At Church

As we were walking out of the church after mass last Sunday, we were greeted by some students from one of the local schools, selling handicrafts for charity. We walked past them...and C says to me, "I thought Jesus didn't want his church to be a marketplace?"

It took a few seconds for me to answer, because Andrew Lloyd Webber's music from Norman Jewison's 1973 film was playing in my head via Ted Neeley screeching in rock and roll, "My temple should be a house of prayer! But you have made it a den of thieves. Get out! Get out!" I knew it was playing in C's head, too.

He went to ask his Dad, who quickly said that the people are selling things for the Church and for charity.

T says to me, "We may have to balance out our theology with less Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

The Power of Running

John Irving compared running to writing, and now that I've started running, I'm really starting to see that, and it's amazing and powerful.

Like running, with writing, when you do more, you want to do more. You want to do it everyday. While you're running, you get ideas. While you're writing, you get ideas. You are literally overflowing with ideas, and you feel like you can keep on going. At first, when you start running, it takes you awhile to build stamina. But running is the same.And you can just keep on pushing it and pushing it.

Back in graduate school, my friend Janette ran. She ran every single day - even in the rain and in the snow. As I think about that time which was very fruitful and rewarding, I think I should have been running as well.

It was a great time. It could have been even more so. No matter, it can be that again now.

A Rainy Weekend

For a time, there were all these questions that we didn't have answers to, problems with no solutions. And then, all of a sudden, like rsvp slips to invitations sent out in little envelopes, there were the answers. To be sure, the precise nature of those answers is surprising, satisfying but surprising, and not exactly in the shape or form that was hoped for or requested, but there is no mistaking they are good answers. Ultimately, good answers are of course, no matter how unexpected, are better than no answers.

And now we're at that point when we have to act upon those answers. Preparations need to be made. More plans drawn up based on an entirely new set of circumstances. And for us, specifically, this means another move - and only nine months from the last one.

But before that there were more pressing things. K and C's first piano recital - C played a simple single note variation of "It's a Small World" and "Camptown Races". K did a duet wtih her teacher - "Edelweiss" and "Home on the Range". They both did quite well, especially considering they only had a little more than a week to prepare for the performance.

And then we had lots and lots of rain - so we took a break and enjoyed it. Rain is a great thing - it is cooling and relaxing and easy and wonderful. After the rain, we can start getting things done.

New favourite thing

My breakfast today was scrumptious. Two heaping tablespoons of plain, low-fat yogurt into which I mixed 3 tablespoons raw oats, a handful of blueberries, 1 tablespoon walnuts, 1 tablespoon wheat germ and a teaspoon of honey. Yummy!

On the right reading material

For a few months now, I've been concerned about C's reading material. Not that he doesn't read, he does. But his choice of reading matter, to my mind, leaves much to be desired. It's either these deathly tedious Bionicle novelisations or he re-reads various books in the Harry Potter series.

But I finally weaned him away with a good "boy" book - one I had read myself at roughly that age. I led him to Judy Blume's Tales of A Fourth Grade Nothing, and quicker than even I expected, C was chuckling away at the antics of Fudge and Peter. Needless to say, I was triumphant.

"Judy Blume is 300 percent better than MAD Magazine," I told T. Although C has said he laughs louder at the MAD. Oh well.

Happiness is an empty house in the mornings...

School started last week. The children bounded into our room at 7am, yelling with excitement that this day, so fervently awaited at finally arrived. "School is starting! Hurrah!" They woke us gleefully. They leaped into their school uniforms. To say that they were eager to go back to school was an understatement. And then they had their breakfast.

"Did you hear them? Were you ever like that?" I said to T, my eyes still shut. He muttered under the covers, "They're wierd."

And it continues this week. Even C is docile and obliging about homework. His teacher is pleased. He has had two friends invite themselves over. K's friend has invited her. Both are fairly easy to wake for they don't want to be late ever.

And in the mornings, there is a blessed silence which has allowed me to work.
It's all good.

Jetlag

Sometime in the middle of last night, unable to sleep, I went to get a glass of water and noticed the light under the door of my son's room.

ME: What are you doing up?
C: I think I'm a nocturnal beast...