AHHH!  How many more times should I try to make these cupcakes before I give up?  I made sure to add baking powder and not soda this time.  And they are a bit less caved in than the first time.  Still they are far from the perfect little domed cakes I’m hoping to create.  I’m sure the problem is that I’m trying to combine two recipes, but hey I’m a baker and I should be able to do this. [smile]

On the upside they do taste great, but honestly it would almost be better if they didn’t taste so good.  I might be persuaded to give up the battle.  Instead I think I’ll tackle them again at Christmas.  I’m a glutton for punishment I guess or perhaps I just trust that the third time will be the charm. [smile]

-m

The cool crisp air of autumn and the warm sun are on my list of things to be thankful for this morning.  If you have something you are particularly grateful for this morning, I’d love for you to share it in the comments.

-m

Just yesterday it felt like I was anticipating celebrating my birthday with my family in Georgia and now its November 2nd.  October seemed to rush in and out this year with little time to reflect.  Perhaps November will forgive if I wax philosophical about October for a moment.

I’ve always thought of October as the changing month and the month of the in between.  This year was the same.  The month began with warmer, cloudy fall days and much rain.  October 1st was a particularly dreary day if I remember correctly.  [smile]  Scattered showers and lots of cloud cover.  And on October 29th we had our first snow flurries heralding the approaching winter.  The month ended on a particularly bright note and though cold October 31st was marked by bright pure sunlight.  The trees followed the weather changes and mostly green leaves turned to mostly oranges, reds, and yellows. Transition happened in my life as with nature.  Twenty seven turned into twenty eight.  Another year of my life begun with new roads to travel. [smile]

I get the feeling that we’re “supposed” to feel like these autumnal changes mark an end of something.  But how can this transition not be seen as a beginning?  Autumn’s colors are not somber, but triumphant.  And the approaching cold brings an awareness to the senses that was not there before.  Instead of calling our attention to an approaching sleep, October with her changes commands we see the world with possibility.

Last night during our worship time for our house meeting, Josh led us in a poetry writing activity.  My mind was captivated by the hope in visioning possibility.  My poem below is quite rough, but I think is appropriate as I remember October 2011.

Possibility-
multiple paths, multiple destinations.

How did I get here?
God? Me?
Nature? Nurture?

This is not what matters.
I am here.
Possibilities fulfilled, possibilities opened.

What’s next?

As scary as the whole bike accident was I did get back on my bike the next Tuesday.  I biked twelve miles roundtrip for a “field trip” to Rock Creek Park for my Journaling in Nature class.  It was exhausting, but it was also pretty fun.  All my housemates now say that I’m ready to bike to school and back.  While I’m still a little terrified of that I do think its probably time to try.  Although with the approaching cold weather the thought of biking is a little less appealing… by the way have you heard that it actually snowed in DC today?

Stay tuned for a photo post in the next week of our 2nd Annual Halloween Party.  Lots of fun photos in from of the guillotine. [smile]

-m

I guess there are quite a few ways I could mark my birthday here, but I thought it might be nice to share with you some of the memories I’ll cherish from the 28 years I’ve been on this earth.  These are in a totally random order… chronologically and in regard to importance too.  I tried to include something from most of the places I’ve lived, especially as an adult, and tried to remember all the special people who have touched my life.  On that note a quick shout out to my readers:  If you’re a part of my family or a friend circle know that I am thankful for the relationship we have.  Your love has made the last 28 years great and make my future so bright!  Also if you think of some memory I’ve missed here, please feel free to add it in the comments.

Without further ado my list:
1. Meeting my sisters for the first time and my sets of twin dolls from each of my grandparents.
2. Dublin High School Graduation. Even with all the tears during the middle of my valedictorian speech that was a very special day.
3.  Nudge- our incredibly sweet first family dog.  I especially remember the night she laid on a blanket with the five of us in our back yard while we watched a meteor shower.
4.  Going to the Admissions office with Jane-Marie to ask to be roommates during LaGrange College Scholarship Weekend and our super spacious room in Hawkes Hall.  (Really we had the biggest room in the entire building… which was probably best because neither of us had ever shared a room with anyone before.)
5.  Climbing up my preschool playground equipment that was shaped like a spaceship and thinking it was so high.
6.  My 27th Birthday Party with MVS Community.  Picking out a pumpkin on a farm, learning that little baby Henry would be born in the spring, yummy food, Georgetown cupcakes, and then game night!
7.  Bible studies on Monday nights in Hawkes Hall Lounge.
8.  Being in Laura’s wedding.
9.  Visiting Taize.
10. Porch sitting and naps at my Grammy and Grandaddy’s house in Broxton.
11. The crazy “fort” the Bagwell/Martin cousins imagined existed in the small wooded area behind Mom and Pop’s house in Macon.
12. Calling my Grammy, the cake expert, while trying to make the icing for my first caramel cake.
13. Exploring England by train with Emily and Janell.
14. Each of “The Nine” Christmases in Meg’s Little Red Cottage and then in Katie and Noelle’s houses.  This year at Blair’s!
15. Sitting on the steps of the museum in Trafalger Square with my Mama and Daddy.
16.  Pumpkin Carving with my international housemates at MIH.
17. The great and the not-so-great first dates over the years.
18. Picking out a Christmas tree with my sisters and parents.
19. Chatting with my mom while we get a pedicure.
20. Beating my dad at backgammon.
21. LaGrange College Graduation- more tears, but still great memories.
22. Learning how to crack open crawfish at the community crawfish boil with my Sager Brown family in the Gym.
23. My college trip to Greece… standing where Paul might have stood in Corinth, visiting the acropolis in Athens, and the perfect pizza in that little Greek taverna somewhere in the Peloponnese.
24. Inspecting homes in Baldwin and Franklin, LA and supervising repairs, specifically the day a woman called me her angel.
25. Calls from my Grammy in which she only asks “Have you looked at the moon tonight?’
26. Being commissioned as a US-2 in NYC.
27. Friday Night MVS community dinners.
28. Pub nights after a full day of digging on the Salisbury Plain.

There are so many more memories that have come flooding into my mind while I’ve written this.  I have been blessed to have such a wonderful life.  I can only hope that the next 28 years will be just as amazing.

-m

Hope you laugh as much as we did while we were making it.  Also stay tuned for the continuing story… due to be posted on Friday.

“Cultivating a Broader “Us”:  Visioning a local ministry for persons whose lives are affected by mental illness in the United Methodist Church.”

What am I thinking? It sounds so boring. [smile] And I really have now idea what the cultivating a broader us is supposed to mean… except to indicate inclusiveness within the faith community.

I’m trusting that a night of rest will bring clarity in the morning.  Maybe I’ll dream the perfect thesis and title.  One can always hope.

I just received an email from the school asking me to fill out an application to graduate in the Spring.  AHHHHH! I went ahead and filled it out, but that now means my list of things to do gets 10 times longer.

• Start MTS Paper… and then finish it.  [smile]
• Revise my CV and cover letter.
• Decide what jobs I’m applying for… or should I say decide what I’m not applying for.  That’s probably the shorter list.  [smile]
• This should probably come before the last one:  Decide where to apply for jobs.  DC… NYC… LA… ATL… Nashville…. or maybe New Zealand?  I hear they have a great visa application process! [smile]
• Perhaps I should add: pass my classes.

And that doesn’t even include figuring out whether I’ll even walk for graduation.  I’d love too.  Wesley’s graduation ceremonies take place in the National Cathedral.  BUT… the little sisters, Saysa and Rachie, are potentially graduating from undergrad around the same time.

Fiddly-dee… I think I’ll put the decisions off for later.  Tomorrow is another day!

Anyway… while I was spending all this time in our laundry room I had this revelation about seminary students.  We’re capable of making anything that is remotely sacred into a joke and worse I’m pretty sure we are only funny to other seminary students.  Take for instance a couple of our community’s “Laundry Room Commandments.”  “Honor the bucket and keep it empty.”  Our dryers are weird and somehow extract the water from the clothes… so we have to periodically empty this random bucket of “dryer water” and of course this is on par with the command to keep the Sabbath. [smile] “The Box of those items ‘Left Behind.’”  The “left behind” are just clothes that are forgotten in the laundry room after your laundry day. No worries though.  They are not without the possibility of post-rapture redemption.  [wink]

We jest and laugh, but its just our way of breaking the seriousness of the theological questions we confront everyday.  Maybe they should include an improv class in the curriculum.  Could make Sunday mornings a bit more interesting for the parishioners.