Ordinary Time

"Destruction is the preface to renewal; a force of death also breathes life." from Eager: the surprising secret life of beavers and why they matter by Ben Goldfarb (p. 59) This is probably the most unusual way to begin a post on Easter, with a quote from an ecology book about beavers and their effect on the physical world that I'm currently reading. This sentence stopped me in my tracks when I read it the other day. It was in a section discussing morticulture, which is the idea that some natural events (fire, beaver dams) may initially kill some of the animals and plants in a landscape, but as a result bring forth a more vibrant and more diverse ecosystem. I have rarely come across a sentence in a non-theological book that so accurately described the natural as well as the spiritual world. We live in a fallen world. A place that was created by God and called good was then affected in every way by the introduction of sin and through sin, death. Death in this fallen wo...

Some of us dyed some eggs... A duck egg and a goose egg. L. D. and Y. H. The goose eggs have to live in a basket because there is no carton big enough for them. For comparison, a plain old chicken egg on the left, then a duck egg, followed by a goose egg. People here have really become rather fond of hard boiled goose eggs and are looking forward to eating these. We didn't dye any chicken eggs this year because I would rather sell them. Other than that, I worked on some pie and pie crusts (we'll have a chocolate cream, a lemon custard, and a cherry). I even remember to take the meat out of the freezer for tomorrow. Our order was finally pulled (fifty hours later) and ready at Farm and Fleet, so J. drove to pick up a month's worth of animal feed, shavings, supplies... and toilet paper (we weren't out, but starting to run low).  This is going to be a low key Easter as far as things such as Easter baskets go. People ar...

Good Friday, the day we remember Jesus dying a horrific death for the sins of the world. The day all seemed lost, but in reality, the day that everything changed. I'm linking to the full Requiem by John Rutter. A requiem is a mass for the dead, and a musical requiem sets the different parts of the mass to music. Rutter doesn't follow a strict mass, but combines them with the Book of Common Prayer. 1. Requiem Aeternam and Kyrie Elieson 2. Out of the Deep (Psalm 130) 3. Pie Jesu 4. Sanctus 5. Agnus Dei 6. The Lord is my Shepherd 7. Lux Aeterna 8. I Will Lift up My Eyes I think it is a beautiful piece of music, and certainly fitting for the day and season. Take the time to listen to it.

Part of me really wants to write a long blog post directed at panicking first time parents of toddlers, assuring them that their child staying home with them is not going to stunt their social-emotional growth. I also really want to write a long blog post gently pointing out that sometimes when we are stuck with people we love (children, spouses, children, more children) that the closeness can bring some things to the surface that are not always comfortable. This would be a version of my it's not a homeschooling problem, but a relationship problem sermon. But I'm not because I've promised myself that I will stick to posts relating to the days of Holy Week for the next few days. Today is Maundy Thursday. For those not familiar with the term, it stands for the day that Jesus and His disciples celebrated the last supper. Maundy actually comes from a Latin word (mandatum) which means command or mandate. It comes from the command that Jesus gave to His disciples after He washe...

I'm doing the weekly stream of consciousness post today since starting tomorrow begins the days leading up to Easter. I have things basically planned for Easter, but I'm so unsure what day it is, I realized that I never planned for doing a Seder. We have done Seder dinners in the past, but I haven't managed to pull one together since we moved. This was going to be my year to get that tradition started again. Until the month of March lasted forever and I lost track of time, that is. Next year. I'll pull it together next year. I have new little sprouts starting to come up where I planted the first garden bed. It looks as though some lettuce and radishes are the first ones growing. I always find it so heartening when those first little seeds sprout. I can never quite believe that something will happen when I initially plant them. Java and Bristol seem to be on the mend. Java is not bothered in the least by having fifty stitches and a drain on her hind end. She doesn...

With all this time at home, I initially thought that I would be able to get tons of stuff done around the house. Then the first realization hit that because we were still living a fairly typical life for us, all the imagined free time was just that, imagined. But the other day I realized that that was not quite true. I do have more free time than usual. Once everything is somewhat caught up, keeping it up isn't as time consuming as digging out. This past week I was finding myself with a little bit of down time during the day. Did I do anything with that free time? No. Not at all. Never have I been so unproductive with so much extra time. A friend posted something the other day which clarified my thinking. This current season of all of our lives is indeed traumatic. For some, the trauma is more apparent... those who work in hospitals, first responders, those who have contracted the virus and their family members, those who have lost loved ones. I know it might feel a little silly ...

So do you long time readers remember when our last dog, Gretel, was a puppy and she tore (somehow, we still don't know how) the skin off of her entire side , ending up with a long trip to the doggy ER followed by another surgery by our vet because her skin had become necrotic? She spent weeks wearing old toddler sized t-shirts because the cone scared her too much. Good times. I felt as though I was in a bizarre Groundhog Day version of that scenario this morning, except with a horse. Somehow Java caught herself on a piece of wood that we didn't think was a problem, and did the same thing except on her back end. (I'm going to post a funny picture of Java first, so that the injury image is not the one that is shown with the post.) After the vet visit, Java is not all stitched up with 50 stitches and a drain. I have a pharmacy full of pain killer and antibiotics to give her. Even better, I get to take a syringe and irrigate the drain twice a day for two weeks. Do I kno...