TGIF

It has been a while since the weekend really meant as much to me as it did when I worked full-time or went to school. Now, with my children in school and me teaching a couple of classes, I am once again appreciating the weekend as a break. Although, weekends can turn into busier times than the week. As a pastor’s wife, this is especially true. But this weekend is not all booked up. I am behind in my housework and in grading papers, so that’s what’s on the agenda. But it’s nice to have no set appointments.

1st grade humor

I dropped the boys off at school today, and I had to go into the school office on a PTO errand. While I was in the school, Calvin’s teacher saw me and said, “Congratulations!” It took a minute for it to register that she was congratulating me on our expecting our 4th child. She went on to say, “Calvin told us about it at show and tell last Friday. He said, ‘I’m going to have a baby.’ One of his classmates, Jesse (whose mother had a baby last year), responded, ‘Well, you don’t look pregnant.'” Calvin’s teacher didn’t tell us how he reacted, but I am sure he got sort of embarassed, and said something like, “Well, I mean my mom is going to have a baby.”

At last, another blog

It has been 3 weeks since my last blog. I have been busy with teaching, and we went out of town for a weekend. I also had a few technical problems last week that prevented me from blogging when I wanted to. Oh, and those of you who read Mark’s blog know that my most recent project, baby #4, has added a new challenge to my productivity.

While feeling a bit crummy, I can still read a book. Yes, I should be reading freshmen college essays. But they just aren’t as convenient to hold when one is reclining on the couch. So in the last week I read the novel Christy, by Catherine Marshall. A few weeks back I saw some episodes of a movie based on the book on the Hallmark channel, so I decided I wanted to read the book. I came across it for 89 cents at a junk store, so I couldn’t resist.

I finished the book last night. It is the inspiring story of 19-year-old Asheville, NC, socialite Christy Huddleston serving as a missionary teacher at a one-room school house in the appalachians of Tennessee in 1912. There is so much that happens to her, it is hard to summarize it here.

One interesting element of the story is that her mentor while she is at the mission is a Quaker woman. Much of what she (the Quaker woman) says made me want to understand a bit more of the theology of the “society of Friends.” I know their beliefs are problematic by my standards, but the thoughts presented by the character in this novel certainly presented this group in a positive light (although not perfect).

The situations in the story and the way Christy worked through them caused me to come away from the book evaluating my own reactions to difficult circumstances. In addition to the contemplative take-away of the book, it was also a good story with many details about living in poverty in a completely different culture 90 years ago.

Funny comment regarding Trading Spaces

In the last few weeks, attendance at our Sunday night Bible study at church has been iffy. Now, you need to realize that regular attendance has never soared beyond 10. So we are not in crisis. But we have been a bit discouraged by no one coming in 2 of the last 4 weeks. Last night was one of those no-show nights.

Mark and I tried to put a positive spin on the evening by using the hour we would have normally spent at Bible study to get started on a little project we need to complete soon. We are turning one of the unused Sunday school rooms into an infant nursery. We have one baby at church now, and a new one coming soon. In a couple of weeks, we plan to offer nursery care for the infants during Sunday school, so we need a room where this can be done. So we decided to move out all the Sunday school furniture, so the room would be ready for its renovation. As we were moving the furniture, our 4-year-old son said, “This is just likeTrading Spaces.” Then our 6-year-old corrected him, “No, it is more like Home Invaders.”

You have to be a fan of these shows to understand the humor in this. Sorry for wasting your time if you have no idea what this refers to.