Accuracy
Last Saturday, we took the younger four children to Concordia's production of _Godspell_. In a scene from the Garden of Gethsemanue, Jesus tells the disciples that they will all betray him before the night is over. The disciples looked at him, silent from their shock at his statement. In the pregnant pause before the action continued, our Peter turned to his father and said, "He told that to Peter, not everybody!" Peter Stahlke KNOWS what there is to know about the man for whom he is named!
Purple Night Out
Our church's youth group sponsored an evening last week for middle school and high school students. Each child received a t-shirt to keep, with the colors as one might expect: pink for girls and blue for boys.
The Bible study that night focused on the words of Jesus in Mark 10:6-8. "At the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.' For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one."
Some of the adults leading the event wore purple t-shirts. Adam figured out why: the purple shirts, with their mix of pink and blue, identified those who are married.
My Question for Jonathan
"Are we having fun yet?"
Kentucky
I'm short on time today, but Sarah just sent me more of her photography handiwork. So I'll share it with you.
Brain Development
I've been surfing the internet for medical information and found the most interesting concept. In the earliest days of development in the womb, brain tissue is concentrated on one end of the embryo. Eventually this tissue differentiates into more than just the brain. The eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and even the face itself originate from this embryonic brain tissue.
It never occurred to me that our senses are not only connected to the brain, but can be considered a part of the brain. That's why heavy alcohol use among pregnant women affects the facial features, as well as the brains, of their children.
Mom!!
Yesterday in the car, Peter saw his "girlfriend" in a park near our home. "Mom, can we stay here, even for just five minutes? PLEASE!"
David didn't want to stop. "Peter, you're with her every day in school. She's in your class, isn't she? Why do you need more time with her now?"
"I'm in 3rd grade, and she's in 4th grade, so I don't get to spend much time with her at school."
I decided to lighten the mood. "Peter--are you telling us that you like an older woman?"
He protested, "Mom, she's only 9 years old!"
Not a Restful Night
The themes of my recurring nightmares have changed over the years. As a young child, a house-sized ant chased me, and (of course!) I couldn't run at all to get away. In my 20s and 30s, my final exam in a college course was scheduled to start in five minutes, and not only had I not cracked the books even once, but the location of the class was a total mystery since I had never attended.
Recently, a packing deadline loomed for a move to another country. Besides my own belongings, all of the children's toys also filled the apartment. Try as I might, it was impossible to bring all of our things. But deciding what to leave involved innumberable decisions about minutiae. It all made my head ready to explode.
When I told Jonathan about my dream, he exclaimed,
"That's not a nightmare. It's a memory!"
Bigger Kids=Inflation
Once a week, I visit the bank to break a $20 bill into smaller denominations. In past years, that meant rolls of dimes and quarters, which paid for milk at school and offering at church.
Now I still break a $20, but now it comes back to me in $1 bills. We can't ask a teenager to place only a quarter into the offering plate. And train fare for youth events at church costs more than dimes and quarters!
Delayed Gratification
Jonathan and I have stumbled upon a possible answer to the issues plaguing one of our kids. Yesterday, on my day off, I spent several hours on the internet researching the condition and locating a doctor in the Chicago area who is a national expert.
This morning, on my way to church, I told Jonathan that I wanted to do more research on this topic. He told me to make sure to get some church work done, too. His suggestion was to work first, for two hours, and then reward myself by telephoning the doctor!
Two Sides of Life
While working with our finances on Quicken, I needed to know which checks wouldn't clear until after Jonathan's next paycheck. That meant finding the appropriate expenses with the word "float" as the category. The search function gave me the list of transactions that I wanted, along with a few more--those that included "ice cream float" in the memo field!
On You Tube
My church recorded the Good Friday worship for YouTube. This service features the choir and instrumentalists doing _Song of the Shadows_ by Joseph Martin. Jonathan served as conductor, and I played piano. To find the service quickly, just see the link on Trinity's homepage:
www.trinitylutheranvp.com
Holy Week
Blog posts will have to wait. Sorry.
It's True
A per capita list of 143 nations' coffee consumption gives Sweden as #6! And four of the five countries ahead of Sweden were also Scandinavian. Garrison Keillor was not making it up!
