Winding Down?

May and June have been terribly hectic months, but it looks like things are winding down....

This week alone had several things. First of all, Chris got confirmed. He's worked long and hard for two years and loved it much more than I ever did. In fact, I asked him what he is going to do with his Wednesday nights, and he said "Well, I just might sit in on at least some of the classes again and see if I can get it down even better." Wow. I think we could all learn a lesson from that.

He chose the Third Article for his statement and did a very good job talking about how the Holy Spirit brings us to faith and puts us into the body of believers (congregation) in order to grow in the faith by Word and Sacrament and to strengthen others.

Our Pacific Southwestern traditions do not hold to really having a huge confirmation party like they do here, and I do not like all the association with "graduation." Confirmation is more of a beginning, not an end to learning the teachings of our Church (and really, it is not a beginning, either. We parents have the responsibility of raising them in the faith). Instead, we had a quiet lunch with Chris's godmother, Designated Knitter. They made good on their long standing plans to have lobster. When Chris was little, DK said that she ate kitten and noodles, and Chris thought that was gross. She told him it tasted like chicken. So to prove her point, they each got a lobster (yep, picked them out from the tank) and named one "Cat" and one "Chicken." And sure enough, Cat does taste like Chicken."

It was a nice day.

This week, both Chris and Maggie are finishing baseball, which puts an end to 3 or 4 nights a week at the baseball fields. It was fun, but we all are looking forward to getting our evenings back. Chris hadn't played in the last couple of years, and really loved being back and played really well. Maggie learned some skills and is looking forward to softball next year.

VBS is done. Jeff put in a lot of hours before and during, as did so many others in our congregation. It really was wonderful. The kids loved it. We ended up tweaking the Concordia VBS in order to make it express the gospel more clearly and talk down to the kids less. My husband spent hours every night writing a new puppet show that would better express the theme. He had fun though. He said "Where else can I have a job where I write sermons, research papers, AND puppet shows?"

Maggie had her birthday Tuesday. She's six. It doesn't seem like it was six years ago that I first looked into those blue eyes and told her that I loved her. But apparently it was.

Now, the only things really going on are Maggie's 4-H project and my work. And I will have to be making a few trips to Indianapolis and South Bend in regard to that.

Speaking of that, the blog posts will be non-existent for the next few days. I get to go to Chicago for training. I don't get to drive though, so I am bummed about getting that close to an IKEA and not get to indulge. There are so many things I need!