I took the girls to the Louisville Walk for Life this morning. It counted as a service project for their American Heritage Girls Troop, and it was a really good experience.
We met at St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church, and after some Ra Ra speeches, we got started on our 5K trek through downtown. It was a big crowd and lots of the kids were carrying balloons, and the AHG troop sported their uniforms, carried signs and chanted "We are pro-life" the entire. five. kilometers. Oh my. I don't know how they did it except that I think this was a case of Aspie-ish perseveration meets opportunity, and the chanting was egged on by my middle daughter the entire way who tends not to notice when the rest of us mortals get tired of that sort of thing.
I decided to prayerfully carry an Icon of the Incarnation of Christ with His Holy Mother as if the occasion were a procession. Nobody asked me about it and I certainly felt like the odd-duck Orthodox in the midst of a crowd of Roman Catholics, some of whom have already turned cold on me as soon as they learn I'm not Roman Catholic. I'd hoped to avoid that sort of reaction, and for the most part it hasn't been an issue with the other troop moms, but it seems like these things do happen sometimes. But I soldiered on, nonetheless. (A newspaper reporter took lots of pictures of the troop and several of me, straight on while he was doing the backwards reporter walk, with the icon. I might be in the paper tomorrow, where oddity has photographic value.)
The walk went well, and then I got massively lost on the way home because a street that I thought was a street that I knew turned out to be a street that I didn't know, or else i was going the wrong direction on it...I'm not sure which. But we meandered for a while, and finally found something of an artery street, which crossed a street name I recognized and I spotted a sign pointing out the direction to the zoo. So we drove to the zoo, and then drove home.
When we got home I felt sorely tempted because the rest of the family who had not gone on the Walk for Life had NOT done what they said they were going to do, and were still pajamadwellers. I got grumpy and controlling...of course. Because that's how I get. Forgive me a sinner. I ate some lunch and fussed at people in general that they needed to get themselves some sandwiches.
While I was cleaning up the kitchen, someone pointed out that there was blood dripping out of the bottom of the freezer. This could only mean one thing: The freezer door had somehow been left open and the grass fed ground beef-ALL SIX POUNDS OF IT! that some kids had helpfully put away in the freezer door shelf had thawed.
So, in order to clean up the semi-frozen blood and the bloodsicles, I had to put all the things in the freezer over into our smaller freezer (Thanks be to God all the vital things like the meat and frozen veggies fit!) while I just let the one loaf of bread and the toaster waffles defrost. Those can go in the fridge and we'll eat them soon.
And I had six pounds of beef to cook right that minute. So I made one meatloaf (in the fridge to be cooked for dinner), nine beef patties (can be reheated later), and cooked two pounds of beef on the stovetop (will be handy for casseroles later this week).
Somewhere in the process of all of this, the phrase "all hell breaks loose" came to mind and I wondered if I'm being tested, or if someone did not like the fact that I took that walk this morning.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:11-13
We met at St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church, and after some Ra Ra speeches, we got started on our 5K trek through downtown. It was a big crowd and lots of the kids were carrying balloons, and the AHG troop sported their uniforms, carried signs and chanted "We are pro-life" the entire. five. kilometers. Oh my. I don't know how they did it except that I think this was a case of Aspie-ish perseveration meets opportunity, and the chanting was egged on by my middle daughter the entire way who tends not to notice when the rest of us mortals get tired of that sort of thing.
I decided to prayerfully carry an Icon of the Incarnation of Christ with His Holy Mother as if the occasion were a procession. Nobody asked me about it and I certainly felt like the odd-duck Orthodox in the midst of a crowd of Roman Catholics, some of whom have already turned cold on me as soon as they learn I'm not Roman Catholic. I'd hoped to avoid that sort of reaction, and for the most part it hasn't been an issue with the other troop moms, but it seems like these things do happen sometimes. But I soldiered on, nonetheless. (A newspaper reporter took lots of pictures of the troop and several of me, straight on while he was doing the backwards reporter walk, with the icon. I might be in the paper tomorrow, where oddity has photographic value.)
The walk went well, and then I got massively lost on the way home because a street that I thought was a street that I knew turned out to be a street that I didn't know, or else i was going the wrong direction on it...I'm not sure which. But we meandered for a while, and finally found something of an artery street, which crossed a street name I recognized and I spotted a sign pointing out the direction to the zoo. So we drove to the zoo, and then drove home.
When we got home I felt sorely tempted because the rest of the family who had not gone on the Walk for Life had NOT done what they said they were going to do, and were still pajamadwellers. I got grumpy and controlling...of course. Because that's how I get. Forgive me a sinner. I ate some lunch and fussed at people in general that they needed to get themselves some sandwiches.
While I was cleaning up the kitchen, someone pointed out that there was blood dripping out of the bottom of the freezer. This could only mean one thing: The freezer door had somehow been left open and the grass fed ground beef-ALL SIX POUNDS OF IT! that some kids had helpfully put away in the freezer door shelf had thawed.
So, in order to clean up the semi-frozen blood and the bloodsicles, I had to put all the things in the freezer over into our smaller freezer (Thanks be to God all the vital things like the meat and frozen veggies fit!) while I just let the one loaf of bread and the toaster waffles defrost. Those can go in the fridge and we'll eat them soon.
And I had six pounds of beef to cook right that minute. So I made one meatloaf (in the fridge to be cooked for dinner), nine beef patties (can be reheated later), and cooked two pounds of beef on the stovetop (will be handy for casseroles later this week).
Somewhere in the process of all of this, the phrase "all hell breaks loose" came to mind and I wondered if I'm being tested, or if someone did not like the fact that I took that walk this morning.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:11-13
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