Technology

I love it and I hate it! I love it when I can receive videos of my grandson learning how to crawl, stay in touch with loved ones near and far through email and my cell phone, and sort and store information with a click of a mouse. I hate it when it hits a glitch! In just this past month we've had multiple problems getting our DSL to stablilze, my digital camera died, the copy machine at work has needed 2 service calls, and my computer at the office has a virus!

There is a part of me that misses the pre-computer age.....sigh. There is that other part that thinks a thing called a blog is a very fine, fun way to whine and vent.

Crew's Debut

Crew came for his first visit to Chattanooga this past weekend! As you can see from this picture taken before he left his house he was really excited to hit the road!

It was so sweet to watch Mark and Tara parent precious Crew! They are great parents!

Crew was the center of attention! We spent most of the weekend just watching him be a baby! He's crawling all over, pulling himself up on furniture, clapping, and a bunch of other things that we all just think are amazing! He had fun with some of Uncle Joe's old toys.

And what's a visit to Chattanooga without a stroll across the Walnut Street Bridge and......

Ice Cream at Clumpies!!! Alas, Crew has yet to taste the wonders of Clumpie's since they were fresh out of tofu flavor (this boy eats healthy!!!)

Oh well, hanging out with Uncle Joe is still lots of fun since he lets Crew do fun stuff like hang upside down and fly through the air! We sure had a wonderful visit and we're so thankful for the addition of Crew to the V.W. family!!!

Silent Retreat

A couple of weeks ago I attended a Silent Retreat at St. Mary's Retreat Center in Sewanee, TN. It was led by Jim Branch, a Young Life Area Director in Knoxville (Jim is the guy who compiled The Blue Book, the devotional that many of you have) I attended my first Silent Retreat two years ago and I was really looking forward to this year's time away. It is an interesting experience to be quiet for an extended period of time and I love it. The actual time that we were completely silent was only 24 hours and I'm always a little sad when the Silence is broken. I know this kind of retreat might seem strange but it is lovely. We gather as a group every few hours for prayer and Scripture. Jim gave us a couple of different passages to reflect on and then you're free to go out and meditate, pray, journal, read, rest and listen.

That afternoon was beautiful and I went for a long hike and came upon this cemetery. I love walking through cemeteries. What struck me here was that right next to the gravestones was a large patch of perennials poking their heads through the soil (maybe daylilies) and it was a beautiful picture of life and death, hello and goodbye, endings and beginnings. My mom and dad's homegoings came to mind. Everything Belongs. I also came across a pasture of cows and the sight brought back lots of good memories of growing up on a farm and all that entailed.
It's just good to be quiet for awhile. To breathe deeply, to eat slowly and truly taste the food, to not have an agenda, to just "be" for awhile.

Before I left for the retreat I found the following quote by Basil Pennington and the timing was perfect as I thought ahead to my time at St. Mary's. Pennington writes, "I find myself asking what I am getting out of this retreat, but I realized today that that is the wrong question. This retreat is not for me, but for Him. It is to give Him, at least for this little while, the fullest attention and love that I can, freed as I am from many other cares and concerns that ordinarily clutter my life. Lord, help me to let go and rest quietly at your feet in complete attention to you. And then my life will be refreshed and renewed."

If you ever get the chance to go on a retreat such as this I would encourage you to do so - or just take a day away by yourself every once in awhile and be still.

RUDE COW

This picture just makes me giggle. I want to dedicate it to my nephew Josh!

Friends

O.K. I'm sure this strong desire to add to the blog will wear off soon but in the meantime this is tooooo much fun!
These are a few pictures of some of our friends! It's been so fun being in their lives and we love them lots. Lexi was so proud of the blanket she made - Victoria made a Big Orange T cookie for Mr. Dale - Corell & Corey loved the Children's museum - and Danielle and I have a tradition of going out for Chinese for her birthday during which time she consumes countless crab legs! It's fun hanging out with these guys!

Be Still

Psalm 46:10

Be still and know that I am God.

Be still and know that I am.

Be still and know.

Be still.

Be.

I found this recently in "Everything Belongs" by Richard Rohr and it comes to mind often. It helps to calm that part of me that worries too much. I just got back from an appointment with my medical oncologist and everything is fine and that's good news! The picture is from our one and only "snowstorm" of this winter, a whopping 2 inches of snow that had all melted by noon. Thanks to all of my friends from Michigan who have been emailing pictures of what we're missing there!

Happy Valentine's Day from Crew!

Here's the Valentine's wish that we received from the adorable Crew Seon-ju Vander Woude!! He'll be making his Chattanooga debut next weekend and we can hardly wait! His mom and dad are great about keeping us updated on how he's doing! He has his own blog - check it out at www.kajok-vanderwoude.blogspot.com