C came down with the poopy pukey crud today. Ran a fever of 101. Now recent signs (ahem) suggest that M will be getting it soon.
Will J be next? Hope not, but he’s teething with a vengeance. Woke up every 2 hours last night.
R was able to take off half a day and be with […]

I don’t believe in destiny. Seems hokey to me.
However.
My grandmother had four children: two girls, then two boys.
My mother had four children: two girls, then two boys, with three years, two years, and two years between them.
I have two girls and a boy, with three years, then two years between them.
Is the writing on […]

Hey, it is Mardi Gras…
I am working on an article for a clergy-related magazine on approaches to organizing one’s life and ministry. If you have tips for tending to the various details in your work as a ministry professional (or if you are a layperson with tips that would be helpful for that context), please […]

An article for National Crankypants Presbytery’s monthly newsletter:
This week the MacArthur Foundation named 24 new MacArthur Fellows as recipients of their so-called “genius grants.” These fellowships were awarded to a medieval historian, an education strategist, an opera singer, a poet, a water quality engineer, a spider-silk biologist, and a blues musician, among others.
The award is […]

I will probably keep a log of random thoughts and impressions as this experiment goes on. Here is the first installment, with at times excruciating and mind-numbing details:

First, I changed the name of the sabbath ministry thingy on this blog to make it less googleable.
We had our potluck tonight. We had about 9 individuals or […]

Miscellaneous
Trader Joe’s Trek Mix with three kinds of nuts, raisins, cranberries, and chocolate chips. This is the kind of thing I would have hated at a younger age, but it’s amazingly good. I am even able to overlook the golden raisins, which have always creeped me out for some reason.
Speaking of nuts, the divine miss […]

A few years ago I participated in a clearance interview for a candidate for ordination who was being called to a associate for pastoral care position at a nearby church. The position was half-time, and our job as the clearance team was to assess the “fit” between the candidate and the church, and also examine […]

I’m back from staff retreat… pretty restful time away. Humid, lots of lightning at night. Good discussions. Moderate stress at how much there is to be done in the next few months. Excited about ministry and invigorated to prepare to move to part time. The girls are sick of my being gone. So am I.
This […]

That is the tagline on the Young Clergy Women’s tote bag the conferees received last week. (ChaplainMom, I snagged one for you—will send it soon.)
At least one woman (one of the small group leaders, actually, so not part of the under-40 crowd) wrinkled her nose at the tagline because it appeared to trivialize women in […]

Here’s what’s up, with a question for the internets at the end:
Last Wednesday I had a conversation with Senior Pastor about moving to half-time ministry when I return from maternity leave. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, pretty much since the pee stick turned pink.
The upshot is that I don’t think full-time […]

We had Father’s Day weekend, since Sunday is such a big work day. The girls and I made a simple breakfast for R, then we went to the farmer’s market, napped and puttered. I had bought him a cookbook with slow-cooker recipes, which I used to make a sinful but yummy beef stroganoff. C helped […]

(This was a comment I posted at cheese’s place)
OK, curiosity (and procrastination) finally won out, and I ran the numbers for Natl. Crankypants.
This does not count interims, stated supplies, and various designated positions. Also I was counting pretty fast.
Co-pastors: three couples are serving as co-pastors.
Solo pastors, and by that I mean they are the only […]

The divine miss m is completely back to normal health-wise. So we’re back to only dealing with the impending molars.
Little she-who-is had a sleepover with MaDear. They went to see Charlotte’s Web. They both really enjoyed it, although she kept asking me why the farmer wanted to take the pig to the smokehouse. Time to […]

When you think about “what comes next” in your life’s work or career, and you picture yourself doing whatever usually “comes next” for people on your particular career trajectory, and that next thing feels interesting to you but you also feel a real No, or Not Now, about it, how do you assess whether that […]

There’s a member of the church that’s really been having a hard time and hasn’t been in church in a long time. I talked to her over the summer and we talked about the possibility of my coming to visit sometime. Nothing was set, and the idea languished on my to-do list for months. Every […]