Friday, October 31, 2008


(The image is from an 1883 German Bible and posted on the web site belonging to Engines of Ingenuity.)


All Saint's Day

In honor of Martin Luther, I thought you might get a kick today out of the Reformation Polka. This is one of my all-time favorite songs and gives an excellent history lesson in the humor of it.
The Reformation Polka

by Richard Gebel
(sung to the tune of "Supercalifragilistic-expialidocious")

When I was just ein junger Mann I studied canon law;
While Erfurt was a challenge, it was just to please my Pa.
Then came the storm, the lightning struck, I called upon Saint Anne,
I shaved my head, I took my vows, an Augustinian! Oh ...

Chorus:
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation
Speak your mind against them and face excommunication!
Nail your theses to the door, let's start a Reformation!
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation!

When Tetzel came near Wittenberg, St. Peter's profits soared,
I wrote a little notice for the All Saints' Bull'tin board:
"You cannot purchase merits, for we're justified by grace!
Here's 95 more reasons, Broher Tetzel, in your face!" Oh ...

Chorus:
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation
Speak your mind against them and face excommunication!
Nail your theses to the door, let's start a Reformation!
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation!

They loved my tracts, adored my wit, all were exempleror;
The Pope, however, hauled me up before the Emperor.
"Are these your books? Do you recant?" King Charles did demand,
"I will not change me Diet, Sir, God help me here I stand" Oh ...

Chorus:
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation
Speak your mind against them and face excommunication!
Nail your theses to the door, let's start a Reformation!
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation!

Duke Frederick took the Wise approach, responding to my words,
By knighting "George" as hostage in the Kingdom of the Birds.
Use Brother Martin's model if the languages you seek,
Stay locked inside a castle with your Hebrew and your Greek! Oh...

Chorus:
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation
Speak your mind against them and face excommunication!
Nail your theses to the door, let's start a Reformation!
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation!

Let's raise our steins and Concord Books while gathered in this place,
And spread the word that "catholic" is spelled with lower case;
The Word remains unfettered when the Spirit gets his chance,
So come on, Katy, drop your lute, and join us in our dance! Oh ...

Chorus:
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation
Speak your mind against them and face excommunication!
Nail your theses to the door, let's start a Reformation!
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation!

Thursday, October 30, 2008




Today was quite a busy day. This morning Dan took me to my sister's home so that she could teach me how to make tassels. I'll try to get a picture posted tomorrow of what the one I made looks like; I might even include a picture of the blister I earned from the hot-glue gun. Did you know that they are called that because the glue is hot when it comes out of them?! So do I, now. Some of us are slow learners!
However, I have been telling you that I would finish posting the pictures of our home, so here are the last few. I included one more picture of the view from the balcony because the morning sun light was so pretty the other day.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008






I confess; I am sleeping in this week! We are not having to get up quite so early to get Mark off to work, so I am sleeping until 7:30 or 8 and marveling at the fact that after a month, this is now sleeping-in for me! (of course, being in Central Time Zone from Eastern Time Zone makes it even more of a treat)
Last night Dan and I attended a dinner with my brother Robert and his wife. We had a great time and got to hear from a young man who is getting ready to immigrate to Israel with his wife. They will be starting a center to assist Messianic Jews in Israel with medical needs, legal needs and just general daily needs these fellow believers have. It was interesting to learn about the status of Messianic Jews in Israel. They have such a difficult time and are hated and attacked by both jews and muslims. As you think of it today, pray for these family members.
Yesterday was a little disappointing. I was supposed to start piano lessons yesterday but got a call from the teacher in the morning to cancel as she is ill this week. I can certainly sympathize with that, but I am eagerly waiting for next week to get here so I can start. I'm just glad she gave me some things to work on before we get started so I can at least be getting some kind of practice time in!
Keep Mark in your prayers today; he has a lower respiratory infection and is not feeling well at all.
Here are a few more pictures of the apartment. I'll try to include some of the more interesting ones today.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008




I am behind in posting this but here I am again! It's going to take me a few days to post all the pictures of our little apartment. This is being an interesting adventure for all three of us (five if you include our kitties....who still think there might be monsters upstairs every time our neighbors walk around). When we decided to move to Birmingham we had a very brief time to find a place to live. That is how we spent Labor Day weekend. Did you know that apartment offices are closed on Labor Day? Did you know that a lot of people in Birmingham go out of town over Labor Day? So it was challenging to find houses for rent and be able to locate the owners in that brief time-frame. We had been living in a beautiful large house in Evans, with a wonderful land-lord (think brother-in-law). In so many ways it was my dream home and had so many features I had wished I could have for a long time. But there was one down-side; it took a lot of time and energy to keep clean. Unfortunately, it took more energy than I often had. I also sometimes felt guilty about having so much unused living space there. Mark and I would talk about scaling back in our living style, but in Evans we would not have saved any money by going smaller and we were tired of moving. So when we started thinking about moving to Birmingham, we started talking about scaling back, getting rid of "stuff" and utilizing smaller space. There are moments when I think we are nuts for trying this! There are times when we are walking through the apartment and one person going in one direction has to step into another room to allow another person going the opposite direction to pass, especially since the hall is part hall, part bookshelf (we got rid of some books, but that is one thing I refuse to downsize very much!). On the other hand, I can clean, vacuum, sweep, scrub the entire place in about 2 hours (mopping adds another 20 minutes to that, but that's because I'm a hands-and-knees-mopping kind of girl ;>)
Today's pictures are of our hallway with all the books in it. You are looking from our bedroom and as you look down the hall the kitchen is on the left and Dan's room on the right. At the end of the hall if you hang a right you will be in the living room. Tomorrow I'll show you some more. I love you, Noah!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

"Being Dead Is No Excuse" At least, that is the title of the book my mother gave me a few years ago. The subtitle is, "The Official Southern Ladies Guide to Hosting the Perfect Funeral". After I recovered from seeing this title when I opened the package, and realized that no, Mom wasn't trying to gently tell me about the outcome of a trip to the doctor, I found that it is a funny book about southern ladies and how we do things, particularly funerals. It understands and explains southern ladies better and more humorously than any other book I've read about us. Today I found the sequel, "Somebody Is Going To Die If Lilly Beth Doesn't Catch That Bouquet: The Official Southern Ladies Guide To Hosting The Perfect Wedding". I bought it today while waiting for the girls to arrive for tea at Miss Rosemaries. I was early and they were a little late, which gave me the opportunity to sit outside, read and laugh out loud so hard that the construction guys next door were beginning to get a little concerned! It has short chapters, but you will laugh hard enough (if you are a southern lady) that people around you will begin gathering their things to make a quick retreat.

And if you want to read a blog from a southern lady who is busily trying to raise two boys and one husband while giving affordable beauty tips to other southern ladies, check out this one:
sassygalglamour.com

Saturday, October 04, 2008

A day at the zoo with Nancy, Kristi, Kelly, Moses and Makenna. What a fabulous day! Kelly came over Thursday morning with Moses and Makenna and we all had breakfast together. We played with some Thomas the Tank Engine toys from Auntie 'Ginia's Moses and Makenna Box and then it was time to go get Aunt Kristy and head to the zoo. We saw so many things there; it is a very good zoo! I even went so far as to purchase a membership so that any time Kelly comes with the children (or anyone else, hint hint!) we can go enjoy a day at the zoo.
I have had an interesting time trying to get these here; hopefully this time they will come through!