A Quick Poll
So, here's my poll:
How many of you, dear Clergywomen, please note if you are in full-time position, have help (cleaning person/people) in cleaning your house?
Last Thursday, yet once again, LH complains of the cleaning people coming to clean the house. I am tired of his tirades and so am conducting this informal poll. Here is the week in review:Sat. Oct 14th - Up early, for today is Presbytery at town I used to live in and is over an hour drive. Arrive at 9:59 am, register and the meeting begins. Break for lunch and then more Presbytery stuff. Leave at 2:15 pm to drive home. LH's church has their annual Hay Ride and I Must be there. Get home, let dogs out and change into grubby and warm clothes. It's cold and the bonfire will be smokey. Leave for Hayride and finally get home after 8:30 pm. Go over my sermon, prayers, etc for Sunday. Fall into bed and oblivion.
Sun. Oct 15th - taught Sunday School Sr. & Jr. Hi together, led worship, ran to store to get name badges for upcoming Synod Retreat, grabbed a lite lunch. Women's Tea at churchh from 2 pm- 4 pm. Got home after 4:30 pm.
Monday: 9am at church helping women stir mincemeat for 1 1/2 hours. Run to funeral home for service of brother of parishioner, while funeral procession is getting all in order, I run to post office and drop fundraising letters in mailbox, fall into the procession to committal. Have to attend funeral lunch, goes too long. Head back to office, work on my Pastor's report for Session meeting, go out for quick dinner and to clear my head.
Worship committee meets at 6 pm. As we finish, Session members arrive for 7 pm meeting. Have a guest at Session. Good, open discussion over issue. Try to wrap up discussion twice and off it goes again. Finally, wrap it up and go on to the rest of agenda. Get home 10:30 pm, exhausted.
Tuesday - Get up the usual 6:45 am, in the office by 9 am, put the service for Sunday together, all the things I didn't get to on Monday. Made a couple visits in the afternoon. Get home in time to make dinner, clean up afterwards. Look through mail, give greys biscuits, and fall asleep on the couch! Missed the news and the weather.
Wednesday - same as Tues. Get message that an inactive member dies. Call family. Have a preacher in family by way of marriage who they want to give message. Finish items for Sunday am, pull together last minute things for Synod Retreat. Get call from funeral home, arrangements made. Meet with family and local preacher. Get back to church, eat my lunch, start putting service together. Local preacher comes, we go over a few things. Finish putting the service together. Make a visit. Order pizza for Boy Scout and mentor to finish our God and Family program, pick up the pop (soda). At 6t:35 pm, go pick up pizza, arrive back to church, and meet with Boy Scout, summarizing program and having a dinner of heart-burn city and about a 3 on the pizza scale (1o being best- I'm from Chicago, what can I say! Very few pizza's come close to Chicago's!). Get home after 8:30 pm due to a deluge of rain where I could barely see the country road in the black wetness, had to drive much slower. Fall asleep on the couch and miss the news again!
Thursday - Same as day before. Go into church office, go over things
with Secretary. Move the monstrous pew (which is on our prayer list - hoping it will break - pews are sometimes far too sturdy!) and a few other pews for the funeral service Friday morning what was to be my day off.
Get home around noon. Feed dogs and self. Plop down at the computer to write sermon, get started, don't like it, start all over. Cleaning people come. LH pouts and goes into his tirade of am I ever going to get rid of these cleaning people and clean house again myself. I explain that weeks like these are precisely why we still have cleaning people. He is totally unconvinced.
Finish sermon, prayers, run to grocery store for dinner items. Make dinner, clean up, put together funeral service prayers, etc.
Fall asleep on couch. Drat, have I missed the news again?!!?
Friday - get up usual time. No sleeping til 8 am this week. Get to the church 2 minutes after nine and the funeral hearse is already there. Viewing is one hour before the service at 10 am. Family begins arriving. Women in kitchen with food. Run back and forth. Go over items with local pastor, have prayer with family. Officiate the funeral service, walk down to cemetary, co-lead the committal, back to church to say grace for lunch. Stay for lunch. Leave as soon as I can and get home around 3:30 pm. Run a couple errands. Come home, fall asleep on the couch. Make dinner, clean up. Sit and kinda relax with the TV - not even anything worthwhile on the TV.
Saturday- 5:20 am alarm goes off. I stagger into shower. Downstairs, I let the dogs out, make coffee and a bagel. Dogs want breakfast, I tell them it's too early. Arrive at the church 6:50 am, for the Church Breakfast and Bazaar. Sausage is sizzling, coffee is brewing and I wish I was still in bed. Give the opening prayer and then begin serving breakfast til after 11 am. Buy a couple things at Bazaar, slip into the office to make out the two baptismal certicates for Sunday. Go home. Feed the dogs. Take a nap on the couch. Get up, down in the basement for Art Supply box for Synod retreat and a couple trips down into our huge storage room of a basement to get other items and duffle bag to pack. Pack my clothes, and stuff (folders, name tags, etc.). Pack everything into van. Pack a change of clothes and shoes in the van. Go over everything for Sunday morning. Crawl into bed.
Sunday- 6:45 am and off I go. Co teach Sr/jr Hi class. Led worship, with sacrament of baptism. Attend baptismal lunch at church following worship. Slip into the bathroom and change from clergy duds to travel duds. Off to Columbus for Synod retreat and will return Tuesday suppertime.
Now I ask you, just when was I supposed to clean house?!!!? Am i that out of line to have help cleaning the house? Let me know, please!
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
TUESDAY'S FRIDAY FIVE - RGBP'S CREATURE COMFORTS
1. Comfort beverage: A cup of rich, steaming hot chocolate with
mini marshmallows floating on top.
2. Comfort chair: Actually the right corner (if you're facing it) of the
couch. I lived on that couch nearly three months
after tearing the quad muscle off my knee. I have
three pillows piled in strategic places. It's just a
matter of being able to commandeer my space
from the Greys who also like the same spot!
3. Comfort Read: A novel. Still finishing up one from vacation.
4. Comfort TV/DVD/Music: Vicar of Dibley DVD's, Fiddler on the Roof,
Mannheim Steamroller, or Classical
5: Comfort companions: Of course, LH. And then there's the Greys;
Benny and the Jett. They can comfort anyone
because they both like to stroked and hugged
and even smootched!
As the snow has fallen in Buffalo and the cool rains wetten everything, what are your creature comforts?
1. Comfort beverage: A cup of rich, steaming hot chocolate with
mini marshmallows floating on top.
2. Comfort chair: Actually the right corner (if you're facing it) of the
couch. I lived on that couch nearly three months
after tearing the quad muscle off my knee. I have
three pillows piled in strategic places. It's just a
matter of being able to commandeer my space
from the Greys who also like the same spot!
3. Comfort Read: A novel. Still finishing up one from vacation.
4. Comfort TV/DVD/Music: Vicar of Dibley DVD's, Fiddler on the Roof,
Mannheim Steamroller, or Classical
5: Comfort companions: Of course, LH. And then there's the Greys;
Benny and the Jett. They can comfort anyone
because they both like to stroked and hugged
and even smootched!
As the snow has fallen in Buffalo and the cool rains wetten everything, what are your creature comforts?
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Images of Iona -
a spit of land amid the wind and waves
rocky, craigy, moss and grass-covering eon-aged rocks
ever-changing sea and sky
not much here but wind, sheep, God and one's self.
This little spit of land ~ where people gather from
all corners, places in the world, seeking God's presence,
to be touched by the love of Christ, to be neighbor.
Here in this remote place tamed only by farm fences.
This is not a place to be tamed, but a place where you learn
to live with the landscape, the geography - wind, sea, and the constantly morphing weather.
The journyey is long - but there is welcome.
The weather can be harsh - but the walls are sturdy.
Nothing is easy about living here and yet, there is an enormous peace
to this little spit of land.
This is Iona. You come not by chance, but by intention.
You do not just happen upon Iona. You must seek Iona out.
Once there, Iona will forever be with you and a part of you, wherever you on earth you call home.
Sacred spaces have a way of filling the empty places in our lives, even if it is just a little spit of land.
a spit of land amid the wind and waves
rocky, craigy, moss and grass-covering eon-aged rocks
ever-changing sea and sky
not much here but wind, sheep, God and one's self.
This little spit of land ~ where people gather from
all corners, places in the world, seeking God's presence,
to be touched by the love of Christ, to be neighbor.
Here in this remote place tamed only by farm fences.
This is not a place to be tamed, but a place where you learn
to live with the landscape, the geography - wind, sea, and the constantly morphing weather.
The journyey is long - but there is welcome.
The weather can be harsh - but the walls are sturdy.
Nothing is easy about living here and yet, there is an enormous peace
to this little spit of land.
This is Iona. You come not by chance, but by intention.
You do not just happen upon Iona. You must seek Iona out.
Once there, Iona will forever be with you and a part of you, wherever you on earth you call home.
Sacred spaces have a way of filling the empty places in our lives, even if it is just a little spit of land.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Home Again!
LH and I are back safe and sound after our trip across the pond. It began hectic enough but slowed to a nice finish even if we did get a nasty cold bug.
Things I Enjoyed Most About our Trip to Scotland:
1. Iona
2. The every changing sky and sea
3. The people we met at Macleod Center
4. The resources at the Gift Shop
5. St. Giles Cathedral
6. Haggis
7. Bangers and Mash
8. Oban
9. Loch Ness - sans monster (although saw several fiberglass versions!)
10. Culzean Castle
11. Robbie Burns' Cottage
12. The Paisley Abbey
13. the silk-blend sweater I bought
14. LH not getting into an accident while driving on the left
or going around a gazillion rotaries!
15. Comfortable bed in our cottage in Ayr
16. Slipping into England on a gorgeous day to see Hadrian's Wall
(or the bits left of it and the Roman ruins)
17. A hot toddy with some great Scotch
18. Sheila Fleet
19. The young man in formal highland dress in Perth
20. The thistle mug I brought back
21. The hanging baskets of flowers still blooming
22. The quaint placemats
23. Finding a great place to eat out of the blue.
24. The mist and the fog
25. The lovely brogue
As much as I enjoy going away, I am always ready to be back at home and in my own bed! Finally finished the piles of laundry and replenished the fridge. Been catching up at the church and thankfully, no major emergencies occurred while I was away. Was able to ease into Sunday morning since Jr. & SR Hi merged their SS class for a study on the Chronicles of Narnia. The Sr. Hi teacher is teaching it. But I get to return the favor this week, while he is gone.
The Mon. AM Women's Bible Study is on a field trip, which I didn't need to attend and so this has been a gentle way to begin anew! I feel ever so blessed and graced to have enjoyed such a great vacation and to come back and ease my way back into rhythmn. Naturally, it all picks up steam from here for the next two weeks, so I'll just savour the moment.
LH and I are back safe and sound after our trip across the pond. It began hectic enough but slowed to a nice finish even if we did get a nasty cold bug.
Things I Enjoyed Most About our Trip to Scotland:
1. Iona
2. The every changing sky and sea
3. The people we met at Macleod Center
4. The resources at the Gift Shop
5. St. Giles Cathedral
6. Haggis
7. Bangers and Mash
8. Oban
9. Loch Ness - sans monster (although saw several fiberglass versions!)
10. Culzean Castle
11. Robbie Burns' Cottage
12. The Paisley Abbey
13. the silk-blend sweater I bought
14. LH not getting into an accident while driving on the left
or going around a gazillion rotaries!
15. Comfortable bed in our cottage in Ayr
16. Slipping into England on a gorgeous day to see Hadrian's Wall
(or the bits left of it and the Roman ruins)
17. A hot toddy with some great Scotch
18. Sheila Fleet
19. The young man in formal highland dress in Perth
20. The thistle mug I brought back
21. The hanging baskets of flowers still blooming
22. The quaint placemats
23. Finding a great place to eat out of the blue.
24. The mist and the fog
25. The lovely brogue
As much as I enjoy going away, I am always ready to be back at home and in my own bed! Finally finished the piles of laundry and replenished the fridge. Been catching up at the church and thankfully, no major emergencies occurred while I was away. Was able to ease into Sunday morning since Jr. & SR Hi merged their SS class for a study on the Chronicles of Narnia. The Sr. Hi teacher is teaching it. But I get to return the favor this week, while he is gone.
The Mon. AM Women's Bible Study is on a field trip, which I didn't need to attend and so this has been a gentle way to begin anew! I feel ever so blessed and graced to have enjoyed such a great vacation and to come back and ease my way back into rhythmn. Naturally, it all picks up steam from here for the next two weeks, so I'll just savour the moment.
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