Friday with our youngest. Writing Goal Day 5

There's something wonderful about each of our children. Sure our oldest two are identical twins but they are still wonderfully unique people. Today's Friday, my day off, so I got to spend most of it with our youngest.
She's 15 months old and has moxie and what our neighbor who ate next to her at the picnic table in the back yard on Monday called an infectious smile.
She has started to express strong opinions about her direction and even about food and clothes. She starts everyday with two brown and serve sausage minced into bite size morsels.
One more thing about her is that she has a very close relationship with our American Water Spaniel. I didn't grow up with dogs and until I had my own was always a little afraid. Memories of an encounter with my Godparent's dog stuck with me for a long time. I am not sure if I was afraid of dogs before I met Elfie or if it just came on because she was such a high energy lab and so independent ready to chase me away and scaring me by snapping. My uncle thought I had bothered her when she was eating.
Now I have my own dog and my own little girl tugs at his tail. We've been working to gentle him playing with his ears and mouth from 6 weeks on. He's wonderfully gentle and ever our youngest seems to know how to live with his 3 year old energy. Anytime he rushes past as he comes in looking for water after being outside she's on her feet too keeping her balance by being in motion.
Our little girls uses the dog, Teddy, as a couch, she'll make sure he's right behind her and then slide right against his dark brown fur cozy and comfortable. It's amazing to think she's 15 months old. It's even more amazing that our older two turn 7 next month.

A Kid's perspective Writing Goal Day 4

The kids and the grown ups have different views on the news of the day in our house. The kids didn't like the idea that we, the grown ups in town, got to vote today to choose to either build or not build a new school for kindergarten through second grade. Their beloved school will be replaced with a brand new expansion of the other elementary school in town.

As parents we like the idea. All kids from early childhood through sixth grade will be in one place. All the current technology will be built in from the start. But our older two girls aren't in favor. As I went to register for the referendum our older two girls asked to vote too. The election judge said they needed to be 18 and have a drivers license. The girls protested politely saying, "I object." I might object to seeing a neat school closed too. The hard part for our girls is saying good by to their school. They like the people they've met and the time they've had there. The don't want to lose their school even with the leaky windows and the cramped lunch room. It's gotten to be like home.

On another note: I lost a tooth tonight. It came home in an envelope from school with one of our girls and I can't find it. She thought I should email the tooth fairy a picture to prove that it's out.

A Semi full of food writing goal day 3

About 2 months ago a large food bank called to offer a semi-load of food to be distributed to those in need in our neighborhood. A group of willing churches and agencies agreed to help. The congregational church signed on and key people from their church stepped forward.

Today was the day. The first volunteers showed up and met the truck load at the Armory; they were good hosts for us. The unloading went fast. Pallet followed pallet. Unlabeled (but indentified cans) were labeled and soon more volunteers than I could count showed up.

People started showing up more than an hour before we started to share the food we had to offer. More than 300 came through; most in the first hour.

In the end we had too many of a few things; but we were blessed to share what we had.

What's the church for? Writing goal day 2

What's the church for: Here are a few possibilities
-+-+ Maybe the church is where people are gathered to be told about God: I'm processing the story a man by to share with me last week. Because I was out he came back to the building where our church meets on Monday. He wants to tell people about God. Listening took effort and scripture to challenge his assertions and direct him Christ's cross and rising as the center of Christian hope. He's convinced scripture's true; but he's equally convinced that he had an experience of God that's unique. After 90 minutes I asked him if he'd ever heard of Christian mystics.

-+-+ Maybe the church is where we experience community. There's a one of a kind competition taking place on Tuesdays from 5-7 in church basements in Southern Minnesota. "The Holy Hotdish" Cook-off is a friendly, but still competitive, challenge between churches. Hotdishes are known as casseroles in other places; but in Minnesota and the Dakota's a dish that includes protein, vegetables, a starch, and commonly a canned soup is called, "Hotdish." I still think we had the best one; but I am a little prejudice after cutting 400 pieces of cake last week.

-+-+ Maybe with Pentecost coming this Sunday it's good to know that the church is whatever God wants it to be through the calling of the Holy Spirit. The people of Babel wanted to approach heaven so they built a huge tower to reach into heave as they chose. A friend says that the people of Babel built a Ziggurat to entice God to come down them. God doesn't dwell in a building, Paul says we are temples for the Spirit (1st Corinthians 6:19). Funny thing is that we miss God's presence because we confuse buildings where churches meet with the mystical body of Christ. Paul has a dual challenge when he invites us to discern Christ's body and blood. It's present both in the in the Word and the Sacraments and in the people who gather with us to meet him there. (1st Corinthians 11:29)

A writing goal

After 10 years in ministry I've become a lazy writer. Lots of preachers fall into this slump; unconcerned with grammar and preoccupied with concepts.
I started thinking maybe a goal to write everyday would help. Just to write a little, even a paragraph (yes one sentence could count as a full paragraph) to improve my writing.
For some reason preachers seem unconcerned with the details of the written language; but something tells me I'll be a better speaker if I focus in again on the that I write not just the words that as I communicate the Word that gives hope, light, and life.

Signs of Spring

The end of Winter and the start of Spring doesn't happen at a precise moment that any human can see and announce to the world. Spring's arrival happens in the dark just beyond our sight but we are most definitely aware that it's coming.

Spring comes to us just like the mystery of resurrection. For some reason We look for the fixed points in time that we can name as the moment when new life starts after old life has ended. Maybe we are making a mistake to look for fixed points in time like Euclid encouraged his students to imagine as they studied geometry. The trouble with beautiful mysteries like the arrival of spring or the joy of resurrection we humans can't point to one moment in time when one ends and another starts.

As the daylight last longer there's no one point where you can say that the warmer weather has started. Maybe it's the day the kids want to play on the porch. Maybe it's the day the day when the front walk is no longer icy.

The last month we've watched as a couple feet of snow disappeared from our yard. And just this week we watched as the ice has disappeared on the lake. Last night I got the canoe out to paddle along side the ice just to see what it looked like at eye level. This morning, not even 10 hours later I got out to run and saw that most of the ice had disappeared in the night.

Thoughts on Tampa

A week ago my beloved, our youngest daughter, and I returned from 5 days and 5 nights in Tampa, Florida. My beloved attended a conference in Tampa while our baby and I took in the town. This wasn't my first trip the Tampa area, but it was the first time when I went to Tampa and didn't bring a car along or rent one to get around. It was a good city to walk in and people, including the homeless who we met on the streets, seemed genuinely friendly and curious about how our little girl was doing.

Monday was pretty quiet in Downtown Tampa (we learned that Downtown is usually pretty laid back) but this week was exceptionally cold, according to the natives. The headlines in the daily paper included reports of extreme record cold with 9 days below 60.

The baby and I had a great time even finding a park to relax in in the afternoon sun along the Riverwalk Downtown. It did cool off after dark, but the sun that afternoon sure was great. My great accomplishment was finding a handy grocery store and getting my bearings without a car.

Tuesday we headed across the Hillsborough River and checked out the University of Tampa. A noteworthy stop on campus is the Plant Museum in Plant Hall in the middle of the campus. This old main building was once the Tampa Hotel built by the Plant Line as a great vacation destination. It's a fantastic building noteworthy for hosting Teddy Roosevelt and other officers before the US invasion of Cuba during the Spanish American War. In the evening we hopped on the Street Car for Ybor City and supper.

Wednesday we headed towards Ybor City on the street car. We took in the Ybor City Museum operated by the Florida State Park System. The less than one block state park has been established as a museum detailing the lives of Cuban and Italian cigar makers who called this section of Tampa their home. Its a fascinating introduction into the working class life of Tampa in the early 20th century. It's not part of the usual beach and amusement park tour of Florida but it helps make sense of the area's history and industry.

My beloved joined us for supper Tuesday and Wednesday in Ybor. The Cuban sandwiches and bean soup are worth trying if you haven't had either before. Our little girl was very curious as we watched the cigar makers at work in some of the shops in Ybor as we walked through the city.

On Thursday we headed to the Florida aquarium. It was a really relaxing place during the middle of the week. It might get crowded on weekends but we had no trouble taking a couple of good long walks through from the bottom to the top taking in a shark tank, a reef, and a Mangrove. It was a very good introduction to some of the aquatic life I've seen, caught, and been stung by in prior visits to Florida.

A neat place for breakfast in Tampa is the Samaria Cafe on Tampa Avenue downtown. Its run by a married couple. They serve good food in enormous portions at great prices. I was so full I never needed to stop for lunch. I learned that this child, of all our 3, really likes eggs and potatoes too.

Yep it was a good winter break in a laid back big city. I'd go again.