Starting Lent 2012

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Lent is the liturgical season in the Catholic Church (also observed in other Christian Churches) in preparation for Easter. Typically, people prepare through three activities: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

Prayer is fairly obvious. For this Lent, I will be praying Morning and Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours (also known as the Divine Office). I have prayed the hours on and off for many, many years. Starting again is a little daunting, mostly because finding time will be challenging. I'll be getting up earlier for the morning prayers, so that is covered. Fitting evening prayers into the routine will be tougher. I plan to say them during bath time; failing that (e.g. on the rare occasions that I give the baths), I will say them after the children go to bed.

Fasting is typically refraining from eating the usual amount of food, though I have heard people who fast from reading fiction or from television or from Internet. This category is where the typical "I gave up X for Lent" would fall. I'm going to fast on Fridays (the food sort of fasting) and not have snacks after dinner for the rest of the week (a habit I indulge in far too often).

The final preparation is almsgiving, which is a quaint way of saying, "Giving to the poor." We've made a sort of piggy bank that the kids will put money in each night for the poor. Also, we will start giving to church more robustly. Back in America, we used direct withdrawal for donating to our local parish but haven't set that up here, mostly because we don't have a British bank account. The children have pretty steadily put coins in the collection; we should be doing more.

Another thing for Lent is reading. I'm still working my way through books on the Psalms (just finished C. S. Lewis's book, review coming soon) and I plan to re-read Thomas More's The Sadness of Christ. I have some more of Benedict XVI's Wednesday teachings on the Doctors of the Church and the Great Teachers. I may have more reading than time to read, which is my unending problem.

I'll also do some more spiritual viewing. Thanks to Just a Catholic Dad, I know about a miniseries on Catholicism that the BBC is showing this Lent. I'll watch that. Since we're here in the UK, I'll revisit A Man for All Seasons (more Thomas More!) and Becket. If you want better recommendations, check out Steven Greydanus's list at Decent Films Guide. A few of those are in my collection and I hope to revisit them as well.

It will be a busy Lent in our home, hopefully a joyous one!

Why We Should Stick to Slow Zombies

How many ways can zombies be turned into commodities? Soon they will serve not so much as fitness instructors but as fitness motivators. See this article on Stride Nation about an obstacle course that includes zombies. Good preparation for the coming zombie apocalypse, if you're not a zombie. The race is being run in a city near you, if you live in the United States. Check out the web site http://runforyourlives.com/ for the nearest race. The write up sounds like a lot of fun:

Runners will navigate a series of 12 obstacles throughout a 5K course in an attempt to reach the finish line — all while avoiding zombies. At the end of this adventure race, you get to celebrate survival (or zombie transformation) with live entertainment and music, local celebrities, vendors, food, and of course, beer!

They even made a little movie!



If it isn't coming to a city near enough to you, you can still get a sweet (though health-consciously so) t-shirt with this logo:

Get the t-shirt here.

Rainbow Detection

This country seems to be the land of rainbows. I've probably seen as many rainbows here in seven or eight months as I've seen the rest of my life elsewhere. Rainy, misty weather does have an upside. You just have to know where to look.

Driving Jacob to school today, I saw the end of a rainbow on the horizon in front of me. Then I looked off to the right and saw the other end of the rainbow. As we drove further, we hit the sweet spot and I could see the whole bow from end to end, arcing across the sky majestically. Jacob said, "Daddy, drive through the rainbow!" I wish I could have. If only it weren't an impenetrable phenomenon. We all enjoyed the view.

Too bad I was driving or I'd have taken a picture. I suppose I could have stopped but we were already running late for school. If we had been on time, we might have missed it. By the time we arrived at school, it was gone. The children didn't really notice; they were already on to the next adventure. School for Jacob and a snack for Lucy.

I can see why these islands have stories built around rainbows. "Write about what you know" clearly applies.

Lucy's Bed Time Drama

Lucy has had a rather crazy evening. When bath time came around, she did not want to go upstairs. She said, "I'm too hungry, I want another snack." Note she said "another" because she already had plenty to eat at dinner and two snacks afterward. She might have been more convincing if she had gone into the kitchen to point at some food rather than just lie down on the floor and refuse to move. I told her it was bath time so she changed her story to "I don't want to go to bed, I have no energy to sleep." So I carried her upstairs.

She walked into the bathroom under her own power and started the bath time routine with Mommy. She wasn't really interested in staying though. She dumped some bubbles on Jacob's head and told Mommy, "I was naughty, take me out!" Normally she only gets pulled out if she dumps a cup of water on Jacob's head after he has asked her not to. She apparently couldn't be bothered to find a cup for water and scooped up what she could to cause trouble. Jacob didn't complain but she insisted. So out she came.

Jacob was still in the tub. I therefore was on pajama duty for Lucy. She wasn't interested in this either. She demanded Mommy. I explained that Mommy was still washing Jacob and we could have fun getting PJs on. Her idea of fun and mine weren't exactly the same. First she picked her monkey pajamas. Then her princess pajamas. Finally she saw one of Jacob's old pajamas in her drawer and demanded them as her favorite. The PJs with dinosaurs driving cars are her new favorite. Yeah, right. I dressed her in those pajamas, which did fit her fairly well. At least she was satisfied and might settle down.

She brought some books into Mommy and Daddy's room for bed time reading. I tried to start reading with her. She told me that she had no energy to sleep. I said that was okay since we were only reading. She failed to acknowledge the logic of my statement and insisted that she didn't have the energy for anything. I said she could either read books or go straight to bed. She again insisted that she didn't have enough energy to sleep. I toyed with the idea of explaining how you don't need energy to sleep but I doubted my patience and her receptivity. By that time Jacob was done bathing, wearing his pajamas, and reading stories with Mommy. When I finally picked her up to carry her to her bed, she decided she did have the energy to listen to stories.

When stories were done it was back to the "no energy to sleep" argument. I carried her to her room and put her in bed. She stood up and said she doesn't like sleeping and jumped up and down to prove how little energy she had. I said I would stay with her. Turning off the light, I laid her down in my lap. That usually works to calm her down and get her snoozy. After five or ten minutes, she was groggy enough to get into bed and stay there. I spent another fifteen minutes lying next to her bed while she started to doze off.

I went downstairs and my wife and I watched a little TV on the BBC iPlayer (Hustle is in Series 8, really?). After that, my wife went upstairs and heard snoring, even through the kids' doors. Turning on a light, she discovered Lucy lying in the hallway asleep and making enough noise for both children. She couldn't figure out how she got there or why she didn't come downstairs after getting out of her room. I came up and carried her to bed again. Hopefully she sleeps through the night. In her own bed. And has some energy in the morning.

Doing Dishes Yields Science?

Washing up our tea pot, I managed to make a concave bubble in the top of the pot. It was amazing so I thought I would share it here.

The bubble remained until I popped it. I assume it was concave due to gravity. The hole is about three inches across. It's not very big but large enough to have a bubble instead of a straight film. I tried to recreate it but was unsuccessful, so I guess it wasn't really science, or at least not verifiable.

Book Review: The Psalms of David

I felt a little weird reviewing The Catechism of the Catholic Church since it covers the central beliefs of my faith. Could I say something critical about it without getting hit by lightning? Can I rate it less than five stars (or whatever the top limit is)? Now here I am, reviewing a book from the Bible, which seems like I'm taunting God with a lightning rod. I hope He doesn't mind...

The Book of Psalms is a classic of Judeo-Christian faith and of world literature. Psalm 23 ("The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want...") is perhaps the most famous poem in Western civilization. The psalms have been set to music several times (they are songs, after all) and quoted in literature for thousands of years.

This particular edition of the Psalms is the King James Version with illustrations by James Freemantle. Freemantle was a British soldier who traveled all over the Middle East. During his second marriage, he began to transcribe the Psalms and illustrate the book for his wife Clara. He included much of the flora and fauna of the Middle East, practically on every page of the book. It took over thirty years to complete and he died the year he finished it. His son decided many years later to publish his father's work in facsimile edition.

The book is quite beautiful. The illustrations are well done and lend a serene air to the sublime text. The lettering is also quite beautiful, though some individual psalms include different styles for each line. Occasionally the graphic designer in the back of my head would shout, "Too many fonts on one page!" I became better at ignoring that voice and enjoying the visual splendor of Freemantle's work.

Originally I was going to read this book and then pass it on to someone else or donate it to a book sale, since I have a bible or two if I want to look up or read a certain psalm. The book does add something to the experience of reading and praying that makes me want to pull it off the shelf occasionally to have that experience again. And to share it with my children. This one is a keeper.

Here are some sample pages from the book. You can click on them to see the full size scan.

Darley Mill Playground

Lucy and I made a fascinating discovery the other day. We went to Darley Mill to buy some presents. After we were done shopping, Lucy wanted to walk around outside. Specifically, she wanted to climb the stairs out back that lead up past the mill wheel and to the little canal that fuels the wheel. We walked down one side of the canal and went through a stone doorway. The moment was a magical journey from a child's story, for we came upon this as we went through.

Huzzah! What could be more fun!

Naturally, this playground is not spectacular like Valley Gardens. But any new playground is a joyful experience, more so if it is an unexpected find. Lucy liked the bouncy riders, though she did need a little practice.

This is one of those angry birds!

Looks scarier but is more fun than an angry bird.

She made me ride with her on the see-saw. I enjoyed the opportunity to play too! She went down the slide several times. She asked me to play the "high five" game where I put my hand up to be slapped high-five style as she goes down.

Later, she walked over to a nearby table to give it a high five. Unfortunately, the table is a little rougher than my hand. She was okay. Kids bounce back so fast.

Old mill wheel put to good use

We were soon done playing but will keep our happy memories for a long time to come.