Sunshine's the Perfect Cure

A lot of folks I know suffer horribly from the Monday blues. While many of my pastor buddies gleefully welcome Monday as their personal Sabbath time, most of my otherwise-employed friends begin to dread Monday sometime on Sunday morning. Jeannene has been known to begin the vigil Saturday night. However, I think spirits might be a little brighter this morning due to the gorgeous sunlight sparkling on the snow! My heart is singing and I almost thought I saw little glittery fairies dancing on our front walk as I waved Jeannene off to work this morning! The blue sky and bright sun are such an oddity for February in Cleveland. All of us are so used to everything being various muted shades of grey that this is a real treat. Maybe Ma Nature is celebrating the Saints win last night. Hee hee.

Today is a day of rest and reading for me. I have made some spectacular dill-artichoke potato salad and am immersing myself in "The Christian Century" until it's time to go tutor. The weekend was pretty crazy. Jeannene's dad passed away on the 31st and we traveled to his funeral in Pennsylvania with the boys. Boot had come to spend a few days with us and helped Jeannene put together a photo board. I think the time together was healing for them both. We usually only get to see him once a month, with his busy wrestling schedule, so it was nice to have a bit of an extended visit. However, the circumstances were sad. Jeannene's dad was in his 80s and has been ill for quite some time, but it's never easy to say goodbye to someone you love. Travis was a good guy and really loved his family. It was also hard coming so close on the heels of funeral after funeral. Jeannene's mom has only been gone since All Saints' Day 2008, we lost her wonderful, sweet nephew last July, her sister-in-law's sister passed in September and Jeannene's aunt Georgia in December. It's too much. The last time I saw most of the family was at Grant's funeral in July. It was good to see everyone and I'm glad we get to see them in Cincinnati in a couple of weeks for a memorial dinner, but I am planning to have a big party or something so that we can see them under happier circumstances. Maybe for my 40th in July. Such an exciting occasion certainly deserves a big party. It was fun, too, finally to get to meet Jeannene's old school friends, about whom I've heard so many stories.

After we dropped Boot off at his dad's house, we headed home with Pie, who was thrilled to be able to retire to his bedroom and lose himself in video world. He is never happy to be in social situations like that and especially not for a funeral. I could feel his relief as we walked through the door. After a little while on his own, he brought his games up so that Jeannene could see. It was fun to hear them commenting on the play & to see the armor he chose to outfit his character with. After awhile, Jeannene and I headed out to The Cheesecake Factory for a late supper. It was a fitting end to Travis' funeral. He loved to cook for everyone and he was great at it. He loved food, loved hearing about it, talking about it, preparing it, eating it. It's how he showed he cared and his daughter has inherited that trait. We started with some fried artichoke hearts, which were delicious, and then both of us chose chicken dishes. I actually ended up choosing for Jeannene because she just couldn't. So she had some kind of Italian chicken cutlet, with prosciutto wrapped around it, served on basil pasta. It was quite good. I fell back on the crispy chicken costoletta, which is reliably good, served with mashed potatoes and asparagus. There was so much that we're both eating it for lunch today.

Church was great. We were back in the youth room after spending January with the adult class during their sessions on the Bible & homosexuality. We watched "For The Bible Tells Me So" in four sections and had discussion time. It was good yesterday to have some space for the kids to talk about their impressions without the limits imposed by being in the adult class. We also got to talk about some upcoming events. I'll be teaching the next session in our spiritual practices series at the end of the month instead of this coming Sunday because they all want to be present for it, which is encouraging. I am presenting on creativity as prayer and have some collage time planned. I really need several hours for this session, so it will probably spill over into Youth time. I think we'll have a lot of fun & I hope they'll get some useful tools for their own spiritual lives. I haven't decided if I want them to work on illustrated discovery journals or altered books yet, but am leaning toward altered books. I guess we could always do ATCs. Maybe I'll just give them the option to do any of the three.

Worship was good, as well, and I got to sit with some of my favorite people during coffee hour. After we visited a bit, I hurried home so that Jeannene and I could make the library book sale. We had a grand time & came home with 3 big paper sacks of books for $6. Yippee! We hit the grocery, as well, although I stayed in the car because I was feeling ill. Once home, we just hung out together, looking at her old family pictures and snacking on boneless wings. We half-watched the Super Bowl for the first half of the game. Once we got past halftime, I really wanted to settle in and get serious about watching, so I did that while Jeannene made taco fixings. It's so nice to have lots of vegan possibilities for Pie. He has gotten sick of baked tofu, finally and I think the vegan tacos were a welcome change. I was so excited by the Saints' interception and big run for the touchdown that I was hootin' & hollerin' like crazy. Pie was a bit puzzled as to why an otherwise sensible person would be so into the game, especially since I don't normally follow football. But I have always had a soft spot for the Saints since they're from New Orleans and have such a cool name. Ha ha! I pick my teams based on where they're from & the coolness oif their names. I've liked the Saints for years. I also like Tampa Bay and the Titans, who moved to Nashville from Houston while I was living there.