Saturday, January 15, 2011

The Bible: Not for kids? Or not for parents?
Mariel and I have ended up with quite a range of reading adventures.  From Laura Ingalls Wilder to Alice in Wonderland, we sort of skip and hop through whatever book we have on hand.  For the past two months or so, our addition to the normal bedtime story reading has been a "children's version" of the Bible.  As far as I can remember, I got this book as a gift around the time of my first communion.
There is one thing that has become painfully clear: the Bible, in any version is NOT FOR CHILDREN.  Every so often we have encountered a story that does not include blood, violence, terrifying imagery, or death, but that is rare.  You can only read the creation story so many times before you get right back to the Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel... well, lets just say there are lots of discussions of why these are things that we do not want to do. 
Prior to Christmas we began reading sequentially through the beginning of the New Testament.  I still remember last year, when Mariel trotted back into the pew at Mass to tell me about what she learned at Children's Liturgy.  Her summary went something like this:
"Mom!  Baby Jesus is born!  They are coming to see him!  But the King is going to kill all of the babies." 
(Me, not really listening until the killing of babies comes up) "Wait.  What did you learn in Children's?"
Her: "Herod is going to kill all of the babies."  Very cheerfully.   "Then we sang Alleluia!"
Well, now she is getting more of the story.  She was enthralled yesterday by the picture of Jesus chasing the money changers out of the temple.  The illustration (in, may I remind you, THE CHILDRENS BIBLE) has a furious Jesus whipping people as they fall over each other trying to flee him.  Not quite the image of a gentle, loving, forgiving deity that I have been trying to perpetuate.
I am (obviously) having a few doubts about our Bible readings at age 4.  But Mariel loves it.  On days when I forget she reminds me.  She is captivated by the stories, asks lots of questions, and seems to spend lots of time processing whatever we have been reading about.  I am far more squeamish about it than she is.  And so we go on.  I am already nervous about getting to Easter time.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Many apologies for the lack of photos from Christmas.  I have been checking in to the blogger website periodically and there are problems with the photo uploading application again.  Maybe I just have bad timing.  I supposed that if this is the thing that is bothering me, I have a pretty nice life.
So, without pictures, the highlights of the holidays: 
Snow! 
Santa brought bagels!
and a scooter! 
Both sets of parents visited, resulting in very spoiled children!
WAY too much food eaten!
But wait- I am supposed to gain weight!  Best Christmas week ever!
And we found out that the baby is going to be (or I guess already is) a BOY.  Oh, my!