Posts tagged ‘Stories’
On Sunday, my congregation had a hymn sing. Each of the songs reflected on the question of “Who do you say that I am?”
Which makes this story all the more amusing…
I was talking to a member of our congregation before the service. After I left the row where she and her family were sitting, she overheard this from her niece and daughter:
Niece: Who was that guy?
Daughter: I don’t know, but I think he’s John the Baptist.
Oh, dear. And I sing with them every Sunday at the start of Sunday school, too.
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5 April 2011 at 09:02
Youngest Daughter’s word of the day is “tastical”. As in…
Mommy, those are some tastical, blue socks you’re wearing!
In other news, I was brushing and shaving and washing this morning when I heard the noise. It sounded like someone knocking on the wall. The girls will do this from time to time – knock on the bathroom wall and expect me to knock back from the other side.
So I knocked back. But, no. The knocking was a bit more remote – not on the other side of the bathroom wall. I eventually concluded that they were knocking on the door of their bedroom. So I stopped paying attention for a little bit.
But the knocking continued… and grew louder… and eventually there were people shouting in angry voices that they wanted to be let into the room. Well, eventually I went to see what was going on, and arrived just in time to see Somewhat Frustrated Mommy also arriving on the scene and then opening the door for the girls to go into their room.
Into their empty room.
You see, we’ve trained them to respect privacy so well that when the door happened to be closed, they assumed someone was inside. And then they got frustrated that no one answered. And then angry. Which led to the shouting. At no one.
But we forget to consider the possibility that there wasn’t actually anyone in the room. It didn’t matter that the door doesn’t have a lock on it. We just stand and knock.
Sigh.
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17 November 2010 at 09:23
This morning when Youngest Daughter woke up, she wandered into the kitchen and climbed onto my lap at the table.
YD: Which is the leg that hurts?
Me: The one that you aren’t sitting on.
(YD pets the other leg like it’s a cat.)
YD: Poor, poor leg. Poor, poor leg.
A little later she was describing her planned Halloween costume – a ballerina princess.
YD: I’m going to wear a royalous crown!
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27 October 2010 at 07:25
Whew! We’ve made it through our first week of school. To highlight the week, “Five for Friday” is brought to you by the rest of the family…
1) We have a name for our home school:
Rainbow House of Learning
2) You don’t have to be a student here in order to get an award. Each of the girls won Rainbow Awards this week:
Oldest Daughter for demonstrating exceptional enthusiasm and effort in her first week of home school;
Middle Daughter for making her own lunch and for trying her best during her first week at Eagle Pointe;
Youngest Daughter for a great job of reading her ABCs in the bathtub.
3) MD’s favorite part of school was receiving a red ticket for good behavior. At the end of the month, the teacher randomly selects three red tickets to win prizes. Her favorite bit of learning was math. It sounds like they are reviewing numbers.
4) At the Rainbow House of Learning, OD’s favorite subject this week was a unit on rocks, gems, and minerals. This unit will continue next week, as well. One highlight was examining kitchen crystals under a microscope. (Thanks, Dad.)
5) Music lessons are the extracurriculars right now. MD started piano lessons during the summer. This past week, she was excited to let her teacher know that she had already played “Ode to Joy” on her mom’s psaltery. With raised eyebrow, the teacher asked Ordinary Spouse what a psaltery was. It will go along to next week’s lesson.
OD begins violin lessons on Monday. This past week, she picked up her rental instrument. As she was leaving the store, Youngest Daughter said quietly and with quivering lip, “I wish I could have a pet violin.”
All in good time, YD.
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27 August 2010 at 19:52
Since I noted earlier today that I should share more stories about the girls for their grandparents, I’ll share this report from Ordinary Spouse:
I just had a “veggie wedgie” at the Baby Cafe. 
It turns out that Middle and Oldest Daughters were playing restaurant.
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9 July 2010 at 16:42
1) Blogs that I’ve started and haven’t completed, or blogs that others have requested
I have quite a few of these. It’s sort of like my life. I start things and don’t always complete them in a timely fashion. As of right now, this list (for my blog; not my life) includes (but is not limited to):
- A ‘Now Playing’ update – It’s been a while since I’ve talked about music. On the other hand, how often do you want to hear that I’m listening to U2 and the Indigo Girls?
- An ‘On the Nightstand’ update – I haven’t discussed books, either. This would include Winter World (which is my family’s book club pick right now*), as well as my discussion of Brian McLaren’s A New Kind of Christianity. Oh, and I still haven’t finished most of these books, either.
- Mr. Guest Complacent’s suggestions for other “Five for Friday” blogs. I think I’ve done two out of five.
* In my defense, I have a hunch that I’m doing better at reading Winter World than most of the rest of my family. Ordinary Spouse has finished it, however.
2) A more intimate and/or artistic look at the sacredness of the ordinary
After all, ‘ordinary’ is in the title of my blog. Take a look at these blogs:
Two thoughts:
- I like these blogs. I like the imagery, and I like the thoughts and reflections. I would like to blog like that.
- These blogs are written by women. You may ask, “What difference does that make?” Well, our society has a whole bunch of gender baggage. Richard Rohr explores some of it in a Sojourners article that I read this week – “Boys Don’t Cry (And Other Lies We Tell Men)“.** I wonder to what extent I’m also carrying this baggage. I wonder if I’m able to see and feel and experience in the same way that the writers of these blogs do.***
** Sojourners may ask you to register. It’s free, and I think that you can get them to promise not to bug you to buy their magazine.
*** Tricky me – I’ve just slipped in a whole other topic for blogging. But it’s a hard one. After all, boys don’t acknowledge a sensitive side.
3) Privilege and what I’m doing about it
Actually, this is partly inspired by #2. You see – even though I love those blogs above, I also wonder whether these explorations of ordinary sacredness are made possible by the affluence of middle-class North America. You generally don’t find those in third-world poverty writing blogs. I’m not pointing fingers, since it’s also the context from which I experience life. But I am challenging myself to recognize my advantages (white, middle-class, educated, United States citizen, male, heterosexual, etc.) and to work to level the playing field.
4) More stories about my family
Let’s be honest – I write the deep reflections for myself. Who else (besides, perhaps, my brother-in-law) wants to read my theological ramblings or the aforementioned thoughts on privilege? My mom wants to know what cute things her grand-daughters had to say today.
5) What it means to be Lay Minister of Worship
On July 1st, I began a term as our congregation’s Lay Minister of Worship. On one hand, I think I should reflect on that. Then I wonder, “do I really want my congregation to know how unqualified I am for this job?”
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9 July 2010 at 14:58
Independence Day: A never-ending source of frustration for Mennonites. What is the proper response for a Christian whose primary allegiance is to the Kingdom of God? Well – Shane Claiborne recently offered one possible answer.
Other than sharing the link to Shane’s great ideas, this post is a completely random collection of stuff from our lives as of July 4th. Random like my blog, and random like my life.
We’re mostly relaxing here today – being thankful for a non-hurried, three-day stay-cation. I made some apple mint tea, and now my girls are consuming multiple glasses of it. Yesterday, Ordinary Spouse and I worked on some home improvements. Tomorrow, we’ll do more of the same, in addition to transporting the girls to dance and swimming classes at the YMCA.
A recent quote from Youngest Daughter:
I’m putting on my owner’s cape because I own!
(I’m thinking about the young capitalist that we’re raising, as YD wraps a blanket around her like a skirt.)
What do you own?
Ladybugs… I’m being a silly owner.
(Bragging about Ordinary Chef-in-Chief…)
The other day, Ordinary Spouse decided to make some buns, following a recipe from one of her favorite websites. You can decide which picture is hers and which is the original, and then check out the recipe.
And a blog milestone thrown in for good measure: I’ve now used over a thousand different tags for posts on my blog. I knew my liberal arts education was good for something.
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4 July 2010 at 16:24
So – Youngest Daughter (who is a bit over three years old) is at a stage where she likes to “type” on the computer. Then afterwards, she likes to print out her “Big Words”. Ordinary Spouse relates this exchange to me…
Youngest Daughter: MOMMY! MOMMY! It won’t PLINT!
(Ordinary Mommy comes to turn on the printer and finds it already on.)
Ordinary Mommy: Oh, you already turned on the printer?
Youngest Daughter: I plessed ALL KINDS of buttons!
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2 June 2010 at 13:26
I’m in the middle of a thirteen-day work week, which is why I haven’t been around much recently. I’m anxious to respond to my Extraordinary Brother-in-law, who often provides thought-provoking comments such as these. Alas that will have to wait until I have more than just a few minutes to write.
In other news, we have a new dishwasher in our house. The old one was a Maytag, which we thought was supposed to be a reliable brand.* However, the electronic control panel got flaky after a year, so we replaced it. Then it did the same thing after about six months. Another replacement. Then another few months. And another replacement. And in March it died for the fourth time in about four years. It seems that everyone who knows these dishwashers (except Whirlpool) knows that they have problems.
* Remember all the commercials where the repair dude is standing around doing nothing? Evidently, that was before they were bought out by Whirlpool.
Anyway, Ordinary Spouse found a Bosch dishwasher that she liked, and I went to see it at Lowes. The salesperson was so helpful that we purchased it right away on March 23rd. The only problem was that it wouldn’t be delivered until April 1st. On April 2nd, OS called Lowe’s and was told that the dishwasher would be delivered to the store on April 8th. She repeated the process on April 9th, and was told that “according to the computer” delivery was scheduled for April 16th. On April 11th, Lowe’s lost the sale of one dishwasher.
So we started looking elsewhere and discovered that Sears was selling the dishwasher that we wanted to buy. And it was going to be on sale – 30% off. And Illinois was passing out stimulus money for the purchase of energy-efficient appliances. And Sears could install it in one business day. So as of yesterday, the spiffy dishwasher is installed. We ended up paying the same price as Lowe’s, but we have a five-year warranty included now. And given our prior experience with dishwashers, we’re glad for the warranty.
Finally, a mini-update on Jack. Jack was eating Oldest Daughter’s cup of grass. (I don’t know why OD had a cup of grass – perhaps OS can chime in here.) Anyway, OS decided to plant some wheat grass for Jack. Turns out, Jack loves his wheat grass…
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20 April 2010 at 12:12
Yesterday, Youngest Daughter was trying to eat a banana that (although yellow) was nowhere near being ripe.
Youngest Daughter: ‘condenation’ …it’s something you spell when you have a yucky banana. I’m going to spell ‘condenation’ now. Mommy, some paper, please!
According to Ordinary Spouse, YD appeared to just be having fun repeating big words that adults use. She later tried out other pronunciations for ‘condenation’:
YD: congagation… congregation… condezation… conzenation… congazation…
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8 April 2010 at 14:40
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