An Open Letter

Dear Congress,


Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness in sanctioning daylight savings time.  Clearly this was invented by a mother of young children, as it makes my life so much better.  When I explained to my three-year-old this morning that the practice is good for the economy, she immediately saw the value in rising while it's pitch dark for no apparent reason.


My home was full of cheer when the children learned that they now get to go to bed an hour earlier.  And breakfast this morning was sunshine and rainbows (only metaphorically, of course) when my haggard, scowling, tearful offspring gathered at the table.  What a treasured opportunity to explain that it's good for us to reset the clock arbitrarily instead of basing time on the heavenly bodies.  God probably put the sun there for us to ignore, anyway.


So, on behalf of my family and millions of others, as well as the extra suicide, traffic fatality, and heart attack victims associated with this semiannual assault on our circadian rhythms, thank you.

Signed,

A Grateful Citizen

Field trip to Mount Vernon with the boys

I didn't tell them to pose.  Caleb just went over to imitate Jed standing there.

I gathered my courage, dropped the girls off with Grandma, and drove the boys to the home of George Washington this week.  We just covered the American Revolution in school.

On the piazza (i.e., Washington's back porch), overlooking the Potomac.

"Beep!"

I think it was a hit.  Caleb liked beeping buttons and seeing the sheep on the farm.  Jeddy appreciated seeing the actual key to the Bastille (given as a gift to Washington and still on display in his house).


An ambitious but successful field trip!

Ordinary means

Our pastor has been talking a lot lately about the "ordinary means of grace."  

"The outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption, are his ordinances, especially the word, sacraments, and prayer."  -The Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647), Question 88

In other words, spectacular miracles don't generally create faith; Christ works in hearts through everyday, "ordinary" means, such as the Word of God read and preached.  Scripture is the "power of God for salvation" (Romans 1:16).

What extraordinary blessing to have this "ordinary" means of grace:  the very Word of God, at our fingertips, read aloud in our homes, preached freely on Sundays, opened to us by faith and the irresistible beckon of His Spirit.

May God bless the reading and hearing of His Word, for us and for our children.

Laden with guilt and full of fears

I fly to Thee, my Lord

And not a glimpse of hope appears

But in Thy written Word

The volumes of my Father's grace

Does all my griefs assuage

Here I behold my Savior's face

In every page

This is the field where hidden lies

The pearl of price unknown

That merchant is divinely wise

Who makes the pearl his own

Here consecrated waters flow

To quench my thirst of sin

Here the fair tree of knowledge grows

No danger dwells within

This is the judge that ends the strife

Where wit and reason fail

My guide to everlasting life

Throughout this gloomy vale

O may Thy counsels, mighty God

My roving feet command

Nor I forsake the happy road

That leads to Thy right hand

"Laden With Guilt," by Isaac Watts

Wordless Wednesday

Caleb does school

He reads...

He writes...

He does, um...science?

Now if I actually kept my floor clean, how would Caleb amuse himself by playing with crumbs in the corner?


It's more than just an emergency food supply.  It's education.

Joys and sorrows with little ones

This is why I love my in-laws.  When they come over and my entryway looks like this:

they walk in that door and step through the disaster without a word about it, like it's the most normal thing in the world.  

This Lego mess, besides representing the usual state of our housekeeping, also represents a momentous new era!  

Here is Caleb before.

Excluded from games.  

Barricaded from playing Legos.  

Poor little Rudolph.  

But!  Now:

He plays with them more than he eats them!   He's become trustworthy!

(He is, however, the biggest offender when it comes to scattering Legos throughout the house.  I found a few in my bed just now.)

He's growing up.  He's becoming quite the buddy of Grandpa, too.  

It's good that this lunch ended on a sweet note, since it started on a bad one.  Grandpa and all the kids and I were standing in the food line with people before and behind us, when Lizzy suddenly started throwing up.  

Lovely!

The poor thing, it just kept coming, and there I was, kneeling before her with cupped hands, trying to shield her from view of the other diners.  We gestured for the good people behind to go ahead of us in line (it's ok, just step over the puddle and get your delicious food!) but then another wave caught my arm and it splattered across the walkway...

Oh dear.  Meanwhile, Caleb was crying and trying to get to me by walking through it all and Jeddy was pale and gagging.  

For some reason, half the deacons from our church were there enjoying their lunch when this happened, and they sprang into action, taking the other kids aside, providing napkins, producing a mop and cleaning the floor.  Service really runs in their blood.  

Lizzy must have some sort of tummy bug because she's been very snuggly and out of sorts since then.  I gave her lots of extra cuddles and the next morning she said, "Mommy's the best mommy ever to feel me better."  

Aww.

Caleb was here