Sated on Saturday

I know I should give up on the alliterative post titles, but I can't do it yet. It has been a long time since you've heard from me..."you" being me, actually, or one of my ones of followers.

And just a note on my promise to keep you updated on the progress of the fort: I haven't broken it. There hasn't been any progress.

We have been really busy since school started on August 10 for The May Baby and the 11th for the boys. (One month ago!) Seventh grade homework is no joke. Also, lots of football games and horseback riding lessons, meetings for The Good Doctor, and pulpit committee meetings for me. And a whole lot of frantic errands to replace contacts (no glasses under helmets) and get football pads, mouth guards, chin straps, practice pants...

I enjoy watching the boys play, though, and they both seem to be liking it. Both boys sustained their first losses this week, however. The February Baby, whose team was undefeated last year, did not take that very well; he'd been blocking a monster from Poplarville (I think the kid's own child was cheering him from the sidelines). The September Baby was beaming when he came out of the locker room after his game...at least the Jackson Prep offense hadn't gotten around his end, during his six plays.

Anyway, losses have to happen, and it's said that they help build character.

So, I am going to go ahead and continue my thankful list with number 106. Losses
107. Football
108. Coaches
109. Safety, so far, from injuries...physical ones, at least.

And I'm feeling in a bookish mood tonight, so

110. Lord Peter Wimsey and Dorothy L. Sayers
111. C.S. Lewis
112. Jane Austen
113. P.G. Woodhouse and Bertie Wooster
114. Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes
115. Harry Potter
116. Ngaio Marsh
117. My bookclub

With hope in our hearts and wings on our heels...

I ordered the DVD of Chariots of Fire last week; I thought it might be interesting to the September Baby since he is starting to run cross country track with the PCS team. I remember feeling inspired to sign up for track when I first saw it...that didn't stick. But, honestly, I was just looking for an excuse to buy the movie.

I realized in reading the cover, that I was the same age as Win is now when I first saw it. Good grief. It really doesn't seem that long ago...1981. I wonder if it will impress him as it did me. I can still recite parts of the movie along with the actors. And, like it did me, the music has already made an impression on the February Baby, and when he's doing homework asks to have the soundtrack playing on iTunes.

(I can't help but muse a moment on the difference in the ease of watching this movie now...a few clicks of the mouse on Amazon.com...as compared to, gulp, almost 30 years ago. We had to drive or, in my case, be driven to Jackson to see it. And that happened more than once, if my memory serves. Then when it finally came out on video, friends of ours borrowed an extra VCR in order to copy it...hmmm...I think that really might have been illegal. Ooops. Surely the statute of limitations has run out on that crime by now, so I won't feel bad about ratting them out here, on this my unvisited blog.)

I've not had the chance to really sit and watch the whole movie...I've listened, awash in nostalgia and that C.S. Lewis type of joy, while The Three watch it in the car. But I look forward to the time when I can. And in watching the boys play their sports...whether track, soccer, or football...I pray that they will "feel God's pleasure when they run."

Sounds Familiar

"The moment I picked up that box I could tell by the pricking in my fingers that I held some great secret in my hands. She gave it me and made me promise that as soon as she was dead I would burn it, unopened, with certain ceremonies. That promise I did not keep."

"Well, then, it was jolly rotten of you, " said Digory.

"Rotten?" said Uncle Andrew with a puzzled look. "Oh, I see. You mean that little boys ought to keep their promises. Very true: most right and proper, I'm sure, and I'm very glad you have been taught to do it. But of course you must understand that rules of that sort, however excellent they may be for little boys--and servants--and women--and even people in general, can't possibly be expected to apply to profound students and great thinkers and sages. No, Digory. Men like me, who possess hidden wisdom, are freed from common rules just as we are cut off from common pleasures. Ours, my boy, is a high and lonely destiny."

As he said this he sighed and looked so grave and noble and mysterious that for a second Digory really thought he was saying something rather fine. But then he remembered the ugly look he had seen on his Uncles' face the moment before Polly had vanished: and all at once he saw through Uncle Andrew's grand words. "All it means," he said to himself, "is that he thinks he can do anything he likes to get anything he wants."

-From The Magician's Nephew, by C.S. Lewis