Is this heaven...no it's Kansas

I spent last weekend in Lawrence. It was great to get some time with my family since I hadn't been home since Easter. JT loves the water. He & Grandma often have special dates at the aquatic center. They have a large kids pool. He is a little fish. We babysat JT on Friday night since it was Sharon & David's 10th wedding anniversary. I got to go along to the pool with JT & Grandma. He is becoming quite the good little swimmer. He could swim the length of the pool on his back, and can swim well underwater for as long as he can hold his breath. He has a little trouble with going forward on his stomach with is head out of the water still. But he amazed us - he's 4.5 years old! And he's getting quite independent. We had fun hanging out together.

One of the reasons I made the trip to Lawrence was because there was a Kansas City Youth For Christ reunion at Circle-C Ranch on Saturday night. It saw something that started with people getting connected on Facebook and it snowballed. It was open to anyone who had ever been involved with any facet of KCYFC over it's 66 years. By Friday afternoon, 650 people had RSVP'd. The ministry's name is now YouthFront and the camp is called YouthFront West. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. Many made the observation that we were getting a small taste of heaven - all the joy at see old friends and getting to fellowship with each other. It was incredible and they promised to do it again in a few years.
Vidy Metsker spoke for a few minutes. Vidy & Dr. Al started the ministry in 1943 a week before their wedding. I had the priviledge of meeting Dr. Al when I was involved in KCYFC. He passed away 16 years ago but Vidy is still going strong at 85. I am reading her book, "God Did It!", and enjoying learning about the way the ministry started.
I got to see several old friends and catch up with them- especially Lisa & Todd Reed. When I was in high school, they were at KU and were leaders with our YFC club. I've had the priviledge to stay in touch with them over the years but hadn't actually seen them in awhile.

It was great to see that the ranch carpet is still in the chapel. This beauty carpets both L-Bar-C & Circle-C's chapels. It's a lovely shag that was donated when they were building the camps. It still looks the same after close to 30 years. You can't understand the love affair we have with ranch carpet until you have experienced. But it's a think of beauty.

It was a great weekend - time with the family and seeing old friends at the reunion.

I pray you have a wonderful 4th of July as you celebrate the good old US of A and the independence we have because of the faith of our founding fathers.

He's Here

I am an aunt again. Jackson Davis Fant was born on June 18 to Hannah & Jonathan. He weighed 7 lbs, 6.5 oz and has tons of blonde hair. Mom & baby are doing well. And Marshall was very excited to finally get to meet his baby brother. Hannah sent some pictures to my cell phone but I don't know how to transfer them to the computer. Take my word for it, Jack is adorable! I can't wait for my trip down there next month to get my hands on the little guy!

The Sunshine State

Last weekend I flew to Florida to spend the weekend with a close friend from college. It was a bit of a belated 35th birthday trip for Christy & I. We had gone to New York City for our 30th birthday and she decided we needed to mark this birthday as well. The trip evolved from the initial concept but it was the perfect weekend getaway we both needed. I flew into Orlando Thursday night. We went to dinner with a high school friend of mine. It’s a story in itself how Angela & Christy got to know each other. Friday morning, Christy & I drove up to Amelia Island. It a 13 mile long island just north of Jacksonville. It is the only community in the USA that has existed under 8 different countries flags. Our hotel was in the sole town of Fernandina Beach. It was early enough in the summer season that things were fairly quiet and not crowded. We spent the afternoon wandering through the quirky little gifts shops of the main street. Someone was thinking when they named streets - the intersection of Front & Centre.
That evening we drove around the island down to the southern tip. Walked around the state park and out onto the old bridge that is now a fishing pier. Saturday we took advantage of the sunshine and spent the morning at the beach.

That afternoon in the drizzle we went to Fort Clinch State Park on the north end of the island. Toured the fort & ramparts. Got to see some dolphins frolicking in the river. We also took short detours in the park to walk out on the fishing pier and get a view of the light house while trying to ward off the mosquitoes. After dinner we took a walk through Fernandina Beach to view some of the beautiful old Victorian homes.

I highly recommend taking a trip to Amelia Island if you are looking for a little beach resort town. You can see the majority of the island in a weekend without being rushed. And the food choices were fantastic. A good number of nice seafood places to choose from. Christy & I were both impressed with the wine list at 29 South Bistro. They particularly impressed me by having Woodpecker English cider on it. I couldn’t pass up having one. All in all it was a fabulous weekend and exactly what I needed & expected.

Of backyards and movies

If you've been around me or talked to me in the last month, you know I've been working hard on the backyard. I hired a friend to do some of the heavy work and he did an amazing job - removing bushes, trimming a bed, fixing the gate, removing a sidewalk, and some other odds & ends. Then another friend helped me just because he likes playing in the dirt. I adjusted last year's plantings and added more. Slowly but surely the flowerbeds are coming along. I planted mainly perenials so it won't be so much work every year. Laying the ground cloth & mulch was a huge job that took me a week. But I am very pleased with the finished product.
I make this disclaimer: I have no clue what I'm doing when it comes to gardening. I'm as surprised as anyone that I have a somewhat green thumb.

This is my new daisy bed - shasta, button, gerber, sea-breeze, black-eyed susans, dahlias.

The hostas I planted last year have come back quite well. The back bed is mainly hostas with some coleus, ferns & impatiens.

I was surprised at how large this hosta is. That's my size 8 foot for some comparison.

The clematis is blooming like crazy.

The snowball hydrangea had great blooms this spring. And you can get a peek at the fixed & freshly painted gate.

My big deadline for finishing the backyard was May 30 - Backyard Movie Night. It's becoming an annual event. This was the 2nd annual. Saturday I hung a sheet on the back of the house and the boys set up the borrowed audio equipment & projector. After church Saturday night, people came over to hang out and I had the grill available. We hung out until dark to watch a movie or two. The only requirement is to show up with a blanket or lawn chair.

Forty or so people came and several brought their kids. We watched Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and then a handful stuck around for Top Gun. The weather was fantastic this year except for a very brief sprinkle of rain in between movies.

A big thanks to all who helped set up or man the grill.

Be excellent to each other...and party on, dudes!

It's a paradox of sorts...

I recently spent some time with a person who uses the term “my religion” anytime he/she talks about his/her spiritual beliefs. This person and I differ some on doctrine but our core beliefs are the same: that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came to earth through the virgin birth, who died on the cross and rose again to give us forgiveness of our sins and that believing in Him is the only way to Heaven.

But I find the use of the term “my religion” bothers me. It was said enough that I had to examine why it bothered me. In our society, “religion” is used to describe any spiritual belief system. To most, it means a tenet of beliefs that you follow- rigid rules on how to live a confined life. I find I am colored by society’s use of the term. The circles I move in don’t like the word “religion” any more than those outside the church. It represents something hollow, cold. When I describe my beliefs I want to express something that moves me to the core of my being, that represents the foundation of my life, my reason for living. Jesus is my Savior, my Lord, my all in all. It’s a relationship that defines my worldview.

The dictionary says religion is: A) Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator or governor of the universe. B) A person or institutionalized system grounded in such belief.

While the word itself has a definition that aptly describes a spiritual belief, it leaves a lot to be desired. “Institutionalized system” conjures up images of white walls, straight jackets and seeing the world in black & white. I want the words I use to describe my faith in Christ to in paint vivid strokes of color. It’s hard to define it in one little word, much less with a stigmatized word like “religion.”

As I grasp at how to aptly convey my relationship with Jesus, I’ll leave you with a bit of a quote by the late, great Rich Mullins: “If you’ve ever known the love of God, you know it’s nothing but reckless and it’s nothing but raging…”

Loire Valley

I am in Toulouse again for work. This time it is for 1.5 weeks. The weather has been a little chilly and sometimes rainy but overall not too bad. Thursday night I went downtown for dinner with and we took an after dinner walk. This is St. Etienne Cathedral. I had not been in it's neighborhood before. The stain glass windows were lit from inside.

For the weekend, I went to the Loire Valley with Rhonda. Her husband works for Spirit and they are in Toulouse on a long-term assignment. We stationed ourselves in Tours - a town with a central location. The Loire Valley is famous for it's concentration of chateaus.

Hotel De Ville (city hall) is in the center of town and about a block from our hotel. The heart of Tours was a quaint old city while the outskirts were quite modern.

We had dinner at a sidewalk cafe. I tried the moules & frites for the first time - mussels and fries. You get a big pot of mussels and a side of fries - it is the traditional way to serve them. You just dig in with your hands. It was delicious & a bit messy.

On Saturday, we took a chateau tour. We paid to be driven around the area - well worth the money if you have a short period of time to spend there - did not have to figure out where things were yourself and had a knowledgeable van driver who gave us a lot of history along the way. (I recommend http://www.accodispo-tours.com/ if you are ever in the area.)

We started the day by going to Villandry which is famous for it's gardens. The chateau is privately owned and the family lives in the stable house - which in itself is nothing to sneeze at. Villandry has been owned by this family for a few hundred years. We just had time to tour the amazing gardens.

The garden has several different sections. This is the romantic themed area.

This is the aromatic section with lettuces and herbs. There was also a reflecting pond and a maze.The rest of the chateaus we toured are owned by the French government. We then went to Azay Le Rideau. The river was rerouted to create the chateau's moat. It is surrounded by the village but has a good bit of land around it.

Wisteria was in bloom everywhere. It was so beautiful hanging over arbors and covering sides of buildings.
One of the great detailed windows at Azay Le Rideau.

It had to be hard to have to look out at this all the time.

Around the side.

Chambord is the largest chateau in the valley. It was built as a hunting lodge (I want to say it was for Charles VII.) It has ~300 fireplaces and very intricately decorated chiminies.

The front entrance.The grand stone staircase in the center. The main portion of the chateau was basically a four square around this staircase.

Some of the intricate turrets and chiminies as seen from the roof terrace.

The view of the grounds from the roof terrace.

The king's bedchambers.

Chenonceau was my favorite of all the chateaus we visited. It was built as a bridge across the river. It is quite a charming place.

The gallery on the ground floor that extends over the river. In WWI it was used as a hospital.

The view out one of the gallery windows.

There were beautiful fresh flower arrangements all around the chateau.

One of the 5 rooms in the kitchen area.

The stone staircase.

A view of half of the gardens from the 2nd floor balcony.

The face of one of the outbuildings was covered in wisteria.

On a totally different subject - this is a field of canola or rake weed. There are fields of brilliant yellow contrasted by the rich green grasses and trees as you drive through the countryside. It's hard to capture how beautiful it is. The flowers are harvested and pressed for oil. The quality of oil is low however and is mixed with diesel for bio-fuel.

On our drive home Sunday morning we happened upon the town of Loches. It has a Loire Valley chateau. The old walled city is at the center of town and contains a chateau, cathedral and donjon. It was quite a charming find - a happy accident. My camera battery died quickly though and so I only got a few pictures of a courtyard and the cathedral.

I have had the Loire Valley on my "must-see" list for 2 years. I am so glad I got to go and that it was not a disappointment. It was a fantastic weekend. I took almost 200 pictures - so this is a small sampling of them.

Not quite April's Fool

I haven't posted anything lately because there's not much going on outside of the sacred ordinary. I have been home almost 5 weeks straight without even a weekend trip. It's been at least 6 months since that has happened. It has been a nice change. However, spring in Kansas is always an adventure. There's an old adage: if you don't like the weather in Kansas, stick around 30 minutes - it will change. It has been very true lately.

The first day of spring, March 20, was great. We've been having some beautiful early spring weather. That changed Friday, March 27 with a few inches of ice pellets. Then Saturday, March 28 we had 4 inches of snow in Wichita. Which actually was a lot less than predicted. Just west & north of here there was 20+ inches of snow. It isn't completely unusual but it's not common either. I thought I'd give you some visuals. Prince Charming (my cement frog statue) on Saturday afternoon is barely peeking through the snow on the patio. Prince Charming 2 days later after every bit of snow was gone.

We'll see what April 1 actually brings when tomorrow dawns.