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Day of Reckoning……

September 19, 2008 by Edie Wadsworth 4 Comments

I woke this morning and knew today was gonna be the day. I don’t want to do it…but it has to be done. So, I sheepishly, almost as if I was apologizing as I got on, stepped on the scale. WHAAAAAAT? How does this happen? I haven’t gotten on in quite a while. I was sick, then I was busy homeschooling, then I missed a few runs, then I baked a few sweets, then I…..well, heck, I just mentally threw in the towel. I give up okay? I even thought I had convinced macdaddy to throw in the towel with me. We’re in love. Why fight it? Let’s just get chubby together and it’ll cancel each other out–kinda like garlic, right? Yeah, well except he promptly went to the gym again today and what did I do? I got off the scale all motivated to lose 10 pounds before lunch….or at least before my twenty year class reunion in October…..maybe I’ll get a stomach virus or a good case of strep throat….or a few days of an eating disorder. So, I had a small bowl of raisin bran and 10 cups of coffee and by 10 am, I was calling my wonderful nurse neighbor friend Donna to come check my pulse and my blood pressure ’cause I was just about to pass out. I can’t even cut back without drama. I can’t even skip the mid morning snack without issues. That’s when I decided I’m just gonna get me some ‘mom jeans’

and some comfortable shoes……
and a ‘mom’ haircut (unfortunately that’s me like 18 years ago) and
call it a day. What’s so great about skinny? Or three inch heels? or long flowing hair? Right? Can I get an amen? BTW, lest you fear that I’ve gone off the deep end….I will probably get my lazy bum out of bed in the mornin’ for what some call a ‘run’ ….macdaddy and I call it ‘slog’ which stands for Slow Jog. At any rate, I hear ‘mom’ jeans are really coming back. Speaking of mom, I do believe that this is my mother’s all time favorite ‘look’ for me. I have no lies to tell.

Oh yeah, and after the whole fainting/hypoglycemic scare, I made 3 dozen chocolate chip cookies. I think I need an intervention.

What it means to be Lutheran…Part 1

September 19, 2008 by Edie Wadsworth 15 Comments

Raised as a very outspoken, dress-wearing independent Baptist,

I grew up believing that what determined how it is between God and me, depended on me. As long as I didn’t “drink, smoke, chew or run with boys that do” and as long as I really focused on MY spirituality, MY quiet time with the Lord, MY sanctification, then I was pretty much okay. Of course, the official teaching of the church is that you are saved by grace through faith alone, but everything else you see around you screams something else. The huge pitfall to this way of believing is that it turns you so inward…..you become obsessed with your own spiritual life and walk and at least in my case, second guess yourself all the time:

“Am I spiritual enough?

Am I sincere enough?

Maybe I wasn’t even REALLY saved back when I was 8?

Why else would I continue to sin?

Am I becoming more Christlike?”

You see where this is going. Pretty soon, this pietistic, self-focused form of religion leads you into a tailspin and in the end, you fall into either despair or pride. I fell into despair knowing that I was not ‘pulling’ this off. And I saw so many people around who seemed to be ‘managing it’ , somehow. So, what was wrong with me?

I nearly lost my way. Others fall into the pride pitfall. They really think they are ‘pulling it off’. They are living the ‘sanctified’ life, becoming more and more spiritual, almost not sinning any more, saying to themselves a familiar saying, “I thank God that I’m not like those people”.

So, what’s different about Lutheranism? It’s intensely cross-centered and Christ focused. No pietists allowed. Lutherans believe like Saint Paul who said he was the chief of sinners. They REALLY believe in the ‘solas’ of the reformation:

GRACE ALONE THROUGH FAITH ALONE IN CHRIST ALONE.

My salvation and my sancification are not my work. I don’t have to worry about MY sincerity, MY spirituality, or MY anything. It is through the vicarious atonement of Christ on the cross that provides everything I will ever need. This marvelous plan for my redemption leaves me free: free from self-obsession, free from the shackles of works righteousness, and most of all free to serve my neighbor. Now, all my energies can be focused on my neighbor and what my neighbors’ need is. This focus on the cross is rampant in the conservative form of Lutheranism that we are apart of (Missouri-Synod) and I would never subject myself again to the heresy of any denomination that is always focused on the christian rather than Christ.

Check this out in your own church for the next few weeks. Just listen to the sermon. Who is it about? 7 ways to be a better wife?, 10 steps to a better marriage? Becoming a better you? Almost every church marquis I pass tells me everything I need to know. It was an eye-opener to me when I looked at my own bookshelf. You probably have all the same ones: The Purpose Driven Life, Your Best Life Now, The Power of a Positive Mom, Promise Keepers, etc, ad nauseum. Our society and our churches are obsessed with self.

I only know one Man who lived the purpose driven life and who kept His promises.

We should trust in HIM alone.

If I had to describe my decorating style as a person, it would be…….

September 17, 2008 by Edie Wadsworth 16 Comments

an eclectic shabby-chic Texan meets a cozy, cottage porch sittin’ Tennessean. I love mixing old with new, color with neutrals, traditional with distressed and elegant with casual….kinda like wearing a beautiful black wrap dress with riding boots. Maybe I just like being unpredictable. At any rate, I follow the Nester’s recent advice pretty closely and would only add that I teach my children from a young age that they are never under any circumstances whatsoever to turn on an overhead light. Lamplight is not optional, it is the absolute final rule of the house. No discussions. All this decorating discussion has been sparked by a new blog post I just found called Kari & Kijsa in which there is a fun “share your decorating style” link party. I couldn’t decide on just one room like they suggested, so I thought I’d bring you on a tour to show you some of my favorite things:

My daughter Caiti’s room with faux painted walls, stars (which she hopes to be someday with her singing), adorable homeade burlap bedskirts, and the most splendid animal print chair.

My dining room where I feature a beautiful original abstract oil painting and robin egg blue linen “tablecloth”– a piece of linen fabric that I frayed the edges and otherwise left in its natural state.
The upstairs bathroom that had a recent makeover and of course features lamps, black distressed cabinets, and a loosely arranged container of grasses.
Now on to where the Texan meets the Tenneseean. I love this grouping. I bought the dresser at a yard sale for $25, painted it and paired it with the appalachian-looking homestead sign.
Then, there’s quite possibly my favorite ‘spot’ in the house. A black bombay chest that features an eclectic array of things I love…..books, pictures, paintings, candles, a lamp and a hope for a simpler life.
So, there you have it. A peek into how I decorate and who I am: a heap of contrasts and contradictions; where you’re just as likely to find 67 tubes of lip gloss as you are almost every good piece of classical literature you can think of. And a scary number of lamps and boots.

A day at Logos School

September 16, 2008 by Edie Wadsworth 12 Comments

We continued to work on memorizing this…….

We painted these…..

We had P.E.–in the pool!
We debated over whether to choose this…..
or this for Taylor’s senior picture……(you can help us by voting 1 or 2) I like 2 (below) better!
We memorized this……(it’s part of our Bible/History catechism)
and painted these…..
and put the finishing touches on these adorable puppets…..
and did I say swim?…….
then the girls jumped in the tub before ballet…..
and lest you wonder whether we’re homeschooling or unschooling , we also did math, spelling, handwriting, grammar, history, reading, bible, latin and a short home ec session on how to properly crack an egg!

Shhhhhh………

September 15, 2008 by Edie Wadsworth 8 Comments

Be very quiet. I’m in the middle of covert operations the likes of which you haven’t seen since Jack Bauer took the Chinese consulate. I was having a fine Sunday watching the Vikings get beat and reading “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” when I came across this section in the book

“To do justice, she had, at irregular periods, paroxysms of reformation and arrangement, which she called ‘clarin’ up times’, when she would begin with great zeal, and turn every drawer and closet wrong side outward, on to the floor or tables, and make the ordinary confusion seven-fold more confounded”.

So, as soon as I read that, I began “clarin’ ” things up in the girls’ room and decided to get rid of some stuff they no longer play with. I’m no rookie at this either, so I did it while they were at a friends’ house and I used BLACK garbage bags……’cause we all know how crazy a girl can get when you threaten to take her half-naked, matted hair barbie to Goodwill….the one she hasn’t played with in 4 years. You’re dying to know what I put in the black bag aren’t you? Well, I’m gonna show you but let me first say that when I bought the items you are about to see go into Witness Protection, it was Christmas, I was hormonal and at an all time low in my mothering skills…..I’m gonna say rock bottom even. And most of it was that Jamie Knoxville’s fault, who just happen to call me three days before Christmas to tell me about the Cheetah’s Girls’ Tour Bus. So, here’s goes nothing.

The Hannah Montana Stage…..equipped with roaring crowd noise and spinning ‘Hannah’ holder which allows her to ‘mingle’ with the crowd while performing…..

The Hannah Montana dressing room……which we happen to have caught her in…matted hair and all…..(sorry for the intrusion, Hannah)

And finally, the HM tour bus. This thing is pimped out to the max. I actually secretly like it. I think I may be the only one who has played with it with any regularity. So, never mind the fact that these are not the most edifying, educational toys out there, why……I ask you why do these little girls not play with them? Are they having secret conversations about how I’ve hit rock bottom and succombed to cultural influences? Do they see through purple and pink plastic crap and feel they are somehow ‘above’ this shallow form of entertainment? I do not know the answers to these questions, but I do know that I would have bet a million dollars back in December that these not-so-cheap, made-in-China toys wouldn’t have lasted ’til March. I was terribly wrong….they’re gonna last forever because they never get touched. Now, all that said, if those two girls happen to ‘see’ these items in the Goodwill pile, they would go completely nuts……crying, screaming, you name it. Hence the need for the covert operations. I’ll have to sneak that bag to the car in the cover of night and I’m not gonna lie…..I’m a little scared…..who knows what’s liable to happen when they realize that Hannah has taken her ‘tour’ to another city. They really shouldn’t care….I’m the one who’s dressed her, combed out that matted blond mop, and I’m the one who’s put her in the tour bus to lounge in the garden tub. But I digress. Meanwhile, we will keep playing with our Legos and Lincoln Logs and American Girl dolls…..toys you don’t have to be embarrassed to say your children own. Hannah will do well in witness protection….she’s got that whole Miley thing going for her.

Friday Night with the Wadsworths…….

September 13, 2008 by Edie Wadsworth 6 Comments

You can call us ‘boring’ if you’d like, but here’s how our Friday night went down. We made BLT’s and chocolate chip banana bread.…..yep, you heard that right….and I’ll never make nor eat nor associate with banana bread again that does not have a generous amount of chocolate chips added. This is a must-make. Just take your favorite banana bread recipe and add chips, and bake. Now, you ask, “Why this feast? What is the special occasion?” Well, I’m so glad you asked. In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s a huge hurricane about to hit Texas. No, we don’t live in Texas but Geraldo is gonna be there covering the storm live!! Like we told our 21 yo who just moved in with us last month, if you haven’t spent a Friday night eating chocolate chip banana bread and watching Geraldo cover the “big storm”, then you haven’t lived.

And that’s when we began to have the “hunker” down conversation. I think this has become my very favorite phrase in the English language. I love saying it and I especially love hearing news reporters say it over and over and over again. So, after 37 games of Connect Four, I interviewed the family and asked them to give their best live demonstration of what the phrase “hunker down” actually means.
Here are my results…..Marcus first…….is he ‘hunkering’ or boxing?
then Emme……I think she has confused “hunker down” with hip-hop……
then it’s Daddy’s turn……who may have confused “hunker down” with TaeBo……
then there’s me……I always imagined that “hunker-down” involved more provisions than just my own scrunched up body…….at least some sort of cover……
and the smallest child refused to “hunker down” for fear that she wouldn’t ‘know how to do it right’ or for fear that I would ‘blog’ about it…….or both. We looked up the definition. Hunker means to crouch or squat for a long period of time. At any rate, it’s Friday night and we’re hunkered down, eating chocolate chip banana bread and watching Geraldo. Marcus may never want to leave!

And on a serious note, we pray for those who will be affected by the storm. May God have mercy.