A Good Week

Well spring break week turned out a bit busier than I had expected, at least here at the library.

On Tuesday last week, I came into the library and the system we use for circulation was completely down. And it stayed down until Thursday afternoon. That is a long time without the ability to check-in or check-out books in a  library. And even though it was break, we had quite a few students from Capital University next door coming over to get books for a Church History project. I manually checked out many books, which means writing down a lot of barcodes, and then manually entered almost all of them into our system on Friday. Thank goodness I love working in the library, or that might have been more trying. All is well now, though and I am actually writing this from the library front desk computer while I am working.

This past week I have also been busy crocheting away on the squares for my Luther wall hanging, and they are going swimmingly. I am already a quarter of the way done, and I expect I will have plenty of time to finish it before the project is due. I'll put up a picture here once it is completely done, although I am sharing most of the squares as I make them on instagram and facebook.

I also had a couple of dates with Silas, and had dinner with my friends Sarah, Russ, and Kaeliegh over the week. Campus has been generally quiet, but it's lovely to have some time to spend with my friends and to be able to have a skype date without worrying about homework I should be doing. All in all it was an absolutely lovely week, with lots of alone time for my introverted self and plenty of time with friends.

I am very much looking forward to this half of the semester, and I think it will be a little easier, because one of my classes has ended. Now on my ridiculous Tuesdays I will have a couple hour break in the middle of the day to rest and recoup some of my energy. The rest of my classes are going great, and I still love all of them. I passed my midterms and I expect I'll do just fine through the rest of the semester.

This week I will be working away, then one more week of school before another break! Easter break will be nice too, as I'll be able do some things at my MIC site and be involved in their Easter services. I am definitely looking forward to that. The semester is rapidly moving on and I will be home and working at Parkland before I know it. Such is life at seminary, every week passes by in a flash.

I have been very happy the last few weeks. I am making a lot of progress in my counseling, and I'm feeling like I can be myself all the time mow, without difficulty. Having been dealing with depression these last two years, and still dealing with it now, it is surprising how light you can feel when not weighed down by sadness. I'm excited about everything I'm learning here, my next few years here, and lately I've been absolutely thrilled with the prospect of actually working in a church one day. As I learn more about how I might do that and what it might look like for me, I am more and more excited about it.

Now as spring is trying to spring into being here (we had a beautiful spring rain that turned into snow on Saturday) I am practically bursting with joy. I hope everyone else is feeling the joy of spring and a world beginning to grow again.

Peace,
Kathryn

Finally on Spring Break

Midterms are done. It feels like the whole campus has sighed deeply after a mad rush to last Thursday. And now we have a week long break!

My midterm week was busy too, and I noticed that all of us seemed to be cracking up just a little bit. Monday evening I was sitting at the library circulation desk doing my Hebrew homework and I just started laughing uncontrollably. The people at the computers nearby (luckily people I know well) began looking at me with concern. I was laughing because I had looked up a word I was translating, and it turned  out to mean "exterminate" in English. This should not be funny, but anybody who watches Doctor Who might get it. That is the common call of a certain villain in the show, robots that look a bit like pepper grinders, and I was suddenly imagining Jewish Daleks. This was Monday and it was already clear that it was time for a break for me. 

I made it through, though, writing a two essay midterm for church history, a one essay and questions midterm for Old Testament, finishing my performances for Music in the Contemporary Church, and generally attempting to keep up with the regular work of all my classes as well. I took Friday and Saturday completely off, and it was glorious. 

Saturday was quite an interesting day too. I finally got my insurance settlement for my poor totaled car, and it was time to go get a new one. I took my friends Sarah and Kaeleigh with me, partly for a need for a ride, and also because they are good company in test driving cars, and tried out a pretty blue Subaru Forester. I decided I liked it, talked with my dad, he talked with the salesguy a bit, and by the end of the morning I wrote the biggest check I have ever written, paying for the car outright. 

It is wonderful to be able to drive myself around again, and I love the car. I'm even going to try to keep this one for longer this time! Luckily we're at least done with snow until next winter. It's especially nice to have a car again, because it is a little easier for me to remain involved in my MIC site this way. I had a meeting with Bonnie on Sunday and yesterday evening I was able to attend a Justice Ministry meeting there. I love to see how this church is working on moving out into its community and helping in whatever ways they can. They are developing a close partnership with First English, an urban church, and it is beautiful to see that partnership growing and solidifying. 

Being on break is lovely, because I am working plenty at a very quiet library, and then spending the rest of my time crocheting. That crocheting is actually homework, however, because I am making a wall hanging of Luther's life and theology for my final in Church History too. I'll add pictures as I complete it, because I think it's pretty darn nifty.

Finally, I have mentioned this on Facebook, but I'm going to say it here too: I am walking in the AIDS walk in Central Ohio this Holy Saturday, with a group from Trinity and Bexley Seminaries, and I am looking for sponsors. All of the money that is raised will go to help those both locally and globally whose lives are affected by AIDS and who cannot afford medicine or treatment. Please consider donating a few dollars to my 5K by going to www.tinyurl.com/KathrynWalks and clicking the Support Kathryn button. It's quite easy and all electronic. 

Thank you,

Kathryn

I Gave Up My Car for Lent

So, I found out this week that Boaz is most definitely totaled, which is a shame. However, my parents and I are dealing with the situation as best as we can, and I have been car shopping already. It is lovely to have friends who will take you car shopping, too, because we were able to have a great time chatting while I test drove three different cars this weekend. I'm pretty sure I found what I want to get, and now we're figuring out exactly how to make that happen. We're basically buying a car from two different states, while I have no reliable transportation of my own, so it's an interesting process, all told.

This week is mid-term week, which means I've kept myself quite busy. I spent all yesterday afternoon writing a midterm on the Reformation, which is a subject I love, but still took a fair bit of time. I wasn't helped by the fact that George just wanted to play, and didn't understand why I would get upset if he was chasing his tail on my papers. I have another midterm due later this week, along with the standard crush of readings, plus some Hebrew translations, but come Friday I will be home free. Next week is spring break, and I am going to read for fun, clean my apartment, and maybe even make a skirt or two. I can hardly wait.

I have had some pretty exciting things happen to me these past few weeks as well. I was asked to be one of the sacristiants for next year, and I accpeted that job. It means I will work with the pastor here in charge of worship and make sure things for worship are running smoothly. I am really excited about the job, because it is something that I will enjoy and be able to learn a lot about.

Also, this week I am applying for a mission developer scholarship through the ELCA. I was nominated for this program by the seminary, and through it, I will focus on learning the skills necessary for mission development while I am here at seminary. It is something that took me by surprise, but which I prayed about and talked with others about for a week and made a decision that it really might be the path God is calling me towards. I am excited about the opportunity and I hope that I will be able to learn a lot about the joy of beginning or revitalizing congregations while I am here. I have been a part of a congregation that has done this, and I think it is a beautiful process to be a part of. I turn in the scholarship application  this week, so we'll see where that takes me.

So clearly I'm keeping busy, which is why I'm so much looking forward to next week. One way I keep my sanity and stay awake is by crocheting in a couple of classes that I was struggling with. Both are great classes, but I do not need to take many notes in them, and sitting still that long will still put me to sleep. So I am going to be crocheting granny squares throughout those classes for the rest of the semester, and we will see what I can make out of them when I am done. It's another adventure in itself.

Now, I am going to see if I can't make Monday a very productive day and catch up from the things I didn't get done this weekend, due to car shopping.

A Quick Update

It is absolutely beautiful outside today. I'm sitting here with my window open and it is lovely.

Spring is arriving, and it has taken me a bit of time to figure that out. But I have not needed my coat the past couple of days, which is weird, and I really only need my heater on at night. On Friday I went to my first bonfire of the spring, and I had almost too much of a good time.

I am looking forward to spring break in a couple of weeks, though, mainly because it will mean that one of my classes will be over and I will have a lighter schedule. I'm keeping pretty busy with my homework (hence the late blog) and taking the responsibilities of one class will be good. That will also mean that I will actually have a couple of hours off on my marathon Tuesdays, and I believe that I will take that time for reading for fun or knitting or something like that. It'll be absolutely crazy.

This week, I have had a lot of opportunity to be part of worship, especially in reading, and it has been nice. I enjoy reading the Bible publicly, and I have done it at a couple of services at Trinity as well as for the first time at All Saints, my MIC site.

I have also been doing pretty well getting around car-less, due to the kindness of several friends who have either given me rides or lent me cars so I can get around. I still don't know everything about my car getting fixed, but I'm hoping to find out in the next day or so. I'm nervous about Boaz's fate, but I will handle it however it comes.

Lent has been interesting so far. I gave up binge-watching Netflix for the season, and it has been interesting to see how much time I would spend on in now that I have given it up. I have been reading more, and I have been getting my homework done easier. Maybe this will be a habit I keep up after Lent is over as well. It's lovely to go to chapel regularly during the season, and I am looking forward to seeing what other kinds of services we have over the season. Today we had a beautiful service of healing which included anointing and the laying on of hands.

Now I am off to write a final paper for my Music in the Contemporary Church class, and then I will be practically done with one of my classes for the semester!

Peace,
Kathryn

Bumps in the Road

Alright, I think I'm ready to be done with big events this semester.

I'll start off with that. This morning, I was heading to church, to be an usher for the first time actually, and the roads were fine, even though it was snowing. I knew it was supposed to get worse, but at the time everything was completely driveable. Unfortunately, halfway to church I just hit one icy patch that spun me out and I ended up colliding with another car and ending up on the side of the road. Both I and the other driver were fine, but that meant a long morning on the snowy side of the road dealing with the aftermath of that. Boaz, my car is going to a repair shop tomorrow, so we'll see how bad it is and what happens next with that.

It was a rough morning, but at least everybody was fine, and the woman I collided with was incredibly understanding. We actually hugged before she left. And, funnily enough, friends from the seminary saw me on their own way to church and texted me saying that if it was in fact me on the side of the road I could call them for help. It was good to be able to get a ride from friends and have help offered before I even was able to ask.

Thank goodness the rest of the week has not been as eventful. My classes are still going fantastically, and I can't believe how far into the semester we're moving. We're moving right through the Reformation in History, learning a new set of verbs in Hebrew, and just about done studying the primeval history stories in Old Testament. I am still loving all my classes, and the only problem is that there's too much to do and too little time to do it. I've been teaching myself to speed read a bit, and I'm also having to occasionally make decisions about what to read and what to just skim. I'm keeping up with things, though, and I'm hoping it doesn't become too overwhelming.

Another interesting thing this week was a trip I was a part of yesterday. A group of us drove up to Canton to see the Saint John's Bible at the museum. This Bible is a beautiful, illuminated Bible made in recent years and written in English. The calligraphy itself is beautiful, and the illuminations are amazing. Many different artists were used to create them, and they showcase absolutely beautiful images of the stories of the Bible. I would like to eventually own a copy of the whole Saint Johns Bible, but it will probably take quite a bit of time to collect.

Next week we as a church move into Lent, and I am very much looking forward to it. I love the season of Lend and the Easter season following it, and I think it will be lovely to be going through it within my seminary as well as at All Saints.

I'm ready for my bumpy beginnings to be over, but the good is still far outweighing the bad. I have been feeling incredibly well over the past couple of weeks and I think things will continue to be mostly good.

Now I am off to catch up on some reading and watch the Oscars with Silas.

Peace,
Kathryn