Friday Five: Home Sweet Home

Bird bath at my Mom's house

Songbird is thinking of home today and offers this RevGalBlogPals Friday Five:

1)  Where was your first home?
I was brought home from the hospital to a little ranch house on Corozal Road in El Paso, Texas.

2) Do you ever dream about places you used to live?
Yes.

3) If you could bring back one person from your past to sit at your dinner table, who would you choose?
My maternal grandmother.  Many a good time was spent around many tables with her.

4) What's your favorite room in your current living space?
That's a tough one.  Right now, it would probably be the kitchen. It's where the coffee is!

5) Is there an object or item in your home that represents home to you?
Anything flannel. The robe, the sheets, the back of a cozy throw -- these represent comfort and, for me, home is all about comfort and rest.

Friday Five: Endings and Beginnings

Sally at RevGalBlogPals is finishing up her Master's thesis for a programme that began in 2006.  Her Friday Five for us:

How about you as you look back over the last few years:

1.  Have you completed something? What was it, and how did you celebrate?
This is very timely as I just completed a 3 year pastorate.  It was a mismatch from the get-go, but we all attempted to make the best of it and there was palpable relief for all that it was coming to an end. The celebration at the church was a very nice reception with a gift after the final worship service last weekend.  My own celebration is happening now as I spend a week of vacation in Baton Rouge with family and enjoy the things around my niece's wedding tomorrow.

2. Is there something that you are waiting to begin?
I get to begin a new ministry at a church next week.

3. Is there a project you keep putting off and why?
I want to get rid of almost all of my books. I am putting it off because I would love it if those books could be of use to someone else, especially the ones related to ministry and faith.  I am thinking of having a party and inviting my pastor friends to come over and just take what they want.

4.  What would be your dream project/job?
I am doing my dream job, but more and more I wonder if part of the dream might be a different location. I am getting tired of trying to hide my southern roots and trying to fit in to a culturally strange part of the country that might not fit me anymore.

5.  Be creative, you are going to publish a book/song/poem, what is the title?
Lately, the book I'd like to write, dedicated to parishioners and colleagues that just don't get it:
I'm Not Your Friend.

Just For Fun: Fairy Name Generator

It's a great day for some fantasy escape!

My fairy name is Feather Hailglitter

She protects and comforts the lonely.
She lives in high places where the clouds meet the earth.
She can only be seen in the light of a shooting star.
She wears pale blue like the sky and has cheery turquoise wings like a butterfly.

Get your own fairy names from The Fairy Name Generator!

Friday Five: Workspaces

Today's RevGalBlogPals Friday Five is about workspaces and what's in them.  Today, revkjarla invites us to name five things in our workspaces that are special. Some of mine are:

A Jack Sparrow puzzle -- pictured here, it was a gift from a friend and lives on my home desk.

A crystal jar -- a gift from the first church I served, it was given -- and has remained -- full of M&Ms and usually resides on the desk of my pastor's study. I'm moving out in the next two weeks so the pastor study stuff is in transition, too.

A magnetic puzzle -- the kind with little men (or women?) you can stick together.  Turns out those pocket crosses are magnetic, too, as are paper clips. It's also usually on my pastor study desk. Kids play around with it when they come in to eat M&Ms.

An "EASY" button -- as in "That Was Easy" -- pushed mostly in irony lately, or would that be sarcasm?

A "To Do list" -- I make them because I should; I ignore them because I can.

Friday Five: September Blessings

I had a Flintstones lunch box a lot like this one

Today's RevGalBlogPals Friday Five as posted by kathrynzj:

Headquarters for me is the northeast of the United States. Here school is getting back in session, the tease of autumn is in the air (or the hope for the tease of autumn is in the air) and church life is gearing up to full throttle.

One thing I've learned with blogging and social media is that the where I live is not necessarily where you live. And so I want to know what September means to you, in your place of the world and time in your life.

This week's Friday Five is:

What are 5 things that the beginning of September mean to you?

Bonus: What's one thing you could do without?

Thanks, Kathryn, for posting this one!  

September is my favorite month and here are a few reasons why:

• September starts with a holiday weekend.  Yea, Labor Day!
• September is my birthday month.  My birthday sometimes falls on a national holiday, as it does this year.  Sweet!
• Back to school clothes and school supplies.  Still love 'em.
• The color red.  Tinged leaves, school house icons, apples -- all in my signature color.
• A mini-New Year-type season of new beginning.  A good time to reassess and regroup and start anew.

Bonus: I could most definitely do without the October, November, and/or December holiday "buy me" displays and ads making their initial appearance in my favorite month.