Winter Writing Marathon

Yesterday I ventured to Lincoln for the Nebraska Writing Project's winter board meeting, and afterwards I participated in the annual winter writing marathon. If you're not familiar with writing marathons, here's the format in a nutshell: Writers gather and first proclaim that they are in fact writers, we read a Hemingway quote from A Moveable Feast (this quote has become a Nebraska tradition), and then in small groups we set out to wander and write. Groups set a time limit...sometimes it's 10-15 minutes of individual writing time, then we meet back up and share what we wrote simply to share. We don't give feedback, praise, criticism, etc. A writer reads, and the group simply thanks the writer for sharing. It really is a pure process. The group I was in yesterday visited Morrill Hall and the planetarium and then we wandered over to The Mill in the Haymarket. The entire group then met at Indigo Bridge bookstore for a final read around.

Group shot after the final read-around

It was a much needed three hour session. I felt very cleaned out on my way home and more at peace with life. It's crazy how cleansing writing can be for me.

Here are a few of the pieces I started yesterday:

At Morrill Hall 
It's refreshing to hear children's voices bounce off the walls of this dusty museum. One little boy, about six, is fascinated by the elephant skeletons. He stands and stares at these massive remains and begins talking rapidly in a language unknown to me. He beckons two middle-aged gentlemen to join him in his awe. Soon he darts to another display--pauses to take it all in with mouth agape and eyes wide--and then flees to the next room as if he's afraid the museum will close before he gets to see all the wonders this place holds. 

Suddenly the boy I've been admiring fades from sight and I'm left alone in this echoey room. It's just me and the bones and my thoughts. I stare ahead, my pen hovering above my notebook not knowing where to go from here. History surrounds me, but my mind is as blank as the page on my lap. But before my mind can get the better of me and twist this refreshing void into a mess of tangled what if's, a new group of toddlers wobbles in to proclaim their awe at the state's first inhabitants. 

Composed in the car on my way to Lincoln
If I were to build a house, I'd build it with my bedroom window facing east so I could watch the sun rise and bleed a brilliant warmth of orange and red and pink. I'd let it wash over me and accept its call to a new day. 

At The Mill
This semester I'm having my Comp II students read, write, and think about place. I wanted to give them chances to explore communities so they could begin to see value in community and maybe even find their place in it. This weekend I've asked them to explore and write about two places and I'm curious to see their thinking. I think I will write about this place,  The Mill coffee shop.

I don't remember how or when I found it, but I do remember that I was in high school and it was a time of self-discovery. I remember watching people as I drank coffee. They all looked interesting in their muted clothing. Their conversations were low and seemed serious, and whatever they were writing must have been brilliant because they barely took a breath to drink their coffee. When they did take a drink, they took long, slow sips and held the mug in both hands as if that mug were something delicate. As they swallowed, a faraway gaze often washed over their faces. I wanted desperately to know what they were thinking and writing and what caused their conversations to be so intense. 

The first time I visited the bathroom in this place I couldn't ignore the chalkboard that hung on the wall near the toilet. I savored each chalky sentiment and even copied them down on a napkin to be used as writing fodder later, a sort of bathroom plagiarizer. 

Each time I come to Lincoln, I visit The Mill to relive that longing I had as a teen--a longing for identity and for community--for a place I could be whomever I wanted. 

Road Trip 2011

I've taken a blogging hiatus---it's been a crazy few weeks. We came home today from a week long road trip through the most beautiful places I've ever seen: Wyoming (except for the southwestern part!), Montana, Utah, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. We drove 19 hours the first night and slept in Pendleton, OR and drove to Portland the next morning. The three days we spent in this city were incredible....we met up with an old friend and her fiance, received an amazing tour of the city from a cousin of mine, ate plenty of unique food, drank local beer, attended a beautiful church service at Imago Dei (church home of my favorite writer, Don Miller), shopped, wandered around, and hiked 11 miles to Ramona Falls near Mount Hood.

Then we drove to Seattle to experience another piece of the Pacific Northwest. We stayed downtown near the Pike Place Market and enjoyed having time to walk up and down hilly roads through downtown Seattle. Some highlights from Seattle: drinking coffee at the original Starbucks in the Pike Place Market, enjoying local, live jazz music, eating fresh seafood and tons of pastries, visiting the EMP...it was all fantastic.

We saved up for this trip for an entire year and used it as a time to celebrate our five year anniversary. I feel so blessed to have seen so much of God's great creation, spend quality time with my husband (42+ hours in a car is intense), and just relax without a lot of plans.

If you'd like to see photos of the trip...click here!

First Week of Summer= Home Projects

This was our first full week of summer. And what did we do?

1. I planted a few veggies and herbs in pots---spinach, cucumbers, dill and chives. I'll soon have a cherry tomato plant that I can grow upside down in a hanging basket--I know; it should be pretty sweet :) My mom came across the handy contraption and is dropping it in the mail this week. I'll have all the basic fixings for a mean salad....

2. We began our kitchen renovation. We painted our cabinets and changed the hardware AND painted one kitchen wall...orange! I LOVE picking out paint colors. In our basement we have a bright green and two shades of gray, our living room sports a dark brown and a khaki, the master bedroom a deep red and khaki and our bathroom is a bright aqua and white. All of the colors are unique---and I love them. :)

Here is a "before" shot of our cabinets:

A "during" shot of the process (and Nate's terrible sunburn):

And a few "after" shots:

Though the green has kind of grown on me, in July we plan on replacing our counter tops with something a little more modern.

Tomorrow we're heading out to Boulder with another couple to do a little shopping and then hike the Isabelle Glacier trail not far from Boulder. I can't wait to get on the trail--even if the temperature is a high of 43 with wind and possible rain!

Waiting

I've never been very good at waiting. In Kindergarten my table partner was too slow at his homework--we couldn't move on to another activity until both of our work was done, so I did it for him until I got caught and moved to a different table. After I graduated, I couldn't wait to leave--so much so that I decided to rush just so I could move into my dorm a week earlier. To be fair, I went through two days of sorority recruitment and then quit. And now I find myself waiting again. We have officially completed all of our initial paperwork to get us into the adoption pool. We're waiting to receive confirmation that we were approved and placed in the pool....then, we'll wait some more to be matched with a birth mom/birth parents.

So what do we do while we wait for an undetermined amount of time? Someone asked me the other day if I was going to work on a nursery this summer....and though it's so tempting to clean out our spare room and convert it into the nursery of my dreams, I don't think this would be good for me. I would have a difficult time walking by an empty nursery day after day wondering and hoping for the child that may or may not be. Someone else recommended that we start looking for a daycare provider. How do you even get on a waiting list for daycares when you have no time frame of when you'd need daycare? We have been attending several classes and workshops designed for adoptive parents--prenatal drug and alcohol exposure, newborn care classes, parenting a child whose birth family has a history of mental health issues, etc. And though these are great, I feel like I need something that's "child-free" to take my mind off of our adoption. (I hope people don't read that wrong! I want our adoption to go through, but I don't want to dwell...)

I read a few articles about what to do during this "wait time" in a recent issue of Adoptive Families magazine (a great magazine for people adopting, interested in adopting or wanting to learn more about adoption). In one article readers weighed in and gave suggestions about what they did during this wait time---and the best advice I read was to have fun and spend as much time as possible with your partner. I can do this. So---we're planning a last minute hiking trip with another couple to the Boulder area for this weekend (hopefully the weather holds up for us!). And...a vacation to the Portland/Seattle area is in the works for the end of July! Ever since I started reading Don Miller a few years back, I've wanted to visit these two cities. We've decided not to get too crazy planning our trip since we want it to be laid back with no rushed, set timetable. But we will drive so we can see more of the country and we know for sure that we want to do some hiking around the Mt. Hood area. I would also love to visit the Pike Place Market in Seattle. And we have to visit a jazz club---that's a given. Nate and I haven't been on a true vacation where we call the shots since our honeymoon almost five years ago, so we are stoked about the trip.

As much as I want to fill my time with preparing for a potential baby---I'm just not sure my heart can take it. So if we get a call, we will be unprepared--we'll be crib-less, bottle-less, etc. But I'm okay with that. We'll make it work. Until then--I'm going to enjoy the time I have with my husband.

Leaving on a jet plane...

In about 35 minutes I'll be boarding a plane headed to Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently I'm at DIA fighting the urge to fall asleep! I drove to Denver from Ogallala this morning---took a few wrong turns (I have no sense of direction)---and finally arrived at DIA. I'm headed to the National Writing Project's Rural Sites Network Conference, and though it sounds nerdy--I'm stoked. I'm a geek at heart. Here is what my schedule looks like for the next few days:

Friday:
Tour of Central High School Museum
Writing Marathon at the River Market
Social and banquet

Saturday:
Sessions all day (I present at 2:15)

Sunday:
Back to Ogallala

I'm ready to learn a lot and experience a little piece of Arkansas!

Boulder

This post is a bit delayed, but over Labor Day weekend Nate and I took a short trip to Boulder, Colorado. I've always wanted to visit Boulder, so we packed up the Subaru and headed west. We had some time to do a little shopping at the Pearl Street Mall, had dinner with a friend in Arvada, and then spent almost all day Sunday hiking near Ward, Colorado. We hiked to Lake Isabelle and then headed up Pawnee Pass. It was about a 9-10 mile hike that got pretty strenuous towards the end. In fact, we got pretty close to the end and then my fear of heights got the best of me. I sat down on the trail while Nate hiked the last switchback to the top and got to see a lake sitting in a crater of the mountains (unfortunately I had the camera). It was a great weekend where we could just spend time together in the beautiful outdoors.

Preparing for Poland

This weekend was our first weekend back in Ogallala in five weeks, so when we got home we felt frazzled--there was unpacking to be done, our basement had water in it, the checkbook needed balancing, the yard work needed to be done. But when I sat down to check my email I had a new message in my inbox about our Poland trip. Rather than feeling excited, I groaned and dropped my head into my hands--the last thing I wanted to do was prep work for our trip. There were other, more immediate needs to be addressed.

But---whether we are ready or not, we leave in 22 days. There is a lot to do: purchase gifts for our bible study groups and translators, prepare a few lessons for our English classes, complete a few bible studies, write our testimonies, pack. We also have to get our classrooms ready before we leave as we will return only two days before school starts! It's a lot to wrap my brain around and it's easy to sit and complain about it.

So to combat negativity and overwhelming feelings, I am trying to spend a little time each day researching Poland to help get me excited for July 29th. Nate and I came across the video above on Hulu this weekend--it's a short, 30 minute video about Poland, specifically Krackow, Auschwitz, and Warsaw. We aren't going to be in any of these cities, but the video did give us a good taste of Polish culture.

While we're in Poland we'll be teaching English at a family camp that a local Evangelical church puts on. But more importanlty, we'll be sharing about Jesus with the campers. Most Poles know who Jesus is from their Catholic background (Poland is predominately Catholica). But I've been told that having a personal relationship with God (a core concept in Evangelical Christianity) is something that is more unfamiliar to them. So, throughout our time in Poland we'll be talking with the campers about a relational faith. I'm excited to have these conversations--to share about what God has done in my life.

But after seeing this video, I am even more excited to learn from the Polish people about how to strengthen my faith--how to become more devoted, more dedicated. The video shows and talks about hundreds of churches and how important these are to Polish culture. This makes me think of my own grandparents who attend Catholic church a few times a week--and I can't ever remember a time where they missed church. They pray regularly, are active in the church, and are regular attenders. They truly are devoted to their religion. Unfortunately, I can't always say that I have the same devotion to my faith. Many Evangelical Christians rag on Catholicism and are quick to point out "wrong theology." But there is something we can learn from Catholics--how to be devoted to a cause. Their dedication is truly respectable.

So--if you're a praying person and have some free time on your hands, here are a few things you could pray for:
1. A sense of peace--that our minds would be eased and that we wouldn't let the stress of preparing to leave the country get to us.
2. Open hearts so we can learn from the Polish people about how to strengthen our own faith.

Thanks for your support! I'll try to post more updates as the trip grows closer.

Platte River State Park

This Saturday I was reminded how important it is to take in the simple pleasures of life. First, my husband took the time to make me whole wheat blueberry pancakes topped with fresh strawberries and blueberries along with turkey bacon and coffee. If you know me at all, you know that this is my kind of meal! We took our time waking up and even watched the movie "Once" (more to come about this movie later) before we decided to venture east to Platte River State Park near Louisville, Nebraska. It was hot, muggy, and the mosquitoes were terrible---but the park was breathtaking. We hiked for a few hours pausing to snap a few photos along the way. We made sure to wade in the creek and later came head to head with two rather large deer. Despite my body being covered in mosquito bites, I loved every minute of this small trip. I am constantly amazed at how much Nebraska has to offer. This park is certainly one of those hidden gems.

This small day trip was so enjoyable and reminds me of how important it is
to take time to do this. My husband and I both devote so much time our jobs--too much time--it's our goal to strike a better balance next school year, to take more one day trips like this one!

Poland

This July Nate and I will be traveling to Chojnice, Poland with International Messengers/our church (New Hope) to help run a family camp where we will teach English using the Bible as our primary text.

We have never experienced an overseas missions trip before, so we see this as a great opportunity to share the love of Jesus with the people of Poland. In our training packets that IM sent us, they wrote that Poland has a population of 40,000,000 people but probably less than one-tenth of 1% have a personal relationship with Christ (Matthew 15:8-9). There are only about 80 missionaries in Poland (about 1 for every 500,000 people). Most people have never owned a Bible or read it.

Since we started dating Nate and I have always wanted to go on an overseas missions trip to serve God (Mark 16:15) but have not seriously considered it until this year. After some reading, praying and lots of late night conversations, we finally committed. It's exciting and scary all at the same time! Be watching for more posts about this exciting opportunity!