Weekend (plus a few other days) in review!

Y'all have so graciously offered your sympathy and prayers in the recent death of my mother-in-law. Thank you! She died on the 12th (my brother-in-law's birthday) and my birthday was on the 14th. Our celebrations looked a little different this year.

Mark and I had made reservations at Fleming's and had invited our friends, Lu and Dave, to go with us to celebrate on my actual birthday. I asked Mark if he wanted to cancel and reschedule but he didn't. It was a nice reprieve. When we arrived, there was a birthday card on the table.

along with birthday confetti sprinkled around.

I had a Lemon Blueberry something or other drink that was delicious! Mark had a couple of Old Fashions; Dave had a Moscow Mule; and I can't remember what Lu drank!

I've been trying to walk for a few minutes every morning while the days are so long. The last few days it has been too hot at 5:00 a.m. to walk. Isn't that crazy?

My brother-in-law created this picture. None of his boys are in it and our youngest granddaughter wasn't born yet. I just realized we are missing a sister-in-law, too. Sweet grandmother was right in the center.

Y'all know we host a group every Tuesday night, right? Five of them are on a mission trip to Costa Rica this week. They have been so sweet to text us along the way -- as they were leaving Birmingham, arriving in Costa Rica, and after worship on Sunday.

The rest of the group will gather at our house tomorrow night and we will do some in-town mission projects. Y'all . . .our whole group did such nice things for us last week. They bought a huge hydrangea for our yard and gave us a large gift certificate to a local restaurant plus gave a donation of altar flowers to the church all in memory of Mark's mom.

Mark's mom loved flowers and was the first chairperson of our flower guild at church. The original 12 (at the beginning it was all ladies - now there are men/boys!) women gathered last week and made flower arrangements for the altar and for the restrooms and hallways. The church looked beautiful.

While most everyone was still in town, Mark's sister hosted everyone at their house on Friday night. Our  nephew who is a doctor in New York City had to fly back, but everyone else was here. We all took something to share. Our nephew's girlfriend made a couple of charcuterie boards that were lovely.

We had homemade guac and chips and pasta salad and Asian slaw and baked beans and fruit and ribs, smoked chicken, and smoked pork. There was banana pudding and strawberry shortcake. Good beverages were served but Mark had a procedure on Friday morning and was unable to drink so I didn't drink either.

Thomas is the youngest nephew and he was at the kid's table with our oldest granddaughters. He was such a good sport and played with them a lot.

Saturday morning brought snuggles with our youngest granddaughter. Just FYI - she had just projectile spit up ALL over me and I literally had to change clothes. It didn't bother her one bit!

Yes, I was using a dish towel as a burp cloth because it is what Mark grabbed when she spit up all over us both! They actually worked well as burp cloths and I cloroxed them after!

Look at that sweet sleeping baby!

After lunch, our son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter #1 came over to visit and we loaded up the golf cart and headed to the pool. We actually had to make two trips going and coming! It was so hot that we all stayed in the pool almost the whole time.

There was some shoulder standing going on!

She wanted me to take her picture!

And the she did this and wanted another picture!

The younger one was being thrown into the water by her Uncle Bobo (Uncle Glenn) and her mama. She LOVED it!! Mark, our children, and our grandchildren are all strong swimmers. I'm so happy they are.

Our daughter and her family headed home after the 3:00 p.m. bottle so they could time their life accordingly. I remember those days. I immediately started working on my paper for American Lit. I had a little buddy in my office with me. He was sleeping on the job.

I worked on Sunday and went to Sunday School and facilitated. Our pastors have been doing this amazing summer sermon series where they are each telling their story. I decided to mirror that in our class so I lined up different class members for every Sunday in June and July to tell their story. The guy who was supposed to speak on Sunday has covid and was really sick. I had to punt. I got everyone to stand up and move around and find a partner that wasn't related to them or their best friend. They had to introduce themselves and answer a couple of easy get to know you questions. Then everyone had to find a new partner and answer two more easy questions. Then I asked everyone to sit down with one partner (not related or best friend) and I gave them a series of three questions to answer together. What is your favorite scripture or one that has been especially meaningful in your life; when have you struggled with your faith; when have you seen God at work in your life. I wrapped it up by talking about the fact they had all begun to think about their story by answering those questions. We all have a story and our story is intermingled with God's story and possibly with other people. Everyone seemed to enjoy it (except one person).

We've always eaten Sunday lunch at my mother-in-law's house . . .and our sweet son and our daughter-in-law, granddaughter #1, and a friend met us for lunch at Mudtown. We may eventually start hosting here. We will see. I worked on my paper some more and then I took a day of vacation on Monday (today) and finished my paper. I submitted it around lunchtime today. After lunch, we tried to take a nap (couldn't go to sleep), I rode my stationary bike, we ran to Walmart, I prepped food for tomorrow night's YA dinner, and I had time to blog!!

What has been going on in your life?