Friday, March 20, 2020

Links from the bunny trail



Love this dramatic rendition of Grieg's Concerto in A minor.  I have childhood memories of my sister playing it on our piano, but she definitely didn't dress the part or enter the room like this lady.  She really could've upped her game.





How beautiful are these tiny embroidered landscapes?




These baby penguin comics are too cute. 




Great news item about wine miraculously coming from the water tap!  Thanks to Like Mother, Like Daughter for this one.




Have you been following Wellington and the other penguins touring the Shedd Aquarium during human quarantine? 




Happy Friday, everyone.  Maybe after you finish working from home you can enjoy a nice frosty quarantini. 




Stay safe!





Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Habits





Jeddy "getting use out of" his suit coat I bought him for a now-defunct event.


If we are creatures of habit, and act via habit some huge percentage of the time, it's no wonder these times are making us anxious and confused.  Suddenly I'm having to make decisions a million times a day about things I never, ever thought about before.




When I'm running in the park, and I pass someone going the other way on the track, should I hold my breath as we pass?  How many feet wide is this track anyway?


Should we go to Bible study?  Should we have that planned dinner with friends?  Should I go to the library per usual?  Should we continue our cleaning service?


"Wash your hands as often as possible":  should I be washing my hands right now?


Should I liberally use the last of our hand sanitizer, or should I save it for more dire need?


How much toilet paper is it prudent to use each time?


Should I let my kids go to the playground?


Should I start planting a victory garden?


Should I wipe down my phone with a Clorox wipe and risk killing it, or not wipe it down and risk killing someone else?


Should I love my neighbors by bringing them food or by staying away?


Should I politely meet the mail lady and deliverymen by taking the box directly from their hands or ignore them and let them leave it on the step?  And then can I touch the box?


Should I let my kids get the mail?


How many times a day can I check the news before it's obsessive-compulsive?


The questions go on and on and on, with no end in sight.





Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Corona



The irony of this coronavirus situation--like everything else about this situation--is surreal. 






The whole world is shutting down, school kids are playing in the park during the day, people are forced to stay home from work.... and our life goes on pretty much exactly as normal. 




Unlike my friends, my lesson plans were already in place for my kids.  I have a fully supplied school room. 


Jason already has a perfectly well-appointed home office. 






And we aren't particularly social creatures around here, as humans go, so the number of engagements we've had to cancel is... minimal.






We've stayed home from church before, for sickness and for snowstorms.  And we've generally done some sort of makeup "church" from home.  This week was more thorough, with video messages from the pastors, including a full-length sermon and announcements (that consisted of a list of cancellations) and words of encouragement, and audio clips of hymns.




{Previously when doing "Miller church," we've held it in the living room, which, by no means elegant, is at least possibly fit for human habitation.  Since this week we were watching a 45-minute sermon, we opted to hold "church" in the playroom, where the TV is.  The playroom is *not* as fit for human habitation (or at least civilized adult habitation).  I was ashamed to debase our worship by doing it in a place that in my mind is on level with a barnyard, until Jason reminded me that it wouldn't be the first barn our Lord has entered.  Praise Jesus.}






To be frank, The Babylon Bee pretty much summed up my feelings over the weekend: 


Nation's Nerds Wake Up In Utopia Where Everyone Stays Inside, Sports Are Canceled, Social Interaction Forbidden



But I am not immune (har har, groan) to anxiously wondering what life will be like a week, two weeks, a month, three months from now.  What if there are food shortages?  What if the First World becomes like the Third World?  What if I turn into Jack Nicholson in The Shining?  What if life as we knew it is over? 






So I'm here "enjoying my living room," swinging from joy that nothing can take Jesus away from me, to anxiety over whether we'll have to use creative alternatives to toilet paper, and back again. 




I guess in a global pandemic, as in all other times, I'm allowed to have all the feelings.  This is alternately (embarrassingly) pleasant, disquieting, frightening, uniting, isolating, uplifting, amusing, sobering, and uncertain.  It is definitely unscripted.  We are surely not the ones writing this story.




But my emotional bouncy ball keeps coming back to relief that I can trust the One who is writing it.









Sunday, March 15, 2020

What didn't change



What changed this week:


Our church cancelled services, sending out a recorded sermon and audio clips of songs instead.




What didn't change this week:


God is in charge of 100% of the universe.


People are mortal and we will all die some day, of something.


Also, people are still having babies.




What changed:


I didn't go to their baby shower.




Jeddy's new $75 suit from Amazon, bought specially for his debate tournament, which is now, naturally, cancelled.


What didn't change:


I love hunkering down inside my house.


We are carrying on as usual with school.




What changed:


I hear there are slight adjustments to other people's school.




What didn't change:


I still need groceries.




What changed:


Walmart has no hand sanitizer, toilet paper, or powdered milk, and very little cheese, butter, and cough syrup.


Mom and me at the theater for Much Ado About Nothing, thankfully before it shuts down.


What didn't change:


I use hand sanitizer when I get in the car after grocery shopping.


Ada has asthma.


Jason works from home.


Our hope can't possibly be in this world.  If we have no hope of Jesus bringing us to an eternal home as promised, we don't have any hope at all.


When kids are in charge of meal planning.


Buck gets a romp in the fresh air.


What changed:


Our society seems to suddenly, surprisingly, be concerned about the vulnerable amongst us.




What didn't change:


Jesus is still the Bread of Life.


The Bible still says what the Bible still says.


In this world we will have trouble.


Jesus has overcome the world.













Quick lit



Linking up with the admirable Modern Mrs. Darcy to share what we've been reading lately...


Proverbs


Photo by Diana R. on Unsplash


I read this last month--and incidentally, so did Jason, who honored me by quoting Proverbs 31:10-11:

An excellent wife, who can find?
For her worth is far above jewels.
The heart of her husband trusts in her,
And he will have no lack of gain.


One More Thing by B. J. Novak




I thought I'd encourage myself to up my step count by downloading some audio books--and also chose this for us to listen to on the way to Gatlinburg in January.  I was drawn in by having read Novak's highly amusing The Book with No Pictures, and the hyperbolic editorial description of this collection.  (Yes, and the fact that he wrote for The Office.)


All that to say, I gave up on this after several short stories.  The very first one amused Jason and me both, but after that it was significantly less funny and I got tired of the frequent F-bombs.


Murder on Rosemary Street by Mary Fulk Larson




This was a short, easy murder lite.  I was a little "meh" until the final exciting scene, which did perk it up a good bit.  Not high literature, but a fun read nonetheless.


1 Peter


Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash


I read this through on my own, but we also studied part of chapter 2 in Bible study, about honoring authority:  "Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him."  Ouch, that was a convicting evening.


The King with Horse's Ears and Other Irish Folktales by Batt Burns




Very apropos to read Irish folktales this week of St. Patrick's Day, no?  Well, be warned:  the Irish are weird.  Or at least their folktales are.  I read several of these stories to Lizzy and Caleb for school.  They feature heavily on murderous kings and creepy black fairies that kidnap your babies.  So much for luck o' the Irish.


Job


Photo by Larm Rmah on Unsplash


I haven't finished yet (this read-through), because I've been sidetracked by...


The Gospel-Centered Life by Robert H. Thune and Will Walker




I've mentioned before that Jason and I are teaching a Sunday school class that meets on the first, third, and fifth Sundays.  I work in the infant nursery on second Sundays, which leaves me exactly one Sunday a month to attend an adult Sunday school class myself.  


The class I chose to attend this semester was on The Gospel-Centered Life.  Because of holidays, illness, out-of-towniness, and whatever else, I managed to attend exactly 2 of the classes.  And both of them were so good.  


The first one was about "shrinking the cross"; ie, what happens when our understanding of God's holiness grows, and our awareness of our sinfulness deepens, but our belief that the cross is enough to bridge that gap is lacking.  That's when we get into either performing, pretending, or incredible anxiety.




The other class I attended was the very last one of the course, about "conflict."  It talked about how we tend to either attack or withdraw when conflict presents (I prefer withdrawal), but neither one is biblical.  A biblical response to conflict is to move toward it with a hope of restoration.  That was deeply convicting.  

So, since the class was two for two, I decided to get the book and finish the material on my own.  I'm up to chapter 5 and it's very good stuff.


The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis


This was the oldest-looking cover I found on Amazon.  Seeing as my copy of the series was originally given to my older brother when he was in the fourth grade, the cover art is even older than this.  Mine depicts the four children passing through a doorway into the woods.


Caleb asked to reread this series at bedtime and I was only too happy to comply.  It's a blessed shift from reading aloud from The Guinness Book of World Records.  *shudders*


Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis


Hey!  I found an ancient copy with the same cover illustration as mine!  Although mine has a white background...


It's fun to see how much Caleb remembers from our original reading a year or so ago.  I know he's listening carefully because of how often he interrupts to say, "What does that mean?"  Points for expanding vocabulary.



What have you been reading lately?




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