The Durias Collection Meets The Brady Bunch

Makaena (10):  When were you born?
Mindy:  1976.
Makaena:  You were born in the seventies?  Have you heard of The Brady Bunch?

(Enter The Brady Bunch: Season One, Disc One via Netflix.)

Paige (6):  Can we watch Brady BUNCH?
Makaena:  It’s ˈBrā-dē Bunch.

Aidan (8):  I love the song.

Paige: Their skirts are so short.

Makaena (on Mrs. Brady’s nightgown):  That’s pretty.  And kinda weird.

Lost In Translation, Sort Of

Downstairs…

Ian:  Why don’t you go upstairs and keep your sister company?

Upstairs…

Joshua (almost four):  I’m here to make you comfy.

Sick Kid Goes Night-Night

Mindy, tucking a sick Joshua (almost four) into bed…

Joshua:  Maybe you shouldn’t kiss me.

Week 42: Mark

Mia:  In Mark 13:32-37 Jesus says no one knows when he will come back the second time, only the Father.  He explains it’s like a man that leaves his house and puts his servants in charge.  They each have different tasks to do.  He tells one servant to keep watch for him at the door.  I thought that was a great example of waiting for Jesus to come back.

Ian:  This verse is pretty exciting reading until it gets to the persecutions part.  But then I thought about what makes me more like Jesus.  Abundance?  Meh.  Persecutions?  I wish it weren’t so.

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life.  Mark 10:29-30.

Silent L

Ian:  Joshua, say Walter.
Joshua (almost four):  Water.
Ian:  No.  Say Wal.
Joshua:  Wal.
Ian:  Ter.
Joshua.  Ter.
Ian:  Walter.
Joshua:  Water.

And, with that, the Daily Durias goes on a week vacation.  Maybe more.  Grin.  But we’ll keep Twittering (see A Dose to your right, my left.)

Week 41: Matthew 15-28

Mia:  In Matthew 16:21 Jesus predicts his death and resurrection.  All it says is “he explained”.  He just calmly, explained he would die and then on the third day come to life.  He also told his disciples the same thing in Matthew 17:22-23, Matthew 20:17-19 and Matthew 26:2.  Then, when Judas came to betray Jesus in Mathew 26, Jesus said to his betrayer, “Friend, do what you came for.”  He completely fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:  he was led like lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

Ian:  The following two observations are really informing my reading of the Gospels.  Thanks, Matt.

1)  The primary effect of his healings was to include social outcasts into community. His healings restored outcasts to community.

(With his healings he did this by removing the obstacle that made them an outcast. By eating with outcasts he welcomed and accepted them just as they were. With the temple incident he critiqued a system/structure that excluded outcasts on the basis of their race.)
 
2)  Jesus touched those whom he healed. He was willing to get dirty and even become unclean by touching them.

Enter The Little Sister

Baby Emmeline “said” hi to Joshua and then proceeded to “punch” him in the nose.

Yes Shoe Can

22nd Annual Apple Tasting Event

More pictures here.

I Have A Passport

After 26 months, a few thousand dollars, an application, a government request for more evidence to prove who I am, a denied application, an appeal, a denied appeal…

…an invitation to appeal through the exact same process that ended with a denial (they even wanted me to resubmit the exact same form with the $700 processing fee, of course) a Senator who passed me off to a different Senator who was of no help, a case manager who, at least, was sweet…

…one federal office tells me that I am an American citizen while another federal office tells me that I am not an American citizen, two trips to the Federal building in Seattle and getting “helped” without an appointment then, on a third trip, the security guard wouldn’t let me in because an appointment was required…

…a, let’s just say, animated conversation with the (Filipino) passport agent once I did get in (pleads the fifth) who, in the time it took for her to tell me no, could have fulfilled my request, it being suggested that I may need to apply for U.S. citizenship thirty years after the fact…

…Mindy wondering if I married her just to become an American (grin)…

…worrying about meeting my job requirements of international travel, a missed trip to the Dominican Republic, Uganda, and probably others, and after one viewing of the film The Visitor (yikes!)…

I have a passport.

Exhales. Finally.

During this time, though, I’ve become acquainted with folks in similar but extreme situations–not seeing loved ones for years, losing jobs, not having a voice…  Having the diligence but not having the processing fee.  This helped me keep my perspective.  Thank God for my citizenship here and my citizenship there.

Time Of Your Life by Green Day plays…