There a First time for everything...and a Second...and a Third...

This past weekend, I mowed a lawn for the very first time in my life.

With my 25-pound son strapped to my back.

Yes, in 30-some years of living, I've never before been behind the bar of a lawn mower. As a kid, I was too young to use the riding mower on our five acres, even though I begged to try, and after we moved to a smaller yard as a teen, we sold the riding mower and hired someone to do it for us.

I've simply never had the chance. Sad story, huh?

So, on Sunday, not only did I get to mow a lawn, but I got to mow THREE lawns!

Let me tell ya, there's nothing quite like pushing a mower through a quarter acre of jungle weeds with a nearly-two-year-old strapped to ones own body to break a good sweat.

And it was fun! (Don't tell my husband I said that or he might hand over the reigns to our mower at home, too!)

Our church canceled our regular Sunday activities to go out and "be the church." We participated in a service project in a Denver neighborhood close to downtown. We partnered with another church through a local organization called Extreme Community Makeover. No, there was no Ty Pennington and no chanting crowd behind a bus, but there was a lot of fun and a lot of hard work to help a neighborhood with some much-needed upkeep and renovation.

John and Lucy and I worked with several other families on one particular neighborhood block doing yard work. Josiah was quite content to observe from the safety and comfort of the sling carrier. Across the street an entire house got painted (in about three hours!). And spread across several city blocks, about 60 adults and many kids from our church, plus about 200 from another, showed the love of God to these people by meeting some practical needs.

The kids had some fun, too. One gem of a resident cut up a watermelon for us and brought out a dozen hoola hoops for the kids to play with (on her newly cut lawn, ahem).

(Lucy is in the back wearing a bright green shirt.)

But the kids also pitched in by picking up trash, hauling away branches, painting and washing brushes, and keeping us laughing.

It was such a joy to work with these families from our church, and it was especially great to have both of our kids with us as we served. We value serving as a family, and are so excited to be part of a church community who does, too.

(The Newton Street crew)