December 24th was a Sunday this year. My congregation celebrated morning worship, despite also having three evening — Christmas Eve — services on offer. Christmas Eve worship, though, isn’t the same kind of thing, the same sort of liturgy, as Sunday worship. I like that through three separate pastors we continue to hold Sunday worship […]
Output this time of year tends to be spotty. I want to claim the writing time, but it’s also important to me that I complete the Key Holiday Items that I identified back when I was setting up Winter Holiday Chez Soques. And holiday items are slightly more time-sensitive, so they win. Today (Saturday), in […]
It feels later than it really is. It felt as late as now right after supper, when My Sweetie asked me whether I would drive him (and his dilated pupils) around our corner of Austin for some holiday errands he needed to finish. As I leaned against the kitchen counter, and thought wearily of the […]
I’m listening to Todd Henry’s podcast episode, “Private Victories.” He’s talking about his book-writing, but he’s not talking about the book-parts. He’s taking about how he writes 500 words a day… his step-goals or private victories that get him to the big places he wants to go. I’m listening to him as I walk around […]
Why did I not write something interesting today for you? Or amusing? Despite having a pocketful of nascent ideas? Because THIS came a week sooner than I’d expected: When I saw the box on my stoop, I squealed so delightedly the FedEx person said, “Early Christmas, huh?” Not really. Its predecessor is about to lose […]
This year, I focused almost exclusively on my finals, then my SHPC class, and then I turned toward Christmas. Today? Dreambars. And the short doughs that have to be chilled: thumbprints, gingerbread cutouts. Gingerbread? We haven’t made those in a few years-! True, but A will be here for Christmas Day… and she asked. B […]
Other than hanging out with my church-study friends for our usual Christmas brunch and white elephant round-robin (score: 1 egg timer, 1 cat-shaped egg mold), my task for today was to finish my Theology reading for tomorrow. What I did instead: Well, technically, I did that in-addition-to. I did manage to read through II.16 & […]
Of course you know what I think of you! Wait. Do you? *** I was gathering up steps… it’s way late, but I decided I’d trade the extra, unneeded hour of sleep I collected this morning for closing the day to my satisfaction: three more chapters of Migliore, the aforementioned steps, and now writing with […]
As is usual during Reading Week, I desperately want to read… anything but the works of John Calvin, or (though less fervently) the work of contemporary scholars and theologians wrestling with interesting ideas. Nope, I want to read something with sweep and scope and propulsive narrative. Something like… ‘Prairie Fires’ reveals complicated world of ‘Little […]
I don’t know what to do here today. I had already thrown over the one potential obligation I had (a pre-exam review session on campus) in favor of all pajamas, all the time. The sky is the shade of white that frequently passes for grey here; I hear snowflakes have fallen in Fredericksburg. A wind […]
