Jodilightful!

For the next week and a bit, I will be on bloggy hiatus and limited internet access.  (((Sniff!)))  I know it will be hard for you me, but I’m sure we’ll muddle through somehow.  I’ll be working on lots of exciting posts in my head, though, I promise!

Lovingly stitched for my nursery by my Mommy, circa 1977, it now hangs in our girls’ room.

For more Wordless Wednesday, click here.

On whether to watch Sesame Street or Super Why:

Ro: Super Why is coming on!!!

Pip: Sesame!

Mediator (i.e. Mommy): Okay, girls, let’s talk about this. Ro-Ro, why do you want to watch Super Why?

Ro: Betause… my sissa want to watch Sesame, and I want to watch Sooooper Why.

Mediator: Okay. Pippa, why do you want to watch Sesame Street?

Pip: Because I *like* Sesame.

Mediator: Oh.

We’re watching Super Why. Let’s just say Ro is the squeakier wheel.

Happy ever-so-slightly-belated Birthday to Mary!

We had a blast on Saturday evening celebrating Mary’s birthday with her and Duncan, her mom, four of five older brothers and Erica and Aidan.  Having been to another more kid-targeted party the same afternoon, we worried the girls might not hold up that well for the evening grown-up do.  Little did we know there would be a little friend there as well as huge mounds of new mulch to play in and specially chosen library books for the occasion.  There were even party favors - thanks Mrs. Magee! A fabulous time was had by all.

Mary and I have been best friends since we were five.  Neither of us had sisters (I didn’t get any until I was 15, and she was overrun with brothers), so we were the closest thing each other had, and I daresay we enjoyed each other more than many real sisters do!

So, in honor of Mary’s big 3-1 celebration, I present to you my top 1-3 things I love about her:

• She loves books and the library.  I want my kids to hang out with her a lot just to absorb this quality.
• She babysits for us!  Only a couple of people are brave enough to take the girls for the evening and let us go out *before* the girls are in bed.  Mary and Duncan are among them.  You guys are so great!
• She threw me a surprise baby shower… in Scotland!  This girl rallied my Scottish friends who knew nothing of this crazy American notion of baby showers behind my back, and then flew over to attend the party.  She even threw me a decoy party with just the two of us a few days beforehand so that I would be really surprised.  And I totally was!
• She also flew over (help me here, Mare) three (?) other times, including the time when she single-handedly prepared Thanksgiving dinner in my tiny apartment with none of the appropriate cooking instruments and a frozen solid turkey, while I was at work all day (imagine them not giving me Thanksgiving off!)
• She lost about 70 lbs (maybe more?  I’ve lost count.)  Are you applauding?  I am so proud of her!
• She’s making me walk sixty miles with her for Breast Cancer in October.  Are you booing?  (No.  Just kidding. She’s not really making me.  By the way, I’m still waaay a bit low in the sponsorship department.  Do you see that big hot pink button in my side bar???)
• She is a self-esteem guru.  Mary sends herself flowers every year on her birthday, because she deserves them.  I love it!
• She whisked me away last year to Lancaster to celebrate our 25th anniversary.  This is us sitting at “the kids’ table” at our B & B.  It was so totally fun, even though I was seven months pregnant.

• She wore pants under her dresses when we were in kindergarten.  She was the most adorable girl I had ever seen.  After kindergarten she went to Catholic school and had to wear dark green tights.  Those might have been even cuter.  I was totally jealous.
• She remained my friend even though I cried when we were six and she got her first Cabbage Patch Kid (a preemie) because I was so jealous.   I already had two Cabbage Patch Kids.  They were not Preemies.  Once again, not my finest moment.

• When something strikes her funny, she laughs until she cries.  Like the time my mom did my laundry for me while they were visiting me at college.  It wasn’t that funny.
• She’s been faithful to me through the years even when I haven’t been the best friend to her.
• She’s been there forever, and I think she will be there forever to come.

I love you, Mary!  Happy Birthday!

I have been working on this post in my head and my heart for over a week now, so I’ll apologize in advance for its getting a little bit heavy.   I won’t make any apologies for my boldness, though, because… well, Paul never did!

For the most part, I am absolutely loving this DVD that Lindsay picked out for our girls while she was here. It is a live worship service aimed at kids, and the music is wonderful. Pippa can sing a few of the choruses already and almost every word of Rainbow, the song Linz introduced us to while she was here. The slower songs are incredibly worshipful, and when I watch it with the girls, I find myself singing along and even getting a little tearful (always a good sign for me).

Between the songs, the worship leaders take turns sharing a Bible verse that is relevant to the song they are about to sing. Great again! I love that they keep the music grounded in Scripture, even if some of the lyrics to get a smidge off-topic.

But. (You knew there would be a “but”, didn’t you?)

After one of the slower, more thoughtful songs, one of the worship leaders gives a “gospel” talk and an invitation for the kids to become Christians.  I was so, so disappointed with the “gospel” that was being presented to these kids (and to mine, right in my living room!)

I want to qualify what I’m about to say with a million disclaimers because I have no intention here of being critical of or villanizing these people in any way. I believe they have hearts for the Lord; I simply do not believe they have chosen their words very carefully or understood the gospel accurately enough. I also believe that the way they presented the gospel is the way it is presented by a lot of children’s ministries, and possibly by a lot of churches as well, but I do not believe it is a gospel that saves.

Several great Christian authors, among them the girltalkers, have written of the importance of preaching the gospel to oneself daily.  Not only are we apt to forget, if not constantly reminded, how much we are in need of saving, but we are also quick to lose sight of exactly what took place in the moment of our salvation.

There were two main phrases used in this DVD to describe what one must do to be saved: “ask Jesus to be your friend” and “ask Jesus into your heart”. These phrases are as familiar to the average churched person as the words “Jesus” and “Christian”, and yet neither one is found anywhere in the Bible. There is certainly a kernel of truth in each of them: God does earnestly desire our friendship, in a sense, and through the Holy Spirit, we do have Christ in our hearts once we are saved. But neither of these is the means of our salvation.  I waited and hoped for something to be said about recognizing our own sin, or about Jesus’s death on the cross in our place, but it simply wasn’t there.

Scripture speaks for itself as to what the true “good news” is about Christ:

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul writes this:

1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you; unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, (emphasis mine).

We may feel as though our greatest need is for a true friend, or for someone or something to fill the great void in our hearts, and I believe that is what some ministries might be appealing to.  But in fact, we have a much greater need, whether we realize it or not: we need to be saved.

Romans 3 says this:

22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. (my emphasis again)

Scripture is clear and my own heart testifies that I am a sinner.  That all of us are sinners.  We must understand and believe that we suffer from this illness before we are in a position to joyfully accept its cure, but, *praise God*, through Christ there is a cure!

Christ, who lived a perfect, sinless life, died in my place so that I don’t have to.  I can only be made right with God by faith in that truth, by God’s grace and nothing that I can do myself.  I guess for some, this is a tough pill to swallow, but I think it is the sweetest news I have ever heard.  It is heavy and deep, yet simple enough for a child to understand and believe, and there is no need to water it down.  In fact, we are in grave danger of preaching a gospel that does not save if we do.

I intend to make it a habit to rehearse this truth to myself, not only so that I will be clear about it when I have the opportunity to share it with others, but also so that I am reminded each day to live my life in praise to the One who saved me.

And just so you believe me that I really do love *almost* everything about my new DVD, I will end with one of our favorite songs.  Pippa calls it ‘the sleepiest one’!

In honor of my latest photo submission to my alumni magazine, here’s a glimpse of all three of our girls sporting their GCC shirts. Can you tell who’s who ? (Even their Daddy admits he has to use the furniture for context!)

For more Wordless Wednsday, click here.

Oh, and one other little piece of bloggy business: I entered this post in my first ever blog contest, Scribbit’s June Write-Away.  It’s not my favorite post ever, but it fit the topic of “Going Places” pretty well, so I thought, ‘Why not?’

Today, after weeks of postponement, the girls and I finally got to go out with Junie to celebrate her birthday. (As far as I’m concerned, she is the same age as I am, 31 this year, but I suspect she may actually be slightly older, since she is my grandfather’s sister. It is not to be discussed.) We had a lovely lunch at Panera and then walked across to Barnes & Noble hoping to get a chance to chat while the girls played with the trains.

Low-maintenance girls were not so much the order of the day, but we did have a fun afternoon reading them books and enjoying some yummy treats. We were poised to make our getaway before anyone melted down or dirtied their diaper. That is, until Romilly got her chocolatey fingers all over a little stuffed hippo.

I wiped off as much as I could and quickly shoved the hippo back with its friends, hoping my conscience wouldn’t notice what had just happened. Then I promptly picked it back up, and marched it up to the check-out with Bea and Pippa in tow. Ro went to wait by the front door with Junie, where she apparently spent the whole time tugging desperately to try to get back to us while I had this conversation:

B&N employee: Hi.

Me: Hi. I’m buying this because we chocolated it. (I think I half hoped for an “Oh, that’s okay, you don’t have to. It happens all the time.” No such luck.)

Her: Ha ha. Okay.

Me: Can’t have too many stuffed hippos, right?

Her: (Cheerfully) Right. Especially green ones. (???) (Then, looking at the girls) Which one of them did it?

Me: Oh, not one of these two. The middle one. She’s over there.

Her: (Looking over there) Oh, you have another one?  Wow, you’re a trouper!

Me: Yeah… Oh! I mean, she’s over there with my aunt. Not by herself. She’s not chocolating more things. At least, I hope not…

Her: Okay. Do you need a bag for that?

I didn’t. I thanked her, took the hippo, and made a beeline for Junie and Romilly to find Ro lying on the floor and Junie on her knees trying to coax her back up. It was not our smoothest ever exit from Barnes & Noble, but at least we got a new friend out of the deal. I’m thinking of naming him Chunk, after the Chocolate Chunk cookie that caused him to join our family. Any other suggestions?

Happy Father’s Day, first to the wonderful man I am blessed to call the father of my children.

Pippa, September 2004

Romilly, February 2006

Beatrix, July 2007

And also to my own dear father.

It is a true privilege to have you both in my life and in the girls’, and I thank God for you.

First of all, apologies for the shockingly long time it’s been since our last HSSSS. I think we’re both wishing there was a non-weekend day that started with “S’, because blogging on a Saturday is not always the most convenient.

This week, we’re taking a little stroll down memory lane to our first taste of proper paid employment. I’m not sure what he’s typing about over there, but I’m going to skip the babysitting jobs and cut right to the waitressing gig I had the summer that I was sixteen.

“Waitressing” sounds like a very glamorous job compared to what I actually did. This was no five-star restaurant I worked at, but a retirement village dining hall. There were no tips. The folks there liked it to feel like a five-star restaurant, so we had to wear black dresses and white aprons and be on our best behavior at all times. This was no small feat considering the average age and high turnover of the wait-staff: by the end of my three or four months there I was one of the most experienced servers on staff!

Most of the residents were truly lovely. They’d flirt with us and be all sweet, maybe in an effort to score some extras besides what was on their little check-the-boxes menu (they knew we had buttermilk in that kitchen, even if it didn’t say so on the menu, and boy, did they love them some buttermilk!)

But occasionally, just occasionally, you’d get a cranky one. There were a few of the old ladies that no one ever wanted to find seated in their section (never the men: they were all sweetie pies. I wonder why…) I remember once on a particularly busy and fraught dinner shift I had a corner table of eight or nine. I made the fatal error of reaching across one lady’s plate to clear away her bread plate. Quick as a hawk swooping down on its prey, this woman had her fork poised to stab me in the hand, and said, “Don’t you reach across my plate!” I had no idea a woman that age could move so fast (or that I could, for that matter!)

Apart from gaining some insight into the later years of life, and purposing to someday become one of the lovely, joyful old ladies and not one of the cranky ones, I also picked up the following job skills (just in case anyone reading this wants to hire me):

• Balancing a tray on my shoulder with one hand. Never did learn to lift it right up over my head to fit through a tight spot though. A few of the girls could do that.
• Making cocktail sauce. (Trade secret: it’s just ketchup and horseradish. Who knew?)
• Folding cloth napkins into clever shapes. Hmmm… not sure I still remember how to do this, actually, but I’m sure it’s like riding a bike.
• Discerning which dinner rolls and muffins were untouched after the tables were cleared, so that we could snag a bite or two before tossing everything in the trash in the dish room. Yes, I really did. I was young and stupid, and everyone was doing it. The shift was 3:30 - 7 PM, so by the end of that, after looking at all that food, it’s a wonder we weren’t taking it right off the tables as we cleared them.

Come to think of it, it was not at all a bad training ground for the job I do now. Dealing with mostly sweet, occasionally cranky customers. Check. Improvising meals when correct ingredients are scarce. Check. Performing amusing tricks with dinner napkins. Check. Stealing uneaten food from the plates of others. Check, check, check!

Now go check out what his first job was. I think I know…

Thank you to everyone who commented on my 100th post.  It was lovely to have old friends and new participate in my little giveaway!

I borrowed Amy’s idea for choosing a random number, and here were the results:

(By the way, my husband had a jolly old laugh at my expense for taking a photo of the computer screen.  Apparently there’s a better way to do this?)

So, lucky commenter #13 was…

Damselfly @ Growing A Life!  She hopped over from Oh Amanda’s blog to celebrate 100 posts with me.  Maybe free coffee will be enough to keep her reading?  I will definitely be adding her to my bloglines.

Damselfly, I’ll send you an e-mail today to get your address, and some yummy Starbucks-y love should be winging its way to you in the next couple days!