After a summer of busy travel and new experiences, a weekend here at home to do with whatever I pleased was so extremely refreshing and much needed. I haven't had a free weekend since May. That's a long time.
So here is my fabulous weekend in a nutshell:
Saturday: slept in; played Ultimate for oh, I dunno, about 3 hours; created a feast of the infamous stuffed mushrooms (they never get old!) and vegetarian sushi for the housemates; watched Slumdog Millionaire
Sunday: attended church; ate lunch at the end of summer all church picnic at Wing Park (you really can't go wrong when it comes to Brethren pot lucks); came in second place in a croquet match; did laundry (gotta love those clean clothes!); went to dinner at the Barley House; watched a movie while folding laundry and attempting to download my photos from California and Oregon
Throw in there a lot of laughter and good conversation, blue skies and puffy white clouds with a bit of chill in the air and I've got myself a perfect weekend. It may sound busy to the average joe, but to me, it's exactly what was needed.
Believe it or not, that's an extremely chill weekend. And those are hard to find these days. Yup, it was a good weekend.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Who is Sharon?
So for some reason people have trouble remembering my name. Youth I work with call me anything from Karen and Shannon (which actually kind of make sense), to Lauren and Jill (apparently I look like I could have these names...).
One day, soon after returning from my workcamps, I wrote on my Facebook status that I was having an identity crisis and two very important people to me responded.
Beth, one of my housemates and closest friends wrote this:
One day, soon after returning from my workcamps, I wrote on my Facebook status that I was having an identity crisis and two very important people to me responded.
Beth, one of my housemates and closest friends wrote this:
Friday, August 21, 2009
Mushrooms? YES PLEASE!
So I took today off. A personal day you might say. To come into the city of Chicago to visit my good friend Amber before my two British boys show up. (That's an entirely different story.) So we slept in this morning which was absolutely fabulous, not getting up until 9:30ish.
The morning started out with the making of eggs in a hole using the amazing multi-grain bread that I bought for Amber and Bethany as a 'thank you for letting us take over your apartment' gift. It was the beginning of something beautiful. As I sat on the floor of Amber's kitchen eating my egg in a hole, I was flipping through a cookbook and ooohing and ahhhing over the recipes and the photos that are ever so helpful. And that's where our day of food began.
We had a plan. This plan was to make ourselves a wonderful meal as an early dinner before picking the boys up from the airport. We had all day to go shopping for food and then create our masterpieces. We knew that we wanted mushrooms in some form or another. So after looking through the cookbooks we settled on chicken and mushroom risotto and asparagus for the main dish and then a strawberry rhubarb pie for dessert. Amazing? I think so.
I wish I could say that we went to the store and got the things we needed and put on our aprons and created these amazing things. Well this wasn't the case. I got a message that my friends were actually going to be getting in at 6:3opm rather than the original 7:00pm that we had planned into our days events. This cut a very crucial 30 minutes off of the time we had counted on. But no worries we regrouped and came up with a new idea.
NOW the idea was to have a light, late lunch of whatever struck our fancy at the grocery store and then take the boys out for some Chicago style pizza as a late 'welcome to Chicago!' dinner. Then Amber had the idea to make stuffed mushrooms using cream cheese, bleu cheese and green onions. I said I could make home made guacamole to go along with it. Then while we were at the store we decided to splurge on roasted red pepper hummus and pita chips. Throw in with those things some carrots, snap peas and grapes and we had ourselves a feast.
Oh and what a beautiful feast it was! The mushrooms were divine and simply melted in your mouth. The guacamole was amazing (once we figured out what spice was missing...silly salt). The hummus went brilliantly with the pita chips, carrots and snap peas. The grapes and blueberries were extremely refreshing. Add to that a mango green tea and SNAP. An amazingly, awesome and perfect meal.
So now we get back to the mushrooms. You know the ones that simply melted in your mouth? Yeah, you know you're jealous (as you should be!). Well, the very last mushroom I ate was by far the best one. It had great flavor. I can't even begin to describe it to you. For those of you who have seen Ratatouille, it's kind of like when Remi is experiencing food and there are all sorts of colors and shapes that explode around him as each flavor comes out in the dish. Yeah it was ten times better than that! Needless to say that after I ate this last mushroom, I was absolutely devastated. I wanted there to be more! In fact, I told Amber that I wished that someone would ring the doorbell at that very moment and have a dish full of these stuffed mushrooms. And I honestly really did!
But alas the doorbell did not ring. And there were no more stuffed mushrooms. But it was pretty much the most amazing thrown together meal ever! It was like we had a party. For the two of us. In our bellies. :)
Now onto the strawberry rhubarb pie, that's now going to be a strawberry (no rhubarb) crispish thing that we are creating ourselves....and the fun continues! YAY!
Bon appetit!
The morning started out with the making of eggs in a hole using the amazing multi-grain bread that I bought for Amber and Bethany as a 'thank you for letting us take over your apartment' gift. It was the beginning of something beautiful. As I sat on the floor of Amber's kitchen eating my egg in a hole, I was flipping through a cookbook and ooohing and ahhhing over the recipes and the photos that are ever so helpful. And that's where our day of food began.
We had a plan. This plan was to make ourselves a wonderful meal as an early dinner before picking the boys up from the airport. We had all day to go shopping for food and then create our masterpieces. We knew that we wanted mushrooms in some form or another. So after looking through the cookbooks we settled on chicken and mushroom risotto and asparagus for the main dish and then a strawberry rhubarb pie for dessert. Amazing? I think so.
I wish I could say that we went to the store and got the things we needed and put on our aprons and created these amazing things. Well this wasn't the case. I got a message that my friends were actually going to be getting in at 6:3opm rather than the original 7:00pm that we had planned into our days events. This cut a very crucial 30 minutes off of the time we had counted on. But no worries we regrouped and came up with a new idea.
NOW the idea was to have a light, late lunch of whatever struck our fancy at the grocery store and then take the boys out for some Chicago style pizza as a late 'welcome to Chicago!' dinner. Then Amber had the idea to make stuffed mushrooms using cream cheese, bleu cheese and green onions. I said I could make home made guacamole to go along with it. Then while we were at the store we decided to splurge on roasted red pepper hummus and pita chips. Throw in with those things some carrots, snap peas and grapes and we had ourselves a feast.
Oh and what a beautiful feast it was! The mushrooms were divine and simply melted in your mouth. The guacamole was amazing (once we figured out what spice was missing...silly salt). The hummus went brilliantly with the pita chips, carrots and snap peas. The grapes and blueberries were extremely refreshing. Add to that a mango green tea and SNAP. An amazingly, awesome and perfect meal.
So now we get back to the mushrooms. You know the ones that simply melted in your mouth? Yeah, you know you're jealous (as you should be!). Well, the very last mushroom I ate was by far the best one. It had great flavor. I can't even begin to describe it to you. For those of you who have seen Ratatouille, it's kind of like when Remi is experiencing food and there are all sorts of colors and shapes that explode around him as each flavor comes out in the dish. Yeah it was ten times better than that! Needless to say that after I ate this last mushroom, I was absolutely devastated. I wanted there to be more! In fact, I told Amber that I wished that someone would ring the doorbell at that very moment and have a dish full of these stuffed mushrooms. And I honestly really did!
But alas the doorbell did not ring. And there were no more stuffed mushrooms. But it was pretty much the most amazing thrown together meal ever! It was like we had a party. For the two of us. In our bellies. :)
Now onto the strawberry rhubarb pie, that's now going to be a strawberry (no rhubarb) crispish thing that we are creating ourselves....and the fun continues! YAY!
Bon appetit!
Sunday, August 16, 2009
What if I Stay? What if I Go?
I was thinking today at church about the many people I know and the various types of relationships and friendships there are in the world. Well the world might be a bit broad, but I can at least think about the ones in my life.
Those who know me well know that I love to meet new people and to learn what I can about them. I love to learn what their story is. It's a great thing. I know a lot of people from many different parts of my life. I know people from church in Bridgewater and Westminster and now from Highland Avenue. I know people from Brethren Woods, Camp Swatara, Camp Mount Hermon, Camp Ithiel, Camp Myrtlewood. I know people from the dozen or so workcamps that I've led these past several summers. I know people from John Wayland Elementary, Pence Middle School, Turner Ashby High School, Bridgewater College, and the University of Glouschestershire. I know people from National Youth Conference, Young Adult Conference and Annual Conference. I know people from my BVS Unit. I know people in England and Germany and Nigeria.
Needless to say that through all of these places I have met my fair share of people. And in many cases I have this knack of remembering many of these people. AND I attempt to keep in touch with them. This is the hard part. How does one keep in touch with everyone that they've met over the years? It just isn't possible. And believe it or not I do recognise this fact. I'm not going to say that I like it, but I do realize that it isn't possible. I'm awful at keeping in touch. I'm not good at writing letters, or e-mails. It's nothing personal, I'm just not practiced in writing. I struggle with keeping up with this blog much of the time!
One thing I have been thinking more and more lately is how there are some people that we meet who are meant to pass through our lives after leaving their mark on our life. Whatever that mark may be. I struggle a great deal when I lose touch with a friend, someone that I thought I'd never lose touch with. It does sadden me, but this thought that people pass through our lives for a reason gives me a sense of peace. This is something that I am still thinking about and pondering but that is okay because relationships of all sizes and strengths matter to me.
Those who know me well know that I love to meet new people and to learn what I can about them. I love to learn what their story is. It's a great thing. I know a lot of people from many different parts of my life. I know people from church in Bridgewater and Westminster and now from Highland Avenue. I know people from Brethren Woods, Camp Swatara, Camp Mount Hermon, Camp Ithiel, Camp Myrtlewood. I know people from the dozen or so workcamps that I've led these past several summers. I know people from John Wayland Elementary, Pence Middle School, Turner Ashby High School, Bridgewater College, and the University of Glouschestershire. I know people from National Youth Conference, Young Adult Conference and Annual Conference. I know people from my BVS Unit. I know people in England and Germany and Nigeria.
Needless to say that through all of these places I have met my fair share of people. And in many cases I have this knack of remembering many of these people. AND I attempt to keep in touch with them. This is the hard part. How does one keep in touch with everyone that they've met over the years? It just isn't possible. And believe it or not I do recognise this fact. I'm not going to say that I like it, but I do realize that it isn't possible. I'm awful at keeping in touch. I'm not good at writing letters, or e-mails. It's nothing personal, I'm just not practiced in writing. I struggle with keeping up with this blog much of the time!
One thing I have been thinking more and more lately is how there are some people that we meet who are meant to pass through our lives after leaving their mark on our life. Whatever that mark may be. I struggle a great deal when I lose touch with a friend, someone that I thought I'd never lose touch with. It does sadden me, but this thought that people pass through our lives for a reason gives me a sense of peace. This is something that I am still thinking about and pondering but that is okay because relationships of all sizes and strengths matter to me.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Whirl Wind of a Life - Summer 2009
spending a weekend with fabulous young adults in the Church of the Brethren at Camp Swatara, learning and talking of 'one another,' singing beautiful traditional hymns as one body, getting in an awesome game of Ultimate
flying to Kansas City, Kansas to spend a week mentoring and learning from the amazing senior high youth of the Western Plains District at Camp Mount Hermon, watching the youth interact with community members at a soup kitchen for a random act of kindness, staying up all night talking over a flaming camp fire and not thinking anything about it
traveling to Harrisonburg, Virginia by train (one of my favorite ways to travel) to join 700 junior high youth and their advisors for a weekend of worship, fellowship, and fun, getting to visit some good friends in Bridgewater for an evening of good food and laughs, being bombarded by some of youth from workcamps last summer,sharing with youth about what Brethren Volunteer Service has in store for them when they are older, remembering the oh so famous hand hug
working countless hours with Beth to create a totally awesome tree for Annual Conference out of recycled cardboard and tin cans focusing on being environmentally friendly and reusing the things that we have available rather than getting more than we need, making my first trek to the west coast, having the opportunity to take a group of youth to a beach in San Diego, California for a day of learning and experiencing what Brethren Volunteer Service is all about and then treating them to ice cream afterwards, lounging by the pool at the resort we stayed at, eating fabulous raspberry sorbet
going on a road trip with Beth and Momma Merrill and Rachel from San Diego to Fremont and being amazed at how large California is and how diverse the terrain is, meandering around the great city of San Fransisco by myself and then again with my good Matthias, going around to some of the different nature parks in Fremont and hiking straight up them, watching fireworks on the 4th of July after taking our volunteers out for some fantastic Thai cuisine
flying into Eugene, Oregon not sure of how I would get from the airport to the Greyhound Bus Station downtown, sort of hitch hiking a ride from the gentleman who sat beside me on the plane (nice guy by the name of Bob), sitting beside a young man, named Jason, who was on leave from the army and on his way home while on the Greyhound, spending a week at Camp Myrtlewood and helping to prepare and eat wonderful home cooked food, having the opportunity to talk with John and Margaret for hours about life and our place in the world, taking hikes with Marley, the awesome Boxer pup, and running with him through the forest, watching the sun set over the Pacific, taking the time for a spontaneous camping trip in the Oregon wilderness with Niko and Tyler and sleep out under the open sky (despite the rain that chased us back in our car at 2 in the morning), realizing that I need wilderness in my life, oh and a dog (or two)
meandering around Portland and falling in love with the city even though I was there for a short time, taking public transportation everywhere, thinking about the possibility of moving to Portland and taking a class or two at a university there, walking through Powell's Bookstore and feeling as though I was in heaven, meeting my first pirate who happened to be completely decked out in pirate attire with a Scottish accent (no joke), talking with Pastor Kirby about the beauty that surrounds us in nature that God has blessed us with so abundantly, attending the Peace Church of the Brethren for Sunday morning services before flying home to Chicago
returning to Elgin for three very busy days, spending an afternoon at Camp Emmaus with a bunch of fabulous senior high youth, giving a presentation on BVS and almost choking myself on the dust in the lodge, eating mountain pies made with biscuit dough = GREAT idea, seeing all my frisbee friends and getting to play Ultimate
orientation for BVS found me in Harrisonburg, Virginia for a week, climbed some mountains in West Virginia and went swimming at Blue Hole on Route 33 West, spent an afternoon at Our Community Place, created a labyrinth that represented my life journey, met 15 totally awesome volunteers and wished them luck during their time of service
leading two week long service oriented camps, one in Keyser, West Virginia and the other in North Fort Myers, Florida, was able to spend those two weeks with some awesome youth and being extremely blessed by each of them, getting my hands dirty and the great sense of satisfaction that comes along with that feeling
attending the wedding of two friends from my time at Bridgewater College and wishing them well as they begin their lives together, eating super yummy crepes and chatting with a good friend, driving through the night to join my family at Smith Mountain Lake for a short holiday, talking for hours with Allison while floating in the wonderful waters of the lake, playing card games with grandma and winning, enjoying a time of no stress before the storms come again
driving my car from Bridgewater to Elgin in one day and enjoying the solitude and freedom that comes from having the windows down and the music up, seeing the smiling faces of my long lost housemates as I return home again
flying to Kansas City, Kansas to spend a week mentoring and learning from the amazing senior high youth of the Western Plains District at Camp Mount Hermon, watching the youth interact with community members at a soup kitchen for a random act of kindness, staying up all night talking over a flaming camp fire and not thinking anything about it
traveling to Harrisonburg, Virginia by train (one of my favorite ways to travel) to join 700 junior high youth and their advisors for a weekend of worship, fellowship, and fun, getting to visit some good friends in Bridgewater for an evening of good food and laughs, being bombarded by some of youth from workcamps last summer,sharing with youth about what Brethren Volunteer Service has in store for them when they are older, remembering the oh so famous hand hug
working countless hours with Beth to create a totally awesome tree for Annual Conference out of recycled cardboard and tin cans focusing on being environmentally friendly and reusing the things that we have available rather than getting more than we need, making my first trek to the west coast, having the opportunity to take a group of youth to a beach in San Diego, California for a day of learning and experiencing what Brethren Volunteer Service is all about and then treating them to ice cream afterwards, lounging by the pool at the resort we stayed at, eating fabulous raspberry sorbet
going on a road trip with Beth and Momma Merrill and Rachel from San Diego to Fremont and being amazed at how large California is and how diverse the terrain is, meandering around the great city of San Fransisco by myself and then again with my good Matthias, going around to some of the different nature parks in Fremont and hiking straight up them, watching fireworks on the 4th of July after taking our volunteers out for some fantastic Thai cuisine
flying into Eugene, Oregon not sure of how I would get from the airport to the Greyhound Bus Station downtown, sort of hitch hiking a ride from the gentleman who sat beside me on the plane (nice guy by the name of Bob), sitting beside a young man, named Jason, who was on leave from the army and on his way home while on the Greyhound, spending a week at Camp Myrtlewood and helping to prepare and eat wonderful home cooked food, having the opportunity to talk with John and Margaret for hours about life and our place in the world, taking hikes with Marley, the awesome Boxer pup, and running with him through the forest, watching the sun set over the Pacific, taking the time for a spontaneous camping trip in the Oregon wilderness with Niko and Tyler and sleep out under the open sky (despite the rain that chased us back in our car at 2 in the morning), realizing that I need wilderness in my life, oh and a dog (or two)
meandering around Portland and falling in love with the city even though I was there for a short time, taking public transportation everywhere, thinking about the possibility of moving to Portland and taking a class or two at a university there, walking through Powell's Bookstore and feeling as though I was in heaven, meeting my first pirate who happened to be completely decked out in pirate attire with a Scottish accent (no joke), talking with Pastor Kirby about the beauty that surrounds us in nature that God has blessed us with so abundantly, attending the Peace Church of the Brethren for Sunday morning services before flying home to Chicago
returning to Elgin for three very busy days, spending an afternoon at Camp Emmaus with a bunch of fabulous senior high youth, giving a presentation on BVS and almost choking myself on the dust in the lodge, eating mountain pies made with biscuit dough = GREAT idea, seeing all my frisbee friends and getting to play Ultimate
orientation for BVS found me in Harrisonburg, Virginia for a week, climbed some mountains in West Virginia and went swimming at Blue Hole on Route 33 West, spent an afternoon at Our Community Place, created a labyrinth that represented my life journey, met 15 totally awesome volunteers and wished them luck during their time of service
leading two week long service oriented camps, one in Keyser, West Virginia and the other in North Fort Myers, Florida, was able to spend those two weeks with some awesome youth and being extremely blessed by each of them, getting my hands dirty and the great sense of satisfaction that comes along with that feeling
attending the wedding of two friends from my time at Bridgewater College and wishing them well as they begin their lives together, eating super yummy crepes and chatting with a good friend, driving through the night to join my family at Smith Mountain Lake for a short holiday, talking for hours with Allison while floating in the wonderful waters of the lake, playing card games with grandma and winning, enjoying a time of no stress before the storms come again
driving my car from Bridgewater to Elgin in one day and enjoying the solitude and freedom that comes from having the windows down and the music up, seeing the smiling faces of my long lost housemates as I return home again
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Dana, one of my former housemates and another close friend continued with:
I read these things that had been written on my behalf and I'm not gonna lie, there were a few tears threatening to fall from my face. So thanks to you both for the kind and ever loving words. They mean more than you can imagine. And believe me my friends, the love and friendship is mutual to the end of the world (and in Beth's case, the end of the universe) and back again a million times.