Search: Lent Stole

OK, here's what popped up on eBay when I searched for a purple stole:


I looked a little further and found this, a much more appropriate choice for Ash Wednesday and the Lenten season.



Who knew? eBay. A wonderful resource for liturgical vestments!

What I did on my Summer Vacation

Since it's the coldest night of the year, let's think back to summer, shall we? Here I am with my friend Deb in her lovely backyard. It was 90-some degrees and very humid. Warms my -5 degree heart just thinking about it!

And here I am with my little guys, also in Deb & Scott's yard. What a lovely time we had!



AND ... now I have to eat some humble pie ... I FOUND our cameras! They were very well stashed in a box behind a box, but the lost have been found. Now, when I find my card reader, I'll post some more pics.

It is amazing, and more than a little daunting, how long it takes to establish order in a new place. Our house is lovely and large and has all kinds of storage, but we can't figure out where to put stuff so we can find it! I wish I had a REAL SIMPLE brain. Mine is REAL CONFUSING.

The Creator

The creator goes off on one wild, specific tangent after another, or millions simultaneously, with an exuberance that would seem to be unwarranted, and with an abandoned energy sprung from an unfathomable font. What is going on here? The point of the dragonfly’s terrible lip, the giant water bug, birdsong, or the beautiful dazzle and flash of sunlighted minnows, is not that it all fits together like clockwork—for it doesn’t, particularly, not even inside the goldfish bowl—but that it all flows so freely wild, like the creek, that it all surges in such a free fringed tangle. Freedom is the world’s water and weather, the world’s nourishment freely given, its soil and sap: and the creator loves pizzazz.
- Annie Dillard

It's been many years since I've read any of Annie Dillard's gorgeous writing ... and this quote reminded me today of why I worshipped her so when I discovered her 20 years ago. Can't wait to read her new book.

Urgent Care = Purgatory

Yuck. I spent FOUR hours at Urgent Care today. I tried to ensconce myself in a corner by myself away from the sniffly, hacking, miserable souls all around me. Played brick-breaker on my phone, texted people, tried to tune out the Tyra/Montel/Judge Whoever coming from the tube ... The most upsetting part of this waiting-room heck was this couple who would not unstrap their tired/hungry/bored toddler from his stroller. The kid begged, screamed, and tried valiantly to extricate himself from the straps, but his stupid parents just smiled benignly, and repeated his name "Devin" over and over. Then they mashed face with each other, while the rest of the room was going quietly insane. This went on for over an hour.
Little wonder when I went in for my initial consultation, my blood pressure was extremely elevated.
I had calmed down a bit by the time I actually saw the PA, but my BP was still high enough that I have to monitor it for a couple of months. Hmpf. Guess I'm getting old?
Turns out the reason I've hardly been able to move for the last few days, is I have a sinus infection. Easy enough to deal with, but I just wish I'd figured it out few days ago. I've been down for six days now (even missed my chance to preach on Sunday morning - Chris took one look at me and asked if I shouldn't go back home - I looked worse than I thought, I guess!) With antibiotics, I should bounce back soon. Looking forward to getting back to normal.

Catching up

So, here are a few pictures from my cellphone, taken over the last couple of months, in chronological order:


Eric and I went to hear Ann Patchett read from her new novel "Run." Here she is, signing our copy. Ann was so engaging! She made some observations about grief that really rang true for both of us. "Grief is a debt. You can pay it now (when the death is fresh) or you can spend your whole life paying it back. But you must grieve." And she also spoke so passionately about friendship. For her, friendship is a vow. It is a commitment. Made me realize how lackluster my commitment is to my friends. I want to do better at staying connected. I've since finished "Run," a very good read, made even better because the snowiness in the book matched the snowiness of our MN December. The story isn't as compelling as "Bel Canto," but Ann Patchett's wonderful storytelling is a true pleasure.


Eric the birthday boy. His cake was decorated by the boys with corn candy and M&Ms


Micah the Ninja Turtle, in the Halloween parade at school!
When my digital camera reappears (she said hopefully), I'll post a picture of Luke as a muscle-bound Batman!


My brave boy. Micah had to get four teeth pulled! His baby teeth on the bottom were not coming out, and the permanent teeth were trying to come in. So Dr. Rachel said the babies had to come out! Micah got a new video game for his trouble, and the tooth fairy left 4 smackers under his pillow.


One last stop at Liberty Custard, before we left Minneapolis. Micah has grown too big for the red car - he's moved up to pinball, thank you very much.


In case you can't tell, that's Sara Groves playing at her CD release party. She is my new favorite singer. I love her message of faith and hope and justice. I took this pic for my friend Deb.


A Merry Christmas from our new house!

New Year New Look

OK, I'm resolute. Not as resolute as my friend who wants to run a marathon. Or the one who has the goal of inventorying EVERYTHING in her possession for insurance purposes. My resolution only goes as far as getting back into blogging. I've missed it.

There are many reasons I quit for a while, all related to the huge pile-up-o-transitions that only intensified as we finally made our move. Another reason I took a break is the loss of our cameras in the process of moving. My goal was to post pictures from Halloween, our new house, etc, etc, and when the digital camera disappeared, I just got kind of stymied. I'm still stymied about the cameras. Maybe they're still in a box somewhere, but my hunch is they were stolen by our lovely moving men. Hopefully I will have to make a humble apology for that assumption.

But I'm not stymied about blogging. I'm back.