the good

• Speaking of Faith – I love this show, and I want to be Krista Tippett. It’s always on during my Sunday morning drive to the church, and it’s such a thoughtful, quiet way to get ready for worship. Unfortunately I only get to hear 15 minutes of a given show that way. Ah well, there’s always the Internet.

Today Krista was interviewing a cosmologist and Quaker activist in South Africa, George Ellis, who has developed the theory that there are ethical principles naturally present in the universe that follow a model of kenosis, or self-emptying (sacrificial giving exemplified in Christ and in other places). Of course that idea is itself an article of faith—you either see the world that way or you don’t. But I want to hear more, and that would be an interesting topic to study theologically, although I’m sure others have done it better and more thoroughly than I could.

• C has suddenly developed intrepid culinary tastes. Lately she’s eating anything and everything we put in front of her. Friday night my pickled okra craving took a back seat to my sushi craving, so we all went out. (Cooked sushi for me, sigh… what I wouldn’t give for some fatty tuna right now, listeria and mercury be damned.) We couldn’t believe our eyes. She ate all kinds of stuff, and was amazingly deft with the rubbed-banded chopsticks, especially considering she’s never used them before. And last night she ate pesto. Bon appetit!

• I enjoyed preaching today, although several aspects of the sermon and its preparation amused me. My preaching prof says there are three basic sermons: Yes (affirming the promises of God), No (affirming the boundaries, certain prophetic texts), and Go (our response). A good sermon will at least touch on all three. Anyway, this sermon could best be described as a Go Go Go!!!!!! sermon. Downright peppy. It hit me on the way to church this morning that this is so not a first-trimester sermon; in fact it is such a second-trimester sermon, a sermon someone does when she’s feeling great! And not tired anymore! And her skin is glowing and she isn’t too huge! Could I have any more exclamation points?!?!?!?!

Also it occurred to me, the way this sermon came together kinda willy-nilly was mirrored in the wild exponential growth going on with Baby2. The kid will double in weight and length in the next few weeks; so much is happening in there. Meanwhile I kept finding more and more ideas I wanted to put in the sermon. I dreamed/worked on it all night long. Everything I heard reminded me of something in the sermon. Add this! And this! And this! Fortunately my inner editor took over, but it was still rather long, for me. But well-received.

the bad

• C has been having sleep issues—anxiety when mommy and daddy leave the room, insistence on having the bedside lamp on (which fortunately now has a low-watt bulb and can be pointed away from her bed), etc., and it’s trying. She’s never needed a cry-it-out approach and frankly, we’re not inclined that way—although whine-it-out is fair game—so we’re sitting quietly in her room after we put her down, reading in the rocker for X minutes each night, with X decreasing each day. But the rule is no interaction. So far it seems to be helping OK, assuming this is a phase, because I don't intend to do this every night, world without end. It feels like a phase. And naptime is its own challenge… please please please don’t let her be giving up her naptime…

• Today was my first Sunday as acting head of staff, with B in Kenya for a month. After the service a woman came in off the street, wanting to talk. Her mother had died. I asked her to wait in the meditation room (she’s been here before) and told her I’d be there shortly—there were a couple of people waiting to talk to me, and I figured I’d greet them and be on my way. Meanwhile another woman, a member of the church, wanted to set up an appointment this week, and when I asked her why she broke down, so we went back to my office. By the time I finished with her, woman #1 was gone. I don’t know what else I could have done, but I feel bad.

the ugly

• C has a little rash on her cheeks and shoulders. I think it’s prickly heat, and/or some contact thing related to her drooling on her pillow and sheets... and the fact that I don't always change her sheets as promptly as I should. (Sitting on the Bad Mommy Bench) It’s not itching her, except the back of her head at her hairline. The LOLs (little old ladies) were diagnosing it at church today—prickly heat, allergic reaction, fifth’s disease, you name it. Well, it doesn’t bother her, and we changed the sheets, so we’ll see what happens.

• Last night at 1:30 I woke up to loud voices, seeming to come from right under our window, which was open. I thought, “Must be a party breaking up, and quite a late one for the ‘burbs,” and dozed. The voices continued pretty animatedly, so I finally went to the window to check it out. A headlamp cast a long beam of light across our lawn. A man was lying face-down on our sidewalk, handcuffed, with two officers and one of our neighbors standing over him. When I heard R stirring behind me, I turned and said, “Someone’s being arrested on our front lawn.” Best we could piece together from eavesdropping, the man was trying to steal the neighbor’s car. The man apparently didn’t speak English, and one of the officers was trying to get a statement from him, but he wasn’t a very good translator, and it was frustrating to listen to, since my rusty Spanish would have been an improvement. So I went back to bed.

It’s a little bizarre, but what hits me more than anything is how common an occurrence that must be in certain areas, and how sad and frustrating it would be for the law-abiding folk who live there.