January 17, 2010
I thought Lucy was still in bed yesterday morning. And I went to put away come clean paintbrushes, and was surprised to see her standing at the table in the learning room. I was even more surprised by what I noticed next:
Do you see it? The little pile there under the scissors. That’s right, Lucy reached that milestone every little girl reaches at some point in her life: her first self-imposed, clandestine haircut.
I almost cried.
But instead I laughed, and yelled, “Craig, come quick! Bring the camera!”
Read more...
January 15, 2010
It’s amazing how kids learn. It’s so totally effortless. There are always the examples of four-year-olds casually using curse words in polite company, much to their parents’ embarrassment, or course. Yesterday, on the other hand, Lucy was walking around the house with her Fish do the Strangest Things book, standing on top of things, holding the book in front of her, and proclaiming, “A reading from Saint Paul. Babies and sisters…” I stopped in my tracks. She is clearly paying much closer attention while she wiggles away through Mass than we have been giving her credit for. (I asked about the “babies”, and she seemed to think that made more sense than “brothers”, which is understandable I guess since she has a severe lack of brothers at the moment.) Anyway, we are redoubling efforts to have such good influences and Saint Paul and his letters around, so that her osmosis can do its thing.
January 12, 2010
Lucy: I can’t help pick up. It really gives me a headache.
That’s right, she skipped a few years, and is now sixteen. In case you hadn’t heard already.
January 7, 2010
Courtesy of Taylor Newton, here are pics of her, the card Lucy made for her, and her lively Sugar Gliders.
December 29, 2009
Now that you’re probably basking in the post-Christmas pile of, well, stuff, (as we are) here’s a little Merton to make you feel good about it all. Or not. If you don’t want to possibly feel guilty or depressed, don’t read on. Read more...
December 27, 2009
Here are the first photos from the Great Christmas Card Photo Round-up. Thanks, Veronica, Tom, and Clark! If you want to send a cool family picture with your home-made card by Lucy (or if you have not received your card and want to remind me to hurry up!) send me an email.
And here’s the card with their lovely description:
“I think it looks like Winnie the poo walking towards the right while holding a stick with a beehive on it, and bees following him.” Read more...
December 19, 2009
We went to a “young adult” gathering in the Baton Rouge diocese last night, and it got me thinking. So I’m really just thinking out loud (as it were) here, most of this isn’t clearly formed yet, but it has been bothering me for a while. The meeting itself was fine, they had a change of plan since the speaker had to cancel, so we had dinner, discussed what we would like to see from the young adult ministry (they’re really just getting started) and then had a brief prayer service. But it was the assumptions underlying the conversation that interested me most. Read more...
December 18, 2009
So I was thinking…we didn’t take any pictures of the Christmas cards that Lucy is making before we sent them out. But it would be really cool if she got to see who they went to, so…if/when you get yours (there are still a lot to go in the mail and if you think I forgot you or don’t have your address, just email me) if you could send a picture of you and your family with the card, I could post them on the blog (if you don’t mind, of course) and that would be really, really cool. Maybe we could put up a map too, and make this a regular geography thing. Anyway, I would enjoy seeing your beautiful faces with Lucy’s beautiful artwork. : )
December 14, 2009
Last week was black bean and sweet potato week here at the Baker house. I know that probably sounds strange to you, because it did to me a couple of weeks ago. But we (and by “we” I mean Craig) had purchased many, many pounds of sweet potatoes about a month ago, and they needed to be eaten. And black beans are cheap (as were sweet potatoes, hence our abundance). And I generally trust Moosewood cookbooks, so I thought I’d give the “black bean and sweet potato hash” a try. Now, I’m not one to make hashes, as a general rule, so this involved a little bravery to start with. Here’s the recipe, so you can see for yourself what I was getting into. Read more...
December 11, 2009
Merton is speaking of seeing his father in a hospital bed, unable to speak and disfigured by a brain tumor. He is 14 or 15 years old, and has no faith or relationship with God to speak of. Read more...
