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Lefse, fist bumps, and Doctor Who.

25 Nov

That was my weekend – lefse and fist bumps and Doctor Who.  Sounds pretty high on the awesome scale, right?  It was.

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On Saturday, I packed up my lefse griddle and pastry board and drove to Owatonna for a midday lefse adventure.  My gnome friends invited me over to cook rounds of potato goodness.  It was a great way to spend a Saturday.  Laughter and potatoes.  Sabrina wrote about it on her blog and gives a better summary of the day than I could ever muster – check it out here.

On Sunday, there were fist bumps.  So I’m sick.  My cold keeps progressing through different stages and yesterday was the tickle-in-my-throat stage.  Ugh.  Because of my sickness, I try and model germ-free ways to greet each other and share the peace during worship; thus, I did not shake hands.  [I think it’s silly to suspend the passing of the peace in the winter.  Let’s share peace in other ways: wave, elbows, fist bumps, peace sign.  Endless possibilities.]  For the sharing of the peace, I waved.  Then, at the close of service, as I greeted people in the back, I fist bumped everyone.  It was hilarious.  One of the ushers, a twenty-something, said afterwards, That was the funniest thing I’ll see all day.  Old people learning to fist bump.  To their credit, they were all very receptive and fist bumped like pros.  [And, let’s face it, I added to their list.  #49 on their list of Why My Pastor is Crazy and Weird.]

Lastly, Doctor Who.  I get it.  I finally get it.  Doctor Who gets lots of hype these days, especially this past weekend with an anniversary special and all.  I’ve tried for a long time to watch the show.  I want to be in the know; I want to follow the crowd and love the thing that everyone else loves.  [Wait a second …]  Months ago, friends recommended that I start at the beginning.  Okay.  I did … but I didn’t get it.  Turns out that was because they didn’t mean start at the 1960s beginning but the Christopher Eccleston beginning.  That made a difference.  I just made it through his tenure at Doctor and have begun David Tennant’s … and I get it.  I like it.  I’m going to keep watching while I quilt my British flag hexagon quilt.  It feels fitting that most of it be constructed while watching the BBC.

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A perfect fall day.

15 Oct

Not today.  Today is rainy and gloomy.  I shut my alarm off unknowingly in my slumber and went back to sleep this morning because it was so gray.  [Then I showered and served lutefisk at the Lutheran church in Blooming Prairie for a couple hours.  Uffda.]

But Sunday – Sunday was the perfect fall day.  There was a little chill to the morning but the sun came out to play later and stayed around for most of the day.  It was a fall festival afternoon at Red Oak Grove.  Farmer Tom pulled a crowd of us on hayracks to the woods where we had a bonfire and a nature scavenger hunt.  Fun.

The fun continued at Farmer John’s down the road.  Paige, jD, Lauren and Elliot came over and we went in search of the perfect appa.  [That’s Elliot-speak for pumpkin.]  We explored the fields, the silo slide, and then came back to the parsonage for chili and pumpkin dessert.  The perfect fall day all around.

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Lauren captured this photo and I just think it’s the best. Of his own accord, Elliot grabbed both of our hands and we started walking together. For cute times a million.

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Friday Favorites.

6 Sep

Are you ready?  For the weekend?  For a post of awesome internet things?  Both?

Here we go –

What’s this?  Only a timeline of the Back to the Future movies which, you may or may not recall, are my favorites!

The minute it gets cool again, this is on my menu – vegan quinoa sweet potato chili.

Maybe some pesto guacamole too.  I could get behind that.

I learned about a new app today.  Voxer is essential a walkie talkie for your phone but the person you’re talking to doesn’t necessarily need to listen in real time.  The message is waiting whenever you’re ready.  I’ve been voxing [what a fun new verb] with my banana friend, Krissy, who is back in the hospital with a blood clot in a vein in her brain.  It’s hard for her to text or type an email since it hurts to even open her eyes … and so we vox Adam Sandler movie quotes and beauty tips back and forth.  [And it’s free.]

Talking about poor Krissy reminds me that these are in the fridge.  I will bake them and mail them to her family.  [When I’m too far from friends to actually lend a hand or give a hug, I mail cookies.  It’s my default.]

Okay.  Enough messing around.  It’s time to get serious.  Have you ever … [long dramatic pause]

drank egg coffee?  I first heard about egg coffee when I was on internship in Dawson and remember being appalled at the thought.  However, then I read this article about egg coffee on The Kitchn in regards to coffee drank at the Minnesota State Fair.   I think it’s about time I tried. Want to come over and drink coffee made with eggs?  I’ll save you a twix bar chocolate chip cookie.

That’s all for favorite links.  This weekend I’m off doing one of my favorite activities – taking confirmation kids to camp!  jD and I planned the retreat together again [second annual!] and it should be a great time for both his students and mine.

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.

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

A quilt for a baby girl.

30 Jul

This quilt went out the door and in the mail today.  It’s a quilt for a girl about to be born into a house filled with boys.  She will have four very proud and protective brothers to watch out for her!  Because she’s the first girl, I figured there was no route to go but pink all the way.  Pink, pink, pink.

I followed a pattern for this one and added appliqued circles to my list of techniques tried.  I’m pretty content with how it turned out.  I hope the soon-to-be-born baby girl banana enjoys its warmth and sprinkling of love from her Auntie Lindsay!

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Bruises, burns, and brrrrrr.

29 Jul

A timeline of my thoughts regarding the overnight kayaking adventure I had –

Before the trip: Holy shit.  I’m nervous.  This could be scary.  Am I ready for this?

Going to bed in a tent while it’s raining on an island after paddling all day: This was a good experience but I don’t think I need to do it again.

Today:  It was great!  Maybe I’ll go for two nights next time.

Sara and I drove north of Bayfield to the outfitter where we would meet our guide and group.  It was freezing with high potential of rain.  Great kayaking weather for Lake Superior, right?  We were handed wetsuits and PFDs.  We met our guide and our group.  Our guide, Jose, was awesome-sauce.  The group was also awesome.  Sara and I had gone over worse case scenarios before we arrived – who the worst group members could be.  None of that was realized.  JP, a history teacher from Chicago, was crazy in a ditzy, fun way.  Ryan and Casey, a couple from Chicago, were fun and energetic.  Sue, a retired woman with lots of paddling experience, had traveling stories of trips to all seven continents and 49 states.  Great group with whom to spend the next 30 hours.

We talked about the Ws of paddling – wind, weather, water, etc.  We learned paddling strokes on land.  We learned what to do if our kayak tipped in the water, ie how to do a wet exit.  And then we had to practice wet exits.  In 50 degree temperatures.  In the cold, Lake Superior water.

Sara and I were in a tandem kayak.  When it was our turn, we leaned to the left and plunged under water. We hugged the boat, hit the bottom of the kayak to let our fellow kayakers know that we were okay [you know, except being in an overturned kayak in freezing water] and not unconscious.  We each pulled the “oh shit” loop on our skirts and slid out and to the surface.  That was the easy part.  Then we had to get back in; a process by which I ended up under water a second time after getting in the first time and gained a bruise the size of a dinner plate on my leg.  [I’m not exaggerating.  The bruise is the size of a small dinner plate.]

All of that behind us, we ate lunch on site and then packed our kayaks for the night.  Our destination was Oak Island and we made it there in under three hours of paddling.  The weather held out until our last 45 minutes or so.  As we fought waves and 10-15 MPH wind, it started to rain.  Awesome.  But we made it.  And it turned out those waves wouldn’t quite compare to what we would face the next day.

We set up camp, ditched the wetsuits, and walked the beach.  Jose began making dinner – grilled whitefish, rice, hot veggies, warmed bread, and warmed brie.  Brie warmed in tinfoil over the fire.  This is my kind of camping.  When the outfitter promised gourmet camping meals, they weren’t kidding.  We played a little apples to apples before the sun went down, ate s’mores, put all of our food and smellables in the bear box, peed in the woods*, and went to bed.   [*We peed in the woods even though there was an outhouse on the island.  We peed in the woods because Sara saw a mouse there.  I’ll take woods over mice.]

Coffee and breakfast burritos the next morning.  Taking down camp and packing up kayaks.  Then we waited.  To go back to the outfitter, we had to pass through a channel where there was no land protecting us from the wind.  And it was windy.  Jose had us hold off, hoping the wind would decrease.  We waited and I’m not sure the wind actually did slow down but we had to go.  Two to three foot swells and waves.  We faced them head on.  My mouth was dry the entire  trip across the channel.  That I don’t need to do again anytime soon – but we all made it.

After that, the rest of the paddle was a breeze.  We saw bald eagles [Jose loves birds so he would be mid-sentence and suddenly yell and point, “Bald eagle!”], shipwrecks, and the red cliffs characteristic of the Apostle Islands.  The sun graced us with its presence finally; long enough to burn the side of my neck and back of my hands.  It was also fun just to see how much all of us improved at handling our kayaks.  The first day when Jose had us gather together, we’d be running into each other and floating away.  But before we arrived back at the outfitter, Jose gathered us up to give us final instructions and we were awesome.

Would I do it again?  Probably.  Still love kayaking.  But I might be more apt for river and smaller lake paddling.  Those two to three foot waves are not my friends.

The eyes in front.
Welcome to Oak Island!
Looking classy after a day on the water.
the tent Sara and I shared. #tightquarters
A bit more of camp.
Killing time, waiting for the wind to decrease.
Jose leading the way back.
Lunch stop.

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A Bavarian Blast.

21 Jul

I write from my private-room-shared-bath home for the next week at Madeline Island School of the Arts.  I haven’t been here long.  Since getting on the 6:30 ferry from Bayfield, I’ve unpacked and attended the wine and cheese party before coming back to my room to opt for comfy clothes and blogging.  My first impressions of the week to come?  This is not a place people my own age go. [One of the youngest people here.  Mostly retired folks.]  I share a bathroom with a woman named Bambi.  There are three classes going on this week; the instructor of the painting course is Spanish and attractive.  [Woman in my class says to me as he walks in, “I think we took the wrong class.  Our instructor didn’t walk in with a shirt half unbuttoned!”  … our instructor is also a woman.  Two older retired women I walked back to my room with said they were taking his class because he was cute.  Ha.]  Paul, a physics professor at Augsburg in Minneapolis is here while his wife takes a class; he offered to be my bike riding buddy.  And I’ve just been here for a couple hours!  I think there will be stories, folks.  Lots of stories.

Until more stories unfold, I must tell you about my day yesterday.  The Bavarian Blast in New Ulm.

New Ulm is about 1.5 hours from me.  I traveled there to meet my friend, James.  James is a friend from seminary, currently serving his first call in Pennsylvania.  He was in MN visiting his dad and en route to Iowa to visit his mom.  The Bavarian Blast in New Ulm seemed like the perfect place to reconnect.  Why not, eh?

What’s a Bavarian Blast?  Three stages of polka music.  Brats and strudel.  Beer.  Lots of guys with super white legs in lederhosen.  A viking.  A wiener dog race.  And – wait for it – people dressed as gnomes and morel mushrooms!  I kid you not.  It was an experience.  We ate lunch and enjoyed the polka music for awhile before leaving to explore more of New Ulm, including the downtown and the Herman the German statue.  [It’s a thing.]

Here’s what I walked away with: Friends are fun.  It was so great just to explore something new with a friend.  It was so great to laugh and catch up and hug.  I miss that – exploring random places and random events and having fun no matter the surrounding.  Le sigh.

Would I go to the Bavarian Blast again?  Eh.  It was $9 to get in.  $9 for three stages of polka music.  I could probably pass.  But make it an outing with a good friend and I probably wouldn’t put up too much of a fight. And the next time I would be sure to dance with a gnome.

HUGE tent of polka.
Can you see the gnomes and mushrooms dancing the chicken dance? I lament I did not join them. I could have danced with gnomes and instead, I let the opportunity pass me by.
Gnomes and mushrooms are friends.
Gnome!
The wiener dog race drew quite a crowd.
Herman the German.

Friday Favorites.

5 Jul

After a week hiatus, I’m back.  And I must say – three day weekends are my favorite.  It’s nice to have a holiday that falls on a Thursday and not a Monday because that means three days off for this person who has to work on Sundays.  Also my favorites –

Feedly.  Normally, many of my Friday Favorites would come from the blogs I follow on google reader.  Google reader met its planned demise on July 1st.  Google shut it down.  On June 30, I made the dreaded switch to another feed reader, Feedly.  And I love it.  Almost more than the dead google reader.

This summer veggie tortellini looks super yummy.

When you eat with a knife and fork, do you cut and switch?  This story is about the ways Americans eat … and why we should change.  I find this whole idea fascinating.  It comes on the tail end of finishing David Lebovitz’s book about living in Paris, in which he talks about how once the French start eating a meal, they never put their knife down.

I had no plans yesterday for the Fourth, which was really okay.  I did miss my Bananas, the people with whom I spent so many Fourth of July’s, having so much fun.  While missing them, I spent the day cleaning, washing furniture slipcovers, and quilting, all of which were really okay.  I dived back into a baby quilt that needs to be done soon and spent time thumbing through quilting books I had just checked out from the library.  It’s in one of those books that I fell in love –

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I want to make this quilt.  It’s primarily scraps and so simply awesome.  Think it would make a cute baby quilt?

Speaking of babies, have I shared with you this photo of a baby in a crocheted Cabbage Patch wig/hat?  There is nothing more adorable.

A happy sewing room.

13 Jun

Blog break!  [I feel like a need a song to sing.  Blog break!  Blog break!  Blog break!]

I’m at work on the last day of what feels like the longest week ever.  After being at Synod Assembly last Friday and Saturday, it quite literally has been an eleven day work week.  And so I declare a blog break to tell you about my happy sewing room.

I cleaned it last night.  I technically cleaned it in preparation for my mom and sister [who arrive tomorrow so we can fly out of MSP on Saturday]; the futon lives in my sewing room and someone will need to sleep on it.  That wouldn’t have been possible filled with stacks of fabric and odd sewing supplies.

It’s now a happy place to which I’m ready to return.  I have a couple more baby quilts for friends to complete before the summer is out and I have a silent auction baby quilt to make.

A what?  A silent auction baby quilt.  Jenna, my friend and Luther College fellow alum, chairs a Twin Cities Luther alum event – one that raises money for Luther scholarships.  She emailed and asked if, as a Luther alum, I’d be willing to contribute something to the silent auction.  Oh, for nice.  I was honored and certainly willing.  Give me an excuse to make a baby quilt and I’m there.  I’m ready to start finding new patterns and fabric!  I’m ready to make my sewing room messy again with creativity.

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Friday Favorites.

31 May

The “keeping my chin up” edition.

It’s been a rough week here.

Burned out.

No motivation.

Tears.

Le sigh.

In the midst of it, these are happy things:

I certainly don’t need a garland of pool noodles, but, gosh, do I want to make one.  Or five.  [Sara, are you with me on this one?]

The Bachelorette began this past week and I got a tv antenna installed just in time to tune in every Monday.  The Bachelorette not your thing?  Fair enough.  It doesn’t need to be everyone’s guilty pleasure.  But maybe you want to watch The Baby Bachelor?  [Thanks to Emma for directing that one to me.]

I redbox’ed Promised Land last night.  Two of my favorites – Matt Damon & John Krasinski – together in one film.  Promised land indeed.

As my mom, sister, and I travel to Alaska in a couple weeks, we’ll be going on the fringe of rainy season.  Bring a rain jacket, my brother advised.  Well, I don’t own an appropriate rain jacket and so I ordered one.  I was going to order a calm blue one from LLBean but they were out of stock.  My next favorite color?  BRIGHT yellow.  I’m going to look like a rubber ducky but it will make any gloomy, rainy day brighter.

In the midst of a crazy not-so-good week, there were bright spots.  A phone conversation with a friend in Tennessee, running into a Dawson friend briefly while walking my dog between here and the cemetery, a skype date with friends in Montana, and a sermon writing afternoon with jD and [five minutes with] Paige.

And here’s to hoping the overall emotions of next week only go up.

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