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My sisters and I descended on my Mom to celebrate her 70th birthday.  She had long since convinced us not to throw a big party like we did for Dad's 70th.  So we left the grandkids looking after each other and went out to John J. Jeffries, a Lancaster PA restaurant where they turn sustainably raised, locally sourced seasonal foods into phenomenal cuisine.  We shared around the food - among the seven of us we managed to cover a good portion of the menu - and the wine and champagne flowed.

We each toasted her, and she was a good sport, though she's always avoided being the center of attention whenever she could.  I suspect that if my Dad hadn't bragged about it that she never would have mentioned that she was being honored with the 2012 Jefferson Award for Lebanon County.  Each county in the area singles out a volunteer to be recognized for their public service.  Mom has kept the county's VITA program going for years now.  It's a volunteer service that organizes free tax preparation for low income people, to make sure they take full advantage of their deductions, the EIC and so on.  She's a little perplexed as to why she was selected for the award, since she thinks it should go to one of the super-volunteers who devote more hours than she does.  Running VITA may be less glamorous than some volunteerism, but this year her work helped keep nearly a million dollars in the community that otherwise would have gone away.  And it put that money right where it can do the most good -- into working people's pockets -- to be spent locally and ripple out through a community that will take all the stimulus it can get.  So I'm thrilled that both she and that program are getting some well-deserved recognition.

When we'd eaten all we could, we headed back along the windy country roads to home, where the kids hadn't burned the house down, but were settled quietly in front of their various screens . . . .

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