I'm back.... I think :)

I've decided that I think I'm going to be getting back into this blogging thing. This has definitely taken a place on the back burner the last couple of months. I was rather occupied with another big computer project until June 3... and so that took up any spare time I used on the computer. You could say I was a bit of a perfectionist with the project - which made it take pretty long - but I think I had good reason to spend a lot of time with it.

The project was our profile that is currently with Hope Adoption Agency. We are praying that the letters we wrote and the pictures we put together for this special book will touch the heart of a birthmom who is looking for a family to place her child with. This means that after several months (which is incredibly fast, by the way) of going to seminars, completing a lot of paperwork and a homestudy, we are now simply waiting. It's an up-and-down kind of thing. Super exciting on somedays, and overwhelming on others. The "surprise" factor is hard for me. Not that I don't love a nice surprise - I do... but this one feels sometimes like I want to know when we get to be parents. But that's not how it's meant to be... and so we will wait for God's timing on this and trust that He knows what is best for us.

As for the rest of life... things have kept us busy. Lots of yard work the past month or so - which as been a lot of fun. Our backyard (thanks to my gardening friend) looks fantastic - and is pretty low maintenance now. And the window boxes are all planted up again too. I'm not sure I'm super crazy about them yet. I tried something different than last year (not sure why - cause I loved my window boxes last year) - but we'll see how they look as the plants get bigger. Hopefully they'll turn out alright. And just cause a blog post is just a little more fun with a picture, here's one of my window boxes last year. I know I put a picture of them right after I planted them last year here, and thought it might be fun to show you what they looked like at the peak of the season! Enjoy!

So weird...

We were at Martin's mom & dad's place on Sunday night - when a really weird thing happened. Martin had gone to the car to get something, and came back in to say that when he closed the door - the whole back window of our car caved in! Now, if you know Martin at all, you know he likes to make up kind of random, less than believable stories - so at first, I did not believe him. But he convinced me (and everyone else) to look outside - and sure enough - there was a big huge hole in the window! Nothing hit it... all he did was shut the door!
Weird.
Anyways, we're glad for comprehensive insurance coverage - and a place that could have it fixed the next day.

Spilled Milk

On occasion, you might find us being less than our usual mature selves at home :). One night last week, when we were eating supper, Martin thought it might be fun to balance a jug of milk on his head. Please note, that it was a full jug of milk - only one glass had been poured from it yet.

Of course, me, thinking about the possible mess, thought maybe this wasn't such a good idea - and so I told him as much. Martin didn't seem to think it was a problem - the only thing he wanted at that point was "a flat head" so that it would be easier to balance!

When he finally decided to give up on the whole balancing thing - he thought it would be fun to scare me into thinking he dropped the jug of milk. The only problem is, he actually did drop it! At first, I thought for sure it would have split open - but lucky for him - the lid only came off, and so not too much milk was spilled :). (Note the jug of milk in the picture.)

He was feeling just a little foolish at the end of this - and so rushed to get something to clean it up with. I decided that having a picture or two of him cleaning up his mess would be a good way to capture this memory! No use in crying over spilled milk, right?

Good food for thought

I've heard this little "story" before, but I got it today in an email, and thought it was worth passing along. Hopefully it will be an encouragement to you!

Malachi 3:3 says:
"He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.."

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.
One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.
That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.
As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.
The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says:"He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver."
She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.
The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.
The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"
He smiled at her and answered,
"Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it."
If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has His eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.

One of Martin's recent projects

Well, here I am, putting in a blog entry as well. My little entry here will be very brief. The last few months I have been working on a little bar that we could put in our youth room at church - a place to hold the food and drink and some other misc. stuff. More importantly, my hope was that it would be another way or place or setting to have conversation. So, I tackled my first project with Eddie Visscher - one of the junior high youth in our church. We got together a few hours every month and just did a little bit at a time - having a lot of fun while we did it. We were satisfied with the end product as we are both amatuers at this kind of thing. I give most of the credit to Eddie for his work on this. He did almost all of the nailing - while i just held everything in place. I forgot to take pictures of the progress - but here is a couple of the finished product wn in our youth room at church.

A few fun little changes...

Not that they're super exciting or anything, but I thought I'd show you anyways! Whenever I take down our Christmas decorations, I get this urge to change up some of the decor in my living room... and this year was no different. The changes aren't huge - all the furniture is still in the same spot... but I changed my coffee table centerpiece, and made some changes to one of the corner shelves.

I had found this basket on clearance before Christmas, intending to fill it with pine cones and a candle in the middle. I got a candle in it, and an evergreen garland around it, but somehow the pinecones never made it! Oh well. I decided to find a way to use the basket for the rest of the year too, so this is what I did! I got the garland as a Christmas gift, and then just bought the wicker and some other kind of cool looking balls. Then I took some strips of fabric and wrapped some styrofoam balls to finish it off. I'm happy with how it turned out! The pictures of my coffee table are a little deceiving... it's not usually totally clear like that. It seems to be the collecting area for any books or magazines we're reading through... but for the sake of the picture, I cleared off the table!

As for the corner shelf, I had seen some pictures in a scrapbooking magazine, and came up with this. I found the twigs for the vase at a greenhouse, and just added a bit of color with the "pick" from one of my favorite little home decor stores. The quote on the front of the album says "And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years" (Abraham Lincoln). We saw it at my cousin's place when we were there, and liked it - and I couldn't decide on a picture to put in the spot, so I figured the quote would be just right!

Happy New Year!

We are looking forward to this year! Of course, we don't know what will all come our way, but somehow a new year just feels like a "fresh start" and we're excited about that! I'll be sure to keep sharing "glimpses of us" every now and again.

I thought I would start this year off by sharing a message that I read recently. It's by Nancy Leigh DeMoss, from Revive Our Hearts ministries. She is a gifted speaker and author - I have been so blessed by her ministry! This message spoke to me... putting things in perspective once again. Before I share that message, I also want encourage any women out there reading this to take part in the 30-day True Woman Make-over that she put together as well. It's a study through Proverbs 31, 1 Timothy 2:9-10 and Titus 2:1-5. All you have to do is sign up, and you'll get an email with the link to that day's message everyday! It's taking me longer than 30 days, as I'm not able to do it everyday, but I am learning a lot from this series so far!

Anyways, on to the message I mentioned earlier:

"Are you content not to be recognized, not to be appreciated, not to have people make a big deal about what you’re doing because you’ve accepted the goal for your life that you will make Him to be known? Your goal is to make Him to be seen, to be great, and it really doesn’t matter then what others think about you.
When Mary prayed her great prayer in Luke chapter 1, verse 48, she said, “[God] has been mindful of the humble state of his servant” (NIV). She did not see herself as worthy of the favor of God. She knew that it was all of God’s goodness and His grace that He was using her. She really had the spirit of John the Baptist. Remember how he said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30, ESV).
Are you willing to decrease—to be less known, to take the place of humility—in order that He can increase? You can never go wrong on the pathway of humility because it’s not about us—it’s all about Him. It’s about what God is doing through His Son Jesus in our world, and we’re just instruments.
Some time ago I remember meeting a woman who was a well-known violinist in an Eastern European country. She talked about this matter of humility, and she held up her violin and she said, “It would be foolish for this violin to think that it is anything.” She said, “What makes it something is when someone who knows how to play it begins to play it.”
Then she said, “We are as that block of wood in the hands of God, and if any beautiful music comes through our lives, it’s not because we were anything. It’s because the Master knew what to do with us and how to use us as simply an instrument in His hands.”
So we realize it’s not about this block of wood. It’s about the Lord who wants to make beautiful music through us, reflecting His glory to others."

God bless you as you go into 2009!!