"Little Men" book: still a favorite

When I was young I read the book "Little Men" (sequel to "Little Women") and decided I wanted to have Mrs. Jo's life someday.  As a teacher and guardian to several young boys, and a few random girls, as well as a mother to a couple of her own children, she was my hero.  Her life in a big old house/school out in the country with all those kids sounded like a fun one.

I never did achieve that dream fully, but as I read the book to my kids last month I realized that I do get to share some aspects of her life. I've been blessed with a smaller in number but no less interesting group of boys to raise and teach, as well as a couple of girls.  One of Mrs. Jo's flock had special needs, just like mine.  She married a German professor; I married a professor with a German-sounding last name.  She lived in a house called Plumfield.  We just moved into a house that has a "P" marked into the capstone above the front door.  And my life has been fun, just like hers.

As a girl I loved the book, but as a mom I can relate on a whole different level.  This was one of my favorite parts:

“If he should turn out to be a naturalist, and Nat a musician, I should have cause to be proud of this year’s work,” and Mrs. Jo sat smiling over her book as she built castles in the air, just as she used to do when a girl, only then they were for herself, and now they were for other people, which is the reason, perhaps, that some of them came to pass in reality – for charity is an excellent foundation to build anything upon.”

It's been fun introducing my flock to hers, and my kids have thoroughly enjoyed our daily readings after lunch.   I knew I hadn't quite achieved Mrs. Jo status, though, when one day Colsen said,

"Hey Mom, do you want to go read some more "Little Men" and learn about how that woman runs the house of boys so well?  Maybe you could learn something...."  Yes, Mrs. Jo is perennially more patient and sweet and gentle than I will ever be.

***

One day in our reading the kids all had loud reactions when I got to the part of the story when one of the girls was getting punished for running away from the group by being confined to her room, and she was behaving badly.  I read:

"Mrs. Jo took no notice, but leaving a book or two and a handkerchief to hem, she went away, and left Miss Nan to her own devices."

"HEY!" the boys yelled out.  "How come even SHE gets to have devices and we don't??!!"

***

One of our other favorite parts was when Dan received a microscope and the others were all gathering around to check it out....

“We live in a beautiful and wonderful world, Demi, and the more you know about it the wiser and the better you will be.  This little glass will give you a new set of teachers, and you may learn fine lessons from them if you will,” said Mr. Bhaer, glad to see how interested the boys were in the matter.

“Could I see anybody’s soul with this microscope if I looked hard?” asked Demi, who was much impressed with the power of the bit of glass.

“No, dear; it’s not powerful enough for that, and never can be made so.  You must wait a long while before your eyes are clear enough to see the most invisible of God’s wonders.  But looking at the lovely things you can see will help you understand the lovelier things you cannot see,” answered Uncle Fritz.

***

Louisa May Alcott remains one of my favorite authors and I've loved being reminded of that.  I also had a little chuckle to myself as I was reading the book through this time.  I've always thought that when authors used to type out their manuscripts on a typewriter they would have been wise to choose short names for their characters.  (Who would want to type the name Rumplestiltskin over and over?)  In "Little Women" the characters were Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy.  In "Little Men" the characters were Jo, Dan, Nan, Nat, Ned, Tom, Demi, Daisy, Emil, etc., etc.

 Louisa was a smart lady in many ways!

Sidewalk Sillies

For the first month or so of quarantine, it felt very weird not to have much contact with our neighbors, so we decided to write out messages on the sidewalk in front of our house -- usually riddles.  We wanted to try to put a smile on people's faces, as this has been a rather glum time.

We put out new ones whenever it rained... which around here is pretty often.

Then on Easter, it was no joke -- it was Truth!!

Bread (and flour) making

One of my new quarantine hobbies was to make BREAD... Specifically sourdough bread.  After watching a Michael Pollan documentary about it, Pete became convinced that this kind of bread is actually good for you, so even he, after 2 breadless years, has sampled my productions.

It's been fun experimenting with different techniques and different flours.

Unfortunately, when ordering from our local farm co-op, I mistakenly ordered "wheat" instead of "flour," so the kids have been helping me mill our own flour with a coffee grinder.  Good thing we have a lot of extra time on our hands!

How does a prophet age gracefully?

The more I get to know myself -- and I've had 47 years of pretty significant navel-gazing now -- the more I recognize that I share a lot of personality traits with the prophets of the Old Testament.  I often find myself wanting to go up on a hill and shout, "HEY, ALL Y'ALL:  WE'RE DOING THIS ALL WRONG!!"

Of course, the prophets of yore had the benefit of having God actually speak directly to them, whereas I only have His written Word, so the probability of my interpretations and proclamations being wrong is substantially higher than it was for them.... but still, I have the desire to voice my thoughts anyhow.

Like them, I get very upset by injustice.  I hate seeing sin go unpunished and grace go unrecognized.  The brokenness of the world slays me.  As the prophets surely used to say, "I can't even."

Sometimes I get accused of being a perfectionist, which I used to always laugh off because one look at my desk --- or my closet, or my kitchen, or my laundry room, etc, etc -- would tell you I have no problem living with a mess.  But as I've read and heard more, I realize now that I may have perfectionistic tendencies when I get so upset at the failings of others -- and, more often -- myself.

A few weeks ago I heard someone say that some people are "premature eschatologists" -- they're looking for the perfection of the new heavens and new earth now.  Aha!  Yes, my name is Amy and I am a premature eschatologist.

The very negative part of being this type of personality is that I am hard to be around.  I am critical of others, often (probably correctly) accused by my lovely children as being too demanding.  And I am critical of myself, which leads to bad moods... making me even less fun to be around.

It appears people didn't always enjoy hearing from the OT prophets either. Again, they were standing on much firmer ground than I am with their complaints, but I'm sure they can relate to my prickliness.  They would probably "get" me.

Believe me, I would much rather NOT be this way.  I don't like being judgmental and critical. I know there are positive elements to this personality aspect.... being able to see problems and help with solutions, seeing the great contrast between our sin and God's holiness, which can lead to greater awe and worship.

But I would like to be more grace-full, more gentle, less aware and mad about the brokenness in and around me.  And I'm worried.... I'm no spring chicken anymore and the next life stage bearing down on me is that of a senior citizen.  We all know that one's "filter" between mind and mouth seems to fade as people age.  This is bad news for me since I tend to keep a lot of my critical thoughts in my mind.

I don't want to be one of those crotchety old people waving her cane at everyone younger than 70 and calling out all the evils of progress.  I don't want to spew out all my judgments unsolicited and unbidden.

So between now and then (tomorrow?) I need to implement some strategies.  Who can advise me in this?

I wish I could meet with an elderly Elijah... but of course he never became too elderly, lucky dog.  Maybe Isaiah would have some tips.  Hosea seems to be pretty softened as time goes on, taking Gomer back and all.  Jonah, on the other hand, still hadn't seemed to figure out how to age gracefully by the last notes we have of him.  Maybe he did later.

Of course the other big difference between the real OT prophets and me is that I get to live on this side of the Cross.  I have the eyewitness accounts of Jesus, the fulfillment of the Gospel, while those prophets did not (while on earth).  I get to know the "already" part of the kingdom... but I'm still waiting for the "not yet" part, as they were.

The "already" will need to suffice for me.  The truths of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit via Peter and Paul and the rest, will need to be my instructions on how to live --  now and as I age.  I must remind myself to do things like Philippians 4:8 says -- to think about the good things -- and Colossians 3 repeats-- to set my minds on things above, not on earthly things.

As with most things, it all comes down to the daily habits I guess.  Choosing gratefulness and joy and not complaining.  Choosing worship and prayer over rants and harangues.

Please, all y'all -- family and friends -- remind me of this, daily if you can.  The mental images I have of my wrinkled and gray-haired filter-less old self can be scary!

An Egg-citing, albeit Quarantined, Easter

Easter was odd this year for sure... but still full of eggs.

 There are 22 students still on campus this month, so our family decided to put on an egg hunt for them with some gift cards as prizes to make it enticing.  :)  You're never too old for an egg hunt, right?

So we filled 250 eggs and then hid them around the quad area... We couldn't stick around to watch them find the eggs, with the quarantine and all, but we heard reports later that the students had fun.

Then in the afternoon our super-fun neighbors egged our yard!  The kids had 60 eggs to find.... which they loved, of course.

But it was not all eggs....  We enjoyed a worship service in the morning, and a Wray Family (+ Timberlakes) Zoom call in the afternoon.  We played games, including a virtual egg hunt in our house, an egg puzzle scramble, and then an Apples-to-Apples type of game.  Then Dan shared some thoughts about Fear and Hope.

All in all, it was a very full and joyful Easter day!  He is Risen indeed!!

Easter Prep

Even though we've been stuck at home this past week was still full of hustle and bustle!  I love that the kids are now old enough to help with all the preparations.... It might make for a messier kitchen, but definitely a happier one as well.

 This year the kids asked me to please make carrot cake, so we started by shredding a bunch of carrots.  Unfortunately, in a becoming-all-too-common-occurrence, I mis-read the recipe and ended up shredding 3 *pounds* of carrots instead of 3 *cups* of carrots.  So in addition to 48 cupcakes, we made coleslaw and Milo's now-famous carrot salad.

The girls enjoyed watching the boys cook frenetically, and repeatedly offered helpful directions such as, "Put that oil away now,"  "Wait, you dropped something on the floor," and "You have to clean that mess up."

Colsen made this year's Hot Cross Buns, and did a fantastic job of it.

We also made several batches of cinnamon rolls.  There are a handful of students still on campus and we wanted to make them some homemade foods for Easter, so we took up some pans of the cinnamon rolls and carrot cupcakes.  (Hope they like cream cheese frosting!)

Besides the kitchen prep, we also did some egg-dyeing, of course!

The kids were a little annoyed that I forgot to buy white eggs... but I still think they turned out pretty anyway.  I made them into deviled eggs later, and they were less pretty, since the dye had seeped through a bit to the egg whites... but they still tasted good.  :)

When we celebrated Holy Week quarantined

 

So here we are still quarantined, which has made for some very strange Holy Week services.  But we made the most of it!

On Palm Sunday we tuned into Redeemer's online service and we waved our palms and had a parade....

.... Miles even took up the offering....

... and the boys made sure to stand for the benediction.

Later in the week we gathered in the den again for a Maundy Thursday service and some Good Friday programming.  It was weird not to gather with the Church, but also made it a week we will always remember!

Life wisdom from Milo

Apparently I now have 3 sages in the house.  Following in Cole's footsteps, Milo has taken to philosophizing about life.  Here's his quote from today:

"Life is a bumpy road.  But it's not about trying to avoid those bumps, it's about how you respond to them."


Here's one about the purpose of a college (he's been overhearing his parents' conversations asking this question):

"The purpose of a college is not to have good students come here, it's to have good students leave here."   (He's not wrong.)

#quarantinetimes