Planning and More Planning

Yesterday was an absolutely wonderful Sunday, and the only thing I didn't get accomplished was finishing this blog. I went to church, went grocery shopping, cleaned my entire apartment, cooked my meals for the week, and had a lovely date with Silas to watch Cosmos, which has been our regular Sunday date for awhile. I was also able to practice yoga again, something I'm trying to do more regularly, as my body is very upset with the typical grad school lifestyle of sitting nearly constantly. It felt wonderful, and I am hoping I can actually make that a regular habit - it's good for both my body and my soul.

It's been a wonderful week, as well. I had my regular classes, although with one fewer, which makes my schedule so much easier, and they are all still going really well. We're moving right along and the end of the semester will be here before I know it. We only have one week left until our next break, since the seminary always takes Holy Week off.

This week I was also in a few processes in preparing for next year, which I think will be good. I am part of a small committee which is forming some structure for Life Together, our community organization, which will hopefully lead to more community activities and a generally more coherent community. I also attended a dinner of those who will still be on campus next year, and we talked a bit about that as well. The dinner was fun, it was nice to spend some fun time with people from my class and consider what life here might be like next year.

My I-group began worship planning for our week of worship, which is the second week after Easter, and I think it will be a good week. I and another woman are planning the Thursday service, and I think that it will be a really good service. I love planning worship and being involved in it here. On that same note, the first week after Easter I will be shadowing our current sacristan so that I can learn about the job for next year. I am still very excited about the role, and I am looking forward to learning what exactly the job will entail, so that I can understand how to plan my time next year. My shadowing has already begun, as I am included in all the emails about bulletins and worship assistants, so I can see how we plan for the worship in advance and what the time-table of planning typically is.

I have also been working steadily away on my Luther wall hanging, and I am almost halfway done now. It's been fun to learn a lot more about crocheting and to actually be able to consider crocheting homework. I'm hoping to have it done right around Easter. I meet with my craft group to work on it on Saturday and we watched the Mets v. Reds game. It was a good game, with a rather spectacular ending, and it was fun to watch and explain the workings of baseball to Sarah. I have only learned them since dating Silas, but it's an interesting game, and well suited to crafting.

I am now sitting at the Library planning on a rather productive day to start off my week. It's a beautiful spring day here, and it will probably rain soon. I am looking forward to this week, but even more I am looking forward to Holy Week and Easter. I love Easter, and everything that goes along with it, and I think this year will be no different. I'm looking forward to experiencing what Easter will be like at All Saints. I hope everyone is experiencing as beautiful a spring as I am, and keeping dry in the spring rains.

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

Full Fall Break

I've certainly had a full fall break. And I've been able to read several books.

This week I attended the Healthy Congregations national gathering, which was an interesting couple of days. I have been learning a lot about family systems theory in the past few weeks, and this conference was a continuation of that learning for me. The theory is interesting and I think it is helpful for me now and will be helpful for working in a congregation in the future. However, it was a couple of days of a lot of introspection, which left me rather tired by the end of it.

I also worked with a few other students today to pick out furniture for a room that we are remodeling so that we will have a new gathering space for relaxing as well as group studying. It should be a very nice room by the time it's finished, and I am excited to be a part of it. Picking out the furniture was fun, and I'm proud of us for coming up with a design that worked well together.

On Friday I had a long meeting about the installation service for our new president, which will take place next week. I am the leader of the banner people, and we will be helping with a procession of about 100 people. This service will be huge, and I am pleased that I will be able to help with it. It's neat to be here when something important like the installation of a president happens.

All around these meetings, I was working in the library this week. They gave me a key last week, which was good because I needed to open it up two different days this week. It was even quieter than usual, which made for some great reading time. I read a biography of Saint Augustine of Hippo, which was really interesting. I actually enjoyed my reading this week, and I feel like I've been able to catch up and even get ahead a bit for the rest of the semester.

This Friday was Silas and my second anniversary, and Friday morning I got a call saying that someone had sent me flowers. They were beautiful and it was great to talk to him that day, but I am definitely looking forward to being able to see him again in about a month.

Yesterday, after my rather busy fall break, I slept in and decided to have an introvert day. I only went out to get groceries, and in between cleaning my apartment I stayed in bed relaxing. I'm still trying to make sure I make time for myself and take care of myself. I'm trying to practice yoga regularly, and I am also trying to have a small personal devotion time every day so that I can get out of my head when it comes to my faith on occasion. Talking about theology all day is different than actually practicing faith, I have found.

Today I had a bit of an adventure, as the girls I was picking out furniture with for the room, Dr. Ott, and I drove up to northern Ohio to attend the church which gave us the money for the furniture. We left at 5:30 this morning, and had a really nice time at the church. It was nice to see others and be able to thank them for the money. They have a large mission endowment fund that they spread out every year and it was interesting to see the other mission programs they gave money to as well. We went out to lunch after the service, and then I crocheted on the long drive home. It was a full day, but it was a nice way to spend the morning and early afternoon.

I also decided this afternoon that I needed to rearrange my living room so that I would be able to keep my sewing table out permanently. I moved some things around, and now I have my sewing table out as well as room to lay out my yoga mat whenever I need to. Both are good practices for me for my own mental well being. I also made hummus and black bean burgers for my lunches this week, and decided that I may have to invest in a food processor soon.

Now I'm off to have dinner and a movie date, before I  begin the second half of my semester. I can't believe how far I've come already.