Normal Life In Between 3 Weeks

Finally with the rain behind us here in Ohio I can start riding my mountain bike regularly again.  My sweet friend, LillyMae, and I went to John Bryan State Park to get our legs back in condition after having about 2 months off! So so good to be back in the saddle again! 

Last year we offered a large area of our land to my dear friends who live next door and have successfully started a flower farm to sell bouquets to locals. This gives them a little more room to plant sunflowers which has blessed us every morning and evening as we drive down our lane! The first sunflowers popped these past couple weeks and now we get to be greeted by these beauties every morning! More to come as they are planting a new patch every few weeks!🌻 This reminds me that God’s mercies are new every morning. 
 

WonderVan update…now that I took FOUR, yes, four weeks to pick out the improperly cured epoxy in the flooring, John is going back with a multi tool to remove the residue so the next pour will be sure to work. This is taking another 2 weeks to do!! He did a test of the material to try and figure out just why in the world it didn’t set and it appears that we got a bad batch of epoxy. This will have set us back about 6 weeks. Thankfully the second pour has indeed set up and next week John will sand and smooth it to perfection!!  With that and our upcoming plans to be in Quetico Provençal Park in Canada this Fall and the UP for leaf peeping, it’s probably not going to be ready until the end of this year! But John and I are having fun working on it together!

On June 15th I had the privilege of a lifetime! Life IS like a box of chocolates and we never really know what we’re gonna bite into, and yet this sweet sister of mine was handed a box of assorted chocolates (pun was not intentional). What I can say is that this was truly the day the Lord had made! Kevin is the gold wrapped, heart-shaped chocolate that has become Melissa’s favorite flavor! He’s a loving, adoring, faithful man of God and I was privileged to perform their wedding ceremony on June 15th. I love how our Creator divinely conducted the entire ceremony! 

Father’s Day was spent hanging out with family in Rockford, Illinois and I’m very grateful my dad is still here to spend time with! 

One of my idiosyncrasies is that I loathe tv! In fact, 13 years ago on my Match.com profile I specifically stated for my future husband’s wishlist several non-negotiables and one was that I was not interested in any one who liked watching tv or even owned a television!! Fortunately, John Wonderly fit that bill perfectly, and I love it that our days are never consumed with much screen time other than an occasional movie on our laptop. 

However, I admit that I have absolutely loved watching The Chosen, which is a beautiful portrayal of the life of Jesus and season four just came out. There are so many moving and impactful scenes in this series that I can’t recommend it highly enough! In particular in season four, episode four at the end there was this scene that moved me to tears so much so that after watching it, I had to just sit, worship and literally raise my arms and I sobbed in a posture of worship of my Heavenly Father and His Son! What Jesus has done for me is incomprehensible, and I am literally filled to the brim with gratitude for all his son Jesus has done for me! It can be watched in The Chosen app. These are the three songs I listen to afterwards which you can take time and click these to listen with me. Of course, Gratitude, by Brandon Lake, Million Little Miracles by Elevation Worship and this impromptu soaking worship time with Sunmisola and Yinka. 

Three weeks have flown by and it’s infusion time once again at The James! John and I are planning on spending the next few days in Columbia, OH for the Special Olympics State Meet afterwards and we will be volunteering as judges for tennis, bocce and volleyball! It’s been 5 years since we have been able to participate and we are looking so forward to it!!