Ok, so that’s the punchline of an old joke about Lutherans changing lightbulbs, but it does lead in to this little quote of my husband’s after changing the lightbulbs in our dining room:
“It’s so bright in here I can see my iniquities!”
For a much better post on the gloriousness of being married, read this.
Do you realize this Wednesday is Ash Wednesday already? I had agreed to take all the midweek Lenten services and the other organist all the Sundays. Last night I realized that if I’m going over to church to practice organ for this Sunday, I should probably practice for Wednesday. While picking out music for Wed. I realized that since we’re packing and moving and unpacking throughout the month of March I won’t have time to pick out music during those hectic weeks. So I sat down and picked out music for 7 services (midweeks plus this Sunday). It took me 3.5 hours to do that, but it will be worth it in the long run.
Lately I’ve been doing some genealogy research. I’m supposed to be packing, but my friend got me started a little bit on it. I’ve spent most of that time researching my grandfather’s family on my dad’s side. The Ruddat history has always intrigued me since I was young and my grandmother told me Grandpa would never talk about his life before coming to America. Research has been interesting because the spelling of the name has been transcribed wrong. For example, the 1930 census shows the name “Ruddat” but to find the family in the 1920 census I had to use multiple spellings and finally found them under the name “Ruddet.” The interesting thing is that on the actual census page written in 1920 it says Ruddat. Also in those two censuses my grandpa’s sister is written once as Adeline and once as Lena. Same age, same family.
In the Ellis Island records Grandpa’s father came over in 1911 (which I found out from the census records) but with the spelling “Rudat.” The rest of the family came over in 1914. I could find all of his siblings born up until that point and his mother but not Grandpa. Looking at the actual manifest I discovered that although it was written as “Ewald” whoever transcribed it misread his name and recorded it as “Gerald.” I emailed the Ellis Island people to correct them, and I hope they’ll turn Gerald back into Ewald. Oh, by the way, I finally discovered where it was they came from–Russia, not Germany as I originally thought.
That’s as far as I got before being told by my hubby that if we’re moving in two weeks I should really be packing not researching.
Church Door Symposium Cancelled!
Due to the brotherly concerns expressed by numerous clergy and Synod officials around the issue of church fellowship, the 3rd Annual Church Door Symposium has been cancelled. Although the Executive Director and the members of the CHARIS Board of Directors disagree with the judgments that hosting non-WELS speakers represents a violation of Scripture and WELS doctrine, concern for maintaining harmony in the church, coupled with concern for the continued success and vitality of CHARIS and Wisconsin Lutheran College, override any reasons for taking a stand on this issue at this time.
I’m not quite sure how hosting non-WELS speakers constitutes prayer fellowship and a violation of Scripture. Pretty soon we’ll get to the point where just talking to people who are non-WELS will be breaking fellowship.
It is an unfortunate fact that great confusion exists among clergy and laity alike around applications of the church fellowship principles.
“Confusion” is an understatement.
Rather than contribute to this confusion, the leaders of The CHARIS Institute have decided to cancel this year’s symposium. Our prayer is that we will find a way to resolve this confusion about church fellowship so that CHARIS can again host outstanding scholars on relevant subjects in the future without controversy.
May God guide us to live and work in the freedom of His Gospel so that we can be salt and light to a dying world.
This symposium was on evangelism. Apparently it is breaking fellowship by bringing in those who have effective evangelism programs that actually work because they are not WELS. Our synod is losing members faster than they are gaining them. You’d think they’d be open to new ideas. There is a serious danger here in this fellowship misapplication. Those planning to attend have lost the opportunity to learn about other evangelism methods to win souls for Christ.
Here is the link I have quoted.
My dear husband gave me this card last year, but I think it’s too good to not post this year. It’s so romantic.
A Valentine Poem
I THINK that I shall never see
A BUTT that is so lov-e-ly
A REAR whose every contour seems
To SOMEHOW end up in my dreams–
Two BUNS which form a perfect pair,
A DERRIERE beyond compare.
I KNOW that I shall never find
Another behind that’s half as Fine…
…as YOURS.
Taxes are done. Only took me 4.5 hours–and that’s with Turbo Tax Premium. I absolutely hate Schedule C’s. But I guess my piano and voice students are worth it.
…of high school and college back when I was able to file using 1040EZ. Sometimes it just sucks being a grown up!
My brothers could have totally called this one. May I introduce them to you? My older brother is Geordi and my younger brother is Captain Kirk!
You are Deanna Troi
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You are a caring and loving individual. You understand people’s emotions and you are able to comfort and counsel them.  |
So my hubby’s birthday was actually Feb. 1, but his birthday party was tonight. Since it’s so close to the superbowl, I did a football theme. Here’s a pick of the cake, and although it wasn’t big enough to do a football field to scale, I tried to put the candles on the 31 yard line. Don’t worry, we ate a piece of cake for you!
I’ve seen moose so often in the past two weeks I haven’t really reported it. Mostly I see them when it’s dark (that’s kind of redundant seeing as it’s winter in Alaska) so I haven’t been able to get pics, but I saw one again this evening, twice last week, and once the week before.
Last night I made cookies for my hubby to take to work today as a birthday treat. I tried a new recipe and they are phenomenal, so I thought I’d post it!
Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup crunchy peanut butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
¼ cup milk (or soy milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2½ cups rolled oats
½ cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, peanut butter, white sugar and brown sugar. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the milk and vanilla. Add flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon to the creamed mixture. Finally, mix in the rolled oats and chocolate chips. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
I made a double batch and at last report about half an hour ago they were nearly gone.