in case you were wondering!
6:41 am April 23, 2007
So today in Lakeland, Florida a baby was brought into the world…his mother was all alone in the delivery room except for her cell phone that served as her connection to her husband who was far away in Minneapolis, MN and a swarm of nurses and doctors. This little boy came a little early (4 weeks) and while his mom was on vacation with his older brother visiting his great grandparents.
The little munchkin doesn’t have a name yet…cause his dad is still not there…but hopefully he’ll have one soon!
Man, these Tietjens are an exciting bunch!
it only hurts when you touch it April 18, 2007
It was gorgeous yesterday…and today. So beautiful that I decided to bust out the freebie bike from this fall. I borrowed a tire pump and did some heavy re-inflating…then took the purple monster for a test spin around the cul de sac…being pleased with my bike healing skills I decided that I was most definitely riding the monster to work today.
So I haven’t really rode a bike since Hawaii when we raced down Haleakena Volcano on Maui (2 years ago) and that really doesn’t count cause you’re flying down the side of a volcano through hairpin turns at 60 miles an hour with a bike that doesn’t have gears…
in my estimation if you aren’t peddling it isn’t bike riding… And my bike riding before that was minimal to say the least.
But i have aspired to being a tree hugging, non gas buying, tour de france, biker hippie so I was really excited for my free bike and now for good weather to hit the pavement. So off I went…blissfully unaware that there are hills in Woodbury. I found myself at one point peddling so slow that a little kid walking to school passed me. Now these inclines are easily missed when driving in a car with the backing of many horses worth of power…but when counting on my under coached legs to provide the juice…the outcome is not nearly as exciting as I was hoping for. I did however make it work in a reasonable amount of time…
Later in the day I was talking to my tax guy about my taxes (yes I know they were due today) and he says “sure you can pick them up and drop them in the mail by 5″…it was 4:30 and remember I rode my bike…so I psyched myself up, put on my backpack, donned the helmet and off I rode to Rhett’s house…he lives a mile or so away from church, so it shouldn’t be that big of a deal…but when you are me and not really a biker and you live in the town of woodbury that is vastly more hilly than meets the eye…it took me a while and when I arrived at Rhett’s office I was pretty sure there was no way I’d make it to the post office and still have the ability to walk. So I decided to peddle my heart out and head home and trade the bike for my motor powered car. While doing so I was given the opportunity to discover that I have the ability to peddle, hand signal a turn, and talk on my cell phone. I am quite the multitasker…and apparently very balanced.
But what I must say to the bikers of America is…does your butt always feel this way afterwards?
Haitians in Minnesota? April 15, 2007
Our friend Nadine came up to Minnesota to visit with her fiance George. I LOVE them. I spent all weekend with them and the Tietjens…I am sad they have to leave. In just 2 short days we went to the zoo, had a picnic, shopped the Mall of America, found bridesmaid dress patterns and fabric, picked a color for the wedding, found invitations, tried on wedding dresses, went to a Timberwolves game, ate and ate and ate, and deepened a now sure to be life long friendship.
full… April 10, 2007
I enjoy a good full day. What made today even more fabulous than most is that it was full with non-work things. There are very few full days that are full of non-work things and I LOVE them.
After a night of 10 lovely hours of sleep I went swimming. The first time I’ve swam in almost 2 months (pathetic, I know…) I swam away to Carsie Blanton singing in my waterproofed ipod and enjoyed the feeling of gliding through the water nearly effortlessly. I love that feeling…of being weightless…of moving my whole body by flipping my feet…it’s like I have super powers.
I spent the afternoon with the Char-meister. We played on the Big Wheels, ate some ice cream, practiced some soccer techniques (the whole goalie thing alluding me), and had juice box drinking races (I won because my mouth is bigger, or at least that is what Charlie says). It was beautiful out so we took a walk soaking in the rays.
After playing with Charlie I went to Sonya’s house to sort the purchases from the party last week…checking out everyone’s stamps and paper. i am easily excited by stamps and paper…I may need to go to rehab.
Wrapping up the day i went to Shamrocks with Laura and the 998 boys. It was a strange night because the bar was PACKED due to the Twins game and special that was being filmed there about Joe Mauer. His whole family was there with a news crew…kinda exciting…but annoying at the same time. But the company was stellar…I really felt like I was one of the gang–not just an outside friend of Laura’s.
My stomach is full…my day was full…and my heart is full.
mmmmm…..sleep April 9, 2007
It was a beautiful day today…sunny and warm (not really warm outside, but warm in your car after it has been in the sun for 6-7 hours.)
Last year was my first Easter solo from the family…Easter breakfast wiped me out (I am not so good at the early morning rising–this is why I had to kill my dream of being a baker, and astronaut, and a nature photographer). I spent the morning acting like I knew what I was doing then had lunch with the Brotens and Symmanks, at the Nadasdys …then napped the rest of the day away. I remember thinking that some day I want to have traditions…that incorporate past years with the me I am becoming…(my last year self needed to send a note to the this year self to get my act together)
It has been a beautiful Easter weekend though…the service on Friday night was great. Saturday morning was filled with rehearsals and egg dying. Saturday night I went to Laura’s confirmtion at the Easter vigil at Nativity Catholic church where I was blown away by the beautiful homily and incredible music.
Then Easter day…4am wake up bell, rock star breakfast prep, Sunrise service led by the youth, easter breakfast, egg fights, pancakes, clean up around noon…lunch at the Runge’s (first time I’ve had lamb for easter…tasty), a little nappy nap since I had already been up for 12 hours, then Mary and I finished off Easter at the Upper Room (which was pretty fantastic!).
Notes to self for next year…
call Thrivent to match funds for the Easter Breakfast…
get less eggs…
go to Easter Vigil again (cause it is beautiful!)
Plan a Orphan Easter lunch with hidden easter baskets
Wear flats on Sunday!!!
definitely go to the upper room
2nd edition of Wednesdays with little people April 4, 2007
So I may just start setting my wednesdays aside for watching friends’ kids….because I LOVE IT!
Today I watched little Ava, Eli, and Nate…They were unaware that I would be there when they woke up so Ava greeted me with many “No”s at varying pitches accompanying expressions of sheer confusion at my being in her bedroom at 7:30am.
She quickly accepted the reality that I was the only “big person” who was going to rescue her from her crib and decided I wasn’t the enemy any longer. She then turned into a little smile on legs…giggling at nate as he dropped cheerios into her milk and repeatedly asking “ya ya” (aka eli) to pass her a napkin.
After wrestling Eli out of his pjs and into clean clothes we decided to venture downstairs for some wild games of bucking bronco/earthquake/trampouline (take a pile of couch cushions, stack them up, then commence shaking, bouncing, wiggling the top pillow till the child who has ferociously held on falls off…then giggles in mild hysteria) and pretend ocean exploring (lay out the blanket on the floor and try to not be swallowed up in the ocean while pretending to be all kinds of things like a boat, scuba diver, dolphin looking for fish, etc). At one point Eli revealed his hidden identity as Superman and was flying in and walking on water then flying away again dropping big blocks in the ocean. I, in my wise kid watching ways, told him that the blocks needed to be rescued and taken back to their block house (the bin they belong in) and he jumped right in rescuing the blocks shouting “Superman to the rescue” in his best announcer voice. After about 3 blocks he swooped in grabbed a block then shouted “Superman doesn’t want to do this” in the same announcer voice and dropped the block while I fell over laughing.
Then later…as we’re picking up the cushions and reassembling the couch I casually said “Hey superman can you bring me that pillow” and he looked at me confused and said” I not superman, I elijah wavid wiffin” I’m not very well versed in Eli-speak so I had to ask him to repeat it and he slowed down, spoke louder “I eli-jah…Wa-vid…Wi-ffin!” I said, “Sorry, I must have gotten you confused with someone else.” He then cracked up and started pulling the couch cushions off the couch again.
this is Lindsey Marie Burken and I’ll be right back… March 29, 2007
Today i played with Derek’s kids and as usual I had a blast with these fabulous little people.
John, hanna, Ella, and I were playing with playdough…using cookie cutters, little plastic dishes and knives, putting our “cookies” on the baking sheets. I was given lessons on how to prepare my playdough for the best cookie cutting and amazed as I watched hanna and ella share the knives…but then totally entertained when John said in all seriousness”this is John William Broten and I’ll be right back” …yes he had been teaching me all kinds of mad-play dough cooking skills…but until he said this line I had no idea he was mimicking the Food Network. He then left the room to put the “muffins” in the oven…then returned saying “alright folks, these muffins are just about done and then we’ll move on to the cookies”
Fantastic…
Let’s interview the parents… March 28, 2007
Today a dear friend of mine made a recommendation for our confirmation interview process. Interview the parents on how they are going to continue to nurture faith development in their children after Confirmation.
It is pretty amazing sometimes that the number of students who come through the halls of WLC and get to a point where they choose to stand up and say “I believe in Jesus…that He is who He says He is, that He died on a cross to clear my name, and rose again…and I want to follow Him.” Some of them have parents who force them to go to church for Confirmation or Sunday school but never go themselves. Some of these students come to youth group with a friend and have parents who mock them at home. Many of them have been wounded by people in leadership at church or by friends who have claimed Christianity as their defense for judgmental behavior. Many still don’t have someone who approaches them by name when they come and spend the time here wondering if anyone sees them. It is pretty clear that God is working in them because in my estimation many of these students should never get to where they are because of us.
This same dear friend of mine shared about the fine line between believing we have to know all the right things to be a good witness and being prepared to have an answer but let God be the guide…because we always want to be God in the situation…to be the one who knows all…who is in charge.
Since the confirmation situation last week I have really been struggling with the confirmation process…parents, inadequacies, the vast holes in my understanding of how best love people. I am beginning to think the same thing is true about confirmation…there is a fine line between being the person consumed with “are we doing this the right way” (so much so that we’re paralyzed…angry…self injuring-ly cynical) and being a person who has thought it through and acknowledges that God works through broken stuff all the time thus demonstrating His God-ness and His much larger plan for all of us broken pieces in this process. It is just so easy to want to get better…do it “right”…fix it…and in doing so I immediately cross the line into “I can be God and make this process/program/ministry/relationship/you name it into something that is life changing…if I just figure out what isn’t right” I rarely move into “improvement mode” without attempting to replace myself as God in the situation.
So back to parents. I need to apologize tonight as a non-parent for judging. I know the job is vastly harder than I can imagine. I acknowledge that life rarely goes as planned. What I do long for though, is that all parents would understand that their children need them to be models…not judgmental, preachy, “do this cause it makes us look good” models…but “i say I’m sorry”, faith living, “still in the journey” models…so that your children can see what it looks like to grow up in faith. I so wish parents understood that much of what they are doing is shaping how their children make the decisions they are making and are going to make…even though the student may rarely take their advice…the parents’ patterns are passed down. So maybe we do need to have parent interviews…if for nothing else than to pray with them and remind them that this journey is far from over, that their role increases in these next few years, and that they are loved by the Creator of the Universe and Savior of the World…even in their brokenness…and He still wants to use them to shape their children.
