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.

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

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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.]

The favorite things I did on Friday.

18 May

I didn’t post any favorites yesterday.  I didn’t even open my computer because I was busy doing some of my favorite things.  Favorite things like what?, asks the chorus.  Favorite things like this:

I slept in until 10.  TEN.  After a couple weeks of roofers waking me up by 7, it was needed.  And you have to love a dog that not only lets you sleep until ten but actually keeps sleeping longer.  Mabel is a sleeping rock star.

I ate breakfast and watched the SERIES finale of The Office.  The Office has been a part of my life for the last nine years.  It’s sad to see it end but it was good.  It was good.

I cleaned.  It’s been a long while since I’ve had a Friday morning/afternoon to be at home and tidy up.  Quite honestly, a Friday at home to clean is one of my favorite things.  I put away the boxes that came back with me from Geep’s and washed my sheets; unloaded the dishwasher and washed dishes.  It was productive.  And awesome.

Mabel and I went for a walk and then it was off to the cities for me.  A bit over a month ago, I got together with three college friends for a game night.  We scheduled a second one for last night and there is now a third on the calendar for June which will take place here in Austin.  I like what we have going on.  Last night we played Settlers: Cities and Knights.  it was at least a three hour game and lots of fun for a Friday night.

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The Stolen’s Museum.

15 May

I went home this past Sunday for one quick night after a full weekend of work and a busy Sunday morning.  I went home to join my family at Geep’s.  We gathered at Grandpa Sid’s house to clean it out.  It was not the ideal way to spend time together, going thru Grandpa’s cabinets and out buildings and packing up boxes.  Not ideal at all but we found some fun moments in the midst of it.

Grandpa Sid labeled everything.  Everything.  Need a broom?  Naturally, it’s hanging on a nail that above it in pencil is written BROOM on the wall.  A key?  It’s on a nail with the word KEY written and circled above it.  Wonder what that light switch turns on?  It’s probably labeled.

Need a hammer?  No need to label those by writing on the wall because they were located every five yards.  I bet we found thirty hammers.  Hammers everywhere.  Never more than a few steps from anywhere.  I talked to the Alaska brother, Ben, on the phone the day after and he asked how it went, not being able to be there himself since he was – you know – in the arctic.  We found a lot of hammers, I said.  I bet you did, he chuckled.  It really was no surprise.

What else did we find?  Admission prices to the Stolen’s Museum.  See, the garage/shed on my Grandpa’s property used to house, oh, 30-some restored gas pumps and old, classic tractors.  I actually invited one of my school classes there for a field trip one year in elementary school.  There were also vintage cream separators and classic metal gasoline and tobacco signs.  It was very nearly an actual museum.  According to the perfect printing in the cement on the floor of the museum – done by one father, John, who wrote in all pieces of wet cement – it was closed on Sundays.  And now it’s nearly empty.

I picked rhubarb from Grandpa’s patch and came home with a china set of Grandma’s.  [A pattern of china which, oddly enough, I drank coffee from on a home visit today.  I’d never seen the pattern before Sunday and now it seems to be stalking me.]  I think my Grandma would be happy to know that her Pyrex bowls will continue to live on in my kitchen, and that the mason jars from the cellar are finding new homes too.

It still is indeed sad to think that I may never again set foot on that property.  I’ve known it all my life.  I would walk down the waterway and across the creek to visit and steal fudgesicles from the freezer in the summer.  As us kids got older, we would ride our bikes around the block and Grandma and Grandpa’s was always our stop for water before we attempted to ride up the hill home again. It’s the porch on which I placed a May Day basket on many a May 1st, and the kitchen table at which I chatted with Grandpa over an open atlas.  And there was always a hammer available when you needed one.

Top floor of the museum. Empty now.
Old election signs.
Oh, look. It’s a hammer.
Pencil on wall. Classic.
Under 12 free.
Hey. A hammer.

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Friday Favorites – a day early.

9 May

If you’re in the same boat as I, you need a little lift this Thursday.  It’s cold and rainy in Austin today.  The sun is hiding.  Then there is the perpetual busy, and glorious plans for an uninterrupted weekend, well, interrupted.  So, of course, instead of doing work, I’m taking this ten minute break to show you what cheered me up.

This.  This is all you need.

If you’re not smiling and laughing, I think you might be a lost cause for happiness.  It makes me so happy.  It also gives me a newfound respect and admiration of John Krasinski.  Him and his beautiful beard.

Letterpress, part 1.

8 May

Dingbats, furniture, and ink, oh my.

I drove three hours for a 2.5 hour class on Monday night.  And it was worth it.

I signed up through St. Paul Community Ed to take Beginners Letterpress.  I’ve been oogling over letterpress classes for years; the one at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts is super expensive.  This two-session community ed class was $37.  Score.

The woman who teaches the class is delightfully eccentric.  Her studio is in her home and so I joined five other female students in what appeared to be her dining room.  [It was an interesting, old home.  I’m not sure where the refrigerator was and there appeared to be no television or sitting area in general.  But I give her credit for having a room full of paper.]  She gave us the brief introduction and told us to choose a dingbat.

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A dingbat is an image, as opposed to letters which are typefaces.  Out of the hundreds of options, I chose a pig.  Next, you take your dingbat [which looks like a stamp on a metal or wood piece] and using metal pieces called furniture, one sets it in a frame.   I know I’m making no sense.  I don’t have a photo either.  You’re just bound to be confused.

We took turns at the letterpress machine.  As you pull a lever, the press inks your dingbat and pulls whatever you’re printing on towards the inked dingbat and -viola- it’s printed with 600 pounds of pressure.  It’s pretty intense.  And this is just a baby press.  Next week, as I understand it, we use the big daddy.

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So this past Monday we used our dingbat to print six notecards.  Next Monday we will set four inches of type in 18-point and print 27 postcards.  The postcards and type we set can say anything so that’s my challenge this week.  To choose the most witty, fun, and awesome saying that will be no more than four inches.  Thus far in the running is shut the front door and – that’s actually it.  That’s all I got so far.  This is where you come in.  What should I print on my postcards?  If you help me, I promise to send you one hand-pressed postcard.  You have until next Monday.

Friday Favorites.

3 May

As this post is published, I am in northern Wisconsin on a retreat for first call pastors.  It’s likely that – despite the rain and snow and cold temperatures that are threatened – I will be enjoying the wilderness of Heartwood once again.  And the good company of first call pastors.  While I’m away, here’s a round-up of my favorites:

I want to crawl up inside of these and live.  How gorgeous and delicious do these spring vegetable potstickers look?  I’ve never made potstickers.  I think it’s time to try.

This great article about God’s plan for us and whether it’s as if we are following written directions or a GPS.  [Recalculating.  Recalculating.]

Pretzel.  Toffee.  Chocolate.  Brownies.  Peanut butter.  This has all of the sweetest trigger words.

If I had an ice cream maker …

I want to do this.  Buy three mismatched, well used wooden chairs and paint them.  It’s unfortunate that  the 100 mile garage sale is happening this weekend while I’m retreating.  And this weekend while it’s cold and snowy.  IN MAY.

More favorite things?  My confirmation students.  Again.  Wednesday night was a deep, awesome night of digging into deep questions and asking more of them.  I blew their mind when we talked about Jesus returning.  One kid literally had his hands on his head as he rocked back and forth.  I think to keep his blown brain inside his skull.

It snowed.

3 May

Like hella snowed in Austin on Thursday.  The sky opened up and dropped deep, heavy snow.  This is the kind of snow that kills people while shoveling, yelled the guy who came to plow me out from across the yard.  I couldn’t hear him really well so I think I responded to that with a laugh until I processed that what he said actually hadn’t been funny at all.  It was also the kind of snow that took down tree branches all over the place.  My poor arborvitae were bending like crazy.  Cancellations and delays were the reality of Thursday morning.  The morning I was to leave for a retreat in northern Wisconsin, mind you.  Luckily, by the time I got plowed out and ready to go, the roads were but wet.  Happy May 2nd, people.  [Along with that comes a happy birthday, Dad.  I wish you were still here so we could buy you new socks to celebrate.]

28 Apr

I napped in the hammock.

I wore my yellow keens.

I drank iced coffee.

I walked with Mabel.

I sewed the binding on a quilt.

What more does a sunny Sunday afternoon need?

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Happiness and stuff.

27 Apr

What makes you really happy?

Ready?  Go!

Make a list.

I’ll wait.

[Need some music while you make a list.  Listen to this.  My confirmation kiddos loved it while they compiled lists of questions.]

Okay.  You have your list.  Now how many of those lines on your list are things?

I’m guessing not a whole lot.

More than likely, the bullet points on your list are words like family, friends, traveling, a job that’s fulfilling, meaningful relationships, learning, new experiences.  Right?  Things don’t make us happy.  We hear that all the time from educated people and studies.  Just because you have the great house and all the toys doesn’t equal happiness.  Right?

Right.  But damned if we don’t try.

I’ve noticed that in myself lately.  I’ve always known it’s true but this past week, I’ve noticed pronouncedly what all the experts say.  I buy something [new minty green bag from Target – on clearance; a new coffee table; 300 awesome straws from IKEA] and get a little excited.  I’ll carry the bag or put my feet up on the coffee table or drink iced coffee out of a great straw and think, This is the life.  Until it’s next week and it’s just old hat.  The bag will get dirty, the coffee table will gather dust and dog hair, and I will have cycled through every color of my new straws.  It isn’t so exciting anymore.  We’re back to square one and I just want to buy more stuff to simulate the immediate buyer’s happiness.

Darn experts.  They’re right.  Colorful straws [and big tvs and ipads and everything we’ve ever wanted] don’t make us happy in the long term.

How do we get it through our thick skulls when my brain seems to be wired towards accumulating things?  I literally hear myself correcting my own thinking when there is a thing I think I need.  Your life won’t change because of a thing, I tell myself.  Sometimes I listen.

And other times I buy 300 straws from IKEA.  [I really like straws.]

Friday Favorites.

26 Apr

Yesterday was [finally!] a nice day outside.  Sunshine.  Little wind.  All I could think about was iced coffee and hammocks.  Regardless that the temperature hasn’t yet passed 60 degrees, my coarsely ground coffee beans were mixed with water in giant pitchers on my counter last night, and I have pretty solid plans to take a nap in my hammock on Sunday afternoon.  Iced coffee and hammocks.  Definitely two of my favorite things.  Also –

A vintage Nancy Drew party!  Now granted, it was planned for an elementary crowd.  If I planned a vintage Nancy Drew party for my 30th, would you come?

How fun do these look — Springtime Italian Rainbow Cookie with Lemon Curd.  I’m going on a retreat next weekend and I’m tempted to try these to take a share.  We’ll see if early next week holds the time needed to bake them.  They do look a little involved …

DIY Bird Feeders.  I might have to find some time to make these to hang from the trees for my bird friends.

I want to make at least five of these.  Terrariums are the coolest.  I would put a gnome in mine.

Martha does it again.  Travel keepsake boxes to hold airline tickets, photos, and all sorts of things from trips.

And, lastely, a motto for a new week.

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