Well, as busy as my life is, I took some time out today to take Calvin and Nevin to see our local high school girls’ softball team play for the state championship. The Minco Lady Bulldogs made it to the final game, but, sadly, they lost by 1 point to Healton, OK. It was a close game. We left in the 9th inning, when it was tied 2-2. They didn’t end up in overtime, but the 3rd point was scored in the eleventh hour. The main reason we went to see the game was to support one of the star players who goes to our church. She has also babysat for us, so the boys know her pretty well. It was pretty exciting for the girls to be playing in the championship, and, while no one wants to be #2, it is still an accomplishment for which to be proud. Calvin was disappointed that they lost. He wants every Minco team to win, no matter what.

The critics are raving about Jonah, the new Veggie Tale movie. The critics I am referring to are Calvin (6), Nevin (almost 5) and Evangeline (3). We went to see the vegetable flick yesterday, the day after it opened. The last movie Mark and I saw on opening weekend was The X Files in June of 1998.

We planned to attend the 3 pm show. We arrived at the theater at about 2:50, and we saw several children crying and clinging to parents as they headed into the parking lot. As it turns out, the 3:00 show was sold out. Adults are disappointed when a movie they were planning to see is sold out, but pre-school children are not equipped to deal with such information. All they can do is cry to show their utter unhappiness about the situation. Our 3 handled it ok, but it was only after understanding that we would go to the 5:00 pm show.

When we did actually watch the movie, the place was packed. I suspect it was sold out again. I’ll be interested to hear how it comes out on the box office stats for the weekend.

Jonah was fun for old veggie fans who are familiar with “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything,” as they are the crew of the ship Jonah takes to Ninevah as well as the narrators of the tale. I won’t say it is better than the home videos, but it was nice to go to a movie theater with many families with small children and not have to worry at all about the film’s content. The only thing that might scare some small children is the big fish coming up out of the water. There’s also the matter of the pumpkin inards splashing Jonah (played by the remarkably talented Archibold Asparagus). This might be a bit disturbing to some. The music was excellent, as one might expect. And, the caterpillar character, Carlyle (sp?), was a great addition to the cast of vegetable favorites. Overall, it was an enjoyable family movie and an encouragement to see a Christian movie get so much attention.

If you want to read a great article about the brains behind Veggie Tales, see Christianity Today.

P.S. I just saw this article at CT’s website about layoffs at BigIdea (company that produces Veggie Tales). The tone of employees quoted is certainly different than those quoted in the earlier article. I hope Jonah does well enough to pull the company out of debt.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

Richard made a great contribution to my comments section on my last post. Thanks for the great link!

I am feeling a little less overwhelmed at the prospect of teaching at Redlands. I have looked over another instructor’s syllabus (which, by the way, I am fully using, with permission, of course). I have also had time to speak with her and ask her questions about how she does things. She has been very helpful. The dean of the department has also been a great help.

It turns out that this other instructor is also from Minco. She is full-time faculty at Redlands. It also turns out that she is Presbyterian, and she attends the PCUS church in El Reno. She asked me some questions about the differences in our church with hers. She told me she mentioned to the minister there that she was thinking of attending our church. He told her, “Oh, you wouldn’t want to do that. They don’t have a very high view of women.” So I told her it was true that we don’t ordain women. I am hopeful that we will have a chance to get to know each other more, and that she will see that Mark’s willingness to help with the kids while I am teaching this class is indicative of his (and the PCA’s) respect for women.

I start a part-time job on Monday. I will be teaching English composition at Redlands Community College in El Reno, OK (about 14 miles from our house). I sent them a resume last year answering an ad in the paper, and I never heard anything from them. Then out of nowhere, they called me yesterday. It seems they had a faculty member quit at the last minute. So in desperation, they aren’t being as picky about me not having a master’s degree.

Don’t worry, I won’t tell my students about my blog. I don’t want them to have any negative writing examples to use against me 😉

I have lately become an avid fan of the cable tv show, Trading Spaces. On the show, two pairs of neighbors trade houses for 48 hours for the purpose of redecorating a room in their neighbors’ home. The hostess of the show, along with one carpenter, and a designer for each home and a $1000 budget/each for the redecorating are also part of the show. The results of the redecorating are then revealed to each couple at the end of the show. Most of the time, the people like what has been done. However, a few times I’ve watched, the homeowners have actually cried because they hated it so much. I like watching the show because the designers do some pretty neat tricks that can add a lot to a room with little money. Watching Trading Spaces (and the BBC show that inspired it, Changing Rooms) is sort of like leafing through magazines to get ideas.

Yesterday, having been inspired by my watching the last couple of months, I decided to rearrange the furniture in our living room. It all started with the purchase of some lined drapes for our west-facing living room windows. I really prefer the clean look of mini blinds to drapes, but we have been living with incredible heat from the west windows letting in sun for entire summer, and something had to be done. I have been looking at drapes for a while. They are not cheap. I came across some yesterday at a little odd-lots store here in Minco. The price was excellent, but they had only one pair of the drapes with the valance to match. I came home and put up the drapes on the west window. They fit, and look pretty good. I used the valance on the north window without any drapes, since I only got drapes for one set of windows. But at least now, the windows are somewhat coordinated, and the sun problem is at last solved. Eventually, I plan to cut off the bottom of the drapes to make another valance for the windows with the drapes. But, I digress . . .

With the new drapes and the inspiration from Trading Spaces, I decided I had to rearrange the furniture. The drapes are a part of the equation because with them, I felt it was necessary to have a sofa centered in front of the window. I have wanted this all along, but it seemed impossible. And, with the mini-blinds, it didn’t seem to look so bad to have the sofa off-center. So after several iterations of various furniture arrangements, I still thought my task was impossible. Then I had to leave to go judge a cake contest. Mark assured me he could arrange the furniture in a “cozy” and appealing way while I was gone. Hmmm? When I returned, he confessed it was harder than he thought. He fled to his office and left me with the task again. Two hours later, when he came home, it was done. Our large sofa was centered in front of the west window, and the coordinating love seat was centered in front of the north window. All of our other pieces of furniture were also arranged in an appealing way. Mark was really happy with the overall change. He has since said more than once that he really likes the new arrangement. This experience made for a very satisfying afternoon. Hopefully, it won’t take me 6 months to finish the alterations to the drapes and to make the new valance.