Fall Break

FBC is home for a small fall break. She brought a friend home with her--another music major-- but this guy is a composition major with buckets o' talent and a great personality and an agenda for his small break which includes jamming with SBC. It's going to be a nice long weekend around here.

Here's hoping this pretty fall weekend brings simple pleasures and people with whom you like to jam, too.

Fall leaves from here.

Ten things I'm learning while summoning courage

It's been months since I've blogged, primarily because so much in my life is unbloggable right now. Nevertheless, it's part of my journey, has changed my life forever, and affects not only my mind, but my schedule and my life.

Here's what I'm learning/relearning as my family and I try to meet and get to know a new normal:

Talking helps. Good listening helps even more.
Knowing when to be quiet also helps.
Trustworthy resources make all the difference.
Gratitude is profoundly powerful.
One never outgrows being a mother...or needing one.
Little things make a big difference.
Patience can be replenished with rest.
Everybody has something hard going on, and it's not a contest.
Fear is exhausting and physically uncomfortable.
On good days, hope is one step ahead of fear.


Photo of a quiet spot at the Morton Arboretum.

Dormancy

It's time to take a break from public blogging.
Maybe I'll be back. Who knows?

Happy Anniversary, RevGals!

I'm a quiet part of the RevgalBlogPal community, but I'm mighty grateful for the friendships that have sprung up in my life as a result of beginning to blog about two years ago It's a lovely source of encouragement and friendship and I am blessed to be a tiny part of a great circle.

Happy anniversary, RevGals! Thanks for allowing me to join!

It's all about the love

Jan is asking questions about pets for the Friday Five.
Here are my objective, unbiased thoughts on a topic which holds little appeal for me (ha!):

1. Did you grow up with pets?
I did. We always had dogs, and my first gift to myself when I finished seminary and began my first call was a puppy from the North Shore Animal League. He was a black Lab named Jeff. Later, I adopted a golden retriever named Simon. I married a man with a golden retriever named Padzie. When he died, we bought a golden retriever whom we named Chase. Chase died last October, and....

2. Do you have any pets now?
...in December we met and fell in love with Lucy, our first female and first cream colored golden retriever. She had a heart condition which was undiagnosed when we purchased her, and needed surgery at 11 weeks of age in January. Now it's July and Lucy is perfectly healthy, and our family's great, great joy.

3. What is the funniest or worst thing any of your pets have ever done?
We're smitten. We think everything Lucy does is funny. She's a talker more than a barker, and makes a lot of funny, chatty throaty noises, with or without toys in her mouth that make us laugh a lot. She also puts her front paws on our shoulders and wiggles. Our almost three year old godson calls that a Lucy hug.

4. Who is/was your favorite pet?
Hands down, it's Lucy.

5. How did you train your different pets?
We attended puppy kindergarten with Lucy, which taught us all kinds of cool stuff. We can sit, leave it, lay down, shake, come, roll over... We liked puppy kindergarten.

BONUS: Pictures of a pet or one you wish you could have. Lucy's cousin, last fall.

20 Questions

I need to get back into blogging. Here's a way, I hope!

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?
I can hardly remember back that far. (It's been a full day.) I think I thought, 'Good. No toothpaste on my black t-shirt."

2. Do you miss anyone right now?
Indeed, I do. I miss my mom. I regret that I didn't take more time to travel to see her in her last years.

3. If you could move anywhere else, would you?
I'd move next door to a Teavana store that was looking for a professional tea tester. Either that, or I'd take up residence inside a Whole Foods Store. I really like their values, plus they have a chair massage place on site.

4. If you could choose, what would your last meal be?
Basil Chicken from Cida Thai.

5. What famous person, dead or alive, would you want to have lunch with?
Eleanor Roosevelt.

6. What was the last book you read?
In The End The Beginning by Moltmann

7. What was the last movie you watched?
In the theater, Toy Story 3
Netflix: Grey Gardens

8. What was the last song you heard?
Contra by Vampire Weekend (It was on the car. I am the parent of a teenager, okay?)

9. What is your dream vacation?
Chatham, Cape Cod in the off season.

10. What is the next trip you will take?
We're driving to La Foret in Colorado at the end of July.

11. Did you ever go to camp?
Not until I was an adult. I went as a camp counselor to a Presbyterian camp. It was fun. I liked it.

12. Have you ever been in love?
Absolutely, without a doubt.

13. What do you want to know about the future?
Will we see peace in the Middle East in this decade?

14. Where is your best friend?
I have a lovely cadre of best friends. They are in the next room, in Arlington, VA and in southern Illinois.

15. How is your best friend?
They're all well, thank you.

16. Who is the biggest gossiper you know?
No comment. That would be gossip, wouldn't it?

17. What does your last text message say?
"Quite the storm here."

18. What are 3 things you've always wanted to do, that you still plan to accomplish?
I want to take my planned sabbatical. I want to meet some long-term personal goals (I'm close! How's that for vague?), and I want hike the Grand Canyon.

19. What is one thing you learned from your parents?
Keep short accounts.

20. What is one thing you hope to teach to your own children?
Love the wonderful person God created you to be.

I got these from Seeking Authentic Voice and Meaning and Authenticity, and I think the rules are that if you copy these from me and answer them on your blog you are supposed to let me know....so off I go to let Mompriest and Katherine E. know...

photo by Getty Images

No lament

It's a challenge to find the time to write here. I'm working on my sabbatical proposal, due June 21 for a sabbatical I hope to take in the summer of 2011. To that end, I've been spending a lot of my free time working on it, and journaling, so that my coach has something decent to respond to and so that I can work on discerning what to do, where to go,and all the "whys" that accompany a proposal.

FBC's recital was magical! We had such a wonderful weekend and it was glorious to hear her sing and sing and sing. On Sunday evening she was in an opera, which was also great fun.

Between then and now, she's finished the school year, returned home and is beginning summer work as a nanny. SBC is finishing up his school year and it's wonderful having everyone home in the nest. We're looking forward to a happy summer, with a sixteen year old who will be driving and young adults who are happily making music, indoors and out.

More later, I promise.

Chicago image from here.