animal phobias

Long-time friends will know that I have an irrational fear of reptiles.  Snakes, toads, lizards — all are VERY BAD.  May God have mercy on the soul of the lizard who I discovered in my kitchen last year.  Ugh.  Just thinking about it gives me the heebie-jeebies.

This fear reared its head unexpectedly today while the girls and I and some friends were visiting Coyote Point.  We were heading to a small ampitheater area to await a “Zookeeper Talk” of some sort, and the small outdoor theater was already quite full.  However, there were some open seats in the back, so I grabbed Curious J in my arms and climbed up the seats to find a place to sit.  Suddenly, I was face to face with a Coyote Point staff member of some sort holding a kingsnake in her hands.

Um, I don’t do well with snakes.  Especially when surprised by one.

I gave a little yelp, and scrambled backward as fast as I could.  The benches are built into a rock, so in my hurry to get away, I slipped and fell a bit, mildly twisting my ankle, but at least not hurting Curious J.  The poor staff worker asked me, “Are you okay?” while still holding the terrifying reptile, and I quickly said, “I’m fine, I’m fine,” as I continued to get away from the snake.

I made a slight bit of a scene, I guess, although that wasn’t my intent.  People were looking at me.  I didn’t scream so much as yelp, and I think I drew more attention to myself with my slight fall than I did with the snake.  But, man alive, I do NOT like snakes.  Not One Bit.

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I have tried hard not to instill my phobia for reptiles on my daughters.  We have multitudinous gray lizards that scamper all over our property.  They are very quick, and as long as they are running away from me, I don’t mind them too much, which is good, because they’re all over outside!  However, I harbor no love for the bigger alligator lizards that can grow up to a foot long.  Luckily, we don’t see those very often.

Lyd has not inherited my fear of reptiles (see the picture at the bottom of this post for proof), but somehow she has developed a fear of spiders.  Quite a big fear.  Meaning, she won’t go into the back porch by herself because there are spiders in the corner of the ceiling.  (Meanwhile, I’m thinking Sweetie, there have been spiders in the corners of the back porch ceiling for as long as we’ve lived here.  It’s just that now you’re noticing them.)  But the spiders ARE THERE, and they must be annihilated for Lyd to have peace.

But she does NOT like spiders, and right now we have plenty of daddy long-legs living in our house.  I probably should be more aggressive about killing them in general, but in my eyes, they’re harmless and they just don’t bother me that much.  However, they definitely bother Lyd, so whenever she notices one, I have to come and make it gone.

I wonder if her fear of spiders will eventually equal my fear of reptiles.  It’s strange; I am SO scared of reptiles, but I knew it was irrational, so I tried very hard not to pass my fear on to her.  Yet I’ve never been scared of spiders, and that’s the fear that Lyd now has.  I suppose I never talked much about I wasn’t scared of spiders; perhaps I should have done that.  Oh, well.  Hindsight is 20/20.

Perhaps Lyd will have to have an agreement in her marriage similar to what JJ and I have.  We agreed from the start that JJ’s job was to remove all dead animals that would ever need to be removed, and he would also remove any reptiels that made it into the house.  He also promised that he would never tease me with any kind of reptile, and he also would never let our children tease me with a reptile or bring a reptile into the house.  My job was to kill and remove all bugs and insects from the house, as JJ hates bugs and spiders, and frankly, I am kept much busier holding up my end of the deal than he is.  But that’s okay.  As long as I don’t have to deal with reptiles, I’m happy.

(Hmm, maybe Lyd gets her fear of spiders from her father?)

she’ll learn soon enough, I’m sure

Today on our way home from the grocery store, I had the country music station on the radio.  Lyd and Curious J were with me, and Lyd happened to be listening to the music more than usual.  She asked me questions like, “What’s falling in love?’  and, “What’s a broken heart?”  (Obviously, you can tell we were listening to country music! )

I tried to explain falling in love to her, but she didn’t really get it.  I have made a point to never talk to her about “boyfriends” or girlfriends or anything like that.  I’ve never asked her if she has a boyfriend, and I’ve steered others away from asking her that question as well.  She knows that her friends can be boys or girls.  And, while she definitely has boy friends, on the whole she prefers her girl friends, mostly because they can play princesses together.  Lyd is very into princesses.  And pink things.  And jewelry.  She’s quite a girly girl.

I tried to explain a broken heart by saying, “Someday, you may fall in love with a boy who doesn’t fall in love with you in return.  Then you get a broken heart.”  She didn’t seem too bothered by that explanation.  “Then you don’t get married to the boy, right?” was her response.  She didn’t grasp the depth of the situation, and I decided that was JUST FINE.

Ah, the sweet innocence of the almost six year old girl!  I wonder how long it will last.

22 months

There was a little girl who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead;
When she was good, she was very, very good,
And when she was bad, she was horrid.

That pretty much describes Curious J these days.  And she even has the curl in the middle of her forehead!  Of course, she also has a bunch of ringlets in the back of her head.  They’re gorgeous; she has no idea how lucky she is.

I’m pleased to report that we are continuing to see progress in J’s language development.  Here are some highlights:

• She says “Hi!” with enthusiasm and frequency, and she does it appropriately.  She also says, “Bye-bye!” with enthusiasm and frequency and appropriateness.  And she continues to love to say “Thank you!”  It is a pleasure to take her places she is familiar with when she is in a good mood.
• She counts to ten, more or less.  She loves it.  I think this comes partially from me counting the steps when I carry her upstairs.  She loves counting!
• She also loves the alphabet.  I think she knows all the letters, but she definitely knows S-X in order.  She also loves the letter K.  She loves to point out big letters, if she notices them.
• She still pretty much says only the first sound and/or syllable of words.  This means that she’s usually pretty hard to understand.  However, it’s slowly, slowly getting better.  For some reason, I think that physically making the words in her mouth is tricky for her.  But, I’m sure it will come.
• She’s great at the end of prayers, saying “Ah-mem!”  It’s her reliable two-syllable word.  She also does it in church.  Loudly. 
• Once in a while, if she’s upstairs and I’m downstairs, she will call out to me using some variation on the word “mama.”  I like the fact that she can actually use my name.  (Although, to be fair, when she looks at photographs of people, she’ll point to each person and say “mama.”  So, there’s still development to be done with that word! )
• We have a little batter-operated alphabet toy table.  When you push a lever, the next letter of the alphabet shows up, along with the computer saying the name of the item.  Today, I was playing with her and the toy and she said the words, “joo (juice), lah (lion – she followed up with an appropriate “rarh!”), mah (mouse), eh (eggs in a nest).”  But, with her only saying the first sound of these words, you can see why she’s still difficult to understand.
• She does have one multi-syllabic phrase that she tries to say, which is, “See you next time.”  It comes out sounding only mildly like that, but I do believe that’s what she’s trying to say.  She always says it to the garage door when I let her push the button to close the garage door.

I’m noticing advances in J’s musical development.  While she has yet to sing a note, she can keep a steady beat about 50-75% of the time.  It’s quite amazing, especially for me as an early childhood music teacher, since children don’t usually achieve Rhythmic Competence until 3 years old at the earliest.  When we play music games together at home, games that are meant to practice keeping a steady beat, she does very, very well at them.  Plus, she’s great at imitating whatever I do.  For example, if we’re playing with our rhythm sticks and I start to drum on the floor, she will do the same.  If I click the sticks together, she does the same.  If I use the sticks to make funny ears, she does the same.  No matter what I do, she will try to do the same, and most of the time she will succeed.  (Lyd NEVER did anything like this!)  Curious J never says a word, but she physically does thm, so I know her little brain is working away.

Knock on wood, she’s been quite healthy lately.  After her strange reaction to her last homeopathic remedy, she has been doing great.  She did wake up with sniffles two mornings, I gave her a few doses of Thymuline, and she was all fine!  I’m glad to see her having a longer period of health.

Curious J is becoming like me in an interesting way: She gets low blood sugar if she doesn’t eat on time, and when that happens, she gets extremely cranky.  When food is finally put in front of her, she usually refuses to eat it.  So, her father and I have to find ways to trick her into eating, making it into a game.  I don’t like doing that, but if it’s my fault for not getting the meal ready when she needed it, I don’t think it’s fair to punish her for acting out in a way that she can’t control.  It’s amazing, because once she starts eating, it takes about 20 minutes on the dot for the food to start hitting her bloodstream, and then her mood dramatically changes back into the happy, cheerful child she usually is.  So, I am trying to be better about feeding her snacks and meals in a timely manner.

She is quite helpful, too.  She’s good at putting things away.  When I say, “Time to get out of the tub.  Put the toys back in the bag,” she almost always stands right up and starts putting things away.  She certainly didn’t learn this behavior from her big sister, or from her parents!

But, she can throw a good tantrum, and at unexpected moments, although they’re always worse when she’s hungry or tired.  We try to ignore them as much as possible.  At times we even have to not chuckle at her, especially when she lays herself carefully down on the floor before throwing a bit of a fit.  The other day she wasn’t as careful: she was laying on our hardwood steps, and she threw back her head in anger, clunking it hard on the floor.  I was right next to her when this happened (she was angry at something I had told her to do), and when she clunked her head so hard, her father came running, wondering what had happened.  “She did it to herself, and I was right next to her,” I answered, shaking my head and laughing while I hugged my child and rubbed her head.  So, that happens.  I think when she can communicate better, her tantrums will decrease.  I am almost positive that she sometimes throws fits because she’s trying to tell me something, and I’m not understanding her.  Frankly, if I was in that situation, I would throw a tantrum, too!

Most of the time she is a big sweetheart.  She is completely easy to put down for naps and bedtime.  I used to think Lyd was easy, but J is even more so.  It makes up for the 15 months of not sleeping through the night that we endured.  She waves bye-bye to me as I leave the room and even blows kisses to me.  Part of this magic is achieved by the fact that I still give her a pacifier at sleeptimes.  Perhaps I shouldn’t, but man, it works, and I’m in no hurry to upset the apple cart, so to speak.  Eventually, this too shall pass.  At least I’ve gotten away from using the pacifier during church.  Now, she ONLY gets it at sleeptimes, and I’m okay with that.

What makes my heart swell with joy the most is that she and her big sister are becoming better friends all the time.  Since I last wrote about them, they are able to play for longer amounts of time together, just the two of them, than they were before.  J is getting better about copying her sister, and L is getting better at helping J be successful at whatever they’re doing.  One phrase I have used a lot with Lyd is “Find a way to play with your sister so that she can play, too.”  Apparently, repetition works, because Lyd seems to be finally getting the message.  I don’t always agree with the method she chooses to play with her sister, but if it works, I try not to intervene too much if they’re having fun together.

Lyd has said more than once that “J is my best friend.”  And when I have the girls say good night to each other, J is eager to give her big sister a hug and kiss.  I absolutely love seeing the two of them bonding in this way.

Lyd loves sharing a bedroom with her little sister, too, although, with J usually the first person to wake up in our household, I think L would prefer if her sister slept in a little longer in the morning.  Thankfully,when J wakes up too early, I can almost always go into her room, give her a pacifier, tell her “It’s sleepy time – lie down,” and she happily plunks her little head right back down onto the pillow and rests.  I don’t think she ever actually goes back to sleep, but it does buy our family at least half an hour more of quiet time.

Curious J is adorable and wonderful, and I’m finding more to love about her all the time.  I’m going to break my own rule by posting this gorgeous picture of my girl at the park:

original thinking needed

I am not in favor of Obama’s plan to nationalize health care.  I am not in favor of this for many reasons, which I am not going to go into here, but rest assured that my denounement of nationalized health care is NOT that I don’t want people who need health care to not be able to get health care.

I am also extremely frustrated at how a government takeover of health care is the only option being presented as viable.  C’mon, elected representatives, can’t you come up with other options?  And why do we assume that the government taking it over is going to be an improvement?  There MUST be other options, options that would keep government bureaucracy out and put needed health care in.  I don’t know what those options might be, but people who are “in the know” should be able to come up with some potential, workable solutions.  At least, they should in my opinion.

People, we need ORIGINAL THINKING.  We need to not burden ourselves by adopting a system that we’ll never be able to undo.  The decision to nationalize health care would be a permanent one.  There would be no going back.

Is this really what we want?

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Similarly, why can’t the WELS come up with any other option to balance the budget except for the two horrible options of cutting world missionaries or closing Michigan Lutheran Seminary?  C’mon people, can’t you come up with more options than that?  Both of those options are awful!

JJ put the live feed from the Synod Convention floor on his computer tonight, and we were listening as I made supper (creamy chicken & rice, for those of you who like those kinds of details).  One delegate brought up the idea of selling the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary campus rather than Michigan Lutheran Sem.  While I don’t think that’s a particularly good idea, I do think that the Mequon Sem is on 80 beautiful acres, much of it wooded and unused.  Why don’t they sell off a few lots on one end, especially the end that’s already next to some housing developments?  That land would certainly bring in a lot more money than MLS would.

Now, I’m not saying this is the greatest idea ever (JJ absolutely thinks it is NOT a good idea!), but I do think that if this idea were legitimately considered by the people who make the decisions, that consideration might lead to other, better, out-of-the-box ideas.  That’s how good ideas come — they come from not-so-good ideas tossed around and discussed until new ideas emerge.  And we most certainly need some new ideas, rather than every two years, giving the standard answer of “Close MLS.”   C’mon!  Can’t anyone come up with a better idea???

People, we need ORIGINAL THINKING.  We need to not shoot ourselves in the foot by getting rid of an institution that we will (most likely) never be able to get back.  (Not that we would be able to sell the MLS campus in this economy anyway).  The decision to downsize to one prep school would be a permanent one, and furthermore, it would dramatically affect future called workers in our synod.  There would be no going back.

Is this really what we want?

(Not to mention the horrible ramifications of the other option, cutting world missionaries.  These missionaries are doing the work of the church in the most grass-roots way possible.  They are having tremendous success!  But “while the souls of men are dying,” here we sit with all our stuff: our cellphones, cable, $3 lattes, new clothes, nice vacations, complete collections of [fill in the blank], etc.  We have so much stuff, but in the end, we ignore the most important thing we can do as Christians.  Think how much good all that money could do if it were used for world mission work.

I know, I know, I’m preaching to the choir here.  But it’s just so maddening.  I’m praying hard that the delegates at convention this week can come up with a better solution.  One of the last delegates to speak tonight asked people to stand up if they were opposed to both options, and apparently over half of the assembly stood up.  So, with so many people opposed to both closing MLS and opposed to closing world missions, hopefully some original thinking has been spurred on in Saginaw tonight.)

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By the way, if you want to watch President Schroeder’s opening address, check out this blog post.  The blog’s author writes:

How refreshing to hear Pres. Schroeder stress the importance of the theology of the cross as opposed to the theology of the glory in the life of the church, of realizing and being who we are–confessional Lutherans–as individuals, as congregations, and as a synod, and of not forgetting the lessons learned from the history not only of our synod, but of the Christian church over the centuries.

old friends, new friends

This weekend was probably one of the best our family has had in quite some time.  We didn’t know the people who had asked to stay at our house, but we had previous connections, and it seemed like we would at least have a decent time together.  However, the weekend went far and beyond all our expectations, and we all had an absolute blast!!!

Our weekend guests consisted of a family made up of Dad (D), Mom (M), and their three boys, whose ages range similarly to that of my girls.  D is a pastor of the same denomination as my husband; they went to the same Seminary, although he was a few years behind my husband.  M and I also went to the same college, although we didn’t know each other well as she was a few years behind me.  But the truly unique connection is that D and I have known each other since we were babies.  Our families belonged to the same church, our mothers sang in church choir together, we played together as kids — we know each other from Way Back When.

So, when M emailed me to say that they were stopping in our area on a vacation and asked if they could stay with us, I quickly agreed.  They arrived with their three boys on Friday afternoon, and after a few initial shy moments, all the kids instantly became friends and enthusiastically began playing together, pretty much not stopping the entire weekend!   M and I started talking, and it didn’t take long to discover that we share many similar interests  As we subject after subject came up, and we discovered we were on the same page, I said to her, “How is it we have never gotten to know each other?”  We could have talked all weekend; we certainly talked fast and crammed as many words as we could into our time together.

D and I had fun reminiscing about our childhoods.  In the course of the weekend, I brought out a cookbook (dated 1977) of our childhood church, and in it were some recipes that his sainted mother had submitted.  He and M were very excited, as there were some favorite recipes of his in there that he hadn’t had since his mother was alive.  D also preached for JJ this morning, which was a wonderful blessing, because JJ was busy all week preparing to take his Comps.

Our children had SO MUCH FUN playing together.  They all stayed up way too late both nights, but M and I agreed that we didn’t have the heart to send them to bed at a “normal” time.  We figured that you have to make the most of times with your friends when you have them, plus, hey, it’s summer vacation!  So, our kids enjoyed plenty of playtime together late into the evenings (as did their parents!)

I cooked big, healthy meals.  M raises her kids on non-processed, whole foods just like I try to do, so I cooked my regular food and didn’t have to worry about the kids not eating it.  It was fun to have all nine of us around the dinner table.  We put the kids on one end and the adults on the other, and that way everyone could have their own conversations.  It was loud and fun and full of laughter and just a marvelous time.

I decided that next summer, we will take a driving trip to go visit them at their home.  Our children are already looking forward to next summer, as are the adults!  I hope that all of us, children and adults alike, can maintain these friendships despite separations of time and space.  Thank goodness for Facebook!

In some ways, I felt very old this weekend.  I mean, it’s my childhood friend staying at my home with his wife and kids!  But, more than that, it felt … familiar.  It felt like discovering a brother, (and, even more, a sister, too), that I didn’t know I had.

And, perhaps best of all, it was so neat to see our children becoming friends.  This idea that a friendship that started with two mothers, a friendship that carried on to their children, that this friendship might even continue on to THEIR children is a pretty neat idea.  Our children are young; who knows what the future will hold?  But, for now, that friendship has been given a promising start for the future.  That thought makes me feel … so happy.

And I’m already making plans for us to have a true family vacation next summer!

trip to the Farmer’s Market

Our family always enjoys a trip to the Saturday morning Farmer’s Market.  Last Saturday, we came home with this:

 

 We came home with sweet corn, potatoes, blackberries, raspberries (we had already eaten one basket of raspberries by the time I took this picture), sugar snap peas, peaches, raw almonds, carrots, beans, a pepper, lemons, nectarines, melon, grapes, and, of course, a bag of kettle corn, which is a favorite treat for all of us!  We also bought a half-flat of strawberries, which I turned into freezer jam the next day I didn’t do anything fancy; I just used low-sugar Sure-Jell.  It’s simple, and it tastes great.

The german table prayer on the wall behind all this food is from Grandma Violet’s house.  It’s a simple laminated placemat that she brought home from a trip to Germany many years ago.  It hung above her stove for many years, and now it hangs above mine.  I like it.

Yes, all of this food is sitting on my flat, ceramic stove.  People often ask me if I like having a flat stovetop like that, and the answer is: Yes, I love it. 

garden update

(This is a post that I know my father will enjoy.  I just recently discovered that he is a faithful reader of my blog.  Hi Dad!  We’ll see you soon! )

So, about my garden.  My garden has been doing okay, although it’s not turning out as well as I had hoped.  Only 3 carrots came up, and those that did don’t really seem to be growing.  Hmm.  Also, my scallions don’t seem to be doing well.  They all came up, but they don’t seem to be growing anymore.  It’s the same story with my lettuce.  However, my beets are doing great; I thinned them out a bit recently, and while I hate to discard perfectly good plants, I think I need to thin them a little more.  My zucchini plants are also looking good and are steadily growing.

My zucchini plants are looking good and are steadily growing.  My climbing bean plants are growing steadily, too, but thy have reached the top of my trellis and now have nowhere to go.  I don’t have a solution for this, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

My pear tomatoes are starting to ripen; I have about 3-4 tomatoes that need to be picked soon, and more will be ready next week.

My peas are — okay.  I keep thinking they should be growing taller faster than they are, but they do seem to be growing, so hopefully they’re just shy.

I went to OSH (Orchard Supply Hardware) last week, and I bought a container in which to plant a hill of pumpkins.  I planted them, but I’m not optimistic.  I really think the container is too small – oops.  I also bought a pepper plant at OSH, one that already had peppers on it.   I had a pot for that, and I hope it continues to grow well.

While at OSH, I picked up a container of Miracle-Gro, and gave my garden a good dose of that.  It seems to have needed it, as I have seen definite growth in the garden over the past week.  I think that I’ll have to learn more about composting before I try to plant next year’s garden.  I suspect that the soil I’m working with could use a bit of a boost.

I also used some Miracle-Gro on my flowers, which have been just ravaged by the deer.  Everyone around here who gardens at all has been saying how the deer are unusually ravenous this year.  They’re eating things they don’t normally eat.  For example, they ate off most of my daisies recently.    The deer have never touched my daisies before.  They also ate my impatiens, alyssum, and my marigold plant that was a Mother’s Day present from Lyd – I thought deer hated marigolds!  Of course, the petunias have been a favorite of the deer, and some of the petunias I planted earlier finally gave up the ghost and died.

So, I also picked up a few new flats of flowers.  I dug out the old, dead plants, and put some new ones in.  Some plants still had some life in them, so I planted new plants amidst the old ones.  In the picture below, you can see the new petunias I planted between the old ones, and you can see the lobelia I planted in front.  In the back is some cosmos I planted from seed that is coming up nicely, and that the deer only ate once. 

I bought some bright pink flowers, too.  (Guess who picked out those? )  I forget what they’re called, but they certainly add color outside my front door.

I liked these spreading red flowers, and I planted them in the box outside our front door.  In the back are some brave morning glory plants that were eaten off by the deer, but have attempted a comeback.  Hopefully the Miracle-Gro will help.

In an effort to keep the deer away, JJ sprayed Liquid Fence outside the other night, which is a nasty-smelling mix of disgusting things: rotten eggs, animal urine, who knows what.  It smells awful as you apply it, but the smell is gone by the next morning.  It’s specifically designed to smell awful to deer, who apparently have more sensitive noses than we humans do, and who can continue to smell it for quite a while afterwards.  So far, so good – the deer haven’t touched my flowers.

My bird-of-paradise plant is doing well, too, although I can’t take any real credit for that other than watering it.  It’s always been a favorite plant of mine; nothing says “California” quite like a bird of paradise plant.

But I am pleased to report (and Dad, you’ll appreciate this – you helped me plant them!), that the gladiolus that my father and I planted are doing great!  I bought these bulbs specifically because the box said they were “deer-resistent,” and so far the deer haven’t touched them.  They’re growing tall and doing wonderfully.  I’m looking forward to seeing those flowers – I just hope they don’t decide to bloom while we’re in Wisconsin!

Finally, here’s a picture of my with our house in the background.  Huge, old forever-dropping-pine-needles redwood trees are next to me and behind me in the picture, and our house is in the background.  Me in my California habitat. 

it is finished!

JJ took his Comps today, he got good questions to answer, and he feels he answered them very well.  So, we are rejoicing that his Master of Arts Degree in Pastoral Liturgy and Liturgical Music is done!!!

(Alright, it’s technically not done yet.  His essays still have to be corrected yet, and the actual diploma has to be issued, but JJ says he sees no reason why he would NOT have passed.  Until we are shocked to learn otherwise, we are going on the assumption that he passed.  Hey, they let him participate in the graduation ceremony a month ago!  They must have figured he would be successful at his Comps.)

He’s pretty worn out, but it is finished, and that’s a huge, huge sigh of relief for all of us.

———

Of course, things are never completely perfect.  My left hip has started acting up again.  Something, either a tendon or ligament or something else, keeps shifting around in my hip, making it always sore and sometimes quite painful to walk.  If I focus on walking correctly with my toes pointed forward, it’s usually … okay.  But sometimes I step on it wrong, and oh, my, does it hurt.  I saw my chiropractor again today, and his adjustment lasted for about two hours before it popped out again.  Sigh.  He gave me some exercises, but told me that it will probably just take some time to heal.

I’m sure it will get better, sooner or later.  It’s annoying in the meantime, but it will eventually get better.

I’m just thankful that JJ is done with his degree!  What a load off of all of us!

finally done

Tomorrow by this time, my husband, JJ, will have finished taking his Comps (comprehensive exams), and will be done with his Master’s Degree in Liturgy.

I cannot tell you how relieved both of us will be to finally have that finished.

This last month, really the whole year, has been hard on JJ.  He has had to be both pastor and principal at our small church, and both jobs come with innumberable tasks and situations that someone has to take care of, and that someone has often ended up being my husband.  Besides those jobs, he was part of the Hymnal Supplement Introduction committee, creating materials to help districts, circuits, and individual congregations learn to use the new Supplement.  As District Worship Coordinator of the AZ-CA district, he got a chance to utilize his own materials as he conducted weekend workshops around the district.  Add a few other more minor roles here and there that he does, and add the fact that he is often called/emailed by his fellow pastors and asked for advice on a worship-related topic, and he’s one busy boy.

Looming over all of those activities this past year has been these Comps.  He has been dreading taking them, because he knew the large amount of work that would be required to adaquately prepare for them.  With so much other work to do, there just wasn’t time during the year.  Summer proved to work out best, although these Comps have really eaten into the easier summer schedule that he’s enjoyed previous years.  It’s mid-July, and his “summer” is finally be about to begin.

But, better late than never.  We are looking forward to this time tomorrow afternoon, when he can cross out one huge item from his To Do list, a list which is never lacking for undone tasks.  We’ve decided that a small celebration is in order once JJ gets home tomorrow.  We’re planning to go out to supper, and, if all goes well, we’d like to go to a local park that has live music for families on Wednesday evenings.  Maybe a trip to Baskin Robbins will happen, too.  It’s not every day that someone truly completes a Master’s Degree, and it’s worth celebrating.

Thankfully, after tomorrow is over, JJ can have take it easier than normal for the rest of the week, as we are blessed to have a guest preacher this Sunday.  That guest preacher, as well as his wife and children, will also be our houseguests this weekend.  I’ll share more about that after it’s over, but suffice to say, we are excited about the next few days.

Hopefully, with Comps finished (as well as his Hymnal Supplement work and the other odd jobs that ocassionally come with his job as pastor in this area), life will settle back into a better groove.  This stress has been hard on all four of us, and we’re looking forward to finishing this period in our lives.  My husband and I are especially looking forward to finding some ways to re-discover each other, to find some laughs together, and to start re-connecting as a couple.  Both of us really want to make that happen.

Plus, perhaps JJ and I will actually start getting to bed before midnight on a regular basis.  A 10pm bedtime would be a radical, but welcome, change of pace for us.  It’s certainly a much-needed change of pace; we’re both just SO tired.

In early August, we leave for two weeks back in Wisconsin, which will be a relaxing change of pace, too.  JJ’s already planning a family trip to the community pool in the town where he grew up, a pool where he spent many summer days as a young boy.  Of course, we also plan to get together with friends and family while on vacation, but we plan to do some things on our own, too.  Perhaps we can take the kids to a local county fair.  Yum.  Fried cheese curds…   Regardless of what we do, it would be lovely to spend some time just being a family … together.

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But lest I gloss over the exciting news, as of tomorrow, my husband will have a degree in liturgy and worship and liturgical music!  I’m sure there will be more busy times ahead, so I’m looking forward to soaking up these relaxing moments as much as we can.

Because, you know, his next big item on the To Do list is to write a book on worship…

everything changes once you’re a parent

One of my favorite movie musicals is Fiddler on the Roof.  Our local PBS station plays the movie at least twice a year, and while we own the DVD, I always enjoy an opportunity to watch that movie on TV.  Tonight as I was (am) watching it, I’ve realized that I always cry at the same spots, even though I know what’s going to happen, but I cry from a different perspective than I used to.

I think I might know why that is.  When I first was introduced to the movie, I was a child, and I interpreted the events in the movie from the daughters’ perspectives.  I felt the excitement of the girls as they fell in love.  My heart broke for Tzeitel when her father made a match for her with the much-older butcher, and I was so happy for her when she got to marry the man she loved.  My heart ached with the romance of the middle daughter, Hodel, leaving her family to go to Siberia where her fiance was in a prison camp.  And I cried right along with Chava when her father turned his back on her for marrying outside of the Jewish faith.

But now I’m the parent of two daughters of my own, and I view the movie differently.  Now I see the movie through the eyes of the parents.  I cry through “Sunrise, Sunset” every time – someday that will be MY daughter getting married.  I weep through “Far from the Home I Love” not because I can’t imagine leaving my family for a man, but because I can’t imagine either of my daughters leaving me to go into such a situation.  And when I consider the fact that someday one of my daughters might fall in love with a man who doesn’t share her faith – well, that’s not a scenario I like to picture.

So, it seems that as I am aging growing older, Fiddler on the Roof is becoming a deeper and more meaningful movie for me.  I cry every time, but the waterworks really come when I hear one of the final songs, “Chavala.”  Oh, my, that just wrings my heartstrings every time.  And that gorgeous violin music!  Oh, it’s all just so emotion-laden.

It’s not a happy-go-lucky movie, and it doesn’t have a happy ending, but it’s probably the most real musical I’ve ever seen.  It’s a fantastic movie, and if you have never seen it, I highly recommend it.