read my mind

henry was sitting by my side
reading joke after joke
aloud to betsy + i

and i actually let loose
when he read this one:

knock knock
who’s there
fanny
fanny who?

these jokes aren’t very fanny.

mom’s night out

caroline and i might’ve
yelped with delight
when we saw these funnylittledaisies
(non-daisies? daisy-ish?)
at the bodega this morning.

it was love.

kisses to my favorite cjl.

and thanks, ladies,
for the perfect evening of
under-the-star out-of-doors
(stars? – was there more than one star visible?
let’s be honest here.)
good cheer,
of sangria + faux-ijtos
(it’s like a mojito only not),
of angel food + devilish laughter.

ps -
this is how much i love
my mom friends:
enough to not feel the pressure
to clean off my desk before
they come.

it takes me 15 min to put things
out of sight + another 10 min to
sort them back out and
i know these ladies didn’t
even notice.

they’re so cool like that.

everything on there is in process.
in those stolen 5 minutes of time
where i piecemeal the work
i need to get done.

nice.

pps -
see the white ladder leaning
against the brick wall?

i’m cracking up that jordyn showed up
at my house this afternoon
lugging that thing
saying,
‘you totally need this for your backyard.
i rescued it from the trash.’

i love that people see trash
and think of me.

awwww, shucks, j.

(it still has the pottery barn
price tag on it. interesting.)

and also?

charis rescued a little tricycle
out of the trash in
denver today.

and emailed me because
she knew i’d be proud of her.
(i am.)

geeeeee, guys.

seriously,
cracking me up here.

i do love a good dumpster dive;
bebe taught me everything i know.

petition vs. fellowship

‘one of the most basic things that the gospel does
is change prayer from mere petition to
fellowship
and the praise of his glory.

galatians 4:6-7 teaches us that when we
believe the gospel, we not only become
God’s children legally,
but we receive the Spirit in order to
experience
our sonship.
the Spirit leads us to call out passionately
to God as our tender + loving Father.

the Spirit calls out ‘abba’ (4:7)
in the very next verse
paul refers to this experience as
‘knowing God’.

-tim

from petition to fellowship.
whew.

i left my heart in

…upstate new york.

nathan’s home away from home.

(his bunk is the bottom-right front one)

with jae, his counselor.

he’s a youth ministry major @ nyack
and is from brooklyn.

i like.

i can’t wait to hear the stories.

ps -
i loved the drive
there and back.

and hearing the four of them chat
and crack up and…

what great kids.

into the wild

-ish.

the wild-ish.
well,
wild compared to the city.

or maybe it’s the
city
that’s wild…

i digress.

friday night
6:58pm
after a long happy last day of school

can you see that speck of blue
in caroline’s hand?
when we were packing our
travel bags (books + dolls)
she somehow (unnoticed) chose a
big blue maraca
as her travel toy.

it’s a miracle we’re all still friends.

almost there

hooray

gentle visitor

thriller

it seems like every store we’ve
gone in and out of in the
past day+ is playing
mj on a continuous loop;

he will be sorely missed.

(i’d be happy if mj + vintage madonna
were on continuous loop
all of the time.
in real life.

add in a little bon jovi +
wang chung,
a sprinkle of chicago
and a dash of debbie gibson,

ahhhhh.
let the good times roll)

and as we were heading up
to the train station,
we passed the apollo
where the line was
around the block +
the news trucks were taking up
the entire road
in prep for some sort of
impromptu tribute
that night.

now, to dig out the best mj that
youtube has to offer
and answer henry’s question
about what moonwalking is.

squirty

last day of school
watergunapalooza
w/ nathan’s school buddies
in central park

jordyn and i can just
duck off for coffee now, right?

caroline + lydia,
nathan’s pushing the double;
they’ve got it covered.

whew.

remember the  kanakuk cheer,
‘ready?!
i was born ready!’

if you squint,
you can see the russian tea room +
carnegie hall
past that lamppost.

(not with this lens,
but you get the idea)

i’m just crazy about h’s buddy, edward.

right before i took his picture,
he declared
(in his cutest, most watergun-serious voice),
‘henry is my enemy.’

i promised i wouldn’t reveal
his location to said enemy.

‘i need to feel the rocks, mom.’
(read: please don’t make me
wear my shoes.)

and not-surprisingly-for-henry’s-track-record,
no scrapes or cuts
in 2.5 hrs of boulder-jumping
watergunning.

these bushes (what are they?)
surrounding the perimeter
were intoxicating.

deep breaths.
oy, the beauty.

nathan heads back to base
for a refill.

(i’m pinching myself that
both boys’ swimtrunks
fit for a second season;
lucky break.)

relaxing equation

an hour’s train ride spent watching the hudson river +
a family night swim +
a family morning swim +
psalm 116 +
alice waters’ ‘the art of simple food’ =

can you hear my
exhale
from there?

$14 icy pleasure

every day after school
the ice cream truck beckons.

and many of our sweet friends
respond to it’s sirens call.

but not the cates’ fam.

our mantra,
‘last day of school.
last day of school.’

so i can’t understate how
special these last day of
school ice cream cones are.

finally.

our fourth ever trip to the truck.

sugaryicyspectacular.

henry’s double red merlin

5th grade, here we come.
2nd grade, bring it on.
kindergarten, hooray! (and finally)

and betsy has an(other) exciting (?)
year to look forward to
with mommy.

ps -
this is what happens when i’m
not completely paying attention
when the girls dress themselves;
b’s wearing c’s dress,
and
vice versa.

nice.

strange markings interpreted

karen correctly interpreted
the strange markings
on the pavement
that had me puzzled.

i sincerely thought they
were blocking off my whole
street as a no-parking zone
out of concern for the school children.

‘head in’ parking  = we now live in a parking lot.

as the boys and i walked out for
a nighttime starbucks school run,
i confessed my prayer request
for the day to n:
to learn to like
the new parking situation.

ugh.
oy.
yuck.

the very first cars
pull into the new arrangement.

while renee + i were chatting
and taking it all in
we saw a man walk out and
claim a space this way.

hmmmm.

and we saw our hard-working neighbor,
mrs. j, get into a small altercation
with a man over something parking-related.
ouch.

this is going to be weird.

meanwhile, inside the house
was peaceful, snaky-fun.
(i still haven’t touched it)

while this video-shoot
was going on in the
living room.

yay, guys.

and meanwhile,
huge thanks to diane + karen
for taking this handsome crew
to the carousel.

caroline had the nicest time;
thanks, friends.

.  .  .

now, back to the issue at hand.

i am going to nudge against
this new parking thing.

thanks to the kind 311 lady
who transcribed my concerns.

(i esp loved when she said,
‘fumes, did you mention fumes?’
and, well, i hadn’t,
but now that you mention it,
yes, fumes could be a problem.
thanks.)

stress tears

reason no. 1084 that i
adore my cory:

he understands my
stress tears
and
listens calmly
without freaking out.

usually that’s all it takes;
he listens,
i talk through the day-with-children
(he said,
she fell,
10-too-many things going on simultaneously,
we ran here,
we schlepped there,
it’s usually always just the ordinary
tiredandteary stuff of the day +
the public nature of city life
boosts the pressure i feel,
i think?)
and
then
i’m fine.

thanks for the ear, buddy.
seriously,
thanks.

i feel muuuuuch better,
thankyouverymuch,
and i can get on
with the evening.

ps -
the similarities between
a tired mommy
and a
tired child
at the end of the day
aren’t so different,
eh?

a little sympathy,
a warm bath,
and a popsicle
make a world of difference.

to park or not to park

the scandal du jour
on w 70th street:

two men,
two big trucks,
one hot paint machine,
and street markings.

*insert deep, dramatic gasp*

the neighbors were clumping in
little groups expressing their
outrage at the no-parking-markings
as the girls and i
were walking the boys to school.

my favorite response was
a businessman, who looked to be
in his early 40’s, insisting
to my friend, becky, and i,
‘well,
i’ve lived here for
twenty.nine.years.’

and we nodded gravely.

i’m not sure what his point was,
now that i think of it.

?

but he won the
seniority status competition.

for reference,
they extend from
in front of the caine’s bldg
all of the way to west end.

my new view

ps – the slate is in.
and grouted.
yay.

the drain will eventually
be brass, but anyway.

yay, again.

my worker man

it was so nice to enjoy
an evening with
cory’s colleagues
last night.

i almost got out my
calculator to show off
my own mad math+business skills.

but alas,
i refrained,
and just enjoyed their
company and conversation
into the night.

jenny, love the tablecloth;
thanks, babe.

the clever fromager @ f’wy
suggested a ‘midnight moon’
that was heavenly.
heavenly.
heaven’s cheese.
it’ll totally be on the menu.
(‘yes, please.’)

nothing says ’summer’ like
ina’s fresh corn salad + tabbouleh.

i knew i could be a ‘real mom’
when i found ms’s c-chip recipe;
it’s a never-fail.

my fearless cohost, ang;
thanks a million.

photo credits: my favorite njc

striking his
‘i lost 3 molars within 24 hrs’
and
‘the tooth fairy
so totally
ows me’
pose.

happy and wise

‘o Lord,
heavenly father,
make us
happy enough in you
to avoid sin
and
wise enough in you
to avoid danger,

that we may always do what is
right in your sight;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,

amen.’

the lovely ms. baer
preps the bongo drums
for henry’s class’
beatnik poetry reading.

get your snapping fingers ready.
(remember, no clapping)

h opted to wear my shades
instead of his own;
dark clothes, shades, a real microphone,
and funky edgy attitudes.

fabulous.

henry wrote 3 poems
for the occasion:

books
do they ever get tired
of sitting,
waiting,
sitting on a shelf,
until someone picks them up?

afraid of heights
when i was young
i could not climb an inch.
but now
i’m brave.
i can even climb
a foot.
being afraid of heights
is not a good feeling.

the perfect snowball
round as Pluto,
on the ground,
big as a capital O,
smooth as a rock.
your hands are crunching
and munching,
rolling the moist,
throwing
and stinging,
falling to the ground.

(the moist _____?
maybe he wanted to leave it
to our imagination.)

the ol’ snippy-snippy

c + b rounded the hallway corner
this morning with a
superdeluxe
guilty look

and
simultaneously exclaimed,
‘betsycutherhair!’ + ‘carolinecutmyhair!’

i’m just cracking up that
this is the first time
any of my kiddos
has taken the scissors
out for a haircutty spin.

remember the ‘asymmetrical’ haircut?

bringing the 80’s back
in a fierce way.

this is how we decided
to disguise it for the summer.

curly-bow-y-camouflage.

caroline was sure
daddy would want to
see it before we toss it.

gory.
cool.

ps -
some people paid
good money for this look.

watery love

henry helped me string up the gallery
while the girls were creating
bulk amounts of finger-painted papers.

i must pause to
give a shout out to my
spool of baker’s twine.

i bought it from the nice woman
behind the counter @
the hungarian pastry shoppe,
when we lived on 118th st,
so 6+ yrs ago,
and it’s like the widow’s oil,
the kids can use as
much as they’d like,
for years on end
and it hasn’t even made a
dent in the spool.

we’ve so totally gotten
our $8 worth.

30 day action plan, the slow roll-out version

i like what they said on saturday,
that when you have a plan, time is your ally,
and when you don’t have a plan, time is your enemy.

they encouraged us to create
30 day action plans for our children
to give us something practically
to do and to aim toward.

since we’re new at this,
cory and i decided to create
a full plan for nathan
and a
combined plan for the younger three.

that way we can figure it out a bit
as we go and then do more
individualized things later in the game.

so here’s what we’ve decided on
for this first month.

(it includes far more notes
for me than actual ‘plan’ for the kids;
my learning curve is slow and steep, i think.

and please advise
where i’ve missed the
point.)

a slow roll-out,
a rookie 30 day plan, as it were.

ps – when cory mentioned the
‘30 day action plan’ this morning,
nathan bounced up and said,
‘i like the sound of this!’

little did he know…

ps -
i’m trying to figure out
how to link the pdf-s.

hmmm.
?

pps -
here’s the nutshell
as i understand it.

the 5 components of the plan are:

. firmness: take action. repeatedly.
. prayer: prepare my heart + their heart for change. look for small changes.
. teaching: explain expectations. instruct. clarify + illustrate.
. vision: they need hope. tell how this change will benefit them. repeat often.
. coaching: encourage. persistence + patience on the part
of the parent move the child along the path toward change.

throwing down

7:52pm
saturday night

pretty sketch marks.

he’s got the rotozip
(grinder mode)
fired up out back
where he’s cutting the
corner pieces.

in the rain.

i don’t think he’s even noticed.

jiminy cricket and then some

the conscience plus the holy spirit
is what we’re looking for.

so grateful for the biblical parenting
seminar today on strengthening
the conscience so that children
become internally motivated;
whew.

our heads are spinning tonight,
in a good way.

much to digest,
to talk about + pray about
and
implement.

huge thanks to scott + joanne for speaking,
redeemer + to brent,
to trinity + to cindy,
to all of the dads that came
(props on a stellar male turnout)
and to the
amazing
moms.

we’re in this together.

i like being on the
welcoming committee.

big surprise there.

work it, betsy.

all photo credits: cindy p.

digestive

saturday feeding time
draws a curious crowd.

eeewww, gross.

ps – j was bummed when
she realized the ‘meal’
was already dead.

?

girl wanted a chase?

doublegross.

gourmet rodent

um,
there might be
one of those
in my freezer,
a ‘gourmet rodent’
according to the tidy little pkg.

have i mentioned that we
acquired a
snake?

i couldn’t bring myself to
talk about it
when we first inherited him
and i still haven’t gone
within 5 feet of him.

slick’s the name,
corn snake’s the game.

i must admit,
he’s quite cute.

for a snake.

see how itsybitsy he is?

a cherry-lifesaver kind of day

one of my clients
cracked me up with
this one:

‘you’re like a
cherry lifesaver
to me today;
my Very Favorite Thing in the
whole wide world!’

it’s an honor to be someone’s
cherry lifesaver,
certainly.

full disclaimer:
nathan is 1/2 of the lifesaver
since he was willing to
wait out front for her taxi
for an early-morning-in-the-pouring-rain
pen handoff from her to me
while i waited inside
(his idea).

yes, this is my life,

people hand me pens
in the pouring rain
so i can write in
exactly
the right
shade of orange.

i like it.

neighborly pie

angel lorraine had the
morgan + cates kiddos
up for a pie-making session.

crust from scratch, check.
strawberries hand-picked over the wknd, check.
their first exposure to rhubarb, check.
(‘it’s like red celery, mom.‘)

a watched croissant never…bakes?
but it did.

pie (and eggs + croissants) for breakfast;
the taste of summer.

thanks a million, L.

1:24pm

early dismissal +
the mildest weather =
mmmmm.

(yay for the concrete)

(see the kramer’s open umbrella
in the back-background?
we can hear e playing bball.
happy sounds.)

while the four big kids
enjoy the patio,
b asked to ‘take a nap’
in my room.

i wish i could oblige,
but she’ll never ever go to sleep
if that’s the case,
so she’s snuggled up on my bed,
under close surveillance,
reading books +
hugging buster bear.

hooray
for
monday.

babysitting concrete

that’s what cory + ted are doing now,
babysitting the fresh concrete
out front.

here’s what i came home to tonight:

(see henry’s head in his window?
soundly sleeping.
not.
watching daddy is much more fun.)

hello, front step.
looking smooth.

30 more minutes until he
can take off the wooden form
and let it finish drying overnight.

and then, later this week,
the pretty part begins;
think: slate.

earlier today…
caroline loves being his
right hand girl.

thankfully, her attention span
is super long +
she vacillates between
watching quietly and
telling funny stories,
a good work companion, i think.

top o’ the saturday morning to ya

8am
saturday morning

cory’s favorite way to spend
a saturday morning,
that’s for sure.

trophy time is always special,
but especially so when you’re
a first-year t-baller.

the six of us had
classic playground
all to ourselves
for an entire hour.

urban privacy,
an unexpected pleasure.

he would catch the girls mid-swing,
kiss them exaggeratedly,
and exclaim,
‘where have you been all my life?’
in a baritoneprinceharming voice.

i’m going to create an
‘indoor cleanliness ass’n’
for my apartment.

it’ll have six charter members.
membership required.

if only it were that easy.

something old, something new

three
cheers

for our sweet jen + david;

just two short months now
until they’re
.  mr. + mrs. keller  .

(i thought i’d take a photo
of the cake just in case
i fumbled it in transit
from my apt to roosevelt island;
then i’d have a back up that
i could show her,
’see this photo?
i made you a cake +
i love you.
and now it’s just a heap of sugarymess’

luckily, it traveled just fine
thanks to jonathan’s
mad driving skills.)

gracias, j.

four layers.
just for fun.

fab dress, j.

our charismatic jen at her
story-telling best.
(as her mom looks on proudly.
i love it.)

w/ kathy, david, jen, jen’s mom, dee + sara.
it was lovely being a part
of dee’s ‘tea team’;
any time, dee,
any time.

harry hinzman, birthday jedi

happy birthday,
harry sweetpea.

we can’t believe you’re
seven.

your parent’s wedding feels like
yesterday
(and what a party that was)
and then you came along
and
voila,
what a guy,
what a guy.

103rd + riverside drive

see the ‘HH’?
that clever sara.

7 layer cakes +
the legs are rice krispie treats
covered in fondant.
wowzers.

the happiness is strong with this one.

mia

mia’s baby sister, camille.
i could just eat her up.

rounding up the shoes.

pre-party pics;
henry can’t keep from chuckling.

ps -
here’s how we started the day:
busting out the tile
in the building entryway.

entryway rehab, phase 1,
begins.

ta-da.

birthday steaks

this is exactly what i was looking for;
an uber-relaxed
birthdayboycory,
enjoying a quiet evening
with friends.

thanks, j + a.

justin’s mad grilling skills.

girly girls

kathryn in the bucket
was cracking me up.

a magnatile stable for
their mylittleponies +
snapgirls + barbies =
serious work, amigos.
serious work.

really?
caroline and i had to get these;
we were just too curious.

let me shoot straight here,
if i want a chip,
i want it to be a potato.

a green bean chip?

it has the weirdest aftertaste.

(ps -
ask me for one
when you stop by,
i’m sure they’ll still be
in the pantry since
no one is asking for
seconds.)

all in a day’s work

i love the days
when the hardest choice
they have to make
is whether to play
‘fancy restaurant’
or
‘toy store’.

they went with
‘fancy restaurant’.

i was pleasantly surprised
when i got the bill,
$0.51,
‘deal of the day’
nathan had written beside it.

i knew she was
an angel.

i love that birthday boy

rice krispie treats fit for a…
well,
grown-up handsome man.

that’s right,
ang brought heaps of
sugar sweet sunshine
cupcakes.

seriously, guys,
are you thinking what i’m thinking?

it sounds scandalous,
but these are better
than mag____.

i can’t even bring myself to say it.
but it’s true.

ps -
now, this is more like it.
way to go, k;
fab cake for
fabulous elena.

poverty of attention

so many playground conversations
recently have been about
how consuming family paperwork
and information is.

emails, hard copies,
snail mail, and the
blackberries, cell phones, iphones,
and the like that
go with it.

the frustration centers around
how to live in this culture
without it overtaking + overwhelm us,
distracting us from the
living human beings close at hand,
and esp those in our care.

a. verghese’s article in the atlantic
this month touches on what
we’ve been wrestling with,
as he quotes the psychologist Herbert Simon,

‘the wealth of information means a
dearth of something else:
a scarcity of whatever it is that
information consumes.

what information consumes is rather obvious:
it consumes the attention of its recipients.

hence a wealth of information creates
a poverty of attention
and a need to allocate that attention efficiently
among the overabundance of sources
that might consume it.’

he’s applying his special ‘theory of attentivity’
to the medical profession in suggesting that
a = Ac + Ap,
where a is the total attention we give to a patient’s problem,
Ac is minutes we spend attending to the computer and
Ap is minutes at the patient’s bedside.

surely there’s a family-management theory
to be adapted out of this,
and surely i’ll think of it
in the quiet of the night
when my laptop is shut
and my cell phone is silently charging.

ps -
can i write that last line
with a straight face?

anyone who knows me
knows that i never know
where my phone is
and when i actually find it,
there’s no chance it’s
charged.

adios, ya’ll

or however they say it
in texas.

mapquest is not my friend today
as it confirmed my fear:
houston is a heckuva long way
from new york city.

oy vey.

i wonder how long it’d take
us on horseback.

we adore you,
todd + laran,
houston, hank + cash.

the city will be so much
less
without your spunky, loving selves.

our exuberant hostess, zoe.

six-eleven

one more sleep
until my favorite guy
turns 35.

ever since i met his terrific self
(we were 17),
i get this flipfloppy feeling
in my stomach every time i
see a 6-11.

6:11am,
6:11pm,
611 as a street address,
1 corinthians 6:11,
anything that reminds me
of that superb day
he was born.

(i was a whopping 2 months old
when the actual 6/11 occured,
so that’s kind of a blur for me)

loveyou,babe.

sunday night, 8:43pm,
@ the whitford’s

‘little balloon people’

as the program said,
and let me tell you,
caroline was thrilled to be a
‘little balloon person’
in her first-ever
ballet recital.

and she’s donned her
fancyshiny
(wonderfully hideous?)
costume
(or ‘disguise’ as henry
keeps calling it)
daily since then.

my wise friend, sandi,
tipped me off,
‘don’t blink or you’ll miss them.’

35 seconds of ballet glory.
okay, maybe 40 seconds,
but certainly not 41.

yay, abby.

the finale

caroline + charlotte;
let me tell you,
caroline had The Best Time.

she grinned through the entire thing,
so incredibly happy, she was.

oops – not pictured:
brennan + jane;
i was clapping so hard
i missed getting their pictures.
way to go, sweet girls.

her fan club
(photo credit: ed morgan)

thanks, friends +
congrats, c.

super what? bird

i forgot how much
henry’s lowercase ‘R’s
look like ‘N’s…

paRty bird,
got it.
party bird.

go, bulldogs

no. 7

no. 16

(you’ll never guess why
they call it ‘dino park.’
i’ll fill you in later.)

a quick strip +
an unexpected dip
in the sprinklers.

one last playtime with
the simmons’.

gulp.

229.58 mi

from my front door
to wendy’s new front door.

it’s so hard to say goodbye.
again.

(remember when we got them back
from the houston move?
i thought we’d died +
gone to heaven.)

we sure do love you,
jason + wendy,
luke, annie + madeleine.

we remember holding all three of
you as littlebitsy babies
and now you’re growing and
fabulous and
we don’t want to imagine
city life without you.

alas, dc isn’t that far.

we love you dearly.

charlotte + ethan

caroline + jj

james, nathan + peter

ellie, abby, caroline, + betsy
take a lesson from jordyn

annie

jesse

maddie

mr. p

patti + ellie

abby’s turn

annie’s turn

ezra takes a breather.

lydia

our lady of the diet coke

happy bday, tracy friend.

whisper

‘whisper to my heart,
i am here to save you.’
-st. augustine

henry and i spent a magical
two hours at dave + buster’s
in times square today
at a friend’s birthday party.

i forgot how addicting
arcade games can be.

esp. when h hit the jackpot three times.
250 tickets each time.
(‘colormania’, if you want to try)

and then at the end of the day,
when the girls were already in dream land
and the boys had showered + were reading,
i convinced them (it wasn’t hard)
to pull on their sweatshirts and sneakers
and take a walk with me.

a head-clearing walk
with some 10 + 6 yr old banter,
just what the dr. ordered.

starbucks night school, as it were.

and we each had our book
and henry kept reading every page
of his aloud to us,
‘wait, wait, listen to this!’
and
i kept getting chills at
st. augustine’s confessions.

candid, that man was.

‘whisper to my heart,
i am here to save you.’

indeed.

now, if only my cory could
come home from the office;
this week has been a long one for him
and we miss him.

i have to admit,
i was watching every businessman
who walked by the coffee shop window,
is it him?

and the stream of cjc-look-alikes
was seemingly endless;
shirttails tucked + untucked,
messenger bags, brief cases, back packs.
suit jackets + no jackets,
blackberries + cell phones,
lost in thought.
all of them.

it’s not him yet.
but i’m waiting.

fashion hat

i’m getting the biggest laugh
envisioning the
coolest people i know (that’s you)
wearing this,
the cap sac.

a fanny pack for your head.

oh, nooooooo.

oh, yessssss.
and it comes in many
fashion colors.

(thanks, swiss-miss)

and more importantly,
it was fellowship group night
as you know.

and i love fellowship group,
as you know.

and lisa led us in some beautiful worship,
reading from psalm 118 + 136
and then having us write our
own prayers based on those psalms.

thanks to felicia for
fearlessly leading us thru
3 chapters of genesis.

i love these guys:
nick, amy, bethany, james,
joe, elizabeth, david g, felicia, angela,
emily p, emily b, david k, jen,
lbrn, cory, whitney, conrad,
and even smiley+not-tiredbetsy
joined us for a bit.

consider, part 2

tim continues,
on having ‘burning love’:

‘have i spoken or thought unkindly of anyone?
have i been impatient or irritable?
have i been self-absorbed
and so indifferent and inattentive to people?

consider free grace till there is

1. no coldness or unkindness
(think of the sacrifical love of Christ for you)

2. no impatience
(think of his patience with you), and

3. no indifference.

consider free grace until
i show
warmth + affection.

God was infinitely patient and attentive to me,
out of grace.’

- t. keller, ‘disciplines of spirituality’

friends of one’s own

the other afternoon
as we were walking down the street,
caroline asked when it was
that she started having
her ‘own’ friends.

and she proceeded to list
a few of her ‘own’ friends.

children,
adults,
people she claimed;
a very endearing list.

so cory and i found a special
little address book
and had it wrapped
and
waiting for her.

and it has been the most fun
watching her collect
names and phone numbers
of her ‘own’ friends.

in alphabetical order,
by first name.

lisa even drew a picture of
something she and caroline
like to do together,
the two of them (stick-ish versions)
playing memory on the rug.

my entry says,
‘mommy.
you’ll always know where i am.’

betsy’s entry says just that.
‘BETSY’
in her trying-so-hard
3 yr old handwriting.

consider free grace

tim’s repeated exhortation to us
is a balm to my soul
this monday morning,

consider free grace.

on gaining ‘deep humility’
he urges us:

‘have i looked down on anyone?
have i been too stung by criticism?
have i felt snubbed and ignored?

consider free grace
till there is
1) no disdain (since i am a sinner, too) and
2) i’m not stung by criticism (i am valuing human approal
over God’s love)

am i working for the glory of the
one who died for me
or for my glory?

i must let go of the need to keep up
a good image–
too great a burden and
now unnecessary.

consider free grace
until i experience
grateful, restful joy.

everything i have is a gift.’

-t. keller,
‘disciplines of spirituality’, 2003