10 things from the eye of the storm
The scene: I’m sitting in my favorite chair, near the gracious windows of the front room of my new home in a Chicago two-flat. This is about 4 square feet that are unpacked enough to be comfortable…but I can reach out and touch stacks of boxes on either side of me.
Boxes which will have to wait to be unpacked because this, my friends, is the eye of the storm: I returned last night from a trip with 8 high schoolers. When I get up from writing this, I will finish packing for a trip with 40 high schoolers. (Although, Erik and the kids an I will fly out ahead of them and get a 36 hour sabbath before we are again responsible for teenagers.) The cab arrives to take us to the airport in 4 hours.
So, from this place, 10 things:
1. I could not be prouder or more blessed by the 14 high schoolers who worked on our worship grant this year. Eight of them went to a conference on the grant this week. They were engaged and engaging, inspirational and articulate, and excited about worship. I think they blessed the entire conference with their presence and enthusiasm. The Church is going to be OK!
2. I think we can officially say that Abram has a lovely personality. He went along on this trip and had a terrible cold and cough. In spite of that, he was still a smiley flirt whenever he got the chance.
3. I think we can also officially say that Zora is exhausted.
4. Erik went to the kindergarten meeting at Zora’s potential public school. It sounds like an excellent place. Top notch. Please note: it is a Chicago Public School. Not every school in CPS is a frightening vortex of disfunction. What’s sad about that is that some of the schools are so terrible that the district averages out as horrific even with some very good individual schools. At the same time that I am thankful that we have the means to live within the boundaries for an excellent elementary school, it breaks my heart that we are in a district where many many many children are so neglected by their school system. And, now that I love within that district, I have to recognize that there are ways in which I am even more responsible for their education. (Although, I also firmly believe that I was before as well…as a resident of the state of Illinois.)
5. We picked paint colors for the new living room to be soothing: basically, our living room and dining room are the color of pea soup. Because I am Dutch, and nothing is more comforting to me that pea soup.
6. On a walk last week, Zora announced that we should call the new neighborhood “New World”, and then proceeded to (loudly & cheerfully) greet people by saying, “Hello! Welcome to New World!” I, of course, read this theologically, and find some eschatology in it. The Bible begins in a garden and ends in a city…
7. Erik has 3 hours of his life back every day. I now have several days a week when I commute over 50 miles with two small children in the car. You can draw your own conclusions about how that is affecting our life.
8. It’s Erik’s big week. Our wedding anniversary (12 years); his birthday (34); and Father’s Day coming up. I told him to buy himself a new bike. Which he soundly deserves since the bike commuting in the suburbs through the winters actually rusted through his old bike.
9. All of the “big” numbers in # 8 are completely smacked into perspective by the fact that Erik’s Grandma turned 101 last week. I think her greatest accomplishment is being the generator of the Moe clan. And not just because she’s a woman of a generation where raising your family was the main thing you did. More because they are, in fact, that incredible.
10. While I was visiting Michigan last week, I had the lovely surprise of spending a few minutes with my seminary buddy Heidi and her brand-spanking new daughter Zoe Beth. (This is her third baby…my other good seminary buddy Meika is pregnant with her third as well, which means I am behind!) We spent a fine half hour in the Calvin Seminary Student Center, chatting and catching up. Much discussion turned to being a mama and a pastor, and I’m fairly certain that we may now hold the record for most times saying “boob” on the premises of the seminary.
OK–I was speaking with my pastor about an hour and a half ago and she described to me a group at the Worship Renewal Grant conference that I’m pretty sure was yours. Indeed, they “blessed the entire conference”. (I know it’s a small world, but still. She told me about 2 projects and that was one of them.)
21 June 2011 at 3:57 pm