Shiner pt. 2

Not to be out-done by her sister, MM acquired her own black eye, this time from falling onto the hydrant at G & G Dwyers' house.  She immediately sprang a nice bump (just like a horn we pointed out) above her eye.  The black and yellow bruising came in later.

Reading Lewis

One of the first things I thought about after hearing I would be a father was how much fun it would be to read The Chronicles of Narnia to my kids.  MM and JoJo are probably a tad young, but I couldn't wait any longer and we recently broke into The Magician's Nephew.  (My series has it first even though that wasn't the original order.)  MM did a pretty good job keeping up with the plot and characters.  JoJo seemed very impressed by Queen Jadis picking up Diggory and Polly by their hair; she re-enacted that part several times.  The girls referred to the book by the kids' names instead of its real title and we worked through it one chapter a night.  Reading it to them was everything I thought it would be.

Somewhat coincidentally, I simultaneously read Lewis's The Screwtape Letters as part of a class at my church, taught by our pastor, Fr. John.  I had never given much thought to demons and their methods of tempting before.  I always believed in Satan and devils but never put my intellect to them.  The class was great and I learned much about myself and Christianity.  In some ways ignorance was bliss, but I'm the better for it.  The description of Wormwood losing "The Patient" to Heaven is such a beautiful rendering of what leaving this life for the next might be like that you don't at all feel sad that he was killed in an air raid and separated from his sweet, Christian girlfriend.  That part made me long for death.

Cherry O

Playing Hi Ho! Cherry-O



My hair sure is getting long.

New Dress

Bobbins made this dress for herself recently out of one the curtains in our bedroom, which she had also made several years ago.




What a smoking lady, and talented!

Visiting Francis

Last Sunday we went out to the Cemetery for a little visit.

Jump Around

A couple weeks ago Bobbins and the girls went to one of those indoor trampoline jumping places, where you pay $6 for an hour of running and jumping.  The girls and Bobbins all tried the harness jumping.

 The girls took these two photos of their mom.

Pop Tarts

Time

B16 Resigns

A couple of people at work asked me about it, even saying they were sorry.  Not sure why.  Like a lot of people, I was surprised by the news yesterday.  Kind of sad but not despondent or heartbroken.  Just a tinge of loss.  A number of the reactions have welcomed his departure while others -- particularly from my side, the orthodox -- were disheartened.  My colleague who I ride in with met him and had her marriage blessed by him in '05.  She was pretty bummed.  Ross Douthat had good points from both sides.  My only main thought was how tough it was for B16 to replace one of the greatest pontiffs there ever was, John Paul II.  Talk about big shoes.  No matter what Benedict did he would be seen within that very large shadow.

Not looking forward to the press coverage of the upcoming election, which will treat it like a US presidential contest as much as a horserace.  It's not conservatives vs. liberals vying in some type of political match; it's the Holy Spirit acting through men of God to find the Servant of the Servants of God.

So God Made a Liberal . . .

Nice riff on the Paul Harvey/Dodge Super Bowl ad.

Shiner

JoJo got into her first neighborhood fight tonight.  Haha, actually her sister was playing with the Dog's leash, whipping it around with the metal part at the end, and it met JoJo's face perilously close to her eye...

Nifty Fit

Really a Shooter?

Definitely him because of the mom jeans.

Bubbles

Helmet

  
Ready for bike riding, and a nice lunch at Mormon Park!

Arizona Snowman

Special Friday

The girls got a special, all-fun day with their Mom last week, including a fun bike ride and lunch in the fort.

 

All About Perspective