Belated Sunday Wrapup 11/22/2011

What do you get when you pack 17 high school girls, one slender young teacher and one not-so-slender teacher-Grandma into a room for a long evening? Lots of intensity. That's what. And blankets.

In last night's case, we also got bucket loads of shared affirmations (That was the focus of the evening.), and some heartfelt expressions of need and vulnerability. The hugs and tissue boxes went scooting around the room wherever they were needed at the moment, and used tissues went arcing into the trash can in the middle of the room as people cleaned up the space around them.

My female co-teacher, Norma, hatched the plan, and some of the girls signed up to bring food for a simple soup meal together. Others set up the meeting room, and made it homey and inviting. The church library might never have been so thoroughly and well-utilized before. If you peeked in there this morning before the student cleanup crew descends, you might be frowning, but I'm sure God smiled last night. The crib mattresses will be returned to their homes in short order, and the girls will surely be smiling in their hearts for a long time--that is, if they can stay awake today to enjoy the memories.

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During most of the evening we weren't very aware of anything besides what was happening in the room we were in, and in heaven, but near the end of the evening, a coyote "sang" for us--several times, with its characteristic combination of howls and yips. The school is in a fairly densely settled rural area--for Kansas, at least--and a state and U.S. highway and railroad run through nearby, but wild things remain. I like that.

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Sunday's Hutchinson News carried a long feature article and four pictures of Shane and Caleb's natural pork production venture. It was in a special Farm and City supplement, and I was unable to find it online on the news website. Otherwise I would post a link. It was a very nice article, but my composition students would have had a heyday with the "media bloopers" present, which I give them extra credit for discovering. The title contained the word Chipotle, except it was spelled Chipolte. Any hogs that are not sold to local consumers go to a processing plant that supplies Whole Foods and Chipotle.

Free advertising like this is invaluable. The reporter's editor had purchased pork from Shane at Farmer's Market, and picked up a business card. Later she handed the card to the reporter and suggested he do a story on the project. Shane saw to it that Caleb was present also when she and a photographer showed up to do the interview and photo shoot.

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Lots of family travels are happening today. Lowell and our bishop, David Y., return today from a trip to India, where they conducted a seminar for pastors, and traveled to visit at least one other ministry where David's brother Abe, from Minnesota, is involved, along with others in his church. Abe accompanied them on this trip.

Marvin and Lois and their family are headed for Tennessee today--to a Mast family Thanksgiving gathering.

Shane and Dorcas plan to begin the trek to Virginia, to spend the holiday with Dorcas's family. Dorcas and Tristan will stay there through the following week while Shane meets up with others in the Laudate singing group, for practicing, presenting, and recording a Christmas program. I saw their itinerary, and took special note of their programs at Bruton Parish, a church in the historic part of Williamsburg, VA.

Several years ago, when Lois turned 40, Marvin schemed for and financed a surprise weekend birthday celebration at Williamsburg for Mom and all the girls in our family. Mom and Linda and I flew into the Norfolk airport, Clara flew in from Columbus, Carol drove over from Ellicot City, MD (DC area), and Bill brought Dorcas from South Carolina. Marvin and Bill were the only men in the group, and they served as chauffeur and escort (and, of course, the afore-mentioned financier). Lois' birthday is on Dec. 1, so we got in on some of the Christmas festivities at Williamsburg. The Laudate group will be there over the same time period we were. We had a wonderful time in Williamsburg, and I'm delighted Shane gets to go there.

I have one fond memory of the time we spent in the Bruton Parish church. We had been tromping around from place to place in a chilly outdoors, and going in and out of unheated buildings, so we entered the church partly to rest and recuperate. A sermon was in progress, and we listened politely.

The church benches were like long, skinny, and tall three-sided boxes on legs. The seat and back were fairly typical, except for being unusually hard and straight, but the armrest end had no armrest. Instead, that end piece extended all the way up, as high as the extra-high back, boxing in the bench. Marvin had entered at a slightly different time than we did, so he ended up sitting across the aisle from Lois. Part way through the sermon, when he wanted to inform her about his plans to go on to check out possible eating places, he mouthed her a message across the aisle. His mouth, though, was hidden behind that high bench end, so all Lois could see was his eyes, busily trying to communicate, with all the words spoken soundlessly and invisibly into the end of the bench. I'm still searching for a metaphor in this event.

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The Williamsburg weekend was also my first clue that I'm not very good at attending Mom when she's in a wheelchair. She was then and is now quite capable of walking, but tires easily, and can't enjoy being on her feet for long periods of time. We had gotten a wheelchair for her, and used it a good portion of the day.

While we were in the parking lot of The Pottery, or perhaps the parking lot of another store we shopped at, I let go of the wheelchair for a moment. I must have been digging in my purse or something. When I looked up, a stranger was pushing Mom's wheelchair toward me across the parking lot. It had been parked on an incline, and spontaneously took itself and Mom for a spin. Mom was overheard to say, "Where are we going?" I wasn't there to answer. God bless the stranger for taking that errant wheelchair into custody for the protection of its occupant.

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Last Sunday was the dedication for Tristan. He slept through the prayer, to the relief of his mother, who had visions of several things that could go wrong--one of which would no doubt have been very entertaining to all the boys on the front bench nearby. LaVerne prayed a beautiful prayer.

Afterward I heard Leanna say that when Ken M. was in charge of doing the recording, he always took the time to listen to the recorded dedicatory prayer and type it up and give it to the parents of the child who was dedicated. Leanna loves to read that prayer for Lawrence, who was their baby during that time. What a lovely gesture.

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Grant and Clarissa are headed to Washington early on Thursday, staying till after her brother Garret's wedding on Dec. 2.

They served us all a delicious smoked turkey dinner on Sunday. We departed from tradition on several menu items--all of them delicious alternatives to the more typical fare. Hilda laughed about experimenting with the in-laws with her roasted butternut squash, onion, kale veggie dish, deeming it a safer option than experimenting with her own family. It was ever-so-good. She also made garlic mashed potatoes, with the peelings--another hit. Dorcas (or Shane?) made a great tossed salad, and Clarissa baked hot rolls and made gravy--and pumpkin roll for dessert. We had the dessert later in the afternoon, with hot drinks made to order. I fixed cranberry salad, special ordered by Grant--the kind Grandma makes.

Shane tried to remember what all went into Grandma's holiday tossed salads. He thinks those have always been the best salads he's tasted, and he finds it hard to duplicate them.