Life on the Home Front: The Weekend

In which I discuss Sundays, books, and weekend life.....

The weekend has come and gone and a new week stretches before us. I feel as if we are sitting with a time bomb -- wondering if this will be the week it goes off. I know for my friends in NYC it has already gone off.

The moment that sticks in my memory from this weekend is when we logged online to join our congregation for an evening "online meet up." As each person or group began appearing on the screen I was surprised to find myself becoming teary. I think the reality of the situation was clearest at that point -- we are physically removed from these people with whom we have had weekly interaction for fourteen years now, some even twenty-six years. I don't talk much here about my husband's job -- he's a pastor. That means our congregation is like our extended family -- all these people on the screen feel like aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews. And last night felt like a big family pow-wow. We all heard a report from each person/family and there was good news: a baby coming on Friday, an engagement announced. And everyone now knows how to pray for each other in the coming week.

Are you texting more than normal? I feel like my texting time has nearly doubled -- it's the easiest way to stay in touch with people and staying in touch is more important than ever. A friend sent a voice message on WhatsApp and that was fun to listen to. I should try that more.

We had a family meeting Saturday morning in which Michael went over all the Covid-19 information in great detail for the kids so they would understand the seriousness of the precautions we are taking. It's hard when one has a son who should be getting ready for prom, having his senior pictures taken, attending championship basketball games, and getting ready for graduation and an open house. No one wants the last months of their senior year ruined like this. All I can do is try to make life at home as fun as I can and then pray, pray, pray.

Today begins two weeks of "Spring Break" -- which is oddly going to look a lot like life last week. But the kids won't have to be on their computers to do school in the mornings. (But the schoolwork did help to occupy them.) Michael has made a new schedule for the next two weeks and we've decided to keep the same afternoon tea baking schedule.

I met my mom in a parking lot on Saturday afternoon for "Heather's drive-by tax service." We handed checks and paperwork through the windows and I felt oddly like I was nine years old again playing bank drive-up teller with my sister at an open window in our old Pennsylvania house. That's one person's taxes done, only three more to go.

Saturday night I got a text to check my porch and there in a beautiful bag was a book a friend knew I would love: "The Private World of Tasha Tudor." How special was that?! I decided to save it for Sunday and relish it. I read it all on Sunday afternoon. I kind of disappeared into a Tasha rabbit hole and could almost feel like I was in her garden or sitting in her house (though I wondered how it smelled with 42 birds inside and if my allergies would tolerate that???). I felt deeply inspired after reading the book, but also a longing to the depths of my soul for the kind of beauty that surrounded Tasha.

I also spent time on my bed with two of my current "book mentors": Harriet Beecher Stowe and C.S. Lewis. I'll have to talk more about Harriet some time but suffice it to say many of the circumstances in her life are things I have gone through or am going through and it is comforting to read someone else's life story and see how they got through it. I'm reading letters CS Lewis wrote to friends (in a book called "Yours, Jack") and right now I'm in the WW2 years, which are oddly applicable to our times!

I cooked a lot on Saturday: a deep, rich chili for the family, persimmon pudding, a very sweet chocolate lava cake, and banana blueberry muffins. Somehow the food seems to have only lasted the weekend, with some small leftovers today. Cooking is an energy-consuming task and there isn't much break with a family of six right now. But I'm very thankful we have plenty of food, and time for cooking as well.

Sundays are completely different for us right now. As a pastor's family, Sunday is the day which our entire week works toward (okay, that should be true of all of us, but it's especially true for ministers). Right now we can sleep in as late as we want (which is a great physical blessing for us and not something I consider to be laziness) and we can do our church at the best time for our family (which is 11am and Michael's mom comes to join us). We work through the order of singing, Scripture readings, and prayers sent out by Michael and then we watch a recording of the week's sermon. Most Sundays we have company -- for sure we have both our mothers, often we have others too. Now we just have Michael's mom because my mom must be very very careful to avoid contamination.

This Sunday afternoon after I took my rest time on my bed I pulled out a quilt top I was given several years ago and finally got it put together with the batting and backing in preparation for hand quilting. I am especially glad to have this quilt top because as a child I had several quilts that looked just like this -- made by a great-grandmother. I was very attached to them and their beauty but in our many moves they were lost. So I feel I have my quilts back again with this. I've ordered some hand quilting thread on Amazon and can't wait to get started!

I need to end this and get to work on "flower therapy" -- I never know what day might be my last.

Food Eaten: Saturday: leftover scones for breakfast, leftover rice and corned beef for lunch, Laura's shortbread for tea, leftover turkey soup for dinner (while the family ate chili). The family enjoyed chocolate lava cake for dessert and I had a piece of persimmon pudding. Sunday: fresh banana blueberry muffins for breakfast, turkey soup for lunch while the family ate tater tots covered in chili and cheese, we all had persimmon pudding for teatime and then I made leftover mashed potatoes into potato pancakes for the family with cheese and veggies and cut apples and I ate leftover scones with leftover sausage gravy and cut apples. (I have to stick to the foods I can tolerate....which is often not fun, but I am thankful for the results.)

Visit to Selma

Two weekends ago Michael and I had the opportunity to travel down to Selma, Alabama! In preparation for the trip we watched the movie Selma and I read this book so we would better understand the significance Selma has played in both the civil rights and voting rights movements.

The movie, Selma, tells quite accurately the story of the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery in hopes of getting the government to remove restrictions keeping African Americans from being able to easily register to vote. Some of the scenes in Selma are hard to watch -- the police beatings, the deaths that were perpetrated, the frustrating injustice and government indifference. But this is real history, that really happened not that long ago and bears a direct relationship to what is really happening on our streets and in our cities today.

Here is the famous bridge in Selma that features so prominently in the voting rights movement.

Michael and I loved all the historic buildings that were everywhere in Selma. This hotel that we stayed in first opened in 1837!

The rooms were tastefully furnished:

And we had a view of the bridge from our window:

I loved the tile floors throughout the hotel:

History was everywhere in Selma: from Water Avenue with its historic buildings like the St. James Hotel, to all the sites relevant to the Civil War, to the buildings prominent in the voting rights movement of the 1960's.

Another view on Water Street.

For many Americans it is easy to live life in a bubble of sorts and ignore the social issues that plague others, perhaps even others that live on one's street or across town. Becoming aware of others' stories and what their life is truly like and through that knowledge developing empathy seems to be one of the first steps that needs to take place in this whole conversation about racism.

I had a few hours on my own to wander the town and take pictures.

 I even had a few minutes to attempt a watercolor of the bridge!

I visited the historical center that has on display all kind of information regarding the voting rights movement. It seemed so pertinent to history at this very moment with the elections taking place in a few weeks that we should be here in this place where voting rights for ALL became so important.

Saturday afternoon we had a tour of the town of Selma with specific focus on the places surrounding the voting rights movement.

Here is a picture of First Baptist Church where organization of the voting rights marches and events took place. I find it fascinating that so much of the civil rights movement and voting rights movement was led and directed by ministers! Martin Luther King was a minister! And it was the churches in Selma that coordinated the march to Montgomery! I could wish that more ministers and churches were at the forefront of these kinds of activities today.

Here is the Court House where people had to register to vote.

Our tour guide showed us this old cinema where she would come as a child (before integration) and would enter at a side door to go up to the balcony where their segregated seats were. She told us with a chuckle that after integration it turned out they had the better seats anyway!

Later in the afternoon a friend and I took a walk around Selma and admired the many large, historic homes.

But these large, beautiful homes spurred a lot of conversation after we'd spent the afternoon talking about civil rights and voting rights and seeing a lot of the poverty that coexists in Selma (of which I failed to take pictures).

We discussed racism and the Christian viewpoint that each person is a sinner and thus automatically prone toward racism (and this racism may look very different from one person to another). This wicked sin must be confessed and repented of constantly with prayer that Christ would grow us in love toward one another. I think pretending that racism is not a problem for us only fuels the issue and fails to allow us to show empathy. We may have grown up in wonderful, loving circumstances and been taught to show love in many ways but sin always nags at our heels and must be continually resisted. Avoiding perpetrating the evil of racism is only half of the issue too -- what about the work and energy needed to bring justice to the myriad racial injustices which still run rampant in our country?



We walked street after street....

Just look at the size of these houses!

This brick home had a double lot with a gorgeous garden!

And this house had fancy brickwork and trim work.

Most of these homes had historic building markers on them. Just think of all the history that happened here!

And there was Spanish moss!

It would be hard to choose a favorite house......

Here's a glimpse at the courtyard of our hotel.

And the courtyard lit up at night.

This is the hotel dining room and on Saturday night we enjoyed dinner here with the members of the Selma Reformed Presbyterian Church.

 And that's the church we were headed to Sunday morning!

The Selma RP church was formed in the 1870's, originally as a mission school for former slaves and eventually established as a congregation. Again, so much history! We loved their building! Too bad there are no empty buildings like this sitting around up here for our congregation!

We had a most wonderful day of Sunday School, worship, communion, fellowship lunch, visiting, and then a Psalm Sing and Prayer service in the evening. It truly was a wonderful weekend of getting to know these brothers and sisters in Christ and having such good fellowship together. (Incidentally, it seemed that many of the members of this congregation had participated in the 1965 voting rights march in one way or another and hearing this made the history even more personal.)

Before we knew it Monday had arrived and it was time to head home.

We travelled the highway from Selma to Montgomery just like those on the voting rights march had travelled. Here is a cotton field we passed:

We stopped in Montgomery for a quick visit to my dear friend Andria!

And look at this amazing tea she fixed for us!!!!!

Never thought I'd make it to Todd and Andria's house in Alabama and yet here we were!

And I couldn't leave the south without at least one foodie moment -- I found these Mustang grapes at a local stand. They are wild grapes and have the most amazing flavor -- like a Concord grape without the tartness.

So that was our trip to Selma! So much to think about and ponder and many new friendships to remember!

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July

July has been a full month! Rachel headed back to high school today, beginning her sophomore year. In some ways, that means summer is over. At least the rest of us have one more week before we start our schooling.

The month began with a trip to the Indianapolis Museum of Art with some of the high schoolers from church for a picnic and tour.

Mom came along and, as always, got the young kids going on fairy houses:

The gardens always help me to feel a million miles away:

This was a new flower to me:

Everywhere you look there is beauty:

Then came the Fourth of July and the town's parade:

And a picnic in our backyard:

 The kids had a fabulous time and had some sort of game involving shields going on:

Andrew and Michael made it up to the roof to make some repairs. This was a fun adventure for Andrew:

Laura is my little tag-along. She loves to be out in the garden with me. Here's the garden at the beginning of the month:

James had the privilege of taking a week-long art camp. Every morning I got to drive him through adorable Zionsville, oohing and aahing at these houses all the way. James made pottery and used all kinds of mediums to make art creations throughout the week. Definitely a highlight of the summer for him.

We had lots and lots and lots of rain! We tried to visit our secret beach and instead found this: (and the kids couldn't understand why I wouldn't let them go in!!)

College Park VBS is a family tradition. Like last year, I spent most of that time shopping at Goodwill Outlet. It's the best chance of the year for me to do that. More on my finds in another post.....

Andrew and I spent hours and hours on genealogy, getting ready for 4h. This is our fourth year to do this and, of course, each year gets more and more involved. This year we made the surprising discovery that Michael and I are seventh cousins once removed!!! Who could have guessed! Our mother's both descend from the same set of Cady grandparents in Connecticut in the late 1600's! (This is a picture of Gen. William T. Clark):

VBS:

Cousin John went to VBS too and at the end of the week we went up the street to mom's for lunch!

We also ended VBS week with 4h project turn in:

This was David's first year in 4h proper:

James entered his adorable muskrat painting:

And that same day Michael and I celebrated our 16th anniversary:

The next morning we were back to 4h to turn in James' medieval knight:

The following week we celebrated mom and Davids' birthdays with a picnic at Eagle Creek:

Laura had her yearly MRI and the report looks good! She can repeat it again next year.

James cleaned up the boys' room. Too bad I don't have a before picture. It was epic. This room is where all their creating takes place.

One evening we headed out to the 4h fair to have a look at all the kids' projects and to be amazed by Galaxy Girl who climbed up 127 feet without any safety devices.

Oh yes, we were all amazed and quite scared.

Andrew was excited to win Reserve Champion on his genealogy

Milkshakes at the fair:

And the horse pull -- we never cease to be amazed at these incredibly powerful horses:

And we made it back to our secret beach. Quite a transformation from two weeks previous.

Our last week was spent at Covfamikoi, our church presbytery's family conference, held in Kentucky. It's a great week of fellowship (without having to cook!), good teaching, classes for the kids, and lots of sports activities.

We always love the talent night and the funny little extras that get added in, like the "churches challenge":

The best part of all is forging friendships for the children which will hopefully continue on into adulthood. This volleyball court is one of the favorite activities for the kids!

Here is Laura with her class:

And this is how everyone feels at the end of camp week:

And now that July is nearly over, you can see the amazing progress the garden has made! I think I better get out and pick beans!

Enjoy your weekend!