Monday, December 24, 2018

Joy to the world!

(I walked in on Big Frog watching Monday Night Football on the last night of Fantasy Football playoffs.)
me: Are we winning?
Big Frog: We just need J. Cook to get 6 points.
me: Is that Jay or Jason?
Big Frog: I don't know.  His first initial is J.
ne: What do you think it stands for?
Big Frog: Jeremiah.
me: Jeremiah?  Was he a bullfrog?
Big Frog: No.
me: How can you tell?
Big Frog: I understood everything he said.

Joy to the world, y'all!

Sunday, December 2, 2018

Advent - Dec 2

This might be my favorite chorale of Handel's Messiah, too.

Advent - Dec 1

I have had the same advent calendar as long as I've been able to read.  There was a time it was encrusted with gold glitter, to the point that touching the plastic bag holding it could transfer glitter to the books around it.  It lived at the very end of my bookshelf so it would always would be there.  Still does, actually, although now it is really not in the least bit glittery.

Sunday, September 2, 2018

Where's the line?

Yoohoo: When do we cross the line and start paying for things?

Philly: Oh it's already been crossed.

(Evidently there's a shame-app that, based on who you've already drafted, tells you how to round out your best team.)
 



Later...

Philly: I can't look at someone else's best picks... oh, I CAN!!

Chicken & rice: That's that $4.99 value!

Later...
Commish: Oh, it's a real app!

God loves us

Evidently K, with M's J, made glitter slime this afternoon.

Me, voicing an opinion that I have long held and have voiced before: I don't understand why slime is so popular.  Instead of slime, you could make chocolate chip cookies.
J: But you can share slime with people!
Me: You can share chocolate chip cookies with people!  Chocolate chip cookies are proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy!

Shortly thereafter...

Unkie and Uncle J were in the kitchen playing with what I thought was the glitter slime. 

Me: So, is that the glitter slime the kids made?
Uncle J: It's putty.
Unkie: Thinking putty. 
Me (do you ever experience deja vu?): I don't understand why slime is so popular.  Instead of slime, you could make chocolate chip cookies.  Chocolate chip cookies are proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy!
M's hubs P: Do we have chocolate chip cookies?
Em: I can make shortbread!

PS: recipe 
1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 c sugar
1c flour, can add up to 1/2 cup more flour if needed -- depends on moisture.

cream butter & sugar (if butter is not softened, shred it with a grater to make it usable)
add flour
work manually until it comes together

optional: can add 1/4c mini chocolate chips

bake 15min at 375F or until edges barely start to brown, then remove from oven and let sit 10min on the hot tray.
prick top surface with fork 

Saturday, September 1, 2018

Ratscrew

So we taught the nieces and their friends to play Egyptian Ratscrew.  With doubles and sandwiches; no rings.  Like that enormous gold class ring, Unkie...

friend: Stop murdering me!
Unkie: That's good life advice, actually.

Thursday, August 30, 2018

That traditional Christmas tune

Big Frog is a consistent supporter of Heart of the Triad Music, because he's a constant supporter of me.  He's a keeper.  He doesn't sing with HTCS, though.  That's ok; we do need an audience as well.  I occasionally poke him about joining, and sometimes others say he's a good singer and does he sing with me?

And then sometimes...

me <listing out the high points of this season's repertoire>: We're doing 3 pieces from Handel's Messiah!  And the Christmas song from Mame!  And Ding Dong!
Big Frog: The witch is dead?
me: Yes.  That traditional Christmas tune.

Come sing with us!  We rehearse Thursdays at Main Street UMC.  And our winter concert is Friday December 14 at 7pm and Saturday December 15 at 3pm, at Sedge Garden UMC, Kernersville.

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

That Book Lady

Scene: I am cleaning up the kids' area of Bookmarks, a job which is not difficult but, like nearly everything involving kids, is never done.  I have given a book rec to a small girl, approx 4yo, who is courteous in her refusal of it; she wants to find her own new favorites.  Then...
4yo: Mom?  Hey Mom, that book lady...
<Mom freezes>
4yo: She smells nice.
Mom: <audible sigh of relief.  Clearly this is the kind of kid who could say literally anything and you just have to roll with it.>
me: Thank you.
I'll take it.  (It was my current favorite seasonal Bath & Body Works, Love and Sunshine.)

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Crazy Rich Asians

Caveat: I, like my family before me, am not a Crazy Rich Asian, although we are indeed Crazy Asians.

A short, unspoilery review of Crazy Rich Asians -- I LOVED it.  Went to see it in the theaters on opening day.  And I go to the movies about once a year, usually waiting for the DVD not only to come out, but to come available at the library.  

I loved the glimpse into how the 1% wishes it could live.  I loved seeing the family dynamics.  I think Awkwafina's character might be me, but with vastly better shoes.  And I simply adore Constance Wu, and here I love her in ways I never could in Fresh off the Boat because that character is meant to be tiger mom instead of a strong, independent woman.  Even if she is a banana.  Like me. 

Most importantly, having the entire cast and crew be Asians... wow.  You simply can't understand how powerful representation is and how under-represented Asians are until the entire screen is filled with people who LOOK LIKE YOU.  Not too long ago I saw a book that put in the caveat that although it was printed in color, the characters were left uncolored so people of all backgrounds could see themselves in the story.  I tell you what, that means they show up in white.  

I gotta read the book!

Sunday, July 22, 2018

Like Quincy!

What did you do today?  (You mean while we waited in the ER?)  We made AirBnB res for our Hawaii trip!   To stay on a sailboat!!   Like Quincy!!!  “I know your husband was just murdered, but… are you doing anything after?”

Sunday, June 17, 2018

Lacking a coloring sheet, I was forced to draw.

So if there's one post to skip, this would be it.

 Our pastor having had a hip replaced this week, we have the great blessing of dipping into the surprisingly deep pastoral pool from within our own congregation.

This week we were in Jonah 3 & 4.  The plant part of the story, not the whale part.  Please note I drew Nineveh too.





Sunday, June 3, 2018

Missions sermon art

Today's pastor was a Japanese national who had been ministering in Quebec and is now heading to Nice, France.  I greeted Pastor Satoshi with, "Konnichiwa; Bienvenue," to which he not totally surprisingly asked if I spoke either language.  I don't, but I'm something of a polyglot in terms of greetings and thank-yous.

Sermon coloring sheet today from Matthew 9.

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Pentecost

Pentecost is one of those neat holidays that doesn't get enough recognition.  When I was in high school (and high school French), my pastor did a neat bit in morning service he called Pentecost Revisited.  His point was that Pentecost reversed the Tower of Babel, because at Babel the LORD scrambled language so that people couldn't understand each other because they were trying to be like God and build their own way to heaven, but at Pentecost, thru the power of the Holy Spirit, all the nations heard the disciples speaking in their own languages.  Why were all the nations in Jerusalem in Acts 2 anyways?  It was for the Feast of Weeks, aka Shavuot, a pilgrimage feast celebrating both the wheat harvest and the giving of the Law back in Moses' time.  You count with great anticipation seven sevens starting from the second day of Passover, which is 50 days, thus the pente- prefix to Pentecost.

So in this dramatic reenactment, we had about 10 people read out a verse, I think Revelation 7:9.  If that's the case, the verse is
After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

But we didn't read it in NIV; we each had a language we'd grown up with or studied or were learning in school.  Even read each in turn, it was something of a babble. 

But Pentecost reverses that babble.  And we read together the successive verses in English together (Revelation 7:10 & 12):

Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.
Amen!
Praise and glory
and wisdom and thanks and honor
and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!



All that as a leadin... I'm just happy sermon art continued beyond Easter for me to color with Sharpies, even if calligraphic illumination (in the monastic sense) verses didn't necessarily.  

 

Monday, May 28, 2018

Chihuly at Biltmore / Hogwarts is Here

If you're gonna cast a spell, it might as well be a cool one.

And when you have a Railroad Spike Wand from the Drunken Smithy, anything can happen.  He says it's the way to go, especially if you're doing spells with electricity, or fireballs, or flame-ish stuff...


And if Chihuly coming to Biltmore isn't cool enough, and photo-worthy enough, nothing will ever be.  So bring your wands.








Even Big Frog did some wandwork, albeit with Hagrid's umbrella wand...

He also took on an awesome Frog 'Fro.



Here also are some "regular" pics of Chihuly's amazing work and Biltmore's everyday beauty, both from daylight and Chihuly Nights.











Indeed, Hogwarts is here.

Friday, May 25, 2018

Coloring in church

About a year ago I read this article about "Stick Figures as an Act of Worship", and I told my evening church kids that if they drew stuff during the sermon to show me afterwards.  (They didn't.  But they could have.)  And I, for a few weeks, pencilled bulletin marginalia during the sermons, mostly ASL images of hands signing key words, those no-head, ASL dictionary, line drawing stills with arrows to represent motion.  I had internalized a LOT of sermons on my hands in ASL, after all. I've said for years that kids (kids of all ages) can internalize sermons even when they don't get all the bits of it, and it's helpful to sit in the Deaf section and watch the signing, or better yet, sign along, or at least pick up a few key words, because that way you're engaging more of your senses. And hearies can't turn their ears off, so it goes in even if you're not paying attention. For a few years starting when I was about 5, our church met in a multipurpose space that also served as a ballet studio. I could not tell you how many sermons I listened to, sitting on the aisle, next to my dad, about 2/3 of the way towards the front of the congregation, but facing the barre mirror behind all of us instead of facing the pastor. So, on the one hand, sorry, Pastor Al, for not facing forward. And sorry to all those sitting behind me that I distracted by facing them head-on, even if I was looking at myself and not them. Yet on the other hand, there's not much I can be sorry for, because in the midst of all that I learned about the Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 15, and retained the brilliant mnemonic that God promised both the SEED and the DEED -- descendants as many as the stars in the heaven, and the promised land. Covenant Theology. Not bad for 5yo.

Then this Lent, our pastor started adding calligraphic pages into the bulletins.  Adults got half-sheets on cardstock with think-about-its on the back; kids got the same image on a full sheet of cardstock, on a clipboard.  They've had clipboards for the kids for almost as long as I've been worshipping at Grace Pres and had assorted kids' bulletins, images, activities and a huge coffee can of colored pencils that you can use a handful of pencils during the service and return afterwards.

But these coloring sheets (originals carefully inked by a member of the church who was teaching himself calligraphy) weren't just take-homes, or toss-its.  The pastor encouraged the kids to show him their work after the sermons.  And almost immediately he decided that for Lent he would rig up a way for everyone to be able to display their art in the lobby so it could be shared not just with him but with each other as well.

As it happens, just that week, one of my fellow Heart of the Triad Choral Society board members had pulled out this gorgeous set of assorted Sharpie pens in a hard case

and I immediately fell in love with it and purchased my very own set, receiving it literally the day before this momentous in-sermon "everyone can and should color" proclamation.

So. Much. Win.

Here is how I spent the sermons during Lent 2018:
       
(Same image twice, but I had a midweek service I went to and I somehow had an extra Sunday bulletin, so out came the Sharpies.)


By week 2 I was swiping a clipboard and a full-size piece from the kids' stash.


Usually I could get a big one, but not always.  Still pretty.

And then... catastrophe.

Somewhere between Palm Sunday (although after the madness of prepping for EOPS 10, because I had my Sharpie pens on Palm Sunday!) and Easter, my entire hard case went walkabout.

So I was forced back into pencilling.  You may not be able to tell, but I was aiming for the hands from Michelangelo's Creation of Adam.  It turned out better than I expected, actually.  (Although I didn't sign this one, possibly intentionally.)

But Sharpies are better.  And having turned the house upsidedown and run thru where in my life I might have left them, I went ahead and ended up buying another set.  Worth it.  (And I hope whoever found the first set is loving them too.  I wrote my name and phone on the new set so if it gets lost it'll at least guilt the finder.) 





It's now after Lent and, as of last Sunday, after Easter too (the Pentecost pic was glorious, but very detailed so I'm still working on it).  I hope the coloring sheets continue.

Friday, April 13, 2018

Grasshopper

[Exit music on the Fort Macon video]
Grasshopper sittin on a sweet p'tato vine
Grasshopper sittin on a sweet p'tato vine
Grasshopper sittin on a sweet p'tato vine
'long comes a chicken and says, "He's mine."

Big Frog: So... not a happy song, then.
me: Unless you're the chicken.
Big Frog: Yes, unless you're the chicken.