Birthday eve

Birthday eve got off to a smashing start. Pumkin spice syrup was back at Starbucks. Divine Tara gave me a perfect loaf of bread, lovely card, and bonus session. I went to the library, parked right in front, and found the meter was already paid for the time I needed. Arrived home to a mailbox full of very promising looking cards.

After a failed attempt at making a birthday cake yesterday, I tried again today with box mixes. The result is one lovely looking cake and one delicious disaster. I don't happen to love cake and have determined my shopping (3 times), chopping, baking, frosting, and dish washing are for naught. Next year will save time and money and serve ice cream. Tradition be damned.

Still, I believe this will be a good year.

Waking up

Hi friends. My blog is waking up again after this nap. Working with teenagers make life feel a little more like an adventure. So does having new experiences.

Yesterday I spent about 4 hours picking hops. I am not a beer connoisseur. I just have a yard that grows the vines in abundance. Greg asked if he could harvest them to take to a local brewery to add to the vat of Wild Hops Brew. We will get some free beer at experiment's end. As a result I have a terrible itchy rash all over both arms that refuses to go away. On the positive end I met several neighbors who came to inquire what I was picking as I balanced up on my retaining wall-- an old hippy guy who looks like a hobo and is very friendly, a deaf man accross the street, and a skater kid who wanted to try hops raw.

I have always fantasized about having a hobby farm. In my visions I grew pumkins or apples. Never would have guessed I'd end up with more hops than I can pick and one lonely apple at the top of my one fruit tree.

Sleeping

No, I haven't broken my blog writing fingers. This blog is just sleeping for a little while. Lately life is short on adventure and long on reflection. So I started writing a little on a more boring, reflective track. I admit it's the kind of crap I would never read myself. And it's the wrong picture to be painting in this happy blog frame- too lengthy and whining and blah, blah, blag. But the new muse has absolutely no sense of humor. My temporary address will be:

http://acornseason.blogspot.com/

Look forward to coming back here when adventures resume!

First Day Eve

Tomorrow is my first day of work at my new job. It will be a huge transition to start waking up 3 hours earlier, getting dressed up again, and trying to remember new names. I need to remember that the poor freshmen will be twice as nervous as I am when they start.

The Lost Discipline

Funny that it's called a fast when giving up food makes you slow down so completely. You think slowly and walk slowly and ponder instead of rushing into decisions. Your hands move more intentionally and you become aware of all of little motions they go through.

Fasting has been hard for me to understand because I know few people who practice it. I've only practiced it infrequently and for short periods of time. But now I feel called into a season of fasting. It feels like walking into a mystery because I don't know why I'm doing this or what it's supposed to produce. Fortunately my spiritual direction thinks it's okay to open this door with no resolution. What do you need from God? she always asks. This is the first time I haven't known.