going on a tree hunt

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Oh the agony + joy of attempting family pictures!  And all the mommas said Amen.

A few years ago, when we were living in Brevard we stumbled across this little family-run Christmas tree farm right outside of town.  It sort of birthed this dream in us to have a little place like this, a big white farmhouse, quiet hills with neat lines of evergreens where it could feel like Christmas all year long.  Space to raise a quiverfull of children and maybe a handful of animals, space to tend the earth.  I don’t know if that dream will ever be a reality, but every year since then, we’ve headed back to this little farm that reminds of and beckons us to the way of life we hunger for.  If for nothing else, it reminds us of Eden in some way or another, a haunting for that good life that was lost, the good life that will be ours again in Heaven one day.  A future hope that makes us smile and remember that while we are here on this terrestrial sod we are here to work hard, our time here is temporary.

We went again a couple of weeks ago with my brother + sister-in-law and niece, took turns snapping pictures of each other, and hunted for a tree.  The owners didn’t mind us taking our time, traipsing all over their property with our photo props, and they even offered our kids a fun wagon ride behind their tractor!  It’s well worth it to me to pay $30 for a tree to support this little place + family.

As 2015 comes nearly to a close, my heart is full.  Though it has been a year full of challenges and stress and strain, I look through these pictures and feel immeasurably blessed.  When I fix my eyes on these simple but profound gifts instead of the long list of things I could complain about or worry over, joy truly floods my soul.  Nothing can touch the joy I have in Jesus Christ, nothing can ever separate me from Him and all that He has won for me and secured for me by His death on the cross.  Second to that, nothing can come close to comparing to the profound depths of delight and joy I have in my little family.  What a crazy good and wise God we have to come up with the idea of family!

I know so many dear loved ones who long for this and struggle deeply with loneliness during the Christmas season.  Know that I’m praying for you, that I long for you to experience the joy of family this season too, even in the broadest of terms, even in the arms of your spiritual brothers + sisters, mothers + fathers, children + grandchildren.  Ultimately, in Jesus, we enjoy “family,” because He is Immanuel, God with us.  The God who is always there, always present, among us, within us.  The kindness of our God: we are not alone!  Praying He satisfies you with His presence this season + always.

yarn along

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So I FINISHED my very first sock!  I’m super proud and stoked.  I have learned a lot of new things while working on this one, and I’m pretty hooked on knitting.  I started the matching sock for it last night.  I am pretty eager and ancy to get these done before Christmas and I’m feeling like at this rate I will most certainly not get everyone’s finished!  😦  Phoebe has seen me working on these, she sort of thinks they are for her but I haven’t said anything directly.  Even this morning, Noah saw me taking these pictures and he was excited to see the finished sock.  He asked, “Is that Phoebe’s?”  And I said yes and he was so enthusiastic.  I have been sort of thinking they won’t be that excited about these, but both seem super interested and excited that mommy is maybe making them something.

Also, I’m still reading a couple of Advent books, and working through The Things of Earth but this book has been a favorite of mine with to read with the kids this year.  A library find, but I will probably have to buy it.  It is set in the mountains where we live, such a sweet story of a humble family and hope, and the little girl is named “Ruthie” just like our little Ruthie (Philippa Ruth).  I have added a list of some of our other favorite + treasured Christmas children’s books in my little book store (on the slide-out sidebar under “Recommended Reads”).

Joining up with Ginny Sheller’s weekly yarn along today.

pilgrims + feasts

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Finally getting around to sharing some pictures from our Thanksgiving!  It was a sweet time gathering with family nearby, playing outside together, watching nieces + nephew toddle about, and cooking, of course, all the women dancing in and out of the kitchen.  These little moments, these are the sweetest things.  The crazy wild gifts of our God.  That we have each other!  That we can gather!  That we are alive!  That we have warm homes, able bodies, full tables!  And Jesus, best of all.  Our hope in every storm, our confidence in every year, the only rock on which we stand.  So very thankful for our bond in Him.  Each year brings its own measure of glory + grief, and yet we are always, always rich in Him.  Hope yours was lovely!

Listening for His Voice

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“Stay dressed and ready for action and keep your lamps burning,
and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks.  Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.  Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.”

Luke 12:35-37

season of light

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Our week has been sort of slow, quiet, different.  We started off the week with a stomach bug which thankfully didn’t pass through the family as we thought it would, but it took a couple of days for Phoebe to be herself again.  And we’ve been battling a head cold.  And it rained for half the week.  So we have been pretty hunkered down.  As much as I hate battling sickness, it has given us some time to just be together and read books, snuggle, knit, watch movies, stay in our jammies.  In the midst of it, we’ve been observing Advent together, momma reading this book in the mornings in the early + dark quiet, bent over coffee.  Kids gather over this book in the evenings, freshly bathed and coloring ornaments to decorate the Jesse Tree as I read.  We’ve slowly been pulling out Christmas decorations, putting things here and there as we have time.  Phoebe made my bed for me this morning, and I snapped a picture of that simple grace.  In all its rumpled glory, it sings of her sweet spirit, her kindness and the quiet way she serves even at her young age.  I hope I can be more like her.

It’s been sweet, savoring this season of light so far.  Remembering our Savior, the hope of His birth, the way it proclaims the Gospel to us:  Jesus came, even in the midst of a very broken and fallen and evil world, a wicked generation.  He still came.  He didn’t just come to visit us, God visiting man, He came as one of us, God and man.  The hope in this!  The glory!  That He knows our frailty in an experiential way.  He knows our need.  Our weakness.  He offers Himself to us.  I pray for you and for myself this season that above all else we open our hearts and hands to receive Him.

 

yarn along

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The past week has been busy with family and gathering, the best sort of busy.  I’ve been trying to crank out some knitting on this sock in the few quiet moments in between.  This is my first time knitting in the round + knitting socks, I really am enjoying it now that I’ve started to see it take shape.  I’m skeptical that I’ll finish 4 sets of these before Christmas at this rate! 😦  But maybe I’ll get faster as I get the hang of it?  I’m just about ready to start on the heel flap on this one.  Lots to learn!

I’m still reading The Things of Earth of course, it will take me a bit to work through that one.  I’ve also started a few Advent books, this one is edited by Nancy Guthrie, an author I love, and is a compilation of some Christmas reflections from some of the best pastors and theologians such as George Whitfield, Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, John Piper, Tim Keller, Jonathon Edwards, Augustine, Schaeffer, etc.  I’m enjoying it so far.  I’m also reading Ann Voskamp’s The Greatest Gift and the children + I have been eager to dive back into the child’s Advent book Unwrapping the Greatest Gift.  We worked through it last year and all loved it so much.  I think it will be a treasured family tradition for us!

(Joining up today with Ginny Sheller‘s yarn along!)

yarn along

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I’ve been making a ton of hats lately, still have a few more to make per various requests, but I’m starting (finally!) on these Christmas socks I plan to knit for my children + husband.  You guys, this is my first time trying to knit in the round and it’s so hard!  SO hard!  I can’t imagine ever being able to relax and do this.  It’s also my first time working with a size 3 needle and learning to knit ribbing.  So that may have something to do with it, too.  I’m pretty determined, so we’ll see how it goes.  Notice I focused in the picture above on my book rather than my knitted work. 🙂  Don’t look too closely.  As for the book, The Things of Earth, I am loving it so far.  I haven’t read something so brain stretching, theologically, in a little bit and it’s been hard at times to get my mind to focus on things like “perichoresis” and such, but so worth it!  Everything within me is resonating with what Rigney is saying and I love the way he carefully handles Scripture.

I hope to have a good picture of my very first child’s sock progress for you next week!  Because I know you’re dying to see it.  HA.

(Joining up with Ginny Sheller’s Yarn Along today.)

the baby is one

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We celebrated with family yesterday afternoon, opening gifts, enjoying a meal together, and feasting on cake (gluten-free + vegan!).  Our sweet babes are so blessed to have aunties + uncles and grandparents nearby who will love on them in this way and bless them with sweet gifts.  Phippa, as we call her, received some warm clothes, a new bike, and a doll from Brandon + I.  She was the first of our kiddos to not cry during the first-birthday song/cake experience, and to actually eat and enjoy her cake!  So I think she loved it.  We all did!  What a treat to be together with family and to all love on this sweet little gift from God to us, our precious girl.  We adore her!  My heart is a little sad that she is already one and moving on up, but it’s good to remember all the fun things that are ahead.  Her first steps, words forming into sentences, more + more that she is able to do and that we are able to know of her.  Her little party was a great way for us to begin Thanksgiving week.  Our hearts are ever mindful of the great kindness He has shown us in these little souls entrusted to our care!

Psalm 91 has been on my heart the last few days, these verses in particular my prayer for our little Philippa Ruth:

 “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
    I will protect him, because he knows my name.
 When he calls to me, I will answer him;
    I will be with him in trouble;
    I will rescue him and honor him.
 With long life I will satisfy him
    and show him my salvation.”
(Psalm 91:14-16 esv)

philippa ruth

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My dearest little Philippa Ruth
The littlest one, the lovey of our hearts.  You are just pure delight.  There was nothing like seeing you for the first time.  You were born in laughter and momma was full of indescribable joy.  A shock of the darkest and softest hair, eyes so intense and grumpy looked at me as you guzzled milk for the first time.  You just stared at me as if you never wanted to look away.  You were the softest and pudgiest and sweetest little bundle.  Big sister couldn’t wait to get her hands on you, big brother was filled with wonder.  You were the sweetest Thanksgiving marvel.  We loved bringing you home, it was a time filled with all the usual difficulties of adjusting to life with a newborn again.  But in many ways, it was the sweetest newborn season we had experienced thus far.  We knew by now how fleeting this time is, and we didn’t mind spoiling you.  We snuggled with you and held you all the time.  We let you sleep in our bed.  We let you nurse even when it wasn’t quite “time” yet.  We broke all of our own “rules” with silly grins on our faces.  We savored you with great joy.  It has been so fun to get to know you, to see your little personality shine forth.  How you love your older siblings.  How feisty and determined and stubborn you are, all the while being sweet and completely lovable.  Knowing you and loving you and the great + high privilege of raising you is the supreme joy + honor of my life.  You, along with brother and sister, of course.  I am so happy to celebrate this first birthday with you.  I hope it is the happiest birthday!  Know, my sweet girl, how deeply loved you are, especially first + foremost by our great God who with tender foresight placed you in a family where you would be taught the glories + wonders of the Gospel.  I hope we will always be faithful to point you to Him in every year along the way.  Where we fail, He is perfect and unchanging.  May His love for you in Christ Jesus be what undergirds every day of your life and may you shine as a bright light in your generation.

With all my love
Momma

(Pictures taken by my sister-in-law Addie + my friend Elise)

the bond of sisters

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How did this happen, that you are already days away from being O N E, my littlest one?  I love these ordinary days with you.  Ordinary, and yet when I look closer, when I quiet my complaining and squint past the piles of mess and the squabbling, days that are heavy with glory.  These days are full and exhausting, but I think they will always be my favorite.

Older sister clambers over crib rails into bed with the younger.  Giggles and laughter and momma rocking quiet with camera in hand, freezing ordinary glory into little squares.