Bits and Pieces from Week Three

A few more bits and pieces from last week...

On Sunday we visited Cedar Ridge Community Church, about a half hour away. Brian McLaren is no longer the Senior Pastor there, but I still wanted to visit the church he founded since I've read some of his books. To our delight, guess who was speaking the day we were there?? Brian McLaren. So, that was fun. One cool thing about that church...they have a farm on their property. They grow food and then give it out to people in need. Brilliant.

On Monday, our neighbors across the street invited us to go blackberry picking with them at a local farm. The boys were thrilled to spend the day with their new friends (Jonah even rode in their van to and from the farm) and I was grateful for the opportunity to go someplace we never would have found on our own.

It was a beautiful drive out there and the farm was really fun. They had goats and chickens and a very friendly dog who walked with us all the way out to the berries. The boys were terrific berry pickers and filled-up a bucket in no-time flat.

The excitement of the day was provided by the weather!  Within about five minutes time, the weather went from clear skies and HOT to dark clouds and pouring down SHEETS of rain. I've never seen anything like it - it was so crazy! We got completely drenched walking back to our car. Streets started to flood as we drove home and thunder/lightning followed. When got back to the house the power was out and it stayed off until 9:00 that night. Talk about a new and different experience! We were relieved when the a/c kicked back on and cooled down the hot, sticky house just before bedtime.

The next day, I made a delicious blackberry cobbler. Again, not something I would have ever done at home. I'm finding my inner Martha Stewart out here.

And on Thursday, we spent the day with Kimiko, a friend of my friend Susannah.  Kimiko is a childhood friend of Susannah's who happens to live very close to where we are staying this summer.  We connected via email and Kimiko invited us to her moms group from church.  They go on an outing every Thursday in the summer and last week's outing was to Wheaton Regional Park - another really amazing park in a forested area.  They had a train ride, carousel, cool wooden play structure, botanic gardens, and butterfly garden.  
 

 
All in all, Week Three was pretty terrific!