Bread Rising

I've been having trouble with the bread rising slowly in the cold kitchen. We don't have a pilot light in the oven. Usually I let the bread rise on the counter, with a big pan upside-down over it. (I learned that trick from the Frugal Gourmet, and it works great to keep the dough from drying out. It works much better than covering the dough with a cloth.) Today I got out the heating pad, plugged it in, turned it on "low," and set it on top of the metal bowl covering my bread dough. It worked great! That little bit of extra heat seemed to make a world of difference.

New TV Show

We really didn't need to get hooked on another tv show. But they started broadcasting right after American Idol to hook us in, and the premise is fun, and Jeff Foxworthy hosts, and their marketing ploy sure worked on us. Are You Smarter Than a Fifth-Grader airs on Thursday nights on Fox. It's a little bit like "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," but without the hard questions on movies and pop singers and current events. So far we've not only enjoyed the laughs and fun of the show, but we've also had the benefit of some educational discussions as we review something from schoolwork or even introduce something that one of the kids might've missed.

In like a Lion

Last week, we skipped Thursday's Belegarth practice because the weekend was just too jam-packed full. Then Saturday we were cancelled out of a birthday dinner and laser-tag because of blizzards. Church was cancelled on Sunday because of blizzards. We skipped Belegarth on Sunday night, due to .... yup, blizzards.

My feet are cold. It's so cold in this house. I discovered that I can be a whole lot less miserable if I plug in the heating pad and wrap it around my tootsies while we read aloud or watch tv or anything else where I sit still for a while.

In the early part of the week, the weather cleared up. Thursday morning, it took me an hour and fifty minutes to get to Bible class; normal drive-time is an hour and five minutes. Lots of cars off the road, accidents too. About 10-15 minutes after I arrived, they decided to cancel class. Bummers. But we did accomplish a lot of work on a job that needs to be done for some non-CCA publishing. So that was good. I waited until the roads had been plowed before I headed home.

We woke up today to huge drifts, drifts like I've never seen in my life. The wind is roaring. The snow is falling. There are white-out conditions. This is the worst mess for driving I've ever seen. We told Matt he can't come tonight for his regular Friday-night visit. Philip didn't go to work. I managed to get to town to deliver papers, and found an entirely different world in amongst the buildings. Sure, they have snow problems. But it's nothing like it is in the country! I could actually drive faster in town with the 25-mph speed limits than I could drive out here on the highways in the boonies.

A Drudge Report headline today noted that a Minnesota forum on global warming was cancelled last night due to blizzards. Can you say "irony"? Of course, the die-hard believers will spout stuff about how all this wintry weather indicates that there really is global warming. I suppose they're entitled to believe that, but it just goes to show that global warming is an article of faith every bit as much as religion is an article of faith. I may not like the blizzards and what it does to our mobility and our plans, but I can't help but think of Psalm 2. "The kings of the earth set themselves. The rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed. He who sits in the heaven shall laugh. The Lord shall hold them in derision."

Suffrage

In our continuing homeschool study of the Constitution, yesterday we were working through Amendments 11-15. One is on suffrage. A workbook question was "What is suffrage?" Of course, they thought the correct answer was "the right to vote." But I was caught off-guard. What about morning suffrages and evening suffrages in the hymnal? Those are prayers -- the psalm versicles used daily. After a wee bit o' etymological digging, our best guess is that "suffrage" must basically mean to "speak out." We may speak out politically with our vote. Or we may speak out scripture before the throne of God as we pray. We aren't sure if we're right. But we're trying to make sense of how these two words must be related somewhere far far back in their beginnings.

International Tiara Day

Anthea told us about International Tiara Day, and we of course are weird enough to find that enticing. So Rachel bought some inexpensive tiaras this week for a few of us. They were a huge step up from a party-pack that you'd buy for an 8-yr-old's birthday party. But as one of her co-workers told her, if she's wearing a tiara, she should at least wear a tasteful one. (So that tells you what our tiaras were like. Not exactly like a homecoming queen's tiara.)

I couldn't bear to wear it at church this morning. Some places just aren't right for that kind of goofy fun. But I wore it driving to and from. And I did put it on at church and asked the guys to verify for me that I wore it (even if it was only for one minute). But then my munchkin spilled the beans to Rachel about my non-participation during the A.M., so I gues Rachel's not going to be checking up on me when she gets to church on Sunday morning after all, and the guys won't have to vouch for my tiara-ness.

My tiara lasted through the afternoon, until Maggie's covetousness got to her. She was wearing hers (a Christmas gift from Katie), and it kept slipping because of looseness. So we traded, and I got to wear the tiara with a tiny little pink boa attached.

So Anthea, I only got in five hours worth of tiara. But Maggie got in on the act too. And serendipitously, I got the cutest picture in the mail on Tuesday of my god-daughter and her sister, all gussied up: Lily in funky green glasses and Claire in [drumroll please...] a tiara!

"I Confess"

We recently watched again the movie I Confess. It's a 1953 Hitchcock horror story. When Steve Wiest told us we HAD to watch this movie, I wasn't going to. Hitchcock? Horror? No thanks. Not my style. I want to laugh. I want romance. I don't want scary.

But Steve insisted we had to see this movie. And finally I relented and watched it. It's great. The horror is not in gore or violence or anything that we normally think of as horror. (Although, for faithful confessors and their penitents, there is a scary aspect to the movie.)

The basic gist of the movie is that a man commits a murder. He hadn't intended to do it. He is distraught. He confesses to the priest who had helped him (a refugee) resettle in the new country. Later, to protect himself, he implicates the priest as the murderer.

How does the priest respond? [Warning. Vague spoilers following.] Like all pastors, Father Michael is charged by God "never to divulge the sins confessed to him." He is serious about it. It hurts him to cover the sin of others. And it turns out he's not covering the sin of only the murderer. In the end, it turns out that, in spite of dire temporal consequences that occurred because of Fr Michael's integrity, forgiveness is applied to sinners.

This movie should be required viewing for seminarians and for pastors who hear confession.

Shrove Tuesday Pancakes

It's cold.
It's winter and the days are not long.
The chickens are on strike.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Some people fast for Lent. Some people abstain from meats. Some abstain from sweets or TV. But I don't know anybody who abstains from milk, butter, eggs, etc, during Lent.

The tradition of eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday was supposedly a way to use up the milk and eggs. People were supposed to get them out of the house prior to Lent. That's something I'd heard before. But I never really understood it -- those aren't things that are typically given up for Lent.

All winter, the eggs from my neighbor have been in relatively short supply. It's winter. That's what I should expect from normal chickens living a real-chicken's life. But, hey, last week, there weren't ANY eggs. So I tried a different neighbor. She didn't have any eggs either! As one of the kids explained to me, the chickens are on strike.

Started me to wondering. Is there some reason the folks in England gave up milk and eggs for Lent? One website said it was because people give up "rich foods" for their Lenten fast. But most of us today think of milk and eggs as plain foods. (Maybe that goes to show how spoiled we are??) My friend John told me that we abstain from meat and wine during Lent because of those two things being reminders of Jesus' flesh and blood, and the salvation He accomplished for us. So what's with the pancakes and donuts prior to Ash Wednesday so that we can use up the eggs?

When we were visiting St Sava's last week, one of the moms asked about the round things flanking the processional cross. The deacon explained that they were like "fans" and told us how they were used in the Service and their theological significance. He also admitted the exact same thing John had told me, about how the elements were originally "fanned" [sorry, I don't know the correct words; maybe Marie can help me out again] to chase off flies, and how that action was then eventually invested with a theological meaning. The practice began very practically, and then took on deeper meaning.

So now I'm wondering if that's what's up with the pancakes. Hens don't lay as much during the winter. In spring, some of them are getting broody and wanting to keep their eggs to themselves. Likewise, in spring the cow may need to go dry in preparation for the birth of her calf. Could it be that the farmers were simply short of eggs and milk at this time of year, and so they worked that reality into their religious practices? I'm just guessing, but it makes sense to me.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

I had to buy eggs at the grocery store this week. Luckily, they were trying to move some near-expiration-date Omega-3 eggs from the chickens that hadn't had antibiotics and weren't cannabalistic. So I grabbed a few dozen.

It's warmer the last few days. We've had more sunny days this month than we had last winter. And we're up to 11 hours of sunlight daily. Maybe the local chickens will start laying again soon.

Photos from St Sava's

This shows the chancel. (I'm not sure what they call it in the Eastern Church, but it's what the deacon said would compare to the Holy of Holies in the Old Testament temple.) Laymen may not go behind the screen, but the deacon allowed Paul to take a picture through the screen. Notice the Christ in the ciborium (the icon on the wall behind the altar).


A picture from the back of the nave.











The dome over the center of the nave.









The back corner of the nave. On the left of the picture, you can see the icon of Jesus calming the storm. Just around the corner, you can kinda see the icon of Ezekiel and the dry bones. Toward the right of the picture, you can see the mosaics on the back wall of the nave and in the balcony.


This shows the screen separating the nave from the chancel. The doors are open during some parts of the Liturgy, but closed when something especially heavenly is going on at the altar (such as the consecration of the elements). Notice the many saints depicted: on the front of the screen, on the arch of the ceiling, the Blessed Virgin Mary near the ceiling at the front of the church, on the doors of the screen, above the screen, etc. The icon partially visible on the right, above the screen, is of the crucifixion. The icon partially visible above that is of the institution of the Lord's Supper. The chancel area was where they started doing the mosaics fifty years ago, and it shows the most important stories. The rest of the mosaics were done over the course of the next several decades, being finished only recently.


The mosaics don't show up as beautifully in these pictures as they do in real life. The deacon explained how the pieces of tile are different sizes, without smooth edges, and the surfaces cannot be perfectly flat. If they were smooth and even tiles that fitted together perfectly (like in your kitchen or bathroom) the light would bounce off too well, and we couldn't see the picture. The intricacies of the icons and their vivid colors don't come across well in the photos.

Lutheran Carnival

My friend, Mrs Rebellious, is hosting the current Lutheran Carnival. If you're unfamiliar with the carnival, it's a list of recent blog posts that you might be interested in reading. But even if you don't want to blog-hop and read your way through this blizzardy day, it would be worth your while to hop on over to her site and read the story of a Lutheran you are probably not familiar with: baseball player Bill Wambsganss. She tells the story so delightfully!

The G-Tube Maggie Didn't Have

For those of you who don't know the story, my youngest was born in the car on Christmas morning. Labor was putzing along, going nowhere, and I asked Gary to take me to the hospital so I'd be out of the way for Christmas morning Services. I figured the baby wouldn't be born until afternoon or evening. We got in the car to leave for the hospital, and she was born about 10 minutes later. Surprise! We stopped in town to see the family doctor, and were back home in bed only two hours after we left. (No hospital bill. Just a bill for an "extended office visit" at the clinic!)

Maggie's heart problems weren't discovered for two more weeks. It wasn't definitively diagnosed for over three weeks. She was admitted to the hospital for her first heart surgery at 5 1/2 weeks. During those weeks, we lived a rather unexciting life at home with a new baby, the way it's supposed to be: diapers, baths, naps, cord care, nursing, burping, more naps, etc.

During her time in ICU after surgery, we saw brand new parents arriving to meet their newborns who'd been medi-flighted there. I was so thankful that God spared us that trauma. We had the comforts of home. We had time with all the siblings together, just reading stories, holding baby, eating supper. After weeks of that, we were finally whopped with the realities of her heart defect. But there was the nice lull before the storm.

Today I was catching up on reading my VCFS email list. Today I discovered that those early hospitalizations are often a cause of feeding disorders. Babies are medicated so heavily, and they're given IV nutrition, and they don't learn to suck, and they aren't cuddled and held because of all the tubes and wires and monitors. So when God caused that baby to be born in less than an hour, we were not only spared the shock and the upset of the hospitalization and surgery for a days-old baby, but Maggie also avoided a lot of the medical complications that are often part of VCFS.

Parental Notification

A federal judge in Massachusetts handed down a decision this week that says schools not only can but should endorse homosexuality to children. Parents claimed that they should be notified of such lessons. Parents said that they should be permitted to exempt their children from such lessons. The judge said no. The judge said that, if children were to leave class when issues of homosexuality were discussed, it would hurt the feelings of the children of same-sex couples. The judge said that it is important for children to be prepared to engage in a diverse culture, and it would undermine that part of their education if children were dismissed from class when there were lessons presented to which their parents objected.

Therefore, parents may not ask for notification or for exemption from objectionable lessons. Massachusetts parents were told that their only other option is to enroll their children in private school.

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.