And here I thought I'd be resting....

To set the stage: I am currently sitting in a study carrell in the Vicksburg Public library, which is actually in view of the swollen(but waning) Mississippi River. Hannah's at work, we just ate together at The Tomato Place(picture below), where I had a salad drenched in dressing and a peach smoothie, the taste of which still lingers. I have a few more hours before she gets off work, so until then I'm entertaining myself using inspiration from a list that she wrote for me :). Mom and Dad Sluis are on vacation as of this morning.



The most important thing that I learned yesterday was the beauty of lawn mowing. I woke up early and mowed the lawn at the Sluis's. In the heat, even in the early morning heat, it's a tough job. It's not a perfectly flat yard, though her dad does the really hard spots. I don't remember dripping sweat like that since soccer camp last summer. Anyways, it's just a really rewarding thing to work so hard with your body and to have something to show for it. Poetry should be written about mowing lawns. Hannah basically wrote poetry about it in her blog post last summer. She forwarded this on to me after I gushed about how much I loved the sweaty job: http://highof95.blogspot.com/2010/05/exertion.html. In response to her blog post, I utter a hearty 'Amen!'. (And as a side note to Mom and Dad: Yes, I will definitely be up for mowing the lawn when I get home).

Hannah and I also had a 'matching' moment yesterday that couldn't be passed by. Notice the green sweater/green chaco combination. All I needed was a blue accessory. I savor such small, happy trivialities.

Along with mowing the lawn, I helped out at their church's Vacation Bible School. I was a crafts helper, which meant I mixed Quick-Crete and poured it into stepping stone molds. So in one day, to say it melodramatically, I mowed the lawn and poured concrete. After that, of course, I found time for a 2 1/2 hour nap.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the beauty of hospitality as I have experienced it so far on this trip. This has been a topic of many conversations with friends. I am just so overwhelmed by the amount that each family I stay with has given me. The small things: clean sheets and towels, coffee in the morning, flexibility, tours of their town, cleaning the house before I come, on and on the list goes. In each home sacrifices have been made for my comfort. I wish that in my thankyou notes I could just list the things I noticed--the demonstrations of above-and-beyond hospitality--which made my trip special. Because, really, all I need is a spot on the floor. I just don't know how socially acceptable it is to thank your host for clean sheets.