Clytemnestra Would Not Approve

Got home Friday with the kids and while eating pizza for dinner we were in front of our laptop watching the DVD I'd gotten a GREAT deal on – it cost me less than a buck! – of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. My family loves this movie (sorry, the newer adaptation with Johnny top-billing-addicted Depp as Wonka does not do the story justice) and it's based on one of my favorite books, Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Each time I read or watch it I find something new … this time with the movie it was after Violet as a blueberry was rolled out by the Oompa-Loompas. Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka turns to the survivors of his factory tour and says deadpan, “Shall we roll on?”

And the last time I read the book – the first time it was read to me and my second grade class by our teacher Mrs. Stanmier, a chapter a day after lunch with our heads on our desks – I used the “aha!” moment in a devotion I wrote! It was the chapter set in the Wonka factory which began (and this scene doesn't appear in either film that I recall) with the Square Candies That Look Round. Veruca gets into an argument with Wonka about the candies NOT looking round for they look completely square and then when they enter the room where the candies are, the candies in some instinctive way look a-round to the entryway – so they really are Square Candies That Look [A]round!

Where was I?

 

 

 

Australia.

Jeffrey and I were reading the PEANUTS calendar I got for Christmas where he and Sarah take turns ripping the page of the day before and there's several holidays celebrated today in Australia (or they were yesterday; I still get confused about time zones and the International Date Line), or at least parts of it. It's Labour Day in Victoria, the southeastern state where Melbourne is; Canberra Day in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT; hey, I learned something new because I told Jeffrey I did not know what “ACT” meant) which is an enclave of New South Wales, north of the state of Victoria, where Sydney is; Eight Hours Day in Tasmania, the island off southeast Australia most of us think of,

 

 

and Commonwealth Day throughout Australia! And the United Kingdom, Canada, and one other that escapes me right now. Saturday the kids and I – remember, Martha works job number two at McDonald's on Saturday mornings, and I forgot to wake me and the kids up for Saturday morning's Breakfast with the Boys at church – went to Main Street Books for it's eighth anniversary celebration, complete with story time for the kids (which Sarah and Jeffrey sat still for, I was impressed) and carrot cake (which I grabbed two slices of as the others in my clan dislike the coconut that was within) and bookmark making (we made them for the fam)!

And I took up seven lines with that sentence as I type it here! Freaky … after church Sunday where morning worship was a fantastic blessing (and as I thought of it, a sermon on the passage of Satan tempting Jesus after His forty-day fast that made me think of the Borg), the sealing of the alleluias (for the season of Lent between Ash Wednesday and Easter, the hymns are less sprightly and the instruments for the children – sometimes I wish they would be for the adults too, but I digress – to play are put away), and Sunday school where we began our month-long rotation

 

 

 

on Jesus' Trial and Crucifixion went much better than I thought it would! I got asked to teach our Noah's Arkade class because I opted out of Parable Playhouse as I felt a puppet play would be insulting to the subject; essentially it became a Jeopardy! (do NOT forget that exclamation point!) match, four boys versus four girls, after we read the story from Luke 23. The girls won, ten to five. After church the four of us headed over to Our Savior's Lutheran Church for a pancake luncheon that was part of a benefit for a member with a rare cancer. Well attended, and I'm glad we went even if I hear about it from the holder of the family piggy bank … we need to be out more than we've been weekends.

I think if we had not been out we would not have gotten treated by Martha's sister Mary to the movies (our second one this weekend, remember?); she was working at Kmart and had already treated our niece Josceline and family friend Donovan and offered to treat us too to see Mr. Peabody and Sherman this opening weekend. We just had to check our local theater to see if the tickets were available, and they were – so that afternoon we laughed and we groaned (if you remember this as a segment of The Bullwinkle Show, you remember this is known for puns like “you can't have your cake and edict too”) and got home pretty filled up. And now cometh Monday … by the way, for today's title to make sense you will have to see the movie!

 

 

And the snow is melting, glory to God!

David