| September 12 2005 |
| A Toddler Celebrates Eucharist
My oldest son loves church. On Sunday morning we tell him "Will, we're going to church to see Father Manto and eat with Jesus" and he runs around all excited. When it's time to meet in the sanctuary, he runs right to the back pew (he knows we always sit there) and takes his place, getting out the prayer book and the hymnal. He loves to watch the crucifer walk down the middle aisle with the cross followed by the priest and the deacon. He folds his hands when he hears "The Lord be with you" and says "A-meh" at the end of most prayers. He wants us to put down the kneeler so he can stand on it during prayer and stands on the pew during singing or the psalm reading. But by far the sweetest part of Sundays is sharing the Eucharist with this little saint. He is mesmerized by the entire consecration prayer and feeding of the congregation. He walks with purpose (sometimes needing to be held back to wait his turn) to the front and faithfully opens his mouth for the bread, then takes his little plastic cup full of wine and listens to the deacon say "The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which was shed for thee preserve thee body and soul unto everlasting life." He drinks with faith and marches back to our pew, hand in hand with mommy or daddy and talks about "Babeee" getting his bread and wine. After the service he walks up to Deacon John and Father Manto and shakes their hands, always a little in awe of the Pastor. Then he runs around shaking hands with anyone who will oblige him. I've never looked forward to worshipping in the Lord's house as much as I do these days. Posted by Mrs. Bee at 2 : 36 pm | Leave a note {0} |
| September 03 2005 |
| Hymn For This Day
This, of course, has a whole different feeling and added meaning when sung. The Hymnal 1982 (Episcopal) #315, Tune Song 1 by Orlando Gibbons, harmonized by Ralph Vaughan Williams. What could be better? "Thou, who at thy first Eucharist didst pray that all thy Church might be forever one grant us at every Eucharist to say with longing heart and soul 'Thy will be done.' O may we all one bread, one body be, through this blest sacrament of unity. For all thy Church, O Lord, we intercede; make thou our sad divisions soon to cease; draw us the nearer each to each, we plead, by drawing all to thee, O Prince of Peace; thus may we all one bread, one body be, through this blest sacrament of unity. So, Lord, at length when sacraments shall cease, may we be one with all thy Church above, one with thy saints in one unbroken peace, one with thy saints in one unbounded love; more blessed still, in peace and love to be one with the Trinity in Unity." Posted by Mrs. Bee at 9 : 21 am | Leave a note {0} |
| August 23 2005 |
| God be praised!
Our lead level tests have come back for which we are so grateful. This alone is cause for celebration as we had to wait more than a week. We actually had William's test back last Thursday and he is only testing at 2.8, which is well within the range of normalcy according to the all-knowing, all-seeing, ever-wise, apolitical and highly scientific CDC, that great and well-funded with your taxpayer dollars organization that is likely to change its mind about all this as soon as we spend the money to eradicate all lead from our home. But we have nothing else to go on, so we will follow their protocols in this matter. That said, Charlie tested at 13 which is NOT within the safe realm. My blood test is still out. We are waiting to hear from the health department as to when they can come here and do their tests. In the meantime, I have to clean my house, top to bottom, dusting and mopping and vacuuming everywhere. First trimester sickness notwithstanding. And I am still wondering if I should hire this job out since they say exposure is very bad for in utero infants. Thanks for praying. Please continue. Posted by Mrs. Bee at 10 : 28 am | Leave a note {2} |
| August 16 2005 |
| Crazy Day
It was the best of mornings and the worst of afternoons. We all got up on time, got Daddy to work on time, I had plenty of patience to help my son pick up all the vitamins he spilled all over the dining and living rooms and laugh it off, called the kids' precious Nana, then called my industrious friend Mrs. Colvin to ask for an important phone number. I had a bit of a disappointment there because for various good reasons we will likely be discontinuing our habit of babysitting for one another whilst we take turns working out at Curves. I have not had the heart to tell my son William (who, thanks be to God, turns TWO-YEARS-OLD today!!) because his favorite thing in the wide world resides at the Colvins...their 20 month old daughter Naomi. In fact, Naomi has reached Platonic Form status. All little girls in William's life are pointed to and called "Me-no" and when he hasn't seen her for a day or two, he begs me to visit her. Ah well, said I to myself, no matter. Husband and I will figure out a morning workout schedule for me and we shall have to find other reasons to visit our friends. See, things going well so far! Then I had the most wonderful initial conversation with Cincinnati's only homebirth midwife. She just moved here this summer at the request of the poor Central Kentucky midwives who were travelling up to 180 miles to deliver babies in the Tri-state area. We are especially grateful for her as my labors are short and the aforementioned overworked KY midwives were like the Hebrew midwives for us...they arrived AFTER the baby was born. She put me on her calendar with my April 22 due date, and all was still well. God is very good to provide just what we need at just the right time. Gratitude was still singing in my heart at this point in the morning. Just as I was packing the kids up to go drop them off at the babysitters (I had a doctor's appointment for a routine check-up of my heart) the pediatrician's office called. Charlie, my 9 month old, has high levels of lead in his blood. This is very bad news. After my doctor's appointment, I will have to pick the kids up, take them to Children's Hospital and get their blood tested again to get exact levels on them both. The Health Department is going to have to storm our home and test it all for lead in the paint, the water. So, from 12:00-6:30, we took care of our medical business. I think I used a half a tank of gas (I got it for *only* 2.48/gallon) but we are all checked up and tested and waiting for all three blood tests, mine and the kids. By this time, my poor husband has been at work for 10.5 hours, but he does not complain. It was a rough evening trying to get a game plan for getting the lead out, so to speak. The pipes are definitely soldered with lead, the paint in the basement has never been tested, and if we have to do any major renovations (yikes on the pocketbook) the babies and I will have to go elsewhere to stay, possibly my brother's house in Alabama. *sigh* We thanked the Lord together with the boys before we all went to bed that He gives us good doctors to find these problems, we asked Him for wisdom and faith, and all of us slept well for five straight hours. Charlie even slept through the night. Please pray for us. We're sorta hoping the test was wrong, but barring that, we do need to act on this quickly. The upside? Daddy is making tons of really funny jokes about lead, his way of relieving the tension, and it works. We're still laughing. Posted by Mrs. Bee at 5 : 48 am | Leave a note {4} |
| August 11 2005 |
| Wild Oats
Sometimes, when I go to Wild Oats Market in the morning after dropping my hubsand off at work, there is an enclave of lesbian chain smokers outside the store. They laugh a lot and smile at me and my two babies and say things like "Hey, your kids are cute as hell." Most of them are wearing store attire (aprons, hats, shirts) and I just want to ask them, "Are those organic tobacco leaves you are smoking?" Hopefully they would laugh, but I'm not sure about it, so I never say it. That store should be called Wildly Overpriced Market. But I still go there at least once a month to buy things I can't get cheaper elsewhere in Cincinnati. Sometimes I miss Colorado. Posted by Mrs. Bee at 11 : 09 am | Leave a note {0} |
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