Tue., Jul. 1

I slept only two hours last night, what with my excited brain not calming down before 3 a.m., and then at 5:30 a.m. not going back to sleep when my shallow sleep allowed me to be awakened 30 min. before my alarm went off. GR. Jeremy and I were up and out the door by 7:15 a.m., headed to Davenport, IA, to attend the funeral of a mother/mother-in-law/grandmother of some church friends here. It was very exciting for me to a.) anticipate the pleasant, helpful surprise we hoped it would be for Jeremy and me to show up unexpectedly half a state away in an already-treasured family's moment of sorrow, and b.) be going somewhere I'd never been before ... all this not to mention the thought of getting a whole day with my husband by ourselves! Des Moines itself, and everything just west and just north of it, has been to us 'old news' ... from our years residing in Omaha, but we'd never before been on the road heading east from Des Moines toward Illinios! Davenport is on the Mississippi R., and Jeremy and I were sad to not have gotten to see The River at this point (We've seen it up north and at two locations farther south.); we simply ran out of time, what with making ourselves available to our grieving, and, yes, appreciative, loved ones. On the way home ... on this overly-warm (IMO) day ... Elaine's car died. We don't yet know what is wrong with it, but we have every reason to think it's bad. (sigh) The tow truck man cut us a break so it cost us 'only' $140 to get the car back home. So now we are the proud owners of not one, but two dead cars.

I took the following two pictures during the adventure.

Jeremy in funeral clothes 'hoofing it'. The car did allow us to get off the Interstate onto an off-ramp, thankfully.



There was something therapeutic and calming to me, during my quiet moments alone in the car, about these cattails lined up in the muddy ditch to my right, being blown, each of them (over 6' tall!) in the same angle in the same moments. After I shot the picture, I kicked off my dress shoes, slipped on my Crocks flip-flops, and walked over there to pull out one cattail to take home for the children! :) They really liked it! "The brown part is ssssso fuzzy!!"



When we got home after an interesting ride with the tow truck guy, Rachel gave us a good report of the wonderful she had with N & J. Yay! She was even sweet to help Justus get his reading minutes in and marked toward his summer reading program award from the library! :)

Once Elaine got home from work we had to leave the children with her and just Jeremy and me go together to grocery shop in the Morts' little truck they loaned us a month ago (fits two most comfortably, three in a pinch) ... which is now 'our' only vehicle. It was a monstrosity of a grocery run, and especially considering the difficult day up to that point, I was ssso thankful to have Jeremy's help. He and I had a really, really lovely day together today, even though it was a rather rotten day. I am sssso blessed to enjoy the company of my husband so much. "Madly in love," still. ;)

Now, for tomorrow we have to watch for severe weather. gr.

A church friend, Teresa, loaned me a book called "Daughters of Destiny"; it is a collection of writings and stories compiled and edited by Noelle Wheeler. I want to begin sharing some tidbits from it. Here's one:

"It is not always the big things that prepare a person for life's purpose. David served his father in the sheep pasture before he became king, and he defeated a lion and a bear before he defeated Goliath! True greatness begins in the little things. A simple quote by Janet Erskine Stuart says it best: 'Humility and service are the only expression and measure of greatness....' ... Glimpse into the lives of historic daughters who made themselves available to serve in ordinary life routines, little knowing that they were fulfilling a destiny of God's own purpose...."