A week's passing

It's hard not to fall behind, so many of these pictures--most--are from the last week in March.

Old snow...new snow drops on the way to Lake Acotink

So fresh -- snow drops

Scenes from story time with 2nd graders
The little girl in the front row with the lighter pink dress is named Talia.  She's a twin of Isaac (different class) and has always reminded me of Lena a little in looks. So she's one of my faves!

Fourth graders doing some research on databases

I started the 2013 taxes.  I knew this day was coming, but it is still rather poignant, even sad, to think that we can claim no dependents any more.  Plus it means paying a lot more taxes! Ugh!

Actually, now two Sundays ago, Steve and I decided to go to the National Gallery after worship (March 23).  We had gone to the later worship service in order to see a young friend confirmed, at his invitation.  He had been a fellow at McLean Presbyterian a few years ago and one of Steve's students.  His name is Garrett, and he is the young man whose uncle owns Noah's Ark, the river rafting business in Buena Vista, Colorado.  Last summer he took us on a half day of rafting as a treat.  It was so much fun!

Anyway, there were probably close to 70 people being confirmed, which makes the service long.  However, the bishop of our diocese (even though I still have a hard time with the idea of "bishops" and all) lays his hands on the head of each one and prays:

Strengthen, O Lord, your servant Garrett with your Holy Spirit;

empower him for your service; and sustain him by your grace 

all the days of his life. Amen

I love that prayer and felt I needed it for myself with each time he laid hands on another confirmant (I think they're called).  

After the service we headed to the National Gallery, first to the cafeteria for a cup of tea and a salad.

Wall of water!

Garden Area

Thank you, Vincent Van Gogh!

Azaeleas in the main rotunda

There was an interesting, though very small, exhibit of the real artifacts of the Monument Men.  This is a horrible picture.  It was under glass and then I made myself a shadow over it taking the picture!  In my mind I contrasted this with the amazing museum quality pictures Becca takes and posts on her blog :/.

Since some of the family were in Florence at the time I took this picture, I thought it was interesting.  This is a booklet given to servicemen to help them in their search for information about valuable art that needs to be protected or "liberated."

                

Table set for a friend coming to dinner.  She brought the daffodils below.

The hope of spring!  Pansies on the table and store-bought daffodils in a vase. Note the snow covering everything outside the window.
(Now our yard is absolutely filled with blooming daffodils, but two weeks ago it was not.)

Last snow...first daffodils

                 

On Friday, March 28, Steve spoke at the "Blue" conference put on by Fairfax Community Church.  It's called Blue because it's for the people in their congregation who sit in the "blue" theater seats in this auditorium week in and week out.  It was a conference on vocation and calling--the second annual.  It's amazing how we can live so close to this church and not have known much about it at all.  Yet it is large and vital and doing stuff like the Blue conference!  I went Friday evening and snapped this picture the evening with Amena Brown and DJ OPDiggy in a live poetry performance.

Birthday Week

There was some spring-like weather between snows that allowed me to get to the park and walk without kicking up a ton of mud.  Tomorrow is supposed to be another such day.  It's hard to remember now if that was the beginning of Steve's birthday week, but I think it was.














We don't have a lot of good pictures from Steve's childhood.  In fact, we have hardly any.  There are a very few tiny little snaps of great lack of clarity that picture him as an infant or even a toddler.  But some of his school pictures survived and are fun to look at, analyzing that pensive (or was it patronizing) smile he felt obligated to give the overly cheery school photographer or the good-natured grin of the ranch-loving, friendly, adventure-seeking boy.

Perhaps around 1962

'61-'63 range

                                  

March 12 itself was pretty ordinary.  Oh, there were lots of birthday greetings, but after a failed attempt to plan (very last minute) a dinner out with friends, we ended up just staying in.  Anna Deatherage, good friend and member of the Deatherage family who live near-by, baked these cupcakes that her dad Todd brought over later in the evening.

                                   

She and her good friend Georgia run a little neighborhood cupcake business after they were inspired to take a cake decorating course at the local craft store.  They are both eleven.  Please note the special one decorated in honor of his new book.

                                 

Steve and Todd with the precious baked goods

                                 

The real celebration was planned for Friday night when the DC area family came over for a traditional birthday dinner.  The occasion seemed worthy of Grammy's china and silver which we put to good use on a nice tablecloth.

                                 

The gang's all here, including Charlie's brother John who happened to be in town for the weekend from State College. From left: David, Erika, Jonathan, Steve, Charlie, John, Eden

Eden had fixed a delicious pork loin roast in the crock pot with wonderful gravy.  I added mashed potatoes and salad to it before cupcakes and ice cream for dessert.

Jessica returned from her amazing, awesome, and wonderful trip to Florence, Italy with the Greens and Elliott, Becca, Lena, and Gil.  BEAUTIFUL! But you'll have to get all the dope from her.  As a result of her being in town for a few days, there were some sibling and family get-togethers.  One of those was a walk along the Georgetown Canal on Sunday afternoon.  That was with David, Jessica, and Eden, me and Mia.  But a shady looking character with hood pulled low came up to us at the end of the afternoon, and it was Jonathan who had just been driving home from work.  So I was able to get the almost full group here.  This is the "nice" pose and below is when everyone is just not quite ready or were done.  They were all headed to worship at Church of the Advent 5:00 PM service, and I headed for home.

That night, as predicted, it began to snow and snowed throughout the night, giving us a St. Patrick Day snow day--our 10th or 11th, but who's keeping tract!  It was not unwelcome since it is one we don't have to make up.   Steve left for Portland and Seattle later in the afternoon for the rest of the week and was able to get out okay after his first flight was delayed, making him miss his Denver connection.  They put him on a straight through flight in first class, so he didn't complain.   The next morning was a two-hour delay, so another leisurely morning.

And finally, everyone--absolutely everyone--is enjoying Visions of Vocation!  Isn't it great!?!

Last week of February/First Week of March

Unusually so for me, I have been gone the last three weekends from home.  The first two I have written about--Jubilee conference in Pittsburgh and our wonderful but all-too-short hours in Central California.  The third weekend I went to our women's church retreat in Annapolis, Maryland with about 170 other women from our church.

However, the week leading up to the retreat was also eventful, mainly for the continuing winter weather and the resignation of my part-time clerical assistant at school.  The continuation of winter was inconvenient at points but not so bad.  Losing my assistant is more difficult, simply because it means taking time to hire and train someone new and in the meantime, to scramble more each day at school to get things done.  I have a small host of pretty faithful parent volunteers who come in daily to shelve books.  So that helps a great deal.  Many of them can also handle circulation for the hour or hour and a half that they are in the library.  I'm very grateful for that.  I already have two interviews scheduled for this coming week.  I would have hired a mom who has kids in the school last week, but in the end she said, "No, I'm not ready yet to leave home even part-time."  Of course, I support that decision for moms who can!

View from the French Doors at the back of the house

Mary, my assistant, on her last day.  I provided refreshments in our office for staff to drop in, say good-bye, and have coffee and snacks.

Our retreat speaker was the author of these books, Carolyn Custis James.  The theme was "When Life and Beliefs Collide."  I especially went to be with good friend Judi Deatherage, neighbor and also member of one of our small groups.  She's 15 years younger than me, but despite the gap, we have a lot of fun together and can encourage one another.  She's in the busiest time of her life with a daughter in college, two teenage boys at home and a daughter on the cusp of adolescence.  

I liked Carolyn's presentations.  Her thesis was that at times of testing (when beliefs and life collide), whatever we have as a theology (whatever we believe) is all we'll have to deal with the situation.  So, she encourages us each to deepen our beliefs (again, encouraging us to realize that's our theology), to know Jesus better.  She especially used the story of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in some interesting ways.  One insight on the story of Mary pouring expensive perfume on Jesus' feet and body was that she was ministering to him as one of the few people who understood and believed that he would have to die.  Jesus tells the others at dinner not to rebuke her because she is the only one who has understood and believed him when he said he must die, and she is preparing his body for burial.  I look forward to reading the book....  There is so much to read and so little time (as we've heard somewhere).

One of the workshops I went to was by a young woman (I guess she is Eden's contemporary or perhaps a little older) who wrote the books below on "The Faith of Jane Austin."  She has spent a life-time researching Jane Austin's life and books and letters and is convinced that Jane had a true and vital faith.  Sadly, Lori, the author has struggled with pretty severe Lyme disease for the past 10 years which has really colored her life, of course.  So she wove into her presentation autobiographical material too and her own life's journey, making some comparisons with that of Jane Austin.  I bought these two books and am happy to pass them on after I read them.  Maybe they'll even become birthday or Christmas gifts :).

Sunday night the predictions for another "major" snow brought on a host of cancellations including school for Monday, Steve's class for Monday and the much anticipated book launch.  So there was disappointment about the launch, which has now been rescheduled for March 31.  The snow did come, and we also had Tuesday off, our 10th snow day of the school year.  On Wednesday we had a two-hour delay as well.  But now the delays and days off are probably over.  Though we've had to make up days, it's always fun hoping for and getting some unanticipated snow days.

Out the front window

Steve left on Wednesday morning for Phoenix and a new cohort of pastors and market place parishioners through something called the Acton Institute.  They will meet throughout the year in various locations across the country to encourage one another to take up the ministry of encouraging congregations the that "vocation is integral, not incidental, to the work of God in the world."

Jessica came home late Wednesday afternoon in preparation for leaving Thursday night for Italy and a week with Elliott and Becca and the Green family in Florence.  Happy times!  So Eden and Charlie came for dinner that night to say hello to Jessica.  Thursday night Jessica and I met David and Jonathan in Arlington for dinner before she had to head to the airport.

Evening meal together: Eden, Charlie, Jessica

Garber ladies: Mia, Jessica, Eden, and me

                                 

Shafter Weekend--February 21-23

It was very special for Steve and I to get to travel together to his home town of Shafter (and Bakersfield), California where his newly published book was being featured at the local Colours Arts Festival.  The festival is organized and run by an old friend of Steve's, Larry Starrh, and an former student of Steve's and also Shafter native, David Franz.  Of course, there are lots of others involved in its inspiration and organization.  This year's was the Fourth Annual, I think.

It was to be a very quick trip, leaving early Friday morning and coming home on Sunday night.  But it ended up to be very special and totally worth it--to see the continuity of relationships over years and the blessing of affirmation for Steve's work through those long-standing and solid relationships.  We flew through Denver going and were delayed there a couple of hours due to wind.  But flying west from there was beautiful, with the broad expanse of the Rockies below us, decked out in an abundance of winter snow.

                               

                               

The further west we got though the browner it got.  California is in a drought that means the mountains are bare of snow and the farmers, including many of the friends we saw, are bemoaning the state of agriculture in the coming season.  There is a constant battle over water from Northern California where the snows provide water for the summer ahead.  Farmers in Shafter are being given a 0% allotment this year, and presumably whatever water is flowing past in the California aquaduct is heading to the urban areas and swimming pools of Southern California. It's more complex than that, but we could hear the frustration of friends and farmers as they feared for the crops this year.  It was interesting to hear the talk going to that so much, including what wells folks had and whether they were deep enough to withstand the drought of 2014.

Since we could not have our lunch date with John and Sandy Penrose due to delay of plane, we instead went in the mid-afternoon to Dewar's, a favorite local ice cream parlor in Bakersfield.  As soon as we were seated with our shared milk shake, an "older" couple walked in, and Steve thought he'd gone to high school with the fellow.  After a tap on the shoulder and a cordial conversation, this was confirmed.  Meryl was two years ahead of Steve in school and Susan, his wife, had known Steve's parents through church circles, exclaiming, "I loved your parents!"  They also were just visiting from Florida where they now live!

Dewar's mint chocolate milkshake

From there, Steve was meeting his brother Jim and someone else at 4:00, so I had arranged to go and see Lisa Walton and Sophie, Sam, and Max.  Chris and Grant had gone earlier in the day to a youth group weekend at Hume Lake Conference Center, where Steve also used to go as a youth.  I came bearing a bag of Dewar's taffy and enjoyed visiting with them for about an hour--a rare treat.  They don't really know me, and I hardly know them, but given the chance, I think we could all enjoy one another.  They have a beautiful home with lovely back yard and pool--very California style.

Sophie, Sam, Lisa, and Max

Sophie, Sam, & Max

From there I went over to Jim and Jill's place where we were staying and to meet Steve again.  We were headed then to Shafter to see the evening's production, directed and performed in by Larry and his wife Shawna, as well as the whole extended Starrh family.  I couldn't resist taking this picture below of Jim and Jill's dog Buster, who loves to hang out in their pool.  It looked so funny!

Buster hangin' in the pool

       Life is pretty casual there, so we dropped our stuff and headed to Shafter without changing our clothes to attend "Always, Patsy Cline," the production.  The Starrh family has bought the old Ford dealership in Shafter and is renovating it into a theater for plays and other productions as well as a venue for weddings and events.  It isn't complete yet, but the theater space was amazing, even unfinished.  The play is about Patsy Cline's relationship with a fan who became a dear friend.  It is chocked full of Patsy singing, accompanied by local musicians and back up singers, including Larry on electric guitar.  These people are SO TALENTED and really have taken to heart the mandate to create and use culture for the common good.  The two main actresses were Amy Adams of American Idol fame, as Patsy, and one of the local pastor's wives as Louise, her friend.  The production was sold out and the performances were extremely good.            

                                     

The almond trees were blossoming, the skies were blue, and the temperatures were mild--high 60s and low 70s.  There was a lot of talk among the Californians that they'd had an atypical winter with no fog or moisture and too much warmth.  But we loved feeling the warm sun on our faces and seeing the clear blue skies--well, sort of clear blue, until you look towards the mountains and don't see them but only a sort of brown haze.  Then you realize that there is a lot of smog in the valley.  That was also mentioned by residents there like Lisa, who is concerned about the bad air, and Tod and Nicki who hope to retire sometime to Northern California and clean air because of the asthma Nicki has developed due to the smoggy conditions in the Central Valley.

Almond trees with bee hives to insure fertilization of blossoms

The beautiful Shafter High School!

On Saturday, after breakfast and lunch with old friends, we headed to Steve's event featuring his book.  We had no idea who might be there--after all, it was a nice Saturday afternoon featuring a long gone Shafter kid, now grown much more mature.  The event was scheduled from 1:00-3:00 pm in the new theater, but due to fire marshall grumpiness, it was moved across the street to a church building.  Larry stayed at "Ford's Theater" to redirect folks.  This is what we went for, and we weren't disappointed.  In fact, it was really a heart-warming event.  About 60 folks ended up coming, most of them old friends of Steve's, one at least had come from as far away as 100 miles.  There were several generations represented, including a retired Kern County superintendent who had been Steve's 10th grade history teacher and became a good friend, who was there with his wife and grandson.  Very special also was having Steve's brother Doug and his wife Tracy there, as well as sister-in-law Jill, and many other friends.  The continuity of relationships and their interest and affirmation of Steve and his work through the book was amazing to see and experience.  He gave an excellent presentation of what the book is about and then took questions which lasted another half hour to 45 minutes.  Afterwards, there was much book selling and signing and exclaiming over seeing friends who he hadn't seen in many years.  This made the quick trip well worth the effort!

All members of the class of 1970 at Shafter High School.  From left Tricia, Johnnie Stockton (whose Dad worked with Steve's at the cotton research station before his untimely death on a boy scout hike), Mary, a girl from a very poor and broken family who is now the top real estate agent in Bakersfield; Lucy, Dad's first date in 10th grade to a church banquet (in lieu of the spring dance at school); Tod Moquist, dear friend from first grade onward who surprisingly married a Cypriot girl who Aunt Kathy had taught at the American Academy in Larnica; and Randy Penner, also friend from first grade on who farms in Shafter area.

We were delighted to learn that our niece, Elizabeth (Ellie), was starring in a play opening in a Bakersfield community theater that weekend.  It worked out for us to go with Steve's brothers Doug and Jim with Tracy and Jill.  It was really special to have such a rare chance for us to see her perform.  She's been loving theater and acting for a long time.  She and her husband are very involved in this theater, often he is the director of plays she is in.

                                     

Ellie's write-up in the program

Ellie in Picnic

Garber men and wives:  Steve, Jim, Jill, Doug, and Tracy

Our day and a half in Bakersfield and Shafter ended all too soon.  Sunday morning we boarded an actual airplane (not a jet) to Los Angeles to get our flight home.  Good-bye sunshine, warmth, and blue skies!

We think this was flying over the Grand Canyon.  Lots of beautiful Western scenery until it got too dark.