“Nearer My God to Thee” (live in Amsterdam) This happens to be a favorite hymn of mine and from the look on André’s face, I kind of wonder if he’s a practicing Christian because you can tell that he’s got more than just a passing connection to what he is playing.
Two
“Waltzing Matilda” (live in Australia) It’s not the national anthem for Australia but there is a serious love of the song and you can pick this up on the faces of the people singing along as well as on André’s face.
Three
“Scotland the Brave” and “Amazing Grace” My grandfather played the bagpipes and LOVEDLOVEDLOVED pipe bands. This particular performance draws me close to him. There’s also just no way you can’t be moved by “Amazing Grace”.
“When the Saints Come Marching In” He and his orchestra are just having a blast. I love watching them just get into what’s happening and André even dances. 🙂
Five
“Boléro” (Ravel) I love that he intersperses some decent classical repertoire in the middle of the “pops” stuff.
Outside my window… dark and down to 87F right now from a high of 102F earlier. I hate southern California heat!
I am thinking… about my plans to go gluten-free for a month once I can get some meal plans together. I’ve been resisting it because all of my bloodwork has come back showing that I do not have celiac disease and that I am not gluten-intolerant; but it’s the one thing I haven’t cut out of my diet so I’m willing to try it. (I’m also not one to jump on the fad diet train so I have very intentionally not pursued it until now.)
I am thankful… that Daniel heads back to school tomorrow. 100F temperatures mean we’re stuck inside and he was acting out because he was booooooooooored!
In the kitchen… ramen and roast beef. A throw-together thing.
I am wearing… charcoal v-neck and navy/white striped pj bottoms.
I am going… to do some Core tomorrow morning. Everything last week has thrown me off of my routine.
I am wondering… how to explain my position regarding Planned Parenthood to my friends on both sides of the issue because OMG TEH DRAMA!!!!!!
I am reading… I finished The Alpine Xanadu by Mary Daheim and have shelved The Complete Father Brown Mysteries by Chesterton in favor of Post Traumatic Church Syndrome by Reba Riley which was loaned to me by a woman in my Bible Study who has emotional scars from her Conservative Baptist upbringing.
I am hoping… the weather cools down significantly soon and that we get all of the forcasted rain — California needs it BADLY!
I am looking forward to… Bible study on Wednesday morning and choir practice on Wednesday night.
I am hearing… the A/C.
A Daniel story for today… he went to church this morning wearing his “Grandpa Jim” hat which is a copy of a hat that he tried to “appropriate” from my dad when we were in San Jose last month.
Around the house… quiet. Loving it.
A favorite quote for today… This is a long one:
As I heard Bernie Sanders crying out to the religious leaders at Liberty University, in his hoarse voice, with his wild hair – this Jew – and he proclaimed justice over us, he called us to account, for being complicit with those who are wealthy and those who are powerful, and for abandoning the poor, the least of these, who Jesus said he had come to bring good news to. And in that moment something occurred to me. As I saw Bernie Sanders up there, as I watched him, I realized Bernie Sanders for president is good news for the poor. Bernie Sanders for president is Good News for the poor. Bernie Sanders is gospel for the poor. And Jesus said “I have come to bring gospel” – good news – “to the poor.”
And lightning hit my heart at that moment. And I realized that we are evangelical Christians. We believe the Bible. We believe in Jesus. We absolutely shun those who would attempt to find nuance and twisted and tortured interpretations of scripture that they would use to master all other broader interpretations, to find some kind of big message that they want to flout. We absolutely scorn such things, and yet somehow we commit to the mental gymnastics necessary that allows us to abandon the least of these, to abandon the poor, to abandon the immigrants, to abandon those who are in prison.
I listened to Bernie Sanders as he said he wanted to welcome the immigrants and give them dignity, as he said he wanted to care for the sick children and mothers and fathers who do not have health care, as he said he wanted to decrease the amount of human beings who are corralled like cattle in the prisons, as he said he wanted to do justice for those who have nothing and live homeless. And I remembered the words of Jesus who warned his disciples that there will be judgement, and on that day he will look to his friends, and he will say “Blessed are you for you cared for me, for I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you cared for me, I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was in prison and you came to visit me, I was homeless and you gave me shelter.” And his disciples said, “When did we do any of those things for you?” And he said, “If you have done it for the least of these, you have done it for me.”
Those words echoed in my heart as I listened to that crazy, hoarse-voiced, wild-haired Jew standing in front of the religous leaders of the Evangelical Movement, calling us to account, as a Jew once did before, telling us that he intends to care for the least of these, to clothe the naked, to shelter the homeless, to care for the sick, to set the prisoners free.
— An evangelical pastor responding to Bernie Sanders’ speech at Liberty University
One of my favorite things… praying Compline at night.
A few plans for the rest of the week: Bible study on Wednesday, helping to count money for the Pride Stride at Daniel’s school on Thursday morning, and maybe helping to fold bulletins on Friday.
A peek into my day… André Rieu conducting the Johann Strauss Orchestra playing “I Will Follow Him”. I love watching him play and conduct because his face is so expressive and you can tell that he loves what he is doing.
Church office fun. I’m subbing for the church secretary this week and having fun doing it. Wednesday involved getting to be present for Bible study before immersing myself in Microsoft Publisher and Microsoft Word. Today was more Microsoft Publisher fun, Microsoft Word, and whatever my priest needed to be done. Tomorrow, I get to do bulletins. I am so excited!
The County Fair. Daniel’s class is heading to the LA County Fair next Friday. We had a note come home asking if we wanted to volunteer to go too. My answer: “no.”. (It will be hot and I hate heat. Yes, I live in a desert; but I didn’t get a say in that.) Jon’s answer: “yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” You gotta love a non-traditional family where the dad is the field trip chaperone. 🙂 I think they’ll have a fabulous time.
Holy Mirth. Fr. James Martin, S.J. posted something for Joke with the Pope which has people donating their favorite jokes in the name of charity. I’m thinking of all my favorite religious ones (that aren’t in Fr. Jim’s book, Between Heaven and Mirth) and the cause for which it will go.
Take me out to the ballgame. Jon and I are headed to a Dodgers game tomorrow for Episcopal Dodgers night. It will be the first professional sporting event that I have ever attended so I’m excited. I wish it was the Giants or Mariners or the Cards (or pretty much any other team besides the Dodgers or the Yankees) instead; but hey, at least I will be able to say that I’ve been to an MLB game. I’ll probably root for the Pirates since it is against my sports allegiances to root for the Dodgers. (For those not in the know, the Dodgers are the mortal enemies of my Giants.)
On my to-do list today: acquire some Giants socks so I can represent my boys at the game. (According to Jon and my priest, I am not allowed to wear any Giants shirts.)
G.K Chesterton. Someone donated a book of Father Brown mysteries to my mother-in-law’s Little Free Library and she set it aside for me. I’ve only read a handful so far but they’ve kept my attention. This might be a book that I can pick up and put down every so often while I wait for my favorite authors to come out with their latest works.
Mmmmm… gluten-free. My bloodwork did not come back positive for celiac disease so it’s fairly likely that I don’t have it. Even if the biopsies from the endoscopy/colonoscopy don’t come back positive for it, I am considering going gluten-free for a month to see if it makes any difference with my stomach issues.
Tree Top Fresh Pressed 3 Apple Blend. I already loved Tree Top juices because it’s 100% juice and they are from apples grown in the USA. (I’m leery of food products from China.) When I was having to be on clear liquids over the last two days, this particular blend helped me to get the foul colon-cleansing solution down and also helped to keep my blood sugar up.
Two
“No Longer Slaves” by Bethel Music. I shared this on my Simple Woman’s Daybook post for this week but I’m sharing it again because the song brings tears to me in a good way. I also don’t worship as effusively as the people in the video even when I’m helping to lead contemporary music at church.
Three
Chobani Greek yogurt. I am a fan of Chobani Blended Greek yogurt, especially their Coconut, Key Lime, and Lemon flavors. I’m trying to cut gluten from my diet to see if it helps with my stomach issues and these are gluten-free, making them a good midnight snack.
Four
This video on southern Californians and rain. I live here so I can laugh at this. I will say, however, that people were driving relatively sanely on the 10 this morning when we were heading to my procedure.
Five
Propofol This was my anesthesia during my endoscopy/colonoscopy this morning. I have no memory of the procedure and got a lovely nap out of the deal so I’m jazzed. (Good news: everything looks fabulous. Bad news: everything looks fabulous so we don’t have an answer to why I’m having trouble eating, having pain, and feeling nauseated.)
Outside my window… dark. It was in the 80’s today, a nice change from the 100+F weather we had last week!
I am thinking… about my wonderful grandfather whose 97th birthday is today. We lost him 9 1/2 years ago but he is still with me in a lot of ways.
I am thankful… for the insane heat finally breaking. I miss decent fall weather in a place with 4 distinct seasons.
In the kitchen… ramen — no creativity tonight.
I am wearing… black v-neck shirt and black capri sweats. They’re functioning as jammies.
I am going… to try and get all my errands done tomorrow as I’ve got a crazy week.
I am wondering… if they’ll find anything during my procedures on Tuesday.
I am reading…The Alpine Xanadu by Mary Daheim. I finished The Alpine Winter by Mary Daheim this last week.
I am hoping… the bowel prep they gave me doesn’t make me as violently ill as the stuff they gave me 14 years ago.
I am looking forward to…subbing in the church office this week.
I am hearing… the whirring of my laptop. I think everyone else is asleep.
A Daniel story for today… He cleaned off my bed so he could jump on it. 🙂
Around the house… stillness.
A favorite quote for today… “One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure.” — William Feather (This is how I tend to live my life.)
A few plans for the rest of the week: PT and bowel prep on Monday (I promise not to live-blog it), endoscopy/colonoscopy on Tuesday, working in the church office from Wednesday to Friday, meeting with Jon and my priest on Wednesday, and Episcopal Dodgers night on Friday. (It’s my first MLB game and unfortunately, I will be spending at the stadium of my team’s mortal enemies!)
Post Script… A dear friend of mine started a blog this week. Go visit her and show her some love! Do it now!
What Obamacare looks like. One of my email lists reported that Rep. John Boehner’s lawsuit against the Obama administration regarding the Affordable Care Act has been allowed to proceed. Instead of harping on the 35+ times the Republicans in Congress have tried to repeal it and failed (each time costing taxpayers around $35 million), I’ll just post a picture of what the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) actually looks like:
For those new to this blog, that picture is of me the first time I got to hold Daniel almost 6 1/2 years ago when Daniel was 3 1/2 weeks old. Before that, he was on a ventilator so I couldn’t hold him. Because of his premature birth and the health problems that resulted, no insurance company would have covered him that wasn’t an employment benefit of Jon or me. In addition to our two insurance companies, he thankfully qualified for SSI and Medicaid because of his size and his prematurity. That knocked out $300K of hospital bills that would have economically devastated us. With the passage of the ACA also came rules that insurance companies could not put a lifetime maxiumum on Daniel’s care (a good thing because he has literally been my “million dollar baby”) and no insurance company could refuse to cover him. The ACA has also meant that I can’t be denied coverage based on my medical history (and Daniel’s birth alone would have been reason for that as I almost died and ended up with complications that I’ll have for the rest of my life) and that any further pregnancy of mine (if I ever get pregnant again because I am super high-risk) will be covered.
Denali and renaming airports. When President Obama officially changed Mt. McKinley’s name back to Denali, the local Athabascan name for the mountain, the Congressional delegation from Ohio (at least the Republican ones) had a screaming hissy fit because President McKinley was from Ohio. (It *IS* kind of stupid that a mountain in Alaska was named for him instead of some geographical feature in the Buckeye State). In response to this, a couple left-leaning PACs decided to circulate a tongue-in-cheek petition to Boehner to have Reagan National Airport’s name changed back to Washington National Airport because it *IS* in the Washington DC area and Reagan did some nefarious things to the air travel industry. If you want to sign it, it’s here.
The prerequisite “vaccinate your freaking kids!!!” take. Can I just say that I’m happy to live in a state which requires parents to vaccinate their kids unless there is a compelling medical reason other than “I read the scribblings of some pseudoscientific moron on the Internet who allegedly has an MD and is illiterate but claims that vaccines cause ____________ based on research that has been disproven and also based studies from which I have carefully cherry-picked data despite the fact that I have no science background and a high school chemistry student can refute everything I say” or “I had _____ or my sibling had _____ and it wasn’t that bad”? Anyway, an ER doctor friend of mine posted this picture on Twitter and I thought I’d share:
Just for those who are playing along at home, I *DO* know people who have had polio and I cannot fathom why anyone in their right mind would choose not to receive this vaccine when it causes lifelong damage and then comes back later on in life to kill people painfully.
You know it’s hot when… We’ve had several days of temperatures over 100F in my neck of the woods and our local power company has been having so many problems that it has been having rolling brownouts which means that our A/C has been cut at some point every day. This has meant that it has gotten so hot in cupboards in the house that I found my new jar of Noxzema had melted when I opened it tonight! (Coconut oil is a main ingredient and it melts around 95F.)
Weeping. You know you miss living in a place with four distinct seasons when the Lands’ End and L.L. Bean catalogs arrive and you burst into tears with envy for a climate that isn’t bloody hot 6 months of the year.
Daniel’s dentist appointment. The sedated appointment went well this morning. There were no problems with the sedative (Versed) and they were able to do everything they needed to do between that and the nitrous oxide they gave him. He does not have any cavities (this is fabulous considering that it takes almost 5-point restraints to brush his teeth) and the front two teeth are loose. (I forsee some super-cute pictures coming!) His dentist and hygenist are in love with him and spent time at the end of the visit cooing over how cute he is and how beautiful his eyes are as he was coming out of sedation. He was loopy enough that I had to carry him to the car and then to his bedroom when we got home but he had no other issues. Yay for this being done!
