This time of year

It's very quiet this morning as I drink my first cup of tea, with milk that certainly is quite suspect as to its expiration date, but I will drink it any. I need my first cup of tea of the day, so much. You really don't want to be near me if I haven't had my first cup of tea of the day. In fact, it's so important it's worthy of it's own entry in my blog... and this isn't it! Today, I'm going to be discussing 'this time of year' in three minutes, with no pauses, repetitions or deviations. ...

Ha! like that's gonna happen!

The Christmas tree is up, the presents to family in UK have been mailed (albeit on Thursday with a 5 - 10 day postage time...), the Christmas letter has been written and is sitting on the table waiting to be stuffed into envelopes to family and friends in UK - again with 5 - 10 day postage time! oh well!

The Christmas Puddings have been made - eleven of them! Three large ones, and eight individually sized puddings, and very cute they look too. They will last a very long time... so I may not have to make any next year!

This year I have not made a Christmas Cake. All you Americans please stifle your fruit cake jokes, my Christmas Cake is really good. Mind you, it is usually so laced with sherry/port or whatever alcoholic dregs that are in my cupboard, that you probably don't actually taste the cake... I love Christmas Cake. But, it is only me who eats it in my house. My kids have defected to the dark side. They have been in the US too long and won't eat my cake. But, they love Christmas Puddings which, for want of a better description, are like boiled fruit cakes... On Christmas Day, after we have devoured whatever we have devoured and have let the food rest a little, just enough time to make a tiny little space inside of us to stuff in some more, we take the hot pudding, turn it out onto a plate, pour over some brandy and set it alight. Very pretty it is too. Then we eat it with either brandy sauce or clotted cream. I love Christmas Pudding, in fact, as long as we have Christmas Crackers and Christmas Pudding, my day is complete!

Back to 'This time of year' - told you there was little chance of a three minute entry with no deviations etc

I have bought some presents for the family but need a couple more.
Matt is home from St Aldates in Oxford, till Jan 4.
It's cold - like, very cold outside and unlike the UK where people bet on the chances of a white Christmas occurring, we already have the snow, and shall probably have more before Christmas.

And, to really bring meaning to this season, I went to the best Advent Service, ever, last night, complete with liturgical readings - all for no extra charge, at the Evanston Vineyard. It was wonderful. I really miss a traditional church service this time of year, but when I go to a traditional church... as much as I love the smell of the pews and the candles... there's something there too that I miss. Last night was a great combination of both traditions, comfy chairs, meaningful liturgy, great songs, times of meditation about what this time of year really is about... And what is it about?

God who loves us so much, (I mean more than you can possibly figure out, well you can try, but he'll always love you more than that), so, God, who loves us so much decided the only way to get us back into a relationship with him was to become one of us, to live like one of us, with us (dunno about your experience, but we're not always easy to live with), and die for us. Yet, instead of being born in the most modern of hospitals with all the rights and privileges due to a young king, this helpless babe was born in a stable - Christmas doesn't get more simple than that.

I could now spend a long time talking about that, but I'm going to leave it there, and suggest you take time to think about that for a while; a little moment of stillness in this crazy time of year.

Blessings

The life of an intern

I thought it was time that I updated my blog since I have been nagging my son Matt to update his. He is, as you no doubt remember, an intern at St Aldate's Church in Oxford (apparently, someone over there is notified everytime St Aldate's is mentioned on the web... so I may mention it a few times, just so that somebody reads my blog! - Matt only found about my blog because of this feature! Ha!)

Well, I'm not quite sure what the life of a pastoral intern is supposed to be like, and sometimes it's hard to tell what exactly is different from life before being a pastoral intern, to life after becoming a pastoral intern...

As a pastoral intern I have:
my own cubicle (cell) - well, it's my own when I'm there. When I'm out of the office, it's generally up for grabs since it's the only spare cubicle with some clear space on which to work...
I have an Evanston Vineyard email address (alisond@evanstonvineyard.org)
and I have a name tag (double sided no less) with my name and title boldly emblazoned upon it... doesn't come much better than that!

As for actual duties - I have participated in many varied activities, from visiting new babies in the hospital (everyone say 'ah') to getting to sit in on the highly exclusive weekly Pastoral business meetings. Since I had to sign no documents swearing to life long secrecy of the contents of such meetings, I may therefore not be risking the life of myself or my descendents when I reliably inform you, and remember, you heard it here first, they discuss .... well... business... and since this is a church... they discuss... are you ready for this disclosure (at no personal cost to myself)... they discuss the Sunday Service! There you have it! I'm not sure what else I can tell you... I really think that the millions spent on interdenominational espionage to uncover the mysteries of the Pastoral meetings has been truly wasted.... sorry to disappoint...

I'm not sure if it's one of my internship duties, or whether I just happened to say yes to the wrong question (that happens, you know), but I am organizing the staff Christmas Party this year. It's a fine balance between making it good enough so people feel really appreciated (which they are) and not so good that I get asked to do it again...!

Talking about secrecy...my plans for the evening are closely guarded but I will let you know that if the restaurant involved returns my call, it may involve food of some sort. Watch this space if you want to know how it turns out.

50 of your favorite words

I just found this 'article' on the BBC News Website about peoples' favorite (obscure) words. When you are bored, click on this link, 50 favorite words, and spend a few minutes broadening your vocabulary. Your challenge then, is to use at least four of them in everyday conversation... as if you didn't already...

... just a quick comment on the music quiz in the previous entry: Having (mostly) completed the quiz I now keep thinking of music I should have included so, I am now working on an alternative list, you have been warned. That's the disadvantage of having lived so long, and experienced so many different music genres... and also, ways of playing the music .... I mean, as a child I remember playing records on a wind up record player, known as a gramophone (which mother gave to a rummage sale, - tragic). Now I have an ipod which is already out of date.

Dave Sandell's Music Quiz

So, Dave Sandell who has the best blog in the world posted this quiz and challenged others to do it too. It has been hard to fill in as I am very easily pleased when it comes to music, and in my collection you will find Simply Red rubbing shoulders with Led Zeppelin, next to Alicia Keys, the CSO playing Mahler, the best of Jethro Tull, the latest Coldplay CD, a collection of musicals etc, etc. So amidst my confusion, I endeavored to answer the questions. Give it a go yourself and see what you come up with.

1. song from the last record bought: hard to say as I tend to 'steal' music from CDs my kids have bought

2. a blues song: "The Boogie Man" by Freddie King

3. song that gets you going in the morning:

4. romantic song: "Nothing compares to you" Sinead O'Conner

5. one of the earliest records that you can remember listening to: "A Kind of Hush" by Peter Noone and the Hermans Hermits

6. song discovered from a film: "That Darn Cat" by Bobby Darin

7. song from fav band/artist: don't really have a fave, so will just choose something from the top of my head "Ripples" by Genesis

8. song from an artist/band that you otherwise don’t like, but this one: "Without you" by Nilson - can't say I really like this son, but for interest I listened to a CD by Nilson and really hated it, so out of all the songs I heard, this was the least offensive!

9. a lullaby: just for laughs - "Liverpool Lullaby" by Cilla Black

10. song that makes you laugh/ you find funny: "The Laughing Gnome" by David Bowie/"Stairway to Heaven" by Rolf Harris (you need a very strong stomach to listen to more than a few seconds of that...)

11. really good cover version: "Respect" by Aretha Franklin, written and originally recorded by Otis Redding

12. song that reminds you of school days: "School's Out" by Alice Cooper/ "Tears of a Clown" by Smokey Robinson

13. song for those quiet rainy days: "Baker Street" by Gerry Rafferty

14. feel good song: "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" by Queen

15. wildcard: "68 guns" by The Alarm - for no other reason than I was at school with them!

It's a small world after all...

I just came off Skype having talked to my son Matt, the first decent conversation since he left Chicago for Oxford. Due to some problem with his camera (couldn't possibly have been mine) I couldn't see him, but we heard him clearly.

He's having fun in Alan's old stomping ground. It's really weird. Matt will write on his blog about the things he has been doing and the places he has been visiting, and Alan will comment that he used to do that too - Alan went to Oxford University all those years ago. Interesting huh?

Matt was working in the Sunday School at St Aldates and someone came up to him and said she had recently met his aunt, my sister Christine, in Northampton ... how random is that?

I was at a wedding this past Sunday chatting to all and sundry, as you do. I sat next to Jon from England (who had been flown in to 'do' the wedding) who was talking to this other person I did not recognise. I introduced myself, because I'm polite like that, and this guy looks at me and says 'Alison Doo?', I say 'Yes', because that's my name, he said 'I stayed in your house nine years ago' - blimey! And I thought I could remember everyone who has ever been through our doors! That's embarrassing. People who have taken refuge within these four walls have now been relegated to the same treatment as the location of my car keys. I have no idea about that at all! Now, I'd heard about this guy, Paul, from other random people. And these random people would say - do you know Paul? and I would say 'no' because I didn't - but actually, all that time, I was lying, because actually I do... we go way back. That's interesting.

There are some people I knew in London who now attend the church where Matt is. I told Matt to look out for them - but St Aldates is a big church... Anyway, when I was talking to him today, I reminded him to look out for Nick and Leslie. Matt asked if I meant Nick the Warden, and I replied 'yes' because I did, so Matt said he knew who Nick is and is going to say Hi - who knows it might be worth roast lunch on a Sunday!

Wasps!

We kept noticing wasps in the front room, but there was a fan in the window and we thought they were getting in there. So Alan removed the fan and closed the window. But the wasps kept appearing.

They were no trouble. They didn't keep flying around the house trying to dive bomb us, in fact they made no human contact at all. They didn't seem interested in any fruit in the house, or any food at all, really. The wasps would congregate by the window in the front room and try and get out.

I would count about 15 on any given day. Unless it was cold, then there weren't many at all.

It took me a while, but eventually I realized that there were no windows open, and there were numerous wasps inside our house, maybe, just maybe, they were getting in from the outside somehow. I know, I'm a slow learner, but what can you do?

So, my good friend LoAnn and I went and investigated around the outside of the house, and there we spotted it. Well them, really. Lots of them. Flying into what must have been a gap between the ceder siding on the outside of the house and the brick. Aha! There must be a nest in the wall of our house. Comforting to have figured out the problem, but rather disturbing in that there was now a problem to be dealt with...

Alan, my hero, sprayed some wasp killer up the hole one evening after they were all safely (!) tucked up in bed. The following day, they were just flying around as if they had had a really, really good night out and were now suffering the consequences.

He tried it again.

The same happened.

So, we had to call out 'the guy' - you know, the one who charges a lot of money for a few minutes work and then shows you all the small print that explains that even if the house falls down as a result of his few minutes' work, his company is not liable...

So, the guy came and sprayed some stuff up the hole. His stuff was white and the wasps didn't like it much, but they still wanted to get to their nest. I expect they had left all their important stuff there and received no warning about their impending eviction. You have to sympathise with them... at a distance, of course.

I didn't see any the following day.

Maybe they have managed to find somewhere else to live.

I didn't want to kill them, I just wanted them to choose another location. I don't know how you negotiate land treaties with wasps. I just hope that some nomadic wasps don't assume squatters rights and move into the now vacant wasp's nest...

A New Era

New things are happening...

It's the first day of school for the three of the children. Josh is now a senior at High School - what he will be doing next year is a mystery to all of us. He'll probably end up doing engineering of some sort at some school somewhere.... We're not quite sure at the moment!

Esther really doesn't want to be back at school at all. It's a rather tortuous affair. The thought of three more years at High School is unbearable to her. However, she bravely went off this morning. I said many a prayer for her as I thought of her suffering at the hands of her educators.

Nathan is in his final year at Middle School and also would have been quite happy to never go back to school again. Not that there have been any terrible experiences there it's just that the getting out of bed in the morning is rather difficult...

For Matt, big changes are afoot: Next Thursday, he leaves the country (well, he can't take it with him!) for almost a year to do the School of Ministry at St Aldate's Church, Oxford, England. Check out www.staldates.org.uk, click on 'Courses' and then on 'School of Ministry' for more info. He is going to be focussing on Youth Work and will get to hang out with Oli who stayed with us for a few months one summer when he was a Youth Intern at our church. It's going to be a really busy year, but an amazing experience I am sure. We shall just miss him, a lot!

For me, a new era has started. I finished VLI in June, and am now starting 'work' (I don't actually get paid - so does it still count as 'work'? discuss) as a Pastoral Intern at Evanston Vineyard. I'm still checking out what I think is God's calling into ministry, possibly planting a church.

It was my first 'day' today and I cycled there, it only took 20 minutes which I don't think is that bad. With temps of 90+ degrees, that was a very pleasant (albeit sweaty) way to travel. So, like I said it was my first day today... well, it's part-time (20 hours) and since I am involved in a lot of stuff at church anyway: Alpha, SHAPE, prayer ministry team, audio team, woman's group, Cross-Current, housegroup... there's not a lot of time left over. Ha! Anyway, I was there today. I picked out my cubicle - hitherto known as my cell and I got a new email address: alisond@evanstonvineyard.org, so I'm totally official now!

Along with everything else, I'm going to be working on a proposal for implementing a Discipleship Year at Church, starting next Fall. Watch this space.

I'm writing this Blog instead of working on my talk for Alpha. I'm doing the talk at the celebration dinner on 14 September. It's rather scary. I'm feeling rather uninspired at the moment and think I need to spend some quality time in prayer asking God what he thinks people want to hear. Put the burden on God, I say!

Super Delegates swing it for Obama

Last night, Obama clinched the nomination to take the Democratic Party on a fight for who gets the say in the next color scheme at the White House. He won by getting the votes of over 2000 superdelegates...

Let's talk superdelegates - I have to confess that when I hear that term I immediately think of people dressed in vivid Lycra suits, with large muscles and little common sense, who appear at times of trouble beat back the bad guys in an exciting battle of strength, might and display of superpowers so that the people can once again live in peace and harmony.


I would be quite happy if this were true.

Your homework is to pick a superdelegate, any superdelegate and decide what his/her superpower is, and the design of the suit.

I'm sure Obama's run for POTUS will be much more colorful and entertaining, not to mention safe, if he is surrounded by thousands of 'Supers'!

Waiting for the microwave fixer man...

There are many things I could/should be doing while wiling away the hours waiting for the microwave fixer man to arrive, but instead of all of them, I am here at the computer. It would be good to be out in the garden to finally sweep up all the leaves from last Fall - they've been buried under snow for months and months (well that's what it felt like); I could be vacuuming up all those dust bunnies that the sun highlights so beautifully; maybe I should do some reading for my next, and final quarter of VLI; may I should.... be doing anything but sitting here, waiting for people to come and fix the microwave. They say that they should be here any time between 8 and 12 - oh joy! Why do they do that to us? - we all know we'll get a phone call at 11.50 saying that they've been delayed and should be here by 2! Then the day has gone, the dog has not been walked, the grocery shopping will have to wait till another day and I still won't have moved from the seat in front of the computer.... so much for good intentions. Am I alone in this?

Our microwave is about seven years old. It looks fine albeit a little grubby, the lights work, the timer works, it makes the right noises and the turntable does its thing when you switch it on. What's the problem? well, apart from doing all the right things at the right time ... it doesn't get things ... er ... hot... which is what it's all about really. Getting things hot - quickly.

I didn't realize how much we use the microwave until it downed tools and quit... we use it for breakfasts of oatmeal or eggs (I have mastered the art of poaching eggs in the microwave without the use of one of those specially designed gadgets - 2 eggs, yolks pierced, 7 mins, power level 2 - just right), hot milky drinks, a designer snack created by my daughter of chocolate chip cookies and milk - warmed together for a few seconds - someone has to do it! I do all the vegetables in the microwave, defrost meat etc etc. It's been quite an adventure to cast my mind back to the 'olden days' when food was cooked in saucepan on the stove top ... but not so much of an adventure to be reminded just how many pans I can burn! ...

I know that microwaves are relatively cheap to replace, but our is fixed above the stove and apparently that sort are a little more pricey - so calling out the microwave fixer people with their million dollars a minute call out fees are apparently cheaper... well, we'll find out soon enough...

Also, according to the hard to understand recorded message left on my cell phone yesterday confirming this impending visit, all pets need to be locked away for the duration of the visit of the fixer people (does that apply to goldfish, I wonder?) - Abby will surely miss taking these people any spare shoes or smelly socks that are laying around ... and will probably whine loudly while they are here - I guess they believe that will be less stressful than the shoes! Oh well

My Dog Abby

Let me tell you about our dog. We got Abby from a shelter when she was about seven weeks old. We thought she was a black lab. She definitely has some black lab in her but is not pure. She is about the size of a lab puppy so people think she's a cute puppy - and she lets them think that and plays the part accordingly.

She is very cute and thinks people have been put on this planet in order to pet her and make a fuss of her. When visitors come to our door, she makes a fuss of them, takes them a shoe, and gives them so much attention it is difficult for them to get further than the front door...

Recently she has been escaping from our back yard. I think that the snow has been so high right at the far end of the yard that it is easy for her to jump over our neighbor's fence and off out into the big wide world. We get calls from people all over the neighborhood asking if we've lost our dog. Usually we haven't noticed...

One time a young lad brought her home. He had her on a leash and he walked from his house around the corner to return her having found her in his back yard. Nothing unusual about this, you say, and maybe not. However, he had walked around here in bare feet. Again, a little strange, but not that weird, but, there was seven inches of snow on the ground and the temperatures were sub zero! Poor chap. I refused to let him return home without letting him use some boots that belonged to my older boys.

Another time Abby escaped, she was found on the golf course - which although not very far, is quite a way for her to travel alone - she must have been out for quite a while, and again, we didn't notice.

Apart from her adventurous spirit, Abby has a problem with sharing toys with other dogs, especially one particular toy: a squeezy rubber ball with a squeaker and a tail. Most dogs love this toy, but Abby more than most. We used to use this toy to get her to come to us when she was first let off the leash. She would be allowed to run around and when we needed her to come to us we would squeeze the ball and she would come running. Once the leash was attached to her, she would be allowed to carry it home.

Why wasn't she allowed the ball when off the leash, you ask? Well, once that ball is in her mouth, she is impossible to catch. Love, money, all the treats in the world, nothing will bring her close to you... well not close enough to catch anyway. On a number of occasions she has followed one of us (not me, I know better!) home from the golf course because the person walking her didn't believe me when I said she wouldn't be caught with this ball... and they couldn't catch her...

On a number of occasions when at the Dog Beach, Abby has stolen a ball like this from other dogs - which makes it very embarrassing when she can't be caught and the ball can't be returned. Varying dog psychology tricks have worked - usually only once! You know, ignoring her until she puts the ball down to play with it, and then leaping upon her, asking someone else to catch her (good ploy), appearing to leave without her and she drops the ball in order to bark... and leaping upon it... etc etc. I have stopped visiting the dog beach so often, because of this.

However, last weekend, I took Abby for a long walk. It was so nice to not have to much snow and ice around. We wandered down to the dog beach, thinking nobody would be there since it was still very cold. However, guess what? there was another dog there, with a ball like this and you guessed it, Abby got hold of the ball and ran up and down the beach like the cat who got the cream! The person whose ball it was had to leave, and I couldn't catch Abby. She would come close to me, but far enough away that I couldn't reach her and if I moved a smidgen she would growl and run away... and it would keep happening. I thought I would be on the beach forever. I had no phone, it was cold, she was shivering... People came with their dogs and would try to catch her for me... and couldn't... and people went. I was there ages. Eventually this man came on the beach with his dogs and Abby went up to him, he petted her - no growling, leaping away - so I asked him to grab her collar which he did. Hooray! I had hold of the pesky dog once again. However when I tried to remove the ball from her mouth she pulled away from me - picture this - one hand on the collar, one hand on the ball and Abby pulling away - I went sprawling... but still holding the dog! Eventually the leash was back on, the ball was removed from her grip and we walked home - with Abby constantly trying to get hold of the ball... like I felt like letting her have it.

I think I'm going to avoid the dog beach completely until we get her trained to be nauseated by even the thought of this ball (we did return that ball a couple of days later!).

Snow

I think that we've had snow on the ground forever! There is snow in my annual family picture, and it feels as if we have had snow ever since. It's cold, wet and miserable. It's such an effort to get wrapped up in enough layers so as not to freeze just going as far as the car. However, that said, it is very pretty. Take a look:

Some of the pictures were taken on a walk along the lake front with the dog. There isn't much lake to see at the moment, because it has frozen over. Usually when I stand next to the tree above, I see the Chicago skyline - I don't think Chicago is there today... well I can't see it!

The sign on the fence above warns people not to swim... like that is an option right now!

As I was walking along the lakefront I kept hearing a strange noise. After a while I stood still and listened more intently and realized it was the wind on the frozen lake. It was blowing with such force that the ice was breaking up and the pieces of ice were crashing into one another. Quite fascinating.

Everything looks so attractive when it snows - the pictures sure make up for all the skidding around the road in the car, and all the potholes left after the roads have been so heavily salted and plowed. This year, because of so much snow (over 40 inches apparently) Evanston actually ran out of salt - not the only town to do so - so there was even more slipping and sliding than usual.

This lamp post reminds me of Narnia, I keep waiting for Mr Tumnus to come along and offer me some tea, or the White Witch to offer me some Turkish Delight...

It won't be too long before I'm complaining about the weather, yet again, but next time it will be because it's way too hot... you just can't win!