Experiencing Small Town Life

Rachael is experiencing small town life.

Thursday she and Liz came to my "Birthday Group" June lunch party for one of our neighborhood friends and they caught up on all the "goings on" around town.

Friday is a big day here in town. We have our local Farmer's Market that day. So the three of us decided to walk downtown to purchase local produce. Of course we knew almost everyone we met along the way. Elizabeth met her 6th grade English teacher who has recently written a second book, this one dealing with one room school house in the area. She was dressed as an old school "marm" and had just given a presentation to a group of school children. Fun. Then we saw our village historian. Liz and one of her sons swam together, life guarded together and now he is a ranger in the Army and is stationed near West Point, having recently come home from Iraq. She promised Liz an original picture of her newly purchased home, just so we can confirm our thoughts that the house originally had a front porch.

We continued to met people, walked around all the booths; maple syrup producers, jewelry designers, booths with nursery plants, purchased rubarb and kale, free range lamb and chuck roast, got lattes at Blackbird Cafe, and saw a group of school children file into the park for a picnic in the park. It was fun.

Saturday the three of us went to an auction in Alex Bay. Rachael had never been to one. We stayed the whole day! Something we have never done. Usually two or three hours is more than enough for us. But Liz had seen a garden table and chairs that she wanted to bid on so we stayed. And she got it for a remarkably low offering. If anyone needs good solid furniture go to the auctions. They are practically giving dressers and commodes away. Anyway, Rachael got a little piece of local history, a small rocker from the former A Bay resort, the Crosman House Resort,(?), the original resort in the town, and several other treasures and Liz and I came away with a few items too. We met many funny, quirky, and interesting people under the tent and created a stir when the young men who work at the auction congregated around the Suburban to try to fit everything in. I think the two pretty young girls were the attraction.

Today is local church. Sunday school, worship, and later a visit to friends for a bon fire and dessert. (I think I may be collecting eggs and feeding cows, don't tell Liz, she knows I want to have chickens in the backyard and she doesn't want to encourage the desire, she's totally against it) It is great small town living!!

Garden Party for Birthday Girl

It worked this year. We had Ann's June birthday lunch out in the garden. Last year we tried but had to move inside when the rain came.

We've had many birthday parties up at camp. But since the inception of the backyard garden we've transferred the venue to 42's backyard. And yesterday was a perfect day amist the flowers, food and friends.

We're so glad we have one birthday in June. The peonies were in their glory and the one white rose bush was full of blooms. The garden has really filled in these past two years. Hostas are bigger, iris's are fuller and I have inserted white alliums to add to the height of the garden in early spring.

And this year, as with other years, we had two additional guests. Rachael and Elizabeth.

I was reflecting on that this morning out in my garden room, about my friends, my garden and the wedding we had here two years ago, and I came across a wedding sermon from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Here is one little segment which I thought was good.

" Marriage is more than your love for each other. It has a higher dignity and power, for it is God's holy ordinance, through which he wills to perpetuate the human race till the end of time. In your love you see only your two selves in the world, but in marriage you are a link in the chain of the generations, which God causes to come and to pass away to his glory, and calls into his kingdom. In your love you see only the heaven of your own happiness, but in marriage you are placed at a post of responsibility towards the world and mankind. Your love is your own private possession, but marrige is more than something personal-it is a status, an office. Just as it is the crown, and not merely the will to rule, that makes the king, so it is marriage, and not merely your love for each other, that joins you together in the sight of God and man. As you first gave the ring to one another and have now received it a second time from the hand of the pastor, so love comes from you, but marriage from above, from God. As high as God is above man, so high are the sancity, the rights, and the promise of marriage above the sancity, the rights, and the promise of love. It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love."

Newton and Lewis

A few months ago this quote appeared in our church bulletin and gave me great hope.

"I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I wish to be. I am not even what I hope to be. But by the cross of Christ, I am not what I was."
John Newton

C.S. Lewis, from Mere Christianity, gives us this to think about:

"The command Be ye perfect is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that we were "gods" and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him- for we can prevent Him, if we choose-He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said."

A lot to mediate on for one day!

Surprise 30th Birthday

I had a quick trip to Kansas City over the weekend to celebrate a very special lady in our family. It was a surprise party for Jen to cheer her on as she enters into her third decade!!

And boy, was she surprised.

It is actually her birthday on the 9th, but Laura and Demi had planned this party in advance of the day to completely throw her off. She was totally unaware of all our scheming. So many of her family and friends were able to come which made it a fun party. And we had wonderful Kansas City Barbeque for dinner. What a treat!

Laura and Kristen had made up this game, Jen Jeopardy. It was so creative and fun. Which team of 10 people could answer the questions asked, all with different points. My team did not win, but came in a close second.

We also played a game with acronyms. I must say that Jen's friends were certainly very witty but Kristen's husband, Mark, got the prize in my book for creativity and sensitivity.

We; Jen, Laura, Mark and Kristen, went out to brunch on Sunday with Ed and his new wife, Ikuko. So we had some time to just be with family and catch up on everyone's doings; house hunting, house selling, new jobs and a fairly new pregnancy.

I had stayed with a dear friend of my sister's, Peggy, and it was good to catch up on each others families. She actually will be coming to visit the North Country later in July with her daughters and a friend.

I must say it was warm, sunny and beautiful in KC, quite different from upstate NY this week. But I am holding out hope for the rest of the week that we will see the sun and my little tomato plants will make vast strides in upward development.