{"id":2099,"date":"2013-07-06T03:44:17","date_gmt":"2013-07-06T03:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paytonandgrace.com\/?p=2099"},"modified":"2013-07-06T03:44:17","modified_gmt":"2013-07-06T03:44:17","slug":"early-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/2013\/07\/06\/early-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"Early Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m not sure how many weeks into our summer we’ve gone or how many are left, but I can count on one hand how many days I’ve spent by myself, which is so very different from previous years. This is a good thing mind you! You might have been deceived in the past into thinking that I’m an extrovert, but in fact I’ve been an introvert for most of my life. I love a quiet spot, a good book, and a hot cup of tea to refuel all by myself! It’s not to say there’s not a place for that, but God’s been bending and molding me into a better blend of the two for the past few years. I think living at both training centers surrounded by people has embedded in me a strange love for community! All that to say, I kind of wondered if it was a real change or if my brain was faking me out. This summer seems to be testing my ability to be with people more often. Haha. Writing those words makes it sound like I don’t like people or that I’m an alien of sorts! If you’re an introvert, you probably get what I’m trying to say. I can say that it is possible for an introvert to move toward the middle and actually value more time with people rather than just working on projects or hobbies by herself. I digress!<\/p>\n

Anyhow, I’m doing some backtracking through this last month since we’ve been so busy and are about to head out to Denver with the youth for a week of inner city ministry.\u00a0 Here are a few highlights from the end of May and into early June:<\/p>\n

\"Robyn<\/a>Robyn and I went to Territory Days for Memorial Day weekend and enjoyed gyros, live music and looking at all of the shiny things the vendors were selling!<\/p>\n

\"Some<\/a>Some of the live music included Brule’, a contemporary Native American band. Yes, that is a man performing a bison dance.\"brule2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The tribute to the bison made me think of all of our culture\/language classes. I was pretending what I would have felt like if this was for real and I was on the plains a couple hundred years ago observing their culture.<\/p>\n

\"There<\/a>There was so much worldview and animistic beliefs intertwined with the dances and the music. Plus, the traditional dress was beautiful, although I’m sure the bison suit was less than pleasant in the 90 degrees!<\/p>\n

And then there was Week of Mayhem! This was a collection of activities that started with a Field Day, moved into a Putt-putt\/mini golf tourney, continued with a trip to Denver’s own amusement park, and culminated in a lock in over the course of week. It was lots of fun but should probably have been more rightly named Week of Exhaustion for the adults involved.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>This was one of the not-so-traditional Field Day activities, a Gladiatorial-like battle on milk crates. Don’t worry, there were dashes, egg tossing, and sack races too!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I got to enjoy the company of the Jr. High girls whilst they traversed the amusement park. Due to the high cost of slushies (not to mention all other beverages and foods), they thought it best to share.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>And this is what happens to the youngest youth after a long day of amusement…I sat and read my Kindle while they took naps on the warm pavement. I made it most the way through “Not A Fan” while I was there and worked on my Chaco tan.<\/p>\n

And lets not forget one of our favorite spots for good study in the Word and strange conversations–the Mate Factor in Manitou Springs. I now feel like a grownup since we drink straight yerba mate and not the fru-fru kinds when we go there.<\/p>\n

\"mate<\/a><\/p>\n

This was the beginning to our summer…and a good summer at that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not sure how many weeks into our summer we’ve gone or how many are left, but I can count on one hand how many days I’ve spent by myself, which is so very different from previous years. This is a good thing mind you! You might have been deceived in the past into thinking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1068,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[71321],"tags":[1066,29493,2159,72074,57],"class_list":{"0":"post-2099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-summertime","7":"tag-colorado","8":"tag-fellowship","9":"tag-life-lessons","10":"tag-manitou-springs","11":"tag-pictures","12":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1068"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2099\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}