A Great Sunday

I just had the best day yesterday. I got to sing with our Worship Team, sit with two beautiful granddaughters at church, enjoyed a potluck with friends after church. I love potlucks! It's not really just the food, though. I love that time of fellowship with church friends. People seemed to linger longer today. It was just good to be together.

After the potluck I went directly to meet one of my favorite collection of women for a fun get-together. We are a group who all used to work together caring for cancer patients. We no longer all work together but our friendship has been sustained. It is not always easy to find a group of women who work together as well as did the five of us. Circumstances kept that from being a permanent situation but we remain grateful for the years it did last. I'm so happy that we have maintained our friendship. I always feel happy after time with these beautiful ladies!

That wasn't the end of it, though. Our daughter and her family arrived moments after I got home. We have developed a tradition of getting together on most Sunday nights for dinner. Ten years from now we likely won't be able to distinguish memories of one Sunday night from another, but we are accumulating a host of blended memories. I love it!

Elise gets time with each of us.

I think her Daddy, Eric, elicited the best giggles from her last night.

Most Sunday nights involve, at some point, some dinosaur hunting. I'm pretty certain that is Cordelia's favorite part of the evening.

Those dinosaurs are tricky to find!

They hide in some pretty silly places!

Mike & I soak up granddaughter time.

But all good things must come to an end...

... at least until next week.

Mountaintop High

We held our church service up on the mountain Sunday.  It was lovely! 

This is the shelter where we met... 

We were there early so as Mike prepared for the service, I wandered around enjoying being on the mountain.  I found some really large and fresh pine cones.  They were just too perfect!  I had to collect some.  I greedily gathered up as many as I could carry, hugging them to my chest.  After dumping them into our vehicle I realized my hands were sticky and gooey.  Even my sweatshirt had goop on it!  Oh well, I'd seen the water cooler already set up.  I  knew it was for drinking but I figured I could dribble a bit on my hands and make it better.  

That's what I did but I was really, really heavy duty sticky, not just ordinary sticky.

Then I rubbed...

still sticky...

rubbed some more...

seemed even more sticky...

gathered up some dirt to rub on my hands, hoping to dislodge the tenacious goop...

still sticky and now dirty...

back to the cooler to dribble more water on my hands, hoping no one noticed...

still sticky...

wait a minute.........!

It was NOT a cooler of water.

It was lemonade!!!

I laughed out loud at myself!

I am grateful that my friend, Cheryl, helped me out.

I confessed my problem and stupidity to her and she produced a bottle of water!

More people arrived and I entertained myself taking photos.  Unfortunately, I hadn't thought to charge the battery on my camera so the photos started getting more and more blurry and then the camera went to sleep.

Here are a few pictures I took before the camera-hibernation set in....

This cross hangs over the big fireplace.

  

It was chilly but the fire kept people warm...well, only the people near the front, which was pretty much just Mike.

My son, Sam, thought this profile looked presidential and should be on a penny.

I think she has one of the prettiest smiles, don't you?

She also found a way to entertain herself as we waited for the others to arrive.

The service was lovely.

People clapped.

People smiled.

People sang.

People prayed.

People shared communion.

People worshipped.

After the service, we enjoyed a lovely potluck picnic.

I brought a salad made from broccoli flowerettes, strawberries, sesame seeds, toasted almonds and Monterrey jack cheese cubes topped with a mixture of red wine vinegar, mayo and sugar.  I was kind of proud of myself as I actually followed a real recipe, well, except for the sesame seeds, they were my own idea.  And, in the spirit of full disclosure, I also admit I didn't actually measure anything as I added it but still, I LOOKED right at the recipe as I mixed it all up.  That counts, doesn't it? 

I just wanted to share that day with you!