"Personality is what you are to others..."

Today is my mom's 83rd birthday!  And I want her to know I've not forgotten what she wrote in my autograph book more than 50 years ago:

"Personality is what you are to others, character is what you are."

So often we are judged by our outward appearances...our looks, our style of dress, how much we weigh, how we present ourselves publicly, and so forth.  As a teenager,  one of my close friends told me, "if it wasn't for your hair...you would be...nothing! Really?  I laugh at that memory now.  I know she was trying to compliment me and in an awkward way was saying that I did a pretty good job with my hair style and it was one of my best outward features.  

Sometimes even now friends make comments to me like "you need to get a life" or "you need to get out more often".  When I hear that sort of thing, I just accept that they are making a judgment about an aspect of my personality that they can see outwardly.

My brother Don, who happens to be fighting a very serious form of cancer, updated his blog recently and talks about risking intimacy in relationships. We don't always let the barriers down and allow others to see us up close and personal. Sometimes I hesitate to "show myself" because I don't want to seem like I am trying to draw attention to myself or make it look like I am asking for a pat on the back.  It's often more comfortable just to keep things between me and God.

I also don't like rejection (who DOES?!) and I've lived enough years now to fully know that not everyone will accept me for who I really am, what I have to say, or love me in spite of my best (and often flawed) attempts at communicating.  Still, being misunderstood is painful.

Having said all of the above, I want to share a couple things that gave me a lot of personal joy yesterday.  My hubby and I took a couple of hours to pick up donated casseroles, soups, and cookies from our church and deliver them to an inner city ministry.  We had opportunity to chat with the house mom and a young girl doing some community service as part of her legal obligation.  After that, we stopped at a local restaurant and picked up some food which we delivered to a friend who is staying day and night at the children's hospital with her special needs son who was admitted with breathing problems, and her 2 month old nursing daughter.  Her other two children are with their grandmother.  My friend isn't married and can't work, so finances are very limited and she simply could not afford to buy meals at the hospital.  

I haven't stopped to analyze why yesterday was so meaningful to me personally or why I felt such joy in serving others.  But if I had to guess, I would say it is probably because in spite of our own job uncertainty and my brother's health crisis, and a few other things going on that keep me on my knees, I realized again how very blessed I have been in so many ways.  There's just something about getting close enough to the real life situations of others that makes you realize you don't have it so bad, in spite of frustrating or even agonizing circumstances.  

So I want to say "thank you Mom!" for instilling in me very early on that character development is far more important than any of the things that people see about my personality.  

"...for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." I Samuel 16:7

Love in Action

I've mentioned that my husband and I have joined our church's Local Outreach team, and that we are now writing blog posts to keep our church members and others updated as to what the ministries are about and how they might consider helping. I've added a link on my sidebar. Have a look at our latest post about Urban Vision in Akron, Oh.

We are so blessed to be involved with Local Outreach as part of Christ Community Chapel. (formerly Hudson Community Chapel). Our church's vision for the new year is focusing on Micah 6:8:

"And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

Well, it wasn't a particularly "pretty" day, as it was cloudy and threatening to rain, but the temperature was down into the '70's and I decided it was a good day to take the grandkids for a walk around the neighborhood. I wore my watch as I wanted to make sure I got in a good half hour of walking exercise.

So we started out like this--Elylah wanting to ride the little car that she is actually too big for, and me pushing sleepy Ethan in a stroller.

We made it around the first cul-de-sac, eventually, but we were getting no where fast, and I was definitely not getting anything I could with a good conscience call exercise!

So we left the little car behind and went off to see what we could see...

What a beautiful pool one neighbor around the corner has. We actually saw several pools...and lots of interesting yard art...

Not as many of these as I thought we'd see...

then there was another kind of sign...

some perky flowers...

and some that were getting very tired...

We saw a lot of these...

Whoops...is this a mistake...or a statement?

We stumbled into this...

I just love the beautiful willow trees...

I wonder how long it would take me to grow one like this?

We saw lots and lots of these...but no children playing on them, sadly...

Because as unbelievable as it is...

Fall is just about here...

And our city schools started today...We did see a few kids getting in a bike ride...

And we saw this jogger twice, getting a lot more exercise than I was...

Pushing Ethan was a whole lot easier!

Here's an inviting scene we saw on my friend's front porch...

We saw these beautiful and friendly dogs...

and another one named Champ who really wanted to play...

Good fences make good neighbors?

We were surprised by this pear tree...

And this apple tree...

I did a double-take when I saw this...

because for 45 years my parent's street address was "1552" !

Looking "up", we saw this:

and we started walking faster!

"yes 'n' hey it's good to be back home again..."

Hope you enjoyed coming along on our walk. I checked my watch, and we were out for 1 1/2 hours!

~~This is the day which the LORD has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.~~

Psalm 118:24

a week in the life of a grandma...

Wow, it's been a whirlwind around here. Our very brave daughter-in-law, Ellie, drove up to NE Ohio from South Carolina with our two grandsons, Deacon (4) and Owen (2).

Our son, Andy, wasn't able to get away from his church responsibilities this time, but they'll be back in a month for our family reunion in July. Ellie and the kids started out late on the Friday night before Memorial Day and stopped after a couple hours and stayed overnight in a hotel. On Saturday afternoon, they caught up with us at a birthday party for my great-nephew...that was out in the country about an hour farther from our house!

My niece Ann and her hubby Adam live on a 1000 acre preserve that it owned by the State of Ohio. He is a ranger and the property just happened to have a century house on it that they are able to rent. They've done a ton of work on the property and they also cultivate a huge garden. We enjoyed a lovely sunny and warm day there visiting with family and eating all the yummy food. Happy First Birthday, Abe!

Abe had a blast opening all his birthday presents...

The back porch of the century house...my niece Ann with baby Abe, his daddy Adam, and in the front, my son, Sam. It was wonderful to be outdoors on such a perfect day, and the kids had much to keep them happy and occupied...

On Sunday after church, we took the four grands plus Ellie and Sam & Joanna out to eat lunch. Fortunately we found a kids-friendly restaurant that had a semi-private room for us to use. The kids enjoyed making their own ice-cream sundaes there. When we got home, we set up a slip 'n' slide in our backyard.

Our little next door neighbor boy, Kyle (red swim suit), is exactly Deacon's age, and so the more the merrier...Kyle's family has a tramboline which the kids also enjoyed.

I'd die if I tried this!

By Sunday night, this is what my family room looked like! My camera would break if I took a picture of the kitchen! But I was too tired to care, or even be embarrassed that two of Ellie's friends came to stay overnight...because...

early on Monday morning (Memorial Day) they were participating in a 5-K race in our town and they just needed a place to stay. Emily and Sarah were great sports about our chaos...

Joanna, Sam, Ellie and my brother Don (a 10 time marathon veteran) all ran the 5-K...it was Joanna's very first race and I was really proud of her for doing it! It was SO HOT that morning and the sun was SO BRIGHT that some of the pictures didn't come out very well...

Here comes Don...

and Sam...

Ellie wouldn't let me post her running picture, even though it was REALLY cute...she was smiling and waving...so here she is with Owen at the community pancake breakfast which followed the race. The runners all got to eat for free.

Backing up just a bit, it was our job to take care of the kids while the runners had to arrive early to get registered for the race. So we opted for the nearby donut shop.

Right after the pancake breakfast, we took the kids to our small town parade...where we found Abe Lincoln riding on a fire truck!

Our town has unfortunately lost several young men in our country's current wars, and there is quite a bit of patriotism here...

One day we went to lunch at Chick-Fil-A. I watched the kids for a bit in the playroom so Ellie could have some conversation with the two great-grandmas.

One night, Deacon made our supper for us...which you can read all about here...

And then a trip to Dollar Tree was pleasing for everyone!

I sure appreciate all the effort it was for Ellie to bring the boys up for this week long visit. There was a lot of stuff I wanted to do but we couldn't because we had rain almost every day. One thing I really enjoyed was playing "I Spy" with the boys at bedtime. They got into the twin beds in the semi-dark and I sat in a chair calling out whatever "I spied". They had to find it with the flashlight without getting out of bed. Eventualy the game would be over and they would taper off to sleep, still holding their flashlights. It was a great week...and I'm a tired but very happy granny!