** You're invited to email me a prayer request, and I'll pray it for the season of Lent. More details below. Results not guaranteed. **
We're getting a late start on Lent, on account of spending Ash Wednesday in luxury and indulgence at Great Wolf Lodge.
My spiritual life is swirling, foggy, and muddy -- I used to have a lot more answers and assurance than I seem to now. Churchgoing remains a struggle. I eat too many snacks and spend too much time on the computer. Yes, there's definitely a need for Lent around here.
As a recap from years past, Lent isn't about cleaning up my messy life so God will love me more. I'm so tired of doing things to make sure I'm acceptable and that my faith is still okay. I'm actually doing a lot less for Lent now than I did when I first learned about it. It's about spending some concentrated time focusing on the Two Greatest Commandments: Love God, Love People.
(It's also a time of penitence, as opposed to celebration, which is nice because otherwise we might have dancing and feasting and have to call it "a Lent ball.")
So, I'm replacing a few indulgences with a few things of higher caliber. I can't maintain this standard all year, but usually can manage it -- barely -- for the forty days of Lent.
I'm giving up:
* Treats. This is hard for me. Basically the only reason I eat substantial meals is so I can have chocolate chips or cookies afterward.
* Facebook. Once a week. I'm not feeling the need to be a gung-ho acetic this year.
* Meat at supper once a week.
I'm taking on:
* Giving to charity. I hope to give a little bit of money to someone in need every week.
* Saying an "office" before bed every night. The night offices are set prayers and responses for evening, midnight, dawn, and morning. They're short and less familiar to me, which makes it easier for me to say them without buzzing interference from my past.
* Taking prayer requests for the season. I've done this two or three times in the past, and it's always rewarding for me. I really don't know how it's worked for the people I've prayed for. If you have something you'd like me to pray for, you can:
- Post it here on the blog -- anonymously is fine, although sign it with an initial so I have some reference for it;
- Email me at the penandgavel or the exaltedwater accounts;
- Message me on Facebook;
- Comment on Facebook.
The more, the better. It's not rollicking fun to do at the time, but looking back, praying for my friends is one of my favorite memories.
So, that's Lent for me. (DJ might want to post his own resolutions.) Operators are standing by to take your requests.
-- SJ
Monday, February 27, 2012
Saturday, February 25, 2012
GWL Pictures
Here are pictures (see, see, Deidre!) to go along with the post below.
The indoor water park was a grand place. This doesn't show the wave pool or any of the slides.
Happy kids with some of their new Stuff: Great Wolf Lodge wolves, a dragon, and a dragon cape.
Happy Darren, who planned this getaway and had the satisfaction of watching his whole family enjoy it.
Happy Sara, so glad to be somewhere fun in February that she didn't even mind having Medusa hair the whole time, due to letting it air dry.
We offered Pip some good, nourishing, yummy lunch. Here, he thinks he's hiding as he eats the Special Vacation Cereal Lucky Charms instead.
Gearing up for "the beach," as Pip referred to it.
Happy big kids at "the beach."
The indoor water park was a grand place. This doesn't show the wave pool or any of the slides.
Happy kids with some of their new Stuff: Great Wolf Lodge wolves, a dragon, and a dragon cape.
Happy Darren, who planned this getaway and had the satisfaction of watching his whole family enjoy it.
Happy Sara, so glad to be somewhere fun in February that she didn't even mind having Medusa hair the whole time, due to letting it air dry.
We offered Pip some good, nourishing, yummy lunch. Here, he thinks he's hiding as he eats the Special Vacation Cereal Lucky Charms instead.
Gearing up for "the beach," as Pip referred to it.
Happy big kids at "the beach."
Great! Wolf! Lodge!
Two Christmases ago, my mom sent us money as our gift. Darren and I excitedly planned to use it to take the kids to an indoor water park about an hour away -- during February, the draggiest and grayest month of the year. Well, last February struck back with its withered hands and raking claws: someone in the family was sick every single day of the month. No water park for us.
This past Christmas, my mom sent money again -- as she says, money is a color scheme that goes with anything. We'd already been adding a little every month to her last year's gift, and were in the mood to really sock it to February this year. So we skipped the day-trip water park, and went for the real glitz: two nights at Great Wolf Lodge.
(Or, as the kids referred to it, Great! Wolf! Lodge! (x24) )
The only *only* way we could even consider going was because our friend, Geni, advised us to find out when the Homeschool Week discounts were. Normally, rooms at GWL go for $380/night. During Homeschool Week (which GWL does in conjunction with nearby Williamsburg), the rooms are discounted to $139/night. A splurge, but doable. So, we did it.
It was two and a half days of nonstop fun. There was always something to do: the huge indoor water park with six slides, the arcade, the miniature bowling alley, the candy shop, the teen space with movies and video games, and (this was a major reason why we wanted to go in the first place) a MagiQuest game built into the hotel itself. We first discovered MagiQuest three years ago in Tennessee. I wrote about it, saying, "...it's not like it was worth the seven-hour drive down there just to play it or anything. Three or four hours, however, is entirely justifiable." Um, right, so as I was saying, we drove four hours down to Great Wolf Lodge, where there was a MagiQuest...
All six of us had a grand time. Addi and Stuart could come and go as they pleased, playing MagiQuest in the hallways until it shut down at 10. We didn't let Daphne wander around the hotel by herself, but since the water park provided floaties for children, she could go nearly wherever she wanted in the water park. And Pip was so comfortable with the setup that on the last day I took my eyes off him for seven seconds and he vanished. Addi spotted him ten minutes later in the glass elevator, apparently enjoying the ride.
The entire experience was just a little surreal, to be honest. Here we were, in a self-contained world of Fun. We slept there. We could eat there. We had nothing to do but have fun! Even money wasn't a problem! All we had to do was swipe our computerized wristbands (which everyone was required to wear the entire stay), and the charge automatically went on our credit card! If I needed a snack, or a souvenir, or even more tokens for the arcade, just a little swipe would get me whatever I wanted. You got the feeling that pretty soon the Nice People In Charge would turn out to have very dire designs on the happy, hapless revelers.
But if so, we escaped unscathed. Relatively so, although the credit card statement is going to be a little hot to the touch, I'm afraid. Doesn't matter. We kicked February in the teeth, and had fun too!
Notes:
1. Don't even think of booking rooms at GWL unless it's a discount week (which they don't advertise on their website).
2. Our kids were good ages for it. Two years is the youngest that I'd enjoy having there; they wear out so quickly, and can't really appreciate all the Fun Stuff. Daphne (5) had a good time. Addi and Stuart (10 and 9) were in heaven.
3. Also on the advice of Geni, we didn't try to combine GWL with Williamsburg. Far too much to cram into two or three days.
4. We bought the three older kids a "Paw Pass." They were $50 each, so weren't cheap; but they gave the kids things like a stuff-your-own animal, a hair extension, a Kandy Kup (literally, a cup full of candy), tokens for the arcade, and a discount on a MagiQuest wand and game. It was worth the money.
There were posters up informing us that we'd save money if we booked another stay before we left. We didn't show these posters to the kids, but it doesn't matter. They've got our family vacation inked in for next year anyway.
-- SJ
This past Christmas, my mom sent money again -- as she says, money is a color scheme that goes with anything. We'd already been adding a little every month to her last year's gift, and were in the mood to really sock it to February this year. So we skipped the day-trip water park, and went for the real glitz: two nights at Great Wolf Lodge.
(Or, as the kids referred to it, Great! Wolf! Lodge! (x24) )
The only *only* way we could even consider going was because our friend, Geni, advised us to find out when the Homeschool Week discounts were. Normally, rooms at GWL go for $380/night. During Homeschool Week (which GWL does in conjunction with nearby Williamsburg), the rooms are discounted to $139/night. A splurge, but doable. So, we did it.
It was two and a half days of nonstop fun. There was always something to do: the huge indoor water park with six slides, the arcade, the miniature bowling alley, the candy shop, the teen space with movies and video games, and (this was a major reason why we wanted to go in the first place) a MagiQuest game built into the hotel itself. We first discovered MagiQuest three years ago in Tennessee. I wrote about it, saying, "...it's not like it was worth the seven-hour drive down there just to play it or anything. Three or four hours, however, is entirely justifiable." Um, right, so as I was saying, we drove four hours down to Great Wolf Lodge, where there was a MagiQuest...
All six of us had a grand time. Addi and Stuart could come and go as they pleased, playing MagiQuest in the hallways until it shut down at 10. We didn't let Daphne wander around the hotel by herself, but since the water park provided floaties for children, she could go nearly wherever she wanted in the water park. And Pip was so comfortable with the setup that on the last day I took my eyes off him for seven seconds and he vanished. Addi spotted him ten minutes later in the glass elevator, apparently enjoying the ride.
The entire experience was just a little surreal, to be honest. Here we were, in a self-contained world of Fun. We slept there. We could eat there. We had nothing to do but have fun! Even money wasn't a problem! All we had to do was swipe our computerized wristbands (which everyone was required to wear the entire stay), and the charge automatically went on our credit card! If I needed a snack, or a souvenir, or even more tokens for the arcade, just a little swipe would get me whatever I wanted. You got the feeling that pretty soon the Nice People In Charge would turn out to have very dire designs on the happy, hapless revelers.
But if so, we escaped unscathed. Relatively so, although the credit card statement is going to be a little hot to the touch, I'm afraid. Doesn't matter. We kicked February in the teeth, and had fun too!
Notes:
1. Don't even think of booking rooms at GWL unless it's a discount week (which they don't advertise on their website).
2. Our kids were good ages for it. Two years is the youngest that I'd enjoy having there; they wear out so quickly, and can't really appreciate all the Fun Stuff. Daphne (5) had a good time. Addi and Stuart (10 and 9) were in heaven.
3. Also on the advice of Geni, we didn't try to combine GWL with Williamsburg. Far too much to cram into two or three days.
4. We bought the three older kids a "Paw Pass." They were $50 each, so weren't cheap; but they gave the kids things like a stuff-your-own animal, a hair extension, a Kandy Kup (literally, a cup full of candy), tokens for the arcade, and a discount on a MagiQuest wand and game. It was worth the money.
There were posters up informing us that we'd save money if we booked another stay before we left. We didn't show these posters to the kids, but it doesn't matter. They've got our family vacation inked in for next year anyway.
-- SJ
Wednesday, February 08, 2012
Mundania 34
In November, I complained about stores opening at midnight on Thanksgiving. In December, I wrote letters to three stores that affected people I personally know: Target, Kohl's, and Best Buy. And then I mailed them!
Yesterday.
In February.
But at least I actually sent them.
***
Daphne is the only kid not sick this week. Well, she's the only kid not reporting sickness. Addi's sickness seems to wane and wax depending on how real the possibility of school is. At any rate, Daphne finds it a burden to be the only healthy child. She is weary of doing "all the work," which to date consists of:
A. Fetching a book
B. Fetching a towel
Today when she was fighting Pip for territory on a mattress, she said belligerently, "Life was easier before we had Pip!" Then she waited. She knew she'd uttered fightin' words.
I replied, "Yes, it was. Think we should get rid of him?"
No, she didn't think so. But still.
I added, "My life was a lot easier before I had all you children."
She waited, wide-eyed, wondering exactly what was coming next.
"Should I get rid of y'all? No. It's better to have children than have an easy life."
She relaxed. Of course it was better! "Because now you have us to talk to you!" she agreed.
***
Stuart participated in his first Pinewood Derby for scouts last weekend. His car came in at #31 out of 36. That's translated as "not last place," so he was happy.
***
Last Saturday, the birthday money I'd carefully hoarded together was starting to smolder. So I took Addi with me to blow it all at Coldwater Creek. I still love the clothes I bought there about a year ago. We walked into the store -- you know, where a shirt can cost $50 -- and I realized that Addi was wearing the leopard-print fake-fur coat she likes so much.
The clerks greeted us, and complimented Addi on her coat. "Thanks!" she said. "I got it for $1 at a yard sale! Can you believe it?"
***
Stuart was lolling around on my lap, for which he is entirely to big, and pretending to bonk my head. Pip looked up and said, "No, Zhu-zhu! Pup's mama!"
-- SJ
Yesterday.
In February.
But at least I actually sent them.
***
Daphne is the only kid not sick this week. Well, she's the only kid not reporting sickness. Addi's sickness seems to wane and wax depending on how real the possibility of school is. At any rate, Daphne finds it a burden to be the only healthy child. She is weary of doing "all the work," which to date consists of:
A. Fetching a book
B. Fetching a towel
Today when she was fighting Pip for territory on a mattress, she said belligerently, "Life was easier before we had Pip!" Then she waited. She knew she'd uttered fightin' words.
I replied, "Yes, it was. Think we should get rid of him?"
No, she didn't think so. But still.
I added, "My life was a lot easier before I had all you children."
She waited, wide-eyed, wondering exactly what was coming next.
"Should I get rid of y'all? No. It's better to have children than have an easy life."
She relaxed. Of course it was better! "Because now you have us to talk to you!" she agreed.
***
Stuart participated in his first Pinewood Derby for scouts last weekend. His car came in at #31 out of 36. That's translated as "not last place," so he was happy.
***
Last Saturday, the birthday money I'd carefully hoarded together was starting to smolder. So I took Addi with me to blow it all at Coldwater Creek. I still love the clothes I bought there about a year ago. We walked into the store -- you know, where a shirt can cost $50 -- and I realized that Addi was wearing the leopard-print fake-fur coat she likes so much.
The clerks greeted us, and complimented Addi on her coat. "Thanks!" she said. "I got it for $1 at a yard sale! Can you believe it?"
***
Stuart was lolling around on my lap, for which he is entirely to big, and pretending to bonk my head. Pip looked up and said, "No, Zhu-zhu! Pup's mama!"
-- SJ
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