Fox Valley isms

Hearing about others in rural areas who pronounce things in an unusual way reminded me of some of the local figures of speech. Probably every community has its own - I'm not trying to say we're special in any sort of way, but have you heard of "married up together with each other", or instead of saying "Are you going with somebody" we just say "Are you going with?" One neighbour remarked once how the conception in his house really improved when he got his new t.v. antenna.

a new era in laundry

Well, our old washing machine finally bit the dust. Actually it didn't bite the dust - I just told my husband it did bite the dust, then he hauled it downstairs and out to the garage, and then we discovered that it was the drier that was responsible for the black greasy (orc-lips, we call them affectionately) stains we were getting all over our laundry. After which, he refused to haul anything but a new washing machine back up again, just in case it happens to bite the dust next week.
Saying good-bye to our old washing machine has put me into a thoughtful mood. This is the same washing machine I accidentally washed our iron in several years ago. Peter took me into the laundry room and showed me the little picture of an iron with an "x" over it that means you are not supposed to wash irons. Or does it? Anyway, both the iron and the washing machine still worked afterwards.
This is the same washing machine that belonged to our household of five single women before I married Peter. When we were dating, he used to run downstairs regularly to redistribute the load for us because it was dancing around the laundry room.
It has since washed countless diapers for us and more recently, countless pairs of jeans.
I have a temporary apartment-sized washing machine now in the basement, where I merely have to wrestle with the mice for the laundry.
I look forward to getting a new washing machine. Really. But it's the end of an era and I can't help but reminisce.

just mostly dead

there's a mini series on EWTN this week about St. Teresa of Avila. It's always a low point of my year when they show this miniseries. I love St. Teresa. The problem is that for about a half an hour or more of the movie, she seems to be dead. You just sit and watch her lying there, with the doctor doing all sorts of experiments on her to see if she is really dead or just mostly dead. The doctor then decides that she is well and truly dead, but her dad won't allow anybody to bury her. Then in an exciting and gripping finale, she comes around and surprises everybody.
The reason I find this so difficult to watch is that it reminds me that no one has ever wanted to make a movie of anything in my life (a day in the life of a farmer's wife teaching piano lessons, etc.). They would rather watch St. Teresa lie there dead for half an hour.
It's possible that I just need a really good agent...

it's me

it's me
This is fun. I was watching my son play t-ball the other day. His team won something like 30 - 8, and the coach told them it was a tie. You see, the coaches have a policy of always telling the kids that the game was a tie, so that they don't get too competitive. I heard one little boy lean over and tell the person beside him "When coach says that, it means we lost." It seemed so funny that he didn't notice the Fox Valley boys going around and around and around the bases. I'm wondering if it really is such a good thing to never tell the kids when they win or lose. It seems to me that one really good lesson for a child to learn is how to win or to lose graciously. What do you think?

Hymn Thing

I thought I'd start out my blogspot with a true confession. I am a closet hymn lover. It began when I was a teenager, and has persisted through my whole adult life, through my various stages as a United Church person, then as a Charismatic Christian, and on into my Catholic life.
You see, I credit hymns with a lot of my personal formation. All kinds of ideas have been infused into me via hymns - granted the ideas came from Scripture and tradition, and people may have learned these things from books or elsewhere. Let me give you an example: when I am weak I am strong. I learned this first from "Jesus loves me", then from "Lord of all Power".
How many of you know that the "Divine Pelican" is a title of Jesus? If you don't that would be because we don't sing "Adoro te Devote" anymore. The original, I mean. St. Thomas Aquinas included a verse about the Divine Pelican. There is a legend that if a pelican is unable to find food for her young, she will peck her own breast and pour out her own blood to feed them, causing her own death. I don't know if pelicans really do this, but this is where the title for Jesus came from.
I promise not to go on too often about this, but I just had to tell everyone right off the bat. Anyone have any comments?