One Week In

So I've been working for a week now, I've been to several services, meetings, lunches, and even a wedding. Every day last week I walked into work fairly certain that I had absolutely nothing to do, but I found myself keeping busy and learning new things.

I am not yet entirely settled into my new apartment, because I took my time last week getting over my cold. That means this week hopefully I'll actually manage to make my apartment look presentable to me, much less anyone else with higher standards than I have. For now, I'm using a box as a footstool, and I keep pulling things I need out of boxes and bags as I need them.

At the church I'm getting to know people well. I have always said I'm terrible with names, but I've been actually practicing this time, and I'm surprised to say that it's going well. I'm still learning a lot about the church and finding my place, but I'm beginning to feel settled too. I am working on my first sermon (which is two weeks away, of course) and I'm exciting about getting a chance to preach at St. Stephen soon.

This weekend, I attended a wedding rehearsal and ceremony so I could learn about the pastor's role in a wedding. It was really nice to attend, even though I didn't know the couple. It's nice to see a couple so happy to be getting married. I got to work with our wedding coordinator at the service, and get an idea of how the behind the scenes things work.

Today, I was finally feeling well enough to get back to working out, so I decided to check out the yoga studio that is conveniently located directly across the street from my apartment complex. I went in for a class, and it was fantastic. The class was made up of people of all ages, sizes, strength, and flexibility. The teacher was great at emphasizing that we all do what was best for our bodies, an attitude important in yoga practice, but not always seen in classes. I'm definitely going to keep going, because it felt so good to get back on my mat again.

I'm also finally settled in to my kitchen at least, so I could actually do some proper cooking. I brought a few cookbooks with me to Iowa, and tonight I made a bean and potato hash as well as homemade granola for breakfast in the mornings. Having a kitchen and George insisting on cuddles makes me feel pretty much at home, and I think it's going to be good here this year.

Beginning of Internship

So here I am in the middle of my first day of internship. I'm home now because I have committee meetings to attend tonight, so I left the office a couple of hours early to make up the time.

I moved up here to Iowa last Thursday. It was a long drive, so when we arrived it was good to be able to see my apartment right away. The drive was full of every single emotion coursing through me at different times, so I am very thankful for my mom sitting next to me and being able to roll with the series of emotions and make me feel better no matter what. We got in and met with a member of my internship committee who gave me the keys to my apartment. George was glad to be settled again too. We went out to a very nice dinner at a local place, and then we all crashed because of the long drive. The first night in a new place is always a little lonely, but I had a nice phone call with Silas and George insisted on curling up with me every opportunity he could.

On Friday my parents and I spent the day running moving-in errands and exploring Urbandale. We had a great lunch and I started really being able to settle in. My parents left to head back towards Texas on Saturday and I continued unpacking. Unfortunately the unpacking is going slower than I'd like, because I managed to develop a cold as I got up here. I'm drinking lots of tea and taking rests when I need to, and my apartment will be fully unpacked eventually.

Yesterday I went to church for the first time at my new internship church. I was nervous on my way there, but I'm really glad I went. On my way in a couple noticed that I had come in a car with Ohio plates and asked if I was their new intern. They were very sweet and welcoming. I snuck into the back of the sanctuary and read over the bulletin before the service started. My supervisor Dan knew I was there, but when he made an announcement about me starting today, he didn't point me out, which was nice because it gave me a chance to ease into getting to know everybody. The service was great, and I left it pleased that I will be working with this church over the next year. A few people recognized me as the new intern and I met several folk during the coffee hour. The whole morning was really pleasant and I think it'll be good to be the intern there.

Today was my first day in the office. I was again really nervous on my way in, but it was actually a really good day. Dan and I went over a lot of basic things to get started on my internship and began to get settled into my office. It feel weird to not start out with a syllabus and books that I know I'm going to go through, but I think I'll like being an intern pastor here. Tonight I'll head back to the church to attend committee meetings, and get to know a bunch more people. And then I'll keep practicing names of all of these people so hopefully I can learn them well. I'll be overwhelmed for the first few weeks (I've been told to expect that) but I can't wait to get on my feet at the church and get to start really learning what it's like to be a pastor.

Break Time!

I am finally on my two week break for the semester! It has been a full few weeks leading up to it, and I'm glad for the rest. I am currently in a hotel in Jackson TN in the middle of my journey back home. I'll get home tomorrow and spend a few days with my family, and then I'll be spending a bit of time with Silas next weekend too. I'm really looking forward to not being at school and not having much schoolwork to do for just a few weeks.

A week ago I received my tentative internship assignment for next year. I am very pleased with the placement, but I'm not going to say anything publicly until I hear from my supervisor and know that he has ratified the placement as well. I'm really excited about internship now, especially now that I can begin picturing the church that I'll be working in. I'm also definitely looking forward to the experience of having a full-time job that isn't being a student! That's basically all I've done for my life, and I'm excited about getting a chance to do the work I'm learning to do for a whole year.

The past two weeks of school have been a rush to the first finish of the semester! Last week I realized on Monday that I had something due every day but Wednesday and I hadn't done any of them yet! Monday it was a presentation on feminist ecclesiology, Tuesday a presentation on Psalm 27, Thursday a sentence flow/diagram of a passage from 1 Thessalonians, and Friday an 8 page paper on my understanding of ecclesiology. I got it all done, and that Friday at noon when I turned in the last paper was a relief! This week I only had one paper due, but I was also working on getting my apartment properly cleaned and getting ready to leave for two weeks.

Now that I'm looking more seriously at my move at the end of May, I also began to look at what things I don't need in my apartment to move. I took four reusable grocery bags of books to Half Price Books last week and exchanged them for four cookbooks that I'll actually use. I need to continue paring down, and then deciding what I'll take with me to internship and what I'll put into storage, so that's going to be a continuing project over the next half of the semester.

These two weeks, though I'm going to put all of that out of mind and spend some of my free time reading for fun and some of it working on a sweater I'm knitting for Silas that I may finish by the time I graduate from seminary! I have very little time to work on my crafting projects while I'm in school, so it's nice to have a chance to play with wool again.

For now, George and I are all settled in for the night, looking forward to another long drive tomorrow. I can hardly wait to be home again.

Peace be with you all.

The Start of a New Semester

So here I go again, a brand new semester, and I am going to make an effort to write here more often. I actually really miss it. Since I last wrote, I've done Christmas and New Years at home, come back to Ohio, taken a class on Emotional Intelligence, and jumped both feet in to this semester of classes and work.

Christmas was wonderful, full of time with friends and loved ones, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I got to reconnect with a few of my friends in Texas, Kevin and Amy were able to come up for Christmas and stay for three whole days, and Silas visited for New Years, and we made our regular New Years date at Fearings in Dallas.

I drove back with my Mom and George, both of whom make great travel companions. Other than getting stressed out by the rain and the dark the first night and stopping early, the drive was nice, and it was lovely to have Mom along to keep me company. George was glad to be back in his apartment where no other animals live.

I spent three weeks in a class on emotional intelligence, which was fascinating, but exhausting. It was a class where we spent a lot of time learning about ourselves and how we lead. I learned a lot about myself, but it was also a lot like counseling for three hours a day every day. I ended up taking several long naps over my J-term.

I also spent that time being the J-term sacristan, which was a nice way to ease back into my job. We had worship services each day, but they were very simple, and a lot of wonderful people helped to create and lead the worships. I still love planning and executing worship in any form, so doing it in this smaller way was lovely.

Then after a week off, I jumped into the semester full swing. It's almost hard to believe that I have only had two days of my regular spring classes. We began with a communion service, which I loved getting ready. There's something about the happy chaos of getting a large service set up and running that just makes me feel in my element. Read into that about me what you will. Then my I-group began planning our own week of worship services for the end of the month. Then I took a mile and a half walk with a couple of friends, ate lunch while I played fetch with George, and finally went to my first class.

I began my semester with a class called Hermenutics for Preaching, which I am excited to be in. We're learning about how a preacher goes about reading the Bible and telling a congregation how it applies to them today. Seems like an easy question, but it's deeper than it appears, and I think I'm going to learn a lot in that class.

Thursday introduced me to four more of my classes. Care of Souls will help me dive into pastoral care, something that is really important to my forming pastoral identity. Once again, there is so much I can learn from there. Then I went to New Testament 2, covering the New Testament after Acts, and it's going to be a tough class, but I think worthwhile. And the professor is fantastic. Next was Psalms, which I think will be fascinating. I have always loved the Psalms, but I think this class will help me to really engage with the poetry of them and be able to use them more in my future work. I finished the evening with Spanish. I'm excited to be back in Spanish this semester, and I'll be taking Spanish three.

Speaking of speaking languages I don't know well. This Monday, we're putting on our first Spanish/English bilingual morning prayer service, and I've been asked to be the Spanish leader! Apparently some people think I have a decent enough grasp of the language to read and lead at the same time.

Then comes this weekend (I know, half this blog is covering four days). Yesterday I spent a day doing worship planning and getting prepared for interviewing with internship supervisors. Oh yeah, in just over a month I should know where I'm going to be spending my next year. On the subject of internship I oscillate between terrified and excited, so I'm reading the applications from all the churches and being as organized as I can in an effort to remain more often on the excited side of things. I meet with supervisors at the end of the month, and I'm really looking forward to getting a chance to actually talk with the pastors and get a feel for them.

Then today I began my day teaching children about the fifth and sixth commandments of the big ten. You shall not murder and you shall not commit adultery. People say that you really know a subject when you can teach it to a child, and I have to say I definitely spent more time than before thinking on these two and how it might be best to teach them to 11 and 12 year olds. This was confirmation, and the class actually went really well, despite several giggles that ensued. I spent the afternoon getting ready for church tomorrow, which is going to be a bit more complex than normal. Tomorrow is the first time that I will preach the same sermon at three different services, so obviously I had to write a sermon, and because one of the pastors is out of town, I'll be doing everything for one of the services. One nice thing is that our motto there is basically "if you make mistakes, it's okay, worship will still happen and God still loves you"

Well, that's probably enough of an update for now. Thanks if you've stuck with my through this whole post! I'll keep you up to date about all I'm learning and doing, and next week I'll even tell you about one more class I'm enrolled in that doesn't meet until Monday!

Peace be with you all.

Break, Reformation, and All Saints, Oh My!

So it's been quite awhile since I wrote, hasn't it? Well, such is life middler year, I've been busier than I have been in awhile.

The first piece of news since my last post is that I am recommended to be endorsed for candidacy! My endorsement interview went really well, and just as soon as the candidacy committee makes it official in December I will be done with the next step toward being a pastor. It was really wonderful to have Cheryl, my candidacy contact up here for the day of my endorsement, and I was able to how her around my neighborhood a bit around the interview. Which means we went for Jeni's ice cream.

The day after my endorsement interview I gave George to petsmart for the week and left for Oklahoma. It was wonderful to truly take that time off, and on one of the days that Silas was at work and I was just hanging around, I took a three hour nap. We spent a day at the zoo and went kayaking, and we celebrated our third year anniversary. It was really fantastic to be together on our anniversary - we weren't last year - and to spend some quality time together. Times like that make the long-distance go easier. Eventually, I had to head back to Ohio, though.

I got back late on a Monday night, and somehow that meant my entire week basically slammed me in the face. I made it through though, and then it was time for Reformation week! I love Reformation week and All Saints, and we pulled out the stops here at Trinity. We had red hanging all over the place, and I got to sing the Lutheran fight song a couple of times. Then this All Saints week has been really powerful for me in worship, because I have a lot of people I am remembering this year. Today in worship, we had a chance to light a candle around a cross, and I was able to sit and pray and remember those I love who are with God now. When I'm busy planning and executing worship, it is nice to find those times to truly be present in the worship itself.

Aside from worship, I have been busy in my classes. We've covered Chrsitology in Systematics and moved well into the Holy Spirit and the Church. I can hardly believe how fast it's going. In my Lutheran Confessions class, I just wrote a Reformation day sermon, a week after Reformation day. Hopefully I can use it, or part of it in the future. And in my preaching class, I have given two sermons and have three still to write. They're going well, and as difficult as it can be to listen to myself and annotate my own sermons, it's teaching me a lot about how I preach and how I talk. For instance, I discovered I use my hands a lot when I talk! In a couple of weeks I will be preaching the second sermon I wrote for class at All Saints, which both exciting and terrifying.

Life continues to be pretty much school and work at All Saints, and I do love it, but I wouldn't want to do this forever. It kind of feels like, between school, being sacristan, and working at All Saints, that I am working a job and a half. I've been really tired a lot of this semester, which is not terribly different from the past two years, but it's getting more noticeable and more problematic. I am finally going to go see a psychiatrist to see if adjusting my antidepressants will help with my energy. I'm sure my professors would enjoy me not struggling to stay awake in most of my classes. One thing I am continuing to learn is how to care for myself, as my endorsement interview reminded me. I'll keep practicing, though.

Right now, I have the seminary cold that has been going around for a couple of weeks, but thankfully I have no classes or meetings tomorrow, so I will be able to spend the whole day in bed getting better. I'm sure George will be glad too, as several of my days this week have been extra long, meaning he has not had his required pets. I can't believe how close Thanksgiving and Christmas are getting, but I am looking forward to being able to spend the holidays back home, and to see my family and Silas again.

I'll try to write more frequently, but I can't promise anything - this has been on my to-do list all week! I hope everyone reading this is well.

Half Here Half There

It is almost the very end of the semester today. I have two classes left to attend and two finals to take. One is two 3-page papers and the other is a test with a few short answers on it, so it should be pretty doable, and I expect I'll be done tomorrow afternoon.

It is exciting to be nearly done, as I'm looking forward to a break from academia. I love school, but there's a reason we get two weeks off every semester here, and it's so we don't go crazy. I'm really looking forward to this summer with all that being home and doing CPE will bring me. I know it will be hard at times, but I will be encountering different challenges there than I do here, and I am sure I will grow in new ways and new directions. And it will be really great to get to spend some time at home. I love Ohio, especially our winters here, but I will always love Texas as my home and I'm looking forward to being back.

This week has been full of finishing things up and getting ready for commencement. It's kind of funny to be as involved in commencement as I am, since I'm only finishing my first year, but I am excited to be a part of it. I made a practice loaf of gluten free bread, which is what we'll use at commencement worship, and it turned out great. I love baking, and it's interesting to see what goes into baking gluten free. I'll be making the bread for actual commencement later this week and I'll be helping to lead a worship walk-through on Friday. I'm really looking forward to that, as this will be the beginning of my job as sacristan. I'm still really excited about doing that next year full-time.

I assisted at my last service for this semester at All Saints yesterday, and it was a really great service. I'm really feeling settled in there and I'm looking forward to being a little more involved over the whole school year next year. I'm starting to get to know people there and they're starting to recognize me as their MIC student as they see me assisting more often. I'm glad I ended up there, even if my first month or so was a bit difficult since things kept happening to keep me away or make me late for church (crashing my car was definitely one of those things)

Last Thursday, Kaeleigh, Ben, and I drove down to Cincinnati (Ben drove, which is good, because I slept) and we watched our friend Paul profess his vows and become a professed member of his monastic order. It was really great to be able to be there for that and to see Paul take this big step in his own spiritual life. We had dinner with them before heading back home, and it was a really great time. We also spent the drive down there listening to themes from Bond movies and the way back listening to ABBA, so it was certainly an interesting car trip.

Now that I am so close to going home, I'm getting everything ready to go as well as finishing my finals. I bought a crate for George and it's sitting out in my bedroom so he can get used to it. He's already spent a bit of time inside it, which is a good sign. I'm hoping he's a good travel passenger. I'm still working on packing, mostly in my head, and hopefully I'll get everything together in the next couple of days. I might still be packing a bit when my mom gets here on Thursday.

I'm definitely looking forward to having my mom here for the weekend and driving back with her. I'm going to take her to common meal, which is a weird food potluck this week, and then she'll have to hang around with me while I work on commencement stuff. Then we'll pack up and ship out on Sunday and take two days to get home. It will be a fun drive, even if it is long, because my mom and I get on well together and make road trips fun.

Now I am off to finish my finals while I'm working at the library, so I can finish packing while I'm home. To all my Abiding Grace family - I'll see you soon.

Kathryn

Crafts and Cleaning

Another busy week, but I'm having quite a productive weekend, which is making me feel like my last few weeks here before the summer will go smoothly.

This week was my i-group's worship week, and it went very well. We had to move our Wednesday eucharist service inside - we had been planning on having it outdoors - because of some pretty heavy rains, but it was still a lovely service. On Thursday I helped to lead a service of healing that I and one of my classmates had planned. It was nice to be able to plan and put on a service for the seminary community. Working on worship did make for another busy week, though, I'm kind of looking forward to an almost normal schedule this next week.

This weekend I have been doing many things. I have been cleaning, because my kitchen has been in quite a state. And yesterday Sarah, Kaeleigh, and I had an adventure in yarn dyeing with Easter egg dye. It was a fun thing to try out, and I was pleased with how the yarn turned out. I ended up with some nice vibrant spring colors.

It was actually easier than I expected it to be, and it might be a thing I try again from time to time. It's easy enough to use Easter egg dye or kool-aid to dye yarn, and then you don't have to worry about using special dishes, because they are edible and therefore not going to poison me. I love playing with color, and after starting out with simple, undyed yarn, and turning it into this I just started thinking of all the other things I could potentially do. 

I also promised a picture of my finished Luther quilt, and I finally got around to finishing it. I am surprised how much I was able to do in just two weeks, when I was determined to get it done. I'm hoping I'll be able to work on several crafts this summer, when I'm not doing CPE. I love making things and finishing them. I am happy with how my Luther quilt turned out, and I might figure out a way to hang it up in my apartment. 

I am beginning to think about getting myself and George home for the summer, since it's coming so soon. My mom is going to fly up to drive back with me, and we will have a good time. My biggest concerns are making sure George takes to the drive well enough, and figuring out how to bring the crafts I want home along with clothes - the crafts are taking precedence over clothes in my mind. I'm hoping to have time to make things this summer, since I won't be doing schoolwork, and I am planning on using my crafting as a self-care tool during the vigors of CPE, so I want to have plenty to work with. We will see, once I start packing, what will actually fit in my car for the drive. 

For now I am off to continue cleaning and doing my laundry - an exciting Sunday afternoon!

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.

Catching Up

I am attempting to write this blog with a cat sound asleep on my lap. It makes things tricky.

So I finished my J-term class and came back to Ohio, and I was glad to be able to sleep in my own bed. And to unpack and not live out of suitcases anymore. I've spent the whole last week living wihtout a schedule and getting set up for a new semester of seminary.

On Thursday I finally went through with a plan I had had for quite awhile to adopt a cat. My friend Sarah and I went to a shelter together, and all the cats were out and about in thier various rooms. The woman working at the shelter showed me several cats who were cuddly, which is what I asked for, and then left us to meet several cats and decide who I wanted to take home. I picked up one, named George, and he immediately hugged me and started nuzzling my face. I picked up a few other cats who were all quite nice, but I kept coming back to George. I'm pretty sure he picked me out. I brought him home, and we have had a great time getting to know eachother and getting settled into living together. I'm very happy to have a cat in my life again.

The rest of my time has mainly been spent cooking, cleaning, crafting, and catching up with friends I haven't seen in awhile. I'm trying to get my apartment into good shape before I start school, so that I can keep it nice while I'm busy with classes. I'm also working on several crafting projects and I may have three new skirts in short order.

I've got another week off, which I'm going to use to keep working on my projects and to get my ministry in context set up, and then I start classes. I'm really looking forward to this semester, I think some of the classes will be more interesting than last semester were. I've bought all my books and I'm already looking forward to reading most of them.

Silas is also coming in right after classes start, which will be a wonderful way to begin my semester. I'll start writing here more regularly then too. I really have issues getting things done when I'm schedule-less - I've barely been on my computer this week.

Hoping everyone reading this is staying warm.

Kathryn

P.S. This is George