Who is that masked man?

It's Cousin Casey! I am dubbing this "The Summer of the Cousins!" It's been GREAT. On July 26th, Becky, Matt, & Casey drove up for the day. Our annual Hamilton Neighborhood Festival was in full swing, and we enjoyed making paper hats (that's Amelia), jumping in the moonbounce, and sharing lemonade. Hamilton is an eclectic and colorful slice of life, so just walking down the main street (which we can see from our front porch swing) is entertainment enough.

Matt & Becky shared fresh vegetables from their farm co-op & we enjoyed our back yard in spite of this year's bumper crop of mosquitos and weeds. To be truthful, Alan & I both long for a nice yard w/nice grass & lovely landscaping, but we find ourselves choosing to spend our precious time in other ways, like being with people who (we hope) like US more than our yard. Fortunately, we have a lot of those people in our lives--like Uncle Matt & Aunt Becky & Cousin Casey--who just come in spite of the bugs & weeds. (Besides, every time we DO have company, it inspires an energy surge of yard work. It also re-awakens our personal disgust & I try to rearrange those 24 daily hours to fit in a little more yard work. I did manage to pull a bunch of weeds today while the girls were playing in the sandbox & wading pool. The weeds are still out there in piles, but I pulled them.) Thanks for coming, Matt, Becky, and Casey--you made our Saturday, for sure.

I guess I ranted a little bit. (I've been considering a "rant" for the blog--perhaps coming soon--so this was a tiny attempt. I'm not a terribly good ranter. I'm still deciding if I like ranting, if ranting is really "me.")

I will leave with a thought--back to yard work--I heard in a sermon by Dr. Tony Evans. It was a story about a friend of his whose yard was not in great shape. He was outside with his family one evening when a well-meaning neighbor came over to encourage him about his lawn. The friend smiled and said, "Thanks for the advice, but right now, I'm raising children, not grass."

"Blessed is the man...who delights in the law of the Lord, and on this law meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers." (Psalm 1:1-3)