my new crush

So what do you do when you're looking at real estate online
and you love, love, love the seller's furniture?
I think I could eat that couch up!
These rooms have 1963 written all over them...aren't they great?
Love this kitchen!

easter weekend

flowers at Pike Place Market, Seattle

How was your Easter weekend?
Ours was glorious!
The week leading up to Easter was a little crazy.
We were in California all week, flew home Friday night and then left early, early Saturday morning for a 5-hour drive over to Seattle for the weekend.

The weather was perfect on Saturday, about 70 degrees with sunny, clear skies.
We walked around Pike Place Market and enjoyed the Aquarium.
Downtown Seattle is by far one of my favorite places on the planet.

On Sunday morning, we drove out to Qwest Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks, for Mars Hill Church's Easter Celebration.
After driving around for an hour looking for parking and walking about 10 blocks in the rain with 4 children, we finally made our way into the stadium and found seats.
All of the parking woes, and the walking, and the rain were well worth it!
We snuggled up under our blankets--I'm so glad fleece blankets do well in the rain--and were blessed, blessed, blessed!
Pastor Mark preached a great message on who Jesus is.

This, I loved..."Jesus was not a good man...He is the God-Man. The Bible says there are none that do good."

There is nothing redeemable in man.
We all need Jesus.
It was all so, so good.

A quick Starbucks warm-up stop after the service.
Hot chocolate and lattes all around. :)

Then we headed up north to Arlington to visit our wonderful friends for Easter lunch.
They had Easter baskets and an egg hunt for our kids!

Hope your Easter was wonderful, too!

embroidery 101

Recently, I've been inspired to try embroidery,
thanks to a sweet friend and very creative
Farm Chicks vendor, Courtney.

She's always working on something cute--most likely trying to
stock up her booth for this year's Farm Chicks Show.

At Christa's baby shower, we asked the guests
to decorate onesies for Baby Ella.
I wasn't going to make one, but I couldn't resist all the adorable fabric.
It's like it was calling to me.

Now I think I might understand a crafter's obsession with cute fabric
and why one might justify collecting and possibly hoarding a large stash of quilting fabric.
I think I'm on the verge!
Maybe.

So here's my little creation for Baby Ella.
I'm so thankful that Courtney was there to help me get going.
It was frustrating at first, because I had to start over 3 times.
But now I can't wait to get started on another project!

baby ella

A few of my friends and I had the privilege of throwing a shower for one amazing friend, Christa, and her sweet little Ella Louise.

Simply put, Ella is a miracle. She was born with heart complications about 2 months before her due date and spent the first 70 days of her little life in the NICU.

And when I say privilege, I mean it with all of my heart.

I feel so honored to know Christa. Even praying for her sweet family during this time has felt like a privilege.


So many creative girls worked so hard to make everything beautiful!

I love all the sweet details that went into this special day.

beautiful artwork...

yummy food...

and little onesies to decorate.

We love you, Sweet Baby Ella!
We pray that God will continue to strengthen your little heart.
Our own hearts have been strengthened by knowing you
and by praying for you
and by seeing our amazing Creator
work a miracle in your little life.

xoxo

life in these parts

photo courtesy of my purple girl

We love spring up here in the northwest! After our long, bleak winters, the sunshine feels so nice! My youngest daughter, lover of all things purple, noticed this crocus out in our front yard. I love each budding sign of spring around here!

"Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold...
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only for an hour."

from "Nothing Gold Can Stay"
--Robert Frost

That's what's going on outside...inside our home is just as sweet. I've really been enjoying my kids lately. Sometimes I forget that stopping everything to read a library book can reset the whole tone in our home. This past month I remembered. And what a difference it makes. The kids forget they're disgruntled or bored when we're lost in the pages of a good book. Puzzles and games have the same effect. It took me a few years of parenting to realize this. I think I'm so busy and have so much to do, but sometimes all they need from me is 5 minutes. Then I go back to making dinner and they run off to play and everything's good. Why do I think these interruptions will set me back 5 years? I think I read this in one of Sally Clarkson's books--my children are not interruptions in my day. They are my work (and I don't use the term "work" here as negative or burdensome). Maybe the laundry and the dishes are my interruptions. :)

Now that we're out of the baby stage and my oldest is 8, I often do a double take and think, how did we get here already? Where did the time go? Are they really all school-aged?

"...her early leaf's a flower; but only for an hour."

So, as I said earlier, I've really been enjoying my kids lately. They're growing, but I'm growing, too. I'm learning that good parenting is partly good perspective. It's difficult if you think it's difficult, delightful if you think it's delightful. I realize there's more to it than that. Trust me, I know. But I also feel the deep ache that tells me this season is short and I'd rather have more delightful moments than difficult ones. So we're going to read more books, play more games and do more puzzles. And if it ever warms up, we'll play outside and enjoy the springtime.

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year."

"A Prayer in Spring"
--Robert Frost

Happy Spring, Everyone!

4 years

I mentioned in this post that my husband finished school recently and is looking for a job. Right now, in fact--he's interviewing today miles from home. When we first moved here, I remember thinking we'd get back to regular life after graduation. You know what? I would say these past 4 years of life have been the best ever. How is that? I wanted to rush through them, as if they were something to be endured.

I think I've grown as a wife and mom. We're about 17 hours away from our families and I was so lonely at first. Depending on God was a good thing for me. Hard, but good. He soon filled my loneliness with sweet friendships. It's an amazing thing that God can fill any void. He's proved this to me, and that's why this time for me is bittersweet. My husband is interviewing elsewhere right now, as in not here. But I think we'll be o.k.

Never again do I want to say that I'm living in an in-between state. Life happens there, too. God works there, too. And He has.

winter days

"Now the winter seemed long.
Laura and Mary began to be tired
of staying always in the house." --Laura Ingalls Wilder

Been having a few of these days lately...

this month, I want to remember...

I really, really adore you, February!
Your colors, your holidays--they make your weather
a little more bearable.

Sugar is highly over rated.
My husband and I went on an after Christmas,
six-week, no sugar/no bread diet
and I can honestly say that
sugar doesn't taste as good as I remember.
This is good.

Snow on the beach.
This is the Pacific Ocean, folks!
We visited the Oregon Coast this past week
and it snowed.
I never want to forget this!

home, moving on, etc.

(source)

Have you ever had a time in your life when absolutely everything was up-in-the-air? Right now is one of those times for me--but I'm not complaining.

My husband just graduated from Physician Assistant school, and I'm so very proud of him. Now we're in the job search process. We had certain areas in which we were focusing our search, but the PA job market, as we're learning, is slim right now. We've had to broaden our search just a bit. Okay, maybe more than just a bit. We've gone from looking on the West Coast to ummm, everywhere. This means that by the end of this year, I could be living...anywhere.

It's kind of exciting, but the truth is, I'm a little sad to leave behind our little house. It's the sweetest little 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom house with a terrific fenced-in back yard, complete with big trees, a strawberry patch and garden. I love our hardwood floors and the colors of our walls (which were painted by the previous owner). I love our city, too! And the longer I live here, the more I love it. And then there are the wonderful friends we've made here. I don't even want to think about leaving them behind. :(

But here's the exciting part. I was apprehensive when we moved away from home four years ago in order for my husband to go to school, but God worked out every.last.detail--like our walls being painted colors I would have chosen myself. I'm confident that wherever our family lands, God will do amazing things yet again. He's good to us, and He's good. This is exciting to me.

Everything is up-in-the-air right now and I'm just not sure if I should begin packing up our life here.

in our little house...

we've been wishing and waiting for snow
baking
exchanging valentines
dieting
avoiding chocolate (see above)
reading
organizing toys
attending ice skating lessons (not in our home, of course)
playing games
homeschooling
hosting parties
jumping on the couch
listening to Adventures in Odyssey
drinking lots of coffee

hope your February has been a cozy one, too!

be mine

our valentine pancake batter

Happy Valentine's Day!

On this day I'm so thankful to know the source of true love...

..."this is love--not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."
--1 John 4:10

and so very thankful that it's free!

"Thy love is such I can no way repay." --Anne Bradstreet

"If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you.”

--Pooh Bear

One of my favorite Pooh Bear quotes!
Last week a friend and I were talking about these sweet stories.
If you've never read them to your kids, you must!
I always get choked up when
Christopher Robin is about to go off to school.
As wonderful as it is to watch our kids grow and learn new things,
why is it also one of the hardest things to do?

This past month, my oldest son turned 8.
Eight!
That's one more than 7, one less than 9!
I'm not quite sure how this happened.
This afternoon, I studied his sweet face as he spoke to me of nintendo,
and I noticed that his jaw is widening, as that of a young man's.
Little by little he has turned his attention toward what we've always called "big boy toys."
And in case you didn't know, big boy toys are just a little more expensive than little boy toys.

in the secret of his presence

(click here to listen)

Would you like to know the sweetness
Of the secret of the Lord?

Go and hide beneath His shadow:
This shall then be your reward;

And whene'er you leave the silence
Of that happy meeting place,

You must mind and bear the image
Of the Master in you face.

my winter eden

glorious red in my winter eden

A winter garden...lifts existence on a plane of snow
One level higher than the earth below,
One level nearer heaven overhead,
And last year's berries shining scarlet red.

from "A Winter Eden" by Robert Frost