Random

• Like many people, our family is shifting gears from school schedule to summer schedule. Which for me mainly means coming up with reasons why my kids should be out of bed before noon and pitch in a bit with the house and yard work without sounding like I’m nagging.
• My girls should have been done with school in the middle of May (homeschool), but I let them set their own pace as the year drew to a close.  When June 1 arrived and they still weren’t done, I let them know they would not have a life until they finished school.  As the weekend approached, with the possibility of not going out, they became motivated and were done by Saturday.
• That is the end of over 8 years of homeschooling as a mom who said she would never homeschool.  It had its good points.  I’m not sure I would do it again if I had it to do over.  Maybe.

We had to turn the furnace on this weekend.  But first we had to deal with the critter that we heard crawling in the furnace chimney the previous week.  And my husband was out of town.

Getting cold and brave, I ventured into the utility room.  Brought my 19 year old son along to go for help if something happened.

Checking it out, I realized that the solution was going to be to stick my hand blindly up the chimney to discover what was there.  The possibilities were a bat, a mouse, a snake (ewwww!!!), a bird, or something else.  And we didn’t know for sure if the critter was dead or alive, but I was hoping for dead.

• It has been unseasonably cold here for the last couple of weeks.  It is only 40 this morning.
• Speaking of dead, the dog that used to chase me when I walk died unexpectedly.

We are expecting guests tomorrow, my first IRL meeting of a blog friend.  Unless they chicken out have a change of plans.  It seemed like a good idea when we were talking about it.

My kids think it is strange.  One of my daughters asked if they would be staying at the house.  When I told her they weren’t, she said, “Oh good!  That would be so creepy!”

Since her room is usually the guest room for overnight company, she was concerned.  Not that they would rob and pillage the place in the middle of the night.  I don’t really think Dan and Jane are like that. 

• I am in the throes of planning a 50th wedding anniversary for my parents.  It seems all of my summer plans are on hold until “after the anniversary” which is now less than two weeks away.
• My ReallyBigNumber highschool reunion is at the end of the summer.  I haven’t decided if I will go.

I’ve been reading C. Baxter Krueger. Listening to Greg Boyd and Wayne Jacobsen when I walk.  I would like to listen to the free Eugene Peterson download too.  I might have to walk more.

I am enamored with the New Testament lately, all of it.  I think I’ll post more about that later this week or next.

Sometime in the next couple of weeks I would like to post a little bit about where I am at the moment with church, gathering, and fellowship. I haven’t said much about that lately. Mostly just letting the dust settle.

• Some of my friends launched a new website this weekend for spiritual wanderers and dreamers, Communitas Collective. Check it out. I haven’t joined yet, but I will if they’ll have me.
• Barb Orlowski, who created a website with her doctoral dissertation on spiritual abuse asked that an announcement be posted that the information that is currently available on her website will soon be removed for publication.  Visit www.churchexiters.com before it is too late!
• Tomorrow there will be a couple of questions posted to Frank Viola as part of his book blog tour. Let me know what you think.

Back to the critter in the chimney, remember we could not see IT and did not know what IT was…

Hearing screaming, the kids and their friends came running. I ended up with a room full of teenagers and young adults in the utility room ready to help, although some of them only contributed to the screaming.

After several failed attempts to remove IT (believe me, IT was huge and furry), my son finally extracted a scrawny dead blackbird from the chimney and waved it in our faces as he went to get rid of it.

That’s all I have for a Monday morning.

What’s new with you?