Happy Easter, my loves! He is Risen!
(The cherry trees are budding.)
Oh, do I have things to write! Things to tell you! I might overcompensate from my “Stop Talking About Yourself 40 Day Lenten Fast” by talking about myself 40 times in one day!
Not that I ever go overboard….
Or use too many exclamation points. (!)
So stay tuned for much ahead. Pull up a cuppa tea with me…away we go….
You’re all most interested in the tinies, I know.
The most exciting news of Lent is this: SHE’S DAY TRAINED!
Hallelujah and amen. (And no, we’re not sacrificing anything…that’s blue Play Doh.)
Annie turned two and a half officially. She keeps us in stitches these days with her conversation. She chatters constantly (we have no idea where she gets this from…) and is full to the brim with mischief, joy and love.
The other day, Brian was reading her story and when he finished, she stood up, dusted off her pants and said casually “That was great. Thanks for stopping by.”
And my sweet Joseph is six months old. SIX! MONTHS!
He’s cut three teeth. Evidently he’s an easy teether because I knew he had cut two when my mother called and asked me when he’d cut that third tooth she noticed on Sunday.
Um….couldn’t tell you.
He has a third one? Right.
There it is. Another tooth.
He’s still curled between us for most of the night and has refused solid food, preferring to nurse still. I tried for a week but he wasn’t having any of it. So we’re back to nursing and we’ll try again in a week or so. He’s sitting up, babbling constantly and has eyes for Anne mostly.
In other important news….
My beautiful little sister and her husband gave birth to our newest tiny. Her name is Addison Dawn and, oh my, she is lovely. 8 lbs, 1 oz and a dimple to boot!
And were we glad to see her after a posterior position, 51 hours of labour and 4 hours of pushing. (If I am the sprinter of birthing, my sister is evidently the Iron Man triathalon.) Everyone is healthy and settled.
I turned 30. And to be honest, it was lovely. And being 30 is lovely.
I am a knitting machine. I have crossed the border between “interested beginner” into “dangerously obsessed but not that good yet”.
I have actually been knitting more than I’ve been reading.
I know.
I can’t believe it either.
I have a long list of books to tell you about so get ready for some book reviews and suggestions. Everything from knitting (see?) to simple living to parenting to faith and fiction and so on.
We finished the application process and finally submitted that beast of an app to the denomination. All the information that I don’t think many people other than my nearest and dearest know is now catalogued and spell checked. And in a true example of denominational speed, we have yet to hear back from them. It’s a little disappointing; you (or your husband in this case) work so hard on something and it just languishes, waiting to be noticed. And then my husband said “Hey, remember how we wanted to church plant independently? Let’s talk about that again.”
And to showcase my amazing growth, I didn’t even roll my eyes.
I had a pretty intense spiritual experience during Lent. Much will be written about this over the next few weeks.
H/T to the Ragamuffin Diva for tuning me into this poem over Lent…I read it and thought “isn’t that nice?” only to be walloped with the truth of it just days later.
Lent is not for the faint-hearted
Lent is not for the faint-hearted.
It demands that we, like Thomas,
put our hand into the side of the crucified Christ.
Lent is a journey towards the cross,
a journey of enlightenment:
from wilderness to feast,
from desert to oasis.
It’s an attempt to identify with the powerless
and the suffering in the world.
***
Lent is not tidy.
The days grow longer,*
the ground thaws, there’s mud and dirt everywhere
and the windows need cleaning.
Lent is a journey.
So at the end of Lent
we should expect to find ourselves
somewhere different from where we started.
Lent can be an opportunity
to explore what is the nature
of the promised Kingdom of God on earth
that we long for;
a time to discern
how we are called to work for it.
No, Lent is not for the faint-hearted!
*‘Lent’ means lengthen.
Kate Mcllhagga
From The Green Heart of the Snowdrop, Wild Goose Publications
The blog is going to be going in a new direction. I’ve been writing here for nearly four years. It’s morphed from a journal to keep our Texas friends in touch to a much wider audience and interest. As I’ve left my real-world job (and paycheque! *sob*) to mother and write, I thought that it was time the blog reflected these changes. I’ve changed a lot in the past four years…this space has reflected those changes.
So all that to say, we’ll be moving sooner or later. (Probably later. This could take a while.) In the meantime, don’t panic that most of the blog is missing right now. It’ll be back. And I’m excited to see where we end up in all of this.
I missed you guys! Glad to be back.
