Archive | November, 2010

And it is –

9 Nov
Dashboard Jesus!
My sister said it was too good to not buy for me while she was in Colorado visiting our brother.  Agreed.  The gift meets all my expectations and more.  The box reads this – “Dashboard Jesus comes with an adhesive base.  Affix to all of your favorite things!  Great for desks, dashboards, bicycle helmets, computers, or anything else needing a spiritual life!”  While my sister is pushing hard for the bicycle helmet placement, Dashboard Jesus is currently living among the gnomes.  He makes friends easy enough and the gnomes might need a little preachin’ to with all the mischief they tend to cause.

Green Grocery Bag Challenge.

8 Nov
I’ll be the first to admit – I’m rather annoyed by the onset of Christmas decorations, advertisements, and the consumerism of the holiday already being prevalent in all arenas.  The grocery store had Christmas music playing this past weekend.  I’m a pretty big non-fan of Christmas music to begin with – other than traditional hymns sung on Christmas Eve – so it was a dose of extra torture.  I join many others with the train of thought that this should most certainly wait until after Thanksgiving.  Consumer America lends no such luck.
Despite the fact that this is directly related to the holiday, this I will get on board with – the Green Grocery Bag Challenge.  Found on Sew, Mama, Sew, this challenge is a call to forego wrapping paper for cloth grocery totes.  Not only would the large garbage bag of ripped holiday paper be lessened, but the gift recipient also receives an additional gift to limit the use of plastic bags throughout the year.  Double score.
Now, I do love paper.  Pretty paper.  But I also love fabric.  Pretty fabric.  The trick will be finding the time to sew the bags but I’ll make my best effort.  Want to join me?  OR I’ll sew a bunch of bags and you buy them from me?  (I’ve been looking for a little side business of sorts …)
From Sew, Mama, Sew’s blog post about the challenge:
The Green Grocery Bag Challenge: A Holiday Sewing Project Benefiting Mother Earth

Fact 1: US consumers generate 4 million tons of wrapping paper and shopping bag waste during the holiday season alone.
Fact 2: The US goes through 100 billion single-use plastic grocery bags every year.
Fact 3: This year, you can make a difference!
How? The challenge is this:
Wrap your holiday gifts in reusable cloth grocery bags.

I won! I won!

8 Nov
You know when you go to those restaurants and the hostess gives you the little light-beeper thing that shakes when your table is ready?  In high school when going out with friends, that sort of event required the one holding the light-beeper thing to jump up and yell, “I won!  I won!” when it started to shake.  
That story?  Very little to do with the actual purpose of this post.  
I received a mysterious check in my campus mailbox last week.  A check from the business office here at seminary.  I was utterly confused.  I mean, Luther sending me money is typically a good thing but why?  I look on the attached info sheet and it reads thus: “Honorable Mention in Intern Stewardship.”  To break that down into normal-people’s talk – 
The seminary holds a stewardship sermon contest for interns.  Interns can submit a financial stewardship sermon that they preached while on internship.  I preached and I submitted.  (With many thanks to Grace’s Summer of Stewardship preaching opportunities!)  And I won!  Well.  I won one of three honorable mentions. Not the big prize.  Or the second biggest prize.  (There are my inner jackals – the ways in which I down-talk myself.)  But hey – honorable mention! 
I accept.

{ make and share these }

7 Nov
I decided it was time for a mini-break this weekend of past – time well-spent with my favorite college roomie and her adoring husband.  I’m ever so thankful for my friendship with the pair and the fact that I feel comfortable simply inviting myself over.  My mom always told me it was rude to invite myself over to friends’ houses but I think that guideline went out the window when the friends started living in their own places.  I have a handful of close wonderful friends with whom I know (I think?) they welcome me inviting myself over.  Joe and Amanda are a pair of those friends.

I arrived and we made our plans for the 24 hours of my stay.  Said plans seemed to revolve around food and church.  We decided upon lunch out at a favorite restaurant, lasagna for supper, and these.  Amanda delightfully suggested that we make good on my fall list and either bake a pie or make the pumpkin cinnamon rolls.  We went with the cinnamon rolls … and now I must work out each night this week to correct that damage.  They. were. delicious.  

While at the store, they also picked up a pomegranate.  Never before had I watched the dissection of or ate the seeds inside.  The seeds were great to snack on as we prepared our evening meal on Saturday and apparently are filled with vitamins and other good stuff.  They will become my sickness-prevention food.
What else did we find at the grocery store?  Wine.  Wine by the title of my nickname, Sweet Pea.  It was a blackberry-flavored apple wine which was quite tasty.  (As was only to be expected by a wine of that name.)

{ get lost in a corn maze }
{ bake a pie }
{ prepare a pot of chili, beer bread, invite friends over to enjoy }
{ step on the crunchy leaves }
{ sew a baby quilt }
{ homemade pizza on the pizza stone }
{ attend a wine tasting }
{ make and share these }
{ 10k training – the hiatus is over – it’s back on }
{ find a fall festival }
{ cabin weekend. a hike to the fire tower }
{ scarves.  puffy vests.  boots. }
{ read a for-fun book }
{ cheer on the twins from target field }
{ take a stroll around a lake } 
{ pick my own pumpkin.  carve.  light. }

{ sew a baby quilt } & { pizza }

5 Nov
We’ve been wonderfully blessed with an extended beautiful autumn in Minnesota.  The first week in November is nearly over and I’m still without a heavy winter coat, hats, and boots.  It’s grand that the season is continuing because my fall list is still not complete!  (And will it be completed?  We’ll see.  It may carry over into a winter list.  I like this whole list thing …)
I finally finished this baby quilt, made and sent to my college friend, Deb.  Deb and her husband, Scott, welcomed daughter, Isabelle, into the world last week.  I’m eager for more photos on facebook but understand the new parents are most likely otherwise engaged.  Perhaps even a trip to Arizona to visit the family is in works for February.  I just want to hold her.  I hope they have received and enjoy the warmth of the cozy flannel.

The pizza stone is called just that – and I finally can say that I baked a pizza on the said stone.  Check.  Pepperoni with a string cheese stuffed crust.  Lots of cheese as pizza is meant to be.


{ get lost in a corn maze }
{ bake a pie }
{ prepare a pot of chili, beer bread, invite friends over to enjoy }
{ step on the crunchy leaves }
{ sew a baby quilt }
{ homemade pizza on the pizza stone }
{ attend a wine tasting }
{ make and share these }
{ 10k training – the hiatus is over – it’s back on }
{ find a fall festival }
{ cabin weekend. a hike to the fire tower }
{ scarves.  puffy vests.  boots. }
{ read a for-fun book }
{ cheer on the twins from target field }
{ take a stroll around a lake } 
{ pick my own pumpkin.  carve.  light. }

taking guesses.

4 Nov
I’m waiting for a package.  A gift.  My sister, with two friends, went to CO to visit our older brother last week.  Apparently, she found something so great, so wonderful, so Lindsay that she just HAD to buy it.  (Her words.)  She’s texted me or told me about this mystery thing at least five times.  Oh, you’re going to love it, she says.  When are you coming home next?  Because if it’s not until thanksgiving, I’ll mail it to you.  
Apparently, it can’t wait two weeks until I’m home for break.  She texted me tonight – 
[[ okay, then I’m mailing your awesome gift tomorrow.  hope you’re prepared for it. ]]
Prepared?  What could it be?  I guessed a gnome scarf – the combination of two of my most favorite things – but she said no.  It was better.
What’s better than a gnome scarf?  
Guesses?

be thankful on paper (1).

4 Nov
Way back when, I signed up to be thankful on paper this month.  Together with many other bloggers, including the creator at No. 17 Cherry Tree Lane and my friend, Jenni, at After the Chapel, I agreed to send a written thank you note every Wednesday in November and then to write about that person on Thursday.  Installment one is here. [Hop on over to No. 17 to read other thankful on paper blogs!]

I sent out six thank you notes yesterday.  One went to Illinois, another to Texas, still another to Indiana, and three to Wisconsin.  I couldn’t thank just one so I thank all six of my Dancing Banana friends.  My high school gals.  I love them to bits, eight years out of school and separated in five states.  This is what I sent to each of them with a personal note – 

(click on the note to make it bigger and easier to read)
That youtube video I mentioned?  You’ll hate me later … though actually, no.  Don’t hate me.  Hate my friend, Kim.  She’s the one who finds these things and shares them … but I secretly love it.  And love Kim.  “CHICKEN!”

stories are gifts.

3 Nov
I’m killing time before confirmation.  I had a few errands to run on my way to Stillwater this afternoon and arrived at church over an hour early.  It feels awkward and strange to go to the family pizza time or wander around, no longer having a role in the children’s ministry arena of Trinity.  (So now I sit on my computer, tucked away in the leader room, stalking people on facebook, maybe eventually getting to a few paragraphs of a paper.)  It is awkward but it also can be wonderful because I am in awe of how many kids remember me after my year and a half away.  One boy who consistently gave me grief and a hard time in Bible Explorers as both a third and a fourth grader, Simon, found me tonight.  He no longer wears glasses and is about a foot taller.  “Hi, Lindsay,” he said automatically.  Another couple of girls who were constantly in my cubicle, chatting about life, eating my candy, and hugging Herbert Butterfield (my giant inflatable penguin) visited me tonight and told me they had missed me in my time away.  That warms my heart – 
– like my nonfat toffee mocha warms my tummy.  I had a headache earlier and figured it was due to either a lack of water or a lack of coffee.  I went to Starbucks.  Halloween is over so, naturally, let’s jump ahead nearly two months and whip out the Christmas colors and drink flavors.  Starbucks cups are red again, their cup sleeves have snowflakes, and this phrase – “Stories are gifts.  SHARE.”  For Christmas this year, I will write down stories, wrap and deliver.  Deal? 
We talk about story a lot at seminary.  As Christians, we share the common story – that of the gospel.  But, unlike fifty or a hundred years ago, there’s competition to the story.  We can no longer assume that everyone believes or has the same story.  There was a community forum held on campus today about the challenges that the church faces – one strong challenge being that we lack identity.  Who are we as the church?  What does it mean to be Christian, to be Lutheran?  While we’re uncertain of our identity, it’s difficult to proclaim the story of Christ and what it means for our life.  The forum kinda led me to despair at the place and the ministry into which I’m going …
Starbucks tells us to share our stories.  Well, if Starbucks says so …  Share your story.  Share your life.  It’s meant to be shared with others, not kept locked inside yourself.  I think, as you share your story, you’ll also be sharing the gospel and the ways God has worked in your life.  Your story is a part of your identity – it makes up who you are.  As we share our stories, maybe the church will find the voice to its identity … I don’t think that’s quite what Starbucks has in mind but I think might move us forward to better understanding, to closer connection, and to education.  Stories are gifts.  Share.

Hey. It’s November.

2 Nov
When did that happen?
I don’t mind too much.  The weather is still great.  Cardigans and puffy vests and even, on chilly mornings, my black knit mittens make me comfortable and happy.  
Halloween is over and that’s fine by me.  What did I do on Halloween?  I went to church.  (Reformation Sunday.  Martin Luther.   You know.)  Sewed a little  bit.  Watched a movie or two while fiddling with things.  Read.  Went to the gym.  The end.  If there was a Scrooge of Halloween, I’d be it.  I didn’t even hand out candy.  *gasp*  The Scrooge of Halloween.  Despised by children, loved by dentists.  That would be my slogan.
November also means plans are in order for the fifth annual Thanksgiving Day Bake-Off with my birthday buddy and cousin, Connor ‘The Robert.’  The sister and another random cousin or two usually join us in seeking the treasured bake-off apron prize.  This year’s theme?  Ready?  Can you handle it?  Dessert that looks like a turkey.  Take that and run with it.  (The wheels are turning.)
I’ll be writing about people in my life for whom I’m thankful this month and writing snail mail notes to those people to tell them why.  A special trip to my favorite paper store was very necessary for this venture.  (Paper Source has an entire back wall of every size blank card to go in every size envelope in every color imaginable.  It is my happy place.)  My first thank-you hits the mailbox tomorrow.  The problem? (… that really is a blessing.)  I have far too many people for whom to be thankful in my life.  How on earth do I choose?
November, I think I welcome you.  I look forward to the bustling busy of the days to come with a new class on the book of Psalms, a Gap outlet shopping trip, a concert or two, a week break at Thanksgiving, and the possibility (more like promise) of the first snow.  You’re going to come and go faster than I please and probably before I can say (or complete), “rostered leader profile.” *  

*Papers upon papers of carefully thought out words and decisions and regions that will go to the powers that be to decide my fate for assignment as a pastor.  Due December 1.
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