Happy Birthday to the youngest son!

Last week’s WOW (Word of the Week) was anastrophe. We had a couple of guesses for this one. Merriam-Webster Online says that anastrophe means: inversion of the usual syntactical order of words for rhetorical effect. The daughter hit this nail on the head, giving the example of Star Wars’ Yoda, who is rather fond of anastrophe. Wise, you are, Daughter! So wise that she even trumped her granddad’s guess (although he took a great stab at it).

This week’s WOW is Beltane and yes, it’s capitalized. Here are my definition guesses for Beltane:

Beltane (ˈbel-tān) 1. A big horse with high “octane” 2. the offspring of a Belgian and a Dane 3. arcane belts

What’s your guess for Beltane? Can you outdo the relatives? Give it a shot by posting a guess in the comments section below this post! Thanks!

Wednesday’s Post: The Log Blog continues! 

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You’d think that a Christian, who also holds a bachelor’s and master’s in psychology would have thought of this: apply Myers-Briggs typology to church ministry. But nope, I’m not that bright!

For those unfamiliar with the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI), it is widely-used to place people into one of 16 different personality types based on four different aspects of behavior. As with most such tests, each personality type has a particular set of likes and dislikes.

Hirsh and Kise (the authors of SoulTypes) take it a step further and list how each personality type would prefer to deepen their faith. For some it’s doing outreach or mission work. For others it’s practicing religious rituals from the Christian faith tradition. For still others it could be innovative ways of learning about God.

If you’ve ever wondered why the things that “trip your trigger” religiously don’t seem to interest your fellow parishioners and church members, here’s the answer: They don’t have the same personality type as you! I think this answers the question as to why some of us are Methodists; some are Catholics and some are Assembly of God. We all find meaning in certain traditions, innovations and service characteristic of these denominations.

However, we should remember that not everyone in our churches neatly fits into the denomination’s normal practices and we should try to have a wide variety of opportunities for people to find that meaning for themselves. While this is a huge programming challenge, particularly for small churches, it would probably attract more people into our sanctuaries who have traditionally been irritated by some of our insistence on doing things a certain way.

I felt that Hirsh and Kise made this book more complicated than it had to be and that much of it was very formulaic and repetitive writing (probably because my personality type likes innovation!), but the information is valuable in thinking through how one can effectively minister to a wide variety of personality types.

Back deck with side porches for two bedrooms…

The rain has stopped in East Texas, but the humidity is here with ridiculous intensity. When traveling back and forth between Central Texas and the Reserve, there has to be at least a 30% difference in humidity and not in a good way!

Our building crew is from Kentucky and Ohio and this heat/humidity combo are making it quite difficult for them to work without “wilting.” They have smartly decided to begin work at 6 am; stop about 11 am to noon and return to work when the temps begin to drop.

Interior wall studs and vaulted areas being built…

But even with an odd work schedule, they are making incredible progress. The decks for all of the porches are complete and the vaulted wall areas are nearly complete. Interior walls are being framed. A few rafters are installed. Thus, we are getting excited about all we are seeing.

We have made a decision about the stone for our fireplaces and for the exterior of the crawl space foundation.

Did you miss your WOW (Word of the Week) post yesterday? Yeah, me too. I’ll explain that later. But let’s get to why you’re reading this in the first place.

Last week’s WOW was ablution. Merriam-Webster Online says that ablution is the act of washing yourself. The father-in-law scores another WOW point (It’s starting to get pretty routine, isn’t it?!) because he defined it as washing away, usually ceremonial.

This week’s WOW is anastrophe. Here are my guesses for anastrophe:

anastrophe (ə-ˈnas-trə-fē) 1. an impolite apostrophe 2. Anastasia’s catastrophe 3. Anna’s trophy 4. You don’t want to know what else is running through my mind on this one.

Submit your guess in a comment below.  I think the father-in-law needs some competition. 😉

Wednesday’s Post: Decked out…

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My ears are, as the humans say, a “mixed bag.” On the one side they get lots of petting. The mom person says that I have the softest ears of any dog she has ever known. (Like she knows so many!) There’s this person that looks kinda like the mom person, but she is doesn’t have as many creases in her face and she’s owned by the big black dog that goes with me to that place with all the trees I like to sniff.

Even that person says I have really soft ears, too. So, if I really want to love on my people, I put my ears closest to them, knowing they will eventually succumb to their softness. If they don’t get the message, I nudge those ears closer to their hands. I also do this if they stop succumbing to them. Sometimes I get in trouble for this if I do it for too long.

That doesn’t stop me. I just move on to the next human. Sooner or later they all pet the ears.

Lakeside view of Solitude this morning…

As a blogger I do not spend inordinate amounts of time promoting my blog on social media. There are several reasons for this: A) I do have a life! If I actively worked all the major “avenues” of social media, I would never make any progress in the other “arenas” of my life. B) Some sites require a master’s in computer science in order to post links. C) Some claim they have major followings and then really don’t. D) Some are photo-based and as you have probably noticed, I’m not a great photographer. (I do have future plans for working around this, though!)

However, there would be no MaryAnn In Progress if it were not for Facebook. I began writing “Notes” on Facebook nearly 10 years ago “just for grins” and the response was surprising to me. Several faithful “followers” suggested that I needed to write a book and the DSL finally suggested that I “own” my writing. Hence, a blog was born!

Good morning, Word Nerds! Did you have a restful weekend? Good! That makes one of us. See my post this coming Wednesday for why. 

Last week’s WOW (Word of the Week) was vox populi. Okay, so it’s two words. Merriam-Webster’s definition of vox populi is: popular sentiment. There was actually a little bit of debate about this within the family and I think the highly knowledgeable father-in-law won the debate! Hint, Hint: I’d love even more debate for WOW, so argue away, as far as I’m concerned!

This week’s WOW is ablution. This word sounds so familiar to me, but I sure am not coming up with the definition! Can I chalk this up to Pre-heimers??? Here are my guesses for ablution:

ablution: (ə-ˈblü-shən) 1. abdomen pollution 2. an absolute solution 3. able dilution

What’s your guess for ablution? Submit a guess below this post! And debate away, gang!

Wednesday’s Post: Pictures and Tales from the Log-Raising!

You Might Also Like: Word of the Week: vox populi and Word of the Week: pandiculation

When I was a pup, I lived with my mom and dad and a brother and sister. My sister was rather pathetic; she always brought up the rear whenever our people called us. We lived in this place called the garage. We weren’t the only four-legged animals there–there were these furry little critters who make these weird noises. They are not like us canines.

They have retractable claws, kinda like Hugh Jackman. (Yes, I know who Hugh Jackman is–I live with the mom person, remember? She’s rather fond of Hugh.) Those retractable claws look harmless, but take one of their toys and let me tell you, you’ll never do that again!

The good news is that they have an early detection system for those claws coming out. They make a sound kinda like a snake and not in a good way. They bare those really pointy teeth that are just about as dangerous as those retractable claws while making the snake sound. So, I learned to get behind Mom and Dad whenever they were making those sounds.

Sub-floor being installed

You are STILL invited! The log-raising originally scheduled for Saturday, June 4th has been rescheduled for this coming Saturday, June 11th from 10 am to 2 pm. The event is totally free, including a light lunch around noon. Please send me an email here if you are planning on attending so that I can give you the code for the Reserve electronic gate. Also, please tell me how many will be in your party so we can plan enough food. 

If planning to spend the night in the area, we recommend the Palestine LaQuinta or Holiday Inn Express. Athens, Corsicana and Tyler are also within range of the Reserve, so you may prefer to make reservations in a nearby town if you’re looking to make some progress towards home after the log-raising. 

Please bring the following with you:

• portable lawn chairs
• sun protection (sunscreen & hats strongly recommended)
• bug repellent
• comfortable, casual attire

Good morning, Word Nerds! Last week’s WOW was pandiculation. The Merriam-Webster definition for pandiculation is: a stretching and stiffening especially of the trunk and extremities (as…after waking from sleep). This definition came from my bestest buddy:

“A panda verbalizing. Panda- from the Latin Pandus as in spreading round in a wide curved arch (I believe that Pandas were originally named this because of their wide, curved bottoms) iculation-from the Latin Locutiounis as in style of speaking. Thus the inferred meaning: Pandas have wide bottoms that make noise”

Now you know why she’s my bestest buddy. If you think this is amusing, go to a Star Wars movie with her. I’m amazed we didn’t get kicked out of theaters for antics during the fight scenes.

Today’s WOW (Word of the Week) is vox populi. Today I feel like giving you an extra definition. Here are my definition guesses for it:

vox populi (ˈväks-ˈpä-pyü-ˌlī) 1. many voices 2. verbosity 3. deafening sound 4. the chaos resulting from my household feeding an entire sports team Wednesday night dinner