With a Brimming Heart

 With a brimming heart, I wish you all a blessed Thanksgiving!  We have been graced with a marriage that has seen its share of growing pains but is burgeoning into a union of increased understanding and forgiveness.  Laughter and joy from little hearts who share in the toil of growing together as one unit.  Health that causes little worry in its maintenance.  Physical needs met with comfort in this season.  And most of all, a precious Savior who does not see it a small thing to be concerned with all the details of our lives.

Autumn Mantle

 Still putting some finishing touches on my mantle and photographing in terrible lighting.  What can I say, I get my best inspiration in the late hours.  

My mom keeps giving me orange pumpkins.  She's very traditional in her decorating, so when she saw my blue and brown pumpkins, I could tell she was biting her tongue. 

Always love to have some elements of nature.

This season reminds me of how so very blessed we are our home. 

Our New Home!

Summer Vacation

 My family loves camping.  My husband enjoys being in the outdoors.  He grew up in the Northwest and counts endless tales of running through forests and climbing trees.  So camping in the mountains is a paradise for him.  My children, of course, are following in his affinity for nature as they find themselves at one with the rocks and the trees and the squirrels.  I on the other hand, don't do the best job hiding my antipathy of having a perpetual layer of dirt on me at all times or of still having to fulfill my duties of cooking and cleaning with one burner, a faucet and a bucket.  But I do understand their enchantment with the outdoors and am willingly to open up my heart to learn to "delight" right alongside them.  Afterall, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me...Philippians 4:13.

This summer, however, we came to a happy medium.  As much as my husband loves the mountains, I love the ocean.  So we packed up our camping gear and headed about 30 miles north of Santa Barbara to a place called Gaviota State Park. 

Honestly, I was the one fighting to stay when my husband said we were leaving one day early.