Sprinkle don't dunk

We went to Lake Tahoe this weekend to celebrate Lucy's first birthday and to baptize her in style. We went to Baldwin beach for a full dunking, but since the water was "headache cold" we only poured water over her forehead.

She wore a beautiful and very formal dress made lovingly by Descartes' mom, Cookie. It actually fit her perfectly... even though it was made before she was even born! Cookie and Papa drove their RV and stayed at a very nice campground not too far from my sister's house. They were very sweet to somehow get it together in spite of having just returned from The East Coast via D.C. and Miami. They were mighty jet-lagged, but managed to happily blend in with the rest of my crazy family.

It is actually not fair to say that they are crazy.. not this time. It all went so smoothly. I am really very very lucky to have such a great, if complicated family.

My Mom and Step-dad wonderfully put up my family and my brother's family in a hotel we all thought was going to be amazing.. but it was really just a Caesar's palace with a name-change.. None the less my children acted like it was Christmas and had a grand time on the cozy beds and in the Gigantic two person tub (as long as you ignored the slime mold it was fine!) Gloria and P.J. were generous as always, and I so appreciated that they drove all that way. Gerard and Pinky and my precious niece, Bubsy were great to have in attendance since they do not often travel outside of the Southern California basin (except to go to Hawaii or Mexico). I actually think it was the first time either of them had been to Tahoe..perhaps even north of Fresno! Bubsy really enjoyed playing in the jump house with Jake, and taking a bath with Lucy.


BIAD and my step-mom, Monster (by the way, not a deriding term.. I am Step-brat.. although this may be a more accurate name)stayed with my sister along with my youngest brother Albert and a friend Monster brought with her from work, Kory. She was delightful and a tremendous help with all of the kids.

We figured out that this was the first time all four kids have been in the same place since Demanda and Jaster's wedding in 1999. How sad is that? Someone has always been away at school or sick, or dying, or grieving, or poor or angry. We were really only all in the same place for about 6 hours, but it was nice.

Jaster and Demanda have re-organized and arranged their entire house to make it work with two little babies.. and they were amazing hosts for Lucy's birthday weekend acting as a home base for everyone. I thanked them about a million times, but there is never quite enough thanks I could give someone who actually takes care of me. Between Gloria and P.J. arranging for my hotel, Cookie making the dress and Demanda and Jaster setting up their entire house, I really didn't need to worry about anything. It felt so nice to have someone make some decisions and make it so I didn't need to anticipate every single need all by myself.

By the way Jaster and Demanda's house is still ready for Jake at a moment's notice. They continue to provide a sanctuary for my family time and time again.

So the weekend, overall went very smoothly. I am very proud of everyone for playing nicey-nice and I think enjoying themselves.

Will post a few pictures if I can get some from someone else.. since we could not get it together enough to bring our own camera. oh got one....

Grace, faith and words

so the other day I was somewhere on the web and there was a note to Blog about religion on Friday the 25th... shocking I missed it.. but here are my comments anywhoo...
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The list of things I pray for is short. While I know that God knows about every hair on my head (or the forty-odd scraggly ones which are left thanks to Lucy beating me up with crazy girl hormones, coupled with my lack of nutrition--see previous post on Candy hearts not being vitamins...) anyway, God knows about the hair. I still have not completely resolved my theology to think that I deserve much air time, so I keep my prayer list short.

Descartes has a hard time when I say things like "Please God, please let me get Jake's leg into this pair of pants before we both completely lose it". I think that he thinks I am "wasting prayer" on something stupid. Although he will admit he hasn't exactly worked out all of the kinks in his belief system; like whether he has one.

Not all of my prayers are prayers of petition. My prayers are prayers of thanksgiving mostly. I really, really am thankful most days for this exact life that I have.

Then the next day I don't believe there is anything more than today, this day, and I am merely a collection of molecules (all organic baby!) and religion is a social construct created by the collective human intelligence as a way to deal with seemingly important moral dilemma and the inevitability of cell death. (note to self:speak with Pastor about this juxtaposition of emotion).

But overall this is where I land. I am currently Lutheran if for no other reason than the fact that my sister, Demanda, signed me up (another story, another time...). I like the idea that this denomination of Christianity started as a rebellion of sorts. I mean any thing that starts with someone nailing a list of 95 theses on the door of the castle church basically saying, "uhm I don't think so", that's pretty cool.

salvation by God's grace alone--Sola Gratia
through faith alone--Sola Fide
revealed through scripture alone--Sola Scriptura****

that's the gist of the Lutheran theology

Grace, faith and words... pretty good things to boil down to.


****by the way I am "ELCA" Lutheran... for many reasons..but one distinction I note in particular is that ELCA (versus Missouri Synod) does not look at the Bible literally (Biblical inerrancy), but rather with a mind towards historical/critical analysis...which is much more my style.