Eleven

A short post to say “Happy Birthday to Lucy.”  Eleven years!  It’s so cliche, but I have to wonder where the time went?

Recommendation: Behold the Lamb of God

For the last two Christmas seasons, I have enjoyed a Christmas album that a friend recommended for me.  It is Behold the Lamb of God; The True Tall Tale of the Coming of Christ. It is amazing.

This is not just a collection of Christmas songs, rather, it has a narrative arc that details God’s plan of redemption for His people, from Moses on through the birth of Jesus.

The first song, Gather Round, Ye Children, Come invites us in to listen to the “old old story.”

Passover Us recounts Israel’s bondage in Egypt, and the sending of the plagues, and God’s provision of a blood sacrifice to rescue His people from the fate of the last plague.  It then goes on to talk about the priests offering of lambs to attone for the people’s sin.

The next one, So Long, Moses is, I think, my favorite one.  It chronicles the people’s longing for a king, their delight in King David, their begging Isaiah to hear that another such King is coming.  Instead, Isaiah’s words are “He will bear no beauty or glory, rejected, despised, a man of such sorrow, we’ll cover our eyes.  He’ll take up our sickness, carry our tears, for His people, He will be pierced.  He’ll be crushed for our evils, our punishment feel, but by His wounds, we will be healed.”  I get a shiver down my spine every time I hear those words.

Deliver Us is the song of Israel, now under bondage to the Roman government, chafing for a deliverer and atonement from sin.

Then follows a beautiful instrumental version of O Come, O Come Emmanuel, and a funny song called Matthew’s Begats that runs through the whole genealogy.  My children absolutely love this one!

It Came to Pass is the story about the Roman census, Mary’s visit from the angel, Joseph’s willingness to stay with her, and their trip to Bethlehem.

The rest of the songs continue the familiar story of Jesus’ birth and there are beautiful “tie-ins” to what His birth means for each of us.

This is not a CD to have playing in the background of your Christmas party necessarily.  I mean, it’s beautiful and that would be fine. But I love just listening and absorbing the story.  It’s like an Advent devotion.  Highly recommended!

I’m Back

I decided to start blogging again.  I had lunch with my sweet friend Lisa today (hi Lisa!) and she encouraged me to start making a commitment to blog more.  It is a fabulous way to focus my thoughts, process my experiences, do something creative, and it gives me motivation to pay more attention to my life.  All good things.  So the frazzlement of having three kids and trying to run a household (especially in the month of December) is no longer going to prevent me from posting here at least two or three times a week.

Much is going on in our lives!  Most notably, a new idea that we’ve begun taking steps toward is adopting another child, most likely internationally.  We love our girls and feel totally content with the size of our family, and yet, both Dave and I have felt a nudge.  Biblically, God is pretty clear about caring for orphans.  He even uses adoption terminology in describing our relationship to Him – all those that know Him are adopted into His family.  And we are not a perfect family, but we’d hopefully be good enough to provide another child – another human being – the common comforts of home and love.  And the fears I have about what another child would be like, and if I could truly feel like they are my own child, and if their color, behavior, or issues might indicate something about me… well, it’s not about me anyway.  (Contrary to my tacit opinion most of the time, I hate to admit.)   So, nervously, we are pursuing this.

That is about it for now.  It’s been an extremely full day of leading a Bible Study group, having lunch with Lisa, cooking a pot roast for my family, hosting two of Lucy’s friends for a playdate, baking banana bread, decorating a Christmas tree, getting Phoebe to piano lessons, coordinating with her piano teacher about the recital this weekend which I’m helping facilitate, preparing Advent activities for the children, visiting friends whose dog just had puppies, and suddenly and unexpectedly exploding at Dave over dinner about something that I don’t really even care about.  That last activity was my hint that I’m a little overwhelmed and tired tonight.

(It’s a very good thing that he is gracious and forgiving, by the way, and got out his guitar a little later and made up a song about my outburst.  I know that Bible says that “Love covers over a multitude of sins” but I think humor does a good job of that too.)

Good night!

An Audience of 42 Frogs

I know that I have done a series of just stories and pictures of my children, and have neglected to offer my insights on other areas of life, but sometimes mothering is all that there is room in my mind to do.  (Or at least blog about.)  Soon, I hope to get back to writing about deeper issues.

But one more nonsensical set of photos to demonstrate what daily life is like with a spunky four-year-old.

Bathtime with froggies. 42 of them, to be exact.

Amelia Earhart and Twins

Oh, I’ve been negligent about blogging.

Here’s a quick post about today.  Lucy did a biography book report and had to dress as her subject and make a speech.  (I will not mention how we walked to school and I was planning to stay to watch her speech, and she realized she forgot her index cards and I had to sprint home to get them.  We won’t even mention the motherly sacrifice and effort.)

She did awesome.  I have such tender feelings toward this girl-turning-young-lady of mine.  I don’t often blog about her, because it feels a little different writing details about a person who can read and comprehend a lot and may not want the whole world to know every detail of her existence.  But this girl is gold.

Today was also “Twin Day” at school.  Here is Phoebe and her friend.  So cute.  I really like my children a lot. It’s strange and wonderful to see how they are growing up.

The Lion and The Lamb

This is the Bruno family version of the Lion and the Lamb, a.k.a. our dog Piper and our guinea pig Ebony.  Piper is just the nicest gentle giant mutt you can imagine, and he has been a bit lonely since the demise of Crisp.  Remember Crisp?  The cat who snuggled up to Piper and let Piper nibble his belly in a most affectionate (and occasionally disturbing) way?  Well, our other cat keeps an aloof distance from Piper, but Bridget has recently allowed Ebony the guinea pig some closer proximity to Piper.  Heavily supervised of course, because we all know that animal instincts can kick in quickly, and a child traumatized by the violent death of her guinea pig is not something I’m in the mood to take on these days.  But Piper seems to be maintaining his self-control and giving Ebony a bit of loving and snuzzling.  Warms the heart, for sure!

Recommendation: The Days Gone By; Songs of the American Poets

I bought this CD years ago when Lucy was a toddler, and it has become an annual family tradition to listen to it each autumn.   I love this CD.

I’ve never been a big poetry person.  I think part of the reason is, poetry is better when spoken aloud, not on the printed page.  So, when I read poetry in a book, it usually doesn’t do much for me.  But poetry set to music – well, that’s a brilliant idea!  And these songs work as poetry should work on a person – bringing a person to a greater appreciation of their humanity and creation around them.

As the editorial review on Amazon reads:  “The Days Gone By, a country- and bluegrass-leaning collection… expertly evokes the image-rich landscapes and fanciful musings of five great American poets.”  Couldn’t have said it better myself, so I, uh, didn’t.   I will tell you, though, that those poets are  Emily Dickinson, Eugene Field, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Edgar Allan Poe, and James Whitcomb Riley.

Here’s a snippet of the poem from the title piece:

O the days gone by! O the days gone by!

The music of the laughing lip, the luster of the eye;

The childish faith in fairies, and Aladdin’s magic ring—

The simple, soul-reposing, glad belief in everything,—

When life was like a story, holding neither sob nor sigh,

In the golden olden glory of the days gone by.

My other favorite in this collection is the last piece – Some Time.  Oh, it is tender and sweet.  A father loving on a child and thinking ahead to the woes and griefs that child will know in life, and urging a sense of consolation because of his deep

love for the child.  Sends shivers down my spine every time.

Since it’s now October, I got this CD out and have been listening to it, even though the frost is most definitely not on the punkins around here.  Hot, dry, Santa Ana winds.  But I pop this CD in, and am instantly transported to an autumn

world of color and beauty, and poetry.  Give it a try; I highly recommend it!

A Prince Caspian moment

Phoebe, our eight-year-old, resisted having me read The Chronicles of Narnia aloud to her for years.  I kept suggesting it, and she refused.  I think her reluctance was two-fold.  First, she was afraid that they would be too scary for her.  (She is fairly sensitive and does not care for danger/suspense too much.)  The other reason (in my opinion) is because one of the main character’s names is Lucy, something her older sister Lucy liked to flaunt mention whenever the topic arose.

Well, Phoebe finally gave in, and I read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe to her and Bridget. Lucy drifted in and out of storytime, because, let’s be honest: who can resist hearing a good story, even if you have read it before and know what’s going to happen?

The girls loved the story, naturally. So we moved on to Prince Caspian. I’ve read these stories several times in my life, and so have most people, so I’m not going to give a full review.  But there is one moment that jumped out at me, which just never caught my attention before.

It is after the battles have been fought and Miraz is dead and the Telmarine soldiers are locked up for the night and the celebrating begins.  The bonfire is lit and the creatures of Narnia are all dancing and singing and feasting and frolicking.  And here is the passage:

“The best thing of all about this feast was that there was no breaking up or going away, but as the talk grew quieter and slower, one after another would begin to nod and finally drop off to sleep with feet toward the fire and good friends on either side, till at last there was silence all round the circle, and the chattering of water over stone at the Fords of Beruna could be heard once more.  But all night Aslan and the moon gazed upon each other with joyful and unblinking eyes.”

What a picture!  A great party, then quiet talking with friends around a campfire, then cozy sleep.  And the image of Aslan, never sleeping, but abiding there with them all night, full of joy and gazing at the moon.

This does something to my soul.  Longing, joy, sensucht.

It reminds me a little of a lullaby CD we listened to when the children were younger.  And one of the songs went “Close your eyes.  Drift away.  There’s no need for you to be afraid.  The whole world may be fast asleep.  But Jesus is awake.”

Twilight Zone Tailor

Today Bridget and I (and Piper our dog) walked the older girls to school.  Hot, dry Santa Ana weather here.  Blech. We are all ready for fall, but oh, well!  ‘Tis the season for heat in Southern California.

Bridget and I were trying to decided what to do today as we walked home.   I needed to run a couple of errands, but wanted to give her something fun to do as well.  So we decided to check out Bird Haven in downtown Escondido.  Just having acquired three parakeets last week, our family is all about birds right now.  So we went.  And we saw birds.  And we heard birds.  (In fact, Bridget kept covering her ears as those big, loud macaws screeched.)

All in all, the Bird Haven was a fun outing.

On to the other errands: I had brought along a pair of shorts of Lucy’s that has a busted zipper, thinking I could get the zipper replaced.  And what did I notice, two doors down from Bird Haven?  A tailor’s shop, with a sign proclaiming “fine Italian tailoring.”  We marched right in.

An old, old man greeted us at the door and ushered us into his shop.  I couldn’t help but notice the large crumbs of food on his lips.  He had a thick Italian accent.   The shop itself was tiny, and made to feel tinier still by the huge piles of books and videotapes surrounding an old couch and work table.  I felt a little claustrophobic, and a little freaked out.

I tried to explain about the zipper.  The man grabbed the shorts and squinted at the busted zipper.  “Not worth the cost of fixing,” he proclaimed.  “Eleven dollars; pants not worth that much.”  I took back the shorts, ready to bolt out of this creepy shop.  “Wait a moment…”  he said, manuevering past a pile of boxes.  As he fumbled around looking for who knows what – a butcher knife, perhaps!? – I glanced around and saw an old tv with a black and white program playing…The Twilight Zone.

I am not kidding about this.

“This is the most surreal experience I’ve had in awhile,” I thought as Italian-tailor-man limped back over to me, crumbs and all.  He held out his hand and dropped a few candies in my hand.  I smiled weakly and thanked him, and got the heck out of there.

North! Or Be Eaten: my review

It was with some ambivalence that I picked up Andrew Peterson’s North! Or Be Eaten book, because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to be objective. You see, I really like his music, and I really wanted to like this new book in his Wingfeather Saga series.

Happily, concerns about objectivity quickly melted away when I dove into the book, and found myself really liking it, not just because I wanted to like it, but because this is a great story. In fact, towards the end of the book, I’m afraid I was a bit rude to my family as I growled, “Do not interrupt me! I’ve got to find out what happens…”

Some things I appreciated about this book:

I liked the hero’s journey in this story. In the first book, On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, the stage was set for the Wingfeather children and the story of the Fangs’ oppressive rule of Skree. It felt a little like the same kind of adventure over and over; namely, battles with Fangs. In this book, there is movement, quest, progress. Different experiences. Some new characters, and some satisfying depth given to the ones we met in the first book. We get to see much more of Skree and Aerwiar and have a fuller sense of what is happening with its people and their tyrannical oppressors. As in all good stories, the “hero’s journey” leads us, with Janner, into exciting adventures and lessons learned along the way.

I liked the numerous chuckle-out-loud moments and crazy imaginative creatures that seem to me would be especially appealing to young male readers (although my ten-year-old daughter seems to get a kick out of them as well.) (She and I have been fighting over this book since it arrived.)

And speaking of children, North! Or Be Eaten places a high value on children. The hope of the land rests on these three children, and stories are discovered that describe the unique magical capabilities of children in Anniera before Gnag the Nameless took over. I like children, and am all about not underestimating them, so I liked this.

All in all, this book contains some intense themes of courage and loyalty while somehow staying playful and whimsical. This second installment of the Wingfeather Saga gives us more of what we liked in the first book, but with improved storytelling and a much more “epic” feel. A satisfying fantasy tale!