EDIT:  I indulged my curiosity about the Schultz bio which I discuss below and read some articles and reviews on it.  I felt I should add now that the family is actually NOT happy about the book.  They were initially cooperative, but disagree with the psychoanalytical and dark focus of the book.  They claim there was much omitted that didn't follow with the author's thesis.  Anyhow, I wanted to add this since I mentioned below that the family supported the book.  Most of their disapproval centered around the constant portrayal of his 'dark' side (meanness, insensitivity, uncaring, depressed, etc.)....and not the moral issues raised in the book.

We spent a quieter New Years Eve at home as usual.  We actually had two young staff guys over for potato soup, crusty sourdough bread and leftover Christmas party goodies.....and movie watching.  I was surprised they still wanted to come over since I knew there were several other parties going on, one for all the singles.  So, we were honored they still wanted to come hang out here with all our kiddos.    They are apparently not much for the partying on NYE.   The guys all watched "Transformers" [Matt had to fast forward a few parts].  David fell asleep over half way through, Johnny liked it, Anna and I spent most of the movie coloring in her new geometric design coloring book.  She has colored some amazingly intricate designs!  She loves to color and is so patient.  She can color as good as I can.

Christmas was nice, we still have alot of organizing to do.  The kids got little MP3 players, and that was a favorite gift!  I think I want one now, too.  I borrowed one of the boys yesterday while I was overhauling the downstairs.....nice!  Give me a couple worship albums and I get things done alot faster and more cheerfully!    The drive home from Wausau was one of the quietest ever!  Poor Leah....she promptly fell asleep since noone was going to talk to her!  The boys have also spent considerable time with a big, wooden pirate ship that Johnny got.  Anna got some new pajamas along with the softest, little pink robe ever.  Now she never wants to be out of her pajamas.  She groans when I tell her it's time to get dressed, and the second the sun starts to go down....she begs to be allowed to get back in her jammies and robe. 

I'm really looking forward to getting school organized again, and starting into a normal routine.  Oh, I forgot....we have a good 2 ft.  of snow outside!  It was the perfect weather for Wintertainment.  Not too awfully cold, and plenty of snow.  It's so incredibly beautiful right now.  When we drive out to camp, it's like driving through a Christmas card.....every twig and needle is completely frosted in white.  I took the kids to the small tube hill one night, it was Leah's first time!  She LOVED it.  I'd ask her at the top, "Are you ready?" and she'd yell YEAH!  And then at the bottom, right away she'd say, "Moooore?".  It was fun.

I've been doing some thought provoking reading.  I read Dostoevsky's "The Idiot" a few weeks ago.  I liked it best of all the Russian classics I've made it through thus far.  Still, true to form, I wasn't completely satisfied by the ending.  Yesterday, I just finished the new biography of Charles Schulz.  It was very, very interesting.  It was fascinating to see how the comic strip reflected what was going on in his life at the time, and who the characters were based on.  The thing that was the strangest for me, though, was that I've always thought C.S. was a solid Christian man, living for the Lord.  Now, I'm not so sure that he was at all.  He had a period of time in his life, as a young adult, where he was very involved in the Church of God and studying the Bible fervently.  It lasted through his early marriage and according to the biographer, his spirituality was very important to him then.  However, he began to question religion as a whole, and fell away from church involvement not too much later.  By the time the Peanuts Christmas special aired, he was already questioning his beliefs and no longer involved in church life.  He went on to have multiple affairs, divorce, and other psychological issues plague him.  The book paints him to be an insensitive, melancholy, chronically self-absorbed, depressed man.  And, it relates some of his personality issues to his parents' various dysfunctions and oddities.   These qualities were of course, what made the Peanuts strip so poignant and introspective.  But, I find it interesting that Christian media pretty much adopted him as one of their own, when he really wasn't much of a Christian.  He was actually amused by that as well, and would often, in his own words, "tell the media what they wanted to hear".   I thought perhaps he had a 'return to the faith' at the end of his life.....but he didn't seem to.   At first I wondered if the biographer was to be trusted, or if he had some kind of personal vendetta!   But, he wasn't mean spirited about things, more matter of fact.  And the book initially had the blessing of all the family, and exclusive participation from both wives plus previous girlfriends.  [see edit above]  But, I guess you can't ever completely trust one person's perspective and editing.

Kind of disappointing in a way, although I still enjoy the Peanuts gang for what they are.  And I had all kinds of interesting thoughts as I pondered Schultz' life yesterday.  About how pretty much everyone can blame their quirks and dysfunctions on something their parents did or didn't do.  And their parents can in turn blame those very faults on something their parents did or didn't do.  And it continues to go back.....all the way to Adam/Eve!!  All families have their dysfunctions, don't they?  And who gets the blame?  You can blame your parents, they can blame theirs, they can blame theirs and on and on.  The end result is you don't get anywhere in that game.  Sin is sin, and we all have it!  Dysfunction is the natural state of the earth since the garden of Eden, and it's only by the grace of God that we can live in Christ and learn to walk in the Spirit daily....and so escape some of our fleshly inclinations.  It's frightening to think what oddities my children will blame me for!   Because of course we are continuing the pattern in our own, unique Hoffland/Peters way.    But at the same time, if we let God have control of our lives, with all our quirks and weaknesses.....He can make something good and beautiful out of us!  He can use our very weaknesses for good!  He loves to do it!  It's the amazing, transforming power of life in Christ......and if we didn't have our weaknesses and failures, we wouldn't be able to experience God and His sufficiency in the same way.  So again, I thank God for my weaknesses, my struggles and my failures.  They teach me to depend.  And I will pray fervently for my children to also desire that dependence, and that they will recognize the only hope of victory in their sin-weakened life is God.