A Literary Road Trip

Last night I finished reading Leif Enger's Peace Like a River. If you haven't read it, read it. If you've read it, read it again. This book packs an incredible lot of Truth into a novel, and his use of English is amazing. His words about miracles are bright and new.

My three favorite quotes on the first reading, the things that immediately called forth a YES! from inside me:
* No miracle happens without a witness. Someone to declare, Here's what I saw. Here's how it went. Make of it what you will.
* Once traveling, it's remarkable how quickly faith erodes. It starts to look like something else - ignorance, for example. Same thing happened to the Israelites. Sure it's weak, but sometimes you'd rather just have a map.
*Listening to Dad's guitar, halting yet lovely in the search for phrasing, I thought: Fair is whatever God wants to do.

Just the Basics

One of the best reasons for having children is so you have more things to celebrate. One of the best things to celebrate is birthdays. One of the best ways to celebrate is cake. One of the best cakes to make is the chocolate raspberry supreme. One of the best reasons to make that cake is to frost it with this fudge frosting. And THE BEST reason is so you can lick the bowl. And the beaters.

Thank you, Miss Dance, for making this celebration possible. :)

Advice for Tourists

In light of Miss Language being in China now and pretty much her whole life involving engrish, it is lame for me to publish more. You may call me jealous as well as lame ~ I cannot resist sharing this:

This could be improved upon as general life advice. I consider myself in many ways a tourist through life. I want to Enjoy the views While walking! though I thoroughly agree about the no smoking, caution in thunderstorm, and mind steps in rain and snow.

And now for a word from Melrose. He does not approve of rule #3. One of the best things in life is flirt by feeding. Especially chocolate, or chocolate covered bananas. With lots of sprinkles! 

New Motto: Get Movin'

Mr Music has just started playing soccer but is less than thrilled with his team's name: The Screaming Platypuses. 

Miss Language and I have to wonder if that should be The Screaming Platypi, but, whatever. The name concerns me a little when I think of the venomous spurs on the male of the species, but, hey, Mr Music is wearing shin guards, so again, whatever. 

What I did not expect was to waken from a dream where his team has been renamed. Yes. They now sport jerseys with a rocker on the front

and are named The Amish Rockers. 

I understand that dreams are just neurons misfiring, but I gotta wonder what it is that my neurons are loaded with, anyhow.

Lions and Tigers and OH NO! THE DISTRIBUTIVE PRINCIPLE!

Maybe this will date me, but my Mum has always talked about   what happens when "an irresistible force meeting an immovable object."* I do not think people talk about that much anymore. That may be due to the whole postmodernism thing, though Miss Language assures me postmodernism is not a simple to grasp as I think - still, it does seem to have a level of uncertainty, perhaps not compatible with absolutes such as irresistibility or immovability, and so, maybe irresistible forces or immovable objects have mainly ceased to exist. 

But there remains at least one of each, currently residing under our roof. Mr Music is an irresistible force (ask anyone whose had to bat against his pitching), and, once again this year, he has impacted the immovable object of Distribution of Multiplication Over Addition in his math text. And it results in some sort of endless transfer of energy.

* be sure to check the fun link. The pizza reply is especially insightful.

Fashion Statement

Anyone who has never met me in real life probably pictures a total fashion plate. However, I am not. Hope you are not too disappointed.  :-P

But, I do wonder when I see things like a picture that came in an email of patterns from Lion yarn today. It included this hat:

with the heading: Make a statement with this crocheted beret! The fun popcorn stitch adds a unique texture, and the Mustard shade of Vanna's Choice is one of the most popular colors of the autumn season. 

I have to wonder just what that means? Exactly what sort of statement would this hat be making? And is it one I want to make?

Statements that come to mind include:
* I have been taken over by a yarn mushroom.
* I love muffins!

What does it look like to you?

Time to Talk About Time

Time has always been a kind of fuzzy concept for me that if I start thinking about too much everything around me starts to go splotchy and I start to hear humming in my head and wonder if the universe really exists or is all inside my skull.

And now I am finding, with Miss Language on the other side of the world, that time is even fuzzier. By the clock, she is teaching a class right now in China - where it is 9 something in the morning while it is 9 something at night here. That makes no sense to me. How can that be? It is easier in my head for me to just think she will be teaching a class at 9 something in the morning, or that she did teach that class this morning... and yes, I know some of you live in one of these parallel dimensions where night and day are reversed somehow and I am not sure what day it is anywhere. But that is OK.

Verdant and Pernicious

This was our first summer in the new house, and not being much of a gardener, I decided to just kind of observe what comes up for a year before even considering any sort of effort. 

My dear brother visited about 6 weeks ago and told me that the lush plants in the flower bed would not be making good on my hopes that they would burst into bloom. He told me they were weeds. In fact, he used the modifier pernicious. Yuck. I know a thing or two about pernicious, especially in relation to my sin.

And of course he turned out to be right. Look at them, don't they appear to be full of life? Looking hopeful and flourishing? I mentally keep calling them verdant. 

When you pull up these apparently innocuous plants, you find an incredible network of roots and shoots to new plants. No wonder this has spread throughout the flower bed. 

My brother also told me about these nastier looking, obviously weedy items, which he calls plantain. He told me the green seedy part at the top is the flower, and that when they are "in bloom" like this, they are easily uprooted. 

He is right about that, too. Here is all the bigger the root is on these little weeds when they flower:

They are actually proving fun to yank up because the root comes out so cleanly.

Which of course, makes me wonder about the parable of the wheat and the tares growing up together and about sin itself. Maybe some sins are just uglier than others, and maybe you can't guess by appearances how hard they will be to uproot.