Springtime

Hi Fam,

A little update from this side of the country:

Springtime is coming to Pittsburgh and it's lovely. The weather is 60 degrees, with a cool cloud-cover; birds are chirping and we no longer need our down coats! It may all change tomorrow, but I think that winter is on its way out.

I've found a permanent job! The temporary placement I'm at now will turn into full time within two months, and I've decided to keep it. I'm working for a relocation company as the admin assistant for a woman who runs the company out of her home. I was offered a job elsewhere last Friday, and when I mentioned that, she negotiated to match their offer; D and I prayed about it and ran the numbers and we think it's the best choice. She lives just 5 minutes from us, and only requires 30 hours a week. I'm so glad to be done searching, and so thankful that the Lord provided something stress-free, nearby and for just a few hours a day! With the extra time I hope to work for a local church, helping to plan one of their summer events.

David is working crazy-busy hours (10-12 a day), trying to write all of the papers and presentations before the semester ends in four weeks. Please pray for him. If you want to pray specifically, he has an hour-long presentation on Wednesday for one of his graduate seminar classes.

We had a GREAT time w/ Josh, Emily and Benjamin; they are such fun and easy-going guests. :)

love to all--

Lynn

Day 4: Ready to Rumble

Day 3: Is He a Stegosaurus?

Day 2: He emerges

Pittsburgh

We have returned from our whirl-wind invasion of the newly-weds nest. I must confess on the front end that we have very few pictures of David, Lynn, or their sweet little place. I have gotten very undisciplined in my picture-taking and most of my shots are of Benjamin in various locations.

On Thursday and Friday, David and Lynn had work/school commitments for parts of each day, so we took the opportunity to have a little family time. On Thursday we took B to the Pittsburgh Children's Museum. It just happened to be the 80th birthday celebration of Mr. Roger's (Mr. Roger's Neighborhood was filmed in Pittsburgh), so the admission was free and they had a big display and free cupcakes for the kids. On Friday, as a birthday present, we took B to the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium. Here's a picture of him from the sting ray tunnel--you can crawl through it as if you're swimming with the sting rays. B pretty much had this expression on his face at every exhibit. He loved it!

We had a birthday party with David and Lynn Friday night. At B's request, Lynn made pasta with broccoli and cheese. She also got me all the ingredients to make a "blue cake with a rocket ship on it" including the #3 birthday candle. David made the rocket ship in the prop shop. It was quite spectacular and B was thrilled.

(video missing)

Here's another video of him a few minutes later singing an excerpt from his favorite show, The Little Einstein's. He always requests this song during circle time at the Lamars' and also at bedtime.

(video missing)

A few more random shots. Here, reading a story book before bedtime with Uncle D.

Finally, our key to travel success: Oh, how we used to scoff at those parents whose children would be watching movies or playing games while the parents carried on a normal adult conversation. How could they just plug their children in like that?! Disgusting! Well... now that we have a 3 year old, we've discovered--we are THOSE parents. This technique proves especially useful during long airport layovers, when you've exhausted food, watching the airplanes and playing with all your toys and books and your only alternative is to run screaming in circles while your 8-months pregnant mother tries to keep you from clocking people with your rocket ship. Despise us if you will, but we had an uninterrupted 30 minutes of quiet conversation in the middle of the Washington Dulles airport!

He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

Keri and I have been comparing notes all week about how to celebrate Easter this year, as we're aware that now is when traditions need to begin, now is when our 3 yr.-olds will start to remember from year to year.

I feel really pleased with how things turned out. Here's what M & I decided to do: I baked a hill/tomb to demonstrate Jesus' death and resurrection, and we did readings all week in preparation (got the recipe and idea from Noel Piper's Treasuring God in Our Traditions). And we started the Lamb Cake tradition for real this year. I've done it intermittently before now. And an Easter basket, of course.

I can't wait for you to see what Cody and Keri have pulled off! I know I'm pressuring you to post, but I just love the symbolism in your home and want the world to see! (since the entire world checks this blog)

Here's our tired crew after church:
See the green present in the Easter basket in the above picture? That's from my parents, and contained a dinosoar egg that sits in water for two days while it hatches. I'll post the hatched toy when he comes!
J & E, I imagine your Easter prep/celebrations were minimal due to your travels, but if you have pictures of today, and birthday party, and trip, and. . . and. . .and. . .
He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

Good Friday Meditation

Jesus, So Lowly

Jesus, so lowly, child of the earth:
Christen me wholly, bring me new birth.

Jesus, so lonely, weary and sad;
Teach me that only love maketh glad.

Jesus so broken, silent and pale;
Be this the token love will not fail.

Jesus, victorious, mighty and free;
Teach me how glorious death is to be.

(Edith Williams)

P.S.

Happy birthday, Ben-jammin'!

I'm on the blog...

...and my fingers have never felt so powerful! Look out, blogosphere, here I come...muahahahahaha! (That's my evil laugh, in case you didn't know.)

Welcome to Cuz Sus and Happy Birthday to Benjamin!

In this Benjamin's Birthday and Good Friday edition of the Wrightfield blog we welcome a new member to our editorial staff: the enthusiastically ready-to-rouse Susannah J. Wright.
Welcome, Susannah!

Walking Wright Boys

Oh, and by the way, Harry can, in fact, walk now. I failed to announce it on this blog, as I was reminded by at least four people on our travels to Hot Springs last week. Typical response when I put him down in front of friend or family (most recently by Laurel Monday night), "What?! You didn't tell me he was walking! You were supposed to announce it on the blog!"

And of course you know I love the tables being turned, me being scolded about updating the blog.

Harry's crawl-to-walk was so gradual, a few more steps each day, and just now, at 16 months, he's walking all the time. Demonstrating his walking prowess late February, when he was still mainly crawling:
(missing video)
And because I can't resist, here's Jackson's first steps. One day he was crawling everywhere, & then on the day he turned 15 mo. he decided he could do it and walked all the time from then on. I guess I expected Harry to do the same thing, so I was waiting for a clear-cut "oh, now he's walking" point and it never happened. A few explanations of this video - Laurel had just come over for dinner a few minutes after he walked on his own, so this is his second run for the camera. The strange background music is "O Brother Where Art Thou".
(missing video)

Less Harry than before?

The finished product; Harry's first haircut:

"A More Perfect Union"

There was much talk of politics this past week among those of us who were in Hot Springs together. I'd love to hear everyone's comments on Obama's speech. It's about nine pages, but worth the time, I thought. I was very impressed with his rhetoric, and apparently, he's getting good reviews so far, but what about the content? What do y'all think? Comments? Critique?

He passed! Thanks for your prayers!

Matthew's proposal defense this week

On Wednesday at 3:30 Matthew will defend his dissertation proposal. Please pray that he'll be healthy, well-rested, confident, and that there'd be no glitches. We don't expect there to be, but of course we're not taking anything for granted.

I asked him if I could post a brief summary of his proposal, which he wrote for his advisor, J. Budziszewski, as an exercise in concise-ness. It's a general statement & justification for his project without going into detail. And that's what I think a lot of people want to know about what Matthew is doing - more detail without too much detail. :) So here you go!

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What question will this dissertation answer?
(1) Is a society's political common good a constituent of full human flourishing—not merely a means to this end?

Why is the answer to this question important?
(2) The answer to this question will make a substantive contribution to the ongoing reconsideration and critique of the Enlightenment’s comprehensive elevation of individual autonomy over against the claims various human communities make to moral, religious, or political primacy. The following concerns are among those directly implicated by this project: (a) the degree of responsibility the state takes for the moral development of its citizens if the political common good is conceived of as being, to some degree, a substantive partnership in virtue, (b) the relative legitimacy of a monolithic, bureaucratized state (which tends to preclude the possibility of such civic partnership), and perhaps most importantly, (c) a heightened stewardship of political life incumbent at all levels of society when politics is understood as integral to the goods pursued in subpolitical contexts.

How will I go about finding the answer to this question?
(3) I will pursue the answer to this question by exploring the various aspects of the good of human sociability as realized in the diverse forms of human association, asking the following: (a) What can we learn about the character of human sociability from all forms of subpolitical association, and what does that tell us about the nature of the good to which political society must be directed? (b) Does the political common good provide a goodness different in kind from those of subpolitical associations or is its goodness limited to the aggregation of subpolitical goods? (c) If the political common good is distinctive, is it something rationally worthy of pursuit for its own sake, based on its ability to cultivate the natural goodness of human sociability in either a unique way or one richer than other kinds of human association? (4) Success will be attained when a convincing account of human sociability is given, and the importance of the political common good relative to friendship, family, and all other forms of subpolitical association is explicated.

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Sarah's 60th Birthday: Part 1

Sarah began her special day with a hike at Lake Catherine State Park. She took this picture of us at the trail head. The weather was very mild, so it was a great day for a hike. Afterwards, we went to Backyard Burger for milkshakes and picked up Meme on the way back home.

Then our evening meal extravaganza began:

Antipasto

Whole clove garlic bread, parmesano reggiano and blue cheese-stuffed olives.

Primo


Escarole and white bean soup

Entree


Classic Italian Lasagna and Italian baby greens with granny smith apples, toasted walnuts and a shallot vinagrette. (The guest of honor with special guest, Meme.)

Dessert

Brown sugar glazed pears and blueberries with vanilla ice cream.


Sarah is going to freeze the rest of the lasagna so that everyone can try it in a couple weeks. Wish that we weren't missing everyone else, but we'll be waiting for pictures from the celebration part 2!

Cowboy Casey Jones

Today was the "Cowboy Breakfast" at Brakenridge Apartments. Every now and again the Austin aristocracy apparently likes to amuse itself by watching the peasants at play of a Saturday morning. So we get a pancake breakfast, complete with raffle drawings, pony rides, country gospel music, and a Best Dressed Cowboy and Cowgirl Competition (with fabulous prizes). Since we've all been under the weather, Ruthie didn't have a chance to put a great costume together for Jackson, but she was still just about to make him a pair of chaps out of brown paper bags when I stopped her. We both knew that he didn't really have a shot at the prize, given that he didn't even have a cowboy hat, and brown paper chaps where going to take an hour to make and 30 seconds to rip off. So we did the best we could, which as you can see above, was not much. In lieu of a cowboy hat, Jackson opted for a train conductor's cap. I asked him if he wanted to wear my field hat, which, though not a cowboy hat, was a lot closer. He said no, he'd just pretend that the cap was a cowboy hat. (So now we're not dressing up to pretend that we're cowboys; we're pretending to dress up as cowboys.) He didn't even have a clean pair of blue jeans, so he had to wear shorts with his cowboy boots! At any rate, we had a fun time shuffling around as semi-invalids, and to our amazement, JRW won the Best Dressed Cowboy Competition! There were kids there in leather chaps, cowboy hats, boots, six shooters, vests, etc. We're not exactly sure how he won, but it's amazing how you get this sense of pride and satisfaction over these little triumphs. My boy was Best Dressed Cowboy! And another cause for some satisfaction: The general consensus was that it must have been the stick horse that put him over the top (aside from being very cute, that was all he had going for him). Guess who got him that stick horse for his birthday a couple of months ago? So our birthday present won him this additional fabulous prize--a Hot Wheels Stunt Car set! Wow, what a great day.

3 score and 0 years ago...

our forebears brought forth upon this continent, a new lady, conceived in Arkansas (?), and dedicated to the proposition that not all grades of honey are created equal.

Happy Birthday Mom! We love you.