Author Archives: Jen

About Jen

Jen isn't quite sure when she lost her mind, but it is probably documented here on Meditatio. She blogs because the world needs her snark at all hours of the night... and she probably can't sleep anyway.

Getting By With Help

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One of the jobs that is tough with having a special needs child is dealing with the Social Security Administration regarding your child’s SSI. My local one is incompetent at best and in March, they messed up Daniel’s SSI amount because the person reviewing the file decided to skip a page of what makes him eligible. When I called them and told them to FIX IT, they told me to return the check and they’d send out a corrected one. I complied and got a letter from them yesterday saying that Daniel’s SSI was suspended until I called my local office because his March check had been returned to the US Treasury… by the local office. Ready to punch a wall yet? Making things “better”, I got the letter 15 minutes after the office closed which means that I get to deal with it today. Oh flipping joy.

Knowing the incredible temptation to use four-lettered words and the creative curses that could spring out of my mouth, I tweeted and Facebook-messaged a few friends to pray for my mouth tomorrow that in my anger I wouldn’t sin. I’m not saying that I won’t have had angry thoughts about the SSA but I’ll be less likely to use language that will rub off on Daniel in bad ways.

It was a lesson in the fact that I’m not alone on my “journey home” and that we aren’t meant to try and get through the world ourselves. We have the Holy Spirit and we also have each other. Without the help of Rich and Kate, I’d probably be in VERY deep trouble right now in terms of the state of my soul… or at least more trouble than I normally am as a broken person.

God Bless Tim Hawkins

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I have writer’s block yet again. Yes, this probably has something to do with the fact that I missed church this morning to sleep. Yeah, I’m the pastor’s wife and I missed PALM SUNDAY!!!!! It’s not like I have a sinus infection, sore joints, and serious sleep deprivation as an excuse. Daniel did not get to march around the sanctuary waving a palm frond — just call CPS now, OK?

I also have a black cat who has decided that my chest is the perfect place to sleep. This of course makes it difficult to see the screen of my laptop but I think it’s her fiendish master plan. She’s upset that I haven’t updated her blog as often as I should. Bad mommy! No Easter candy!

To give you some spiritual content during Holy Week, here are some Tim Hawkins clips. I know.. we’re crucifying Christ on Friday and I’m putting Christian comedy on my website. Bad Jen! No latté!

Because Satan’s weakness is landscaping.

I almost fell off my chair laughing at this one because I *KNOW* all these people and have seen all these during my evangelical days. (I pray with my hands in “hold my baby” pose.)

“Shout to the Lord” needs some Led Zeppelin in it sometimes.

Some reasonable worship requests

Why yes… I am addicted to hand sanitizer. Stop judging!

11 Things

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Ann of House of Estrogen tagged me in this meme going around the Internet. Whee!

Rules
1.) The first rule is to post these rules.
2.) Post a photo of yourself then write 11 things about you/your life.
3.) Answer the questions for you set in the original post.
4.) Create 11 new questions and tag people to answer them.
5.) Go to their blog/twitter to tell them you have tagged them.

OK… so let me find a picture I like.

Me after a haircut

OK… 11 things about me.

01.) I’m a night owl. I get most of my blogging done after 9 p.m.
02.) I’m 5’1 on a bad hair day. People tell me that I seem taller online.
03.) I’m incredibly shy and very introverted. I’d prefer to people-watch rather than socialize.
04.) I have a weird accent that makes me sound like a valley girl Canadian. It makes it really hilarious when I switch into academic mode and I’m using polysyllabic words while sounding like I should be on a beach in southern California tanning myself.
05.) I graduated from college in 3 years. I’m not smart — just strategic. The fact that I was sick of being in a long-distance relationship also didn’t hurt.
06.) I read murder mysteries for fun. I’m currently reading Buried in Buttercream by G.A. McKevitt.
07.) I have part of a Masters in Theological Studies. I’m incredibly good at it but theology in general bores me. I’m more of a historian and linguist.
08.) I’ve been singing Handel’s Messiah since I was 15. It was a holiday tradition for my mom and I throughout high school and college to do the You-Sing-It-Messiah with the San Jose Symphonic Choir.
09.) I love t-shirts with interesting messages. I love my We Will Not Be Silent shirt and am heartbroken that I’m having to replace it.
10.) My promise not to blog on the Republican candidates is grating on me. There’s SOOOOOOOO much snark I want to post!!!!!!
11.) I’m a princess darnit!

OK… my questions to answer!

1.) What is your favorite movie? It varies. I like the classic Disney cartoons like “The Aristocats” and “The Sword and the Stone” as well as “Forrest Gump”, “The Birdcage”, “The Spitfire Grill”, “Whale Rider”, and “Saved”.

2.) If you could go back and give your 16 year old self one piece of advice, what would it be? Stop worrying about what people will think and join a church. (I’m a convert to Christianity.)

3.) Why do you blog? So many reasons. Generally, I do it because it’s cheaper than therapy and I’ve made so many friends doing it. It also was my way of accessing the outside world when I lived in remote areas of the US.

4.) What did you want to be when you grew up? Are you doing that? I wanted to be a lawyer until I was 15 when I started wanting to be a doctor. I’m not doing either though I’m discerning doing training as a respiratory therapist because they’ve been the coolest health professionals that I’ve encountered in my own adventures and with Daniel.

5.) M&M’s – plain or peanut? Coconut.

6.) What was your first car? 1984 Volvo 240 GL.

7.) What is your favorite Halloween costume you’ve ever worn? The cat costume my mom made us when we were 3.

8.) What are your favorite blogs to read? I have at least 30-40 in my feed reader. They range from Canadian pastors to young Catholic women to Mormon housewives. Most blogs these day happen to be mommy blogs because all my bloggy friends have kids.

9.) If you were to have a boy and a girl tomorrow, what would you name them? Aidan Michael and Hannah Grace.

10.) What was your favorite class in college? Women’s Chorale, my advisor’s history classes, Religion and Social Change, Science and Human Values, the Making of the Modern Middle East, my Organic Chemistry labs, and my college’s Core course.

11.) What celebrity do you think it would be fun to be friends with? Definitely Pauley Perette (Abby on NCIS). She’s very much in person like she is on TV and she’s also incredibly socially conscious. I also love anyone who can pull off the goth look over the age of 30. (She’s in her 40’s.)

OK… now my questions!

01.) What food would you never eat even if you were paid to eat it?
02.) What is your favorite Bible verse or quote?
03.) Should jello at church be in the proper liturgical color?
04.) What was your high school or college mascot?
05.) What do you wish you could do?
06.) What book should everyone read?
07.) What is the weirdest thing you’ve eaten?
08.) Pretend I magically arrived on your doorstep. How would we spend your ideal day?
09.) Manicure or pedicure?
10.) What is the best type of ethnic food (i.e. Italian, Japanese, Indonesian)?
11.) Grey or orange tabby cats?

Now for the tagging!

Beth @ The Catholic Couponer

Nikkiana @ Authentic Experience

Kate @ ImperfectKate

Kathleen @ So Much to Say…

The Preoteasa @ Fear Not Little Flock

Dawn @ ladydusk

I know all of you have lives and such. Please find a way to mold this meme to your blog. If you can’t post a picture of yourself, post one of your kids or something that represents you.

Hymns that Speak to Me Right Now (V)

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I’m having serious writer’s block when it comes to anything faith-related so y’all are getting more hymns.

“All Glory, Laud, and Honor” is the standard processional for Palm Sunday. Written at the time of Charlemagne by Theodulph of Orleans (ca. 750-821), it is set to a 17th century tune named for him. It’s one of my favorite “once a year” hymns and we sing it as we’re filing into the sanctuary after the Liturgy of the Palms and the kids sword-fighting with their palm fronds.

All glory, laud, and honor
to thee, Redeemer, King!
to whom the lips of children
made sweet hosannas ring.

Thou art the King of Israel,
thou David’s royal Son,
who in the Lord’s Name comest,
the King and Blessed One.

All glory, laud, and honor
to thee, Redeemer, King!
to whom the lips of children
made sweet hosannas ring.

The company of angels
are praising thee on high;
and mortal men and all things
created make reply.

All glory, laud, and honor
to thee, Redeemer, King!
to whom the lips of children
made sweet hosannas ring.

The people of the Hebrews
with palms before thee went;
our praise and prayer and anthems
before thee we present.

All glory, laud, and honor
to thee, Redeemer, King!
to whom the lips of children
made sweet hosannas ring.

To thee before thy passion
they sang their hymns of praise;
to thee, now high exalted,
our melody we raise.

All glory, laud, and honor
to thee, Redeemer, King!
to whom the lips of children
made sweet hosannas ring.

Thou didst accept their praises;
accept the prayers we bring,
who in all good delightest,
thou good and gracious King.

All glory, laud, and honor
to thee, Redeemer, King!
to whom the lips of children
made sweet hosannas ring.

(HT: Oremus)

Live from Grace Episcopal Cathedral in Topeka, Kansas!

Some Poetry for Today (I)

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I’m dealing with exhaustion and blurred vision due to my eyes being dilated today for an opthalmology consult so I’m just going to give you the poem that I’m reading for my devotion next week at Ladies’ Night Out. It’s a 19th century work by Sidney Lanier, a former Confederate soldier and fellow at Johns Hopkins University specializing in English lit.

I chose this one because I sang a setting of it during Lent 14 years ago. I found the arrangement but no audio file. Sorry!

Into the woods my Master went,
Clean forspent, forspent.
Into the woods my Master came,
Forspent with love and shame.
But the olives they were not blind to Him,
The little gray leaves were kind to Him:
The thorn-tree had a mind to Him
When into the woods He came.

Out of the woods my Master went,
And He was well content.
Out of the woods my Master came,
Content with death and shame.
When Death and Shame would woo Him last,
From under the trees they drew Him last:
‘Twas on a tree they slew Him — last
When out of the woods He came.

(HT: Poem Hunter)

Hymns That Speak to Me Right Now (IV)

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I’ve known the tune of the hymn “Let All Things Now Living” longer than I’ve known the actual hymn. The tune comes from a Welsh folk song called “The Ash Grove” and my mother used to love to play it on the piano when I was growing up. I learned of the hymn somewhere along the line but did not start loving it until I acquired Michael Card’s CD “Starkindler” in 2002 or 2003. When my grandfather was in the hospital in December 2005, a music therapist came in and offered to play the song. I sang the hymn while he accompanied me on guitar. I sang it again three months later during the week I spent in Washington with my mom before I had to say my final good-byes. (He died three weeks later.) My aunt and I sang the hymn at my grandfather’s interment of ashes while Jon and my evil twin brother Sean played the guitar. Almost a year and a half later, I was standing in Church #3 in Montana singing it while my mom and her siblings were placing the headstone on my grandfather’s grave.

Despite my history with the hymn, I love it and it’s a beautiful one for spring though we’re still in Lent at the moment. I love how it describes how all of nature answers to the authority of the Lord and how all things are to praise Him. There’s also the sheer beauty of the tune. (The Welsh rock in terms of hymn and folk tunes.)

Here are the lyrics:

Let all things now living a song of thanksgiving
To God the creator triumphantly raise.
Who fashioned and made us, protected and stayed us,
Who still guides us on to the end of our days.
God’s banners are o’er us, His light goes before us,
A pillar of fire shining forth in the night.
Till shadows have vanished and darkness is banished
As forward we travel from light into light.

His law he enforces, the stars in their courses
And sun in its orbit obediently shine;
The hills and the mountains, the rivers and fountains,
The deeps of the ocean proclaim him divine.
We too should be voicing our love and rejoicing;
With glad adoration a Song let us raise
Till all things now living unite in thanksgiving:
“To God in the highest, Hosanna and praise!”

Here’s the Michael Card arrangement with Darwin Hobb’s rich African-American bass singing part of it as well.

7 Quick Takes — IEP’s, School Lunch Quandries, and Rain

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Daniel’s IEP went well on Monday. I’m incredibly thankful that we’ve got a great staff at the local school (where they have all the preschool classes) and that they have an ABA preschool class where Daniel will go. I’ve heard horror stories about the school district in the town to the north and how hard it is to get services for your kids there. Daniel will start preschool on April 11th (his 3rd birthday is on Holy Saturday) and he’ll be in school Monday to Friday for 5 hours every day. The IEP team will meet again on May 11th and firm up goals and plans for things like physical and occupational therapy.

— 2 —

With Daniel starting preschool, I now have a new quandry: school lunches. I need to provide enough food for two snacks and Daniel isn’t feeding himself with a spoon yet. The complicating factor in this is that he also doesn’t know how to take bites out of something so it would need to be finger food. Got any suggestions? I’d welcome any and all input including how to teach him to take bites out of his food.

— 3 —

March seems to be going out like a lion here. After a wet week two weeks ago, we’ve had nice weather, rain on the weekend, and then rain the last couple days. It was pleasant enough to walk to my WIC appointment with Daniel this morning but it’s cloudy again and I think we’ll be getting more rain tonight. We do need the moisture but I sort of wish I could pick the days it would come.

— 4 —

Daniel has been using his “more” sign more and more. Considering that it took almost two years to get him to do it on his own, I’m pretty happy. He signed it to my mom last weekend when she was giving him lunch and he has done it at all his therapy sessions that happened this week. (Physical therapy got rescheduled to next week because it was a park date but was pouring by the time we got to Elk Grove.) I’m hoping to be able to teach him some more signs and have that be a help with communication. He already makes his needs known in non-verbal ways but he has to learn to communicate verbally somehow and signing can do that.

— 5 —

Daniel turns 3 in a little over a week. His birthday falls on Holy Saturday this year and it’s also the day of our church’s Easter Egg Hunt. I can’t believe that it’s been almost three years now since he was born. I don’t know if we have any Easter plans as of yet so I’m not sure how we’ll celebrate. All I do know is that next week’s Quick Takes will probably be solely Daniel-focused. We’ve already gotten some books for his birthday from my in-laws and my mom has done some clothes shopping for him.

— 6 —

“The Big Bang Theory” returns tonight. I’ve definitely missed it the past two weeks. Granted, we have Netflix and I can watch “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” or actually find out what all the “Downton Abbey” hype is all about, but my life is just not complete without seeing Sheldon being his asocial self.

— 7 —

Ahem… sponsor me.

I'm a survivor!
Symptoms of preeclampsia

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.