Going to the Beach?

My parents own a condo in Panama City Beach, Florida, and would love for you to consider renting it for your next vacation. It's on the 7th floor of a 15 story building and all rooms are oceanview. It is a 2 bed/2 bath condo with a full kitchen, washer/dryer, dining area, and roomy living room. It will sleep 6-8 as there is a king bed in the master bedroom, 2 queen beds in the 2nd bedroom and a queen-sized pull out couch in the living room. It would be great for two families to share. It is very conveniently located on Front Beach Road, where Thomas Drive intersects with Front Beach Road.

Check out the pictures below or click here for more pictures and rental information. They are offering great summer specials so I hope you will soon be vacationing at my parents' condo in Panama City Beach, Florida! And by the way, the weather at the beach stays warm until about mid October, so you may even want to consider it for your fall get-away destination. I'm sure they will be offering some specials then so if a trip in the summer doesn't fit into your plans, ask about the fall specials.

Our Little Fireman

Here's the promised picture of John David's new fire truck toddler bed.

Running My Race

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post that entitled "Sing it with me now, "One of these things is not like the other ones.", going on to say that the song was my theme song. Most of my life, I've been the different one. Now more than ever, one of these things is not like the other one...and it's me. I've made myself to fit in with different groups of people and have plenty of friends, but mostly, I feel more different from my friends and family than I feel alike.

After having the post out there for a while and re-reading it several times, I decided to delete it. The post never read like I wanted it to and even when I was writing it, I felt like I wasn't communicating effectively what I wanted to say. It was mainly concerning an organic garden that I'd like to plant and at which I'm making a feeble attempt. The idea has been met with some criticism and skepticism from people in my circle, but it's really not that big of a deal to me, nor have they made it a big deal. John was maybe a bit annoyed at first at the thought of my compost pile but now he puts the shells from the eggs he cooks for breakfast in the pail and even empties the pail for me from time to time. (He did put his foot down when I said I was going to ask our neighbor to collect their coffee grounds for me. Yeah, maybe that's a bit much to ask...) But the bottom line is, I think I made a bigger deal about it than I meant to with the writing that I posted.

It wasn't just my idea for my garden that made me realize how different I am from people around me and it's not a new realization for me. And what a relief it is to remember that life on earth is temporal and that I'm not meant to "fit in" with everyone. I know that I am running the race that God has set before me (Hebrews 12:1)and that's what really matters. I am "fearfully and wonderfully made" by a God who loves me, even with all of my idiosyncrasies. (Psalm 139:14) And God has entrusted John and me with the awesome responsibility of raising John David. It's so important for us to remember that we are making decisons that are right for our family and not for anyone else. And decisions that others have made for their families are just that - decisions for their families, not ours. It's so easy for me to get caught up in the game of comparision and that's just wrong! At the same time, I must guard myself from the sin of self-righteousness, knowing that my decisions or likes and dislikes are not any better or worse than anyone else's, they are simply mine.

So, I'm going to go ahead with my garden, and my composting, and with exploring the traditions of locovores, and with explaning intricate concepts to John David, and with allowing John David to get in bed with us in the middle of the night (gasp!), and with trying to avoid using household chemicals that may be dangerous to our health, and with recycling, and with watching foreign language films with subtitles, and with being conservative (environmentally, economically, politically and religiously), and with whatever else I might find interesting or worthwhile while I am running my race. Wishing each person who reads this confidence to seek out your course and to run with perserverence the race set before you.

What we've been up to

Lately we have...

Painted a bird house for the birds to use instead of our gas grill, which the poor mama bird, year after year, thinks is the perfect place for her nest. There are two small cream colored eggs with brown speckles on them, so we'll see if she is successful this year in hatching two little ones. Unfortunately, I know this because I lifted the lid to the grill and found them there. Hopefully I haven't disrupted things too much and she will indeed return to take care of her responsibilities. We'll see!

Picked fresh strawberries and eaten said strawberries. We passed the strawberry fields on Saturday and saw people picking, so on the way back from my friend's Thirty-One Party, John David and I stopped by and picked a half-gallon. It's only 5 minutes from our house so I plan to make this a frequent event for the two of us. And at the rate that the three of us (John joined in for the eatin') devoured the half-gallon, we'll need to go back weekly! Any of you city folks who'd like to join me on one of my weekly trips to the strawberry fields, let me know! We would love the company. I didn't have my camera with me since we hadn't planned on picking strawberries that day. But the stain on John David's chin and shirt and arms was still there when we got home so I snapped a few pics for the memories.


We had lunch with an old friend today and her new addition, Mercer. Candice and her husband, Todd, brought little M home and into their hearts in March. Well, he actually had their hearts at their first meeting in February, when he was just hours old, but they had to spend a little time in Colorado while the paperwork was filled out. They got to bring him home to Georgia when he was just over a week old. He is absolutely scrumptious!
John David (and I) painted a little "Welcome" card/sign for Mercer. It was complete with fire trucks (both green and red), ambulances (blue and green), a fire hat and the sun. John David was sure Mercer would love it and said so as we left the house because in his world, who wouldn't love a picture of a fire truck and an ambulance and a fire hat? We got in our "fire truck" and he blared (his new word) the sirens until I had to ask him to quit. So that I could think.


We went to a little league game to watch our nephews, Michael and Malachi, play t-ball. This was their last game of the season and we could see a lot of improvement from the beginning of the season.


John David loves to cheer on his cousins, even though he doesn't quite get the game just yet. He and Kara are the twins' biggest fans.

We also moved John David to a toddler bed (thanks to Grandma) and those pictures are coming soon!

Life is Good...

I may not have to give up my new Nalgene bottle after all. I received an e-mail today that warned me not to drink water from a bottle that had been left in my car, since the heating up of the bottle from a locked car on a warm day would cause the breast-cancer-causing-toxins from the plastic bottle to seep into my water. So I immediately went to my trusted source for helping me to determine fact from urban legend - www.snopes.com - and this is what I found.

Isn't this just the happiest bottle you've seen?

Not Much Time...

to blog, but I just had to post these pics. They are from our trip to the beach for Spring Break and they were taken with my camera. Yipppee! I can post my pictures again! John was able to get our desktop back up and running with a monitor that (so far) turns on when we want it to. Enjoy...