Today is the boy’s birthday! He was born on the day after Thanksgiving 39 years ago. Since it is Black Friday, he will be working all day on his birthday, but we will celebrate on Sunday. He deserves a party!
I hope your Thanksgiving was a good day. We had a lovely feast at the boy’s house with all the fixins.
And we watched Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) for, like, the 38th time.
How was your weekend? Mine was pleasantly uneventful. Daughter #1 and I were moderately successful at an estate sale run by our favorite company–and by that I mean we got quite a few books and DVDs for an amazing Lamar discount.
The highlight of the weekend was going to church and seeing the boy and his family stand up in front of the congregation and be welcomed as new members. When the wee bud returned to our pew he said, “That was the best moment I’ve ever had!” They have been attending for four years, so I don’t think the twins really understood what was happening, but something clicked. We sang good hymns and, I must say, it melts my heart to hear little Lottie singing in her sweet falsetto “Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe; sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow” from memory beside me.
We also had a great sermon on the final verses of Philippians–4:10-23–and an in-context explanation of I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Ah, the secret of Christian contentment: you may not get what you want, but you will get what you need.
My adult ed class was a panel of elders talking about various topics, including stewardship, and it was very instructive and so incredibly different from my experience in the various Episcopal churches I have attended over the years. At Covenant the session sets a budget and trusts the Lord will provide. There is no lengthy Every Member Canvas, no fund-raising, no talk of gross vs. net pay. This continues to blow my mind. When there is an opportunity to preach about giving from the Gospel lesson, as there was on Sunday, the pastor talks about giving: And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
We went to the Sunny Street Cafe after church to celebrate and daughter #1 met us there. We gobbled down our food and talked about her business trip to Wyoming and Devil’s Tower and giant coal-mining equipment much to the twins’ amazement. The bud already knew all about Devil’s Tower and the legend of the two Indian sisters and the bear, because he is a whiz on landmarks. Speaking of bears, did you know they are wrecking havoc in Japan? Neither twin knew there were bears in Japan and were skeptical when I told them.
I am re-reading Shane by Jack Schaefer and enjoying it. It is interesting to see how it is different from the movie and how the screenplay (in the hands of the great A.B. Guthrie) changes some things and emphasizes others to make a truly great film. I can’t wait to watch it again soon.
Have a great week–be thankful for your many blessings! Be content, give generously, rejoice. Greet every saint in Christ Jesus.
(And pet a nice dog.)
Praise, my soul, the King of heaven; to his feet your tribute bring. Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven, evermore his praises sing. Alleluia, alleluia! Praise the everlasting King!
But we urge you, brothers…to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. (I Thessalonians 4: 10-12)
It’s finally Friday! I picked up Mr. Smith yesterday without any drama and he slept the afternoon away after his busy stay at the kennel. We had some lap time and watched Fox News for awhile before dinner. (He loves Tyrus.)
I went to my community group in the evening where we started a new study on Matthew, so he had a quiet night.
Daughter #1 made it home and I will leave it to her to tell you about her latest foray out West, but she did send this picture:
FYI Devils Tower National Monument was the first U.S. national monument, established on September 24, 1906, by President Theodore Roosevelt. She and one of her co-workers hiked around it and luckily did not encounter any bears on the trail.
This Sunday the boy and the twins are formally joining our church during the morning service, so I am excited about that. We will probably celebrate afterwards at the Sunny Street Cafe. Now all three of my “kids” will be members of PCA churches. (Daughter #1’s church is actually OPC, but I won’t quibble.) Praise the Lord.
My Halloween was pretty quiet, per usual. Mr. Smith came over and kept an eye on things…
…while daughter #1 and I had “dips for dinner”…
Of course, Mr. Smith got dressed up…
(That’s peanut butter around his mouth–bribery to get him into his costume! It took two of us and he went full terrier on us.)
On Saturday I got up early and went to Trader Joe’s to buy flowers and then to church to arrange them for Sunday.
I went to an estate sale and to Hobby Lobby and helped move some stuff into daughter #1’s car. Then I took it easy for the rest of the day. I watched Westward the Women (1951) which is a really fine movie about a wagon train full of women going to California in 1851. It is very well directed by William Wellman and conveys realistically what these female pioneers went through without preaching a modern agenda. I wept through much of it.
On Sunday I went to church and heard a rousing sermon on Philippians 3:12-16. We sang good hymns and heard from missionaries in Portugal. After Sunday School we went to the Sunny Street Cafe for brunch and I heard about the twins’ Halloween in their new neighborhood which looked like super fun.
Later in the day I went to a DAR tea for the State Regent at Mudd’s Grove, the headquarters of the Kirkwood Historical Society. So I got to wear two nametags. (HaHa)
It was a full weekend!
Plus this:
But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Well, I had an easy trip up and back to outstate-Illinois in my Mini Countryman, which is a speed demon on the windy prairie highway and zooms across the cornfields like the Autobahn. I do love my car.
If I ever want to fly Mulholland Drive I am alive
Hollywood is under me I’m Martin Sheen I’m Steve McQueen I’m Jimmy Dean
DN went to his conference and I helped daughter #2, who is in the large basketball phase of her pregnancy, with the prairie girls. We went to Home Depot to buy paint for a bathroom update …
…they were into it. It was a whole scene.
Back home, I got up on Sunday and met the boy and the twins at church. I had missed the week before when I was in Virginia so it seemed like forever (two weeks)–how nice to be back! Our pastor gave a really good sermon on Philippians 3:1-11 (and even made an unusual, but appropriate, reference to Mike Wazowski, which made the bud perk right up.) Where does our confidence come from? The righteousness of God that depends on faith!
As Reformation Day approaches (October 31), we sang “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”, plus a selection of 19th century and 21st century hymns, plus a mighty solo rendition of the Fernando Ortega hymn, “Give Me Jesus”–perfect.
It was a gloomy and rainy Sunday afternoon, so I opted to stay home and not go to the bud’s soccer game(s). As Mamu I am allowed to do that.
Have a good week! Here’s a poem:
And maybe it was a bar tune, Maybe not, but there we were, hunched over too-small desks in History 101, all ninety-five freshmen humming— by need not desire—every note, every verse of Luther’s best-loved hymn, Our helper He… the right man on our side as we scribbled, hands almost numb, the body they may kill – his theology of lyrics, our theology – from age to age the same for the final question the spirit and the gifts are ours of the final exam, and we would win the battle, our hearts pumping with belief, our throats thumping with crescendo: one little word would never fell us.
Well, I went to the dentist yesterday for my semi-annual cleaning. This is always somewhat stressful as one always expects the worst. But as usual I got an A+ for my dental hygiene, and I left feeling good about myself. ⭐ 🙌 I also felt very mellow as the music which had been playing in the background during my visit was all late sixties hits–“House of the Rising Sun”, “Mellow Yellow”, “Daydream Believer”, “I’ve Got You, Babe”, and even “Like a Rolling Stone”. I do not expect to be jamming to Bob Dylan at the dentist, and I’m not complaining. But, yes, a bit surreal.
I finished My Beloved by Jan Karon and thoroughly enjoyed it. It may not be Middlemarch (another study of provincial life), but these days I could not handle that. I am quite satisfied with Jan Karon.
In other news, the boy came over and gassed up my car, so I am ready to head to the prairie today for a few days with daughter #2 and the prairie girls. It has been very blustery of late 💨💨 so let’s hope I don’t blow off the highway.
And here’s a poem about dogs by Billy Collins:
The neighbors’ dog will not stop barking. He is barking at the fence, barking at nothing, barking at the mosquitos settling on his fur. He is barking through the moonlight, barking at distant sirens, barking at squirrels he can’t see.
(“Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep a Gun in the House”)
It was a beautiful weekend here in flyover country–a little warm for October, but I’m not complaining. It was perfect for sitting outside at the winery, which daughter #1 and I did after our DAR meeting in the morning. The meeting was pleasant also–I do so love talking SEC football with a Crimson Tide fan, which I did while eating breakfast.
Anyway, we enjoyed the musical entertainment at the winery–a guy singing the 1970s playlist, which must be what boomers who go to wineries want to hear. And I’m okay with that.
At church we heard a good sermon on Philippians 2:12-18:
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. 17 Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. 18 Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.
Work it out.
Rein it in.
Offer it up.
The communion hymn was Yet Not I But Through Christ in Me, which gets me every time. Once again I asked myself, why do I wear mascara to church?
We also sang this classic from 1787, but with the traditional American tune, which I really like:
After church, since there was no adult ed, we went to the Sunny Street Cafe for brunch. The twins are very grown up now and well behaved, although once they have scarfed down their pancakes and/or French toast, they are not ones to linger over a second cup of coffee and more conversation. C’est la vie.
I was sad to hear that Diane Keaton has died. She was a favorite of mine. She had some class–a rare thing in Hollywood. She liked turtlenecks, she eschewed plastic surgery, and like Woody Allen said, “She prefer[ed] to look old.” Apparently no one knew she was ailing. She died privately and with no hoopla. Guess it’s time to dig out Annie Hall (1977). La-dee-da, la-dee-da.
Today marks the 75th anniversary of my parents’ wedding at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Savannah, Georgia in 1950.
Time like an ever-rolling stream and all that.
In other news, The Church of England announced Friday that the Right Reverend and Right Honorable Dame Sarah Mullally has been named the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury–as Albert Mohler says, “A liberal nurse to lead a dying church?” Ugh. As Mohler says, “My own life has been so enriched by the Anglican tradition, and my soul has been fed by towering figures such as John Owen and Bishop Charles Ryle. I hold dear the memory and examples set by towering Reformation martyrs such as Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, Bishop Nicholas Ridley, and Bishop Hugh Latimer. I learned much from J. I. Packer and John Stott and a host of others, living and dead. I am thankful for such good work done by so many for so long. I pray for them. I cherish Anglican music, though I hear it far more commonly in my library than in my church. I grieve for my Anglican friends.”
Well, as Anne says, “Yes, for sure, go to church, but be awfully careful which one. It’s kind of a jungle out there. But for sure, only by being incorporated as a living stone into the same building with the stone that the builders rejected, which is the chief cornerstone, can you be really happy and have the life you really need and desire.”
On a happier note…
And here’s a treat: Bob Dylan sings one of my favorite Cole Porter songs.
dual personalities 