Picking weeds and sowing seeds......

Well......

I had a little stomach bug this weekend..yuck!

Jay took very good care of me. He got me flowers and a card and made me breakfast once I could eat again. :) He also rubbed my back and my head when it hurt and tried to hold my hair back while I was huggin' the bowl. He is God's gift to me!

Still no walls in our bathroom downstairs.. but the contractor says this week sometime. Pray for that one!

Met some of my new and not so new neighbors this week. Took some cookies to them to say welcome to the neighborhood. They really seemed appreciative and SHOCKED! One lady said "Hmm. I never had a good neighbor before!"

I also walked down and met some of our neighbors who we think know Christ and have four little girls. They are awesome. They have lived here for 11 years and know the low down on all the neighbors.

The young girl next to us who we talk to the most (and her kiddos) has been fun to hang out with lately. The kids are so funny. They come knocking on our door, when they know that their momma has told them not to. Then they run back on their porches and hope we come out. It's so funny. I used to do that to my old neighbor too! I would run to see if her car was in the drive way and then I would go back to my porch and just look pitiful until she invited me over (ollie). Funny how things come full circle.

Anyway, the kids are wonderful and so is the mom. J cuts her grass for her because she obviously doesn't have the time or energy to because of the three kids and her recent surgery. She is very appreciative. But even if she wasn't that is not why we do it. We don't want recognition or praise. We just want to show others what being a good neighbor might look like. That is the only reason that I even mention it.. is to give others ideas about how they might reach out in their community. I do not want any praise for being a good neighbor. It's what we are supposed to be.. it's not anything worth getting a cookie for! I hope no one thinks I am looking for a pat on the back my writing this. If that is the case, I apologize. I am sure somewhere down in my sinner's heart.. there is some ego that wants to surface. I pray it stays way down there and out of the way. I need others to pray for that as well. It's so easy to make it all about us so quickly before we even realize it.

Anyway again,

Activity is getting busier around our block.. if you know what I mean. More cop cars, more people out and about. But that also means more time to meet neighbors and play with the kids (and keep an eye on them)

I must admit that I get sad when I go to 'nicer' neigborhoods that have pretty trees and manicured yards and people able to pull up their weeds without getting stared down or yelled at. I can't do that anymore at our house right now. Jay and I have to cut the grass together -to keep an eye on each other. That is the thing I miss the most right now.. being outside in the yard and doing regular things that people in 'good' neighborhoods don't necessarily always have to worry about. But I am going to try to make our house as pretty as possible, so that at least there can be some beautiful flowers or something on a block covered with beer cans and trash in the street.

God makes all things new. And if that is all I have to sacrifice then I am getting off easy. I know friends who don't even have electricity every day of the week where they are (Africa). It's all relative.