And a Good Spring(ish) Morning to You, Too!

This morning, it is a beautiful, clear 44 degrees.  Cold, yes, but the birds are singing and and the jonquils have begun to bloom and it'll warm up enough to open windows today I think. 

We had a lovely Easter.  Kids in Easter togs hunting eggs in a snow squall...  Oh, it was like 35 degrees so nothing stuck, but it snowed to beat the band several times during the day.

We all attended the Easter Vigil at our church this year.  I go every year as I sing, but this year both kiddos served the mass and husband read one of the many readings.  It was an absolutely gorgeous service.  Seven readings, progressing through the Bible, proclaimed in complete darkness.   Dear Son was afraid he'd fall asleep during this part (he'd been told horror stories by his loving sister) but he was chosen by Father John to be the one to bring him the book between each reading -- Father says something after each piece -- so there was little chance of snoozing.  Son did count the other server (not his sister!) picking his nose 4 times.  Lovely.  Glad it was dark. 

The only criticism I have of the service really is a new addition.  We baptized the new members of the church as we always do at this service.   This year, someone got a kind of pool, you know, black plastic like in yard Koi ponds?  And surrounded it with cement bricks and flowers and filled it with water and  had the new members actually get in and Father poured water over them.  All well and good.  But then they had to go change clothes.  Like for 20 minutes.  Which I totally get -- I mean we've been blessing these folks and building this up so much that of course they wanted to look nice for the rest of the evening.  Which takes awhile, what with hair and maybe makeup and all... So we had an intermission.  Lost all momentum for me.  I believe this is kind of a movement in the Catholic Church, though -- the immersion during baptism.  I've been in several newer churches that have large pools with steps built into them for exactly this purpose.  And I guess it's pretty biblical, if you really think about it.    I think I'm just old school.  And it was 11:30 p.m.

There has been some knitting on the baby cardigan.  We have a front and we have a pocket.  So cute.

See how the cable splits for the pocket?  Love these details.

Construction wise, we've got more color on the walls and a new front door.  I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

Monte matches the new color scheme.  I guess he can stay.

Flooding wise, thanks for all of your inquiries.  We are far, far away from any trouble.  There's a "Heights" in the name of my neighborhood for a reason -- we are up hill from nearly everything in St. Louis.  The folks who are suffering though?  They are suffering greatly.  Personally?  I wish cities wouldn't allow building in flood plains.  And this spring water has topped most of the 100 year flood plains anyway -- so.   Tough going all over. 

Finally, I do have a rant brewing.  It has to do with the Senator Obama race speech thing from last week.  It's along the lines of a previous rant wherein I wonder why it is that some of us can't be in the same room with folks with which we disagree.  This time, there's consternation over the Senator's continuing association with his  preacher.  Who said some pretty ugly things.  Well.  That's on him.  Gosh, if I had to be held to everything anyone's every said in my earshot... well, I guess I couldn't be President either.  Sheesh, people!  You know?  We can love people and disagree with them.   We can respect people and not take to heart every word they utter.  We can have opinions that don't necessarily jive with every opinion of everyone else in the room.  We can HEAR words and then take positions concerning them drawn from our own experiences, our own faith, and our own consciences!  Dangit!  If we don't do this, I'd put forth that therein lies the wrong doing!  If we surround ourselves with yes men and only those with whom we absolutely and totally agree?  WE END UP IN A WAR STARTED BECAUSE OF FALSEHOOD AND INNUENDO! 

Ahem.  Whew.  Well.  Rant over, I guess.

Comments

[cecily]

I'm glad you had a good Easter...mine was pretty
nice, too. No baptisms at my church this year, though...

[Pat K]

We have one of those big pools with steps for immersion baptism. I think we held intermission to about 15 minutes. But then, we started at seven o'clock. I go because I sing also, and I was the only soprano there who knew all the songs and descants and whatevers. I was worn out. But I think the baptisms are the most fun of the whole evening. And Joe sang the Exultet. Your new rooms look fab!

[Bridgett]

Well, lot to say here....I agree about the long pause during mass. It lost the momentum for me. Folks got chatty. Something to tweak for next yera, I suppose. And flood plains? They are plains that flood. People should know better. Americans have no memory.

[Lucia]

Since "baptize" comes from a Greek word meaning "dunk," and the original baptizees went for a swim in the Jordan, yes, it is biblical, but it's also symbolic, so you could in theory have the few drops on the forehead symbolize the same thing. I think baptism was a descendant of Israelite purification rituals (mikvah), but I could be wrong about that.

Do not get me started on how McCain gets to solicit endorsement from that hatemonger wackadoo Hagee, but Clinton is too shrill and Obama is too black. Oh, I guess you did, but I will try to stop now.

[Deborah]

LB & I actually own a step-in baptismal thingy. It's out in the woods collecting leaves, but we own it. It's cool b/c one side of it is glass like an aquarium! If you ever need to borrow it, let me know

[Alex]

Well, you know I agree with you on the Obama thing, in part because I support his candidacy and in part, because you're just right. I didn't go to your parish for Easter and we don't have a baptismal pool at ours, so I haven't experienced the intermission during service thing.

So that brings us to your beautiful cables! I am just finishing a version of the Irish Hiking Scarf (my modifications were to add a few rows of ribbing on the bottom, 'cause I like it when things are edged, I removed one of the cables, and used a slightly larger needle that that black chunky alpaca I bought last week calls for, to make the fabric a little less dense) (I like my scarves long and narrow to loop around my neck a couple of times).

I look at your baby cardigan and it's so attractive (I like the color - I don't think babies/kids have to wear "baby colors" all the time). I'm light-years away from that kind of knitting ability, though. Maybe someday, and in the meantime I can just admire others' work! :-)

[Amanda]

Love the color scheme. Have to say I was thinking I would never pick those colors but I know to trust you completely when it comes to painting walls.

Glad to hear Easter was good. We're back from the water park. Had a great time but can't wait to sleep in our own beds!!!!!!

A