Mary Beth writes: It's Boxing Day!
Whatever that may mean to you, I invite you on this day to simply share five things that today, December 26th, will bring for you.
1. Leisure time - for reading, a nap
2. Writing thank-you notes
3. Shopping for, and finding (!) a new refrigerator
4. Laundry
5. Sparring practice this evening.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Friday Five: Countdown to Christmas Edition
Songbird writes...It's true.
There are only five full days before Christmas Day, and whether you use them for shopping, wrapping, preaching, worshiping, singing or traveling or even wishing the whole darn thing were over last Tuesday, there's a good chance they will be busy ones.
So let's make this easy, if we can: tell us five things you need to accomplish before Christmas Eve.
There are only five full days before Christmas Day, and whether you use them for shopping, wrapping, preaching, worshiping, singing or traveling or even wishing the whole darn thing were over last Tuesday, there's a good chance they will be busy ones.
So let's make this easy, if we can: tell us five things you need to accomplish before Christmas Eve.
- I need to bake cookies with my friend Sandy - we will do that most of today and tomorrow.
- I need to finish decorating our trees.
- I need to wrap presents.
- I need to give one last look at the worship bulletins before they are run.
- I need to take some time just to be with all the wonder of this holy season+
Saturday, December 13, 2008
FRIDAY FIVE - Windows of the Soul
This Friday Five is inspired by Sophia's husband's Lasik surgery yesterday....we are praying for his safe recovery and sharing our thoughts on eyes and vision.
1. What color are your beautiful eyes? Did you inherit them from or pass them on to anyone in your family? My eyes are hazel, but contact lenses make them look more green than hazel. My mom's eyes are blue, and my dad's are brown, so mine are the result of some recessive gene stuff going on, I guess!
2. What color eyes would you choose if you could change them?
I would not change my eye color - sticking with green.
3. Do you wear glasses or contacts? What kind? Like 'em or hate 'em?
I have worn some kind of corrective lenses since I was a small child, mostly contacts. I have tried both hard and soft; the gas-permeable lenses work best for me. I don't like or hate them; they are simply a part of life. I am legally blind without correction, so I am just grateful to have the technology to see so well with relative comfort too.
4. Ever had, or contemplated, laser surgery? Happy with the results?
I have been told that I am not a candidate, at least not yet.
5. Do you like to look people in the eye, or are you more eye-shy?
I like to look people in the eye - most intentionally when I offer them the Eucharist. I believel that this is such powerful way to communicate God's "for you" promise in the meal.
Bonus question: Share a poem, song, or prayer that relates to eyes and seeing.
I will work on this one...I Can See Clearly Now is running through my head, but I want to find something else too...
1. What color are your beautiful eyes? Did you inherit them from or pass them on to anyone in your family? My eyes are hazel, but contact lenses make them look more green than hazel. My mom's eyes are blue, and my dad's are brown, so mine are the result of some recessive gene stuff going on, I guess!
2. What color eyes would you choose if you could change them?
I would not change my eye color - sticking with green.
3. Do you wear glasses or contacts? What kind? Like 'em or hate 'em?
I have worn some kind of corrective lenses since I was a small child, mostly contacts. I have tried both hard and soft; the gas-permeable lenses work best for me. I don't like or hate them; they are simply a part of life. I am legally blind without correction, so I am just grateful to have the technology to see so well with relative comfort too.
4. Ever had, or contemplated, laser surgery? Happy with the results?
I have been told that I am not a candidate, at least not yet.
5. Do you like to look people in the eye, or are you more eye-shy?
I like to look people in the eye - most intentionally when I offer them the Eucharist. I believel that this is such powerful way to communicate God's "for you" promise in the meal.
Bonus question: Share a poem, song, or prayer that relates to eyes and seeing.
I will work on this one...I Can See Clearly Now is running through my head, but I want to find something else too...
Friday, October 31, 2008
Friday Five: Positive Potpourri
Will smama writes: As I zip around the webring it is quite clear that we are getting BUSY. "Tis the season" when clergy and laypeople alike walk the highwire from Fall programming to Christmas carrying their balancing pole with family/rest on the one side and turkey shelters/advent wreaths on the other.
And so I offer this Friday Five with 5 quick hit questions... and a bonus:
1) Your work day is done and the brain is fried, what do you do?
I go to Taekwon-Do - then brain and body can both be fried!
2) Your work week is done and the brain is fried (for some Friday, others Sunday afternoon), what do you do?
I engage in Holy Nappage on Sunday afternoon.
3) Like most of us, I often keep myself busy even while programs are on the tv. I stop to watch The Office and 30 Rock on Thursday nights. Do you have 'stop everything' tv programming or books or events or projects that are totally 'for you' moments?
Cleveland Indians baseball
4) When was the last time you laughed, really laughed? What was so funny?
I laughed good and hard Tuesday at a political joke my husband sent me.
5) What is a fairly common item that some people are willing to go cheap on, but you are not.
Coffee - we drink Leelanau Coffee, which magically appears on our doorstep once a month. Of course the bill for it magically appears on our credit card too - but it is soooo worth it!
Bonus: It's become trite but is also true that we often benefit the most when we give. Go ahead, toot your own horn. When was the last time you gave until it felt good?
Last Monday evening at our local March of Dimes fundraiser and a week or so before that as Spiritual Director of our area Via de Cristo weekend.
And so I offer this Friday Five with 5 quick hit questions... and a bonus:
1) Your work day is done and the brain is fried, what do you do?
I go to Taekwon-Do - then brain and body can both be fried!
2) Your work week is done and the brain is fried (for some Friday, others Sunday afternoon), what do you do?
I engage in Holy Nappage on Sunday afternoon.
3) Like most of us, I often keep myself busy even while programs are on the tv. I stop to watch The Office and 30 Rock on Thursday nights. Do you have 'stop everything' tv programming or books or events or projects that are totally 'for you' moments?
Cleveland Indians baseball
4) When was the last time you laughed, really laughed? What was so funny?
I laughed good and hard Tuesday at a political joke my husband sent me.
5) What is a fairly common item that some people are willing to go cheap on, but you are not.
Coffee - we drink Leelanau Coffee, which magically appears on our doorstep once a month. Of course the bill for it magically appears on our credit card too - but it is soooo worth it!
Bonus: It's become trite but is also true that we often benefit the most when we give. Go ahead, toot your own horn. When was the last time you gave until it felt good?
Last Monday evening at our local March of Dimes fundraiser and a week or so before that as Spiritual Director of our area Via de Cristo weekend.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Friday Five: Location, Location, Location
Singing Owl is anticipating her daughter and family moving to stay with her for awhile. SO... this post, appropriately, is about locations. She invites us to tell us about the five favorite places we have lived in our lifetime...
I have lived in more than a dozen places, but I will comment on the most memorable ones here:
1. Louisville, Ohio
Our family moved to this northeastern Ohio town of 8,000 or so in the late '60's and I lived there through graduation from high school in 1978. L-ville is still a small town with some beautiful old Victorian and Georgian-style homes, and a "Friday-Night Lights"-style obsession with high school football. We lived in two homes while I was there, the second being a wonderful home my father built for us. I loved my room; it had a wonderful window seat dormer and my first and only walk-in closet!
2. Numazu, Japan
I spent my junior year of high school as an exchange student, living in this seaside city at the foot of Mount Fuji. I absolutely loved my year there - I lived with four host families over the year, accommodations ranging from an apartment above a pharmacy and a penthouse above a private orthopedic hospital, to a sprawling country home with a separate bath house fed by a hot spring.
3. Columbus, Ohio
University and seminary study led me to this capital city, which in the seven years I was there was speedily morphing into a sophisticated artsy metropolis. From cozy dorm rooms to a half-double on 16th Ave that deserved to be condemned, to more dorm rooms, to the "white house" on Parkview and finally another half-double in Clintonville, my homes in Columbus were places where my worldview and my vocation were shaped and confirmed.
4. Toledo, Ohio
First call led me to this city of 250,000 over 23 years ago. I rented a small bungalow, and then purchased my first home, a ranch-style. But the Toledo home that I hold most dearly is the 1916 Dutch Colonial that I purchased as I began my second call. I dreamed of the distinctive two-directional oak staircase before I ever saw it. The house had been held in a trust for nearly a dozen years, and looked like the Money Pit when I first saw it: oriental metallic wall paper in the foyer, and a kitchen whose colors made you want to run screaming out of the house (avocado, grey, yellow, and scarlet). But the man who would become my husband and my parents convinced me that we "could do this" and we did - turning this house into a showcase. Our marriage was begun here, our children nurtured here.
5. Sylvania, Ohio
14 years ago I was called to this community, a suburb of Toledo. We wanted to live in the community I would serve, and so we began looking for a home. Most of the housing cost far more than we wanted to spend, but we found a great home, and have slowly steadily made this two-story our own. We've opened the kitchen into the family room, added a front porch, and decorated some of it to reflect our love for Northern Michigan. The wall paper in the half bath makes you feel as though you are in the middle of a birch grove!
Bonus: In "retirement", we want to live in Northern Michigan in the Leelanau Peninsula. Here's a picture of the fall colors I took on a visit there last week.
I have lived in more than a dozen places, but I will comment on the most memorable ones here:
1. Louisville, Ohio
Our family moved to this northeastern Ohio town of 8,000 or so in the late '60's and I lived there through graduation from high school in 1978. L-ville is still a small town with some beautiful old Victorian and Georgian-style homes, and a "Friday-Night Lights"-style obsession with high school football. We lived in two homes while I was there, the second being a wonderful home my father built for us. I loved my room; it had a wonderful window seat dormer and my first and only walk-in closet!
2. Numazu, Japan
I spent my junior year of high school as an exchange student, living in this seaside city at the foot of Mount Fuji. I absolutely loved my year there - I lived with four host families over the year, accommodations ranging from an apartment above a pharmacy and a penthouse above a private orthopedic hospital, to a sprawling country home with a separate bath house fed by a hot spring.
3. Columbus, Ohio
University and seminary study led me to this capital city, which in the seven years I was there was speedily morphing into a sophisticated artsy metropolis. From cozy dorm rooms to a half-double on 16th Ave that deserved to be condemned, to more dorm rooms, to the "white house" on Parkview and finally another half-double in Clintonville, my homes in Columbus were places where my worldview and my vocation were shaped and confirmed.
4. Toledo, Ohio
First call led me to this city of 250,000 over 23 years ago. I rented a small bungalow, and then purchased my first home, a ranch-style. But the Toledo home that I hold most dearly is the 1916 Dutch Colonial that I purchased as I began my second call. I dreamed of the distinctive two-directional oak staircase before I ever saw it. The house had been held in a trust for nearly a dozen years, and looked like the Money Pit when I first saw it: oriental metallic wall paper in the foyer, and a kitchen whose colors made you want to run screaming out of the house (avocado, grey, yellow, and scarlet). But the man who would become my husband and my parents convinced me that we "could do this" and we did - turning this house into a showcase. Our marriage was begun here, our children nurtured here.
5. Sylvania, Ohio
14 years ago I was called to this community, a suburb of Toledo. We wanted to live in the community I would serve, and so we began looking for a home. Most of the housing cost far more than we wanted to spend, but we found a great home, and have slowly steadily made this two-story our own. We've opened the kitchen into the family room, added a front porch, and decorated some of it to reflect our love for Northern Michigan. The wall paper in the half bath makes you feel as though you are in the middle of a birch grove!
Bonus: In "retirement", we want to live in Northern Michigan in the Leelanau Peninsula. Here's a picture of the fall colors I took on a visit there last week.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)