Spring Recess & Opening Day

The university website described our vacation as “spring recess.” I like that. 🙂 Mine was spent simply, which was fine by me. It began with celebrating my Granny Ruby’s heaven homegoing and spending time with my family. The family visitation, her funeral, and graveside service were all so heartfelt and a wonderful tribute to her life. I hope there are windows in heaven so that she could catch a glimpse of us who gathered to honor her. She will be missed, but never far from my thoughts or heart. On Saturday afternoon, I returned home so I could fulfill my obligations to sing in our Easter cantata on Sunday morning at church.

Highlights from the rest of my week included:
– having lunch with my Pastor & family and watching “August Rush” afterward. So good. Now I see what everyone has been talking about. 🙂
– doing some long overdue cleaning around my apartment
– having dinner with Aarik & Brooke and sharing in quality conversation
– attending a fantastic piano recital (competition dress rehearsal) given by my friend and accompanist Jimmy – such a natural, gifted talent
– reading “Fame” by Karen Kingsbury in nearly one sitting 🙂
– grocery shopping at Aldi. I heart inexpensive food staples.
– singing with the Wests after church on Wednesday night & making a little recording of “In Christ Alone” (check it out in my Audio blog). It’s not too shabby, even if I do say so myself.
– being treated to a tasty lunch at one of the local Indian restaurants by my friends Joel & Laura
– trading a handful of my old CDs (mainly country and other CDs bought at used stores) for Wilson Phillips’ self-titled album and R.E.M’s “Out of Time.” New, old music. Yay!
– getting my e-mail inbox cleaned out and some homework done!
– perusing a local art exhibit featuring works by Missouri boys Thomas Hart Benton and George Caleb Bingham
– watching part of “Pride and Prejudice” (the newer version) and “The Family Stone” with my PK girls
– attending our District Nazarene training on Saturday. Such simple truths allowed me to gain new insight on what it means to be “spiritually formed” and how to incorporate Lectio Divina (The Word of God) as I come before the Lord in my daily life. (Today, God spoke to me through His Word BESTOW out of Psalm 3:3) I also came away with some great tools to use in the area of youth ministry.

It’s been rainy today and since I’m not the type to lose things, discovering I somehow lost my umbrella earlier in the day made me very, very sad and upset. I’ve had it since I was in college and don’t do well parting with inanimate objects to whom I’ve grown sentimentally attached. I know I had it this morning, but must have set it down somewhere in the student union while studying, and it thus grew legs and walked off with a new owner. If I see someone walking around campus with an umbrella resembling mine, believe me, I just might have to accost them in public. In the mean time, I am on a quest to find a new Totes umbrella…

And in honor of Opening Day, I proudly wore red and my Cardinals earrings today. At various times today on campus, I overheard four or five girls commenting about opening day, but no guys discussing it…interesting. Despite its rain delay, the Cardinals are still up 5-1. So root, root, root for the home team.