Archive for January, 2012

Inspiration

I finally came up with a design for my small outdoor table mosaic. I started with a fleur-de-lis, a symbol I’ve always liked (in Christian circles it can symbolize the Trinity, though it has other meanings throughout history). Then I went to the web and found some cool patterns. Check them out on my Pinterest board.

[Pinterest side note: I did it. I came over to the time-sucking dark side, but only because I wanted a place to put all my home improvement pictures. About 30 seconds after I joined, I had dozens of notification emails in my inbox saying so-and-so had repinned my picture, etc. Gah! I unsubscribed from all that and am trying not to spend my precious computer time drooling over the photos on there.]

Derek liked the fireplace insert the best. I liked it, too, but liked the diamond/argyle sweater pattern with the fleur-de-lis better. Here’s my pattern, scaled down to 8 x 10:

I took the time to show Kate, who hates math and thinks it has no real-world application, how I scaled down the table and then measured out the diamonds using…math. She was not impressed, but I hope it sinks in some day.

I’m not sure yet what the white squares will be…white tiles? I also might try to find black and white patterned tiles instead of the plain black for the fleur-de-lis…any input?

If we buy the house we’re seriously looking at, we’ll have a screened-in porch. Our current “family room” (aka piano/toy/coat/shoe area) has an outdoor rug in it, so we’ll move that to the porch and it will complement the table.

(Photo stolen from professional photographer house pics so I didn’t have to take my own.)

 

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January 30th, 2012
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Quote of the day

I’m working on an article about how to get millennials to value the estate of marriage for Notes for Life, the quarterly publication of LCMS Life Ministries, today. Perhaps I’m scooping myself by posting this quote here, and perhaps it won’t fit into the article, but it’s so brilliant I wanted to share.

The church has exactly what the postmodern/millennial generation wants: Truth, beauty, community, spirituality, mercy, authenticity, forgiveness. They are ironically scorning the very thing that would bless them. It’s the church’s job to show them that.

–Dr. Scott Bruzek

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January 26th, 2012
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Things I’m obsessing about this week

Tile. In case you didn’t gather it from my mosaic posts, I love love love tile. We’ve never lived anywhere with tile floors, but I’ve always wanted to. We’re looking at this house in Maryville that has the most ghastly linoleum floors, and I told Derek if we buy the place, I can’t look at those floors for more than 20 seconds without going cross-eyed. See?

So I’m researching tile. What I really want is slate.

Not that shiny, but it’s beautiful, isn’t it? Multicolored, textured, made by God not by man. I love it. The question (always) is, can we afford it?

Water. We had a torrential rain Sunday, and I spent all day Monday squeegeeing our basement floor. We’d put in a French drain a few years ago, but only in front. It needs another on the side, it turns out. We had a showing and I was desperately hoping to keep on top of the water before it, but alas, no. Our Realtor told them that we had a call in, but she told us to take care of it post-haste. Water scares people. Apparently around 60 percent of homes have some sort of water problem, but no one willingly takes it on.

So our plumber is coming back tomorrow.

I know other people have much worse problems, but I was pretty distraught about it yesterday, despite Derek’s advice to keep it all in perspective. (To his credit, he kindly listened to me cry about it first.)

During the showing, I took the kids to the library. Apparently it’s not just us: the neighborhood park is also under water.

 

Things the kids are obsessed with

Jonathan: buckling his highchair buckle over and over and over (which requires me to be nearby to unbuckle over and over and over). Talking…brand new words, lots of them, as if he’s been storing them up for awhile.

Sophia: Changing out her earrings from the starter pair, her adorable new boots from Miss Susie, and talking without her saying her Rs like a little baby Bostonian, despite my pleading for her to stop.

Kate: Her new boots from Miss Susie, being fashionable in her new boots, wearing the right shirt with her new boots. Did I say her new boots? Yep. Those.

(The boots are a side note in this photo. The actual event: the baptism of Kate and Sophia’s good friends, Kamryn and Kaleb. I was trying to get Sophia and Caleb holding hands, but my camera phone clicked loudly and then locked up. So this is what I got. Aren’t they adorable?)

Things Derek is obsessed with

The potential new house in Maryville. It’s interesting, because usually I make my mind up about something quickly and then have to patiently wait for him to get on board without bugging him too much. This time, he’s all over it and I’m lagging behind. I know he’s excited because he’s always texting his dad about it. I think if we decided we could afford slate tile, I’d be doing the same thing.


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January 24th, 2012
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Over it

Our house, shot with a wide angle lens which makes it look like a Dr. Seuss house, complete with fake clouds/blue sky in the background.

Our house has been on the market for two days, and I am completely and totally over it.

This morning, our agent texted to say we had a showing at 2 p.m. Our first! Yay! So fast!

It was around 11 a.m. I was unshowered, working frantically on my website redesign (sneak peek here, although I still have a few kinks to work out) while Jonathan napped and the girls were out with Miss Susie. I stopped working and began looking around, and I made a list of what to do to get the house in Show Shape. It was long. I had laundry everywhere. Toys and coloring books and unswept floors and stinky diaper pails and dust bunnies were in all the places the laundry wasn’t. You can’t just stuff everything in closets, because prospective buyers open those.

Derek showed up at 12:30 and I jumped in the shower while he ate and washed dishes and cleaned off the counters. We were done by 1:30 or so, and I couldn’t take any chances with Jonathan messing up the newly pristine house, so I loaded him up and drove away.

Two blocks down, at the Honey Rock Baptist Church, were four police cars and tons of people milling around. Normally this would be cause for excitement, and I would call my neighbor Bryan to gossip about it, but today I was thinking, really?, knowing the prospective buyers would drive by and think we lived in some ghetto. Gah.

We returned home at 3:15 with groceries, and I realized right away no one had been near the place. I unloaded everything and got Jonathan ready for his nap, when a BMW pulled up: the real estate agent and two women, running late. I told them to come on in, but I had to get my groceries put away. Nice first showing. I know I’m supposed to stay out of it, but I wanted to follow them around and sell them on the house. Mostly because I really, really love it and have mixed emotions about leaving.

We have another showing tomorrow afternoon. Our agent is pleased with the activity. We are, too, although I told the kids it’s going to be like this for awhile, with me saying, “DON’T MESS THAT UP! DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING! PRETEND YOU LIVE IN A MUSEUM!” for the next however-long it takes to sell.

Maybe this is God’s way of weaning me away from this place. I have loved this house from the very beginning, and this process of letting it go is so very hard. I literally wake up every day and thank God for our house. I love my office; it’s an inspiring space with two bright windows, a far cry from our ugly white-walled shared office in our townhouse in Fort Wayne. The kitchen has gorgeous year-round views of Sharp’s Ridge, the highest point in Knoxville. Our tiger oak wood floors have such interesting stripes. I like to imagine what the people who lived in this place a hundred years ago were like, and how some of the gouges and scratches in the floor came to be. It’s not a simple house, but the best places…and people…rarely are.

But these showings just might kill me. They might lead me to a point where I am glad to be gone, because who can be so pristine and perfect forever and ever? With three small children?

For those who love real estate, here are the photos. Bear in mind the photographer used his wide-angle lens, so everything is weirdly distorted. (Why, since he was messing around with reality, couldn’t he Photoshop in the leaves to our beautiful oak trees?) It’s also weirdly clutter-free, and I’m alarmed at just how badly the deck needs to be stripped and refinished. It’s a lesson in entropy.

 

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January 21st, 2012
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On the (figurative) nightstand, January edition

Here’s my book pile this month. I started with 48 Days to the Work You Love. The career coach who wrote it is a friend of Dave Ramsey’s, and since I was at loose ends after learning law school wasn’t in my immediate future, I ordered this for inspiration.

Don’t laugh. As I told Derek, at least I’m doing something instead of moping around.

The irony is, after filling out all the questions and charting my goals and all that career book jazz, I came full circle. Apparently, I am meant to be a writer.

My dad talked me into ordering The Elements of Typographic Style. Now I can be as snobby as he is. (Kidding, dad.)

Ignore Everybody is a gem of a book that I like to page through when I need to get my creative engine running again. A lot of the points are “duh,” but they bear reminding, and the author is sarcastically funny.

Did you notice the two versions of The Age of Innocence in the photo? The paperback is real. The hardcover is my Christmas gift from my sister Trina:

Pretty cool, isn’t it? I love it. When she asked awhile ago about my favorite classic book, I had a hard time choosing just one. But this one is up there, and after I got her gift I decided I might as well re-read it.

And finally, that cute little boy in the corner of the books photo? Yeah, he’s mine, too. But he stays behind the gate because his favorite thing to do in my office is mix my files together.

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January 19th, 2012
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Unmuzzled

Last night I read over Derek’s letter to the congregation asking for peaceful release to Praise Lutheran. It was long. He said it was long, and I began to read, determined to slash away and cut down to the basics.

Instead, I cried. And then, I cried again today when he read it to the congregation. A lot of them cried, too. It was a hard day. The part that got me sniffling last night:

I promise you, that we will not be strangers. Indeed, six years ago, we were strangers and you welcomed us. Now I reflect that, even though you can remove a man and his family from First Lutheran, however, you cannot remove First Lutheran from the man and his family. Thanks for that gift.

It’s true. First Lutheran was a bright beacon to us six years ago after Derek’s first call fell through because of synodical politics, leaving us devastated and in limbo for six months. We came to Knoxville with high hopes and were not disappointed. First Lutheran is an amazing congregation. We have been so blessed here. I am incredibly sad to leave.

But at least now I can talk about it. That in itself is a relief.

Part of me is really, really excited. Once my dad moved us to St. Louis so he could attend seminary, he unleashed a monster. We moved so many times after that, if a few years went by without a move or a major life change, I had to create my own change. So that part of me that’s always asking, “What’s next?” embraces the adventure. A new house! A new congregation! A new life! A chance to recreate and renew things I’ve always wanted to fix, and use my new mad skilz as a pastor’s wife on a whole new set of victims. And I look forward to seeing Derek grow and change and serve in a new chapter in his ministry.

That said, I’d also finally gotten to the point where I saw the good in longevity, in stability, in the same-old and the routine of a life with the same people through the seasons and the years and all the comfort that entails. It took about four years at First Lutheran to realize, hey, I’m really getting to know these people. I’m making friends! I know all the best places to shop! My baby trees are teenagers! I know how we run the children’s Christmas program and VBS and what we did the last five years in January in LWML!

Beyond my oscillating feelings, there are practical considerations. We have been busy making our house pretty to go on the market…just in case. Derek wanted to wait until he had made a firm decision and everything was official, but I did all the backwards math and with school starting August 1 in Maryville, the clock was ticking on selling our house and buying a new one. His thoughts are with the two congregations, but I have additional concerns: making the transition as easy as possible for my girls. They are nervous, reluctant, and excited, depending on the moment. I convinced Derek that if he decided to stay, we’d have a lovely house that finally looks just the way we want it to. I also discovered that painting is therapeutic.

Though the timing in some ways isn’t perfect for First Lutheran, it is good for our family. Sophia will be starting Kindergarten next year. Kate will begin 4th grade, when all the Maryville kids go to an intermediate school. One of the two is brand spankin’ new, so depending on where we buy a house, she might get to go to that school. Either way, all the kids will be “new kids.”

Jonathan, of course, is happy either way. His family is his home.

Kate asked me last night if Maryville was closer or further away from South Dakota, where their grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins live. I said, “It’s further away, but only by 20 minutes.” She sighed heavily. “That’s so far.” I laughed at her, but she’s got a point. Twenty minutes is so far.

 

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January 15th, 2012
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Silence and resolutions

Reasons I am not blogging regularly:

  1. I am still tied up with that Big Copywriting Project. It’s expanded several times, which is a fabulous thing, but in addition to the BCP, I’ve got a regular full workload. That never happens in January. Usually my December is busy, and January is deathly silent, and I spend the month cleaning my office and dreaming up what I’m going to do for the year. Not this month. The kids just went back to a regular schedule and I’m still scrambling to catch up.
  2. Frankly, all I want to do is talk about whether or not we’ll be moving to Maryville, and Derek has forbidden me from doing so. I’ve had several conversations in the past few weeks that seemed innocuous, only to have the person in question report to Derek that he or she “has a feeling” about whether we’re staying or going. When I protest my innocence, he’s skeptical.
  3. But, seriously on that score, he will be announcing his decision soon. This limbo stuff is no picnic. No matter what we do, I just want to know.
  4. I am planning our school’s big open house. We hold 2-3 a year, but this is the big one where we invite current families and new visitors. There’s lots of energy and action, and it’s usually fruitful. We’ve been blessed to keep our doors open and maintain a steady enrollment, which is more than many Lutheran schools can say (a big topic of conversation at CPH at my board meetings, as school curriculum is part of the offerings).
  5. I recently became addicted to Downton Abbey  (thanks, Sarah!) and was obsessed with catching up on the first season before the second one began yesterday.

So, I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions, but I love doing my yearly business plan. I put in business goals, creative goals, short and long-term goals, and all the markets I want to crack that year. And I use it. I print it out and keep it on my desk, and I look at it at least once a week, and update whenever I feel like it. It’s a living document, flexible and real and useful.

Someone suggested I add a personal section and put in my goals for my family. I can see it now: Teach Kate multiplication tables. Get her to turn her dirty clothes right-side out. Cure Sophia of potty talk. (Side note: tonight we were reading Polite as a Princess, and the book says, “Are you as polite as a princess?” and Sophia says, “I’m definitely not at school.” Oh, dear.) Make Jonathan use his words instead of grunt and scream for what he wants.

Thing is, the kids’ wants and needs, and the habits that drive me crazy, are always shifting. Which is a good thing. With one kid, I’d tear my hair out over every stage. With three, I say, “This won’t last long.” And it doesn’t.

I guess I like to embrace discontent in my work because it makes me strive for something better. But in my home life, in my marriage and with my kids, I’d rather focus on their good traits than not.

And dang it if they aren’t adorable, anyway.

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January 9th, 2012
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Pipe dreams

Is it totally inappropriate for a woman to smoke a pipe?

Okay, okay. Just askin’. I already know the answer. And, for the record, I’ve never actually smoked a pipe…or a bowl of any kind, for that matter.

My Grandpa Ludwig used to smoke a pipe. Just a whiff of pipe smoke takes me back to that old house in Ontario, Oregon, where my grandpa sat in his easy chair, smoking silently, the grandkids swirling around in play.

We were on the lake with some friends this summer, and Steve pulled out a pipe and let Derek try it out. I was entranced by the smell. These Lutheran guys think they need to sit around drinking Scotch and smoking cigars, but I call for a revolution: pipes and…what? Brandy? Port? Claret, as the English would say? Craft beer? I don’t know, but I’d like to find out.

C.S. Lewis smoking his pipe

 

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January 4th, 2012
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