Do ya want to have fun tonight?

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Here’s what you need:

and……………….

(Just the socks, hehe, and many of them).  Here’s what you do:

1.  Make the socks compact like a tennis ball.  You can fold them and slip the elastic part over the rest or tie longer socks into knots several times. 

2.  Turn the fan on high speed.

3.  Throw the socks into the fan.  It will catch them and “bat” them all over.  Sometimes the fan will miss the socks like a batter swinging and missing.  The trajectory of the socks is unpredictable and that’s part of the fun.  You can “pitch” one sock at a time or grab several and throw them at once.  There are no rules and therefore no umpires.

Our family has delighted in this silliness for many years.  It’s only fun with a group of people.  We grab piles of clean socks, work them into balls and start throwing.  It’s certainly a unique way to dust in those hard to reach corners. 

Our fan doesn’t have a light and we don’t have vaulted ceilings, two factors that might change the dynamics.  Please don’t ask me how this tradition got started.  It must come from having boys and loving baseball.

I have a funny picture in my mind: my husband and I bent over, infirmed, arthritic, trying to muster the strength to lob a sock high enough from our rocking chairs to hit the fan, commenting in a slow, shaky voice, “look at that one go, Gertrude!”

Fine Art Friday

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                                                 Baby’s Feeding Time
                                           Giuseppe Magni  (1869-1956)

The Caldwell Gallery

                                                 Giuseppe Magni (1869-1956)

Fred Parker Fine Art

Doesn’t Baby’s Feeding Time look positively Vermeerish?  I love the shoes in these pictures, the elevated feet, the simplicity of the backgrounds and the touches of elegance the moms show.   You can almost hear the soundtrack for the lower piece, can’t you?

Taking Suggestions

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Blogging will be spotty for the next few days.  Our church Family Camp is this weekend.  My son and I shopped for food today, completely filling the Suburban with cases and boxes of edibles.  Shoppers always approach us and ask “What are you going to do with all that ______?”  (26 loaves of bread, 40 pounds of breakfast links, 36 pounds of butter, 10 #10 cans of green beans, 24 red peppers…)  One of the best gifts we can give the mothers in our church is a weekend free of cooking and cleaning up.  We hire the best cook in the world and the teenagers graciously do all the cleanup. 

Next week we are leaving the shire and trekking to the city for some medical appointments.  The city = shopping.  Shopping = Trader Joes and Costco.  I am a veteran Costco shopper, but Trader Joes is a relatively new delight.  Do you have a favorite item at either/both store/s that you like to get?  Please leave a comment and let me know. 

I’m delighted that Costco has restocked two items that have been MIA for quite some time: Sun-Dried Tomatos and Aronia Berry Juice. 

Please Pray

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Dear friends of our close friends experienced a tragic loss yesterday.  I’m not sure of all the details – their son was driving and the vehicle ran over/hit (?) his little sister, who died from the injuries.  “Btolly”, a regular commenter on this blog, and her husband are with the family now.  Please pray.  Pray for the young man.  Pray for his mom.  Pray for his dad.  Pray for the other siblings.  Pray for those ministering to this broken family.

O Lord, our hearts are heavy with sorrow.  Thy ways are certainly not our ways.  Yet we want to believe that Thou art not forsaking us.  O Lord, Thou art trying us as in the refiner’s fires, yet we believe that Thou dost love us with an everlasting love.  Thou alone canst pour healing into our sorrowing and wounded hearts.  Lord, we do not murmur.  But Thou knowest how empty and lonely life has become for us…  O Lord, abide with us, for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.   from the Lutheran Book of Prayer

Another Anniversary – 28!

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                      1978, in the back of our little pickup

                                earlier this year, 2006

I recently came across my wedding vows.  We married in the seventies when creeds and traditions were replaced with personalized vows (not an even exchange I willingly admit today).  All the weddings we attended before our own had self-written vows. Two phrases I distinctly remember were “I promise not to grow flabby physically, emotionally or spiritually,”  and, from a bride to her musical and moody groom: “When you are unable to hear the music, I will play it back to you.” Here’s what I promised on July 1, 1978:

Curt, I love you very much. 

Because Jesus lives in me, I am committing my life to you today, wholly and without reservation. 

I will give myself to you fully as your wife, your best friend, and your lover. 

I will love and cherish you, honor and obey you, respect and trust you, and submit to you as my husband. 

I will pray for you each day of my life. 

I will look to the Lord as my source of strength and of joy and will always thank Him for the gift He’s given to me in you, Curt. 

In abundance and in need, in sickness and in health, in success and in failure I will stay close to your side until the Lord comes or takes me home with Him.

      
      A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.  Ecclesiastes 4:12   

        

Fine Art Friday

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La Petite Lavandiere
Victor Gabriel Gilbert (1847-1933)

La Petite Vendeuse
Victor Gabriel Gilbert

Victor Gabriel Gilbert is a lesser known artist who painted a lot a scenes from Paris street cafes.  Why am I drawn to these pictures? I love the look of purpose on the little washerwoman’s face.  I’ve never had a daughter (until my son married) – the learning of grown up tasks by practicing them as a child appeals to me.  Finally, I’m a sucker for  outdoor French market scenes, particularly the baskets of produce.

If you are posting a picture today, leave a comment to let me know.  Even if you’re not xanga (xanga-schmanga – I wish it were easier) you can set up an identity in two minutes and let me know.  I love looking at your fine art offerings!

Fasten My Heart

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From a little Lutheran Book of Prayer for Wednesday morning:

Let me not devote my efforts today to purposes that are unworthy;

But, Lord, fasten my heart and hope on the life that is in Thee and let my striving and my desires be directed to the treasures of Thy love.

Amen.

Summer Reading Sampler

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Here’s a few lovely little bits from my reading:

From Every Little Thing by James Herriot

Siegfried’s words at the beginning of our partnership came back to me. “Our profession offers unparalleled opportunities for making a chump of yourself.”

From The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, on Temptation

Don’t underestimate the power of a temptation.  Don’t overestimate your power to resist temptation…Yes, temptations are often useful, whether they come in small packages or large.  But how can this be?  They bring us low, purge, scourge, and school us in the fire; that’s to say, they scare the living daylights out of us.

We do have some success in the fight.  But as one temptation or tribulation is dispatched, another soon takes its place.  Many seek to flee temptation altogether.  Alas, the escape route is clogged, and the refugee is destined to succomb!

Advancing to the rear, then, isn’t the answer.  We can’t hope to conquer that way.  But through spiritual cunning–that’s to say, through Patience and True Humility–we become the stronger, and the tempters have to try harder.

From Temperament by Stuart Isacoff

Below is a picture of a keyboard designed with 27 keys to the octave from Martin Mersenne’s Harmonie universelle. Isn’t it wild? Dividing the octave into 12 equal steps is a relatively new thing.  If you would like to hear how some music sounded before equal temperament you can listen here. More info on the book is here. 

I can’t find the reference, but I recall that the organ built in Spurgeon’s church in London was built with multiple keys, similar to the pciture below.

My favorite quote from this book is from dear Martin Luther.

Luther had praised the music of complexity, in which nature is “sharpened and polished by art.”  In its intricacy, he wrote in 1538, “one begins to see with amazement the great and perfect wisdom of God in His wonderful work of music, where one voice takes a simple part, and around it sing three, four, or five other voices, leaping, springing round about, marvelously gracing the simple part, like a square dance in heaven… He who does not find this an inexpressible miracle of the Lord is truly a clod, and is not worthy to be considered a man.”



Detoxing the Soul

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This verse (I Peter 1:22) from yesterday’s sermon:

Seeing that you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.

Here it is again in a paraphrase:

Now you can have real love for everybody because your souls have been cleansed from selfishness and hatred when you trusted Christ to save you; so see to it that you really do love each other warmly, with all your hearts.

                                                       ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~

Saturday we had a garage sale at/with Curt’s folks.  There were about 15 sales in one neighborhood.  During a lull Curt and his dad walked around to see what bargains might be found.  Eureka!  Three CD’s for $4 each, all in the original shrinkwrap: Gordon Lightfoot and two YoYo Ma CDs.  Gordon Lightfoot was someone we listened to in the early years of our marriage.  The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is a beautiful ballad.  Does anyone remember Gordon Lightfoot?

Fine Art Friday

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“Our Country Garden” by Robert Duncan

Robert Duncan is one of my favorite living artists.  I enjoy the familial aspect of his paintings (his family members are his favorite subjects).  They resonate with warmth and beauty. This scene could be almost anywhere five miles from my home.  You can see other Robert Duncan works here. 

“My paintings
reflect the things I love. My subjects are usually family members and
friends in neighborhood surroundings. I also paint out of a concern that
we are losing sight of the things that have a profound impact on our souls
and well-being. We seem to be in a mad rush to progress, but there are
some things that haven’t been improved upon for centuries. If each of
us contributes just a little, we can preserve the things that matter.
We all need nature in our lives. We need fresh air and open spaces. I
think just to drive by a farm and see cows grazing in a field does a soul
good. And children need to be nurtured in loving families.”

— Robert Duncan

Be sure to check out the Millet at Btolly’s blog.