Update

I can't think of a clever title, nor do I have anything earth shattering to post.

We are proud of D. who has gotten his first invitation to interview for medical school, at Baylor in Houston. And he also got a second invitation to interview for the accompanying Ph.D. program. He's bought his ticket to fly to Houston and will stop by Dallas for less than one day to visit us on his way back home. Speaking of D., he had a little cyst or something surgically removed from near his eye socket last Monday. He had to drive himself to the hospital and back, mommy wasn't there to take him. :-( He was grouchy and groggy after the surgery (done with local anesthetic), but next day he was back to his cheerful self. :-)

R. is in the midst of probably the hardest part of the semester, with a huge project due tomorrow, a draft of a 20-page paper due next Tuesday, and her big standardized test the Saturday after that. But, this time she seems to be handling the stress pretty well, and we are proud of her persistence to keep going. I continue to ask God to help her, and seek my friends to pray for her also.

News from Ethiopia seems good too. A. got his official Ethiopia drivers license, and now he just has to get something to drive. He is off on a trip south tomorrow to Awassa where he hopes to secure the permissions needed to start one of his projects. He got some official papers in the mail recently, one signed by Colin Powell, that he needs for some reason or another. He's learning about paperwork in the third world.

G. is off tomorrow for nine days. We leave for DFW at 4:30am--ugh. First he goes to Fresno, then to Phoenix. This is a business trip, but we have a supporter in Fresno whom he will also see, and his parents live in Sun City, near Phoenix, so he'll see them too.

A stack of Bibles

No, I didn't swear on them. (I did wonder if one could swear on a stack of Bibles written in foreign languages.) Today there was a stack of four Bibles on my boss's desk. These were Bibles published sometime during the past six months.

• A medium-sized one with a hardback green cover. It was a diglot New Testament translation in Limos Kalinga and Ilokano from the Philippines. Population = 20,000


• A big black one with a plastic cover and red edges. This one was a full Bible in a language of Mexico called Nahuatl de la Huasteca Occidental. Population = 400,000


• A black one in an exotic script, non-roman. This one is a whole Bible in the Northern Khmer language of Thailand. Population = 1,000,000


• A small black compact book with gilt edges and thumbcuts to mark the different books. I recognized the word "Allah" on the cover. This is a diglot New Testament in the Abun and Bahasa Indonesia languages of Indonesia. Population = 3,000

1,423,000 more people have scriptures in their mother tongue.

If God so leads you, please

Our daughter, Rachel, is in her last year of college. If you read this blog and are a believer, please lift Rachel up to our Lord. She has two big school projects due before Thanksgiving and will be taking the third of three standardized tests on November 20 to secure her elementary teacher certification. School and tests are not easy for her, so pray

• that she will be able to concentrate and finish her work,
• that she will not get discouraged,
• that she will indeed pass the standardized test on Nov. 20

Identity Theft

Apparently my husband has been off to Italy buying things on our credit card. Over $700 of charges were made, but thankfully the credit card company observed that the charges didn't look right and contacted us. A new card is being issued.

Scottie, the 11-year old politician

This is Scott's third day with us. Last night I could hardly get him to go to bed because he was engrossed in a political show on PBS. He wouldn't go to bed until I agreed to set the VCR going.

Today on the way home from picking him up from school he told me he wants to become a politician when he grows up. Then he proceeded to grill me about for whom I voted, but I told him it wasn't polite to ask that question.

Then during dinner he told us he wanted to be the governor of Washington state. We suggested maybe he start with the school board or local mayor first. And I suppose moving to Washington might help too.

I'm recording this in my blog in case he becomes president someday. I'll let him stay up a little late tonight so he can watch the election returns.

Not empty

This week my nest is not empty. We are babysitting 11-year old Scott while his parents are away raising money.* I now remember how I don't like driving kids to school and back, but I do like having someone around to cook for. I noticing that Scott gets his homework done by "Asking Jeeves." Scott also informed us of his political views, a la Shawn Hannity. (Isn't he too young for that?)

*Other names for this process:

- raising support
- doing deputation
- partnership development
- pious pillaging of prosperous patrons
- begging

Halloween

Halloween doesn't amount to much in our neighborhood. We used to have a few children come by for candy, but now all the local churches have big parties for the kids. So I buy candy (chocolate) just in case anyone comes, then eat the leftovers myself :-)

I decided to post some photos of Halloweens past to remind myself of my cute little kids who aren't little anymore. (I'll be lucky if I see more than one of them for Christmas, let alone Thanksgiving or Halloween.)

First we have scary Halloween (well, maybe not that scary):


Next, we have Bible Halloween (Pharoah, church mouse, and Moses):


Last, we have Pacific Islands Halloween (I carried R. in that laplap as a newborn):

I always feel happy

...when someone says thank you.

The other two recipients also said thank you in emails. Maybe I should go bake some more cookies.

Farewell, blue car

As soon as D. left home, we decided to get rid of the blue car. We had a family from church that was in need so we gave it to them. They, unlike us, are a family that knows how to fix cars, so when the blue car would hiccup, they knew what to do. Just last Sunday we were walking across the church parking lot and R. said, "Oh look, there's our car!" To which we said, "Yes, that actually is our car. Or was our car. Yay, it is still working well enough that they drove it to church." Sadly, when their teenage daughter was driving home from church Sunday night (in the rain), she hit another car and wrecked it. Only minor human injuries, but it is doubtful if the blue car will be drivable again.

When R. gets her own car, we'd like to find one that has as good of visibility as this blue car (a 1989 Plymouth Reliant K). We had to put a block on the accelerator so her short legs could reach, but it was an easy car to look out of and get a good view.

Moon gazing

At the moment, a total lunar eclipse has just begun. It was raining earlier today, but when the eclipse began at 8:14pm, the clouds had pretty much cleared, and stayed away for the most part until now, 9:23pm. I tried to get someone to watch with me, but without success. G. is legally blind, so he can't see much of the moon so far away. I talked with R. on the phone and sent her outside to look, but it was cloudy in OKC. So the cat and I watched it. I used G.'s binoculars and monocular, and got a pretty good look. I tried several live webcasts on the internet, but they were all clogged up with traffic and I couldn't get through. G. told me that they showed a TV shot of it at from St. Louis where the Red Sox are trying to sweep the Cards in the 4th game of the World Series.

Believe it or not, there was a time in my young life when I wanted to be an astronomer. I think I was in 3rd or 4th grade. I remember one Christmas my parents bought me some kind of kit to build a cardboard telescope, but one crucial piece was missing. 40+ years later I still remember the disappointment of that. (Time to get over it, huh?)

Two more jobs?

I talked to child #3 yesterday and he said he was going to try to get a paid tutoring job since he was bored and didn't have anything to do in the evenings. That and he might join a community band, and he's tutoring an 8th grader up on Capitol Hill, and Bible study on Wednesdays, ...

Then today he said he got the 2nd job and might take a 3rd. Seasonal help at Best Buy would give him something to do on the weekends. And some more cash. And maybe an employee discount? I wonder.

So I said, "You need some friends to hang out with. What about the guys you live with?" He replied, "Well, they are cool and all, but they're so old--like 24 or 25." Do you see my eyes rolling??

I hope he likes the cookies I sent. I hope R. likes the cookies I sent. I hope one of the M.O.C.K.ees likes the cookies I sent.

Crisis averted

When child #3 called last night and asked me to send cookies, what could I say? So today I went to find my favorite cookie recipe and IT WAS MISSING! I nearly panicked until my neighbor invited me over for a cup of tea and dug the recipe out of her box--which she had gotten from me some years ago. So now cookies are baking and starving child #3 will soon get his package.

And while I'm on a kitchen theme, here are some little known facts about kitchen colors:

• Split green peas will fade to yellow if left in the sunlight.
  
• Cut green apples turn brown slower than cut red apples.
  
• The bleach stain on my apron is not a color nor a stain.
  
• White meat starts brown and ends up white.
  
• Red meat starts red and ends up brown.
  
• No food should be gray.
  

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow...

Last night we went to the local theater's production of Annie, and now I've got that song stuck in my head. It was lots of fun. They did a professional job, the little girl who played Annie was great, and it was especially fun because a number of folks in the cast are from our church. G. took us out to eat at a great Mexican restaurant just before the performance, so that was nice too.

We had a good weekend with R. home. She got a bunch of homework done and some other things too: haircut, trip to the bank, unsuccessful shoe-shopping trip, and she voted. We had a laugh before voting because she said she was tempted to write in a friend's name* for president. She planned to do this until she learned that you could only put in declared write-in candidates.

We and R. have begun a discussion of where she might live next year. Of course, that is likely to depend on where she ends up getting a job. But one plan is that she would move back in with us, and take over the apartment end of our house (for a price, of course :-) A friend of mine, who has been a teacher herself, reminded me that the first year of teaching is very hard, and it is good to have some friendly ear at home to "dump" on when you get home from teaching each day. If R. got an apartment by herself, that would be difficult. If she had a roommate, it might work, but my friend thought for her first year, living at home might be the least stress to add to the first year of teaching. Of course, that all assumes that she would come back to Texas instead of staying in Oklahoma, which isn't a given. We will just have to see what doors the Lord opens as we carry on a discussion on the topic.

In the meantime, the song says, "Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow, you're always a day away."

*I'm not sure he's presidential material. He's more the dictator type.

Full nest for a few days

We've had visitors this week, a couple the age of our parents, who have loved and supported us for many years. Every time they come they fix something in my house (which is nice since my husband, capable in so many ways, isn't much for fixing things). This time they did some caulking in one of the bathrooms and fixed a wobbling towel rack. It is always nice to have them come, and it would be nice to have them come even if they didn't fix things for us.

And last night our daughter came home from college for her short fall break. We had to drive 20 miles to pick her up from a town south of Dallas, but at least we didn't have to drive 200 miles to pick her up from a town north of Dallas. Unfortunately, it won't be much of a break for her since she has school projects to work on. Sigh. The girl works so hard, but gets discouraged at times because school is not particularly easy for her. We keep reminding each other that she has only one and a half semesters left (out of ten) to graduate. (And my husband and I keep reminding ourselves that we only have one and a half more semesters to pay for!) Anyway, I may take the day off work so I can be with her, take her to get a haircut, maybe we'll go to the HS football game tonight, etc.

"I have a word from the Lord for you"

Someone told that to me a week ago. I get nervous when people say they've received a direct revelation from the Lord, but I listened anyway. His word to me turned out to be simple enough, and biblical enough too: "You need to calm down and trust the Lord."

Indeed. The situation that prompted my latest round of worry has come and gone, and surely the Lord is taking care of all those involved. We thank God for his gracious love to us, his work in our lives and the lives of our children, and his patience with me when I would rather worry about things than trust him.

Lord, thank you for hearing our prayers. Continue to work in all our lives.

Fortune cookies

We have visitors staying with us this week, always nice to see them. And a special treat is they always take us out to eat. Tonight we went to my favorite restaurant, Ton's Mongonlian BBQ. This kind of food is not at all related to the meat and potatoes that I grew up on in rural Michign, but I love it. First, there is the bowl of Hot and Sour soup that always gives me a temporary case of the hiccups because it is so spicy. Then, you can't go wrong when you can choose your own ingredients in any amount from a spread of raw meats and vegetables. Ladle on a scoop of hot oil, sesame oil, sugar water, cooking cherry [sic], garlic, salt water, lemon juice and oyster sauce. Then watch your meal be cooked right in front of your very eyes in about two minutes, along with six others on this giant grill heated to a thousand degrees (or however many). Top it off with sesame seeds and enjoy with rice on the side.

On the way out there are forture cookies after you pay your bill. Here are the two best from tonight:

"The dictionary is the only place where success comes from work." Whoops, did we loose something in the translation here?

And speaking of translation, the other fortune was bilingual: "Antes de que puedes anotar, tu tienes que tener un gol." (Before you can score yo must first have a goal.) This is Texas, after all.

Computer conversations

I got home after dark last night from a two-day visit to R.'s dorm room. We had a good visit, but I won't post about our conversations. Instead, I'll mention the talks I've had recently with my computers.

Computer: Your computer is running dangerously low on resources.
Me: Ok, then live dangerously. I do it all the time.

Computer: Low on memory.
Me: I can't remember when that last happened.

Computer: SP2 did not install properly. Your system is unstable.
Me: Unstable? Who's unstable?

Computer: Runtime error. Would you like to debug?
Me: Of course. I debug all the time.

Computer: There is a problem. Would you like to send a report to Microsoft?
Me: Sure, why not? I bet I'm the only person they've heard from this week.

Do I have a great husband, or what?

If anyone reading this blog actually knows me IRL, you probably have recently heard me asking for prayer for our older son. He lives in Ethiopia and works for a Christian relief agency. He is the most social of anyone in our family, and has been kind of lonely since starting this new job. He has always had tons of friends who were girls, has never been the least bit shy around girls, but also has never had a serious gf. Well, now he has become interested in a young lady and has been seeking our advice about his relationship with her. Today I read this email which my husband sent to him. I'm lucky to be married to someone so insightful.

While I'm here let me share some thoughts that about your relationship with *****. Actually, what I'm doing here is repeating what I said to Mom the first time she told me about your interest in *****. She was expressing concern about the fact that she was Catholic, and my response to her was something like, "Well, being Catholic per se doesn't worry me so much--more to the point is whether she is a Mother Teresa or an Imelda Marcos." You obviously know all about Mother Teresa as an example of a Catholic woman who really loved the Lord and obeyed his command to minister to the poorest of the poor. At the other extreme is Imelda Marcos, a Catholic woman who was notorious for her glamorous extravagance. Do you know about her? She was big news during your Acton days. She was Miss Manila in the 1950s and married Ferdinand Marcos who became the dictator of the Philippines for a couple decades. She is most famous for her shoes. When Marcos was run out of the country by a popular uprising in 1986 (after siphoning off billions of dollars into his own bank accounts), they found 1200 pairs of shoes abandoned in her closet. The total collection was thought to be upwards of 3,000 pairs--almost all of them expensive imports. So today "Imelda's shoes" has entered the language as an idiom for wanton extravagance.

I don't mean to imply that ***** is like that since I clearly don't know her yet. But there is a reason Imelda's shoes popped into my mind when Mom was telling me the story. If I have the facts right, ***** has grown up in a well-to-do family and is currently living in a much higher economic bracket than your family has ever occupied. People say that how to spend money is what couples fight about the most, and it is also said (though I haven't tried to verify it) that there is more teaching in the Gospels about money and materialism than about any other topic. Thus I think you'd be wise to pay special attention to where her heart is--not only spiritually, but also materially.

Especially in light of the call you have felt on your life to minister to the world's poor, I trust that you'll be able to find a life partner who can share that with you. When I was in my courting days, I was looking not just for someone who would share my faith, but also someone who would share in my call to ministry. I had a few serious girl friends along the way who met the faith criterion, but weren't ready to go with me to the ends of the earth. One was P. (in Missouri who we have stayed with on the way to Taylor); her passion was to be a dental hygienist, and she wasn't ready to give that up. And there was V. who couldn't imagine leaving the comforts of home, so she stuck with her plan to become a music teacher. But then there was L. who did share my passion for Bible translation. In the final analysis, it shouldn't be about how someone rates on the proverbial ten-point scale, but on how well they share your vision of how you should live your life. And that's why my answer for Mom about your situation was that I wouldn't be worried if she was like Mother Teresa, but would be if she was more like Imelda Marcos.

I hope you don't feel like I'm preaching at you--I'm just trying to share from the heart. We know that you have a good head on your shoulders and won't do anything foolish.

Lord, give them your guidance.

Way to go, D.!

D. got his MCAT scores today and did very well, 97th percentile. Now he waits to see if he gets asked to any interviews for the MD/Ph.D programs he is applying to. He also got his first paycheck today (from NIH). So he is having a doubly good day. Now he should celebrate--luckily he's still underage! (Not that he would celebrate that way, anyway... :-)

Regrets

I'm reasonably happy with my life, so perhaps regret is too strong a word to describe things I would change if I could live life over again. Here they are:

• not getting more education - I guess I really didn't have much choice here. I'm from a generation that didn't assume one would go to college and from a family that was uneducated. It was enough, it seemed at the time, to attend Bible institute followed by specialized missionary training. But in HS I was a good student, the top math and science student in my class, but I never studied math or hard science after that. I regret that.
• aggravating my children - I have a good relationship with my three kids, I love each of them more than life itself. I would do anything for them (and sometimes I do). And my kids all love me too, for which I thank the Lord. But now that my nest is empty and I have time to reflect on my child rearing, I think there were too many times when I disobeyed Colossians 3:21 and irritated or provoked my children when I didn't need to. I regret that.
• not learning to dance - I grew up in a strict Christian environment that said, "Don't smoke, don't chew, don't go with girls that do." It also said don't drink, don't go to movies, don't dance, and don't listen to rock music. I don't regret not smoking, I don't regret not drinking, I don't even regret not going to movies (I was already married before I attended my first movie in a theater), and I suppose I heard enough rock music along the way to become inoculated to it. But I do wish I had learned how to dance--square, ballroom, line, salsa--whatever. I regret that.

The YellowJacket

Woo hoo! I got a package in the mail today. You thought the M.O.C.K.ing mothers (that means Mothers of College Kids, for those not in the know) only sent packages, not received them, huh? What was in my package? The last two issues of the LeTourneau University's student newspaper, The YellowJacket. Why am I so privledged to get this in the mail? No, I did not write the guest editorial--I just have an inside track with the editor.

It looks like a nice little newspaper. I don't know that much about LU, having never actually been there. I hear quite a bit about it, however, since a lot of my colleagues send their kids there. I got to know the editor, Charley, a couple years ago when he lived with our family for a summer. (p.s. to Charley--I think you are wise to skip the barcode tatoo. If you wait until you start to go bald, you can have comb-over that looks like a barcode:-)

I hear complaints about LU sometimes, usually about meals. I don't know whether to consider them seriously or just assume they come from typical college kids who miss mom's cooking. I mean, I sent my three kids to other Christian colleges, and they complained the same way.

Sometimes I've heard complaints from LU students about chapel. I assume chapel attendance is required, otherwise they wouldn't be complaining about it. Maybe LU should consider making these changes to chapel, and see if things improve:

• Chapel is voluntary, not required.
  
• Chapel speakers and musicians are of high quality.
  
• Chapel is when campus announcements are made.
  
• The library, post office, and snack bar are all closed during chapel hour so staff can attend chapel.

These policies were in practice at the Christian college my boys attended, and there was never enough seating for everyone to get into the auditorium for chapel.

Hmm, maybe I should ask the YellowJacket editor if I can write a guest editorial for the next issue.

"The Politics of God"

I don't really know that much about politics, but it is the political season and I did watch the VP debate last night. Today I read an article entitled "The Politics of God." It was kind of interesting, a little summary of how religion affects how Americans vote. (This article came from the Kennedy School of Government Bulletin, but when I last checked that URL, it was not the latest issue. This magazine arrived in my mailbox because our older son is a recent graduate of the KSG and Ethiopia is too far away to mail it. And even though they, no doubt, expect me to cower in respect, I did find a copyediting error in the article, a missing closing double quote. "So there!" I say smugly.)

The article talks mostly about voting patterns since the Kennedy election in 1960. According to the author, 82% of American Catholics voted for JFK.

Twenty years later, the once-burning "Catholic issue" was forgotten, replaced by the "Christian Right" question. After voting for Jimmy Carter in 1976, the nation's white evangelicals overwhelmingly opted for Ronald Reagan in 1980.... Urged on by fundamentalist preachers like Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority and then by Pat Robertson and his Christian Coalition, those voters dropped the Democratic Party by the millions for wholehearted embrace of the GOP.

The article goes on to point out how Americans are much more religious than Europeans, and they vote according to their religious values. But it is too simplistic to say religious Americans vote Republican and secular ones vote Democrat. Rather, the author says Americans divide up along these religious percentages:

25% Catholic
25% white evangelical or fundamentalist
25% mainline Protestant
10% black Protestant
2% Jewish
2% Mormon
1% Muslim
10% secular

and then vote thus: white evangelicals and Mormons will vote Republican, black protestants and Jews will vote Democrat. Therefore, the election is in the hands of Catholics and mainline protestants.

Hmm, maybe I should have posted this entry on my favorite
online forum, but then all those twenty-somethings would think I'm interested in politics.

Risk taking

Once a month my boss sends out a newsletter to all the people who work in our section. I found this paragraph from his newsletter kind of interesting:

We are in a better position to take risks than non-believers. For one thing,our identity isn't tied up in our accomplishments. Our identity comes from who we are in Christ. And we know that the Lord is sovereign and will accomplish His purposes both through our successes AND failures.

I don't really see myself as a big risk taker (although I have stuck my neck out in a few cases that involved relationships with people). I think it is his second sentence that caught my attention: our identity is not tied up in our accomplishments. You know, if that is true, it is a very freeing concept. Who I am is not a sum of all the things I've done (or not), or all the money I've earned (or not), or all the pats on the back I've gotten (or not). If my identity comes from who I am in Christ, and if yours does too, then you and I are petty much equals, just different parts of the same Body.

Top ten ways you know your nest is empty

10. You rediscover the color of the carpet in your kids' bedrooms, and find silverware that has been missing for months.

9. You make a car-sized space in the garage and when you come home from work, the space is still there.

8. Your telephone is free, but silent, since your friends gave up months ago trying to get through.

6. You run the dishwasher once every two days instead of twice in one day.

5. You go to the grocery store once a week instead of once a day.

4. You go out to eat at Chili's instead of McDonalds.

3. You clean the house and it stays clean.

2. Your husband says he wants to have more kids so you will at least cook dinner

And the number one reason you know your nest is empty,

**has been censored** ;-)

Rat poop

That isn't a very nice title for a blog post, is it? But that's what I dealt with this morning. Fortunately, I do not have a photo. Also fortunately, it wasn't at my house. But unfortunately, it was in the church nursery. If the size of the rodents was equal to the size of the traps they put out for them, then I'm glad the traps were empty! Besides the rat droppings, there were cockroach droppings too. It was church workday, and cleaning up after the vermin was my job.

A couple sweet Hispanic teens came in to help me, so I set them washing all the toys and highchairs with disinfectant. Is it eavesdropping when you don't tell someone you understand their language? I mean, I look about as gringo as anyone could look. But really, my Spanish isn't as good as it was earlier in my life, so I guess I didn't overhear all that much.

After the droppings were collected, I moved on to washing the window blinds. My teenage helpers moved to a different room and the silence was a good time to think about dirt. Some dirt is obvious and revolting, like rat poop. Other dirt is much more subtle, like the even-colored grime on the window blinds. And then there's the dirt on the windows, that doesn't show up at all until the sun shines. That made me think about sin, but I'll let you draw your own analogies.

Baseball and football

Sorry to say, the Texas Rangers are now out of the running for a spot in the playoffs. My rabid-fan son, who bought playoff tickets from Ethiopia, will have to try to get his money back. The tickets came in the mail just today:



I will certainly be following the playoffs and the World Series, but it won't be as fun without the home team there.

I suppose that means it is now time for football. But I don't like football very much. I came to the conclusion some years ago that I was just too stupid to like football (but when I look at some of the people who play it, I'm not so sure I'm the stupid one). I mean with baseball the action is pretty much linear. You just follow the action where the ball is. But football! Everybody is doing everything at once--how am I supposed to keep track of what is going on? It would also be easier if they color-coded the defense and the offense or something like that. There are just too many people doing too many things at once and WAY too many rules to learn about whether they did it right or not. No, baseball is a much more sensible game.

Sorry, Rangers. Better luck next year.

Top 10 places my cat likes to sleep

I suppose there comes a time in the life of every blogger when he (or in my case, she), writes a blog entry about his or her pets. With my nest being empty these days, my cat is getting more than her fair share of attention. Her reaction to all this fussing over by me: sleep.

1. Inside the dresser drawers - if you leave it open, she will come
2. On top of the dining room table - Bad cat!
3. On the telephone stand
   
4. In the car - one day I found the cat in the car when I returned from a meeting in the hot summer. We nearly had cooked cat for dinner.
5. On the bed
   
6. Inside the bathroom sink - this is when she's waiting for you to turn the water on so she can get a drink of fresh water
7. Inside the bathroom cupboard - snuggled behind the pile of clean towels
8. Inside the dryer
   
9. Inside a cardboard box
10. On top of one's laptop, near the polar bears
    

Fixing up my blog

I spent some time over the weekend remodeling my blog. I wanted to keep the images from the original site, but I didn't like the double commenting system and I wasn't clever enough to remove one of them. So I thought I'd try a new look. I don't know very much about HTML, but by slowly trying to figure it out, and getting a little help from G., I was able to add my images into the new template. Then today I decided to get even more clever and add a counter. This counter lets you customize it a little, so I chose for it NOT to count any of my own visits to my website. And I changed it from black to red. Whoo-hoo. Now to wait and see how long it takes to get to 2.

Compost

A few posts ago I told how I didn't like to waste things. One thing I don't like to waste is all the organic matter in my kitchen that we don't eat. You know, all the potato peelings and dead lettuce and apple cores. Several years ago we started a compost pile, and now it is a dandy. I make daily deposits of vegetable matter but I also include meat scraps and bones. Some people object to animal products in the compost, but I once heard a compost expert say that you could put anything in the compost pile that was once alive. As a side benefit, I've found that by not putting previously-alive things in the garbage, I only have to set the garbage can out once every two weeks or less for pickup, and it never smells bad.

Today was a good day to harvest the compost pile, and it's also a good way for me to get some exercize. So I took the wheelbarrow and shovel and got to work sifting the compost. I shoveled scoop after scoop of raw compost onto the compost sifter which sits on top of the wheelbarrow. This clever gadget was hand made for me by my dear husband for Mother's Day one year--isn't he romantic?? My work was made easier by the nocturnal visitor who has been coming for the last couple weeks--an armadillo who seems to like the compost pile almost as much as I do. He (or she?) has been digging around out there with its very strong and sharp snout, breaking up the clods and saving me the trouble. The pile is full of yummy grubs.

I almost gave up before my job was finished because I ran into the mother of all fire ant nests on one side of the compost pile. They came after me with a vengence for disturbing their massive array of tunnels. The gound was undulating with swarms of angry ants, each one trying to carry a white egg sack to safety. Luckily, I only got bitten two or three times.

The five wheelbarrows full of sifted, rich brown dirt were deposited on top of the flower garden by the front door. (This area is also the cat's favorite "box.") Times like this I ask myself why I don't have a vegetable garden. But I know why. Except for the dirt that comes from my compost pile, the rest of the ground here is made of white chalk.

"A triumph for globalization and the internet"

That is what A.'s email to me today said. I quote: "Are you having any luck with Rangers playoff tickets? I am in the virtual waiting room in another window on my internet browser now, hoping to get some. Wouldn't that be a triumph for globalization and the internet, if I could get playoff tickets in the virtual waiting room from Ethiopia!"

And then another email dated an hour later:

"Hi mom and dad,

The triumph of the internet is complete. I got eight tickets for the first Rangers home playoff game. They are in the third deck on the second row, two thirds of the way down the third base side. I really wish I was home to go to the game.

Why don't you invite *** and see if *** wants any of the tickets. I know he is a real fan. Maybe *** is/could be around and would want to go. You can use the tickets however you want. If there seems to be no one interested there is always eBay."

This child is crazy. He is a real fan. Anybody need tickets to the Rangers' playoff game 1? Wait, do we even know if the Rangers' are in the playoffs yet?

The Bible

Today my 80+ year old former coworker came to my office and told me to get myself over to the museum before the Bible exhibit closed. I'm glad I did. It was cool. The display, (completely unguarded and I admit it was hard not to touch*) included a cuneiform tablet, a snatch of scripture on papyrus, an OT leather scroll, a sheepskin parchment, an early Hebrew codex, individual leaves from the Gutenburg, Tyndale, Coverdale, and Geneva bibles, and a complete KJV from the early printings. There was also a working replica Gutenberg press.

Here's a little blurb about it:

The exhibit, entitled “His Enduring Word,”
contains numerous other biblical artifacts. An
actual first page from the first book printed
with movable type, the 1450 Gutenberg Bible, will
be on view. Manuscripts in Hebrew, Greek,
Ethioptic, and Latin, including early Christian
papyrus (AD 250-450), and a complete Jewish Torah
will be available for examination.


“Steps in the Story,” a collection of leaves
(pages) from actual biblical publications by
reformers such as Martin Luther, William Tyndale,
John Rogers, Miles Coverdale, and John Calvin,
will be displayed. The exhibit also contains
leaves from the first Bibles produced by the
English Catholic exiles at Rheims and Douay.


“Many people, including Bible scholars, do not
know the basic story of how we got the Bible,”
explains F. J. “Rusty” Maisel, exhibit curator.
“But, seeing it laid out and explained as a
simple narrative has helped many people gain a
better understanding of the book they have been
reading for years. They say that what they have
learned from the exhibit also helps them respond
when friends ask about the Scriptures.”


Maisel is a graduate of Dallas Baptist University
and pursued graduate study in ancient history and
archeology at the Center for the Study of Early
Christianity (now University of the Holy Land) at
Hebrew University in Jerusalem.


A recognized authority on the authentication of
rare Bibles, Maisel says that, for most of his
life, he has had questions about “The Book.” His
search for answers has led to over 25 years of
studying and collecting original documents
throughout America, Europe, and Israel.


“The Bible itself tells us that God will preserve
his Word. To say I believe that is still an
expression of faith. But the years I’ve
experienced investigating that subject have only
strengthened my belief in the validity of the
scriptural texts,” states Maisel.


*I guess they think Bible translators respect both the form and the meaning when it comes to Bibles.

Bloggers in Pajamas

The TIME magazine that arrived today did not have obscene art on its cover. But it did have an editorial about how blogging is changing the mainstream media. Rather thought provoking. I guess bloggers will make the professional journalists a little more careful.

Of course, my blog isn't likely to challenge much of anything since I neither express many political thoughts nor explore many revolutionary ideas. No, I just talk to myself because my nest is empty.

p.s. It seems like Blogger.com should update its spelling dictionary to include the word blog and its deriviatives. Is that a revolutionary idea?

The Most Powerful Woman in America

is Condoleeza Rice. (At least that was the answer to the question given to the top five Miss America contestants last Saturday night.) D. called on Sunday to say he shook hands with her after church on Sunday. (And also with Bill Frist.) His impression of Ms. Rice: "She's pretty short."

My Chickadee in Ethiopia

We recently got letter from A. in Ethiopia. He enclosed his new business card:



Cool, huh?

I don't think the email address shown on the card actually works yet, but the phone number does. But it can cost up to $1 a minute. I did find a cheaper phone card for about $.21 per minute. He does have email access from some internet cafes for $10/hour and I think it is dial-up, so pretty slow. He said there is not one ATM machine in the whole country, and no place to use a credit card.

Back Home

I made it safely back from OKC. Thanks to anyone who prayed for me. I did get pretty drowsy after the first 50 miles, so I stopped to buy some lime diet coke. I got back on the road, took one drink, and proceeded to knock the rest of it over on the floor of my car. I guess the shock kept me awake until I got home.

G. was mowing the driveway when I drove in. That is his way of raking up the leaves. He stopped and gave me a sweaty kiss and then went back to mowing.

My time with R. was pretty good. A couple little disagreements, but not too serious. She is working very hard on her project, and over the time I was there she finished three-quarters of the part that has to be turned in Sept. 23. I helped her find stuff in the 25 books we had, then I photocopied them. After she read them and highlighted them, and summarized them in a written document. I punched holes in them and put them in a binder. We both worked on the bibliography which has to be in APA style.

R. has a nice little printer which cost less than $100 last fall. Not only does it make b/w and color copies, it also scans and, best of all, it makes b/w or color copies. So all those 25 books we were able to photocopy right there in her room. I was able to refill the ink cartridge, too, so that made it fast and cheap to make the necessary copies. And she has a nice, heavy-duty 3-hole punch (thank you, K :-) which served us well in getting the copies into the required binder. I also reformatted her flash drive and made backup copies of her working files, so now she is set. She still has a lot to do on the project, but not so much to do before next Thursday.

Looks like she may try in late November to take the last of 3 standardized tests toward her teacher certification. If she fails, there would be time to retake it in February so that she could begin job hunting during spring break. Yikes! that sounds soon! Lord, guide her clearly and give her wisdom about the choices surrounding future employment.

Dorm life

I spent last night in R.'s dorm room. This year, her 5th and Lord willing her last, she has a private room. So that means there is an empty bed where I can sleep. Sure beats trying to sleep on the floor like I've done in years past.

I've been trying out the dining hall food too. Way too many choices, IMHO. And way too expensive and wasteful. They have a decent salad bar, which I like.

I'm helping R. with a project for her Contemporary Social Issues class. She chose a good topic for an Education major: literacy. Really, it should be called illiteracy. I was able to bring a bunch of books to her from our library at work. I'm also doing motherly things like her laundry, vacuuming her floors, changing the sheets, and giving her advice about all the cute boys.

Diving to OKC

If anyone reads this today, please pray for my safe travel to Oklahoma City. I'm driving back home Saturday evening. I don't like driving by myself, but, alas.

I'm a Conservative (take 2)

I bet you thought I meant a political conservative. What I really meant is more like "I'm a conserver." I don't like to throw things away. No, I'm not a pack rat. I don't like to throw things away if they can be reused, or better yet, repurposed. I don't like to waste things

My favorite cookbook has a section in it called "Gather up the fragments." This, of course, refers to Jesus feeding the 5000. He didn't want to waste things either.

Here is a list of things I do or have done to not waste things. Can you add others?

• My son wanted to throw away a hooded sweatshirt that he had torn. I washed it, repaired it, and will add it to the winter coat drive when the weather gets cold.
• The boys in this house are too lazy to use their coins, so I counted them and put them in rolls, and deposited $22.50 into R's account "for free."
• I save the broken tortilla chips at the bottom of the bag, then use them to top Mexican casserole.
• If I accidently take too many napkins from McDonald's, I bring them home and use them.
• I aways tear the dryer sheets in half so a box lasts twice as long.
• A few years ago, I found a discarded evening gown so I remodelled it into a prom dress for my daughter.
• Today I spent the afternoon refilling ink jet printer cartridges.

Done with my editing

Finally I finished my second set of pages to edit. I found it went faster by wearing one of G.'s pairs of glasses over top of my own. Then it was both in focus and big enough to read. G. is in his office doing statistical comparisons of how many errors were found per page per editor. Each page was independently read by two different editors, and amazingly the overlap in mistakes found by the two different editors was not very great. This does not inspire confidence in how error-free the final product will be. But the nature of this book is one of tiny detail, which comes from many different sources at many different times, compiled by many different people. It is no small task to make it error free in either content or presentation.

I learned five new words while editing:

• swidden
• massif
• canton
• riverine
• transhumance

Editing continues

Today was the due date for the 30 or so people to turn in their editing assignments. I got my 33 pages done by 10am. Lots of people did turn them in, but not everyone has yet. And one person gave up on it, so now I have 20 more pages to do :-( That is NOT what I wanted to be doing this weekend. But G. has been working like a dog on this, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much.

Son D. phoned this morning from DC with good news/bad news. The good news: he gets a pay raise before his first week of work is over. Apparently he gets $2,700 per year more than they told him because he has good grades. "'Bout time those A's did you some good," I told him. The bad news: "I don't get my first paycheck until October 10. Can you send me some $$?"

Yay! Copy Editors!

They came. Lots of them. G. was so happy because many colleagues responded to his plea for copy editors. We may get this thing done by Friday yet. I myself haven't gotten very far on my section, but I will keep plugging away. All 32 sections were claimed. Thank you, Lord.

The evocative nature of music

I'm thinking particularity of church music here, but of course any kind of music can cause one to be reminded of an event in the past, a feeling, a happiness or a sadness. Two Sundays ago I wrote in my blog about a song that was sung at church that evokes lots of bad memories for me. Today it was different. The music was "Shout to the Lord." The song is kind of worn out from overuse, but really this song almost always makes me cry because the first time I heard it my girl was standing in front of our little church, doing sign language to this song. That may not sound like such a big deal, but it was for her: she was never that good at performing in front of others, and she was never any good with things that involved physical movement. But she was beautiful and graceful in this performance and it blessed me when she signed and sang this song. I will always remember that feeling of pride and joy in her and feel drawn to the Lord whenever I hear that song.

Copy editors needed

I keep mentioning personnel needs for my husband on the off chance that somebody reading this will decide to become a missionary when they grow up. Or, failing that, at least give a few spare hours to the cause.

Today he's looking for copy editors. Well, proofreaders, really. Lots of them. He has 558 pages of minutia that needs to be close to perfect by Friday Sept 10. Not just read once, but read twice (that is, each page needs to be edited independently by two different people. This is for the Ethnologue, our flagship publication that comes out every four years. It is a detailed listing of the 6,911 languages that exist in this world. And it is easy to make tiny mistakes when telling all the details about these languages. So we need help to get it right.

He is passing it out by geographical area, finding a colleague who worked in Colombia and begging them to take the Colombia section. We have a friend from Indonesia whom he's trying to get me to call and beg. I guess he thinks that as long as he doesn't have a life, so one else should do anything fun over the long holiday weekend either.

Well, I've taken the first 33 pages of the Africa section, so I'd better get started.

Update! I had barely pushed the "Publish" button when the phone rang. Somebody came and took 34 more pages of the Americas section. Yay!

Whoops!

One tow truck--$50
One new battery--$100
One new alternator--$200
labor to put them in--$200
learning to turn the headlights off--priceless

The fog is lifting

I think I'm about over my week of sadness. I guess one of the worst parts about the kids leaving is the anticipation of them leaving. Once the stressful time leading up their departure is over, and then I know they have safely arrived at their destination, then I start feeling better. It did make me feel better to reorganize some of the house; a friend told me that psychologists sometimes prescribe closet cleaning as a way to restore order to your life and by analogy, to your mind. I'm grateful for friends to talk to also, for the nice weather, and especially for God's love that never fails me.

D. should arrive in DC later tonight. He will have one day to organize himself, then his job at the National Cancer Institute starts on Thursday with a departmental retreat in the Shenandoah National Park. That sounds like a nice way to start a job, huh?

Lord, bless them all as they start new jobs, new school year. Help them to find the friends that they need and to find opportunities to grow in your grace.

I talked to all my kids today

A.'s friend found a cheap* calling card to use to call Ethiopia which I finally got to work today after four tries. It was good to hear from him, he's doing well. He was all excited because he got to meet Joseph Stiglitz and had him sign his copy of Globalization and its Discontents . Stiglitz is the 2001 Nobel prize winner in economics and was at some conference that A. managed to get invited to. On top of this, we said he is trying to wrangle an invitation to some other thing tomorrow so he can meet the US ambassador to Ethiopia.

*I say cheap, but it is still like $.16 per minute. I talked until the $10 card ran out. He's still not clear where he will live, whether Addis or Awassa, but he said he's tired of living in a hotel.

R. called too. I've been trying not to talk to her much. But she wanted to talk because she was sick. She confessed to staying up too late and that probably got her off schedule, then she got a migraine headache for two days with vomiting, etc. I trust she will soon learn her limits and be willing to live by them so she doesn't get sick and does go to class.

D. is on the road today, sleeping at Taylor to visit his old friends in the dorm. Tomorrow a long drive to DC.

As for myself, I'm starting to compile, with help from my friends, a Top Ten Ways You Can Tell Your Nest Is Empty list. Stay tuned.

Perl programmer needed

Now G. says he needs a Perl programmer. D. had been doing it over the summer, but now he is gone. As D. was getting in his car and leaving for DC yesterday morning he confessed to his dad that he had taken his Perl book. G. reminded him that this particular copy was an autographed gift copy from Larry Wall himself, so plan to give it back. (Larry and G. were schoolmates at Seattle Pacific College. In fact, G. gave Larry his first programming job in the records office of the college. G. also talked Larry into attending SIL where he studied a semester of linguistics. Larry claims that the study of linguistics somehow lead to his creation of Perl, and he wrote a nice note to that effect in the front of this copy of the Perl book that D. stole.)

So anybody know a Perl programmer who wants to work for missionary wages? The pay is bad, but the fringe benefits are great :-)

Just the cat

is left for me to fuss over. And this particular cat plays the part well. It won't even drink water from a bowl, it only drinks from a running faucet. This cat has me trained to wake up when it scratches on the door or the window from outside. And it needs fresh food, not food from hours ago, it its bowl. I draw the line on letting it sleep in our room because it will nuzzle up against you and then act offended if you roll over.

Well, D. left minutes ago. If I had a digital camera I would post a picture of him driving off in the rain. I did take a photo, but it is the old-fashioned film kind.

For the next few days I will clean and pack and sort and repack as empty nest therapy. I'll probably make two empty bedrooms over into guest rooms. The third empty bedroom we'll keep for R., for at least one more year. Sometimes it is nice to have guest rooms, but there is also the possiblilty of turning one end of our house into an apartment to rent to students, and then we could get some income from it. It has been several years since we did that, so it would take some effort to move my stuff out and return it to rentable condition. But maybe it would be a way to help pay for R.'s last year at college. We'll have to give that some thought.

A week of tears

This has been a hard week for me. A week ago tonight I cried at a wedding, and not just for the reasons that women cry at weddings. Then I cried during the stress of packing up one child and then I cried from the sadness of her leaving. Then I cried during the stress of packing the other kid up and then I cried from the sadness of him leaving. And don't forget crying from the sadness of having the other kid thousands of miles away. (And then there's the crying from feeling stupid and selfish for crying.)

Yes, all the kids leaving makes me sad. But other things make me sad too. In fact, I feel like I have a long list lof things making me sad right now. One of the is the feeling that I am invisible, like no one* really cares about the sadness I feel.

And really, why should they? I'm the steady person who helps others, not the person whom others help. I'm the person who serves others, not the person whom others serve.

I really shouldn't post this. It is truely stupid to wallow in self-pity, but that is indeed how I feel at the moment. I feel sad and invisible.

*I am lucky, I realize, to have a husband who tolerates all this crying and self pity of mine. He doesn't exactly empathize, but neither does he criticize. He listenes to me complain and doesn't, for the most part, get upset. He'll never get an award for World's Best Family Counselor, but at least he doesn't reject me and he takes my grievences seriously, while pointing out the other person's side of the story. I am blessed to have his steady agape love.

A perfect mother

would know the perfect balance between being involved and leaving alone--according to the need of each child (for indeed this illusive perfect balance is different for each child). And a perfect mother would have the will power to put that knowledge into practice.

I am not a perfect mother.

R.'s last year of college

is about to begin. D. and I will drive her to OKC tomorrow, leaving at 6am. I am feeling kind of sad. Not just about her leaving, but also because in another 2-3 days D. will also be leaving. But then, this is the Empty Nest blog.

R. has had a good summer for the most part. She is feeling pretty good about facing her last year of college. It will be a challenge with student teaching in the spring and one more standardized test to get her teaching certificate. It is probably too early to worry about it yet, but finishing college means getting a job, and if she were to actually get a teaching job for next year, those applications would need to be made during the spring too. She has to think through where she wants to locate, if she wants to move back to Texas and try to get a Texas certificate after having an Oklahoma one. We have to decide whether we would want her to live with us after she graduates. Turning the end of our house into a separate apartment again is a possibility. We don't need to think too hard about these matters at the moment, but they are in the back of our minds.

And for her, she has to emotionally be ready to take another step of independence. She has fears of living alone but where she lives will have a lot to do with where she gets a job.

Lord, these are concerns on my heart. Take care of R. Help her in the immediate days to transition into a new living situation without a roommate, with new classes. Help her to find a job that suits her. Help her to find the friends that she needs, even though many of her classmates have already graduated or changed schools. Help her to trust you about having or not having a boyfriend. I know she is at the age and place in life that she wants to get married and have a home of her own. Many of her friends will be getting engaged or married. Help her to trust you with this aspect of her life. Bring the right man to her at the right time--may he think of her as a precious gift from you and love her without hesitation.

Lord, help me too. I'm feeling sad. I'm happy that my kids are all doing so well, that they all love you. But I'm sad because I miss them and I have to let them go. Help me to trust you for their well-being.

Victory in Jesus

I hate that song. I refuse to sing it. They sang it in church this morning, so I just stood there and remembered all the bad things associated in my mind with that song. How I trusted him, how I listened to him, how I did what he said because he was my pastor. How he would play that song on his accordion.

He failed me. He failed his wife. He failed God most of all. That's why I hate that song.

Cats and Dogs

Someone I know is like a puppy dog:
happy
adoring
not worried about what people think
forgiving
stupid
too eager to please
nondiscriminating

Someone else I know is like a cat:
aware
cautious
smart
counting the cost
sedentary
aloof
secretly enjoying the attention

Cats and dogs can't get along together, can they?

Linda, this is God talking

I love her more than you do. I will take care of her. I will take care of her better than you can. I actually know what is best for her, I know better than you. You need to trust me on this one.

Love, God

p.s. I love you, too.

And further down

I did go shopping with R. on Wednesday and survived. By some miracle we found a pair of jeans that fit in a record amount of time, as well as a pair of khakis. We didn't stay as long as she wanted and she dropped her shopping list somewhere on aisle 9, so we need to go again. Maybe Saturday? Lord, help her has she emotionally and mentally prepares for a transition back to school. Strengthen her, help her to trust you in all areas of her life, fill her with your joy. Thank you for a good summer for her.

D. is starting to get ready to leave too, but he doesn't want much help. He put new speakers in "his" "new" car, and blue lights inside. Now that the MCAT is over he is reading things like journal articles called "Three-Dimensional Electron Microscopy at Molecular Resolution." He's supposed to be doing some programming for G., but I think his car speakers are drawing him away. Lord, help him as he prepares to leave home and start a career. Help him to trust you in all areas of his life, to love you, and to love others.

Summer winding down

We are starting to think about and work toward the fall moves for R. and D. R. is finally doing the homework she was supposed to do all summer, and she's begging me to take her shopping (I hate shopping). She's had a good summer, with 2-3 notable bad times, but good for the most part. She hasn't been too stressed and she's made some new friends and she's had some new experiences. She heads back to her last year at college, with its set of challenges, next Wednesday.

We've made some decisions about D.'s move to DC. He decided to drive the "new" car. They have all but finalized his approval to live in the Presbyterian house. He will leave Aug. 29 or 30. He will move in on Sept 1, and his job starts Sept. 2. Lots of changes in store for him. The Time magazine that arrived yesterday had a picture of a colorful fat molecule on it--"That's what I'm going to be doing at my new job--making these kinds of pictures with an electron microscope."

Lord, help me as we start another time of transition. Help me to know how and when to be involved, and how and when to back off. Take care of them as they leave again. Draw them close to yourself as they start the next phase. Help me to cope with my empty nest.

Phlebotomy

I wonder if I spelled that correctly? We will visit the medical vampire this morning. Until then, no food, just water.

We usually do physicals every year, but I think we skipped last year. Mostly it is the same report: you should eat less, exercise more, but other than that you are in good health. We'll see what they say this year. I'm a little bit concerned because it seems like I've been noticing my heart beating in recent months. Yeah, I know, it beats all the time. But I don't usually notice or feel it beating. My mom has had heart problems--both my mom and her mom have pacemakers. Hmm...I guess I'm ready to die (though I did want to see my grandkids first...). But I can't get morbid yet. Today is only the blood-letting; the physicals are three or four weeks away.

Emaciated? I don't think so.

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

College Bible study

Last night was the final meeting of our summer college Bible study. It lasted for 8 weeks, on Friday nights. We studied the Gospel of John, and "read" the text via a movie made from the TEV version of the gospel. G. lead the study for all weeks except I did it once when he was away. His approach was to study the major themes presented in John and show how these were manifested in the OT. The themes for the eight weeks were Christ is :

1. The Word
2. Living Water
3. Bread of LIfe
4. Light of the world
5. Lamb of God/Good Shepherd
6. Truth
7. Unity
8. The King

The whole idea of having this study was mine, but I was happy that G. liked the idea and was willing to put in the time of study and preparation each week. He did a good job.

After the study, there was a time of games and food and socializing. I used this as a time to observe how twenty-something young people iinteract with each other. It seems this group had more than its share of intelligent introverts. They like to socialize too, at least a little, as long as someone else initiates the interaction.

All in all, it was a good time. If I had it to do over again, I'd do a couple things differently. One thing, I would not worry about how big the house was and open it to all post-HS kids. I think some kids got left out who would have liked to come.

Java programmer

G. needs one. He says they're a dime a dozen coming out of college, but scarce as hens' teeth in our organization. He also needs a Cocoon programmer. (I don't really even know what Cocoon is, but I guess it is a programming language.)

No cooking tonight

Yay! I didn't have to cook dinner tonight. Why? you ask.* Well, D. and his "friend" decided to make dinner. I'm all for that! He went to the store and bought a few ingredients and they made tacos, Mexican rice, and heated some vegetables. Not bad. And--the best part--they cleaned up the kitchen afterwards.

I say "friend" because it is probably too early in the relationship to say "girlfriend." I pray that the Lord will lead them clearly and they will honor him in their relationship. D. has a lot of years of education ahead of him if he wants to become a doctor, so I don't know how that fits into the equation either.

R. is saying goodbye to one of her friends tonight. They have gone to Bible study. He "doesn't date," so there was never any need to worry about what to call him :-) He has been a good friend to her this summer--made her get involved at church--and I think she has helped him to broaden his horizons a little too. They just drove off to Bible study with her driving--this might be only the second or third time she's driven in the last 6 months. Lord, keep them safe! He did say a funny thing to her early this summer (well, at least I thought it was funny) "I don't want to spend time with you because then I might like you." He would make Joshua Harris proud.

*I use the pronoun rhetorically, since I have no evidence that anyone reads this. I know a couple people have read one or two entries in the past, but I suspect no one reads it regularily.

Overbearing nag

That's what I am. I expect too much, I demand too much, I ask for too much. At least that is what I'm told. I guess the only thing I'm doing right is making sure they get an education so they can get a job that pays enough that they don't have to live with me forever. And when they leave, they won't have to listen to me anymore. I'm not saying this with anger. I just saying it factually. I believe that if they live in my house I get to set the rules about curfew, regardless of their age or educational status. If they pay the bills in their own homes, then I won't have anything to say about what they do, when they do it, or with whom they do it. Or what time they get out of bed.

No thanks

Twelve people enjoyed it. One person said thank you. Perhaps I expect too much.

An answer to prayer?

I've been praying for D.'s housing situation for some weeks now. He needs to find housing in the Washington DC area for at least the next year, maybe two years. We don't know many people there, and we've been so busy with A. that we haven't yet put much effort into helping D. find anything. But we've started working on the problem today. I hung up the phone after talking to D. about the topic and found an email in my inbox. It was an invitation for D. apply for a spot in a residential Christian leadership training program intended for people with full time jobs in the the DC area. Lord, show him if this would be the way you want him to go.

35%

of the world's languages have one book of the Bible written in them.

That fact is brought to you from G., who came home at lunch today and said, "I might be the only person in the world who knows the answer to this question: what percentage of the world's languages have at least one book of the Bible written in them? Then he went on to say, "Well, in the next hour or so Ray will also look at the data and he will know that too."

How did you get that information? "I ran a query."

The next edition of the Ethnologue is due out soon.

The well-loved, love well

I can love because I am loved.
I can love you because God loves me.
I can forgive because I am forgiven.
I can forgive you because God has forgive me.

The story that never ends

Tonight we had Bible study again. Our group was a little smaller than usual because a few kids have had to leave Dallas. We have just two more weeks to go to finish the Gospel of John. I think next week we are going to have a cooperative pizza making party after the study.


After a couple hours of card games, the group decided to do some kind of cooperative storytelling. One person stared with a few sentences, then on to the next person to add a couple sentences, and so on. It was pretty funny to see the difference between the kinds of story elements the boys bring in (bows and arrows, blood) and the ones the girls bring in (conversation Valentine hearts). But really, I don't think this story is ever going to get to the "they lived happily ever after" part. It just keeps going and going.

Oh wait, it just turned one minute after midnight, and they did end up living happily ever after. Yay! I love happy endings.

Be careful what you say online

because it might catch up with you. Tonight I was browsing through a copy of Boston Magazine (we get a free subscription which I usually just toss), and found my son's name in it along with a quote he made on the Kennedy School of Government's electronic bulletin board.

I need a day off

I need a day or two with no one around to think. And maybe read a little. Or maybe I need someone to talk to.

Well, Mr. Blog, I guess I talk to you.

I have a couple questions for you: Is she boy-crazy, or just plain crazy?

Another question: If a chickadee is doing exactly as I could possibly wish, why am I so sad?

And another: Do my prayers do any good?

"Have a good life"

That's what G. said to A. as he hugged him in the security line at DFW today. I couldn't say anything because I was trying to not make a complete fool of myself while crying. He said, "I love you" then handed the security worker his computer and off he went.

I had to laugh the minute before that. When he took his bags to be screened, he must have set off some bells (maybe that trip to Afghanistan?). They opened his suitcase of books and removed ALL 42 of them (I counted) and leafed through EVERY one. They went through his other suitcase, a cool new rolling duffel bag that friends bought him, just as carefully. There were about 10 more books there and the guy said, "You sure like to read, don't you?" Finally, they let him go. Good thing we weren't in a hurry.

He didn't do a very good job of packing up his room, so that will be my project this coming week.

G. and I spent a moment in reflection this afternoon. We talked of how he has now really left the nest, this isn't just another short trip to another exotic place; this is the start of his career.

Lord, he is going to be in for a lot of changes, starting in less than 24 hours. Give him strength, help him to get off to a good start, help him to find some good friends. Give him wisdom beyond his years.

Empty Nest attack

Tonight my feelings really do relate to my blog's name. I'm starting to feel sad about A. leaving. I'm really starting to feel sad about him getting ready to leave.

Today he had a chat with one of our colleagues who lived in Ethiopia. A. came back from this chat overwhelmed and said, "What were they thinking?? I have no idea what I'm doing!"

This is some of the advice he was given:
--No respectable man shows his elbows. Wear only long-sleeved shirts. No matter what the weather.
--Have your leather shoes shined every day by one of the street shoeshine boys.
--If you learn Amharic, your street value will increase.
--Yes, there is malaria.
--If you can pronouce peoples' names properly, your street value will go up.
--Grow a beard.
--When you are asked to give someone's nephew a job, say you need to first check with your boss.
--When asked for a television, say the television might get broken when you tried to carry it over to them.

Yes, he is in over his head. Lord, help him.

Oaf son

I am laughing now. 
 
D just came home from Organic Chemistry class.  Well, he didn't come straight home.  He came in and announced:  I've just been on a date.  But I didn't know it was a date until she gave me her phone number!  Oh, don't worry, mom.  She's my lab partner.  We've got good chemistry.

Pensive

I'm in a thinking mood right now. We went out to dinner this evening to meet up with a group of friends from our old (now-defunct) church. Most of them I see occasionally, but tonight there were a number of people there I hadn't seen in ages. When you don't see someone for a long stretch, then you do see them, it gives opportunity to reflect on the changes you see over the interval of time.

Some of the kids from my daughter's peer group were there. One with a two-year old, livewire of a son, cute as anything, but with no father. She was there with a guy from that same group, actually someone she had dated four years ago. Yes, I think they should get married.

Another interesting thing was to learn one of the married couples from this now-defunct church has decided to become Roman Catholic. I guess in some ways it isn't a big jump for them because he attended a Catholic HS many years ago, and in recent years they became Episcopalians (after the church went defunct). Being Episcopalian was fine until last summer when the Episcopalians decided to ordain gay clergy. I'm not sure what I think about this.

I'm also feeling a little sad because of A's pending departure.

Ears to hear

Tonight was the fourth meeting of our college Bible study group, fourth out of a planned eight. We had a good sized group, 14 or 15, with 4 more people coming for the game time after the study. Several of the regulars were absent, but five new people came.

I was disappointed because a couple people I had asked to come didn't. I mentioned that to Gary and he gave me some good advice: don't be sad about who doesn't come, but be happy for those who do because they will have ears to hear. Our lesson kind of fit with that paradox of the senses too: we talked about the blind who can see and those who think they can see are really blind (John 9). Jesus often talked in riddles, with figurative language or with double meanings. Not everyone who listened to his words actually heard them them.

Lord, give us ears to hear.

No internet??

Most of today our internet connection was down. It seems we can hardly live without it.

Spiderman

When D. got back from the theater he told me Spiderman uses the same quantum mechanics book as he did at Taylor.

Life can be short

I hardly knew him, though he had been at our house not so long ago. I just know if he were my child, I would be devastated. Lord, take care of that family. Help them to love you though they must be hurting so much. Glorify yourself--though from my point of view, you could have thought of a better way to do so. Sorry, I shouldn't be insolent. You know more than I do.

Medical school

D. applied to medical school yesterday. He finished the process by borrowing my credit card to pay for the application--almost $400! It is a joint application for all schools and will be followed up by shorter applications to specific schools. He is looking at Ph.D./M.D. programs, and not all medical schools have them.

We've been offered a free car by friends who are getting a new one. I wonder if D. could take it to D.C. for his job there in September? Funny thing, the car they are offering is only one year older than our newer car.

Conversations

Heard around our house today:

Setting--D. walking repeatedly back and forth from one end of the house to the other carrying a floppy disk.
Me: What are you doing?
D: File transfers.

Setting--I'm giving the last stir to the the stir-fry for dinner.
Me: D., put the rice in a bowl.
D.: I can't. I'm applying to medical school.

Setting--A. getting his Harvard transcript in the mail.
A.: Look missa! I'm a straight up B+ student. Yes!

Setting--Cleaning up the kitchen at 7pm, listening to my new "stereo" system (speakers from my computer strung into the living room)
R. Mom, turn your music down. I can't sleep!

Someone to talk to

I feel like I need someone to talk to.

People are talking to me, but that's not what I mean. I mean I need someone to talk to.

Lord, are you listening?

Gmail

I opened a gmail account tonight, just for the fun of it. If you are reading this message, send me an email to my new gmail account: linda.sim***@gmail.com I need to see if it works. (You know what to substitute for the asterisks.)

Horses and roller coasters

She: I just got off the roller coaster, but I want to get back on.
Me: Don't be too agressive.
She: If you fall off a horse, you need to get back on.
Me: But don't be too agressive.
She: Just someone to talk to.
Me: How can you have a DTR if there isn't any R?
Me: AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!

School bills

Ugh--I just did the math and siged the papers for the 10 months of payments for R's last year of college. Lord, you are going to have to provide for this somehow, since we don't have that much per month.

Church was good today. Nothing special, really, but my heart is drawn to God when I sing and participate in praising God with my fellow believers. I enjoyed hearing my family and friends sing around me. D. visited another church in town, then we picked him up for lunch at Taco Bell. He doesn't feel very connected at our church any more.

Coffee

I don't drink it myself, though I do like the smell of it.

This week R. learned to make coffee, though she doesn't drink it either. That is now part of her job description at the office. She made coffee at our house last night, too. It smelled strong to me, but everyone drank it.

And I learned something about coffee this week from D. and A.: Folgers is old people coffee, while coffee in small foil bags with flavoring added is young people coffee.

One way ticket to Africa

Today A. got word that he will fly to Nairobi one month from today. That seems soon. But we were that age when we left for the middle of nowhere, and we took the only grandbaby with us--who is now doing the same thing. But it was a little different for us: we had each other. I just wish he weren't going alone. Lord, take care of him.

R. had lunch with her friend Jessica. Jessica is about to go to China for a year. She is going alone too. Her mom is probably sad too.

Reading and swimming and working

R's plans for a regular reading night each week have fizzled, but she has found a book she likes (and it isn't a dating advice book this time!), so she is reading anyway. Good for her! She's acting determined to do some exercise too, so we've started swimming laps during the lunch hour. Her job has started, kind of, but we haven't yet had a typical day. If we can get it going it will be good, but it is a job that depends on me putting in some time to keep her busy and to supervise her. The pay is about three times what she's ever been paid at any previous job, so if we can get a system going smoothly, there is hope she could actually make some money towards her school bill.

And speaking of working, it looks like A. will leave for his job July 22 or 23. Now he's getting visa photos, making an appointment for a yellow fever shot, trying to get into the dentist, making plans to fly around the country to visit all his friends, and of course, going to some more baseball games. His dad got mad at him today because he bought a plane ticket to NYC to go to a Yankees-Mets game this weekend with a friend who invited him. I thought it was a silly thing to do, but I know he is a very social creature and saying goodbye to his friends is important to him.

Making plans to leave already

A. has only been home a few days, but today he got his marching orders from SP. SP's East Africa director phoned from Kenya and talked for an hour. He told A. how he was leery of him and his abilities, until he learned he was from Taylor U. and also got a personal recommendation from a mutual friend (his Harvard credentials weren't necessarily in his favor :-)

So it looks like he will leave at the end of July. He's going into overdrive now to do the things he loves to do before leaving: see his friends and go to baseball games. He's on the phone at the moment buying tickets to the Rangers' game for tomorrow night--a date with his little sister. And he just bought plane tickets to go to NYC for the weekend since a friend bribed him with Yankees-Mets tickets. And then a trip to Kansas city to see old college dorm friends and to St. Louis to see the girlfriend who never was. He just can't sit still.

He has to get yellow fever immunization, and cholera too if he hasn't already had that. And malaria pills. He's already been told there is bad phone and internet service (and you get thrown into jail if they catch you with a satellite phone)and common supplies aren't that easy to get either.

I think I'm starting to feel sad.

Doro's last night is a nightmare

When we got home from DFW last night there was a small copperhead snake blocking the door to the house. The car headlights lit it up clearly, so we were in no danger. The push broom was right handy so I shoved it off into the grass amid cries that I should kill it. Then Doro had a nightmare about it.

She had lots of friends come say goodbye to her early this morning. She is like a people magnet. Now that she has gone, our phone will probably never ring again. She got checked in at DFW with no problems at all, but she did miss her flight out of Atlanta due to bad weather, so that meant also missing her flight to Hamburg.

I spent the rest of the day rearranging our rooms and our lives to make space for A. and D. and all their stuff. Now I'm pooped and I still feel unsettled.

Cemeteries on Sunday

We got to church early this morning, so I went for a walk in the cemetery next door. It was an unpretentious cemetery, with lots of room for new folks. The only thing I didn't like were the artificial flowers on some of the graves--too bright and too perfect. I mean, people have nice bodies for a while and then they die, and their nice bodies decay; flowers should do the same. A particularly loud bunch of colors caught my eye but when my nose caught a whiff of fragrance, I realized these were real flowers. The nameless grave was only a day old. The flowers were starting to die, but many of them were still beautiful. As I meandered through the rest of the cemetery I found a few wild flowers; they were the best of all.

Come to think of it, last Sunday I was in a different cemetery after church. That cemetery was very pretentious with signs and warnings and no flowers--fake, cultivated, or wild. It was full to the brim with Paul Revere, Mother Goose, and Ben Franklin's folks, among others.

Homemade pizza

I've been feeling kind of down today. I really don't know why and I don't think I have any good reason to be down. I'm annoyed with my computer at the moment, but I'm going to try to talk D. into reinstalling the OS on Monday after Doro leaves. It seems to be full of junk. Another thing that made me sad was R. and I decided to have some reading time together--that part made me happy. But when she tried reading a CS Lewis book, The Problem of Pain, she had to give up because she couldn't understand the big words. She has never been a good reader, and I do admire that in recent years she is trying harder to read more, but it isn't easy for her. That makes me sad. Sometimes life seems unfair.

She's so good with Chimbai, however. He comes by often, as do Michael and Ebenezeer. Late this afternoon R. decided that she and Chimbai would make homemade pizza. I gave some help, but really the two of them did most of the work. She is so patient with him, and he responds well to her. She is generous with her time and her love and the pizza too! She's giving him a bunch of it to take home.

Lord, bless her for the good she does. Help her to trust you, to love you, to want to know you more.

End of the week

R. sort of got started at a job this week. I say sort of because the person who is paying hasn't gotten back to us with any more details than, "Sure, go for it." So we got her started, and just hope we are going the right direction. The job is scanning language materials to be added to the Rosetta Project, a somewhat eccentric project to preserve language data for the long haul.

A.'s 13 boxes arrived today, so there is absolutely no space left in my formerly empty nest. Doro returns tomorrow night, then A. returns on Sunday night. But Doro leaves on Monday to return to Germany, so then A. will have a room.

D. says his two classes are too easy. This week he dissected a cat and made banana oil ester. He's picked out 6 med schools to apply to, but is only choosing ones that have Ph.D/M.D. combined programs. We'll see if he gets in to any of them.

Our plans for hosting a college-age Bible study this summer are coming along. We've decided to make a rather open invitation, so it will be interesting to see how many kids come. Lord, bring just the right people who can benefit from this time of study and fellowship.

I got one RSVP to come to our Bible study (it starts next Friday) from a boy who is interning in the SIL software development department. (Our family has an interesting history with the gentlemen who have interned in that dept.) The parents of this young man we have known for more than 15 years.

Commencement week at Harvard

Monday--We're home, always good to come home. Tonight I sleep in my own bed :-) R and D did not kill each other off, nor did they starve to death--though I am worried about scurvy since all the vegetables I left for them were still here when I got back.

So my summer break is over. Now back to work and trying to get into a comfortable routine with a nest full of chickadees and all their stuff.

Lord, thank you for your gracious care for all of us. Take care of the needs in our hearts and help us to love you more.

Commencement week at Harvard

Sunday--We got up fairly early to attend services at Park Street Church. The young couple who were the greeters were Taylor grads. The church isn't that big, but it was cool. The choir was well above average, good pipe organ too. Outside the door was the cemetery where Paul Revere, Mother Goose, and victims of the Boston Massacre are buried.

After church we walked some of the Freedom Trail, toured Old Ironsides, and ate lunch at a little place nearby. Then got a different train back to Harvard, arriving just before 3pm.

I don't know if A. is generous or just lazy--he basically decided to give away his stuff instead of trying to sell it. While G. And A. moved stuff, I scrubbed the disgustingly dirty bathroom, swept his room, and washed a few walls. Somehow they have managed to live here without basic cleaning supplies for two years :-(

We declined a dinner invitation because we're too pooped. Besides, the conversation will all be in Spanish.

Commencement week at Harvard

Saturday--A. came in at 6am from his party, slept a little, then we met his Taylor friends, who have spent the last two years studying at Gordon seminary, for a goodbye breakfast. Then we got serious about packing, and by 3:30pm had 13 boxes to go to the UPS store for shipping home (so much the first taxi refused to take the stuff!). We found a drawer full of A's change and picked out the dimes and nickels to buy several drinks from the vending machine--too bad it won't take pennies and foreign coins.

Commencement week at Harvard

Friday--Today was quite pleasant with other things to do now that graduation is over. We had breakfast with friends who happen to be in Boston this week, then Gary had a working lunch with the director of the Forum of Bible Agencies. Then it was serious packing followed by an evening at Fenway where the Red Sox won. Then we went to bed and A went out for an evening of saying goodbye to friends and salsa dancing.

Commencement week at Harvard

Thursday--Today Andrew graduated! Yay for him. Now he is a Master of Public Administration in International Development. Now he owes a gazillion dollars to somebody for his education. (But at least he has plans for staying in the Loan Repayment Assistance Program.)

The graduation ceremonies here were elaborate, to say the least. They take pomp and circumstance very seriously here. But the weather was terrible, so that made it less fun. Andrew started the day with class pictures at 7am, the first phase of graduation started at 10, the second phase started at 12:30, then fancy box lunches. We were so tired by the time that was over we didn't even go to the third phase, so Kofi Annan had to speak without us.

The evening was spent trying to help Andrew figure how to deal with all his stuff: pack it to be mailed, or put in a suitcase for the plane, or decide how to get rid of it. The program here has a room for donations to next year's incoming international students, so he will put all his furniture there.

Commencement week at Harvard

Wednesday-We had a busy day today. We got up early and went downtown for breakfast at Au Bon Pain then a tour in a WWII amphibious bus, on land and into the Charles River basin. Then we went back home and Andrew updated and uploaded his resume his potential employer was waiting for. Then a speech by a Nobel prize winner, class skits, fancy reception, then dinner at a Christian millionarie's house. Now I need to iron Andrew's graduation gown.

Commencement week at Harvard

Tuesday-we arrived on time, Andrew met us, we took a taxi to his apartment, then off to the awards ceremony. Andrew's award was for "outstanding committment to International Development." He seems to have lots of interesting friends here; the Latina girls all flirt with him because he speaks their language, the girl from Afghanistan is beautiful, and an interesting bunch of kids from Turkey. His program is "overrepresented by minorities," as someone lampooned during the satire skit at the awards ceremony. Then about half of the MPAID (Masters of Public Administration in International Development) jumped off the foot bridge into the Charles River. I hope my photos turn out.

Her voice

Sometimes she sings, but doesn't know I'm listening. Sometimes she sings to the Lord. Sometimes it makes me stop and thank God for the beauty: of her voice, of the meaning, of her.

Marshmallow memories

We had friends over the other day for grilled hamburgers, followed by smores and tales of roasting marshmallows over candles when one couldn't find a campfire. Last night we had a storm and the power went out so I had a chance to use all those candles that people keep giving me for gifts. While sitting around the candlefire and telling stories there was suddenly a desire for roasted marshmallows. Have you ever roasted marshmallows over a candle?