Coasting Though Spring

Life was pretty low key again this week. We went on a behind the scene’s tour of the zoo and saw a Jaguar only a few feet away. We went to Longwood Gardens and spent an entire afternoon enjoying the sunshine amidst the incredible Spring flowers. I started reading The Lord of the Rings again. I tried, without much success, to make a dent in my ever increasing laundry pile. (Is there life after laundry?) And really, until yesterday, that was about all. This coming week we will have to gear up for finals and preparations for our summer wanderings. Last week we coasted in neutral.

Yesterday we rounded up as many of the young men & young women from our ward as we could find and drove them out to volunteer at the Special Olympics. I was pretty surprised that so many of them woke up on a Saturday morning to join us. We had eight youth, which is a pretty impressive turn out for the Independence Ward. The activity was very well organized and they found a good job for our group helping out with the standing long jump. I am always amazed to see the transformation in the countenances of our youth from the beginning of an activity or lesson to the end. The Spirit really does transform them before your eyes. We didn’t get home until almost 5 o’clock but it was a pretty good way to spend a day. Kate and Jane were amazing. We just took them along with us. They entertained themselves and were patient and content the whole time.

Driving through the suburbs was a new experience with a car full of kids from inner city Philadelphia. I heard things like, “The people who live around here are mean.” “I could never live in a place like this.” And, my favorite, “It is scary out here. At least where we live they don’t kidnap kids.” Interesting. We lock our car doors and worry about getting shot in their neighborhoods and they are equally as uncomfortable in the world we are used to. A few of them loved it and said they would like to live in a place like that someday. The things they were the most excited about were the basketball hoops in the driveways and the fact that you “could have a room for everything.” I couldn’t get over how quiet it was!

After a long day in the sun we still needed to get in a training run for our half marathon next week. We fed the girls a nutritional mac-n’-cheese meal after their pizza lunch, packed them up in the chariot, and headed out to race the sun. We ran the Schuylkill River loop just as the sun was setting. The evening light was reflecting off the willows and the water. I don’t think it could have been any more beautiful.

I’m starting to really love the East Coast...just in time to go to Texas for the summer!