Apple Picking

 

The infamous Grandma Allison is visiting, and we are trying to enjoy every bit of the much too short week she has with us before she heads back to Alaska.

  

Although it is admittedly late in the season to be apple picking here in Virginia, we decided to hold off until Grandma came. We love picking apples – it is one of our favorite family activities. The mountains are beautiful, the fresh air is exhilarating, and the children are free to run (or cry) without being slowed down or shushed. As we usually opt for the cheaper (and more easily accessible when you’re only 2 feet tall) ground apples anyway, we figured the lateness of the season wouldn’t hurt us too badly.

       

  

Monday we woke up to a gorgeous, sunny, crisp fall day (very welcome after the weeks of summer we had just experienced!). Ethan checked our usual orchard’s website to determine the availability of the apples, and we crammed into the van to travel the 1½ hours of pretty drive. “We’re almost there!” we kept telling the kids. And then, finally, we were there, where a large “Orchard Closed” sign forbad us to go any farther.

   

Fortunately for this cranky, crammed, hungry group, there was another orchard less than a half mile away. “We’ll try there,” we promised. And this time, we were not disappointed. The lady owner welcomed Ethan with a large grin and told us to pick clean her orchards, free of charge. We were the only pickers there…an entire orchard to ourselves. The children ran, dragged their feet, laughed, and cried in turn. Edee (9 mos.) delighted in riding on Grandma’s back. Benjamin (5) and Lily (3) delighted in showing Grandma their finds. Abraham (2) delighted in biting into an apple, yelling, “EWWW!” and spitting it out with great drama, over and over and over. Miriam (2) delighted in finding no delight. We chomped on delicious Stayman and Red Delicious apples, wavered between sweatshirts on/sweatshirts off, took pictures of the five children on an apple bough, and went back to thank the owner by purchasing some cider. To our surprise and wonder, the cider was fresh and unpasteurized. This is a rare thing to be able to find in Virginia, and it is scrumptious! We also purchased some very low-priced local honey (raw and unheated), and then she had each of the children pick out a free pumpkin.

  

    

After this, we finished filling our bellies at a local ma-n-pa-Cracker-Barrelish restaurant/store, called The Apple House. We were treated to delicious pork barbecue sandwiches (roasted in an apple sauce); and we wandered the store, exclaiming over quilts, lotions, Very Badley (ahem) priced quilted purses, and specialty sauces and candies.

   

It was wonderful.

  

   

  

Senior Sermon RELIEF

 

After the long, frustrating nights…

   

And the writing and writing…

   

And writing and writing….

  

And throwing away and starting over…

 

And writing and writing….

   

And rewriting and reworking…

  

And driving in the pouring rain, water gushing down as he tried to read obscure street signs in the dark, straining to hear me on the cell phone as I gave equally obscure directions from the Internet…

  

And finding a hotel that wouldn’t break the bank with a bed that wouldn’t break his back…

   

And waking early to practice and pray and practice and pray…

   

And me waking several times last night to worry and pray and worry and pray…

   

It. Is. Over.

   

I got the call a little after 1:00 this afternoon. “Well,” I gulped. “How’d it go?”

   

“It went better than I thought it would.” [A most unusual phrase to come from my husband’s mouth.] “They had a few suggestions and some very kind comments.”

   

And even the suggestions were gracious: the Greek professor thought the text (the Scripture portion he chose) could have been shorter to allow for more Greek exegesis; the homiletics professor argued that the text could have been shorter to allow for more application.

   

Glowing words of praise, even if I do say so myself.

  

And I do.

   

Senior Sermon

CarpeBanana indirectly gave me the idea to reward my husband's recent long, long nights of sermon preparation with an uplifting T-shirt. Not only is my husband preaching his senior sermon on I Corinthians 10 (albeit a few verses before the one on the shirt), but an encouraging word from the grave (even if it's only attributed to Martin Luther) can be quite comforting. Especially when it involves the words "beer," "sleep," and "heaven."

  

Ethan has finally left for South Carolina (7-8 hour drive) to preach his senior sermon. I told him I couldn’t wait for him to leave so he could hurry up and get back. He’ll only be gone for two days…he preaches his sermon tomorrow and then comes home after that…but it’s the exhilaration of knowing this headache-inducing senior project is OVER. Ethan’s no stranger to preaching – God’s providence has seen fit to provide him with plenty of preaching opportunities at nearby churches in our denomination – but the thought of having professors and students grill him afterwards is more than a little exasperating.

   

He has done a good job of taking it all in stride. He has tried not to think of this as some kind of measurement of success or application, but as another sermon where he shares God’s Word with His people. My prayer is that the students and professors will view it that way, too, and offer constructive criticism and encouragement. He has worked hard and long hours on this text, and it’s a good thing I’m not going. I think I would have a few choice words that were, um…not-so-godly, if anyone dared to criticize him!

    

This way, he can phone me with the results, and then I can cool off for 7 hours before he gets home.

    

And I’ve heard the sermon. And frankly, he did a darn good job, and I won’t believe a word to the contrary.

   

    

   

Quote of the Day

   

"Of COURSE moms should work outside of the home. You know, like mowing."

  

(Benjamin, 5)

  

 

  

Pencil It In

There were a few stock stories that circulated regularly when we had guests. These were the stories that you just knew were going to be told at some point during their stay. There were certain signs that the moment had come: Mom’s dark eyes would light up, a barely suppressed smile would squirm over her mouth, and her hands would begin rubbing briskly. Sure signs that a story was coming.

    

One such story that my mother could be counted on to share was the Joni story. When I was about four years old, my hero was Joni Eareckson Tada. Our church had a movie night when they showed “JONI,” and I was mesmerized. I loved that movie. I thought Joni was beautiful; and more than that, she was tragically beautiful. Left a quadriplegic after a diving accident, she wrestled with God’s sovereignty and omniscience and ended up a beautiful singer, broadcaster, and artist. I was intrigued by her ability to use her teeth to control a pencil or paintbrush, creating gorgeously detailed pieces of art. She could sing. Before her accident, she rode horses. She swam. What was there not to love?

     

Timmy was not convinced. He lived over thirty minutes away from our kindergarten, and my mother would take care of him after school until his mother got off from work. We played GI Joe. We played Cops-n-Robbers. We played Cowboys-n-Indians. We played House. And, after that fateful church movie night, we played Joni. To Tim, even House was better than Joni. Playing Joni took a great deal of imagination and little else. I would pull out two chairs, and we would sit there. I was a stickler for details: you could sing, talk about God’s work in your life, or fall out of your chair. You could NOT fly, run faster than a speeding bullet, or use your legs for anything other than floundering.

    

Not exactly thrilling, to Timmy’s way of thinking. After about twenty minutes of this, he would start asking when we could be finished to go play with the tools in the shed or go to the park or get a snack or do anything other than sit in the chair motionless. Complain, complain, complain. And one day, I had had enough of his complaining. My mother remembers peeking in on us only to find me, exasperated, breaking my own rules to get up from my chair, grab Tim’s pencil with my functioning hands, and shove it in his mouth, yelling, “Shut up and draw!”

   

I never understood why this story was in Mom’s Arsenal of Stories to Illustrate, Educate, Pontificate, Contemplate, or Entertain(ate?). But it was. And the guests always laughed, shaking their heads at me and sometimes repeating the last few words: “Shut up and draw, oooh, hooo, that’s a good one, shut up and draw.”

      

Some people just don’t know what fun is.

    

State Fair

Alpacas, piglets, puppies, ducklings.

  

Lemonade.

  

Carousel, roller coasters, slow train cars, slides.

   

Lemonade.

  

Miriam screaming violently on "caterpillar coaster." Ride stopping early. Miriam being lifted from ride by worker, who is saying, "I know you're scared, baby." Miriam being handed off to Ethan. Miriam looking at Ethan, wide grin spreading across her face, and an excited, "That was FUN!!!" blurting from her mouth.

   

Lemonade.

  

Dancing wildly for Grandma and Grandpa in front of the Indian flutist and Neil Young cover artist.

  

Lemonade.

   

And a quiet, sleepy ride home.

  

 

 

   

FREE Debate

Due to a generous donation, Covenant Media Foundation is offering the Greg Bahnsen/Gordon Stein debate for free ... well, almost free. Each copy costs 1 cent. And shipping is free.

  

Go! Get one! Go to www.cmfnow.com  and follow the very well-marked links for the free debate.

   

From their website:

"This is the famous formal debate between Dr. Bahnsen and atheist promoter Dr. Gordon Stein held at the university of California (Irvine) in 1985. Hear how hard it is to deny God's existence and how intellectually rigorous the Christian position actually is."

     

Dr. Bahnsen was an incredible theologian who excelled in Van Tilian apologetics. And you don't have to understand that last sentence in order to enjoy and benefit from this debate. CMF is offering it in MP3 downloadable format and CD format.

   

I am especially excited about this because I actually bought this at full price a little over a year ago.

    

So when I found out about this, I went and purchased two.

   

But that's just my 2 cents.