kj the dj

what a picture of God’s mercy & grace
this community is to our family today.

at evening, here’s where we are:

5. acknowledging the Lord knows yesterday, today & tomorrow
4. cheered that the hospital is just a short,
head-clearing walk from our house
3. glad that cory looks decidedly golden
instead of the green-gray hues of yesterday
2. hopeful that they’ve identified it as pancreatitis
& we’ll see where it goes from there
1. cory’s in the icu at roosevelt hospital
after a withering 18 hrs preceeding going to the hospital

59th & 10th, 8th fl, ccu rm 46
(bring your own sense of humor as his is
quite diminished by his pain.
2 visitors allowed in his room at a time)

thank you, cade & melissa, lisa, carrie,
justin & anita, the jennings crew,
bill t, dan k, hisaya, for starters.

thank you, mom, for flying in tonight.
she’ll be here until wednesday morning.

we love you, cjc.

Psalm 139

O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.

You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”

even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!

Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.

If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!

They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.

Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
and abhor those who rise up against you?

I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

i want to be sign painter man
when i grow up.
such high aspirations; i know my mom is proud.

our sweet
nathaniel james cates.
happy 8th birthday, love.
3.30.99

the Lord has gifted you
specifically to be the
lead sibling in this happy crew.

your theology, curiosity,
faithfulness, wit & logic
are delightful to us.
(not to mention mad
chess & farkle skills)

praying for you this morning, julia & houston.

ps - morv, can you hear the screams across
the pond? “creepsfromthedeep!creepsfromthedeep!”

dana: the lazy man’s pandora = fred flare’s boombox
(click to rock, on the right)

A: betsy’s (clean) tights
luckily they were in the stroller as i
forgot to bring the bandana.

my spring update:
bangs (a tame amount),
and those chanel brownplummy nails
that everyone seems to be wearing (the sephora version)

grateful pause:
that God is the same.
steadfast
permanent
unchanging

grateful that the
true worship and service
of this steady, true God,
mankinds creator & redeemer,
is our life.

digression: Q.  who can make out what i
used as a blindfold for the pinata
boys? and i got by with it.

thanks, wedding bee.
(and bridalicious)

cory was grinning as we walked home from
the movie theatre tonight;
coming home early from work to
play with us & have a great time
with nathan & his friends
(hooray for carrie);

and charis & melissa had
offered to babysit and even
clean up from the party while
we went out for the evening.
(thanks, amigas; what a gift)

and it’s only wednesday.

the week’s off to a very sweet start.

[we had all of the boys from nathan's
class over for a par-tay:
pinatas, bouncy castle, chubbybunny,
you get the idea]

clever seamstress

okay, we’re having nathan’s boy classmates
over for a little birthday soiree tomorrow afternoon
(wednesday)

what am i forgetting from this plan?

i am all for dropping a game
or two because we’ve happily run out
of time, but doesn’t chaos always seem to
ensue when i run out of tricks and
am sorely outnumbered?

luckily, cory & carrie will be here to emcee and
help corral the funny farm–er, party.

ps - we’re all trash-pickers at heart.

pps - i dunno, i kind of dig it.

yes, he did.

carrie went to disneyland; jim & merritt went to israel & jordan

carrie & minime; megan brought us wrigley field shirts

central park with abby taylor; should we be this excited
about feeding daisy the hamster? (in the bathtub)

jack black as his alter-ego, a wrestling mexican monk,
singing about his amor, sister encarnacion, who shares his toast.

so, it’s going to be 51 degrees today.
do you think corythebuilder will build my deck?
if i ply him with french toast & french pressed coffee
for breakfast? a sweet kiss & a longing look?
(or maybe he’ll misinterpret that one.
the deck, babe, the deck!)

what a gift to have megan here.
to have someone walking alongside me
in the normal routines of my life
and get to catch up on her
fruitful life in chicago where she’s
finishing her phd, teaching at
macolm x college and training for her
first marathon. she was in town to
present at a conference in midtown on thursday.
congrats, love. i still think we’re
16 and here you are all grown up on me.

at one point, as we listened to henry & caroline
eagerly rambling on yet another topic
a wee bit incoherent to the average
(above avg, surely) 32 yr old mind,
she turned and complimented me
for validating their nonsense.
a phrase which could easily
sum up quite good bit of my life.

and we’ve given her quite a
full picture today:
laughter, toddler theology,
puke/poo (theirs),
games, drawing (she’s a real artist),
library trip, co-op preschool,
blood (mine), fellowship group,
friends stopping by, nacho libre,
and she’s just 36 hrs into her visit so far.
how glad am i that she chose
the top bunk over the
cushy hotel she could have opted for.
brave girl; brave, generous girl.

it seems like a blink ago that meg & i had our co-18th birthday party
(our bdays are 2 days apart).
a truckload of our closest friends (you know how it is),
grandma harris made our matching birthday cakes,
and the boy i had just started dating at the time came.
that handsome jock, cory cates.
and it was a bit of a scandal since
he went to north and all. (go, west)

i’ll ask mom to send a photo of us in our matching blue
homecoming court dresses. (there were 12 of us &
our dresses were s h i n y royal blue & blue velvet.
mmmmmm. betcha want to borrow it)

hamstersitting daisy whitford

gazing into the crystal-clear henry hudson

miss suzie is such a sport

psst - henrylove:
if you’ve been tucked in to bed
& then you’re discovered playing around
with the digital camera,
it’s best not to deny it.
we have 140 photojournalistic entries to the contrary.

this week, my burden has felt a bit too heavy,
too complicated, too much.
and at those times, the Body of Christ
so faithfully & graciously comes alongside
and picks up where i leave off,
where i’m too tired to continue.

i’m thankful for julia coming and
praying with me at my kitchen
table last night;
for charis & kathy’s emails
that included the scripture &
encouragement below,
thankful for mom’s group
that surrounds me with
godly women who are walking a
similar road,
thankful that megan,
my friend from high school,
arrives today for some fresh perspective.

He has carried my ultimate burden
and he carries it daily through His Church.
thanks, friends.

“give ear, O Lord, to my prayer;
and attend to the voice of my supplications.
In the day of my trouble
I will call upon You,
for You will answer me.”
ps 86:6-7

“the powerful emotions that I experience
require the leash of God’s Word;
it’s comforting to be yanked back by it.
I would run into the path of all kinds
of trouble were it not for that
trustworthy [tether] of God’s Word
bringing me back.”

ps - i hate it when
blessings are
used as curses.
the one i get regularly
in various forms is, “well, you have four kids, so…”
oye.

jim & merritt @ the louvre, dinner as usual, playing with ezra

karis & caroline are so fancy

lisa with a gold godiva ribbon accentuating her bulging bicep (in her mind)

pps - leslie, you still crack me up

drumroll, please. here she comes, world.
kim morrison

last night was the debut of the 5th worship
service on sunday, the 5pm service.
my heart is full.
(go, tom & crew)

it was a packed house.
and it was fun to see new faces that
have migrated from other services
to fill this service
as well as new faces in the ushering
crew (thank you, scott h) serving us.
the children’s section was packed
(maggie is in the house) and the deacons/esses
were representing (jdawg up front)
not to mention the masterful sound guys
(way to go, hisaya)
tim’s sermon on mocking Jesus,
followed by rozz’s leading us in
amazing grace…the Lord is so good.

after the last verse, she put her mic down
& asked us to stand &  join her.
as the congregation began to sing
amazing grace, how sweet the sound…
i thought we were going straight to heaven.
not passing go, not collecting $200,
but going right to the face of the Father.
oh my
and
amen.

(the one verse we didn’t sing last night
has been running in my head all day)

the Lord has promised good to me
his word my hope secures
he will my shield and portion be
as long as life endures.

abby, henry, caroline, trey & mitch; snowball intended for henry

sunday afternoon reading, party time for baby chase

congrats to the orangebeautiful girls;
i’ve been looking forward to this one.
the scoop

we love you, scott & katie, and think of you both so often.
thanks for sending this photo, k. my baby brother:
a husband, a pilot, a grown man who i still think of
as the one who pulls the heads off my barbies and then
i steal the wheels off his tonka truck until we truce it &
trade back and then spend the afternoon playing together.
and then we line up the chairs downstairs,
put a hymnal & a nickle on each,
drape a blanket over two chairs back to back
& call that the pulpit…
i lead the singing & scott collected the (nickle) offering.
and there you are, landing on mountains, babe.
i’m so proud of you two & of your godly marriage.
now, if you could just be a marine pilot based here in manhattan;
surely there’s a big need for that…

scott wesley harris, s.w. harris, sierra whiskey, papa doc,
and i’m sure a few other names i shouldn’t print here.
go, marines. go, dragons of hmm-265.

ps - doesn’t it just scream ‘hot date’ - trudging through
long blocks of ankle-deep snow that’s stinging your face
with its sleetyness to see a movie that makes you
squirm & cry (it’s beautiful, by the way,
the wind that blows the barley), and then
the reverse trek home in now shin-deep sludge with
more of the same stingy firecrackers-on-your-face feeling?
love you, cjc.

pps - let’s have a little david brent dancing to get this
we’re-staying-inside-today-lads kind of day started:

ppps - and who can watch david brent (UK’s original office)
without longing for a bit of our very own Elaine:

pppps - ladies, if you need some help with your bracket, the
sportsgal is giving us some sound advice here.
(scroll half way down to where he finally lets her start talking)
except at the end. it’s kansas over north carolina.
rockchalkjayhawkgoku

‘julio es pato
2007′

inscription in the snow on a
car windshield on our street.
julio is a duck?
or has it been that long since
la clase de espanol?

cory would die if he walked in the door right now.
he would kiss me hot on the lips and start salivating in anticipation…

brittany & her colleague have 4 grills going in our
back yard cooking steaks as thick as phone books.
(for a grilling handbook for blueprint)
i think the workmen building the building on the
corner are about to come knocking on my front door;
the smell is k i l l e r.
and i’ll have to serve it up!
steak dinner for 70? no problem.

wendy: our muji photo albums are back!

listen up: scripture memory music for families
(thanks, covenant life ladies)

*it’s painful that life continues on while other
friend’s lives are at a complete standstill.
our hearts are broken for jennifer & greg.

could we love you any more than
we already do, stacy b?
this girl loves the Lord
in such tangible ways &
she leads her family and all of us us
along with her in worshipping Him.

“Something new we started this year..
At dinner, which is our family devotion time,
we draw out of a basket the pictures and
cards we got for christmas…
then we pray for that family.

Last night, Tucker drew….
‘It’s the Cates!’, was the shout..
Yeah Yeah was the chorus…
so we looked at your picture,
thought of ways to pray for each of you and let loose.
Now…tell me how Jesus answered all those prayers today.
(I do think there was mention of keeping
the girls safe if Henry was playing with swords)”

ps - sticks are the new swords.
equally as dangerous & more readily available.

pps - you nailed it from yesterday’s post:
30 rock, episode 17.
but don’t start there, go back to the beginning.
in all your free time.
not.

ppps - happy birthday, ezra

this is betsy begging an apple from nathan.
he gives it to her but she refuses to relenquish
her electric toothbrush or her milk in order
to hold the apple. so of course, she holds the
stem with her teeth.

name this tv show cory and i watched online last night
that had us rolling (from this week’s episode):

“we need to synergize backward overflow”

“eighth day resurrected covenant of the holy trinity
(we haven’t been presbyterian for months now.)”

and if you need a giveaway clue:
“you aren’t the boss of me, jack donagey! “

byebye blue couch, hello stripeys:

grammarians:
correctly punctuate the above sentence for me.
and does that mean i have to lose the made up
word, ’stripey’?

children’s books can be tedious or delightful
depending on the book, the day, the mood.

henry and i are curled up on the loveseat
and i’m reading mick inkpen’s ‘the lost sheep’.
and with every page i turn
my tears are spilling over
until i’m completely choked up
and about to pull a tom cruise
and literally hop up & yell,

‘h a l l e l u i j a h!’

oh my.

‘here is a farmer.
he has a hundred sheep.
he is counting them.
one of his sheep is missing.
oh dear! where has it gone?’
(you get the idea)

we know that the rabbis couldn’t actually
associate with sinners,
but taught that God welcomes a penitent sinner.

my tears were in response to the truth that
Christ not only associates with sinners,
but zealously, actively seeks us out and
parties hard when we
come Home.

i mistakenly thought i was reading
gospel 101 to my 4 yr old.
it struck me more like a grad level course on
redemption.

halleluijah.

another night, another snuggly pose for henry & nathan

baby daniel is due march 30, congrats, julie & charl

50 degrees? park time, baby

“would you condemn me
to justify yourself?”
God to Job, job 40:8

His
transforming grace
melts
me

cory’s house rule.
believe it or not, we have to enforce it.

“babies have the ability to make
themselves heavier at will.”
nathan’s comment as to why it’s
easy to carry betsy when she wants
to go somewhere, but she can
quickly transform into a SackOfRocks
when she doesn’t.

thank you, mr. ted, for a fun afternoon
of paper airplane building & flying off the
back deck. nathan’s still trying to perfect one
of the designs for longer hang-time.

ps - anyone in the neighborhood,
open invitation to come and check
out our latest trash finds.
i mean, er, come and sit in our comfy new chairs.
(thanks to chris whitford & brit for spotting them)

we had to stop awhile and admire their handiwork in the street.

bebe!
come back!
your dream come true:
airstream @ moma

we’re all seated for breakfast and henry
leads off with this one:
“mom, call fairway and tell them that
seltzer doesn’t make sense.
seltzer just doesn’t make sense.
that’s it. no more.”

fellowship group last night:
(anna, jane, newton, melissa, ryan,
charis, julia, hisaya, rick, laci, & cory)
peter’s denial of christ in mark 14.

at the end of bible study last night,
anna reminded us of II tim 2:13,
“if we are faithless,
he will remain faithful…”
que chills & melted heart.
our Redeemer,
our faithful Friend.

happy birthday, daniel fredbeck!

hisaya took this photo of henry last easter in central park.
he’s entering it in a photography contest at the nippon club
in midtown and we’ll get to take henry to the opening gala
to see his photo on display & sample fancy desserts.
he’s not going to believe his good fortune.

jenny’s inspiring me with her spring cleaning & organizing.
so she asked how i organize our children’s wardrobes.

my initial guess was a bit off, but the pictures will keep me honest.

i initially projected that i keep:
b o y s (each)
2 khakis, 2 navy, 2 jeans, 1 cargo (’weekend pants’ the boys call ‘em)
5 polos, 2 long sleeve white shirts to layer under them
4 vests, 4-5 casual shirts (no collar)
the buckets: 3 pj’s, undershirts, undies & socks

g i r l s (each)
4-5 bottoms
6+ tops, 2 sweaters
a good handful of dresses
3 pj’s, 6 undershirts/onesies, undies & socks

so when i went to the closet to see how ‘on’ i was,
pretty close. a few more boys polos and the boys
have 7+ vests each. i do love the vest look.
(never have been able to persuade cory in that direction)

and when it comes to summer clothes,
the girls surely have lots of sweet dresses.
this year, i hope to sew some little shifts.
should be fun since i’m a non-sewer. (not the stinky kind)

c l o s e t s
boys: nathan on the top shelf, henry on the bottom shelf
henry’s bucket on the left - always overflowing.
when he gets dressed in the morning,
it’s a sport to pull everything out of that bucket.
nathan’s is usually tidy.

girls: from the floor up
5. bucket of panties (’candies’) & extra shoes
4. (rod) dresses & coats
3. communal pj’s, socks, tights & swim suits
2. caroline
1. betsy
tip-top: sheets & clothes that are a wee bit too big
note: we also have summer storage downstairs with
the out-of-season clothes.

(click to enlarge any photo)

‘always gracious, sometimes irreverant’
kate spade’s take on manners

“pleasemayi?pleasemayi?pleasemayi?please? mom,willyoureconsider?mom,willyoupleasereconsider?mom,please?!”

i sure do love these goof balls.
(i do, right? surely. right.)

‘henry and mudge’, town hall in times square
(l to r: henry, nathan, caroline, sarah grace,
erin, danny, james, jandro’s profile & houston)

two men with hammers
it takes so little to make me happy

today was one of those exotic days
where we had crepes for breakfast,
spent the morning wandering in the village
popping in and out of stores the kids & i enjoy,
had a relaxing lunch with cory on 23rd st,
and then sauntered home in the sunshine,
whistling as we walked.

OR

we washed the bedding on all 5 beds
(+ 5 mattress pads),
moved the beds & vacuumed underneath
collected & put away all the various toy bits that
we discovered under there,
re-sorted the tax papers that betsy kindly ’sorted’,
worked on citywrites taxes,
placed numerous calls about caroline’s birth cert/ssn,
(did i mention that snafu?)
dusted the bookshelves downstairs & sorted books to give away,
fanagled the penny out of the laminator (henry),
did 3 loads of non-bedding laundry,
and it’s only noon.

thankfully, He’s done the real work:

“You have led in your steadfast love
the people whom you have redeemed;
you have guided them by your strength
to your holy abode.” exodus 15:13

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
i think this is The Most Clever House.
i mean if you have $6m to spend and all.
clever design + 6 kids in manhattan
slide show of their digs
(it was in cookie mag ages ago but i still flip through
it every now and again just for happiness,
which confirms that i’m precisely as shallow as you
always thought i was)

on my bedside table this week:
new yorker, por supuesto
pentagram, ideas on design (thank you, nypl)
lewis blackwell, 20th century type
pentagram, living by design
nicole krauss, the history of love (thanks, pb)

humor me:

on the way to classic playground,
the boys and i were talking about the
idea of ‘i’m third’ as in,
God first,
others second,
and I’m third.

henry was so proud when he
insisted that nathan have the first
haircut when we got home.
no really, you go first.

um, we’ll keep working on it.

the view from missy’s, ms michelle as guest reader
lisa b is in the house, i wish cory had a tutu

ps: amanda, mmmmm, sandra mccracken.
thank you, love.

pps: how about that snowstorm this afternoon!
we laughed the whole way home from the library
thinking we were about to be blown away like
mary poppins. and can you believe the scaffolding
on that construction site at 69/amst actually
blew over?! more firetrucks & police cars than
i could count while trying to keep my eyes on the
road & steer us in the right direction.

our family is suffering from a rash of
knock knock jokes.
the really bad kind.
the form-before-function kind.

henry:
knock knock, who’s there, banana, banana who?
knock knock, who’s there, banana, banana who?
knock knock, who’s there, avocado, avocado who?
avocado you glad i didn’t say banana again?
(hen, it o n l y works with ‘orange’)

betsy:
knockknockknockknockknockknockknockknock
and occasionally,
knock knock, who’s there, dadadadadada

nathan:
knock knock, who’s there, archie, archie who? gzeundheit!
knock knock, who’s there, hawaii, hawaii who? i’m fine, hawaii you?

caroline:
knock knock, who’s there, porridge! hahahahaha
knock knock, who’s there, street sign! hahahahaha
knock knock, who’s there, library book! hahahahaha
ad nauseum, ad infinitum.

seriously. we have to stay away from
other humans for the infectious period.
we certainly wouldn’t want to project this
on your family.

love,
us

ps - the only comfort in knock knock fever is it reminds
me to look through knock knock’s cool site.
those guys are so clever.
pps - happy birthday, LBRN. observe marissa beating the pinata
with a swiffer & then lisa successfully performing the pinata-ectomy.
homemade chicken noodle or french onion? who knows you better than cory?
erica is so chad, and jet black was just the wrong answer.

luckily, we like kenneth from 30 rock.

1. espn recaps the collins incident and compares
brian collins to kenneth from 30 rock.
(missed it?)
2. 30 rock full episodes online. finally, a role suited to alec baldwin.
(you need to start with episode 1. and peter hermann is a gem & a gentleman)

betsy breaks into a hysterical
giggle when i tell her ‘no.’

she wants to touch the computer,
‘no, bets’ - that laugh, that gut-giggling laugh.

she wants to open the markers,
‘betsy, no’ - she actually tipped her curly head back
to accommodate her laughter.

uh ho.
she’s human.
it’s that blasted sinful nature.
i knew it was in there but,
you know how it is with babies,
you see so much of the sweetness
(those eyes! that smile!)
that you think maybe
this one has escaped that
main effect of the fall.

welcome to the club, betsy boo.

friday morning, 7:31am.  find dora in the pileup.

this makes laundry duty sweeter

that’s one busy piece of paper. we hope you feel better, ethan.

trinity, charlotte, caroline & brennan: the monday girls
trinity is competing in the miss new york pageant this wknd. we’re rooting for you, t!

rut row. unintended co-sleeping in the times