Indian Summer

Great weather for a picnic!

 We've enjoyed such beautiful weather all week and have taken advantage of it to get in three tandem dates.

In the middle of the week, our oldest grandchild, Kayla, turned 20 (yes, twenty)! We celebrated as a family on Sunday.

No matter how busy we are, we would not think of missing Monday Meal at Chef-son's, especially when there is peach pie!

More discoveries (or should I say uncoveries) this week among Leah's stored items: a photo of her birth mom when she was a small child. We study it at length and try to draw out likenesses, character traits, history, yet so many mysteries remain.

Leah brought me a bouquet of wildflowers. I had been admiring the fields of wispy flowers on our rides.

Speaking of flowers, I gave away my first completed floral painting this week, to my mother.

The major scheduling dilemma of the week:

Can you guess what it was or how it turned out?

I bought the tickets in August and was later summoned for jury duty. The plan was to take my mother to hear Laura Bush, who was to speak at my alma mater just down the road from my parents. I nearly gave up on the idea and had a plan B in place for Mother. However, the letter did say to call the night before and make sure jury selection was still scheduled. It was cancelled! So I was able to take Mother to the event and spend the night in her cute little apartment at Grace Village.

Security was tight, many state police, and a sold out crowd, so we arrived very early. Niece Tina, who works in marketing at Grace College, was in charge of logistics for the media team. She was rushing around, but stopped by to say Hi just after the had photos taken with Laura Bush. Since we couldn't get that close to the former first lady, my photo of Tina will have to suffice.

The next morning I had two special visits: an hour with my Dad, singing to him; and a couple hours with my friend Dori who is battling cancer.

Daddy rarely raises his head, but I could see his occasional side glance and a couple times he made a special effort to look over and reward me with a beautiful smile. Oh, to have had my camera poised and ready to capture that special moment! The 23rd Psalm and the Lord's Prayer in song were both very comforting to me and I hope they ministered to his spirit also.

No photos of the state of the house this week. Mike spends most of his time out there, still working on the heating system.
Dry wall is next after the electrician finishes his job.