A Week of Learning, Cooking, and Crafting

It has been a busy week and weekend, which is why I'm so late writing this, but it has certainly been a good one.

Last week was my week of Sacristan training, beginning Monday morning. It went fantastically, and despite the frequent busy-ness of the job, I absolutely loved it. For instance, when I was running from one end of the seminary to another to get a stole out of a locked cabinet three minutes before the service, I was happy as a clam. I am so much looking forward to doing this all the time next year, now that I've experienced a week of it here. My next step in sacristan training is to help with the commencement worship, so those who are graduating won't have to be sacristans for that worship. That process should start next week.

Last week I also helped with Russ and Sarah to cook Common Meal on Thursday. We had made scones in advance, and on Thursday we were making breakfast casseroles, fruit salad, and bacon. My job was the bacon, which meant spending a couple of hours cooking seven pounds of it! And of course, every bit of that bacon was gone by the end of the night. It was really fun, if a bit exhausting, to do common meal and it made me happy to be able to serve it for once, since I eat it every week.

But after Thursday I wasn't quite done cooking. I also worked a retreat this weekend, which meant cooking dinner on Friday night and breakfast on Saturday morning for a group of kids and their chaperons. It was fun work, and I got to eat too, which was definitely nice. One of the best things about working on the retreat team is that you're paid in food as well as money.

I finished and showed my Luther quilt in class last Wednesday, and I will have pictures to post up here next week, hopefully on Instagram and Facebook sooner. It was a fair bit of work, but I'm impressed with how much I was able to create in just a couple of weeks while I was at school. I probably won't expect to do a project of that scale in that short of a time here again, but it definitely inspired me to keep working on my projects when I can. I'm still making granny squares in classes, which will come together as something in the future, potentially a pretty stole. This weekend I worked on a scarf/wrap that I started awhile ago and got to the halfway point on it on Saturday. On Sunday I cleaned my house and cooked for the week, which may not seem exciting, but it is amazing how nice it is to wake up to a clean house every day. I keep trying to keep it up during the week, and maybe one day I'll get there.

This weekend was pretty exciting for several reasons beyond cleaning and cooking as well. On Saturday evening I came to the realization that I had left my phone in my locker here at the seminary, which was closed and locked until this morning. So I had to make do without for the weekend, but I had enough other ways of connecting with the people I love that it wasn't too bad. On Saturday evening, my  mom as well as several other people from Abiding Grace were attending a dinner at the NT-NL Mission Assembly, and my mom accepted a pretty fantastic scholarship for me. I was nominated for a Fund for Leaders scholarship for my synod by my candidacy committee. I feel very honored to be thought of, and it was wonderful to see pictures of my church family back home cheering me on.

The other exciting thing this weekend was working at All Saints. I assisted at the earliest service and read at the late service, which was also the confirmation service. I wore a clerical collar for the first time this Sunday, and it was a certainly interesting experience. For one, everybody at All Saints recognized me as the MIC student more easily - it's a big church so there are lots of faces. Also, I went out to Starbucks between services, because I hadn't had time to eat breakfast, and it was interesting to see how people out and about responded to the collar. I'm going to continue wearing it for the time being and see how it fits with my own forming pastoral identity.

The end of the semester is only a month away, which is just crazy. I have a few projects left to get done, but my end of semester isn't too bad this year. I'm getting ready to do my CPE this summer, and I am excited for it, even though I know it will be a tough experience. I've grown a lot over this first year of seminary, and I think that growth will be helpful to me come this summer. For now though, I just need to get ready for my Old Testament class tomorrow - we're learning about the Judges!

Peace,
Kathryn

Holy Week

Well it's been awhile since I've written - having break week/holy week last week threw me off pretty well. It has been a good couple of weeks, though, with some fun things scattered throughout.

I spent a large part of my holy week working on my crocheting. I am nearly done with my project, which is pretty exciting. Today I have been stitching it together, and I should have it finished by tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest. It's turning out beautifully, but I don't think I'll take on a project quite this big mid-semester again. However, it has been fun to say that I am doing homework when I'm crocheting.

The one thing I did to make up for much sitting on a couch crocheting this week, was to to the Central Ohio AIDS Walk this Saturday. It was the first 5k I've ever participated in, and it was really fun. I was proud of myself that I could walk the 5k in just about an hour, because I have not been able to work out nearly as much as I might like while I'm in school. I've been doing better on my yoga lately, but I'm also glad to know I can walk 3 miles without much problem. Thanks to everyone who supported me in the AIDS Walk - the walk as a whole raised $250,000, which was really exciting.

I also spent awhile during my break creating the internship manuals for those who will be leaving for internship this year. It was a lot of collating, but it went well. I had a whole classroom to use for two days, and I was listening to a book on tape while I did it. It was fun work, and I was glad to help.

The other major work I did this week, I did for free. My sacristan training officially began, as I joined a team who was preparing Gloria Dei, our main sanctuary at Trinity, for Easter. It was funny to be decorating for Easter on Maundy Thursday, but that is what has to be done sometimes when you're actually working in a church. We hung five huge banners across the ceiling of the sanctuary, which was no small feat, and we did it all while the brass band was practicing for our Easter service on Wednesday. It meant a lot of use of sign language of sorts. I was pleased to be able to help and to help set the altar for this upcoming week. I am still really looking forward to my sacristan job beginning next year, and I hope I always find it this rewarding, even when it is a lot of work. (I was there on Tuesday for about three hours for this one job).

Holy week at All Saints, my MIC site, was wonderful. I assisted for the first time on Palm Sunday. I was wearing a mic that I had to control, which was an interesting new thing for me. I forgot it once, and it was pretty loud when I turned it back on after the prayer I was saying, but my next word was "Hosanna" and there are worse things to shout in church on Palm Sunday.

The Maundy Thursday service there was beautiful. It had both first communion for the children who would be beginning it, as well as a footwashing/handwashing service. I had never participated in a footwashing on Maundy Thursday before, and it was a really lovely thing to be a part of. Good Friday was equally beautiful, with a procession of the cross out into the narthex at the end of the service, and singing "Were You There," one of my favorite Good Friday hymns, acapella around the cross.

Finally, Easter was this morning. I woke up to George, my cat, cuddling me, the sun just beginning ot rise, and birds chirping outside my window. The services at All Saints were beautiful, as well as packed, and I was happy to help serve communion. I was one of the bread deacons, and it felt absolutely fantastic to be able to serve communion to so many people at such an important service.

This afternoon, a few of us had a cookout here in our courtyard, which was a nice way to do Easter lunch. It's getting warm, unfortunately, so I came home and actually turned my air conditioners on. I may be the only one around here who misses the cooler temperatures, but I will always prefer winter to summer.

I am off to another busy week, as I wrap up my semester in the next few weeks. I will be doing a lot with worship, this week as a sacristan in training, and next week with my I-group who will be putting on worship. I should be a lovely couple of weeks. And it is absolutely wonderful to be in the Easter season again.

Happy Easter to you all,
Kathryn

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

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