Grandma's Birthday

Here's a few photos from our coffee/tea time for Grandma Lanting's birthday.

LLBC

Our third annual Lanting Ladies Book Club over President's Day weekend took place in Shipshewana for an overnight event. We discussed Journey of A Thousand Miles, which is an autobiography by the Chinese pianist Lang Lang. Our discussion was very lively and interesting, and we also had time for lots of shopping, eating and catching up. Here's a photo of most but not all of our group.

Warm day at the park

We took advantage of a day in the 60's this week to go for a walk to the park. Douwe got new corrective shoes this week, and is starting to wear 18 month clothes, so he looks so much older and taller in these pictures!

Weekend in GR

We had a fun weekend involving a "house exchange" with our friends Dan and Amy who live in Grand Rapids. Douwe and I went to Michigan on Thursday and Jeff took the Amtrak after work on Friday. We had a nice time enjoying our beautiful accomodations, visiting some friends and relatives, and eating tasty lunches at Marie Katrib's and the Green Well. Douwe's favorite activity was the Children's Museum, because so many activities involved balls. He is no longer allowed to handle golf balls in our house because clock faces and tv screens are now endangered. So when he found golf balls at this museum, he was hoping to carry one in each hand for the rest of the vist. Dan and Amy returned to GR on Sunday before we went back to Chicago so we could share a meal and let the kids have some time to play and get more acquainted.

Citizen Ruth

I have been thinking a lot about a movie I watched a few weeks ago called Citizen Ruth. It is a self-labeled "pro-laugh comedy" from the mid 1990's, with exaggerated stereotypes of certain groups of people that were very humorous. Ruth is the main character and is an indigent woman who is addicted to inhalants and also pregnant. She has had her other four children removed from her care because she is unable to care for them. Many people interact with her and tell her they love her and they will help her, but there seems to be no authentic love extended to this woman. I felt sad after I saw the movie and I have been wondering, What would authentic love look like? If the State response, the religious response and the secular response to her dead-end situation are all lacking real helpfulness, who could help and heal a situation like this?

After I have been re-reading some Karl Barth commenting on Romans 1 and 2 this past weekend, I still don't have an answer but I feel better about Ruth's situation. Love will respond to Ruth and heal her because she did the only really right thing of any character in that movie: She curled up on the floor and cried, "Help me God, Help me God." She was much closer than any of her so-called helpers to the salvation they thought they were offering her.

Cousins

Whether it is sledding or swimming, Douwe enjoys time with his cousins

Wedding In Milwaukee

We celebrated the wedding of Jeff's brother Mike to Jackie Lalley in Milwaukee on the 3rd day of 2009. Here's a few pictures of some of the family members.