Odds 'N' Ends

It's been a quiet evening. Blondechick15, our most verbal and somewhat high-maintenance child, is at a Christian drama camp until Friday. The public areas of the main level of our house are finally in an unpacked state for the first time in weeks, so tonight I actually felt like I had a few moments to sit down at the table with Chicklet5 and play a phonics game with her.

We had a lovely time, and she wanted to play something else. As we put away the ABSeas game, I noticed the Spirograph set--one of my favorite childhood pastimes. So I showed her how to sharpen her pencil and choose a little wheel and watch what happens as you trace it round and round. We sat and did Spirograph for a long time, transfixed by the endless patterns and variations. I think I need more Spirograph in my life.

I stayed up till 2 in the morning on Saturday night, focusing on my office/school room mess, since we had friends from our old church, Rez, coming for the Sunday morning service at Light of Christ and coming over after the church picnic to see our house. It was as good a motivation as I'd had in awhile, and with the house all quiet, I was able to get a lot of stuff put away or dealt with decisively--even if that meant placing it in the box of stuff to be dealt with at some later, non-urgent date.

My homeschool books still need to be organized--I shelved them willy-nilly, in no particular order, just to find out how many will fit. And of course, there is still filing to do. (I am still planning to revamp my whole filing system.) But I was able to take pictures! and host our friends without embarrassment. Yippee!

(Actually, Kay and Randy are such old friends that we can no longer embarrass each other. It was wonderful to be with them again!)

And this morning, I hosted (without embarrassment) two other women (and their children) from Light of Christ to discuss what we're doing with our Sunday School/nursery/Children's Church. It was a good, thorough meeting. We considered a lot of options and worked out a good plan, I think. Our only regret was we didn't have time to talk about all the other things we wanted to--unrelated to the church, like homeschooling. We'll have to meet again next week, we agreed, just to finish talking!

Our meeting was precipitated partly by a big hole in our Children's Ministry team. One of our core couples, after 18 months of investment in the foundation of our church plant, is returning to the church where their sons remain heavily involved. While we bless their decision to worship together again as a family, we will so miss them and their service as guitarist and teacher (him), worship leaders (both) and Sunday School teacher/nursery worker (her).

What else? Oh, GAFCON. My heart is in Jerusalem with a bunch of conservative Anglican leaders from every continent (300 bishops and over 1,000 delegates) who are seeking the Lord this week for a solution to the crisis in Anglicanism created by the Episcopal church here in America:

It would be far easier to relate to our revisionist friends if they would quit the masquerade and admit honestly that they have birthed a new religion altogether. It is the misuse of the name “Christian” and “Anglican” that makes “togetherness” impossible for so many. It would be the same were a Muslim to deny Mohamed the title “prophet” and yet refuse to relinquish the descriptive self-referent “Muslim.”

That's a quote from blogger/priest Matt Kennedy, who is there with his wife, also a blogger/priest. Our friends and leaders, William and Anne Beasley are there too. No one really knows what the outcome of the conference will be:

...at GAFCON it is safe to say even the leadership is clueless about what to expect -- or what (if anything) will be agreed upon or acted upon by next Sunday. ...each leader has made it clear that is no formal agenda to produce a specific outcome. They stress this gathering is a time of listening.

...the final statement will not be written until the end of the conference (and there will be no final statement unless all the Jerusalem Pilgrims can agree on it). Secondly, for the first time the laity of the Anglican Church will have a large presence and a strong voice. There will be no action and no statement without the laity.

If you are so led, please pray for those at GAFCON (Global Anglican Future Conference).

In other news, Chicklet5 taught herself to ride a two-wheeler. I have pictures.

And Bantam13 and I went to the guitar store today to buy him a new G-string. (Seriously.) Tonight, he started a highly recommended "Learn to Play Guitar" course on DVD and practiced for over an hour. Stay tuned.

Pun intended.