Faspa...

This evening Carrie and I had a few friends over for faspa and Corner Gas. Faspa is a foreign concept to our American friends who are, for the most part, of the Swiss Mennonite tradition.

We served up fresh baked buns, rolled up ham and bologna, cheese, home made dill pickles, canned peaches, and fresh blueberry jam, strawberry jam, butter, peanut butter, mayo (each in their own little dish). For dessert we had chocolate zucchini cake with whip cream, chocolate marshmallow cookies, and sugar wafers. We were disappointed as we couldn't find many of the cookies we were familiar with, though the sugar wafers were a "product of Canada." We had really wanted Dad's Goodie Rings, or some kind of marshmallow cookie with coconut on top.

We taught our friends to eat buns with jam and cheese, and to split their cake to put whip topping on both halves (Carrie learned this from her grandma - I remember splitting cake in half and having to eat the un-iced side first before indulging in the iced side).

Later in the evening we sat down to watch Corner Gas. They found the humour, "really different" and very sarcastic. Canadians just have such a self-depricating humour, but I think they enjoyed it.

It was a lot of fun to share a little bit of home with our friends!

Orientation...

Things are getting underway. I have now been oriented to all of my classes and the stress of syllabus overload has gotten to me. I'm exhausted, and the semester has barely begun! I have not yet started my chaplaincy and pastoral counseling practicums at the hospital, but I hope to begin by the end of this week. This past weekend I attended my spiritual guidance (aka Spiritual Direction) practicum which will be meeting once per month for 2 days at a time. I have one "regular" class that I'm taking this fall, Biblical Perspectives on Atonement.

I am still working in admissions and spent the entire day whittling away my to-do list that popped up on my screen first thing this morning. I managed to have all but one item accomplished by the end of the day. I also started my research assistant position with my faculty advisor this afternoon. My first order of business as a research assistant is to compile an annotated bibliography. Fortunately the research we are doing is all related to spiritual caregiving in the hospital, which will be very applicable to my chaplaincy practicum.

My spiritual guidance professor included the following poem in one of our handouts this weekend. We didn't read it in class, but I came across it this evening and I loved the honesty of its words:

Above all, trust in the slow work of God,
We are, quite naturally,
impatient in everything to reach the end
without delay.
We should like to skip
the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being
on the way to something unknown,
something new,
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability--
And that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you.
your ideas mature gradually--
let them grow,
let them shape themselves,
without undue haste.
Don't try to force them on,
as though you could be today
what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.

~Teilhard de Chardin

A wild orchid.
Picture taken at Assateague Island National Park, Virginia.

Prayer of Thomas Merton...

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.

And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

~Thomas Merton, "Thoughts in Solitude."

A prayer that my spiritual director shared with me today. The picture was taken at Swallow Falls, Maryland. God always seems to capture my attention through breathtaking moments in nature.

Canning is officially done...

Yesterday Carrie and I finished off the canning season with peaches and tomato soup. We still have tomatoes coming but we're just going to say that we're done.

Here are the final numbers: 13 quarts of peaches, 12 quarts of applesauce, 5 quarts salsa, 19 quarts pureed tomatoes, 6.5 quarts tomato sauce, 4.5 quarts stewed tomatoes, 6.5 quarts tomato soup (that's right, 41.5 quarts of tomato product!), 6 quarts zucchini relish, 9.5 quarts dill pickles, 2 quarts blueberry jam, and 2 quarts mulberry syrup.

For Carrie and I both, this is our first go at canning and I quite enjoyed it,(though I was enjoying it less after 7 or 8 straight hours of it). I never before realized how time consuming it is and I have a whole new appreciation for my mother. After a great summer of gardening and numerous days of canning, this is what we have to show for it!

Summer vs Fall Look...

Classes officially start tomorrow (though I don't have any classes until the 16th) so as part of my back to school preparation I thought I'd need a new back to school look.

BEFORE

My Summer Crew Look

My Pigtails!

My Summer Vacation Look

AFTER

My Seminary Student and Chaplain Look
after a cut, colour and highlights.

What do you think? I clean up nicely, don't I?

Last days of summer...

The last days of summer...it saddens me. I'm ever so slowly starting to prepare for the reality of student life which is going to hit me in about a week. Orientation for new students is this week and classes officially start on Thursday, September 10. I don't actually have a class until Wednesday, September 16 since Wednesday is my only day with regular class meetings I also have a weekend class and independent study, so I'll be taking 11 credit hours this semester. My mind still feels very far from academics though, after a very necessary and refreshing break this summer.

Here are a few of the ways in which I am spending my last days of summer:

This afternoon Carrie, Andrea and I went to the Japanese garden in Mishawaka, IN. This is one of the many, many squirrels that we have around this area. I think Carrie named him Harvey. We also met up with Hank, Henry, Harry, and Harriette. We didn't run into Jose this afternoon, but maybe another time.

Sitting with the statues at the garden. We decided that they needed to display our bags and my water bottle.

:)

Shirojiri Park

My new water canner that I purchased on sale yesterday. Prior to this I borrowed a smaller canner from a friend and used my stock pot, also pictured above. Carrie and I spent 7.5 hours canning tomatoes yesterday. I counted 60 jars of tomato product on our pantry shelves, and there's still one more canning session left as our tomato plants just keep producing. The garden has really slowed down. I've already pulled out the corn, carrots, cucumbers, and zucchini. Now all I have left to harvest is the remainder of the tomatoes and the sweet peppers. We left our green peppers on the plants to turn red and many of them are just about ready to be picked.

My John Deere wear, courtesy of Carrie. The pink bandanna says "Nothing runs like a Deere."

At long last, a picture of the Deere that I've been driving all summer. I spent hours and hours on this tractor. The four-wheel steering feature was amazing, you could just whip around a tree and have a perfect trim. I became quite proficient at unclogging that chute to the hopper.

Last moments on summer crew on Friday, September 4.
I've already secured a spot on next summer's crew and my supervisor said he might even put me on the big tractor pulling the 15' mower next summer!!!