It's Good to Be Home, Church Style

It's good to be home. And by home, I mean back to our church.  This morning in worship I simply soaked it all in.  The people, the music, the sanctuary, the Eucharist, the familiarity.  It's wonderful to travel, but homecomings are so meaningful.

We always worship when we're on vacation, and this trip was no different.  The first weekend, as I blogged about in my post yesterday, my husband ended up leading worship. There were about 20 people there, seven of which were my family.  Late the evening before, my husband and I chose a few hymns, he looked up the daily readings and prepared a brief meditation, and we were blessed to worship in our campground instead of traveling a distance to another church.

The second Sunday we were in Grand Canyon National Park.  There are very few towns/people outside of the North Rim park, so going outside of the park for worship would have been difficult.  Thankfully, there were several options offered for worship inside the park, so we were grateful to attend a service in the lodge (at 8 am!).  It was a blessing to gather with those people, and in an auditorium with a view of the beautiful Grand Canyon!

But.  There is something about being home to worship.  With our (church) family, our friends, our dear ones.  And since we had been unable to commune at either place we attended on vacation, we were all eager to receive the Eucharist.

So today I soaked it in.  I let God's word, read and preached, enter my heart.  I let God's body and blood enter my body.  I praised God with familiar hymns and songs.  And I looked at the faces of those in our congregation with love.

It's good to be home.

Post Vacation Thoughts

We just got back late last night from our family vacation.  The laundry is piling up (and we don’t have a washing machine until our new one gets delivered on Monday!), the laundry room is going to painted today and tomorrow, the pop-up needs to be unloaded and cleaned out, and we have no food in the house.  But we had a wonderful time seeing the sights of the west and simply being together. A few highlights of our trip:

• Miles driven: just over 5,000, almost all of which were done by husband, as usual.  He’s a rockstar in the driving-on-vacation category. And in basically all other categories (see below for another prime example).
• States driven through/visited: 9, including one (New Mexico) that none of us had ever been in before.
• Animals seen:  bighorn sheep, lizards, coyote, marmot, eagle, peregrine falcon, deer, buffalo, and so many doggies that made us miss our Shadow puppy
• National Parks visited:  Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, and also Cedar Breaks National Monument
• Campgrounds: Four, including a Lutheran campground!  In Utah, we stayed in a campground that was founded by Lutherans 25 years ago.  We saw lots of Live Generously shirts and had a lot of Lutheranism in common with many of the campers.
• Impromptu church services led by my husband: one.  When we arrived at Lutherwood at dinner time on Saturday night, we inquired about where to attend church the next morning (we were in the middle of nowhere). We were told they didn’t have a pastor there that weekend. . .fast forward through the wonderful pulled pork dinner we happened into, and bam!  My husband was leading worship the next morning.
• Birthdays celebrated: one.  Our middle son turned 15 while we were at Lutherwood.  We celebrated by going to a fun aquatic center, hiking at a nearby canyon, having ice cream at an old-fashioned soda shop and shopping at Walmart! The campground had a full kitchen and grill there, so we were able to make his dinner request - burgers and loaded fries. We ate a whipped cream frosted cake (his choice - not his dad’s) and sat in the kitchen, laughing through dinner.  The kids all were laughing about vines and memes and stuff dear old mom and dad didn’t understand, and it was great. I loved listening to their shared hysteria. And at the close of the meal, we all shared what we loved most about our boy. It was a lovely evening.
• Person who received a burn: me!  As I was pulling out the French fries for the birthday dinner, I misjudged the size of the cookie sheet and burned my arm.  I have been nursing the wound for days. It looks terrible and I’m sure I will scar. I guess it wil be a permanent reminder of our vacation.
• Visits with friends/family:  four. On the way out, we stopped and stayed with two different friends from college, and on the way back we stayed with friends from the seminary, and also met up with my sister and her family on their vacay in Colorado. All four visits were wonderful and such a beautiful reminder of the joys of long-standing friendships.  We laughed and reminisced and caught up and it was fabulous. We were so thankful for our friends’ hospitality as well as the time spent with my sister and family.
• Nights half-slept in the car: one.  On our very first camping night, the winds were so strong in Capitol Reef that we were afraid to set up the camper.  The winds were forecasted to die down at about midnight, so we went into the tiny town at about 9:30 to a restaurant.  I stuck my head in to see if they were open, and the nice older man who owned the place assured me several times “we’ll tend ya”.  He was so kind and took us on, though he was about to close. We got back to the campsite and dozed in the car until about 12:15, when we oh-so-quietly set up the pop-up.
• Cliff dwellings visited: one. When we went to Mesa Verde, we toured one of the cliff dwellings - it was so fascinating!  The ingenuity of those people amazed me. We had to climb a 32 ft ladder to get to it, and then rock scramble up a cliff to get out. I announced to everyone that I would have never made it in that life, and everyone agreed. :(
• Camper crises:  Two. On the way out of our Lutheran campground, I happened to look out my side mirror and noticed the camper door flapping in the wind!  Thankfully nothing was lost or broken. And on our way home yesterday, we had a blowout on the camper on I 80 in Iowa. It was on the street side, so I stood about a hundred feet down from my husband to wave traffic to the left lane as he leaned down to change the tire.  I prayed continually - thanking God that it was daylight, not in the mountains, not raining, etc. I also thanked God time and again that my husband was so very capable and calm. The endeavor reminded me of our 20th anniversary (you can read about that here).
• Theme Song:  I’m very sorry to report that I can really choose no other song as our theme song for this trip but this one:  Old Town Road by Billy Ray Cyrus and Lil Nas X. This song has a few sketchy parts, but we just loudly sang the alternate lyrics that our son had sang in the talent show last month, and all was good.  Usually our vacation has an epic song that we play as we look at all of God’s creation, but this year, we all belted out how “can’t nobody tell me nothing”. And it was good.
• Catch phrases:  Every trip, we seem to have lots of phrases that stick and get repeated ad nauseum.  This year, I bring you fat-stupid, stanky leg, and the winner — Eat My Stank. The kids somehow remembered a show they used to watch (SlugTerra if you’re interested in sub-par television) and that line in particular was said more times that I can begin to count.  I’m not gonna lie, every time somebody dropped it with perfect comedic timing, I cracked up. We all laughed so hard at that ridiculous line, and it brought me Great Happiness.

My husband has an adventurous spirit, and because of that, our kids have seen a lot of the country.  We do it all on a shoestring in the camper, mostly eating at the campsite (but splurging sometimes on meals out!) and seeing God’s beautiful creation, which is generally free. I have been asked more than once (by strangers and friends), how we get our kids and teenagers to go on these trips.  The answer is - we don’t give them much of a choice (GASP!). We don’t ask the kids where they want to go on vacation (though we might give them some choices within a few options), and we don’t ask them if they want to come or not. We don’t provide for them amazing, expensive experiences, and we don’t get too anxious if they get bored now and then.  And as they get older, these weeks are even more precious. We have always valued family vacation over summer jobs, but as the kids enter college, we know that jobs and internships and summer classes may well interfere with vacation plans. More than once during this trip, my heart caught in my throat as I watched my entire family eating together, hiking together, driving together, worshiping together and laughing together.  We saw a lot of beautiful sights this trip, but by far, my favorite part of every single day was that we were all together.  Taking an adventure across the country binds our family together in a way I can’t really describe. It’s our seven against the world - no “regular  life” distractions - just family time.

Though we can cross five more national parks off our list (and we have one - on the back of a T shirt I bought my husband), that’s not what made this trip amazing.  God’s beautiful handiwork in our country is indeed worthy of praise, but the beauty I saw every day in my family’s faces, working and playing and laughing side by side, revealed even more deeply God’s gifts to us.

The Week(ish) in Pictures

This is me, after my sister laboriously waved allllll my hair.  The end result was an enormous lot of red hair, but I kinda liked it!  I texted a few pics to my teenage daughter, who was less enthused.  It reminded my husband of how I looked when we first started dating - the 90s version of me (with a few gray hairs added of course!).

Can I get a amen?  Seriously though, are there established homes (with moms at the helm, I suppose), who do not have a gift bag full of gift bags?  If there are such homes, I don’t wanna know.  A bag full of reused bags is how we get things done around our house.  Is there any other way? 

Oh my goodness, yes!   I would take any of these texts, gladly!  Some of my teens are pretty good about checking in with dear old mom (and saying lovely things like “I love you”), but  others are less skilled in these areas.  No money needed?  No driving?  Chores done without being asked?  I would be euphoric!  

And finally, this thought provoking image.  How many times does God’s mercy feel irrational, until it is me who needs his all-encompassing grace and forgiveness!  Praise God for the love He has for every member of His flock. 

Reflections on My 8th Grader, Vol. 3

Five years ago, when my eldest child started 8th grade, her lovely teacher sent an email to all the parents asking them to write a few paragraphs with any information that would help her better understand her students.  I loved the idea of writing about my gal, so I got to work (you can read about my eldest here).  When my second child was in 8th grade, I decided to do the same thing for him (you can read what I wrote about him here).  And now, you guessed it - by some freakishly fast passage of time, my third child is about to graduate from 8th grade, so I want to reflect a bit about him now.  Below, you'll find a few thoughts about our monkey in the middle.

Our sweet son was born 9 weeks early, almost two months to the date before his due date.  It was a tumultuous time (you can read about his birth here) for our family, but we were overjoyed at his arrival.  After 7 weeks in the NICU, we were able to bring our baby home to his big brother and sister.  His first year of life was challenging, but he was a fighter and he pulled through all the challenges. 

Isaac's name means laughter, and we couldn't have picked a better name for this child.  He is almost always happy and laughing, joking or smiling.  He is friends with everyone, and recently I've really noticed how good he is with younger kids. He loves life and has always had scads of interests spanning cooking to learning a language to every sport imaginable.  He is always fun to be around and makes me smile all the time (even during these challenging middle school years).

When he was little, he LOVED my hair.  He was obsessed with it.  He loved his own hair too, and if mine wasn't available, he would twirl his own hair whenever he could.  But he loved mine the most and would happily twirl and twist it as long as I would let him.  It was his security blanket, and I was a little sorry when he outgrew it.  I offer my hair to him now and then (don't judge me) but alas, he is not interested. :(  You can read about his love of hair here and here).

This boy loves any and all sports.  His second birthday party theme was all about sports, because the boy loved to play ball.  Currently he's mostly into basketball and lacrosse, but since he could walk, he's loved them all -- soccer, gymnastics, skiing, snowboarding, tennis, swimming, baseball, tubing, track and cross country. We have loved how active he has always been, and that he's ready to try anything new anytime. 

Isaac is resilient.  He's been through a lot over the course of his nearly fifteen years, and he always faces each challenge with a smile and a can-do attitude.  He inspires me with his positive attitude, and I am so thankful that God graced him with such a go-with-the-flow personality. He loves hospitals and hospital beds and hospital food, and is always up for a hospital stay! He makes the nurses and doctors smile whenever he interacts with them.

He wants to be a nurse when he grows up.  He has been so touched and supported by nurses that he wants to become one and work in a pediatric hospital.  I think he'd be a wonderful nurse (or pastor or youth church worker!) and I hope he continues to pursue a passion with children or people in general.  If he doesn't become a nurse, his other option is the MLL (Major League Lacrosse).  He's nothing if not optimistic!

I'm having a hard time imagining him leaving our grade school and moving onto high school.  I so love seeing him in the hallway with the friends he's known since he was in preschool (or earlier in some cases!).  It's inconceivable (I hope you heard that in your best Princess Bride impression) that the time has come for him to leave and move on, but come it has.  And he's ready.  It's bittersweet for him and he'll miss his class very much, but he's ready for the next step.  And since he's ready, I must be too.  He'll love his four years in high school I have no doubt, and I'll quickly love those years with him too.

Over the last fifteen years, this boy has continued to amaze and inspire me.  His ever-present smile, even during adversity, always warms my heart. God has already blessed him mightily, and I am looking forward to see what He has planned for him next.  I know it'll be good.

Throwback, Cooking Style

When I graduated from college, my mom gave me a gift.  It was a little Longaberger basket, filled with recipes from my childhood.  She had dividers for each section, and notes on some of the recipes ("knead the dough - this is not hard", "very easy", "some people like these toppings" - referring to my rather bland pizza tastes).  The recipe box was both useful and cherished from the beginning.  Over time, I have added my tried and true recipes to my mom's, and I outgrew the little Longaberger basket.  A few Christmases ago, she gave me a bigger basket, so I transferred all of the little dividers in her handwriting, and switched over all the recipes too.  For 24 years, I have thought of her often as I made her pizza, her "famous Mrs. Cleaver's chocolate chip cookies", "baboon brownies" and other time honored dishes.

Yesterday, I set about the task of cleaning out my cookbook cabinet.  What was once oft-used and frequently added to has lately been rarely opened.  So going through this cabinet was like going down memory lane.  Among the things I found:

• Several Gooseberry Patch cookbooks, almost all from my dear best friend from college.  She dated them all and wrote in the inside cover of them all, and I recalled our visits when our kids were little, swapping recipes and making dirt pudding with our kids.  Cookbooks with handwritten notes = keepers.
• 25+ Quick Cooking magazines.  Oh, how I loved that magazine.  Each month upon its arrival, I sat down during naptime and read all the wonderful recipes and all the anecdotes about cooks around the country.  I knew they needed to be recycled, but before I could do it, I decided to flip through them all.  Oh, the memories!  I paused a moment as I leafed through the June/July 2004 copy, realizing that the last time I had probably touched those pages was days before I gave birth to our third son, 9 weeks early.  I decided to keep that one and a couple of other copies for good measure. 
• Kids Cookbooks!  My husband has always worked long hours, and when the kids were little, he was only home for an hour or two on Sundays.  Because the day felt so long to the kids and me, I instituted Kids in the Kitchen every Sunday afternoon.  Each week we would make a kid friendly recipe, and it helped make what felt like a long day a little more cheerful.  I also ran across a well worn birthday cake cookbook (given to me by my dear college friend also!).  Though I have almost no skill at baking, the kids often chose a birthday cake for me to make from its pages, and we have lots of memories of special caterpillar cakes, beach scenes, and carousel cakes (though my talented sis created that one!).  I kept most of these because I'm a preschool teacher, and also grandchildren.
• Various fundraiser cookbooks.  Man, I had forgotten how common it was to make a church cookbook and sell it as a fundraiser.  I have several from different churches my husband and I have attended over the last 40+ years, and as I thumbed through them, I smiled at all the names I recognized.  I kept a few of these since they were so full of history.
• A Bread Machine Cookbook.  Remember when bread machines were all the rage?  I still had my cookbook, with a post it inside the front cover from my mom with tips about using it.  She instructed me to buy "Bread Flour", and told me I would find it at King Soopers, the grocery store in Colorado where we shopped the first year we were married.  Sentimental post its = must be kept.
• Betty Crocker and Better Homes and Gardens Binder Cookbooks.  These were both gifts from our wedding, and one houses the Pastitsio recipe I make every year on Christmas Eve.  Wedding cookbooks must be kept.

As I was going through the books, remembering each season of life with each book, I came across a fundraiser cookbook from an organization I didn't recognize.  When I flipped open the cover, I saw my dear grandma's handwriting.  My breath caught in my throat as I read her brief inscription:  "Shelley, just relax and have fun cooking.  You do all things well.  Love, Grandma D, April 95".  My eyes welled up as I remembered her encouraging me often with those very words.  Cookbooks with handwritten notes (see above), must be kept, especially when those notes are from family members who have passed away.

I know it doesn't sound like I purged much, but honestly I did. And the books I kept will remain in my cabinets, maybe to be used for recipes, but certainly to be used as a snapshot of my life in those years. And the goal of the cookbook purging was met - I made space for some dishes I need to re-house, so it was a win-win!

I use Pinterest for almost all of my new recipes now.  Sometimes, if a recipe becomes a family favorite, I do write it on a recipe card and put it in my box.  But often I just search Pinterest for whatever type of dish I'm looking for and read it from my phone or computer.  And while I love being able to have any recipe I desire in three seconds, I think something has been lost since I've moved away from those pages in my cabinet. In fifteen years, am I going to flip through Pinterest, recalling my son's third birthday or a dear friend's visit?  Probably not.  Someday (soon!), I want to write out my recipes for my daughters when they leave home, and I hope they can treasure the family dishes the way I have been able to myself.  And maybe someday they will flip through my old cookbooks and reminisce about the way mom used to cook. 

Happy Mother's Day, preschool mammas!

Dear my preschool mammas,

Happy Mother's Day!  The school year is almost over and my time with your children is drawing to a close.  I hope and pray I will see you and your children next year, but I know that isn't always possible. I have grown to love and care for your children this year, and I will miss them!

So as the time nears for us to say goodbye, and in special honor of Mother's Day, I wanted to take a moment to tell you something.

You're doing a great job.

I have kids myself and I know that you might not always feel that way.  But I am here to assure you that you are raising fine little people.

Your children are funny.  They make me laugh every day.  They crack themselves up; big belly laughs and hysterical giggles.  They tell me jokes with punchlines only a 4-year-old could create.  And they often think I am hilarious, which may or may not be the actual truth.

Your children are good friends. They love the friends they have made this year in school.  They play together, they hug each other, they share with one another.  True, it's not always unicorns and rainbows, but when they have a disagreement with a friend, they apologize and offer forgiveness.  They truly care about the friends they have made this year.

Your children are loved.  Daily I hear stories about how Mommy took me to the playground, or Daddy loves to wrestle with me.  These are the things that they treasure - memories with you.  You love them with a fierce love, and they know it and flourish because of it. 

Your children are happy.  Ok, maybe not all the time, but for the most part, your children relish life and bounce happily into school with a smile and hug goodbye for you.  And if your children are a little sad to say goodbye, you know to give them one last kiss and hug and send them in promptly, knowing they will be fine before you make it down the hallway.

Your children are secure.  They are secure in their knowledge of your love, of who they are and their place in your family.  They feel safe, knowing Mommy and Daddy love them enormously.

Your children know Jesus.  I am always blown away by how much your children know about the Bible and their Savior.  They know how much He loves them, even when they might make choices that don't please Him.  They know He loves them so much that He died on the cross for them, and they can tell you the whole story.  You teach them about Jesus, and they, therefore, know Jesus. 

We all know just how hard motherhood is.  The daily monotony and frustrations and exhaustion can begin to wear down even the best-intentioned mamma.  But I want to remind you something:  your work is sacred.  Mothering these little people, as I have watched you do this year, is your calling.  God has called you, and only you, to be your child's mother, and God knows you are the perfect woman for the job.  On the days when the task of motherhood seems just one step further than you can manage, remember this:  God gave you these children to raise and He doesn't make mistakes.  And He is helping you every step of the way!

Soon I won't get to see your little ones every day.  But I know they have big things ahead of them.  So keep up the good work, mammas.  You're doing a great job.

Love,

Your child's teacher

An Offer We Shouldn't Refuse

We've been having noon Eucharist for Holy Week, and I was able to attend today since I was off (though I work just down the hallway from the sanctuary, I can't make it down on the days I work). And wow.  I loved it.  I had already run my son to the eye doctor 25 minutes away, then 20 minutes to school, then 15 minutes back to errands for several hours, then 15 minutes back to church. The rest of the day will look much the same - shuttling kids to and fro, a rehearsal for me. . . the day is full and busy, as usual.

So to stop the crazy for a half hour and come into the peace of God's house was nothing short of beautiful to me.  I sat in the pew, breathing deeply and calming my heart.  And as I sat, the 5th-8th graders came in and I saw my middle school boys among them.  What joy to worship with fellow members as well my children, and the children of our school!  I soaked it all in.

The reading for today is from John 13, and is the story of how Jesus announced who would betray Him ("the one to whom I give the piece of bread that I dip in the dish" 13:26).  The brief meditation invited us, instead of rejecting and betraying Christ when He offers his body to us as Judas did, to accept the gift He gives us - the gift of Himself, in the very Eucharist we were about to receive.

What a gift Christ gives us in His body and blood.  As we ponder and contemplate this week on His holy sacrifice for us, I am in awe -- that He would give up His life for me.   Sinful, messy me.

Over the next several days, especially the Triduum (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday), I pray we all can truly turn our hearts away from the busyness of our lives and truly worship on our knees the God who came to our sinful earth to offer Himself to us on the cross.  I pray we humbly receive Him and the gift of eternal life He gives.