“It is Advent, and we are a people, pregnant.”
Gertrud Mueller Nelson

Today is the beginning of the church calendar, and we begin our time of preparing and waiting for the Christ. I can’t help but think of Mary as we begin our own vigil for Christ. In these last few weeks of her pregnancy, she is waiting to meet this child who has grown in her for many weeks. Even though she is carrying the Messiah, she still has to wait to meet him. And when you’re 8½ months pregnant, it’s hard to wait anymore.

So this is how I enter Advent this year. In the heart of Mary. Waiting and longing to meet her baby. Our Christ.


In the secret, in the quiet place
In the stillness you are there
In the secret, in the quiet hour I wait,
Only for you.
‘Cause I want to know you more

I want to know you
I want to hear your voice
I want to know you more
I want to touch you
I want to see your face
I want to know you more

Admittedly, I was in a bit of a funk. But I know...that's no excuse. I hit Whole Foods on the way home from housegroup tonight as is a normal custom for us since our boys go through a gallon of milk in less than a week, and I am one of those moms who insist her boys drink organic milk and eat organic yogurt.

The parking lot at Whole Foods isn't designed very well. It always bottlenecks at the entrance and tonight I was sitting in the middle of a red light at the intersection before the parking lot entrance. It bugged me.

Finally, I got into the parking lot and crawled to an open parking space not because of car traffic, but becuase the parking lot was filled with hundreds of pedestrians talking on cell phones and not paying attention.

Okay, there were only two of them, but they kept me from getting a prime parking spot, so I exaggerated a bit out of pure frustration.

I finally get into the store and am literally side-swiped by a shopping cart pushed by a different cell-phone talker. She apologizes profusely ("I didn't see you, oh my gosh...") and I snarl at her and walk away.

I pick up my gallon of whole milk for the boys, half gallon of 2% (for Kenny), 1/4 gallon of skim (for me), and 2 six-packs of Stonyfield yogurt and make a bee-line to the check-out. The cashiers are always chatty and very nice at Whole Foods. I totally appreciate this. But back to my bitter blog entry....

On my way out of the store, I go to return my cart and I'm about to collide with a woman entering the store when I notice that (you guessed it!) she is talking on her cell phone. I glare at her because she is in my way and I hope to telepathically tell her how rude it is to talk on a cell phone in a grocery store so as to be completely unaware of your surroundings. As if on cue, she says, "Okay Frank, I have to call you back because I'm at the grocery store and I don't want to be one of those rude people who talk on their cells while roaming the aisles."

She read my mind. But more importantly, she really did hang up and put her phone in her purse. Where it belongs in public.

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We bought a piano from a friend of Kenny's. A very reasonable price. And no matter what we paid for it, it's been completely worth it watching the boys learn all over it. And I knew Kenny was a gifted pianist, but I'm finally getting to hear his original compositions with more frequency when he sits down to play and they just blow me away.

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Sawyer's just about too big for the backpack. We bought it secondhand at a children's consignment shop when I was 8 months pregnant with Rowan. We've totally gotten double our money's worth in how much we've used it.

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Sawyer was actually "roaring" in this photo. He saw Kenny do it just seconds before and laughed at his face sticking out of the...what are these things called, any way? So Kenny took him around and put his face through it and he roared just like his Daddy did. Sent Rowan into hysterics.

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Besides being very talented at apple pie making, Rowan is also a great birthday cake maker. Here is proof that he, in fact, made Daddy's birthday cake this year. And helped him eat it moreso than last year. :)

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Since we have 1/3 of an acre with big, old trees (maple and elm), we have an incredible amount of leaves. I think we have a "boys-playing-in-leaves" photo from a dozen different leaf-rakings from just this year. And we still have more leaves to rake.

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Sawyer is learning to feed himself. He only gets the last bite of yogurt by himself, otherwise he'd be wearing it instead of digesting it.

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He wears old man pants so well, doesn't he?

I implore you not to watch this program. I probably don’t really have to twist anyone’s arm because the description, “Christian sitcom” might send you running far away.

Christian television is bad in and of itself. It probably goes back farther than Tammy Faye Baker, but it’s what people think of when they think of Christian television: glamorous-looking sets, crying big-haired women begging for your money. It’s a far cry from going “out into the world and spreading the gospel.”

Kenny turns on [I]Pastor Greg[/I] to annoy me, I think. ;) We’ve seen a few episodes (admittedly because we’re too lazy to do anything but watch television some evenings…it all starts with Seinfeld reruns at 7:30 after the kids are in bed), and have laughed not at the “comedy” of the program, but in amazement that it has actually found funding and airtime. But then again, this is Christian television we’re talking about.

Before you think I’m way too harsh on Christian television, let me defend my remarks. I was a communications/theatre major at a Christian college. This is when and where I learned that Christians who have a calling in entertainment also have a responsibility in excellence. We are representing the Creator of the arts, so why embark on a project that is anything less than excellent?

I’m sorry to say, [I]Pastor Greg[/I] is far from excellent. It’s even far from being good. On a surface-level, the acting is awkward, the storylines trite, and whoever claims to be the director needs more lessons in directing. On a deeper level, here is a quote from the star and producer of the show, Greg Robbins, in an abcnews.go.com article:

“I believe that the masses aren't going to look and go, 'Well, they're claiming Christ as their savior and I'm not going to watch it,'" he said. "No, they're going to watch it, they're going to like it and then also they're going to see that Christianity is not what they thought it was."

I don’t know what he thinks these masses think about Christianity. But after watching this program, it’s probably not going to be a positive reaction.

If you’re curious, [link(http://www.ctvn.org/pastorgreg/)]here[/link] is their web site (it’s taped here in Pittsburgh).

Our boys had fun walking up to houses and helping themselves to the bowls of candy (Rowan took 5 pieces from one house - but she insisted that it was okay after I told him to put 4 of them back...I guess he has that charm! :) )

Sawyer gets all of Rowan's hand-me-downs. Last year, he was Red Hot Chili Sawyer because Rowan was Red Hot Chili Rowan the year before. This year, Sawyer was a tiger because Rowan was tiger last year. I'm sure you'll see Sawyer as Elmo next year...because Rowan was Elmo this year (got all that???)

Any way, these pictures were requested by Uncle Jonathan, who wanted to see his little nephews in their Halloween garments... (Kenny refers to the Elmo costume as the "Elmo-swallows-Rowan" costume).

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