Chastened

"I never travel on 35W, especially since the construction started"
"It's too hard to get from our exit over to the Crosstown through all the lanes"
"How can you stand that commute everyday?"

WIMPS, I SAY!

Then, BAM! Our brand new van's rearend got rearended. Hard. By a bigass Dodge Durango. Ouch. So tomorrow, Sienna goes to the van hospital for a few days. We get a free rental out of the deal, and my chiropractic and massage treatments are covered for the duration of the healing process. Fortunately the boys weren't with me ... the system works, and already my back is a lot better ... but dang. I didn't need this right now.

On a much larger scale, this theme of being chastened by the hard realities of life is playing out in the lives of my fellow pastor Rolf Olson and his family as they mourn the tragic death of their beautiful daughter Catherine. Catherine had answered a Crag's list ad for a Nanny job, went to the interview, and was brutally murdered by the 19 year old sicko who placed the ad. I cannot imagine the anguish this family is going through.

Some weeks ago, our neighbor, Mark Loesch was randomly murdered as he took a late night ride on his bicycle. There are no leads. Just a man beat to death for going out on his bike, and a family that is, I'm sure beaten down with grief.

How careful do we need to be? How full of evil is this world? Not that I in anyway compare my little fender bender with these tragedies, but, I just want to say, it is sick that we must not only drive defensively, but LIVE defensively. I didn't know Catherine at all, and I only knew Mark in a neighborly sort of way ... but their lives and their spirits that live on attest to the fact that they would rather we live DEFIANTLY in their honor. It is so tempting to become timid when you witness the random evil of this world ... Jesus advised us: 'Be as wise as serpants and as innocent as doves ...' that's as sound advice as one can ask for in days like these.

Say a prayer for the families of Catherine and Mark ... and be bold! Be strong! For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Neither Life Nor Death Shall Ever ...

from the Lord his children sever. Don has gone home. He passed on Friday October 5. He hovered at that threshold for a couple of days, and all of his family members were able to come and spend some time with him. His funeral was beautiful... lots of folks from his parishes in Blooming Prairie and Farmington. It was a fitting tribute for a wonderful man.

At the family service the evening before his funeral, we gathered to sing and share memories; my favorite was singing the new (to me) hymn "You Are Mine" by David Haas. Tears washed my face as we sang,

I will come to you in the silence,
I will lift you from all your fear.
You will hear my voice, I claim you as my choice,
be still and know I am here.

I am hope for all who are hopeless,
I am eyes for all who long to see.
In the shadows of the night, I will be your light,
come and rest in me.

Do not be afraid I am with you,
I have called you each by name.
Come and follow me, I will bring you home;
I love you and you are mine.

I am strength for all the despairing,
healing for the ones who dwell in shame.
All the blind will see, the lame will all run free,
and all will know my name.

I am the Word that leads all to freedom.
I am the peace that world cannot give.
I will call your name, embracing all your pain,
Stand up, now walk, and live!

The funeral was a week ago, and we are slowly getting our feet under us again. There is such a surreal field of energy that fogs one in when grief sets in.

Eric and I took a 24 hour retreat last Friday/Saturday, stayed at a hotel, caught a movie, slept in, wandered the Minneapolis riverfront ... it was such a sweet break from the aforementioned fog ... made all the sweeter because we have a fresh perspective on how short and precious life is.

The boys are doing pretty well. Luke continues to process verbally ... Where is Grandpa? Why can't he shake my hand? (when we viewed him in his casket) Micah processes internally, so I'm never sure what his questions might be. We keep checking in ... letting him know we love him, offering safe space for conversation.

And, life just keeps moving along ...
It's MEA week, so we're juggling work and kid-care
We've got a "house cooling" Happy Hour at the Bungalow on Friday
WE'RE moving on November 10 (not quite in time for trick or treat in AV)
And the workloads for E and me didn't take a break for us last week!

On we go. I know Don is cheering all of his kids and grandkids on with a hearty "High-O!"

At the Threshold

These thin places were threshold places --
a border or frontier place
where two worlds meet
and where one has the possibility of
communicating with the other."
-- Peter Gomes

Eric's father Don is at the threshold. A friend told me recently that our family is in an enviable position, because we are approaching that holy time, that sacred space that only appears at the beginnings and endings of life in this realm. It is true that in these thin places we can almost feel the brush of angel's wings. We know we are in the presence of the Holy one.

And yet, we also live with the dreadful knowledge that we will never hear Don's wonderful voice again.

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid." ~Jesus

So Proud

The other day Micah asked if he could have some paper. "Sure," I said, "What are you up to?"
"I feel like writing a story" said he.

And here it is for your enjoyment; (borrowing heavily from the Toy Story movies) A 2nd grade story, told in 2nd grade phonetics:

Escape from the garbeg can

andy was getin to old for his toys and thru them away. they had to escape the trash can. buz landed on plante z. som of andys old spase toys cam tored him. destry buz lityer they sed. buzz manegd too deafet them with his laser. befor zurg knew it buzz was fliing away. woody had landed in the desert bank. bank robers were getting away. just then jesee and bulsi landed on woodys head. hi gies woody said. those bank robers are getting away said jesse. lets get them. ya said woody. woody and jesee hopt on too bulsis bake. ride like the wind bulsi they shouted. bulsi ran after the bank robers. woody throd his rope. the bank robers were cohte. Rex had landed in a plase were andys old dinosaur toys. A big one came tard him and calengd Rex to dino fite. Rex jumpt the attack then Rex swipt his claw at some cocunut trees. the cocunuts fell onto the big dinos head. then Rex did a claw attack and ran away. meanwile mr. patatohead had landed in the brkeible secshon. hands came toard him. he jumt. he dogd craocht and jumpt attack andefeted enimes with a broken boxer glove that he fuond. he escapet and fuond mrs. patatohead and baby patatohead. the toys met up just in time to cach litil boe peep on buzs bake. they flew out but zurg blsted at them. buzz doged the boms. the toys lifted the lid and trou it at zurg and flew away to the nxt book. the end.

The Turning

Well, it’s been a long three months. Since early July, we have had over 100 showings of our home. That’s a lot of cleaning and getting out of the way and wondering how long this is gonna go on. As the showings and interest started to slow down, and as the media keeps cranking out prophecies of economic gloom and doom, Eric and I were coming around to the idea that we may need to hunker down in Minneapolis until Spring and try again …

But then … came … a buyer! We accepted an offer on Thursday, and the same day went out with our realtor to look at homes in Apple Valley, because he was leaving town for 10 days, so we thought, why don’t we get one day of looking under our belts before he takes off?

So off we went, to look at some homes we’ve had our eye on for a few weeks, plus a couple of others that have come on the market. We looked at one of the new ones first. And, surprise! It was a beauty! So well maintained, had everything we were looking for … hmm. OK, let’s go and look at the others we like, and compare them. You know what? They didn’t compare! They didn’t have the nice sense of flow, the right kinds of spaces and yard for our family. So Joel, our realtor said, you want to go back and look at that one one more time? And we did. And it felt like home. And it was a great value. So we made an offer!

And here she is, our new home!


Our offer was accepted, with no counter offer. The current owners are members of my congregation, and when they saw who the buyers were, they chose not to counter! Talk about grace … We are so lucky. And we’ve learned that the neighbor across the street was on the call committee that interviewed and recommended me for ministry at SOTV! It is indeed a small world! We wanted to be ensconced in the community where I serve, and we will be! Micah and Luke will be trick-or-treating in our new neighborhood!

iPod jack: the New Cupholder

I love our new van! It has that combination of new plastic, carpet, somethin' somethin' that makes it smell soooo good. And it has an iPod jack! Yahoo! And at least 3 "power ports" (nee cigarette lighters). And a "mommy mirror" above the rearview. And special compartments for garage door opener, sunglasses, coins, and I don't know what all. And, yes, at least 12 cup holders. Oh, and it drives like a dream ... plenty of get up and go, handles great, quiet. I'm already so spoiled. And I'm not the only one ... the other night, Luke and I were heading off in my old 98 Prizm, and he howled " Mo-om, I don't want to get in that dirty little car!"

I need to name her. Sienna is nice, but kind of generic. She's already been up to the North Shore, across the state of Wisconsin, Lake Michigan (in the Badger Carferry - she's not quite chitty chitty bang bang!), and the state of Michigan (twice a piece) AND down to eastern Ohio.

So, life is good in the new van. Lots more to report on, but this is it for tonight.

Buh-Bye!

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Do I sound desperate?
It just dawned on me over the weekend that we're getting to the point now that if we don't sell soon, we won't be in our new school district by September ... so we might need to get Micah and Luke enrolled in schools, not knowing yet if they will be our neighborhood schools ... and it's kind of freaking me out.

We're still having showings almost daily, but no offers.
... but our house is really clean, and looks cuter than we ever made it for our own dang selves!

So, hi everyone. It's been a wack-o six weeks. Are you ready for a super long post? Go get yourself a drink, find a comfortable spot. We could be here for a while.

1. The House
I'm really proud of the fact that we did manage to get the house ready to sell, but we sure couldn't have done it without a TON of help. Here's a sample (though not an all-inclusive list):
For our paint-a-thon weekend, Mim was the Queen of Kilz! She prepped any and all surfaces she came near. Julie and Kelsey were the Trim team - Julie even taught Luke how to paint a door. Kelsey got all the spindles in the staircase painted a fresh coat of shiny white. Next day, we had a fantastic team - Murray on prep and trim, Jen managed the team of small ones (ages 4-10!) painting the boys' bedroom, I did the bathroom, and Matt totally rocked the hall and stairway - floor to ceiling! Meanwhile, Mark was tearing the playhouse down, and Luke was having a meltdown! He (Luke) got past it amazingly fast, though.

I was inspired by all that help and did the kitchen over the course of a few late nights, the trim on the front of the house (3 colors, lots of masking tape, and a bit of panicking on the ladder!) the porch floor ... and I'm sure more that I can even recall right now.

THEN, we cleaned, and sorted and packed and cleaned --- and we're STILL NOT DONE! It is an unbelievably huge job. So more saintly friends came to help. Sandy did her magic on the hutch --- the girl knows how to make wood sing---AND she washed windows and packed stuff! Cathy helped pack up junk in the basement, and staged the bookshelves. Mark came back and then he came back again to do a zillion handy-man things, the biggest and ickiest of which was replacing the ceiling tiles in the basement. Mark is my house fixing hero!!! Mim came back and kilzed some more.

So now, we're spending a lot of time tidying up the house and leaving for showings ... the good thing about this is that it's forcing us to just go out as a family for an hour at a time: play at the park, have a picnic - very good things to do when we are so task oriented the rest of our waking lives.

2. The Car
A couple of weeks ago, we noticed that Eric's car was making funny sounds. I heard a clicking type of sound. Eric noticed a louder engine sound. Then the oil light came on. Then our wonderfully honest mechanic at Ellwood, our neighborhood shop looked at it and pronounced it "mostly dead." So... imagine this in your best game show announcer voice: Eric and Diane You're getting a NEW Minivan!!!!



Our new moving-to-the-suburbs 2007 Toyota Sienna.

We were kind of planning to upgrade sometime around the time we sold the house... but this has been kind of a crazy add-on to the rest of our craziness. When we actually get it, I'll tell you all about how great it smells and its other features. I fondly remember the days when the only feature I really cared about was a cup holder. I think this model has, like, a dozen.

3. Please say a prayer for ...
Eric's dad, Don. The last few weeks have been such a long haul for the Sponheim family. Don has been in and out of the hospital and a care center with multiple issues. His health picture has been complicated for a long time, and now, all of his conditions seem to be worsening. Yesterday, his focus of care was switched to hospice care. Eric and his siblings are all trying to help Bev care for Don during the nights, but it is getting too difficult for them all to manage. Please pray for wisdom and patience to prevail ... Thanks.

So. Life is hard and busy and complicated. But - God is good and merciful and kind.

Over and out for now. I hope to update again in less than six weeks!