7 Quick Takes: Refugee Takes, School, and Choral Evensong

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Refugee take #1. The French are suggesting that we use “Da’esh” instead of ISIS. This is why. It actually makes sense.

— 2 —

Refugee take #2. Not all Muslims agree with Da’esh. (The vast, vast majority find them despicable.) The closest Muslims to what they believe are the Wahhabis who control things in Saudi Arabia. This piece explains why. It’s also why Saudi Arabia has not taken any refugees thus far — they don’t take Christians (the country is officially 100% Muslim and those who convert to something else face death) and it’s a Sunni Muslim theocracy so any Shi’a Muslims are out of luck.

— 3 —

Refugee take #3. I have seen some pretty foul behavior from my fellow Christians over the whole refugee issue in talking about how we should not welcome refugees to the USA and this is one of those times when I actually *AM* calling out people in my own life for their behavior. (I’m usually pretty reserved, but not on this subject.) Jamie the Very Worst Missionary actually has a pretty good take on all of this. Ditto with Ryan Dueck.

I think my friend Sarah of Fumbling toward Grace put it best when she quoted something she had read at the beginning of the refugee crisis (and she would like me to clarify that she can’t remember who said it):

“We don’t help refugees because they are Christian. We help refugees because we are Christian.” (emphasis mine)

— 4 —

Refugee take #4. To maybe shut a few people up and remove the complete atmosphere of unfounded fear that seems to be pervasive, here is what *ACTUALLY* happens with refugees and immigration from an *ACTUAL* immigration attorney.

Now can the fearmongering stop?

— 5 —

The school sitch. Daniel *FINALLY* started school up here this week. He was a little nervous on Monday (his first day) but when he saw the toys, he looked at me and said “bye!” which was my cue to leave. He seems to like his class, his teachers, his aides, and his therapists thus far and I’m hoping it remains a good school and a good program for him.

— 6 —

Choral Evensong. We have a new rector at my church in San Jose and she is a fan of choral evensong so we’re doing it for the Thanksgiving service next Tuesday night. If you’re in the area, let me know and I’ll give you the details!

— 7 —

Gary Haugen’s TED talk. Fifteen years ago, I heard Gary Haugen of International Justice Mission speak at Urbana 2000. It changed my life and the way I look at a lot of the world. (You can watch it here.) He’s done a TED talk. Go watch it! Do it now!

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

{five favorites}: Miscellanea (LIV)

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#5Faves

One

Fauré’s Requiem. As I was packing up some things for Goodwill this morning, I had a playlist on my iTunes on random and several of the parts of this Requiem came up. Given the events of this last weekend, it is appropriate music.

Here is a Youtube video of the entire work (35-40 minutes). My favorite part is the “Libera me Domine”.

Two

Phillip Gulley. Gulley is a Quaker minister in Indiana and he has written a series of fiction books centering around a small Quaker meetinghouse in Harmony, Indiana. I love the books because they are so completely off-the-wall in terms of what happens in the church (example: a Quaker militia to protect the live Nativity from the ACLU) but they are also so incredibly accurate as to what congregations can do to their clergy and some of the more *interesting* expectations people have.

Three

Amos 4:13 This was part of this morning’s section in my read the Bible in a year plan and I loved it. This is from the NRSV.

For lo, the one who forms the mountains, creates the wind,
reveals his thoughts to mortals,
makes the morning darkness,
and treads on the heights of the earth—
the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!

Four

Daniel cuddles. He is a cutie pie and snuggles very well. We usually watch Winnie the Pooh before bed and he’ll snuggle with whoever is with him. I’ve come home to some wonderful pictures of him snuggled up against my mom sleeping while Mom is on her phone or her tablet.

Five

ADHD meds. It’s like night and day with Daniel. He is calmer and can play better independently. We’re still doing some tweaking to deal with the insomnia side effect but it has overall been really positive after almost a month of having a consistent dosage.

Go love up Ashley.

The Attacks In Paris

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My heart and prayers are with those in Paris right now…

Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love’s sake. Amen. — Book of Common Prayer

7 Quick Takes: Reflections on Things I Read This Week

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Thank you notes. I had to laugh when I saw how this kid wrote thank-you notes for his graduation presents. It’s the polite thing to do when someone gives you a present but they’re pretty tedious to write.

— 2 —

Interesting Podcasts. I resonated with this list of 17 podcasts for people who are spiritually curious and I’m glad that On Being (formerly “Speaking of Faith”) is #2 on the list. If it were me, I would also add the ones from SQPN to the list .

— 3 —

Prerequisite cat video. If you’re on Facebook with me, you know that I’m kind of a cat person. Well… I saw this video and just had to share the link!

— 4 —

Wow. I didn’t know these still existed. A Texan man is one of 10 people in the world to live in an iron lung. He contracted it during one of the last polio epidemics to sweep the USA. We thankfully have a vaccine for this so for the most part, we never see this in the United States… which means that all the people who aren’t vaccinating their kids against it are raising the chances that we might see it again. Seriously folks, I have family members who were affected by it. It’s not pretty. VACCINATE YOUR KIDS!!!

— 5 —

More $tarbux cup commentary. Someone sent me a link to this interview in which the moron who put the video up on the Internet about $tarbux refusing to acknowledge Christmas with their new Christmas cups gets pwned. (By the way, our country was not founded on Judeo-Christian principles — we were founded on Enlightenment principles and the Founding Fathers were Deists.)

I actually have asked my barista about if people are actually putting their name as “Merry Christmas” and she said there have been lots of them and that there is nothing that prevents her and her fellow baristas from saying “Merry Christmas”… except that it’s not even Advent yet!

— 6 —

#FirstWorldProblems. Here are some fairly comical #FirstWorldProblems. I can honestly say that I’ve never had any of them.

— 7 —

Reminder. The Nativity Fast starts on November 15th. Here is how many Byzantine Catholics celebrate this time. (HT: priest’s wife)

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

Five Favorites: Miscellanea (LIII)

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Five Favorites

One

My mommy. As she has been packing and sorting boxes for the last few weeks, she has shown me some of the stories I wrote over the years when I was really little that she has saved. Given that I’m doing NaNoWriMo right now, the timing is perfect.

Two

My “Bach and Chant” playlist on iTunes. It is what I listen to while I write and it also serves to soothe my soul. Heck, it even works on rambunctious 6 year olds!

Three

“Holy Is Your Name” by David Haas. I usually am of the opinion that David Haas and Marty Haugen need to be banned from church music but I love how he set the Magnificat to the tune of “Wild Mountain Thyme”. (“Wild Mountain Thyme” is a song I want sung at my committal service when I pass away.)

Four

My NaNoWriMo piece. It is therapeutic for me to write and while I will never publish it, I’m getting to explore things in my life through it. For Harry Potter fans, it’s kind of like a pensieve.

Five

Silence. I’m an IXFJ and I crave quiet… which of course shows God’s sense of humor because my kiddo is NOT quiet in the slightest.

Go love up Ashley and the others.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: November 8, 2015

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Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY November 8, 2015

Outside my window… Dark and down in the 40’s right now. I love that I’m getting to feel winter in northern California. The only more perfect thing would be my dad building a fire in the fireplace.

I am thinking… about the stupidity erupting over the holiday cups at $tarbux. There’s even a wacko calling for people to go to $tarbux and give their name as “Merry Christmas” to force the baristas to say it… which is pretty ludicrous when you consider that all their baristas are literate (and many have probably read this or other pieces on the subject) and the practice in most of the ones I visit is to call out “I have a [insert name of drink] for [insert first name]!” It isn’t going to force them to say “Merry Christmas” more than anything else will.

Another thing: $tarbux still gets your money if you do that so you’re basically funding a company whose morals you hate. Wouldn’t it be better to patronize your local independent coffee shops or to just make your coffee at home and donate what you would have spent to charity? Just a thought!

I am thankful… for rain and cold weather. Bring it, El Niño!

In the kitchen… Dad made shrimp pasta with lemon, basil, garlic, and prosciutto. *swoons*

I am wearing… navy blue fitted tee from Old Navy and blue/white striped pj bottoms from Tarzhay.

I am going… to be calling and annoying the Special Ed peeps at San Jose Unified again tomorrow morning to see if I can get them moving faster on finding Daniel a placement.

I am wondering… how many words I can get through tonight for my NaNo piece.

I am reading… Accidental Saints by Nadia Bolz-Weber. I finished Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson on Tuesday during my two hour wait at the local Social Security office to find out that they don’t do what I needed them to do on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I would have to come back on Friday. (I prevailed on Friday thankfully.)

I am hoping… for Daniel to get placed in a school program this week.

I am looking forward to… seeing some family friends for the first time in 9 years on Friday.

I am hearing… my mom watching The Librarians.

A Daniel story for today… Mom took him to a local park while I was at church and partway through their park date, she heard him howl. She rushed over and he was covered in blood and one of his front teeth was missing. We think he likely was grinding his teeth and bit it strangely so it came out sideways because he’s still a bit bloody in that spot and has a dark bruise there. His other front tooth is loose as well!

Around the house… I can hear the furnace. It’s making me feel all koselig, which is a Norwegian word for a sense of coziness. (HT: this article)

A favorite quote for today… “TIL that Starbucks is rounding Christians up into coffee death camps and making them drink Pagan Spice Lattes.” — Mark Jaquith snarking about the flipping out over the $tarbux holiday cups. (Just for the record, I really prefer Peet’s and It’s A Grind over $tarbux any day.)

One of my favorite things… coffee with Rebecca… at $tarbux. 😉

A few plans for the rest of the week: park dates with Daniel, Bible study and choir on Thursday, dinner with friends on Friday, and a game night with a good friend from childhood on Saturday night.

Hosted by The Simple Woman.

7 Quick Takes: Why I Would Make the Bestest Quick Takes Host (Next to Kelly or Jen Fulwiler)

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7 Quick Takes

I’m needing something to distract me from the trouble I’m having in finding an educational placement for Daniel so I thought I’d take on Kelly’s question from last week and tell her (and y’all) why I would be the best Quick Takes hostess other than Kelly and Jen Fulwiler.

— 1 —

I’ve been blogging for 15 years. I started blogging in August of 2000 and have been blogging in various shapes and forms since then using Greymatter, Livejournal, Moveable Type, Blogger, b2, and finally WordPress. From 2003 to 2005, I was a moderator on the blogs4God portal which included a number of Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox blogs and also included people like Mark Shea and Amy Wellborn. I even remember Fr. Z from the days when he was an admin for the Catholic Online Forum on Compuserve.

— 2 —

I bring diversity to the Quick Takes. Unlike a lot of people who take part in them, I’m not Catholic. I’m an Episcopal revert married to a Lutheran pastor. 🙂 I also send my kiddo to public school unlike a lot of the homeschooling moms on here.

— 3 —

I am, in the words of St. Paul, “all things to all people”. I’m one of the few Protestant bloggers out there who has actually read the Catechism of the Catholic Church (all of it during the Year of Faith stemming from a dare that Cari made) and I’ve also read a few papal encyclicals. I can explain Catholic teaching to Protestants and I can explain the spectrum of Protestants to Catholics given that I’m fluent in the lingo and polity of a number of Christian traditions.

— 4 —

I can blog on music… and have! I’ve done a couple Lenten blogging things where I have blogged on contemporary Christian songs I like as well as hymnody and sacred music. (They’re here, here, and here.) I also blog on whatever songs are reaching me at the moment. (Currently, it’s “Baba Yetu” from Peter Hollens and featuring Malukah.)

— 5 —

I’m an author too! OK… I’ve been published in an anthology of devotions based on the Gospel of Luke and I have a few (like 6) unpublished NaNoWriMo pieces in addition to the one I’m working on this year.

— 6 —

I also blog on raising a kiddo with special needs. My son Daniel is autistic. I can tell you all about ABA therapy, dealing with apraxia, and how freaking wonderful it is when he finally gets something that we have been working on for a while.

— 7 —

I’m awesome in my own way. I haven’t built complicated Halloween costumes for Daniel or run 35K for SMA awareness and advocacy but… I have done 6 Promise Walks (I was the survivor speaker for the San Jose one in 2014), done multiple blogathons to raise money for worthy causes, crocheted bandages for Global Heath Ministries, crocheted afghans for afghans for Afghans, written Confirmation curricula, and lived out my vocation as a pastor’s wife, Daniel’s mama, and a child of God. 🙂

Not to mention, I’m fabulous at fencing with palm fronds.

On guard!

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.