Another young blogger!
At Samantha's blog tonight I learned that Moppet 1 now has a blog. Like her mom, she's quite an artist.

And another blogger!
At Tim Enloe's tonight I learned that forum-friend Nevski has a blog, Novae Militae. Be sure to check out his links - that page is chock full of links to articles on Christian chivalry transforming the culture.

So I was looking at my drafts and I have ten things in there I've started and never finished. Story of my life. I'm great at dreaming and planning, but when I start to do it, the details always bog me down. Like the thing about posting pictures of my garden. Mike found my camera a few days ago, so I've taken some representative pics and planned out how to arrange them and what to say about each one, but now I can't find the cable so that I can upload the pics onto my computer!

(N.B. this post was originally composed at 4 this afternoon, then posted as... you guessed, a draft!)

To continue my randomness. Most of the family has gone to the chapel for supper, Bible study, and evening prayers. My 3 year old never took a nap today and I didn't think he would be equal to the entire evening, so we're skipping the supper and Bible study and going for prayers.

The Wednesday night Bible study was started by the LCMS chaplain, so we always use the Lutheran Hymnal for evening prayers, and I can't tell you how much I love Lutheran worship services. Most of the Evening Prayer service is sung, including the opening prayer (congregational response is in bold):

Jesus Christ is the Light of the world,
the light no darkness can overcome.
Stay with us, Lord, for it is evening,
and the day is almost over.
Let your light scatter the darkness
and illumine your Church.

Sometimes we use the Compline service instead. This is the last prayer in that service, which is also sung:

Guide us waking, O Lord,
and guard us sleeping
that awake we may watch with Christ
and asleep we may rest in peace.

This melody of this prayer is particularly beautiful, drifting downward at the end.

Well, it's time to go to prayers now, so TTFN!

**Update**
Well, Lutheran liturgy is beautiful, but the theology is downright schizophrenic. I arrived early enough to hear the last 15 minutes or so of the lesson. We're studying through the Augsberg Confession and tonight we covered Articles VII and VIII, the Invisible and Visible Church, respectively.

Maybe it's not the theology that's the problem - the Augsberg Confession seems sound - but it's the way it gets put into practice that I find so confusing. Without going into any details, let me just say that I would no more attend a joint worship service with Jews and Muslims than I would with worshippers of Molech and Ashteroth, but I am more than glad to receive Holy Communion with Christians of other denominations.

I guess this wouldn't bother me so much, except that, being without a faithful Reformed church to join here, we had hoped that the LCMS would work out, and it's not - because of the communion issue. And I do so love their worship services!

Lord, thou hast searched me, and dost know
Where'er I rest, where'er I go;
Thou knowest all that I have planned,
And all my ways are in thy hand.

My words from thee I cannot hide;
I feel thy power on every side;
O wondrous knowledge, awful might,
Unfathomed depth, unmeasured height!

Where can I go apart from thee,
Or whither from thy presence flee?
In heaven? It is thy dwelling fair;
In death's abode? Lo, thou art there.

If I the wings of morning take,
And far away my dwelling make,
The hand that leadeth me is thine,
And my support thy power divine.

If deepest darkness cover me,
The darkness hideth not from thee;
To thee both night and day are bright,
The darkness shineth as the light.

Words: paraphrase of Psalm 139, author unknown
Music: “Puer Nobis Nascitur,” Michael Praetorius, 1609

Two favorites
Favorite remedy for sleepless babies and children: foot massage with lavendar oil. Put a generous dab of unscented lotion (my favorite is Aveeno's baby lotion) in your palm and add a drop of lavendar essential oil. Rub your hands together to mix the oil into the lotion, then massage your child's feet and calves with the lotion. Works like a charm!

Favorite resource: America's Wars: A Biblical Overview and Evaluation, is a set of tapes from Christ Church's second history conference, speakers Steve Wilkins, Doug Wilson, and Tom Garfield. The first tape is an overview of the theology of warfare, including the Just War theory. The rest of the tapes discuss each war we've been involved in since the colonial days, focusing mainly on the ideology behind our involvement in each situation.

Public service announcement
Plenty of other folks have posted links to Doug Wilson's new blog, so I didn't think it was necessary for me to do so as well, however I've received several search engine hits lately looking for "doug wilson" blog, and I do so like to be helpful, so here it is: Blog and Mablog. Enjoy!
:-D

Ten thousand
At 6:45 this morning, someone did a google search on teacher, thy name sheep novel and clicking through to this blog, became my official 10,000th visitor. I say "official" because earlier this month Site Meter burped or something and lost four or five days' worth of hits.

And unfortunately for the visitor, by blog wasn't any help! (Well, not any immediate help, anyway.)

Polling power!
Elaienar showed me how to do polls weeks ago, but I haven't thought of anything to ask... until now! In the comments to the thread below, Paul Baxter asked the question that sparked this poll. Please leave a comment after you vote, if you care to. Thanks!

Which best describes you?
	Christian American
	American Christian
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Why Christians keep voting for Republicans

The scene: London. Our heroes Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent are sitting in Arthur's house when, amidst the cacophony of machinery, there marches down the ramp of a space ship "an immense silver robot, a hundred feet tall."

It held up a hand.

"I come in peace," it said, adding after a long moment of further grinding, "take me to your Lizard."

Ford Prefect, of course, had an explanation for this...

"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see...."

"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"

"No," said Ford..., "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."

"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."

"I did," said Ford. "It is."

"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?"

"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."

"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"

"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."

"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"

"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in."

(Douglas Adams, So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish)

You don't have to choose from among the lesser of two lizards. There really is an alternative.

Filling in blanks
The other day, Suzanne said that when they got their income tax forms back, the accountant had filled in Suzanne's occupation as "none." For those of you who don't know, Suzanne is a fellow bon-bon eater, that is, she homeschools her seven children. ;-)

As far as tax forms go, I agree with Suzanne that "none" is just fine. I'd really prefer not to have the government decide that I'm doing anything taxable here. But the topic got me to thinking again about just what I should put into the blank that says Occupation, when I'm filling out forms.

If a form asks for my employer I just put N/A, and if it asks for my job, I usually put Housewife, in defiance of the people who denigrate that role. In the past I used to put Homeschool Mom, until I realized that the feminists have decided that Homeschool Mom is a valid career path for women who are fulfilled by that activity, and the fact that the main thing it says about me is that I'm a mom, when in fact being a mother is secondary to my role as Wife.

I've considered putting Rocks the Cradle, as in "The hand that..." Heh, heh. That'll show them how important my job is! The only problem with this one is that I think it originated as a plea to wealthy British parents to be very conscientious in choosing a nanny. Not quite the image I want to convey.

So, I'm back to "Housewife," or "N/A." There's always "Wife and Mother." What do you SAHMs do?

Found somewhere online
"Dentists are leftover travelling torturers from the Middle Ages. Stay away from them."

:-p