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Baron Cuvier and his Mother
Born August 23, 1769, Baron Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert Cuvier 
eventually grew to become one of the world’s foremost naturalists and zoologists.
Although at birth a sickly child who might not survive, Baron Cuvier thrived under his young mother’s care as she recognized his “uncommon powers of mind.” She taught him to read by the time he was four, and taught herself Latin so that she could instruct him. While he was at home, learning from his mother, he also displayed an early giftedness in drawing. Eventually he became well enough to attend school, where he continued his passion for great literature.
It was his father’s intention that Cuvier should enter the military; however, by the age of fourteen, Cuvier was already being recognized by those beyond his social circle as a formidable mind in the area of science. The Duke of Wirtemberg sent him to the University of Stuttgard free of charge after having heard of his abilities.
Upon his emergence from the University, he began research in the field of natural science and began lecturing. He was made a member of the French Institute in the year of its inception, 1795, and was made an officer in 1803.
It should be noted that while he was chancellor of the Imperial University (he was appointed by Napoleon), he also presided over the department of Protestant theology. He remained a Lutheran his entire life…the faith in which his mother had instructed him when he was a young child.
Despite his immersion in the field of science and his working relationships with noted evolutionists, Cuvier never ascribed to the theory. He was an outspoken critic of evolution and was so influential that the argument virtually died until the publication of Darwin’s Origin of the Species, two decades after Cuvier’s death.
I was reading through the lyrics of Overdressed this afternoon and came across this gem, inspired by Danielle Young’s experience as a mom of young kids…
I’d comment but I think that would be gilding the lily.
Sacred
Written by: Andrew Osenga and Randall Goodgame
Lyrics:
This house is a good mess it’s the proof of life
No way would I trade jobs but I don’t pay overtime
I’ll get to the laundry I don’t know when
I’m saying a prayer tonight cause tomorrow it starts again
Could it be that everything is sacred
And all this time
Everything I’ve dreamed of has been right before my eyes
The children are sleeping but they’re running through my mind
The sun makes them happy and the music makes them unwind
My cup runneth over, I worry about the stain
Teach me to run to you like they run to me for every little thing
Cause everything is sacred
And all this time
Everything I’ve dreamed of has been right before my eyes
When I forget to drink from you I can feel the banks harden
Lord make me like a stream to feed the garden
Wake up little sleeper
The Lord God Almighty
Made your mama keeper
So rise and shine, rise and shine, rise and shine
Cause everything is sacred
And all this time
Everything I’ve dreamed of has been right before my eyes
It’s nice when your favorite artists grow up along with you…
Caedmon’s Call’s latest album was released yesterday. David’s buddy Bryan is down in Houston liveblogging the release events.
For those of you who, like me, just couldn’t grasp the idea of Caedmon’s without a 5-foot-tall bald man onstage, the return of Derek to the band is a happy event!!
NPR sports commentator Frank Deford proposes “Taking the Foot out of Football.”
I made it to Trader Joe’s today. It was so nice to wander around the aisles, seeing familiar packages and products, like old friends waiting to greet me after a long absence. It also made me incredibly homesick for Southern California. 
It was crowded, but not unmanageable, when I was there. What made it a bit inconvenient was the number of people there who had not shopped at TJ’s before, and so they were reading every package, every shelf, and every sign. And I don’t begrudge them this…it takes some getting used to shopping there, because there are so many products unique to the chain. It’s not the typical shopping experience where you recognize that thing you always buy and mindlessly throw it in your cart. So read on, people, read on. Most likely it’ll be well worth your time. But could you please move your cart over while you do it? I’ve got four little kids here. Thanks.
The South Charlotte location is maybe the biggest TJ’s I have ever been in. The aisles are wide, the produce section is pretty roomy, and there’s a HUGE sampling area. I couldn’t believe the room I had, even with all those people. Another nice thing is that they have small, but normal-wheeled, shopping carts. I just never got used to those ones with the four moveable wheels. I was always out of control, chronically listing (and sometimes careening) sideways.
What did I buy? I got the usual staples, plus some extra treats just because we finally have TJ’s back in our lives again. Here’s a partial list of stuff I recommend:
- granny smith apple rings (dried fruit…kid-friendly and fibrous!)
- “this [fill in your fruit of choice] walks into a bar” fruit bars
- organic fruit wraps (these are always consumed on the way home…it’s tradition)
- mushroom tortellini
- avocados (four for just over $3.00, which — sadly — is a good price. Oh, for the days when we could call my pastor’s wife and “order” some free avocados from the tree in their backyard!)
- hawaiiian-style potato chips (David loves the BBQ ones.)
- two-buck Chuck (Charles Shaw wine. Cheap and good.)
- Joe’s Bay Blend coffee
- frozen par-boiled organic brown rice. This, pricewise, is a splurge for me. But it’s really nice to have on hand on evenings when I get home too late to cook rice (I always use brown, which takes about 50 minutes) for dinner. Three minutes in the microwave, and voila!!
There’s more, but you’ll have to come over and look in my pantry to get the whole list.
Thanks to my sister Tracy, I had twenty extra dollars to spend, because she sent me a giftcard for my birthday! 
This was a favorite of mine when attending the Shepherds’ Conference at Grace Community Church. There is no sound quite like the surge of thousands of men singing at the top of their lungs (accompanied by Clayton Erb’s unequaled enthusiasm in conducting):
Rise up, O men of God!
Have done with lesser things.
Give heart and mind and soul and strength
To serve the King of kings.
Rise up, O men of God!
The kingdom tarries long.
Bring in the day of brotherhood
And end the night of wrong.
Rise up, O men of God!
The church for you doth wait,
Her strength unequal to her task;
Rise up and make her great!
Lift high the cross of Christ!
Tread where His feet have trod.
As brothers of the Son of Man,
Rise up, O men of God!
You can hear a tinny MIDI file of the tune at Cyberhymnal.
I think I may hang the lyrics of this hymn in our schoolroom. It gives me encouragement to work all the harder to give these little men back to the Lord.
Cameron: I feel like a vitamin inside because of all these healthy foods we’re eating!
(for those of you who are wondering, he was excited when he said this)
Rev. Timothy Dwight and his mother
Timothy Dwight was born in Northampton, MA in 1752, to the third daughter of Jonathan Edwards and her husband. He was one of numerous children in the family. His mother — not surprisingly, considering the family in which she was raised — “possessed uncommon powers of mind, and great extent and variety of knowledge.” His mother believed that many people forfeited time with their children in believing that they were too young to be taught. She made instruction an early priority, and little Timothy reportedly could read the Bible “with ease and correctness” before he was four. Here is my favorite quote regarding the education of her children:
She aimed at a very early period to enlighten his conscience, to make him afraid of sin, and to teach him to hope for pardon only through Christ. The impression thus made upon his mind in infancy were never effaced. A great proportion of the instruction which he received before he arrived at the age of six years was at home with his mother.
That is a description of gospel-centered parenting if I’ve ever read one!! We do no favor to our children to teach them mere right behaviors…in fact, we make them into little Pharisees, trusting in their right works to gain them favor with God. Change and right behavior must come from a changed heart. When we’ve had one of those days when everyone has been fighting and the kids are looking at me with an expression of lostness in their own sin (and I feel lost in my own sin!), what good it does my heart to seek God’s intervention with them.
Dwight went on to greatly influence life in colonial New England. After completing studies at home, he entered Yale College in his early teens and became a tutor there at the age of nineteen. Soon afterwards, his father died, and he took upon himself the care of his mother and ten siblings who still remained at home. He ran the farm, taught lessons, and preached on the Sabbath. He cared for his own wife and children at the same time, passing on to his sons and daughters the rich education which he had received in infancy.
For two years, he represented the town of Northampton, in the legislature of the State. In 1783, he became the pastor of a church and congregation at Greenfield, in Connecticut, and remained in that situation till 1795, when, to the sorrow and disappointment of an affectionate people, he entered on the important office of President of Yale College.
During his term as president, the college underwent a transformation. Before his arrival at Yale, many of the students had been adhering to the philosophies of man and theories of government inspired by Voltaire, David Hume, and others. Discipline in the student body had been relaxed and the number of students was dwindling. Dwight railed against the movement, all the while encouraging free debate on the subject. One of his addresses during this period, “The Nature and Danger of Infidel Philosophy, Exhibited in Two Discourses, Addressed to the Candidates for the Baccalaureate, In Yale College” was delivered on September 9, 1797 and is frequently referred to as a seed of the second Great Awakening. Under Dwight’s care, Yale was returned to its former glory and became the largest learning institution in North America.
Dwight died of prostate cancer at the age of sixty-five, leaving behind a wife, children, grandchildren, and as many as three thousand students who had thrived under his watchful care.
- Wikipedia on Timothy Dwight IV
- of interest to my mother, and maybe some other people: Dwight was the first to use the term “Cape Cod style house” in his Travels in New England and New York, published in 1823.
Jonathan learned a new word today.
“SNOW!”
Why, you ask?
Because I finally dusted the ceiling fan after…too long.
Nothing like little children to keep you humble.
1. If your six-year-old is particularly sensitive to the heat, your three-year-old might be, too. He will most likely demonstrate this by vomiting upon your entry to your home after a long, exhausting trip to the grocery store. At least he won’t do it in the van.
2. Blue jello jigglers, made for a first-day-of-school-treat, make the contents of your stomach blue, too.
3. The purchase of a carpet steamer, if you have young children and carpeted floors, might be the best money you ever spend.
4. After refilling the handsoap dispensers in your house, be sure to put away the giant gallon jug of soap.
5. If you do not comply with #4, your toddler will find it while you are otherwise occupied — like when you’re steaming the carpets — and throw it down the stairs, where it will empty about a third of its remaining contents onto the rug.
6. The purchase of a carpet steamer, if you have young children and carpeted floors, might be the best money you ever spend.
7. When attempting to free your carpet of liquid handsoap, it is best to use vinegar to cut down on the sudsing.
8. You can still have a productive school day even if you start lessons at 2:30 in the afternoon.
