The Welsh hobbit-house

This little video is of a gorgeous hobbit-house built in Pembrokeshire, Wales (and actually lived in!). Here's builder Simon Dale's website about it. Apparently there's quite the green movement in the UK which is actually building nearly-all-native houses. I doubt Tolkien would agree with them entirely; but I bet he'd like the house.

I want one -- exactly like that one!

My kitchen valentines

This year, I made the kitchen cabinets my valentines.


It's such a happy room. :-)

Sitting up with the dead

I bring you this childhood comedic classic in honor of Ash Wednesday. Or something.

Inspiration

Meg makes a friend

We took Meggie to small group last night. It was so good to get back and see everybody! Meg was excellent and slept determinedly the entire time. She has a great causal relationship with that car seat: Meg + car seat + car in motion = sleeping. We had her just hang out in her car seat on the floor in front of us for the duration.

Andi arrived a bit late after her work. "You're here! And you brought the baby!"

She bounced over and looked at Meg closely. "Hello! How are you tonight?" (Still sleeping.) "Is that your frog? I like your outfit. Ooh, that blanket looks very warm. It's good to meet you!"

Andi sat up and looked at me. "She's very polite. Easy to get along with." She nodded decisively. "I like her!"

Weather report

We in Richmond are doing just fine, snow-wise. We got a bit over the weekend, maybe three inches, but nothing wild and crazy like up in DC. Last night for a used bookstore run and small group it was sleeting, and we woke up today to discover more of the white stuff coming down.

This was out my kitchen window this morning. As you can see, we do have snow, but only about an inch of it is fresh.

Also exciting (from my viewpoint) is this basil plant, which was on its last legs at Christmas but looks pretty good now. See that new growth on the lower half of the stem? :-)

Thought

Earrings are like the punctuation for your* outfit. It's not that people can't understand what you're saying without them, but they're the perfect finishing touch -- a convention, a printer's mark, to aid comprehension.

In that case, I went to McDonald's today with a socially incomplete fashion statement.


*Gentlemen, you are not being addressed. So no snarky comments, please.

Why we aren't spies

"Maybe you want haggis for breakfast - variety and mystery in one meat! And maybe a little self-deception too, if you believe the tales of the haggis-beast." Jonathan

Uh-oh. Nobody's told him haggis-beasts are for real. See? I found a picture on the internet. I think they have long hair like those highland cows, to keep them warm in those long cold winters. A similarity with Scottish cattle would also explain why haggises don't taste good: I definitely don't recommend hamburgers in Scotland. (Though pretty much everything else we ate was wonderful. Except the Chinese food.) But that's by the by.

In other news, we've been discovering just how much we converse at night when one or the other of us isn't actually awake. Several times Jonathan has given me the equivalent of "yes, dear," and rolled right over. I hear that I greeted Jonathan when he came to bed last night, and thanked him for getting up to take care of Meg. I have no memory of this. At least our automatic response systems are polite.

And probably we shouldn't take up espionage anytime soon!

His steadfast love endures forever

It's not looking very hopeful that I'll get to work from home full-time when my leave is up (next week). And if they do approve it, there would be a rather awkward string attached.

Sigh. I came home and read our church children's ministry newsletter. The director had included a meditation on Psalm 136, which is the one that repeats "For His steadfast love endures forever" on every alternating line. He wrote,

And this refrain, in its brevity, announces both what God is like AND what He’s doing: In other words, God is constant, firm, loyal and strong in His love to His people and this will continue into the future. At first glance, we should all look back to times of trouble and see that God was faithful. But the rearview mirror is so small and dirty – it’s hard to be encouraged by the past. Really, what we should be reminded of is that the God we serve is the One that set His love upon His people and promised to be constant, firm, loyal and strong to them NOW and FOREVER.

Believer, God has proven Himself to be a faithful God. But more importantly, your God loves you enough to take the time to prove it to you.

It was very encouraging that God is more faithful than I am.

Dragonishness

Lars Walker has an entertaining rant up about the new Dreamworks movie "How to Train Your Dragon." I observe from the trailer that in addition to the other stereotypes it appears to feature an armor-wearing chica.

We might go see it anyway, but thus far I'm unimpressed. Dreamworks has been pretty hit-or-miss with its productions, but I'm willing to forgive it much for "Kung Fu Panda."

An average baby

We were amused on Monday to find out that Margaret is exactly average. We had no idea. But the doctor weighed and measured her and says she's at the 50th percentile for growth. She's up to 9 pounds, 7 ounces.

Yesterday, we experimented with ways to cheer up this average baby. Particular favorites were gentle bouncing, having hymns sung to her at great length, and having Daddy read Latin out loud. I think they were reading Virgil's eclogues. There really is something about the sonorous Latin periods, because having English read aloud just didn't do it for her.

This morning I needed to be taken on a date, so we packed her up and went on her first non-medical Real Outing -- to Starbucks! So, what with one thing or another, I think Meggie's cultural education is coming along splendidly!