Summer Hydrangeas

One of the blessings of the home we have is an abundance of beautiful hydrangea that bloom with such a splendor, it is truly an amazing site to behold. We have at least five different types of hydrangea in our yard which makes all of the blooms even more magnificent to look at. I will admit,  I feel that I am one of the luckiest girls on the planet to have such a wondrous garden in my very own back yard. Here are a few of our beautiful ladies in full bloom.

Preschool Pomp and Circumstance

Our sweet Sophie Rose graduate from Sacred Heart Preschool on May 16, 2012. It's a little hard for me to believe that our time at Sacred Heart Preschool has come to an end. We have enjoyed all the years that we have been a part of this wonderful preschool beginning with my own years when I worked in the three year old room with Miss Michelle while I finished my Masters in Elementary Education, and then later when both Emma-Caroline and Sophie began attending the preschool as infants and now have both graduated to go on to elementary school. Miss Candi and all of the teachers as Sacred Heart Preschool are the BEST and we will miss seeing them each day. We will visit often and will always look back on our years at Sacred Heart Preschool with great fondness.

Mother's Day 2012

This year Mother's Day was made extra special because my mom was with us for a visit in order to see the girls perform at the Tennessee Theater, Sophie graduate from preschool as well as to spend her special day with all of us. We had a wonderful day attending church in the morning and then going out to lunch at two of my favorite Knoxville restaurants Cafe 4 in Market Square and Coolato Gelato Downtown. The girls gave me some beautiful dogwood James Avery earrings that Daddy helped to pick out and some nice hand made gifts as well. It was nice to know that Sophie thinks I am 100 years old, that I have yellow hair and wear a size "skinny" shoe. Love it! Emma-Caroline also made a beautiful picture for  me of her and I underneath a rainbow. These are the gifts you cherish forever. I hope that all the mothers out there had as wonderful and blessed a Mother's Day as we did here at the Avery House!

Tennessee Theater 2012

This May, both Emma-Caroline and Sophie danced on stage at the Tennessee Theater in their dance studio's dance annual dance performance. Emma-Caroline performed a ballet dance as a woodland fairy and a tap number. during her 2nd performance, I could tell something was not quite right. We later found out that she was running a high fever. Poor thing! She was a trooper though and still went on with the show. Sophie performed as a rainbow and did a wonderful job in her first ever performance at the Tennessee Theater. We were excited to see our girls perform in such a wonderfully produced performance by all the dancers. We were also excited to have Nana with us to watch the performance as well as Ms. Ellison, Emma-Caroline's first grade teacher and Mr. Garvey, Emma-Caroline's choir director at our church. It was a wonderful evening despite Emma-Caroline's sudden illness and we all enjoyed  a lovely time!

 Mary Helen and Sophie

 Sophie's first performance at the Tennessee Theater

 Emma-Caroline's ballet performance as a woodland fairy.

 Emma-Caroline and Lucy

 Emma-Caroline and the girls of tap, Anatasia, Lydia and Lucy

Bearden Boardwalk 2012

Each year Bearden Elementary holds it's Spring carnival fundraiser entitled Bearden Boardwalk. The children have a wonderful time playing games, getting their faces painted, eating snow cones, purchasing a Jazzy Jar or two and much more! This year, Bearden Elementary introduced it's new mascot Bentley Bear. Emma-Caroline stopped for a moment for a quick photo op with her school's mascot. We all had a wonderful time enjoying this annual tradition of fun fundraising for our school!

 Bentley and Emma-Caroline pose for a photo.

Emma-Caroline, Nikol, Sophie and Lucas having fun on the playground during Bearden Boardwalk.

Our Grace Point

One month ago, this very weekend, I was participating in a wonderful spiritual retreat at Grace Point on Watt's Bar Lake here in East Tennessee. It is an experience that I will always treasure and an experience that made me feel, "perhaps this is is just a smidgen of what Heaven is like." There were no angels and cherubim and celestial choirs singing in front of golden gates. But there was an abundance of love and servitude and camaraderie, and an unmistakable knowledge that God was present amongst us. In this place at Grace Point, I walked the path to a life in Grace with our Maker with complete strangers who became as close as brothers and sisters. I climbed the difficult terrain of putting my life truly in God's hands through a leap of faith. I found myself at the peak of the mountain stripped of my old self and clothed in the light of God's love.

In coming back down off the mountain, I knew I was different, that there was no return to the old, although the old was still there. The world around me was different too with my new found perspective; however, the busyness, distractions, and conflict seemed bigger and more intense than ever before. How could I deal with this? How could my new self make it in a counter cultural world in which every second of the day is devoted to some form of busyness other than that of sitting in the presence of God? But that's just it. Everyday life and all of it's busyness is not opposite of God. All that we do in our lives is in the presence of God. If we look for Him in all that we do and if we give thanks to Him for the ability and purpose for which we do everything, we are living fully each day in the presence of and in communion with God. God is not distant from us; it is us who are distant from God. We need not look only for God under the eaves of our church buildings and in the practice of worship on Sunday morning. We can find God in every person, every thing, and every action in our daily lives if we choose, choose, to look for him in those things.

 Tomorrow, we will hear a reading form the Gospel of Luke about Jesus and the apostles on the road to Emmaus. The apostles were busy with their own concerns over Jesus' death as they traveled to Emmaus. They suddenly encountered Jesus, but they did not recognize him. They invited him to stay with them after they had reached Emmaus because it was late. These apostles were good people who had loved and followed Jesus, however, their own concerns and busyness with their life after Jesus' death on the cross kept them from seeing that Jesus was actually right there with them!

  Isn't the same true with us? Our lives are consumed with countless daily tasks. We hurry about from one place to the other trying to get it all done. We land exhausted upon the weekend and perhaps even then we don't have a chance to rest. We long for God's presence and we think we'll get our chance on Sunday to sit and listen and be uplifted by the sermon delivered. The last hymn is sung, the church doors close, and our busy lives encroach upon our one true moment of peace in living in God's presence. But wait! Stop! That's not exactly how it really has to be.

 The apostles invited Jesus into their dwelling after they had reached Emmaus. It was late, they had been traveling for a while and this stranger really shouldn't have to travel on without rest. So they invited him to stay with them for the evening. Jesus accepted their invitation. They sat down together for a meal. Jesus took the bread, blessed it and broke it. The apostle immediately recognized him and then he vanished from their sight. It is at this point of grace that the apostles realize that Jesus has been with them on the entire journey and that he would always be with them in everything.

  In my time spent at the spiritual retreat one month ago, God showed me in many ways symbolically that he has been with me on my own journey throughout my entire life up to that point and that he would be with me from that point forward in all that I do. Like the apostles, I had not fully realized that Jesus had been walking along with me in all the busyness of my life. This realiztion may be true for many of us. Jesus has always been there for each of us. He is always with us now, and He will always be with us in the future in everything that we do. If we look for him in any area of our lives, we will always find that Jesus is right there with us!

     This is the peace that Jesus offers us. He is with us always, always. Like the apostles on the road to Emmaus, all we have to do is invite him in and look for him to receive our very own grace point.