Walk by our lilac tree

I hope everyone doesn't mind that I'll be changing my template from time to time. That pink was annoying if eye-catching.

In our church we have a gratitude song the children learn that goes, "Whenever I hear the song of a bird or look at the blue, blue sky..." There's a line in it about walking by our lilac tree. Well, I finally have one! And it does smell lovely as you're walking by. It's funny that lilac scented stuff is gross but the real tree is very nice. (I think it's like watermelon and watermelon candy.) The end line is "I'm glad that I live in this wonderful world Heavenly Father created for me."

The picture of our back yard shows a peace and calm that doesn't exist inside the house. The third picture is more indicative of what it's like inside. I feel like the cable guy. How could we end up with so many cables and do we need them all? And what do we do with the ones we don't want or need? There's not a room in the house that's organized properly and I'm not sure how long it will take before that happens. For a while, things were improving dramatically. Now the improvements have really slowed down. So one day at a time and one box at a time at this point.

I did empty a box today that had all the letters, postcards and pictures of the Japanese fashion design students I taught back in the 90s. They came to our house and played baseball and basketball with my kids and made sugar cookies. They sent pictures of all four children with them at the mall. The paper and postcards they sent are amazing. Talk about cultural refinement! Those girls (women really but they seemed so young even compared to my young daughters) were so loving and kind and so easily pleased. I'll never forget that one of them kept yawning and falling asleep in my class. I finally found out why. She was going to the top floor of her dormitory (the only skyscraper in Denton) to watch the sun come up each morning. And since it was summertime, it was pretty early. In Japan, she had always been surrounded by tall buildings and had never seen a sunrise or a sunset. So much for the land of the rising sun. Speaking of which, we won't be seeing any spectacular sunrises or sunsets here either as they are hidden by the mountains. When you live in Texas, a glorious purple and orange sunset is something you shouldn't take for granted. But the spring flowers here in PA are just as spectacular in their way. So I guess that's the moral for the day. Be grateful for what you've got and enjoy the heck of out whatever new experiences you're given.