Dear Jacob,
Around Here I'm:
Watching the tulips in the front planter and wondering if they'll ever send up blooms. They were a gift from our friends Ellen and Ken last summer when Dad did their wedding. I planted them in the fall hoping to see them bloom this Spring. I'm getting impatient.
Packing the storage room back up. It was time to snake out the sewer pipe and that's where the opening is. I love that Silver Maple out front, but it loves our sewer main so every spring we have to rototill all the roots out.
Listening to the dishwasher run. We always forget to turn that thing on so I'm so glad it's going. Your Dad is awesome.
Celebrating the warmer weather. Yesterday I wore flip flops and never needed a sweatshirt and on the way to pick up Sam I saw the ice cream man. Summer is perilously close. I'm so excited. It's time to come alive.
Waiting for about ten bags of organic garden soil to be dropped off. I have the bug to get started planting outside, but the rule in Colorado is to wait until at least Mother's Day. It's good to have to wait because right now my garden plan is a scattered mess of everything. By May I'll have a more reasonable plan. Thinking about more Hostas, more Jack Frost, some shade annuals this year and the vegetable seedlings we've started on the windowsill.
Savoring this day off. I woke up and read part of a book before I motivated myself to pull some weeds in the backyard. Dad made pancakes topped with strawberries, I took a short nap, my friend Janice and I went walking and talking and I'm looking forward to spending some time in the kitchen when I'm done here.
Planning for our Sunday Dinner tomorrow. I wish I knew who was coming. My last seminary Formation Group meeting on Monday. I hope they learned something.
Working on grading seminary papers. The students have submitted reading reports. They had to choose one of three books and respond to it in about three pages. I've completed the submissions for one book, After you Believe by N.T. Wright, and will get started on the papers submitted for The Good and Beautiful God and then Signature Sins.
Loving this season of church planting that we're in. I am so happy about who is in the room with us. These friends are passionate about being friends and about being like Jesus. I love this new thing that's growing.
Reading four books: Neighbors and Wise Men by Tony Kriz and also Little Black Sheep by Ashley Cleveland. They're both memoirs and I'm wondering why Little Black Sheep hasn't made a bigger splash because her writing is fabulous. I'm also stuck in the middle of Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath and stalled out on my way through Mended by Angie Smith during Lent. I didn't finish a single book in March! Might have something to do with writing a few letters along the way.
Wanting to go somewhere and do something as a family for a day but I don't know what. I think we're in a weekend rut. You guys are so glued to playing computer games and we haven't been anywhere because it's just easier not to. I'm wanting to be able to say, hey let's go to Doors Open Denver or hiking in Red Rocks or ride the bus along the 16th street mall, but it's just not happening.
Making sloppy joes for dinner and maybe some oatmeal cookies. Really wanting the house to smell good.
Preparing to do a church planters assessment with a local organization on Thursday. Hoping we find a lot of common ground, common ideas and a common tribe.
“People encounter God under shady oak trees, on riverbanks, at the tops of mountains, and in long stretches of barren wilderness. God shows up in whirlwinds, starry skies, burning bushes, and perfect strangers. When people want to know more about God, the son of God tells them to pay attention to the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, to women kneading bread and workers lining up for their pay. Whoever wrote this stuff believed that people could learn as much about the ways of God from paying attention to the world as they could from paying attention to scripture. What is true is what happens, even if what happens is not always right. People can learn as much about the ways of God from business deals gone bad or sparrows falling to the ground as they can from reciting the books of the Bible in order. They can learn as much from a love affair or a wildflower as they can from knowing the Ten Commandments by heart.” ― Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith
Glad you got your homework done. Go outside. Notice something.
Love,
Mom
