Cat-napping

I apologize for my recent laziness in the blogosphere. Things have been relatively busy around here, and I haven't had the time or motivation to write anything. Hopefully, I'll be getting back to the theological reflections soon -- I've had many, but never got around to blogging them. For now, a life update for those of you who are interested.

Things are going well here. The church is beginning new ministries and improving existing ones. We've established a coffee hour on the sidewalk in hopes of attracting new visitors, but really just to be good neighbors in the community by offering free coffee. We just finished making flood buckets for UMCOR, and we're hoping to send the youth on a mission trip this summer. Internally, we're beginning a long overdue membership audit, designing a website, and hopefully starting up a men's group.

The biggest news in our household has been our adoption of 2 stray cats. They were both part of a litter of 5 living in a parishioner's yard. We named the male Chief, in honor of the legendary founder of the Steelers, Arthur J. "Chief" Rooney. The female is Koloa, named after an old sugar town in Kauai, Hawaii, near one of the places we honeymooned. We spent a lot of time hanging out in Old Koloa Town. Koloa is currently playing with the zipper on my sweater, which means at least she's not trying to attack the computer screen. Koloa's on the left, Chief is on the right.
The biggest news in Lisa's family is a new nephew in the Hess clan. We went out to Hershey a couple weekends ago to see Owen Robert Hess. He's a cutie. Here he is with the brand new parents, Brandon and Julie.
In a couple weeks, I'll be heading to Nashville for a program through the Upper Room called Companions in Ministry. It's a 2 year program focused on using clergy peer covenant groups for spiritual formation. One group will be a writers group, centered on spiritual formation through the discipline of writing. Considering my educational background and my passion for writing and journaling, I'm hoping to participate in that group.

Tomorrow will be the first Saturday since early May that I have nowhere I have to be. Between church events, weddings, trips, and other obligations, I've gone almost 6 months since having a "normal" Saturday lounging around at home, sitting on the couch holding only a book, a remote control, and my wife. Seeing as the forecast for tomorrow is much like today's - 40 degrees and raining - we're looking forward to what kids these days call a mini "stay-cation."

I close with a short rant about playoff baseball. Why are the games so late? I can't stay up till midnight every night to watch these games. And why are there so many off days between games? Of course, we all know the answer to this: TV ratings. Which means it'll forever be this way. Hopefully, by next fall I'll have DVR, and maybe I can tape the 2nd half of the games and watch them in the morning before I go to work. Until then, I can't watch exciting baseball because I have to go to bed. I feel like I'm 7 again.