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!

Trying to Be Good

Within the "confessional camp" in our synod, there seem to be two viewpoints on what sanctification is and how it's accomplished. This became starkly apparent to me at the symposium at the Ft Wayne seminary in January 2005.

I have been told repeatedly that of course we don't believe that our good works will earn us heaven, but nevertheless we'd better try to do good works. If we don't try, if we don't work at it, some say, we're taking our salvation for granted. (This trying to be good is not presented as if it were "merely" the drowning of the sinful nature -- the struggle against sin -- but rather is presented as attempting to pump up and energize the new man of faith.)

It seems to me, though, that when I try, the "trying" is good for neither me nor my neighbor. For me, the trying sends me into navel-gazing. For me, the trying leads me to focus on my piety, and to find my comfort in my piety. (In other words, to make a god of my piety, my goodness.) This is definitely not good for me.

As for my neighbor, my trying is not good for him either. My bottom-line is NOT how I'm doing on good works. But if someone's bottom-line were the good works emanating from the Christian, then where would those good works come from? I have been amazed to see more good works ooze outta my life if'n I'm not "trying." I have found that repeatedly being convicted of sin, confessing it, being absolved, and pretty much giving up on the trrrying is more "effective" in bringing about a right attitude and good works in my life.



There are loads of Bible passages telling us what we should do. That is good; I love those passages. But I have found that I can look at those passages in only two ways:
1) Jesus did it right, and
2) I don't do it right; Lord, have mercy on me.

Some people want me to add a third:
3) Try to do it and be right. Or at least be better.

But I can't. I just can't. If I add that, I change Hebrews 12:2 to "Come, let me fix my eyes on myself, the perfector of the faith which was authored by Jesus." Now, I'm not saying that this is the way everybody responds; I'm saying this is how I respond. I don't know about other people. But I know it's dangerous for me; I am much more inclined to sin by being a pharisee than I am tempted to sin by being a hedonist.

Some pastors preach the law to smash self-righteousness, and then forgive the wretched sinners who have despaired of their own goodness. Other pastors say that's not enough, that Christians must be encouraged to try to be better people. They say that not teaching people to try is the same thing as saying that it's okay to continue in sin, the same as actually being opposed to sanctification.

But it's not the same thing.

Raspberries and blackberries don't try to grow fruit. Assuming that the gardener is pruning and watering and fertilizing, the plants do indeed bear fruit on auto-pilot.

Adult "Children" Living at Home

In typical middle-class American society, it is not considered okay for young adults to live at home with their parents. I recognize that some kids just don't grow up and will continue to sponge off their parents. But it doesn't have to be that way. Through much of history, young adults would live with their parents until such time as they left to make a new home with husband or wife. And even then, sometimes they didn't leave too far, continuing to live on the farm or nearby for running the family business.

My husband and I used to think that it was a pretty good idea for adult children to live at home for a number of reasons. It's certainly not necessary for every kid to stay at home until the wedding day, but it is a concept worthy of serious consideration. It allows kids to save up a nest-egg for a downpayment on a home or college debt or other large expenses. Because of the expense of housing, few young adults live on their own; they must have a roommate. As long as the parents and adult-child can work through issues of freedom and responsibility, it seems far better for the child to be living with "roommates" (i.e., their parents and possibly siblings) who share their beliefs and values and general lifestyle. It's got all the benefits of a commune with none of the drawbacks.

But in the last year, we've discovered an even better reason for kids to continue living at home. My eldest daughter was recently engaged to a very nice young man. Nearly every week for the last year, the two of them have spent at least an evening each week at our house. We've gotten to know Matt. He's gotten to know us. He's grown to be part of the family. Rachel is not marrying somebody who's a stranger to her family. Those Friday evenings have not been the kind of exciting dates most people consider to be part of courtship, but they're a much more realistic type of togetherness. Our son-in-law was a dear family friend before he ever fell in love with my middle daughter, so we knew him and loved him prior to the kids' "interest" in each other. But Matt didn't start out as part of that close family circle. If Rachel had not been living at home, he would not now already be part of that close family circle; we'd be trying to get to know this fellow who was going to be spending his life as part of our family. And, to me, that in itself is of such great value that it is definitely worth any of the struggles that come with the change in relationships when parents are living with their adult children.

Men Are from Mars??

For a good laugh, check out Pastor Petersens' blog that includes an old Dave Barry column.

Published

Oh boy oh boy oh boy! Today's mail brought the Winter 2006 issue of Higher Things magazine, and I have an article in it. I've had lots of letters published in newspapers and magazines, and a few brief articles in magazines, and a picture of my photogenic son Paul in Home Education Magazine, and oodles of newsletter articles, but never a whole real article in a snazzy slick magazine. This is so exciting!

Adultery

Okay, you guys. We watched Spanglish as suggested. I'm not sure what I think.

Warning: spoilers ahead! If you don't want to know how the movie turns out, stop reading now. (Personally, I like spoilers. They save me time because I don't have to go back and watch an intriguing movie the second time.)

On the one hand, as Hollywood goes, I figure they think the husband/father and the maid (or nanny or whatever she was) did the right thing, in that "nothing happened." It was refreshing to see a husband being patient with a nutty wife, and being good to his children without undermining his nutso wife.

And yet, it seems to me that the movie glorifies adultery. Not in the way that so many Hollywood movies do. But still, I can't get over the fact that the husband and the nanny ended up on a romantic date, dinner by candlelight with soft music in the background, cuddling the evening away, and even kissing a few times. In my mind, that's cheating on his wife -- Bill Clinton's opinion notwithstanding. It's adultery. Man oh man, if MY husband were "just cuddling" or "just kissing" another woman, I would not be a happy camper! Even though the relationship went no further than that, and even though they put an end to seeing each other [the nanny quit her job], what happened between them was still wrong. Seriously wrong. And yet, we're left with the impression that we're supposed to say "good for them!" that they denied their desires and didn't indulge fully in the adultery that lured them.

The biggest "hooray!" in the movie went to the mom/nanny when she pulled her daughter away from the upper-class white world. The mom had to quit the job to avoid temptation. But the daughter didn't want to leave the Anglo world. She liked her private school and the nice clothes and the friends and the fancy-schmancy house and the pool and all the other trappings. But the mom/nanny knew it was bad for her daughter's values. While the daughter was yelling "I hate you!" and "I'll never forgive you for this!" the mom remained calm and collected, never budging from doing what she knew was right (though highly uncomfortable) for her daughter. That was the shining moment of the film for me!

Klutz Castles

One of Christmas gifts was a new toy from the Klutz folks: a card set for building castles. My youngest simply doesn't have the manual dexterity or the patience to build card-houses. But this set from Klutz is a heavier cardboard than playing cards are, and the cards are slotted, so they fit together without slipping and sliding. Even better, they're decorated as though they were brick or wood, and some cards even have doors or battlements.

It was just in the past year that my 12-yr-old began to understand how to build a simple Lego house, or an interlocking wall of Legos. So this Klutz card set was not easy for her to do, but it was do-able. Some of the older kids (the ones who are very good with spatial skills) have made some pretty cool castles.

For the price, this is one nifty building set!!

"Searching for Bobby Fischer"

Upon recommendation from some friends, we watched this movie. We loved it!

When the young chess whiz was first becoming interested in chess, he arranged his Playmobile people in a chess line-up. My daughter and I both gasped: my kids did that! They played chess with Playmobile kings and knights, with the little kids for pawns.

I loved the line near the middle of the movie where the boy was beginning to feel the pressure of being ranked #1. It went something like this: "Maybe it would be better not to be the best. Then nobody would be disappointed if you lost." There's some serious wisdom there if an over-achieving society has ears to hear.

A Mess

Trust me on this: it is a bad plan to break a liter-sized bottle of olive oil in your trunk, amongst all the other groceries. No. No. I know you want to go try it, just to see if I'm really telling the truth. But really, you should trust me on this. You don't have to test out the veracity of my claim.

If a liter of olive oil is disgorged into a paper grocery-sack, you get to wash every can and bottle in that sack, in very hot and soapy water, before you can put the groceries away. You also will have a big sticky stain on the carpet in the car's trunk. And you will drip olive oil all over the garage floor. Furthermore, no matter how careful you are with the mess, you will of course get way too much olive oil splashed on the kitchen counters and kitchen floor. (Naturally, this spillage will occur only an hour after someone at home mops the kitchen floor while you were fetching the groceries which you decided to slather with olive oil on your way home.)

Unless you stockpile paper towels in your home, you will use up the whole roll of disposable towels in an effort to get olive oil off the kitchen steps, off the kitchen cupboard doors, out of the bottom of the trash can, off the bumper of the car, and off the doorknobs.

And while you are cleaning up this mess, you will overcook the hamburgers for lunch. Which means you also get to spend half an hour scrubbing the broiler pan to remove charred barbecue sauce. Furthermore, the soles of your shoes will be well-greased so that you can skate across the kitchen floor, whether you want to slipslide around or not.

In a few days, today's events will be funny. :-) And I'm sure it was very good for my hands to be doused in that much olive oil for as long as it took me to clean up that mess.
But nevertheless, don't let that tempt you to try it!

Spiritual Auto-Pilot

The comment has been made recently that "some Lutherans think that good works are something that 'just happen' on some sort of a spiritual auto-pilot."

What part of fruit do such people not understand?

For some reason, Jesus called good works the fruit of faith. Last I checked on my grape vines or my blackberry canes, the fruit-bearing actually was on auto-pilot. I suspect Jesus knew that when he used the term "fruit."

(Dan at Necessary Roughness brought up the topic and a little discussion ensued.)

Hospital Update - 2

Today's x-rays showed that Maggie's lung is no longer collapsed; she popped open the bottom lobe. Her left lung still doesn't look quite as clear as her right, but it's open and improving!

She lost weight during the surgery and hospitalization, but she lost even more from the collapsed lung. It was good to see she's gained back half of what she lost from the lung problem.

On the "Insurance meets Speech Therapy" front, I've discovered that our old perfect therapist is still practicing three afternoons a week but is not in-network for insurance coverage. Figuring that we'll have to stay in-network, I started hunting speech therapists. We either have to go to Illinois or to Milwaukee. Most of the Illinois locations are closer than Milwaukee, but take just as long to drive to because of the infamous Chicago traffic. I'm seriously considering paying out-of-pocket for our old therapist because she's so much closer than the other options (one-hour roundtrip instead of two) and because she's entirely willing to train me to do the work so that we only have to go a few times and check back periodically instead of going 3 times weekly.

We're wondering too if the collapsed lung could've led to the hypernasality. Now that the lung is reinflated, maybe we just need to work on undoing the bad habits that took hold while Mag was trying to protect herself from pain in the chest. (Hey, I can hope, can't I?)