Scattergories

I already tagged Mindy for another meme, so I'll do this one.

How it works:

SCATTERGORIES...

It's harder than it looks! Erase my answers, enter yours, tag 10 people, post it to your blog, and then notify them, including the person who tagged you. Use the first letter of your first name to answer each of the following. They have to be real places, names, things..nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

WHAT IS YOUR NAME Deb
4 LETTER WORD Dare
VEHICLE Dodge
TV SHOW Dragnet
CITY Duluth
BOY NAME David
GIRL NAME Diane
OCCUPATION Detective
SOMETHING YOU WEAR Diamonds!
FOOD Donuts
SOMETHING FOUND IN A BATHROOM Deodorant
REASON FOR BEING LATE Dearest Husband
SOMETHING YOU SHOUT DANG IT!

And I can't sic this on 10 people. I just can't. Play if you want. (Hope your name isn't Xavier!)

Deb

huzzahs!

Reedy Girl and The Harpist are also novice fencers. Their coach, Olympic medalist Gitty Mohebban, was featured in the local paper.

Today was a tournament of sorts for her students, and Reedy Girl participated. While they have been keeping scores all along and the advanced kids were usually whupping our novice gals purty good, Miss Gitty has been encouraging... "GOOD! You scored two points on him!" and "Next time he drops his guard, get another point!" So they keep working away at it.

Reedy Girl's bout is featured below... she lost 5-3 but showed herself to be, for a 12 and under, a good student.

FIRST - warm up. She just plops down on the floor and grabs her toe and casually stretches and warms up. (And I'm thinking the whole time, "ow ow ow ow ow!) It never seems to bother her!! Little Miss Flexible!

When they have electric bouts, they wear a special vest, called a "lame". The jacket, foil and fencer are hooked up to a light and buzzer system to help judge the points. Miss Gitty is checking the connections in the "bodywire" in Reedy Girl's vest before her bout. The foil is wired too with a switch in the point that records contacts or "hits" on the opponent.

The fencers are connected to spoolers (on the floor - you can't see them) which keeps them under tension all of the time. One of the hardest things to get used to is the constant pull. Reedy Girl says it feels like her butt's on a string... which, technically, it is!



Both competitors are ready and take the en garde position.


Point one from Reedy Girl!


Her opponent scores back.


While she lost the bout, she was happy with her fencing. And then she got to settle in and watch some really advanced kids bout.

Reedy Girl and Miss Gitty. We think they're both pretty amazing!


Now it's time for a shower, and dinner and relaxing a little... Oh yeah... maybe some homework...

Deb

Friday Five: Garage Sale

From the RevGalBlogPals:
Welcome to your irregularly scheduled Fifth Friday Five, hosted by will smama and Songbird!
Since will smama is preparing for a joint garage sale with her parents, and Songbird's church had a Yard and Plant Sale last Saturday, we have five enormously important questions we hope you will answer:

(cartoon from nataliedee.com)

1) Are you a garage saler?
Not so much right now. But in the past, that was how I got a lot of clothes and toys for the kids when they were little. Including a Victorian styled doll house, Legos, play kitchen, and a gazillion toddler clothes.

2) If so, are you an immediate buyer or a risk taker who comes back later when prices are lower?
I usually buy on the spot, particularly if it is something that I spot as being valuable and worth the money.

3) Seriously, if you're not a garage saler, you are probably not going to want to play this one. (That wasn't really #3.) 3) This is the real #3: What's the best treasure you've found at a yard or garage sale?
A set of French lead crystal (still in the box with the price tag) which, yes, we gave as a wedding gift. We're talking a $100 set of champagne flutes and I bought it for $5 when we were barely making rent... (Is that re-gifting? Is that tacky? Oh well... the bride loved them!)

4)If you've done one yourself, at church or at home, was it worth the effort?
Community/church ones are more fun. You hang out, talk, and then laugh at what people will actually buy. (Best garage sale moment EVER - Beloved Bearded Spouse and I were given the world's UGLIEST casserole dish as a wedding present. It was a home-thrown ceramic/clay dish with a lid -- that didn't fit. It had swirls of brown, green, blue and atomic puke pink. And someone BOUGHT IT for $5!!! For a wedding present!!! I think it is still out there, being sold by the next bride that gets it.)

5) Can you bring yourself to haggle?
No. I get tired of people who want you to knock off bucks off of things that are already priced cheap... Besides, when I have organized a garage sale, there is a charity pick-up scheduled for the next possible day already, so it's not like "everything must go."

BONUS: For the true aficionado: Please discuss the impact of Ebay, Craig's List, Freecycle, etc... on the church or home yard/garage sale.
It depends on the item. Nice things don't go easily on Craig's List or Freecycle, even with pictures. Big things, however, do. And broken things do!! People get greedy.

And eBay? I still can't believe how I was able to sell Precious Moments figurines for $20 a pop, because no one even LOOKED at them at a garage sale! But ONLY on eBay could you buy this piece of toast:


Ah... America...
Land of the free. Home of the deranged...

Deb

This is your life...

A research paper that is a synthesis paper, incorporating personal theology and reflective writing on the topic of women in ministry?
You love the idea.
You enjoy the in-class discussion.
This is your life...


This is your life in grad school...


(That's for all of you who are thinking of going for that DMin or PhD...)

Deb
who needs to read another book to read like she needs a hole in her head... just sayin.

Extra thoughts on Mary Hines

I am taking a "Biblical Perspectives on Feminist Theology" seminar this summer. Last week was the classroom and F2F part of the course... Now we have a few webinars and a mongo paper and the course will end in August with only about another gajillion hours of work. Oy.

Anyway - part of the in-class assignments were to present the main teachings and lives of the writers in "Freeing Theology" (ed. by Cathering Mowry LaCugna). I was clueless on who to pick. This whole discussion is new and extremely fascinating to me... at any rate, I had the great fortune to randomly choose Mary Hines, Prof. of Theology at Emmanuel College in Boston.

I won't bore you with the points of her article (she is wonderful to read -- as is the whole book!) but I have been pondering what she wrote and what we discussed in class. And since this assignment is done and turned in, and I have "extra thoughts" that are percolating, you get a bit of a brain dump...

In the process of sifting through the arguments and discussion on the patriarchal and hierarchical nature of the Church... and wanting to validate and hold dear some of the greatest teachings and praise saints through the ages, I've been pondering...

It seems that the Virgin Mary’s lessons for us include:

• submission and direction by God
• recognizing and holding to a holy task
• acknowledgment of Christ’s calling and role

Many a fundamentalist would disagree, but we must not forget that Catholicism brings to the evangelical community:

• a richness of church history and liturgy
• a clear and holier understanding of the Passion
• great depth and meaning to the Eucharist in its celebration and reverence (even if we are not transubstantiates)

In issues of women’s ordination:

• we can not ignore it -- HELLO!
• mistakes were made in the past for the sake of the status quo
• godly people have been hurt by the impact of unexamined tradition
• it is an issue for Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants

Catholicism and the history of Church in Europe:

• we are indebted to their careful recording and preservation of the Scriptures
• our family records are embedded in their genealogical records and local history
• the politicalization of the Church (especially in France!) was to the overall detriment and health of the Church today

OK.
Brain dump over...

Deb

Spring in the Back Yard

Dinner was still cooking. The humidity was low tonight, and the mosquitos hadn't started biting... so I grabbed my camera for a little photo journaling. It's a beautiful time of year in our back yard! Here's our new neighbors, the House Finches. They are busy feeding their hatchlings...


The peonies just popped open last weekend. This is a special plant to me because it was my grandmother's bush. We got a start of it from the family farm about six years ago. It's amazing how BIG the blossoms can get!


My favorite rose... a Peace rose! It starts out a gentle pale yellow, and gradually, as the buds open, adds deeper and deeper shades of pink to the petals. This one is just about at peak! And the smell! WOW.


Columbine... Fragile. Lovely. And the hummingbirds' favorite.


Climatis growing up part of our trellis. It is doing better this year, with more blooms and more vigorous growth, I think in part because the heat hasn't started with a vengeance yet.


A shot looking across the back yard. Wish you could have heard the birds singing as I stood and drank it all in...


Oh yes. One last photo. The first baby Anaheim Pepper!!! YUM. Salsa, baby!


It was a nice stroll while it lasted...

Deb

Poetry Party

From Christine at Abbey of the Arts:

Poetry Party Number Nineteen! I select an image and suggest a title and invite you to respond with your poems, words, reflections, quotes, song lyrics, etc. Leave them in the comments or email me and I’ll add them to the body of the post as they come in along with a link back to your blog if you have one (not required to participate!) I’ll add your contributions all week and then I will draw a name at random on Saturday morning from everyone who participates and will send the winner their choice of zine.

Feel free to take your poem in any direction and then post the image and invitation on your blog and encourage others to come join the party! (a blog is definitely not required to participate!)

The photo below is of course of my beloved Abbess Petunia. This is the first time she stars as the prompt for a Poetry Party. She teaches me many things, but her total abandon when it comes to rest is one of the most precious gifts she offers. I have been thinking a lot about Sabbath these days because summer is coming when my husband’s and my schedule slow quite down a bit and we make time to relish relationship, to linger, to make discoveries in the sacred space of being rather than doing. So my invitation to you for this week’s Poetry Party is to celebrate the gifts of being – what do you discover in those still spaces and holy pauses? Where are you invited to release the hold of doing and surrender to something much bigger?

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

She snoozes in a comfy spot
At peace. At rest. A-dreamin'...
Her paws chase after rabbits.
Her nose twitches as she mumbles a "woof"
And I smile.

She is. She knows.
At peace. At rest. A-dreamin'...
And yet not.
The first jingle of a leash and collar
And she's up with a shake and wag.

:What's next? Where we goin'?:
She wrinkles her brows with question marks dancing over her head.
:Who's here? Time to play?:
Her tail wags, she smiles at me.

"No, silly dog. Go back to sleep. I'm just cleaning off the counter."

She slumps back on the bed.
Blinks twice and yawns.
Her tail thumps a wag. Once or twice.
She drifts back to the rabbits...

At peace. At rest. A-dreamin'...

go figure

So... I took an on-line "spiritual gifts inventory" just to see what it would say. It's at least as accurate as any of the others I have had to complete. And yes, my primary gifts came out to: Pastor/Shepherd, Administration and Mercy. All was well and good until I got to the "comparison" charts...

Could the results from these comparison charts be skewed? Probably to some degree. Two factors to consider are 1) Results are not compiled from the Christian public at large but only those who are Internet users. 2) On the laity side, a much larger percentage of those taking the spiritual gifts inventory on-line are women (63.7%). Women tend to score high in the Gift of Shepherding because the characteristics of the gift of shepherding are very similar to the God-given instincts of mothering which comes natural to most women. Although many women have the gift of shepherding and it manifests itself in many areas of service, we believe women should consider this factor when evaluating whether or not they actually have the dominant gift of shepherding. They may want to also look closely at their second dominant gift.

Yes. That small primal scream you just heard was me! "Women" who have a "dominant gift" of "pastor/shepherd" probably aren't really gifted in that area???

I truly hate junk science. But this takes the cake.

d

Tagged... I'm IT again

I was tagged by Presbyterian Gal. I promised her I'd get to this when I needed a study break, so here goes!

Rules:
The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about himself or herself. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Ten years ago:
1998. I was parenting a 3 year old and a 7 year old. It involved the mundane stuff like looking for a preschool for Reedy Girl, bringing The Harpist home from the E.R. from a playground accident (she was fine - only stitches and bruises), facing the reality of my dad's terminal cancer, and volunteering in the elementary school. I was leading worship and struggling with not doing more. I was writing and dreaming of teaching/speaking and saw no way for that to happen.

Five things on today's "to do" list:
1. Read textbooks for Mentoring class (I am behind... again!)
2. Read for my research paper on feminist theology.
3. Laundry. Always laundry.
4. Clean out fridge. I was gone for a week. We're makin' penicillin here...
5. Do some serious calendar coordination. It's going to be a busy summer.

Three bad habits:
Only three??? Geesh. It's more like which 3 I want to admit to having...
1. Caffeine (WAY too much)
2. Saturated fats
3. Going emo.

Five places I've lived:
1. Rock Hill, SC
2. Columbus, Ohio
3. Coral Gables, FL
4. Bloomfield, NJ
5. Montgomery County, MD

---ooops!! I forgot this one!----
Things I'd do if I was a billionaire:
Go for a D.Min. since money would be no object, after I had paid back into my savings what I've spent so far. Endow a fund for small churches refurbishments and R&R cruises for their pastors. Endow a chair at a conservative seminary for feminist theology and give a bunch of bucks to Christians for Biblical Equality. Maybe buy out a televangelist's studio so that a more balanced perspective on Christianity could be broadcast. (Barring that, buying up the world's supply of hairspray and false eyelashes. just sayin.) And last, but not least, spend a whole lot of time caring and listening to people who need a pastor, wherever in the world that takes me!
----end of oopsie----

Five jobs I've had:
1. GS Camp Counselor
2. Waterfront Director
3. Music Teacher
4. Music Therapist
5. Medical Secretary

I will tag:
1. Jeff (since he whined the last time I didn't tag him)
2. Sarah
3. Tiria
4. Mindy
5. YOU! (If you got this far, you have to play. HA)

waiting for the caffeine to work...

more graph humor and song chart memes

If you don't get it, you don't.