Monday, October 31, 2011

Don't Scare anybody with your mask today!

The sky was far more distant, when I went outside this morning. My little dipper was alot higher over my neighbor's house, than it usually had been last week. Two weeks ago, the handle of the dipper seemed to lay on the ground on the street beside our house, but this morning it was high in the sky and it didn't even tempt me to reach up to it.
The teenagers came down first. I begged for kisses and they begrudgingly accomodated me. I felt it necessary to remind them of the Reformation celebration of today. It is the 494 anniversary of the posting of the 95 theses by Martin Luther. Yea, Yea, the unenthusiastic teenagers have nothing of the excitement of the first two waves of teenagers that I had. The earlier ones had ideas and desires for sharing the story on such a day. Not these two. I sang the Proverbs 31 song to them and I saw a little light in Enoch's eyes of familiarity. Then, I played the Judy Roger's songs. Mom, you didn't make that one up? said Evie. No way. What a bummer, she said, I thought you had made the song of the 7 things the Lord hates up. anyway, I like how you sing it better. Thanks Ev, I appreciate that. I said it is Halloween, you know. Ev said, I know, I am going to school as a Black Girl. LOL. I said Don't scare anybody with your mask. We giggled, {the absolute most that you can garner from this unemotional teen group}
The joke didn't go too well with the middleschooler, Ethan. He took a long time to get the joke. What are you trying to say, mom? Nothing, Ethy. Don't take it too personally. Ezra was whistling a Mighty Fortress and They Will Know We are Christians. And we are grateful for the opportunity to laugh and rejoice on the day, today.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Reformation Sunday celebrated in style.

I was sick and at home. God timed my sickness to coincide with the beautiful celebration of the Reformation at 10th Presbyterian Church. I was awed and blessed at the tremendous and spectacular praise and worship that I was privileged to enter into by the blessing of the live webcast. I am grateful to them for sharing this beauty with the world. What a gift to me. I will never forget and I am planning to try to make it to Philly for the 500th anniversary of Luther's theses in 2017. A Noble Intention!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

There is water running, I thought...



It was the rain outside. It was pouring outside and I didn't have to worry that somebody had left something running. Yesterday, was cloudy, but we didn't get a soaking that we got last night, or this morning. I hope, for my flower's sake that it rains the whole day. No matter how frazzled I get. :)

Friday, October 28, 2011

80 degrees yesterday and 59 degrees this morning



What a fickle morning it is? I went outside in the morning hours and my dear friend the little dipper was not in it's spot. Just to the left of my view from my back door and over my neighbor's house, where it usually sits in the morning. No stars were out there. Just a grey and overcast sky. A sense of closedness struck me, we are under the clouds was an alarming thought to me. I know that they are up there and I know that God is above it all, but the change was dismaying. We are grateful for the rain and we are grateful for the sunshine and we are grateful for the weather trends that are our NC experience.
Trusting God in the vicisitudes of life is our ambition.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Today, I am thanking God for the boys--Ethan and Ezra!




I often find myself thanking God for the elder children in the house. They are not as much underfoot. Nor need they be prodded much, for the most part, at making themselves useful and helpful. Sometimes, I do find myself wondering at the wisdom of having a large family, though I repent quickly, when I do.
I do remember, when I was expecting Ezra, Aunt Gail reminded me that I would find much joy in the younger children, as Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Bob did with Robby and Paul. The thought of children born, as it were, out of turn, is something that is not a taboo subject in our family. We are unashamedly prolife, as a family and we are aware of the providence of God, in His timing of precious surprise packages into our family.
This morning their waking and the path to the bus was especially blessed and a precious reminder of the days before they were here. I remembered homeschooling and reading about a precious set of boys that were provoked by eachother to dress and wash and where everything that they did was a contest of firsts. The boys were at it. Our dear border collie is constantly nipping at them not to hurt eachother. They are in constant competition with eachother. This morning, I set the timer for them to get washed and teeth brushed. Ezra {our heel-catcher} was swiftly on the ball for this contest. Ethan didn't even flinch. Unusually, the job was finished before the teens got on the bus. I remembered closing my eyes, when my heart was smitten with grief that I hadn't my baby Ben and wished for two boys to do just that and when I opened my eyes there they were. Here and in the flesh, like Pinocchio. I was rejoicing out loud at God's reminder of this precious gift that I was enjoying. Evelyn said, you mean you wanted boys like Fritz and Ernst in Swiss Family Robinson.
That led us on a journey of the Ernst that I knew. I said, I did not remember that Ernst was in Swiss family Robinson. She said, not only that they fought and fought. I said, I know. I started introducing the children to the Ernst that I knew and loved...Dr. Lang. I said, he was thin and walked like this. "Dr. Laaaaaannnnnng!" he answered the phone and the chill of the stethoscope on our bodies. What is a broken hip says Ezra? Why did he walk like that? Don't ask that question. Not 10 minutes after the story was over, he fell down the steps and then banged the front part of his hip on the corner of the furniture. I said that is your hip. Perhaps you will be a hip doctor, I said. We jested that the good Dr. couldn't let him go to school today not knowing where his hip was. LOL.
Daily mercies and protection and guidance we are grateful for.

Monday, October 24, 2011

The Brrrrutiful Surrrrrprise!






I love NC, if only for the length of summer for us. We've enjoyed the taste of autumn and the trees are changing color. My corn that I planted in my 3ft.x3ft square spot of ground didn't make it. No okra, this season, like last year and the one pumpkin that I got was green and one inch big. So be it for the green thumb that I am cultivating. Snap and Ginger are hanging on and Diva and Prima Dona, do need some care if they will make it through the winter here. Those are my trees.
This morning, though amidst the chill of the cold morning, peeking its head above the heather and euphoria, that are crying for lack of care, a pretty blooming flower made her appearance. An autumn taste of summer. I think that I stuck some sunflower seeds in the euphoria beds, just for future possibilities and here she is, in October, making her debut. I was dumbfounded and pleasantly surprised. I do love her!

Friday, October 21, 2011

BRRR! BRRRR!

Another cold day, in North Carolina? We simply do not know what to do with ourselves? It is as though we are on our way to the pool in swimsuits and old man winter jumps us.

Where are your parkas? Where are the long pants and long sleeve shirts? We shouldn't really be surprised. It is October.

The house didn't cool below 70 overnight. So we still don't really need the heat on. It will warm up to the mid-sixties by early morning, but it is 38 outside. What sissies we have become from the North Carolina spoiling. The pool in our neighborhood closed on Oct 2nd and It was really too early, we thought. It stayed warm until yesterday.

We were ready. The Walker bear cubs were ready for the chill, somewhat. Ethy went out without a coat, but his bus will carry him to the school and we will pick him up, if there are any problems.

I do love the technology that makes less of the usual school mishaps. ie. Ethan started a big hullaballoo about a paper that was lost and due in his pre-Algebra. I will get a zero. We were both, Ben and I, in the middle of the speech about remembering to put your papers where they belong, when he said. I thought the teacher would email you the assignment. I told her that I had lost it. Sure enough, there it was in my email. "MY-bad" {as they say}. The trauma was lessened by a teacher who saved the day. The assignment was finished in "Charette-style" and bearcub in bed at a semidescent hour. I love technology!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

BRRRRRR!

I came downstairs, this morning and the chill of 69 degrees in the house was, quite a surprise, if not a shock from the warmer temperatures that we have been accustomed to. It was 45 outside. I did put on a little heat and the fireplace to warm the downstairs, but left the upstairs to itself.

It is difficult to pry the Ethan fellow, {now a middle schooler} out of his bed on these cold mornings. I had to bribe him into the shower, offering my warm robe for his cold body, after the shower. I didn't have to say that twice. He was off to the showers, like a trooper. All was well that he made it to the bus, though, I don't know if he got a bite of grits before he flew off.

The teenagers made it and Ezra was very disoriented by the cold. His brain seemed to have a bit of cobwebs stuck to them this chilled day. He ate and had loads of stories of this and that, before he went out to the busstop.

It is supposed to warm into the 60's today, a chilly one for the week. The blanket of Autumn seems to be creeping up over us. We are so spoiled with 80 degree weather, we don't know what to do when the house chills down under 70. We could, all eight of us snuggle to warm the house, but the largeness and the sweetness of our family would melt in the snuggle. We keep our distance and turn on the heat and peace prevails. Thank God!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Ladybug is 16 Today!



What a woman? Enough said.

Title- The Studious One!

Title-  The Studious One!
artwork by Elyse

Of biscuits and syrup

Of biscuits and syrup
tasty treats

Happy Saturday!

Happy Saturday!
a day at the Raptor Center.

Widdle Emmie in outer space school

Emmie jumped on the bus and off it flew out into the atmosphere. There was a set of clouds with turbulence right above the house and it took a few minutes for my Emmie to buckle her seatbelt. They hit the bump hard and it knocked my Emmie out of her seat and she bumped her head. The video camera came on and the monitor looked through and stated, Ms. Emmie, where are you? You are not in your seat. Where are you? I am alright I fell because I hadn’t buckled correctly. Well jump up Emmie we have a long way to go and you have to be buckled there is entirely too much turbulence in the stratosphere for you to unbuckle now. As soon as we are through this weather system there will be straight sailing but right now you must buckle. Emmie scrambled into the seat with intensity and purpose now. She watched every cloud pass her window and her nose was pressed to the window trying to see the top of the house as it drifted slowly out of sight. Soon they were not only out of sight of the house, the sun came out brightly and just as quickly they were putting on the atmospherical breathing apparatus and the outerspherical lights. The ABA and the OL. These precautions were to make them appear to be satellites to the radar as they were out in the ionosphere. Emmie knew all about this now. She had gone to the orientation and had a good breakfast and it took them 20 minutes for her to get out past the atmospherical pull and to feel the zero gravity. It would be 15 minutes before the gravity simulators would take effect, a glitch in the system which was being worked on. Until then, they enjoyed the couple of minutes of floatation, while being connected to the seats by belt. The first thing they saw everyday was the strataflotsam. The items which had been dumped into the atmosphere by earlier generations. What would their generation do about this ecological waste area that remained floating above their heads? This was a question for the generations. For now it was the area that they had to guide through on the way to school.

Midnight at the OASIS

Midnight at the OASIS
Sunset in Huntersville

My little Emmie

ran to the bus on the first day of the last year of school. 2 buns on the side of her head. She kissed me and ran at dawn to the bus. She was starting the adventure of a lifetime. I would never see that little girl again, she was going to woman school!

My Father and I 1989

My Father and I 1989

to the tune of Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

A VISIT TO PAPA











Are you going to Mary Immaculate?

Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



Remember me to the one who lived there,



He once was a true love of mine,



Tell him to buy me an acre of land,



Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



Between the muddy Hudson in Jamaica Bay,



Then, He’ll be a true love of mine,

Tell him to sow in it seeds of pure cream,



Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



And build Ice cream mountains and buildings of whipped cream,

Then, He’ll be a true love of mine,



Tell him to reap them with sickles of M&M’s,



Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



And chew bubble gum and eat till we’re done,



Then, He’ll be a true love of mine.



Tell him to run it off down the motor parkway,



Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



After your done 50 pushups



and jog down the West Side Highway,



Then he’ll be a true love of mine…

(Don’t wait for me today dad, The kids are sick again, My tummy’s bulging again, My heart is aching again, And now there’s no love there…)





He once was, a true love of mine….So, Girls, I do beg you don't miss your Daddy,Apricots, Chocolate cherries and Pie,You have one short chance to see him on this side, Go visit him and let your light shine.