The sun came up this morning, literally!  What a difference a blue, almost cloudless sky can make.  The breeze was stiff and chilling, but the sunshine more than made up for it.   It was a nice morning to walk to church.

Sunday morning in our family means Sunday school and church.  That is not quite as straightforward as it might seem though.  When my husband and I married, we came from two different branches of the Christian family.  We are both comfortable enough in each other's churches, but we feel called to keep roots where they were planted before we married. My son loves his Sunday school class and children's choir at my church, and he appreciates the full sacramental experience he receives through his dad's tradition.  For him though, they are both part of his faith tradition.  So most Sundays he goes to Sunday school and then heads out with his dad to go to church together.  Complicated sometimes, but generally it works.    

In the precar-free days it meant one parent getting kid and car to the other parent and shuttling everyone to the right place.  Since going car-free it means sometimes skipping Sunday school to just go to church with dad, or going on Saturday evening so Sunday morning is less complicated, or riding bikes from one church to the other, or visiting a church that is closer to downtown than their home parish.  That was the choice this morning.

We met up for lunch at Subway, ate and then I took Pete back to Plymouth for the rehearsal before the big concert. The children's choir joined with the adult choir, the handbells and brass and timpani to put on a festival of hymns this afternoon.  The concert itself was free, but an offering was taken to help fund a scholarship for a student in peace studies.  I'm guessing it will be well funded!  The sanctuary was full and the music was beautiful.  The kids contribution was "All Creatures of Our God and King." I you have facebook you can see some pictures here.

After refreshments and social time, we walked home.  Mike works just down the street from church, so he rode his bike over to work and then came home for dinner.  (Yes you can be car-free and still come home for dinner!)

This evening Pete and I made adinkra designs from Ghana.  He's been interested in all things African lately, so it was fun to choose three symbols that we thought said something about who we are.  Pete chose Ntesie-Matemasie  (wisdom and knowledge), Bi Nka Bi  (peace and harmony), and Funtummireku-Enkyemmireku  (democracy, unity in diversity) as his symbols.  He chose Fihankra  (a house which is safe, secure) for his dad.  Here are some adinkra symbols.

Some days you can look back on and say "It was a good day."  This was one of those.