Baby G's Doting Grandpas

Baby G is one very luckly little boy. 

This week Averill needs a bit of babysitting during the day so she can run a couple of errands with me. Since Baby G hasn't had his immunizations yet, we want to leave him at home.

So yesterday The Old Marine (now known as Honorary Grandpa Lee) did the honors while today it's El Jefe staying home from work (!) to do the same. Friday, Grandpa Lee will be back again.

We're all betting Grandpa Lee will be teaching him the Aggie War Hymn while Grandpa Jefe introduces him to the miracle of the Blackberry.

Friday Watercolor

This is a portrait of Oliver, the beloved dog of one of Averill's Odi et Amo readers.

She emailed Averill a couple of months ago asking if I would be willing to paint his portrait. My first commission!

Painting, like any other skill, requires practice. I haven't been painting since Patrick's accident, our friend Diana's illness and passing, and the birth of our grandson. This was a great opportunity to get back to it, but it also meant re-learning some techniques and wadding some early attempts at the portrait.

This is the one Averill and I agreed could be sent to her Reader, and fortunately she loved it.

Book Review: A View From The Back Pew

The subtitle of A View From The Back Pew is "God, Religion & Our Personal Quest for Truth." This is a memoir of the VERY personal quest of Tim O'Donnell, who grew up a Catholic but whose search for faith results in a New Age-y post modern spirituality created by himself

O'Donnell's motivation for writing about his experiences is to keep others from wrestling with the same guilt and fear that he attributes to his Catholic upbringing. It is interesting that although he questions the very foundation of the Catholic Church, he is so convinced that it is the only "true" church that he never takes the next logical step of investigating the theology and practice of any Protestant church. Would his conclusions been different if he read C. S. Lewis or Tim Keller?

Rejecting both the tradition of the Catholic Church and the Protestant emphasis on the authority of scripture, O'Donnell becomes fascinated with the Gnostic Gospels and the writings of Bart Ehrman and Elaine Pagels. This leads him to reject the orthodox doctrine of the divinity of Christ in favor of the belief that Christ was a human being with a highly-evolved spirituality. He concludes that "if we just have a measure of the faith in our own divinity that Jesus had, we too will exist on a plane where we can transcend time and space." 

The book combines O'Donnell's quest for religious truth with his life story, but the transitions are awkward.

(I received a free Advance Reader's copy of the book from the publisher for review and did not promise to post either a positive or a negative review.)

RevGals on God Complex Radio

Our beloved RevGals leader, Martha Spong, is interviewed on God Complex Radio by RevGal Carol Howard Merritt here.

It's an interesting conversation about the formation of the RevGals community and our struggles along the way as well as blogging communities and the future of blogging in general.

Martha, as always, is a winsome and inspirational advocate for RevGals.

I HATE Spring Break

Really I do. 

Here's why. March is always a very busy time at El Jefe's law practice. Every year before spring break he sends out a memo to the attorneys in his section begging them not to take vacation time during spring break week unless they have children in school. Every year he is overworked and frustrated because someone he needs on a deal went out of town during spring break without letting him know in advance and now he can't find them. And of course that person doesn't have children in school.

When our girls were in school we went out of town on spring break exactly once. Why? Because El Jefe was too conscientious to leave his section short-handed.

As one of his partners remarked to me recently, " We were born at the wrong time. When we were young lawyers, the partners left the office at 3 pm for the golf course after telling us what needed to be done the rest of the day. Now that we are senior lawyers, the young lawyers leave the office at 3 pm for the golf course after telling us what needs to be done the rest of the day!"  

As God is my witness, we are leaving town during spring break 2012!!

Pole Dancing For Jesus in Houston

Thanks to my friend zorra for alerting me to the latest Houston Religious Oddity: Pole Dancing for Jesus. Really. I am not making this up.

See for yourself:

The print story is here. According to the dance leader, it's for Jesus because it takes place on Sundays after church and women have to show a church bulletin to get into the class. Plus they dance to Christian music. And it helps get the "stigma" out.

Emergent church or oddity? You make the call.

A Song for St. Patrick's Day....

Now QG is Six!

Quotidian Grace is 6 years old today!

Looking back over those 6 years, it's clear that a lot has changed in the blogging world. Blogs used to function much more as social networks than they do today, thanks to the popularity of Facebook and Twitter. 

QG is posted on my Facebook page and although I don't get nearly as many comments directly on the blog as I used to, I enjoy the comments  and "likes" from friends and family who don't read blogs directly from those Facebook postings.

Successful blogs, like Averill's Odi et Amo, tend to be topical. So I'm moving QG more in the direction of a book blog and even have set up a companion blog solely for that purpose. That's something I never anticipated 6 years ago!

I'm grateful for the blogging friends I've made through QG that I never would have known otherwise! Many thanks, Gentle Readers, for sticking with me.

New Baby G Pic!

 

 

We got this great photo of Baby G this weekend. It's hard to get one of a newborn with their eyes open! You can also see his mop of curly black hair. Aunt Babs threatens to bring some hair wax and fix him a Mohawk.

Averill and Dave are settling in to their new parental roles and we're very proud of them. Averill is recovering nicely but it will take a while to get over her anemia. 

And of course after sleeping like a champ all weekend, the little guy kept them up last night. Did he know Dave had to go back to work this morning???

40: Jesus in the Wilderness

Texan to Your Toes

So I'm taking a moment away from grandparenting to report that OPI, a company well known to those of us with a fondness for the mani-pedi, has a new line of nail polish celebrating the great state of Texas and coming to a nail salon near you!  Woo-hoo! 

With names for the colors like "Houston We Have a Purple", "Do You Think I'm Tex-y?", "I Vant to Be a Lone Star", "Guy Meets Gal-veston", "Don't Mess With OPI" and of course "Ya'll Come Back Ya Hear?", there is something for everyone. Check out the collection here.

I'm partial to "Big Hair Big Nails", myself.

More Baby Pics

Our new little man is settling in pretty well at home and I'm loving my new role as Granny QG. Blogging will probably be sporadic the next couple of weeks. Averill lost a lot of blood and needs someone around with her in case she gets dizzy. This week DK is home but next week I'll be filling in. Meanwhile, I'm making sure she has iron-rich foods to go along with her iron supplements. Got any good recipes?

Welcome, Graham!

And here he is:

Graham Kirk Conn, born March 4, 2011.
Weight: 8 lbs. 10 oz.
Length: 20 1/2 inches.

The pediatrician pronounced him perfect! Averill is doing great and Dave is relieved and proud.

And the QG grandparents are pleased and proud as punch!!

Welcome, little Graham.

Houston's New Theological Library

Houston plaintiff's attorney, Mark Lanier, has created a theological library in Northwest Houston that open to scholars who want to do serious research. Lanier is a Baptist who has taught a very popular basic Bible literacy Sunday School class at his church for many years. The Houston Chronicle had a nice article about it today.

The library has an extensive collection, including a fragment of one of the Dead Sea Scrolls (from the book of Isaiah) as well as some other artifacts,  and is continuing to aquire books. It also sponsors a series of lectures brought by scholars from different fields as you will see if you go to the website that I linked above.

In addition to the library, there is a replica of a Byzantine chapel on the grounds:

It looks like a wonderful resource for our area. I'm looking forward to visiting it soon!

Happy 175th Birthday, Dear Texas!

Today is the 175th anniversary of the day that Texas declared its independence from Mexico! Texas was an independent republic from 1836 to 1846 when it  joined the Union.

Would the signatories to the Declaration of Texas Independence recognize the state today? Although they would doubtless be amazed by our huge modern cities, they would still find plenty of wide open spaces in West Texas and the Panhandle.

We all think that today would be the perfect birthday for our newest family member. Baby G, are you listening to your grandmother????

~probably not~

Enjoy the video. If you go to an Astros game in Houston, the crowd always sings Deep in the Heart of Texas right after God Bless America during the 7th inning stretch. And no one sings it like Bob Wills.

Waiting for Baby G

All indications are that Baby G will make his appearance in the next couple of days. Woo-hoo! We're all ready for him.

On Prayerful Waiting

A reminder to all the friends and family of our dear friend now in hospice care--and to me-- as we engage in watchful, prayerful waiting:

For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

--Romans 8:38

 Come, Lord Jesus.

Prayer Needed Again

This weekend our good friends and neighbors St. Betty and The Old Marine had to make the difficult decision to move their oldest daughter to hospice care. She suffered complications following a routine surgery and has been in ICU for more than a month to no avail.

Prayers for her, their family and friends are appreciated. It's been tough to go through this again so soon.

Book Review: The Accidental Anglican

The Accidental Anglican: The Surprising Appeal of the Liturgical Church by Todd D. Hunter has been on my "book reviews in progress" list on the sidebar for some time. I took it off today because I decided that I wasn't going to finish it and decided to post this review to explain why, since I seldom fail to finish a book I start.

I was interested in reading it because the book is about the author's change from being a pastor in a contemporary evangelical church (The Vineyard) to becoming an Anglican priest and now Bishop in the Anglican Mission in America. That's the reverse process that you often read about, and that is what intrigued me as a Presbyterian who prefers a more formal, liturgical service to the trendy "happy clappy"  service that one finds in most of our churches today. 

I assumed the book would present an apologetic from an unusual viewpoint for traditional Anglican liturgy and practice.

However I found the book focused on the personal experience of the author and not, as the subtitle seemed to promise, on the differences in faith and practice between The Vineyard and the Anglican communion. I bogged down about halfway through the book as I grew weary of reading the fulsome praise of his mentors and the self-congratulatory recounting of his journey.

If any of my Gentle Readers finished the book and have a different perspective, please let me know in the comments. I can't recommend The Accidental Anglican to my readers.

Book Review: At Home

At 512 pages, Bill Bryson's At Home is not really the "short history of private life" promised in the subtitle. After wrestling the 600+ pages of Heartstone, I was very happy I could read it on my Kindle.

At Home is not easy to classify. I would put it in the "Domestic History" category, if there is such a thing.

Bryson and his family live in a former Church of England rectory built in the 1800's. He takes each room in the house--from the cellar to the attic--as the prompt for a fascinating excursion into why and how that room was used and became part of the house.

It's an eclectic read as Bryson tackles topics as varied as prehistoric private lives, epidemiology (cholera, plague and santitation), the perils of fashion (toxic makeup, corsetry, wigs and heels), the growth of the British empire, the dangers inherent in staircases and old wallpapers and why it is that this rectory has come to be a private residence. And I've left out a lot!

"Houses aren't refuges from history. They are where history ends up," Bryson says and he makes a great case for his assertion.

At Home is chock full of interesting trivia and factoids. Here are just a few examples:

• The dining table was originally just a board that was hung on the wall when it wasn't needed. From this comes the expressions "room and board", the use of the term "boarders" for paying  lodgers", and the evolution of the term "aboveboard"--keeping your hands visible on the board-- meaning honest.
• The expression "barking mad" comes from a symptom of grain poisoning (ergotism), a cough that sounded like a dog's bark.
• "Cabinet" originally meant the most private and exclusive chamber where the king met with his  closest advisors. Over time it became a collective term for those advisors as well as a type of furniture.
• Thomas Jefferson invented the French fry. Hmm..wonder why he called it French? Bryson doesn't tell us.

Here's one of my favorite quips from the book: "These days the study is the final refuge of old furniture and pictures that one member of the marriage partnership admires and the other would happiily see on a bonfire." Reminds me of a certain rug in a certain study in a certain house!

At Home combines history, anthropology, epidemiology, engineering, architecture, etymology, and fun factoids in a lively and entertaining narrative, all those "ologys" notwithstanding.  If you've never read a Bill Bryson book before, treat yourself!