I had a nice Mother’s Day yesterday.
I had the day off from church—it was Youth Sunday, and Senior Pastor and I alternate taking off the “special” Sundays. So I slept until 8, when R brought in the newspaper. Then I dozed/read until 8:30 when the girls brought in breakfast—eggs, homemade biscuits and strawberries.
C gave me […]

Lent Disciplines
I have done a variety of things for Lent. Some years I have given up chocolate, other years TV. One year I gave up worry; I got a lot out of that, though I lapsed often.
Other years I take on something additional. This year I will be doing morning pages (three pages of free-flow […]

Parkour is a physical discipline inspired by human movement. It focuses on uninterrupted, efficient forward motion over, under, around and through obstacles (both human-made and natural) in one’s environment. Such movement may involve running, jumping, climbing and more complex techniques. The goal of parkour is to adapt one’s movement to any given obstacle in one’s […]

Great discussion at BesoMami about women clergy. How far have we come, or not?
I think we have come a long way. I also think we have a long way to go. The head of staff seems to be the stained glass ceiling. But are those positions more closed to women, or are women (especially those […]

I slip on my shoes and check the clock.
8:50.
Perfect. Shoes are on, coats are mostly on, three sets of teeth are brushed. Time to walk out the door. “Family Kiss”: a circle hug, cheeks pressed together and “mmm-smack” in which nobody really kisses anyone but the girls laugh. We gather our things–briefcase, preschool bag, purse—and […]

Lying motionless while bubbles float by.
Lying motionless while bubbles float by; eyes flash with delight.
Moving head and eyes to track the path of bubbles.
Moving hands and fingers to try and catch bubbles.
Closing hands and fingers around bubbles; cackling with glee.
Crawling toward the generator of bubbles; grasping for bubble bottle.
Saying, “buh.”
Saying, “buh-buh.”
Exhaling in the vicinity of […]

i was far away
when the messenger came to you,
her voice wispy white
it is time
and you readied yourself for the climb,
packed bags just so
then hoisted them on capable shoulders
and breathed stout sea level air
as your heart beat its thanks, thunderstruck
but it wasn’t time.
you were set, but the mountain
was still finding its shape
under furrowed drifts—
smoothing ancient footprints
wiping […]

The divine miss m went back to daycare today. She squealed with joy when she got there, and had a great day, except this morning while the caregiver’s back was turned she climbed onto the Lego table, lost her footing and face-planted on a toy. So she has a handsome scrape on her right eyelid. […]

The yellow Boohbah is the best one.
There really is no comparison.

worship
though it’s embarrassing,
like talking in one’s sleep
or feeling milk chortle out the nose.
it is unseemly, the amnesia of the self,
the adoration unto death, the testimony,
against the evidence, that there is
only
this:
the beloved
addressing her:
be loved,
as i am.
you cradle me, but it is i who will
save you, gather you back
from the
abyss;
with a
pair of eyes studying her face, […]

Nursing relationship, that is.
The divine miss m has been on strike for 24+ hours. I’ve offered at various times today but she twists and shrieks in a way that says, “I am So Over You.”
I know this is common at this age, although for some it’s just a phase. So we could easily wean and […]

Houses aren’t solid,
like I drew them as a child:
squares of thick, dumb lines,
with rectangles and a triangle hat
beside a lollipop tree
with a gaping black oval in the trunk
for the bird to sit in
straining toward the light of a quarter-arc sun with stubby rays.
Real houses have holes,
I discovered, not just as an adult,
but recently. They breathe. […]

Tuesday night, 7 p.m. The divine miss m goes to sleep after much cajoling, rocking and Benadryl.
10 p.m. RM and the Mr. go to sleep.
11 p.m. M is awake again and manages to settle down for 10-minute stretches–just long enough for one or both of her parents to settle back into their own bed. Then […]

My last post sparked some interesting comments (see previous post and comments) about entertaining… got me thinking about the differences between entertaining and hospitality.
Songbird’s stay-at-home theory (that rates of entertaining have gone down as two-career homes have become more prevalent) is interesting, and there’s probably something to it. It’s an irony though, in that I […]

i’m
so
sorry this
three line e-mail
took thirty minutes to write.
just when i think i have it done
i have to jump up and pull a baby, kicking, off the fireplace
or kiss her tears away after her tumble or suggest a
new toy or wrest the phone cord from her grip
or turn the TV on because the older one must […]

Here are the top 10 best things about having a baby with me at work:
10. Fewer dates with the breastpump.
9. Thanks to regular nursing breaks, my basket of Interesting Things to Read is actually getting cleaned out.
8. The weekly staff meeting, which can easily drag into the noon hour, comes to an early and efficient […]

If working from home/with M in the office/with M being babysat is logistically tricky, Sundays are the really tricky things. Yesterday went well. M and I left for the church around 7:30, in time for me to feed her before the worship service, which she spent in the nursery. Apparently she was very comfortable there.
The […]

Well, all in all I’d give my first week back a B-.
Good things:
–I am happy to be back. I feel a sense of excitement rather than dread when I walk into my office (I really want to start calling it a study, which is more traditional and theologically appropriate, but “office” is a hard habit […]

PPB and others were wondering what I submitted for critique. Here is the first piece:
Introduction
It’s happened again.
Another friend of mine from seminary, ordained, installed and practicing ministry for less than two years, has given notice to the church she serves. She will not seek another call—not right now. She will be a stay-at-home mom to […]

As they say in Texas, if you don’t like the weather, wait a minute.
Babyhood is like that—if you don’t like the phase you’re in, wait a minute. The corollary to that is to enjoy the good times and not get too wrapped up in what was or will be. All this is to say, I […]