Archive for January 2010

LOL

Series of text messages from last night: From my sister Emily: I always find interesting little surprises around after Zora visits. For example, I just got into bed and found a curious tiny orange cubic ‘something’ near my pillow. What could that be?? Cheese, of course. Me: Well honestly what is bedtime without cheese? Emily: Unfortunately, [...]

A few shameless Zora vignettes

In part, for the sake of my own records, a few Zora moments that I want to remember for awhile.  She is really, at 3, a very interesting person. And I am learning that interesting persons are not necessarily the easiest ones to raise. Although she seems to enjoy being the water over the summer, [...]

Weekend Domestic Tally

Thursday night to Saturday are my version of the weekend. For me, this means squeezing out every last chance to be the domestic diva. The tally so far this weekend? Did a lot of dishes, but then made a whole lot dirty while I was making a pot of soup. Cut out the fabric for [...]

Prayers of the People, Weekend of Haiti Crisis & MLK Day

Words taken from sermons on Martin Luther King, Jr. are in italics. (With some adaptation, mostly for gender inclusiveness.) Holy God, sometimes we look around and it seems the world is crumbling… …war after war, division after division, injustice after injustice, violence upon violence, and sin upon sin, we are surrounded by a world where [...]

Haiti

What a powerful editorial…the first paragraphs really stick with me. I have family in Southern California. When there’s a big earthquake there, I worry a little, but not too much (the biggest disruption one of the last big one’s caused my relatives was my cousin’s disappointment that school was cancelled that day because there was [...]

Misheard in the sermon

Warning: this is a theology nerd joke. We are blessed with pastors at our church, both in quality and abundance. On Sundays there’s often a line-up of three behind whichever pastor is preaching. In other words, there are four of us: Carl, Melinda, Bart, and me. Sometimes, certain members of the line-up get a little [...]

First Communion

Oh, truly a wonderful communion story… On Sunday, one of our 3 year olds (I’ll call her Claire) was sitting in the second row of pews with her parents. Next to her was one of our church elders, Harrison, who is also a pillar of the congregation in the best sense of the word and [...]

Treasure Box

Matthew 2:1-12 Ephesians 3:1-12 Fox Valley Presbyterian Church Sunday Before Epiphany It’s been over a week since you ripped open those treasure boxes under the tree. And for the most part, you know exactly what’s in them. And now you have  a sense of how much you will actually use the gift. What each gift [...]