Josiah William Paul hits 1

The little guy finally turned one on Wednesday.  It took Mommy quite a few days to sit down at the computer to tell you all about him.  Josiah has been a peach from the very beginning.  I can recall two times in the past year when I was truly frustrated with him.  One time was back before I figured out that he likes to sleep on his stomach.  With the other children I followed the rules about back to sleep.  However, with Josiah I gave in and put him on his stomach and he started to nap for an hour or two instead of twenty to forty minutes.  The only other time I recall him being a bit difficult was Easter Monday when we happened to be at my mom's.  Ironically, he was either not feeling well or getting more teeth.  In any case, he wouldn't agree to being put down.  This was so out of character for the little boy who plays independently, crawls around and pulls himself up, and just gives us terrific smiles. 

I know I have always compared my children because it seems unavoidable.  Josiah, to date, is our most easy-going.  He is sweet and joyful.  He is active, but so far our latest bloomer when it comes to walking.  We have yet to put up baby gates even though he has climbed all the way up three flights of stairs.  We have failed to put socket plugs in mostly because we are lazy.  However, he also doesn't seem to garner all the gates and distractions that another child needed.  Much of the time he hangs out on our very dirty kitchen floor while I do laundry or cook.  He will sprint to the bathroom if the door is left ajar hoping to pull enough toilet paper that Mom or Dad will be picking up bits throughout the house.  His other mischievous streak is trying to get his hand in the toilet bowl.  Besides that, his passion is for chewing on socks, waving and saying hi, slapping five, and saying Dadadad.  Occasionally, he'll switch out Dada, for Mama.  Mostly, the little boy delights us with his happy nature and his joyful wonder at the very busy world that goes on around him. Someday I will get around to making you a baby book.  In the meantime, this blog will suffice.  Oh, and we love you so!

Happy Easter!

Holy week culminated into a wonderful Easter.  This was the first Holy week that I had prepared and participated in every liturgy since before Elias was born.  When I was at St. Francis House, we usually just celebrated Good Friday and Easter.  I really enjoyed the Good Friday service we did at Redeemer.  We did the Good Friday prayer book liturgy three times.  The first one had amazing music, including  Sabat Mater, sung by the women and girls choir.  I had never done a three hour liturgy like that before but was quite taken by it.  The other neat surprise was the Easter Vigil.  The Vigil is an intergenerational service and we had kids from about 4 up to 13 participating in it.  The kids acted out the Creation story and used props.  The middle school kids did a dramatic reading of the Exodus story of the Red Sea.  The little ones sang a few songs.  We then asperged the congregation during the renewal of baptismal vows and just as we gathered for the Eucharist the sun came out after raining all day.  Easter Day was joyful and triumphant.  The choir sang the Hallelujah chorus, among many other great chestnuts. We had strings, brass, nd timpani. I think we had close to 1,000 people at all three liturgies.

New shoes from the consignment shop--loafers for Elias and white party shoes for Addie.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my mom took Elias and Adelaide to her church.  They had a wonderful time together and were very good --according to my mom.  The regular sibling antics did nor rear their ugly heads until Mom and Dad arrived.  We made it in time to put kids to bed, enjoyed a lovely lamb Easter meal on Easter Monday, and hopped back in the car this morning so that I could be at work tomorrow.  I believe the pictures speak for themselves...

Holy Week Camp begins/ Maundy Thursday Sermon

So that both Mom and Dad could attend to their work in the latter part of this week, Mommy took the kids down to 30th Street Station and sent them off to Bibi's House.  They are attending, what we hope is the 1st Annual Holy Week Camp.  I'm seriously praying that my mom will surive the two older kids until Sunday evening when we arrive after having distributed communion to about 1200 people between  the two of us.  We look forward to celebrating Easter Monday with my mom and then making our way back home on Tuesday.

(In an effort to consolidate all of my writing in one place I'm going to put all of my articles for the Redeemer News letter and all of my sermons on my blog.  I like to keep paper copies, but I seem to lose them from time to time and I'd like to have a record of all of my writing in one place.  For those of you who find all of this quite boring, just skip ahead to pictures of children.)

Maundy Thursday, 2011

I have always had vivid images in my mind of this night.



I picture Jesus and his disciples reclining around a long table.


I see shadows splashing across the terracotta walls.


I see the flickering of the candlelight revealing bits and pieces of the look on Jesus' face. And I see the hard, mud floor from which their feet are raised as they prepare to eat and recline.


And I remember that from this point of the story of the Gospel of John all that is revealed is called the Book of Glory.


And just before this amazing story is enacted, lived, and then told,


Jesus says to his disciples, “So what I say, I say as the Father told me.”






Yes, Jesus is clearly about the task of revealing his identity as the One who has come.






In fact, he says, “From now on, I am telling you before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe that I AM.”


If we can glean anything from Johanninen theology it is that John wants us to know that Jesus is the Messiah and that Jesus knows that he is the Messiah.


Jesus is not only preparing himself for what is to come, but he is preparing us by revealing as much as he can before his own Hour truly comes.






So, why and how does Jesus reveal himself in a footwashing?


Well, first we who are so removed from this practice might need to really understand what happens in a footwashing.


Some of us women have had pedicures before and let me assure you there is no whirlpool soak for your feet and shiny red colors for your toenails.


A footwashing is as simple as a warm, or even lukewarm, basin of water and a towel.


No soap.


No buffing stone.


No massage.






When I lived in Tanzania, it was always the job of women, servants, or children to come around with a basin for washing one’s hands.


The children would sneak up to you with the basin, pushing it gently across the mud floor.


Then they would look up at you, their elder, and you would hold your hands over the tub. They would hold a jug of water and let the water pour over your hands as you rubbed them together.


If they were lucky, they had soap to offer as well.


Then a child would hold a towel to you and then you would gently lay it over the child’s forearm.


This was always a mystical act.


An act in three parts involving many actors.


And it was always an amazing precursor to the gift of a hospitable meal.






But, footwashing?


I can count on one hand, how many times I was offered water for my dirty, dusty and grimy feet.


And when I was offered this water, it was not in the middle of the room in which we were to eat.


Usually, it was outside under the canopy of a banana tree removed from the hustle and bustle of the guests and the meal.


But, there is Jesus bent over at the waist ready to wash his disciples’ feet.


There is Jesus in the middle of the meal deciding to wash feet.


There is Jesus removing his outer clothes so that he can wash their feet.


And just like John’s theology, John’s way of teaching us and pointing out things, John has Jesus do a series of things with the footwashing that point us to Jesus’ true identity as the crucified and glorified Lord.






Like I said, Jesus removes his outer robe.


The word remove in Greek is the same word used to describe Jesus laying down his life. Jesus then wipes the disciples feet, dries them off, gets them clean.


The same word for wiping is used when Jesus’ body is anointed.


And, of course, ultimately as Jesus washes and wipes, we who know the end of the story know that the body of Jesus will be taken down off a cross.


That same body will be washed, wiped, and anointed.


Jesus is brilliantly drawing the disciples to him, and into him, by washing their feet.






Peter protests Jesus’ request.


There is no way that he wants his Lord to scrub under his toenails and to rub down his calluses.


His Lord is not his slave—and washing feet was usually the work of slaves and servants. But, Peter doesn’t get it.


And why should he?


This is strange behavior.


Having your Lord and leader pushing a basin around a crowded table in the middle of a special meal.


Squatting at Peter’s feet.


It just doesn’t seem right.


But, Jesus tells him, “Peter, unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Jesus tells Peter that he must become Peter’s footwasher so that they can share fellowship together. The master must become the servant so that a true relationship, a true intimacy will follow.


Jesus does not symbolically wash Peter’s feet.


He gets down between the speckles of dust and the bruised toenails and he washes.


He develops an intimate relationship with Peter in his self-giving bath.






Our first child and my husband developed a ritual bath when he was a toddler.


My husband would strip down Elias and plop him in the tub.


Elias would say "quack" an "ducky" and hot."


Adam would try to wash him from head to toe as he busied himself with all of his bathtime work.


About 3 minutes into the bath, Elias would point to the radio and soon bathtime music to the tune of ________ wafts through our house.






But then one day Daddy was not there for bath time and it was the first time that Elias protested.


He kept saying Daddy and pointing to the radio while I bathed him.


I turned on the music but somehow it wasn’t the same.


When I rubbed him down with his lotions, he still called for Daddy.


You see, Adam had become his servant.


Bathtime is a real self-giving process for the one who had to bathe Elias.


It involves patience, energy, and care.


I could see that an intimacy had truly developed between father and son in this ritual.


An intimate ritual for sure.


At that point in time, Elias’s dad was his servant who stoops down on the cold bathroom floor and washes him..


And it is Ok that his dad is both servant and master.






We know that Jesus invites us to call him Abba, Father, Daddy.


Footwashing is the place where this relationship starts.


I, myself, find footwashing a bit scary, a bit intimate.


I mean it’s weird to have someone pull off your socks and untie your shoes.


It’s a bit strange to think of them looking at your toes.


And the funny thing is we all know we’re going to get our feet washed tonight.


So, lots of us cheat and come prepared.


You know, clean and all.


But, Jesu , in the last night before he dies, tells us that he wants to be our servant, before he becomes servant of all.






I have a friend who recently learned that her young daughter is allergic to peanuts.


It was a scary episode that ended at urgent care, but ended without real physical harm. They now have to avoid all foods that contain peanuts or tree nuts and foods that are manufactured in a facility with nuts.


She says that she knows she would never be able to protect her son from all kinds of harm.


However, now that harm seems to present itself in food --in a ritual that is supposed to be life-giving.


In something that is supposed to bring life, but can potentially bring death.


And, you can’t say you aren’t going to feed your kids for a while.


It just doesn’t work that way. My friend is still scared and a bit shaken.






I think my friend needs the footwashing Jesus.


Sure, she could keep Jesus at an arm’s length and pray that this would go away.


She could pray that he would outgrow this.


She could pray that other people would understand how scary this is.


But, those are abstract lists and thoughts.


She needs to let Jesus hold her, comfort her, pick up her feet one by one.


She needs to let him rub her feet, warm the water, soak them, clean between her toes and under her toenails.


She needs to let him anoint her foot with sweet smelling oil.


She can’t be afraid to let him cradle her feet.

Spring Break/Holy Week

It comes as a rude awakening that our children's Spring Break falls during Holy Week.  How much fun is it to be penitential, contemplative, and still eating vegetarian on Spring Break?  But, I suppose that is part of the whole challenge of being in the world, and not above the world.  Certainly, I understand that some clergy keep a very quiet Holy Week with lots of prayer and meditation.  I will in as much as I will be present and preaching at four liturgies this week.  However, for my mental health and that of my children I ca not deprive them of fun activities in the earlier part of the week.  Today we headed off to the Franklin Institute.  Much of what is there is beyond there own comprehension, but there are so many interactive displays that they had a ball.  Elias is pictured jumping into the air by getting a bottle to stay aloft because of air pressure. Adelaide figured out how to make herself the size of a midget by playing with mirrors.  And, Jed just enjoyed his last few days in the Bjorn.  He barely fits in it now.  After our two hours at the Franklin Institute we walked over to the Reading Terminal Market and got to enjoy a good lunch.  We walked back tot he car and capped off the day with the kids putting away laundry and eating leftovers for supper.  We shall see what tomorrow brings when I have all three all day--a foretaste of summer!

Boyz N the Hood

I don't think my boys look anything alike, except for the fact that they both have on blue hooded jackets.  In fact, I think all three children look pretty different. However, the boys seem to favor me and Adelaide favors her father.

Addie Hits Puberty

I can remember as a very little girl enjoying watching my grandfather shave.  Every once in a while, he would take his razor, which was electric, and shave my face.  These were special times.  So, I can understand why my daughter would be interested in shaving.  But, the bad news is that she took her father's regular, old, razor and attempted to shave her face.  Luckily, she got the picture pretty quickly that shaving doesn't feel good if you don't know how to do it correctly.  (I, again, plead innocence about these events.  I was having dinner with a group of college students while my daughter tried to rush along puberty.)

Socks and Toilet Paper

Josiah update:
Our youngest child doesn't really say a thing yet, except dadadadadadada.  But, he has a penchant for socks.  We keep a basket of socks by Addie's shoes and her closet.  Every day, he gets in to them, pulls them apart, and chews on them.  On the third floor, I have one basket of mismatched socks waiting for their pairs.  He adores being up there and playing with those socks.

Adelaide update:
This morning I received a Facebook message from a VTS alum.  Apparently, they called last night.  Unbeknownst to us, her highness fielded that call.  She told them that Mommy was teaching at her church, and Daddy was talking to Pop-pop.  She then told them we were all fine.  I know the person who called here, and she said it was her most enjoyable, and memorable, call of the evening.  I was not home and Adam didn't even know she had answered the phone and had a little conversation with the VTS phonathon.

Yesterday as I was leaving for work, Adelaide noticed me using one of her two lunchboxes.  She looked at me and said, "Have a great lunch bunch."

Elias update:

Elias has taken quite an interest in Betsy Ross lately.  He wanted to know if God knew George Washington.  I told him, yes.  He then said, "Well, how since Jesus lived long before George Washington?"  I explained how that could be and then he said, "Well, did God know George Washington didn't want to be a colony anymore?" 

On Sunday, I asked Elias how Godly Play was.  He siad it was good.  I asked him what parable they learned.  He told me that someone put seeds on rocks, some on fertile soil, and some on the path.  We talked about that for a while and agreed it was the parable of the sower.  I then asked him, "Who do you think the sower is?" He paused, and then said, "Miss Claudine."  I laughed so hard.  Miss Claudine does sew a lot of clothes for us...

The Circus

We had a wonderful adventure last Saturday down to Baltimore for the Ringling- Barnum and Bailey Circus.  I wasn't sure how it would come off, but the kids enjoyed the show.  We saw trapeze artists, tigers, elephants, clowns, and pirates!  We think, however, that Pop-pop spent more money on refreshments and concessions than Mommy did on the tickets for all six of us.  Elias and Adelaide each got to pick-out one present.  Of course, Elias picked a sword that lights up and Addie picked a god-awful plastic horse with a purple feather coming out of its head.  However, she was thrilled.  As an aside, I was amazed that the family sitting in front of us allowed their three year old son to play on his father's Iphone during the event.  I can't imagine spending money on a ticket and then letting your kid entertain himself on a video game while live people, light shows, acrobats, and motorcycles are before your very own eyes.  It sure is a testament to the idea that nothing is as gratifying to the brain as a screen.

Smith Play Place

First Milkshake Ever!

Whenever you are new to a place and are the mother of younger children you scour the papers for places to take the kids, especially in inclement weather.  Philadelphia has many places for kids, especially the Please Touch Museum, but most of these places are a significant cost.  We have a membership to Please Touch as it is $20 a person to go.  Other spots we have found kid-friendly are the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Franklin Institute.  We haven't gone to the Philadelphia Zoo yet.  For one, I'm just not interested in another membership and it is way too pricey.  In Madison, we had a free zoo and went often.  Also, in Madison we had such great playgrounds within walking distance that we thought hopping in the car for an outing that took us twenty minutes was a very big deal.  In order for us to venture into the city, we do need to drive, and it usually takes about 30-40 minutes.  I was very excited to finally make it to a FREE play space in Fairmount Park.  The Smith Play Space is three floors of simple play space for kids five and under.  It is explicit that this is the age range and that is really nice for the younger kids.  So, we chose a day Elias was in school and went to the playspace.  We lasted there over two hours.  The first floor had a puppet theater,a  train, and a playhouse.  The second floor had a book room and another large playspace.  And the basement had a room full of all kinds of kid vehicles.  The building is a beautiful old building that is being restored.  While some of the toys feel a bit outdated, it is almost in a retro way, and has a very nice feel to the place.


On that same day, Josiah had his first real milkshake and drank it out of a straw. He was tickled pink!

Godmother Jocelyn's Lacy Tights

Pictured here is Adelaide in the tights that came with a simple black Hanna Andersen dress.  She has worn the dress and tights together many times.  However, the last few days she has just wanted to wear the tights, which as you can see, is not wholly appropriate.  The get-up in this picture was a bedtime outfit with her lovely hand-me-down Wisconsin tee-shirt, a diaper, and her lacy tights.  I must add that at preschool the other day, she wore her lacy tights under her jeans.  (That was a victory to get something solid on over them.)  However, she was bending over and her teachers noticed her very fancy tights and saw no undies and thought she had on some Victoria Secret get-up.  Well, they didn't really think that, but they laughed and told me it was quite a sight.  Of course, she did have on her underpants but they had fallen so low you couldn't see them under the tights.  It was then I decided to go to Target and move her out of 2/3 underwear to size 4.  She is now the proud owner of two packs of underwear.