Excerpts from a Letter to Gretchen, January the 16th, 2007
Wednesday, January 17th, 2007I was writing to Gretchen in a “work” email, and in giving her an update on the household, I got a little carried away… here you’ll find most of my letter to Gretchen. It may be helpful to know that Gretchen and I correspond about checks that come in from donors to the People of Praise Action Program Office.
Good morning, Gretchen!
It’s beautiful here this morning- fresh snow blanket and bright sun!
David and I, true Minnesotans to the core, are pretty happy about it.
Claire, though she loves her kiddies, was disappointed that we didn’t
get the three feet of snow she was hoping for to make it a four-day
weekend. Trish and Sean are probably not thinking about it because
Sean is a bit weary- still wiped from last month- and Trish is bashed
and bruised from a rather nasty fall headfirst down the Ellsworth
stairs (pray she hasn’t seriously damaged anything)! Nick, newly
returned from the frigid north, confesses no great love for the white
stuff. Jeremy discovered that the reason he had a hard time clearing off
the car was that the scraper was missing most of its teeth. The dry
weather might be good for Chris, since his forehead has been swiped
with holy oil every morning prayer the last week (and will continue to
be until we heal him!). Laura is just happy about the good
ice-skating weather.
We had a packed weekend! On Friday we had watched a good film, “13
conversations about one thing”, and had a good conversation about it
(nice change to watch a film that wasn’t simply comic or simply
action). Went ice-skating on Saturday (I learned to cross over my
legs on turns) and ordered Chinese for supper, followed by games
(David just barely beat Sean at settling Cattan). On Sunday morning
we all converged after church and hung out while looking at design
books Trish is gathering ideas from for the house. (We also learned
from Jeremy an inventive and dish-free way to eat a whole carrot
dipped in hummus, no double-dipping…) We’re brainstorming on a name
that doesn’t include “MacMillan” or the word “institute”. We got some
packing in at Chris Meehan’s house, and MacMillan is now being cleaned
by Gabriel staff for our immenent move-in, and Chris has hopefully
found a renter for his house as of yesterday! The women went out to
lunch at Studebagels and discussed what the missionary conference
means for us who are commissioned to take Gadget-Land for Christ; we
all want to do more to get to know and understand Gadget-Land- we feel
we’re most of us not nerdy enough (computer-nerdy… I think we’re
nerdy to start with… in a good way). I finally set up an IRA
account (with my acting skills, I think I convinced Rich Preuss that I
sort of understood all this investment stuff). Nick came home from MN
after helping put on a retreat for the Dinkytown folks. Arguably the biggest
event this weekend was the Premiere of Season Six, of a certain “24″.
Let’s just say I was getting rather apocalyptical Scripture passages
this morning in prayer.
And that’s the news from Lake Woebegone.
Hope y’all had a good time… I’m sure the Lasagna was killer-sweet.
hm, about the ____ family… my goodness, that’s generousity!
alright back to work! Blessings upon you!
love,
Elizabeth