Sock update

Many of the matches to Colin's socks have been found in a drawer in Patrick's room.

I think we're going to try the sock clip idea. I just have to convince them to use it!

Happy Birthday, Boo!

Happy 14th Birthday, Jonathan!

(Looks like you've had enough caffeine for a while!)

Almost like a vacation

This past week my wonderful wicked step-father went on a golf outing, so my mom got to come for a visit. She left yesterday morning, and, even though we were here the entire time, I feel like I just came back from vacation.

We did have a lot of fun. We went to the Naked Clay Cafe and painted pottery. We played Mexican train dominoes with a couple of friends from church. We went shopping. Twice. We went out for Mexican food for Jonathan's birthday. We watched the looong version of Pride and Prejudice.

I guess it was a bit like a vacation.

So today I've been washing windows and screens.

Socks

Where do they go? Why are there nine mate-less tan socks in a drawer in our room? Why does my husband spend time every morning digging through the drawer and muttering that he has no socks, even though I constantly buy him socks and the laundry hamper is empty?

Saturday Photo Hunt: Steps

A bit of a different take on the theme "steps." This is my brother and our step-brother. I love this picture, because although our parents didn't marry until we were all adults, we've all been together for twenty years now and I think that this picture is a great snapshot of the relationships we have. I'm very thankful for my "steps."

Blog cleaning

I did a bit of long-overdue blog care tonight. I have made some changes in my blogroll. I have added the Big Blogroll O' Vark in an expandable box. I have still kept my listings of those blogs that I read at least a couple of times a week broken out in my sidebar. There are some other new treasures that I'll be adding over there as the next couple of weeks go by.

A little light reading

I just finished a very funny book. It is definitely chick lit, and certainly didn't make me think too hard. The story isn't exactly plausible. But it did make me laugh.
Out loud.
In public.
It has been a long time since a book made me do that.
The book is The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella, the author of the "Shopaholic" books. Besides its value in inducing laughter, it also has some wonderful passages about cooking.

I'm gonna play in the dirt

It appears that real for sure spring has finally arrived here in the midwest. It's a bit of a drab spring because the long cold snap froze our cherry and pear blossoms just as they appeared. It also zapped our rhododendron, the baby leaves on our red maple, our clematis and bleeding hearts and turned some leaves on other plants brown.

But I'm still excited to get out and work in my garden this weekend. We're going to get some veggies in the ground and just generally spruce things up.

Saturday will be a short work day and I'll need to scrub the dirt from under my nails, because we have our fancy dress-up ball to go to in support of the Bach Collegium. (Hey, if you want to come with us it's not too late!)

Media hyperventilation

Does anyone besides me think that the media is being unrealistic with their treatment of the shooting at Virginia Tech? Their suggestions that police should have shut down the campus after the first shooting seem very much like disingenuous Monday-morning quarterbacking.

We are talking about a 2,600 acre campus with 30,000 students. That would be the equivalent of shutting down a small city. The first shooting was believed to have been a personal thing. They're describing it as a "domestic dispute," which doesn't strike me as an entirely accurate characterization, but does convey an idea of the situation. Do they really think that school officials should have--or could have--warned thousands of people not to go to class because a guy shot his girlfriend?

So now everytime there is a domestic shooting in a US city the mayor should warn everyone not to leave his home because there has been a shooting?

They keep calling this a "school shooting." A large university campus is a far cry from your local high school. During a press conference yesterday there was incredulity that campus buildings, except for dorms, are open, not locked. Huh?! Have any of these people actually been to college? Of the four colleges that I attended only one could even manage to keep the dorms locked. And no security of that sort would have mattered anyway, because the shooter was a student.

Addendum: Polly addresses the another important aspect of this incident.

Bubbling over with excitement

Okay, okay. I know I'm over 40 and a homeschooling mom of four, but I am so excited! Now, don't laugh.

We're going to see a RUSH concert!

I haven't seen RUSH in concert for over 20 years. Colin and I have seen them three times, and I really didn't think that they'd be touring again. But they are, and Colin and I are taking Bethany and Patrick to see them at the Verizon Music Center in August.

Photo Hunt: Hobby

I wasn't sure which hobby I should use. I suppose I could use some of my gravestone photos for genealogy. I have a few pictures of us dancing. There are pictures of me reading, which belongs more in the same category as breathing, as far as I'm concerned. So I picked scrapbooking.

This is a picture of my kitchen table, taken over for a weekend of scrapping.

Boring and bored

My blog is boring and I am bored with its design. I spent about 45 minutes changing colors and doing a bit of tweaking then the cat (!!!!!) stepped onto my keyboard and somehow changed the web page I was on. I lost it all.

I'm considering getting a new pre-made template. Do any of you have good suggestions? I'd like to be able to do the work myself, but right now I just don't have time to learn.

Go read this sermon

I promised that I would let you know when Pastor Petersen's Easter sermon was posted. It is on his blog now. I am fortunate in the fact that I heard it preached, so when I read it I can hear the voice and the phrasing. But even without that it is a wonderful sermon.

Thinking about style

I have always liked clothes and have been interested in fashion. I had a grandmother who taught me to shop for quality and to look at lines. When I was a child my mother and grandmother kept me in sweet little dresses with their sewing skills. I suffered in elementary school from being an early bloomer with unfashionable curves in the oh-so-flat '70's. In high school it was all about the fads. And in college I wished that I had the money to dress like the sorority girls in the oh-so-preppy '80s.

My taste has always outstripped my budget and it seems that when I do find clothes that fit me relatively well they are in pricey stores. I have started to collect some pieces that work well and have staying power, but I haven't had a plan.

Now I'm making a plan, thanks to two books suggested by my friend Polly: The Pocket Stylist: Behind-the-Scenes Expertise from a Fashion Pro on Creating Your Own Look and 40 Over 40: 40 Things Every Women over 40 Needs to Know About Getting Dressed. I'm discovering that there are some things that I've been doing right, but there are other things that I can do that will help me feel better about my wardrobe and the way I look.

The pocket stylist, particularly, has great tips about finding clothes that suit the shape that you are, not the shape you would like to be or the shape that the models are. It has great advice about cuts, fabrics, & patterns that flatter and why. There are suggestions on how to shop to find what you want and about what to get rid of and what to hang on to.

Saturday I'm cleaning out my closet and taking my measurements. (Ugh!) Wish me luck!

Easter Monday blues

Easter Monday is one of my least favorite days of the year. There's nothing wrong with the day itself, and there is some consolation to be found in being a member of a congregation where there is a service on Easter Monday so that I don't have to go cold turkey from daily worship during Holy Week to the normal once or twice a week.

But the let down is there. It's now another entire year until Easter. It's 10 1/2 months until Lent begins the march toward the Garden of Gethsemane and Golgotha and ultimately the empty tomb. And even though each Sunday is a little Easter, the focus isn't quite a sharp as it is during Holy Week.

The Easter Vigil this year was one of the most beautiful services hat I have ever seen. And the sermon was simply fantastic. When it is posted to the website I'll post a link. The mingled smell of lilies, incense, and the building itself was, as Bethany said, the smell of Easter. We were wishing we could bottle it.

SO yes, a little blue. But under the faint sorrow is the deeper joy. He is risen!

He is risen!

        1. Christ Jesus lay in death's strong bands,
       For our offenses given;
       But now at God's right hand He stands
       And brings us life from heaven;
       Therefore let us joyful be
       And sing to God right thankfully
       Loud songs of hallelujah!
       Hallelujah!

       2. It was a strange and dreadful strife
       When Life and Death contended;
       The victory remained with Life,
       The reign of Death was ended;
       Holy Scripture plainly saith
       That Death is swallowed up by Death,
       His sting is lost forever.
       Hallelujah!

       3. Here the true Paschal Lamb we see,
       Whom God so freely gave us;
       He died on the accursed tree-
       So strong His love!-to save us.
       See, His blood doth mark our door;
       Faith points to it, Death passes o'er,
       And Satan cannot harm us.
       Hallelujah!

       4. So let us keep the festival
       Whereto the Lord invites us;
       Christ is himself the Joy of all,
       The Sun that warms and lights us.
       By His grace He doth impart
       Eternal sunshine to the heart;
       The night of sin is ended.
       Hallelujah!

       5. Then let us feast this Easter Day
       On Christ, the Bread of heaven;
       The Word of Grace hath purged away
       The old and evil leaven.
       Christ alone our souls will feed,
       He is our meat and drink indeed;
       Faith lives upon no other.
       Hallelujah!

Christ Jesus Lay in Death's Strong Bands"
                   by Martin Luther, 1483-1546
                              Text From:
                      THE LUTHERAN HYMNAL
       (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941)

Daffodils

Here is a picture of my daffodils on Monday, with Ben-Cat.


This is one of my daffodils today.

The Eggs

This is the day of the six dozen eggs. I don't have pictures from this year yet, because it hasn't happened. But here's Patrick from last year. I also have a bunny cake to make today.

I would be more in the mood if there wasn't snow on the roofs!

Good Friday

One of the things that I'd never experienced before we began attending Redeemer is the Tre Ore on Good Friday. It is a series of three services, from noon until 3:00.

It is very powerful, but my favorite parts are the Reproaches and praying the Great Litany.

Tomorrow night is the Easter Vigil, which has become one of my favorite services of the whole year.

Pandora

If you listen to music while you're online you have to check out Pandora. I've had fun setting up some "stations" and I've already found a couple of artists that I hadn't listened to before that I am enjoying.

By the time I finally get an iPod I'm going to really know what I want.

No excuses. I've been busy, but not too busy. I just haven't felt like blogging.

Took my Godsons--four year old twins--to the Indy Childrens' Museum last week. That was an adventure! It was interesting to see two children of the same age and sex approach the museum very differently.

Over the weekend we saw yet another fabulous performance by the Bach Collegium and then had a fun dinner at Mad Anthony's with our parents.

Been doing a little cleaning at church since we're between janitors.

Tomorrow it's back to the Children's Museum with my oldest niece Kate. And then tomorrow night we will have the stations of the cross at church. I love Holy Week!