It’s quiet tonight. The dishes are done. The kids have gone home. And I confess to feeling the melancholy that comes when I realize I won’t be hugging those beautiful little girls or my son Toby & his beautiful wife Tammy for another 4 months. We had three very special weekends together – a gift that I had not anticipated in the past, but am so very thankful to have had.
The big event this weekend was our trip to the new Creation Museum just south of Cincinnati. This museum has only been open since May and already over 100,000 visitors have been there. The crowd on Saturday was the only disappointing part of the museum. And it was extremely crowded!!! But the experience was excellent. Whatever your view about creation/evolution might be, I would highly recommend this museum. It did make for a long day for the little ones, but they were certainly troopers the entire day. Today we worshipped at Mariemont Community Church - T&T’s friend Mike Durkee is the youth pastor there. It was a good service – the message was on Supreme Grace. I know it’s always good for me to be reminded of the the amazing grace that saved a wretch like me. Back at the ranch we had time for a nice swim and then enjoyed a “quiet” afternoon – all together in Lizzie since it was TOO HOT AND MUGGY to even sit outside.

So I’m feeling kinda misty about my family tonight. We’ll see Josiah and Abigail in just a couple of weeks and then for several days as they join us at our cabin in VT. So that’s a very good thing. But we haven’t seen Lara since March – and it looks like it will be Thanksgiving before we can hug her again. She has a lot going on in her life right now – and I’d love to be close enough just to join her for a cup of coffee (well, maybe a couple days in a row of coffee dates!). But it is, as they say, what it is. We’ll happily anticipate our Thanksgiving together and thoroughly enjoy our weekend in VT with Josiah and Abigail in the meanwhile. And tomorrow I’ll get busy doing whatever it is the Lord has for me to do and the “missing the kids” melancholy will subside.
So here is our official group shot from our August Trio of Weekends -

Yeah, it’s way too quiet right now……

Yep, it’s been three years since we set out from the First Baptist Church of Doylestown parking lot on a drizzly Sunday morning. It’s been three years of learning the ins and outs of living 24-7 in 300 sq. feet with another person. It’s been three years of turning the corner and being delighted with the view ahead. It’s been three years of making new friends, worshiping in new Churches, seeing new parts of the country. It’s been three years of seeing God work in our lives and in the lives of those around us. And in those three years it has been a rare day that we haven’t thanked God for the privilege of living this life. We hope and pray that as we continue on this journey that we continue to glorify God in all that we say and do!
Here’s an update on our dashboard plant – we sadly lost one of the plants about a month ago, but the remaining plant seems to be doing well.

OK – so about our weekend with the kids! It was great! These girls are at such great ages – interested in almost anything, excited to try new things and best of all – NO DIAPERS! We watched them play with Mom and Dad on the Slip’n Slide (sorry, no pictures, but it was so fun!), they eagerly looked for treasures with us (of course the swings and slides that were at most of the spots helped too!) and they were just as delightful as they could be. Oh, and we had a very nice visit with Toby & Tammy too! They head to us here at King’s Domain on Friday and we get one more weekend with them before we head to Ft. Washington and they head to North Carolina for a family vacation. We’ve been so blessed to spend this much time with them!

So what’s up with King’s Domain? This is a great camp/conference center located north of Cincinnati. I think long ago it was a Girl Scout Camp, and then pretty recently it was the headquarters for Campus Crusade’s Athlete’s in Action. They run the standard summer camp most of the summer, but right now they are running something special. A group of 80 or so kids from local churches have joined the regular staff as junior counselors (as a mission trip). They had a day or so of training, and then yesterday about 80 inner city kids (ages 8-12) arrived. It’s been amazing to see the kids interact – and everyone seems to be having a great time. As for our Sower jobs – Katie & I are working in the kitchen (though that will change next week since camp will be over) and the guys are busy doing odd jobs throughout this lovely campus. There is a rails to trails bike trail nearby (within walking distance), and we’ve had a couple of nice walks this week. I’ll try to get some pictures so you can get a feel for this camp. We’re parked by the office and the pool – it’s about a 1/2 mile all uphill to the lodge and cabins. Pretty impressive!

Heading off to bed – gotta get ready for day 1096.