1,758 miles of new roads

June has passed and now we are in the sweltering heat of July!  A recap of June:

We were in Wisconsin on June 1 for Sophia's high school graduation.  In the fall we will have 3 granddaughters in college!

On the 2nd, we left Wisconsin and our daughter's family.  But we'd see them in just a few days at the beach in Florida!

We drove down to Kentucky.  Emeri was our chauffer much of the way.

We took in the Ark Encounter.

and Cumberland Falls.

We arrived in Florida and met up with all the family!  Josh's had driven from Arkansas, Mindy's family had flown in from Colorado and Jill's from Wisconsin.  I blogged about that so won't go over it again.

After a delightful family time together for several days, the families all left to go back home. Josh's and us drove together as far as Memphis.  

We made some rather interesting rest room breaks.

We stopped for the night just south of Memphis and went out to eat.  I ordered tea.  It was SWEET southern tea!  The waitress did not even ask if I wanted sweet or unsweetened.  I think it is a given here!

The next morning, we said our good-byes.

We could have driven along with them as far as the turn off for Fayetteville, just a little before Fort Smith, but we've been on those roads already.  So we took a different route to Kansas, trying out new roads.

We stopped at Mammoth Springs, the largest spring in Arkansas.

It is known for trout fishing.

Wheat harvest was going on when we got home.

After unpacking the car, I looked up at the sky.  Oh wow! Look at how these mammatus clouds in the sky!

We had highlighted all our routes in yellow and guess how many new roads we were able to highlight on this trip to Wisconsin, Kentucky, Florida and back home?  

We gave a challenge to our kids to guess.  We told them we would have a prize for the winner.  Jill guessed the closest, at 1750.  She was only 8 miles off!  Here was the prize we sent her.

June had lots of storms.  We had the wettest June since 1928!  There was a tornado just 6 1/2 miles south of us that picked up a house and killed a man.  So sad.  That was the night before Father's Day.

For Father's Day, I fixed Al pot roast, mashed potatoes and carrots.  His favorite.  Well, he likes green beans better than carrots, but I cooked carrots.  Our children sent sweet notes to their Dad/Papa.

I got a picture of a partial rainbow, but my friend Courtney, got this one from her back porch!  So beautiful!

My flowers are happy!

The creek by our family farm in Pretty Prairie is really full!

Our son and his friend stopped by on their way to hike in Colorado.

Our Community Life Group went to the Loewen's new home.

The part that their daughter's family will live in is still under construction.

We girls also got together to celebrate summer birthdays.  

We are just days apart, end of June and beginning of July.

The other 3 (Lynn was gone this day) have November birthdays.

Two of our granddaughters also had June birthdays.  We had celebrated at Destin too, which was special!

This is Claire with Penny.  A gal at their church has horses and bought her with Claire specifically in mind.  She has been teaching Claire how to care for horses and to ride them.  They are getting to know one another.  This horse is Secretariat's granddaughter!  She needs some healing before she can be ridden.

My mother would have been 100 this year on her birthday, June 23!  She was born in 1926.

She's been with Jesus for 11 1/2 years already.

The husband of a friend in my women's Bible study passed away suddenly.  He was only 1 year older than us.  So thankful that he loved the Lord so much.  I went to the memorial.  His son handmade the casket and Tim was dressed in hunting clothes.

I gave a talk on Psalm 23 at a kids' Bible Club.  The LORD is my Shepherd.  How precious that our Shepherd cares for us and guides us!  IWe need not fear when we are in the valley of the shadow of death.  He is WITH us always.  Listen to His voice and follow Him.

We made necklaces and bracelets using coloured beads (green - green grass, blue - quiet waters, etc.)  I also found an Etsy seller right in our town that sold sheep beads so we used those too!  A sweet provision from the LORD as other sellers would not be able to get it to me until after the lesson day.  I was able to drive to the lady's home and pick it up!

I've also been helping with kids' Sunday School so the regular teachers can have the summer off.  One of the lessons was on kindness.  The pastor is going through the Fruit of the Spirit and our children's Sunday School classes are also.  

I talked about using kind words vs. unkind words.  I had cut out a big red heart.  I said some sentences and the children told me if the words were kind or unkind.  If it was kind, I spread some white toothpaste on the heart.  If the words were unkind, I spread charcoal toothpaste that is black on the heart.  Did you know there was such a thing?  It was perfect for this lesson! I had purchased that toothpaste, not even knowing it was black.  What a shock when I squeezed it out and it was black!

Can I take the bad words and put it back in the tube of toothpaste?  No.  Ugly words said remain with a person.  I can still remember so many said to me and I know I've said them to others too.  Forgive me, LORD.  Kind and cheerful words can encourage and help others.  Let's do that!

I met our friend Yuki at Yokohama Ramen.  She became a Christian when she came to college here in the States.  She now works with Called to Greatness on a college campus.

I celebrated my birthday at the end of the month.  The tradition is getting chocolate cream pie!  Our local German restaurant, The Breadbasket, closed so we drove to Yoder to get it!

Our son and daughter-in-law in Arkansas celebrated their anniversary on the same day.  Their tradition is Bonefish Grill.

It was a full June month!  Lots of miles and lots of celebrations!