For the first time ever I got called up for jury duty.
It came in the mail today, and as much as I hope that someday there will be a season in my life when I can be a good citizen and serve on a jury, this just ain't it. So I asked for an exemption based on having "legal custody of a child or children younger than 10 years of age and service on the jury would require leaving the child or children without adequate supervision."

I suppose I could hire someone to take over for me, but my goodness, I have no idea what bonbon-eaters get paid these days!

Merry Christmas!

All my heart this night rejoices,
As I hear, far and near, sweetest angel voices;
“Christ is born,” their choirs are singing,
Till the air, everywhere, now their joy is ringing.

Forth today the Conqueror goeth,
Who the foe, sin and woe, death and hell, o’erthroweth.
God is man, man to deliver;
His dear Son now is one with our blood forever.

Shall we still dread God’s displeasure,
Who, to save, freely gave His most cherished Treasure?
To redeem us, He hath given
His own Son from the throne of His might in heaven.

Should He who Himself imparted
Aught withhold from the fold, leave us broken hearted?
Should the Son of God not love us,
Who, to cheer sufferers here, left His throne above us?

If our blessèd Lord and Maker
Hated men, would He then be of flesh partaker?
If He in our woe delighted,
Would He bear all the care of our race benighted?

He becomes the Lamb that taketh
Sin away and for aye full atonement maketh.
For our life His own He tenders
And our race, by His grace, meet for glory renders.

For it dawns, the promised morrow
Of His birth, Who the earth rescues from her sorrow.
God to wear our form descendeth;
Of His grace to our race here His Son He sendeth.

Hark! a voice from yonder manger,
Soft and sweet, doth entreat, “Flee from woe and danger;
Brethren, come; from all that grieves you
You are freed; all you need I will surely give you.”

Come, then, let us hasten yonder;
Here let all, great and small, kneel in awe and wonder,
Love Him Who with love is yearning;
Hail the star that from far bright with hope is burning.

Blessèd Savior, let me find Thee!
Keep Thou me close to Thee, cast me not behind Thee!
Life of life, my heart Thou stillest,
Calm I rest on Thy breast, all this void Thou fillest.

Thee, dear Lord, with heed I’ll cherish;
Live to Thee and with Thee, dying, shall not perish;
But shall dwell with Thee for ever,
Far on high, in the joy that can alter never.

~Paul Gerhardt
(tr. Catherine Winkworth)

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas?
It is currently 72 degrees and the ice cream truck is going down my street right now, playing "Oh give me a home, where the buffalo roam...." This must be what Christmas feels like in Australia. :-D

In an effort to justify my position as Clog in the Machine on the Discoshaman's blogroll, I have sent my first letter to the editor of Reader's Digest.

I was interested to note your statistic that fully "7% of U.S. households are married couples with kids where just the husband works." As a housewife and homeshooling mom of seven whose husband brings in the family's sole income, I imagine this figure is ridiculously high. Of all the single income families I know, I cannot think of one where the husband holds down a paying job, and does all the housework and child care while his wife spends her life on the couch watching soaps and eating bon bons.

As an added cloggish touch, in the information field requesting my first name, I put "Mrs. Michael."

Although I have been published once before (my only other foray into the world of letters-to-editors being addressed to the Montgomery Times and quoting the entire text of the Mayflower Compact in order to refute some wise soul who claimed we can have no idea what the Compact said), I will be just tickled pink if RD publishes my letter.

One guess where I'm spending this afternoon with my three oldest dibbuns! ;-)

I redecorated.
Can you tell? ;-)

I'm not sure about it, though. I'm thinking of swapping the green and gold. What do y'all think?

**Update**
For those of you who saw it before, do you like this one any better?

No Christmas pudding for us this year.
I have not been able to get to the commissary ahead of the hunters in order to get suet. It seems all the deer hunters add suet to their deer meat (what - are they grinding it up together? That's the only thing I can figure out.) So, if I think about it after deer season, I might go ahead and get some and just save it for next year. Or maybe we'll go ahead and make it and eat it, just to be sure I'm doing it right, so I won't have a great big flop next Christmas.

Hey, this is fun Found at Mike and Kristen's blog - Make a snowflake.

Here's one I made.

Flags
Since Anne Marie asked. :-)

This is the flag of Scotland, also called the St. Andrew's Saltire [cross]:




The confederate battle flag uses the St. Andrew's cross, but reverses the colors:




This is the Christian flag:

Subversive gift-giving
Last year I bought a subscription to Tabletalk for my mom and step-dad for their Christmas present. Mom loves it and a couple of times she has called me to talk about something she read there.

Last month, one of the adult Sunday School teachers at her Methodist church was unable to teach, so Mom took his class for the whole month and that month's Tabletalk for her lessons!

When we were there for Thanksgiving, I asked if she wanted me to renew it for her, and she told me she had already bought a 3 year subscription for herself!

Do you suppose...
that if Peter Jackson made movies out of C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy, the Christian book stores would finally start selling the books?

More Christmas preparations
Visiting Dr. G's blog yesterday, I saw his recipe for Plum Pudding on the website. That recipe, with a little bit of info, is in his wife's cookbook, which I gave my oldest on her 14th birthday this year.

I've had plum pudding once before in my life. A college in Arkansas had an annual madrigal dinner at Christmas time and served it. I was invited to the dinner in 1986, I think, and was surprised to find out that plum pudding is not at all like chocolate pudding or even banana pudding; it's more like a muffin - a moist, dense muffin with warm sauce poured over it. It was so rich I couldn't eat the whole thing!

I'm a couple of days behind on the traditional aspect of it, but I have to go to the commissary today anyway, so I think I'll buy the ingredients and try to make this treat.

At his blog, Dr. G gives more history of Stir-up Sunday, plus some info on St. Andrew, and a quote, "Chesterton and Christmas Pudding," so I'd recommend reading it, if you haven't already done so. The post is dated November 29.

WWJB - What would Jane Blog?
I've gotten a few hits by people looking for pentamom blog. I am sorry to tell Jane's admirers, but she steadfastly refuses to have her own blog. But all is not lost - if you want to know what the Pentamom thinks, all you have to do is google "pentamom." That search turns up every comment The Wise One has ever made at the Discoshaman's blog. :-D

Faulty memory - need help
Not too long ago, some blogger or other, I thought it was Valerie, posted a link to an interesting article that discussed the roots of American Negro Spirituals. I told my mom about it last week and she want to read the article, but I can't find it.

I should throw a party or something
Valerie was my 5000th visitor! :-D