Cookies, a new park, Wheaton, pickles

I have Tuesday evening meetings with a group of men working on our church constitution, bylaws, and statement of faith. While I'm gone, Carol usually will try to find something of interest for the kids to make the evening go smoothly; all the pictures of the cookies are from a Tuesday evening. It is obvious that the kids enjoyed the evening!

After four years of living in Paxton (a town of 4600) people) we found a new park. The park had been there, but the mayor told me that they had just installed new equipment. The kids love parks! It is also a time for Carol and I to just sit on a park bench and talk quietly together like we used to by the fish pond at college.

We make a trip to Wheaton, IL a couple of times a year; there is a thrift store there that allows ministry people to get things for free. We usually get so much that we have to clean out some dressers and closets before we go on our little trip. The City of Paxton has several "drop boxes" in which different organizations receive clothing donations. Joel is loading one of them up before our trip to Wheaton last Monday. As always, we came home with a full van, this time minus Joel, we left him in Belivdere with Carol's folks for the week. He has been having all kinds of fun with Grandpa and Grandma Bumgardner. When he gets home, we'll post some of his pictures from the week.

The tomatoes will soon overwhelm us, but a few have been picked prematurely (thanks to eager fingers :-), they still ripen pretty well in the window. I'm looking forward to the salsa making. The cucumbers continue, fortunately, we found out that it is very easy to make pickles. We have made 5 quarts and a pint of sweet lime pickles, with about another 14 pints soon to be finished; 8 quarts of dill, and 14 pints of bread & butter. We are learning much and thoroughly enjoying it! The kids have done so much in the garden and I'm very proud of them.