Saturday, June 30, 2012

Lessons and other other things

Alright, have to post now before I run away and do something else.  Life has been busy this past month with family parties and babies being born, as well trying to get through personal things, learning life things, marital lessons, etc.  The weather has been much cooler than the rest of the US, but abnormally muggy, in the 60s-70s and cloudy.  Mr. Sun has not been making his much needed appearances!  I started a veg/herb/fruit container garden back in April which has been taking off pretty well, I've had lots of snap peas to harvest, chives, parsley to cut fresh into meals, and have been anticipating harvest a ton of baby zucchinis when they're ready.  The early girl hybrid tomato plant has exploded with lots of yellow blossoms but no fruit yet.  My alpine strawberry is very happy but makes very tiny fruit, which I wasn't expecting, should have done some research on what type to get for bigger size. I also have 3 garlic bulbs going, some blueberries, and bell pepper and 2 sad dill starts that have barely started but needed to be replanted in their own pot, I don't think they like sharing space with parsley.  It's been much easier growing all of this on my back porch, right outside my living room so I can just hope right out and cut whatever I want and not needed to put on shoes to walk out to through the wet grass to my now neglected garden bed.  I just have a huge bush of thyme growing and some mint that came back from this year's bad winter.  It's a lot easier with containers growing things because of the ease of moving them with the change of sunlight and the soil stays warmer than the ground which makes the plants happy :) I will post some pictures soon of the amazing bounty...

Today I'm planning on taking the bus up to Seattle to dink around a bit while my husband is at a MasterArts class for graphic illustrators/animators/designers in Seattle Center.  There's more to share about life right now, our quest to get rid of our debt by working through Dave Ramsey's amazing Total Money Makeover.  As well more family events to get to next weekend best friend's bridal shower/bachelorette party, then husband's cousin's wedding, then visiting bro and sis in law and all the babies all down in Portland/Vancouver area! It's going to be a whirlwind of craziness.  I have been enjoying pressing through and getting connected to the ladies in my SDG writing group, getting emails with the questionnaire I put together and learning more about you all! FYI--I am on Facebook and would like to connect with you there, my profile is here, so please friend me on there and we can probably get better acquainted that way!

And just a reminder to some of you that can relate to what I've been learning: Remember that through all your struggles, frustrations and discouragements in life right now, that Jesus is walking with you through it all.  It may not seem like it, you might feel like you're standing in a fog with no where to turn or answers but He is with you, He has not forsaken you and forgotten you.  You are His beloved child, His creation and He is ALWAYS creating a new, perfect and blessed work within you.  It hurts, its sucks, it's difficult, but through it, you will be blessed.  Sometimes you need to get down on your knees, I mean literally, cry it all out, tell him why you're pissed, give it all back to Him and simply say, "Give me the words to say because I don't know how to say them." Then you wait for His guidance, instruction and Holy Spirit to push you to do the right thing and guess what? It works, you'll be surprised!  That's what I've been learning :)

Read what this sweet gal has to say about encouraging your family and husband, I like it :)


Staying connected here:




And not to forget my amazing mom and her writings:

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Short but sweet!

Had a very eventful, fun and memory-making weekend with my family and the babies and seeing so many people I haven't seen in a long time... First, read about the main event here at my mom's blog.

Now you can see pictures that I took with my husband's 'older' Sony semi-fancy, fat lens camera that I got to play with and take several good shots.  Tell me what you think. We went over to my parent's house first before the wedding reception to see them and my brother's family visiting from Vancouver for the weekend...

William having fun with baby Luke (our nephew).

Luke (8 months) and I
 
At the party, the middle kids quickly ran in all directions and found this fun bench swing.

Peter, Abigail and Paul

My cousin Jeremy and his beautiful bride, Amaleah.

My dad and the kiddos cuttin' a rug!

My uncle Dave (on the right) chatting...

The kiddos greeting Amaleah

Cutting the cake...

Smooshing the cake...

And dancing...

Traditional Groom/mom and Bride/Dad dance :)

To read more about my family's story and how this all happened, again, go here.



Thursday, June 07, 2012

Joyful Anticipation!


 Yes! Feeling like I'm finally stayed 'in the mix' of things with getting comments, email replies, follow-ups, forwards and feedback from all you ladies in my writing group and it's feeling good! I think I've squashed the enemy's lies well enough but I'm gonna keep it up...

Today I had a full day off and planned to meet one of my bestest friends, Hannah, in downtown Seattle while she's on a short bit trip up here from Santa Cruz and staying with friends in Ballard.  I took the bus to Seattle from Tacoma, met her at Westlake, shopped for a much needed good-quality, preferably leather work purse for her (finally found at the Clarks store), as well got some baguette sandwiches at Le Panier at Pike Place and had some good conversation and catching up.  It didn't rain and we were able to talk about almost everything I could think of to talk about in the short 4 hours we visited.    It has been very wonderful to know her for as long as we have-32-ish years, and still keep in touch over the miles and years.

Hannah and I before she had to get on the bus back to Ballard.

On my bus ride to and from Seattle I was able to journal and read my 'Insight for Living' devotional book--even though it was May's issue, I just read the one from the 6th day, the verses Psalm 25:4-10. It had some pretty good meat to chew on, about meditating on the word, getting wiser and more disciplined, therefore more hopeful and at peace and ultimately having a 'joyful anticipation' in your life that only comes from knowing Christ.  When we are obedient and disciplined with his will and direction in our lives we're more in-tune with what He's doing.  You build up a trust between you and your heavenly Father by demonstrating wisdom and godliness, therefore He enables you to impact others greatly.  It's about knowing the truth that only Jesus can supply you with, the power that He gives us through the Holy Spirit, and using that power to strengthen your own walk and spread that to others.  Here's some more thoughts from today's devo:

"With all this available to us, wouldn't it be wise to invest our time and energy in building the truth of God's Word into our lives? The other activities which clamor for our attention seem so important or pleasurable, but none of them can offer us the spiritual riches of a life grounded in truth."

And in other news, one thing you may not know about me as how much I love to bust a move at any moment that I'm listening to something that wants me to bust a move.  Lately, I've been rocking out to Chris Tomlin's 'newer' album "And If Our God is For Us", which has several really good worship tracks.  Many have been over played on the radio one too many times, but there's one song that we've sang at church so far, "No Chains on Me" which I totally dig! Here is a video with lyrics for you to check out, please watch, get the album, rock out!


Yeah, I stole this from Pinterest, woot woot! I LIVE by this motto...

Still staying connected here...



And if you didn't get figure this out already, my mom blogs here:  Three Way Light

Sunday, June 03, 2012

hello again!

Well, I think I've gotten over my whole intimidation issue about reading other people's blogs and feeling completely inferior which is a very good thing.  I think finally letting it all out and venting really helped and having some nice kudos and comments from some of you was very encouraging :).  Got several things on my brain but can't type now, too late and tired to think.  Just wanted to keep posting regardless to keep this going, as I've said, I'm fighting back!