I don't know why you can't keep a vacuum? { I don't know why you can't keep a maid?"} Oh, you don't know, do you?

The distant between the husband and wife was such that he had no idea why the maids kept leaving the house. That house was a mine field for femininity. The bulls kept trampling them and thank God there were more than one feminine creature for them to trample so that the wife survived, at least the 20 years of marriage that were depicted for us to imagine. I often think that Teddy Roosevelt's first wife and Braun from How Green are some of the human carnage of the bullish marriage tendency of the earlier generation. I am of Amazonian stock and I have many a time been smashed and shed tears for the lack of sensitivity that I have experienced in the bullish season of marriage. My husband isn't always a bull in sensitivity, but on occasion he is.

My vacuum remnants remind me of the many devices that are represented in the maids of our earlier generations. Except, that they don't relate to us, personally. They don't commiserate the lack of sensitivity that can be evident in a home.

I try to wet dry vac with a dirt devil to try to sterilize a huge mess from a bustling family, during this bustling season of our lives. I have the wreckage to show for my efforts. Maybe the mess is not worth the wreckage. I will need to purge my vacuum pile.

Lord, help me not to complain about my lot in life. The invisible life of the cleaning crew. The uncomfortable life of the bearing one-another's burdens woman of the house. What did you do all day?

Michael W. Smith's 20 year concert, I am receiving from the Lord as a diamond ring of God's knowledge of my wounds. Thank you, Lord! I know that You love me through every minute. {to quote Mr. Day}

Praying in Tapestry, Feeling the Earth Move?

I Feel the Earth Move---Tapestry

Thank you Carol King, for the preparation and transparency to prepare us for the reality of our feminine emotions that can and often do, unsettle us and knock us down under their wave. I fell on skates, last week and that was a close parallel to what happens when love or infatuation are at an initial phase. So many of us are completely unaware of the change in our lives.

I love that Carol put it into words. I feel.

All I do is feel, when I am in love. I am in tune with myself and myself is all that there is. We think it is the other person, but it is ourselves seeking satiation from this person. Maybe it is, but time and covenant will tell.

God has made us the weaker vessel and so we are feeling the earth move under our feet. We feel completely out of control with ourselves. Understanding and self control in the Holy Spirit are in order, but even with those constraints upon conscience and heart, we are women first. We live in a fallen world and we are our worst enemy in this matter.

Some have put up walls of divide and stoicism. That may work and maybe those people weren't meant to be married in the first place. Those whose emotions and urges are unconstrained, much harm and difficulty can follow. Somewhere in between is the balance of human desire and the right use of it. Learning to wait and learning to pray.

Carol King taught us about ourselves to pray for ourselves and for our daughters, from the depth of her confessional. Truth and coming clean and teaching others to follow Jesus and then go about what God has for you to do.

God ordained marriage as the right and safe outworking of those urges, for our benefit and enjoyment, in Him. We all stray and wobble. Lord, forgive us. God grant my daughters and grands and neices to see the truth of the confessions of the elders and grow to love Christ's institution of the marriage covenant and live in the light of New Testament gifts to our souls, in Jesus' Name, Amen.

Will your heal crush the serpents in your life?

“I too am a man under authority.”

The recognition of Christ’s authority over the wind and the waves, when God gives you personal authority in the family.

No, You will not be a cowboy, Mr. Day insisted.{chapter one LWF} Yes, you will eat that oatmeal, to another child, he insists. The father sees what is for the good of body and economy. Mother is more often aware about soul and emotion. What comforts the tender heart and body and what dries the tears. God said, if you make a vow, your father can disallow it in heaven. He knows that you are young and that you are not able to fulfill what you speak with your mouth. How many fathers take mention of what their children vow and even think? We have separated the family so that every man to himself is the mantra. Learning to grow together and not be those who hang ourselves individually. The establishment and growth of community from individuals and families is a mysterious happening.

The serpent slithers, often alone. The mother gathers her brood and does all to promote the unity of the seemingly ununifyable. Clarence Day expresses the differences between himself and his brothers their different bents, attitudes and ambitions. The only unity, it seemed was their mother.

What happens when the moon turns to blood? {I think the reference is to when the mother has an option of abortion to deliberate, in her weakest state} In scriptural terms. Is there a unifying factor for the family if mother is not there to referee the wrestling match? I think not! The conflict between the serpent and the woman is significant in the spiritual battle. Will you stand against the serpent’s wiles in your home or let him reign?

ON the matter of whispers and gossip....

From 7/9/14

It is wonderful how the Royals bring out so much from the rest of us, when they are in the stands.

Who saw that Federer was playing clownily? He was obviously distracted. I had no idea.

He had no concentration at all except it be on the stands. But not the way the youngsters were… It was a sincere and new focus for the older champion. He was showing off in an infantile kind of way. It nearly seemed he’d been smitten by some bug of some sort.

I would stay on the courts for ten hours had I the lady Katherine to entertain in this way, he seemed to say.

Is she not amazing in her way of commanding the best and the worst out of a jousting couple of swashbucklers? They both were falling all over themselves and getting up, all the more intent upon giving their very best show for the woman who has stricken us all with fondness for her royal appearances and youthful attendance to pomp and circumstance. Perhaps, her husband taught her the decorum of silence and perhaps her rearing was great and intense. Whatever the combination of charm and beauty and royal ability, I blame her for the great match at Wimbledon, the other day. Who knows?

As Gidget’s grandmother said…”A real woman knows how to bring out the best in a man!”

Evelyn's Graduation!! This is what the fuss is all about, Graduation! Congratulations!

Nearly "Chowan-autical"!

I almost wish I could start sooner than August, you said. I am writing it so that you will remember, because one day you are going to wonder, if you really chose this. You did. We are supportive of your decision, but you did choose this school. I really love it, right now. Now that I still have you in my arms to coddle. We will see what the year will bring in my emotions. I am fickle, you know, but I really love it, today. And so do you. Today? Can those scholastics pry us apart, or are we so siamese that we disintegrate when separated, by distance? We will see. The campus was great. The tennis courts were adorable, the rooms were dormie. You will jump into this investment and we will see what becomes of us all. I hear that corn fields are not much different than subway tracks and eventually they grow on you. I really don't think that corn eats people. If it does, you are "a gonner". Somebody wrote "What the World needs now is Love" on the way to Chowan. Lord, Do we need this? That begs the question on the rode to Chowan. How many meadows and cornfields and wheatfields and stuff is enough for us to know that He loves us? Just a little more? We are all excited about the future and your "Faith in your Future" motto. You take that motto upon yourself when you enter Chowan. Building your faith into your future. Seeing your faith in your future. Living your faith into your future. Studying to be approved in the Faith in your future. All of these things to make you an effective citizen of this world and faithful citizen of the Kingdom of God on the earth. Get Baptized! Go for it! Love Jesus and follow faithful people to Heaven! And, Don't Stop Praising His Name!

The last two weeks or so of Senioritis!

Will we make it? We are crawling toward the finish line...Not really! What a trooper you have been these four years. I am proud of the Stallwart Senior that you are. Daily griping and complaining over your circumstances, like missmatched eyes and uncomfortable older sisters and too much to do and not enough room in the car. Somebody is always stepping on your toes or bothering you here and there and yet, you still find a way to negotiate the problem through. I am grateful for your sweet example of self control and obstinate peacemaking. I really respect that about you. I can rarely relate to your conflicts, but I can relate to your peaceful resolutions, when you use them. I know that this is not my example that has taught you this. I am learning from you, everytime.

We got the Seniors...(you know the rest, by know) Let's go Evvy, show us how!