Cleaning for Company

I feel like such a hypocrite.

After I read Don Aslett, I told myself, "No more cleaning for company!"  I clean for us.  I clean because I don't want my space to be nasty or germy or uncomfortable. 

So it's the day before Christmas.  Company is coming.  And I am cleaning.

Self-justification commences:
I've been doing Christmas prep instead of the cleaning that I want to do for me.
I've been busy at church instead of cleaning for me.
It's been too long since I cleaned, and I've been trying to get to it.
The cats are shedding, and the hair drives me bonkers.
If I don't clean today, I can't do it until Monday, because I intend to enjoy being with family.

So the vacuum is out.
And the cat hair is being dusted up.

And I still feel like a hypocrite.

The Lord's Prayer with an Antiphon

This last week before Christmas, I have been appreciating intermingling the day's O antiphon with the Lord's Prayer.

For today:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
come and enlighten those who sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death.

Hallowed be Thy name.
Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness.

Thy kingdom come.
Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death.

Thy will be done.
Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness.

Give us this day our daily bread.
Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness.

And forgive us our trespasses.
Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness.

And lead us not into temptation.
Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness.
and in the shadow of death.

But deliver us from the evil one.
Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory.
Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death.

Second of the O Antiphons

We address Adonai.
Ruler.
Lord of might.
Law-giver.
Appearing to Moses in the burning bush.
Appearing to the Israelites in the cloud and thunder and fire at Sinai.

And what is the petition connected to this God who seems so big and scary and fierce?
"Come with an outstretched arm and redeem us."

Redeem us.

That's not scary.
That's rescue.

All of God's bigness and fierceness is directed toward saving us and defending us.

A Baby's a Blessing

An unwed girl gets pregnant.  She chooses not to kill her baby.  Baby is born. 

Christians sometimes have mixed feelings.  The ladies at church wonder, "Should we throw a baby shower for her?" On the one hand, they know that the baby needs diapers and onesies and a car seat.  On the other hand, they don't want to send a message that appears to "reward" a sinful behavior.  The local woman who runs a home for moms has the best way to put this.

A baby is always a blessing.
Even if a baby is conceived in a less-than-honorable situation, even if the baby is conceived in violence, the baby is nevertheless a human being made in the image of God.  The baby is a blessing.  God's word says that children are a gift from God, a blessing from the Lord.  Regardless of the circumstances surrounding the conception, the birth of a baby is always a cause for rejoicing. 

 

"Don't You Trust Me?"

Doctor visit to a specialist I've never seen before.

Doctor recommends a long-term course of a medicine that is rife with bad side effects and links to cancer and heart attacks. 

I ask, "But doesn't that drug have a lot of side effects?"

Response?  "I am your doctor.  I know you.  I've looked at your chart.  Don't you trust me?  I would never give you anything that would hurt you." 

Huh.
I think it's true
that she would never
willingly
give me something
that she believed would hurt me.

But is there any chance that she could have been swayed by the pharmaceutical company to believe something inaccurate about the drug?
Is there a chance that I failed to inform her of something that I didn't know was pertinent?
Is there a chance she doesn't care about nutrition and wellness, but always turns to chemical solutions?
There's even a chance that she's spot-on right.

I was shocked that a doctor in this day and age would refuse to discuss side effects of a potent drug, and just say "Trust me." 

And if she thinks I'm going to trust her after that, I guess maybe she doesn't know me after all.



Over the next two days I spent about ten hours reading up on various perspectives by the drug manufacturer, alternative medicines, nutritionists, herbalists, and other aspects of my situation.  Man oh man -- buggy-eyed and brain-tired.  At least the doctor was good for one thing: she easily ruled out a lot of possible problems that I hadn't even considered (and which were probably the reason my GP sent me to the specialist in the first place). 

Bearing Fruits Worthy of Repentance

The tax collectors and soldiers came to John, listening to his preaching, believing his message, and asking, "What shall we do?"  The answer for all of them was pretty much, "Do your job honestly, without hurting other people."

Now if you were a taxpayer in Judea at that time, whether you believed in the Lord or not, you would derive some benefit from all these people trusting in the Messiah.  These Christians beginning to bear fruits of repentance.  Some of the taxpayers would be collecting only the amount they were supposed to collect. Some of the soldiers would be fair and good.  Certainly not all of them.  And not even these new Christians were sinless.  But some of them were indeed transformed (in part) by the Gospel they believed.

So even before Jesus died,
even before He was miraculously healing people,
even before He was preaching,

already there were some temporal blessings breaking in, like the tiniest little foretaste of what was yet to come.

Wonky Comments Too

So not only has my blog been wonky, but now I see the comments have been wonky too.

No, the comments themselves haven't been.  (My apologies Suzanne, Melanie, Cheryl, Jane in SB, and Karen in MI.  You're not being weirdos at all.  Well, not any more than the likable weirdness that is the norm.)  Something IS up, however, with the comment feature.  Today I noticed that a request for comment moderation was dumped into my spam folder.  That's when I discovered that a whole bunch of other comments were awaiting moderation -- comments from months ago.  Comments that never arrived, not even diverted to the spam folder.  They were simply sucked into a tiny corner of the blogger program.

Well, they have been found and posted.

Settings have been adjusted.  I was moderating comments only because my mom couldn't manage the "Prove you're not a robot" verification.  But Mom's not reading my blog now, so I no longer need to take that into account.

The trick now is to see if I can remember to keep peeking into that little forsaken corner in case of older comments.  And in the meantime, I have to watch for new comments that would hawk lower mortgages, exercise equipment, new roofs, and sexy girlfriends.  (I suspect you want those things just about as much as I do.)

Lizzy Is Growing

I haven't posted any pictures of Lizzy since she was brand new.  This is from about 3 weeks ago.  Like her momma, she wants to STAND at a ridiculously young age.  Rachel had to put a book under the baby's feet so that she could use her walker.  But now she's grown big enough to reach the floor!

Don't Be Wonky, My Blog

This week's discovery: ignore your blog long enough, and it will act up.  It will disappear temporarily so that you cannot [gasp] retrieve the recipes stored there.  A few days later, when you google for an old post, it's nowhere to be found.  Later yet, when you click on the link, the screen may give you a countdown to an ad-site and then go blank.  Weird stuff.  So I'm saying "HI" again, in an attempt to be Active.

For Thanksgiving the whole family (except middle-son and his wife) came for dinner.  Gotta brag on those kids: they decided it would be too much work for me and determined to split up the cooking and bring most of it with them.

I've been spending a lot of time working on a project at church.  This is an immense project.  I've been working on it for over a year.  At one point, it seemed that it would never end.  Ever.  I mean, never ever ever.  But (!) even though I'm not close to finished, I can tell I'm on the downward slope.  An end is in sight.  Somewhere.  Far away.  But visible nonetheless.  And the project is currently usable, even though it's not complete. 

Christmas tree is not up yet.  This bugs Maggie.

Christmas shopping is not done.  It's not going to be done, either.  Makes me feel guilty, but I'm not sure how to remedy it.   Is it grinchy to have no desire to buy gifts for people that they don't need, may or may not like, and are just going to clutter their homes?  If I could think better, I might come up with creative ideas.  Maybe next year?

I started lacto-fermenting vegetables.  This makes non-vinegary pickles, loaded with enzymes and probiotics.  It seems to be helping my tummy.  (I even had a little bit of ice cream without a stomach ache.  Awesomeness!)  The kids at school had asked what seemed to be an outlandish question: "Is there such a thing as pickled carrots?"  It just so happened that they asked the day after I started a batch of carrots.  So today, when they were having hot lunch, I took along my pickles and offered it to them.  Several tried it.  I don't expect that from kids.  Good for them!

My Lovely Mom

Using the Precious Things

The pretty china.  The beautiful old quilts.  The crystal.  It's silly to hide it in a closet, unused.  But it's uncomfortable to use it, knowing that you're risking ruin in the short-run or wearing out in the long-run.  So I give myself the speech as best I can: use those precious things.  Enjoy the memories.  Enjoy the beauty. 

And then comes a week like this one.  We were overwhelmed in blankets.  I hauled them all out -- out of the closets, out of the storage spaces in the basement, out of the linen cupboards.  I took inventory.  I set aside some to donate.  I set some aside to offer to the kids.  I probably kept too many.  And ...

and ...

I threw some away.

Let me just say, ... OUCH.

Two of these were quilts made by Grandma, for the kids, hand-sewn, hand-quilted.  But they're over 20 years old.  When newly made, they were constructed of old fabric scraps.  These quilts were well-used and enjoyed.  They decorated the bedrooms.  They had to go through the washer regularly.  They are not merely torn, in need of repair.  They are disintegrating.  It only makes sense that they've served us well and are now ready for the garbage.  But I hate throwing them away.

Stop That Sinning!

Repentance doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to stop sinning. 

Part of repentance is recognizing that the sins I do occur because of the sinner I am.  And the sinful nature is going to keep on being sinful until I'm laid to rest in the grave. 

Here's what repentance really is:  that I'm not going to rely on myself and my own efforts to solve the problem of sin in my life.  Rather, repentance means that I flee again to Christ, and depend all the more upon His forgiveness.




So does this mean the Christian can sin-like-crazy and indulge in whatever the Old Adam might desire? [She sighs in exasperation and wonders, "Are you for-real??"]

The reason the Christian desires to amend his sinful life is precisely because there has been a change of heart, worked by the Gospel, which causes him to be distressed by sin and to yearn to be free of it.

The Confessions state that the "Holy Spirit works faith when and where He pleases in those who hear the Gospel."  It is also true He works the fruits of faith when and where He pleases.   The Lord may have different ideas about what is good in our life than we do.  When we make an idol of our "good Christian walk," then the Lord knows better than we what is good for us.

We tend to think of the "amendment of life" as doing this, stopping that, fixing that habit.  Even bigger, though, is letting go of the sins of others, where Christ's forgiveness flows through us to others who've been rotten and don't deserve kindness.  Hmm ... just like Jesus forgives us.

Joseph's Decision about Mary's News

Remember when Joseph was thinking about "quietly divorcing" Mary?  He pretty much had two choices: a) accuse her of adultery, or b) divorce her and let people think the baby was his while still leaving Mary free to go be with The Other Guy. 

If Joseph accused Mary of adultery, she would be stoned.  But not just Mary.  If she were killed, then her baby would also die.  Joseph's compassion (even prior to the message from God) was not only for this woman, but he also was showing compassion to that baby in sparing His life.

Tremble

The psalms often mention people trembling before the Lord.  It sounds like shaking-in-your-boots, terrified panic.  I'm pretty sure that's the intent of the word in the original language.

But there's another kind of trembling.  Trembling with excitement, with anticipation. 

The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble!  He dwells between the cherubim.  Let the earth be moved (Ps 99).  

Later in the psalm He is called "God-Who-Forgives" though He takes vengeance on sinful deeds.  He forgives.  He promises.  We have some things to anticipate, things to look forward to.

Obeying God Rather Than Men

Story: King Saul orders somebody, anybody, to kill this popular young David fellow.  Prince Jonathan objects.  David escapes.  Jonathan wants David to come back to the palace.  David says, "Not on your life!  Your dad is plotting to murder me."  "No, he wouldn't do that."  "That's what you think.  He's hiding it from you because he knows you wouldn't like it."  Jonathan comes up with a plan to test it out and still ensure David's safety.  (1 Samuel 18-20)

In chapel, Pastor asked the kids about the fourth commandment.  Jonathan was disobeying his father.  Wasn't that sinful?  (By the way, in case you're wondering, the answer is NO, not sinful.)  As we read the story, and as Pastor brought in other passages, something crossed my mind.  

We cannot truly honor someone unless we are holding fast to the Word of God.

Any time we have to fudge on God's word a bit, whatever "honor" we are showing to somebody isn't really honor.  It may be for self-preservation or for gaining power or for some other reason.  But it's not honor.

So when there are ethical problems with regard to abusive husbands, or parents using kids as drug-runners, or governments enacting unjust laws, the answer will always be in God's word, especially in connection to His word of promise and mercy.




 

A Very Clean Pantry

My poor pantry was feeling left out of the cleaning binge.  So it had its own little meltdown.  A beer bottle exploded. 

1.  It was inside the closed pantry.  So flying glass stayed contained in the pantry.
2.  It was beer, not wine.  I had a wine bottle explode once.  That required not only cleaning but also painting walls.
3.  Gary was home when it happened, and did a huge portion of the clean-up work.
4.  From here on out, liquids should live on the bottom half of the pantry, and dry goods (noodles or sugar) should live on the higher shelves.

When you empty out the whole pantry, onto the kitchen floor and counters and table, it's rather surprising to see how much food we are blessed with, with it spread all over instead of contained in its proper spots behind a closed door.

So, do ants and other nasty critters like beer?  We have cleaned and scrubbed.  But I fear missing ANY drips of beer, lest I should entice pests.  (I mean the six-legged kind, you silly.)

This Is "Retirement"?

Yesterday was the first day I Should Have Been At Work, but wasn't.  (No, I haven't fully quit yet.  I'm still taking some short shifts until they replace at least one of the open positions at my branch.)

Such conflicting emotions!

Instead of doing one of a gazillion things on my After-I-Quit-Work to-do list, I spent the day with my daughter and newborn granddaughter.  Rachel ended up in the emergency room this weekend.  The surgeons removed a troublesome organ.  They sent her home on narcotics.  I spent a couple of days there, taking care of things that she simply couldn't.  While running some errands Tuesday morning, I wondered about certain customers, whether they'd come in yet.  I wondered how my co-workers were keeping up with the work, whether it was a busy day or a boring day, wondered who was subbing for me, etc.  And that's when it hit me.  Tuesday would have been loads easier physically and mentally if I had been at work instead of tending to family needs.  And yet ... working Tuesday would have been awful as my mind and heart would have been preoccupied with my babies and grandbabies, wanting to be there to help but unable.

Today I planned to spend a shorter amount of time with Rachel and Lizzy.  Instead the day was spent helping Katie get her car functional again.

Nature abhors a vacuum.

See what price my daughters pay when I make a "vacuum" of my calendar?  (Well.  Okay.  Not a vacuum.  But cleared out a little bit.)  It makes me wonder if I should protect my kids by going back to work!

Rachel says God had it all worked out.  She had a tiny baby ... and that baby is big enough to be safe/healthy but small enough to be carried by post-surgery mommy.  Rachel had been over-producing milk, so there was plenty in the freezer for Baby to live on while Mommy couldn't feed her.  And Nanna didn't have to be at work and could be butting in, soaking up some baby-snuggles between washing dishes and stuff like that.  I guess, if you're going to toss an emergency surgery into life, this probably was a darn-tootin' easy way to go about it.

Today's Laugh

What does the moon do when he needs a haircut?

'e clips.

A Very Clean Refrigerator

I blame Maggie.

Today while cutting veggies, we were watching Good Eats.  Eventually Maggie commented on how clean Alton's chill-chest was.  "How can anyone keep a refrigerator that clean?"  I told her that if I had as many aides as he has, and if I were putting my refrigerator on national TV, ours would be that clean too.  At least for the camera.

A few hours later an uncovered glass of grape juice tipped over in the refrigerator.  Grape juice on every shelf.  Grape juice on the walls.  Grape juice pouring out the bottom of the appliance.  Grape juice all over the floor.

She had to go and comment on clean refrigerators.  You know the fates heard her.



An hour-and-a-half later, any qualms I had about having Not Accomplished Much today were gone.

Tomorrow we tackle the floor, including underneath the stove and fridge.  That grape juice sure was some motivation!

Why Space Is Called "Space"

A long time ago in a county far, far away
we built a model of the solar system.

(This was before Pluto was demoted.)

Most models of the solar system put either
~the planets' distances in scale to each other, or
~the planets' size in scale to each other. 
But not both. 

So we went out on an isolated country road, and made ourselves a scale model of the solar system, with the planets' sizes in scale to their distances from each other.  We made 1 inch equal to 50,000 km.  This is awesome.  When you plunk down a couple grains of rice and a few lentils and a marshmallow or two across the space of nearly two miles, you really see why we call it "space."


The next time we laid out our scale model, several years later, I realized that the planets aren't lined up in a nice, neat row.  So our model shouldn't be in a row either.   That time, we placed our planets in two dimensions:  Pluto was about two miles to the west of the sun, Neptune 1.5 miles south of the sun, and Uranus a mile east of our 20" sun.  That really shows you the vast nothingness that's out there.  This project also gives you a really good grip on the difference between the inner and outer planets!

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If you're interested in trying this out yourself,
and if you don't want to bother with the arithmetic,
these are the numbers we used:

Sun  20" diameter
draw it in sidewalk chalk, or use a smallish laundry basket as your model

about 96 feet away
(I took 22 paces, which are about 4.5 feet each, 
calling a "pace" a set of right & left steps, 
but I have long legs)
Mercury   1/10" (we used a crumb of rice)

about 180' from the sun
(another 18 paces)
Venus   1/4"  (we used a dried pea)

about 250' from the sun
(another 15.5 paces)
Earth   1/4"  (dried pea)
with the moon 7" away
1/16"  (a pin head)

about 380 feet from the sun
(another 29 paces past the earth)
Mars    1/7"    (a small lentil)

Then we went back to the sun, and drove,
using the car's odometer to measure distance.
Sun is your zero point.

Jupiter   (3" -- a baseball)
0.25 miles from the sun

Saturn (2.5"  -- a racquetball)
0.2 miles past Jupiter
or .45 from sun

Uranus  (1" -- large marshmallow)
0.45 miles past Saturn
or .9 miles from sun

Neptune (also 1")
0.5 miles past Uranus
or 1.4 miles from the sun

Pluto (1/22 "  -- a pin point)
0.45 miles past Neptune
or 1.85 miles from the sun



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Have fun!