Adventures in Childhood Part 2

Since Bob was going to have to stay in France for Christmas, my parents decided to come out to visit.  They ended up coming up the Tuesday before Christmas, late, it was actually Wednesday before we got back to the house from the airport.  And they just left on Thursday morning.  Yeah going from living alone to having two additional people in my house, and parents at that, for over two weeks was a little rough, but actually things went better than I expected.

Other than worship, we had a few adventures in the area, mainly in New York.

My parents at Rockefeller Center

The Wednesday after Christmas we went to Manhattan and walked around.  We started at Grand Central, went up to Rockefeller Center, hit the northern end of Times Square (God I hate that place), walked through Columbus Circle and explored Lincoln Center a bit.  We then took the subway up a few stops, walked across the park.  We had hoped to get into the Guggenheim but the line was around the block so we went to the Met instead. There we mainly explored the American Wing and then I showed my parents the Ancient Near East stuff so they can see what Bob studies.  We also stopped by Macy's to see the windows before we took the train back home.
We spent two days exploring some of the towns around the Hudson - New Paltz, Tarryville, and a few others that I can't remember the name of.

Mainly we just took time relaxing and shopping and enjoying each others company - well when I wasn't kicking them out of the house to do something or hiding at the church getting work done. So maybe I am growing up a little.

Adventures in Childhood

This past week my parents have been in town visiting and it has been a BUSY week of playing tourist.

They came into town last Thursday and we spent sometime in New Canaan and Darien going around to various shops.  Friday Bob and I took them to Mystic Seaport to explore the 19th century seaport village and we learned about boat making, the American naval history and tattoos (odd combination I know but one of the exhibits was about navy tattoos).

Saturday was a work day for Bob and I as he had to get stuff done for the homeless shelter and I had to prepare for Sunday.  But my dad kept himself busy by making 72 or so cinnamon rolls for Bethlehem to sell the next day at Georgetown Day.

After a FANTASTIC Pentecost worship service on Sunday morning which included the baptisms of two of our elementary age kids, most of the people of Bethlehem (including myself and my parents) spent all or at least part of the day at at Georgetown Day, the local neighborhood festival that grows each year.  This was my 3rd year participating and I enjoy it more and more each year.  Bethlehem has a bakesale booth with various bread, desserts and drinks for sale with the money going to Connecticut Food Bank.  I got to spend the day talking to folks, going around to the other booths and even danced a little with Bob to some of the great bands.

Monday was another workday for me, but I sent my parents off with the car and they pretty much ended up at the mall.  Oh well.

Tuesday we went to the Harriet Beecher Stowe House and the Mark Twain House both in Hartford, actually right next to each other as they were neighbors.  One of the good things about having family visit is the visit become a catalyst to go see some tourist things that you haven't seen yet and these two places were on that list.

Wednesday was back to Mystic Seaport, as we didn't get to see everything in one day, but we were only there in the morning.  The afternoon we spent at the shops at Olde Mystic Village and the evening we spent checking out all three locations of the Book Barn in Niantic.  Seriously if you haven't been here and you live anywhere near Connecticut you need to check this place out.  It is a used book store that is so large it has three locations but the original location is on a converted barn with plenty of cats wandering about, some goats to pet and various sheds that house books based on genre.  It is a book lovers dream.

Thursday Bob was able to take the day off and the four of us traveled to another place Bob and I have been meaning to get to and just haven't yet, Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge Mass.  I think we all like this place more than Mystic mainly because the staff dress in period costumes for the 1830's and work as farmers, blacksmiths, mill operators, etc and they are extremely knowledgeable and will answer questions about their craft and the time period.  I even learned how to tell if an egg is good by placing it in water. But caution, when we got there, a bunch of field trip groups were around and it was mass chaos. And as my Facebook status says from that day "Being somewhere with a bunch of 4th graders on a field trip = birth control."

Friday was Bob's and my 5th wedding anniversary.  We had a quiet morning and Bob gave me a wonderful gift of a little booklet of 5 love songs or poems that he translated from Akkadian with a little note about why he picked that poem for me.  He puts my gift of a little wall hanging cross to shame.

The afternoon we went to Barker's Comic and Collectible Museum, a place Bob and I went shortly after we first moved to Connecticut and have been meaning to get to with my parents in their two previous trips to CT and haven't been able to.  The place is crazy packed with a massive collections of lunch boxes, dolls, figurines, and just about anything else based on a cartoon or comic strip, plus more.

We then had dinner at Miya Sushi in New Haven.  That place was SOOOOOO good!  They have the largest selection of vegetarian sushi on the east coast and I FINALLY got to have vegetarian sushi that was more than a cucumber roll.  Bob and I split an appetizer of a steamed artichoke with an avocado sauce, and three rolls, one of which was called the Land of Milk and Honey and had dates, figs, brie, goat cheese, and cinnamon.

Today is another work day as I have been getting stuff done for tomorrow and catching up on work stuff that I have pushed off from earlier in this week.  And Bob is writing his newsletter.  Meanwhile my parents went to the Railway Museum in Danbury.

My parents leave on Tuesday morning, so I'm sure I'll have a few more adventures with them between now and then, but for now a time to rest.

A Day in Rhode Island

This past Saturday I woke up WWWWAAAAAAAYYYYY too early for a Saturday, 5:45am to be exact.  Faith, the pastor of the local Covenant church, invited me to join her for a worship conference that a Covenant Church in Rhode Island was hosting.  Fortunately, Faith's husband Dan, who was also attending the conference, has his pilot's license and had his plane in Danbury.  So instead of having to leave at 5am we were able to leave a bit later and fly up.

The flight was gorgeous!  The sun was barely up when we left, there were a few clouds and the amount of trees in Connecticut was astounding.  It was amazing looking down from the sky at this fairly populated area, in many ways you would never know how many people lived there.  

The conference was on worship, especially using blended worship techniques and the arts and it consisted of three workshop sessions and an opening and closing worship.  I normally do not get to worship in a "contemporary" manner, and I enjoyed singing along with a band and learning new songs.  But the worships were blended, we sang Blessed Assurance to guitar, some songs were played on piano, they were wonderful worship services.

The Covenant church is much more based in scripture and word and less sacrament than the Lutheran Church (which I find interesting because most Lutheran churches read more scripture during worship than the average Covenant congregation, but basically the sermons are longer and communion not as frequent).  So there is a larger emphasis on music with multiple songs/hymns being played in a row with maybe a verse of the psalms being disbursed between songs.  

The three workshops I attended were on worship leadership, blended worship and the arts in worship.  I feel like the first two workshops just started the conversation for me in many ways.  I have been a worship leader for years now and have gone through worship wars, but one of the presenters put this conversation in a new light for me.  He basically said that worship is about finding ways to speak God's word to as many people as possible, and when you visit a 90 year old in the hospital you will bring with you a different set of prayers and music to comfort her than if you were visiting a 16 year old.  In worship, we need to find ways to help the 90 year old and the 16 year old better understand and speak to God.  

The last workshop on the arts was very inspirational about how to use art in worship to set the theme for worship.  It also made me realize that things that Bethlehem does, from decorating for Christmas and Easter to the origami doves on Pentecost is art and not just crafts and decorations.  I already have ideas about what to do for some festivals coming up this fall and winter.  

But my day in Rhode Island did not end there.  At the end of the conference, Bob met me at the church and we went to Newport for Newport Winefest.  Bob had won tickets when he entered a contest (though he didn't realize that he entered) by registering for The Day a newspaper in New London.  Unfortunately the tickets were for a Saturday night and I'm a little busy on Sunday mornings, so we were not able to enjoy everything at Winefest.  But we did enjoy some of the many wine, beer, liqueur, cheese, hummus, chips and other samples that were offered.  We also enjoyed walking around Newport for awhile before we drove home.  On our previous trip to Newport we spent more time near the big houses and not much in the more commercial area where Winefest was at.  

All in all, it was a very wonderful day in Rhode Island, but it was also and extremely LONG day.  I think I'm still recovering from the lack of sleep.  

Birthday Weekend

This last weekend was my birthday.  Bob and I spent most of the long weekend celebrating (though I did work on my actual birthday on Sunday). 

Friday, I ended up working a bit since last week I was gone a lot.  That afternoon we ran some errands and then had dinner and a Dr. Who marathon with some friends.

Saturday we went to Gillette Castle with the dogs. On the way there we drove through Chester which was having a town-wide tag sale.  So we stopped and walked around and had lunch.  After a few other stops at various small stores we made it to the castle. 

I could not get over the view. 

Other than a few mishaps at the beginning of the trip, the dogs did very well in the car. 

Sunday was worship, lunch with one of the church family's and then sitting outside reading and enjoying the beautiful weather.

Monday we went to the Memorial Day parade in Wilton which is the quintessential small town parade. I think just about every kid in town marched with one group or another.  We also took down one of the bushes next to the house. 

Sorry this is only the before shot.  The tall bush is gone using the pruner and saw that Bob got me for my birthday.  Yes I am that weird that I wanted tools for my birthday.  Now only 25 more bushes to go (but those will wait till fall). 

Monday afternoon/evening we went to a friend's house for a graduation/memorial day celebration.

Overall it was a wonderful relaxing weekend.  Now onto my next adventure: synod assembly.