He is Risen!

He is Risen! Our Easter weekend was full and lovely with family meals and a trip to LongWood Gardens. The girls loved the water and flowers.  Lena was especially taken with the heating grates in the floor! (Toddlers are bizarre creatures sometimes). Two kiddos fell asleep on the way home. This year Emmie really understood the Resurrected Christ. But now she wants to know why everyone else who died and believed is not resurrected yet because in her words "Jesus could do it Mama". 

Best Friday

Annunciation and Good Friday will not fall on the same day again until 2157, so in honour of the day, here are some words written by John Donne to mark this same occasion in 1608:

Tamely, frail body, abstain today; today

My soul eats twice, Christ hither and away.

She sees Him man, so like God made in this,

That of them both a circle emblem is,

Whose first and last concur; this doubtful day

Of feast or fast, Christ came and went away;

She sees Him nothing twice at once, who’s all;

She sees a Cedar plant itself and fall,

Her Maker put to making, and the head

Of life at once not yet alive yet dead;

She sees at once the virgin mother stay

Reclused at home, public at Golgotha;

Sad and rejoiced she’s seen at once, and seen

At almost fifty and at scarce fifteen;

At once a Son is promised her, and gone;

Gabriel gives Christ to her, He her to John;

Not fully a mother, she’s in orbity,

At once receiver and the legacy;

All this, and all between, this day hath shown,

The abridgement of Christ’s story, which makes one

(As in plain maps, the furthest west is east)

Of the Angels’ Ave and Consummatum est.

How well the Church, God’s court of faculties,

Deals in some times and seldom joining these!

As by the self-fixed Pole we never do

Direct our course, but the next star thereto,

Which shows where the other is and which we say

(Because it strays not far) doth never stray,

So God by His Church, nearest to Him, we know

And stand firm, if we by her motion go;

His Spirit, as His fiery pillar doth

Lead, and His Church, as cloud, to one end both.

This Church, by letting these days join, hath shown

Death and conception in mankind is one:

Or ‘twas in Him the same humility

That He would be a man and leave to be:

Or as creation He had made, as God,

With the last judgment but one period,

His imitating Spouse would join in one

Manhood’s extremes: He shall come, He is gone:

Or as though the least of His pains, deeds, or words,

Would busy a life, she all this day affords;

This treasure then, in gross, my soul uplay, 

And in my life retail it every day.

Twenty Two Months

Dear Girlie,

You are fast approaching the two year mark and I can't seem to keep up. Its been a busy month, what with Momma in Ireland for a week and you and sissy spending lots of time with Oma and Opa and friends.  You're changing though and I want to remember.  These days you love particular books. These include "Duck and Goose", "Goodnight Moon", "We're going on a bear hunt".  You have developed a fierce fear of bugs and a very hysterical cry. You have had a vocabulary explosion and talk in full sentences all the time. You're favorite phrases and words include "Where's Momma",  "I can't", "I do it", Time for night night", "I'm all done".  You love strawberries and meat, crunchy carrots, and cranberry juice.  To document honestly I am including the last picture because little miss, you are still extremely dramatic! My! You are sweet and cuddly when you choose to be, but you also love to move. You are starting to enjoy coloring and like to play with dollies. You are learning the first question of the catechism and can count beyond 10. You have a sweet little lisp of some kind and your hair is wispy like an old man's hair. Your eyes are grey, green, brown. You are afraid of sheep and cows and you love Emmie B. How we love you. 

3.5

Dear Emmeline-

You are three and a half. Sweet baby girl, you are fast becoming a little girl who has a tender heart and a ripe imagination, a thirst for knowledge and love of Jesus. Sometimes you are so grown up, taking dishes to the counter, making your own bed, helping to set the table. But other times you need to cuddle or fall asleep in the car, your little cheeks still hinting of baby. You are busy reading the Bob Books, learning to write your numbers, you are drawing people with faces, appendages and very large ears that emerge out of their sides. You like to do your own hair, choose your outfit and help to cook. You love puddle jumping, Bible memory, story time, painting, art projects, castle building and ballet. In fact you are about to start ballet! You are about 32 pounds and have brown hair with golden highlights.  You sometimes take showers. You adore your grandparents, your cousins and friends. But you also still love quiet time to write or play. Your current favorite book is "Where the wild things are" but the list of beloved books is so many I can't begin to list them. You love Mother Goose Rhymes and Beatrix Potter audio books for rest time.  You love to ride your tricycle. Oh sweet Emmie. These days can be long and hard sometimes- a three year old and a two year old keep a Momma on her toes and on her knees.  But oh, watching you discover the world and rejoice in it is something I want to cherish in my heart always.  

Ireland- there and back again

Last week I traveled to Belfast, Ireland for my Viva, or in US terms, my thesis defense. By God's mercy it was successful and I have been granted my Phd degree. Praise the Lord. After many years of working in the deep night and fringe hours, this tired Mama is finished and happy to close the chapter.  Studying Bach's Cantatas and the contextual environment in which he composed those works has been one of the deepest blessings of my life.  But, woo hoo. I am SO glad to have passed. 

It took a great many people walking alongside these years, reading, editing, translating and many a helpful family member and parent.  This week especially it took extra time of from my beloved husband, extra babysitting hours and days from friends and Oma and Opa. We all may need a few weeks to recover. But my deepest thanks goes to everyone. Both flights were rather stressful with long delays and 20 plus hours of travel. The jet lag was the worst its ever been coupled with the stress and sleeplessness prior the trip. But Dad and I had a great trip and saw some beautiful parts of Northern and Western Ireland.  Dad was brave and rented a car, driving the numerous round a bouts like a champ, albeit on the wrong side of the road.  I missed the girls and Adam fiercely and I'm not sure I ever want to go through that part of it again. But everyone had some special Papa time and great days in Lebanon with family.  Here's to post-doctoral life and some good healthy re-establishment of life rhythms that do not include thesis editing.