I’m heading home from the prairie today. I had a super fun time with daughter #2 and her sweet family. We didn’t take many pics (and none where I didn’t look 100 years old) so sorry about that.
We hung up some pictures…
(The two Marys) and…
the American poets over Wes’s crib!
And we went to Costco…and picked up Katie at school three times…
I watched music videos on my phone with Ida and we sang along to our faves.
Best days or my worst If I’m last or if I’m first Sunshine or rain The sky might fall but You remain
If the whole world’s in your hands Lord And mercy’s always new Then why would I be anxious When it’s all just the same to you
Just the usual stuff. It was a beautiful week in flyover country.
Hello, readers. Daughter #1 here. It has been quite awhile since I last did a blog post. I have been very busy the past few weeks and I came down with a cold last week (on top of a wild week at work). Anyway, I’m back today. And will make all of you think it is Friday when it is (sadly) only Wednesday.
Given the lack of any new programming to watch, I have been filling my evenings with Inspector Lewis on Britbox. A spinoff of the Inspector Morse series, the show ran from 2006-2015. It takes place in Oxford which has real Sunnydale vibes given the number of murders that take place in each episode. It’s not a great show—but it keeps my interest. Although, by now I have figured out the formula and can identify the killer pretty early on (tooting my own horn, yes).
In more exciting news, I am having my deck (it has proven too delicious for the backyard squirrels and a giant groundhog that lives there) replaced with a patio. The work begins tomorrow and hopefully I’ll have a picture to share in my next blogpost. Fingers crossed it all goes according to plan.
Finally, Mr. Smith got a haircut. He was getting really quite shaggy and now you can see his eyes and he can see out of his eyes!
I hope the rest of your week is pleasant. I am, of course, already ready for the weekend.
Another beautiful day in flyover land–perfect for running errands, which I did in preparation for hitting the road today. Yes, I am heading again to the prairie! Pray for smooth travels in the speedwagon, good weather and good health to everyone involved!
I also went over to my friend Eleanor’s house yesterday to watch a movie on her bigscreen TV (she has a new, even bigger TV now). We watched Hamnet (2025). I had low expectations for the movie and it was, in reality, much worse than imagined. Dark, unremittingly dreary. Hardly anyone smiles during the entire movie. I knew it would be very earthy–yes, we get to watch Agnes give birth three times in 16th century England where everyone is portrayed as unclean and disheveled. There is lots of screaming and groaning then and then again when her children are older and have bubonic plague. I guess this is what passes for great acting these days. But it is a one-note movie. The pace never changes. It asks the question, did Shakespeare write Hamlet as a way to process his grief over his son Hamnet’s death? The answer would be yes, but the movie never presents Will Shakespeare as a person remotely capable of doing so.
“What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an Angel! in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals! And yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me; no, nor Woman neither; though by your smiling you seem to say so…” (Hamlet, Act 2 Scene 2)
And, of course, there is no spiritual element in the movie. Agnes is basically a pagan woman of the wood. Please.
If I had been watching it at home, I would have turned it off, but, alas, I could not.
In the meantime, I could really relate to this article by a Garden & Gun editor about hints for traveling with your boomer Mom. On a trip to Ireland, the author and her mother even took a side trip to Cong after watching The Quiet Man. If they are “unhinged” then so are we.
Friday I went out to lunch with some old work friends and then went to Mudd’s Grove to pick up some stuff. I went to Lowe’s and bought some Petunias which I planted in pots. In the late afternoon daughter #1 and I drove out to the boy’s house for a BBQ with the fam. Mmmm, smashburgers! More socializing than I usually do in a whole week!
On Saturday morning I got up and went to our last DAR meeting until the fall. It was also daughter #1’s last meeting as Regent! We also installed new officers–I’m the chapter Chaplain now–and gave out awards to deserving students from Ritenour and Jennings High Schools and to the mayor of Kirkwood. A couple of veterans were also recognized. It was a big morning. Daughter #1 and I headed to our favorite winery afterwards to celebrate.
As I have said before, this is a favorite spring/summer activity: it was lovely to sit in the beautiful sunshine in Hillsboro, MO and listen to live music and drink wine. It was hopping, so we were glad we brought our back-up folding chairs, portable table and picnic blanket. We have learned to be prepared!
On Sunday I went to church with the boy and the twins. The middle-school-aged son of our music director played Schumann’s Kinderszenen, Op. 15: I. Von fremden Ländern und Menschen as the prelude to worship:
It was a treat even the twins appreciated! Our pastor continued his sermon series on Joshua (20-21) and we sang good hymns. I went to a good adult ed class on evangelism. The boy and the twins went home to spend the day with their sweet mother and I went to brunch with daughter #1.
And daughter #2 was feted by her family…
My cup runneth over.
Angels, help us to adore Him, Ye behold Him face to face; Sun and moon, bow down before Him; Dwellers all in time and space, Praise Him, praise Him, alleluia! Praise with us the God of grace.
It’s Friday again–can you believe it? I have a busy day ahead of me with multiple things to do. The weekend will be pretty busy as well. Unfortunately it is supposed to rain, but we had a lovely, cool week, so I can’t really complain.
Don’t forget that Sunday is Mother’s Day! If you are lucky enough to still have a mother, give her a call or take her out to lunch after church. If you don’t, think about your mother and all that you owe her. Even if she wasn’t a paragon of maternal virtue, she gave you life. And remember all those women–sisters, wives, aunts, old ladies who sit in your pew and wonder where you are when you’re not there–who have helped and nurtured and supported you through the years.
In the meantime here are some good things to read…
This is a helpful essay about raising children to be “reality respecters”: “If we believe God made the world and our children, we’ll teach them that the only way to be in touch with reality is to look at the world the way God looks at it. As a believing parent, I have a duty to teach my children to question whether their feelings fit the way things are.”
This is interesting: At the recent World Architecture Festival—an annual international gathering of leading figures where prestigious prizes are awarded—the biggest prize of all was awarded to a church. But what a hideous structure! “It looks like a prison chapel designed by Screwtape to cause all who enter in to abandon hope. I do believe it would make Soviet atheist architects proud. Most of all, here is what a church should look like if Christ never rose from the dead.” It’s almost as ugly as this.
And here’s a poem by John Newton, “Saturday Evening”.
Safely through another week, God has brought us on our way; Let us now a blessing seek, On th’ approaching Sabbath-day: Day of all the week the best, Emblem of eternal rest.
That’s a photo of an Allium (Allium giganteum) in Don’s yard. Isn’t it impressive? I’ve always wanted one in my yard. As he says, “Who doesn’t love a ball of purple stars?”
Well, I have been crossing items off my to-do list this week. And patting myself on the back as I go.
I also did my small group homework, reading Matthew 13…
“Hear then the parable of the sower: 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. 20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. 22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
Those darn thorns, right? He who has ears, let him hear.
Did you hear that the Department of Education is investigating my alma mater Smith College, one of the “Seven Sisters” all-female colleges, for violations of Title IX regarding discrimination on the basis of sex? “An all-women’s college loses all meaning if it is admitting biological males,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey, said in a statement. Smith College changed its policy in 2015 to consider any applicant who self-identifies as a woman.
I am LOL-ing so hard.
And the Babylon Bee hits the nail on the head once again:
Yesterday I had lunch with one of my old friends from my flyover university. In the past I have met him at his retirement community and we eat lunch there, but he wanted to go out, so I took him to Shake Shack which is nearby and has good parking. I was a little nervous about getting in and out of my car with his walker and generally maneuvering around safely, but all went well. We had a delightful time talking about poetry and J.D. Salinger, the University of Illinois, and getting older. Quite a free-wheeling conversation. He believes the universe is all particles and energy, but we recited the 23rd psalm together and it was nice.
On the way to pick him up, Joy99 played this new Matt Maher song, so I knew everything would be all right:
Today we toast William George Beers (May 5, 1841 – December 26, 1900) who was a Canadian dentist who founded Canada’s first dental journal and served as the founding dean of the Dental College of the Province of Quebec. In addition, he is referred to as the “father of modern lacrosse” for his work establishing the first set of playing rules for the game.
In 1860, Beers began to codify the first written rules of the modern game. Prior to this, all rules of the game needed to be decided prior to each game. Some of the rules established by Beers were the size of, and the use of a rubber lacrosse ball, that the lacrosse stick could be any length, but the pocket needed to be flat in the absence of a ball, length of the field to 200 yards (180 m), size of the goal and goal crease, twelve members of a team on the field at a time, and the length of a match to first to reach five goals, or lead by three. In the process of standardizing the game, Beers removed the spiritual and ritual components present in its predecessor, the First Nations game of baggataway, and was unapologetic in its appropriation: “Just as we claim as Canadian the rivers and lakes and land once owned exclusively by Indians, so we now claim their field game as the national field game of our dominion”.
Did you know that field lacrosse was a medal sport in the 1904 and the 1908 Summer Olympics? It will be again in 2028! This time around the appropriation of lacrosse from the Native Americans will no doubt have to be recognized by some sort of “game acknowledgement”, but c’est la vie.
(Ball Players by George Catlin)
Recently an ADT tech came to my house to update my alarm system and he noticed this photo on my wall. He asked if it was my son and if he played lacrosse. I said, yes, it was, and he said that he played lacrosse and we had a nice conversation about the sport. He had learned to play at Matthews-Dickey Boys Club in the city and then played at Lutheran North. Character-building, I tell ya! It’s a small world.
How was your weekend? Our flyover weather was gloriously beautiful, but my weekend was pretty quiet. I finished reading The Little Ark by Jan de Hartog and I was genuinely moved by it, especially the way the Dutch people step up to help in a catastrophe…
On Saturday I got up and went to Trader Joe’s to buy flowers for Sunday. The flower corner was mobbed–mostly with teenage girls. Is it prom season or something? I could hardly fight my way through to see the flowers and I just grabbed some blue hydrangeas, some lilies and a little baby’s breath and hightailed it out of there. I went to church and arranged them and I think they looked pretty.
While I waited around for the Women’s Spring Luncheon at 11:00, I stapled some handouts for the young ladies organizing the event. We had soup and salad and breadsticks and my friend Mary Beth gave the talk on spiritual gifts. Afterwards I went to an estate sale at a nice house, but I didn’t find anything to buy/rescue. C’est la vie.
Meanwhile daughter#1 kept me in the prairie loop!
On Sunday, I went to church with the boy and the twins where we sang two of Lottie’s favorite hymns, including Ida’s favorite:
We sang with vigor!
The sermon was on Joshua 14:1-19:51 which covered a lot of territory, but it was excellent. Then I went to adult ed and then to the grocery store to pick up my staples (egg salad, bread, Chex Mix, and carrot sticks). Then on to the bud’s lacrosse game. He took some face-offs!
After catching up with the boy and daughter #3 I was off to the kennel to pick up Mr. Smith! We came home and collapsed and waited for daughter #1 to return.
She is home now and picked up Mr. Smith. We had a glass of wine in the Florida Room. All is well–today I have nothing on my agenda but some “desk work”.
P.S. We have a member of our church who is a neurosurgeon and he also plays the violin. On Sunday, as the prelude to our Call to Worship he played Elgar’s “Nimrod” of the Enigma Variations. It is pretty great, and always worth a listen:
The other day when I was perusing the shelves at the local public library I found this book published back in 2013, which I had missed at the time.
I like reading about old J.D. so I checked it out. His experiences in WWII are really terrifying–not that they are different or worse than a lot of men’s–but to be reminded of what they went through at Utah Beach and then in the Battle of the Bulge–especially in the Hürtgen Forest campaign in the September-December of ’44 is terrifying. He won five battle stars. To have survived all that and then to move on to liberating concentration camps where the emaciated dead bodies were piled like cord wood…how did any of those men expect to lead “normal” lives when they returned to their homes in the U.S.? I think J.D. did pretty well considering. No wonder he wanted to disappear in Cornish, NH and be the anonymous man at the Congregational Church roast beef dinners.
I am also re-reading Jan de Hartog’s novel The Little Ark, published in 1953 about two Dutch children who survive the catastrophic North Sea flooding of the dykes in the Netherlands during 1953. (It was the worst natural disaster of the 20th century in the United Kingdom and the worst in the Netherlands since the Middle Ages.) Powerful stuff, to say the least.
I’m glad I have some good reading material, since daughter #1 is driving up to visit her prairie sister et al today. Mr. Smith is going to the kennel/spa to hang out with the boyz and get a makeover. He kinda needs it. (#rude)
I’ll pick him up on Sunday for some therapy time.
Have a good weekend! Read a book, pet a nice dog, go to church!
dual personalities 