9th grade retreat.

This past Saturday I got to spend with our 9th graders, they are fabulously strange, awkward, and wonderful. They are all on track to be confirmed this October and I have to admit that there is a piece of me that is sad that they are being confirmed because I have loved meeting with them on Wednesday nights, don't get me wrong I am excited for them that they get to move on to high school youth group, but I'll miss them. Yes, this is selfish, I know and I am admitting it.

While there are some who want absolutely nothing to do with junior high and high school kids I have grown to love those middle school aged kids as well as my high schoolers. In the town I serve the 9th graders are in a campus of their own, not quite high schoolers and no longer middle schoolers. Generally by the time they hit high school they are fairly rational and less awkward, strange, and wonderful and have matured a bit. But there really is something to that middle school/early high school age when the youth are trying to truly discover the world around them. It is that stage in which they are not certain which way is up or down most days and are experiencing all sorts of changes physically and emotionally. While yes, sometimes their emotions are over the top and irrational, it is reality for them. It is what they know and how they understand the world. 

I find it a honor to get to journey alongside these kids for a time, it is a honor to hear their story, remind them that they are loved just as they and that God loves them and created them exactly how they are. It is a honor to hear that things that drive them nuts and make them excited. It is a honor to walk alongside their families as they learn what to do with middle schoolers, who are striving for independence and yet at the same time clinging to responsible adults to lead and guide their paths.

Thanks be to God for middle schoolers/early high schoolers and their willingness to let me journey alongside them.

Thanks be to God for giving me the patience and the sense of humor to enjoy middle schoolers & their sometimes stinkiness.
Thanks be to God for the adults who loved me when I was in the strange middle school/high school stage.

Thanks be to God to a congregation who rallies to remind these youth that they are in fact amazing and loved.

Thanks be to God who loves all of us despite our awkward, strange, and wonderfulness.

Crochet

I LOVE to crochet. I love the way the yarn feels in my hand, I love the repetition of the stitches as the pattern emerges, I love the way whatever I happen to be making at the time slowly evolves. I love making big projects (blankets) and little projects (hats) and nearly everything in between. Growing up I always thought crocheting and knitting (which I have no clue how to do) were something for old ladies. I love the familiarity of a pattern I know by heart and I love the confusion of a new pattern or one that has a particularly challenging stitch to it. I dream of having a massive yarn stash to pick from when I am creating things, I would love to have a shelf dedicated just to yarn and have it all nicely organized by color and weight. (Also I guess I would need the money to buy a ton of yarn.)
I love giving away things that I have crocheted to family, friends, hospitals, and other organizations. I also get to sell some of what I make at a local shop and it is fun to see someone wearing a hat or scarf or something I made while walking through the grocery store. I love to make kids and adults hats all the same. It is a spiritual practice for me for sure. I pray as I crochet, I pray for the person who will be receiving whatever I happen to be making, even if I don't know them, I pray for the world, I pray for family and friends, crocheting (much like running) allows me the time pray in ways that I can't if I am just sitting still. I am the person who carries yarn and a needle with me wherever I go, given ten minutes waiting at the doctor's office I am bound to pull it out, or if my stress levels get too high at work, I pull out my ball of yarn and my needle and crochet and pray for ten minutes. I give thanks for the woman who taught me to crochet when I was in fourth grade, I think I am going to write her a thank you note to let her know I appreciate her and what she taught me.
I LOVE to crochet.

Lately I have been creating these monster hats
they are selling like crazy and lots of friends have
requested them for their kids. It is great fun.

Easter

Easter week was crazy nuts and marvelous all at the same time. This first year in call has been wonderful and a crazy learning curve, the people at Bethlehem are outstanding. The picture above is Marc, Dakota, and I after Easter services. We had a great time playing outdoors with my family, it is hard to believe that there is snow on the ground as I type.

I just got back from a wonderful road trip with my mom to drive my grandparents car back from Florida. We spent a few days on the beach and then a few days driving back. I had lots of crocheting time (which was amazing).

366 pictures in 2012

At the beginning of 2012 (which really doesn't seem all that long ago, but in reality is months away, time is one of those things that boggles my mind) I challenged myself to take at least one picture a day and put them into a shutterfly book (I LOVE SHUTTERFLY). I am absolutely loving this challenge. This could by far be my most favorite challenge I set for myself in 2012. I love taking pictures, editing them, and making shutterfly books! I am realizing that I am going to have to make another 2012 book to contain more of the pictures in more of a traditional photobook type format. I have taken way more photos this year than I did at this point in 2011, which was part of the goal. Part of the challenge is what to take pictures on days that I would consider 'normal' and nothing 'extra-ordinary.' Sure I have gotten lots of pictures of my sweet Dakota, which I am totally okay with, and I have some funny pictures of things like my messy desk or some new recipe I tried. The other challenge is what to choose as my picture of the day, some days it seems like I take a ton of pictures and have a hard time deciding what exactly to claim as my picture of the day. I LOVE this project. I am not yet committing to doing it another year but so far this has been amazingly fun and even better I have made it to April without missing a single picture! Which I was 99% certain by now one of two things would have happened, either I would have missed a few days or I would have given up or forgotten about this project and neither have happened.

Dakota and her BFF Luther carrying a stick together