smattering

Only a few minutes to write today. Building a chicken coop. Fifth grade birthday party. Laundry. Clearing dead vines out of the garden.

Note to self posted on the virtual refrigerator door. Don't forget next week to find Kathleen Norris' The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy, and 'Women's Work'. Dig around in there. (Or do any of my local friends own this?)

Uploading some photos but I can't get them in the right order. Sorry. HTML illiterate.

Three show what happened when I finally made stir fried veggie rice instead of sandwiches. Happy kid.

Also, everyone should always eat fresh garden tomatoes like this. I tried it, and yes, they taste WAY better than when you use a fork.

Psalms this morning. No time to write more about it now, but I'm posting something that's been churning a few months. It's not quite right yet. Creative insight welcome.


"Prodigal Song"

It was Sabbath walk and raining.
My steps wound past the tall, proud shapes of the woods
into a clearing where a thousand winter grasses
stood communal, bent with sorrow,
weeping slow, round tears
from the ends of their insufficiency.

I knelt there in reverent awe
because it felt like a sacred place
where things made
submit bare, fragile forms
before the Unmade.

Holding my breath, I listened to
the primal sounds of honest sorrow
falling into soft, brown palms of cupped leaves.
The hymn of the penitent.

This prodigal song rose through nodding trees
that had gathered to hold council around the edges of the clearing.
Citing postulations on holiness, they exchanged
high, first-born conversations,
adorned with the white, priestly robes of new spring.

I held my breath.
Waiting for the verdict,
torn and unsure,
pulled between divided harmonies,
not knowing at all
what was best.

Until like a father running,
warmth and light tore open the sky
and bathed the surface of the earth,
shaking the mighty, pious branches
until they trembled,
weeping mercy and grace,
infusing every broken blade
with adoption.

- - - - -

Afternoon update.

Progress on the chicken coop below. We decided to take the roofline all the way down to where the doors will open for ease of design. Also, Bobby said the hinges should be on the bottom of the doors, so the eggs can be gathered easier. (Of course. What was I thinking?)

Nesting box bottoms made from the top of an old table JD found in the dumpster at school and some leftover plywood. Roof beams constructed from $5 worth of 2'x4's that used to be ladders (we think). We found those at the Habitat for Humanity store.

The Habitat for Humanity store is amazing, BTW. Thanks for telling me about it, Jeannette and Dana! Apparently they sell extra parts left over after construction jobs, and the profits go back into HH. This means you can repurpose, snag a bargain, AND help a good cause all at once.




















(Below: Something cool Bobby found on the side of the road. Could this be converted into a feed box?)





















The birthday party Clara attended was at Chuck-E-Cheese. A friend had given us a gift card for Moses to use there, so I took him along. When Moses is in a totally new environment (which is common lately), he doesn't smile. He just gets this intense look on his face, like he's trying to understand. You can see that here. He really enjoyed most of what we did, though.

He almost creamed a few little kids launching skee balls. He would roll a few, then try to just throw them in the holes. His force was good, his aim was crazy.

Gotta run...