A Busy Week

(Several posts today. Scroll down.)

Usually summers are very quiet around here where I spend a lot of time journalling, reading, blogging, and (trying to) reorganize the chaos of our house.  I like it quiet, too.  But I also like fun things like the things that have filled this very busy week.

SUNDAY was church.  I had wanted to go to a different church each Sunday over the summer.  We still haven't settled on a church home and I thought it would be good to experience them all.  Even ones we're pretty certain will not be a match for us.  Just to experience them and know what's out there.  This is the second time for this one church.  We'd actually gone there years before but now they have a new pastor whom I'd never heard.  The first time this summer, he was out of town so I still didn't get to hear him.  I went again last Sunday.  After church I headed out to The Art Barn.  It's a barn that houses several spaces where various artists sell their work.  They're only open Friday - Sunday, May - September.  I visited the glass lady and fell in love with more of her cross pendants.  She uses dichroic glass and makes some beautiful things. 

After that I went to a movie.  Saw Marmaduke.  Now, I'm not usually one for seeing computer generated talking dogs, but for some reason, I was up for this one.  I prepared myself for it to be stupid and I was pleasantly surprised.  I liked it.  I made it through the stupid parts of computer generated doggy dance scenes and surfing scenes, and managed to tolerate the CG lip movements on otherwise real dogs.  I liked the story and liked seeing all the dogs, especially the grand Great Dane Marmaduke.  It was a cute movie.  It made me think of both Mom and my Grandpa.  Mom would have loved it - except for the dogs swimming in water...she would have been worried sick and mad at the directors, writers, and actors who made the dogs get in the water.  And it reminded me of my Grandpa because he loved the Marmaduke comics in the papers.

MONDAY I had a Bible Study Brunch.  There's no Bible study over the summer but the ladies all get together once a month for a brunch.  It was at a beautiful home overlooking a huge meadow.  It's in an area that feels like it's out in the middle of nowhere but is adjacent to the main towns (known to us as "Town")that we are a good 25 miles from.  It was great to see the gals, catch up, share a devotional and prayer requests.

TUESDAY late afternoon and into the evening went to some friends' house for games and dinner.  Their oldest daughter is headed for Army boot camp in 6 weeks.  It was really nice spending time with the family.  We've known them for about 10 years but don't often see them.  They actually live in the same town (tiny town, a "community" really) as we do, which is a rarity on the friends front.  Most of our social circle live in "Town", which as mentioned above is some 25 miles away.

WEDNESDAY  was the court trip to an entirely different town (about 50 miles away) that I NEVER go to and the subsequent lunch adventure. 

THURSDAY was my new adventure in creativity...a quilting class.  It is held in the town of the opposite direction from Town.  A little farther away and completely different scenery along the way, it is a much smaller town that doesn't really hold anything except this cute little quilt shop I found a week ago.  I'm liking striking out in a different direction from our regular "Town".  It's new and different.  I like the drive, too.

FRIDAY was...nothing.  I didn't feel real great but did manage a run to the post office.   Wooo!

TODAY, SATURDAY I went into (regular) Town and got a much needed haircut.  As in, MUCH needed.  Took advantage of being In Town and did a little shopping.  There's no "running to the store" out here.  You plan ahead and combine your trips.  I would have made a hair appointment for tomorrow but my gal doesn't work on Sundays.  Oh yeh, and out here in the cun-try lots of folks get their hair cut at Wal-Mart.  Actually it's the Smart Style inside Wal-Mart.  I'm one such person.  I like my stylist so much I hate to go to anyone else.  She's the manager and very good.  Very sweet, too.  I started going to her after a total bad haircut.  I'd never had a bad haircut before but this one was a doozy.  I'll have to blog about it sometime...seeing how blogs often contain trivial little writings about such things as bad haircuts and lunch fiascoes.

TONIGHT went to dinner at our neighbors who are "part-timers", also known as "weekenders".  My mother-in-law used to live next door to us.  She bought the five acres next door because she loves the woods and had dreams of cooking dinner for us every night and spending lots of time with us.  Well, shortly after she moved up here my mom got to the place where it was urgent that she not be living alone.  That's when The Fisherman and I decided for me to go live with her.  And then The Fisherman spent the next couple of summers in Alaska on business ventures.  Soon Mom V. was in a lonely situation she had not anticipated.  She stuck it out for about 3 years and then she sold and moved "back home" to where she grew up and still has tons of family and old friends.  And we are SO blessed with the new owners.  They are good neighbors and we really like them.  As our house is in the middle of our property and their home is right on the edge of theirs, that puts us REALLY close by definitions out here.  It's as if in a regular city we were one or two houses away.  We are forever thankful for the good neighbors that they are.  Anyway...it was a nice evening of dinner and chatting with them and some of their family.

And TOMORROW will be church, lunch and a movie In Town.  Haven't settled on where to go to church tomorrow.  Last Sunday the pastor I finally got to hear started on a two-week series.  So I'm tempted to go there again, which would make it the third time for that church. So much for going to a different church every Sunday.  What to do, what to do?  As for the movie, think I'll see Karate Kid.  I liked the first one and I really like Jackie Chan.  I hear Jaden Smith did an excellent job.

Compared to most weeks, this has been extra full.  I loved it.  Didn't get much done around the house but it was a GREAT week!