Archive | September, 2011

link it up.

21 Sep
There is much to tell you.  I write from the Blooming Prairie Public Library, mooching the free wifi because we still have no internet at the church and my iphone wifi was not cooperating today [I blame the high winds].  I just finished attending a women’s circle where I was entirely intimidated by the Bible study leader; Evelyn was a missionary in Cameroon for over twenty years and she knows her Bible.  I’m learning lots of names and eating lots of cake [as served at such functions].  I met with my accountant yesterday morning and he put me in a splendid mood for the day.  [Who knew meeting my accountant would brighten my day?]  Marilyn and I continue to have a good time in the office, and this week is certainly much better than last.  I have a wild rice chicken soup in the crock pot at home – a recipe from the Central Lutheran cookbook.  I was asked to serve at the noon-time rush of First Lutheran’s [in Blooming] lutefisk dinner in October; I get to wear a red apron.  I’m planning a fall festival for families in mid-October and looking forward to not preaching next Sunday [as it is my installation].  
There is much to tell but instead of long stories, I only find the time right now to post a few links.  Stories will hopefully follow in the next couple days, but for now, let these links and photos be the storytellers of my days and dreams.
I really want to read this book.  There is something about fonts and typography that simply makes me happy and excited.
I made this and this last night.  Both proved to be quite tasty.  I made this, also in the crockpot, a couple weeks ago.  Also tasty.  Also on a recipe note, these look extremely dangerous.  Extremely.  I must not make until I have a function to take them to and then leave the leftovers!
I want to make this for necklaces and hang it in my bathroom.

I also want to make this.

And these.

Anyone know where to find oodles of scrabble tiles?  I’m kinda in love with them right now.

a house tour.

20 Sep
I finally moved the boxes of things I don’t want to unpack right now to one of the empty upstairs bedrooms where I will unpack and dig as needed.  For now, I’m happy to have a box-free downstairs and a living area that actually kinda sorta looks lived in.  It’s still a lot of space – a lot – and lots of carpet to vacuum.  Come play and we’ll do cartwheels or go gnome bowling.

This is the east side of the ‘great room,’ which will become the board game/puzzle/appetizer corner once I buy bar stools.   Scrabble is out and ready for your visit!

The view through the dining room and into the kitchen from the game corner.  I love my expedit shelves from IKEA dearest.

I don’t even know what to call this room – this is the view towards the front door from the ‘great’ room.  Right now it’s empty.  This is where we’d do cartwheels and play gnome bowling.

The other half of the ‘great’ room with my super tiny television.  [It was in my craft room but I found myself wanting to sit out here instead of there.]  

The super awesome wonderful kitchen.  Counter stools will go where the random garbage can is currently sitting.  To do: buy stools.  
I still deprive you of the complete tour – craft room, guest bathroom, and office photos still to come.  Thanks for visiting!

a church auction.

18 Sep
Let’s recap.  The Lynn/Kyle awesomeness of a wedding yesterday.  Lindsay arrives back home [still a relative term] at 1:30am.  In the office by 7:30 that morning to prepare for Sunday morning worship, which is the first time I’m presiding over communion.  [I messed up the wine words.  opps.]  Following worship was an hour long annual meeting.  Following the annual meeting was a lunch, and following the lunch was the church auction.  Lindsay was out and about for twelve hours today in midst of people and crowds and auctioneer babble.  

It was a long day but it was a good day.  I bid on stuff.  This was my first time actually bidding on items at an auction and it was slightly awesome.  I want more.  Actually, it more than slightly awesome.  It’s like crack.
I gained a posse of ROG children.  Anna, Jessica, Gracie, Rachel, and Grace stuck out much of the auction with me.  A long day it may have been, but it was good to chat with people on a more in depth level than when we shake hands after worship.  I learned that a congregation members makes his own wine [new hobby for lindsay?] and that there is a young couple who are members [but rarely attend because of job travel – he’s a dog trainer] and we really got along well.  
I donated 30 cakepops to the baked goods auction.  They brought in $40 – wooten.  Better than that perhaps is that the woman who bought them – Mary – said there would be interest in having a cake pop class of sorts.  If I taught, they would bring the wine.  Sounds like the best plan ever to me.
I bought a typewriter, not necessarily to use but to look at because it’s pretty and romantic.  Typewriters just have an aura of cool and vintage to me.  I paid a whole dollar for it.

Maybe someday I’ll write you a letter using my typewriter … but probably not.  Don’t hold your breath.  I also bought a wooden chair [$10] and was given a ‘uge black frame that someone didn’t want in with a bundle of other things.  I will put paper or fabric in it and it will be a great addition to an empty wall.
Being halfway through my glass of red wine, it’s time for bed.  So sleepy.  A new week begins tomorrow; here’s hoping it is a step up from last.

Banana wedding!

18 Sep
Lynn baby, one of my utmost best friends from high school and from all time, was married yesterday.  She was married to another awesome, wonderful friend from high school, Mr. Kyle.  I drove home on Friday to attend rehearsal and dinner [I assisted and preached at the ceremony.] and drove back to MN Saturday night [with arrival at the parsonage a la 1:30am.]  It was so incredibly worth the trip.  I’d do it again anytime.
Lynn looked absolutely stunning.  As her dad walked her down the aisle, I had to fight back tears.  This couple is so wonderfully in love.  *sigh*  I’m so happy for them.
The Bananas, one short of a full bunch.  We missed you, Jenni!

Right before the beginning of the ceremony, Kyle and I waited downstairs to walk to the front of the church.  In effort to calm nerves [both of ours], Kyle made a crack, “At least you know there won’t be any strange dogs who show up at this wedding!”  [In reference to Krissy and Matt’s wedding in August.]  I laughed.  And then said I could make no promises.  He gave me a quizzical look, confused.  It was great.
Because the banana dog played a role in the message I gave.  [Remember the banana dog from way back when?  This was the second time he was a part of a sermon I preached.]  The text chosen was John 15:9-17; find my message below if you care to read.
The ceremony was perfect.  Lynn was beautiful and Kyle was giddy.  A few Bananas and parents went out for drinks before heading to the place of reception for dinner.  A buffet, photo book, picture slideshow, and lots of hugs … and then I had to tear myself away.  I had to drive back to MN.  boo.  So many congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Lynn and Kyle – I love you both.

some of my favorite guys trying out the photo booth, complete with props.
…
Let’s start at the beginning.  Picture Lynn, a young girl with long thick brown hair and eyeglasses with a small butterfly on the frame above one eye.  This is the Lynn I first knew.  Friends for many, many years, we’ve been through everything together.  We dressed up together – I was a giant bunny and you were a penguin and a flamingo.  We rode skateboards down your driveway and camped in your backyard.  In the past years, though we often haven’t even lived in the same state, Lynn is always a friend I know I can call at any time and we’ll find things to talk about for hours.  A friend full of hope and love and genuineness.
I don’t know as much about Kyle from the younger years.  A Yahara kid by location, it wasn’t until high school in Mr.Papendieck’s AP US History class that Kyle and I began to know each other.  Instead of grades, we would compare the smiley faces that Mr.P put on our papers.  I know Kyle to be a person who stands by a friend in good times and bad, willing to help in any way.  As phrased by another one of Kyle’s friends, he’s a people magnet, consistently making new friends and connecting to new people.
We know that you’re awesome friends to those in your life.  I feel lucky to call both of you friends, and friends from so many years ago and still.  You care beyond measure and treasure relationships within your lives.  What’s even more awesome is that’s how you began your journey to this time and place of wedding vows and rings.  You first were friends to one another.  In Edgerton and in Madison, in between classes and football games, you were first friends.  From that strong base of friendship, you built this relationship that we now celebrate.  The relationship that leads you to become husband and wife today. 
The reading that you chose from the gospel of John speaks deeply of friendship.  These words are spoken by Jesus to his disciples; words that will guide them after Christ has been crucified.  Within these words Jesus commands his disciples – his closest friends – to love one another as he has loved them.   He tells them that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.   We’re commanded to love each other with a Christ-like love and to be a friend in all times, through tragedy and happiness.  Christ commands his disciples – and us – to live a life of love.  You, Lynn and Kyle, practice this each day.  You give your time, your love, and yourselves to those in your life. 
At the center of your life together are your friends and families.  This is evident in all of the people who have gathered here to celebrate this day and your relationship with each other.  To find a space large enough to hold all the people you care about and who care for you would be impossible.  I’m pretty sure that’s why Lynn told Kyle that he wasn’t allowed to make any new friends until after the wedding.  Is that right?
As you have chosen each other and make promises to each other today and every day following, you together go into the world to bear fruit.  Jesus chose the disciples to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.  That’s what it says in the gospel ready – to bear fruit.  That sounds a bit weird – not necessarily something that we would say today.  It’s not like Lynn leaves for work in the morning and Kyle says goodbye by saying, “Bear good fruit today, honey.”  What does it mean to bear fruit?
I think we should ask Lynn.  Lynn knows all about fruit.  I don’t think there is any kind of fruit Lynn doesn’t like.  She can peel an apple in one spiral of apple skin.  Lynn is known as an excellent strawberry picker and apple crisp baker and banana dog sender.   I’ll say that again – Lynn is an excellent strawberry picker, apple crisp baker, and banana dog sender.  Lynn sent this to me in the mail once.  It’s a banana dog.  Another example of what a great friend she is – because she mails things like this.  Because why not, right?
This may not be the exact kind of fruit that Jesus meant to bear – it’s likely he was not referring to this banana dog or the matching one that lives with Lynn and Kyle.   To bear fruit is not Biblical code to send animals made of fruit.  But Webster here might help us understand what exactly it does mean.
Webster was chosen for me by Lynn and given as a gift.  As Jesus chose the disciples to go out and bear fruit, you have chosen each other.  That in itself is a gift.  Kyle, you chose Lynn, and Lynn, you chose Kyle to build your life with.  Today you will vow to love each other for your entire lives.  In that life together, go out and bear fruit.  Bear fruit that will last. 
Fruit that will not last are things like selfishness, holding grudges, and envy.  The actions that kill, hurt, and prevent a love from growing. 
Rather to bear fruit that will last is to be a friend to each other.  To bear fruit in your relationship is to do the things that would help a strawberry plant or orange tree grow.  Care for each other.  Love each other with attention and protection.  As weeds creep up or a worm comes along – whatever that may be in our actual lives – be there for the other.  Work together.  Nourish your relationship with the things you need and support each other as you grow.  It may look like listening more than you speak.  Webster is great at listening.  To bear good fruit means compromise.  Apologizing and forgiving.  Ultimately, to bear fruit is to share the love that Christ commands us to share, the love that we’re first given by the God who created us. 
You vow today to put the other before yourself, to care for the other with a love that is patient and kind.   A love that is not envious, boastful, arrogant or rude.  A love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.  Be a friend to each other.  Go out together, hand in hand, and bear good fruit to the world. 
Those of us here call you friends, love you deeply, and cannot wait to see the fruit that you bear as you love and life you lead together.  May God bless your relationship and always be a source of love in your lives.  Amen.

upstairs.

15 Sep
I’m in a good mood and procrastinating, so hows abouts I take you on a tour of my upstairs?  House photos!  The downstairs still needs some help and unpacking before I showcase that part of the abode.  

Upstairs bedroom number one.  Across the hall is another bedroom that is a mirror image.  These rooms sit empty but ready for guests with air mattresses!

My bedroom – a work in progress.  Right now it’s the room with my random rug/random bedside table/random picture frames.  First up will be to make/buy new curtains.

The upstairs bathroom – it’s tiny and cozy and blue and green.

My backyard of corn fields from the upstairs “balcony.”
Here’s a downstairs preview of my favorite kitchen cabinet.  The color makes me happy.

to rochester and back.

15 Sep
Forgetting the fact that I need to walk home [across the parking lot] and write two sermons, today was a good day.  A good, good day and positive ending to – frankly – a crappy week.
I’ve felt completely under water this week.  Completely.  No way around it – transition is hard.  I finally broke yesterday and cried in Marilyn’s office.  While part of me shames myself for showing such emotion, people should know that I’m not a rock.  I’m not void of feeling.  I cry too.  And so the church admin assistant now knows.
Today was a good day likely because I let myself breathe and it was a day of reflection.  [In a phone call I just made to another local pastor, she reminded me that I must take time to process and reflect.  That, in itself, is a way of working and necessary, especially as an internal processor.]  I picked jD and Paige up in Owatonna at 8am this morning and we headed to the synod offices in Rochester for a first-call theological event.  Today’s topic: taxes and pensions.  [Just knowing that makes you wish you were there, right?]  It was actually quite interesting and good stuff to learn in these first couple weeks.  
But really, what was awesome about the day was the conversation to and from and the conversation there.    The southeastern MN synod staff is beyond awesome, and the other first-call colleagues seem pretty top drawer too.  Bishop Huck led us in devotions and during that time, I felt my anxiety melt.  He has such a way of speaking and of comfort that those were words of gospel I needed to hear.  He reminded us that we don’t need to have all the answers.  Thank you.
Delicious red pepper soup for lunch and more laughing and conversation with colleagues was great.  Paige and I also signed up for the Bishop’s Open.  Yes, a golf tournament.  We’re not going to golf but rather put our names in to be caddies.  We’re not sure they will accept us as caddies but we think it will be a fun place to be on Monday, September 26th.  It’s an event only for clergy, hosted by the bishop, so it will be a day of collegiality and dinner if nothing else.  jD is going to do it too but I think he’ll actually golf.  The synod must think the three of us go everywhere and do everything together.  [I celebrate that fact!]  We should probably have a gang name.
Speaking of our gang, it seems jD and Paige have also met some young morticians in their local funeral homes.  Plans of a new pastor and mortician game night are in the works.  Pastors and funeral people make great friends, or so I’m told.

Marilyn.

15 Sep

I’m going to tell you about a woman I’ve known for just over a week.  She’s pretty awesome.
Marilyn is Red Oak Grove’s administrative assistant.  [Secretary to most but I just can’t get myself to say that, even if it is shorter.]  She’s in her 60s [I think – I’m a bad judge of age.] and has been at ROG for – I gather – about five to six years.  She’s not a member, but instead attends the large Lutheran church in Blooming [Prairie] – First Lutheran. 
Let me tell you how she’s awesome.  I’ve interrupted her work more than once – heck, more than twenty five times – to ask her questions and, more often than not, she knows the answer.  She has been such a blessing since I began working here.  She is so incredibly helpful. 
She’s been a great advocate for me since day one.  Though I often know what I want, I won’t voice it right off the bat, especially if that thing is only for my benefit and thus – to me – selfish.  [I do not like to be needy … though sometimes I am.]  I had off-handedly mentioned to her that I would enjoy a lighter paint color in my office.  Brent, the council president, stopped in and Marilyn told him.  “Don’t you think you could lighten it up a little bit in there?” she asked.  Then she told him the chairs could stand to be reupholstered.  That was not my idea but that Marilyn – she’s looking out for me.
She’ll dodge phone calls I don’t want to take.  Don’t judge me – they’re not parishioners but solicitors and the March of Dimes that wants to throw me in jail.  She hooks me up with office supplies and she, too, enjoys a good Sharpie. 
Now the other day, as we both lamented over the lack of internet, I exclaimed that I can’t live like this!  I need technology!  [I feel like we’re comfortable enough with each other now that I can make such exaggerations without her judgment.]  Since the outburst, she invited me over to her house two different times to use her internet.  First, she said she would feed me ice cream while I was there.  And then she said that she didn’t have any wine chilled but she could be an ice cube in it.
Oh for cute. 

a post written monday.

14 Sep

Sunday was good.  Worship went well.  Mom and Emma were here.  I put together some IKEA furniture and continued to settle into the house.  I read a lot, now being hooked on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  [A note added Wednesday: I have since finished said book.  Super confused about the ending?  Anyone else?]  I had dinner and a late night of laughing at jD and Lauren’s house with Paige.
Oh, how things change.  Today I feel like I can’t keep my head above water.  [Another note from Wednesday: Tuesday was no different.]  I feel like so much of my time in the office is wasted by solicitors and simply clearing off my desk so more mail that needs to be sorted can be put on top of it.  [I answered a phone call and was told that I had to serve time in jail by the March of Dimes.  I would have to raise bail in the amount of $1000 and serve an hour of time.  Um, I’m not comfortable doing that in my second week here?]  We still have no internet so my list, entitled “Upon internet,” keeps growing.  [Rumor has it we’re on a waiting list to get it too!  A waiting list?  What the face.]  I have two sermons to write this week and had a really strange conversation with a person, which I’m afraid I did not handle well at all.  I don’t know what to expect for the first council meeting tonight.  I have more questions than I know what to do with, and still very little clue of who to even ask half of the stuff.  Today is not a good day.  I’m treading water but my legs are growing tired.
I’ve drank too much coffee and not enough water; my hands are shaking.  I want to retreat to my house and just breakdown [sometimes that simply needs to happen] but my house is currently unavailable.  [A new back door is being installed.]  And so I ran away to a place in Austin with internet.*  It was in the plans for the day to begin with but now it’s serving not only as Lindsay-needs-internet time but Lindsay-needs-a-time-out time.  It’s on days like this that I question my ability as an administrator.  I love doing ministry – totally and completely.  I wish I could do ministry without worrying about a budget to balance, internet issues, and going to a million different meetings every week.  I suppose the challenge at hand is to learn to do ministry through those tasks; wish me luck.
* I wrote this before I ran away in search of internet.  What did I find upon arriving in the magical land where wireless exists, aka a coffee shop?  That the entire city of Austin had lost power.   No internet for Lindsay; no internet for anyone.  This land was not magical at all.  

a sunday scare.

14 Sep

I sat in my office, alone at church following Sunday morning worship.  I sat there with this lifeless thing in my hands.  It felt heavy with doom.  
No movement.  
Stillness.
My iphone suddenly shut off and wouldn’t turn back on. 
I thought my baby was lost forever.
I didn’t have internet so I couldn’t look up fix-it possibilities or call a fellow iphone owner because their phone numbers were stored on the phone.  I didn’t know what to do.   I felt hopeless.
I drove to Austin and the whole way was close to tears.  What if my super expensive phone that I love and on which I depend just decided to not work anymore?  I can’t afford a new one, but yet, I can’t live without it.  My life is tied to this inanimate object.  It may be pathetic but it’s also our time and culture.  Look it up.
To the Verizon store I went.  I walked in and paused in the doorway.  I had entered some alternative universe – all the employees were wearing Viking jerseys.  [I’m not one to get too into football but this was downright repulsive to see.]  I learned that my fix was a “hard restart,” a la pressing and holding both buttons at once.  Pretty sure mr.verizon man thought I was a pretty dumb lady in a cleric.  [I didn’t have time to change before I left.   This was an emergency!]  But hey, now I know how to fix it if my lifeline becomes lifeless again.

A Sunday post on Wednesday.

14 Sep

First, from the rooftops and from the parsonage, I will yell, “I HAVE INTERNET!”  Thanks to the suggestion of Crystal at Verizon Wireless, I charged an extra $20 to my phone bill [*under breath* my brother’s phone bill] in order to turn my iphone into a wifi hotspot.  $20 will well be worth the saving of my sanity.  Now begins the seven million blog posts I’ve written in Word in the past week.  Check back often – I’m staggering their posting to keep you in suspense.  First, a post about my first Sunday at Red Oak Grove –
Sunday, during worship, was not the first time a child ran amock during a children’s sermon I led.  It wasn’t the first time an organist and I mis-communicated and played/talked at the same time.   It was not the first time I led worship alone. 
Sunday was, however, the first time I have ever been able to say, in the confession and forgiveness at the beginning of worship, “as a called and ordained minister of the church of Christ.”  It was the first time I wore a stole while leading worship.  [Green – thanks, Grace!]  It was the first time I led worship at Red Oak Grove Lutheran Church.
And it was good.  I learned a lot more names, shook a lot more hands, and made a lot more connections.  [Including a woman who belongs to and is very involved in Tanzania missions at Trinity in Stillwater – the congregation at which I worked for nearly three years.  Turns out she was baptized at ROG – it was fun to talk with her!]  During coffee hour each Sunday, birthdays and anniversaries of that week are recognized.  The pastor rings a bell to get everyone’s attention and happy birthday/happy anniversary songs are sung.  Every week, one member of the congregation, who is handicapped, raises her hand in response to “Anyone have birthdays this week?” with a “MEEEE!”   Every week.  [I feel like there is more of a story there with some giant dose of community and grace.  I’ll keep investigating and will report back at a later date.] 
I feel like some of the compliments and graciousness was due to the honeymoon we’re currently on.  It’s the honeymoon period of the church and I.  As a number two on the enneagram, I feel like they were sitting in the pews, judging me and what I was saying and how I was doing it.  [That’s probably not even the two in me.  That’s just honest truth.]  Even though they shook my hand enthusiastically, I can’t help but wonder what they really think.  You know, how they really feel about this new pastor of theirs who desperately needs a haircut.  [Seriously.]
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