Marathon Sprint -- and a call to delurk

Marathon sprint. Pick up the pace, keep it going for 26.2 miles. Which, consequently, is a good description for my last 26.2 days as of this Sunday evening. In a month of what has been confessed across the board at work to be "unintentional, completely avoidable chaos" (okay, it's not a quote but it's a good summation) I'm drawing to the close.
-Palm Sunday and the week leading up to it****
-Holy Week
-East Sunday
-Klyne Snodgrass weekend
-Vacation in Kansas City
-135th birthday
-Confirmation Week leading up to
-Confirmation Weekend
-Midterm test my OT class (Sunday night).
-..Plus my birthday and at least two others'

Culminating in a youth pastor's retreat at Adventurous Christians in the Boundary Waters from Monday to Wednesday AM. I'll be one of three women, and the time is more or less whatever I want to make of it. And the thing is, I realized tonight, I'm not sure what this weekend is going to bring. It's a completely crazy and dumb time to be taking it -- but it's the only time to take it either...I'm gearing up for another marathon sprint (but in a youth-ministry sense more than an entire-church-plus-youth-ministry-sense...so it's better). I don't want to crash and burn but I want to use the time effectively.

My goals for the weekend:
-Rest
-Write
-Relax
-Read (youth min books I've been putting off reading)
-Strategically plan
-Read (for fun, I got a bunch of new books recently I'm wanting to dig in to).

But really, I'm not sure what sort of a let down this marathon sprint will bring in the wake of 48 hours of spiritual rejuvination and bodily rest and emotional recharging. So, I'm asking for input. What should I be sure to do over these 48 hours? Sauna? Spend some time in silence? Read? Journal? Laugh better and bigger? Commiserate over the hardships of ministry? It's a call to de-lurk and to comment (Mom!) what should I do (or not do -- other than put too many expectations on my weekend or ask for advice in this way...) and I'll take a look and maybe choose one or more if the mood suits.

--Kate

****I do want to say, it's all be swell stuff. Truly top shelf. I'm glad that we did all of it -- I just wish that some of it was more spaced out. Alas, it was not to be this year.

Just another sleepy Sunday

Lately I feel like it takes so.much.effort. to form a complete thought. So we'll see how this goes.

Back from a brief vacation at the parent's house. Unseasonably warm, humid weather. Sunny days all around. Adventures. Felt like a tourist and like I was returning home. Which we were. I try to bring one or two boxes back with me when I come home from Kansas. This one is full of my play jewelry from when I was a kid, a box of notes from middle school and high school, votive candles that are begging to be melted down by Dan, and my CHIC decision card from 9 years ago (wow, 9 years doesn't sound too long ago. how things have changed.)

A few things I've brought back to remind me who I m, why I am where I am. A few things I've brought back to remind me of who I have left behind, who have left me behind. A few things to remind me that I can't go back, and I don't want to. 25 years of collected items. Mostly still in boxes. What to do with my baggage? I don't know...every time I go through boxes I throw more things away, give more things away, let more baggage fall away. But I'm not ready to let it all go yet...and I'm trying to be okay with that.

This year of being solidly mid-20s (no further forward than I am back) I'm not sure what the year will bring. Changes, adjustments, concessions and triumphs. Trying not to make too much or too little of it. Just taking it as it comes.

Had a sweet two days in a row off with Dan. Some sleeping in (9a! Guilt free! What a treat!) on Friday, followed by lunch with a gift card at the Good Earth and then a trip to Como Zoo to see some baby monkeys.

Today we ran some surprise errands and saw "Sunshine Cleaning" with some gift cards. Seriously, gift cards are such a treat. Of the five previews I definitively want to see three of the movies. Judged solely (okay, NOT solely but my first impression was based on) their opening songs. I just made some deviled eggs for tomorrow.

I'm working through some tough realizations about myself and how I equate work. I'm working on a quilt. Life is busy...but I think it's good.

"Keep your head above water but don't forget to breathe..."--Alexi Murdoch

M.O.V.E. 2009

This past weekend, 10 of our senior high students joined with nearly 400 other Covenant youth in M.O.V.E., an annual urban service weekend our demonination's conference puts on in Minneapolis. Mission, Outreach, Venture, Encounter certainly sums up a weekend of sleeping on hard floors, amazing worship, hands on poverty simulations. It was invigorating to see our youth wrestle with the idea of doing "enough," future calls to ministry and open their worldview up a bit more. All in all, I'm regularly impressed by how willing our youth are to engage their community and hearts in service -- they willingly engage others all the time. However, seeing them not have that human contact and wrestle with what that meant for their time was good to see. It reminded me how we are all works in progress, and what an honor it is to engage in that journey with others.

The event was written up (and I was namechecked, along with another leader) on the Covenant's newswire, and can be found here: http://www.covchurch.org/cov/news/item6980

Ender At Two Years

And so with that, Ender the cat turned two years old. His day came, his day went. He saw snow fall on the ground, fall out of the bare trees in alarming tufts, the ground turn from a white blanket of snow to a muddy, grassy yard. He slept like a whale, burrowed under blankets and ate some food. A brief retrospective of his past two years seemed an appropriate way to end the event.

The beginning of a finger-chomping obsession...

His first day home with us.

Being left at Dan's apartment for the first time.

Ender doesn't play much with blue bear anymore, he upgraded from the red bear to the blue bear, and now Bean is much more his size and speed.

Ender still loves sleeping in laundry baskets, whether there's clothing in them or not.

At the Larson's in MI...hiding from the dog.

Buddies.

More proof of Ender's odd sleeping habits.

Yes, that's a sock that had a massive hole in it. Yes, he whipped around the house like a super hero in it. Yes, he's the caped feline crusader.

***I would just like to say, I KNOW. I know, I know, I know. Bean is the classic second child who didn't get THEIR OWN photo album. Which is ironic on so many levels. So, never fear. She will get her own back-logged year-old photo montage...I just need to dig out the pictures and it's too dang late. These will HAVE TO DO. And, I know, I know, I know, it's probably not normal to post so many pictures of your CATS, but we don't have kids and they're just so loved and lovable, so that's what you get. I just want to say, I KNOW.****