dual personalities

Tag: family

October 28, 2024

Shine in my heart, Lord Jesus

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? Mine was rather quiet as daughter #1 was visiting daughter #2 et famille in Illinois. I went to our church’s women’s retreat on Saturday which included fellowship and lunch and a lot of crafts. I made bath bombs and sugar scrub, cards, and painted a mug.

My bath bombs turned out pretty well, but the rest of my crafts left a lot to be desired. Otherwise though, it was fun and I had a good time hanging out with a wide array of ladies–young and old.

I went home and watched the Mizzou-Alabama game but that was a bust. And by that I mean, super-bust.

On Sunday I once again helped with the Sunday School after the early church service. The twins were with me this time so that was interesting. After our together time with all the grades learning about Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, the leader, Mrs. Haynes, told everyone where to go–first and second graders with Mrs. Compton–and I saw the bud take her aside and say, “You can call her Mamu–that’s her real name.” I felt like the Velveteen Rabbit.

We had prayer requests and talked more about the Ethiopian eunuch and evangelism and we made bookmarks. This was mine:

The bud’s bookmark had a depiction of the Titanic sinking and an F5 tornado–Jesus is always with us. (I don’t mean to leave Lottie out, but her behavior is just so much more prosaic.) In church the twins continue to keep their natural depravity in check and I am very proud of them.

Meanwhile the prairie girls entertained their aunt and Mr. Smith, who was a good boy.

Daughter #1 made it home with Mr. Smith and I went over to their house and had dinner with them. Later at home I watched The Sixth Sense (1999) as part of my October movie viewing. I really like that movie. I remember the first time I saw it 25 years ago in a hotel in Worcester, MA with my sister. It was pretty scary.

Bruce Willis was never better. The world is more than we know.

So have a good week. Hang in there.

4 Comments
October 21, 2024

I labour on in weakness and rejoicing

by chuckofish

Well, I have been sick in bed for the last four days, binge-watching NYPD Blue and sleeping. I did get up on Sunday to go to church and assist at Sunday School out of my sense of duty–yes, I volunteered to help with the 1-2 graders–but my co-teacher emailed me Sunday morning that she had a migraine and wasn’t going, but not to worry she had lined up a substitute. Zut alors! Life is complicated.

It all worked out, as the Sunday School is a well-oiled machine with many moving parts and I was able to drift along in a DayQuill haze. The woman who does the main lesson for the entire Sunday School, after which we break up into our smaller groups, is amazing. She was telling the story of Stephen, the first Christian martyr–not an easy one. By the end of the lesson the kids were all singing “Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me” with gusto–all verses–boys unabashedly included. Now I understand why everyone sings in church–they learn early!

When we broke into groups we had prayer requests and then we talked briefly about the lesson and then we made little megaphones that said “I will tell about Jesus” (like Stephen). My grandchildren did not make it to church so they missed out on this, but I was happy to have this glimpse of what they are experiencing when they do go. I will be glimpsing it for the next four weeks.

This weekend I also watched two of my favorite “spooky” movies–M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs (2002) and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) which I thoroughly enjoyed. I highly recommend them both.

Mr. Smith watched Signs at his house and he concurs.

Meanwhile, if you are looking for something intelligent to read, here’s another good one from Carl Trueman.

This is a great article. I hear this woman loud and clear. “What is the chief end of woman? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. If social media is succeeding in convincing us that our purpose here is less than this, then we are being deceived. God didn’t place us here to chase every pleasure that seems like it will make us momentarily happy. He didn’t create us to constantly examine our happiness on a scale of 1 to 100. He created us to bring Him glory and to find satisfaction in Him alone, in whichever arena that He has mapped out for us.”

Have a good week! Refuse to play by the rules of the postmodern game! Choose God’s glory over self! Pray hard.

3 Comments
October 14, 2024

Be thou my battle shield

by chuckofish

Well, things are getting back to normal after our exciting travels/recovery. We even had a DAR meeting on Saturday. Madame Regent (daughter #1) asked me to step in and be the Chaplain for the meeting, which I enjoyed. I was praised for my extemporaneous grace before our meal, but as a former Episcopalian, it was hardly off-the-cuff.

Give us grateful hearts, O Father,

For all thy mercies

And make us mindful of the needs of others;

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

We had a guest speaker from the Gateway Arch Park Foundation, who was very interesting. We were reminded, of course, by a former regent that it was our Cornelia Greene Chapter who gave the original beacon which tops the Arch and that two dauntless ladies from the chapter made a presentation up there back in 1974. Indeed, the ladies stood on a 5-foot flat section and were warned to stay in the middle as there was no railing! Everything went fine, except a helicopter from a local news station spotted Mrs. Schoetker’s orange pantsuit and reported all afternoon that there was a jumper on the Arch! (We have a photo to prove this.)

You gotta love it.

It is time to sponsor Wreaths Across America–a donation ensures the placement of a veteran’s Christmas wreath for one or more veterans laid to rest at participating national cemeteries. I sponsor wreaths for my father and for my father-in-law. Lest we forget. If you would like to sponsor a wreath(s) go here.

Our Sunday church service was outside on the lawn and it was a beautiful sunny morning. Just perfect. The boy and the twins joined me and helped me with my folding chairs. I noticed that there was a Tesla Cybertruck in the parking lot and when I pointed it out to the bud, he could hardly contain his excitement. At the end of the service all the little boys in the congregation swarmed the area where it was parked. I should have taken a picture! It was pretty funny. I never did find out to whom the truck belongs.

One little boy asked me if it was my truck and I said, No. He said, My grandpa has a Cybertruck Beast which is five times faster than the Cybertruck. “As fast as a cheetah!” Boys do not change. Thank God.

Meanwhile daughter #2, DN and the prairie girls went to a fall festival and went on a hayride!

Team Pink Shoes

And I am very proud of Mr. Smith who can now ride in the front seat like a big boy. (He prefers to sit in the driver’s lap and look out the window, but…the front seat is a big step up from the crate in the back.)

This article about how one Florida zoo got creative to keep its animals safe during both hurricanes was very interesting.

This article expresses what I have been thinking about lately: No little people, no little places. “Jesus commands Christians to seek consciously the lowest room. All of us—pastors, teachers, professional religious workers and nonprofessional included—are tempted to say, ‘I will take the larger place because it will give me more influence for Jesus Christ.’ … But according to the Scripture this is backwards: We should consciously take the lowest place unless the Lord himself extrudes us into a greater one.” (Remember Luke 14:10.)

Have a good week. Fight the good fight.

Be Thou my battle shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tow’r:
Raise Thou me heav’nward, O Pow’r of my pow’r.

    –Ancient Irish poem, translated by Mary E. Byrne, 1905, versified by Eleanor H. Hull, 1912

    3 Comments
    September 30, 2024

    “Here and yonder, high and low, Goldenrod and sunflowers glow”*

    by chuckofish

    I did the flowers for church on Sunday–sunflowers make such a statement, don’t you think? I have a soft spot in my heart for them because years ago at my highfalutin’ Episcopal Church, the wife of the new rector put sunflowers on the altar and the frozen chosen ladies of the church were outraged. So when they are in season and available at Trader Joe’s, I always use them.

    The OM and I went to the early service (and stayed for Sunday School) so we could finish early and get packed before going to the bud’s soccer game later in the afternoon.

    This was accomplished and we brought daughter #1 home with us so that we could all get up at 3:00 am to Uber to the airport. Yikes.

    While we are gone on our western adventure, daughter #2 will be filling in with literary thoughts and tales of the prairie girls…

    …and updates of our travels. So be sure to stop by the blog this week.

    And please don’t forget to keep us in your prayers.

    And here’s a reminder from Tim Challies (and Hank Williams) not to let the dust gather on your Bible.

    *Robert Kelley Weeks (1840–76)

    8 Comments
    September 23, 2024

    Postcards from the weekend

    by chuckofish

    How was your weekend? Mine was pretty quiet compared to recent ones. No visitors, no parties. Just the usual.

    It was so hot at the bud’s soccer game that Pappy left his fleece in the car! It was even hotter for the players and coaches.

    Before the game daughter #1 and I went to an estate sale and we got a few odds and ends, such as this classic book from 1922…

    Donald Ogden Stewart, you will recall, was an American humorist, actor, playwright, and screenwriter, who won a 1940 Oscar for his screenplay adaption of The Philadelphia Story.

    I also worked on a new puzzle…It was a fun one!

    Life in the fast lane.

    We went to church with the twins and they once again checked their depravity at the door. I am very proud of them. I had to sign them into Sunday School using the new system which you do on an iPad which then prints out a name tag and a receipt which you use when you pick them up. It was pretty complicated for this old lady, but I managed somehow. Quite a reflection on our modern world, but okay, I get it. The subject of our adult Sunday School was church discipline, which in light of this was especially interesting. Anne had this to say about that.

    The trouble is—well, there are so many troubles, but one of them is—that the only way for Christians to live peaceably together in the Kingdom of God is if they really understand down in the depths of their hearts that they are really so bad, that their inclinations are so ugly that unless God does something, they have no hope. And this is a hard saying, for none of us really believe that we are that bad. Our sins are “struggles.” They are just us being “broken.” They are the result of our childhoods. They are because other people are selfish and didn’t consider us more highly than themselves. They are because we didn’t have the same opportunities as other people. There are a thousand reasons why those stray vile thoughts about other people are not my fault. But the seedbed of peace is, as James says, humility, and humility is the result of looking into your own soul and seeing that you have thoughts and desires in there that would destroy the whole world.

    Read the whole thing.

    Here’s another good article from Carl Trueman: “Ours is a childish age…That is not to say that the matters at stake in both church and world are not deeply serious. But the idioms for addressing them have become infantile, and the church must resist the temptation to follow the world in this. To seek relevance therefore requires not capitulation to, or emulation of, the infantile, but rather a recapturing of what it means to be an adult.”

    Also, John Piper on A Christian Alternative to Outrage Culture

    And do we have a bear story? Yes! A 12-year old boy saved his father from being killed by a bear! No kidding.

    Meanwhile, the prairie girls were grooving to an Oom-pah band…

    And here’s a reminder: Happiness is a warm puppy.

    Have a good week!

    5 Comments
    September 16, 2024

    Then sings my soul

    by chuckofish

    Busy, busy weekend! I am now a person who takes naps to survive exciting times.

    I went to daughter #1’s first DAR chapter meeting as regent on Saturday morning. She handled it like a pro as I knew she would. (I have transferred to her chapter.)

    Of course, I didn’t take a picture of the meeting after it started…c’est la vie. We had breakfast and then the meeting, followed by the program, which she presented: DAR 101. I learned a lot.

    I was interested to learn that one early member of our chapter was Dr. Mary Walker, who served as a surgeon during the Civil War. Assigned to the Army of the Cumberland and later the 52nd Ohio Infantry, she was the first female surgeon in the US Army. She was captured by Confederate forces after crossing enemy lines to treat wounded civilians and arrested as a spy. She was then sent as a prisoner of war to Richmond, VA until released in a prisoner exchange. She is the only female to receive the Medal of Honor.

    Pretty awesome. She tried to join the DAR in NYC, but they wouldn’t let her in because she wore pants. Yay, Cornelia Greene Chapter for being more open-minded.

    Daughter #2 and DN arrived with the prairie girls around dinner time and we had toasted ravioli and daughter #1 opened some presents.

    It was a full day.

    On Sunday we got up bright and early and went to the early service at church and to Sunday School, then headed home and on to our favorite Wild Sun Winery to continue celebrating daughter #1’s birthday in our favorite style. We were joined by several of her friends (ages 3-96) as well as the boy and his family. A good time was had by all and the rain held off til it was time to go home.

    Everyone conked out on the drive home…

    Good times.

    4 Comments
    September 11, 2024

    “Teach me, Lord, to number my days that I may get a heart of wisdom”*

    by chuckofish

    Today we celebrate the birthday of our firstborn, lovely daughter #1!

    We will toast her today and through the weekend! What a blessing our adult children are to us!

    Happy birthday, precious cupcake of love!

    I will say that nothing makes a person realize how life speeds by more than one’s own children reaching their own age milestones. In this vein, I enjoyed this reminder that life is too brief to waste. “[A] heart of wisdom recognizes that while each day of mortal life is very brief, it is profoundly significant because its minutes and hours are priceless. Each brief day of mortal life counts, not just for an earthly life well-lived, but for eternity.”

    And for all of us who stress about the current state of the world, let us take heart and read Psalm 2:

    Why do the nations rage
        and the peoples plot in vain?
    2 The kings of the earth set themselves,
        and the rulers take counsel together,
        against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
    3 “Let us burst their bonds apart
        and cast away their cords from us.”

    4 He who sits in the heavens laughs;
        the Lord holds them in derision.
    5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
        and terrify them in his fury, saying,
    6 “As for me, I have set my King
        on Zion, my holy hill.”

    7 I will tell of the decree:
    The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
        today I have begotten you.
    8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
        and the ends of the earth your possession.
    9 You shall break them with a rod of iron
        and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

    10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
        be warned, O rulers of the earth.
    11 Serve the Lord with fear,
        and rejoice with trembling.
    12 Kiss the Son,
        lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
        for his wrath is quickly kindled.
    Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

    * Psalm 90:12

    5 Comments
    September 9, 2024

    Postcards from the weekend

    by chuckofish

    We had absolutely perfect weather this weekend–cool, sunny, breezy, no humidity. We did all the things. DN went to his wedding and we had serious Compton Lady time…

    We went to the Missouri Botanical Garden where I had not been for literally years. The Koi are almost gone! The geese have taken over! Otherwise, it looked great.

    We watched the bud play soccer…

    I made it to church and to a great Sunday School class on Being Presbyterian.

    Doubtless, were we to regard things as they appear, the kingdom of Christ would seem often to be on the verge of ruin. But the promise, that Christ shall never be thrust from his seat, takes away from us every fear.

    –John Calvin

    A perfect weekend.

    Now to recover.

    3 Comments
    September 5, 2024

    It’s all right to be little bitty

    by chuckofish

    As the school year commences, we find ourselves getting busier and busier. My Bible Study has started up again. The wee bud has soccer practice and games will be starting soon. Lottie is back in her after-school dance class in Kirkwood, so that means that the boy brings the wee bud over to play while they wait to pick her up. It is a fun time for all, as I get to talk to the boy and the bud gets to do what he wants without having to share anything with his sister, including Mamu’s bowl of candy corn.

    Later today daughter #2 is coming to town for a few days, while DN flies out of St. Louis to attend a wedding. I’m looking forward to seeing the prairie girls…

    Maybe I can get Katie to wash some windows…

    And, hey, football season has commenced so that means Matt Mitchell is back with his SEC Roll Call…

    I might even watch an occasional Mizzou game to stay in the loop.

    This is a good reminder that God is working amid the mundane moments of life. “While faithful plodding gets no fanfare, our labors in Christ will not be in vain. We honor Christ as we go about the millions of little moments in our lives: holding a baby, cooking a meal, leading our home, providing through work.”

    And this is the cutest thing I’ve seen in a long time. He’s got the moves.

    Enjoy your day!

    3 Comments
    September 3, 2024

    Your children will be like olive shoots around your table*

    by chuckofish

    Look at that blue sky! Our little trip to Laumeier Sculpture Park on Labor Day morning was a success.

    Mr. Smith got pretty worn out by the end, and had to be carried part of the way, but we all had fun.

    I hadn’t been there in a couple of years. The twins had never been there at all and were introduced to the concept of “Sculpture”.

    I don’t think they were that impressed, but enjoyed doing something different and seeing all the other dogs. Likewise Mr. Smith.

    We went home and ate bagels and apples and then we watched the end of Ghostbusters, which we had started a few weeks ago. Then we played outside and then they played inside with Legos and then their dad picked them up. I collapsed.

    It was a pleasant long weekend. Scottie Scheffler won the FedEx Cup! (He’s had quite a year–It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.)

    And I watched a couple of good movies, notably The Undefeated (1969) with John Wayne and Rock Hudson and The Best of Times (1986) with Robin Williams and Kurt Russell.

    I felt better after watching both of these movies, which is not something you feel a lot these days, you know what I mean?

    Now I am getting ready for the arrival of daughter #2 and her famille on Thursday. Can’t wait to see these little firecrackers…

    They’ve sure got the moves.

    So, welcome, September! Stay positive! Pet a nice dog, take a walk in the sunshine, watch an old movie.

    *Psalm 128:3

    3 Comments