vocabulary

It's such a fun surprise when I hear Ellie say something new. Her latest favorite words: "belly button" and "chocolate milk." We got her a new kitchen set, and she's been "cooking" up a storm for us. In the fake food set that we got to go with the kitchen, her favorites are the broccoli, donut, and aforementioned chocolate milk container. She was especially delighted with the mini colander, as she always pulls my full-size ones out of the cupboard. She's also bringing new meaning to the phrase "contemplate your navel" as she'll stand in front of the mirror and examine her belly.

We're looking again at a house that we put an offer on last year. Our offer wasn't accepted, but the house is now priced lower than our initial offer. We're hoping that we can jump on it. It's an old, quirky, rambling fixer with a ginormous fireplace and stone lions out front. More on that to come.

street preaching

Along with the changing leaves and chill in the air, a sure herald of fall is the official opening of the "preaching corridor" by Wells Hall. I'm always interested to see who is out each year. In the 90s when I was a student, there was a guy who called everyone fornicators. I got called a fornicator once and thought it was funny. Glutton, liar, prideful, lustful, sure.... but despite being in college I was not actually a fornicator. There are usually several groups out, and each has a slightly different approach - from huge signs, to tracts, to a flannel-graph looking board to illustrate the Bridge (although this picture has the earth and the clouds, not two sides of a chasm that some of us are used to.) One thing that they have in common is that they are all very loud, and it can be quite the cacophony - especially when a campus atheist comes along to shout them down.
Through the years I've heard many different approaches by Wells. One of the best, most honest dialogues I've ever heard was between an open-air evangelist that the Navs sponsored to bring to campus and some students who had gathered around. He spoke only loud enough to be heard by the group, and he answered every question he was asked. He was starkly honest with some guys who asked him about specific sins in his life. It was the first time I'd ever see someone be completely vulnerable and bare their soul, stains and all, for the sake of ministering to another person. I'll never forget that. He also handled an angry, red-faced professor with grace and wit. The prof was insisting that an obscure Old Testament passage disqualified Jesus from being the Messiah. The evangelist handed the prof his Bible and asked him to find the passage so they could discuss it. Of course the prof had no idea where it was, so he threw down the Bible in disgust and walked away.
Today as I was passing through the new crop of preachers, I noticed something different. The guy with the big sign was speaking loudly still, but he was not yelling. He also wasn't listing off sins like the guy at the flannel-graph was. As I walked by, he was saying "All these things won't satisfy. You'll get a degree, get a husband or wife, get a great job, kids... but you'll still have an emptiness inside. Those things won't fill that hole." His words grabbed me because they were true. He was speaking to something that the students would feel - if not at that moment - maybe after waking up in a strange place after partying all night, maybe after realizing that they've given up something precious to a stranger, maybe after a disastrous grade report. I prayed that his words would stay in people's hearts as they walked by, and that they wouldn't scoff at Jesus as the answer just because the "nutty" folks at Wells said so.

learning to sing

Ellie loves "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." She has no idea what she's saying yet, but it's pretty cute nonetheless. She also loves eating yogurt, which is pretty obvious here as well.

It's a lovely, rainy Saturday and Ellie is not wanting to take a nap, no matter how much Mom might want to. She's currently playing hide and seek in the new cupboards we have in the basement. I'd like to have an hour to knit her some little legwarmers to go with her new MSU Spartans cheerleader outfit... I know. I broke down. I'm getting her pompoms too for the homecoming parade. Pretty pathetic. We're going to pull her in her wagon with the rest of the MSU Libraries crowd. Oy.

a long stretch

I've gotten the blogging bug again. It's been a full summer since I last posted, and Ellie is now running around the house saying things like "spatula" and "awesome." We've had a busy past few months, including a trip to New England where we all got sick, lots and lots of weddings, and new things to do at work.

In addition to the blogging bug, the knitting bug is back as well. Christmas is just around the corner, so craft season has officially begun. Let me know if you have any cool patterns to send my way.

I'm going up to the U.P. with Julie S. for a women's retreat at the end of the month. It will be nice to take a long drive with such fun company, and I'm sure the foliage will be gorgeous. I have become such a homebody that I hate leaving, especially without Ellie, but I think this trip is going to be a real blessing and a needed breath of fresh air. Not to mention all the knitting that I can get done in the car!