Beautiful week in review

Another beautiful Saturday morning!  I feel like my weeks are so uneventful, but somehow when I sit down to do my weekly update, there are always a ton of pictures to post!  Of course, that is partly due to the fact that this is certainly the most beautiful time of the year, with daylight from 5 AM to 9 PM. I LOVE it!

After I updated here last Saturday I went over to Anthony and Lori's to get some last pictures of the rhododendrons.  Dick and Anthony has just installed the new fountain in the pond.  The old one had broken for the last time.  What a beautiful sight!

There were still lots of rhododendrons, but they were beginning to fall to the ground.  Lori and Hunter were on the swing when I got there.  After a while Hunter went with Grandpa into the woods, and I had a rare chance for a chat with Lori.  

After a while my phone rang and it was Dick.  He said that he and Hunter had gone up into the hunting shack and Hunter wanted us to look at him.  He had taken a picture of Hunter watching us!  

So Lori and I walked down to the shack.  She crawled up the ladder and I got a picture of them looking out.  Then I decided to crawl up that ladder too.  I'm not at all crazy about heights.  When I got to the top I handed my phone to Hunter so I could get a better grip on the ladder.  Before I knew it he was taking pictures of me!!  He had been having the most fun throwing out Dick's pulley rope and then pulling it back up again - over and over and over again!

Views from the top.  And going back down again.  

On Sunday Dick and I participated in our online service with GBRV, then we packed some food and hit the road for Lancaster County.  We listened to Calvary's service as we drove.  It was a spectacularly beautiful day!

Our main purpose for the trip was to take some baby boy clothes to Destiny that Dick's co-worker had given us.  She also had a graduation lawn sign that I wanted to put up.  But first, we drove by my sister Doris's place.  I had not seen her in person since early March.  They live with their son's family, and the whole family came out for an outdoor visit.  It was so fun!  i would have loved to give her a hug, but we're all still being very careful.

From there we went to take the baby clothes to Destiny and Alex.  It was so exciting to see all the adorable baby boy clothes.  Those newborn onesies are the CUTEST!!  

We had hoped to visit with Grandma Arlene at Pleasant View but were unable to reach her by phone.  Later we heard that she had been out for a walk and didn't have her phone with her.  

We stopped by Sam's place on our way home, and I had a fun visit with him and the kids in the gazebo while Dick took a snooze in the van.  

We always enjoy the views of the Susquehanna River and the trains when we go to his place.  

Dick put up the lawn sign after we got home.  I was disappointed that it just said "graduate."  So I put duct tape over it and wrote her name with a big magic marker.  

Destiny's virtual graduation was on Tuesday at 6 PM.  It was so fun to be able to watch it on our TV and to be texting with her at the same time!  There were over 450 graduates!  After the graduation address, they read off the names of each graduate and their picture or video (if they had submitted one.)  

At the end of that LONG list of names, they said, "Class of 2020, you may turn your tassle!"  And then they started showing pageful after pageful of the video clips.  I was so afraid we would miss seeing Destiny that I forgot to have my camera ready!  But we DID see her!  Later Destiny told me that Alex had gotten it with his camera, complete with her squeal when she saw herself, hahaha!

How cute is this?  Her first day of kindergarten at Manheim Christian Day School in 2006, and graduation at last!  She's been uprooted from school to school to school so many times through the years, but she did it!!  We're so proud of her!

Like I mentioned before, the weather was spectacularly beautiful most of this week.  While I am desperately missing so many things during this time of social distancing, I am thankful to have the time to sit on our porches more than I ever have before.  

Views while sitting on the side porch and the front porch.   I think of people living in the city with no view at all, and I feel overwhelmed with gratitude.

I often wish that my pictures of the mountain were not hindered by the utility pole and lines.  Recently my sister-in-law Nancy said she photoshops them out of her pictures.  I thought "Hmmmm."  I do not have photoshop, but I do have the "retouch" editing feature in Photos, so I gave it a try!  Voilá!!!  I tried it to remove a house from one of my photos, but that was not as successful, lol!

I have not planted coleus for many years, but I realized this year that I might have a good shady spot behind the side porch.  So we planted a couple of them.  I hope they get huge.  We're waiting to see if the hydrangea will bloom this year.  Nothing so far. My blue salvia are doing great, but most of them have fallen apart in the middle.  I have no idea how to prevent that.  I'll cut them off after a while and they'll come back again before the season's over. 

I gotta share this!  Destiny had an ultrasound this week.  Just when she exclaimed, "He looks just like his dad!" the baby smiled and opened his left eye like he was peeking (lower photo.) Destiny said that she and the ultrasound tech were cracking up!!

Look at the HUGE frog they caught over at Stauffer Acres this week!  I love that they are not afraid of them.  They just hold them for a while and then put them back in. 

I have been listening and reading and learning this week.  I know there are many reasons to be weary of the unrest and the back and forth accusations and opinions.  But I do long for racial understanding and reconciliation that will make a lasting difference.  Those beautiful boys in the picture above are enough reason for me to care about the future!  

For the first time ever I heard of the Tulsa Race Massacre on June 1, 1921.  I don't recall ever knowing anything about it before.  It was truly horrific!!  A former student of mine, Karen Miller-Rauch did a blog post about it, which is so very informative.  One of her references is the Tulsa Historical Society, which is great resource.  It has many old photos, some of them very hard to look at. But I think we need to be faced with the history that has contributed to the ongoing issues today. 

I'll finish today with this song I recorded last Saturday.  I had been working outside and was dirty and sweaty.  A friend texted me to ask for prayer.  I often sing my prayers.  I went to the piano to do so, and sitting there was a song I had just found in one of my old worship notebooks earlier in the week.  I decided to sing it for her.  I didn't intend to make it public because I looked such a mess, but it was just what she needed, and maybe it will minister to your heart too.  "I Need Thee/Hear My Cry"