Where the heart is

I recently had another birthday, and now, apparently, people think it's high time for me to fly the coop. When I say "people" I mostly mean my group of people at the Y where I always hang out. They find it surprising that A) I still want to live at home and B) that my parents still want me. But I honestly can't imagine just moving out for the sake of it. My family keeps me grounded, and in touch with reality, and I tell you what, I won't find meals or Bible readings as cool as we have it at home!

Last night I was joking around with my parents about them trying to marry me off (we have this whole arranged-marriage thing that nobody finds funny but us), and my mom was saying that they'll keep me for as long as they can. It made me rather cheerful.

And so this morning, as I was going around the breakfast table on my way out to work (I say good-bye to my bother, remind him of what time I'll pick him up from school, kiss my dad, my mom, and then my little sister, and then my mom follows me outside to wave me off. It's quite the process), I was just thankful for my family. They're the best.

Oxen

One verse that is recited as if a mantra about our house is Proverbs 14:4, the verse that goes, "Where no oxen are, the crib is clean." We don't just quote this because we used to have kids over to our house for Bible study who thought it was somehow appropriate to call our house "God's Crib" because, you know, I guess our house was the hip version of God's house. Not sure why...

Anyhow, we use this verse to stay encouraged when our Sunday School events go a little crazy. Police had to come? This means the crib is used, people, this is fine. Kids are fighting? That means the kids are there, at Sunday School, so that's good. Sure, everything feels like a mess, but it means there's potential, there's an effort, and there's an outreach. Sometimes it's hard to appreciate the chaos, but fact is, chaos means that things are happening! As crazy as things get sometimes, we still prefer the crazy times to the times when nobody even shows up to Sunday School. That happens, by the way. Sometimes each class will only have one or two kids, and all the Sunday School teachers feel quite bereft of our usual Sunday Adventures.

That's mostly in the summer, for some reason. Kids come more during the school year.

And Hobby Class, for instance, where last week I picked up 14 kids, and this week only two. Last week there was more chaos (and more police cars), but I think I liked it better. But numbers aren't what matter, the outcome is what matters: that a child might come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their own personal Saviour. That's what matters.

So anyhow, if something has you discouraged because the situation seems out of control, just remember the verse we love so well in our household and bear in mind that it's only a mess because you're making the effort. If all else fails, refer to your home as a "crib." All the cool kids do.

I'm back!

Tired, but back. I had an amazing two weeks, and now I just want to nap for two weeks. Alas, not so fast, thanks to work and life.

Anyhow, it was a whirlwind of awesome, truth be told. I'll outline the trip later, but essentially I flew out after work on the 30th, was in Italy for a week, and then was in Romania from the 6th up until the 13th, after which point I flew home to a wedding on Saturday, and made it home in time for work yesterday morning!

Like I said: nap needed. At work today I actually spent some time napping on the floor of one of the offices. It was refreshing.

Like they always say, though, there's no place like home!

Finding home

I rarely ever hear songs by The Afters, but I happened to hear one this week that struck me as kind of up my alley. I don't actually remember much of what the song sounded like, but I looked up the lyrics when I got home because I was pretty sure that the words intrigued me. Either that, or I'd heard them totally wrong. But no, I'd heard them right.

"The World's got me tied on a string/Wanderlust has overcome me/Like Lewis and Clark I'll dream/There's a million different ways to go/Only God can know where I will call my home."

I actually have no idea what the point of this song is. I sort of get the impression that perhaps they wanted a few filler songs for a CD and just decided this one was good enough. Not that I dislike it, but I literally have no idea what the point of it is. It's called "Love Lead Me On" and the entirety of the chorus goes as follows: "Love lead me on/Where no one else has gone/Faith keep me strong/Love lead me on."

It also rambles about finding home, and love, and picture perfect sunsets, so I'm pretty sure it's just a feel-good song about finding home, but I mostly liked the lines about wanderlust and Lewis and Clark. One of my friends and I used to play Lewis and Clark (I'm pretty sure I was Lewis) and we were masterful waterfall jumpers. It was pretty swell.

I have a friend who is going to school to be a guidance counselor, and he's already pretty good at it. We'll be having a conversation and suddenly I'll realize that I'm just rambling about all sorts of stuff I normally wouldn't. It's rather unsettling, actually. That being said, I was talking about traveling the other day, and he asked me, "Do you get antsy if you stay in one place for too long?"

I had no idea what to tell him. I don't even remember the last time I stayed in one place for a long time. At least one weekend a month I'm somewhere else--anywhere else! And it's not that I don't love my family, or my home (because I love both, very much), but I'm just always doing other things on the weekends. It was odd for me to take a step back and look at myself the way others must see me. I know there are some people who think I'm out and about too much, that I should be home more.

But... I am pretty tight with my family. We eat two meals a day together, we discuss anything and everything whenever we have spare minutes, we travel places together when we get the chance, I ask my parents for advice about most things (even crazy-sounding things, so they can talk me out of it), and my siblings and I are incredibly close.

So, does my traveling a lot mean I'm escaping from something? Because I can't think of what I'd be running from, or what I'd be trying to run toward. My home is just that: Home. I wouldn't want to think I'm out trying to find another place to belong. I'm just out to find that perfect sunset, to play Lewis and Clark and make discoveries worth discussing at the dinner table.

I like to think of it like T. S. Eliot always said: "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."

SO not my home

Some days I just can't even believe we're still here. Not because I'm depressed and can't handle life, but because I miss Heaven. Yes, you can miss Somewhere you've never been. You can miss Someone you've never met. When I consider that one day soon (yay rapture!) I'll be tucked in the Lord's warm embrace, I honestly get Homesick.

When I hear talk of politics and problems, I honestly usually just don't care. This is not my home, I think to myself. When I'm asked why I don't write to my senator to demand that abortions be stopped, I think, but this isn't my home! I'm not trying to hide my head in the sand, but I just don't live here. My heart isn't here. I value this Earth because it's the place I've been placed, but my heart isn't in it. I value the people and lives that surround me because the Lord made them too, but I'm not going to fight for my rights here on Earth. I'm just visiting.

My heart is where my Home is. And my Home is with the One who prepared that place for me on the cross. Earth is nothing but a temporary dwelling. Sorry, politics, you're out of luck.

An earthly home

I'm pretty sure that most young girls (maybe not most, but some, be among them) know that sure, earthly things are only temporal, but wouldn't it be fun to have your own house to decorate with these swell most-and-rust-will-certainly-corrupt type objects? But moth-and-rust aside, honestly, it's a fun thought.


I'm not saying it's really that fun when it comes down to it, of course, especially since most newly married young ladies tend not to have an overabundance of money to spread around for useless things like fun-shaped bookcases and turquoise spatulas, but the idea is a fun one. For instance, I've always wanted walls painted with that chalk-board paint, or maybe the dry-erase paint, so you could just write all over your walls. Wouldn't that be so awesome for a kid's room? Terribly messy on the carpet if you went the chalk route, but overall worth it, perhaps.

Sometimes I wonder what life must be like for people who aren't expecting the rapture. It's not that I avoid life down on earth in deference to the rapture (I have a job. In insurance. 'Nuff said.), but it's something that crosses most of my thoughts.

For instance, my parents are going away this weekend, Lord willing. Half of that Lord willing is acknowledging that something could happen to them or their car and they might not go, but half of it is simply acknowledging that the Lord could come, um, now. I love pondering that!

So if the Lord doesn't come, and I marry a rich-type guy, stop by my house... who knows? Maybe I'll have sweet-looking bookcases everywhere!

Leftovers

Isn't is sad how poorly we treat leftovers? I don't know about you guys, but I tend to not appreciate leftovers as much as I should. For instance, I currently am trying desperately to finish up a fridge-full of leftovers before I depart for the West Coast for the holidays. When my family left they left me with all kinds of things--soup, rice, bread, vegetables, enough things to keep me happy for a long time.

Sad thing is, though, now I feel obliged to finish it up. Not in a stuff-myself-ugh kind of way, but in a if-I-have-one-of-these-meals-at-every-meal-from now-until-I-leave-I'll-finish-them-all-up kind of way. But I'm home alone! I always crave cereal for supper, for some reason, but since I've got white chili in the fridge, I don't want to have to freeze that and eat my cheerios instead. So instead of being thankful that I don't have to go to any effort to pull together a supper for myself in the evening, I sigh because I can't have an egg for breakfast, because of the excess of bananas in my house.

Isn't that sad? I'd be a bad third-world-dweller.

I gave up and froze the rice, by the way, and I think I'll follow suite with some of the chili. I've already finished all of the split pea soup (it was really yummy, actually) and if I freeze that white chili, it means.... cereal for supper! It's like a dream come true!

The Bumbetoes

One of my favorite story books when I was a child was one called The Bumbletoes. My grandma had it from when she was a child, and it was the only fictional book she and her siblings were ever allowed to own. The book went missing for about ten years, so the details were getting foggy. There was something about a castle, a picnic situation, and Buttonsboy kept on saying "Right ho."

But we found it recently, much to our delight, and it was one of the few things I asked for from my grandmother's house after she passed away... and I got it! The book is over a hundred years old now, and has been in the family for more than 90 years, according to the inscription in the front page. "Five little H_____'s, from Uncle Herbert, Jan. 1918." Magnificent in beat-up-ness, brilliant in verse, and clever (yet vaguely frightening) pictures is what makes the book what it is.

The basic story is that The Bumbletoes (little odd-looking, alien-type fellows) decide that they're not content being at home, they're wanting to travel. And they want to take Buttonsboy and Belinda, because Buttonsboy is their friend, I guess, and "a girl can cook or trim a hat."

With all that out of the way, the travelers travel forth. They go by boat, get seasick, and stop for a picnic lunch, made especially sweet by "Sally Luns, those best of buns" which "cheer each drooping heart." Now comes my favorite part of the whole book. Pardon the long quote.

As if from subterranean depths,
A Growl comes to their ears,
And round the corner of a rock
A Big Black Bear appears.

Now fly the Bumbletoes, with speed
That only fear can lend:
Alone now stands the Buttonsboy
Belinda to defend.
No help is near, no weapons sure,
Nor pistol, sword, nor gun--
With courage born of great despair,
He throws the deadly Bun.

Not often for such courage rare
Such swift reward is found--
The Bear before that fearful blow
Lies dead upon the ground:
Belinda laughs at perils past,
The others do the same,
Congratulating Buttonsboy
Upon his careful aim.

After the nearly ill-fated picnic, they set off again, see a castle in the distance, and are welcomed warmly by the residents of the castle, only to discover that they are merely being imprisoned. The Bumbletoes dissolve in tears, "'All, all is lost,'" they cry, 'Give us a foot or so of floor, We'll lay us down and die.'"

Belinda has an interesting take on matters as well (if it weren't for the bun killing the bear episode, this would be my favorite part of the book, hands down). "'Oh! Buttonsboy,' Belinda says, 'Although I'm not a man, and have not intellect enough to think out any plan, I grasp the prospect is not one we're likely to enjoy--I think we needn't quite despair!' 'Righto!' said Buttonsboy."

Now tell me, isn't that the funniest thing ever? I have not intellect enough to think out any plan? Best part is, the book was written by a duo of sisters, Millicent and Githa Sowerby. We are forever thankful that they felt they had intellect enough to write and illustrate a book that should be a classic in its own rite.

The Bumbletoes and Buttonsboy are put to work, growing pale and thin and having no time for sleep or play. These weren't the adventures they were looking for, I'll tell you that. Belinda, being a girl "now must sew and cook, and bustle all she can," because apparently bustling is an actual thing to do. The things you learn while reading.

Anyhow, all is saved when a Donkey falls in love with Belinda (at which point we realize that maybe Belinda and Buttonsboy were brother and sister and not marriageable-type playmates after all). After declaring his love for Belinda, the Donkey makes this Darcy-worthy impassioned speech.

My stand is only made of wood,
My voice is best unheard,
My tail is short--I know full well
That I was born absurd;
But oh! I'd perish for your sake,
I'd give up carrots too,
Nor touch another blade of grass,
And all for love of you.

How touching. Eventually "love lends him brains to form a simply brilliant plan" wherein he brings poppy seeds to Belinda, who bakes them into an apple pie that is a "culinary art." Everyone from the castle loves the pie (the very large pie, the largest pie Belinda could have possibly made) and they all eat it and simultaneously fall into a deep sleep. The Donkey steals the keys from the sleeping key-holder dude, and they all escape.

It's a good thing they have the Donkey with them (you didn't think Belinda was going to leave him behind, did you?) because once they realize that they'll never make it to the coast by walking on their feet, the "helpful Donkey cries 'You'll have to ride, of course, and as a cow is rather slow you'd better try a horse!" The Bumbletoes catch a non-broken-in horse, somehow managing to ride it off into the sunset, because by this point everyone in the castle woke up sort of angry over the situation and were chasing them.

It gets worse. The castle folk are coming ever-closer and since our travelers "have no guns, not even buns, they cannot turn and fight" they end up taking out their pocket-knives cutting most of the way through a wooden bridge the castle-folk will have to cross to reach them, and waiting for the bad castle-folk to walk out on the bridge (all at once, mind you) and the bridge falls apart. Naturally, the castle-folk "Hang for a moment in the air--then scatter far and wide. Down, down they fall, and one and all are sunk beneath the tide." But the book hastens to assure us that the evil folk manage to make it out alive and come to the coast just in time to watch the friends put out to sea. Belinda got to man the wheel, actually, so I guess even though she couldn't form intelligent plans, she was able to be some good.

They get home safe and sound, but best of all:

No more their restless spirits long
In distant lands to roam;
While ways are steep and seas are deep,
It's best to stay at home.

Oh, and there's a picture at the end of Belinda watering some flowers standing in front of a cave-like dwelling with a sign "At Home" on it.

So remember this, good friends. 'Tis always best to be "at home."