there's no place like gnome.

Top left: Colorful bowls! They always make me happy in the cupboard.
Top middle: A pot of risotto to eat thru the week. Risotto is the best.
Top right: Quilting for a friend who is having her first baby.

Middle left: I made my own nut milk! My process needs some improvement but who wouldn’t be happy with a little almond-macadamia-date action in their coffee? (ps I found plastic lids for mason jars at target and LOVE them. I use mason jars on a regular basis for food storage and plastic is much swifter than searching for the two piece metal lids.)
Middle: The Grand Budapest Hotel. Delightful and entertaining as all Wes Anderson is.
Middle right: I was given ten of these sturdy file boxes for free. I’m painting them, repairing them, and three are now travel boxes on my shelf, storing momentos from past adventures.

Bottom left: I backed my curio cabinets with yellow polka dot fabric! Not the bold effect I had hoped for but I’ll do with the subtlety.
Bottom middle: The garden got some much, much needed attention. It looks good (to me, the novice gardener) and veggies are growing!
Bottom right: My mom is organizing photos and sent me this gem. Say hello to Lindsay in kindergarten.

It occurred to me that I talk A LOT about my favorite things. But I am not the only person (err, thing that breathes) in this house. And thus, here are some of Mabel’s favorite things:

Taking walks.

Sleeping like this.

Laying in the middle of the parking lot because, well, why not.

Drooling on my kitchen floor.

Snuggling.

Not pictured: treats, jumping on new people, getting overly excited at new people, car rides with her head out the window, shredding toilet paper if given the chance, ice cubes, always making space for herself on the couch, and doggy friends.

She’s a pretty good canine and companion. She’s one of my favorite things.

It’s a made-up and self-diagnosed condition that I have.

Project brain.

I have projects on my brain and can think of nothing else.  [I write this while at work because project brain strikes most intensely when there is a sermon to be written.  For hopeless.]

I said goodbye to Dave last night; he leaves for a 10-day wilderness adventure in Michigan with a friend.  Without him in the picture for next week and a half, I suddenly have a lot of free time.  Hello, projects.  Like these –

Shelves for my soon-to-be cleaned and organized home office.  I plan to wander around Lowe’s soon to find necessary supplies.

Backing the corner curio cabinets [aka my gnome homes] with fabric.

New curtains for the office.

A baby quilt for a friend and quilted potholders for another friend.

A little quote word art and a little furniture rearranging.

Not projects, but also on my suddenly-lots-of-free-time schedule of hopes and dreams –

Those final two episodes of the second season of Homeland that wait for me.

The Grand Budapest Hotel.  Must watch.

Weeding the garden.

Walks with Mabel.

… I think that’s enough for now.  But before all of it – sermon.  *sigh*

I have a shirt. It’s official now.

The last weekend in July I’ll be at Camp Erin as a Sharing Circle Leader for a group of 5-7 year olds who have experienced the death of a parent/close family member. It’s bound to be difficult and profound with lots of hope and laughter mixed in.

I had an all-staff meeting last week in the cities to learn more about the camp weekend and learn what my role would be. As a Sharing Circle Leader, I – along with the two other women on my team – will use provided curriculum to guide and facilitate conversation with our group of ten little ones four times throughout the weekend. When it isn’t sharing circle time, I will have other jobs to make camp run smoothly. You know, serving root beer floats and stuff. Because I’m a SCL, this also means that I will not be in the cabins with the kids. (That job belongs to the Cabin Big Buddies.) At first, that made me sad … but it will be okay. I’m just excited to be at camp in any capacity.

We have one more pre-camp event – a ‘save your spot’ pizza party that welcomes all campers and their families to come and meet the volunteers and ease their nerves. After that event next week, camp will soon be upon us.

First: Day camp! My favorite. Last Wednesday was the first Wednesday of day camp for the summer. We had a great time painting with dead fish and playing sardines. (Eating sardines too. I didn’t think anyone would touch them but they devoured a tin of them in just a few minutes!)

Second: Kayaking! My favorite. Dave and I went out last Friday. I impressed him with my mad kayak skills and we both got a little wet, but it was all okay.

Third: Visitors! My favorite. My college roomie, Amanda, and her husband, Joe, are staying at the parsonage for the week. It’s home base for them as they begin to get things squared away to move to Minnesota again after a few years in Texas. Our weekly skype dates can now be replaced with in-person dates!

If you know me well at all, you know this is my pattern:

1. See people from Dawson.

2. Gush about people from Dawson on blog.

I’m a predictable sort of gal in that way so here we go.

1. I saw people from Dawson! The Agape Singers (which includes a boatload of my favorite people from Grace Lutheran, where I was intern pastor for a year) came to Red Oak Grove for a service of worship and praise last night as a part of their summer tour week. It was a shame that it was a stormy evening – which I think prevented some people from coming out – but those that came LOVED it. It. was. wonderful.

2. Let me gush about those people from Dawson! It was simply wonderful to see friendly faces – people I worked with on staff in my year there, youth I had in my confirmation classes, and children of staff members. It’s been almost five years since I packed up my car to move to that small western Minnesotan town where the gnomes greet you on the highway, but I still miss it. It was an incredibly fun year. Incredibly fun. I’m so glad there are moments in life like this – when the Agape Singers needed a church in the area and the connection was there. Moments to reconnect and hug friends from past lives. My heart is full today.

(Photos: Grace staff and staff children and me, trying to fit in with a green shirt too; Grace pastor, Kendall, and I selfie.)

There is a lot going on in life right now.  A quick trip home at the end of last week.  Day camp this week.  The Agape Singers from western MN [including many, many of my favorite gnome friends!] are touring to Red Oak Grove this coming Thursday.  It’s mostly all good stuff in life.  But instead of a general overview post where I ramble on and on, I’m going to tell you about my new favorite thing.

Now, I know.  I know.  I have lots of favorite things.  Some people accuse me of applying the word too liberally.  But this is the real deal.  A real, true, magnificent favorite.

Traveling by bicycle.

It’s my new favorite.  I bought Mavis a few weeks ago now and she pretty much remains parked in a garage in Austin, next to her bike friend, Miles.  Mavis stays put in town because Miles’ rider and I have taken to running errands by bicycle.  And I love it.

We bike to the video store.  [Yes.  I have a membership to a video store.  How they are still profitable, I don’t know, but it’s cheaper than renting online.]  We bike to geocache.  We bike to supper.

That’s my favorite.  There is something super fun about biking to a restaurant, eating, and then biking home.  Or so I think anyways.  Last night was a double favorite: we biked downtown for supper [geocaching on the way – yes, we are dorks] AND ate outside.  It was the perfect evening weather-wise and we made the most of it.

We haven’t biked to the grocery store yet.  That will come.  Mavis needs a basket first.

It was a long Sunday. Worship – trick candles included – and an afternoon funeral – with a procession to the cemetery of John Deere tractors – I came home at 5:30 beat. Emotionally. Physically. All around beat.

Instead of sitting down and instantly falling asleep, I knew I needed to do something. I grabbed a sweet potato, cut it in half, and got to stamping. It was time to finish the polka dot wall.

And though I was initially unsure, I love it. Polka dots make me happy. Here’s hoping the prettiness energizes me to get the rest of the messy office in order …

I firmly believe that it is well and good and healthy to act like a child now and again. To skip, imagine, and play games.

Games like Mouse Trap.

We played Mouse Trap last night, except we played it as adults. Because how did you play Mouse Trap as a child? You didn’t actually play the game, did you? My brothers and I never did. We got out the box and set up the trap and that was about it.

As adults playing Mouse Trap, we played according to the rules. Which we had to read in detail because none of us had actually ever rolled the dice and moved mice around the board. I finally learned what those cheese pieces were for and how at the end, you just keep going around in a six-space loop. I had no idea.

I suppose you could say we engaged in child’s play in an adult way. Either way, it was pretty fun. Especially since my mouse emerged victorious.

(You’ll also notice a beer in the background of the picture. That’s not very child-like either.)

In so much of my life – my job, quilts, etc. – projects are constantly ongoing. There aren’t a whole lot of finishes on a daily basis. After a bit of a roller coaster week, with the up and down ride to continue in the coming days and weeks, I needed a finish. A final, competed project.

I felt compelled to spend time in my happy place this morning – my sewing room. However, I couldn’t quite get the energy to continue work on a project I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish today in the few hours I had available. What’s a girl who needs a finish to do?

Start another, smaller project, of course.

I made a pillow case. It will be my travel pillow for the summer. My camp pillow for when I spend a weekend at Camp Erin in July. The pillow I take to the cabin in a couple weeks and home next week. It even has French seams. (Oh la la. Please note I didn’t even know what those were before I began sewing.)

And so, Lindsay has a finish for the day. Something competed. Life is good.