Odds and Weekends....

On the Super Bowl: To quote a Chicagoland billboard, "Baseball divides us, but the Bears unite us." Our family is united with millions in our fair city in mourning the Bears' loss.

Cub fans, sadly, are used to these kinds of disappointments. Et tu, Bruins?

On church plants: We joined the folks up in Kenosha this morning for their fourth service--our second time joining them. We met a new family, Papa Rooster gave an excellent sermon, the final song left us all wanting more, and we had a nice meeting afterwards with the core team. We settled on a name (to be revealed in some other post), which will enable us to go ahead and open our own bank account, legally organize as a church, and begin to talk dollars on the property.

On the property: We're in an information-gathering stage regarding roofing estimates, asbestos evaluations and hopefully some info from the city on what they would require to bring it up to code. Now that we'll have a name and a legal entity, we can make an appointment to talk to the diocese of Milwaukee regarding purchasing the property.

We took friends there today for a tour, and they were excited with us about the potential. I got another chance to look at the areas I had wondered about converting into living spaces, and they all were indeed likely possibilities. It will take time and money to make it all beautiful, but the potential for beauty is there, and the functionality of the space for what we want to do is remarkable, I believe.

We're also trying to come up with a date for the follow-up meeting to last week's announcement.

On my foot: Well, I've been able to squeeze my foot into a gym shoe for the last three days, and today, I hobbled around all four buildings as we toured the property. I was in pain by the end, but it was nothing compared to what I would have experienced a week ago. I'm still spending all my spare time with my foot elevated.

On the concentration camp look: That would describe my right upper leg. As I lifted my right leg to pull on a pair of pants this morning, I noticed that my thigh was only as wide as my thighbone. There was flab hanging down below the bone, but the muscle that one can clearly see and feel surrounding my left thighbone is conspicuously absent on the right side. After only 4 weeks of non-use, those muscle are completely atrophied. (There's a sermon illustration or devotional thought in there, I know it, but I'm not going to dig it out right now.)

On children's theater: Remember we're doing Cinderella? Well, rehearsals have been underway, costumes have been fitted, and tomorrow is the official beginning of Crazy Week. There is a dress rehearsal tomorrow night, full makeup and dress rehearsals on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, two school-day performances on Thursday morning, Opening Night is Friday night, and we have a matinee and an evening performance on Saturday.

I'll be doing makeup, but for the first time since my second show, I just have to show up. I'm not chairing the committee this time--what a good call! That was the Lord, because I had no idea my recovery would be this slow.

Oh, I have a great story for the teenagers who will be asking me about my foot this week : I broke my big toe while snowboarding. Yeah, I was showing Bantam11 how to do an alleyoop.

I tried it out on one boy already and he totally believed me. I had a bunionectomy is just so boring.

On visitors and birthdays: My parents are coming on Friday to see the show on Saturday. They will babysit Bitty Bantam on Opening Night, which is the day he becomes Bantam2. On the following Monday, Bantam7 will turn 8. I have not even begun to think of suitable ways of marking these occasions, and our guest room is a wreck.

On blogging: Expect a light week...or, with luck, there will be pictures!