Monday, November 29, 2010

Project Life 11/12-11/25

I've taken a little time the last few days to work on my Project Life album. I haven't posted my PL photos lately, partially due to being busy here, but also because I feared that I might be boring everyone. The downside? While I did get my photos printed and placed in the album, I don't have my journaling cards done. at. all. : (

Fortunately I do have the posts that I did here during the first half of the year to look back on. Moral of the story, (for me) even if it is not "perfect," I must take the time to write down my thoughts because they are, it seems, very fleeting.

That being said, even without the journaling cards in the album yet, I love this album! The super-cool thing about it for me is that the photos are chosen, and actually printed. It is amazing for me to look back on our year this way. Amazing.  So, so much better than having tons of photos languishing on my computer. 

Will I do Project Life again next year? Most definitely... apart from the rapture, or something like that. : )

Speaking of which, did you know that there is actually a service (run by athiests, I'm guessing) who will promise to take care of your pets when the rapture happens! Of course you must begin to pay the monthly fee to them now..... but I digress.

::Friday 11/12/2010
For the first time in more than two weeks, we had rain!  It was so dry that the rainy dreary autumn day was quite cozy and welcome.
::Saturday 11/13/2010
I had wanted to experiment with making gluten-free donuts for some time.  Today was the day!  I am not a huge fan of fried things, but I must admit, these were quite good.  It can be a difficult thing to get GF bread-type things to stay together, but these worked!  Yay!  I'll try to post a recipe later this week.
::Sunday 11/14/2010
The barn that we can see across the street.  It is almost abandoned, but I think it is pretty... plus we get a better view of it in the autumn.

::Monday 11/15/2010
We have new babies!  One of our Nubian dairy goats freshened this evening~ triplets!  Honestly, there aren't many baby animals cuter than these~ *love* the long, long ears!

::Tuesday 11/16/2010
Our oldest son Nate is serving in the US Army.  He is a chaplain's assistant stationed in Ft. Benning, GA.  We all *love* Skype time with Nate!  Unfortunately,  Nate can't come home this Thanksgiving, so we have to enjoy our time visiting this way for now.
::Wednesday 11/17/2010
Woodburning stove weather~ finally!  Tom and I seriously considered replacing our very old Hearthstone wood stove this fall, but decided to only replace parts and keep it going for another year.  The new ones are *so* pretty, but cheaper is way better and it does keep us quite warm and cozy.
::Thursday 11/18/2010
Took a few photos of the little buckling that was born on Monday so we could list him on Craig's List.  We already have a nice buck and since one buck is plenty (trust me!), we went ahead and sold him so we could have the milk for our family.

::Friday 11/19/2010
One of our very favorite things to do if it is at all nice is to go take a walk or run on the trail at a local lake.  We all went there today~ I *love* being outside and walking with the children!  This smile is so "Abbie!"  (She wanted me to be sure to tell you that her hair doesn't usually look quite that messy!  I think her hair is beautiful~ I'd love to have half as much hair as she does!)
::Saturday 11/20/2010
A full moon.  I googled "how to photograph the moon" and tried several different settings on my camera and used a tripod.  I actually got a clearer photo showing more detail of the moon, but I liked this one best in the end.

::Sunday 11/21/2010
Tom and Jake raced!  It was Tom's first full marathon and Jake's first half-marathon.  The weather was warm (nice for us as spectators!) and the guys did fabulous!  I was so proud!  ( I know, wrong date on the photo... gotta' change that)
::Monday 11/22/2010
Yet another warm day finds us taking a walk at the lake.  I simply had to capture Timmy's curls.  It was almost tropically warm when we began walking, but as we walked a cold front came through.  It was really exciting to feel the wind shift and cold dry air rush in~ thankfully we stayed dry, just got a little cold before we made it back to the car.
::Tuesday 11/23/2010
Today, I had perhaps the biggest surprise of my life!  Nate came home for Thanksgiving!  Only our oldest married daughter Micah knew that he was coming.  Check out the following video that Nate made as he traveled home to bless us.  This is the first time I have used Blogger to upload a video.  I hope it is big enough so you can see it. 


::Wednesday 11/24/2010
I can't even begin to tell you how much fun we had with Nate home those few days!  We laughed and played, hugged and laughed some more.  Today wasn't warm at all, but it found us, once again walking and playing at the lake once the girls and I finished the majority of our Thanksgiving cooking for tomorrow.  We decided to pose for an impromptu family photo and this is what I got!  The puppy is our married daughter and son-in-law's puppy, Fusion. (We were "puppy-sitting" for a few days)  He decided that since we had all stopped walking it must be time to kiss!
::Thursday 11/25/2010
Thanksgiving.  I am so blessed.  My heart is filled to overflowing.  Life is so, so rich here.  Thank You Lord.

Enjoying life here,



Linking up with

Monday, November 22, 2010

Seizing joy....

Ann Voskamp recently posted this excerpt from her new book on her blog.  It resonated so deeply for me that I had to post it here.

"and I know all our days are struggle and warfare (Job 14:14) and that the spirit-to-spirit combat I endlessly rage with Satan is this ferocious thrash for joy. He sneers at all the things that seem to have gone hideously mad in this sin-drunk world and I gasp to say that God is good. The liar defiantly scrawls his graffiti across God's glory and I heave to enjoy God... and Satan strangles and I whiten knuckles to grasp real Truth and fix that beast to the floor."

"God is good."  Some weeks I wrestle more than others to proclaim this.

How do you declare His goodness in your daily life?
I search for Him, eyes learning to focus in new ways through the viewfinder of my camera.
I do come, thirsty, to His Word, seeking, and finding Him, faithful and steady when life isn't.
I purposefully number His blessings in my life, recounting His faithfulness.
"For You, O LORD, have made me glad by what You have done, I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands."
Psalm 92:4
How do you "grasp for Truth" and battle Satan in this "ferocious thrash for joy?"
Finding Him faithful here as I wrestle to find joy,
and Oh! the joy I do find!

Praying that you are experiencing and rejoicing in His faithfulness as well,

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Some "almost-December" links for you

http://wwDefinitely getting into pre-Christmas excitement here.

Before I get to some Christmas links/ideas, I thought I'd post a link to the cutest Thanksgiving banner.


I think this would be a great project this weekend... if you want to recreate something like this "on the cheap," check out the Graphics Fairy for adorable vintage images that could work for a similar project.

Are you making a Christmas notebook/planner this year?  I started one last year and am adding to it this year....  check out Molly's here, and Marta's here.  Such a cool idea!

For the third year, I'll be making a "December Daily" album.  Each year I am a little happier with the results, but no matter how each album turns out, I *love* looking back at them.  For an overview, check out Ali's post here.  Basically, for me it is an album celebrating the 25 days leading up to Christmas.  (Some people go beyond the 25th with their album, but after 25 days I'm usually "done.") Trust me, we don't do fabulously creative Christmasy things each day, but everyday life is so *sweet*, especially that time of year.  Love documenting it and having those photos/memories to look back on.

This year our children are excited about purchasing a goat through World Vision for a needy family overseas!  (We have raised Nubian dairy goats for 10 years now, so we know what a blessing the fresh milk, etc is)  We are so, so richly blessed here.  While I have not always had the funds to purchase exactly what I want to eat, and I can remember times in the past that I was sad that I could not afford to purchase fruit for the children, I have never had to go a whole day without food as the mother relates in the video below.  Can you imagine how heart-wrenching it would be to be unable to feed your children?  You can watch the following video to see the difference a goat can make in someone's life.



And then there's Christmas music....   yep, we're already playing Christmas music here.  What a grand
celebration Christmas is~ God incarnate come to earth for us!  How about a Christmas music freebie?  Check out Sara Groves site for a free Christmas concert album download!  How cool is that?  Some of our other favorite Christmas albums:


















Having a little problem with formatting here.... sorry this looks so "strange"...  if you want to see the album links/photos and you are reading this in a reader, I think you'll have to go directly to my blog.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

I'm still here!

Checking in here.... hope everybody is doing well!  The quiet from this end just signifies "busy", nothing more.  My hip is healing quite well and now that I am two weeks out from my surgery, I think I am glad that I did it.  I wasn't so sure for the first week and a half! 
We're hard at work with school and other autumn activities.  Tom and the boys are all running almost every day.  The cooler autumn weather has been fabulous! 
I'm still moving a little slower than usual, (and am totally fine with that)... still taking a nap many afternoons, sleeping a little later than usual, etc.  I tend to drive myself way too hard, so that is a good change for me.  Doesn't that sound mature of me?  I thought you'd be impressed!
I am riding my bike a little bit (hooked up to a trainer in the house) each day.  In a few weeks I should be back riding outside.  I probably won't be given the ok to actually run until the end of December, but I'm fine with that.  God's timing in good, yes?
In other news around here, our autumn batch of Cornish Cross chickens are getting bigger each day.  We should be moving them to their new freezer home later this month.  Hopefully the warmish (for November!) and dry weather will hold for a few more weeks.
I've added a new widget to the sidebar of my blog with books currently "on my nightstand."  If you read my blog in a reader, you might want to go directly to my blog and see some recommendations.  I know that I always like to find new good books to read, so I hope this will be helpful for some of you. 
About six months ago I started ordering organic produce with a local group from Azure Standard.  You might check if they deliver to your area~ such deliciousness!  This month, among other things I was able to get two boxes of organic Honey Crisp apples.  Wowza!  I have become seriously addicted to those apples.

Hope you are enjoying autumn there in your "neck of the woods!"