It was a nice weekend. For starters I did not have to cut the grass. We unpacked more boxes. There are probably less than six boxes remaining in the garage. I put away the rest of our books. I hung up plate racks. Michelle hung up lots of pictures and knickknacks. It's starting to feel like home... except for the huge pile of empty boxes in the formal dining room. Claire decided (and we agreed) that the living room should be called the library. It has book shelves, a computer, desks, and a couch for reading. One has to wonder how much study could actually occur in our library with the twin boys roaming around.
We did some media rearrangement this weekend. We've had a Cambridge SoundWorks (CSW) 88CD radio/CD player for over a year. Most of the time it sat over the computer desk. It often got it's sound from the computer. We moved that unit into the kitchen so that Michelle could listen to music there. We then went to Cambridge Soundworks and picked up two different speaker systems. For the computer we picked up a decent set of their amplified speakers. For the family room we picked up one of their home theater receiver/speaker setups (aka a 5.1 setup). All in all, we didn't pick up anything too fancy but better than anything from K-Mart or Radio Shack. While CSW has some really nice stuff available, I didn't want to pick up anything I'd be worried about the kids ruining. After all do you really want to have a $1000 set of speakers with five kids running around the house?
We took the kids out to eat a few times this weekend. It can be a bit of a handful but doable if you a) strap the boys into highchairs and b) get them something to eat ASAP. We took them to Blakes Ice Cream Restaurant on Saturday evening, Brugers Bagels Sunday morning, and Kellys Restaurant in Milford. Kellys was a bit new to us. When we got home last night Claire, Abby, and I watched Snow Dogs. It was a bit hokey, but it's a Disney kids movie. What was I expecting?
Michelle went out last night for a “mommy's night out” with some girlfriends. I got the boys to bed, cleaned up the toys with the girls, put the girls to bed, and cleaned up the kitchen. Tonight Claire and I watched Harry Potter on DVD. I should say that Claire watched most of the simple stuff. It was getting late and I got her to bed before it started getting what might be a bit too scary for a her. I was concerned that the scenes involving protecting the sorcerer's stone might be too much.
I was reading the commentaries on last Sunday's gospel reading. I was interested to learn that the parable about the wheat being ruined by weeds planted by the enemy was often interpreted by early Church fathers to refer to the affects of corrupting false doctrine. It turns out that the weed referred to in this parable was a kind known to the peasant farmers of the time as cockle weed, or darnel. It is nearly indistinguishable from real wheat until near harvest. The grains from cockle weed are toxic to humans and can cause light-headedness, severe nausea, or even death. It was punishable under Roman law to sell wheat corrupted with cockle grain. Many peasants feared a cockle weed plague because it often meant the ruin of their crops. The seed from cockle weed was sometimes sown against an enemy as a source of revenge. With that understanding it's easier to see why the parable was often thought analogous to the effects of corrupting doctrine. It is said that the devil likes to use partial truth. The affects of the deceptive aspects of false doctrine aren't fully realized until the end. Interesting insight. Like many of the parables, context helps one to more fully realize the deeper meaning.