A Texan visitor

Our sitter, Abby, paid us a visit all the way from Texas. She trudged almost 2 miles in the snow to our house to play with us. It was great to see her, and she was impressed by our new hairdos and words. We even dragged her to church and Mom made her watch us during coffee hour. Thanks for coming, Abby!

Elias reads to Adelaide

Finally, having an older child is beginning to pay off. Today Elias read Addies's favorite book, Mommy Calls Me Monkey Pants to her. It was so sweet to see them snuggled up on the couch sharing the book. The amazing thing is that Elias did not miss a beat with the book--and I hadn't known that he was really listening when I was reading it to Adelaide. Now if I could only convince him to change her diapers...

Shoot, It won't accept the video...I can never seem to get this to work. I had hoped it would work with my new camera!

24 Hour Furlough

It has been almost three years since Adam and I have had close to 24 hours away from our lovely offspring. We decided it was time to hire a sitter and get out of dodge. We had never left Adelaide overnight before, but knew she would be fine as long as her brother was around.

We made the long journey to Cambridge, which is about 20 miles away. Adam picked out a great B and B and I was so surprised to see that it had a Northwoods theme. You can see from the pictures that the exterior is a sort of Victorian home and the interior is Northwoods kitch down to the jacuzzi hot tub surrounded by boulders and the grizzly bear greeting you in the bathroom. We enjoyed sitting on the couch, having our wine and beer appetizers and actually listening and talking to one another. We walked through the struggling, financially fragile town and admired old homes and then walked to the only restaurant in town. Actually, it was a bar and smoke-filled, which is the first time I've been in any establishment with smoking since Dane County got rid of it. The waitress was sweet and sent us home with plastic Easter eggs for the kids. By 9:30 we ran out of new topics of conversation and broke down and talked about our kids.

Breakfast was served in our room and we had a lazy morning. I loved showering without Adelaide as company insisting on holding her toothbrush. And, I can't remember the last time I actually sat at breakfast without getting up. All in all, a great change of pace and a good reminder that marriages need time apart from children.

Introductions

Yesterday, we were at an indoor gym as it was pouring rain here. Elias made a friend with a little boy. They were playing with some playdough and I came over to help him clean-up. I used his name a few times. The mom said, "Oh, is his name Elias?" I said, "Yes." She said, "That's funny because he told me his name was Garfield." I said, "Yes, I know anything is possible in Madison, but his name isn't Garfield." Last night, Elias told me he was Garfield, but tomorrow he would be Curious George. Nothing like planning ahead your weird idiosyncratic habits.

The Joys of Spring Cleaning

In my haste and hope for Spring, I always begin the process of switching out winter clothes before it's really time. But, Monday seemed like a good idea because it had been warm and I was ready to organize the kids' clothes. I started the process of washing all winter jackets and gear and dividing piles of clothes that either will be saved, given away, or put away to wear again next year. I actually love this kind of work, but find it challenging when kids are in the mix. I got Elias' closet all cleared and to my surprise found a FULL diaper pail. While Adam is in charge of the diaper pails, I can't blame this on him. I think we forgot about its existence because Elias toilet trained and, luckily, there must not have been anything stinky in that pail.

However, our bodily waste didn't stop there. Adelaide had Montezuma's revenge yesterday. Her poor bottom was very sore. So, I thought I'd let her go barebottom for 20 minutes. Much to my surprise and chagrin, Adam wanted to know what was on the rug. Poor Adelaide had made her mark on our oriental rug and the front hall runner. Now it was time to truly get those rugs cleaned. More spring cleaning...

Finally, today our beast (aka Adelaide) snuck into the bathroom while I was in the kitchen and Eli was brushing his teeth. I heard cackles of laughter and knew this was a bad sign. I entered to find my daughter, not putting her hands in the toilet, but drinking out of it--with her brother's encouragement. No wonder the kid had Montezuma's revenge.

Black and White in John's Gospel

I preached three liturgies on Sunday. The text is posted below for those who wanted a copy.



I’ve got a confession to make:
I have often used my children as sermon fodder.
That’s probably not entirely fair.
After all, right now they have no way of telling me whether or not they want me to share the ins and outs of their lives with all of you—
and besides the therapy bills might get too expensive.
So, in this season of repentance I decided I would use someone else as my opening sermon illustration.
Someone who could say yes or no.
And, someone who knows me pretty well.
So, I made a call last Sunday night and said {pause), “Mom, can I use you in my sermon?”

You see, my mom has been having a pretty tough Lent.
No, don’t worry, we’re all doing pretty well.
Her house is not being foreclosed.
None of her kids or grandkids are sick.
But, she’s going crazy because the new rector of her parish has decided to eliminate the Confession.
And, she dropped this whole confession thing before Lent started, which was a bit disconcerting
My mom was willing to wait it out.
But, now it’s still undeniably missing from the Liturgy.
From the Lenten Liturgy.
In an Episcopal Church.
From a church in which priests promise in their ordination vows to be faithful to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Episcopal Church.
So, yes, I field calls from my mom on how she might convince her rector to slip that old Confession of Sin back into the liturgy.

Seems funny to me, in a way, because the other day when I was attending Women’s Bible Study, one of the women said, “You know I really miss the old confession of sin. The one where we used to say,
“We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness…and there in no health in us.”
Yikes. Yearning to say those words about ourselves in the company of others that recognize that we are but sinners; plain and simple.
Simply human beings.
Simply sinners.

But, this sits smack dab in contrast to the way of the world of the I’m OK, You’re OK theology.
In some Protestant churches, the confession of sin has been eliminated permanently. People don’t want to be depressed.
People don’t want shame or guilt.
People want a God of blessing and grace.
A God of blessing, not punishment.
This progressive, prophetic Protestantism goes so far as to avoid personal accountability. Instead it is easy for us to blame everything on THEM.
Them being economic structures, traditionalists, multinational corporations, AIG.
But, what if, just maybe there is no health in us?
That is, no health in you.
No health in me. No health in us.
Are these words of condemnation, or are these words of hope?

Well, it seems fitting that the master of anti-wishy washyness is our gospel text for today. The gospel writer John is not a but/and theologian.
John is an either or theologian.
He is a light and dark, this or that, here or there, above, below, ascending, descending theologian.
And he is not afraid to proclaim the way, the truth, and the life.
Many of you, like me, might find snatches of John hard to take in their density, their monologue, and their sometimes dichotomous style.
Or maybe all you know of John is that famous verse 3:16, (which for the longest time I thought was football play.)
But, today what we hear from John is both hopeful and scary.

I think it’s important to frame these words in their context.
Jesus has just finished an exchange with Nicodemus.
Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, in the dark, because he doesn’t want other members of the synagogue to know that he has sought Jesus out.
Jesus tells Nicodemus to let go of what you know.
Nicodemus persists to ask questions about how we can be born again.
Yet, he is such a literalist.
He can’t figure out how we can climb back into our mother’s womb.
And essentially, Jesus says you can’t be born again without the cross. 14Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.[a]
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[b] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Yes, this is the biggie. The whammie. The cross, which is seen as a paradoxical symbol for so many, is Jesus’ way of saying look at the cross and see me. Come and see.Taste and see. And know that I am good. The cross is humiliation and exaltation all at once. Jesus is telling Nicodemus, and all of us who are ready to listen, that the way to eternal life for Jesus is the cross. A symbol of mercy, hope, forgiveness, pain, death, and sin. Paradox enfolded together.
So, why does John have to make us bristle with his next words?

17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.[a] 19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

Why does it seem like he is getting into that awful path of the damned and the saved? Well, it might feel that way because of the context in which those words have been used since the rise of American fundamentalism. We picture these words as fighting words. We’ve seen these words draw lines in the sand. We’ve seen these words on tracts landing aimlessly in our mailboxes. No wonder we might be a bit afraid of them.

But, this passage is not about heaven and hell. Not about who is in or who is out. These are beautiful words because they are words of comfort and solace. Words of hope and encouragement. You see, we must remember that when John was writing this gospel text he was writing to persecuted Christians, most of whom were Jews by birth. People who for their whole lives had never eaten a pig. Never forgotten to bring their pigeons and doves to the Temple. Never, ever forgot that sundown on Friday was the beginning of the Sabbath. And, now, because of this man, Jesus, everything had changed. And that change was not easy. Eternal life had begun, but eternal life was no picnic.

This passage is about a God who gave Jesus to the world because he loves the world. This passage is about a God who already invites us into eternal life with him now. Eternal life is not something we earn after having lived a good life. Eternal life is the here and now for us sinners. Eternal life is about living knowing that God came into the world for us. Incarnate and embodied. Later incarnate and crucified. And finally incarnate and glorified.

When I think of these words I think of how parents talk to their own kids when no one is around. You are the cutest, sweetest girl in the world. (Extemporarate..) Well, said in the company of other cute kids or other kids working on a project may be a bit over the top or self-indulgent or just weird. But, said in front of your family, your little community, they are words of encouragement and of hope. Words of love. Words of adoration. Hear John’s words in that same context. A small, beloved community. A persecuted community. A community in need of hope and encouragement.

A dear friend of mine has been carrying a baby boy courageously for the last 9 months. She has known for a month and half that her little boy would not make it when he was born. He was born this weekend and she had a short time—filled with love—with her sweet son. I wonder how these words sound to her: “For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son that all who might believe in him will not die, but have eternal life.” Words of promise. Words of hope. Words of comfort.

In this season of Lent, John reminds us that sometimes a little black and white isn’t all that bad. There is life and there is death. During Lent, we begin the liturgy in silence and the first words out of our mouths are the words of confession. Sometimes the priest reminds us, “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us, but if we confess our sins God who is merciful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
And, I’m so glad for this chance. Because I know that the power of sin is so heavy and before we will have gotten to the peace I will have needed to say “create in me a clean heart oh, god and renew a right spirit within me.” I know I’m trapped in sin. Our liturgy knows we are trapped in sin. After all, we say Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy on us. He doesn’t take away the bad guys, the others, the them. He takes away the sin. Your sin, my sin, Our sin.

The Gospel of John is about truth-telling—as is our Christian faith. When we tell the truth about our God, we also need to tell the truth about ourselves. When we tell the good news we are always aware of the beauty and brokenness of our lives. I sort of promised I wouldn’t use my child as an illustration, I can’t even keep a promise I made 10 minutes a go…(see the power of sin) So, I know this little boy, who when his sister starts crying in a room in which they both have been playing is quick to answer his mom’s question , “What happened?” He unceremoniously and truthfully declares “I pushed her.” Quickly, the confession is made. The time-out begins. The sister is comforted. The timer rings. The apology is made. And new life begins. The more ready we are for truth telling, the more ready we are for forgiveness and new life.
Lent can be a long haul. 40 days of confession and truth telling. But, Easter is even longer. 50 days of the joy and hope of eternal life. John knows we can’t have one without the other. And, deep, deep, down, so do we.

My Mommy calls me monkey pants

This is a kid who a month ago tore books out of other people's hands so we could not read them. Now she is insisting on reading--alot. Adelaide's language seems much more basic than Elias's at this same age. Perhaps because her langauge involves a lot of screeching, and she has found lot sof way to make "more" go a long way. She is certainly determined.

Poor kid, we found out she has walking pneumonia. However, that didn't stop her from insisting that she sit in the "baby" scale at the doctor's office before and after the appointment. Luckily, she didn't get sent for an chest x-ray this time. Hopefully, she'll be as good as new once we finish this next round of pink magic. Kind of pathetic when your pediatrician apologizes for putting her on the pink stuff again. But, really this is only the third time since October. That doesn't seem too bad.

Bob the Builder

Elias seems to be the kind of kid who delves into one thing at a time, but full speed ahead. This has seemed true with regard to his phases. He is still in his imaginary identity stage and today he announced he was Bob the Builder. I have no idea where he got this as he has never seen a Bob the Builder show or worn a Bob the Builder piece of clothing. However, the change was fast. Out with Clifford and in with Bob. (And Emily Elizabeth was re-christened, Wendy. Does anybody know who she is?)

You said it's your birthday...

It sure feels like self-promotion because I'm mentioning my birthday, but I had such a great day with my family and wanted to document it. The morning started off by having both children sleep until 7:30. While some of you bask in morning zzz's, we rarely get beyond 6:45. So, we were happy to actually feel a bit rushed to get to church by 9:30. Church was interesting. Elias, in keeping with his multiple personality disorder, has recently been Clifford. He has renamed Adelaide Emily Elizabeth (She is a friend of Clifford's.) In any case, Elias snuck into the side chapel for healing prayers. Adam decided to let him proceed. However, when they prayed for Elias they asked him his name and he said, "Clifford." There's a theological question: Do they pray for "Clifford" or do they pray for Elias? They ended up praying for Clifford. God bless those Cliffords out there.

After church and naps, we went to New Glarus State Park for a hike and then hit the town playground. Adam overheard a man ordering pizza on his cell at the park and decided we needed to get pizza for supper (even though he had eaten prime rib, leftover from last night, for lunch.) We enjoyed our pizza and then had ice cream cake for dessert when we got home. The day capped off with Adelaide pooping on the potty. Now what kind of mom couldn't get a better gift than something homemade and thoughtful?

Prizes from Libya

The kids are glad you went to Libya and came back with these lousy t-shirts (Just kidding.) Thank you for the presents. Adelaide is already using her silver box as a pyx. All she needs is some ailing friend to whom she can deliver the sacraments. Too bad Elias' present broke on the way, but the card was still a hit after doing a mailbox unit in school. We miss you, Uncle Andy.

My puzzle man

I remember saying to a friend about three months ago that Elias was not very good with puzzles and I didn't think he had the attention span or fine motor skills to do them. Lately, he has really proven me wrong. He started doing big jigsaw puzzles at Bibi's and now he is voracious about any kind of puzzle. The other night we thought he was asleep, but he was busy doing his pirate puzzle under his covers. A while back, we had to confiscate lightbulbs at bedtime. Now I'm confiscating all puzzles. However, quiettime has been great because he is so hard at work. Sometimes, he has lasted over an hour trying to put them together. Madison Public Library here we come for our next puzzle fix!

It's only lunchtime and...

You would never have guessed that the house was in tip-top shape last night before bed. It was a rainy day and Elias made a fort while I talked on the phone for quite a while. Lunchtime became chaotic because I ran the dishwasher in the morning and needed to empty it at lunchtime. Yet everyone was so hungry, I just kept piling things on the counter. And, that is not peanut butter, but sunflower butter and it is a great alternative for pb and J for us. As I write, the house is in order again. Can't wait to see how long it lasts.

Is it Genetic?

Visits

Whenever we get out to the East Coast, which has been about once a year, it's important to me for my kids to not only see their grandmother, but their great-grandmother, too. Unfortunately, the thought of putting them in the car for a six hour round trip after flying on two planes is enough to make me crazy. So, this year and last year, we met up with Mee-mee half way. Luckily, my aunt and uncle--and cousin- were able to join us. While Mee-mee only sees them once a year, it's more than their other great-grandmother in West Virginia. We hope when we move that we all will be closer. Until then, grandparents and great-grandparents use this blog as another way to be in touch and that is one of my motivations to keep it up to date.

Early Childhood Center

While visiting with my mom, Elias got to try so many neat things. He did some great jigsaw puzzles on his own with over 35 pieces (a real first.) He had the chance to build with bristle blocks and also to do a Richard Scarry floor puzzle. He was exposed to a whole new book series, which served us well on the flight home. And on our snowday, my mom made him goop. It is just a combination of cornstarch and water, I think. Then she gave him a tray and he went to town. Even quiet time was different; she set up some matching games for him and he also loved playing with the Fisher-Price farmhouse. It was great to come to Bibi's preschool. Now it's back to free unstructured play/chaos at our house.

Adelaide enjoyed taking it all in!

Jump House

My mom found the perfect spot to take Elias for some gross-motor ecstasy. The Jump House was a place for kids that was filled with about 7 large inflatable jumping apparati. We had Batman, Shrek, a firetruck, a princess castle, and more. I think the pictures speak better than I can.

"Where Doggies go?"

Since we returned last night, Adelaide has asked two questions: "Where doggies go and Where Bibi go?" As she says this, she gestures and pushes her hands forward. It is quite cute. Adelaide forged a love/hate relationship with the dogs. If they were in their crates, she would pursue them and try to kiss them through the bars. If they were out of their crates, she would say "no" and stiffen up. However, as the days went by, she became obsessed with Kiza. Kiza is the female dog who is loving, albeit skittish. The other dog who gave Addie a run for her money was Shukuru. Shukuru is the new puppy and he and Adelaide competed for the award of best destructor. If Adelaide dropped a fisher-price toy, Shuku was on it. If Shuku was playing with a squeaky fish, Addie was going to try to release it from his sharp teeth. They both knocked over toys, baby gates, and each other. But, by the end of the week, Adelaide was busy planting kisses on Shukuru's wet nose! The kids loved the dogs so much that they climbed into their crates. I contemplated putting Elias there for quiet time, especially because he climbed into a crate one day with a few of his favorite books.