Archive | June, 2010

today’s list.

29 Jun
Wear a gray t-shirt that I fashioned in this style under a favorite yellow cardigan? Check.
Converse via email multiple times with a friend who always makes me feel good about myself? Check. (As friends should … and even if she does live in Texas.)
Watch New Moon in anticipation of Eclipse tomorrow with Emily and her daughter, Hannah? Check. (That’s right. We’re going to wait in line. It will be an adventure.)
Do a little bit of (fun) grunt work for Kendall to earn my time off and my way out of Wednesday night services in order to see Eclipse? Check.
Bake a strawberry rhubarb pie for our staff planning retreat on Thursday? Check.
Three mile run? Check. (5k, Cassie!)
Visit and do more socializing than actual work today at church? Check. (It’s hard to not be social when Harry, the man who calls me Sweet Pea, is working the food shelf across from my office for the afternoon.)
Have an overall pretty awesome day? Check.

jam.

27 Jun

I try to make strawberry jam each year as a throw-back and in honor of my daddy, with whom I made jam many-a-summer. Actually, correction: I would pick the strawberries and make the jam. My dad was always in charge of clean up and quality control.
I honestly don’t even eat jam but every once in great while. I make it and share it. With the 11 pounds of strawberries and two handfuls of rhubarb I picked, it was jam time. This afternoon I walked in the Riverfest parade with the Grace Lutheran float and afterwards, the stove, potato masher, and massive amounts of sugar were my friends.
I made three batches of strawberry and rhubarb jam. That’s 24 half-pint jars. Sixteen and a half cups of sugar. Mmm.

garden update.

27 Jun

Riverfest wkend.

27 Jun
Oh, the emotions I felt throughout Dawson’s summer festival, Riverfest, this past weekend.

Accompanied: I drove to Watertown on Friday morning to meet up with my friend, Kate, and then we were off to Brookings to pick strawberries. $1.19/lb strawberries! Afterwards, I convinced her to come back to Dawson with me to partake in some Riverfest activities. Yes! She bought pajamas and a toothbrush at Target and then hopped in the car with me; I had a friend to accompany me to the festivities!
Loved: I love walking down the street and having people, especially kids, say, “Hi, Pastor Lindsay” or stop me to have a conversation. It makes me feel like I belong here and that I’m loved … well. At least liked. Err, maybe acknowledged is the best term.
Awkward: Kate and I attended the new gnome unveiling on Friday night and it felt a bit like we crashed a family reunion. I’ve been in Dawson for ten months so I recognize names and know a good number of people through Grace but the roasting and toasting of Dick, the new gnome, seemed like a family ordeal at times. Dawson is kind of like a big family … everyone knows each other and pretty much everyone is related in one way or another. (Below: The new gnome, Dick, only minutes after is was revealed in a very anti-climatic manner with a black garbage bag. Can’t help but say I was anticipating more but, for the most part, the new gnome lives up to my expectations.)

Comforted: We visited Jesus at the cemetery before the fireworks. Nothing like a little high-five action with the Savior.
Disappointed: My decorated gnome did not win. sad face. But at least I entered.
Caffeinated: Both Kate and I bought the reverend gnome mugs. Perfect for coffee. (Apparently there are gnome mugs for nearly each of the gnomes in the park! If only I had known, I would have started collecting!)
Embarrassed: Kate and I entered the two-person blind lawn mower racing on Saturday morning. (I am so not joking right now.) I drove blindfolded and Kate sat behind me and directed me through the course. In my head, the course went right; it was a circle to our right. We started out and I don’t think I was even really listening to Kate who was saying, “Left. Left.” because I thought I knew where to go and that was right. Oh my. Kate didn’t stop me or tap me on the shoulder or anything … so we went in a circle. Our time wasn’t so great but we did make it though without hitting any of the orange markers, even with our detour. Great laughs were had by all at Lindsay’ inability to know which way is left/right and her inability to relinquish control and listen to her eyes.
Fulfilled: Good weekend.

suzy homemaker.

22 Jun
Tonight’s agenda: Sew apron. Bake pies.

Tomorrow night is a fundraiser at Grace for the young men going on a canoe trip to the Boundary Waters at the end of July. It’s a pie auction. I figured I would do my part and contribute a few pies, even if I am slightly bitter that I initially planned the trip but am unable to go on it because only males signed up to attend. (Over it. It’s okay. Still hope to canoe the BWCA some point soon.)

It was only fitting that I have an apron to wear while baking so that was the first thing I did when I arrived home. I fashioned myself a simple apron and then went to work creating my dutch apple pie with oatmeal strudel and chocolate pudding pie. They are both new recipes so I have slight anxiety allowing them to be auctioned off, not really aware of the quality and taste of them. I spruced the chocolate pudding pie up just a tad with some water, sunshine, and a canoe out of white chocolate to go along with the purpose of the evening.
Apron sewn. Pies made. Dishes done. All while wearing pearls.

three things.

20 Jun
First. I decorated my gnome. Not sure if he’s winning material but he suits my bit abstract, bright color aesthetic. He is a happy gnome decorated with solely happy tape. ( … love my japanese masking tape.)
Second. A congregation member shook my hand before church today and said he put a container of fresh picked strawberries in my car. Fresh picked as in that morning before church. SO delicious and so much better than store-bought. Made up my mind. I am willing to drive 1.5 hours to a pick-your-own-strawberry farm to obtain massive amounts of such deliciousness. (The tragedy is that there isn’t one closer; southwestern MN seems void of the pick-your-own variety. I’m taking my business to South Dakota.)
Third. I used Pinky and the Brain as a sermon illustration this morning. I began, “Who remembers Pinky and the Brain?” One person raised her hand. Thank you, Sabrina. Pick-your-own-adventure, Pinky and the Brain … if it weren’t for you, I’d be nearly zero and zero for pop-culture references in sermons (like every confirmation class I had this past year).

Quilt accomplishment.

18 Jun

Another quilt behind me – a tshirt quilt for my sister that I have been working on since she delivered a bag of tshirts to me at Easter. I just kind of made it up as I went along, knowing that Emma wasn’t too particularly attached to the tshirts but thought a quilt for all of them would be cool. Pink sheets for the back and the sashing. Bright polka dots for the binding – yummy. I sent the quilt home with Ben and Emma received it today. I hope it keeps her warm.

ordination affairs.

17 Jun
I crashed an ordination last Friday night. The former intern at Grace – the intern before last year’s Lori (whose ordination I attended and participated in earlier this year) – was being ordained in Hector, MN. I’d never met Dale before, our paths hadn’t crossed on campus so I was a crasher. I was up for a road trip and social time so Keith, Gail and Karen picked me up and we were off on our 1.5 hour journey east. We met up with Tammy and Jon at the church and took over a pew; Kendall was there too but participating in the service.
I left the ordination with two main thoughts:
One. That will be me soon! The service was two hours long but you would have never glanced at your watch because it was so wonderful. The music was splendid and the entire service so engaging. It made me begin to wonder who will preach at my ordination. Who will I ask to participate? What kind of high-quality paper/font will I use for the bulletins? It’s hard to believe that after this long journey through seminary, as of next May, the scholastic portion will be complete. Then the first-call process. Whoa.
Two. I love my coworkers. Now, I knew this before but this night it was just super reinforced. A mini road trip with coworkers was a fun Friday night; I’m so glad I went. I loved sitting in a pew with them, enjoying the service together. Coffee and cake afterwards was a riot. I loved hearing them dream of the road trip they will take to my ordination (which I would guess will be at East in Cambridge). It’s an eight hour trip and I will expect none of them to make the journey … but will wholeheartedly love it if they make it. Maybe I can bribe them with cake pops.

A day late but no money short.

17 Jun
My apologies to my devoted nightly readers – shout-out to Mary O. – as I let you down last night. *head hanging* I realize that you were probably on the edge of your seat. Did they raise enough money for a cow? Was the craft an absolute disaster or success? How many hot dogs does it take to serve a crowd of 65 children?
I promise I had a good excuse. My younger brother came into town! Ben, who was home in WI for only a matter of days after his month-long national park-hopping experience out west, decided to take a short Minnesota tour. He rolled into Dawson around 5, ate dinner (“Supper” in western MN – I’ve been corrected many times.) with the pastors and VBSers, and then took, oh, just a forty mile bike ride while I did the VBS thing for the last evening. He was a dear and helped us clean up from the chaos at church and then we hung out at my apartment. This morning we both slept in, ate oatmeal and drank coffee. We were going to play a round of golf (To which every one of my co-workers responded with, “You play golf?” No. I don’t but I was willing to hit a few balls and drive his cart.) but it was quite windy this morning so we 86’d that plan. He was Cities-bound by noon to make it to Minneapolis for an evening canoe derby with a few cousins of ours. Anyways, I had a visitor. Hence, no blog post. Apologies.
I feel a tiny bit empty inside. A little lost. My gears need to be changed to a post-VBS world. VBS is over. Last night was a great final evening. In crafts we donned our tie-dye t-shirts and decorated picture frames. (We’ll mail each camper a group picture next week to put in their frames!) We did our normal rotation and then ended with a program in the sanctuary with parents, grandparents, and friends in attendance.

As part of our closing program, we did our “show us a cow!” ditty. There were 26 cows on the screen as of earlier that evening; we were nine cows short of purchasing our dairy cow. (That’s $90 in non-VBS speak that had to have been put in the pool earlier that night. Our kitchen crew was wonderful to count the change so we’d have the results.) We put our chart up on the screen, explained the process to the new people present, and started yelling. And yelling. “Show us a cow! Show us a cow! Show us a cow!”
You should have heard the cheers when we saw our final cow on the screen! (My brother was in the church parking lot, returning from his bike ride, and he said he heard them outside!) The campers went crazy! Yelling, screaming, clapping! They were so excited that we had brought in enough coins to buy our dairy cow through Lutheran World Relief. It made me positively giddy to see how excited these kids were about giving their quarters away to help a family they don’t even know and will never meet. Easily the highlight of the week for me.

VeeBeeS #3

15 Jun
Tonight was wonderful, less chaotic, and just plain fun. The campers are into the routine now so things go much more smoothly and they continue to have lots of fun as they hear about parables, craft things, play games (I had some major sweaty third grade boys tonight after wild games of kickball in the church parking lot.), sing songs with lots of wild actions, and be herded about by their shepherd leaders.

It was a rainstick-making paradise on second floor for crafts tonight. Many of the kids were extremely dedicated to their work, decorating their packing tubes with ribbon, paint, and sequins, and filling them with rice, cotton balls, and magic beans. There were looks of intense concentration and even a few smiles; I think they’re having fun.
The highlight of the night for me was our opening time all together in the sanctuary. As I mentioned last night, we are collecting coins to buy a dairy cow through Lutheran World Relief – three hundred and fifty dollars worth of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. The kids were so excited to throw their coins into the wishing pond and anticipated the revealing of the amount of money we made last night. We projected a chart on the screen – one “coin” on the chart was equal to $10 so there were a total of 35 “coins” on the chart. Everyone yelled, “Show us a cow!” and a cow would appear on top of each coin for the money that was raised. (Confused? I’m having a hard time explaining it. If you’ve given up understanding, just know that it was AWESOME.) We yelled, “Show us a cow!” FOURTEEN times. That’s right – there was $140 in our wishing pond just last night alone!
I was absolutely blown away by the amount of money the campers brought in last night and I’m certain there was just as much in the wishing pond tonight. (Tammy will take tonight’s money to the bank to be counted early tomorrow morning.) We are well on our way to buying ourselves a dairy cow for a family who will use it for milk and to make a living. The campers are super pumped about making our goal so here’s to hoping tomorrow will bring in the rest that we need!
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