Monthly Archives: July 2014

What I Wore on Sunday: July 13, 2014

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What I Wore on Sunday

I decided to be a good wife this morning and dragged myself out of bed to go to the early service at Christ Lutheran Church where Jon was supplying this morning. (He preached well.) It was good worship and I got to see some people that I don’t normally see unless I’m down here visiting family and head there for Sunday. (I’ve been sticking close to home the last few weeks and going to church in La Verne.) We used to be members at Christ so I do know a number of people there.

My usual photographer is currently celebrating the 10:30 service so my mother-in-law took the pictures this week. I chose to go with my standby church outfit — my Easter dress from 2 years ago (which also works for weddings, funerals, and Broadway shows) with a black camisole to make it church appropriate. I wish I had other versions of the same dress in different fabrics because it flatters me and makes me feel good about myself. (And yes, that’s my “palm-jousting” picture from Palm Sunday. My mother-in-law loved it so she had it printed as a “family picture”.)

Me with the Edda Puss.

Dress: Kohl’s
Camisole: Target
Shoes: Naturalizer
Cat: Edda the Puss

Here’s a mirror shot.

Me in the mirror.

Now go see Elizabeth and the other pretties at Fine Linen and Purple.

Wisdom from C.S. Lewis

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From my C.S. Lewis email this morning:

Those Divine demands which sound to our natural ears most like those of a despot and least like those of a lover, in fact marshal us where we should want to go if we knew what we wanted. He demands our worship, our obedience, our prostration. Do we suppose that they can do Him any good, or fear, like the chorus in Milton, that human irreverence can bring about ‘His glory’s diminution’? A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell. But God wills our good, and our good is to love Him (with that responsive love proper to creatures) and to love Him we must know Him: and if we know Him, we shall in fact fall on our faces. If we do not, that only shows that what we are trying to love is not yet God— though it may be the nearest approximation to God which our thought and fantasy can attain. Yet the call is not only to prostration and awe; it is to a reflection of the Divine life, a creaturely participation in the Divine attributes which is far beyond our present desires. We are bidden to ‘put on Christ’, to become like God. That is, whether we like it or not, God intends to give us what we need, not what we now think we want. Once more, we are embarrassed by the intolerable compliment, by too much love, not too little.

Because My Actual Friday Was More Exciting Than Quick Takes…

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My actual Friday ended up being exciting. In fact, it was more exciting than my Quick Takes which is rare. Here is a list of all the news that is fit to report.

[+] I got to see my boys. The woman who adopted my boys called on Thursday to tell me that they were refusing to be visible and asked if I could come over and call them to see if they would stop hiding. Jon and I went over in the morning and brought some tuna with us. Ideally, I should have come over a couple times after I dropped them off with her to see them but they came out (with a little prompting) for us and were more than happy to have “people tuna”. We’re going to go see them weekly until we leave for our next great adventure. It was good to see them again though I was covered with peach fur from Finian afterwards.

[+] Daniel said the words “eight” and “ten” today. He put the vowel and consonant sounds together and said the actual words during the time he was working with his home teacher. He got lots of praise and hugs from me and he repeated the feat while going over flashcards at bedtime. He got lots of praise again. 🙂 He is also vocalizing his letters better since we started going through those cards at bedtime.

[+] My special intention was partially answered. I can’t give any details but it’s good news and it is alternately terrifying and exciting me.

7 Quick Takes: Sunburns, the State of Affairs in Israel, and Getting Brett Funded

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Everything is fine. To those who emailed me about the strange comments on my last Quick Takes, everything is fine. Yes, fine. You might want to re-read my comment policy. (Hint.)

Also, thank you to everyone who emailed me and offered to go defend me on the other site. It would not have been appropriate (or needed) but I appreciate it nonetheless.

— 2 —

Get this kid fully funded! You know the precious boy on my sidebar? Yes, Brett.

Brett

He has a prospective mama and papa going to Eastern Europe to meet him. The problem: they need to be fully funded before they go. As I’m sitting here and typing this at 10:56 p.m. PDT on July 10th, they need $590 until his FSP reads $14,000 and they are fully funded. Can you help? Even $5 or $10 will do the trick. Click here to do so.

— 3 —

The O.C. Today, I headed down to Orange County to visit my sister-in-law and my incredibly cute nephew Patrick who is 13.5 months old. We met at the Beach Club and Lagoon by the lake in her town and it was pretty cool — the outer part was sandy like a beach but within a swimming pool. (Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures.) While she and my father-in-law talked, I took Patrick for a “walk”. He’s at the stage where he’s pulling himself up on furniture and coasting along so I had him standing up with his feet on the ground and my hands holding onto his. He was able to confidently take some steps and when his mom wasn’t praising him, she got to (hopefully) have a decent conversation with her dad. It was fitting, given that I was sorting papers from the last three years into treatment/therapy/IEP binders yesterday and I came across all the PT notes from three years ago when Daniel was learning how to walk.

Daniel and Jon had an incredible time in the lagoon. I think the cutest part was when Daniel started splashing Jon and Jon started splashing him back.

— 4 —

Oooooooh burn! Anyone who has seen pictures of me (or knows me in real life) will attest to the fact that I’m incredibly fair-skinned with freckles. Since I moved back down to the land of endless heat, the place where I part my hair has been getting fried if I spend any measurable amount of time (say, 20 minutes) outside. I was amazed that it didn’t turn red and blister today. It might be because a.) I finally have enough of a tan there that it isn’t burning or b.) I sprayed it well with sunscreen. I’m leaning toward B myself.

— 5 —

Prayer request. Things have been moving along with the special intention y’all have been praying about since the end of January. I can’t talk about it but all I’ll say is that it’s an unexpected place and I’d appreciate it if you’d keep praying.

— 6 —

The sitch in Israel. My friend Hevel of Kosher Kola has been blogging about the situation in Israel… in person. He’s posted a few pictures showing the alert for rocket attacks against Tel Aviv. Say a prayer for his safety and the safety of those on BOTH sides of the conflict who are in danger of being civilian casualties.

— 7 —

Quiet weekend. I have no plans for the weekend other than hearing Jon supply-preach on Sunday. I’m kind of liking not having any plans – it makes things easier down here.

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

Get This Kid Fully Funded!

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In order to bring him home when they head to his country in two weeks, Brett’s parents need him to be fully funded. In order to do that, his FSP needs to be at $14000 or higher. As I write this, it’s at $12,722 so we just need short of $1300.

Brett

Could we raise the rest of this money for them? If you want to donate (even $5-$10 is helpful), click here.