Hope you Feel Good

Still waiting on the photos to be uploaded to this computer. Sometimes being technically challenged is not unlike being directionally disabled...it's a maddening bruise to the ego. So; I'm dependent on Seth to get the photos on here. Still, there's this beauty that was taken by a church member on Sunday morning when we broke bread with the hungry in Pritchard Park. The kids love being in Pritchard Park! We served about 50-60 folks who otherwise may not have had any breakfast on Sunday morning. It's part of a community wide effort in which churches like ours sign up to take a Sunday morning. And while it doesn't fix any root causes (sometimes I think we are so far from fixing root causes that our nation will never get there), it does build community and remind us to look for Jesus in the eyes of the stranger, the outsider, the marginalized. We all need that reminder. And wherever there are parks, people, and trees shedding leaves, my young'un is happy.

Juniper is a bit of a mess these days...she had surgery to remove a mast cell tumor on her ear, and she's wearing a ridiculous padded pillow collar, since she couldn't tolerate the cone collar. She tries to shake it off about once every five minutes. Persistent, that one. She's due to get her staples removed this week and hopefully that means we're on the road to recovery. Her wound is still difficult to look at. On the up side, the pillow collar makes for a very comfortable sleeping situation, and she now snores with gusto. Reminds me of the old days when I was a volunteer for the Appalachia Service Project, sleeping in school gyms with dozens of volunteers, and one of them always had the immense snore of a bear and kept everyone up all night...until we were too exhausted to be bothered. But Juniper's snore is kinda cute, I love having a girl who can snore.

Mylestones: Though he's having a bad night on this particular night, for the most part Myles is full steam ahead into the world of being four. He's become frustratingly independent...meaning it could take me a second to snap his pants but instead he insists on doing it himself and it can take five minutes and include a fit if he's not successful. He perseveres; I guess he inherited a bit of the Taurus in Seth and me. He has become quite choosy about what he wears, and enjoys dressing himself. He's happy when he's in his own world playing with action figures or dinosaurs or cars, anything he can animate. Recently I overheard this: "No! I have to go, I'm the bad guy...have a good day!" The conversations between his figures offer quite the drama. Myles is also happy when he's doing the extrovert thing...like talking to strangers. Or yelling at them. Today, as we passed by a new house under construction with the car windows down (yes, I love a southern November!), he shouted to the men on the roof "It looks great!" Every passerby is a person of interest, a potential friend. This week he's been on a spider-making tear; obsessed with a construction paper craft in which we trace our hands on a folded piece of paper, cut them out, and unfold them to reveal a spider. Then we cut out eyes (which have to be green for some reason and pointy if possible) and glue them on the spider.

Myles Says: One of the sweetest things Myles said recently was to Seth's colleague, Al. Myles loves Al and as they were saying goodbye, Myles said, "Bye. And I hope you feel good." There are dozens of other things he says, and Seth is always asking why I don't write them down. I don't have a good answer for this.

All is well in our lives. Seth aced his midterm and is now working on a brilliant paper about sidewalks in east Asheville. I'm loving the church and grateful at all it's grown into in the past year. Looking forward to Advent already! The season of awe and wonder is upon us...