Year 3 -

Last Sunday, Daryl and Sarah were announced to be returning to Grace UMC Venice for year three. 

And I've been announced as the South West DS and the Director of Clergy Excellence for the conference starting July 1. Time is flying! 

I spent Announcement Sunday visiting a church in Palmetto with our district lay leader. 

There was time for a labyrinth. 

And lunch with several of the clergywomen in our district. 

One of the pastors made these eggs as gifts for everyone. So fancy! 

And time for visioning with our district leadership. 

 

Around the Neighborhood

We have a lot of palm trees in our neighborhood, but we also have a lot of magnolia trees. It is so fragrant walking the dogs around our loop with these in bloom as well as the jasmine lately. So grateful for the beauty of south west Florida - we missed this living further north. 

 

Precious Fur Babies

Caught Bella on the new couch the other day.....the dogs are not allowed on the new furniture we got earlier this year. She was trying to ignore me. 

Fergus scratches at the sliding glass doors a couple of times a day to be able to go and 

chill on the back porch. 

Evenings spent chilling out. Can you spot the cat in the first picture? 

He was tucked up in the dog bed and didn't budge when Caspian came and flopped over on him. 

 

 

Date Day Beach Walk

Friday afternoon we went to lunch at Brick's Smoked Meats downtown and then took a beach walk along Siesta Key: from the public beach down to the Point of Rocks and back - 4 miles. It was perfect weather!

College Boy

Parker had no classes on Thursday this week so he and his friends took off to Disney - they spent time in Epcot and then Hollywood Studios. It's the low season between spring break and marathon weekends so they were able to walk on most rides less than 20 minutes. 

Then on Friday night, Parker had a big sports night. He's playing in two intramural leagues at school - ultimate frisbee and basketball. It was the playoffs, and he had back to back games. They won their ultimate game and he scored. Unfortunately they lost their basketball game. 

 

Around the District

Sunday I preached at Manatee Life UMC in Bradenton while their pastor was recovering from surgery. 

It was nice to preside over communion and the rest of the worship service. 

On Monday, Daryl and some of the Grace UMC Venice staff checked out the eclipse. 

Wednesday I spent the day with a Cabinet/SLT meeting at St. Andrew's UMC in Brandon - there are a lot of faces I recognize on the pastor's wall in the hallway. 

Furry Friends

 It's so nice to see all of the animals get along. They genuinely like each other, play with each other, groom each other - even help each other out. When the cat whines at our bedroom door, Bella opens the door and lets him in and then lays outside the bedroom threshold because she knows she's not supposed to be in our room. 

This is so different than when we had Mary the cat and got Bella. Mary never ever warmed up to the dog. Of course she was 15 years old at the time.