First Lady's Luncheon

Since 1908, the Congressional Club, a group made up of Members of Congress' spouses, has honored the First Lady with a lunch. My boss' wife asked me to go as one of her guests this year! I was thrilled and my expectations were surpassed!

The theme was "Illumination Celebration" and featured lights in general and chandeliers throughout the White House in particular. The first thing I saw when I sat down at the table was a Seda France candle in Japanese Quince (my favorite!) in a special box made for the luncheon!

The food was delicious. We had white cheddar cheese soup topped with smoked popcorn, cornish hen with apricot, sweet potato parsnip and roasted corn hash, and southern biscuits and cornbread (with whipped honey butter). Dessert was the best: there was a duet: warm chocolate molten cake AND spiced apple glace with delicious fresh berries!

As if the food wasn't enough the entertainment was even better. Among several, Julia Murney, who recently played Elphaba in Wicked and Mark McVey who has played Jean Valjean in Les Mis. Mark's singing brought us all to tears!

This is the only picture that I could get of Michelle. She was escorted out by a Marine as were the other spouses of President Obama's cabinet members and, of course, Mr. Pelosi!

The first lady spoke for a few minutes, highlighting her campaign, Let's Move! which is aimed at stopping childhood obesity within a generation.

Here is our great group!

More to Come

I'm back! The month of April was unbelievably busy. So many events occurred--expected and unexpected. Granny Penn went home to be with the Lord. My best friend, Ashley, got married in Charleston. I celebrated another birthday with Gran Fran in Mississippi and went to Kern's sister's wedding in Brookhaven. (DROVE back to DC to bring Kern's truck). Work continued to be busy. I got to attend the First Lady's Luncheon with my boss' wife! Mississippi on the Mall planning is ramping up. (You can purchase your ticket HERE, hint hint!)

That is my disclaimer for that fact that over the next week or two I am going to try to go back and chronicle some of these events in more detail. I'm getting mentally prepared for the writing.

For now, I will include some pictures of my Saturday morning. I crossed a threshold this morning--I am officially growing my first CROP--tomato plants! Kern and I went to Frager's Harware store (DC folks, if you haven't been, I recommend the field trip) and got a container, 3 plants (2 patio and 1 roma) and potting soil. An outing in DC isn't complete without seeing at least someone with security detail. I spotted Kathleen Sebelius collecting a variety of plants.

We went to Kern's house to plant the tomatoes

Now I have to be patient and WAIT! (and water!)

The Future of Shopping

So they say technology is a time saver, and I don't always believe that, but this looks amazing and I wish that it was ready to be used at most stores now.

The video speaks for itself. Click HERE to be amazed!

Be Thou My Vision

This evening at church we had a guest pastor. The passage was Ephesians 3:14-19, the last part of which says, "...so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."

He illustrated his point of the "breadth and height and depth" with an actual measuring tape and challenged us to think of Christ's love in literal terms--certainly an interesting perspective. I really caught on to one point in particular though. He said that we often overmeasure our earthly pleasures and undermeasure the love of Christ. I began to think what this realization would look like in my life: if I really understood the intense, all encompassing over reaching love of Christ, non of my earthly idols would stand. I would be so mesmerized by Christ that those "things" would not have the grip on me that they often do. Sigh. It sounds so cut and dry on paper. I suppose that is truly what our struggle on earth is--fighting those idols and distractions and trying to understand God's love. The realization (of his love) is too good to be true, but like any other sinner, I am apt to forget it at times.

We closed with one of my all time favorite hymns: Be Thou My Vision. It is such a beautiful prayer and a great way to start the week.

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

June Dornbush Penn: "Granny"

My Granny, June Penn, passed away last Tuesday, March 30^th. She was 92 years old. Our family gathered in Havre de Grace, Maryland this past weekend to celebrate her homecoming to heaven.

The weekend was full of remembrances from friends and family: tales of the many summers spent at our family’s cottage on the Eastern Shore and testimonies of Granny’s gentle spirit, strong faith and unconditional love.

Granny was an incredible seamstress. She made me (and many others) dolls, blankets, clothes, and quilts. I spent the weekend carrying around my Easter basket that she sewed for me when I was a little girl. It has multi-colored bunny rabbits sewn together, connected and a pretty braided handle. My name is stitched across the handle. On the bottom, she sewed my name again and her signature heart. She finished all of her work with a small, embroidered red heart.

Before she had children (my dad, Bill and my aunt, Bonnie) Granny was a beautician. All throughout her life, she was active in her church. I remember going to visit and watching her sing in the choir.

I talked with one friend at the visitation who told me, “Granny was so proud to be an American. She was so proud of her parents who came over from Germany to start a life with freedom here. She loved her country so much.” Perhaps it was appropriate that Granny was born on June 14^th—Flag Day.

Of all the wonderful qualities that Granny possessed—loving wife, mother and grandmother, talented beautician and seamstress, excellent singer, patriotic American—the quality that we celebrated the most and were the most thankful for was that she was a dedicated Christian. Her life truly imitated Christ’s. She was humble but proud of her Christianity. She was soft spoken, but bold when she needed to stand up for what was right. She was a faithful believer even when it was not easy.

2 Timothy 4:7-8 was in the memorial bulletin:

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”

It is only fitting that the death of a loved one should prompt those left behind to re-examine their lives. It can be overwhelming to consider the prospect of death, however, the Christian has such a great hope because of Jesus’ death. I cannot think of a more magnificent weekend for Granny to be in heaven: Easter. It was also comforting to our family to be able to focus so heavily on the resurrection. Perhaps you sang the classic hymn on Easter Sunday, “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.” There are two lines that I could not stop thinking about all weekend: “Where oh death is now thy sting?” and “Where thy victory, O grave?” I wanted to shout those lines! Granny is alive and perfect and with her Savior right now. She is no longer suffering here on Earth.

There are not many situations that are more sobering than burying a loved one. However, as I continued to think about Granny and other loved ones and my own death one day, I realized that I am not afraid. I know that I will not be on this earth on moment longer or shorter than I need to be. In her last years, Granny used to say sweetly, “I don’t know why the Lord still has me here, I am ready to go.” We can never be sure when our time will come, but we can be sure that the Lord has a perfect plan that he is carrying out, despite what may be obvious to those of us on earth. The sovereignty of God comforts me in these situation because the general thought tends to overwhelm me…until I realize that I do not have to be overwhelmed because God has it all worked out already (whew).

The past few days have served as a reminder and have been encouraging to me. Death is not the end. In fact, for Christians, it is only the beginning. The beginning of spending eternity with our Lord, Jesus Christ. As C.S. Lewis describes it in The Last Battle: “The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.” Heaven is reality. Praise the Lord.