Today's the Day!

A goal is a goal, and my goal was to post every day. But I'm not promising to give an update before I fall into bed tonight. I'm writing this at 8:30 this morning. Wendy is up and showered. Jen has showered, and her hairdresser has arrived. I've fixed snacks for all of us to eat at lunchtime just before the ceremony--it's supposed to be a hot day, and we don't want any fainting! We have a big bowl of fruit on the counter (for breakfast, and again for dinner tonight), Evelyn's coffee cake, and the coffee cake a neighbor sent for us to enjoy. The sun is shining, and there's only a 30% chance of rain.
It's going to be a good day.

Friday of Wedding Week

Today was our wedding rehearsal, preceded by a stop at Memorial Hall to take plants and sound system and other goodies for decorations at the reception. It was blazing hot, and all of us were sweating at Memorial Hall, despite the presence of air conditioning, but that was a small negative in light of the perfect way the hall has turned out, under the able direction of Carol Ray with David, Jan Cummins, and Shannon Penrod adding their help, along with Wendy and Evelyn, of course.

The rehearsal was a relaxed and nostalgic and pleasant experience, led so well by Bobby Jackson who will perform the ceremony tomorrow. We shed tears at the magnificent processional played by Geoff  and Emily Plank. I was glad I got to hear Lisa sing, because I probably won't get to tomorrow (she sings before the bride and I enter). And the whole rehearsal was special because we got to be with Byron and Katie Cartwright.

Just as we arrived at CCU for the rehearsal dinner, the sky opened, and we had to hustle inside under umbrellas through the downpour. Later we learned that the storm at our house had caused one side of the pear tree in front of the house to split off. And when Matt got to Dan and Cindi Cooper's house to spend the night, he discovered that they're without power!

But the dinner was what Jennifer wanted, I think, a relaxed, fun time together, with lots of laughter and way more food than we could all eat.

Scott, Amber Lyn, and Amber Jo Aulen 

Ken and Susan Aulen and Lisa Sweeney-Taylor 

Wendy Wagoner, Jana and Greg Perry

Thursday of Wedding Week

Today, the hottest day of the year, and two days before our wedding, I mowed the lawn. Actually, I planned to mow just the green spots around the trees we had watered. But by the time I was done, I had probably run the mower over 3/4 of the lawn. It wouldn't have taken much longer just to run over all of it. 

And then I edged the lawn and the flower beds. I hadn't been done for weeks, and I was waiting to make it sharp just before we have extra company this weekend.

After lunch, the ladies went on an outing to get pedicures, and Matt and Miles and I took two cars to the Thunderbird Car Wash where Ryan White treated us to freebies and upgrades. Thanks, Ryan! Then  I went to the store to buy groceries for the rest of the weekend, including extra soda for the rehearsal dinner and our post-wedding afterglow, protein and other sustenance for lunchtime at the church, between the photographs and the ceremony, food for dinner tonight, and other assorted necessities. I hadn't eaten enough lunch, so when I got home, I foraged for a snack and got beaten in Chinese checkers by Miles. Then they and Wendy went swimming in the neighbor's pool while I worked on flowers for the wedding reception. 

I had found a flat of salmon vinca with maroon centers. I transplanted them into 4-inch terra cotta pots; they'll decorate the food tables. While Jen was gone I lined all the travel cases with black plastic.
 After supper from the grill (hamburgers and asparagus; Evelyn made potato wedges in the oven), Jen and I assembled the centerpieces, and really, we're quite pleased with the result.

We got done in time to meet Dan and Cindi Cooper at the Cone, and then Matt and Miles went home with them to spend the night so we have a bed for Geoff and Lisa who are driving here from NYC even as I write this and will get in sometime in the wee hours of tomorrow morning. 

Wednesday of Wedding Week

Someone once said that the truly productive person works most days like he does the day before vacation. I don't know if that's possible, but today (my last day to work before  next Tuesday) was very productive for me. I actually was able, through a combination of delegation and concentration, to cross almost everything off my list! Of course, there could have been more on my list, I guess, but I did leave work feeling at peace about what I was leaving behind.

I met the gang at Twin Dragon restaurant for supper. The Johnson kids like Chinese buffets (who would have guessed?), and we hadn't been there in years. It was surprisingly good, and we had fun.

Afterwards, Jen and Matt and I stopped at Meijer's and bought plants for our reception center pieces. Quite a few of those I bought and have been watering for weeks just aren't going to be pretty enough for the wedding. But we found some beautiful substitutes, and Jennifer and I will have fun tomorrow putting them together.

When the three of us arrived back home, plants in hand, Evelyn, Wendy, and the kids were warming up on corn hole tossing (our neighbors lent us a set for the rest of the week), and we had a tournament  that managed to involve all seven of us. Matt and Miles were a team, and none of us were surprised when they won. Ah, maybe the oldsters will prevail tomorrow!

All's Well That Ends Well

Little challenges that marked the day:
We post all our business expenses online. Today I had one $13 tab to post, but the site wouldn't take my password. So I clicked the button to ask them to send me a new password. They sent me the e-mail with the new password. I entered the new password, but the site wouldn't accept it. I tried this one more time: new password, enter new password, the site wouldn't accept it. And then I got a message saying I had attempted log-in too many times and was being logged off.
Tomorrow's the deadline for submitting June expenses. Maybe my $13 will be authorized then.
Second event to record for posterity: a warning ticket on the way home. Cincinnati-Dayton Road. There was a line of at least 50 cars heading toward West Chester Road from Union Centre Blvd. All of them were going straight; I wanted to turn left. So I crept along beside the straight line of cars, through about two or three left turn lanes (for the offices, etc., on my left). But you're not supposed to do that. You're supposed to wait till you're close to the intersection and that intersection's left turn lane is open for you.
The friendly West Chester policeman was jovial and kind and he didn't give me a citation. "You've just received your first wireless warning ticket," he told me as he handed my driver's license back to me. (He had returned to his car and entered all my data into the computer mounted on his dash.)
This made me almost late for dinner, our welcome-to-our-house dinner for Matt and Miles and Nina who arrived in Indy this afternoon.
We had lots of fun over Evelyn's wonderful spaghetti and meatballs (Rachael Ray's recipe, tried for the first time) and salad and French bread (we ate the whole loaf!)
After dinner we walked to the park and had a big time on two sets of playground equipment until almost dark, when we walked back home for ice cream before bed.

The weather this evening was cool and beautiful. We soaked it up, because it's supposed to be sweltering for wedding day!

Today, To Do

When I first started this blog several months ago, several said, "Every day? You're going to post every day?"

Today is one of those days I understand why they were dubious.

Today was one long series of to-do's. Part of this is because we're working ahead at work because I'm going to be gone most of two weeks in July and the first week in August. Part of this is because I'm going to be out of the office this Thursday through next Monday, and then there's the holiday on Wednesday. Part of this is because we're gearing up to produce our first monthly edition of Christian Standard, and the second monthly edition is already largely planned, and I'm on the verge being late with planning the third monthly edition. And in addition to planning, there's production (editing, proofing, writing, art choosing) for the current issues. And consulting with marketing folks about promotions relating to the roll-out of the monthly.

And after work, errands and then a meeting with some guys from church in Loveland, and now I'm back home catching up with Evelyn and Wendy and Jennifer about their day. And this blog feels like one more item on the to-do list.

Jennifer got here about 11:30 last night after a day that was much longer for her than today has been for me. She had her own list of to-do's today, and I'm guessing her list will continue into tomorrow too.

But the do's are getting done, and that's good. And we're not unhappy about the week before us. It's just, as I told someone today, that your only daughter's only wedding is a once-in-a-lifetime series of events, and so there's nothing really to compare it to.

More on this incomparable week tomorrow!

This World . . . and the Next

Talking with Wendy today, Wendy or Evelyn mentioned alerts in the news for travel to Mombasa in Kenya. The conversation led to details about contingency plans for Wendy and her team should an emergency evacuation be necessary from their place of service. Hiding places among local natives, secret rendezvous sites, and options in case the closest airport was compromised—these were among the possibilities she described.

I couldn't help but think about the Scriptures Johnny Dye quoted this morning when he was a guest speaker at Christ's Church at Mason.

First the words of Jesus to his apostles just before his crucifixion:

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first” (John 15:18)

“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:13).

And then the challenge from one of those apostles to Christ’s followers decades later.

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the father is not in them” (1 John 2:15).

And finally the rebuke from the Lord’s own brother to wayward Christians in his midst:

“Don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4).

I think about Wendy's bout with recurring malaria and then typhoid fever in the months before she made this visit. I remember her sister's Facebook update about a rat bite while she was sleeping in her bed in Haiti. And then there were the weeks of prayer for Adrian Fehl, missionary in Ethiopia, who was beset by a virulent virus that left him unable to eat or drink for many days. Far from any quality of medical help, he suffered dehydration that threatened his kidneys. 

Yet none of these has spoken any intent to leave their field of service. 

I think of their sacrifice and suffering, and I shake my head, echoing the words in the book of Hebrews: “The world is not worthy of them” (Hebrews 11:38).

But how will I know I have not succumbed to the love of this world? Must I forsake my comfortable American suburban routine to know I don’t love the things of this life more than those of the next?

Maybe. But afraid to do that, I search for another solution while challenged no more by the Bible’s command than by the example of those I know who so simply and beautifully are obeying it.