“In this house, everyday is a party!”

Sometimes, things are so good I start saying things like this in my head, even though I know it isn’t technically true. I read somewhere that this is a Scorpio trait –this mild schizophrenia. Who knows? Anyway…last night at Monkfish Abbey we had dinner in the back yard. It was unseasonably warm, and that spring-fever vibe was in the air. I’d just rescued two old kitchen chairs from one of those side-of-the-road furniture piles, and was completely obsessed with gathering up six of them and recovering the seats with retro-patterned fabric. I’d managed to get the first two covered and was determined to launch our … {read more…}

I wrote a piece for the Fremont Art Council (FAC), and I’ll be damned if they didn’t up it smack dab on the front page of their annual newspaper, the SOL. The kids are totally excited because their picture is right on the front page! There isn’t a weblink, but I’ve posted the text below.

Speaking of press, Monkfish Abbey got another nod last week when we were mentioned in a front-page story for the Seattle Times. There’s a bunch of other intriguing groups mentioned in the article, which you can link to here.

In other exciting news, the FAC folks also invited me to bless the workshop space for the Solstice Parade. I am unbelievably excited! … {read more…}

What’s a pastor’s kids doing at the Solstice Parade? Having the time of their lives!

My kids, ages 3 and five, are laughing and screaming at the top of their lungs. They are seated on either end of a giant see-saw, one of them embraced by a man in drag, the other seated with a fellow wearing a leather vest and holding a wine bottle in one hand. In addition to being flung up and down through the air on an enormous piece of wood, the entire see-saw is on huge wheels and two FAC folks are whipping the thing around in circles. It’s a playground experiment in centrifugal force – supersized!

This certainly isn’t the childhood I grew up with! In … {read more…}

It feels womanly, the spring equinox, all nyads and dryads and fertility rites. Maybe the girl’s very girlie request for a pedicure party last year at this time wasn’t so far off after all. (from my journal)

Yesterday was the spring equinox. It was gorgeous here – all sunshine and shirtsleeves and yellow daffodils– picture postcard perfect!

Spring cleaning is a part of Norooz, which we are celebrating this week with our friends-who-love-all-things-Persian, so the girls and I decided to do our preistessy duty and spring-clean the anger altar. First we gathered up all the shards – a whole bucketful! I loved how some of them seemed to break just right – the … {read more…}

seeing fall birds
eating pumpkin pie
snow (sometimes)
jumping into leaf piles

eating pumpkin pie
new clothes
jumping into leaf piles
going to school

new clothes
snow (sometimes)
going to school
seeing fall birds

At the Abbey last night:

Paul: “I’m gonna put Catie in the soup….ready Catie here you go!”

Rebecca: “Oh! Don’t put Catie in the soup or I can’t eat it! I’m a vegetarian.”

Catie: “I know whats a vegetarian is. That means you don’t eat meat.”

Rebecca: “That’s right Catie. One of the children at my preschool said, ‘I’m not a vegetarian, I’m a Christian.”

Catie: “What’s a Christian?”

Later I told Catie a Christian was someone who wanted to follow Christ, who wanted to be a “Christiani,” a “little Christ.” She said, “Who’s Christ?” I finally realized that we’ve only refered to Jesus as “Jesus,” when we read Bible stories and such. Which led to this addition funny bit:

Rachelle: “Maybe I should just tell … {read more…}

This is the prayer chain Eden made for her friend, Rosie. And here is the way the kid’s use it. (The brown beads are spacer beads.)

Children’s Prayer Chain

The Trinity Beads
Bead One: We welcome you Mama God/Papa God
Bead Two:We welcome you brother Jesus
Bead Three: We welcome you sister Spirit.

The Prayer Beads
Bead Four: Jesus loves me this I know
Bead Five: For my heart’s song tells me so
Bead Six: Little ones to God belong,
Bead Seven: When we’re weak, God is strong

Bead Eight: Yes, Jesus loves me
Bead Nine: Yes, Jesus loves me
Bead Ten: Yes, Jesus loves me

Bead Eleven: He loves me all day/night long.

The Amen Bead: Amen!

Rosie and I are thinking … {read more…}

This Sunday I decided I better get back on the wagon re: teaching my kids about the Bible. I’d given up on our Sunday morning “Bible Story Club” routine when I got disenchanted with the gimmicky curriculum I had bought on line. The girls got a few Bible stories over the Summer, and lots of lessons in gratitude (see our Summer book). But we didn’t do anything formal as far as religious education goes.

This Sunday morning we all sat on the window seat in our jammies. The girls wanted to read the story of Jesus calming the sea, so we did that. Then we tried to make a storm-in-the-bottle thing that came with the aforementioned dorky curriculum. That … {read more…}

We’re going to make our prayer flags tonight. But one of our minimonks has already been praying his little heart out. I ran into Ian (age 4.5) and his mom, Jen, in the fabric store earlier this week. Ian and I talked about how the picture’s he’d been drawing about the hurricane were like prayers. This is what Jen sent me on email later that day:

R,

This afternoon when Ian and I came home, he wanted to make more pictures of the Katrina floods. We talked about the pictures being prayers, but then I wanted to let him try making a little prayer shrine with … {read more…}

Up, Chuck!

I’ve had the stomach flu for the past three days. I do not recommend throwing up bean burritos. When I had any-time sickness with my pregnancies I kept a list on the fridge of which foods were easiest to get back up. If you are in danger of worshipping at the porcelain bowl, I recommend that you avoid the entire hot cereal family. Also, chicken corn chowder is not recommended.

When I Really Hate Religion

My grandmother is dying. She’s 82 and a recent stroke-like episode has sent her dementia into full swing. She’s never been a proper Christian. She’s got some distant Native American blood (Blackfoot, I think) and she’s always been pretty connected to the spiritual pull of the … {read more…}