Back to the present

Time to share a few current pictures and stories.  Two Sundays ago we had fun going out to lunch with some of our Houserville friends.  The little girl is Sabrina, one of my piano students.

Her mom, Dawn, must have been talking when I snapped the above photo.  Good thing I took two, because here's her beautiful smile!  Kevin and Dawn, Sabrina's mom and dad.

I'm so thankful for the opportunity to lead worship at Houserville.  Lately the Lord's presence in our worship has been so real and felt.  It proves that it is not our holiness, but instead our desperation for Him that causes Him to show up.

Last week Dick and I helped at Houserville with some very necessary weeding as well as washing/sorting/folding clothing donations to the the church's Mommy Shoppe.  That ministry is new within the past year and is beginning to reach a lot of needy mothers and children.   I washed a huge garbage bag full of donated clothes, which turned out to be ADORABLE size four girl's clothes.  Dick folded every little piece of it.  Wow, it made me want a little girl again!

On Saturday evening Anthony and Austin came here for the evening while Lori had another event to attend.  Anthony and I had computer/website stuff to do while Austin and Grandpa hung out.  Oh, it just melts my heart to see them together. 

Last evening I babysat him at their house while Anthony and Lori went to a movie.  It was his bed time when I got there, so we read lots of books.  Then he pulled one of his tricks and decided he was hungry.  I figured it was a ploy to delay going to sleep, but hey?  What are grandmas for?  We went to the kitchen and had some cereal and milk, then did the teeth brushing and pottying/hand washing routine all over again.  

Yesterday afternoon I made several batches of spaghetti sauce in preparation for the lasagna I will be making this weekend at our annual Witmer reunion.  

I'm so excited!!  Lisa, George, and Sophie are visiting with his family in the Philly area this week and will be at our reunion this weekend.  Every time I see a picture of Sophie my heart aches at how big she's getting and how little time I'm able  to spend with her anymore.  Here's an adorable picture of the look on her face upon seeing herself with straightened hair!

I also took some pictures of some of our flowers the other day.  Dick has been in total charge of the flowers this year - buying (I didn't even go along, since it was the day after my surgery!),   planting, watering, spraying.  Didn't he do a good job with this planter?

 

The marigolds he bought are starting to grow.  I remember how big and beautiful they became last fall and how sad I felt when a hard frost killed them.

 

 A neighbor across the street gave us this hanging basket of colorful petunias.

I love summer.  And I admit I feel a twinge of sadness when I realize that August is just around the corner.  But oh, I'm SO GLAD I didn't wait until August to have my shoulder surgery, as I had planned!  I am hitting the six-week mark on Thursday!  At this point I wear the sling only for driving and to bed.  I supposedly do not need to use it at all at six weeks.  I went into the very crowded Giant supermarket on Friday without it on, and wow.  I felt very vulnerable.  Everyone seemed in such a rush and I was so afraid I'd get bumped into!  At PT on Friday I was told that I may now scale back to one visit per week, since I am faithfully doing all my exercises and routines at home.  That is WONDERFUL!  At a $40 co-pay per visit (which does not apply to our deductible) two or three visits a week gets crazy expensive!