TulipGirl

Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore;
Jesus, ready, stands to save you,
Full of pity, joined with power.
He is able, He is able;
He is willing; doubt no more.

Come ye needy, come, and welcome,
God’s free bounty glorify;
True belief and true repentance,
Every grace that brings you nigh.
Without money, without money
Come to Jesus Christ and buy.

Come, ye weary, heavy laden,
Bruised and broken by the fall;
If you tarry ’til you’re better,
You will never come at all.
Not the righteous, not the righteous;
Sinners Jesus came to call.

Let not conscience make you linger,
Nor of fitness fondly dream;
All the fitness He requireth
Is to feel your need of Him.
This He gives you, this He gives you,
‘Tis the Spirit’s rising beam.

Lo! The Incarnate God, ascended;
Pleads the merit of His blood.
Venture on Him; venture wholly,
Let no other trust intrude.
None but Jesus, none but Jesus
Can do helpless sinners good.

–TH 472

The other night I had the most pleasant dream. The whole family was together and we were singing hymns. It wasn’t voice-tiring. I remember in my dream looking up a hymn in the first-line index that started with “Come. . .” but can’t remember which hymn it was. (In the dream hymnal it was #3, but in the Trinity Hymnal, #3 doesn’t start with “Come. . .”)

One of the things I’m most thankful for is a friend who gave us a copy of the Trinity Hymnal when the boys were little. Thats when we started singing hymns together during our morning circle time. J was a preschooler, T a toddler, and R an infant. That was a hard year for me, with a pretty rough case of unrecognized post-partum depression. Singing with the boys renewed my soul. And it still does.

Even though I have Carole on my blogroll, I can never remember where this series on nighttime parenting is, so I have to go to Molly’s, follow a link to Dani’s, and then the first article is linked in the sidebar. So, to shortcut that, here’s a direct link to the series so I can find it easily! I highly recommend reading the whole series as it encourages thoughts about mothering as ministry, during both daytime and nighttime hours.

Establishing the Nighttime Normal “I have often wondered what factors contributed to our culture’s present obsession with babies sleeping through the night. Certainly the use of formula must be one catalyst. The expectation that most women will return to work is, most likely, another. As a mother of three I can without a doubt say that the most popular question, asked by anyone and everyone, is, “Does he sleep through the night yet?”"

Looking to Science for the Norm “How can that be a coincidence? Infants wake to feed at the same rate as adults go in and out of deep sleep? I sense a Creative Designer behind this marvelous phenomenon.”

Co-sleeping: The Historical Norm? “[T]here are researchers studying mother-infant sleep from many perspectives, and that their conclusions fit with the way we mothers were wired – as tender, nurturing, life-givers.”

Co-sleeping: Acceptance and Diversity “I agree with the proposition that more of us “co-sleep” than we realize, however different it may look different from family to family. . . . as much as I am a proponent of the family bed and co-sleeping, it has taken a slightly different form here in our house.”

Related:
Nightwaking
Parenting Freedom: Sleep
KellyMom: Nighttime and Sleep
Parenting Freedom: Sleep Training
Woman to Woman, Helen E. Aardsma
Mothering in the Shadow of the Cross

With all the new babies and babies soon to be born, I just had to share these TWO contests! (No blog, website, or purchase needed to enter!)

Love to babywear?

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Want to try cloth diapering?

BumGenius 3.0 Cloth Diaper Starter Kit!

Today was one of those days that I got a break from my normal responsibilities and indulged in summery routines. I reread To Kill a Mockingbird. Kristen mentioned it the other day. But it moved me in a different way than it did with previous readings. I’m still processing it, so no commentary yet.

I took R9 to an appointment and with a positive report, it looks like he’ll only need occasional check-ups for now. As is our ritual, we stopped for coffee on the way to the appointment–we each had an iced latte. I stocked up at our bread store and Frank told me the store was closing next month. That makes me sad. Even though the store isn’t in my neighborhood, Frank is part of my “community.” He’s a retiree who works there part time. He said Whole Foods has offered him a position, I mentioned Starbucks has good benefits for part-timers. He wasn’t sure he could put up with the sort of customers who tend to frequent those shops, compared with the bread outlet where he currently works. (But, he likes me. . . and I go to both.)

We stopped at the produce market to stock up on fruits and veggies. It seems like we go through food a lot quicker these days. The boys are growing so fast–J11 is almost as tall as I am. This must be what people were referring to when I announced each pregnancy and they incredulously responded, “How can you afford to feed all those kids?!” I have a black thumb and doubt we’ll ever have a garden. But the fresh cucumber and tomato salad we’re having with dinner tastes summery and gardeny and good.

Hubby just started another load of laundry. Towels. Somehow the bulk of our towels ended up on the lanai, wet from boys swimming in the pool. We need to do a load before anyone can take a shower. But daily swims in the pool are part of summer, and even without being part of any sports teams my boys are athletic and active.

It’s starting to thunder and lightening. I love Florida summer evening storms.

“Finally, lest we forget, there will always be a level of antagonism between the church and the culture. After all, the only way the church could be universally loved by the World would be to surrender to it utterly. The trick is to preserve the natural offense of the Gospel without placing extra cultural stumbling blocks in the way of secular people.”

–Conservative Intelligencer

Related to that, I’ve been listening to Keller & crew talking about the Gospel and persuasion within the the context of the U.S. culture.

This recipe was probably the first one I put online in my Computer Cookbook archives. Thanks to Michelle, I’m reposting it and making it for my family today.

Carin’s Almond Chicken

½ C flour
1/3 C butter, melted
1 t celery salt
1 t paprika
½ t salt
½ t curry
½ t oregano
¼ t pepper
6 boneless chicken breasts
1 ½ C whipping cream
1/3 C dry bread crumbs
¾ C sliced, toasted almonds

Add spices to melted butter. Cover chicken with flour; dip into butter mixture. Place in dish (9×13). Pour cream around chicken. Bake, covered, at 350 for 45 minutes. Combine bread crumbs with remaining butter (or melt more). Remove chicken from oven, uncover, sprinkle with buttered crumbs and almonds. Bake uncovered for 5-8 minutes.
Serve with warm pasta.

Carin’s Notes: I never toast the almonds (and my slicing is dubious – in fact, once I left out the almonds all together!), I rarely measure the butter, and have used half cream half milk or other variations. The only spices included in the recipe that I do not buy here are celery salt and oregano.

My Notes: I serve this with rice, because whenever I make pasta for a crowd it’s too starchy and sticky. Instead of heavy cream (which is expensive here) I use 6% milk, and it turns out just fine. Though, I don’t remember if 6% milk is available in the States. I make mine without celery salt, because I don’t have any–it still tastes good, but Carin’s is better. This recipe doubles easily. I usually cut chicken breasts into thirds, so that I can serve less meat to the children. Tonight, 10 breasts served 12 adults and 4 children, with enough left over to send home with a friend for her husband and mother.

Way down yonder

in the meadow

poor little baby cries mama

birds and butterflies

flutter ’round his eyes

poor little baby cries mama

Hush-a-bye

Don’t you cry

Go to sleep my little ba-by;

When you wake,

you shall have,

all the pretty little horses.

I sought the LORD, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to him are radiant;
their faces are never covered with shame.
Psalm 34:4,5 NIV

Listen to me…
you whom I have upheld since you were conceived,
and have carried since your birth.
Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he,
I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
Isaiah 46:3,4 NIV

We wait in hope for the LORD;
he is our help and our shield.
In him our hearts rejoice,
for we trust in his holy name.
May your unfailing love rest upon us,
O LORD, even as we put our hope in you.
Psalm 33:20-22 NIV

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
1 Peter 5:7 NIV

Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust and not be afraid.
The LORD, the LORD,
is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.
Isaiah 12:2 NIV

Peace I leave with you;
my peace I give you.
I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
John 14:27 NIV

As a two friends announces the joy of a coming babies, as my sister enters her last month of pregnancy, and as another friend prepares to hold her daughter tomorrow, these are my prayers for the pregnant women in my life. (Borrowed from Parenting Freedom)

“Paddock’s siblings and the daughters in the foster home where social workers placed Paddock described her as timid and shy. They said she had a tendency to follow the lead of others and never stuck up for herself.

Judy Blazek, one of the daughters in the foster home where Paddock was sent at age 14, said that it didn’t surprise her that Paddock would discipline her children following the instruction of a minister who wrote about child rearing.

Paddock “wanted her family to be perfect. So she would pretty much follow any book or any suggestion that you gave her on helping these children through life. I see her spanking them to get them to be perfect.”

Reported by Mandy Locke

How many times have we as loving, Christian mothers wanted our “family to be perfect”?

Even when we know that we are not, cannot be perfect–what is it in us that desires for that perfection in our families? A desire to measure up? Measure up to our churches’ standards, our subculture’s standards, our own internalized standards?

Seeking that idealized family, how many of us have turned to the Pearls, the Ezzos, the Phillips, the Bauchams. . . or whoever currently has a voice and paints a pretty picture of an ideal family?

Not that we shouldn’t seek encouragement. . . certainly we have much to learn from one another, especially from those who have been there, done that and gone the distance.

But it is so easy to become entangled in the yoke of bondage, enslaved to ideals devised by men and women. We seek perfection, instead of the Perfect One. We want to earn approval, at the least from ourselves–and isn’t that in reality trying to earn approval from God?

We are called to raise our children in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. This is a good thing. But when a good thing becomes an ultimate thing, as Tim Keller describes, it become an idol.

As well meaning as Lynn Paddock is. . . as well meaning as Michael Pearl is. . . isn’t this the heart of the issue? The idolatry of the “perfect family” removing our focus from Christ?

May we all take heed. Repent. Know that we don’t have to “measure up” or have the “perfect family,” because Christ and His righteousness are already ours, by His amazing grace. May we rest in Him in our daily struggles as families, growing closer to Him and each other.

Does anyone remember Under Midnight, the cyberpunk rock opera of the early ’90s? More than once recently, I’ve thought they were amazingly prescient, especially considering just how limited we were with iTech when they wrote their music. One of the things that brought them to mind was just how infused into our daily life all of our net/tech stuff has become (images h/t Joe.) Virtual reality, biotech, everything and everyone jacked in. . . not just in the imagination of Phillip Dick anymore.

If you want a little taste of U/M, there are a few vids on YouTube. I couldn’t find the lyrics posted online, though they still run through my mind from time to time.

Reality, imagination. . . Love, truth, pain, fire. . .

T10 is a budding cetologist. Like I told Carol, maybe it was because Baby Beluga was one of our favorite lullabies?