Summer Begins

This week has been very summery, both weather-wise and in terms of that certain feeling that goes with summer. Time seems to slow down a bit, afternoons get hot and steamy, and the fireflies are out! The weather this week has been iconic, in fact, even beautiful. It has been hot and a bit humid, but one of my own little meteorological indicators is the color and clarity of the sky. I can almost predict the humidity levels. This week, the skies have been clear and blue with fluffy white clouds. The real dog days of summer will bring hazy, brassy skies with few clouds and air that is positively visible from humidity. Thankfully we're not there quite yet.
The garden has exploded and the spinach went from baby to bolted (blossomed and past prime for eating) in just a few days. I may have some yellow squash this week and even a tomato. The lilies in front are going full bore-oh how I love my lily border.
We have lots of apples this year, which is good news as we've had several years without any. The kids are so excited about at least a few batches of homemade applesauce.

The kids have started their cycle of camps and other summer things, like swimteam and early practice for fall high school sports. Afternoons and evenings find the boys playing frisbee with friends, and we've already been to Rita's for yummy, icy treats. There's no real sleeping in yet, with swim practice at the unholy hour of 8 am, but that will come.

Today, the most summery thing of all happened. I thought I would be teaching at a shop in PA all day but sign-ups were low and the classes were canceled. Instead of being sad, it feels like I'm on vacation! I'm going to stay in my PJ's for another half hour, then I'll be off to run errands and such, but mostly, the day is my own. That is the golden essence of summer to me.

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The Other Side of June

While my insides were brooding and anxious, as indicated in the previous post, my outsides were actually having a pretty good time. Thanks again to everyone who reads for your expressions of friendship and reassurance. It really meant a lot. Here are some actual HIGHLIGHTS from the past few weeks:

This was actually in May, but It's sort of been that long since I've blogged about any sort of event. Memorial Day often finds us celebrating a couple of family birthdays due to their proximity to that holiday. The one boy was actually born on the Friday of Memorial Day Weekend. This year, the requested meal was Steamed Crabs, a local Maryland delicacy. These were actually caught in the Chesapeake Bay and steamed earlier that day. They may be ugly to others, but to us they are bea-utiful and so delicious.


After Memorial Day, we were lucky enough to have some friends visit from Oregon. It was really great to have little ones in the house and other mutual friends over to share the fun.





The last photo is me, Heather and Corinne. We met through our online book group, The Nook, and it was the first time Heather and Corinne had met. I love that we've been able to prove the value of online interaction by becoming real, true friends. The nice thing is that our connections can transcend time and distance and be meaningful no matter what.


The next week brought my sister getting her PhD with me and several other family members in attendance. It was awesome to see how amazing her research was and experience her genius. She always planned to get a PhD and now at the age of 40, and after having 5 kids, she accomplished that great goal. The day after that, I got to do a wonderful photo shoot of a darling 1-year old. She is kind of a serious little thing, but I think I got some nice ones. This is my favorite.

Catching up to last weekend, I guess the biggest news was that I was sustained at church as the Young Women's President. That means I'm in charge of all the girls aged 12-18 in my congregation. The assignment involves a concern with both spiritual and practical aspects of the program, so I'll make sure they have religious instruction on Sundays then fun and fellowship on Wednesdays. The good news is that I have experience in this area of church service, so I have some confidence that I'll be able to do it fairly well, and unlike seminary, I now get to work with several other women who will assist and counsel me in every aspect of the program. I love that part the most.

However, that excitement was nothing compared to our amazement about the creature that Sam brought home in his tent after a scout campout on Friday. Oh. My. Goodness. It was three inches long and unlike any other bug I had ever seen. It seriously made me think of the monster at the end of Men in Black.
It took us a while, but we finally identified it as a Dobsonfly Larva. I guess they are a very impressive 3-inch long fly, and I'm sure I wouldn't want to meet one on a dark night in the woods, but man alive, this thing looked like some mutated cross between a scorpion and a wicked centipede. I'm not sure which is worse, the larvae or the adults. I guess they are prized by fishermen because they are quite a juicy piece of bait. We like bugs, so everyone enjoyed the thrill of watching him fight fiercely to try and get out of his cup. We did the right thing and took him down to the river and set him free to scare the heck out of someone else. I uploaded these photos a bit larger so you can see some of the exciting details. :o)

Today, a double whammy of thrills: Evan and I made real Whoopie Pies and I got my hair cut. The Whoopie Pies were much more interesting to Evan, but he did tell me my hair looked nice.


Here it is in its post-salon perfection, so don't expect it to look a lot like this again. I like it even though it is quite different from my usual pony tail or plain old long hair. Hopefully I'll be able to wrangle with my hair appliances successfully enough to get it to behave.
So, here I am, smiling again for real, grateful for family and friends and knowing pretty much what the future holds for the next little while. Next week I'm off to camp with the young women I've been called to serve, and that is a tradition that I am definitely looking forward to.

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Self-Indulgent, Funky Post Instead of Actual Blogging

So, I'm still in a bit of a funk due to fairly significant changes in my life, and I just don't like to use my blog for self-indulgent spewing but yet that seems to be what comes out when I start typing. I'll try to control it here, but I'm pretty sure it will end up as little better than whining. My apologies in advance.

I do have a new assignment at church as a follow up to my previous post, but it is best for me not to talk about it yet because we have a process of common consent and my name will be presented to the congregation for a sustaining vote on Sunday. So, no blogging about that yet.

We are getting iPhones, but after lusting after one for two years, I'm suddenly ambivalent about it due to the expense and the increased techno-slavery I fear they will induce, so I don't feel like blogging about that and being all complain-y about something that is a ridiculous privilege for me to have and about which I should be thrilled. So, no blogging about that.

My garden is doing fine, but I'm just not sure how interesting such things as "My early girl tomatoes have set fruit," and "I've used my home-grown cilantro three times this week," and "I haven't figured out where to put the volunteer pumpkin plant and now it is too big to move so it is going to take over the garden" really are. I made one batch of supposedly idiot-proof strawberry freezer jam that didn't work-the sugar didn't dissolve despite the correct amount of stirring, the pectin formed tiny cartilaginous lumps of weirdness, and thus it didn't set up right. I'm resolutely using it because it still tastes delicious, it just makes for a messy sandwich. Luckily, it is good on ice cream. So, I guess that counts as something of a story, but really?

Jeff is back at university, and everyone else is just holding their collective breath until the last day of school tomorrow. Everyone is doing fine, but they're all checked out of school for the most part so getting them up and keeping them motivated has been annoying at best.

I've been completely unable to focus on a book for weeks. I haven't finished anything for any of my book groups, but worse yet, I keep starting new things, so I'm in the middle of about 4 different books. It's maddening. I'm hoping I can curl up with a short, easy favorite book this afternoon to while away the rain, but we'll see. I may have to resort to a movie. I haven't logged on to my online group to participate in a while. It may be time to give that up anyway, so maybe this bout of reader's block will finally make that decision for me. I'm almost finished Shakespeare's The Tempest (I was supposed to be done on Monday), but netflix won't let me watch the instant version on my computer because of our safety settings and there is some glitch in the override system (speaking of techno-slavery). So, horror of horrors, now I have to wait for them to send the DVD or go look for it at the Library. See? I can't even believe I'm annoyed about something like that. Holy Cow.

Okay, since writing like this only makes me feel better to a certain degree before it starts to make me feel worse, I'm going to stop with a relevant but faintly hopeful declaration, courtesy of someone I can totally relate to right now: "Better out than in, I always say." Thanks for the wisdom, Shrek.

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Ch-ch-ch-changes

This post is about my religious life and has references to my faith and the organization of our church. While I've tried to make it as general and explanatory as possible, you are welcome to skip this post.

Since 2002, nearly every school day, I've been getting up at the odd hour of 4:45 am or so and opening my home at 5:50 am to anywhere from 12-22 high-schoolers for a 50-minute scripture study class. This has been my assignment for our church, in which we have a lay ministry and everyone works as a volunteer to get things done. Most days, I spent from 1-3 hours on preparation for my lesson. The kids always came, so I always had to be ready (even though, much to my chagrin, I slept in and missed it, on average, once a year). The class is called Seminary, and it does what you might think a seminary does. It gives kids the opportunity to prepare for what can be a satisfying life of service as a disciple of Christ. In our church, people don't do one job for their whole life, like a priest or a nun or a pastor, and we don't take vows of celibacy or poverty. What we do promise at our baptism is to be disciples of Christ and be witnesses of him as we go about an otherwise ordinary life. One scripture explains it as being willing to be called God's people and as such bear one another's burdens, to mourn with those that mourn and comfort those who stand in need of comfort. It isn't about piety or mere declarations of being saved, it is about going about and trying to do good. And so we hold seminary, to help the kids get to know the God they've chosen to serve. Hopefully, they come away from the process knowing that He loves them just as they are. That was always my first priority.

What we did specifically was study scriptures and talk about religious subjects in a combination academic/spiritual atmosphere. It was a safe place where the kids could ask me anything and they would be respected. I've had all sorts come through my door, from faithful, enthusiastic kids who enjoy being members of our church and participate fully to doubtful kids who don't know what they believe and don't even attend church regularly but for some reason made it to my house every day before 6 am. All were welcomed, even the occasional non-member. I may have forgotten a few, but the list I made of all my students over the last 7 school years has 48 names on it. About half I'm still in touch with and the other half I'm always working on getting back in touch with. Many are still active in church, many are not. About 9 that are old enough have served or are currently serving missions like my son Johnathan. 3 are already married and 2 of those have a child. At least 4 have received Bachelor's degrees, and 1 is a secret service agent helping guard the President. The rest are still in school, engaged, working, hanging out and everything else a young person would be doing.

On Friday, that assignment ended. I am no longer a seminary teacher. The term used is released. It happens all the time that we change assignments and have the opportunity to learn something else and serve in a new way. For me it is a really big change simply because of how long I did it and the way pretty much my whole lifestyle revolved around the assignment: When I got up each day, how I used my time, etc.. It always seems to sound strange to those not of my faith (and many of my faith-seminary is not necessarily a "desirable" assignment), but really, all of us everywhere bend our lives around things we believe in or are necessary or that we just enjoy: parenting, work, hobbies, blogging, tv shows, etc, so why not a religious assignment? So it was for me. Now I have to bend my life some new way. Sure, I feel free. I'll be able to sleep longer(eventually at least, when my biological clock stops waking me up automatically at 4:45). I suddenly have time I didn't have before. I can go to bed without worrying that I'm well-enough prepared to give the kids what they need. My family won't have to set up any more chairs or deal with me always having them AND a bunch of other people's children on my mind. So in a hundred different ways, it is a release, and I'm grateful.

It is a loss for me though, for the same reasons as above. I put so much into it. I really love the kids and will miss them. So very much. It was a privilege having them in my home and I was lifted by them and their willingness to find out for themselves what was true. They inspire me-every day it was like a miracle-they're all here! Again! I came to love the scriptures and understand them better. I definitely feel a sense of let-down, but I know that will pass, especially since I'm pretty sure some other assignment will come down the road pretty soon. I have no clue what it will be, though. That's okay. I have plenty of other things to fill my time.

Plus, I've started watching Lost. From the very beginning...

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