Like Warm Sunshine and Soft Butter...

Oh, how I do love yellow. From the plates I serve my family their meals on to the wall that overlooks my sewing attempts to the stool that holds up one who is "too short on one end" while he rinses meal dishes, it smiles at me from all sorts of angles and outlooks. It warms and soothes and delights and refreshes. Mmmmmmm......

The Venturer

The Kettle Valley Railway beckons....

Saddle bags are packed...

Boots wait patiently...

Helmet lies ready...

Map assures, family smiles up lovingly from tank bag...

Please pray for the Wild at Heart, that he ventures and returns happily and safely. Thank you...

My Heart is Whole Again

Last Saturday, Craig sliced my heart up into five pieces, left me with one and took the rest of the pieces to Alaska for three very LONG days. My house was clean, quiet and terribly, awfully lonely. Yesterday afternoon, the four missing pieces of my heart returned and now I am whole again. You know, relaxation and time to yourself really isn't all it's cracked up to be!


Here is beautiful Alaska as autumn descends on it's mountain tops and aspen trees:



Kaleb's favorite car in the entire world is a Mustang. He can spot one a mile away. Well, it so happens that Grandpa's bestfriend owns a fast, yellow Mustang.



And Kaleb got to go for a ride! He told me is was fast and then Craig quickly changed the subject. Hmmmm...........how fast, Kaleb?



Noah got to enjoy watching a turtle, his very favorite creature EVER in the ENTIRE world, at the Children's Museum in Anchorage.

"Giddyup, Mr. Bear!"


I must confess that I did enjoy some special time with the left-behind piece of my heart,who was immensely happy to have her family back home:

Learning to Feed Kaleb Again

Learning all over again...

Migraine-free for thirteen days.....but who's counting? (;

I'd do just about anything to free my 6 year old spit-fire of his migraines. Cooking without egg, dairy, gluten, citrus and garlic is nothing short of an adventure!

Isaiah 61

Isaiah 61, a prayer for our families, for this is why He came.

Lord, we are meek (lowly, needy, depressed according to the Greek); please preach to us Your good tidings.

We are brokenhearted; please bind us up.

We are captives; please proclaim our liberty.

We are bound; please open up the prisons that bind us.

We have nothing but ashes; please replace them with beauty.

We are mourning; please give us the oil of joy.

We have a spirit of heaviness; please put in its place a garment of praise.

Please let us be called "Trees of Righteousness" and "The Planting of the Lord" so that YOU will be glorified.

Please build the old wastes and raise up the former desolations in our lives. Please repair the 'wasted cities' and that which has been desolate for generations.

Lord, please help us to greatly rejoice in You; please cause our souls to be joyful in our God.

Please clothe us with garments of salvation and cover us with robes of righteousness, just as a bridegroom decks himself handsomely and a bride adorns herself beautifully.

Lord, as the earth brings forth her bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, please cause righteousness and praise to spring forth in us before all we come in contact with.

It is why You came, Lord; have Your way in us!

Amen

The Hidden Wife

I just finished listening to a sermon titled "The Hidden Wife" by Denny Kenaston. WOW!!! Though his preaching style may seem outdated to some, his message could not be, in my humble opinion, more biblical accurate. If you are even remotely interested, I would strongly encourage you to listen to it when you happen upon a few quiet moments. You won't be sorry! You can listen to it here . It's #11. Let me know what you think!

Our Kaleb

We received the results of Kaleb's allergy tests yesterday, taken in an attempt to get a handle on his migraines. It appears he is highly allergic to eggs, citrus fruits, garlic, wheat/spelt and moderately allergic to milk and soy. I'm so verythankful for some answers and have high hopes that we can finally free this boy of his migraines. However, I am also feeling a bit overwhelmed by the challenge these allergies pose in meal planning and prep. If you have any suggestions or experience with food allergies that you might be willing to share, I can't tell you how much I would appreciate it! Thank you!

The Promised Pictures

The Promised Pictures of our very fun weekend. We stayed at a KOA campground on the Oregon coast with my mom and dad and my brother and his family. The weather was shockingly beautiful and the days flew past as if in some time warp machine! This weekend gave new meaning to the phrase "Time flys when you're having fun!". We all agreed we would have been happy to stay for many more days!



Exploring Fort Clatsop, where Lewis and Clark spent the winter:



The boys saluting at Fort Stevens:

Fort Stevens State Park on a BEAUTIFUL September day:

Is this the face of a happy camper or what? This little girl of ours would have been happy to roam the ocean's shores for hours, perhaps even days. The water, the sand, the birds: it was all sheer joy for our Sarah!

And Happy Girl's happy sister, looking mighty big to me these days! She, too, adored the wide open expanse of the beach and was often found simply chatting away, by herself, while she scooped and smoothed and dug and rolled.

Smilin' Cousins:

Once again, look at this happy face! Sarah loved pushing around Cousin's stroller and spent quite some time doing it!We stopped to buy some DELICIOUS tuna and the fish man had just gotten in a shark. He wondered if the kids would like their picture taken with it. There was no way Hannah was going for it without Daddy. Even then, you can tell by the expression on her face, she really wasn't too keen on the idea!

A High Calling

I have some fun pictures to share with you of our recent camping trip but I haven't the time right now to post them. However, I am so strongly compelled to share this:

Mothers, you are irreplacable. You really are! You cannot be replaced, though you are often told that you can be, either directly or indirectly. Your calling as mother and helpmeet and keeper of the home is a sacred, high calling. There is NOTHING more valuable that you could be doing, NOTHING!!!!! Do not believe the lies of Satan that threaten to compromise your worth in the eyes of the Lord whom you will answer to one day for how you responded to your calling.

And mothers, your time with your children is finite. You can never get it back. Use it wisely! Do not cast your pearls before swine! Your time and energy is valuable. Don't waste it away; devote yourself, time, and energy to those precious children whom the Lord has blessed you with. They need ALL of you! Please do not deny them of this.

There is no higher calling for a woman, no more blessed name, no more worth while venture, no more valuable position than that of Mother. Not even that of Vice President...

Patriotism Revisited

Last night, while pondering our nation's current events, a quote from a past blog entry, True Patiotism, quickly flooded my mind and helped me gain a bit of perspective again:
"A father and mother living together with their children, tender in their love, pure in their lives, strong in their convictions, simple and orderly in their habits, do infinitely more than presidents and governors, legislators, educators, and clergymen can do in making a strong nation." ~S.D. Gordon in "Quiet Talks on Home Ideals".
As I watch fellow believers and church leaders become divided over these presedential elections, even as I feel a division within my own heart, I am reminded that the real impact on a nation happens within the home. My heart is heavy with Christian responsibility and how that effects my presidential opinions but this quote, and the still small voice within, reminds me that my true Christian responsibility carries the most weight here within the four walls of our home. I don't know why this brings me such peace, but it does.
I am hoping and praying that as Christians, we will allow each other the freedom to seek God's face, to do what each of us feels we are called to do, and to do it unto the Lord. At the risk of sounding like a cliche or an offspring of a hippy, I pray that as believers we would use this time to truly become Christ-like in our love for one another, even in light of political differences.
God is good and thankfully in Heaven there will be One Ruler, the one and only Righteous Ruler, and He's been voted into office long before the foundations of the earth even existed! Journey on, dear friends!

Lest I Confirm my Foolishness...

You know that phrase "It's better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt"? Let that phrase explain my silence. There is much to ponder in this current day, much that threatens to take my mind off the task at hand (serving God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, being a helpmeet to Craig and raising up godly children), and gives me so much to chew on that I fear some of it may spill out before I've entirely and adequately processed it. God is good, He reigns supreme and that is a balm to my anxious heart. I am so very thankful that this earth is not my permament address. I'm not sure I've ever felt like a stranger in a strange land more than now. Tarry not, Lord Jesus!!!!!