I’m still alive.
All of the action is at Facebook right now, so if that’s your thing too… friend me!
I feel very awkward about this space. I should bring it to closure if I’m done with it, but I don’t know if I’m done with it. I always hate saying a very intentional goodbye to someone, […]

Cool Librarian e-mailed and said “Are you OK? You haven’t posted for a while.” It’s one of those things in which the longer I go without postig, the longer it would take to do a proper update, which means I put it off even longer… lather, rinse, repeat.
Here are the headlines:
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We are all adjusting well […]

C is home today with a fever. J is at L’s house, which means it’s just the girls…
Can you guess what comes next in this real-life conversation?
C: Can I listen to a CD?
M: I wanna listen to Cinderella!
C: I don’t want to listen to that!
Me: C, you can listen to your CD up in your […]

There’s a vas deferens between having three kids and having four.
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This morning at the breakfast table.
RM: Sigh… I had to give J a bottle last night. I think he is weaning.
little she-who-is: What’s weaning?
RM: He doesn’t want nursies anymore. He bit me last night, I think because he wasn’t getting enough milk.
R: Aw, just like […]

M on her first day of preschool

Howdy.
Still here.
Last week was our first week with everyone in their places—J at daycare down the street three days a week, M joining him a couple of days and also attending preschool two mornings, and C’s first full week of kindergarten.
I have a spreadsheet to keep track of where […]

Can I form a coherent thought with Dora the Explorer in the background?
Our vacation was amazing, wonderful, slightly tiring but energizing, and fun. Our brother-in-law has a part-time job at Disney, so he was able to make some “backstage magic” happen a couple of times.
One of my favorite moments, though, was the airport experience […]

Fun in the princess tent.

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The sermon series on children’s lit began on Sunday with Because of Winn-Dixie. I ended up using three clips, but none of them in the sermon itself. We begin our worship with silence, which I prefaced with the scene […]

Ah, photos. The lazy blogger’s crutch.
But seriously, I’ve been meaning to take the centerpiece of our kitchen table for a while, since it is such a weird collection of stuff:

communion set given to me by Senior Pastor for my fifth ordination anniversary
homemade “sparkler” craft perched in the communion chalice
pink butterfly craft made by C
round oil […]

I have been in a foul mood the last few days.
Prickly, edgy, really really tired. If I went somewhere and just slept, I wonder how many days it would take me to feel like myself again.
I’m tired of washing those damn breastpump parts, every freakin’ day.
I’m ready for J to eat what we […]

“Portrait of My Brother”
little she-who-is
marker on white board, 2008
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I’m in a writing workshop this week at Downtown Cathedral. There are three workshop leaders—I am in BBT’s group. (Those who care already know; those who don’t know, don’t care.)
We have each morning free to write, then there are afternoon group sessions, individual conferences with our […]

Hi,
Still here,
Busier than a one-armed paper hanger.
Too busy to think of a better cliche.
How are you?

The first was an actual earthquake here in Suburban Sheol. I was at the church and heard this big rumble, as if a construction crane had dropped a bunch of really heavy stuff.
Turns out it was an earthquake, about a 1.5 on the Richter scale.
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The other day I was driving home from church with both […]

That’s what this is.
I have had a cold the last couple of days. I seem to be past the worst of it. But I was beat.
SBJ was also sleeping poorly… Again? Still? But last night we pulled out all the stops. Gave him a bath, put a little hydrocortisone on his itchy patches, gave him […]

Almost time for bed (actually… look in the rear-view mirror, RM) but here are some highlights of the day:
This evening the girls were having crazy fun, sliding down the carpeted stairs on their butts. C was wearing these slick bloomers and tights and made it down all the stairs in about 1.5 seconds. It was […]

With each successive kid, some new aspect of the morning routine has gone out the window. With C, it was making the bed. (Come to think of it, I was never very regular with that Sisyphean task.)
With M, it was wearing contact lenses.
With J, it has been messing with my hair. I pretty […]

This is my first full day home solo with all three kids—R is at work and L is closed. Wish me luck! I’m ready! I’m pumped!
R has been enjoying the piano. He got out some of the old books of sheet music and was playing some rudimentary stuff. He likened it to the scene in […]

It was a weird and wonderful day yesterday. We happened to get an appointment for C’s five-year checkup on her actual birthday. She got an extra sticker there, but also got three needle sticks and a blood draw. And a pee-in-the-cup, but that wasn’t nearly as unwelcome a development. She’s about 46 pounds and 44 […]

First, a shout out to the YDS chicks…
hey!
Keep doing what you’re doing. Get yourselves graduated; we need you out in the church!
And give S a hug for me.
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Announcement: I appreciate anyone’s interest in my child’s safety. But in response to the notice over the PA system to strap children into shopping carts because doing […]

SBJ has eczema all over his face. Just like his namesake, who suffered from it off and on his whole life.
I think it itches him because he rubs his face into our shoulder. It’s only on his face. We are drenching him in Eucerin but it doesn’t seem to do much.
Big
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I […]