A welcoming church?

Yesterday we made a repeat visit to a church that was on our short list.  We went back because we liked the liturgy and preaching (and the music!) and, frankly… because it’s very close to home.  We’d gotten used to living close to church, and all the benefits that go along with that.  On the day of our first visit the pastor had politely asked guests to head down to the fellowship hall directly after the service, while members were to stay for an announcement by the Session.   We didn’t feel like fellowshipping with each other alone (we do that all the time) so we left pretty much right after the service.
Before we left I had a conversation with one of the members, and she subsequently sent me a very nice email with lots of information on local stores, etc.  We also got a nice letter from the pastor, welcoming us and mentioning that the happenings on the day of our first visit were unusual.  So, we figured we should go back.

We still liked the service, and the sermon was good.  It felt a little formal and stiff to me.  Afterwards we stood in line to greet the pastor then headed down to the fellowship hall.  There were a couple of sullen teens in the hall, and some men in the coffee room, and that was it, so the kids and I went in search of moms and children.  I guess the families with kids had left by the time we got outside!  There were some women milling around, but they were in conversation and had that “closed” look about them.  I’d blundered into those situations before and wasn’t about to do so again.  Cris chatted with some fellow seminary students for a bit; we didn’t stay too long.  When we were driving home, I thought about what felt wrong.

I realized later that there hadn’t been any announcements during the service.  No goings-on to report, I guess. But also no welcome to visitors.  If we hadn’t been there before we would never have known there was a fellowship hall and coffee and chatting to be had there.   So I realized that while I didn’t feel exactly unwelcome, it wasn’t real warm and fuzzy either.   It didn’t feel as though  (as a good friend of mine put it once, talking about another church) we’d crashed someone’s family reunion.  But it was kind of close.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been a new person at church, and I’d forgotten how uncomfortable that is.   So that led me to think about all the times I ducked into the kitchen after the service so I wouldn’t have to chat with people I didn’t know.  (I did have work to do, right?)   Or stood in a small closed circle chatting with people I did know.  Shame on me.

On a brighter note, a woman I met at another church we visited invited us to attend a potluck picnic this week.  That church has small-group weekly Bible studies, and hers is having a picnic this week instead.   Even Eleanor was interested in that event, so we’ll see how that goes.  That will be Wednesday.

Tuesday morning is Cris’s final exam – if you’re awake at about 9:30 am (Eastern) on Tuesday and in the mood to pray, Cris would surely appreciate it.   That night the seminary is having an ice-cream social for all the families and everyone is looking forward to that too!

Grocery store musings

It seems whenever I meet a woman, one of the first questions she asks is, “are you finding your grocery stores OK?” Notice “your” grocery stores. Meaning, ones I like. Well, the unspoken answer is “not really,” and who would have ever thought I’d miss Winco?

Mexican food is not popular here. That section in the “ethnic” food aisle is very small. But the array of canned tomato products is huge!

Beef, lamb and pork are cheaper here. Chicken is about the same. Vegetables are much more expensive. $3.59 for a head of cauliflower!

Buttermilk is not popular here. I can only find quarts, not half-gallons. Often that space on the shelf is empty. Sometimes there is no space for it at all.

Many people express great loyalty to Genuardi’s, because it’s a small local chain. But it was bought out by Safeway a few years ago, and the family name is all that remains. It’s really just Safeway. But don’t tell anyone that!

Double-bagging means a paper sack inside a plastic one. No handles on the paper sacks except at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. But if you need a bag at Whole Foods, you get a (mercifully short) lecture. Or maybe just a baleful glare.

Bulk bins? Forget about it. Maybe a few with candy and nuts. Way behind the times on that here!

I have yet to find a store that requires me to bag my own!  (The one thing I don’t miss about Winco.)

Couple of bad things about blogs

1.  Once you start a blog, people expect you to update it, even when nothing remarkable is going on.

2.  People who read the blog know what’s going on in the blogger’s life, but the blogger doesn’t know what’s going on in anyone else’s.  (That is a hint, people.)

Let’s see… kids are in a week-long Tae Kwon Do daycamp through the local parks and rec department.  Enjoying it immensely.  Of course these week-long camps are put on to entice the child/parent into signing up for regular classes.  We’ll see.  They did have a bad moment when they were instructed to bow to the American flag before leaving the room.  It was a sign of respect, they were told.  But it seemed too close to idol worship to them…

Cris is in the final stretch of his semester-in-a-month Greek class.  Looking forward to a few (very few) days off before the regular semester starts.  It should not be so intense.   Or so they say…

While the kids are in camp, I have been organizing and moving boxes.  The living room is now box-free but there is still the problem of where to put the rocking chair.

Oh, and I snuck into the library alone.  Don’t tell anyone!

We’ve been here 4 weeks!

Yes, time does fly whether we’re having fun or not. (But we are mostly having fun.)

Checked out yet another church today. Really liked the liturgy and preaching… lots of kids… the “right” music according to Eleanor… not so close to home, though. One of the homeschooling moms told me about their little group so we’ll check out one of their park days. Park days are big around here with the homeschoolers. Any Evergreeners remember how clingy Eleanor was when we first started attending there? She didn’t let go of my arm till one Rachel appeared at church one day. Well, she’s back to that, and now she’s added scowling into the mix.   It wasn’t so cute at age 5, but even less so at 8.  Being in new situations and meeting new people is difficult for her.   Of course, it’s difficult for many of us, but some hide it and manage it better than others.  If anyone feels so inclined, a prayer for her to, um, lighten up a bit would be appreciated.

It’s a very rainy day. After church we went to the library and are about to hunker down with our load of books and some tea. Yes, life is getting back to normal. Only a few boxes in the living room. In our old house, no one would even notice! I could cover ‘em up with a sheet and have a new table! But here… no room for extras. I am also missing one box of kitchen stuff, which must be hidden in the garage. One wonders how necessary those kitchen items are if I’ve put together 4 weeks of meals without them!

Wherein Elsie and I go to a party

How did we get invited to a party already? Our realtor has an 8 year old daughter and had a “High School Musical 2″ party last night. It was the premiere (on the Disney channel) of the movie. We had not seen (actually had barely heard of) the first movie, so we were at a disadvantage right off.

Eleanor found the experience interesting. She said the movie was OK, but couldn’t quite work up the level of excitement the other girls had – screaming as the clock on the Disney channel counted down the seconds to the start of the movie. She couldn’t sing along, and didn’t feel comfortable dancing like the other kids did (for which I am thankful). The girls were nice but Eleanor clearly didn’t fit in. Oh, it was a birthday party, and though we’d been assured we were not to bring a gift (we’d never met the birthday girl before), we stopped and picked up a beanie baby. I had one bad moment thinking we’d brought too babyish a gift – all the other gifts were tv- and movie-themed – but it was well-received.

I think the best part for her was when the satellite signal vanished for about 15 minutes and the girls played Twister.

Cris and James were happy to stay home and miss the movie.

“I’m not new anymore, so it was better.”

Today was our 4th homeschool group park day. Major breakthroughs in the friends department! Both James and Eleanor found that kids who seemed unfriendly on our 1st (2nd, 3rd) visits were OK after all. James summed it up: “I had a great time. The kids are all nice! I’m not new anymore, so it was better.”

The stomachaches which have been bothering him off and on since we arrived have disappeared. And both kids say the house is starting, a little bit, to seem like home, and it’ll be even better once all the boxes are out of the rooms! Soon, soon….

Another Sunday, another church

Yesterday we checked out the OPC church in town. Very close by, and right across the street from WTS campus. We saw a few students that we’d met at the new student lunch a few weeks ago. It was a nice church with a liturgy very similar to Evergreen’s.  At the end of the service visitors were invited to go to the fellowship hall for coffee and, you know, fellowship, but members were asked to stay for an announcement by the Session. It felt a little odd to be going to the fellowship hall to hang out alone, and it was clear that visitors were not to hear the announcement, so we came home. We did chat with a few people and might yet go back.

Cris is halfway through Greek. It is wearing on him a little. We knew it’d be busy but didn’t quite understand how busy. The Monday quiz was met with groans by all the students. We still had time for our evening walk but lately he’s been bringing his flash cards along to review vocab as we go.

As we walk around the neighborhood, we have realized that there are 2 main house plans to be seen. They just repeat, with minor variations, over and over… it’s interesting to see how people have changed and updated their houses. On the next street over, we just see our house again and again! We’re already thinking of things we’d like to change before we move again. Our kitchen will surely have to be updated before we sell the house. And a roof over the back deck would be so nice… a place to enjoy the summer rains.

The pleasures of the hammock and a shady back yard

Eleanor spent a good part of the day reading in the hammock.  On a not-too-hot, low humidity day.  Ahhh….

This was after we’d eaten both breakfast AND lunch out on the back deck.   Our new yard may be smaller than our old one, but it is definitely more usable – easier to get to from the kitchen, and shadier at all times of the day.

Cris and James installed a tether-ball post.  We bought it 3 or 4 years ago for a song at one of GI Joe’s sidewalk sales.  Never did anything with it.  After hauling it 4,000 miles we figured we’d better get it in the ground, or get rid of it.  We’re not moving it again!

I contemplated the places for planting daffodils and tulips.  It’s almost fall!

We are now legal here.

It took 7 hours and visits to 3 different Driver’s License Centers and 2 different AAA offices, but we are now officially Pennsylvanians.

We went to the first PennDOT (DMV) office in the morning; the line snaked out the door and around the building. Figuring we’d come back another time, we went to AAA which is where we get our registration transferred and our auto tags. But when we got there, we learned that we can’t register the car till we have the driver’s license! So on the AAA guy’s recommendation we head to a nice little office near Villanova and Bryn Mawr U’s. But we were turned away – that is for photos only; we didn’t have the needed documentation from a “test center.” Forget about the fact that we don’t need to take a test – we need to go to a test center!

Finally we found the right center – back on our side of the county – and wait our turns. As soon as I stepped up to the counter, my new best friend Sandy informed me that their computer had just gone down so there wasn’t anything she could do. Well, actually, there was – she got our documents together, took ouor checks, and set them aside, promising to call when the system came up back. Which she was sure would not be today, not with the weather like it is. Come back Tuesday, she said, and come to my window, and it’ll all be here.

Before moving on we stopped for a “water ice” for the kids. That’s a snow cone, sort of. They appreciated the treat after all the driving and waiting for nothing.

At Lowe’s (we visit Lowe’s a lot), Cris got the call that the system was up. We headed back and true to her word, Sandy was waiting for us. She sped us through the photo process and off we went with our licenses. Then it was to AAA again, for tags and our nifty new EZ-Pass transponder so we can blast through the toll booths on the Pennsylvania Turnpike! No more trying digging for quarters as we approach the toll booth! No more wondering where I stuck the toll ticket!

So I guess we are staying for a while. So come see us! We’ll even show you the dungeon.

Getting out and about

Today was another hot, steamy day. It’s 9:30 pm and still over 80. The kids stayed in all day, as they did yesterday.

But we have been getting out and about some, and finding our way around. We have found our library, gotten our cards and checked out a bunch of books, including some on choosing and training a dog. We’ve checked out some local parks, both on our own and with our homeschool group. We visited the Briar Bush Nature Center, which is a charming place, similar to the Audubon center in Portland, though smaller and with fewer stuffed birds. (James pointed that out to me right away, except of course he said “dead birds.”) More live animals, though. Both kids are signed up for some classes there this fall. Eleanor in particular found the little pond full of toads, frogs, and turtles enchanting.

We’re starting to get a little rhythm into our days. I’m trying to get a solo walk in most mornings before Cris leaves for school. This is a great neighborhood for walking or biking. We’re down to one car, so when Cris leaves for school the kids and I are housebound (the only interesting place close enough to walk to is the train station, and it’s too hot for that right now). We do some unpacking, arranging, and reading aloud, and will get into some of our homeschooling materials real soon now. I still have to find a few things, like math books. And a place we can sit and work. On Thursdays it’s homeschool park day, so we take him to school, run a couple of errands, and head to the park. After lunch, Cris studies, and the kids and I either go out, or we don’t. If we don’t go out, the kids play till they start to fight, then they read, then they play some more, or they do some crafts. I unpack some more. In the evenings we either go for a walk all together, or listen to The Fellowship of the Ring.

Not so very exciting, eh? But that’s the way we like it.

When the month of Greek is over, we’ll probably get out more as a family and see some of those important Philadelphia landmarks. James is particularly anxious to get to some battleship… he’d be angry that I’ve forgotten the name…