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a thankful november: babies.

17 Nov
It seems I’m surrounded by babies.  All my friends have babies or are having babies.  [I don’t.  But this isn’t meant to be a lament … moving on.]  And I’m thankful for them.

I like babies.  I always have.  The joke in high school was that I was going to have, like, eight babies.  [I haven’t.  But this isn’t meant to be a lament … moving on.]  I love holding them and dressing them and playing with them, she says as if they are dolls.  I know they’re not dolls.  

Babies are on the brain because yesterday I packed a box with two quilts inside to send to Montana.  I am thankful for babies because they give me a quilting purpose.  I am thankful for babies because these particular two baby girls fulfill a mommy and daddy dream for two of my favorite people.  I am so thankful that this pair of baby girls were born early this morning, healthy and beautiful!  I can’t wait to meet them.

a thankful november: the three musketeers.

6 Nov
I’ve been gone.  Fall theological convention in Onalaska, WI, baby!  It’s a crazy time.  You might want to disagree.  A theological convention for pastors is crazy?  I don’t lie.  There were hot tub parties, dinners with crazy travel stories, Spotted Cow, and lots of laughs. 
I went with jD and Paige.  Are you surprised?
The synod staff sitting at the registration table wasn’t.  Here come the three musketeers, they chimed as we slipped on our nametags.  They had fun-size three musketeer bars on the registration table.  We each ate one.  It was fitting.  Then jD and I drank a Spotted Cow while Paige drank a cranberry juice.  Also fitting.
I really couldn’t imagine a fall theological convention without them.  In our last year here, we’ve made some new friends too; we weren’t an exclusive group of three musketeers [or the newly labeled kkk – kool kids klub].  We had a crazy late night in our friend, Karen’s, room, discussing the red flannel decor and the fact that I never smile.*   We went out to supper at Piggy’s in downtown LaCrosse with a large group of pastor friends.  The Sunday afternoon through Tuesday morning requirement went by fast.  A car ride home with a game of spill-your-guts:what-don’t-we-know-about-each-other ended the adventure.
I’m thankful for my fellow musketeers [and their families].  Without them, fall theological would be much more work, less fun, and life in ministry would simply be more difficult and lonely.  
We texted this photo to jD to give him a clue to our whereabouts.  His response?  Where the hell are you?  Exactly.

* I was told to smile! in passing once more at the conference.  Strangers, synodical ministers, friends, you name it.  I apparently walk around with a frown on my face.

vacation.

22 Oct
I feel like I needed to come back to Austin to rest up.  From vacation.  It was a busy one.
Vacation got a late start.  Originally, I was going to drive home to Wisconsin on Saturday morning but then MasterChef excitement entered the equation.  I was going to go home Saturday night but then MasterChef excitement continued through Monday.  [which meant church at ROG went on Sunday morning as Mabel and I hid in the parsonage, pretending we weren’t there.]  It was late Monday night when I finally stepped foot at my mom’s on Aarback Road and it was for the last time.
Going home meant staying at this home [where my family has been since I was 16] for the last time.  My mom has sold the house and is in the process of building another.  The current home must be moved out of by mid-November.  The future home will not be done until mid-December.  My mom is moving into my grandparent’s for the month of limbo and that means I am homeless when I drive home for thanksgiving.  [There’s a couch out there somewhere with my name on it.]
It was super crazy and weird to stay for the last time in this house.  I’ve moved enough in my life to not be super attached to locations or houses, but this place was still home for the last 12 years.  Super weird.  But seeing the skeleton of the new house come together was exciting too.  And seeing my mom excited about it makes me excited.  All will be well.
So there was that.  And there was hurriedly finishing a baby quilt for Banana, Kim, as I went to her baby shower on Saturday before driving back to MN.  [I was in such a rush to finish it and wrap it for the shower that I forgot to take a picture of it!  It was chevron stripe-y in cream, brown, red, green, blue, and polka dots.  Super cute, if-I-don’t-say-so-myself.]  There was a movie night with Aunt Kari and cousin Molly.  We had family over one evening for dinner since my brothers from Appleton and Alaska were home too.  Alaska brother taught us a new card game – Sheepshead.  Super complicated and fun.  Visiting all sorts of family and friends and beginning to reread Harry Potter rounded out the all-too-fast week.
We didn’t see this.  Pitch Perfect was the movie of choice.

Look at this little man with huge eyes!  A banana baby.

Molly and I colored with cousins Logan and Kennedy.  We created a combination sheep and buddy.  [A compromise made because Lindsay can’t make sheep faces.]

Mabes.

Baby shower for Kim and Mike!  As indicated by glass in bottom left corner, there was much wine at said shower.

pancake balls.

24 Sep
I’ve been a delinquent blogger.  I feel obliged to take you back to last weekend.

To the aebelskiver.

Aebelskiver?

Aebelskiver.

A Danish pancake ball.
Yum.
Paige and I attend this church supper, a supper put on by one of jD’s churches.  We both missed the event last year so it was exciting to learn what an aebelskiver was and eat seven of them.  [A full plate = seven balls.]  Not only that, given our close friendship with the pastor, we donned hairnets and had an aebelskiver lesson in the kitchen.  Given my love of ball-shaped foods, I feel as if I should perfect my aebelskiver approach.  Add it to the to-do list.

vacation.

23 Sep
And so Kate and I escaped to the woods.  I purchased a deal through Living Social for the Heartwood Conference Center.  Two nights in one of their hotel rooms just outside of Trego, WI.  We hiked, played bocce ball, and wooed the snack shack guy into giving us free hot chocolate.  [Okay.  We didn’t woo.  He just told us not to pay for it.  I think he liked our charm.]  It was a bit too chilly and windy to get out on the water [boo] but we had fun exploring by other means.  It was the perfect escape and as vacations normally go, one or two more nights would have been wonderful.

the drive.

a walk thru the woods.

this is what nighttime looked like.

a short hike along the st.croix on the way home.

wildness of the wilderness.

20 Sep
I ran away to the wilderness.  My friend, Kate, and I have been enjoying the resort, our vacation and the wilderness that is a part of it.  We hiked morning and afternoon today, a total of over eight miles.    Henry David Thoreau reminds us why it’s so important –

We need the tonic of wildness:To wade sometimes in the meadows
where the bittern and the meadow-hen lurk,
and hear the booming of the snipe;
To smell the whispering sedge where only
some wilder and more solitary fowl builds her nest,
and the mink crawls with its belly close to the ground.
At the same time we are earnest to explore and learn,
we require that all things be mysterious unexplorable,
that land and sea be infinitely wild,
unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable.
We can never have enough of nature,
We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor,
vast and titanic features:
The sea-coast with its wrecks,
the wilderness with its living and decaying trees,
the thunder cloud, the rain that lasts three weeks
and produces freshets.
We need to witness our own limits transgressed,
and some life pasturing freely where we never wander.

Closing my laptop now.  More about this retreat and my time away later. 

the fair.

18 Aug
It’s the week of the Steele County Free Fair.  It’s known as quite the fair in these parts and all week I’ve had people tell me what kind of food I should eat while there.  Paige and I went Thursday night with high expectations.
I think I’ve decided that I’m just not a fair person.  I used to go to the county fair every year in high school with friends.  We would meet up with our friends who would show animals, grab a quick burger from a stand, and then spread our blankets on the grass for whatever concert was in the grandstand that evening.  That was fun.  I was a that-kinda-fair person.
But the kind of fair person who goes to try as many things on a stick as they can or the kind of fair person who goes to eat their way down rows – that I am not.  I think some of it has to do not only with my non-existent goal of fair-going-and-eating, but with the amount of people too.  Paige and I started walking to the fairgrounds and I almost wanted to turn around as the streams of steady people flowed through the gates.  I don’t know.  I’ve just learned once more that fairs are not my ideal source of fun.
Now that I’ve been a complete downer and probably caused fair-going-and-loving types to feel bad …

That’s not to say that Paige and I didn’t enjoy ourselves at all or that we frowned the whole time.  We ate dinner at the Aurora Diner – a restaurant on site that is ran by one of jD’s churches.  Then we walked around.  At a political booth, we inquired about how to get vote no tshirts for the upcoming MN amendment vote.  [Not that we could wear them except out of town …]  And Paige ate shortcake.  We laughed at the llamas.  And then we walked around more.  And we ate nitro ice cream and played BINGO for a quarter a game.  And then we walked around more.  Then we left.

We did make a game out of it.  The game?  Who could spot the most church members.  Paige saw and greeted something like seven members.  I greeted a person twice and, not going to lie, it was the same member both times.  [I did see a couple I know from the church in Blooming; they said I could count them.  So three.]  Paige beat me out, over double the members I saw.  Seven times the members I saw.  [There is something to said about size of church and location of church and members but we did not take those factors into the equation.]
Will I rush to the State Fair?  No.  Will I be in any hurry to go again next year?  Probably not.  Did we win Bingo even once?  Nope.  But the gravy was good.  It’s been a long time since I’ve had gravy.

On a day like this – part two.

2 Aug
Today was a pretty awesome day.
Honestly, likely the best work day I’ve had in weeks.  Maybe months.
I feel a little guilty that this best-day-ever wasn’t spent visiting the elders of the congregations.  It wasn’t spent in worship with the members of Red Oak Grove.  It wasn’t even spent in conversation with anyone in the congregation.  But it was a necessary ministry day of big picture thinking.
It was a confirmation planning day with my imaginary coworkers, jD and Laura.  [Imaginary in that they are not technically my coworkers, wish as I may.  Not imaginary as in I made them up and talked to the wall all day.]  jD and I met at Red Oak Grove and skyped with Laura, a pastor in Hutchinson.  In a morning, we planned confirmation for the 2012 – 2013 school year and it will be super great.  I even ordered the curriculum today.  [A season of Freaks and Geeks.  That’s right –  you’re curious.  Too bad I can take absolutely no credit for the idea.]
Laura had to depart after the noon hour [I hear she was off to a meeting with you, Pastor Lori!] but jD and I continued our staff meeting over lunch at Applebee’s.  Another goal of ours is a joint confirmation retreat to kick off the year.  Schedule planned.  Details on paper.  Calendars filled out.  Super productive.
This isn’t the first time a day of planning has been a highlight.  Check out this post, a blast from the past of over two years ago.  I just get giddy with excitement about long-term planning with other people who are also excited about ministry possibilities. 
Right.  So let’s think about why this call might not be a great fit in the long run for Pastor Lindsay … but for now, here’s to continuing big picture thinking and making time for visioning with adjunct staff.  PL needs that.

saturday adventures.

15 Jul
It was a weekend of gnome chew toys, caves, dining cars, and ice cream.  
The occasion was visiting seminary friends.  Justin and James arrived Friday evening and stayed through church on Sunday morning.  Justin, my favorite person who used to always wear one black sock and one white sock, was visiting from Pennsylvania for the week, and it had been over two years since we had seen each other.  Two years!  Far too long.  James is still on campus at Luther but is also connected to Pennsylvania – a state he will hopefully be moving to soon for first call.  Pennsylvania is far away from Minnesota, she pouts.
They came and brought housewarming gifts.  One for me and one for Mabel.  For me?  Ninja cookie cutters.  [My confirmation kids will go crazy with excitement and envy.]  For Mabel?  A gnome chew toy which she destroyed within the first hour.  It was fun while it lasted.  Maybe I can patch up what isn’t chewed through; it could be a one-legged gnome.
Can you see Mr.Gnome’s red head?  And belt?  And entrails?
Saturday we were off for adventure.  Somehow we decided on Lanesboro, MN as our initial destination.  [The SPAM museum was vetoed.  They don’t know what they’re missing.]  We walked the tourist main street, scouring for the perfect lunch locale.  We stumbled upon this dining car, sandwiched between two tall brick buildings.  Luckily, there were three stools open at the counter so we squeezed ourselves in for some grilled cheese and fresh cut french fries.  
It seats about fifteen people between the counter and two tiny booths.
Do you know what Lanesboro is known for?  First, it’s spot on the Root River biking trail.  Second, it’s the rhubarb capital of the world.  [Did you hear that?!]  They even have their own soda flavor – Rhu-berry from the Spring Grove soda company.  They plant rhubarb in gardens like we plant hostas.  The festival is in June.  I know where I’ll be next year.
From Lanesboro, we were our typical indecisive selves.  We explored the town of Whalen.  Population: 63.  [It didn’t take long.]  Then we decided we needed to find ourselves a cave.  There were two options and we went for Niagra Cave in Harmony, MN.  [32 miles from Decorah.  I remember going to the cave while a student at Luther … but actually remembered nothing about the actual tour.]  We went 200 feet below ground in a series of tunnels, cathedral-like cave rooms, and up and down lots of stairs.  It was pretty cold and pretty cool.
And, then, I mean, how can you be only 32 miles from Decorah and not go?  Not possible.  We drove through the Luther campus and ate peanut butter cheeseburgers at T-Bock’s.  We took in the sight from Phelp’s Park of the Upper Iowa River and then had to stop at the Whippy Dip.  I mean, how can you be in Decorah and not stop at the Whippy Dip?  Not possible.  Justin had never been to the Whippy Dip and never to Decorah.  Done and done.  Check that off your midwest bucket list.
obligatory whippy dip photo.
We arrived back at the parsonage around 9pm.  James went night-night early; Justin and I stayed up.  We talked [I value deep and honest conversations with this friend. Thank you to Justin for being a great listener and conversationalist.], watched a movie, and Lindsay did not finish her Sunday morning sermon.  How was I supposed to write my sermon when I had a long-lost friend to be with?  Not possible.  I will take no grief; I know I made the right decision.  I eventually got to it.  It’s just been a long time since I’ve only gotten four hours of sleep.  [worth it.]
They left after church today and I don’t know who is more sad – Mabel or I.

Boo.

the fourth.

4 Jul
Fourth of July celebrations for Lindsay used to look like this:

Fourth of July today looks like Lindsay on the couch watching cheesy Australian television dramas on Netflix.
I’d prefer the former to the latter, please.
The former was from 2002, the summer following graduation from high school.  All through high school and all through college, I’m pretty sure our celebrations looked the same.  We’d hang out in Jenni’s side yard, throw water balloons at the neighbors [they started it.], and walk to the park for fireworks later in the evening, battling mosquitos the whole way there and back.  Most years, there were easily twenty of us gathered together eating hotdogs and drinking soda.  I miss that.  A lot.  [Everyone looks happy in the photo except Allen.  He looks pissed but really, he shouldn’t.  Along with America, it’s his birthday!]
Now, know that I haven’t been sitting on the couch all day.  I worked … kind of.  I went into Blooming Prairie to help sell soda and water along the parade route with the youth from ROG.  I use the word help loosely; it seemed I wasn’t entirely needed so I was that awkward pastor like I am so often.  I stayed in for the big BP parade – a parade that is known to draw up to 30,000 people to the town of 2200.  It was hot.  And long.  And I think I just don’t like parades.  But it wasn’t without fun.  One of the members I sat next to had awesome commentary the whole way through and it was good connection time with the youth.  Parade people threw tootsie rolls; that’s always a win-win.
After being in the heat for much of the day, I have little ambition now that I’m at home [hence the cheesy Australian television dramas].   And I suppose it doesn’t much matter.  I have no plans to go and watch fireworks because I have no one with whom to go.  [here’s your invitation to lindsay’s pity party.  please rsvp asp.]  sigh.  It’s a far cry being home alone than to the photo above with some of my bestest friends.  Paige, jD, and Lauren are all out of town; I should have taken the hint and left too.  Celebrating here is no fun without them.
Back to Netflix. 
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