The Hidden Art of Homemaking, ch. 3, Music

May7

I know a lot of musically talented people. My church is full of musical talent, and our worship leader and pianist, Hannah, encourages many people to express their musical abilities in worship and in other venues as well. It seems to me that people within the church can find many avenues for the expression of musical art without much difficulty and usually with much encouragement from others within their particular church body.

I often wonder what non-Christians who are musically gifted or people who just enjoy singing or playing an instrument do to express themselves in this way. I’m not particularly gifted in music, but I love to sing. What would I do without the opportunity to sing every Sunday in a lovely congregational choir full of people of all ages singing together? And then there’s the singing and piano playing that goes on around my house every day. Oh, I would miss so much “art” in life if I were not a Christian. With whom do non-Christians sing?

Of course, the book also talks about introducing your children to good music: classical music and hymns. I feel I used to do this with my now-grown children, but I’ve lost the habit. Now, my older children and my teens are interested in a very eclectic mix of music, everything from Les Miz to Celtic Thunder to Switchfoot to show tunes. They sing the songs of these artists and listen to them. They don’t listen to much classical music because they prefer lyrical music, as do I.

My oldest daughter is a singer with a beautiful voice, and she recently became confirmed as a Catholic. I have several questions about and issues with that decision, but one of the minor things I’ve wondered about is whether or not she’ll have an opportunity to sing, either with a congregation or a choir or as a soloist, giving the gift of her musical ability to others and in worship to God. I don’t feel as if Catholics do much singing (corporately, in worship), but you can correct me if I’m wrong about that. Anyway, I liked the ending sentences of this chapter on music as hidden art because it applies to all of us, Catholic or Protestant, musically gifted or just average, together or alone:

“For Christians, there is no need for alcohol to release our inhibitions in music-making. The reality of the Holy Spirit should free us to joyous expression in the form of melody and song. This is what is meant to be now, and what will continue in eternity. Creative creatures on a finite level, made in the image of the Creative God.”

I like the way each of reads the same chapter on music, and rather creatively, we all go off in different directions in our thoughts about the subject. Check out the linky at Ordo Amoris.

Must Be a K-Thing

May6

In the K-dramas (Korean TV) I’ve been watching, I’ve noticed certain repeated idiosyncrasies and bits of business that show up over and over. All of these things seem odd to my American sensibilities, but I suppose they’re normal in Korea, or at least on Korean TV.

1. Nosebleeds. In a crisis or sometimes at the most inconvenient times, the lead actor or actress gets a nosebleed. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an American actor with a nosebleed. Koreans must have sensitive noses.

2. Sticking out the tongue. In the U.S., five year olds taunt each other by sticking out their tongues. Much older than that, and it just isn’t done. Kim Na Na (yes, that’s her name) sticks out her tongue at Lee Yoon Sung in City Hunter. The serious and mature Hang Ah sticks out her tongue at the very immature Prince Jae Ha in The King 2 Hearts. Korean girls poke fun by sticking out their tongues at the young man they’re flirting/sparring with? (Headmistress at THe Common Room: “Our experience in living in Japan and visiting Korea is that Asians really like cute a lot. It’s not just for kids.”) See #8 for more examples of the “cuteness” dealio.

3. Short skirts and high heels. All of the young ladies are quite chaste for the most part, no passionate kissing or PDA or cleavage, but they wear really, really short skirts and high heels all the time, even when a girl is running away from the bad guy. It looks uncomfortable to me–and bad policy if you’re trying to make a quick getaway. Sometimes the leading lady falls off her heels, or the shoe breaks, which may lead to:

4. The twisted or sprained ankle. This sort of accident, apparently very common in the course of a Korean romance, causes the hero, or sometimes the heroine, to come to the rescue with bandages and sympathy. If not a twisted ankle, some other bump or bruise can provide an opportunity for romantic first aid.

5. Romantic flashbacks: Lots of flashbacks with music to romantic moments between the couple who are fated to be together but can’t quite seem to get together. Sometimes it’s a montage of several near-miss and sentimental incidents. Sometimes they’re playing in a fountain or a park, or the girl falls asleep with the guy gently moving a strand of her hair away from her face. But these flashback moments all have in common that they are taken out of context. Usually, the interlude ended in a misunderstanding or a fight, but the reminiscing person never remembers that part.

6. Cellphones. Cellphones are ubiquitous in all the K-dramas I’ve watched. Yeah, I know they are pretty common here in the U.S., but the K-drama characters take it to another level. In Queen Inhyun’s Man, the cell phone becomes almost a central character or Hitchcockian MacGuffin.

7. Spunky girls and rude guys. I think the spunky girl with martial arts skilz would work in a U.S. romantic comedy or drama, but the rude guy who turns out to be sweet and honorable underneath would be outa there in a New York minute.

8. Piggyback rides. Really, grown-up guys are frequently giving their significant other lovely lady a piggyback ride. It seems . . . odd, but kind of cute. Other romantic situations in K-dramas: falling asleep on the guy’s couch (or shoulder), riding a two-seater bicycle together, running through a fountain, feeding each other (preferably feeding each other Ramen).

9. Actors as main characters and “play within a play”. Queen Inhyun’s Man is about an actress who is playing Queen Inhyun in an historical drama. In the series called The Greatest Love Doko Jin is an immensely popular actor, and his love interest is a singer/actress trying to make a comeback. I just started watching Full House, and the main guy is . . . an immensely popular actor.

10. Wrist-grabbing. The guy will grab the girl’s wrist to fend her off or express his displeasure. It doesn’t seem to be as rude and almost-abusive to the Korean girl in question as it looks to me.

11. Time travel and amnesia both show up frequently.

I’m not an expert on K-dramas, but I have become somewhat fascinated and maybe slightly addicted. I’m not sure what the draw is. My progeny certainly can’t fathom the attraction. Anyway, here are the ones I’ve watched with comments:

Queen Inhyun’s Man, aka The Queen and I. This one is an historical/time travel romance. A modern actress falls for a medieval (late 1600’s) hero who has a magic scroll that transports him back and forth in time.

King 2 Hearts. In an alternate history Korea, South Korea has a king with an irresponsible little brother, Prince Jae Ha. North Korea is still communist, but the two countries are trying to make peace by means of participating in a military contest together with a joint Korean team. Hang Ah is the star of the North Korean military contingent, and she and Jae Ha spar and eventually come together in an attempt to bridge the cultural gap between North and South.

City Hunter is a superhero drama, an Asian take-off on Batman with complications. Actor Lee Min-Ho is Yoon-sung, a young man who has been trained from birth to take revenge on the men who killed his father. Kim Nana is a complication who threatens to sidetrack Yoon-sung in his program of revenge, but he maintains his secret identity as City Hunter to protect Kim Nana from his sad, dangerous, and lonely mission.

The Greatest Love is a much lighter romantic comedy, a mash-up of Pride and Prejudice, A Star Is Born, and several soap opera plots. It was rather disconcerting to see actress Yoo In-na, who was the cute and perky leading lady in Queen Inhyun’s Man, playing the bad girl in this romcom. Doko Jin, the Darcy character, is way too proud for his own good, but he does eventually come down to earth, and the eventual resolution of the conflict is rewarding and fun to watch.

Full House. I just started this one and can’t tell you much about it, other than it’s rather implausible. In the first episode, the main character’s “friends” just sent her on a wild goose chase of a trip to China and sold her house while she was away. It looks as if the girl, Ji-eun, is fated to cross paths (repeatedly) with famous actor, Young-jae, who turns out to be the one who bought her house from the unscrupulous friends.

Actually, implausibility could be another Korean drama trope. North Koreans and South Koreans making nice with each other over joint military maneuvers? Doko Jin the famous actor mooning over a potato plant? A revenge-seeking superhero with mommy and daddy issues? Time travel via Buddhist scroll and cellphone?

However, I am addicted nonetheless, and I willingly suspend my disbelief and watch with bated breath to see what will happen next.

The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer, ch. 2, What Is Hidden Art?

May4

Because I have read about Edith and Francis Schaeffer’s son, Franky Schaeffer, and because I am old enough to know that there are no perfect Christian families, I can’t read Mrs. Schaeffer’s words in this book without thinking about the imperfections and cracks in her family—and in mine. As I write this post, I am listening to the sounds of a violent, not-very-beautiful video game that my teen son is playing in the living room with a friend. I can be unhappy about the disruption this game causes in my ideal “beautiful home environment”, or I can be thankful that my son is at home playing a game with a friend, that we have an opportunity to show hospitality to his friend, that my daughter was able to perform in a play this afternoon, that my other daughter was able to go to a ballet class, that those of us who are here will have a meal together, that my home is filled with books and art and music and laughter.

Of course, those things I list that I am thankful for also have elements that work against them, things that I am not always thankful for. I have to drive a lot, something which is abhorrent to my senses, to get the girls to their drama and dance classes and performances. We’re not all here as a family to share the meal this evening. In addition to the books and other good things that fill my home, I also have lots of junk and counter-artistic piles of stuff. Sometimes the yelling and the coarse joking (and the video games) drown out the music and the laughter.

Hidden Art encourages us to hold two truths in tension:

“A Christian, above all people, should live artistically, aesthetically, and creatively.”

“Without sin, man would have been perfectly creative, and we can only imagine what he would have produced without its hindrance. With sin, all of God’s creation has been spoiled to some degree, so that what we see is not in its perfect state.”

The perfect is the enemy of the good. If I wait until I can make a perfect home or even a perfect meal, there will be no one left in my home to enjoy it. Children and teens make messes and don’t cooperate with my “perfect” plans. Sometimes, even I don’t cooperate with my own plans for beauty and order and hidden art.

Nevertheless, as another wise Christian woman, reminded us, “Do the next thing.” And as Mrs. Schaeffer so aptly says, “‘If only . . .’ feelings can distort our personalities, and give us an obsession which can only lead to more and more dissatisfaction.”

Hidden Art preaches a lifestyle of doing small things to create an environment of artistry and creativity, no matter how imperfect and incomplete it is.

Go to Cindy’s blog, Ordo Amoris, to read what others have to say about chapter 2 of this inspiring book.

Saturday Review of Books: May 4, 2013

May3

“I have done what people do, my life makes a reasonable showing, Can I go back to my books now?” ~Lynn Sharon Schwartz

SatReviewbutton

Welcome to the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can link to your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.

Then on Friday night/Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.

After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read. That’s how my own TBR list has become completely unmanageable and the reason I can’t join any reading challenges. I have my own personal challenge that never ends.

1. Mental multivitamin (six books)
2. SuziQoregon @ Whimpulsive (Little Elvises)
3. SuziQoregon @ Whimpulsive (Double Whammy)
4. Becky (Love’s Abiding joy)
5. Becky (When Jesus Wept)
6. Becky (Hattie Ever After)
7. Becky (Shades of Earth)
8. Becky (Miss Billy Married)
9. Becky (Exclamation Mark)
10. Becky (Stardust)
11. Becky (Pinocchio)
12. Sara (Curriculum of Love)
13. Harvee@Book Dilettante		 14. Harvee@Book Dilettante
15. JoAnne @ The Fairytale Nerd (Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo ARC)
16. JoAnne @ The Fairytale Nerd (If You Stay by Courtney Cole)
17. JoAnne @ The Fairytale Nerd (Apollyon by Jennifer L. Armentrout)
18. the Ink Slinger (‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ aka the book that inspired ‘Die Hard)
19. Seth@Collateral Bloggage (Storm Front)
20. Janet (The High King)
21. Janet (Gathering Blue)
22. Janet (Messenger)
23. Annie Kate (Contentment, Prosperity, and God’s Glory)
24. Annie Kate (The Gate)
25. Hope (Moby Dick by Melville)
26. Thoughts of Joy (Gone Missing)		 27. SmallWorld Reads (The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman)
28. Beckie @ ByTheBook (It Happened at The Fair)
29. Beckie @ ByTheBook (Poison)
30. Katy@ BooksYALove (Pantalones, TX: Don’t Chicken Out!)
31. Katy@ BooksYALove (Stung, by Bethany Wiggins)
32. Amy @ Hope Is the Word (The Dark by Lemony Snicket)
33. Susanne (Joni & Ken-An Untold Love Story)
34. Becky (Roses Have Thorns)
35. Yvann @ Reading With Tea (Notes from a Big Country)
36. Yvann @ Reading With Tea (Miss Julia Stirs Up Trouble)
37. Anna @ Diary of an Eccentric (Winter’s End)
38. Anna @ Diary of an Eccentric (Lauren Yanofsky Hates the Holocaust)
39. Anna @ Diary of an Eccentric (The Wars)

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A Plain Death by Amanda Flower

May2

I decided to read as many of the books as I can find that are shortlisted for the INSPY awards this year. A Plain Death is one of the five books shortlisted in the Mystery/Thriller category.

This Amish country-setting mystery is the first in the Appleseed Creek Mystery series, and it’s an adequate beginning to a promising series. When Chloe Humphrey moves to Appleseed Creek to take a job as computer services director with a small private college, she doesn’t expect to gain an Amish roommate and a new crush on said roommate’s handsome brother all on the first day. Events snowball quickly from first-day surprises to real danger as a local Amish bishop dies in an accident that may have been more than an accident, and Chloe feels compelled to help out her new friend by investigating the death and the suspicious circumstances surrounding it.

I enjoyed this book as a “bedtime story” last night even though I did find a couple of continuity errors and some minor editing errors. I’m also not sure I totally bought into the ending, but the story was engaging enough that I didn’t really care.

What is it that’s so fascinating about Amish culture anyway? I don’t read a lot of so-called “Amish fiction”, but I do see the attraction. I guess it fits with my reading and life fascinations: communities, religious communities, broken relationships and healing of those relationships, prodigals, utopian communities. I do like reading about people who have chosen a different lifestyle from the norm and about how religious communities in particular work or don’t work to bring people to a saving knowledge of the grace of God in Christ.

A Plain Death isn’t a book with a profound message about being Amish or about gospel in general, but it did have a nice flavor of AMish country. I would enjoy reading the next book in the series, A Plain Scandal, which was just published in February. A Plain Disappearance, the third book in the series, is due to be published in September, 2013.

Saturday Review of Books: April 27, 2013

Apr26

“The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes.” ~Agatha Christie

SatReviewbutton

Welcome to the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can link to your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.

Then on Friday night/Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.

After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read. That’s how my own TBR list has become completely unmanageable and the reason I can’t join any reading challenges. I have my own personal challenge that never ends.

1. Brenda (St. Vipers School for Super Villians: The Big Bank Burglary)
2. Thoughts of Joy (The Racketeer)
3. Thoughts of Joy (Love You More)
4. georgianne (The Hole In Our Holiness)
5. georgianne (Ireland)
6. Summer@thebrothersh (Moby Dick)
7. SuziQoregon @ Whimpulsive ( A Murder at Rosamund’s Gate)
8. Maidservants of Christ (Crazy Love)
9. Barbara H. (The Guardian by Beverly Lewis)
10. Barbara H. (Comforts From Romans: Celebrating the Gospel One Day at a Time )
11. Amy @ Hope Is the Word (Hidden Art of Homemaking ch. 1)
12. Amy @ Hope Is the Word (books read in April)
13. Amy @ Hope Is the Word (Story of the Treasure Seekers)
14. JoAnne @ The Fairytale Nerd (Apollyon by Jennifer L. Armentrout)
15. JoAnne @ The Fairytale Nerd (Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo ARC)
16. Linda @ Soli Deo Gloria (Hidden Art of Homemaking, Ch.1)
17. the Ink Slinger (The Right Stuff)		 18. Jessica Snell (Fragments)
19. Joseph R. @ Zombie Parents Guide (Book of Psalms)
20. Janet (Taran Wanderer)
21. Annie Kate (Seaside Harmony and Sunflower Summer)
22. Lazygal (The Arrivals)
23. Lazygal (Far Far Away)
24. Lazygal (If You Were Here)
25. Lazygal (The Silent Wife)
26. Lazygal (Reboot)
27. Lazygal (The Butterfly Sister)
28. Lazygal (Pi in the Sky)
29. Hope (Missionary bio: Isobel Kuhn)
30. Thoughts of Joy (Where’d You Go, Bernadette)
31. Beckie @ ByTheBook (An Unholy Communion)
32. Beckie @ ByTheBook (Broken Wings)
33. Beckie @ ByTheBook (Duchess)
34. Beckie @ ByTheBook (Miracle on Snowbird Lake)		 35. Beckie @ ByTheBook (What’s Your Mark?)
36. Beckie @ ByTheBook (The Heiress of Winterwood)
37. Susan@ Reading World (The Winter Palace)
38. Becky (The Truth of the Cross)
39. Becky (Expository Thoughts on Matthew)
40. Becky (Pygmalion)
41. Becky (English Governess at Siamese Court)
42. Becky (Speaking from the Bones)
43. Becky (Deadweather and Sunrise)
44. Becky (A Little Princess)
45. Still Alice (Lucybird’s book blog)
46. Heather @ Lines from the Page (Code Name Verity)
47. Anna @ Diary of an Eccentric (The Last Telegram)
48. Anna @ Diary of an Eccentric (The End of the Point)
49. Linda @ Soli Deo Gloria (Hidden Art of Homemaking, Ch. 2)

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The Convert by G.K. Chesterton

Apr22

It’s National Poetry Month, and I haven’t done much poetry. It’s been one of those months so far, fast and furious and full of sounds, signifying I’m-not-sure-what-yet.

At any rate, here’s a poem by one of my favorite people, G.K. Chesterton. Does anybody know of a good, well written, popular biography of Chesterton? I’ve read his autobiographical Orthodoxy and others of his writings, but a really cracking good bio would be of interest.

The Convert
by G. K. Chesterton

After one moment when I bowed my head
And the whole world turned over and came upright,
And I came out where the old road shone white.
I walked the ways and heard what all men said,
Forests of tongues, like autumn leaves unshed,
Being not unlovable but strange and light;
Old riddles and new creeds, not in despite
But softly, as men smile about the dead

The sages have a hundred maps to give
That trace their crawling cosmos like a tree,
They rattle reason out through many a sieve
That stores the sand and lets the gold go free:
And all these things are less than dust to me
Because my name is Lazarus and I live.

The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer

Apr22

Cindy at Ordo Amoris is hosting a read-along book club for the next twelve weeks or so to read Edith Schaeffer’s beautiful book, The Hidden Art of Homemaking. I call it a “beautiful book” because it’s all about beauty and creating beauty in practical ways in your own home. She doesn’t advocate the Better Homes and Gardens kind of decorating beauty, out of my price range and beyond my abilities anyway, but rather a simple effort to use one’s God-given talents and abilities to serve the family and make our homes a beautiful place.

I was inspired by Ms. Schaeffer’s book a long time ago when I read it as a young wife and mother. Now, I am a “more mature” wife and mother, and some of the lessons I learned from Mrs. Shaeffer’s book have been absorbed into my lifestyle other have been abandoned in the busyness of my life and need to be relearned. I’ve recommended The Hidden Art of Homemaking to other moms, young and old. I’ve given it as a part of a wedding gift or even a baby shower gift. I’ve had my daughters read it.

I’m looking forward to reading and discussing with others how the inner beauty that God commands us to have expresses itself in outward ways making our homes and our service to our families and others beautiful also.

I Peter 2:3-4 Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.

I forgot that I’m supposed to be introducing myself in this post. I’m Sherry. I have eight children ranging in age right now from 11 to 27. My husband is an engineer at NASA. I read a lot. I have lots of ideas. I try to put some of those ideas into practice. I love the Lord Jesus Christ, and I am deeply thankful for His mercy and grace in my life.

I don’t always have a gentle and quiet spirit, and my home is not always beautiful. My home is full of beautiful people, and I need to remember that more often.

Is that enough introduction, ladies?

Failstate by John W. Otte

Apr21

“John W. Otte leads a double life. By day he’s a Lutheran minister. By night, he writes weird stories.”

Failstate is kind of weird. Robin Laughlin aka Failstate and Robin’s brother Ben aka Gauntlet are both unlicensed superheroes. Failstate is a “cognit” who can mess with the power grid. The theory is that Failstate’s super-power can create “a potential failstate within covalent bonds at a molecular level.” Gauntlet is a “strapper”, a hero with lots of muscle.

Both of the brothers are competing in a reality TV show. The winner gets a real superhero license if he or she is voted best superhero in the show. Unfortunately, Robin/Failstate is pretty sure that the winner is not going to be him.

Soon, real life and real crime collide with the fantasy crime competition on TV, and Failstate must decide how to avenge his friend’s death, whom to trust, and how much protecting his secret identity is worth. Is it worth more lives? What if he has to lose the competition and his secrets to gain his ultimate goal, the protection of innocent citizens?

Failstate was just nominated as a finalist for the Christy Awards in the category of Young Adult Books, along with Child of the Mountains by Marilyn Sue Shank and Interrupted: A Life Beyond Words by Rachel Coker. I think Failstate is a worthy competitor, both the character in the book and the novel in the Christy Awards.