june ttmmh

Lemonade made with strawberries from the patch

Drive to town with Trent, listening to Jamie Drake’s new album

Sweeping to The Sing Team

Running a letter to the mailbox in the rain

Elsie next to me in worship, singing out, “All I am, my life defined by ‘I’ve been crucified with Christ'”

A Sunday night for the longest wiffle ball game with old friends and new church families

Bare feet in the red dirt

Our first Inklings Writing Coaching meeting; reading everyone’s stories and the creativity of their worlds; getting to teach them

The night Papa Larry and Papa Jay both visited after dinner; stories about old biology teachers, dermatology, attorneys, and the heat

A kind email from Helen who lives in Wales

Stained glass picture of wheat and the sky and Jesus

Fresh cow’s milk

Kiddos and swim lessons and the big new swing (named The Ring of Fire and Glory)

Breakfast at a cafe on the city street corner; coffee and clanking dishes

Long drive north through the plains

A wedding in a stone Lutheran church with red doors and carpets

Reception out on the grass under the trees, hedged by prairies

The light green dress with the hook buttons that Janaya let me borrow

Playing the piano in the organ loft

Reading The Silmarillion to Howard Shore at sunset

A wood colonial writing desk that I found in an unlikely place, and settling it in the corner of my room with pens and flowers on top

The week before Vacation Bible School, when folks are decorating the church like Jerusalem and digging out old costumes and practicing their parts

Elijah, the new kid down the street who keeps showing up to play

Bringing fresh-cut dill in from the garden: “Isn’t that the smell of summer?”

Capture the Flag at dusk

Brian mapping out Frodo and Sam’s journey on the Middle-Earth map that hangs in his office

An afternoon alone with coffee, piano music, and research

Haying season: watching the men come and go from the neighborhood, and our own hay bales in the lower church field

Mom coming through the kitchen door with a smile: “Did you hear about Roe v. Wade?”

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