Expressive Much?

I'm glad I'm not the only one in the family whose face is an open book.

Easter at Grandma and Grandpa's

Crown him the Lord of life,

who triumphed o'er the grave,

and rose victorious in the strife

for those He came to save.

His glories now we sing,

who died, and rose on high,

who died eternal life to bring,

and lives that death may die.

April III

On the Thursday before Easter we went to a Seder at our church. It was facilitated by a local messianic Jewish congregation. They did some dancing as well. Willem watched them intently and then pointed his finger at one dancer with straight, shining hair and a particularly attractive smile.

"I like that one," he declared.

Lighting the candles.

The day before Easter, we participated in our church's egg hunt for the first time. We got there just before it started, and it was crazy to see the people streaming out of the surrounding neighborhoods as we drove up. There were 2000 eggs "hidden." Mostly just strewn on the lawn.

Willem got to cruise his way to double-digit eggs. Nels was the youngest in a category with far fewer eggs to find and tougher competition. He was disgruntled to end up with only four eggs. Willem shared. But we all know it's just not the same.

Afterwards we tried a fancy local pizza place for the first time. Nels is wearing a necklace with feet that he earned at school by running at recess. He added two pendants made of Lego for some additional bling.

I cannot resist a pizza with a big pile of arugula on top. (Spell check is telling me that arugula is not a word and suggests that I try jugular instead.)

We enjoyed our one day of outright sunshine. This is the time of year Shaun starts daydreaming about moving to Arizona.

FYI

Blogger is having some "issues." They took down all of yesterday's new posts (I had two) and are currently working on putting them back up.

In the meantime, have you heard of "logical punctuation"? (It's the British style.) I hadn't until I read this. I'm a fan.

UPDATE: Hooray! They're back!

April II

The Macks (Shaun's sister and her family) came out to stay with Shaun's folks the week before Easter. Unfortunately we only got to spend one day with them, but we made the most of it!

I can't believe that Heidi is about to turn two. The boys just love her.

Rock star with a turkey baster.

Lego.

Shaun and nephew Henry.

No, the boys were not allowed to shoot.

Not the little boys, anyway.

Willem playing in the sink with great-grandma Laurel. We all love spending time with her.

Blurry, but cute.

Alas, our spring bonanza of Mack visits has come to an end. They were taking advantage of some great plane fares and the fact that Heidi could still ride on a lap. We surely enjoyed it while it lasted.

April I

Playing on the newly-felled logs at Grandma and Grandpa's.

Helping dad wash the car.

Homemade fangs.

Faith and Culture Writer's Conference

I can't believe it's already been a month since I went to the Faith and Culture Writer's Conference at Western Seminary.

I've been wanting to get to a conference for a while now, but they are not cheap. This particular conference was a one day affair, and the rock-bottom price of $55 for the entire day (8-5) included breakfast, lunch, and unlimited snacks.

AND it was a Christian conference. I had no idea going into it if that was a good thing or a bad thing. It worried me that all of the agents and editors who would be there (not that I had any intention of meeting with an agent or an editor) worked in the Christian market. The Christian publishing world is indeed a world unto itself, and I will be honest here: I haven't read any Christian fiction since high school, when I was at camp at Mount Hermon and picked up a recommended Jeanette Oke book at their Christian (only) bookstore out of desperation.

However, when I saw that one of the keynote speakers was Gina Ochsner, Flannery O'Conner Award for Short Fiction and two-time Oregon Book Award winner, I took heart that the conference organizers were folks who were interested in both spiritual and literary integrity.

After the first keynote address (the other speaker was Paul Louis Metzger) I had to resist the urge to call Shaun at home and tell him how amazing the conference was. It's been so long since I went to a good talk that gave me so much to think about. I'd read Gina Ochsner's People I Wanted to Be: Stories in preparation for the conference, and really enjoyed it. By the end of her first keynote address, I totally understood the whole disciple thing: I was ready to follow her around and sit at her feet, hanging on every word.

The first workshop I went to was with Mike Thaler. (Please do check out the photo at the link. He was wearing the same happy shirt and bright tangerine-colored pants.) Mike writes for children, and has had a long and interesting career. Mike is in his 70's, grew up Jewish, and became a Christian ten years ago. Every time Mike discussed his faith and how it applied to his life and work, he was overcome with emotion and had to pause to collect himself. As a result, we didn't get through very much content, but his evident passion made it a more memorable session than it might have been otherwise. An added bonus: Gina Ochsner attended it as well.

I went to Gina's workshop on tips for generating story ideas when you're stuck, which couldn't have been a more apropos topic for me. Almost all of the examples she gave were from stories of hers that I'd read, which gave me a great peek behind the screen. It was amazing to see what she'd used and how she'd done it.

I also took the opportunity to go to a seminar from Matt Mikalatos, who is a friend of a friend, lives in the area, and has a blog that I enjoy. Matt wrote the book Imaginary Jesus (do not let the cover photo of the skeevy 80's youth pastor-looking imaginary Jesus put you off), which I also read ahead in advance of the conference. I am a total junkie when it comes to stories of "normal" people and their paths to publication, and his talk did not disappoint. It's not every day that a writer passes around a stack of rejection letters ranging from a form rejection addressed to the wrong person to a bitingly personal handwritten note. But Matt really did his own thing when it came to writing his book, and it was published! I find that inspiring.

One seminar I couldn't make it to was Brad Harper's "Why (Evangelical) Christians Do Bad Art." I heard it was good though, so I bought the recording of the session. Much of what he said I'd already concluded independently, but the talk was still worth a listen. Also he quoted his friend Dan Siedell, whose name I recognized from my friend Amanda. Here's a link to an abridged version of Dan Siedell's recent chapel talk at Biola, which was a good companion to what I'd heard at the conference.

By the end of the day I was wishing for more. Of course I didn't agree 100% with everything I heard (how dull that would be!) but the tone and level of the discussion left me invigorated rather than drained and discouraged. I'll be looking forward to next year's conference with cautious optimism; it's hard to imagine how they could top this year's. (Well, OK, axing the worship music would be my only suggestion.)

I came home that evening to a delicious home-cooked dinner, cooked by Ariana and provided by the Mullins family, who stayed the weekend with us while they were between homes. (And countries--read about it on Ariana's blog!)

It was a great day, and one that I hope stays with me for a good time to come.