{phfr} here comes the rain again

It's raining torrentially and all manner of flood warnings are in effect. I cannot face my basement which I know is filling with water. I ought to get down there and cope with all the stuff on the floor. I ought also to be more holy and good. I ought to do a lot of things. So clearly blogging moves itself to the front of the line. 

{Pretty}

Gladys has such an interesting eye. I discovered this jumbled in a pile of recycling and rescued it. I particularly like all the detail, and of course the face. 

{happy}

Long ago, when baseball was still in play (heh heh heh) (so grateful it's all over, even though I do sort of miss it. But not too much. They lost the championship game on Tuesdsy night, sob, but the coach was so lovely, sitting them all down and methodically saying something wonderful about each child's performance over the course of the season--you could see the boys strain forward in turn to hear what he would say--and then sending them tumbling out of the dugout to run and slide and laugh and jump while the winning team filed somberly and strangely away)... where was I...oh yes

Long ago when there was a game on a Friday and the gods of baseball decided to go ahead and play to the bitter end even though it was clear who was going to win and Matt was stuck out in Vestsl and texting me in rage and fustration because as you all know, Friday is the One Day we sit down and talk to each other and the children aren't allowed to interrupt for any reason other than immanent death, 

I spent the long lonely two and a half hours making this

And setting up this

So that when they finally did make it home reason was restored to its throne.

{funny}

For the month of June I am spending my Sunday School hour with the Littlest at Good Shepherd. Normally this room holds not only the threes but also whacking great four, five and six year olds so that the threes get kind of lost in the shuffle. But now that Summer Sunday School is in full swing and everyone is upstairs memorizing as many verses as they can before the end of summer, I've assembled the Threes together for some quieter chatechesis by themselves. And the group of them together is pretty hilarious.

{Real}

Good Shepherd supports a church in the slum of Kuinde in Nairobi, Kenya.

Last night one of the ladies in the church, someone whom Elphine and I got to meet when we visited in 2009, lost everything in a fire that destroyed her one room tin house. She has two little girls and isn't as healthy as everyone would like. If you have a moment could you pray for her today, and for the church. Her name is the same as mine.

And now my conscience is seriously troubling me so I guess I will go have a look at the basement, that is, Sheol.

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