Walking and running for the cause

This is my sunflower quilt; it's a Buggy Barn pattern from an old American Patchwork and Quilting magazine. I love this quilt so much that quite often I use it on the dining room table (for decoration) in the fall instead of on a bed. It washes up really nice in case someone sets his coffee cup on it without thinking.

Saturday my daughter Jenny and I are participating in the Alzheimer's Memory Walk with the team from the nursing home my mother lives in. It's about a two-milk walk on the Bayfront Parkway along Lake Erie. Piece of cake.

In a couple weeks we will be doing an endurance run for Team Parkinsons, also along Lake Erie. An endurance run means just that - you set a goal for yourself and try to run it. My goal? One mile. Not so easy for me. I'm not much of a runner, I admit; but I do try to get some running in when I am outside walking for exercise. I can run 3/4 of a mile. Isn't that hilarious?! But when I remind myself that I could barely run between two telephone poles a few years ago, it's quite an accomplishment.

I've mentioned before that my dad had Parkinson's disease. My dear friend Angela also has it. She's a mom of four small children, a wife, and only in her mid 30's. You know the Scripture "let your light shine before men that they may see your good works"? Angela has a raging bonfire in her. The name of her team is Philippians 4:13. I am doing this so that someday there will be a cure. As much as I dislike running (yikes - in front of the Erie Runners Club for this race), I would like to know that there is research being done with the hope that Natalie, her little brother, and any other future grandchildren will live in a world where Parkinson's is just a memory.