Wow, I can't believe it has been this long since I posted. Sorry about that. Life has been crazy and work as well.

The newest thing is that I spent two days pondering the value of wood while sealing my deck so that it does not rot. Isn't it funny how most things that are of value take lots of care.

In addition to thinking about wood and how much time (10 hours over three days) I was spending on it, I started thinking about how so much of what we buy is designed to be thrown away.

We got Carter a little kiddie pool. After about 6 uses, it got a hole. Since it only cost $10, we didn't even try to patch it, just got another one. I remember back in the day, we swam in old steel stock tanks. Gross water, but no danger they would spring a leak.

Well enough musings for today. More next time.

What a treat to spend part of yesterday in the beauty of Longwood Gardens. While it is a place of immense wealth, built with the profits from being the leading American maker of gunpowder, it nonetheless is a sight for sore eyes after the grey of winter.

During these days when everyone seems to be on the "Green" bandwagon, it was really fun for me to work on digging through years of MCC photos to create this photo gallery. I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to share with others. We will be promoting it in the coming days but I couldn't wait to share it! Click on this URL to see the images.

http://www.mcc.org/careforcreation/stories/history.html?id=1

I thought this would be of interest to my MCC-related friends. Our Washington Office has come up with a set of resources for churches to use in learning more about the conflict in Sudan and how Christians can be involved in advocating about this situation. Please take a few minutes to check this out!
http://www.mcc.org/us/washington/sudan/.

Thanks

I was thinking this week about all the new calendars at my house. All of them are now fresh and clean. Full of days to be scribbled on, full of unknowns. As I get ready to begin the new year, I want to make sure I do so with the same freshness and newness that is on those pages.

My goal for the year is to put behind me lots of the stuff from 2007 and give people, places, food and things a fresh start. I hope any of you who are reading this can help keep me accountable to that goal.

I also hope that you are able to do the same in 2008.