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A hand offered.

19 Mar

[A hand offered.]  A gentleman offered me his hand tonight.

No, not that.

I was about to cross over the treacherous bit of parking lot that was covered with chunky ice and the deceiving is-it-water-or-ice-in-between-kinda stuff.  I was wearing dress shoes and being slightly cautious.  The gentleman I was walking with offered his hand to help me over the icy patch.

It delighted me.

Call it chivalry.  Call it an action of caring.  Call it what you will but it made me happy inside.

Perhaps it made me feel cared for.  Perhaps it helped me to feel … no.  Actually, pretty sure it is the first.  I felt cared for.

I know I have oodles of family and friends and people in my life who care for me.  Don’t get me wrong – I know that.  [Once more – I know.  And I thank you, family and friends.]  But on a day-to-day basis, I don’t often have people by my side offering a hand [or a hug or a pat on the back] to help me thru an icy patch – be it actual ice or a metaphor.  [One guess who is feeling deprived of physical touch these days.  Hugs are important, people.]

I didn’t actually take his hand.  Dumb, independent Lindsay turned down help again.  I opted for safer crossing a couple feet down the sidewalk.  If I was going down, he didn’t need to go down with me.

All the same, thank you, mister man, for your act of caring.  It was probably just second nature to you and what your momma taught you was right to do, but I appreciated it.  Enough to even write a blog post about it.  That says something.  [But not a whole lot.  QC isn’t a super high order around here.]

Friday Favorites.

15 Mar

[Friday Favorites.]

I’m into reading about food lately.  Books by chefs and cool people like that.  Current reads: The Sweet Life in Paris by my favorite Parisan food blogger and An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler.

Travel Cat on Jaunted.com travel site.  Apparently people submit photos of cats while traveling.  This particular one is by @theangryskittle, aka my older brother.

Oh, no, you didn’t.  I’m drooling at the computer.  [almond-thumbprint-cookies-with-dark-chocolate-and-sea-salt.]  These should be on my weekend to-do list.  If I had people to share it with, I would be making this for Sunday – Magic Munch for St.Patty’s.  Since we’re talking about food [always], I’ve made this recipe for sweet potato fries with avocado twice in the last week.  It’s the paprika.

If my hair is losing its curl, what does this then mean?

Source: tumblr.com via Priscilla on Pinterest

And isn’t this the truth –

Source: Uploaded by user via Kristina on Pinterest

That’s all for today, folks.  Happy weekend!

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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.

photo-75

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Friday Favorites.

1 Mar

[Friday Favorites.]  I don’t have much for favorites this week.  Instead of being online or finding cools things on pinterest, I’ve been writing sermons and preparing for funerals.  Hopefully, I’ll be back in full force next Friday.  For now, just two things –

First, I went on a search for instrumental music to use during our Wednesday night Lenten service.  Just by happy happenstance, I clicked on this album because of it’s beautiful cover.  In a Time Lapse.  I’m in love.  I ended up buying the whole album and have listened to it a lot in the last couple days.  It’s great for writing sermons.

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Second, I just caught up on Jon Stewart during my breakfast this morning.  This segment on maple syrup in Canada struck me as one of the most funny things I’ve seen in a long time.  It’s great.

Okay.  Just kidding.  One more thing – in my sorrow and self-pity and sleepiness after such a crazy week – I bought this.  I just love colorful things in my kitchen and I think it will come in handy.  I’m already anticipating its glorious arrival early next week.

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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.]

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Your turn.

Friday Favorites.

15 Feb

[Friday Favorites.]

Gosh, I love everything about this.  Post-its, fun messages to leave around the house [though I don’t think Mabel can read], and endless possibilities all around.

This is my crazy cousin, Molly.  I love her and seriously think she may have a future as a professional lip syncer. 

I LOVE the idea of an indoor herb garden.  Oh, to have cilantro on hand.  Have you had any luck with indoor herbs?  I seem to kill them off.  Maybe [you and] I can find a few handy tips here.

Salted dark chocolate popcorn, you sound absolutely delightful.

You know how I get about Thai food.  Do you also know how I get about the Pioneer Woman?  [Love her.  Want to be her.]  Take those two hands and put them together [said like Joey from Friends].  I present to you Thai Chicken Wraps by Ree.

And, last but not least, this I need to believe and begin to live:

Joy.

12 Feb

[Joy.]  Ministry is hard.

I’m reminded of that this week more than ever.  It’s not any one thing in particular.  It’s prepping for Lent.  It’s congregational reports taking more time than I want them to take.  It’s realizing on Tuesday that I won’t get a weekend this week.  It’s having more people on my to-visit list than I can feasibly actually visit.  It’s two sermons a week for the next six weeks.  It’s organizing youth for a lock-in and acolyting and Lenten suppers.  This isn’t new stuff and it’s not unique-to-me stuff.  But it’s hard, and the difficulty is striking a new chord this week.

And so, in times like this, I look for joy.  I need a little joy this week.  Okay – I need a lot of joy this week.  Here is where I’m finding mine; where are you finding yours?

I made mini-heart cookies. For being a spinster, I actually love the crafts and baking that come with Valentine’s day.
I mailed these to mi madre y hermana.
The first block of a new quilt. It will be the most involved and challenging I’ve ever made. I’m ready for it.
I *finally* went to get fingerprinted so I can get a license to substitute on my day off. Subbing will bring me joy.

Featured photo: First grade Valentine’s art work adorn the halls in Blooming Prairie.  I love it.

friday favorites.

8 Feb

It’s been a crazy week.  I’m sorry I haven’t been more bloggy.  Turns out returning  to work after vacation will make you crazy — so crazy that your administrative assistant just knows to bring you Girl Scout cookies to help manage your stress.


Two things: You encourage me.  And — say, what’s your space jam?  [Watch this.  It will make sense and will make your whole day better, I promise.]

Need a DIY Valentine’s idea?  These are super cute and all they require is a printer, some cardstock, and fun candies.  [Okay.  And maybe some twine and bags and tape.]

Skillet Chicken Pot Pie with Butternut Squash sounds entirely delicious.  It may be a great comfort food as the anticipated winter storm approaches this weekend.

I signed up for a continuing education class in July.  It’s a journaling/art class at the art school on Madeline Island.  I am beyond excited to escape to the island for a week, squash my inner critic, and enjoy the water.  Upon further investigation, I also learned that the instructor for the class is a creativity coach.  I’m in love with her already.

Does your phone or ipad or laptop need a fun desktop background?  How About Orange has some cute options … and they’re free!

I love everything this woman quilts.  Seriously.  She is my inspiration.

DC.

22 Jan

[DC.] Did you watch the inauguration?  It was probably the first time I’ve sat and really watched and listened to the inauguration of a president.  It was wonderful.  I’d be lying if I said I didn’t cry a little bit during the POTUS’ speech.  And love FLOTUS’ haircut.

And it made me want to go to DC.

I’ve been twice.  First for senior class trip in high school.  My classmates and I boarded coach buses and drove thru the night to the city filled with history and culture.  We stayed through the week, filling our days with historical monuments, museums, and flying kites on the national mall.  [We had a free afternoon to explore the Smithsonian buildings but we were so tired of playing the tourist.  So we played the weirdos who flew kites on the mall.]  It was a wonderful trip.  My friends and I made memories we still talk about today.

The second time I was a junior? senior? in college.  Being at the liberal arts college I was, I joined the Student Global Aids Campaign.  We were all about AIDS awareness and advocating for available treatment and prevention.  In one weekend, we road tripped – again in a coach bus – to DC to march in an AIDS march.  It was an incredible whirlwind trip of which we spent 40 hours on a bus and only 10 hours actually in DC.  It was crazy and a great college experience.  March in DC for a cause dear to my heart?  Check.  [Above is the only photo I could find on my current computer.  Proof that I was there, along with my friends Kara and Deb.  Also proof my hair used to be really long and kinda gross.]

DC.  I’m ready to go back, explore it again, and immerse myself in the history again.  Add it to the travel list.

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I cry.

5 Jan
I figured out a tear trigger for me.
I always cry at animal movies, but really can’t say I’m the biggest animal person in the world.  I mean, I like animals but don’t really care an extraordinary amount about the gorilla at the zoo.  I’ve always wondered why I cry so when the people are saving the whale or helping the dog get home.
I cry at underdog movies.  Movies where the baseball team comes from behind after working together.  Or the movies when the bigger and better team/person/etc. moves to help the smaller and horrible team/person/etc.  Or the movies where the townsfolk support the awkward guy who buys a life-size sex doll and pretends it’s his girlfriend.  [Okay.  That’s just one movie and it’s called Lars and the Real Girl.]  
Then, tonight, I cried at this.  This ten year old boy in Philadelphia saves up his allowance money to give to the local animal shelter because he loves cats so much and he wants them to find homes.  Seriously, Lindsay?
I think I’m a sucker for people who help.  I’m a sucker for the people who bond together for a common cause – whether to save a whale or change someone’s life or give someone another chance.   I even cried during the latest Spiderman movie when all the construction workers moved their cranes to help Spidey travel through the city.  
I wish I was joking but nope.  There were actual tears.
They bonded together to help Spiderman and I turned into a puddle.  
Geez.  
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