Well, happy Friday, friends. As usual, I have nothing exciting to write about. Although, my mother did buy this donut for me to take work for breakfast on Monday. What a way to start the week!
I promptly channeled my inner Homer.
Mr. Smith also got the equivalent of a sweet, sweet donut in the form of a new bone.
As you know, his training continues to progress and he is now allowed to sit on his cot and watch TV/chew on his toys with me at night.
He’s a good boy. Even if does look at me like Oliver Twist when he wants another treat. I can’t resist his face, though, and he usually gets one!
Sometimes, he channels his inner Walt Whitman and/or Bob Dylan and reminds me that he contains multitudes and he’d prefer to look out the window and keep an eye on the hood. I usually allow it. And look what my sister spotted in “Where the Wild Things Are”–a Mr. Smith doppelganger!
Have a great Friday–you made it to the end of another week! **The title is from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”
During the week of VBS, all I can handle in the evening is to heat up a frozen pizza and watch reruns of Hawaii Five-0–the show that ran from 1968-1980, not the reboot (2010-2020).
Five-0, you will recall, was a special state police unit answering only to the Governor of Hawaii. It worked with Honolulu police to fight the underworld on the islands. The intro credits are iconic.
Det. Steve McGarrett led the team and always said, “Book ’em, Danno,” at the end of the show. Jack Lord, who played McGarrett, was 6 feet tall but looks much taller because his amazing hair gives him a good three inches of height.
I did not watch the show back in the day, although it was very popular with some boys I knew who liked to say, “Be there. Aloha.” It was an inside joke in their senior yearbook and all that. I think my father also watched it. He would have liked all those take-command kind of guys and frequent references to WWII and “Pearl”.
Anyway, I am enjoying it. Of course, the show was filmed entirely in Hawaii and that sets it apart as well. It is not Adam-12 on the backlot. (Although you know I love Malloy and Reed.)
Fun fact: The title of the show refers to Hawaii’s status as the 50th U.S. state; at the time of its premiere, Hawaii had officially been a U.S. state for only nine years.
Well, you know, I can’t always be reading the Psalms.
Well, I have made it through two days of VBS. The weather has been beautiful so no complaints there.
Everything is going according to well-laid plans. This is necessary when you have over 200 kids in attendance. And the boy assures me that the wee twins are practicing their songs and praise hands at home.
Besides praise singing, we do a lot of scripture memorizing using a variety of games. I ask you, what could be better for small children to learn and internalize than this:
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)
My girls won the “Multi Verse Games” yesterday in our age group, so I was very proud. (Not that there are prizes or anyone pays attention to who wins or loses, but still, I was pleased.) We also tied in our field hockey game using pool noodles.
So onward and upward and here’s part of a prayer by John Calvin:
Grant that I may hear your voice in the morning since I have hoped in you. Show me the way in which I should walk, since I have lifted up my soul unto you. Deliver me from my enemies, O Lord, I have fled unto you. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Let your good Spirit conduct me to the land of uprightness.
The boy had a good idea for a blogpost which he passed on to me. What movie death were you most effected by? That’s a hard one. There are a lot of sad deaths in movies, but which ones really affected you?
He said his was Luke’s death in Cool Hand Luke (1967)…
…and I said mine was John Russell’s in Hombre (1967).
Both deaths (by characters played by Paul Newman!) come as a terrible shock the first time you see the movie. You just can’t believe it.
I would also put Steve McQueen as Jake Holman in The Sand Pebbles (1966) on my list. “What the hell happened?”
I asked the OM and he thought of the 50 escaped prisoners who are lined up and murdered by the Nazis in The Great Escape (1964). Again it is a terrible shock when this happens. He also mentioned Von Ryan (Frank Sinatra) running for the train at the end of Von Ryan’s Express (1965) and not making it.
I also thought of those movies where a parent dies, such as Life is Beautiful (1997) or How Green Was My Valley (1941). But you have to admit that of those parental deaths, this one (inexplicably) takes the cake:
I still cannot watch that without tearing up.
So what movie death most deeply affected you?
P.S. In case you were wondering, John Wayne died in seven movies. In my opinion, the most affecting is in Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) because it is totally unexpected.
We had a quiet weekend. The twins came over with their dad on Saturday after their swimming lesson and they ran around wrecking some havoc. We ate bagels before they left to go to a birthday party. I watched our local auction house online auction, but didn’t make any rescues. When I suggested to the OM that we might go to dinner at the Cracker Barrel, he literally leapt out of his chair and was in the car before I could powder my nose.
We enjoyed our homestyle meals and were home by 6:00 pm. Such oldsters. I noticed later on Not the Bee that there has been some controversy surrounding Cracker Barrel and a boycott because they are too woke. That might explain why there were so few people there! (Note the empty tables above.)
In church the sermon was about Hosea as we have been delving into this book for the last month or so. Interestingly, Anne wrote about it too. “Just to recap, in case you haven’t cracked open ye olde holy scriptures recently, (paging Rick Warren…and basically everyone), Israel, upon settling into the Land that the Lord her God had given her, decided that worshiping the gods of the people who lived there was at least as interesting as offering sacrifices and praise to the Lord. It’s not that they didn’t “worship” God, it’s just that on the way home from the place God put his Name, it was expedient and sensible to also stop at various other shrines and sacrifice a child or two along with pouring libations on the ground and depositing other kinds of offerings in the nooks and crannies of their inheritance. The all-or-nothing nature of Temple worship didn’t really suit the people whom the Lord had called out from all the nations around, to worship him alone.” God just wants your steadfast love. Is that too much to ask?
After church I helped decorate for VBS. And, thank you Jesus, I now have a teenage helper assigned to me so I do not have to go it totally alone with the 4/5th grade girls this week. 🙌🙌🙌
I thought this was very interesting, especially considering my post last week about outlawing insult. Now Monty Python is in trouble (again)…Forty-four years later we’re certainly not allowed to laugh at this nonsense because it has become the truth:
I mean who would have guessed how spot on the Pythons were back in the day!
And just in time for VBS, Matt Mitchell has a new video about…VBS!
P.S. Look at the wee pup and how his training is going: Sit, boy!
Well here we are having reached Friday again. It has been both a dull and an eventful week for me. Work was exceedingly dull. As someone who has spent most of her career working in places that are a constant cycle of pressure, a dull week is not a burden. But it is slow. On the other hand, and sorry for the TMI, Mr. Smith ate something he found on the ground, I presume, on Tuesday evening, that, shall we say, did not agree with him. I was stressed but luckily the emergency vet hotline is helpful and told me not to give him any food or water all night.
By the next morning, he was fine. And tonight, he was back to normal and being very cute.
In other news, Willa Cather has joined the statues in the United States Capitol. I have been meaning to crack open some Cather and this is a good reminder to do so. It is also a reminder that a trip to Red Cloud, Nebraska should be on the travel list.
In other, unrelated, news, this made me laugh.
I learned a lot of classic literature plots from Wishbone. Luckily, someone out there has put a bunch of episodes on Youtube.
Boy that theme song takes. me. back. And kids really need to watch this after school.
One of the highlights of our home is a space we call the backroom—a three- or four-season Florida room (depending on the year) attached to the rear of the house. In the winter, the backroom’s windows help us feel that we’re getting enough sun. In the summer, the room is a great way to escape air conditioning and feel a little humidity on our skin. But spring is when the backroom really shines. There is so much life to see.
Although we haven’t seen any eggs, we think that they are in there. Every time the robin returns to the nest, she performs a side-to-side tush-scooch, nestling herself in.
And although the backroom has lots of books and toys, what really holds Katie’s interest is the yard beyond. She inherently wants to observe and discuss.
“To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even in the era of manhood.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature
When I showed Katie the second photo, she told me that the sparrow was holding a crumb. Now where would she get the idea that birds love crumbs?
From Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
* ”The Tables Turned” by William Wordsworth. (I couldn’t very well cite a 19th century American author without an offsetting British Romantic.)
Good grief. Isn’t it interesting that it is the comics that are standing up for free speech. I guess they understand the ludicrous.
Oy. Remember Don Rickles? “Mr. Warmth’–He insulted everyone.
I grew up in the 70s. We thought this was funny. Shame on us, right? Well, phooey. It’s a good thing that Don Rickles died in 2017 and he didn’t live to see the world as it is today. He wouldn’t believe it. He knew that the best way to deal with being continually insulted (as Jews have been throughout history) was to give it right back in the guise of humor. Oh, that we could all turn the other cheek and laugh.
At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” (I Kings 18:27)
The boy and the wee laddie went to the NASCAR race over in Illinois with his other Papaw on Sunday and had quite a day.
They saw all the cool stuff up close and personal.
The bud, who is, as you know, an experienced driver, even got to drive…
It was super hot, but they had super fun–perfect male bonding time.
On another note, this is a really interesting article/lecture about the cautionary tale of Alexander Hamilton and his late-blooming Christian faith. “God be merciful to me a sinner.”
Yes, it is full-on summer here in flyover country–hot and humid–and you better not walk barefoot on your asphalt driveway, that’s for sure. Heavy sigh. Well, we had a nice long spring and it was great while it lasted.
We kept a low profile this weekend, but Katie turned three in style back in Maryland.
She celebrated appropriately. (She is wearing her favorite vintage nightie, which my mother made for daughter #1/Aunt Mary about 36 years ago.)
Aunt Mary made her a tote bag with Pete the Cat fabric she found at Joann’s!
She immediately filled it up with books–a girl after our own hearts. Love the matching bow!
And, of course, there was cake!
I stayed after church on Sunday to go to a meeting for VBS volunteers–because, yes, I am once again doing my part, even after I said never again last year. This year I am on my own with 14 4th/5th graders! Am I crazy? Yes, yes I am. I will never be able to remember their names, much less keep track of them. I am praying for a teenage helper to step up to the plate.
I got a new t-shirt, since I threw mine away last year thinking I would never need it again. Well, I have a week to psych myself up for this. Please pray for me.
dual personalities 