Brain Break

Too much Ishmael and Ahab makes me a dull grrrl. I am typing whilst the fam and I watch "A Night at the Opera," one of the Marx Bros. movies. Right now Groucho and Chico are discussing contracts and sanity clauses ("Aaah, you canna fool me, there ain't no sanity clause!")

Saturday the fam and I walked to the local library while the Farmers' Market was going on. After purchasing some lovely fresh snow peas and asparagus from Yakima, we entered the library for some quick browsing and checking out. The Summer Reading Program has already begun, and kids can turn in a ticket for every hour they read. The kids put their tickets into various boxes that represent different prizes: a dozen doughnuts from Krispy Kreme, a $50 gift cert. to the mall, a blow-up alligator pool toy, etc. Then the library staff hosts a drawing on certain days. Hence, the more tickets you put in a box, the more likely your name will be drawn. S. is pinning all her hopes on the alligator.

A. picked up a movie for us to watch tonight, but S. was a little concerned it would be scary. The title of the movie instantly will reveal it as a classic: "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians."

No, really! Look! The kids might watch it tomorrow once we finish school. (rolling my eyes) This has to be as good as "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes."










Meanwhile, I thought I'd give Ishmael, Ahab and Moby a rest, so I polished off three other books this weekend.

First up was the latest installment of Meg Cabot's Princess Diary series, No. 5, Princess in Pink. Why I continue to bother with this series, I don't know. It got stale after #2. The format is unvarying. Princess Mia, journaler extraordinaire, having histrionics yet again over some minute facet of teen life; this time, the Prom, and the fact that her senior boyfriend thinks the prom is totally lame and doesn't want to go. The characters are well-fleshed out in the series, but they're pretty static. And while throughout the series, they've remained relatively chaste, in this book, Mia is obsessing over the fact that she hasn't reached "second base" with her boyfriend. Not graphic in any way, but Urgh!!! Definitely on my NOT recommended list.


Immediately after finishing that, I picked up Roald Dahl's Matilda. Normally Dahl charms the socks off me, but in this one I just cringed. Matilda's parents are honestly horrible. Matilda's headmistress is unbelievably cruel. It's the brilliant, misunderstood child pitted against the evil grownups. There IS one good grownup in the book, but come to find out, she's been put-upon by evil grownups in her childhood too. So, the moral of the story is: if your parents or teachers are horrible, you can vanquish them by outwitting them. I'm not fond of kids vs. grownups plot development. (Too much anarchy. Still, I like the movie Ferris Bueller, so I'm not completely consistent here!) The book ends up with the bad grownups getting what they deserve though, so evil IS punished, and kids who read Matilda will rejoice that the KIDS WON!





The last book I read this afternoon was Sharon Creech's Ruby Holler. Much better than the previous book I read of hers (Absolutely Normal Chaos); this is more in the spirit of Walk Two Moons, for which she won the Newbery Award. In this book, orphaned twins are taken in by empty-nesters with infinite patience. The orphans have been emotionally and physically abused... never graphic or overstated in the book, just mentioned as part of their past lives. Naturally, they don't trust grownups. The book is devoted to overcoming their resistance to caring about other people besides themselves. This book I DO recommend!






Back to your lives, citizens. Now that I've read all my library books in two days, I've got to get back to Moby. Go, whale, go. Thar she blows!

Shutting up!

Argh!!!!


I love the book of James.



I hate the book of James.



(Does this sound like the beginning of A Tale of Two Cities? )

Righ now I'm studying chapter three. YOU know. That one about.... the tongue? That restless evil, full of deadly poison? That flame of fire, set aflame by the fires of hell?

And guess who is having to do a whole lot of tongue-chewing lately (and should be doing much more, I'm sorry to say).

It's the kids. I must must must be more patient with them. They are CHILDREN. They will not get it right the first time, all the time.

There is one who speaks rashly, like the thrusts of a sword;[oh no!!] but the tongue of the wise brings healing.


Or how about this one - especially convicting, since I put my Bible study book down in shame and irritation, and decided to read Proverbs instead ---hmmm, today is June 15, so let's go to Proverbs 15! Great idea!

But I, pursued by the Hound of Heaven, saw written there, plain as day: A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Take my own medicine, I should -(that sounds like Yoda!) - If I CAN'T SAY ANYTHING NICE....


....Shutting up.

Hypocrite!

I've been accused of hypocrisy.

How is it that I can lambaste a Chocolate Ladies' Retreat in one post, and then a mere 8 hours later, post a link to Diet Coke and Mentos, stating it would be great for your youth group?


I don't know. Point well taken.

My only defense is this: the teens in our youth group were our friends, as well as our "charges," so to speak. We hung out with them. We did stuff with them. So seeing that video yesterday made me think of John and Alan - or Jeff and Kenny - or even Matt Smith and his trick with the bananas and Sprite (keep a trashcan handy, oh yesss!) So diet coke and mentos would be the type of thing we'd do together, just to see what would happen.


So I apologize for my inconsistency. *shrug*

This would be great for your youth group!

My homeschooling yahoo group posted this link!

What do you get when you combine 101 2l. bottles of Diet Coke and 523 Mentos? Click the title above and find out! (You need Quicktime to see it, but you probably already have it installed.)


The kids want me to go to the store RIGHT NOW and get some Diet Coke and Mentos!


Hat Tip to the k12users group at Yahoo!

Slice of Laodicea: "Would you like spirituality with that?"

Our church email account gets a great deal of spam. Unsavory characters troll the various Christian web sites harvesting email addresses, then bombarding church email accounts with wickedness and filth.

Today we received-- not wickedness or filth--but a slice of Laodicea. The email links to a web site promoting a church ladies' retreat featuring.......CHOCOLATE.

Yes. Chocolate.


Now, I enjoy chocolate as much as the next person, but to build a church ladies' retreat around it...?! erhmmmmm, NO. "Some things naturally go together," the web site coos. "Burgers and fries...salt and pepper...peanut butter and jelly....WOMEN AND CHOCOLATE." It continues on to say that the feelings and emotions we have toward chocolate are much like describing God's grace. ("We don't deserve it, but we long for it and need it.")

Excuse me?? CAN we cheapen our Creator, Redeemer God any further?

"Chocolate Boutique™:
Where women taste and see that the Lord is good."

Would you like some God with your chocolate this weekend?

This disgusts me to my very core.

As if our Lord needs gimmicks to be palatable (pun intended) to be relevant to today's society. This is church marketing at its cheesiest. Man-centered and experiential-- not Christ-centered.

I don't have time to rant fully. I have to teach in 1:15 minutes and must get the laundry away/living room up to snuff for those guests who sit in and listen to their kids' lessons.

tchah!

Before the Throne of God Above

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea.
A great high Priest whose Name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in Heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.

Behold Him there the risen Lamb,
My perfect spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I AM,
King of glory and of grace,
One in Himself I cannot die.
My soul is purchased by His blood,
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ my Savior and my God!

Words by Charitie L. Bancroft, 1863- Public Domain
Lovely new tune by Vikki Cook of Sovereign Grace Ministries, ©1997

This evening I was reading an article and the ensuing discussion at Sharper Iron. Several people mentioned this hymn in passing. I want it for church! And I'll get it too. :) I love our hymnal, but it's so limited. You really need about 4-5 hymnals to cover all the good stuff that's out there, past and near present.......and even then you're limited! Thankfully there's CCLI, where you can post, publish, and print words out, which is what I'll have to do to get the congregation to learn this song.

The Problem With the Christian Life: A Romans 7 day.

(I am chuckling to myself, envisioning all three of my faithful readers turning pale and deleting me from their links bar when they read the title of this post!)

I'm serious, though. The problem with the Christian life is that it is so DAILY. Every day I must recommit to walk the "path of disciplined Grace." Every day I must die to self, that I may live to righteousness. Every day I struggle with the same sins that I always do, and it's very humbling to run back to the Lord and say, "Yes, I know I was just speaking to You 5 minutes ago about this very sin, and Lord, I'm very sorry, but, I've done it again-- as You already know, because You're omniscient."

In Romans 7 Paul writes (and I echo from my heart): "I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing." And just a few verses later, I cry out with Paul, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?"

The conclusion? "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" And the chapter division comes in rather unfortunately at this point. But taken as a natural flow of thought, from one concept to the next - Paul's next point is, "There is therefore NO CONDEMNATION to those who are in Christ Jesus!"

So though it is humbling to return and confess to God sins that I JUST confessed hours, nay! moments before-- I must do it. And I must keep God's perspective on it: There is NO CONDEMNATION upon me for doing so, even if I am condemning myself for being so weak, foolish and stupid YET AGAIN.

"By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him;
for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart,
and he knows everything."
(1 John 3:19-20)

Lord, help me not to condemn myself and keep from running to You when I so desperately need your mercy and grace and forgiveness. There is no shame in being completely dependent upon you. There IS shame in relying upon myself, thinking I can hide from you, as my father Adam did in the garden!

Just not deep enough for Moby Dick

I've been reading Moby Dick lately. Every once in a while, there's a great "quotable" by Melville in there. (I should have written them down to give you a "for instance", but alas! I have not.) And there are spots where I feel, "heeey, this is pretty interesting!"

But I must confess that the book just doesn't involve me emotionally with any of the characters. Ishmael is likeable, but Ishmael/Melville goes off into these massive discourses on whaling that reads like a scientific journal. Give me the Cliff's Notes, please! Or Whaling for Dummies~! But spare me these 3- and 4-chapter tomes of technical slog!

And Starbuck, the first mate. For some reason, he abhors the quest that Captain Ahab has put before the crew. But why? Why such depths and harrowing of his soul over Ahab's choice of revenge on a whale? Starbuck's stated reason is, "It's just a dumb beast following his instincts; therefore, it's wrong to seek revenge on it."

I'm just trying to understand Starbuck a little better in his deep revulsion of the quest, so forgive me if this sounds a bit disjointed. I can understand Ahab a little bit better: "The whale bit off my leg; I'm gonna get you sucka!" Revenge, plain and simple. (I AM oversimplifying; Ahab comes off as a pretty complex guy.)

The one character I've really liked so far has been Queequeg, the Maori/New Zealand idolater! :) Now how does that sit with you all? That Melville puts his most sympathetic, likeable character as a pagan? What does that tell you about the author's personal beliefs? (That's another post in and of itself. One of these days I'll have a rant about Philip Pullman's trilogy "His Dark Materials" --especially since I hear it will be made into a movie. If there were EVER a anti-God series---MARKETED SPECIFICALLY TO 'tweens and teens--this is it. And I am not a knee-jerk censor or bookburner. But I digress.)

*calming breaths* I haven't gotten to the tragic end of Moby Dick yet (it's been a busy week and little time to relax and read), but I've come to the conclusion that I just don't have the depth of character necessary to appreciate this book as it has been hallowed over the recent years.

yes, I'm livin' life in the shallow end of the pool~!

Sock It To Me

Do any of you dear souls out there have some helpful suggestions on how to manage SOCKS in the laundry?

It is my biggest laundry woe: HOW to match all these socks up! (I am staring mournfully at a pile of 'em right now.)

A. thinks I should just pitch all the socks and then buy socks that are exactly alike for every family member. Then it won't matter!

I am sorely tempted at times to do just that!!

I will cherish your ideas gratefully if you would be so kind as to offer them.

A Cream of Wheat Morning

Saturday morning began as most Saturdays do: A and I attempting to sleep as long as possible, whilst Numbers One and Two play toys. Except this time, the toys played with were the guinea pigs.

Naturally, Flopsy escaped her boundaries and ran, as is her habit, toward the dining room table. However, the dining room has a new piece of furniture--the hutch! Which sits about 4" off the floor, perfect for a cavy to squeeze under and make it impossible for human captors to retrieve her.

All the cajoling and cooing in the world was not going to budge that guinea pig from her den. Carrots were spurned. Kiss noises were ignored. She was not going to move from that spot for love or treats.

It became a three-person affair: Me to tilt the hutch (carefully!) against the wall, A to fish under the hutch with one arm, and D to keep a weather eye open to see which way she would bolt. I envisioned losing control of the hutch, sending it crushing down onto her small fuzzy head! It was rather stressful. However, she was retrieved without incident or injury, and sent back out to the backyard cage to pasture.

Later Saturday afternoon, D became ill. Very ill. He was miserable, and so was I watching him. On average, every 30 minutes he was violently sick! Poor kid. I headed to Fred Meyer's to get some Failsafe remedies - like 7up without all the preservative junk that we are avoiding right now. I got some Blue Sky natural cola, and managed to find some popsicles that weren't just sugar and colored water.

I headed home, armed with remedies, and ignoring the ominous queasies I was beginning to have.

Alas. D and I spent the night in the living room: he on the couch, I in the recliner. Things finally settled down for David around 11:30 pm; I pulled an all-nighter until 6:30 a.m.

Sunday was indeed a day of rest! Most unfortunately I had to bail out of a duet I was playing at the annual teachers' recital. I do not know if Kari played a solo, or if she got Mimi to play my duet part with her (Mimi can sight-read just about anything). I stayed in bed, aching so much that it was difficult to sleep. When I was certain that it would stay down, I took some ibuprofen and then I was able to sleep like the dead all afternoon.

So this morning, I'm well-rested, though a bit shaky. It's definitely a morning for cream of wheat. Maybe even for lunch too!


Oh....WE FINISHED HISTORY TODAY!

(School happens even when I've been sick! wuaahahahaaa)

Daisy Cake

Here's the end result of All That Daisy Making (A.A. Milne again~!). I would include a picture of Lora and myself, only the flash didn't go off, and we were by a window, hence, it was just too dark to see.

You don't really want to see me anyway! :) I'm still mostly annecognito after all. THE WEB is a DANGEROUS PLACE and one mustn't fling one's personal info around frivolously. ^_^

Fiction Habit

A says I read too much fiction. Looking at my list down the side of this page, I have to admit he's right. I love fiction. I deal with enough reality that I need an escape. To be sure, some of these books I've enjoyed reading aloud to D and S; however (oh darn, there went a semicolon), the majority are just ones I've read on my own.

Which reminds me I need to update the list to include some Elfquest graphic novels (read: full-length comic books).

However, I am all about "achieving balance" in Life. Therefore, I henceforth vow that for every five fiction books I read, I will read one non-fiction book. Hm. Did I say five? Erm, maybe ten? YEAH. Ten.

At any rate, I'm behind. I'd better polish up some of the 'serious' books I'm working on (though some of these Bible studies just can't be rushed, you know?)--and forge ahead.

So I will have to construct a book list of NONFICTION books to divide and conquer. Biographies are a good place to start. Way back in Sept. when we were in CO I'd picked up one on Winston Churchill that was fascinating. Almost lifted it from the cabin to bring back home to WA with me, but A informed me that we had it on our shelves, and there was no need to resort to theivery.

Oh, but I have to say this: I'm reading Moby Dick for the first time. I endured the study of Melville in HS and college, but now his writing is rather interesting. Maybe I'm just getting old. Does reading a book by an author you REALLY don't care for count in this contest, even if it is fiction?

I probably ought to tackle Ivanhoe next. (Curses, foiled again! More fiction!)

Give me up as hopeless. I am who I am; I like what I like. (Gads, more semicolons!)

A Rant about Semicolons, courtesy of James Kilpatrick

I read this in the Seattle Times and located a copy on uexpress. Finally, someone who's as passionate about punctuation as I am!

However, my passion runs more in the vein of apostrophe errors and the misuse of your/you're, their/there/they're.

I'll never use a semicolon again without serious thought first! I promise!!

The Ultimate Rejection

I about cried laughing when I heard this.

Andy and his brother David have a good friend from college who is unmarried, but would really like to be. So in this day and age, what do you do? You go to eHarmony, of course! Thousands upon thousands of people use this service; you've heard the commercials about how people have found their perfect match using the special questionnaires eHarmony provides!

After completing their online pages of forms and clicking the "submit" button, this poor man received an email from eHarmony:

"We're sorry, but we are unable to help you."




>> OUCH! <<

ROFL~!

Aesop's Newest: The Station that Cried "Lahar"

Who ever listens to 1560 anyway? It's the SIRENS I'm interested in! If they sound at any time other than 10:05 A.M. on a Wednesday morning, I'm heading for Audra's house!

(The lahar sirens usually are tested mid mornings on Wednesdays, for those of you not "in the know").

So this was basically a non-event for me. I don't ever listen to 1560 AM. I heard about this news story from my MIL in MICHIGAN! (ooOOOooo Puyallup's in the national news again!)

The last time Puyallup was center stage on the national scene was when some attention-hungry psychopath from Rogers High School wanted to blow up the school.

News: It's always bad.

The Magic Number

80%. That's the magic number at which we can finish school and be done for the year, if we so desire.

Today we reached 80% in Science! However, because we're in the middle of a unit (the really cool one where you grow bean plants and put them in a box with one hole for the light, to demonstrate tropism...) I've decided we'll finish up the unit and then focus on the other areas that aren't quite up to the 80% level.

We're at 75% in history, so within the next week or two we'll finish up--and then be able to concentrate on math, language arts, and (blushing) ART.

I have issues with art. It always gets pushed to the back burner because other things, frankly, are more important. And the kids get plenty of self-expressive opportunities through piano and just being THEMSELVES, so they're not frustrated with no artistic outlet.

But, at any rate, I'm declaring a fiat finish to school somewhere on or around June 9. We may have to do some catch-up (like in art), but I think we'll pretty much be done by then.

I've astounded my SIL with this declaration. My dear niece is unbelievably good, diligent, and efficient. She finishes 100% of her school yearly. My dear nephews take more after the Oliver side, occasionally giving Penny frustration and grief (I do sympathize. I have two Olivers of my own)(Three, if you include the father of my children). So, in discussing this with her this evening, it seemed almost as if she felt liberated: "80% !! They finish 80%!! They don't do every single exercise and activity laid out in the teacher's guide! WE COULD DO THAT TOO!"
(Please understand that she didn't quite verbalize it this way, but I was interpreting her feelings). So I think P. is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

As am I!

I am SO READY for a break from school, from piano lessons... I bet I could EVEN GO TO THE GYM REGULARLY AGAIN! (NO, Rebecca, I did NOT make it to the gym today.)

Endurance!

the best laid plans of mice and men

gang aft a-gley...

Not that I had any grandiose plans today, except one: to get my miserable carcass to Bally's. I haven't gone regularly since the middle of March, when The World Came To A Halt while the family endured Influenza and Beyond.

So today, at least, I was going to teach the kids in the morning, clean Mimi's in the afternoon, eat a light dinner, and go to the gym.

Got a late start in the morning. Ok, no problem, can overcome this with persistence during school.

Persistence during school is a 3-person affair, not a one-person thing. We'd only accomplished History by 2:30. I left detailed lists of math and LA for the kids, and went out the door, a-cleaning on my mind and my new Zen Nano plugged into my ears. (Still don't have it set up the way I want, but it's improved.)

Came home around 5:30. Not a single lick of math or LA was completed. (What did I honestly expect?)

I made dinner, informing the halflings that all they were getting was the SCENT of food until I saw some finished work. I served dinner (baked spaghetti, salad, and leftover focaccia bread from Stanley and Seaforts) at 6:45. A. and I had a lovely dinner for two on the back porch. S. was just about done and was able to eat; D. was too busy telling me that I would never receive any Mothers Day presents ever again from him, and the next time we went out to eat, he would order all the foods I didn't like. (How that is going to affect me, I do not know.)

D finished his work at 9:30 p.m. Late dinner. Straight to bed.

So much for my going to the gym. >:O| big sigh.

A tells me I beat myself up too much over things I can't control. He's probably right, but I hate this feeling of doing things half-baked.

Tomorrow and Wednesday: piano lessons all afternoon. Endurance.

Zen Daisies and Olive Gardens

Today I celebrated my birthday with Audra and Bonnie. They were after me to come up with something for us all to do. So after deliberation, I decided I'd just like to have lunch and hang out. Audra and Bonnie are scrapbookers; I personally gave that up as hopeless soon after the birth of S. HOWEVER, I thought we'd just get together and work on whatever. Since I have a bridal shower cake to make for next Saturday (Lora Pierson's!), I thought I'd work on the fondant daisies for the cake while they scrapbooked. It was a pleasant morning, with Randy Travis singing hymns in the background. The daisies need yellow centers still, but with Bonnie's help I got about 90 of those things made.

We had planned to go to the Antique Sandwich Co. in Tacoma for lunch, but Olive Garden won out (closer, and we didn't feel like having sandwiches). After lunch we walked around Bradley Lake Park behind WalMart to aid our digestion. :) There were scores of people there, some sitting, most fishing, and a select group of warriors with cloth-tipped arrows and bows, padded staffs (or is it staves?), padded broadswords, shields, and one in a tunic and what looked like chain mail. They staged a mock battle--it was fascinating! I scanned the group to see if Steve Williams (how long's it been since anyone's heard tell of him?!) was among the medieval warrior wannabes; thought I spied him, actually! but on closer examination it was a much younger clone. There were burly, muscular guys and geeky, skinny ones--all united under their separate standards. I wonder if they host public tournaments, because this was obviously a practice.

Following that, we returned to Audra's, where I did some preliminary meal planning for the Failsafe Elimination Diet that we will be doing pretty soon. (I got the Failsafe Cookbook from New Zealand! It was the store's last copy, and the book is out of print! SCORE!) FAILSAFE is an acronym for foods that are Free of Additives, Low In Salicylates, Amines, and Flavor Enhancers. When we begin I will be keeping a food diary, as well as recording any behavior differences I observe in self and, more importantly, others. ;) This blog may get rather tedious during that time, as I intend to use it for the food diary/response part.

After that, I bid Audra and Bonnie adieu and headed to Ross--time to spend birthday money! New purse, and a tablecloth/placemats for the back porch table, plus some "outside" type of flatware. I didn't find any acrylic/plastic plates that I liked, so off to Wal-Mart! There I got a pair of fake Birkenstocks, because my last pair is 5 years old and literally fallen apart.

My last purchase of the day was from The Good Guys (now turned into CompUSA) - I got an mp3 player. Not an iPod. sheesh. No, I got a Zen Nano Plus. Holds about 500 songs. I just hooked it up to my computer, and before I knew what I was doing, I uploaded my ENTIRE MEDIA folder onto this thing! DOH! I wanted to be selective!! So I have everything from 32 DOHS of Homer Simpson (a goofy .wav file I have had since 1999) to Bill Cosby, to the Northern Lights (the Northland Singing Group). Now I have to figure out how to pull OFF this stuff and get on there what I WANT!

Right now I'm listening to Bill Cosby and his "Old Weird Harold" sketch, where he goes to the movies with his friend and watches a lot of monster flicks (the one where they get the black jujubes stuck all over their backs because they're lying on the floor, too scared to watch the movie.

Now how's this for contrast? Up next: the BJU Symphony Wind Ensemble playing "Amazing Grace." I have GOT to fix this up better!!

So those of you with mp3 players, I need tips. Desperately. Because now it's playing Harry Simeone's "Do You Hear What I Hear?"

Birthaversary

TODAY I have been alive for 36 years, and married for 15 of them!

Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

(POP QUIZ: Now, somebody tell me, whom did I just quote? :O> )

More on today, but later. Ciao.

Lux perpetua luceat eis

My grandmother, Anna Mae Laura Flannigan, passed away yesterday afternoon. She would have been 93 this coming June 8.

NOBODY called her Anna Mae Laura! She was "Mickey," an' it please you. They named her thus to please three crotchety old aunts. But to all and sundry, she was Mickey. (Irish, you know).

Reading her recipe collection that Aunt Cathy sent me last month, "G.G." had put a 3x5 card in the front that read "This is the property of Michaela Patricia Flannigan." Then she drew a shamrock and wrote "trademark" next to it. (Michaela... WHO??) So apparently her dislike of her three given names was so great that she invented new ones that suited her fancy better!


G.G. was raised Catholic (naturally) in Waukegan, IL. She met Grandpa "Red" Edwards while he was playing sax in a band. (Once he opened for Tommy Dorsey's band). She says she fell in love with him because he was such a good dancer. Problem: he was Episcopalian! That, in addition to finances being tight, caused them to seek a justice of the peace. As they left his office, newly married, whom did they meet on the steps of the courthouse but her older sister Eleanor! So much for secrets.

They lost their first child, Nancy, to SIDS, though it wasn't called that at the time. It was that event that eventually brought them both to an acknowledgement of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. She and Grandpa Red loved the Lord greatly. Mom told me that G.G. contributed regularly to 22 different missionary and church works, including our own Grace Baptist Church. She led and hosted Community Bible Study for years.

My children had the opportunity to meet GG twice; most recently in 2003. We were down in CA for her 90th birthday celebration. Mom's friend Ray recorded and made a DVD of the event. When D learned of GG's passing, he immediately went to the video cabinet and said, "Well, at least we have this [to remember her by]."

There will be no memorial service for her. Her friends back in IL have mostly passed on or are in retirement/assisted living homes. Her body is being shipped to the North Shore of Chicago to rest next to her husband's. Apparently the 90th birthday was the last hurrah for the family to reunite and catch up.

This disturbs me. However, this is what Mom and Uncle John have decided. I doubt very much that I will ever see Uncle John and Aunt Cathy again in this lifetime. Grandma was the unifying bond, and now she is gone. Not that there is conflict within the family; no, there's just not a commonness, a reason to get together. Mom was 10 when John was born, and they've just never seemed to be close.

This also disturbs me. There's something to be said for marrying and staying close to family. I have cousins; literal heaps of them on Dad's side--but I don't know them at all. I'm of the renegade California branch, and I'm the sole offshoot.

I can't really castigate my parents' choice--I've done no better, myself; moving to Washington, away from my Californian roots (and Andy from his MI roots) - family is a rare treat; a twice-a-year event. (Grandma Karen is here this week!) But I want my kids to know their cousins, know them well. However, this doesn't seem very likely, distances between WA and MI being what they are--and airfare for four being what IT is! (This is why I need to get a job at Alaska Airlines like Lavonne and go WHEREVER--as "standby", yes, but the ability to GO CHEAPLY!)

Ahh, I'm rambling now.

So to quote from my favorite work in Faure's Requiem, "Libera Me":

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine:
et lux perpetua luceat eis.

(Which, being translated, is: Grant eternal rest to them, Lord,
and let perpetual light shine on them.)