Green Thumbs

This past weekend David and I devoted ourselves to one of our favorite summer projects--landscaping the yard. We had already planted roses and a few begonias (a staple) before Memorial Day, but Saturday and Sunday we tackled our backyard haven full on! On Saturday morning, we made our first of three weekend trips to Pikes to fill up two carts with lovelies for the yard. We spent the afternoon (well, I took a break for a much needed hair appointment) gettng the morning's purchases in the ground. On Sunday, we took Jonathon to the church to go on a week-long retreat chaperoning middle schoolers (please say a little prayer for him and for the rest of the group), and then made not ONE but TWO trips to Pikes to purchase even more plants/flowers. We worked the remainder of the day pretending to be landscapers. Actually, for a couple of non-professionals, we do a pretty good job! I'll try to post some pictures soon of the results of our efforts. We still have a small area to finish, but in a couple of weeks, it should look like our own little piece of paradise! Now if I can get the pool furniture cleaned and ready, we'll be ready to actually enjoy it!

Memorial Day

I am a slacker.........no other way to say it. I have great intentions when it comes to updating this blog, but something invariably seems to prevent me from following through. Maybe I should start sending myself Twitter nudges!

So anyway....David and I had the opportunity to take a weekend trip to Savannah to visit our "adopted" daughter (a.k.a - "daughter from another mother") this past weekend. We left after David got home from work on Friday night and drove back this morning. Although we had hoped to spend a couple of days on the beach at Tybee Island, we settled for an hour there yesterday afternoon! Ah well, it is what it is! Since it rained on Saturday, we spend the day shopping (yeah, it was rough) and then went to The Lady and Sons for dinner. Talk about overeating! By the time we left the restaurant, I thought I was going to pop! I was absolutely miserable--I guess the second piece of fried chicken was a bad idea after all! On Sunday we made our token trip to the beach where we hauled our beach bags, chairs, and cooler to the shore only to haul it all back about an hour later. Oh well, at least we got to put our toes in the sand, and David was brave enough to put his in the water! We then had a low-country boil where we once again gourged ourselves on too much of everything! I guess tomorrow I'll have to go back on the dreaded D-I-E-T. It was certainly fun while it lasted, though!

Jonathon has begun his internship at the church and seems to be enjoying it very much. He is working with middle school youth and will be travelling with them on a couple of weeklong trips. He is very excited and most grateful for this opportunity. God is so good!

Fading fast after a busy weekend........ciao!

Now What?

I started this blog as a means of sharing the amazing progress of my son, Jon, and I admit that there have been times that I struggled because I thought, "If it's not about Jon, I shouldn't be sharing it; after all, the site IS called Jonathon's Journey!" Right? Well, I must admit that over the course of the past few weeks, I've come to the conclusion that this site is really an extension of MY feelings........no matter what is on my heart! So please forgive (and indulge) me if some of my posts do not directly relate to Jon but to the state in which I find myself. Most of my friends create blogs to share their feelings, so I'm thinking that's what I need to do as well.

Anyway, to focus FIRST on Jon, let me say that he is amazing! He is completing his second year back at UGA (and he assures me that he will do well enough to go back for his third year), so I couldn't BE any more proud of him. How 'bout them Dawgs! :)

Now as to what's really weighing on my heart........as I mentioned in my previous post, I (we) have a daughter living in New York City. She is our only daughter (for which we are extremely grateful--love her to death, but still grateful that there was only one girl in this brood......my hat's off to those who raise more than one girl!) "Things" haven't been great for her lately, I must admit. She recently found herself at a juncture in life that she definitely DID NOT anticipate....nor did we. It reminds me of the Rascal Flatt's song, " These Days". You know, the line that says, "Yeah, life throws you curves, but you learn to swerve". It sometimes feels like her whole life has been one big swerve! I admit that I felt that way with Jon, but I never anticipated that I would have to "walk that walk" (or swerve that swerve) with another of my children! She is such an amazing young woman, and I know she'll be fine, but it doesn't make the journey any easier for either of us!

Please join me in praying for strength and wisdom for her as she seeks God's guidance in her life.

Outlooks

I haven't posted in over a week (and my ONE friend-haha-hasn't been on my case about it), so I figured it was time to at least write SOMETHING! I've actually been quite busy since Easter making plans for our New Yorker daughter to come for a visit--a long overdue one. If you had told me five years ago that I would only see her a few times a year, I'd have thought you were crazy! But here we are.........with her living in Manhattan for almost two years now and only seeing her every two or three months (if we're lucky). Wow! Time flies when you're having fun, and trust me, she's definitely having fun! We are very proud of her and happy, of course, that she is so happy with her life. (We still miss her terribly, though! I'm not sure Jonathon has quite forgiven her YET for packing up and moving to the Big Apple!)

Jonathon is winding down his classes for the semester, getting ready for finals in a couple of weeks. I can hardly believe that he has been back on campus for two years now; it is a blessing that we don't allow ourselves to forget. In the book of Jeremiah, God promised to give him hope and a future, and He has certainly continued to fulfill that promise. Just last week, in fact, Jonathon learned that he has been blessed with the opportunity to serve the Lord through a summer internship at our church, something that we encouraged him to seek and are so grateful that it will become a reality for him. Although he may not have the same physical abilities as the other interns, I am confident that he will give all that he can to this wonderful chance to share his testimony and grow God's Kingdom. My prayer is that those with whom he serves as well as those he serves will be able to look past his DIS-abilities and focus on his CAP-abilities. He has such an amazing love for the Lord and knows full well the grace he has been given. As he wrote in an essay upon returning to UGA in 2007, "Through my disability, I want most of all to let people know that while some of my abilities may have changed, I am basically still the same person I was two years ago. While my vision may have changed, my outlook is still the same."

Thank you, sweet Jesus, for the lessons You continue to gently teach us and the messages we so desperately need to hear.

"Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;" ~ Psalm 37: 4-7

Happy Easter!

Today we celebrated Easter by attending church and praising God for the fulfillment of His promise to us. As our minister said, can you imagine the conversation between the Marys as they approached the tomb to annoint Jesus' body? Don't you know that they were wondering how on earth they were going to move the enormous stone from the entrance? Yet, when they arrived, it was gone! Surprise! Jesus wasn't there! The promise that was made through the birth of our Savior was fulfilled in His resurrection--Hallelujah!

In keeping with our new Easter tradition, David, Jon, Jeff, and I traveled to Grady after brunch to deliver care bags to the families in the ICU waiting areas. This year we had enough bags to visit on three different floors, a blessing beyond our expectations. As we learned from our own experiences there, every family has a story and no matter what that story is, they feel alone and frightened. We just wanted each of them to know that we understand and are praying for them. It's a blessing, too, to see the reactions from the families upon receiving these tokens of our concern. One gentleman in particular asked for two bags and then opened them and began distributing items in the bags to others around him--some who had already received their own bags. He even sought us out on another floor to ask for another bag because more people had come into the waiting area where he was, and he wanted to share more--what a beautiful testiment to God's love! This gentleman clearly had a heart for God. Please join us in praying for each of the families at Grady and elsewhere with critical medical needs.

"When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, 'Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?' " ~ Matthew 16: 1-3

Wee (Wii?) Update

I'm on spring break, and starting tomorrow I'm on a cruise to the Bahamas! Woohoo! Before I could leave, however, I had to challenge my Wii once more to see if I was REALLY in no better shape than the little devil tried to tell me a few days ago. Determined to pay close attention to my "skills" tests this time, I am happy to report that I now have a Wii Fit age of 45 (considerably better than the 70 I was previously told!!!) Hmmmmmmm........I think I'll take that! (And NO, I didn't cheat! I just actually paid attention this time!) In fact, today I even got a little praise as in, "You're in pretty good shape for your age!" It's a heck of a lot better than the sympathy I got the other day! :(

In other (much more important) news, Jonathon, Jeff, David, and I participated in a service project yesterday at a center for youth with emotional, mental, and/or psychological problems. According to the staff member who worked with us, the young people at their facility usually end up there as a "last resort"--often at the point of either coming to them or going to jail. Well, let me just say that it was one of the most rewarding things I think any of us had done in a long time. While David and the other team members painted a small building which is to be converted to a recreation/play center, Jon, Jeff, and I worked on planting some new shrubs and flowers. Jeff dug the holes, I prepared them for the new plants, and Jon got each plant ready for me to pop into the ground. Afterwards, I asked Jon to help me spread pinestraw around each one, and although it was a bit challenging for him to work on the slope where we planted, he did a great job helping. (After helping Jon and me, poor Jeff had to help with the painting, too!) Jon and I also potted a crepe myrtle and two large pots with begonias. Some of the young men who are residents at the center also helped us with painting and a couple of them helped with putting some plants into the window boxes on the building. It was so great to get to meet some of these young men, but I have to admit that it was also a little heart-breaking. We were told that most of the young people there are wards of the state, so when they are deemed ready to return to society, they are placed in foster homes--that is, if homes can be found that will take them. One of the young men in particular was clearly starved for attention, as he wanted to help with any and every task we could find for him. He was quite the chatterbox, too! Very intelligent, very helpful, and very sweet--definitely made you wonder how on earth he ended up there. As David said when we left, it made you want to know his "story", because we all know that everyone has a story....

We thank you, Lord, for opportunities that allow us to open our eyes to the needs of others and ask that you guide us in reaching out to them with your grace and wisdom. We pray for happy endings to each of the stories of these young people.

WiiFit? Wii NOT Fit!

Okay, so yesterday I decided to set up my Wii Fit profile--BAD idea! After entering my height, the Wii weighed me and calculated my BMI (oh, and my "Mama" character that I created got noticeably larger--not funny). I then did the "balance" test, shifting my weight from one side to the other. The only problem is that I failed to notice when it was time to shift to the other side, so apparently I have a real problem with balance! The Wii then proceeded to calculate my "real" age based on my height, weight, and balance........and according to the figure it revealed, I should now how grown grandchildren! What a way to start the day! To say that I'm a "Wii" bit stressed is an understatement!

Maybe tomorrow I'll actually try some of the fitness programs! (I'm thinking that's how to get my Mii to shrink?) For now, I'll stick with bowling and baseball!