A day to myself

Today was the PERFECT day! I love my daughter with all my heart, but I have not had an entire day to myself, to do whatever I wanted since she came home 14 months ago....and I was really, really needing this kind of day. So I had today off in observance of 4th of July and Katelyn was with her dad...so off I went to Bernheim Arboretum and Forest. Bernheim is about an hour and fifteen minutes southwest of Lexington. It's a 14,000 acre piece of property with 35 miles of trails. The high today was in the low 80's...humidity wasn't bad and there was a bit of a breeze. So I decided a day of hiking would be just what I needed.

Bernheim is really beautiful. The front part of the property is more arboretum-like with a couple of ponds, a little lake, a prairie area, flowers blooming.

Then the back 2/3 of the property is more forest-like and the trails are more rough and wooded. Also beautiful and very peaceful. Once I got back in there other people were few and far between. The solitude was good. The picture below is me at this overlook area that is 75 feet above the trees where I could see the forest below. AWESOME! (And yeah for the timer on the camera...since there was no one else around.)

This is what I could see from the overlook. Spectacular. Have I mentioned that Kentucky is an incredibly beautiful place and I felt so blessed today that the only money I had to spend was money for gas and $6 for my really yummy lunch at a little cafe they had at the visitor center.

One more beautiful shot looking across one of the small ponds. Today was good for the soul.

I hiked a total of 7.5 miles today. Yesterday I hit the official 50 pounds of weight lost. I just know that a year ago I wouldn't have been able to hike anywhere near that far. Katelyn weighs 28 pounds...and she's getting heavy to lug around. I just keep thinking about lugging around almost two Katelyns on my body. No wonder I was miserable and tired all the time. I feel better than I have in more years than I care to count and I'm so excited to start losing the next 50 pounds...

Who's gonna pick that up??

Before I even start this post, I need to let you know that I HATE LITTER!!! I just think it's so unnecessary....

So last week I was driving around the neighborhood around the church for various reasons. The first time I was behind an ice cream truck of all things. The girl driving had her window rolled down, cigarette in hand and all of a sudden, she hucks a plastic water bottle out the passenger side window. I mean it takes all that I have not to get "Tawanda" with her and start honking as I ram her from behind. So just so you know...ice cream drivers in the hood are not a good example for our kids. The next day I'm driving by this group of boys that are walking down the street and one of them finishes his drink and throws the empty bottle down on the sidewalk....oh, so I'm fired up by this point...

Why is it that people have such disregard for their neighborhood that they throw their trash on the ground? I mean who do they think is going to pick that up??? The thing that really gets me going is that both of these events that I witnessed were in low income areas. Just one more indication that our kids don't have any pride in where they live. They don't own it. They don't understand that they could make it a better place. I'm going to have to think about what that means to me as a children's pastor. I want our kids to see this community as THEIR community. If they aren't being taught that at home...then I think church would be a good place to start....

So for all those reading this....if I see you throw your trash on the ground I'm going to go postal...I think it might be my biggest pet peeve....followed of course by people who start writing a check after they've waited in line forever and the cashier is all done ringing up their order....I'll save that for another post...

Reflections

I'm not sure that I can fully process through the last week...it's been really full. Are you ready?

Last Sunday, Josh went to Indiana to pick up his mom and bring her back to Lexington. She's decided to move out here and we are happy to have her. (She loves to clean...says it's theraputic. Who am I to stand in the way of therapy?) My brother's been living with us since December (He does not love to clean. He loves to make a mess.), my mother in law came in on Sunday...but somehow it all works and everyone's doing well. We've been trying to help Mona (my MIL) get situated here. Josh found a cool apartment for her near downtown and I found her two cats on CraigsList. (She really wanted a cat.) Mona's been coming with us to church at The Rock and she even went to a women's group on Tuesday. We think The Rock is an amazing place to be and it's been encouraging to see how excited Mona has been about being there too!

On Tuesday, our pastor's wife died. She had leukemia but that was in remission...she had other complications. It all happened so fast. She was only 36 years old and Aaron and Melissa have two young boys who are 6 and 4. I've just been really sad and I'm feeling a bit ripped off that we didn't get to know her because she's been so sick and weak over the year while Aaron's been at the church. I know I would have liked her and I know she would have loved working with our neighborhood kids. The thing that has truly brought comfort in all of this is that she loved Jesus wholeheartedly and I know that she is now in heaven and she isn't sick or weak anymore. I just hope I can be a good pastor and friend to John and Joseph (their boys.)

The thing that's been great to see is the reaction of all of the people...old and young, rich and poor, African, Hispanic, from the neighborhood...people have truly been saddened, concerned, wanting to help in any way. Aaron really has spent so much time trying to build bridges, have conversations, be present in the neighborhood. And the result is that people really do care about and respect him and they feel a piece of his loss with him now.

We had a fiesta tonight at the church. There were a bunch of people taking spanish classes and this party was a chance for them to interact with some of our spanish speaking church members. We ate ice cream. The kids played. People mingled. Hannah (she's 7) painted my face. Joanna spilled bubbles all over me. Graham wanted me to catch him on the slide. Aliya gave me a hug. Jared said he would be good (I think this was his way of apologizing for his behavior on Wednesday.) I'm starting to connect with the kids. They make me laugh. They are so full of life. They experience things with all of themselves. They don't hold back. They are so quick to give love. Wouldn't it be great if we didn't lose those qualities as we grew older.

Maggie Rogers was baptized today. It really was a beautiful baptism. She's getting so big. She's REALLY cute. I look at her and know that Katelyn will most likely be about Maggie's age. I pray that she's safe. I pray that the nanny's are drawn to her and give her extra love and care. I pray we can go and bring her home soon.