Tuesday, May 25, 2010

preparation

The gospel, God's free gift of grace in Jesus, only works when we realize we don't have it all together. The same is true for prayer. The very thing we are allergic to--our helplessness--is what makes prayer work. It works because we are helpless. We can't do life on our own.

-Paul Miller

Thursday, May 13, 2010

a garden, baby, some wine and best pals...

This April and May have been busybusy. I finished up my last three prerequisite classes before I begin nursing school this fall...Nashville had a flood that brought immense devastation and as Karl, my housemate and patriarch of the Nashville Greenlands community I live in, so cheekly noted, "I know this flood's caused a lot of hardship, but our asparagus grew two feet!" So while our garden, indeed, has been producing wonderful vegetables, I have continued taking care of the sweetest baby, Eleanor. Seriously, best job I've ever had.

Three weeks ago my dearest Britta took the bus down from Chicago to Memphis for some good ole Southern lovin. This is that particular soul friend who I met working at the front desk of Many Glacier Hotel in Glacier National Park, Montana, four summers ago. From there, we spent about four months in Nepal the winter/spring of 2008 and a month in Costa Rica/Nicaragua last spring. I flew home to Chicago with Britta after our Central American adventures (see blog entry), and so this spring she was able to come down south. From bbq to block party, it was such a sweet reunion. Our next time together will be at Many Glacier this summer (she working that front desk and me visiting it)...whoop!

And to make this spring even more delicious, two of my bestest friends AND my oldest sister came in town over the weekend. Mandy is getting married in September and lives in DC, so while she was visiting her sweet mama, us girls in Nashville made it a good excuse to have a casual girls' night out to Arrington Vineyards where we drank their wine on picnic blankets with pears, cheese, and good conversation...maybe we got giggly. At least that's what the guys who let us do some wine tasting thought...After our silliness had sobered up a bit, we met a few others friends to end out the night. One of those was Jocelyn!! Her brilliant and talented self is getting a PhD at the University of Arkansas, so she rejoiced her finished semester by spending the week here with loads of laughter, good food, dear professors, a younger sister's graduation, and volunteering with all the Flood Relief we got goin on here. Sister Charlotte has known these friends for a good long while as well, and needed a fun weekend away from work--so she shared in all the festivities!

Here's to focusing on the good and beautiful...



radishes, about a month ago

oh goodness, I have LOVED the asparagus we've grown!

There's all sorts of stuff growing in this photo: blackberries, green onions, beets, black raspberries...

chestnut tree

Eleanor, six months

That's me and Britta with our trendy shades...

Her dream come true (actually, Britta didn't even know Graceland was in Memphis)

the king

Mandy's getting married...AND our 5 year college graduation reunion!

Sister Charlotte came in town for the weekend!

Mandypants...typical.

The group after several bottles of wine and wine tasting...apparently, we're hilarious.

Our hair is longgg...

Joce's hair is darkkk...

Saturday, May 1, 2010

sneak peek

Oh my goodness. These are the first photos I've seen of the kids at Harka since Britta and I were there two years ago. Pinky was a volunteer nine months after us and just was able to visit for a few weeks last month....she sweetly shared these with us! They are tiny images but adorable, nonetheless.