Refuge

For me, going to my parents house is a refuge.

Until we play euchre. Then it's more like a stronghold.

Going back home to our house is also a refuge.

Our church is another place of refuge.

Campgrounds are always a place of refuge. The only exception is the one down in southern Indiana that used to be part of a mental facility. The large living quarters were still there and it was creepy. That place was not a refuge for me.

Where do you find refuge?

Mercy

One of my favorite verses is from Micah 6:8

"He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God."
                       -New International Version (NIV)

I had to search different versions to find the one that uses the word mercy instead of kindness. Obviously either word will do but for today mercy is what I'm writing about.

I first remember hearing this verse when we lived in New Jersey. Pastor Greg preached on the verse. Then, I heard it again here in Grand Rapids when Pastor Jennie preached on it.

Pair this with what Jesus said is the greatest commandment and I bet things would be different. People would be different.

This goes right along with the book study I've been participating in, "Whose Gospel?" by Dr. James Forbes. I wrote about his visit and his visionary, or progressive, teachings.

This last Sunday we were challenged by Pastor Bob to reach outside our comfort zone. When we are comfortable we are not changing. When we're not changing things aren't getting worse, but neither are they getting better.

It's uncomfortable to ask someone what's their name. It's uncomfortable to offer someone your umbrella when it's pouring down rain. It's uncomfortable to invite someone to church. It's uncomfortable to sit next to someone you don't know.

And we've gotten use to being comfortable.

We show kindness, or mercy, to those around us when we treat them as we would want to be treated. Do you want to be ignored? No, I hope not. Don't you want to know that person's story? Even if they talk your ear off, maybe they just needed someone to listen. Or maybe they talk everyone's ear off; show them mercy and listen.

We are too ego-centric. We are too self-centered. We care about ourselves and our comfort too much.

This verse reminds me right at the beginning my flaw. "O mortal", it says. Oh, right, I'm reminded of my limited time on earth. I start to ask; what matters here, the sweater I'm wearing? How many pairs of pants I have hanging in my closet?

Or does the "pay-it-forward" mentality mean more? Sharing with someone in need, not want. Cooking a meal out of love? The immortal and intangible things we share matter more then the materialistic and consumeristic things that just take up space.

We are call to show mercy to others and show mercy to our planet.

Sabbath

People who work in a church are terrible at taking a Sabbath. I have spoken to Sami (my boss and the young adult leader with whom I have gone on many a mission trip) about this fact. I have also asked her to define sabbath for someone who works in a church.

When I talked to her about personal sabbath days, I was struggling to understand what I should or shouldn't do. The way she explained it to me is that her sabbath means taking a day to do something intentional for herself. That may mean spending it with her kids and going to Zumba.

I was struggling with housework, laundry, paying bills, working in the garden (I don't remember when the conversation took place, but clearly it was not in the winter time), etc., and this was before my job at Baker!

I still haven't been religious about taking a sabbath, but Saturdays have always been a day when I try to do something for myself. Which I came to accept that might mean doing laundry, paying bills, shoveling/gardening, etc. I intentionally try not to check my email. Sometimes I fail at ignoring my email, mostly because I neglect my email the rest of the week.

What I really need is a sabbatical from my email. But what I've actually done is unsubscribed from many emails lists. That has helped.

Taking a sabbath day has not become a discipline for me. I am still working at it. I think my fault lies in that I was a volunteer first, and I still consider it fun. For instance, last night we combined Apples to Apples Bible Edition with Apples to Apples Jewish Edition. The hilarity that ensued was side-splitting. Laughter is good for the soul on a sabbath day or any day.

Remember

A week ago, it was Ash Wednesday. It's important to remember the symbolism of that during this Lenten journey.

I am participating in a book study during Lent as well. It's called, "Whose Gospel?" (Did I mention that already? I can't remember.) Tonight, we were reminded of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral which is made up of Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and Experience. These four things are important to remember, not only in the United Methodist Church, I believe, but in any faith.

We are not a stagnant piece of this earth. We are living, breathing, changing humans and we are fortunate to be able to think, reason and move. It's whether we move forward or backward that makes a difference. It's important to look at our past and remember. Remember the mistakes we have made, the mistakes made by others, and the lessons learned. It's important to learn from each other. I don't have to agree with what you say, or think, or believe, but I will learn something by listening to you. I believe we can agree to disagree and still love each other.

It's all about remembering that call Jesus gave.

Okay, so I went to look up that verse on BibleGateway.com and lo and behold, it's their verse of the day! So here you go:

Jesus answered him, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and most important commandment. The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’
Matthew 22:37-39 GW

My Gardener's tan

I am ready to go to bed. I worked hard today.

I am not working for Heather this week. I am working for a church friend.

She has two flower beds that had become overgrown with grass. Her teenage son tilled up one of the gardens. However, when I arrived this morning, the prepared bed was sleeping under a blanket of blue tarp and roof shingles.

She's having another church member re-roof her house.

These are all great things, and I want to make sure this doesn't sound like I'm complaining.

The other garden needed to be prepared so to do that I used a shovel and started cutting lines and removing sections the reverse of how sod it laid. I got about half of it done. Then I went and bought plants, garden soil, and a few other items.

I'll be going back to continue working on the flower beds tomorrow.

I'm taking pictures. I want to wait to share them when it's all finished.

Needless to say all this work outside is giving me quite the unusual gardner's tan. I wear a hat, so my face isn't getting burnt. But the back of my neck has missed some sunscreen applications. My arms are gloriously tan between my t-shirt sleeve line mid-way down my upper arm and my gardening glove line at m wrists. My legs are almost completely white because I wear long pants. And then, because I've worn a few v-neck t-shirts, I have a crazy v-shaped tan that fades into white. I'm definitely not taking a picture of my tan. The sun has been lovely and I'm thankful for it.

a retreat for confirmation

I am headed off for a retreat with the Jr. High. It's the last one for the Confirmation year.

It has been a good year. Our curriculum has made it oh so easy.

I'm not even stressed about the retreat. I have cut out stoles for each person to paint. I have a couple of lists of things I need to gather, but all of those items are in my closet in the church. I have snacks ready to put in the car. Really, all I have to do is load up the car.

I don't think I'll blog while I'm at the camp where we'll be staying. First, we're on Lake Michigan, the same place the Women at First had their retreat back in March.

I hope the ice and snow has melted. If not, I'll take pictures! Because we'll be so close to the lake, the chance of having service is minimal. Plus, I won't have internet access.

And I'll also be busy trying to keep ten Jr. High students from doing what Jr. High students do.

Annoy the other leaders.

Just kidding.

They like to annoy each other.

Except they really don't. I've bragged before about how amazing this group of students has been. They continue to amaze me. We helped with the Second Best Sale intake last Sunday and those students worked.

We'll be making Mother's day gifts next week. And then we're done! It's the end-of-the-year party on the 18th. Except Confirmation continues until June 8th, Confirmation Sunday which also happens to be Pentecost.

Today I'm thankful for the authors of the curriculum. They made it so easy.

I could have been...

Today was a rough day at work. The internet wasn't playing nice which meant I couldn't connect to the printer. Eventually, through a convoluted solution, I was able to print.

Then I called and whined to our IT guy (ha! I just realized he's our "it" guy), who came in on his day off and the minute he walked into the building everything worked like normal. He went home and approximately thirty seconds after he left, my internet went out again.

There's not a lot I can do without internet or printing capability.

Then I came home and read a post on Facebook. It's about having a bad day at work, purchasing a rectal thermometer (made by Johnson & Johnson), taking it home, reading the instructions which (apparently) state that every thermometer is tested before being sanitized and packaged. The gist is that at least I don't work for J&J. Har har. It made me laugh and whether true or not, at least I don't test rectal thermometers.

For that, I am thankful!

hungry for more

Two weeks ago, I had a mission week with my Jr. High youth. We "gave back" to our community. It was a lot of fun and a lot of good work. There were ten students total and four volunteers (plus myself) who helped out throughout the week

Monday
We worked with Spark Foundation. We bought school supplies and assembled ten kits to send to the Mzesa school in Africa. We also learned how to make friendship bracelets by finger weaving (a style of friendship bracelet I learned to make back in my days as a counselor at UM camps in southern Indiana). We kept making bracelets all week long. By the end of our week (Thursday was our last day), we had made seventy-nine!

Tuesday
We volunteered at Westminster Food Pantry. Our church collects items year-round to donate to this particular food pantry. They are just a block away (however, it was over the construction and around the block to reach them). They serve the immediate downtown area and are only open a couple days a week. A person will walk in, hand over their id (proof of their address, if they live outside the area that Westminster serves, they are told where they can find their local pantry, but are likely given food that day), be entered into a computer database (part of the funding grants provide is collected from this database), wait to be called over for an "interview" (the interview is where they pick several items from different columns on a marker board), the list is given to the kitchen volunteers, the kitchen volunteers pack bags full of the grocery/toiletries as selected in the interview, and then the person is called up to a table to receive their "groceries".

It's a lot faster and easier than all of that.

The ten students chose which area they wanted to volunteer and took their station. We had a very busy morning. I don't know how many people came through, but it had to have been close to fifty.

The people who visit the food pantry are only allowed to come in once a month. They also receive an extra item if they bring in their own bags. That got a little confusing back in the kitchen. The sheet with their chosen items would also tell what type of bag they brought. Except that the descriptions were a little vague at first. "Black bag" belonged to several different owners at one point. Once we started to clarify details on the bags (black with blue handles, black with "Spartan") it went faster and easier.

Each student had the opportunity to switch spots. I'm very proud of them for trying things that were out of their comfort zone and never once complaining about any of the tasks.

Wednesday
We volunteered with Kids Food Basket. In the morning, we met for a "poverty simulation". We split up into three groups and were given actual scenarios and had to budget accordingly. The coordinator from KFB, Catrina, was thoroughly impressed with the youth. She told them that their questions were better than any high school groups she had. She was also very impressed with how well they thought outside the box.

Again, no one got frustrated, even after "reality checks" were thrown at us (not literally, although that could make the simulation more stimulating).

Thursday
We went with the Arts Alive Camp to Howell Nature Center. We took a tour of the Global Village. We did a low ropes course and we saw the wild/native animals that HNC cares for.

The goat
We also helped keep track of money raised to buy a goat during the Arts Alive Camp (our church's version of VBS, except completely different). On Monday, one of my students drew a goat on a poster board. To keep track of dollar amounts, she added flowers. Each flower represented $10. The first day they had collected $20. The pastor challenged the Arts Alive campers. If they collected the $120 to buy a goat, he would match it and donate the money for a second goat!

On Tuesday, it was announced that an anonymous donor said if the kids collected $120 and the pastor donated $120, that another $120 would be given for a third goat.

Guess what happened on Wednesday?

Another donor stepped up. If these kids collected $120, Heifer International was going to get four goats.

Back to Tuesday. After we finished working at Westminster, Dairy Queen was on our minds. I called the church to let the director know that we wouldn't be back in time to announce how much money had been collected that morning ($90). The director had been given more money throughout the day and, once we did the quick math, we realized we had reached our $120! But since the Jr. High group wouldn't be there to announce it, we would just save it for Wednesday afternoon.

Why not see how much we could collect on Wednesday morning?

We collected another $120 is what we collected.

We didn't just get one goat, or two goats, or even four goats. We had enough money for FIVE goats.

I'm sure after it was announced that Sunday in church that more money came in. I haven't heard though. I also know the director was thinking that maybe instead of goats we could buy a cow or some chickens. (I think the goat is the cheapest "gift" animal through Heifer International, but I'm not sure. You can look it up!)

I don't know what happened in church on Sunday, because at 5:45am Friday morning, Bill and I were flying to Savannah for a wedding.

The wedding of the young woman who was a flower girl in our wedding.

WAAAA!!

She should not be allowed to get married.

Except it's too late and she is. He is a very nice young man and I think they are perfect together. We wish them both many years of happiness and love.

While in Savannah, I had started reading, "The Hunger Games". Finally. Skylar had sold me on reading them and then let me borrow them. I took the first one... Once I started, I didn't want to stop. I finished it before we made it home Sunday night. Then I devoured (pun intended) the second one in two days. I only stopped to eat, sleep and work. I finished the third one over this last weekend.

I realized I could write this post and double the meaning of the title. And also explain where I've been and why I haven't blogged.

We also finished the hallway. But that has nothing to do with being hungry or reading books. So I'll post pictures and tell that story later...

our world was a flood

I don't expect most of you to know that is a modified line from a Jars of Clay song. But now you do. See? You learn something new everyday!

Back to the flood.

On Monday, I was at First Place, our church's administrative building. We have our offices on the second floor. The first floor is The Vine, where the Jr. and Sr. High meet. There is a game room (where the youth choir practices), a kitchen, a cafe room and restrooms.

The third floor is made up of a couple Sunday school/meeting rooms, JfON (Justice for Our Neighbors), part of Lutheran Social Services Ministry (LSSM) offices, and another non-profit whose name is escaping me at the moment.

The fourth floor is exclusively rented out by LSSM.

This will be important in a few minutes.

As I said, on Monday, I was working. We had a staff lunch. Then, the Coordinating team had their regular meeting. It was getting close to three o'clock and the sky was getting dark. I had finished up my work and had stopped to chat with Sharon, our treasurer. A few minutes into our chat and the skies opened up.

At one point, it looked like a hurricane. The rain was coming down so hard and the wind was blowing so hard, that you couldn't see the cars in the parking lot from her window (which you can usually see our parking lot, the neighboring parking lot as well as the park a few streets away). She had to go pick up her granddaughter at the bus stop and couldn't wait any longer.

I decided to give it a few minutes and went to make a pit stop before heading out.

I walked into the women's restroom to see water streaming out from under the janitor's closet, which is accessible through the women's restroom. I walked back into the office and said to no one (they were all in a meeting upstairs on the third floor) there's water in the bathroom.

Fortunately, there was a receptionist and Liz (who works for JfON) was making copies. Liz followed me back into the restroom at which point the water was flowing out from under the restroom door. No need to open it, it was clear we had an issue.

Liz asked, where's Emil (our facilities manager)? He's upstairs, I'll go get him, I said. I ran up, busted into the room where the entire office staff were meeting and said, we have water. Everyone looked at Emil. He stood up and asked where? I told him in the women's bathroom. He followed me out of the room and checked the restrooms on that floor.

I said, no it's downstairs.

By the time we got down there the water had reached halfway across the office and was an inch deep. Emil gave me the keys to his car and told me to go get the water barrier things in his trunk.

I ran outside. I took two steps before I realized my sandals were pointless. I pulled them off and grabbed the water things out of his car. I took them back inside, but couldn't find Emil.

After a few minutes of running around, I finally found him. By this point, everyone from the meeting was back in the office and they were picking up everything from the floor and unplugging everything. Somebody asked what needed to be done and Emil said go down to The Vine.

I went down there and, I think, Tish and Laure were the ones who had asked what to do so they followed me.

Water was pouring in from the ceiling. Sami was down there, unplugging and moving all the electronics. The game room, with the most electronics, was getting the worst of it.

Eventually we got everything unplugged and moved. We went back upstairs. By then Emil had shut off the main water. Water was everywhere. The decision was made to evacuate the building, because the lights were still on.

We spread the word, and I decided it was time to go home because I still had to pee. I picked up my shoes and grabbed my bags.

Apparently a pipe burst. I'm not saying I saved the building, but if it hadn't been for me, the water wouldn't have been discovered until it reached the copy room where Liz was.

It was the First Place flood of epic proportions.

connected

It's taken me awhile but I'm finally starting to make the family connections at our church.

It seems that everyone is related to someone else.

A lot like my high school. My best friend Alisha was related to almost every person in school. Most were distant relatives, family is family.

The same goes with our church. I've known a couple of family relations; some were obvious, such as youth with siblings. Then I learned that some of them were cousins.

I discovered two new relations today and they may be connected.

It's very interesting. You can ask some of the long-time members and they'll just shake their heads. If you ask about specific families, they will tell you. Otherwise you are left to figure it out on your own.

Which takes a few years.

I can't even keep up with my own family...

breakfast, lunch... dinner?

My Sundays are off.

We used to come home from the early service and Bill would make Big Sunday Breakfast. It was divine and would keep me full until popcorn after youth group.

Things are different now.

That doesn't mean bad, I'm just still trying to adjust.

Bill made Big Saturday Breakfast yesterday. It was just as good and I'm happy that we are still able to enjoy it.

This morning I had my normal bowl of cereal.

Cereal tangent: I've created what I think is quite possibly my new favorite breakfast cereal combo ever. I have no other combo to compare it to but I really enjoy this one. 1/2  cup of Multi-Grain Cheerios mixed with 1/4 cup Peanut Butter Cheerios. It's just the right balance of healthy and tasty -at least I think so.

After church today, we had a picnic to kick off our Lot Party. Pulled white meat (I thought it was supposed to be pork but someone else thought it was chicken), chips, baked beans, carrot sticks and celery, watermelon and a chocolate chip cookie.

We don't have youth group tonight. I will likely still make popcorn but I'm hungry now. Do I eat dinner to? I don't know what to do. How do I adjust? Maybe I'll just go have my yogurt and granola to tide me over until popcorn.

I feel like I'm in bizarro-land.

I like to draw using chalk...

Here is the chalking I did yesterday. I don't want to say I "graffiti-ed" the church because I had permission. But that's basically what I did.

Working on coloring in the letters, I had to make them big enough for cars passing by to see.

My blue hand.

Behind me (not pictured) is all the information on the Lot Party. I hope this advertising works!

part of Art Prize 2012

Our church has these beautiful banners hanging in the proscenium (yes, that's a Bill word).

There is one on each side, they are identical. They are three-dimensional or maybe just layered.

These, which are difficult to see between the stained glass windows, are throughout the sanctuary on the pillars.

You might not be able to tell what kind of material they are made from.

I'll tell you.

Are you ready?

Paper.

They are part of an Art Prize entry. I think they are just stunning. Especially in our Sanctuary.

I told my mom about them and told her I would post the pictures so she could see them.

scratches, sunburns & spiritual satisfaction

Actually the weekend did not occur in that order.

It was spiritual satisfaction, sunburn and then the scratch. And more spiritual satisfaction thrown in here and there.

I was planning on the spiritual satisfaction.

Yesterday was a gorgeous day and ended up being warmer than I thought it was going to be. I went down to the beach. I took a nice long walk with Katrina and Brent. And somewhere along the way I got the sunburn.

The scratch is a mystery. I discovered it today, after we got home and unpacked. I was finally getting around to cleaning up. Huh, where did that come from? It could have happened at camp. It could have happened while we were packing up the car. It could have happened while we were unloading the car. It could have happened when I picked up Juliette to give her some love.

The three things sum up the weekend nicely. It was a nice time, despite my lack of sleep (it was cold at night, I'm not being a wuss, think mid-40's). It's now time for me to head off to lead the last Girls' Summer Bible study. Ice cream will be involved.

It's time to go camping!!

This will be our home for the next two nights.
Rain or shine. Cold or colder.

We are going camping. I wrote this before we left. It will be nice to "unplug" for awhile.

We're going with our church again. I'll have to write more about it when we get back. We know what to expect because we went last year. But there are twice (maybe even three) times as many people going this year! That is exciting. The unfortunate side is the weather. It's only supposed to be in the low 60's on Saturday. That is NOT good beach weather.

out of the ashes...

 As Bill stated, as we walked away, a church is just a building. Thank God no one was hurt.

But it's still devastating to see a church burned.

This is St. Mary Magdalen, the church Bill grew up in.

At 1am, the firemen responded to the call.

It was a very serious fire.

 Not much remains except for the steal beams and the exterior brick.

The interior is gone.

Nothing but charred wood and ash.

People were milling about in a dazed state.

 There is no determination to the cause of fire yet.

It was a calm scene by the time we arrived at 11am.

The smell lingered.

Only two firetrucks remained.

I heard someone say it was still smoking, but I did not see any smoke.

We walked around the building, as much as we could.

Even though it was not my church, it still saddened me.

There is something about seeing the destruction of this magnitude...

I won't even pretend to know what the people in Colorado are going through.

 This lily was close to the building. Yet it remained unharmed from the fire. 

A strong symbol of faith.

The message board out front of the church said, "Behold! I am with you always."

While we mourn the loss of a building, we must remember the congregation still remains. Out of the ashes will come a new building.

day three: Body

Oddly enough, last year's conference themes were a lot more direct.

Now, I love a good theme, so when last year's were so well done, I expected something this year.

You know, more on the theme.


Sadly, I'm disappointed.


But I can't be for long because our sessions have been short, sweet and to the point. We were finished with all business before lunch today, with the exception of the budget. 


There was some legislation to take care of, and nominations to Jurisdictional Conference and for the Nominating Reports, but other than that; fini, finished, the end.


So where was our body? 


It's in the youth. They asked for 30 minutes and reminded us that they are just not the future, they are the present. They are present and voting.


They are correct.


We were reminded that healthy bodies make for healthy churches and our clergy are encouraged to join the wellness forum as well as attend the clergy school (they have a clever campaign for it; it's actually called "Michigan Area School for Pastoral Ministry").


Okay, that's some discussion on healthy bodies... but it just didn't grab me and hold me tight like last year's themes. 


Oh well. We were finished around 3:30p today. I cannot complain. Conference has been a relatively enjoyable experience this year.


I would like to come up with some deep and theological thoughts on who the body is, but alas, I cannot. My brain is still fried from all the work we have done (I did read ALL the reports, talk about information overload) and let us not forget it is Open House season. My brain is also fried from writing very nice things about each of our graduating seniors and wishing them the best. 


I'm not used to this much work in a day.


But I've still taken care of my body. I've walked no less than two miles every day (it's .75 from my car to the arena and another .35 to the dining room) so I have taken care of my body. That's important. I take care of me, so I can help others.

sugar rush

When you have too much sugar you do silly things. You might giggle, act silly, dance like no one's watching and other things. 

Bill and I had a lot of sugar today. This morning was Teacher Appreciation at church. Since we both help with youth group, we were appreciated with cake, pastries, fruit and other sugary foods. As a result we didn't have Bill's Big Sunday Breakfast. But we did have lunch. 

Bill broke in his new grill with filets and veggies. They were delicious. I can't wait for this summer and more grilling.

Then at youth group, the Sr. High appreciated their seniors and the Jr. High appreciated moms. The Sr. High went to Jersey Junction. The Jr. High decorated (and ate) sugar cookies.

I wish I could describe and show you Bill's "overdose" episode. Thank goodness Chandra and Jason were there to witness it too. There was running (think Phoebe from "Friends"), jumping onto cars (still in the parking lot) and more running. It was definitely a sugar rush. And it was so silly.

since I'm counting...

Yesterday it was a post about babies. I made it clear that it wasn't an announcement from us of any kind. Just an observation. So today I'll talk about another observation I've made recently.

General Conference is currently underway for the United Methodist Church. It is taking place in Tampa, Florida. This is where delegates from all over the world gather and update our Book of Discipline (and something else which has temporarily slipped my mind). The GC occurs every four years. 

There is a lot to be discussed at these conferences, but I'm not going to get into all of that. If you want to read more please check out greg's blog or Laurie's blog (specifically what Laurie wrote on Friday, April 27).


So there are two people who I know personally who are following GC. Laurie is actually there, representing our West Michigan Conference.


I have another friend who's there, Taylor. I have known Taylor since we met at the District Youth events back in, what 1994...? Oh geez, that's almost twenty years. I'm going into denial. I am not that old.


I digress. Taylor is there with her beautiful baby, Evelyn who is around six months old. I don't know if Taylor is a delegate. I do know that she and her father have always been passionately involved in missions around the world, but more specifically Africa. Up until she had Evelyn (a few months before) she was in Africa, preaching and being a missionary. It's probably a lot more technical than that, but I think that's a simple way to explain it. She is an amazing woman and I knew from the moment I met her that she would wind up (in a good way) serving God in this way.


Okay, so that's three people (not counting the baby because I haven't met her and because I don't think she really knows what's going on...) I know who are actively participating and focusing on GC. Add our pastors and that brings us to five. Add in another friend, Adriane, whom I have known for twenty years and that brings us to six.


Those are just the people who I've heard comment directly about GC. This is not including all the other pastors I know who are probably listening and following along. 


If you are at all religious, or a United Methodist, please join our prayers. It is my deepest hope that we can join Christ by learning to love everyone. It's not about who's right or wrong, it's not about changing laws. To me, it is more about opening our hearts, and using our words to be loving, not discriminating. So if not now, I hope and pray that it changes, soon.

"A" is for Apple Pie

It doesn't get more American than that. Unless of course you happen to know that today is official start of Pro Football. And I do.

So I made a couple of apple pies. And I'm watching Green Bay play New Orleans. And I'm okay with that.

I finally used the pie "form" roller thingy (I'm sure that's its official name since I'm all about being official today) from Shannon. I know if she's reading this, she just gasped. I know. I'm sorry. You gave it to me for my birthday. I wanted to wait until something was in season (uh, let's see, I could have made pecan pie...). But summer has come and almost gone and I hadn't used them yet. I thought about making a blueberry pie, but for some reason, never bought enough blueberries (I think it takes something like a gallon of blueberries to make pie). Plus I have my chocolate blueberry cake and the blueberry crumb cake which are divine. Apple pie is my favorite (fruit in a pie, pecan takes the cake, er pie, as my favorite).

Unfortunately the pies aren't for us. Our church hosts a week of Family Promise (formerly known as Interfaith Hospitality), which is housing for those who are in between housing. Bill and I helped with this program in our church in Toms River. Yes, that was five + years ago. I've been making dinners for the program here only for the last year or two. Tomorrow night I'm providing dinner.

The menu:
Sloppy Joes ("sloppy joes, slop, sloppy joes" -that was for you Bill) which I'm famous for in the Jr. High youth group circle
Salad
Macaroni and Cheese
And for dessert: Apple pie a la mode

Yup. I went all out. I'm staying to eat with them, and honestly I'm super excited. I think it's a nice, simple meal. It's not too fancy but it's still comfort food. It's not too heavy for a summer time meal (no really, I'm not in denial, it's still summer, read my blog from Labor Day).

What's your ideal comfort food meal?