eat sleep and farm

September ...     were you really here? Were you really a full 30 days? How did you pass by so quickly?  Its hard to believe a new month is here. Its hard to believe Fall isn't just in the air, its here .  Its hard to believe we've arrived at the 1 year anniversary of living here in Washington State.  Hard to believe that move was such a mixture of sadness, like-it-or-not change, amazement, joy, contentment and peace. Its so hard to believe what 1 year can encompass.  Its been a full year. Its been packed full of every different emotion and situation I think I could imagine for one year. What I've loved most about this year is how God has revealed Himself to Jason and I in so many new and exciting ways. We've both marveled at how He's grown the two of us; how He's shown us so much more of who He is and what we're not. I don't think its because we moved to Washington, but I do think its because we fully trusted Him to lead us and guide us and pro

Here is the sermon one of our Pastors preached yesterday. I love the way Pastor Mark talks about prayer. I love the way he reminded us that God is our Father . He didn't just create the world in 6 days and then go up to Heaven, where He waits for His children to join Him. He is active, He is real, He is God. And He loves talking with His kids. He loves to walk with us and talk with us and know that we love and trust Him. Life can be falling apart on all sides, the world can be ending, but as long as we belong to Jesus, hope is there. Joy is in even the deepest trials. Being able to cry out to God and being able to run to Him, to ask anything, to confess anything, to praise Him for everything ... its a gift I hope wish never took for granted. But I know I do, often. I encourage you to take some time to listen to this sermon. I know its a video clip, but you don't have to sit and watch. I often listen while I cook, or do some of my less noisy house cleaning. Such a blessing t

This morning I read these short verses and was so blessed by them. They both stuck out to me as precious promises and truth that goes so deep, it knows no bounds.  I hope they're encouraging to you, wherever you are. I pray that God will use them to either show you His beauty for the first time, or remind you of it.  But if anyone loves God, he is known by God. -1 Corinthians 8:3 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. -Galatians 2:20 And I read Psalm 40. One of my most favorite Psalms. When I was pregnant with Ethan, a dear friend gave me the idea of putting scripture to memory, to take with me when I went into labor; to hang onto in those deep moments of complete pain. I remember thinking "but what verses should I chose? there are so many!" and the day before I went into labor with Ethan, I la

Pretty self explanatory... this is the front view :)  Its a silly thing to be excited about, but our kids are thrilled to have  sidewalk  in front of our house!  Our current home ends at the lawn end, so we've missed sidewalk. 

We hear that question quite often coming out of Ethan's mouth. He thinks "shut-up" is one of the worst things you could possibly say. He's mortified when he hears kids say it at the park. But, he has a phobia about the word and so he thinks he's hearing it all the time. Rachel will say "I put this up over here!" and he'll say "Rache, did you just say shut-up?" - it makes us laugh, but I'm sure it annoys his sisters. The other day he asked me "why do bad words exist? What makes them bad? Who makes them up?" all good questions, I just wasn't quite sure how to answer him. I told him that bad words, wrong attitudes, evil intentions are all a result of the fall. That its part of sin; which is doing, thinking or believing anything that goes against God's word. He seemed happy with that answer, but his follow-up question {which I knew was coming, since Ethan's mind is constantly curious} was "then... how do I know

In exactly 4 weeks from today, we'll be moving to a new home and saying good bye to our very first home, here in Washington State.  At the start of 2010 Jason and I began setting goals for our family and one of our goals was that we would purpose to live simpler . Less stuff, less space, less collecting, less constant craziness, more time for those in need, more time for ministries at church, more time for our family, making more time to redeem the time. As we approached our 1 year lease for our home coming to an end, we began discussing finding a home that would be less cost per month, to help us save even more. The options were:  1.) move closer to Seattle, but pay more in rent or  2.) stay in this area we already like and find a home for less rent. 3.) staying put de-cluttering and just being okay with a big, more empty home. Three was almost immediately ruled out as we began looking on Craigs list and realized we were paying pretty high rent for this area. See! things you learn

My friend Katie hosted the most fun Moms night out for the MOMS club!  Her husband Jason {who I grew up with} is quite the connoisseur and did a fabulous job  hosting a wine tasting for all the moms.  It was such a relaxing, fun, educational evening ;-)  Seriously though, I did learn a lot about different wines,  how to properly taste and enjoy wine,  and then I learned about how each of my friends handle too much wine ;-D

... Say that 5 times fast :)  On Thursday night we dropped Ethan & Rachel off with our good friends here in Washington, had our friend David meet us at their home to drive us to the airport, boarded our plane around 8pm and took off for California! We arrived in Oakland, were greeted by our friend Brian, where he drove us to his home in Monterey. Kara was a champ on the plane ride. Since it was so late {and she got the cold I had last week} she was nice and tired. When the plane's engines came on and began to go down the runway, Kara was fast asleep. She didn't wake up when the plane landed, she didn't wake up as we carried her to get our luggage, she didn't wake up when we put her in Brian's car, she didn't wake up when we put her in bed at midnight. She woke up around 8am the next morning, asking "are we home?"  We spent Friday morning/afternoon with Shanna {Brian's wife} and their two girls Raysa and Aliya. We took the kids to our all ti

Friday night Jason and I got all dressed up and went down to the Monterey Plaza Hotel for Jason's sister's wedding!! The wedding was beautiful, but Jenny topped it all, being one of the most beautiful brides I've ever seen. Her dress was breathtaking and she was just glowing.  My favorite part of the whole ceremony was watching the look on Jeff's face when he watched her come down the stair way and then seeing his expressions while he stood there, saying his vows to her. Those wedding moments are priceless.  We had a great time seeing old friends and lots of family members we haven't seen in a long time. 

A couple of weeks ago, our friends Brandon & Laura hosted a  fun family Friday night get together!  We all brought our own meat and side dish, Brandon BBQ'd  and then we sat by the fire pit, roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. yummers .  For us the night was super special because it was Jason's first evening outing {on a work night} since going to his new shift. We love having him come along with us in the afternoon/evenings! 

Today has been a bad day. For me, personally. I've been sick with a horrid head cold since Sunday and all I want to do is get away for a few minutes to sleep. But then who watches the kids? Yeah. The life of a Mom, I guess.  I remember when Ethan was a newborn and I got the stomach flu - I think he was 6 or 7 weeks old. Waking up that morning, throwing my guts up, but needing to nurse and care for my baby was the first day, in my life I realized how much I truly appreciated my Mom. It didn't hit me until that point. Suddenly, her many years of being a self sacrificing Mom, with little time for herself, came slapping me right in the face.  But today my ears are killing me, my head is pounding {seems I've worked up an immunity to Advil} and my body aches in every place possible. The kids have been fine. Great, actually. At one point Ethan came to me in the kitchen and said "you don't feel good, do you mommy?" and when I told him I felt horrible he said, "

I dreamed last night that I was a tiger , in the jungle.  But I was a big, bad tiger.  So a lion killed me. 

The kids had cooking class at the park a couple weeks ago and it was the perfect weather for it! This class was a 'stir & mix' type of cooking, so they didn't actually cook their food :)  They made yummy chicken salad sandwiches; toppings like celery, raisins, apples, carrots, pickles and mayo - the kids asked for PB&J when they were done making the delicious chicken salad sandwiches! Go figure.... 

we will never forget .  “Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the 11th. We will remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember every family that lives in grief. We will remember the fire and ash, the last phone calls, the funerals of the children. “ - President George W. Bush, November 11, 2001 Our enemies have made the mistake that America’s enemies always make. They saw liberty and thought they saw weakness. And now, they see defeat.  - George W. Bush, President of the United States “Now, we have inscribed a new memory alongside those others. It’s a memory of tragedy and shock, of loss and mourning. But not only of loss and mourning. It’s also a memory of bravery and self-sacrifice, and the love that lays down its life for a friend–even a friend whose name it never knew. “ - President George W. Bush, December 11, 2001  {photos are courtesy of FoundersofAmerica.com }

My lovely little sister Emily moved up here back in July. We've been enjoying having her here; its mostly fun just having a tiny bit of true family in the area. She's a shift manager at Starbucks just down the street from our house, so we get to drop in on her quite often! Today I decided to sneak my camera in -- she hates having pictures taken of her, but oddly enough, she doesn't mind taking pictures of herself . She's weird, what can I say.  Anyway, I snapped a couple funny ones and a couple good ones.  "you better NOT be taking a picture of me!"

got up early,  quick breakfast,  off to a MOMS club meeting,  lunch time fun with friends,  missed our nap {too much fun with friends}  picked Auntie up from work,  made appointments,  talked with Doctors,  made a zillion phone calls,  got Kara off the kitchen counter tops one hundred times,  answered one more phone call,  pulled a small toy out of Rachel's ear  { she thought it belonged there, apparently }  *while helping Rachel with the toy in her ear....* .... Kara found a new tub of lotion  { one I thought I put high enough out of her reach }  cleaned up the mess,  bathed Kara,  greeted Daddy at the door soon after,  we all got ready for Bible study,  went to Bible study,  ate a yummy dinner,  visited with people we love,  felt very blessed.........  somehow, even after days like today; messes that were part of today and craziness that seems too much to fit into one day, at the end of it all, I can't help but smile and tell myself... it could be worse.  "I wonder

a while back {early August} our MOMS club went on a field trip to a local pet store. The kids loved it! They still remember all the silly things the lady told them about the reptiles, fish, birds, etc... it was definitely a hit and gave us a fun morning with our friends as well. 

This is a bit of an honest, raw 'rant', so bear with me. And, if you don't like it, please don't feel obligated to stay. I won't be offended if you click on the little x in the left hand corner of your screen :) I wrote this over a week ago and I've been unsure about posting it. Over the past year, I've stopped writing on topics that I feel will cause any sort of debate or come off as offensive and just focus on our family and fun things we do/learn. But since it is my blog, I've decided its the best place for me to 'rant' on this subject.  oh, but before I start I want to clarify something: In this post I refer to non-super clean, super organized people as 'messy'. I wish I had found a better word and I know I could've said "people who aren't as clean or as organized as other people" but that just seemed to make this already way too long of a post, even longer. So for clarification, I'm not a huge fan of using th

We're at the final 30 day stretch until her 2nd birthday and this Mommy is NOT ready. I can't believe 2 years old is approaching this fast and my baby is quickly turning into such a big girl!  Kara's biggest changes have been her speech. She suddenly talks really well and its mostly understandable by all.  She's been doing great in Sunday School, with 2 weeks of not crying AT ALL when we drop her off!! She was very hesitant to let me go, but held her tears back and gave me a wave, letting me know she was going to brave it out. When I went to pick her up, she didn't cry, like she typically does - she ran to give me a hug - her teachers told me she was happy the whole time and even did the hand motions on her favorite songs. I knew when she was ready, it would all go smoothly.  She's turning into a sleeping champ; rarely ever waking up at night anymore.  Her eating habits have much improved since Nana's visit in July. Lets just say Kara was using eating time

I like to look at weather.com - okay, fine... I have a slight obsession with it. Its true.  I hate being surprised when it comes to weather. I like laying our clothes out the night before and I like to go to bed feeling as prepared for the next day as possible. I think doing things like that relax my brain for a good night's sleep. Who knows.  So tonight, as all other nights, I peeked at the weather for the next 10 days. We're expecting warm weather for the next 2-3 days and then boom... rain. I am incredibly excited. Washington after a couple days of rain is just breathtaking. Everything looks so luscious and dewy and GREEN . And I'm a huge fan of green nature.  I'll also confess here that I am a huge fan of fall & winter weather.  I don't like that it seems to bring a lot of sickness with it, but its still my favorite time of year. Even when we lived in California, I would get all excited at the first glimpses of cooler, fall weather and go to the garage