Domesticated, my domestic arts blog, is back up. However, the URL is now http://www.peacefulwaters.org/domesticated instead of the old subdomain-style one because I had to downgrade it to just a directory on my site. Please update links and bookmarks accordingly.
-The management
It’s the National Day of Prayer so… let us pray:
Almighty God, to know you is to have eternal life. Grant us to know your Son as the way, the truth, and the life; and guide our footsteps along the way of Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,one God, now and forever. Amen.
(LBW Prayer for the Feast Day of St. Philip and St. James, Apostles)
Question: How is it with Jen’s soul? (Nobody guessed the origin, so nobody got the 50 mythical points. The answer was John Wesley. Are some of ye not Methodists that read this blog????)
I’ve gotten out of the house in the last few days — Monday to fill out job apps, Tuesday to go grocery shopping and ogle household/sports/camping stuff at Walmart, and today to get a vaccum cleaner at Walmart ($48 for a decent vaccum cleaner is nothing to sneeze at) — and this has made a huge difference in my mood and all. I think that I am getting cabin fever and I look forward to being able to get my bike fixed so I can go on long rides and get some exercise. I don’t have to be as afraid of dogs when I bike (and the people here think that dogs should roam the neighborhoods which is why my babies stay indoors) and I can run errands or even bike to work if I find a job that is close enough.
For some reason, I go through phases where I am die hard into household stuff. I really wasn’t when I got married and then I was walking through the Hudson Bay Company in Toronto and started ogling bedsheets. It was strange and now, I *LOOOOOOOOOVE* walking through the household section of Walmart or Target for some reason — maybe because I’m excited to move again and be in a place where we can buy more permanent stuff or something. I’m looking forward to being a housewife in a house that we can decorate ourselves and where I (hopefully) have a laundry room on the ground floor. (I have a strange and probably unfounded fear of finding a snake in our basement, so Jon does the laundry in the house.) One of the reasons I started Domesticated was to indulge my girlie/feminine side a bit with others who were like-minded. I actually don’t mind being a housewife and cooking and dusting — just not when I’m sick. I’m also in the process of cleaning my study, which means that there will be quite a few nights of paper-organizing merriment at Casa K-M.
I know that I really should post more about my felines (and that I should post more pics — if you’re not on my list for kitty pictures and want to be, leave me a note in the comments), so here’s “the state of the felines”.
The boys are growing. It is so crazy to look at pictures of them nursing on Jon’s stuffed fox and then to look at them now that they are the same size as Jon’s stuffed fox. Finian is my office assistant. He is too big to fit in either of my desk drawers, but he *loves* the camping chair in my study. I’ll be working on the computer and I’ll hear a mew from the doorway or my feet and I’ll just pat the chair. He will come bounding up and leap gracefully on to it and allow himself to be petted while he purrs lustily and lashes his beautiful, plumey tail. He will then occasionally attack my right hand, causing me to have to type lefthanded (and make instant message conversations a little more difficult); but he always cleans my wounds when done. He is a wonderful stressball and is content with me reaching down and petting him occasionally.
Cullen is still the smaller of the two but is an adorable cat. He is a total Daddy’s Boy and will not let Jon leave his sight if Jon is at the vicarage. His stripes and yin yang are still bold and his Mary mark (the little M that tabbies have on their heads) looks like someone painted it with henna. He is still the more skittish of the two but he is a definite attention monger and loves to “explore” my study and bat hangars out of my closet. He keeps me company at night and is very good at attacking anything that moves on the bed. He considers himself to be a mighty cougar (or puma) and enjoys bringing his “prey” (a pair of ski socks that he has completely unrolled or a skein of yarn that he has claimed from my crocheting basket) onto the bed and kills it before my eyes. Currently, he is being a homicidal, jungle cat in the forest of paper bags we have scattered in the living room. He still loves to “help” us make the bed by pouncing on lumps. He is a very useful cat.
One of my candidacy committee’s reasons for denying me candidacy was that they felt that I was not spiritually mature enough as a Lutheran. Their suggestions were really not ones that I could use because of age restrictions, finances, timing, or whatever; but they did say that I needed a heart knowledge of Lutheranism, which they didn’t feel I had.
As much as I hate to say this, they are right — I don’t inherently express myself in Lutheran terms, so I’ve decided to blog my way through the Small Catechism. All *good Lutheran children* learn it during Confirmation and a professor friend of my father-in-law insists that his students memorize it to help them in their pastoral ministry. As I didn’t go through Confirmation, I’m working on it now. Once I’ve gotten through it, I’ll tackle other writings of Luther and maybe some stuff from the BCP as I am also trying to figure out if I shouldn’t just go back to being Episcopalian (as I feel totally at home in Episcopal worship and have been wondering about if I belong in the church for awhile).
For those who want to read my reflections or would like to respond to what I write, the blog is at http://www.peacefulwaters.org/wildgoose. It is called “Lessons of the Wild Goose” because the early Celtic Christians envisioned the Holy Spirit as a wild goose. (I am a Celtic Lutheran. Hear me roar.) All I ask is that you don’t argue theology of other churches with me in the blog because that isn’t the point of why it exists. I need to learn to express myself as a Lutheran and arguing about the sovereignity of God according to [insert Reformed theologian] is not going to help me.