A Sunday at Home

Church was canceled today because of the wintry weather we had overnight.  We had only several inches of snow, but it drifted on east-west roads, and the church yard was icy.  People who could still get out this morning weren't sure that they could get home afterward.  I know of one family that got stuck around noon when they tried to go somewhere for a Sunday dinner appointment.

Making these decisions is often not easy, but I, for one, thought canceling church was a good call.  I'm pretty sure that people who thought it was a bad call (if there were such), had one or more of the following:

--A four-wheel drive vehicle
--A young, strong body
--Mechanized equipment for clearing snow or getting themselves unstuck if they got stuck
--A residence on a north-south road
--No responsibility for the very young or the aged
--No responsibility for seeing that the church service runs smoothly (perhaps in the absence of people appointed to the various responsibilities--who couldn't get there)

If our salvation depended on having church every single Sunday, no effort would be too great.  As it is, not so much.

************************

Tristan stayed here on Friday evening and then again from Saturday morning till this afternoon.  It was his first sleepover at our house.  Shane and Dorcas were participating in the "Art of Marriage" event at Cottonwood.

This is the first time that I saw the silly, teasing, playful side of Tristan's personality.  Peek-a-boo was his idea this time, and he did it with the throw on the couch and the Japanese fans he found in a  big pot on the bottom shelf of the coffee table.  (Breathtaking cuteness on the latter . . . )  All in one act, he could paste on a silly grin, look at  me out of the corner of his eye, do a chuckle-grunt and invite a response.

He's got the "Let's look at a book" routine down pat:  Find the book, take it to Grandma, hand it to her, back up to be lifted onto her lap, and help open the book.  Oh, and carefully turn only one page at a time (if it's a board book).

I also took note that he's an easy child to take care of in that he is, for the most part, deliberate rather than impulsive.  If he picks up the stemmed bowl on the coffee table, it's safe to remind him to be careful and then to wait watchfully, and the bowl will be fine.  Ditto for the ceramic lid to the garlic pot on the middle shelf of the kitchen "island."  He knows balls may be thrown, and he does so with abandon.  He has an eye for little things that don't belong--a single hair caught on the string hanging from the window blind, and a tiny sliver of cellophane from the food supplement package.  He picks them up carefully (great fine-motor skills) and offers them to me for disposal.  He shuts the lid on the trashcan--which I often leave open for my own convenience.  We can't be letting the little ones get into the trash.

In child development class we've been studying the various developmental stages during the first year of life, and it's a lot of fun to recognize all the milestones Tristan has now passed and the ones he's moving toward.

Some of these stages aren't so easy to celebrate.  Late Friday afternoon, Tristan was outside while Shane was planting potatoes.  He was having a great time, running around and playing in the dirt--till his mother appeared.  He must have been afraid this meant an end to being outside, or perhaps he was really enamored with the male bonding going on, but he turned purposefully and angrily toward his mother with dirt in his hands and threw it at her.  Wrong move.  Way wrong.  No angelic attitudes and actions in evidence.  Something else.

In the foods department, noodles and corn are not cool, but the following things are:  grapes, hot dogs, rice, tofu, seaweed, and daikon pickles.

***********************

I've often chuckled at the little tiffs I observe between people who are, for the most part, capable and mature and generous.  I don't know if my perspective is skewed or not, but I think they happen most often between people who did not both grow up in the same community.  Furthermore, I think the frequency rises another notch when neither one grew up in the community in which they now reside.

Have you observed something similar?  How do you explain whatever you've observed?

************************

On Facebook, the County Sheriff reported an injury accident near Trail West and Salem Road early Saturday morning.  This intersection is 3/4 mile west of our house--where we plan to move to again after school closes, and where Grant and Clarissa live now.  That location is about 1 1/4 mile from another house farther west along the same road--of late, the scene of parties involving alcohol.

This accident  must have followed such a party--probably at that same place.  When one person passed out, his buddies loaded him onto the back of a pickup and headed east for town.  When they got there, he was missing.  After they backtracked to look for him, they found him between the party house and our place, with serious injuries.  No details about how he got "off-loaded" were given, but he was later identified as a 19-year-old from Hutchinson, who was transferred to Wichita with neck and head injuries.  The driver of the pickup, also from Hutchinson, was charged with DUI and aggravated battery.

Sounds like good clean fun all around.  (sarcasm alert)

We never worried about such things when Jeff and Sandy lived there as our closest neighbors to the west.  I'm praying for changed hearts for whoever lives there now.  I don't know the names of the people, but it's single guys, I hear.

**************************

Last week the students who earned the field trip went to Lindsborg, a community northeast of here that was settled mostly by Swedish people.  In a grocery store there, Mr. Schrock purchased lutefisk (lye fish), which is a traditional Swedish food.  On Thursday, he prepared the fish for everyone to sample.  It was cod, he informed us, but would not tell us the process for preparing it until after we'd eaten it--beyond the fact that he had baked it.

The appearance of the flesh was surprising--almost clear, and the texture was even stranger.  It was gelatin-like.  The flavor was mild. We added salt and pepper and ate it on some kind of flat bread--flour tortillas, perhaps.

It had been preserved by being immersed in lye-water.

Mr. Schrock told us that Swedish people don't necessarily declare lutefisk to be delicious.  They might eat it once or several times a year.  It's probably in the same category as some of our sturdy foods--hot cornmeal mush with milk, for example.

**************************

My co-teacher, Norma, is off to visit her friend Ruby in Indonesia during spring break.  En route, she has stops in Singpore, Korea, Hong Kong, and Japan.  That's a lot of countries in a short time.  Ruby was the recipient of a monetary gift which she decided to use to pay Norma's trip.  I'm happy for both of them that this is working out.

My spring break plans sound a lot tamer, but I'm anticipating a good "staycation. "

***************************

I had a good fill of liverwurst and fried mush on Friday evening.  The place was swarming with people, and I marveled at all the people involved in preparing and serving the food.  We sat at a table with a couple from Moundridge.  They told us they look for this event every year and make plans to attend.

I wish Journey@Yoder had a second drive to their parking area--one off Yoder Road.  Threading one's way past the buildings into the parking lot was a bit arduous, given all the people walking between their cars and the building.