cream, red wine, Leinie Red, and Leinie Honey Weiss. (It sounds like we drink virtually nothing but liquor, but the reality is that the juice gets inhaled about 18 seconds after it's transferred from the freezer to the refrigerator.)

In the Cheese Drawer: Swiss, feta, mozzarella, cream cheese, and cheddar.

In the Produce Bin: Fuji apples, cabbage, organic carrots, iceberg lettuce, and mushrooms.

In the Door: lard, home-made peach jelly, Kikkoman's honey-pineapple teriyaki glaze (yowza!!), pepperocinis, and home-made mayonnaise.

In the Freezer: spices, fruit for smoothies, leftover daquiri from the wedding, suprema dophilus, and ice-cubes made of red-cabbage juice (intended for use in science experiments as a litmus test).

Scattered Thoughts

You know what people do when they're snowed in? Check blogs. My site-meter report for the day of the big storm last week was unbelievably high. LOL!

We were talking about the story of David and Bathsheba the other day. 2 Samuel 23 tells us that Uriah was one of David's "thirty chief men." That shows some of the political seriousness of what David did, and how desperately he thought he needed to cover up his sin.

A discovery made during church yesterday -- A pastor with significant tinnitis doesn't notice when the microphones and speakers go haywire. He thinks the unbearable sounds coming out of the sound-system are just in his head, part of his malady. What does a congregant do in that case? Stand up and shout, "Would you PLEASE turn that thing off"?

I'm just loving this Chris fella on American Idol. Not only is he one of the really good singers, but he's witty and funny and enjoyable. If he stays on, I'm afraid I'm going to get hooked on this season, no matter how hard I'm trying to stay away from the tv when the show is on.

It drives me nuts when smart, intelligent children decide that they're "dumb" and don't "get math." And then they freak themselves out, sit there and stare at a math problem like a deer struck by car headlights, and bemoan their wretchedness for having gotten plagued by a mother who thinks they're actually capable of doing a little math. Good grief, it gets so much easier once they pay attention to the math book instead of focusing on the litany of how "this is too hard."

The Quinquagesima epistle (this last Sunday) was from 1 Corinthians 13 and said "Love bears all things." The preceding Sunday's epistle was from 2 Corinthians 11 where Paul was sarcastically telling the folks from Corinth that, although they bore with the false prophets who put them into bondage, he was too weak for that. I've been puzzling over that for four days now. And I'm beginning to think that the answer has something to do with the preceding line in 1 Corinthians 13: "love rejoices in the truth." Doesn't seem like a person could rejoice in true doctrine and still bear with false prophets.

There is no yeast in this house. I had started making the pizza and there was no yeast. No yeast?? Eeeks! I just bought yeast a few weeks ago. I finished the little jar last time I made bread, and that was the next-to-last jar. I remember seeing the pound of yeast sitting on the shelf, next to the jello. It's not there now. Had to switch over to the beer crust for the pizza. Better flavor, but worse texture. Oh well, if that's all you've got, then that's what you eat.

When I was in town doing paper route yesterday, there were birds singing and twittering!

On the subject of "trying to be good" (agaaaaain), it crossed my mind this week that there is a significant difference in connotation between "trying to be good" and "desiring to be good."

Also on that subject, I have often been told that it's only works-righeousness if a person thinks his good works are earning salvation, earning heaven. But Pastor mentioned something in passing this week about how it's wrong to believe that good works are "meritorious" -- that is, that our good works will earn a reward from God. (Wouldn't that include rewards that are "lesser" than salvation?)

Pr Petersen has a post on the 1801 election of Jefferson. I found it quite interesting because the boys and I are studying that period of American history right now. But what really tops off the analogy to synodical politics is Pr Weedon's quote from St Gregory Nazianus.

It drives me nuts when the kids mumble. They don't speak clearly, and they don't project their voice, and then they get perturbed with me if I didn't hear what they said. Good grief, it takes so much work and effort and concentration to hear them when they slip into these lousy vocalization habits. It must be very draining for people who are losing their hearing to try to grasp something of the conversation going on around them. I was getting a headache yesterday from trying to hear what these two were saying -- as they were talking at the same time about entirely different subjects (one bemoaning math) at the same time that I was trying to remedy the pizza-crust snafu.

I always used to wonder how Mary Magdalene knew to anoint Jesus for His burial (John 12). It finally dawned on me that He told her. He told them all. He told them all repeatedly. For example, prior to the Transfiguration, He told them what was coming up in Jerusalem (Matthew 16:21). And then in last Sunday's Gospel (Luke 18:31-33) He told them all about it again, just a few days before Mary anointed Him. Whereas I used to think it was odd that Mary knew, now it seems odder yet that the apostles didn't know.

And to conclude, my friend Anthea is hosting the second annual International Tiara Day. It's scheduled for March 1. I think I'm too old and frumpy and have lost too much of my goofiness to join the 20-somethings in this. But I guess I'm still young and goofy enough to be considering it. :-) I've got a week to decide.

Dust to Dust

"Remember, man, that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return."

There was a paragraph in the church bulletin this afternoon, explaining why we have the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday. The pastor referred to the curse of the fall in Genesis 3. God said, "Cursed is the ground for your sake." In our way of speaking, "for your sake" could mean "because of you" or "for your benefit." Those two things could be pretty different! It seems obvious that part of "for your sake" is because Adam sinned, and God is responding "because of" what he did. But the curse is also for our benefit. In Day By Day We Magnify Thee today, we read an excerpt of Luther's sermon on suffering and the cross:

"It is highly necessary that we should suffer ... because the great and precious treasure which we have (if it were given to us without such suffering and affliction) would make us snore in our security.... The only way God can check such evil is through the cross. He must so discipline us that our faith increases and grows stronger, and we thus draw the Saviour all the deeper into our soul. For we can no more grow strong without suffering and temptation than we can without eating and drinking."

The sermon this afternoon mentioned that God will keep sending affliction to us until we are finally crushed enough to know -- to really know -- that "there dwells in me no good thing." And then, once we've learned that (as if we could this side of the grave!) we won't care about affliction because our eyes will be fixed so firmly on Jesus and our hearts will be so captivated by Him that we won't worry about the troubles.

This helps explain something from class Monday night. We were on the story of David and Bathsheba and Nathan (2 Samuel 11-12). Pastor was talking about the chastisement (not "punishment") given to David. It seemed to me that he was almost verging on saying that it was good that David sinned, so that the cross of suffering would result, so that the cross would keep David's eyes fixed on God's word of promise. When I asked, Pastor said, "No, no, no!" (But I was told after class that somebody else was wondering the same thing, so I'm glad I stuck my foot in my mouth and asked.) Pastor explained that talking about what "would've happened" if David hadn't sinned is kinda sorta pointless. Yes, it's true that not sinning is good. But after all, the verse of the week is "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) there dwells no good thing. To will is present with me, but how to perform what is good, that I do not do." So we will sin, he said. And when we do, our gracious Father works even that for our good and for our salvation, drawing us ever closer to Himself. After puzzling over that on the way home Monday night, today's Day By Day portion and this afternoon's sermon all fit together in a very helpful way.

As a father never turneth
Wholly from a wayward child,
For the prodigal still yearneth,
Longing to be reconciled,
So my many sins and errors
Find a tender, pardoning God,
Chastening frailty with His rod,
Not, in vengeance, with His terrors.
All things else have but their day;
God's great love abides for aye. (TLH 25:5)

It's above freezing and ...

everyone is flocking to the car wash! I figured that today, while I was doing the weekly errands, I should wash the salt and grime off the vehicle. Everybody else thought the same thing! The line for the automatic car wash was all the way out to the road. People were probably 45 minutes to an hour for their turn. I'm impatient; I decided to use the sprayer and risk getting my feet wet. Ah, it looks so much better, and I'm no longer smearing gunk onto my coat every time I get near the car.

War of 1812

In past years of homeschooling, we could never find much on the War of 1812. We found kiddy books on the Star Spangled Banner. We found grown-up books on the war. We found long, dry, boring books in the children's section of the library. Last week, we finally bumped into a decent resource. Jean Fritz's The Great Little Madison is a biography of James Madison. Because of what was involved in his life, this book works well for studying things like the Constitution and Federalist Papers, as well as the War of 1812. I wish, when some of the older kids were still homeschooling, I'd thought of seeking out a biography from this time period as a way to find information on events.

Today's Seminar

This morning my husband and I attended a workshop at the hospital. The social workers annually have a lecture on planning for the future for special-needs kids. They cover issues like guardianship, power of attorney, finances, health care, etc. We learned a lot. They threw a lot more at us than we could absorb in a day.

A couple of things stand out from this morning's workshop -- things that have nothing to do with what we were supposed to be learning. First, the sadness of some of the situations. A man sitting behind me struck up a conversation, and he mentioned that his power of health-care attorney is his wife and his doctor, because a man can't trust his wife not to bump him off with all that insurance money sitting there waiting for her. At first, I thought he had to be joking, but as he kept chattering on and on, I realized he wasn't. Another man was asking the speaker questions about trusts, and mentioned that he and his wife have trusts set up that ensure the money goes to the kids, inaccessible to the spouse should there be a divorce. Even the speakers admitted that these things need to be taken into account, because most families with special-needs kids will experience divorce. Oy! How depressing!

The second thing that impressed me was the comment about the tiny tiny amount of SSI benefits. And we're thinking that if Maggie got SSI benefits, we aren't sure how we could ensure that it all got spent. (You do have to spend it all and can't save it.) The only way she could spend that much per month would be if she had to provide shelter for herself, or if she got really frivolous with spending money. People were talking about making sure that your kids have some "quality of life," and are able to buy CDs and new clothes, take vacations, buy treats, get tickets to shows, etc. Good grief, if we can rarely give that to our kid while we're alive, how can we be expected to provide it to her even after we're dead?

In our discussions today of wills and money and insurance, we were teasing about the young bimbo Gary would marry after I assume room temperature. We realized that anybody who married Gary for his money would truly have to be one heck of a BIMBO!

Luke 15:30 + Matt 20:12

In Didache this week, we read the parable of the prodigal son. At the end of the story, the older brother resented the party for the younger brother. He complained that he had never transgressed the father's commandment at any time, while the younger brother had wasted the inheritance on harlots. Why had the older brother "wasted" his obedience to the father, without receiving a pat on the back, a young goat to make merry, or any other reward?

The Septuagesima gospel was the parable of the workers in the vineyard. Those who worked all day resented getting the same pay as those who began work at 5:00 in the afternoon. Why should they have "wasted" their whole day of labor when they could've been goofing off most of the day like those other dudes? Shouldn't there have been some reward for denying themselves the lazy indulgence the other guys enjoyed?

When Christians respond that way, it is evidence that they think they missed something. They "did their duty" and were obedient. But if they think they missed out on the fun, if they missed out on "living it up," then that shows that they didn't really want to be obedient. Their hearts weren't in it. They were obedient out of duty, out of desire for a reward. Their hearts were not caught up in love for the Father; their hearts were not desiring the same thing He desired. (I might even venture to say that they were trying to be good.) The focus was on the obeying instead of the focus being on the job that needed to be done or on the relationship with the people around them.

"Yea, heaven itself were void and bare
If Thou, Lord, wert not near me."

If we long for Jesus, then there is no loss in "missing out" on the hedonistic pleasures of the world. Rather, we are receiving the exact thing we want -- Jesus. "Thou art the Portion I have sought."

Cold Sore

The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day on Monday caused me to wake up Tuesday morning with a cold sore. It's right in the middle of my bottom lip. When I looked into the mirror this morning, I looked like Queen Amidala from Stars Wars.

And now for a pun that we got off Greg's facebook site:

It takes a village to raise a child,
but it takes a Viking to raze a village.

Self-Cleaning Ovens

The sweet potatoes leaked sweet juice out of their foil-wraps today while they were baking. I could've left the oven sticky and messy, like I normally do. But for some reason, it crossed my mind that I could just set the self-cleaning cycle and let it run. Now I have a clean oven. But you know what was even better?!? The temperature in the kitchen was comfortable for the first time in more than two weeks. Four and a half hours of the oven turned on as hot as it goes. Ah, that was even better than getting the mess taken care of. I have to remember this scheme to get warmth: "I was just trying to be a good housekeeper" she says innocently, with no intention whatsoever of wasting propane and hugging the stove.

Clinic Update

Maggie saw the cardiologist today for a follow-up to surgery. Apparently I had misunderstood how well her lungs were doing last time; the last appt merely showed the left lung to be no longer collapsed. Today's x-ray looked better than last time. The nurse reported to the doctor that it sounded like Maggie had a "squeaky tennis shoe" in her chest. The doctor used it as a chance to teach the nurse about the tail-end of liquid in the lungs after a collapse. He says that little pocket of liquid is "rattling around in there" now that her lungs have improved so much, whereas last time he couldn't hear the squeaky rattle because there was other gunk to listen through. I phoned up Matt and told him to be sure to bring his stethoscope when he comes over tomorrow night; he gets to listen to all sorts of cool chest-sounds that the other med school students don't have available.

Things look good. Even the funny chest noise is not a problem, the doctor said. Maggie has gained eight pounds in the last 6 weeks. Of course, she lost a lot of weight with surgery and the resultant lung problems, so altogether she's only gained four pounds over the last three months. Doctor said kids often gain a lot of weight after surgery. Oxygen and a properly functioning heart seem --for some odd reason-- to have a big effect on kids' growth and health. Go figure.

Saturday the hospital will be hosting a lecture/workshop on special-needs trust funds, estate planning, guardianships, and government benefits & programs. So we're going to go listen to what sort of possibilities are out there for the future.

Nanny McPhee

Nanny McPhee is another movie we watched recently. It's got Emma Thompson, and we like her a lot too. (Gee, it seems we're on a jag of hunting up movies that have British actresses we like!) Mom, this is one you'll like for sure! It's not unlike Mary Poppins, except the kids are much ornerier, and there's no Dick van Dyke and Julie Andrews dancing and singing. Gary watched the show while we were off at our play-day on Saturday, and he was raring to watch it again with the rest of us before it got shipped back to Blockbuster. I think this is one we may have to buy because I think it's the kind of show we could happily watch a dozen times -- lots of slapstick, some romance and family values, and then some extra silliness tossed in for good measure.

Ladies in Lavender

Last night we settled down with a movie we'd never heard of, while I worked on paying bills and getting a month's worth of budgeting caught up. We chose it because it has Maggie Smith, and we've been liking her a lot lately. Ladies in Lavender is set in the 1930s in England. There isn't much plot. I think, after watching that show, I am beginning to understand what a "character movie" is.

Basically the plot is that a young stranger is washed onto shore after a storm. Two spinsters find him and take him into their home and nurse him back to health. It turns out that he's a talented musician, and he eventually goes on his way to have the chance to play. Not much of a story, but the sweet little laughs and the emotional part of the story is about the characters and how they interact.

Mom, Gary said you might like this. Ever since you asked way-back-when about movie recommendations that aren't full of violence and sex and foul language, we notice when there's a movie that might fill the bill. And this was one. The back cover says it's a "heart-warming story." And it is. Not real fast-moving. Not real exciting. Just a sweet story.

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Whine warning! Whine warning! Look out below! Whine warning!

I was feeling sorry for myself last Friday because I had to miss a party with a bunch of my friends, simply because I live so far away. There was too much going on this weekend to be able to fit in a 2.5-hour roundtrip drive to the city. Saturday, however, the kids and I attended a homeschool get-together. That involved four hours of driving, and it was a very long day, but it was time spent happily with dear friends. Right now, it seems sad to be out in the country, so far from friends. The drifting snow is going to reinforce that feeling over the next few days, I'm sure.

Friday I got a phone call from a customer, and followed up with a phone call to the employee who'd offended the customer. It was not a pleasant situation with either phone call, and I thought I was going to lose the employee then and there. But I decided to chill out, check with my boss on Monday, do some more follow-up, and then make a decision. It was stressful to work it all out, and it took a significant amount of time. I am not a good team-player; I'd rather just handle things on my own than try to get other people to be responsible and own up to their duties. It seems, though, upon further investigation, that the employee may have just been having a bad day, that she is actually doing a bang-up job, and that there were just some personality conflicts between the customer and the employee. Not saying that everybody involved did what they were supposed to do, as they were supposed to do it. But after this afternoon's phone calls, I think it's all smoothed out and will work. Whew!

We woke up yesterday, on the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, to find snow. Lots of snow. So all the priorities got shoved out of the way because of the need to shove snow out of the way first. Shoveling and the cold weather had messed up my back and neck last week. The lovely D.O. straightened my spine on Thursday, alleviating much pain, and here I was headed out to the driveway to mess it up again. Ah, but it had to be done, and everybody else was gone.

Then I went over to church to get some milk for breakfast. (Our fridge isn't big enough, and a nearly empty fridge sits at church, so we store some of our groceries over there rather than getting a second fridge for the house.) Oddly enough, I started splashing as I walked into the back of church. Splashing? That's a sound that belongs at a beach or in the bathtub. Splashing when walking is not a sound that belongs in the fellowship hall of church.

After some sleuthing, I discovered the gurgling and bubbling noises were coming from a radiator in the coat-room. I didn't even know there was a radiator in there. After quite a few phone calls, one of the trustees began helping as best he could while still at work. One of the men in the congregation showed up to turn off the furnace at church and shut off the water, both of which were necessary to halt the small waterfall that was spreading its puddle throughout three rooms of the building. I ended up trying to take care of the mess. After an hour and a half of sopping up 10 gallons off the hard-floor, the puddles on tile were small enough to evaporate, and the puddles on carpet had been patted partially dry. I was ready to go home and get on with the day that I had planned to start 3 hours earlier.

I fetched the one kid home from his job. He volunteered to tackle the dishes and the kitchen counters. I headed to the laundry room with a huge load of sopping wet towels, just dying to head off to a warm shower as soon as the washer filled. Kitchen-Boy and I discovered the same thing at the same time. There was no water. When the helpful guy from church turned off the water so as to stop the waterfall in the radiator, he also shut off water to the parsonage. Oy! I was so grimy and so very cold, and I really wanted a shower. And I needed those towels washed and dried so that I could take them back to church and use them to clean up more of the mess.

So I went over to church and tried to figure out the maze of water-pipes coming and going through water softeners, rust filters, water heaters, furnace, church pipes versus parsonage pipes, outgoing pipes versus incoming pipes, and which valves did what. That took a lot of staring and thinking and deciphering. Finally figured out which valve I had been told to turn, shut it off, and turned back on the main water valve. Sure enough, we got water to the parsonage. Also sure enough, the off-valve was the wrong one, and the waterfall resumed pouring water onto the tile floor and carpet I'd just finished drying off. So off went the main valve again, only to leave the waterfall Depleted-But-Still-Running for another 15 minutes. Yuck -- more puddles!

Husband came home and discovered that there is no way to turn off water to church without also turning off water to the parsonage. He did, however, try shutting off water to the church furnace, and that worked. We could resume use of toilets, showers, sinks, and washers at home. Hooray! Matt said it sounds like I was on my way to hypothermia. Wet socks, wet shoes, wet jeans, in a 45-50 degree building for over an hour, not noticing the cold, and then (once I was back into a warm living room) really really noticing how chilled I was. After 20 minutes in a hot bath, trying to get rid of the chill, my face was still cold. But eventually that hot water sure did knock the cold out of me.

The repairmen showed up later. Apparently the pipes froze in the frigid weather last weekend. That explains the cold section of church and the below-freezing temps in the pastor's study. These points were on the same pipe-line, beyond the location of the frozen pipes. Funny, the church had been told that this radiator had long ago been disconnected from the furnace system and supposedly had no water running through the pipes. Hmmm, erroneous information, it seems. Well, the repairmen will be coming back with bypass valves so as to get heat back to the study again. While they're here, they're going to install a valve so that church's water can be turned off without shutting us down at home. That would be the silver lining of the dark cloud!

Still recuperating from the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad yesterday, I bailed on dinner today as well as the weekly errands that were supposed to have been accomplished yesterday. Instead, we went to Pizza Hut for Maggie's Book-It treat and ate at the buffet. Other people were smart enough not to head out into the blizzard, so we fools had the restaurant to ourselves. Then we stopped at Aldi and picked up a few groceries to manage to finagle our way through to my next trip to the big city. My husband even bought me Valentine roses. And you know what was best? He asked me first if I'd be offended by his purchasing flowers. At Aldi prices, I was okay with it! So there are flowers brightening my table. Things are looking up.

Spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get a little cleaning and schoolwork accomplished in spite of messing my neck up again. Rachel says my headache sounds like a migraine. It's bad, but I thought a migraine would have to be worse than this. Luckily, the Deacon called and set me to the task of hunting through Dr Korby's file cabinets for something the sem requested. That gives me an excuse to make a doctor's appt: the wonderful man who straightens my back is 4 blocks from church. So tomorrow afternoon the doctor can make the owies go away again. And then I can play with Dr Korby's file cabinets and revel in reading and skimming his writings until I find the necessary paperwork. Again, things are looking up.

Trying to Be Good

When I wrote something last month about the Sacraments and the preaching being the thing that "makes us good," there were some objections. I was told that I do indeed need to try to be good.

It has crossed my mind that if we have to trrry to be good, that in itself seems to be evidence that we're not good. After all, when generosity or patience or kindness come easily and naturally, without our necessarily even being aware of it, that is goodness worked by the Holy Spirit as He sanctifies us. But if I don't want to be generous, am not being patient, and struggle to be kind, and if I have to try to make myself behave properly, the very need to try reveals my sinfulness.

Does this mean I should let bad behavior reign? No. Does my neighbor benefit from a particular deed when I try to be good and serve him, even though I'm having to make myself do it instead of doing it willingly and effortlessly? Of course he benefits. But I cannot believe that I am doing a "good work" before God if I have to muster up the gumption to try to do it. Trying means our eyes are on ourselves. In Matthew 25, the righteous ask their Lord, "When did we do these things?" They were unaware of their good works because, like the apostles on the Mount of Transfiguration, "they saw Jesus only."

Note from the Doctor

My 12-yr-old doesn't usually watch Blues Clues anymore. And she's pretty much over Teletubbies. We were still watching Mr Rogers last year. She still likes to play dolls with her friends. She's still not quite up for multiplication, but is doing much better with addition and subtraction. She's old enough to understand that it's important to be quiet in the early morning so as not to wake up sleeping parents and siblings. However, she's still too young to realize that persistently whispering things to you and patting you gently does not constitute "being quiet" so as not to disturb the sleeper.

We got a mass-mailing from the doctor's office the other day. This is the little kid we are encouraged to take in to the doctor to obtain a vaccination which will hopefully prevent the virus (spread through promiscuous sexual activity) that could cause lesions which could cause pre-cancerous cells would could lead to cervical cancer. If that doesn't sound iffy enough even for promiscuous young women, my head is still reeling over the possibility that I would want that for a child who's still satisfied with dollies and Mr Rogers' puppets.

We dress 7-yr-olds like they're 23-yr-old street-walkers. And then they tell us to bring our 9- and 10-yr-olds in for vaccines to prevent VD. Maybe there's a better solution.

Being Fed

A year ago, little Frederick was here visiting us for a few days. He was about 14 months old at the time. He graciously brought along his mommy and his daddy and most of his siblings. Fredo was still nursing a bit now and then. When he sat at the table to eat with the big people, he needed help with his spoon. He could feed himself, but not enough to really fill his belly to a comfortable level.

Also a year ago this week, my friend Nathan proposed to my daughter Katie who (wisely) accepted. As we discussed wedding plans, the subject came up of the wedding cake, and that the bride and groom feed each other bites of the cake.

These two experiences were fresh in my mind when I was at Mass the following Wednesday evening. That night, I was captivated by the picture of what was going on at the altar rail. It's not like anything happened that hadn't happened before. It's not like anything new was going on. But I just noticed it in a new way. The pastor was feeding people. The pastor put the host into the mouth of the communicants. The pastor put the chalice to their lips and ever-so-carefully tipped it. He fed us.

It really must look pretty goofy to outsiders. A bunch of people, kneeling together, mouths open for someone else to feed them. They're not feeding themselves. They weren't taking the host into their own hands and feeding themselves (although that happens in some congregations). They weren't taking the cup into their own hands and drinking it themselves (although that too happens in some congregations). We were all there, waiting, being fed. I imagined helpless little baby robins in their nest, mouths open, waiting for mom and dad to return and place the nourishment into their little beaks, since they can't do it for themselves.

Y'know, people are rarely fed by someone else. We feed ourselves. That's the way it is! Who gets fed? Babies are fed; they cannot feed themselves. Those who are too sick or disabled (whether by age or disease or accident) are fed by a care-taker instead of feeding themselves. Normally, there's only one other situation where we don't feed ourselves. Lovers will sometimes feed each other. But that kind of behavior is generally recognized as intimate enough that it's not usually flaunted in front of other people (except at the wedding reception). Feeding your sweetie might happen at a private picnic. If it's done in public, though, there's no surprise if other people nearby are rolling their eyes, thinking that the star-struck lovey-dovey stuff will wear off sooner or later.

I suppose there have been some rare occasions where I was out to dinner, and maybe a girlfriend wanted to try a bite of what I'd gotten, and I wanted to try a bite of her dinner or dessert. Even then, though, you usually pass the fork to the other person. If it's soup, you might hold the spoon for the other person. But things like that are not the norm. We're tough; we're too busy and too capable to condescend to be fed by someone else. When we feed another person or are fed by another person, it's almost always because of one person being utterly dependent on the other, or because of the depth of intimacy in the love-relationship.

Maybe at the altar rail, I'm the decrepit one, too helpless to feed myself. Maybe at the altar rail, I'm the dearly beloved of my Jesus, and am fed by Him because of His great love for me. It doesn't really matter which it is -- or that it might be both. Looking at the pastor that night, with the paten of hosts and with the chalice, feeding all those people, just doing the same ol' thing he does every Sunday and every Wednesday, well, it sure makes a person realize who's the Giver and who's the receiver.

Hoover Savvy

This week I picked up my vacuum cleaner from the repair shop again. This is the sixth time it's been repaired under warranty since I bought it 10 months ago. When I first bought it, I read the owners manual. It said that replacing belts was unnecessary: the belts are long-lasting (2-3 years) and must be replaced only by authorized repairmen. They're not cheap either (if you're paying for them). Well, this is the second new belt in ten months. Two belts in ten months? Or a new belt once every few years? Hmmm, I think there's a clash on how to reckon time here. You think it's my fault because I was taught the New Math back in my elementary school days?

Sun Dogs

I had one of those "homeschool mommy" attacks on Sunday morning, where you get all aflutter over a teachable moment and just gotta find somebody to bubble at! I was out jogging (yes, I know it was cold!) and saw the most awesome sun dogs. I have tried to show them to my youngest on previous occasions, but I've never been convinced that she's actually seen them. Between her poor vision and her lack of understanding, it seems that she's always just "agreed" that "yeah, Mom, that's pretty neat." But Sunday morning, those sundogs were so huge, and there were no clouds smudging up the sky -- there was no way to miss those sun dogs! The dogs were massive and spreading their rainbows out. The right one had rays pouring off it to span an arc of about 50-60 degrees, and the left one covered about 30 degrees of an arc around the sun.

These are rare enough that I went in and interrupted Sunday school to show the kids. I feel a little guilty over that: sun dogs shouldn't be trumping the study of God's word. But gosh, how often do kids (especially kids who live in town and thus have an obstructed view of the sky) get to see uncommon sights in the heavens?

The parhelions were so glorious the other day that I couldn't help but remember the Shakespearean lines in Henry VI, recounting the story of the Battle of Mortimer's Cross which occurred in 1461 at Herefordshire, during the War of the Roses. It's easy to see why the Yorkists might consider such a sight to be a "sign from God."

It's So Cold That ...

that the cat has been using the litter box instead of going outdoors.

And worse yet, so cold that the cat is actually playing with a ball of twine. Her lack of hunting possibilities is driving her nuts -- so insane that this aloof creature is actually willing to interact with us instead of with the mousies and gophers, actually willing to treat a piece of string as prey.

That's cold! The kids said that they'd never seen a real cat play with a real ball of yarn: that's just something you see in pictures or read about in books. And here she is -- desperate enough to chase something --ANYTHING-- that she'll be a stereotypical cat.

Morning

Well, this will teach me to get up early and get going on the week's errands! I figured I'd leave bright and early, let the kids get up on their own, prepare and eat their breakfasts, do their chores, and get started on the schoolwork they can do without me. Then we'd have the whole afternoon for schoolwork that we have to do together. THREE of my stops on the errand-list were closed when I arrived, so that I had to go back later. So much for bright and early! LOL!

Real ID

The NY Times ran an article yesterday on the uniform national ID card. The thing I find most astonishing about this issue is the fight between the states and the feds. Both conservatives and liberals are backing states-rights. Both conservatives and liberals are, conversely, backing the federal push to standardize drivers licenses.

A Missouri Republican is working with two dozen other states to oppose the federal law. He said, "This is a frontal assault on our freedoms. One state standing alone is not enough. But we are already gaining strong momentum here." A Wisconsin Republican and top officials at the Department of Homeland Security said they were disturbed by the growing signs of a revolt. The Wisconsin Congressman said, "Certainly, it is a threat."

The government is fighting the government.

As we've been studying civics and political science recently, one of the main messages of the Uncle Eric books has been to watch the quest for power. It's not ultimately about what's "conservative" or "liberal," about what's Republican or Democrat, about what will be done with the political power once a person or group has gained it, but simply about the quest to obtain power and the desire to use it. This can be readily seen as both the liberals and the conservatives are in-fighting over this Real ID Act.

Still Cold

My husband is doing his work in the living room today. He has been complaining about the cold over at church. Okay, I can understand that. I don't like sitting in the cold constantly.

Today we are finally sending out our annual "Christmas" letter. (Oh, aren't we timely!!) I went over to church to use the copier, and it seemed mighty cold. I went to check the thermometer. The thermostat is set to keep the building in the low 50s midweek. The nave and the fellowship hall are about 51-54. But the pastor's study is 28 degrees. You know what? That's not exactly warm! No wonder Gary is sitting in the living room with his theology books and his laptop!

Nursing Mother Threatened with Lawsuit

My friend Polly linked to a humorous and informative blog on nursing. (No, Heidi, not your kind of nursing. The "feeding babies" kind of nursing.) It's called the Lactivist. The eye-popping subject of the week was that the pork producers have gone after this mommy and her little blog. She used the phrase "The Other White Milk" on a t-shirt, and the trademark lawyers went ballistic. Good grief!

The Lactivist looks like a good site, even before the recent uproar. There are some cute slogans at her store. I think my favorite is "Breasts: Not Just For Selling Cars Anymore."

An Analogy

What happens when the government needs to collect more taxes? There are two economic opinions on how to achieve this.

The obvious answer is to raise taxes. After all, if you need to collect more taxes, then raise everybody's rates so that everybody will pay a little more. Then the government will reap a little more.

The bizarre answer is to lower taxes. Some people scoff at this. Obviously, they say, lowering taxes will put fewer coins into the government money-bags. Weird thing is, though, lowering taxes is the plan that actually works. Lower taxes and less government regulation stimulates the economy. As the economy grows healthier, businesses and individuals earn more. Even though people are paying a smaller percentage in taxes, they end up paying more in actual dollars. So the government has more to spend, while the tax payers also have more disposable income.

Conservatives have seen this happen in our own country, as well as in other countries, as well as throughout history. Some people believe in making a bee-line for more taxes. Other people believe that doing what's beneficial to the economy will circuitously result in more tax revenue for the government. Those who insist that they cannot let go of their "give us more money" mantra are the ones who actually diminish the money coming in to government coffers.

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Some people believe that the way to get Christians to do more good works is to tell them directly to do more good works, which works they should do, and how they should do them. This seems like an obvious way to get people to do more good works.

Other people think the preaching should be directed instead toward the health of the Christian and strengthening his faith. There will be pruning and fertilizing (the call to repentance). There will be watering and sunshine (the forgiveness of sins in the preaching and sacraments). Then, bizarrely and circuitously and weirdly, the Christian (whose faith is vivified and whose sinful nature is crushed) will abundantly bear the fruit of good works, even when he's not intentionally trying to do so.

Cold

I went to bed last night after the furnace had turned off, and it was 58 in the bedroom. A little cooler than normal, but not too bad. But when I got up in the morning, several hours after the furnace had kicked on, it was still only 61 on the main floor, and 63 in the basement. Usually it's 61-63 in the basement, and 67-68 upstairs. The wind was roaring! I mean that literally -- the sound of the wind around the house was enough to wake sleeping people. By mid-morning, when the wind had died down to simply "very windy," the furnace was finally able to make some headway against the cold.

I managed to force myself out in the sunshine to jog in spite of the cold. Enough layers of appropriate clothing can do wonders against the weather. I was thinking how wonderful ski masks are! It reminded me, though, of a news story we read in the kids' current events paper yesterday. (Okay, okay, so it's old news. We got behind on reading our school newspapers during surgery recuperation.) The Netherlands has outlawed the wearing of burqas and other headgear that conceals the face.

Last night at the guys' Belegarth practice, there was another group of medieval fighters using the same arena for practice. Instead of fighting with foam weaponry, these guys were fighting with wood swords. (Rumor has it that sometimes they use metal.) Because of their more dangerous weapons, they had fancier and stronger armor. I mean, these dudes were wearing cool regalia, with knight's helmets and everything. But these guys couldn't go out in public in Holland.

So if people can't wear ski-masks in the Netherlands anymore, what do they do when it gets cold? Maybe it doesn't get as wickedly cold there as it does here. But still, mightn't they need something to cover the face now and then to prevent frostbite? Or if not frostbite, simply something to make them more comfortable on chilly days? Makes me shiver just to think about being outside today for more than 5 minutes without a ski mask!

I'm regretting the lack of snow fencing again today. The county snow plows have been out on the roads repeatedly. The van was parked near the house, and I took it to town for less than an hour. When I came home, the driveway in front of the garage was already drifted about 8' wide and 2-3' deep. I shoveled it partway out, and parked the van back in that spot, to act as surrogate snow-fence. Hopefully that will help keep the drifts in front of the house instead of blocking the garage.

It's supposed to be just as cold tomorrow, but with an improvement in windiness level, we should go from windchills of -30 up to about -15. That's significant. When we were in town this afternoon, you could tell how much warmer it was there than in the country, where the wind just picks up awesome amounts of speed and then scrubs your face with sand-sized ice particles. Looking forward to highs of 10 and 15 later next week.

"As You Have Believed"

The stories in this week's Congregation at Prayer are on prayer. Yesterday at Matins, we were reading and discussing "The Centurion Prays to Jesus for His Servant" (Mt 8:5-13). Today's story is about the Syro-Phoenician woman (Mt 15:21-28).

Yesterday's story concluded with Jesus saying, "As you have believed, so let it be done for you." And today's with "Great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire."

Before yesterday, I'd always heard that line, "as you have believed, so let it be done for you," as a deal, a contract, a limitation. You believe a lot? All righty, then you get the blessing big-time. You struggle and have a weak faith? Well, I guess then Jesus will only give you a smidgeon of what you want. Good grief, how "theology of glory"ish can you get? How works-righteous can you get? But that's nevertheless what I heard at the end of the Rite of Corporate Confession (TLH pg 48 and LSB 291) and other times that verse was invoked by friends admonishing me for weak faith and saying that I just had to "believe more."

Yesterday at Matins, I asked about this. Pastor pointed out that Jesus said this to a man who "had great faith." Jesus did not say it as a threat or an admonishment. Same in today's story. Jesus exclaimed over the woman's great faith, and then said "let it be to you." There wasn't any IF about it! In fact, the story of the disciples' "small faith" or "no faith" (when the boat was sinking at the end of Mark 4) shows quite the opposite. Jesus' gifts to His people are not dependent on the extent of their faith: He stilled the wind and waves, and saved those disciples who were behaving quite faithlessly. You might even say that "God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayer, even to all evil people."

What a comfort!

Plagiarism

I was talking to a good friend who's a college prof. He expressed frustration over the number of papers turned in that are plagiarized. I understand how easy it is for kids (or adults) to steal papers anymore, what with Internet accessibility to online encyclopedias, online articles, and even term papers available for the downloading. But don't they realize that (due to the same Internet accessibility) it's even easiER for the profs to catch them in their plagiarism than it is for them to hunt up an appropriate paper to steal in the first place? Don't they understand that writers have a "voice," and that turning in essays and term papers written by a variety of authors throws up red-flags for the teacher ... because it sounds like the student has multiple personalities and voices showing through in his writing style? What's even more stunning is that the plagiarist shows no remorse when he is caught -- just indignance. It's very disheartening to know that people like that are going out into the business world where they'll be inflicted upon employers and customers.

Ketchup

The things that go through a do-it-yourselfer's mind when she's in the kitchen....

There was all that hoopla in the 80s about the eeeeevil Pres Reagan wanting to classify ketchup as a vegetable in the school lunch programs. Did he, or didn't he? Was it a misunderstanding that got blown out of proportion by the media that hated the President? Whatever it was with regard to politics, I thought something altogether different.

Anybody who's ever made ketchup realizes just how many (many many) tomatoes go into a batch of ketchup. It crossed my mind that people of Reagan's generation would know that. They had moms who made ketchup. They had moms who canned. They got sent out in the garden to fetch more produce for mom to put up. The young whipper-snapper reporters don't know where ketchup comes from. Yeah, sure, they know there's tomato in it. But do they really know?

I am fully aware that a tiny little ketchup packet on a hamburger does not constitute a "serving" of vegetables. But it seems to me that 1/3 cup of ketchup dipped up with fries at least provides some lycopene and vitamin C. If we can say that carrots cooked down to mush and tossed with butter and brown sugar is a vegetable; if we can call green-bean casserole a vegetable; if we can call jello salad or store-bought fruit-leather a fruit; then certainly we can call ketchup a vegetable.

In my house, a quart of spinach salad or a half-pound of steamed broccoli is what we call a "serving of vegetables." But if we're going to play the American Nutrition Game, then it just bugs me that people bash Reagan for calling ketchup a vegetable.

Infant Communion Site

Our ISP quit hosting webpages and neglected to tell us of the address change of the new server. Apparently my husband's site for the extensive bibliography (pro and con) on infant communion had disappeared and we were unaware of it until recently. It can now be linked by clicking here or through the link in my sidebar. (If anyone else links to the site, you may want to change your template too.)

Brightest and Best

One of the legacies that [the Rev Dr] Steve Wiest handed down to us was how to see Protestant hymns through Lutheran eyes. Pr Wiest showed us how "Just As I Am" makes a good communion hymn as opposed to a commit-your-heart-to-Jesus hymn. One time when he was substitute preaching here in late Epiphany, he used the Thanksgiving hymn "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come" as the hymn to accompany the Mt 13 story of "The Tares and the Wheat."

Yesterday morning we were singing "Brightest and Best of the Sons of the Morning." Nothing wrong with it, but not exactly on my Top-Ten list of favorites. But then I thought of the connection that Pr Fabrizius has made between the manger and the tomb: both places where Jesus lay, wrapped in strips of cloth, on a stone slab. In addition to the manger, one can think of the tomb: "Angels adore Him in slumber reclining, Maker and Monarch and Savior of all." In stanza 3 of the hymn, where we sing about things that devoted hearts could offer to Jesus (along with adoration and prayers -- verse 4), we hear about "odors of Edom" and "myrrh from the forest" -- items the women probably brought to the tomb on Easter morning.

Those dear tokens of His passion
Still His dazzling body bears,
Cause of endless exultation
To His ransomed worshipers.
With what rapture gaze we on those glorious scars!

Podunkville

The line in the bank yesterday was long. I'm not used to being there on a Friday afternoon or Saturday morning, and the crowd there then always surprises me. While I was waiting, one of the clerks was cooing at a customer's baby, and chatting at length about planned Caesareans versus emergency Caesareans. Shortly thereafter, someone pulls up to the drive-up window and asks about ordering Girl Scout cookies from the daughter of one of the tellers. The cookie order was scribbled down, with name and cookie choices, and I was still standing in line.

I wasn't really irritated or anything. But thoughts were flitting through my mind that this isn't the way customers should be treated. The socializing and the non-work activities should take a backseat to waiting on the bank customers.

But then I realized something. People here know each other. They're interacting like people instead of like automatons who are cogs in the Human Resource Department. If I go to a different branch of our bank, I have to show ID and jump through all the banking hoops that most of the rest of y'all live with regularly. I don't have to do that at our bank.

For example, yesterday I needed to get into the safe deposit box to look at savings bonds. (By the way, for those of you who have to fill out college financial aid forms and need to find the value of savings bonds, the government's online Savings Bond Calculator makes a breeze of that job!) Did I have to show ID to get into my safe-deposit box? No. Did I even have to tell them my name? No. I just said that I needed to get into it, and the girl (the NEW girl who's hardly ever waited on me) went to fetch the box and the paperwork. The girls at the bank all know our names, where we live, that our kids are connected to us and not somebody else's kids, what my husband's job is, etc etc.

There's information galore available on protecting one's identity. But the bad guys can be sophisticated with their forged documents and their slick way with computers and ID numbes. But actually knowing people is safety in a whole different realm. There ain't nobody who could get by with going into my local bank and cashing one of my checks, taking money out of my savings account, or dipping into my safe-deposit box.

Lots of times, the label "Podunk" is used in a derogative manner. But to me, there's something dear about Podunkville. The guy that I used to sub paper-route for lived in the nearby big city of 60,000 people. He said that coming out here to do paper routes was like visiting Mayberry. Hooray for Mayberry!

Brownies

One of those church-dinner fundraisers is tonight. Because of a time-conflict with my part-time job, I didn't volunteer to work at the dinner, so they prevailed upon me to make cookies. I spent the whole morning and part of the afternoon making five large batches of bars. Sorting through recipes, I had the urge to make something peanut-buttery. But as I progressed through the batches (chocolate chip bars, lemon bars, caramel oatmeal bars, and pumpkin bars) I figured I needed to throw in some chocolate instead of making my last batch be peanut butter bars.

Still craving peanut butter, I decided to make the brownies for the sake of Necessary Chocolate. But instead of putting in all the butter called for in the recipe, I put in 2/3 of the butter, and for the rest of the butter I substituted peanut butter. It sounded like a good plan to me, but the rule-of-thumb is that you're not supposed to experiment with recipes when you're cooking for company.

When the cookies were cool, we trimmed the edges off. (Just for the sake of nice appearances for the cookies going to church! NOT because we wanted to taste them! No! Of course not!) Apparently, the peanut-butter substitution was an okie-dokey plan. Paul melted into the couch, enjoying them and "mmmmmmmm"-ing away. When Andrew found out that there was peanut butter in the brownies, his response was, "So THAT explains the total lusciousness!"

I might have to try this again.

Bach for Book Lovers

With all the people who live here, a lot of different music gets played and a lot of different noise is made. I'm getting old enough and my senses are overloaded enough that I often crave quiet. Even when I'd like music in the background, it's just one more noise that I can do without. So yesterday, when I noticed something playing that was absolutely beautiful, and yet didn't overwhelm, didn't distract the attention, didn't demand thought, I had to go find out what was in the boombox. Turned out it was Bach for Book Lovers: A Soothing Companion for Reading. The subtitle is well put! My daughter tells me there are other CDs in this series, but I can't imagine any of them to be gentler and more soothing -- and yet cheery -- than this. This is so good that I'm even considering spending money to buy one of these when she moves out of the house and takes her stuff with her.

New Blog

Just wanted to mention that my husband took the dive into blogging this week.

Sermon on Good Works

Some people listen to their Walkmans or their iPods when they exercise. Me? I'm weird. Sometimes I drag along my clunky old tape-recorder with me when I jog, and listen to a tape of a Bible class or the Divine Service that was recorded for the shut-ins. So this morning, I grabbed the tape on the top of my stack, popped it into the tape-recorder, and headed out the door in my tennies. Serendipitously, the sermon happened to be on Matthew 25:31-46, the passage assigned to the Second-Last Sunday of the Church Year.

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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Jesus said to His disciples:
When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me." Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, "Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?" And the King will answer and say to them, "Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me."

This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.



Have you ever thought about the question, "Why am I a Christian?"

The answer to that question for every Christian rests in what Jesus has done for you. "I am a Christian," we confess, "because God visited me in my sinful condition. I was naked, and I was sick, and I was in a prisonhouse of my own making from sins from which I could not free myself, in bondage to death and the devil. And it was the Lord Jesus who visited me, who bound up my wounds, who set me free, who released the shackles of Satan and everlasting death. And He clothed my nakedness with a robe of righteousness." And He did so by a word: "Son, Daughter, I forgive you all your sins. Do not be afraid. Come, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

"I am a Christian," we confess, "because God's only Son came to me, in my sin and in my weakness, and suffered and died for me. He is my life. He is my salvation."

As Jesus said elsewhere, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them" [in all of their sin and all of their weakness, and that's why I died for them], "and they follow Me, and I give them" [I give them -- it's a gift -- I give them] "eternal life." That's what faith is. That's why you and I are Christians -- because Jesus, God's only Son, in love, has visited us. By that word of forgiveness -- that sweet word of forgiveness -- in the waters of Baptism, in the daily hearing of the Gospel, in the Word of Absolution, in the testament of His body and blood -- that sweet word of forgiveness is what draws us to Him. And it is by that sweet word of forgiveness that we follow Him, wherever our life takes us. This is the meaning of St Paul's word in Romans: "A man is justified by faith," [faith in whom? faith in Christ] "apart from the works of the law."

Then why is it that in the Gospel for this Sunday, on the day of judgment, Jesus mentions works? You heard the words: "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me." If it is true that a sinner is justified by faith in Jesus, apart from the deeds of the law, then why, why in this parable of the Judgment, does Jesus mention works?

It is for this reason: faith in Jesus is never alone. Faith in Jesus is always active in love: in love for the neighbor, in love for the enemy, in love for the unlovely spouse, in love for children who rebel and turn away from parents and despise their birthright, in love for the stranger, for the naked, for the sick, for the imprisoned. Faith is never alone. Faith in the Lord Jesus' love is always active in love to the neighbor, to the enemy. In this parable that Jesus teaches on the last judgment, He tells us something very profound and it's paradoxical. When you look at your neighbor, when you look at your spouse, when you look at your children, when you look at your enemy, you and I (according to the Gospel of Jesus) are called by faith in that Gospel to see in that neighbor, to see in that enemy, to see in that family member, Jesus Himself. That's a paradox. That is a profound mystery. Because when we look at our neighbor, we see a sinner. When we look at our spouse, we see a sinner. When we look at our children and our enemies, we see sinners. And yet faith in the Gospel of Jesus calls us to see behind that sinner Jesus Himself, our Lord. That's a paradox. That's a mystery.

Why does Jesus speak this way? Because faith that trusts in Him is active in love for those whom He has placed in our path, that you and I -- by faith in the Gospel -- might be to our neighbor (who doesn't deserve God's love) what Jesus is to us. For we were the naked ones. We were the sick ones. We were the imprisoned ones in sin and death from which we couldn't free ourselves. But Jesus visited us. And He loved us in place of Himself. And He laid down His life for our salvation. And it is because we believe this Gospel that faith manifests itself in love toward the unlovely, toward those who do not deserve it.

But such faith never trusts in the works of love that flow from it, as is evidenced in this Gospel. "Lord, when did we see You naked or sick or in prison? When did we come and visit You and clothe You?" That's because faith never trusts in its own works, but solely in the work of Christ.

Now, when you hear me preach this way on this text, honesty compels your heart to confess, "Pastor, I do not love the way you describe. Does that mean I am not a Christian?" No. Rather, it gives testimony to the sin which still rages in your heart. For the Old Adam in you and in me is always a self-righteous, works-righteous brute. Never loving, except those who deserve it. Never forgiving, except those deemed worthy of forgiveness. This is also why we are Christians, for to be a Christian is to daily be in repentance, returning to the voice of our Shepherd, confessing our faithlessness, and therefore confessing our lovelessness, that we might receive anew the word of His love, which not only sets us free again and again and again, but which also brings forth the fruits of His love in our lives, for loveless and unworthy sinners, like those whom He has placed in our path. Christians are Christians because of what Jesus did. And by faith we return to Him, again and again and again, to receive His Word and Sacrament, that we might learn to love as He has loved us. So that, on the last day, clothed with the righteousness of Christ, we might hear those words of eternal absolution: "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit" [inheritance is always a gift] "inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

In the name of Jesus.
Amen.

Guns in the Home

Last September, I wrote about a local news item about the fellow who broke into a house in the middle of the night and was headed toward the children's bedroom while the dad was shouting at him to stop, to get out of the house. After sufficient warning, the home-owner shot the intruder, not to kill, but to stop him from advancing toward the children's bedrooms. The DA investigated for a couple of days and determined that no charges would be filed against the shooter/home-owner.

The intruder later decided to file civil suit against the home-owner. I've been wondering how the case turned out. A recent news article tells about the criminal case against the intruder. He was found guilty this week and will be sentenced several weeks hence. He is currently in prison for having violated parole. A snippet near the end of the article mentions that the civil suit (in Milwaukee county) against the home-owner was withdrawn and would be re-filed elsewhere.

So far so good. Hooray for the armed victim who protected his family. And hooray for a sensible court system which protected the real victim instead of the intruder who now walks with a limp.

Busy Work

My oldest three kids were insatiably curious. If I wanted them to read a book, all I had to do was bring it home from the library or leave it lying around the living room -- it would get read, consumed, devoured. But my next-to-youngest isn't as curious. He doesn't need to know how things work and what people think and what's going on in the world. Part of this may be due to his inborn nature just being different from his siblings. Part of it, though, is probably due to the amount of time we spent with his sister's doctors and therapists when he was just a toddler and preschooler. We didn't do as many science experiments, take as many walks, read as many kiddy books, as we'd done with the older children.

Since we've been homeschooling, I've despised busy work. It has always seemed like a waste of time. If the kids can learn something by practicing it 4-5 times, why make them do the handwriting or the math 30 times? If we can work on things orally, through discussion and reading and working out concepts, why make them sit in chairs and write just for the sake of have some worksheets filled out? We are people who know how true is the saying, "So many books, so little time!" Why divert our limited time from those books and those projects and those educational videos to something as dreary as seatwork?

But right now, I'm finding busy-work to be somewhat useful. If I have a kid who is perfectly content to read comic books and play video games all day, then I am not content. I can do interesting educational activities with him, and he will enjoy them. I can even make him study certain things on his own, but of course he retains very little of it. I am discovering, though, that busy-work doesn't hurt him. Oh, he may think it's injurious to his time in front of the computer or tv. But for some odd reasion, I just don't have a lot of sympathy for his grief.

For the older kids, busy-work distracted them from the excitement of learning. Because of that, I see busy-work as detrimental. But in recent weeks, I'm beginning to see that busy-work isn't altogether bad. It's certainly better than perpetually vegging out.

Government Goof-Up

Our state government had a slip-up in the past few weeks. They accidentally made public some information that had names and addresses, with SocSec numbers attached. It wasn't a big group of people, but I was one of the group. I got a letter yesterday informing me of the risk. Along with profuse apologies, the letter had all sorts of information about "fraud alerts" and "freezes" that we can get from the credit bureaus, and I need to figure that out. They've provided for insurance that will cover up to $20,000 to compensate victims of identity theft. (From what I've heard, that amount could be barely a drop in the bucket, given the trouble identity theft would cause.) They've offered to pay for a year of daily monitoring with the credit bureaus, in an attempt to protect the people whose numbers were released.

I'm trying to figure out exactly what "fraud alerts" mean. It sounds to me like the inconvenience of having a fraud alert on your record probably means something as inconsequential as not being able to get a new credit card while you're in line at the check-out of a department store. Like, maybe, before they extend credit to you, the company will actually have to verify your information like they all did 20-30 years ago.

They assure us and assure us and assure us that they take utmost care with our personal information and will never release it to anyone. I never believed that. I get called paranoid. I get told that I don't understand the high value businesses and government place on privacy. But mistakes happen. And sometimes (not this time, though!) there is intentional manipulation of private information too. But even if we believe that everybody in government or hospitals or insurance companies is honest and upstanding and completely moral, nevertheless, mistakes happen.

I guess we're going to learn more about credit bureaus this year than we intended.

Some Links

Elizabeth had a great post about the importance of vocational tech school, and thoughts about what kind of education/training might be good for kids after high school.

In the comment section on one of my recent posts, a friend pointed out Jonathan Lange's article Using the Third Use. I thought it was a fantastic article on the topic of the Law and sanctification, and just wanted to mention it here in case anybody's interested.

Scott reminded us that most of us need to get a patch for our computers so they can update themselves correctly this year when Daylight Savings Time is made longer than before. You can get more information on his blog.

Random Thoughts

Gas down in Rockford this morning was still over $2 when we went to church, but on our way home we saw a gas station in Wisconsin with $1.98. It's been a while since we saw that!

For years, I told myself that we needed to buy snow-fence and put it up in late fall. But year after year, I neglected to do it. Then we had to dig out the drifts. When I was little and my dad talked about "drifts," I didn't understand what he meant. Sure, I understood the concept in my mind, but I didn't understand the way that snow drifts make shoveling seem entirely futile. After a few years of drought, snow-fencing seemed pointless (even though there were several days per year of digging and re-digging out a sidewalk that had already been cleaned four times since the last snowfall). This year I'm wondering if the increased snowfall will motivate me to get snow-fencing in November. Probably not...

I had sixteen hours added to my week this past week. Didache was canceled because of Pastor's being in Fort Wayne for symposia. So was Thursday Bible class. I also skipped my weekly errand-day in the city because I'm trying to get back onto my Monday routine after having the errand-schedule goofed up by Christmas and New Years. Those three things alone put sixteen extra hours into my week. Did I cross a lot of projects off my to-do list? Did I catch up on chores? No. Granted, I spent a little more time on the computer than I should've, and I spent a few hours answering phone calls from desperate parents investigating the possibility of homeschooling. But most of those extra hours got used up in homeschooling. No wonder I always feel like I'm behind.

I was a good girl last week and did schoolwork with the kids instead of listening to symposium lectures live-streamed on the computer. Boy, that took some self-denial!

When we were driving into town the other day, Andrew saw a sign that I hadn't noticed. He asked, "What does evangelical mean?" I asked whether he meant the real meaning of the word, or the way it is commonly used today. He asked for the real meaning first. So I told him it means "gospel" or "gospel-ish." The sign he saw was for the Evangelical Free church in town. He wanted to know why any denomination would call itself something like "Gospel-Free Church."

Constitutional Oath

Normally, public officials must take an oath of office in which they swear to uphold the Constitution. That's changing in Wisconsin, though.

In last fall's elections, Wisconsinites approved a ban on gay "marriage." In Madison, however, local results were strongly against the ban. Many public officials are scandalized by this constitutional amendment and are now unwilling to swear to uphold the state constitution. The Madison city council voted this week to allow elected and appointed officials to make their oath without swearing to uphold the constitution we actually have. They are given the option of making a statement (either verbally or in writing) that declares they are taking the oath of office "under protest" and will work to change the state constitution where they disagree with it.

I can understand a desire to go into politics to work for your cause, even if (maybe "especially if") you don't agree with the status quo. I can see that someone might say he can't support everything in the constitution. Theoretically, this exemption should be allowed for conservatives and liberals alike. It also seems that a candidate's desire for one of these exemptions should be known by the voters prior to the election.

But even if I try really hard to see their side of it, there's still one thing I can't get over. With that kind of disclaimer, one wonders, "What's the point of taking the oath at all?"

You can read the AP story here.

Thesis XXIII

Yesterday, I was remembering a discussion with my father-confessor and his father-confessor, regarding one of "grandpa-confessor's" sermons. Because of recent discussions, I wanted to take a peek at which one of Walther's Law/Gospel theses fit the situation. So I quickly skimmed the first couple of pages of the book, and Thesis 23 caught my eye. I got distracted from my initial quest. Upon exploration, I noticed the following quotes.


From Walther's Law and Gospel:

The Word of God is not rightly divided ... when an endeavor is made, by means of the commands of the Law rather than by the admonitions of the Gospel, to urge the regenerate to do good.


And some quotes from the lecture in support of the thesis:

Page 381: The attempt to make men godly by means of the Law and to induce even those who are already believers in Christ to do good by holding up the Law and issuing commands to them, is a very gross confounding of Law and Gospel.

Page 382: Concerning the new covenant, ... [God] is not going to issue any commandments, but is going to write the Law directly into their mind and give them a new and pure heart, so that they shall not need to be plagued with the Law, with enforcements and urgings: Thou shalt do this! Thou shalt do that! because that will not help matters at all.

Page 384: This is an experience which you may have had personally. After a long season of sluggishness and lukewarmness, during which you began to hate yourself because you saw no way to change your condition, you happen to hear a real Gospel sermon, and you leave the church a changed man and rejoice in the fact that you may believe and are a child of God. You suddenly become aware of the fact that it is not difficult to walk in the way of God's commandments; you seem to walk in it of your own accord. [Almost sounds like Walther is saying that walking in the way of God's commands happens on spiritual auto-pilot.]

Page 386: To make people godly, [the rationalists] preach ethics with great earnestness.... [The papists] preach ethics continually ....

Page 387-8: This confounding of Law and Gospel occurs ... also in the orthodox Church... when ministers become aware that all their Gospel-preaching is useless because gross sins of the flesh still occur among their hearers.... The preacher may come to the conclusion that he has preached too much Gospel.... But he is mistaken.... The reason why congregations are corrupt is invariably this, that its ministers have not sufficiently preached the Gospel to the people.


I suppose it might not be helpful to toss quotes out there. After all, quotes "sound" different when they're taken out of context, and when the terms within the quotes are understood differently by different hearers. I've had conversations with homeschool friends where we can toss Bible verses back and forth at each other, and have not come to agreement. I've had theological debates with friends where Church-Father quotes are tossed around, or where we quote the Confessions back and forth at each other. I've seen "quote wars" where Luther appears to be contradicting himself. So I'm quite skeptical as to the benefit of putting quotes out there. Nevertheless, I thought these were rather interesting in light of recent conversations.

Care for a Snooty Title?

I saw this on Melynda's blog, and it just looked like fun!! ... even if it did pick "discombobulated" for me. LOL!

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Imperial Majesty Susan the Discombobulated of Kesslington under Ox Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Vanilla Beans, Anyone?

I recently received my order from an herb wholesaler. With the price I was paying at the grocery store, I figured two packets of spices and herbs from the grocery store would be about equivalent to the price I'd pay for a whole pound from this wholesaler. So even if some of the spices got old and went to waste, I'd still be ahead financially.

I go through a lot of dried parsley. The minimum order for most items is a pound. I figured I'd go with two pounds instead of one because we use so much parsley. So I open up the box.... Do you know how much a pound of parsley is? It's like a gallon! Turns out that those huge jars of parsley I was buying at the store are only an ounce. Well, I won't need to buy parsley in 2007 any more. Maybe not in 2008 either.

I also bought a few pounds of dried apples. When we tasted them, they were a little bland. My guess is that the dried apples from the grocery store are spiked with sugar or corn syrup. I know they douse the dried pineapple and dried bananas with all sorts of sugar. These unsweetened apples may not entice the kids into snacking on them as I'd anticipated, but they'll be good for putting in oatmeal or cookies.

Now to the point of the post. Is there anybody we see in Real Life who needs a vanilla bean or two or three? Vanilla prices have gone up. Last time I started a batch of extract, the cost of one vanilla bean was $6, and two of them were $10. Shoot -- I liked paying $2 per bean at the health food store. (I can't imagine what they cost now at the grocery store. The grocery store used to charge three times as much as the health food store. I bet the price-difference between the two has narrowed.) So from this wholesaler, I ordered the minimum allowable amount of vanilla beans: 1/4 pound. I figured if I got four beans, I was already saving money; anything more would be a bonus. Turns out that I got 29 vanilla beans. 29! So Laura, Anthea, Leila, Katie, Mom, Wolfs? Anybody have a use for a couple of beans? I'd planned to start some more vanilla extract going, but this is a lot of beans for that. If nobody wants beans, we're going to grind some up in ice cream and have reeeeeally delicious vanilly ice cream. Yummmmmmm!

Pizza Lentils

Another one of my frequently used recipes came from Jennifer T. It too fulfills all five requirements for being an ideal recipe. If you're scared of lentils and legumes, I gotta tell you that many an avowed lentil-hater has loved this recipe.

Here is the "serves 8" version
(which really only serves 3-4 here).
In other words, this makes a 13x9.

Simmer together for 30 minutes:
2 cups dry lentils
4 cups water
1 tsp salt

While simmering,
brown 1-2# pork sausage
with a chopped onion.
Stir in 1/2 cup flour
and 1/2 tsp dried garlic.
Mix in 1 quart canned tomatoes.

Mix together lentils and sausage.
Pour into 13x9.
Sprinkle with mozarella.
Bake at 350 for about 25-35 minutes.


My family-sized version (two 13x9's):

1# bag of lentils
7 cups water
2 tsp salt

2# sausage
2 onions
several cloves garlic
1.25 cups flour
1 quart canned tomatoes

1-2# grated mozarella (or less)

Snow

Children were ecstatic when they went to bed last night, anticipating the snowfall they'd find in the morning. Our last snow was December 1. Our topmost snow-lover "couldn't" go out and play in it because he'd seriously outgrown his snowpants. Having received snowpants as a Christmas gift, he's been itchin' to break 'em in. Another little snow-lover was told by her cardiologist that "playing in the snow" for a few weeks must be confined to throwing snowballs at trees or other targets: no snowball fights, no sliding or sledding, no making angels, and definitely no snowmen! So she's been itchin' to get out in a real snowfall too.

So why have they no incentive to go outdoors this afternoon? Was shoveling the walks this morning enough snow-time? Maybe they're getting old and grown-up and boring like me.

I gotta admit, though, I am so glad I'm not trying to make my way to Fort Wayne today on these messy, slippery roads. But we sure are hoping all our loved ones and buddies make it there safely.

Is Sanctification Synergistic?

Probably every Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinist homeschooler has had the experience of being told that he isn't really saved. Many of our friends in the homeschool group believe that converion is a synergistic activity: it's something that God and I do together. If my children and I have not made a decision for Jesus, prayed the Believer's Prayer, and invited Him into our lives, we obviously have no use for conversion. We obviously are not saved. We haven't "done" the thing we need to do to participate in our conversion.

We know that's wrong, though. Even though we reject that we are participating in our conversion, we are still nevertheless converted. We cherish what God has done for us in our conversion. Our conversion is immensely important to us.

Some Lutherans believe sanctification and good works are "synergistic" activities: that is, I cooperate with God. Other Lutherans believe that sanctification and good works are monergistic activities: something God works in us though His sacraments, through the call to repentance (that is, real and smiting law), and through the forgiveness of sin (that is, the bestowal of the Gospel).

If a Lutheran believes that sanctification is a monergistic activity, he may be told that he has no use for sanctification. But it isn't true. He still values sanctification. He is still being sanctified. He may disagree with another Lutheran about how that sanctification is being wrought in his life. But that doesn't mean he's averse to sanctification.

Homeschooling a Doctorate?

My husband was interested in doing further study at the seminary. However, it costs a lot, and we don't have the money. It would take a lot of time in Indiana, and he doesn't have that either. And it would involve a lot of driving around the south end of Lake Michigan -- enough to drive a person insane. He didn't want the degree for prestige reasons: who's really gonna care whether he has letters behind his name? Another degree certainly wouldn't make any difference in his salary. So the only purpose of the study is LEARNING. (How's that for a homeschooler's viewpoint? Studying only for the sake of learning something?? Who'da thunk it possible?)

So he dove into teaching himself Latin. He and our friend Tim May got together every other Friday for a year, wading into the Wheelocks Latin textbook. (Mommies and kiddoes sure liked the excuse for play-dates twice a month!) Then Gary was ready to dive into translating, essentially teaching himself Latin through his translating efforts. (Reminds me of Nat Bowditch in one of our favorite books, Carry On, Mr Bowditch.)

A few weeks ago, he finished translating his book: Peter Zorn's The History of the Communion of Infants: Illustrated from the Ancient Times of the Church: First from the West then of the East, after a series of ten centuries and [after] manifold variations. It took a huge amount of work, translating not only Latin, but also some Greek, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, and Spanish. There were 1300 bibliographical references, and that was no small job to find the translations of all those personal names and place names. Coral and I each got copies of the book for Christmas. (Pretty thrilling until we found out he was looking for proofreaders. LOL!)

I want to brag on him and do the husband-version of the Genius-Child Dance. But somehow, "Genius-Husband Dance" just doesn't have the same ring to it...

Jane's Cowboy Soup

A couple of months ago, I declared Polly's recipe one of the ideal ones.
1) It is quick and easy to make.
2) It is inexpensive.
3) It is nutritious.
4) It uses whole-food ingredients that are often on hand or easily stored.
5) Most importantly, it tastes great!

Another recipe that meets those requirements is Jane's

Cowboy Soup.

Brown 1# ground beef
with 1 small onion, chopped.

Add (liquid and all)
1# can of pinto beans
1# can of black beans
1# can of kidney beans
1# can of navy beans (or great northerns)
1# can of tomatoes
4-oz can of green chilies (optional)
10-16 oz of frozen corn.

When heated, add seasonings.
Jane's recipe says to mix:
1 pkg Hidden Valley Ranch dry dressing mix
1 pkg taco seasoning mix
2 cups water,
and add to soup.
Simmer for 15-20 minutes or more.

I cringe at the price of those little packages, so instead of the seasoning packages, I add:
1 Tbsp dried parsley flakes
1 Tbsp cumin
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp salt (or more)
1 tsp dillweed
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
a few cloves minced garlic (or 1 tsp dried garlic powder).
Simmer 15-20 minutes or more.
Shortly before serving, remove from heat and add
1 cup buttermilk.

This soup is excellent when it's naked in your bowl; it's even better when dressed up with cheddar, asiago, or monterey jack, sour cream, and/or Fritos.

In this house, that recipe serves 3. I suspect (for most households) it would serve 8.

Movie about Vivien Thomas

Thursday night we watched Something the Lord Made, a 2004 HBO movie. For anyone who's asked about what's wrong with Maggie's heart, for anyone who would like to know more about her surgeries, this movie tells a lot.

Maggie's first surgery was a Blalock-Taussig Shunt. When I saw an Alan Rickman movie at the library, I nabbed it just for the opportunity to revel in a couple of hours swooning over Alan Rickman's voice. (Turned out that didn't work so well. Alan Rickman with a Southern accent just isn't the same as regular Alan Rickman!) When I looked at the description of the plot on the DVD cover, it was describing Dr Blalock and Mr Thomas's work on saving blue babies born with Tetralogy of Fallot. Dr Taussig shows up a little later in the movie. Mom and Katie, I think you guys are going to want to see this movie! I don't know if other people will get as much out of it as we did; we've been steeped in that particular medical vocabulary and what it's like to have a little baby who's blue.

But even beyond the medical advancements shown in the movie, there are two other aspects of the show that I loved. One is the depiction of the racism during the 1900s, and how Mr Thomas's work basically spit in the eye of racism. Sadly though, Mr Thomas was not given credit until late in his life. Even more honorable (in my opinion) than Mr Thomas's medical achievements was his selflessness in doing the work without the recognition, honor, and pay that he should've received.

The other thing I loved about the movie was the high esteem shown for thinking outside the box, in spite of the naysaying by the people surrounding Mr Thomas and Dr Blalock. Heart surgeries were begun because of a talented high-school graduate who was self-taught in the medical field, was a good problem-solver, and was also talented with his hands and tools. The men's theology may have been wanting, and Maggie says it should've been rated R for foul language, but none of that could stop tears of thankfulness from flowing as we watched the historical events that led up to that little cyanotic girl who turned pink during the first heart surgery!