Blahs
Anyone else out there feeling it? You know, the winter blahs? It keeps me from blogging. Really. I'm reading a couple of great books right now, but I feel too blah to blog about them. And Claire is being so cute, but do I write that? Nah.
January is one of those months when I most doubt that I have anything worthwhile to post. So how do I get unstuck?
1.28.2004
1.15.2004
AWOL
I think I have been AWOL far more often than online the past month. This is mostly because I began a new project at church.
Our women's ministry is holding a banquet for women ministry leaders in February. When I'd agreed to chair the banquet committee back in September, I had no idea how much had to be hammered out behind the scenes for me to even get started. It has been a real learning experience for everyone involved.
Making a guest list for such an event was frankly a scary process. I was initially given a list of 300 guests, which would be approximately half of all women who attend or are members of the church. We have neither the seating capacity or budget to feed such a large group, so we had to start removing names. I just pray our decisions were wise and won't end up fostering a lot of bad feelings in the church.
It was a lot of fun to do graphic design work again. I think the invitations I created turned out quite nice and happily came in under budget. While I normally would have preferred starting the project months ago, I am now thankful that I didn't have this on my plate right after my father's death. The time pressure helped us avoid dawdling on decisons like paper color and the like.
Next I have to nail down details with the caterer. I'd appreciate prayers about this aspect because this person has a reputation of being tricky to work with. I have some absolutely delightful women on my committee who are happy to go to bat for me if I feel at all frustrated with the caterer, so that gives me hope for an overall good experience.
I think I have been AWOL far more often than online the past month. This is mostly because I began a new project at church.
Our women's ministry is holding a banquet for women ministry leaders in February. When I'd agreed to chair the banquet committee back in September, I had no idea how much had to be hammered out behind the scenes for me to even get started. It has been a real learning experience for everyone involved.
Making a guest list for such an event was frankly a scary process. I was initially given a list of 300 guests, which would be approximately half of all women who attend or are members of the church. We have neither the seating capacity or budget to feed such a large group, so we had to start removing names. I just pray our decisions were wise and won't end up fostering a lot of bad feelings in the church.
It was a lot of fun to do graphic design work again. I think the invitations I created turned out quite nice and happily came in under budget. While I normally would have preferred starting the project months ago, I am now thankful that I didn't have this on my plate right after my father's death. The time pressure helped us avoid dawdling on decisons like paper color and the like.
Next I have to nail down details with the caterer. I'd appreciate prayers about this aspect because this person has a reputation of being tricky to work with. I have some absolutely delightful women on my committee who are happy to go to bat for me if I feel at all frustrated with the caterer, so that gives me hope for an overall good experience.
1.06.2004
Sickly holidays
I've been pretty busy since we returned from our trip to visit family last week. It was nice to see my siblings, though under less than ideal conditions. Claire started running a fever on our drive down. After fighting through some pretty nasty traffic around Washington DC, Joel began to feel run down too.
When we arrived at my brother's house, both of them were feeling lousy. We began Claire on a 2-hour rotation between Tylenol and Motrin. A little Simply Cough helped her get to sleep. When Joel hit the hay for the night, he had the chills so bad I piled three quilts on him and he was still shivering. Claire woke every three hours throughout the night burning up with fever and screaming for "mommy, mommy, mommy."
Sunday morning my sister-in-law called around and found us an urgent care center that had Sunday hours. I had to do some hoop jumping with the insurance company to get approval for the visits. The urgent care center was fortunately not too busy. A nurse practitioner diagnosed Claire with an ear infection and Joel with a viral respiratory infection. We got prescriptions for both.
Within about 24 hours of starting antibiotics, Claire's fever finally broke and she became much more her usual self. Joel improved with lots of rest, which disappointed my nephew greatly (he wanted Uncle Joel to play soccer in the yard).
How I managed to escape illness is frankly a miracle. I'm asthmatic and very susceptible to respiratory infections. Perhaps my long illness in December gave me immunity.
Tuesday we continued south to visit another of my brothers in North Carolina. Two of my oldest nieces were there and it was fun to visit with them. Both are in their 20s and closer to me in age than most of my siblings.
They threw a New Year's party with 30 or so guests, most in their 50s. My sister-in-law warned beforehand that no one would stay until midnight. How well she knows her friends! Several asked if we could "call midnight at eleven." LOL! So, we toasted "Newfie New Year" at Newfoundland midnight. The guests promptly departed and we had all evidence of the party cleaned up before EST midnight, giving us time for a quieter family toast.
The drive home was clear sailing. If you ever have to take nasty Route 95 around Washington, New Year's Day (and Christmas Day as well) is a good time to do it. We made it from Wilson, NC to Philly in just 6 hours and 20 minutes!
I've been pretty busy since we returned from our trip to visit family last week. It was nice to see my siblings, though under less than ideal conditions. Claire started running a fever on our drive down. After fighting through some pretty nasty traffic around Washington DC, Joel began to feel run down too.
When we arrived at my brother's house, both of them were feeling lousy. We began Claire on a 2-hour rotation between Tylenol and Motrin. A little Simply Cough helped her get to sleep. When Joel hit the hay for the night, he had the chills so bad I piled three quilts on him and he was still shivering. Claire woke every three hours throughout the night burning up with fever and screaming for "mommy, mommy, mommy."
Sunday morning my sister-in-law called around and found us an urgent care center that had Sunday hours. I had to do some hoop jumping with the insurance company to get approval for the visits. The urgent care center was fortunately not too busy. A nurse practitioner diagnosed Claire with an ear infection and Joel with a viral respiratory infection. We got prescriptions for both.
Within about 24 hours of starting antibiotics, Claire's fever finally broke and she became much more her usual self. Joel improved with lots of rest, which disappointed my nephew greatly (he wanted Uncle Joel to play soccer in the yard).
How I managed to escape illness is frankly a miracle. I'm asthmatic and very susceptible to respiratory infections. Perhaps my long illness in December gave me immunity.
Tuesday we continued south to visit another of my brothers in North Carolina. Two of my oldest nieces were there and it was fun to visit with them. Both are in their 20s and closer to me in age than most of my siblings.
They threw a New Year's party with 30 or so guests, most in their 50s. My sister-in-law warned beforehand that no one would stay until midnight. How well she knows her friends! Several asked if we could "call midnight at eleven." LOL! So, we toasted "Newfie New Year" at Newfoundland midnight. The guests promptly departed and we had all evidence of the party cleaned up before EST midnight, giving us time for a quieter family toast.
The drive home was clear sailing. If you ever have to take nasty Route 95 around Washington, New Year's Day (and Christmas Day as well) is a good time to do it. We made it from Wilson, NC to Philly in just 6 hours and 20 minutes!
1.04.2004
Webcast
The webcast of our Christmas eve lessons and carols service is available online. Scroll down to the archived music events and select 12/24/03 - Christmas Eve. The prelude was performed by the Westminster Brass and the Tenth Chamber Players. Both groups accompanied the choir on several pieces later in the service.
The webcast of our Christmas eve lessons and carols service is available online. Scroll down to the archived music events and select 12/24/03 - Christmas Eve. The prelude was performed by the Westminster Brass and the Tenth Chamber Players. Both groups accompanied the choir on several pieces later in the service.
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