Raking Leaves, Then and Now

So, you know that thing people do where they re-stage old photos years later?

Pics on left are from Nov. 4, 2009, in Bolingbrook, Illinois.

Pics on right are from today, Nov. 22, 2018, in High Ridge, Missouri.

Some things have changed.

A lot has not. :-)

We are thankful for it all.

Evan

Caitlin

Trevor

Mom and Evan

Mom

Trevor and Caitlin

























Willard and Dad weren't there that day in 2009 (Willard wasn't even born), but here they are today.

Here's the post from 2009.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I am thankful . . .

. . . that my children and I are living in the same town as my husband. (Last year we weren't.)

. . . for my husband.

. . . for our new church.

. . . that my mom is doing fairly well.

. . . for faithful, healthy, and kind children.

. . . that Phillip and I are in good health.

. . . for our dog, Willard.

. . . for employment.

. . . for those who defend us at home and abroad.

. . . for the rule of law.

. . . for the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

. . . for Word and Sacrament.

. . . for music.

. . . for language.

. . . for vocation.

. . . for friends.

. . . for the saving work of Christ on the Cross.

Blessed Thanksgiving to you and yours!

The Week

Trevor is home! Phillip will be home tomorrow night. Both of them have to leave again Saturday, so with fewer people around to eat leftovers, Thanksgiving dinner will be scaled back this year. I bought a spiral-spliced ham, the smallest I could find, and a French silk pie at the Jewel bakery. I will make our customary deviled eggs along with several other side dishes. That's it. Thanksgiving morning we are going to worship with our Trinity-Tinley Park family and in the evening we are invited to the home of some dear friends. It should be a nice day.

The house sale is proceeding, although we still haven't nailed down a closing date. We do know that it will be in January. We would like something earlier; the buyers would like later. I'm sure we'll find a date we can all live with. God willing, we'll be in Oklahoma by the first of February. Six months apart is six months too long.

Several days ago I received terrible news about one of my oldest friends. As I understand it, on Monday of last week she fell off a six-foot ladder and lacerated her head. She was treated and sent home but within days was back in the ER, where she was ultimately diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis. In the last four days she has had four surgeries (called "debridements") to remove necrotized (dead) tissue from her head, neck, shoulders, and chest. More debridements may be necessary. Right now her friends and family are praying for her survival, as 25-40% percent of people who contract this rare condition die from it, even with treatment. Those who survive face a long, painful recovery along with skin grafts and plastic surgery in the affected areas. My heart breaks for my friend and her family.

Here is a picture of me and Shelley from high school.

Here's a picture from about three years ago:

And here's an article about necrotizing fasciitis. If you are not familiar with this killer, please read and become informed now. It is rare, but no one is safe from it, and the best chance for surviving and avoiding the extensive surgical removal of diseased flesh or even limbs is to diagnose and treat it early and aggressively. The primary warning sign is pain that seems out of proportion for the injury. After her initial treatment my friend returned to the doctor with pain and swelling and was given pain medication and steroids and sent home. Her condition worsened and by the time she went back to the ER she was in septic shock with respiratory distress. I can't help wondering how much better her condition might be today if she had been properly diagnosed on her first return visit.

Trevor, Caitlin and I are going to see Catching Fire tomorrow. I also want to see The Book Thief. I am curious how that book is going to make the transition to screen, since I have a hard time envisioning Hollywood's managing to preserve Death as the narrator.

Caitlin is working on her college applications. As we did with Trevor, we are starting to get a "feeling" about one of the schools on her list. That school seems to have the same feeling about her, as the correspondence from their admissions office has kicked into high gear. It is so exciting to see my daughter dreaming about the next stage of her life. I am refusing to think about a day in August of 2014 when we will drop her in a dorm room and return to a house that will then be emptier by two. . . .

Then there's Evan. A little while ago he asked, "Mom, can you get me some socks?" I told him, "Evan, I think you can get your own socks." He replied, "OH, YEAH. I keep forgetting I'm ten years old!" And here I thought I was the one who was an expert at selective amnesia.

Nothing but a Dreamer

Last night during the Thanksgiving Eve service Evan started to cry. Concerned, I asked him what was wrong. He smiled and said, "These aren't sad tears, Mom. They're tears of joy. I've decided that when I'm old enough to go to college, I won't go--I'll stay here with you."

I just smiled and hugged him. No sense disabusing him of his illusion. He'll change his mind before I know it. And until he does, I can dream, too.

ABP, Day 13 - Happy Thanksgiving!

I didn't get around to posting last night. Too much going on! Trevor got home yesterday. We picked him up at the local Amtrak station at 1:45 p.m. (he had to board the train at about 3:45 a.m.) and then came home for a couple of hours before leaving again to meet Phillip for supper (Portillo's) and church. Other than that yesterday was a day of cleaning and Thanksgiving prep. I will be cooking for our immediately family only today. We will eat a late lunch, probably around 2:00, and then spend the rest of the day napping, reading, playing games, watching movies, and making music. Glorious.

I have read a few things here and there from people who have dismissed Thanksgiving as a silly holiday because, after all, we should give thanks at all times, and anyway, what is our secular government doing telling us to give thanks to a God it increasingly prefers not to acknowledge? And of course, there is all the Black Friday (um, make that Black Thursday) noise, making it seem as though the deity to whom we bow is checking His book not for the names of the saints but to see who is going to turn a profit this year.

I don't care about that. I love Thanksgiving. Christmas and Easter have been lost to secularism; that doesn't mean Christians dismiss them as meaningless days. Yes, we give thanks at all times; we also daily confess our sins. Yet we still have seasons during which we more intentionally ponder our need for repentance. Why not one day on which we more fully consider all that we have to be thankful for, in both the temporal and spiritual realms?

I wanted to post a Thanksgiving video and I thought of this song, sung a few years ago by my husband's junior high choir. It is not a Christian text and is not really about thankfulness. But the text from a poem by Sara Teasdale expresses the wonder of looking around and being rendered speechless by the beauty of it all, in both the small and the infinite. I pray you look around yourself today, wherever you may be, and find loveliness to ponder, loveliness that makes whatever you have suffered in your life worth it. May you also know that even if you question if it has all been worth it, Jesus, who spent all He had for the loveliness of you, who bought you without counting the cost to Himself, says unequivocally, yes. You are lovely. You are His. You are worth it.

"Barter" - Sara Teasdale

Life has loveliness to sell,
All beautiful and splendid things,
Blue waves whitened on a cliff,
Soaring fire that sways and sings,
And children's faces looking up,
Holding wonder like a cup.

Life has loveliness to sell,
Music like the curve of gold,
Scent of pine trees in the rain,
Eyes that love you, arms that hold,
And for your spirit's still delight,
Holy thoughts that star the night.

Spend all you have for loveliness,
Buy it and never count the cost;
For one white singing hour of peace
Count many a year of strife well lost,
And for a breath of ecstasy
Give all you have been, or could be. 

Barter from Cheryl on Vimeo.

ABP, Day 12

So, I am winding down my self-imposed Anything But Politics challenge but finding it wasn't that big a challenge after all. In fact it was way easier than I thought to just turn it all off. I'm beginning to think we could downgrade our cable and save some money. Ignorance is bliss.

Today was more shopping, with trips to Target and Jewel. The turkey is now thawing in the kitchen sink. Tonight I had to attend a photo shoot, as the children's choir organization I play for is asking everyone to get a new head shot for the website. Yuck--I hate having pictures made. I was seriously dreading it, but it went much better than I expected. The photographer was a pro and in a short time got several good candidates. Now to pick which one I want for the website. Glasses or no glasses, that is the question.

Trevor will be home tomorrow! He is taking a taxi from his dorm to the Amtrak station and boarding a train in the middle of the night. He will call us when he is at the station so we know everything is going according to plan. We are looking forward to Trevor's meeting Willard* (and vice versa) for the first time.

Evan had his first basketball practice tonight. The report from Phillip is that it went fairly smoothly. Evan has never played basketball so has much to learn. But it sounds as though he maintained a good attitude throughout the practice. No emotional meltdowns from the HSC*? That is a successful evening.

* new puppy
**highly sensitive child

"A Most Thankful Collage"

"Today is Thanksgiving Day. A lot of people have said a lot of things about today and what it means, and honestly, I don't have much to add. The problem with talking about the meaning of things is that you can get tangled up in your own words. I may be a writer, but words still have a way of tripping me up and turning me around. The thing is, words are flawed, just like everything else.

"I think life is summed up best, not in big words, but small moments. . . . "

So begins my daughter. You are invited to read the rest here.

The Life Abundant

That's what my husband calls it when life is so full you can hardly think straight. He's got the right attitude. Life has been full this week, but so very good. Just a short catch-up post for those with inquiring minds who aren't in my other "loops."

Trevor is coming home tomorrow! We were informed of a bus service, Megabus, that runs a route from Omaha to Chicago. A Lincoln area friend of ours will get Trevor to the bus tonight and he will sleep (we hope) while he travels. We'll pick him up in downtown Chicago at 6:50 in the morning. This homefront is beside itself with anticipation. The only bad part is that he will have to go back on Sunday for about three more weeks. Four days at home is not enough time when we have not had him here since August.

We installed our new pastor! If you have been out of the country and are unaware, he is Rev. Jonathan Fisk. The installation service can be viewed here. The first piece of music you hear for preservice (a piano arrangement of the tune HYFRYDOL) is played by my talented daughter. That's my husband directing the choir and playing organ for most of the service. The organ prelude and first hymn were played by Pastor Fisk's father Dale, a fellow church musican. We are overjoyed to have the Fisks in our midst and are enjoying the flowering of new friendships and the promise of reaching more people with the Gospel in our little part of Chicagoland.

Caitlin and I finished painting the dining room and it looks wonderful (see previous post). Had hoped to get the kitchen done before Thanksgiving, but alas--right now I will do well to handle the cleaning and cooking for Thanksgiving. The rest will have to wait.

Phillip has finished his year of traveling. Since January of this year he has been to Minnesota (twice), St. Louis (four times), Nebraska (three times), Alabama, Montreal, Ontario, Congo, Florida, Texas, Colorado, and Springfield (twice). Sometimes I didn't know whether he was coming or going. Next year promises to be much quieter on the traveling front. We are looking forward to having Dad around the house a little more.

Evan sang with the children's choir at church for the first time Sunday. We still have to work a little bit on the attention span, but it was a triumph for him. The first time we mentioned his singing with the children's choir he panicked. I think I previously shared here that he had much anxiety about it, which surprised us considering the family he is in. But then we thought maybe the anxiety was because of the family he is in! The happy ending is that he conquered those fears and told us yesterday morning, "I'm starting to like choir." Yay!

Oh, and how could I forget--I got Issues, Etc. Blog of the Week this past Friday. It was for the "Maternal Overreach" post. Thanks for the raw material, Evan sweetie!

And with that, I must get back to cleaning and cooking. A blessed and happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Duty

Last week at our Thanksgiving Day service my pastor highlighted some passages in Luther's Small Catechism that speak of the attitude of thankfulness that we as children of God ought to demonstrate. For example, the meaning of the First Article of The Apostle's Creed ("I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth") concludes thus:

"All of this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him."

What a beautiful Gospel statement of the Father's love: "All of this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me."

But the next sentence has a word that might seem to rain a bit on the Gospel parade:

"For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him."

Ouch. Duty? That sounds like a "have to," not a "want to." Think of the word "dutiful." When you "dutifully" do something you do it not with joy or gladness or out of a desire to serve but rather, reluctantly, because you have to or because there will be undesirable consequences if you don't.

But as my pastor explained, the word "duty" here is not to be taken as something we do because we "have to" but something we do because it is appropriate--because it is called for. In other words, it is the only fitting response. Think of it. Parents have a duty to take care of their children. Is that care given "dutifully"? Well, maybe occasionally. Parents get tired and sometimes they have to make themselves do the things that they ought. And sometimes they fail. But in the big picture their DESIRE is to care for their children. It is their duty, yes; but it is a duty they embrace, one that arises out of their vocation. They are parents: it is appropriate and fitting that they care for their children and they do so willingly, out of love, not because they have to.

Or think of our soldiers who go into harm's way to keep us safe. They have a duty to protect and defend their nation. Or doctors, who have a duty to provide the best care they can to their patients. Or pastors, who have a duty to shepherd their flocks. I could go on, but you get the idea.

All jobs--all vocations--have duties assigned to them. The duties are the actions that define that vocation and make it what it is--the very fabric out of which it is woven and from which it is inseparable. It's not a matter of, "Okay, you're a baptized child of God and He has given you all this--now you better go and be thankful because, after all, it's your duty." Instead, it's "You're a baptized child of God and He has given you all this. Wow! Of course you're thankful. How could you be anything BUT?"

Leave it to God to turn "dutiful" into "duty-full." He fills us with all good things, including the joyous duty of thanking Him at all times!

Giving Thanks

Two musical offerings from our Thanksgiving Day service this morning. First, a setting of Psalm 104 by Carl Schalk, sung by my daughter Caitlin. Here is the text:

I will sing to the Lord as long as I live,
I will praise my God while I have my being.
O Lord, how manifold are your works,
In wisdom You have made them all.
The earth is full of Your creatures.
You send forth Your spirit and they are created,
And so You renew the face of the earth.
May the glory of the Lord endure forever,
May the Lord rejoice in all His works.
(Psalm 104: 24, 27-28, 33)

Psalm 104 - Setting by Carl Schalk from Cheryl on Vimeo.

Second, a piano/organ duet by Trevor and Phillip. Trevor did triple duty this morning, serving as acolyte, bell ringer, and pianist!

"Songs for Thanksgiving" from Cheryl on Vimeo.

An Untidy Thanksgiving

The work on our house continues. Once upon a time I hoped it would be done in time for us to host an election party. Then I imagined an intact home for Thanksgiving. Now I am setting my sights on Christmas.

The electrical upgrade is done. So is the roof. Part of it had to be rebuilt because the overhang was removed when the sunroom was put on. This entire side of the house now has new roofing and venting. No siding yet, but at least we have progressed from plastic to Tyvek!





If you've been following this saga from the beginning, you know that the French doors in the above picture are not exterior doors and will need to be replaced with something weather-worthy. That hasn't happened yet, and it's cold in Chicago right now! Time for Plan B. We decided a blanket over the door on the other side might be just the thing. I rustled up a likely candidate and Mr. Round Unvarnish'd went to work. Only, the first time he hung up the blanket he did so with the pretty side facing out. Men. I pointed out the error of his ways and he dutifully pulled out the nails and made the necessary adjustment.

I think it actually looks kind of Thanksgiving-y, in an Indian blanket sort of way. Good thing, too, since the kitchen is where we will be eating Thanksgiving dinner this year. I present, for your consideration, our dining room:

I am, very simply, running out of places to put things and am piling, stashing and stuffing them wherever I can. Our family room is still in serious disarray, with many of its usual occupants displaced to other parts of the house.

So Thanksgiving in the kitchen it is. At least we have been able to move our kitchen table back to the kitchen table spot instead of having it occupy the work space between sink and stove. Things are so crowded right now that we considered letting Cracker Barrel provide tomorrow's repast. But a mere three days ago I picked up the smoked portions of the pig we bought this fall, which means we are now the proud owners of not one but two hams. One of those will be cooked tomorrow. To that we are adding sweet potatoes, cole slaw, green beans, deviled eggs, fresh bread, Riesling, and French silk pie purchased from the Jewel bakery. It will only be our immediate family gathered around the table, and we decided that what we most desired this year was simplicity.

I am naturally a quite orderly person: I like having "a place for everything and everything in its place." But it's getting harder and harder to hold to that standard. For years now neither life nor my brain has been cooperating, and I have been having to adjust accordingly. Now this. Surprisingly, I have not been overly stressed by the disorderliness of our home. I know this is temporary. There is really nothing I can do but wait it out, clean what I can clean, and ignore the rest. So hey, maybe this whole thing is actually making me grow into a better person, forcing me to keep the value of tidiness and order in proper perspective.

At the same time, there is a limit to how much "growth" one body can sustain. Come Christmas, if I don't have room for a proper Christmas tree, all bets are off and I will not be responsible for the babbling idiot that bears my name.

We Really Did It

And it wasn't so bad. Sort of fun, actually--made us feel young and adventurous.

We decided the night before that we didn't need to get in line early because the item(s) we were interested in were not "doorbusters" for which tickets would be handed out. So we set the alarm for 4:15 and after throwing on clothes and brushing hair and teeth (at least I think I brushed my teeth--if not, sorry, Mr. Salesman!) fueled up with coffee and leftover cranberry-apple pie before leaving the house a few minutes before 5:00 a.m. Destination: our local Best Buy, just around the corner. We passed Target on the way and sure enough, there they were, the Black Friday hordes, extending the full length of the front of the store. I was amazed by the amount of traffic and the full parking lots at this time of the morning, but it was kind of fun to be in the thick of it. For today at least, we too belonged to the Black Friday Brotherhood.

Here was the scene as we drove up to Best Buy. I thought that, being more of a specialty store, it might be less crowded than Target or Wal-Mart, but the line was comparable (the picture only shows a small segment of it). Doors were being unlocked as we arrived, and by the time we had parked and crossed the lot, the line had dispersed and we walked right in.

First stop: electronics, to replace our current television (see previous post). The television that had drawn us to the store was there for the taking, but we ended up getting a slightly larger and higher resolution set, also for a very good price. A bit more than we intended to spend, but hey, we've had a hard year, you know? Call it our Christmas gift to ourselves.

Next stop: appliances. We have also been needing a new refrigerator and had seen one in the Black Friday ad for $599--a Samsung side-by-side, 25 cu. feet, black, with through-the-door water and ice, regularly $999. Compared to the rest of the store, the appliance department was pretty quiet--just a few other customers besides us. But no salesmen to take our order! Finally one arrived, only to inform us that the inventory/delivery system had crashed and he would have to take hand orders. We bought the refrigerator but so did a bunch of other people across the country as well as the nice lady in line ahead of us. We'll find out later if we were high enough in the queue to actually get one of the units before the inventory ran out. Sigh. Wish us luck.

(Update: Best Buy just called. We have our fridge! Or will when it's delivered later this week.)

Here's the checkout area as we were leaving the store at about 6:30 a.m.--thank goodness we didn't have to deal with this crowd since we had already paid for our items in appliances.

After a stop at the grocery store, we were home before 7:00, thinking we would get the new TV set up as a surprise for the kids and then go back to sleep for a nice long morning nap. You would think two fairly bright, college educated types would be able to knock down this task in a matter of minutes. You would think.

But by this time the coffee was starting to wear off, and fatigue was setting in, and my dearest and I found ourselves strangers in a strange land, lost in a blur of cords and cardboard and styrofoam and a heretofore unknown tongue: " . . . connect one end of the coaxial cable to the RF-out jack above the HDMI2 saturation plug next to the RF-in video input contrast source, tightening the VGA connectors and being careful not to drop the whole stupid mess on the floor . . . . and if you need help, be sure to call the customer service number in the manual, which will not connect you to our customer service at all but instead to some other pathetic outfit that is going to have a long, miserable year because their number was incorrectly printed in our 2009 manual . . . . "

I did have to laugh when the "initial setup screen" came on:

I think the writers of the setup instructions were no more familiar with English than we were with HDTV-ese. I guess maybe the exclamation points are an effort to remind us of how we felt when we first got home? You know, before we opened the box?

It took several hours, but finally . . . finally, we ended up with this.



And the frosting on the cake? The Huskers won!

I don't think we will make Black Friday shopping an annual event, but would I do it again? Yes. It was worth it, more for the refrigerator (40% off is not typical!) than for the television (we could have probably gotten a comparable deal next week). And notwithstanding some of the Black Friday horror stories of the last few years, it wasn't unpleasant at all. The store was well-prepared for the crowd and we saw no one behaving badly. In fact, there was an odd sort of cameraderie among the shoppers as we shared the insanity of it all and pulled for each other to get the deals we had come for. And the best part? My husband and I had more silly fun together than we have had in a while.

I hope your Friday after Thanksgiving was as rewarding as mine and that you, too, got to spend it laughing with someone you love.

Thanksgiving Find

Don't say I never told you anything useful, okay?

Here's my find of the year: Felix Lingonberries. I discovered them at Jewel while shopping for Thanksgiving dinner. In keeping with our minimal-corn-syrup policy (I can't say no-corn-syrup policy because I haven't succeeded in cutting it out entirely--we are still buying corn-syrup based catsup--but we no longer get it in our pancake syrup, peanut butter, bread, and a host of other things) I went looking for an alternative to the usual canned cranberry sauce (which because I read the label this year I discovered was full of corn syrup). I couldn't find any cranberries or cranberry sauce on the shelf that didn't have it, and I didn't have time to check other retailers, such as Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, that might have more options. And please, don't ask "why didn't you make your own?" I would wager $100 that at least one of my readers, but probably more, does just that. But I am a cook of modest talents, and again, there wasn't time to go to another store, much less for me to find a recipe and successfully execute it.

But then . . . then I happened upon this beautiful sight:

At $4.99 a bit more costly than the $2 can of Ocean Spray, but just look at the ingredients: wild lingonberries, sugar, and pectin. Period.

Into my cart it went. The day after Thanksgiving the entire jar was gone. I bought another one today (we still have lots of turkey and dressing in the refrigerator). This stuff is amazing! Much better than any cranberry sauce I have ever had. And I know, Melody--I didn't like the lingonberries in the Ikea cafe--but that didn't even begin to compare with this taste experience. The Ikea lingonberries had a bitterness I didn't care for; these were delectably sweet.

Here's a link with everything you might want to know about Felix lingonberries.

4:00 A.M.?

Did anyone out there really go shopping at 4:00 a.m. today? That's what time a lot of the stores around here opened.

For the record, I will NOT be shopping today.

But I will be having pie for breakfast. :-)

Happy Day-After-Thanksgiving!

More Thankfulness

A couple of Thanksgiving Day links. If you only have time for one, skip the first and don't miss the second.

Ten Reasons for Conservatives to be Thankful - by Jennifer Rubin

Steadfast Faith - by Rev. Dr. Timothy Rossow

Back to the kitchen!

Thankful . . .

. . . for a husband who takes to heart his calling to be the spiritual head of our household.

. . . for God-fearing, content, and healthy children.


. . . that my mother and both of my husband's parents are still with us.


. . . for a family that, although far-flung and sometimes out of touch, comes together at crucial times.


. . . for parents who stayed together to the end, even when it wasn't easy to do so.



. . . for friends far and near, old and new, who stay in touch and show they care.


. . . for the internet, which allows people with shared values and beliefs to build bonds that they would otherwise not have.


. . . for the freedom and ability to homeschool my children.

. . . for material blessings far beyond what the majority of people in the world can even begin to imagine.


. . . for the Church and all who faithfully serve Her.



. . . for a God who creates things of beauty to share with his children.


. . . for Word and Sacrament.


. . . for life temporal and eternal.


. . . for forgiveness.


Blessed Thanksgiving, everyone.

"The eyes of all wait upon Thee, O Lord, and Thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest Thy Hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing."--Prayer before meals, Luther's Small Catechism

Thankfulness

Evan has been learning about Thanksgiving in preschool. Yesterday the children were instructed to draw on a piece of paper what they are thankful for; then the teacher wrote the words to accompany the drawings.


Here's what my 5-year-old is thankful for:

Mom

Swords

Thunder

Lightning

Light sabres

Swords (I didn't make a mistake; they're on the list twice)


Please note that "Mom" is number one on the list! :-) And by the way, in the picture he drew of me, I am holding a light sabre that is about three times my size.

Go, Mom!