the foothills of heaven

I say “the foothills of heaven” because the Blue Ridge mountains are my absolute most favorite place to be. When I’m there I feel like I am physically cupped in God’s hands. Every part of me feels at home. It’s been entirely too long since our last trip up there, so a somewhat spontaneous day trip this past Sunday was one of those “good and perfect gifts.”

On July 3 we travelled up to West Jefferson to see some of Jonnie’s family for a small reunion. One of the families has a large piece of land off the Parkway, complete with a 2 acre pond. The kids and I went swimming in the pond and we all got to go out in the kayak. We were privileged to meet a precious one month old fawn named Deer Heart, and see the inner workings of a new beehive. Theresa (most gracious hostess) sent us home with some homemade oatmeal raisin cookies and even freshly ground rice and millet flours, which are destined to become “Jonnie-safe” bread and cookies very soon.