God made altos, too.

Here's a sad caterwaul for your more blue days to supplement your Adele playlist. All the alto leads are lovely, dark, and deep.

Wifey Wednesday: Company Manners

You all know the story of the two sisters, Mary and Martha, from the Bible. Jesus comes to visit and Mary sits at His feet to learn while Martha serves the guests. Martha gripes to Jesus about her sister and asks Him to tell Mary to get up and help. Jesus rebukes Martha about all her worries. (Pssst...from firsthand experience I can tell you, it's a trust and control issue she's got going on there.)

Because of this story we have named the confused fretfulness that sets in before company arrives as Martha Syndrome. Though some Martha Syndromes have been known to persist through dessert, it usually is sublimated into what's known as Company Manners at the arrival of the first guest.

Pre-party Martha Syndrome

The guest have arrived!
Transformation complete!

Company Manners are those special manners we only use when people are over that we want to impress. We smile more, we certainly don't yell at the kids, and we tend to other people's needs quickly and graciously.

I hate Martha. She shows up and tries to ruin every party, but I'll tolerate her so that my family and I can enjoy the fruits of company and of Company Manners.

My in-laws were out visiting from Virginia for over a week and we kept our Company Manners up the entire time. It was amazing how smoothly everything went. There were no squabbles over chores, no fights among the siblings, no clamoring for attention. It was as if the house ran itself.

It made me wonder if most of my problems in keeping the family functioning were due to my everyday manners, the not-so-special ones I pull out only in front of my family. You know, the manners that allow a bit of impatience to show when a needy family member interrupts me. The set of manners that allows mom to yell, "THERE WILL BE NO MORE YELLING IN THIS HOUSE!!"

If I know that a big part of the reason I enjoy company so much is the Company Manners, if I love the check on everyone's behavior that comes from having company, and if having a beloved guest brings out the best in me, why, oh why won't I treat Christ as my beloved guest every day? He is here, watching every little fall and stumble from grace. I have personally invited Him into my life and yet, while He's here, I treat my family (His very children), as if He weren't even there. Christ and my family deserve my Company Manners every day.

Would you please pray for me that I treat Him at least as well as I treat my Mother-in-Law?

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This has been a Wifey Wednesday post. For an even more Wifey Wednesday click on over to To Love Honor and Vacuum!

Snake. In a Jar.

My husband found a snake. Instead of responding in a rational manner and smashing it to death with a hoe, he inexplicably placed it into the jar in the name of science.

The joys of homeschooling.

It is merely a garter snake. One of these....

"Is it a rattle snake?! Is it movaaahhhhAAAAhhhh!"

You can be all homeschoolish and read about it here. I had to look it up while it sized me up. It's beady little eye followed me as it flicked its tongue about trying to taste the air I breathed. At one point it uncoiled in my general direction. I shrilled a bit and sent the entire family, including my dad who was visiting, into gales of laughter.

In sympathy, four out of five Martin children dashed for the paper and crayons to draw the little demon snake and spend the next 20 minutes hissing at me from behind their papers.

"Look, mom! A snake! Scream AGAIN!"

Although the above article swears that they can be kept as pets, I proposed that we kill it. As a compromise it was released back into the wild. Two children and a cat all the way to the fence line.

It...lives.

7 Quick Perfectly Excusable Takes

--1--
The Explanation

The last two weeks have been busy, busy, busy. I dropped off the face of the earth, internet-wise, and thought today's Quick Takes might be a perfectly acceptable place to explain myself. But first...

--2--
Something Happened Right on Schedule

Listen to internet radio with Deeper Truth on BlogTalkRadio

This, I did. This Podcast right here.


--3--
Excuse #1: HIS PARENTS ARE COMING SO WHERE DO I PUT THE ALLEN WRENCHES?!

Normally the news of a visit would not be an excuse to fly into panic mode, but we are renovating. That means, for those of you who have not experienced such self-inflicted insanity, that nothing in the house actually works. This table is here because that faucet is there because that wall is torn out because that leak sprung up when that window was put in. It's one thing to inflict such minor inconveniences as stepping over hubby's toolbag to use the toilet on one's children; it is actually bordering on rudeness to ask it of one's mother-in-law. Even imagining telling her that the extra bottle of conditioner is behind the PVC adhesive in the cabinet propels one uncontrollably into the highest of gears. I can recommend panic and horror as motivators on any house project: other than one bathtub piled high with tools and spare parts ("Pay no attention to the mess behind the curtain!"), the house was ready when that lovely lady arrived.

--4--
Excuse #2: The Wedding

A dear friend's daughter pushed her wedding back 13 months. I'm on the decorating and running-with-scissors committee. The wedding is tomorrow. Need I say more?

Note to Self: Make the gluten-free wedding cake. Bake the bread.

--5--
Excuse #3: The Special Delivery

My parents are moving onto our property next week. Their house, a single wide Alaska-rated 3-bedroom trailer, was delivered the day before yesterday. Water-lines and electric lines don't dig themselves, so my husband rented a trencher. My husband, father, and father-in-law dug up the yard and laid the pipes and lines themselves.

Those of you who have worked with a trencher or have dug around existing pipes know what is coming next...

--6--
Excuse #4: The Septic Line

Yes, indeed, our septic line was nicked in the process. Busting a pipe is inevitable when heavy equipment is involved and our disaster was relatively minor. The septic line still flowed (as opposed to pooling), so there was not a lot of "mud" ("ick") to dig through. Meanwhile, mid-visit we had to ask 5 children and two mothers-in-laws to please not use the water or flush anything while we dug a big hole and ran off to the store for a pipe patch.

By the way, running to the store around here takes about as long as digging a 3'x3'x3' hole in the ground, so to move things along I dug while all the men involved ran off to consult each other and various men in orange aprons as to the appropriate response to a hole in a pipe that handles poo.

It took all day.

--7--
Excuse #5: The Braces Broke, Too

So, in order to take a mini-vacation from blogging, you must schedule an in-law visit, a house delivery, a wedding, and a trip to the orthodontist because a wire broke.

P.S. Dr. Crobin says, "Hi!"

P.S. Nobody was hurt in the process, though there were a few sore muscles.

Because it is Monday...

The day has put up very little fight. I am slowly drowning it in coffee.