Spring Is In The Air

I don't know when Spring actually started (or starts?) but today seemed like the first day of 2008 that i could reasonably let the kids go and play in the yard for a bit before dark. The Magnolia tree is in bloom and Thea picked generously from it to have flowers for the whole family, even Tina and hank (the dogs).

They had a blast, and I think it really helped to get them to sleep, too. Not that they sacked in early or anything but Thea put herself to bed totally with no fuss and all i had to do was check on her after I got Liam to sleep (with very little fuss).

Kel had to work late tonight, and actually isn't even home yet as of this writing. She hates working late as much as I do, and I know she must be stressed. And she also hates missing out on kids time and family time. This post is for you Kel, as Thea would say, "The bestest Mommy in the World!"

Easter Sunday

I haven't stepped inside a church for an actual service since i was a teenager. But we thought we'd check out one since Thea has been picking up some talk of God and Jesus from daycare, both from other kids as well as from the teachers. Kel thought (rightly) that the kids will be hearing things about religion as they become more and more social, so she suggested that we may want to have a little more than a passive role in their spiritual education. To that end we planned to attend the Easter Service at All Souls Church. Thea was excited when we told her that we were doing this. And although Liam is too young to be very enthused about it, he was on board.

All Souls is a very cool Unitarian Universalist church in Northwest DC. It actually is across 16th Street from where we used to live in Adams Morgan "back in the day". I found the whole experience to be refreshingly inspiring. I heard mention of the application of a "reasoning approach" to religious faith within the first few minutes of the service. And All Souls is known for being a liberal institution with a focus on social justice. The congregation is made up of people from a wide variety of different faiths, including even agnostics and atheists.

We may attend once a month or so, possibly more, toward the goal of giving the kids a childhood experience of religion that is also appealing to us as parents; one that has a foundation of values that we can solidly get behind.

Oh yeah, and they also have a killer church organ

Lunch at Chipotle

The kids love cheese. And they love eating "burritos" from Chipotle. Actually, we get them three soft tacos, but they call them burritos. Thea gets just black beans and rice with cheese on the side, and Liam gets carnitas, black beans and rice with guacamole and cheese on the side. The glaze in his eyes and the glee in hers tells it all.

Dagmar Krause sings Kurt Weill