Enchanted Rock: It's Enchanting!

After a wonderful Thanksgiving with the in-laws, Friday found us--my husband, brother-in-law, and nephew and I--driving out Fredericksburg way for a visit to Enchanted Rock.  It's one of the world's largest rocks, the largest being in Australia.  It was incredible, and so lovely to be out and about.  It has lots of rock climbing routes, although I was not able to go on any.  I was not even up for bouldering--a lot harder than rock walls at the climbing gym!  Clearly it has been far too long since I did some real climbing.

We forgot the camera, so I don't have any photos unless I can figure out how to download them from Ryan's phone.  In the meantime, enjoy the rest of the weekend!

(my apologies for the lame title.  it's too lame to resist.)

bliss

now that the weather is gloriously cool, i have been relishing in one of my favorite things:  hot water.  hot showers, hot soaks in the tub, hot tea--hot water in just about all its forms is one of my delights.  tolkien best expresses it in words:

Sing hey! for the bath at the close of day

That washes the weary mud away!

A loon is he that will not sing:

O! Water Hot is a noble thing!

O! Sweet is the sound of falling rain,

and the brook that leaps from hill to plain;

but better than rain or rippling streams

is Water Hot that smokes and steams.

O! Water cold we may pour at need

down a thirsty throat and be glad indeed;

but better is Beer, if drink we lack,

and Water Hot poured down the back.

O! Water is fair that leaps on high

in a fountain white beneath the sky;

but never did fountain sound so sweet

as splashing Hot Water with my feet!

and is the cast iron tea kettle that ryan gave me for my birthday:  also a wonderful tribute to hot water.

Song of the South

this weekend finds us in lubbock, TX, at the UD undergraduates' moot court competition at the Texas Tech law school.  on the drive out, we saw lots of this:  (see vintage post card at right).  okay, except there were huge unwieldy machines instead of human people out there harvesting the cotton.  we also saw lots of wind turbines, oil fields, and cacti.  also, i'll have you know, i successfully maneuvered a 15-passenger around town, including backing it up in a parking lot.

teaching lately has been little short of a nightmare.  the caliber of students is not the highest ever, and i am still learning, which is not a fabulous combination.  i do like teaching, but it is exhausting and sometimes frustrating.  the thesis is going well, though.  my new director is, in her words, "cracking the whip over me," which is exactly what i need.  i am currently plowing through utilitarians, which will lead me to pater, wordsworth, and lovely things, as well as very ugly things masquerading as lovely things.  to get to the fun stuff, though, to see the edifice rise in lovely form, i must for now labor at the foundation.

there is no other news for now, EXCEPT that my incredible husband gave me a cast iron tea kettle for my birthday!  i will post pictures of it soon.  it's red, square, wee, and lovely, and a perfect addition for my Banish Plastic mission.  also, dear ruth gave me shopping bags! from this very cool web site.  one more step to hippiness, as well!  hooray for hippie housekeeping!

if there is even one righteous man . . .

in all my novenas for the election, i have realized three things about God:

1)  He often answers prayer not by granting our request, but by giving us the grace to respond to His will.

2)  God cares far more about the lives He creates than we do, and He will not abandon them, even when it looks like He is.

3)  As great as pro-life legislation would be, laws do not change hearts, and hearts are what is most important to God.  With the threat of extreme pro-abortion legislature, it will force us to focus on what matters most:  changing women's hearts to love God and their unborn babies.

From my prayer book, under "Christian Doctrine":  

SINS CRYING TO HEAVEN FOR VENGEANCE

Wilful murder--The sin of Sodom--Oppression of the poor--Defrauding laborers of their wages.

God will not forsake His own decrees.