Well-Prepared

Yesterday we sang for the Senior Citizens Christmas party at First Covenant Church in Willmar. We have never been so well-prepared. Why? For one thing, half the songs were from the Compline service that we already sang with the Stadem clan, so they were prepared three weeks ago and just had to remain polished by occasional practice. Most of the others were from years past, so we already knew them and just had to divvy up the parts for the smaller family size. Also, I've made a "To Do Before a Program" list and looked at it several times during the week.

Much of the improvement, however, was due to the simple fact that we are a smaller family now. On Thursday night, while I practiced one song with Sarah, Pete had Andrew and Philip pack up their program clothes. One song! It used to take up to an hour to pack up everyone's clothes, because not only were there three times as many clothes, but it was impossible to do two at a time, much less seven at a time, without losing half or more to play or foolishness or food. Of course we'd try anyway.

While there are aspects of the full house that I miss, getting ready for a program is not one of them.

Driving Lessons

Yesterday Sarah drove in the Cities for the first time. She's enrolled in a softball batting clinic run by the fast-pitch softball program at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. Pete and I both brought her down so we could spend some time together during the clinic. Sunday afternoon is a great time for the first exposure, though I'm always amazed by the amount of traffic even then. She even got to experience about two minutes of stop-and-go traffic getting onto I-94 East from I-394; I have no idea what could have caused that, as the Vikings lost another game on the road yesterday. Why can't we have Tim Tebow??

Anyway, Pete was talking the whole time as Sarah made her way through the city; he is so good at training by talking through things, and he is so observant of every little detail, both what she is doing right and wrong, and everything that's going on around the car. Sarah learned a great deal in those forty-five minutes, and experienced success as well.

Pete was telling about a friend who can't talk people through things - he has to show them. So when he was teaching his youngest daughter to drive, he wouldn't tell her what to do - he'd grab the steering wheel. After the umpteenth time of this, and promising his daughter he would never take the wheel again, they left their home and within a mile, he had grabbed the wheel again! They turned around and went home, and her mother taught the daughter to drive! It was hilarious the way Pete recounted what his friend had told him....

Joel and Daniel took turns driving the Jones' new car from Phoenix; they reached Liberal, KS on Friday night, stayed with David in Sioux Falls on Saturday night, and came home yesterday. Today Joel will bring it to its rightful owners, but last night on his way home from Willmar he had a scare when a deer jumped out from the treeless ditch. For some reason he had a premonition and was telling himself, "I know there will be a deer," and looking around carefully, but it was so sudden that after braking and honking, he swerved around the deer and barely missed it. Thanks, Lord, for safety for Joel and the deer - and the new car!!

Working Together

On November 27, the first Sunday in Advent, the Stadem clan led a Compline Advent service at St. John Lutheran Church in Sioux Falls, where Mom & Dad Stadem have been members since Dad's last full-time call was there. He's served many congregations as interim pastor since his retirement, but Mom has continued her involvement at St. John and now Dad is the interim associate pastor there. When they first approached all of us with the idea of helping with this service, we were enthused and available - Pete and our family, two of his brothers and their families, and his sister and her family. One brother, who lives in Colorado, wasn't able to make it. When Dad mailed out the bulletin from last year's service, however, I wondered - "Seriously? You want the Stadem clan to do a meditative, contemplative service?" I dropped a couple of suggestions I had in mind for possible songs. Everyone had some contributions to offer - flute, liturgical dance, organ, piano, singing - and the order of service was delivered to the secretary about ten days before the service.

When we arrived in Sioux Falls on Saturday at about 2:30pm, to practice before our Thanksgiving feast, the cousins went wild, as usual. There was whooping and hollering and playing with wheelchairs and disappearing every time they were needed to rehearse. Sixteen of the eighteen grandchildren were present, plus a couple of friends, and every one of them thrilled to the presence of all the rest! All are musical, however, so they picked up the choir pieces, including solo parts, easily. Grandpa Stadem was quite concerned that they would be wild on Sunday, or at least make noise and whisper and disrupt the mood of the congregation. He gave a short speech to that effect, and later confessed to Pete that he had to surrender it to the Lord. "I've done all I can do." I wasn't worried because I have led the Sunday School Christmas program for the last ten years or so, and Saturday morning is always a disaster with no discipline whatsoever, and then the kids look like perfect little angels on Sunday during the program. I figured Stadem grandchildren wouldn't be any different - and in fact, half the kids there have been in my SS Christmas programs!

Everything went smoothly and quietly on Sunday. Some of the highlights were David singing "What Child is This" while Mary danced and Sarah and Rahila played the flute; teenagers singing "Pat-a-Pan" from Sounds Like Love, and the whole group singing "Creature Praise" with the youngest six grandchildren doing solo lines. We were blessed to see Cousin Janelle Swenson who came from Fergus Falls to see and hear us. Many people gave positive comments to us and to the parents in the ensuing days. And Liz, a high school senior this year, said, "It was a lot of fun to work together and not just play. We should do this again!"

Successful Surgery

Dr. Lister feels confident that everything was put back the way it should be in Daniel's forearm. He did find bone in the skin, so it was good that they did the surgery on Thursday instead of waiting. Daniel's on an antibiotic now for a couple of weeks. He's been very lethargic since Sunday evening, and I thought it was a side effect of the drug, but now he's getting better and coughing a little, so it was probably a virus that he caught in Sioux Falls. He came with us but didn't participate in the wonderful Compline service that the Stadem clan led at St. John Lutheran (the Stadem grandparents' church).

We were also concerned because he couldn't bend his thumb or feel part of it, but that is improving as well and the orthopedist said it's normal. So altogether a successful post-op appointment and a good report.

I was very impressed with the emergency room people Wednesday night - their calm cheerfulness and patience. And I was even more impressed with the gracious responses of the surgery crew on Thanksgiving Day - you would think they had nowhere else to go, but most of them were on their way to family gatherings after Daniel's surgery. They were kind, cheerful and competent. Although Daniel had the reaction to anesthesia we've come to expect from certain members of our family - it took over eight hours for him to feel well enough to come home - it was altogether a good experience. Hats off to Rice Hospital!