I’m not dead yet. My Quick Takes are usually up as close to 9 p.m. as possible but I was eating dinner and folding laundry during that time so they’re a few hours 18 hours late. I’m not dead yet. (I promise, Kelly.)
Looking out my window… dark. It was cool and rainy for most of the day. (In the Pacific Northwest? SHOCKER!!!)
I am thinking… about the PowerPoint homework on which I am procrastinating.
I am thankful… to have my problem set for Accounting done so I don’t have to figure it out before class. I’ll deal with my Chapter 20 outline instead!
One of my favorite things… tulips. It’s probably good I live where I do.
I am wearing… jammies. Church clothes were a black cardigan, blue-green fitted tee, black/white striped skirt, black tights, and black flats. I jettisoned everything but the shirt when I got home and tossed on jeans and flip-flops.
I am creating… PowerPoint presentations when I finish this blog post.
Easing back into blogging. After posting a quasi-update on what I did on my Lenten break, I did my first Simple Woman’s Daybook post in two months on Monday. I haven’t had time to do much more blogging because I have two classes “on the ground” (meeting physically) this quarter instead of one class on the ground and the rest online. The second “on the ground” class is the introductory class for my department and is just busy work; but it means less time for blogging and a lot of other things because I’m on campus for an extra three hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I could probably log into one of the computers in the OFTEC classroom during my break between classes but I tend to use that time for silly things like eating lunch and doing homework.
Easter update. Easter Sunday was glorious here. I was the bunny for my parents and Daniel and they all liked their Easter baskets. Mom was my bunny and got me a boatload of chocolate, most of which I’m stockpiling for when PMS hits again in a few weeks. I’m actually able to stomach it again (thanks omeprazole!) and I think the best part of the basket thus far has been the Fererro Rocher eggs.
A hymn for this weekend. I seriously adore “O Sons and Daughters of the King” which is usually sung on the Second Sunday of Easter for Episcopalians. Here it is in English and in Latin:
If I had not given my blog up for Lent, I would have told you about the last week of Winter Quarter when Daniel’s ADHD meds appeared to have just crapped out. I spent three nights dealing with him hitting me, screaming, and spitting before I could get a doctor’s appointment on that Friday and we almost ended up having to take him to the ER on that Wednesday night because he was so out of control. It turns out that he had an ear infection in his right ear and the same drippy throat he gave me and he wasn’t sleeping because he was so uncomfortable. (Funny story: when his incredibly awesome pediatrician moved to examine her, he said, “no touch!” very sternly. Yeah, no. When you are preventing Mommy from sleeping and getting homework done, you lose your right to not be examined.) Some antibiotics and Dimetapp got him back to almost normal.
If I had not given my blog up for Lent, I would have commented on Mike Pence and the Billy Graham rule and M@tt W@lsh’s stupid assertions on the subject by doing a 7 Quick Takes post of 7 reasonable occasions when men and women should be allowed to meet alone.
If I had not given my blog up for Lent, I would have told you how much I adore the first Sunday of Lent in the Episcopal church because it’s the Sunday we sing the Great Litany and my choir here in Washington spreads out in a U-shape around the congregation and passes each petition from person to person. It’s liturgy geek nirvana!
If I had not given my blog up for Lent, I would tell you about how much in love I am with Audrey Assad and how her song “I Shall Not Want” has been in my head and leading me to pray.
If I had not given my blog up for Lent, I would have shared our Palm Sunday anthem with you so you could get it stuck in your heads too!
If I had not given my blog up for Lent, I would have told you about doing Confession with my priest on March 28th and why I do it as an Episcopalian. Lots of tears on my part (it had been 4 years since I had done it) but it was worth it and very healing. She also did Anointing for the Sick on me because of all the scars on my arms. (Can we just say that it had been a bad weekend and leave it at that?)
If I had not given my blog up for Lent, I would have told you about Maundy Thursday at my church and the quick Eucharist service and stripping of the altar before heading to the fellowship hall for pizza and a finger food potluck interspersed with foot-washing. There were so few of us that Helen (my priest) invited us up into the chancel area for the Eucharistic prayer. My congregation was joined by the Spanish-speaking congregation so it was a bilingual Eucharist and the Communion hymn was “We’ll Know They Are Christians By Their Love” which *TOTALLY* is appropriate when you have the two congregations mixing and Communion being given in two languages. It was one of those moments that is a glimpse of heaven and filled me with joy at being Christian and experiencing it.
If I had not given my blog up for Lent, I would have told you about Helen convincing the kiddos in the Spanish congregation to let her wash their feet and how touching it was to see her sitting on the floor with one of the two year olds and his very somber face while she stuck his feet in a Rubbermaid container of water and chattered at him in Spanish. When she was washing the feet of one of the little girls, I almost offered her the nail polish in my purse that I keep for pedicures but I didn’t know if her parents would have been OK with her getting her fingers or toes painted. Meanwhile, Helen’s oldest son washed my feet and gave me one of the best footrubs I’ve had.
If I had not given my blog up for Lent, I would have told how much I loved my Lenten discipline of reading only religious books and reading instead of surfing Facebook while I am out and about. I finished Father Tim’s Church Survival Guide by Fr. Tim Schenck and Seven Last Words: An Invitation to a Deeper Friendship with Jesus by James Martin, S.J. before picking up Spiritual Sobriety by Elizabeth Esther.
