Providentially, my jury duty today coincided with a special event. I strolled out of the City-County Building and saw this:

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Today, a Pittsburgh legend passed. Myron Cope was a Pittsburgher who was not afraid to be himself, had a terrific work ethic, and buoyed the city’s spirit with humor and generosity.

When I was a girl, I must admit, Myron’s voice grated on me. I wondered how anyone could tolerate his scratchy whine for more than 10 minutes. Yet there he was, commentating my championship Steelers’ games. There was no avoiding him. Somewhere, somehow, that voice became a familiar friend, a welcome tune, a smile. Years later, living in Cleveland, a snippet of his voice rendered me all syruppy and sentimental for my hometown.

Some people don’t know that, even though he invented the Terrible Towel, he gave the rights to the Allegheny Valley School in 1996, where his son, who is severely disabled, has received treatment and nurturing. To date, according to Wikipedia, the AV school has received over a million dollars from the proceeds of that towel.

The towel started in 1975 when Myron asked fans to bring a gold dish towel to wave during the Steeler game against the Baltimore Colts. “Everyone has a towel,” Myron said.

When the Steelers won that game, the towels caught on and official ones were made for Super Bowl X.

Myron was the one who coined the phrase, “Immaculate Reception.” Here is one of his later videos:

Yoi and Double Yoi!

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Larry, you gave me choices in music when I was beginning to think I had none. You changed the music world for me and my kids. I am glad that you are with the Author of all true art. We will miss you on this planet, though.
(I posted a recent and sweet acoustic blues set with Larry on my Facebook.)
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I cannot comprehend how K can be so lovely when she is so ill. She has been wasting away on the couch since Thursday night, battling high fevers undaunted by pain relievers.

Children’s ER ruled out strep and pneumonia yesterday. I waived the influenza test since the doc said she wouldn’t prescribe anit-virals for a teen. Man, I hated hauling the weak girl out in the icy world to sit for hours amongst the other hacking, whining, miserable humans, but the need to know she wasn’t on the brink of complicated complications and the urging of her PCP propelled us out of our warm home.

But back to her beauty: K’s eyes appear bluer and bigger when they are glassy with high temperatures, offset by her russet hair and fevered cheeks and lips. The beauty can’t talk because of laryngitis and a raw throat, so every so often her pale hands flail in “sign” language. She flails so gracefully.

Remarkably, the signs for “I need more blue Gatorade” are the same for “Is it time for more ibuprofen?” and “Maisie, get away from my Sucrets!”

In the middle of the night, the sign language is ineffective so she calls me on my cell. She doesn’t talk, just rings. Hey, it works. When we were sick like that, my mom gave us a big, honkin bell to ring. (Honkin bell: Is that like a ringing horn:?) Sorry.

In lieu of church (we decided we were an unclean household), we all listened to a compelling message from Ted Donnelly of Ireland. It is the first message of several in a youth conference series, and I would like to hear the rest. His sermon, “The Message of the Cross,” can be found on ReformedVoice.com. Donnelly is human and plain in his preaching, and yet profoundly Christ-centric and informative.

Donnelly

Right now the ailing princess is coughing like a lawn mower. God bless her.

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Right now I have over 30 high schoolers in my WriteAtHome work. Most of them exhibit an admirable work ethic and a solid education. They make me very hopeful for the next crop of homeschooled students that will be let loose in the world.

I’ve been doing this for a few years now, and always have a few laugh-out-loud moments each month. Here are a few of their typos from this year so far:

•     “James Bond likes his matinees shaken not stirred.”

•     On the last page of that research paper:  “Works Sited”

•     “Churchill seemed to care not for the system that tortured and suppressed millions of pheasants….”

•     “When he regains conscience.”

Nope, spell checkers don’t work if the WRONG word is spelled right.

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photo by Katherine
For my birthday, I not only had a long call from T, I also opened my door to find these blooms the next day. Delivered in an apple green box, they came as budded stems and looked like this two days later. I almost threw away the vase (something was clunking around in the box when I threw it in the trash). Blue makes me happy.

Having a Sabbath birthday was quiet and precious. I napped in the afternoon and D invited Mom and Dad over after evening service for a cooperative meal, into which I had no input. Everything was yum, including ham barbecue, and it was apparent that a Coldstone Creamery ice cream cake had been hiding on the frozen premises since the day before. It had layers of coffee ice cream hammered with chocolate chips and layered with dark chocolate cake and smothered in truffle icing. Coffee ice cream cakes make me happy.

People were very thoughtful. I got a brown, v-neck tee with sparkles and scrawled French script (“La Liberte, La Paix, L’Amour”), dangly blue-green and silver earrings, a navy tote, money, cards, cocoa butter with pineapple extract. Thoughtfulness makes me happy.

Family makes me happy.

Happiness is 46.

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L and the band performed with energy and finesse when they warmed up for The Show yesterday. I was proud of my boy.

For more pix: http://www.myspace.com/wearenotrebels.

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This morning Pastor Bruce preached on “Praying about Your Work.” I can’t help but share… He is preaching on John 17 for the next few weeks, but this sermon focused on Jesus praying about his work: “Glorify Me that I might glorify You.” What does that glorification look like? It begins with Jesus’ work on the cross, a messy, painful business.

This prayer of Jesus in John 17 is a model for our prayer about our work. (Pastor Bruce points out that even though it is recorded that Jesus prayed 19 times in the gospels, this is one of the few times that we know what he said. He wanted us to know how He prayed.)

Here are Pastor Bruce’s three points about work:

1–Gen. 2:15:  The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

The Hebrew has the idea of man “serving” the garden. That is how we are to view our jobs. We are to serve the creation, whatever we do.

2–Zech. 14:20-21:  On that day HOLY TO THE LORD will be inscribed on the bells of the
horses, and the cooking pots in the LORD’s house will be like the
sacred bowls in front of the altar.  Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the LORD Almighty…

Inscription on the bells of horses? Is that like bumper stickers? LOL  Pastor Bruce encouraged us to put stickies on our desk chairs, computers, thermometers, tools, dish tubs, trucks, text books, brooms (and even children) saying, “Holy to the Lord.” Everything we use in our work is set aside for the Lord’s purposes. Every person in our family is to be dedicated to the Lord. Of course, some kids in the service took out pens to try to write on their foreheads… At least they were listening.

3–1 Cor. 15:  Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

When we do our work for the Lord, our toil is purposeful. I would guess this applies to cleaning my bathroom. That helps, since I have to do it OVER and OVER again.

The upshot is: No matter what work we do in our daily living, we can do it with holiness and meaningfulness. You do not have to be a cleric to do holy work. Simple, yet profound.

Pray that my work and yours will glorify Him. All of life redeemed. Yes.

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People have been asking me about my coupon shopping. I have had less brain space for it now that my WriteAtHome.com students are back in full force for the 2nd semester, but it is still happening.

As a report of my strategies and results, here is a targeted shop that I did at CVS today:

I bought stuff that was on sale AND that would either work with a coupon or qualify for Extra Care Bucks back (virtual money that you can spend on your next shop). The items in my cart included multiples of Puffs Plus tissues, assorted liters and a case of Pepsi (especially for band practice), Lipton tea bags, Skippy peanut butters, jars of Ragu,  Lays chips,  3 32-oz Gatorades (for basketball practice), a personal item or two, Arm&Hammer toothpastes, and 2 packages of Garnier-Nutrisse facial cleansers (a splurge).

Besides my manufacturer’s coupons, I had $5 in Extra Care Bucks from my last shop and a $10 off a $50 CVS purchase coupon (from the couponmom.com website.)

From what I can figure, my bill should have been over $70, but, with sales, coupons, and discounts, I rang up at $32.22. Then, the register printed out $14.29 in Extra Care Bucks, which I can spend like cash on anything I want when I go to CVS next.

So, that means that for $32, I bought $70 worth of groceries plus $14 in virtual cash. That’s good, eh?

Most of it is stuff that I need; all of it is stuff that I’ll use, and a better quality than when I do my discount Aldi grocery shops.

Three things I’ve learned about coupons that I did not know before:

1 ** If you buy two Sunday newspapers with the coupon inserts, then you will have two coupons for any store’s buy-one-get-one-free offer. Yes, you can use the second coupon on the FREE item!

2 **You can combine in-ad coupons (from Walgreen’s, for instance) with manufacturer’s coupons on one item. I thought this was a no-no for the last 45 years. Surprise.

3 ** Rite Aid now has online rebates. No circling or even claiming certain offers. You enter the transaction number from your receipt and it automatically knows how much money you should get back. This saves SO much time (and a stamp).

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This is a video of kids (who I thought I knew, but I don’t…ha) that has been on YouTube since May and has over 4 million hits! There is even a “remix” video of two adult guys reenacting the situation. (Too weird.) Anyway, enjoy! It reminds me of the days of having two little boys in my living room. The forgiveness is sweet; the oblivious laugh is hysterical.
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