We’re still around, and I’ve been getting the itch to start blogging again. I won’t make any promises–I’ve done that too many times and not followed through–but hopefully anyone still left out there will see something in this space soon…
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I just need to get up and go to bed, but I can’t. I’ve been looking back at all the posts from forever ago. Rob is traveling, and I am solo-parenting for the middle of the week. I really need to hit the hay.
But I just needed to say that I think I have been taking too little joy in my kids’ personalities. I need to give Elise more snuggle time, and I need to spend more time reading to Olivia. And even though Cressida is as easy as pie and loves to jump in her bouncy-seat, I should hold her more. Every day, a new confession.
How could yo not love these guys?
We’re reading through my old Narnia books with the girls. Liv’s been through many of them once before. Elise hasn’t heard them yet, and it seems that she isn’t really ready yet. She got to the end of the book and still thought that Uncle Andrew was a good guy.
Olivia, on the other hand, was hanging on every detail. She bounded out of her bed with excitement when Strawberry became Fledge and grew wings. She hid under her covers when the Witch snuck by them in the mountain range. And she was finally able to sleep soundly when the book came to an end and all the loose ends were properly tied.
As always it was a joy to read these books as an adult. It seems that each time I go through them they strike a new chord with me. This time I felt for the little Digory as he worried for his mother. I was reminded of how real troubles are for our kids. They suffer their worries, and know that there is nothing they can do as they are just powerless little children.
I think Liv is bursting at the seams to start The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. She’ll remember a lot from the last time. But I can’t wait to see what details grab her this trip through.
” Dear God,
I’ll start at the beginning. This is the beginning. You made everything. I’m sorry for all of the sins which I’ve done wrong. Please, let the dinosaurs come back to life.”
Jeff Tweedy Day! Yippie! We’re going to the Folk Festival in Ann Arbor Michigan and staying over night. This was my Christmas gift to Rob and I’m so glad it’s finally here!
I can just see her blating on a Saxophone in a cold cave. YAWP!
I’m sitting in Terminal 3 in NYC’s JFK airport, waiting to get on a plane back to Cleveland. It’s really, really good to be back on American soil. I liked Buenos Aires–and a quick jump into summer felt great–but I’m glad to be going home.
Tags: travel
I just left two awake kids in the same room. And they both went right to sleep. This is the second time this has happened. I think I’m entering a new phase of freedom!
Way to go Government! This is Olivia’s explanation of the situation:
“The government wants to tell Mom that she’s not allowed to sew. They made a mistake in their law and Mom needs to write them a letter so that they will let her sew again.”
The new law, H.R.4040, to go into effect on February 10th will make it so that I will not be able to sell my hand made clothes, dolls and slings without submitting each batch (every item being individual means each item will be a batch) for 3rd party lead and phylate testing. I agree that these items should not be in toys and clothing. That’s one of the reasons that I prefer to buy handmade and wooden toys. The other reason being my support for small and cottage businesses like my own. But H.R.4040 will place such stringent requirements on these businesses making it almost impossible to operate. You can find out more about this law and its possible repercussions here.
I’ve already contacted my Congress Person and Senator requesting a provision in the law to protect small businesses. Sherrod Brown (D- OH) has replied, though not very satisfactorily. If anyone is interested in his response leave a comment and I can email it to you. My biggest frustration is that no one is offering a step by step solution for how to bring my goods into compliance with the law. As it is right now I have to decide whether I’m going to quit selling slings and children’s materials or if I’m going to be a quality-goods bootlegger. Please contact your respective elected officials and emphasize the need for a simple way for small and cottage businesses to comply with the law.
Like I said, way to go Government! Way to make criminals out of people just trying to make their own way.
Tags: Etsy, H.R. 4040, handmade toys, luvlugs
Olivia was trying to play an imaginary game with Elise. It involved a bunch of random figurines of which Elise was assigned a painted dinosaur. Obviously she wanted one of the cooler ones, like the T-rex or maybe the horse and fairy. Some argument ensued and then Olivia came and said to Rob:
“Dad, I gave Elise two choices– play with the painted dinosaur or wear a hat. Can you make her do one of them?”
I think we’d been married 2 years when Rob read Getting Things Done by David Allen. He was moved and inspired and insisted that I read it as well. I couldn’t even understand what the guy was talking about. Write stuff down to get it out of your head? If it takes less than 2 minutes do it right away? I’d be running around the house writing fractured thoughts and folding socks and sweeping the porch and folding more socks in succession. It wouldn’t be any different than the way I already am only with added guilt that I was supposed to be organized now.
So I spent the next 3 years ignoring Rob’s suggestion for programs and habits that will get my frenetic brain under control. NO way! You organized people cannot help Head-in-the-clouds people like me. You’ll just squash my creativity!
Well, he showed me how to use Google Reader and I was OK with that. Now I could remember who’s blogs were fun to read without having to follow my old rabbit trails. That got my defenses down.
Now he’s got me using delicious. That’s not too bad, it keeps pages organized for me, I just have to tell them the Tag that goes with it and I don’t have to think about it again until I need it. Passive organization.
Then something I never thought would happen has just occurred. I found myself laying out my planned blog posts for my craft blog in Google Calendar. Woah. That can only be real planning. Real organization. Rob has taken me to the dark side. I’m sure it’s a passing phase…
I’ve been looking at a bunch of wonderful photo collections from the previous year. I thought I should do my own. So without furthur ado:
January- I began with resolve to clean every room of my house to tip-top shape. I failed in this resolution, but my kitchen did look wonderful for this photo!
February- I repented.
March- Elise started potty training. Elise is STILL potty training.
April- I let the girls help me start seedlings. They were fun seedlings, but were so dense only one flower actually made it into the garden.
May-I began gardening in earnest and Rob came home from a business trip to find a sink in his front yard. Much like the time he came home to find his kitchen orange (see January).
June- I had to cut a whole branch off this tree to let my garden get full sun. I did this alone in the heat of the day while teetering on the neighbor’s fence. I’m crazy.
July- We came into possession of my Step-Mom’s old chair which has been recovered and now nestles into the office.
August- I created my first dolls that didn’t look like blobs. I love these guys!
September- Pigtails started Preschool. *sniff*
October-I probably should have posted a Halloween photo. But how could I pass up showing off the logical inconsistency of letting my toddler drink hot cocoa on a cold fall day with no shirt on?
November- I plucked feathers from our local pastured turkey.
December- We got all festive. There are a bunch of new photos from Decmeber, but they are all still on my camera. Must do something about that!
Hope you all had as colorful a year as we did. And pray you’ll all have a blessed 2009.
Last year was a big year for me. I realized some of my lifelong dreams. Some of them in a big way, some of them in a small way. I spent the year learning about my style and where I want to take my crafts. That was exciting. I learned that the biggest barrier to making this what I want it to be is my own lack of discipline. And since I know I can run a Marathon, which takes enormous discipline, I know that I can make the time to blog at least every other day.
This being the first day of 2009, the occasion of declaring this year’s plans is upon us. I never used to be a resolution person because I never cared about the same things in April as I had in January. Or if I did care it was because I had resolved to leave behind some vice, and not to put more effort into something I love. Vices die on their own as you get busier or more mature, but making your loves a priority is something you have to fight for. The people who love you have to make them a priority as well. That is the most important thing because when life gets urgent, peoplearesickandbillsaredueandschoolbeginsin10minutesandnoonehascombedtheirhair, it’s very easy to let the things that take effort fall to the side just to get by. It’s easy to spend naptime reading instead of sewing or writing.
This year I don’t want to let that happen. Rob bought me a mino video recorder that I want to use to make video tutorials. I bought a dreamhost subscription for 2009 and I want to move my craft blog to its own domain so I can have more control over it and hopefully neglect it less. I want to remember to post on Love and Blunder because I love that blog. It’s like a part of my family or an old friend and I need to stop by and visit more often. I also want to spend more time learning what other people are doing, and letting myself be inspired. I’m getting a ton more sleep now that the Elise-Beast is getting older, I think I can spend some of my newly found brain activity on learning something new.
Have a blessed New Year! I can’t wait to see how it changes us.
Tags: blogging, crafting, Family, new years resolutions
In no particular order, the discs I enjoyed the most this year. Not all were released in ‘08, but these are the ones that I spent the most time with:
- Anathallo/Canopy Glow: Fans of Sufjan Stevens will enjoy this record. Layered orchestral instruments, unusual song structures, girl/guy harmonies. I’ve been really taken by the percussion on this record. The lyrics, however, are pretty silly–thankfully, it’s pretty tough to make them out.
- Black Keys/Attack and Release: Another great blues-rock record from my city’s biggest band.
- Bon Iver/For Emma, Forever Ago: Maybe my favorite record this year. I caught these guys live at the Grog Shop in Cleveland and was very impressed. I love the layered vocals (except when they get too whiny), the acoustic experimenation, and pulse that runs through these songs.
- Horse Feathers/House With No Home: Folkier, but in the same general vein as Bon Iver.
- Kate Rusby/Girl Who Couldn’t Fly: I listened to this record a lot early in the year. Traditional English/Irish folk tunes, sung beautifully.
- French Kicks/Swimming: This is good indie rock.
- Anything by Low: I’ve been listening to this band for years, but somehow they got under my skin in a new way this year. Slowly creeping their way into my favorite bands of all-time.
- Ra Ra Riot/The Rhumb Line: Poppy, fun, strings.
- The Walkmen/You & Me: These guys aren’t for everyone, but they hit a sweet spot for me. They’ve bottled the beer-soaked reverb that spills out the open entrances of grimy dives on summer nights. Every song is drenched in it. Now that I read that over, it doesn’t sound pleasant. But I like it.
- The Long Winters/Putting the Days to Bed: At first, this disc didn’t grab me at all, but I threw it on my iPod and kept it there. Then, on a very long flight back from Germany, they were exactly what I needed to hear. Have enjoyed this record since.
- Shearwater/Palo Santo -and- Rook: Both these records are pretty good. I think I enjoy Palo Santo a bit more. Sometimes overwrought, but when they get it right, they really get it right.
- Dr. Dog/Fate: Left this one off of the list originally. This was a great record–really fun, and a few of the tracks are strong lyrically. If you’re not familiar with Dr. Dog, they’re throwback lo-fi, roughly in the same vein as M. Ward, though a bit more ramshackle. A lot of Beatles influences in their tracks.
It has been too long since I’ve posted here–two months–but Love and Blunder is not dead. I’ve got two weeks vacation and hopefully can get a few things written before I have to head back to the office grind. If anyone is still out there, thanks for not deleting us from your reading lists!
Joe Bagaent–a fantastic left-wing writer whom I always enjoy but rarely agree with–has an interesting theory on the rise of religious fundamentalism and its relationship with the right in America (emphasis added):
The primary motivating factor in the development of the religious right is a defensive response to the challenges posed by the power of popular consumer and entertainment culture and not a backlash against progressive or liberal ideas and social movements.
And he provides the obvious example:
Religious fundamentalism is revolutionary because it represents the only movement in American public life openly critical of American culture and society.
If the latter point seems strange to some, I would advise them to listen to an hour’s worth of programming from Dr. James Dobson’s daily broadcast on Christian radio. He is perhaps the most influential voice of the religious right on the broadcast medium. During that time, you will hear far greater criticism of American society and Americans on subjects such as greed, materialism, alienation caused by rampant individualism and the lack of supportive communities than you will hear on the purportedly liberal airways of Air America’s Radio Programs.
Bageant goes on to explain why the religion of pop culture is destined to triumph over fundamentalism, because it demands so little from us, keeps us so distracted, and is largely disconnected from ground-floor reality. Obviously, this analysis will bring to mind the utter chaos surrounding our current economic crisis. If the credit crunch isn’t a mass crisis of belief–belief that our bank accounts will keep expanding, that our luck will never run out, that we will never have to actually curtail our consumption–then what is it?
Make sure and read Bageant’s entire essay.
Follow this link to see Molly and I cross the finish line.
OK, I’ll stop talking about the Marathon now. 
Rob told you all that I could have done it in 4:20, but that was because the first half of the course is 100 times easier than the second half. You literally run down hill for 13 miles and then run back up hill for 13 miles.
I couldn’t have done it at all if it weren’t for my sister-in-law, Molly, and our neighbor Glen who ran the half marathon. We trained together all summer. Long 9 milers in the hot sun with no water, and easy 14 milers where it felt silly to stop because we felt we could go on forever. Molly and I share a natural pace so we could chat and chat while we ran. Unfortunately, she is a much more experienced (and younger!) runner than me and I’m afraid I held her back at the end. She still had more in her and wanted to pick it up, which we did a little, but I know she had more in her.
The good news is that she still got 3rd(!!!!) in her division and won $500. I am so proud of her! I was 70th in mine. 70th out of 119. Not nearly as impressive.
It was so awesome. Every time that I thought I was getting so tired I was crazy we’d pass another mile marker and I’d feel the relief of knowing I only had 9 miles, or 7 miles, and then 4, 3, and 2 miles till the end.
By one mile left I was unable to talk, not because I was too breathless, but because I needed all my mental energies to keep going. Rob and a good friend, Megan both had the great idea of meeting us a mile out from the finish and ran with us into Downtown. We couldn’t have done so well without them, it’s almost like they brought us fresh legs, almost…
Then we ran into the stadium and the finish and finally stopped. It was a lot like labor and birth, the labor is riveting and exhausting, and the celebration of achievement is much quieter.
Today I feel like a cement truck poured concrete into my bones. I’m pretty sure I’ll have to apologize to my family for the Beast I’m being to them.
Finished!
Tags: Akron Marathon, Running
My Father-in-Law says the previous picture made Elise look like an Alien. OK fine, it is a little extreme, but it’s supposed to be more Andy Warhol than Norman Rockwell. But to ease any fears that anyone might have that Elise is in fact evil, or something near it; here is a much more flattering picture.
Rob calls this a “child abuse picture” because of the bruise on her head. The poor thing fell down the church stairs on Tuesday night. She told me, “I cried. I fell down stairs. I hurt head.” Very concise. Strunk and White would be proud.
Elise is turning 2 this Sunday. Yikes!
We were all out enjoying the raspberry bush a couple of days ago and I was snapping pictures. Before I realised that the white balance was off I had 5 or 6 shots. This was one of them. Actually, this is what I did to one of them in Photoshop. I could almost be an artist!
hh <—Olivia is helpppppppppppppppppppping my type this blog post.
Every morning I check my email after breakfast. Usually the girls are done too, but not always. On mornings when I get particularly high amounts of email things like this happen:
My little teeny tiny one is going to preschool tomorrow. I can’t believe it. Some of you readers were here waiting for her to be born, and now she’s making up stories and learning her letters and wrapped up in the Little House series. Ack! I can’t believe it’s true.
Give a listen to this conversation over at Mars Hill Audio Journal between Ken Myers and Patrick Deneen. Deneen teaches political theory at Georgetown University, and he and Myers discuss the philosophy of Wendell Berry, democracy, and the nature of contemporary politics.
Myers observes–with particular poignancy to our current election–that in the early years of this country, the Americans thinking deeply about the nature of governance and legislation were also the ones governing and legislating. In the last hundred years, the particular tasks of politics (and really, the particular tasks that make up all our lives) have been atomized into distinct specializations performed by experts, so that many politicians spend careers focused on the specializations of campaigning and legislating without dealing with communities as a whole.
The philosophy of specialization and the metaphor of the machine have brought a similar fragmentation to every corner of our lives; our daily jobs, families, and our selves.
I’ve been quietly training all summer because I didn’t want to let myself down. But things have gone well, and there are only five weeks left until I run my first Marathon!
I am SO excited. I’ll be running with Rob’s sister Molly, and my neighbor who trained with me last summer is going to be running the Half Marathon. We’ve overcome injuries, lack of sleep, Molly’s gone off to college, and we’re so ready to finally beat the 26.2 miles that have spent the year haunting us.
Wish us luck!
Tags: akron, Akron Marathon, Marathon, Running
Demophilus sums up my own thoughts on McCain’s response to the evil question at the Saddleback forum:
I cringed when McCain said he wanted to “defeat” evil, but its worth noting he immediately talked about hunting down bin Laden and winning the War on Terror. I think both formulations are wrong in their own way (I don’t much care about bin Laden, and I think the phrase “War on Terror” is stupid), but he wasn’t literally talking about the removal of evil from the world in a metaphysical sense. In fact, he was responding to Rick Warren’s formulation of picking between “ignoring, negotiating with, containing, or defeating” evil — I would have chosen “contain,” but isn’t nuance lost in most multiple choice settings?
If you’re going to compare cringe-worthy quotes from the debate, though, Obama’s “above my pay grade” comment regarding giving human rights to babies made me wince far more. Gene Veith discusses that one here.
Tags: election 2008, evil, politics
Rob has elevated the content of our blog again, so I’m going to deflate it with this nice story of what you should never do.
I was supposed to run 8 miles this morning, but Elise is on a sleeping strike so I woke up moments before Rob had to leave for work. This obviously left no time for me to squeeze in even a shortened run. So instead, I decided to load up the bike trailer and my bike and take the girls on a long nap-time bike ride.
When ever I do my city errands on the bike I’m shouting back to Elise not to drift off between stops so I was certain it would take no time for her to zonk and I would get a good 90 minutes of biking on the trails before Olivia got bored. Well, I was so wrong. SOOOOOO wrong.
Elise didn’t fall asleep until after we had gone about 10 miles and she had cried for the last 3 of them. I kept thinking, “just a little farther and she’ll be out.” But no. I had promised Olivia that we’d see this long tunnel before we turned around, but there was no way I would have made it the next 3 miles before Elise totally freaked out so we headed home, defeated.
I kid you not, a mile and a half after I turned back for home Elise fell asleep, so I asked Liv if she still wanted to see the tunnel. “Yes!” she said, and so I turned around yet again.
We didn’t even make it back to the point where we turned around the first time and now Olivia was telling me that she wanted to go home because she was tired. AAHHHHH! Olivia’s beseaching me to turn around woke Elise back up leaving us with 10 miles of screaming until we could get back to the car.
To make matters worse, I had to stop the bike about every 5 minutes or so because Elise would pull Olivia’s hair in her anger, or Olivia would steal Elise’s water bottle. Or who knows what else they managed to think of to make me have to stop. At one point I was walking down the trail holding a sobbing Elise, walking my bike, which was dragging the empty trailer and being followed by a sobbing Olivia.
What had been carefully planned to take only 90 minutes turned into 3 hours of riding around like a spectacle. I was pitied, glared at, gawked at, and only once did anyone offer to help me. Not like there was anything anyone could have done.
The only thing that I could say I liked about that whole ordeal was when we passed 3 pregnant moms and their spouses riding on bikes in the opposite direction and I could see the look of horror on all of their faces as they thought, “OH! What are we getting ourselves into?!” Other than that I almost swore off biking for life. If the trailer hadn’t cost $250 I might have.
Some really pretty stuff on Daytrotter this week.
My Sister-in-Law has been inviting Olivia over on Tuesdays so that they can go to the pool. Today I left Elise with them as well and I got some errands taken care of. I never thought I’d enjoy having a day to myself as much as I do, and I never thought I’d feel as guilt-free for enjoying it. Maybe I won’t be a very good homeschooler after all!
I ran to the post office to get my passport updated. It is very frustrating to go through all this work and driving to discover that I could have just done the whole process through the mail since it is just a renewal and not a new application. Even more frustrating is discovering that I could have done it for free if I had done it within the first year after our wedding and name change. Today I wrote a check for $75 to the Department of Security, or something like that. It’s very nerve wracking to send all of that personal information through the mail. I got a delivery confirmation.
Then I stopped by a friend’s house for lunch and to drop off a gift for her new baby. We actually had some time to talk, since her little one was asleep and mine were splashing at the pool with Aunt Sarah.
Then I stopped back home to let the dog out before I went to pick up the girls and our tile for our new bathroom project was on the front porch. I had no idea what it was until I picked it up and brought it in. I just knew that the package was 100 pounds. It said so right on the shipping form. When Olivia found it later in the evening she asked if we could glue them to the wall in the bathroom today. Then she scattered the packing peanuts all over the floor. Nice.
We have been crazy-busy this year. When there is no baby in the house life can really speed up! Sometimes I miss the slow motion lifestyle of a baby, and then I remember how nice it is to get some sleep (some nights anyway).
The girls have been going to the pool a lot, thanks to aunt Sarah. And Rob has started running, too. I injured my IT band, so I’ve been doing about every exercise excluding running. Plus to save money on gas we bought a bike trailer which I have been using to do my short errands with the girls. They love it and so do I.
The garden is really in high gear now and this is Elise’s first experience with pulling something out of the dirt and eating it 5 minutes later. You’d think that fiber would help in potty-training, but alas it does not. Yesterday we ate the last three carrots from the first planting, the second group shouldn’t be mature for about 3 more weeks. We also began munching on the greenbeans, but unfortunately so have the Japanese Beatles.
I also made my first attempt at canning something from my garden. I have a TON, I repeat, TON of Hungarian Hot Peppers so I decided to pickle them to use as pizza toppings and give some away. Well, it didn’t work, The seal was no good. Maybe next time.
Over the past six months, and especially in the past three weeks, I’ve been relearning what it means to pray. The process started when our family began to try and worship regularly using the Prayer at the Close of the Day service in the Lutheran Service Book prayer card.
The Close of Day service is simple: A benediction, a responsory reading drawn from Psalm 92:1, a scripture reading, the Creed, a common reading of the Song of Simeon, the Lord’s Prayer, prayer for others and ourselves, and finally Luther’s close of day prayer from the Small Catechism. Ordinary as it is, we were doing far less beforehand, and going through an entire prayer service felt like a stretch at first. Now, a few months later, I daily look forward to this family worship time.
Though I didn’t realize it at first, adopting a prayer service was a complete turn around from the meager way we spent our time before. Our prayers basically consisted of a few words before bedtime with our daughters, occasionally including the Lord’s Prayer, or a confession of the Creed. On a given night, we might have used some of the same elements the Close of Day service includes, but the structure was always spontaneous.
The prayer service, on the other hand, is always the same. Once tedious, I now find this a great comfort. Regardless of my mood, the leftover stress from a long day at work, or the unpredictable tempers of my children, the structure remains the same. This creates a rhythm that steadies us. Especially as we continue to pray many of the words time and time again, associations with the syllables and phrases build in and between us, so that we come to know the service as we know one another.
Some of you may wonder if praying in this way is doomed to become empty ritual. I’m certain that we’re capable of sucking all the life out of this good gift if we approach it mindlessly. But night after night, I’m refreshed because the form of the service is declarative. Evening worship not our activity, but God’s event. Nightly, I hear myself say “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” and I and my family echo back “Amen.” In our little house in Akron, we have again heard God put His name upon us, and in that one “Amen,” we have answered back “Yes, yes. It is so.”
Understanding family worship as an event–God’s event, not our own–blows my mind. Where prayer for me used to consist of running down a well-worn list of requests out of some sense of responsibility, I now find myself coming to hear again what God has to say. We open up His Word, and what it has to say is good. And when we bow our heads to voice our petitions, we pray in Christ. In the mystery of our baptism, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ is our mediator, petitioning the Father for us. The drama in worship goes far beyond our own words on our lips; but in Christ, God’s words are upon our tongues! As we ask in the first words of the service:
It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praise to your name, O Most High;To herald Your love in the morning,
Your truth at the close of the day.
What is it that’s good about this? Not that we all happened to read some scripture together, but that we hear God’s great love again, our ears are filled with his truth. The heralds are not giving this simple evening prayer service its oomph, the action of God is! And this is obvious when we speak together Simeon’s beautiful response to laying eyes on God-in-the-flesh, Christ:
Lord, now You let Your servant go in peace;
Your word has been fulfilled.
My own eyes have seen the salvation
which You have prepared in the sight of every people:
A light to reveal You to the nations
and the glory of Your people Israel.
Of course you’d want to say the Gloria Patri after that!
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
God’s event don’t work like human events. They don’t go hand-in-hand with some kind of emotional rush. In fact, it’s common that we say the final “Thanks be to God,” without feeling a thing. And the Word of God that we hear doesn’t sound like we think it should–a booming thunderclap from the heavens, or even a still, small voice in the bossom. Instead, the Word of God sounds like our own weak and humble words, occasionally faltering and stammering over the Lord’s Prayer, a Psalm, or the words of Simeon I quoted above. It sounds like my daughter’s tiny voice announcing to those of us gathered in the bedroom “…for Thine is the Kingdom! and the Power! and the GLORY!” This may not be what we expect, but yet we say “Amen,”–this is most certainly true.
For the first time in my life, I find myself genuinely loving prayer. I pack my little prayer card in my laptop bag and take it to work, then sneak out and sit and my car and say the noon prayer service aloud to myself. We’ve even begun going through the morning prayer service together before or after breakfast. This excitement may not last forever, but it is a good gift, and I thank God for it.
Tags: family worship, prayer, Theology
This story in this morning’s USA Today is heart-wrenching. We must pray for soldiers. Lord, have mercy.
We haven’t seen it yet, but Dreher’s review of Wall-E makes me think we ought to soon.
Tags: entertainment, movies
Sasse:
Whenever the Lord’s Supper has been permitted to decay, the boundary lines between church and world have universally disappeared and the church has been absorbed into the world.
Amen.
We had the best group of kids for Higher Things. Going into any event as the chaperone has its helping of worry. Will the kids be involved, will they listen, will they have fun? Will there be an emergency? I was feeling all those things on the ride out there, but our group proved very responsible and very fun. Here they are singing Dave Matthews Band songs in the van.
Rob and I were continually asked if we were students, and often no one believed that we were leaders until we told them that we had two kids at home. I guess that is flattering.
Well, like I said, the kids were awesome. They made friends, took notes, asked questions, sang at the top of their lungs and I was proud to be their leader. They were even better at keeping curfew than Rob and I. All I have to say is that I’m sure that Lutherans plan their conference location around dive bars…
Tags: fun, higher things, traveling, youth group
Last week, Devona and I chaperoned our church’s youth group to the Higher Things conference in Scranton, Pennsylvania (I hope to write more about this in a few other posts, too). The conference was such a blessing, and it’s very possible that we got more out of it than even the kids did.
Specifically, though, the conference gave me the chance to recollect some of my most formative experiences growing up heavily involved in a modern evangelical church: Summer camps and conferences were a huge part of my Christian identity when I was young. I have fierce memories of crowding together into a darkened, sweaty gymnasium with hundreds of other teenagers, a stage washed in concert lights, the roar of electric guitars, raised hands, tearful repentance, the ultimate conviction that this was where we belonged.
It’s hard to shake off moments like that, and years of them piled up to convince me that I was called to be a minister–after all, that fire in my heart had to be a calling from God, right? Night after night, with the echo of those drums ringing in my ears, I’d lay awake with my certain future in ministry spreading out in front of me.
When it came time to pick a college, I was sure I needed to attend one of our loose denomination’s Bible colleges (later shot down by my parents). I wanted to join up with a good worship band. Maybe become a missionary. I hardly gave a future in the secular world a thought–I was certain I would be doing something in the church.
But then real life woke me up. As I finished high school and began college, leading worship services, mentoring newer Christians, and guiding Bible studies, I began to have real questions. Struggles with sin. Doubts. It just wasn’t always easy to stay on the mountaintop. I began to loathe the fire in my heart. I was angry about it, ashamed. How could someone called by God feel so conflicted?
it only got worse, and my wife (at that time, my fiance) and I came to a spiritual crisis. We were burnt out. We needed the Gospel, and we needed it desperately. And though it was being preached in some form all around us, we were deaf to it. The message was too mixed. Grace didn’t seem free, and we felt like we were in chains.
By the time we ended up in the small LCMS church we still attend, I’d walled off my heart from any hope of becoming a pastor. I was bitter with my Christian experience, certain that I’d fallen prey to my own emotions at a vulnerable age. I convinced myself that work in the church was something I could never do, someone else’s job, someone else’s problem. The ache to serve, though, never left. And over the last five years I continued to struggle with anger and sorrow at its persistence. Time and again, the desire would well up inside me. And in all that bitterness I had only one answer: “No.” Considering a life in ministry, after the emotional wringing I’d felt I’d been through, was impossible. But why couldn’t I get rid of this burden? Get on with clocking in and out of my nine-to-six job, living in my vocation as father to my kids, husband to my wife, and hard-working employee at my job?
At some point during the conference last week, though, something changed. There were no sweaty gymnasiums, no flood-lighted stages, no roaring electric guitars. No calls for tearful emotional repentance, and no emotional revelations. I laid awake in my bunk in the University of Scranton dorms, listening to the sound of teenagers talking outside–teenagers so much like I must have been years ago–and laying my spiritual past alongside these similar, but so tremendously different experiences at Higher Things. Day after day I heard the preaching of Christ, Christ, and Christ again. I received Christ, again, again, and again. I went to confession and absolution, I laid down my pride and heard that I was forgiven. And somehow, all that anger started to disipate. The six-foot thick concrete walls I’d built between myself and the possibility of a life serving the church started to crumble.
It’s so hard to put into words, but I guess I just started feeling alive again. And when I asked myself why I felt so alive, the obvious answer was because I’d just stopped saying “No. Not that. Anything but that.” Somehow, I found myself open again. Open to possibilities. And no longer afraid that caring about the truth of the Gospel would lead me over a cliff. Not certain of anything, to be sure, but I find myself with a heart that is more tender, rather than bitter. And a temperament that is more patient, not angry.
And the burden is gone. The weight I felt every morning when I woke up, and every night when I came home weary from the office has lifted. And for now, that’s good enough. I don’t know if I’ll ever pursue the ministry, but wondering, thinking, talking, and most of all praying about it does not seem so hard any longer. And if that means I can be a little more at peace, then that’s good enough for me.
Worth remembering:
While genuine zeal in the discharge of one’s office is necessary and important, this cannot be said regarding any kind of zeal. There is a false, ungodly, carnal zeal that does not come from God and is not produced by the Holy Spirit, but is rooted either in animosity against those who teach a different doctrine or in the selfish thought that a display of zeal will bring the minister honor, at least in certain congregations, or in fanaticism.
- CFW Walther, Law and Gospel
Tags: Theology
Our most recent bargain is the castle shaped sandbox I got for $7 at a garage sale. I brought it home, we filled it with sand and it’s been fun ever since. Our neighbor came over and said exactly what I was thinking, “That’s one less sandbox in the landfill.” I love my neighbors.
Unfortunately, Elise was napping the Sunny Sunday afternoon that these pictures were taken. I will have to get some of her in the sandbox as well. Elise’s style of sand-play is mostly filling and dumping, repeat.
Olivia prefers tossing sand (argh) and asking me to help her build sand castles. These are the “really big” sand castles that she wanted me to take a picture of her smashing.
Following this act of violence we proceeded to make Cair Paravel including the children, a pack of wolves, a whale, some dolphins, a dragon, and Aslan himself.
There is sand all over my kitchen floor.
Goose Island’s 312 Urban Wheat Ale has got to be my favorite summertime brew. Light, creamy, smooth, and genuinely refreshing.
Anyone else have a favorite summertime drink?
T-Bone Burnett discusses recording techniques and a sense of place on this week’s All Songs Considered. This is essential listening if you care at all about music, or if you wonder why listening to most of the stuff on the radio today just feels so exhausting.
Tags: Music
I’ve been floored by this set of images from the Library of Congress, showing American life throughout the Great Depression and World War II. The addition of color makes it clear in a new way just how much life has changed, and how much more comfortable we all are now. I’m not so sure that we’re better for it.
Some really good stuff was put up on Daytrotter this morning. Listen.
Tags: Music
The Black Keys have just put together their best record yet: Attack & Release. I’m proud to say that these guys are from Akron, our hometown. Even with their huge success (supermegastar producer Danger Mouse worked on this album), they’ve stayed here, and have no plans to move–which is pretty cool, considering the mass exodus of young people to places that occasionally enjoy sunshine. They developed their sound to match the abandoned rubber factories and gray skies of our dear old city, and it’s great stuff (trust me, I know that music birthed from a blue collar rustbelt town doesn’t exactly entice, but it’s good. Really.)
Here’s a little video tour the duo gave to a Wall Street Journal reporter. I was happy to see shots of our neighborhood (Square Records and Highland Square is right around the corner).
Update: The related article in the Wall Street Journal is decent, too.
With images like these, you know it’s a great blog.
This is a pretty accurate demonstration of what it’s like to be awakened by Elise.
This may be the greatest game ever made.
Poor Kyle. He let me take this picture and now it’s on the internet.
In case any of his future employers google his name and somehow get this site (Good for him we don’t share a last name anymore) he’s a bright and creative young man. Don’t let the kitsch fool you.
I saw it. I LOVED it. I want to see it again.
because the Queen has nominated our blog for the Thinking Blogger Award! 
Which isn’t fair, because she is one of my 5 nominations, so I’ll have to find a replacement now…
These blogs have consistently kept me reading, thinking, and encouraged:
1. Manila Drive- And not just cause they’re my best friends.
2. Nine Tons of Marble- On all things beautiful, and beautifully simple.
3. This Classical Life- Her books read this year will put you to shame!
4. TulipGirl- Gentle, thoughtful, and Graceful
5. Moot Thoughts & Musings- Crafty, motherly, and a little bit funky. I think she’s one of “My kind of people.”
If you’re sitting around feeling un-patriotic you should read this book:
It is soooooo good.
How exciting. I get to have a handmade vintage styled apron as a prize. I knew that those 4 years of college would pay off somehow!
Honestly though, I’m very flattered.
If you sent your school aged child to our VBS, and they came home with a giant scroll made out of fabric and had pictures depicting the theme that Christ is prophesied throughout the Old Testement, would you think that was cool? OR would you rather have a bunch of little cheapie crafts like key chains and picture frames?
I’m asking seriously. I have to make a decision in a couple of weeks about craft for this year, and I want to make sure I have input.
So lurkers, frequent posters, friends and passers-by, please lemme know if you think that craft is cool or not. Thanks.
The downtown Library is our favorite family outing. I get the baby slings, the double stroller, the canvas bag and, of course, the girls, and we trek down there for a few hours every couple of weeks. Every time we park in a parking garage Liv asks if we’re at the library.
Today we stopped to say hello to the wooden Elephant statue, paid a $13.00 fine (!!!) and spent the morning playing in the children’s area. Then we buckled into our seats in the stroller and rolled our way to the mom-section (sewing and child development and cookbooks are all within 3 shelves of each other!) and I found exactly what I was looking for.
Then a homeless woman who calls herself “Mama Rose” held the elevator door for us and told us that she will not tolerate anyone disrespecting the children in this town. I thanked her and we went on our way. I saw her later when a young man, who I’m supposing was not related to her said, “Good morning, Mama Rose. Good to see you.” I’m glad she has the library to hang out and stay warm. I’m also glad that my children have enough exposure to the homeless and other people unlike themselves that they can be comfortable, and gracefully cautious, around them.
On our way out Olivia declared, “I love the library!”
But I had to share this diveo that Hathor the Cow Godess linked to.
My ride is sooooooo mommed.
Actually it’s here!
HT Kristen.
Edited to add: notes from Andy, worth reading as always:
Andy S says : I feel that this test is great, but that a young, up-and-coming student of Devona like myself is likely to become discouraged after basically failing (unless you\’re on the 10-pt scale) the first quiz. Isn\’t there a study-session or something? More questions would help the student have a higher percentage, I feel.
You should! Here’s my Etsy shop, which I am finally listing items on.
Yesterday I found a button I could post on our blog to advertise my shop, but now I can’t find it again. That’s a little frustrating.
So if you are getting lost linking around their site (like I always do) and you come across that button maker thing, let me know ok?
Oh. And if you want a baby carrier, buy one from me!
That’s about all of the electric media that I consume outside of the internet. And when you don’t have television (in order to save money and save our children from widespread, unadulterated marketing) I end up hearing both ALL THE TIME. Olivia watches Toy Story at least every other day. She watches part of it every day. I am becoming intimate with all of the nuance and depth of Woody and the gang. And since my other brain-rot outlet is NPR I have developed some fun characterizations of your favorite toy Cowboy.
Woody is the equivalent of G.W. Bush. The All American Cowboy who’s used to things being his way. Then along comes Buzz Lightyear (the Democratic Party) which comes along and spoils all the wild western fun. Now, since Andy (who represents America) wants Woody and Buzz to get along, they’ve gotta find some way to make some bipartisan progress. Read the rest of this entry »
The Love and Blunder family has just recovered (or is almost recovered) from a very icky bug which stopped by around New Years. But this post is about a different bug.
I have caught the running bug. I’ve been running at least 3 times a week for the past two weeks, and every day I like it more. I’m finding that it is exactly what I’ve been needing. I think it is that I can get away from everything and everyone for an hour and listen to music.
The other perk of running is that children CAN NOT touch you while you are running. You have your whole body to yourself, which isn’t so spectacular unless you are the mother of two small and happily attached children.
I’m probably going to be running in the Cleveland Half Marathon this May. My Papa ran it way back when, so it’s only fitting that it be my first.
And just for fun. Here’s the playlist that I made to work out to. You’ve gotta have tunes in the iPod age, and these ones are just right for running: Read the rest of this entry »
Last night we had some very good friends over for a little get together. Two friends from college, our daughters’ God-parents and their son Deacon, Rob and I all partied until way later than we should have. I got jealous of a MacBook and wished we had Photo Booth on our OS10. I drank more in one sitting than I have in years (2 drinks in as many hours). And we woke up a lot since all the kids were sick.
Today, I celebrated 2007 day number one in a steamy bathroom, eating brie, reading a book by John McWhorter, and holding a very sick 3 month old hoping to clear her congested chest.
Partying as a parent! Woot.
OK, so we moved Olivia into a toddler bed, which she has been a little nervous about, but has been very determined to use. Elise is almost ready to move into the crib, and since it is in Olivia’s room I’m not too worried about her feeling lonely, especially since she sleeps at least 6 to 7 hour stretches at night, and does almost all of her napping in my arms.
So anyway, today Olivia didn’t want to go to sleep, but I knew that she was very tired, so I closed her in her room for a “quiet time” and told her that I’d be back in an hour, and she could call me if she needed me. In that time she pooped, and called for me, banged around and made a mess, and was generally peacefully occupied in her room. Well, I went up at the end of the hour and she was asleep. Not only that, but she had carefully tucked herself into her bed all by herself, and she is sleeping soundly. It’s all very cute, but now I’m trying to decide if I should wake her up, since it’s dinner time in a half hour?
Difficult situation…
From Katie’s Beer, via Shelley’s Talk blog. I haven’t done a quiz in a long time, but this one seemed especially worth my time. Since I have insomnia tonight (I fell asleep with the snuggly baby and the snuggly doggie on the couch, and then when I went to bed I remembered that Elise has peed on the sheets this morning, so I had to change them. That woke me up too much so now I’m here trying to get sleepy again.)
1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Really I’d just prefer cookies and coffee.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree?
We’re still trying to figure out what Santa does in our home.
3. Colored or white lights on the tree and/or house?
White. It just looks so classy.
4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No.
5. When do you put your decorations up?
I put things up the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
There never were any specifically Christmas dishes in my family growing up, so I have come to really looks forward to Mary’s oyster stew on Christmas Eve.
7. Favorite holiday memory as a child.
I have a very particular memory of looking up at the lights from under the tree, and feeling very magical.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Read the rest of this entry »
but she just got a dozen of these for Christmas. What else do you get for a baby when mom has a meticulous system for hand-me-downs?
x-posted at the old blog
I don’t know why, but every child must learn to tell a knock knock joke. I think that it must be a prerequisite for reading. This is Olivia’s:
Mom: Say, “knock knock.”
Liv: Knock knock.
Other family member: Who’s there?
Liv: Radio not…
Mom: Wait! Say, “Radio.”
Liv: Radio.
Other family member: Radio who?
Liv: (30 seconds of silence)
Mom: (elevated eyebrows of encouragement)
Liv: Radio not! Here I come!
Everyone: (exaggerated giggling)
… since Rob moved us here. This blog doesn’t yet feel like home for me. I guess I’d grown attached to the old one. I can’t find anything worth saying. I think that it is because Rob is blogging again, and I find him such a better writer than I am. He writes so formally, and I am more prone to the ramblings of stream of consciousness.
He’s just a more organized thinker than I am in all ways. I thrive (and get smothered if I’m not careful) in chaos, Rob enjoys reading books like Getting Things Done- The Art of Stress-free Productivity. So, I guess I’m afraid that my ramblings will mess up his vision for the blog.
These have been recently on my mind. Both are by Gerard Manley Hopkins:
God’s Grandeur
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And, for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastwards, springs–
Because the Holy Ghost over bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
“As kingfishers catch fire”
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves–goes its self; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.
I say more: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is–
Christ. For Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.
It’s been a very long time. Welcome to the new site.
As most anyone reading this knows, my wife and I have been running Love & Blunder over at Blogger for quite a while. If you know that much, you also know that it had been a while since I’d posted much of anything on the ol’ blog; something I regret.
Hence, the website you’re looking at now. This is the new Love & Blunder. I’ve had a longing to get back into blogging–though my motives may be a bit different than they were just over two years ago when I began–and starting a new site was just what I needed to get me excited about the prospect of writing again.
We’ll probably keep the Blogger site around for a while. Neither of us want to abandon it, and Devona thinks she’ll still post over there every now and then. But look forward to seeing lots more of us over here.
Let me know what you think of the new design, too. I think I’m happy with it, but I’m still deciding. Comments are much appreciated.
Talk to you all soon.
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