Weekend update

[judecorp]

Friday afternoon, I got a visit from Former Coworker Funk and Former Coworker Krissie. Yay! It was super fun to see them and whenever I do, I feel like I still work there. They tell me all about my old clients and I can't believe I have been gone from that job for over nine months already. Probably because my UMass job made me so miserable.

Last night we went up to The People's Pint in Greenfield because we were going to meet Emily, Ruby and Kai there to watch Michael's band play. Michael's band plays up there quite a bit and Emily always goes (since they're married and all) even though Ruby is 3 weeks younger than Gus. She is always asking us to go and we always say no because they play late (9:30pm or so) and we're trying to give the girl a bedtime. But yesterday we decided to risk it and go.

We got there, ordered an appetizer and some homemade sodas, and by the time the band played one song, Kai was complaining of a headache and they were all going to leave. Sigh. We weren't going to stay without them, especially when we were worried about her being up so late, so we left. By the time we got home it was about 10:20 or so, then we fed the girl, and she didn't fall asleep until midnight. Oops.

On the upside, she slept until 7am. I'm not gonna lie, that felt nice. She ate, went back to sleep until 9:30, and then we packed her up and took her to church.

When I was pregnant, we went to the UU church in Northampton but the congregation was, umm, a lot older than we would like. This is the plague of UU churches - the one in Columbus was very similar and the ones we tried in Boston also seemed kind of old and lifeless. So this morning we decided to go to the UCC/Congregational church instead.

There were a LOT of young families there and a lot of little kids. And it's weird, having a baby with you makes everyone friendly. People just wanted to come up and introduce themselves and talk about how beautiful the baby is and on and on. Hey, I'm not going to complain when people want to tell me how cute my kid is!

Speaking of, she's 10 weeks old today! WOW. Friday is her 2-month check-up (a little late) and we have to decided which vaxes we want her to get. Ulp.

~//~

Saturday morning I was supposed to bring my car in for maintenance. I even wrote it on the calendar. And umm... we didn't go. Whoops.

Comments

[changinglight.livejournal.com]

Yay, UCC!

How was the service?

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I missed some of it due to diaper duty but it was good. The minister was super nice and smiley, and hey, I'm a sucker for smiley. Also, he gushed over my baby. ;)

It was a little weird to be in a christian church again after doing UUs since 1998. But I was raised Catholic and the Bible is familiar and comforting.

My one sticky point is that I /love/ the youth education the UUs have because it's so broad and all-encompassing. I've always wanted really spiritually eclectic kids and no belief in "one true church." I'm nervous but found the community itself VERY welcoming.

[changinglight.livejournal.com]

i'm really glad that you liked the minister, and agree that switching to a christian church can be a little strange. however, the ucc is about as far away from catholicism as one can go and still believe in jesus. i'm sure that you've heard the old joke that in the ucc we're just "unitartians considering christ."

in the broader context of the ucc, there's a lot of ecclectic theology, and people are encouraged to live by their own beliefs. Kids are pushed to be critical inquirers of faith. it's pretty open--teaching kids that all faith communities essentially worship the same God, and that different ways of doing it are equally valid. however, the ucc lives after the model of jesus in urging radical hospitality, peace with justice, etc. This all has a good deal to do with the national setting of the UCC, which speaks "to, but not for" the local church. The way it works is that each local church is its own entity, and can essentially do whatever it wants, based on the covenant of its members, and while it takes advice from the national setting, it's not mandated to do anything. What that means, particularly in New England, where the congregationalist heritage is 400 years old (based on the Pilgrim's Scrooby Covenant), is that many older churches do not strongly identify with the ucc. however, there are lots that do, and they're cool places.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that Gus will not have Jesus shoved down her throat and will be encouraged to think critically about her faith through the ucc. the question is finding a setting of the ucc locally that will really be open to those questions.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

You know, this is all very good information. Religion, and Christianity, were very much a part of my childhood and I would really like it to be a part of my daughter's as well, especially in a questioning and challenging context that is heavily based in social justice. It's the main reason I went looking for a UCC congregation when we got turned off by the UUs here. When we meet with RevCam, I think I will get a better sense as to how open this particular congregation is. They all seem super nice, at any rate.

Maybe some day when I get a spare minute (HA!) I will be able to pick your brain on some of these things. We're going back tomorrow.

[changinglight.livejournal.com]

we can talk about the ucc any day you want :)

If you want, I can take a look at your church's website and get a sense compared to some of the churches in the wider ucc. :)

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

http://www.uccwebsites.net/edwardschurchnorthampton.html

[changinglight.livejournal.com]

Well, that's informative (grin)!

What it says to me is that they're new to the internet, but at least "get" that a website is important to people looking for a church. The fact that they are Open and Affirming (ONA) is awesome--it means that they went through a congregational discernment process and decided that they wanted to be an open and inclusive community, specifically around the issue of sexual orientation, but as their ONA/mission statement on the website suggests, it is also about family structure, ability status, and race.

And, it seems like your pastor is one of the Conference (statewide) fighters for the ONA movement. There's a great sermon that he gave on the Conference website about ONA issues here (http://www.macucc.org/emj/documents/WhomGodHasJoinedTogether.pdf)
Your pastor also sits on the Mass Council of Churches, which is not only cool, it means that he's open to conversations with other churches, and interested in ecumenical partnerships. On this version of the church website (http://www.edwards-northampton.org/default.htm), you get a great sense of inclusive language about God (i.e.--not just "God the Father"). The fact that they also have a ucc web-medley site suggests that they support a lot of the programs of the UCC national denomination, not only in word, but in action. And, the front page of the website that I just pulled up also lets me know that they care about social justice, and I think that's awesome.

Hell, after all that, I wished that I lived closer and could go to your church. It looks a lot more fun than my church...

[sassywoman.livejournal.com]

I love it how a cute baby is a magnet for lots of ohhh.... and ahhhh's. Just as long as they don't touch her face or hands I'm ok.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Ha ha ha ha, true. Why do people touch strangers' babies and pregnant women?

[fatfeistyfemme.livejournal.com]

awww, Happy 10-weekiversary!!! *hugs*

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I can't believe that 10 weeks ago, a baby came out of my vagina!!

[skatured.livejournal.com]

So you to think you will go back to that church?

It's 10 weeks already? No way...

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we'll go back and see how it goes. It's hard not to when they were so friendly! :)

[drainbead.livejournal.com]

I'm still not sure about the whole vaccine thing.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

It's so anxiety-provoking.

[stapynam.livejournal.com]

i feel like even just being pregnant, everyone is more smile-y to me, esp other moms. like i am now part of the club or something!

i would really love to know what vaxes you do and why when you have figured it out...

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Well. we're going to have to do child care soonish, and unless we find a private care provider, she'll have to be fully vaxed.

I'm most concerned about pertussis around here, even though that's the scariest vaccine for me. Here pertussis is part of a single shot combining the DTaP, HepB, and IPV. We're thinking of getting that one shot on Friday and getting the other two (HIB and PVC) next week.

Still unsure. I'd just get the DTaP but IPV and HepB are pretty side-effect-free, so I dunno. Why subject her to extra sticks?