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
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.
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!
“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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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.
For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.
My mommy. She has backed me up with giving Daniel his meds in the morning which is becoming a trial because he has caught on to the fact that the capsule of Adderall is in the spoonful of peanut butter. She also watched Mr. Ornery this morning so I could go deal with Social Security.
Rain. We got an inch of it yesterday. I am positively giddy.
This hymn. I love Michael Card and I love The Ash Grove so I definitely love his version of “Let All Things Now Living”.
Van Morrison and the Chieftains. Totally sharing these for my favorite Tasoni. 🙂 This is how I hear these particular songs in my head.
NaNoWriMo As usual, I decided to participate at the last minute and I think it will make for an interesting month. I’m doing it for fun this year to process some things in my life. (For those not familiar with it, go check out the NaNoWriMo website.)
Go love up Jenna and thank her for being the hostess with the mostest for the last year or so.
Before I get into my “faves” for the week, I wanted to announce that Daniel and I just moved in with my parents in northern California. Don’t worry — Jon and I are not divorcing. At the present time, my parents can give me better support with Daniel than our living situation in southern California could and I’m grateful to my in-laws for giving us a home for 16 months.
My parents’ cat Homer. When Daniel and I arrived on Monday, Daniel was chattering to my dad using the word “cat” in which he pronounced all three letters instead of it sounding like “cah” or “tah”. He then started repeating the syllable “gree” with “cat”. We put together today that he was talking about Homer and was saying “gris cat”. (We call Homer “gris-gris” because he is a gray cat.) Homer has been Daniel’s buddy — tolerating him, hanging out with him, and even was asleep on my bed when I came in to start putting Daniel to bed last night.
The Trader Joe’s in Claremont, California. I love Trader Joe’s anyway but the store in Claremont has gone above and beyond in how they’ve loved on Daniel for the last 16 months. Almost every crew member in the store knows his name and greeted him by it when we walk in. Their assistant store manager let him ring their bell and one of the crew members who is a psych major would find new and interesting ways to communicate with him. If you are anywhere nearby, please consider patronizing them — they could seriously give lessons to churches and businesses on how to interact with customers who have special needs.
Rain. It was cloudy last night and we got enough to wet down the patio a bit. I am ecstatic. Bring it on, El Niño!
My friend Jenn. Girlfriend had an article on NFP that was picked up by Cosmo, Redbook, and Good Housekeeping. Eschet chayil!
“Open Your Ears, O Faithful People”. I had been listening to a hymn mix that included this hymn on Saturday night and we sang it on Sunday morning. It’s one of my favorites as well!
Go love up Jenna and the others.
Canticle of the Turning. It’s on of my favorite newer hymns and it probably doesn’t hurt that I like the folk song from which its tune comes.
Concerts with my father-in-law. I’ve been blessed to be able to attend a lot of different classical concerts in the area because of escorting my father-in-law. It has ranged from the select choirs at the Claremont colleges to lunchtime harp recitals to Claremont Symphony Orchestra concerts such as the one we attended last Sunday. These are definitely not concerts I would have attended on my own, so I am incredibly grateful to my father-in-law Ray for helping me expand my taste in classical music.
Early music with harps. Another pretty one by la harpe de melodie. This one is “O Viridissima Virga” by St. Hildegard of Bingen.
Jenny Lawson. I am so incredibly thankful for Jenny Lawson, a.k.a. The Bloggess because she is giving mental illness a face and her latest book is educating people about what it looks like. As one dealing with depression and an anxiety disorder, I appreciate this more than most.
The hymn tune “THAXTED”. It comes from Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite “The Planets” and is the tune for “Jupiter”. I think I’ve only sung it once in church but you tend to hear it a lot in British choral music.
Go love up Jenna and the others.
la harpe de melodie. This is the YouTube channel of a woman who is a fabulous harpist and vocalist. From what I can tell of her channel, she does Celtic music and early/medieval/renaissance music which are two of my favorite genres. Here are two songs I am liking after discovering her only 15 minutes ago.
My mom. She made sure I got some down time to watch NCIS and crochet this weekend as well as backing me up with Daniel when needed.
This piece on the Rosary. This piece in America magazine resonates with me though I am more introverted when I pray. I have a full Catholic rosary in my purse from Sara, a chaplet from Rebecca that I use on my walks when I pray, and a couple Anglican rosaries from my priest and from a class I took at church during Lent. I find that the beads help me to focus and pray when I need to not be distracted. I am using the Jesus Prayer more often than the Rosary these days but both provide me with words for prayer when I have none.
Sara Groves. I first heard of her on Valentine’s Day 2008 when I was driving to work and listening to Your Network of Praise. It seems like every time I find a new song that seems to describe my life, she is singing it. She has also teamed up with International Justice Mission, one of my favorite charities for advocacy purposes. Her website is here.
Words with Friends. It’s brainless enough to let me think through things while I play and I enjoy trying to put together fabulous moves.
Go love up Jenna and the others.