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Visiting neighbors.

Week and a half blog hiatus? Check.

I’m back. With a story.

The day was Monday. I was in Austin at the library checking out baby name books [Concerned? Don’t be. They were for ~~naming my baby~~ confirmation tonight.] and running a couple errands. I got home with just about 45 minutes left of daylight and Mabel & I needed to go for a walk pronto.

I ran upstairs, changed my clothes, and came downstairs to a knock at the front door. I answered the door to find my neighbor there. He’s in upper elementary school and he learned how to ride a bike this summer. He rode his bike over as his older sister often does too.

L: Hi Alex! How are you?
A: Hi. Good.
L: What’s up?
A: Well, Rachel [the older sister] is at dance right now … so … I thought I would come over and visit.

How cute is that? He thought he would come over for a visit! I love it. And so I ended up going for a walk with Mabel and a neighbor on a bike. We did the cemetery loop, all the while Alex telling me about the types of vines that were on the trees. Grape vines, wood vines, and one with red leaves he wasn’t quite sure about. I learned a lot about vines that night.

On a related note, tonight one of the confirmation students was late joining the group. Sorry, she said. I was outside talking to Rachel. She rode her bike here to visit you but I told here you were busy.

I love it. I love visitors.

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Categories children/youth, dog., for funny., outdoors., visitors.

Retreat success.

8 Sep

There are a few words I could use to describe how I’m currently feeling:

sleepy, exhausted, delirious, dog-tired, worn out, tuckered, and happily fulfilled.

It was a crazy weekend. It was overnight-confirmation-retreat weekend. Seven youth from ROG went along with me to Good Earth Village camp to meet up with six of jD’s youth from his two churches. Together we were 13 which, wouldn’t you know, is the perfect number with which to reenact the famous Last Supper painting:

The topic of the retreat revolved around the two Lutheran sacraments – baptism and communion – along with some intentional conversation about grace. We communed together, baptized a gnome [ … for real. Kind of. His parents named him Norman James.], team-built, played life size Jenga, did skits [the creativity of the skits blew me away – the awesomeness of these kids continually exceeds my expectations], and had boatloads of fun. jD’s kids had fun. My kids had fun. We all had fun. Our churches will have to plan to do more things together throughout the year; it worked out so well.

We shared highs and lows with each other before we left camp. Every single high from every single confirmation kid was along these lines: My high is making new friends and being here. At the same time, every single low from every single confirmation kid was along these lines: My low is that we can’t stay another night and we have to go home.

I’ll call that retreat success. In addition to having fun, we also hope they left with a definition of grace seared in their brains. Something like … the unconditional love of God that is free, forever, and for all. That would be good.

With what I’m about to say next, I want you to listen really super closely because I never say things like this. Ready? I love confirmation. [Okay. That was a joke. I actually say it all the flippin’ time.] I love my confirmation youth. I love middle schoolers. Weekends like this – kids like this – that’s why I love this job.

Pastor Evan officiates a gnome baptism.

“I baptize you …”

Milk and cookies snack.

life size Jenga

marble track teambuilder

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Categories children/youth, gnomes., love., ministry., pastoring, relationships., ROG, Uncategorized

Today was not my favorite. But then –

3 Sep

Today was eh. Office work and some work that I kinda feel shouldn’t be within the realm of pastoral duties. Work like climbing into a parked semi trailer to take photos of auction items. [Did I miss that on my job description?] And this weird work – there’s lots of it. With the school year beginning [wait. summer is over? how did that happen?], church work doubles as it is. Rally Sunday, confirmation kick-off retreat, annual meeting [ours in in September. it’s best not to even ask.], schedules, plans, pull-out-my-hair.

So today in the office was not my favorite. I told Marilyn and Bob-the-treasurer that I was going to cry. But then –

For confirmation this year, instead of one big informational meeting that half the families can’t make anyways, I’m visiting with each family one-on-one. Tonight I headed just down the road a mile and a half to visit with my ninja friend, Elly, and her family. Coming to confirmation this year will also be her younger sister. They’re just a super warm family and even though I promised them that my visit would only be 15 minutes, I was there for an hour. We talked about confirmation and then the kids went away while their parents and I talked about all things vintage. Pyrex, Nancy Drew classics, mason jars. For a living, they go to auctions, snap up stuff, and then sell it on etsy and ebay. They showed me their goods and talked about their business. Super interesting!

They also told me a neighborhood secret. About three-quarters of a mile from the church is a road. A secret road. Okay. It’s not secret at all but I always just assumed it was private property and only used by farm equipment. Turns out this access road is fair game. It’s gravel and dirt but so much more relaxing than walking Mabel on the road. We found our new walking route and explored it tonight.

On our way back from the [not] secret road, all of a sudden, one of the neighbor kids is sprinting towards me. He was running just to, you know, chat. And show me his new wallet. The neighbor family had been gone for two weeks on a road trip and things were really kinda lonely without them around. It was weird to walk past their house and not see them outside playing, or see lights on in their house. So Alex ran to say hi and tell me that the favorite part of his trip was seeing the beach where The Goonies was filmed. Then his older sister, Rachel, rode her bike down to join us. Soon the younger brother was there, along with the mom and the dog, and we stood in their driveway for a good 45 minutes catching up on summer.

Now I’m home. I ate farm-fresh eggs for dinner [thanks to administrative assistant and chicken farmer extraordinaire, Marilyn] and the day will end on a high note by watching Netflix and basting hexagons. Today was not my favorite … but then it turned out to be quite okay.

I’ll be adding to this pile – the weekend’s productivity.

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Categories children/youth, dog., friends., ministry., outdoors., quilts/crafts

End of the year celebrations.

19 May

Confirmation and Sunday School are over until fall. They have ended and Lindsay is sad. We concluded the school year of confirmation a week and a half ago with ice cream sundaes and sardines. [One of those is something we ate. The other is something we played. You decide.] Today we honored our Sunday School kiddos in church and coffee hour. They all got a mini box of cereal that read you’re CEREAL-sly awesome. I can’t wait to hang out with all of them at day camp this summer because they are so CEREAL-sly awesome.

Confirmation youth, post ice cream and sardines, in our bright awesome youth room.

This is Matthew and Gracie at the table of honor during coffee hour for the Sunday school kids. Matthew decided it would be a great idea to dump his box of cereal on top of his piece of cake. He’s awesome. [See all that red? It’s Pentecost, baby. We were a sea of red today.]

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Categories children/youth, pastoring, ROG, seasons.

Dear Lindsay of middle school,

24 Apr

As a pastor who loves working with confirmation-aged kids, I catch glimpses of my own past middle school experience as the confirmation kids share their own experiences. I slightly remember* what it was like to be awkward and a seventh grader. It wasn’t easy.

I was so incredibly lucky to have awesome friends. More or less the same awesome friends I still have now. [Dancing Banana shout-out!] But there was still drama. There was judging. There is terrible shit that goes on in middle schools. And I can’t imagine it if one doesn’t have awesome friends.

There are a couple gals in my confirmation class that often only have lows to share in the rounds of highs & lows. A lot of time, those lows are there’s just lots of drama at school.

Ugh. Drama.

What I want to say to them is much like what I would say to my own middle-school self –

Dear Lindsay of middle school,

Being popular doesn’t matter for shit. Forget those queen bees. They suck. You should just be nice to everyone. [And probably not say people suck. That wasn’t nice, future Lindsay.]

Be friends with the people who make you happy and people with whom you can be yourself and silly. Form a gang. Call it Oatmeal. Make cardboard necklaces for everyone in the gang with raw oats glued to them. Your name as gang leader shall be Raisin. **

The boys are pretty cute, aren’t they? But don’t worry about them. Just because they’re eye candy doesn’t mean they’re worth crying over.

School work is important but trying to get straight A’s isn’t worth sick stomachs and sleepless nights. And hey – good job on that newspaper writing competition.

Please, quit wearing the over-sized flannel shirts and carpenter jeans sooner than later.

That one day, after school, when marching band rehearsal gets out late and everyone sprints back to the band room – hold onto your flute a little tighter. Trust me.

The drama will end. It will be okay.

Signed,

Future Lindsay

I started to write this post before confirmation met tonight. I finish it after confirmation. After the one confirmand who-never-has-a-high-and-her-low-is-always-drama had a high that the drama has ended. Hallelujah. Confirmation was awesome tonight. Not only did every seventh and eighth grader have a high – if not many – we threw out our lesson for the night because all they wanted to do was ask questions. About God. About the Bible. About doubts. We tackled a few tonight the best we could and they made a list for next week. Here’s to the freedom to ask questions and doubt in church. Important stuff.

* I quite literally remember NOTHING about my seventh grade year. It’s a blur to me. I remember some of sixth grade and some of eight but seventh? Nada.

** True story.

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Categories children/youth, friends., ministry., pastoring, reflective., relationships., ROG, self., time., transition., Uncategorized

Friday favorites?

12 Apr

Not in the traditional sense this week. My Friday was spent in two of my favorite places, neither being this computer compiling links and lists of favorite things. Two places –

1. My sewing room. Suddenly, in the last week, there has been a project on the design wall that grew and grew and I couldn’t stop working on it. The quilt is now on my dining room table, ready to be sandwiched with batting by millions of safety pins. It was going to be a quilt I give away but that jury is out; I’m kinda in love with it. Especially the back. [Not shown. Cliffhanger!]

2. The elementary school. You know last week when I complained about not being a needed volunteer in first grade anymore? About an hour after I published that post, I received a phone call. Could I please come in? There was a big project and they needed my help. Of course! I went to the elementary school and traced about twenty first graders on a very large roll of paper. I traced and then they cut themselves out. [It takes longer than you think to trace a kid or twenty!] Today I had to go back to finish up the last fifteen kids or so.

That was my Friday, about to be rounded out by old episodes of The Office, red wine, and a skype date with some of my favorite people who live in Montana. How was your Friday?

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Categories children/youth, friday favorites, quilts/crafts, television.

A story of how I got left at the altar.

5 Mar

[A story of how I got left at the altar.] It’s a snow day for the local schools. The custodian came out to church while I was there and brought her kids along. The youngest – we’ll call her T. – is always my biggest helper when she’s here. She’s five -ish and eager to do anything. Today, she helped me finish a bulletin board in the hallway and then she wanted to color on my white board. Cool. Go to town, T.

She finished the picture out of my view and then asked me to guess what she had drawn. There’s no way I could have anticipated this one. She turned the white board around –

T: That’s you. (pointing to the purple lady)
Me: Cool. What’s the red stuff?
T: Roses. It’s your wedding.
Me: It’s my wedding?!
T: Yup. And you’re surrounded by roses!
Me: Where’s my husband?
T: Oh. He didn’t want to come.

Is this a prophet in my midst? Is she telling signs of my future?

Me: He didn’t want to come to his own wedding?
T: Actually it’s not your wedding. It’s your birthday party. But he still didn’t want to come. He doesn’t like roses.

A birthday party for me and I’m the only one who shows up.

At least I bought myself flowers, I guess.

Tags: featured

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Categories children/youth, for funny., relationships., Uncategorized

Weekend update.

3 Mar

[Weekend update.] After a week of three funerals in Lent, I was ready for a weekend. I turned off the alarm clock and enjoyed a lazy day and a half [until I had to write my Sunday sermon on Saturday night]. It was wonderful and much needed.

On Friday, I hung out with my favorite three classes of first graders, got a manicure [I had a gift certificate from Christmas to use.], and made potpies with butternut squash and kale. Yummy. Since all I ate last week were funeral lunches and bowls of cereal, it was simply super fun to cook again. Can you smell the garlic sautéing? So delicious.

On Saturday, I found time to quilt and sleep and go for walks with Miss Mabel. Today after church, Paige and I hit up the outlet mall and I came home with new treadmill kicks and pajama pants with rowboats on them. [I’m anticipating a sleepover this coming weekend with two friends; I needed new pajama pants. Naturally.]

A bonus story: Ever since I’ve moved, my mailbox has received an odd piece of post or two. Odd because they’re not addressed to me; they’re addressed to my mom. At my address. The Scrubs magazine? Makes sense since my mom is a nurse. However — Beyond the Bean? Addressed to my mom? At this house? Weird.

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Categories children/youth, food., friends., sabbath., shoes., snail mail.

I give thanks.

17 Feb

[I give thanks.] A post written in the rhythm of @UnvirtuousAbbey without the awesome humor and retweets. Read mine and then add your own. What do you give thanks for this day?

For a mandoline to quickly and uniformly slice sweet potatoes for the week, I give thanks. It’s like the guillotine. For yams.

For members who one day are seemingly against anything I say and the next day are the ones volunteering to pray and bringing bars of soap for our LWR care kits, I give thanks.

For completely sincere, supportive, and loving emails from a sincere, supportive, and loving friend, I give thanks. [That’s all you, broken mothership.]

For dark chocolate sea salt popcorn, I give thanks. For the P90x cardio dvd to offset the dark chocolate sea salt popcorn, I also give thanks.

For internet that finally works without powering down the router at church every six to eight hours, I give immense thanks.

For a double dose of The Bachelor this week, I will give thanks. [No judging. Sometimes the prospect of trashy tv gets me through my day.]

For Hannah who made me a tissue paper flower and helped me set up for worship, I give thanks. [Hannah -6ish years old- made tissue paper flowers with her grandma. Her grandma asked, “Who do you want to give this to?” certain the answer would be her mother. Unprompted, her response was Pastor Lindsay. I melt.]