7 quick takes

1 - I'm doing another choose your song week.  You can have Sufjan Stevens "Holy Holy Holy" or The Civil Wars singing "Billie Jean".  Enjoy!

2 - Waaaay back in November I did a phone interview with Audrey Assad for Ignitum Today.  It was really neat to speak with her - I especially loved the parts where she talked about redemptive suffering and Anna Karenina.  Here's the article if you're interested: An Interview with Singer-Songwriter Audrey Assad.

3 - This week has been a hard one for me emotionally.  I know a lot of you are already praying for Jen, who is in the hospital with blood clots in her lungs, and her unborn son.  I've also been praying for a relative whose father unexpectedly died and some friends who are suffering.  Ora pro nobis.

4 - On a lighter note the Christmas tree came down a little early for our house.  It was so dry that the ornaments were sliding off the branches and there were pine needles everywhere.  It's sitting on our front porch, which is far as I would carry it.  The other Christmas decorations are still out but I must admit, while I miss the lights I'm happy that our home feels open and less cluttered again.

5 - I've done a horrible job at preparing the kids for Epiphany.  Awhile ago Arwen Mosher told me via Twitter that at their home the kids' leave hay or lettuce in their shoes at night and then the Wise Men come, feed the lettuce to their camels, and leave little gifts for the kiddos.  Travis and I really liked that idea and I bought some markers and toothbrushes to leave in the shoes.  But beyond the basic Christmas story and reading one book I haven't done much to build it up for the kids and teach them about the Wise Men, the gifts, etc. 

6 - I've also been slacking at homeschool.  I wanted to start "second semester" with the letter M but we took off too much time before Christmas to get that done.  So yesterday I crammed the letter J and K together in one day (as opposed to each letter getting two days in their own week).  And to make up for my lackluster approach to Epiphany I taught the kids that K stood for Three Kings instead the King of Kings - Jesus Christ.  We made crowns.  They liked it.  It's preschool, for Pete's sake, so I'm not too worried.  Right?

7 - Earlier this week I called my old friend Sr. Marie Noelle.  She was my best friend in college, joined the Nashville Dominicans after graduation, and is now missioned to a school less than two hours away.  She invited me to come up and spend the day with her and I jumped at the chance.  Resa and I arrived just after 10am and we stayed through Vespers.  It was the first time I was able to hang out with her all day long, all by myself since she left for Nashville in over eight years.   I was able to visit with a couple of her sisters, see her classroom, have lunch, and talk about movies.  It really was a wonderful day and I'm so glad we were able to make it happen.