I am very excited to announce that I have the privilege of being part of the Jimmy Carter Work Project this year with Habitat for Humanity International.  I will do a week long build in Thailand.  I would love your support; visit this page to learn more .

The trip is in November but I need support raised by the end of August.   I am beyond excited! Praise the Lord for this chance to see what He is up to on the other side of the world.  I hope you will partner with me in this endeavor.

saw this video and it has some great photo of wilkes county.  Melissa will go to the cattle sale tomorrow.  And yes folks still tot thier riffles around.

Clay cannot sit up by himself yet, but the fact that he resembles a bobble head figurine less and less each day is pretty neat. I can prop him up here in the corner of the couch and he magically stays upright.  Oh, how silly we mothers are about milestones!  He will not smile for camera, but he is a very smiley baby these days and each take of this video was punctuated with a big grin.  As soon as the camera got ready to capture it, he would put on his thinking face and the smile would fade (much like his father and grandpa Summers!)   

And he is starting to stand  on his legs when we hold him up by his little hands.

Practicing his standin' up while Aunt Caroline and cousin Lizzy Jane visit!Clay is dashing in tie dye!

Phillip finally has the playmate in Clay that he has been waiting for; well, at least he can get in his baby backpack now! He truly is growing up so fast (Clay I mean, not Phillip =)!  

well, it will not let me embed but to check out

thanks to Charity at in photos for her visit.

daddy bike

I got this bike for my friend Doug a few years ago from the Clean Machine.  Recently he was ready to be rid of it.  I like this bike for it’s commuter sensibilities (it can accommodate fenders and is a beater; scored it for $100).  For my birthday I got fenders, and on the first rainy day afterward I was in hog heaven until I hit a grate, which did a number on my rear wheel.  Enter our friend Jorge, who is also a bike lover.  He had a set of wheels that he graciously gave me.  The only trick was that their axle was too narrow for my chain stay.  Jorge came to the rescue again with an article on how to reset steel frames, and that is how you see the beautiful, fully-functioning bike above.  God is good.

I received a copy of John Eldridge’s book Walking with God for Christmas. I finished the book over Easter (truly the most important holiday of all time). It is a journal of sort, with a lot of preaching thrown in.   I was glad to read messages such as abide in “my love” referring to the awesome love of God.  However I felt that other parts came off a bit judgmental.  But I do appreciate the author’s honesty about his personal faith in Christ Jesus.    Solo Cristo.

This book by Parker Palmer was referred to me by several people.  Most notably my academic adviser 3 years ago.  Now that I am thirty and a dad I figure I might try to listen.    The book finished better than it started.  At first I was put off by what I call “new age mush.”  All this self talk about being your true self.  Parker redeems himself when he reminds the reader that it is not “who am I but. . . whose am I”   My spirit leaped with joy and reminded me that because of Christ I am a child of the King. 

Parker portrays a leadership prospective that I need to hear again and again and again.  from page 74

“Leadership” is a concept we often resist.  It seems immodest, even self-aggrandizing, to think of ourselves as leaders.  But if it is true that we are made for community, then leadership is everyone’s vocation, and it can be an evasion to insist that it is not.  When we live in the close-knit ecosystem called community, everyone follows and everyone leads. 

He closes the book well by insisting that seasons are the truest metaphor for life.  Parker gave me pause to wonder which season I find myself in.  I appreciate his use of words like growth and I know that the Lord God is my gardener.  I am not sure what fruit I am bearing now.   I do appreciate the ones who have gone before me and recommend this book.  It has its merits but like all books it depends on what you bring to the reading.

GG summers

Mimi Koch