August 06, 2006
Happy Camp V
A few years ago, Mom planned a get together where all the PA relatives would gather and play lawn games. She made a scoreboard. You got a point for participating and three points for winning. At the end of the weekend, there was an awards ceremony, complete with prizes.
So now it's Happy Camp V, and let me give you the guest list:
Grandma and Papa, the host and hostess
Mom and Dad
Mom's Brother and his Wife
Cousin #1, her Husband, and his Daughter, and a Friend of the daughter's
Cousin #2 and her Husband
Cousin #2's Parents-in-Law
Me and the Dude
Sister and my BrotherinLaw
the cousins' mother (the ExWife) and her Husband
whew! 20 people. Thankfully, not everyone stayed at the farm, but it was a ton of people to feed every day. It was well organized and really a lot of fun.
The games:
Badminton
Croquet
Bocce
Yolf (yard golf)
Sitting Duck (a bocce variation)
Holey Board (a homemade game kind of like a carnival game...throw the washers into the holes)
Horseshoes
Walk to Pond
Scattergories
Pinochle
Catch Phrase
Uno
Wienie Roast (roast your hot dog over the fire then eat it)
Shooting the Revolver
Many more.
It was a lot of fun! Here's the highlight: what we used for the Shooting Target. First let me say that the theme of Happy Camp is the Happy Face. We decorated using him as the theme. And so we had a little bit of a Happy Face Tablecloth left over, so that was the target. You know what my mom said? "What are you smirking about? Wipe that smile off your face. Take that, Happy Boy!" It was a laugh riot, the irony of ironies, and really funny.
I didn't win Happy Camp (duh) but I won a croquet game tonight--I even beat Dad!--and got to play more lawn games with my immediate family. That was the best.
Tomorrow: leaving for home. Amazingly, I miss it. I hate leaving Togetherness, and I am not exactly thrilled about facing The Real World and Responsibility again, but I miss my little home.
Posted by The Newest Worker at 12:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 03, 2006
Before Happy Camp
It's Center Hill. I've been coming here in the summer for years on end. The Dude and I had quite a few DateWeekends here. I was engaged here. I haven't been here since before I moved from Pennsylvania. And here I am again.
I love the orchard. I love the apple tree that sits right in the curve of the lane. I love the view, both from the house in the valley and from the top of the lane. The best view is from the top of the orchard. I love this farm dearly.
It's good to be here and to have time here before Happy Camp starts.
Monday, Mom, Dad, and The Dude cleaned out the other tree in the front yard. When Mom was 6, her granddad didn't like how their wiffle ball playing tore up the grass, so he went to the woods, got three trees, and planted them in the yard. Now they are 50 years old! One was cut down about 7 years ago (by my parents, Sister, and me. Of course), and now there are two left. They tower over 50 feet. They hadn't been touched for years and Mom finally convinced Grandma to let her clean one tree out--prune off the bottom branches and open up the view a little. And now the third tree is cleaned out, too. We have moved the picnic table to the new Grove and have also moved the patio furniture out there. It's lovely and soothing.
It's been a good time here. So good to be together. A good last-week of our vacation.
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July 30, 2006
Where Everybody Knows My Name
It's a terribly easy thing to romanticize the past. I have missed Central Pennsylvania so much, and am remembering the sweetness of Christian fellowship I experienced while I lived here.
My weekly Bible Study. An elder and his wife host it, the elder teaches, and the atmosphere of sharing prayer requests, praying together, and studying scripture together has not changed. The fellowship and brotherly love is still there, and I delighted to be included again, just for an evening.
My friends Mark and Holly. Mark was one of my colleagues and I ended up having dinner at their place once a week and watching TV with Holly while Mark did Something Else (never did know what that was...renovating or something). Anyway, Holly and I watched Survivor together every week. They were good friends and it's been just lovely to have spent time with them again this week.
My church here. They meet in a different place now, but it's the same church and the heart of passionate love for the Savior and for his Body are still there, and people were truly delighted to see me again. It's nice to be remembered and welcomed!
But I was saying that I can romanticize much too easily. My school year was terribly hard here. It's a good school but like all schools has its foibles and blind spots. The weather got me down (though locals said it was an unusually bright winter). And traveling to see the Dude was very wearing--though it was also tough to love him so much and live so far away from him.
The pressure got so high that I had panic attacks. Sometimes once a day. Certainly on Sunday nights when it was time to leave my 'date weekend' with the Dude and head back home. It was tough, and the Lord has been good to me.
Here's a thought. Possibly it's cliche and cheaply touching. But I still think it's a good thought.
It's when the nights are darkest that we can see the welcoming home light all the more clearly.
And that's what those fellowship groups were to me: welcoming home lights. Praise God for them.
Posted by The Newest Worker at 06:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 26, 2006
Steelers Fans Live Here
Last night we had dinner with The Dude's Brother and his new wife...well, wife of 6 months.
We haven't heard from them in a while and had a really nice time. Too bad we live so far apart; regular communication is difficult. But God is gracious. He gives us ways and means, and occasional visits. You know, tonight we met at Eat'n'Park at 9:15 and left at midnight, talking the whole time. Aaaaah.
Today we had lunch with our friends from the Dude's church -- the couple which hosted me every time I visited The Dude during our Courtship year -- and their four kids. What a nice family. I miss them already.
Posted by The Newest Worker at 05:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 24, 2006
Effingham
Tonight we are spending the night in Effingham.
The name makes me giggle.
There's a big (really big!) cross just to the south of I-70 here. It's lit up.
We found a good motel and are going to Pittsburgh tomorrow.
Nothing much more to say from Effingham. It's in Indiana.
Posted by The Newest Worker at 05:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 23, 2006
Kansas Flatlands
It's not really a high, like you get from the breathtaking heart attack beauty of the Rockies, but it's still a quiet beauty, a response to years (centuries? millennia?) of wind and rain and snow blowing all the way in from the Dakotas and all the way to Texas.
It's flat here, but beautiful, and it's been a blessed week of learning about and being with and being immersed in the Work Zone -- with help from my Work Guide The Dude and my SIL the Work Sister.
I miss my family and my childhood home but I am learning about all the places that are also dear to my heart, and wonder of wonders, this place is dear to my heart also, and I didn't even know it.
Posted by The Newest Worker at 08:22 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
July 13, 2006
Rocky Mountain High
When we got in sight of the mountains, and I saw how clearly you could see trees (you can see every tree on the mountain ridge, even though it's about 20 miles away!), and I saw the familiar bluest-sky-you-ever-saw with the lovely poofy clouds you can see for miles and miles, I cried.
I have missed my Colorado.
It's not humid! I've been sitting on my parents' deck in the heat of the afternoon (the bank said it was 93 degrees today). Outdoors and haven't been dying of heat prostration, because the breeze moves and the heat dissipates so much more readily.
Aaaaah, summer. Aaaaah, Colorado. What a lovely combination.
Posted by The Newest Worker at 08:29 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack