Phrase of the Day

"glorious glob of worship-leading stringiness"

Well played, Mr. Scheer; well-played.

Scenes from Summer

Our posting has been thin lately, and I'm not apologizing for it: we've been taking it easy this summer, as our long years of schooling have trained us to do.

Still, we haven't been completely slovenly, as we've relaxed as hard as we could:

We all enjoyed a week's vacation with our Theologiggle pals in Cincinnati,







and Miriam has spent time at summer soccer camp,











while the boys hang with friends and play with bubbles.















I went fishing with old college pals in Minnesota,









we often hung out at my folks' place on the beach,







and this past week was busy as everyone did some last-week cramming before the big event on Friday night.





Of course, I've also been doing a bit of actual work, helping to host a consultation on Pedagogy and Seminary Worship at Fuller in June, and presenting here and there. Meanwhile, remarking repeatedly how nice it is not to be moving across the country again this summer, Debra has been working on various writing projects, both academic and trade.

Now we find that there are only a few more weeks of summer before the headlong rush into Autumn's crazed business. Augh!

Reaching Harry Saturation Point

Yes, we are definitely caught up in Harry mania. All five of us. We have been speculating about the contents of Book 7 since, oh, the release of Book 6. ("Harry is the heir of Gryffindor!") The boys and I went to see Movie 5 last week. And we have tickets to the Harry Potter release party at Schuler Books on Friday night. ("Hagrid will win the giants to the side of the Order!") We will be staying up till midnight to get our book.

Yeah, that's singular. After much family debate, we have decided to purchase only ONE copy of the book. ("Harry will have to save Malfoy's life!") That means we will be taxing, probably to the breaking point, all the lessons about sharing we have been teaching the kids since their toddler days. We parents, not surprisingly, will be called on to model the greatest degree of patience, as we are last in line to get our hands on the book. ("Snape is really a good guy underneath!")

Ron and the boys seem perfectly happy to keep spinning out theories for what will happen in Book 7, but I think I have reached a saturation point. ("Hermione's study of runes will be important in finding a horcrux!") I have officially commenced the sequester-from-the-media stage in order to avoid spoilers. But I also wish everyone would just take a vow of silence on new speculations. ("A crumple-horned snorckack will be needed to protect Harry from Voldy!") Let's all just read the book now and get it OVER with!

Before today, I noticed some public intellectuals sticking their literary tongues out at J. K. Rowling, and maybe I'll write about that later. For now, I'm trying to hunker down and survive till Friday at midnight, at which time I will flop relievedly into bed--while Jacob takes the first reading shift. ("Neville will use his herbology skill to defeat Bellatrix!")