A Franciscan Benediction

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

I found this in a Charlie Hall CD. I find it really thought provoking. Am I brave enough to pray these things for myself? Are you?

Randomness

Just some random things rattling around in my head:

• I don't like those dreams where I am trying to find something or someplace and I keep looking and looking and never quite get there. I woke up quite worn out this morning.
• The dogs on either side of us are wearing on me. (5 total) They like to bark too much and spend too much time alone.
• I don't like dirty windows, but I don't like washing them very much. My grandma would be ashamed. She tried to teach me how to wash windows and was quite particular about them.
• I am praising God the Protector that my son didn't get hurt in a car accident this morning. But not so sure the car will make it through.
  
• Family relationships are tough sometimes.
• I just discovered this morning that there is a whole season of "Gilmore Girls" I haven't seen! I am so psyched!
• Head massages during the shampoo at the salon are the best!
• What is the point of making a pair of tweezers that cannot even grasp a piece of hair? Just saying...

Okay I better stop now. There really is a non-ending supply of random thoughts in my head. I wouldn't want frighten my readers too much. :)

I Love My Church. But Really?

I really love my church. I love the worship. I love the people even more. I love that pastors aren't afraid to preach it. To preach the truth. To challenge. To answer questions the people in the congregation have even in the middle of a sermon. (Yep, it's happened a few times.)

Our church is fairly young. We started attending when it was just over a year old. That was eight years ago. This has been a great experience for us all. Our kids are tuned in to getting involved and serving in their own churches. Pete and I have seen the benefits of that as well. I have sung on the worship team for most of those eight years. Crazy that I do that, but love serving God that way. Pete has played the piano as well. He also has been a part of the leadership as a deacon and an elder.

Our church worships in the middle school in town. I love the casualness of that. There is only one conflict a year with that location. It's the Sunday that the high school graduation takes place. The high school uses the middle school for the all night party for the graduates. Because of the set up for that, we have found another location to worship on that Sunday. Once a year we worship in the Library Square Park downtown. In all the years we have met at the middle school have never had to cancel because of the weather. Then there is 2009. The weather forecast was for 45 degrees at 10a.m. June 7th people! Being the hardy Minnesotans that we are, we forged ahead for worship in the park.

Here is a picture of the poor worship team including my sweetie on the piano. His poor freezing hands. (Sorry the picture is dark. It is a dreary day.)



Here is my lap while we were singing. Don't you love my blanket? :)
I think it is just wrong that my glasses were steaming up as I sang. In June. Outside. Only in Minnesota.

I'm still thawing out. ::sigh::

Ahhh....

What I am doing on this chilly, rainy June (!) Saturday. (That and being thankful I don't live in North Dakota where it is snowing!)
Maybe I should quit blogging and get back to my book. :)

In Which I Get Perspective After a Night of Not Much Sleep

I had to watch this this morning since last night was seemingly impossible to sleep with all the snoring. This gives me perspective. Watch it. You won't be sorry.

Continued....

This is basically what the tables will look like for the rehearsal dinner. Navy blue tablecloths and green and yellow napkins and clear glass plates. A vase of daisies in between.

To answer some questions in the comment section of my previous posts:

I am okay with the way the lemon and lime slices are sunk, floating or suspended. They have been in the bowl for over 24 hours now and still look okay.

Jenny -- does the tablecloth "anchor" it enough? Caleb would probably shoot me if I put glitter on the tables...it sticks to everything. :) And thanks for the offer to help, Jenny, but the wedding is in Kansas. Pretty sure the hubby doesn't want to go there for the 4th. :) We have some friends who will help, I'm sure.

Michelle: I guess we'll find out what happens if the lemons are overly juicy. It is a fun, cute idea Megan came up with. Looks very summery.

I hope I remember to take pictures of the whole actual set-up.

Monday, Monday

Today, this first day of the month of June, the day of my father's birth, I learned a couple of lessons involving water.

I decided today was a good day to experiment with the table decorations for the rehearsal dinner for Caleb and Amanda. I found some awesome glass bowls from IKEA (Oh, that shopping trip will have to be another post...) to fill with water and float some daisy blossoms and slices of lemons and limes. (This was Megan's idea.) I experimented with thicker slices and thinner slices. I like the thicker ones, especially if there are seeds to remove. I plopped the lemon slices in the bowl and followed that with the lime slices. To my surprise The lime slices sunk to the bottom of the bowl! Odd. But Megan and I decided that look was okay too. A couple of hours later I looked at my master pieces and the lime slices were suspended kind of halfway up in the water. Kinda cool!

Oh I should go find my camera and post the pictures I took...

My other all important lesson, well not really a lesson as much as not thinking something through on my part until it was too late:

As I backed the SUV out of the garage to buy the lemons, lime and daisies I needed for my experiment, I thought I should start the sprinkler system. So I hopped out, left the car in the driveway, and went in the garage to get it going. Well, as I was walking back to the car, I realized I wasn't going to quite make it in the car before the sprinkler heads popped up. Just as I turned my back to get in I got hit in the back with the sprinkler! I laughed and laughed at myself and wondered what I looked like when I got out to run my errands.

Just another crazy Monday here in Minnesota!

And Happy Birthday Dad!