While other people were busy packing boxes and moving things around, Katie and I worked on a craft project, which I bought at Hobby Lobby. We were so proud of ourselves when we completed it! Katie is very crafty!
Meanwhile the two boys did so much work, toting that barge and lifting that bale…
At bedtime Katie said, “Daddy and Uncle Wheelah did so many things. How could two guys be SO strong?” Indeed. We are also working on the OM’s office and reorganizing the basement. Daughter #1 is incredibly decisive–throw it away!–which I appreciate.
Well, today the prairie girls head home and I get back to work on my to-do list. What are you up to?
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17)
Well, how was your weekend? I crossed things off my to-do list and added yet more things. I drank a prodigious amount of wine with daughter #1 and ate dips. I made it to church where I recognized our corporate confession of sin from the BCP:
Most merciful God, We confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent, for the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.
Needless to say, I take this much more seriously than when I was an Episcopalian. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!
Daughter #2 arrived avec famille on Sunday afternoon and soon DN will be taking apart our twin beds which have been used by sisters in my family since the 1930s…
…and will grace the bedroom of a fourth generation shortly.
I mean, isn’t that great? DN and the boy will set up a full size bed later today in the bedroom where the twin beds were, so we will end up par for the course. They will then load up a rented truck with the twin beds (and more stuff) and DN will drive it back to Illinois on Tuesday. I am very happy that they are taking things!
I do love that northern part of the drive through cornfield after cornfield. I have learned with age to appreciate it. Flat and monotonous it may be to some, but it represents the very heartland of our great country, the fruited plain, to me.
Now August is here! When I left St. Louis on Tuesday it was 95 degrees, but now, following some rain, it is 20 degrees cooler and the forecast for the weekend is lovely. I hope we can fit in some driveway sittin’!
How was your weekend? Mine was pretty quiet despite Mr. Smith visiting. I had dinner with the boy and his family on Friday (pizza night) and that was delightful. I went to one estate sale on Saturday but it was a depressing one–a beautiful old house that had fallen to wrack and ruin, a real Miss Havisham experience. Daughter #1 came by on her way home from Indiana to pick up Mr. Smith and we enjoyed Happy Hour and dinner together.
You may recall that Saturday was the National Day of the Cowboy, one of my favorite days–“recognizing the contributions of cowboys and cowgirls to American culture and heritage.”
I did not celebrate until Sunday when I watched Red River (1948) which is my traditional choice. John Wayne, Montgomery Clift and a slew of great cowboys–the best. “We’re goung to Missouri with 10,000 head…”
The boy dropped the twins off at church with me on Sunday so that he could open his store. They were as good as gold and earned an A+ for their behavior. In fact, the wee bud announced “A+!” at the end of the service. As usual, as we arrived and sat in our pew, I thought it seemed like there weren’t many people. But as soon as the first hymn began, I looked around and the church was full of congregants and their voices rang out. When will I learn that Presbyterians do not arrive early! We sang great hymns and heard a very good sermon on Psalm 21. I left refreshed and restored.
Today I am getting ready to drive up to visit daughter #2 and her prairie family for a few days. I am also babysitting for the twins tonight while their parents go out to celebrate their 13th wedding anniversary.
If you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! Daughter #1 is going to Indiana for work, so I will be hanging tonight with my houseguest, Mr. Smith, probably binge-re-watching Only Murders In the Building together.
It is a little warm for a canine heating pad, but I’m not complaining. (Thank goodness for good ol’ American air conditioning.)
Yes, we are in the middle of a “heat wave” here in flyover country. Par for the course in July.
So keep cool as best you can, watch an old movie, pet a nice dog, and hang in there.
Today we remember American author Eudora Welty, who died on this day in 2001.
“It is our inward journey that leads us through time – forward or back, seldom in a straight line, most often spiraling. Each of us is moving, changing, with respect to others. As we discover, we remember; remembering, we discover; and most intensely do we experience this when our separate journeys converge. Our living experience at those meeting points is one of the charged dramatic fields of fiction. ”
–One Writer’s Beginnings
Today is also the anniversary of the death of Ulysses Grant in 1885. Let’s all take a moment to remember our 18th president. His funeral in New York City demonstrated the great love and admiration the country felt for their former president and Civil War hero. He was respected not only by comrades in arms but also by former enemies. Marching as pallbearers beside the Union generals William Tecumseh Sherman and Philip Sheridan were two Confederate generals, Joe Johnston and Simon Buckner.
On the home front, the Prairie Girls are very into art…
According to Katie, “Ida mostly draws abstracts.”
And this is a good take on Scottie Scheffler’s “secret”.
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. 8 They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright.
–Psalm 20:7-8
In church yesterday the sermon was on Psalm 20 and the hymns, appropriately, focused on trusting Jesus. We sang, among others, ‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus (Louisa M.R. Stead, 1882). When I was looking for a video, I found this great rendition by Alan Jackson:
How great is that?
And Scottie Scheffler won the British Open! Praise the Lord!
Yesterday was the OM’s birthday. He would have been 70 years old, but he died on June 30th.
He started to get sick around Easter. There were ups and downs–three stays in the hospital and a couple of weeks in a rehab facility in between. By the grace of God all our children were home and were able to see him before he died. He was ready. Our pastor had been by to see him that night and had reminded him: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” (John 10:27–29)
I didn’t feel like blogging for a long time, but I am feeling the urge again.
One thing I wanted to comment on was the passing of the great John MacArthur on July 14. Here is John Piper’s tribute. Anne Kennedy’s husband Matt said this:
I am grateful to God for John MacArthur. I remember listening to his sermons in the darkness of an Episcopalian seminary in the late 90s. I’m a cradle Episcopalian. It felt subversive, like smuggling bibles into communist China. But it was light and truth in a hard place. MacArthur’s boldness and unwavering commitment to the scriptures became a model for me that I’ve tried to live up to. Sure, I’m Anglican, so the list of things I disagree with him about isn’t short but the sheer courage of the man and his willingness to speak when others held their tongues….not to mention his deep love for his people, a love that led him to pour himself out from the pulpit Sunday by Sunday until his health failed him, we should honor such men and revere their memories. The world isn’t worthy of them.
I, too, in the dark days of my search for a new church found John MacArthur, along with R.S. Sproul, John Piper, Tim Keller et al. They taught me the true meaning of the Gospel. (Of course, not everyone agrees and some thought of him as “the Wicked Warlock of the West” and didn’t hesitate to call him that. It has always been thus.)
Into paradise may the angels lead you.
And here’s a poem by Seamus Heaney, care of my friend Don:
Mint
It looked like a clump of small dusty nettles
Growing wild at the gable of the house Beyond where we dumped our refuse and old bottles: Unverdant ever, almost beneath notice.
But, to be fair, it also spelled promise And newness in the back yard of our life As if something callow yet tenacious Sauntered in green alleys and grew rife.
The snip of scissor blades, the light of Sunday Mornings when the mint was cut and loved: My last things will be first things slipping from me. Yet let all things go free that have survived.
Let the smells of mint go heady and defenceless Like inmates liberated in that yard. Like the disregarded ones we turned against Because we’d failed them by our disregard.
As we have previously noted many times, May is an amazing month for birthdays what with Henry Fonda, James Stewart, John Wayne, Bob Dylan, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Walt Whitman–just to name a few. One could have a party every day!
Tomorrow is Bob Dylan’s 84th birthday. He is still touring and still recording–what a guy. We will be sure to toast him and listen to all our favorites.
And it is already the Memorial Day weekend! We have had to change a lot of plans this spring and this weekend we will be laying low, celebrating and honoring the men and women who gave their lives while serving in the US military in our own way by watching movies, including our favorite war movie, They WereExpendable (1945).
I haven’t been doing much besides taking the OM to doctor appointments and labs etc. (also my own doctor appointments and labs etc.) and trying to get him to eat. My second home is Missouri Baptist Hospital.
But I have read some helpful things. “The Bible is immensely practical. It explains life—and really, what other book can make that claim? It tells us about God and also about ourselves. It counsels us on how to live well, and gives perspective far below the surface of our troubles and struggles. It offers hope and the way to deep transformation.”
And when in doubt: Deuteronomy 29:29…
“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.“
And here are some thoughts about comfort. “I long to be comforted, but where do I find comfort?”
dual personalities 