Letters

    I love letters, and consider myself to be a fairly frequent letter writer. Growing up, I had an assortment of pen pals. I had a subscription to a girls magazine called Brio. Every so often they would have an application for a pen pal. You filled out the form and sent it in and they sent you the name of another girl who you could be pen pal friends with. I loved this idea and had several Brio pen pals, though they eventually all fizzled out.
     But my most consistent and faithful pen pal has always been my Grandpa K. Since I was young he would write me. Now of course this was a two way street and if I failed to write back the letters tended to stop. But if I would write back the letters kept coming. So, over the years our letters have ebbed and flowed, but it's always there just waiting for a new letter to keep the flow going. The past couple years I have worked harder at being a better letter writer, and I am glad I have. For the most part, I keep the letters I get, though when I was younger I think I got rid of a stack in a cleaning spurt, I wish I hadn't.

      The letters go back even farther too. The other day I was talking with Luke about how when I was really little and my family lived in Kenya, Grandpa still "wrote" us, but in a different form. He would take his tape recorder when he went out for drives and would record letters to us.
     Those cassettes crossed the ocean and found their way to our cinder block house on the side of a mountain in Africa. I remember listening to Grandpa's voice as my siblings and I went to bed. As I told My Love this he told me that I needed to get those because they are truly a treasure. So, I called my Mom up and she dug them out of the basement for me.

    Luke ordered a machine that will convert these into CDs so we can have digital copies of them. I am looking forward to listening to them again after all these years.
    Luke was right, what a treasure those tapes are, but so are the letters.  I have this beautiful inheritance from my Grandpa, a stack of letters and tapes filled with life's happenings, encouragement, and promises from Scripture which he frequently shares with me when I need it. I am blessed. 
Happy Monday.


“Letter writing can be seen as a gift because someone has taken his/her time to write and think and express love.”~ Soraya Diase Coffelt

Dishes....An Addiction

    I have an addiction. I LOVE dishes. Not doing them necessarily, but finding beautiful ones at garage sales and second hand stores that I can't resist(Though my dear brother Jordan says my taste is a bit like a grandma's) A quick look in my kitchen cabinets confirms this. They are just so pretty. Today was one of those great garage sale find days. My little sisters and I were out treasure hunting and we were going to stop at just one more on the way home. And there they were, the set that matches the cups I had found earlier at a second hand store.

Dinner plates, dessert plates, bowls, cups and saucers. So lovely. This set wasn't quite all the way complete but last summer I found a complete 8 piece set with all the above mentioned pieces. They are some of my favorites.

It's fun, though we now have 5 different sets of plates. But these are the only 2 complete(or almost complete sets. What makes you smile when you find it at a garage sale? Happy Friday.

"Come, let us have some tea and continue to talk of happy things." ~Chaim Potok

"Never underestimate the power of a woman with a newspaper, a map, and a wallet full of small bills on a Saturday morning." ~Unknown 

This Week

     My summer job ended last week and now I am on my two weeks of freedom before school starts. (Though I am looking forward to school, I love my job). Anyway, last Friday all of my sisters headed up North. My older sister Lydia, is back up for her last semester of school before student teaching and my younger sisters, Ema and Lucy are here to spend the week with My Love and I.
     Also this past weekend my Grandparents came up for a visit. Now both sets of my grandparents have made it up to see our new home. I have been blessed to grow up with two sets of godly grandparents who have been a big part of my life.
     This week with the girls has included a trip to the library(we are already through the chapter book we started at the beginning of the week.  "Ms. Rapscott's Girls" by Elise Primavera...Delightful). Ice cream, the park and a fair amount of dealing with garden produce. I've canned pickles and spaghetti sauce, made apple sauce and put zucchini in the freezer.
     At church on Sunday a sweet friend of mine gave me this lovely tea cup.(It has a bee on it!) I thought it would look lovely with my marigolds. I was right.

Happy Thursday!

"A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and man cannot live without love." ~Max Muller

Roscoe

     At the beginning of the summer, Luke and I sold Theodore, our much loved and trusty Montero. We did it because we wanted to get a pickup, something that we could haul stuff with and such. Well this past week we finally got one. It's an old '88 Toyota and Luke is quite happy with it. We like to name our vehicles(Theodore, Emerson, and Randolph) and thus we obviously needed to come up with an appropriate name. Luke didn't like my suggestions of Bernard, Willard, or Bruno. But he finally came up with Roscoe. It works.

Today we decided to test out his off-roading capabilities. It was fun.

Mud puddles(and driving through them)....Great fun for kids of all ages.

     This week has been HOT! When I was a kid my mom always said how it seemed like the time to can garden produce fell around the hottest part of the summer. Well, I followed along in her footsteps today by deciding to try my hand at canning for the first time. My mother-in-law had given me some big green beans from her garden so that I could try making green bean pickles(my sister-in-law Abbi made them a few years back and I really liked them.) Luke watched me put the red pepper flakes in and mentioned that they will probably be really spicy. Hopefully the tasty factor will be there to balance out the hot factor.

Driving home tonight.

Happy Saturday.



"Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable." ~Mary Oliver

Grossness

    I work with kids and I love it, but sometimes it is disgusting. Today we were crammed onto a hot and stuffy bus on our way back from a field trip. I was sitting there minding my own business, while a kid a few seats in front of me decided he needed to pick his nose. I was completely oblivious to the fact that he was mining until he decided to discard his findings. He flicked it away and the lovely surprise went flying through the air and landed squarely on my arm. Needless to say, I was grossed out. Enough said.
Happy Friday.

“Look! A trickle of water running through some dirt! I'd say our afternoon just got booked solid!”
~Bill Watterson 

Garden Freshness

    This morning I went out to the garden and came back with green beans, an onion, tomatoes, and a couple peppers.

     So much goodness! I used the onion, peppers, tomatoes and a few ingredients from the kitchen to make some garden fresh salsa.

    And fresh salsa needs to be eaten, so I made tacos for dinner. Yum.

And then there are the Zinnias. They are so beautiful.

Happy Thursday.

"Every summer has its own story." ~Unknown

Bluegrass and Goodness

     This has been a lovely weekend. Every year since we got married My Love and I have gone to the Itassca Family Bluegrass Festival. It conveniently falls right around our anniversary so that is how we celebrate. It is always fun and good music abounds.

     Today after church we headed out to the William's farm. It has been awhile since we spent an afternoon working and playing out there. Since we have our own house to fix up and work around we don't get out to the farm as much anymore. It was nice. The lovely Keren Ruth and Benjamin were there. And of course Little Pope was there, though he/she won't be making an official appearance for a few more months(Yay for babies on the way).

    Our friend Irindee was also there. We made pizza and played scrabble while the boys worked on a project that involved dirt and heavy machinery.

All in all, it was a good weekend. A new week full of adventures is just ahead. Happy Sunday.

"My weekends are extremely precious." ~Mariska Hargitay

4 Years and Forever

     Today marks 4 years with my Love. This wonderful man has been such a blessing and gift from God to me. He helps me tap into my logical side when I'm going crazy,  he makes me laugh and feel safe, he constantly reminds me that God's word is truth and that I can trust in the One who gave us life. He takes care of me and our home and I can't fathom life without him. Happy Anniversary my Love. Here's to another great year and forever!!!