A Tide of Social Events

Crazy busy week but a lot of fun too!  I met up with Kristin and her mom who was visiting from Kansas.  We just had a quick coffee at Eb's before they went off to meet people from her law clinic for lunch. I took a photo but who knows where it's disappeared to!

Thursday after my AM small group I met Lauren and baby Alexis at Jones Point in Alexandria.  A beautiful park for cycling, running or just walking and a cute toddler park for the little ones.  We let the baby play a while then walked around the water and over by the light house.  I hadn't seen Lauren since Alex was tiny.  She's one of my friends I met in Alabama.

Thursday night we had our final small group meeting but we went to Beth and Eric's condo at National Harbor.  Tom and I rode the express bus from our Branch Metro station and it was really nice.  About a 25 minute ride with the stops but it dropped us right on the main street.  We were a few minutes early so did a little peeking around in the shops.  

Beth and Kim in the kitchen

Tom, Mike, Kathy, Alexa, Eric, Beth, Kim, Lauren, Kristin, me and Mitch

 Friday I had a date with another friend's mom.  She has been living with our friends here for almost a year but isn't really keen on going out much so I volunteered to get her out of the house.  We spent several hours enjoying a gorgeous day at Mount Vernon and had lunch at the lovely little restaurant there.  I had a great time and found Shirley to be wonderful company!  She had a good time too and was happy to find someone her own age to hang out with for a few hours.  I wish I had met her earlier as they are all moving to Idaho next month.

 It was quiet and not crowded.  Baby lambs were out and the gardens were in bloom.

 Saturday we got up and took a long bike ride over to and around Andrews Air Force Base.  It was a beautiful day until I started getting sick to my stomach.  Don't know if it was AM vitamins or just that it was my first long bike ride (20 miles) of the season.  I sat on the side of the road for a minute to recover while Tom pedaled up the street a bit.

Sunday we went to the Lincoln Theatre for church as they were commissioning Tom's mission team.  (Tom is going on a short term mission which I'll address down the road)  Commissioning is just a prayer and a blessing by the pastor but from the whole congregation for the group.  They had another smaller one later and then they all grabbed lunch and walked to a local park to have their final meeting.  I headed home and had a lovely relaxing afternoon.

 It was also Mother's Day and each of the mothers were given a copy of Pastor Mark's new book and a beautiful bracelet.  The bracelet is made from melted down bullet casings that have been recreated into beads.  It had a card with it that said this:  We believe moms bring love and joy to families.  This bracelet is designed for the moms of National Community Church and is handmade with love by women in Ethiopia.  This gift helps provide sustainable economic opportunity for these artisans and their families.  We pray you feel celebrated as you wear this special piece, and that it brings you joy knowing you've helped another mom invest in her family.  Happy Mother's Day....NCC

 I loved that.  And I loved speaking with each of my kids as well as my mom on such a special day!