Hair Today on... Thursday?

Madeline has agreed to be my hair model and thus, I have decided to do hair posts every once and a while.

This is called the Maddie-Twist:
* waterfall braid
* twist
* bun
* bow (there's always time for one)
In that order. We did this for Grandma's Christmas Eve service and, well I had a fun time. :)

It's very beneficial for me that Madeline has volunteered to be my hair-model because I have chopped off my hair. :) Not I, (said the cat) but a lady at the salon. So, for a while, you will just see my sisters' heads of hair for show.









Hope you all had an excellent year of 2015. Be prepared to start writing 2016 at the end of your dates now!

~me

Here with Us ~

Lived the life He lived,

So He could die the death He died,

So that we could live the life He is.

Merry CHRISTMAS!

Christmas Decorating

We got to go and decorate cookies with our dear friends the other day. Sarah and I decided that we should make Disney characters out of the gingerbread men.

Grace, Emily, Sarah, me, Hannah

Kristoff, Elsa, Anna, Hans, Peter Pan,
Tinkerbel, Flynn, Rapunzel

Later that week, I had to make cupcakes - I told my kids at Classical Conversations that if they had the first 11 verses memorized for Psalm 103, I would have made cupcakes for them. I brought over 2 dozen, and they were almost all gone when I got home. I was very pleased with their work. At the end of the year, I'm going to have them say the whole chapter and hopefully record the whole thing without the knowing. :)

They did such a good job! :)

Hey - it might happen! :)

It's December

Three weeks till Christmas!
Grandma's Christmas Brunch was today, the last one after 37 years. We started going 11 years ago when Rescue was singing. We've all really enjoyed getting to go - whomever of us are available, but it's been a tradition - and it's been fun. Everyone thought that Bethany was one of my sisters - I mean, she looks like one of us and the people from my grandparents church don't see us that much, just once a year at the Brunch in fact. :)

Our cat, Little Christmas

What family plans and traditions do you have in December? It's a very fun month (we have Ben, Zach, and Dad's birthdays all in December too)! I love many Christmas songs - non of them have played on the radio so far, but I decided I would go ahead and put one on my blog (that's what I hope to do whenever I do a blogpost this month).

I hope the beginning of your Christmas is going well. 

Betsy & Greg's

Yes - the two got married Saturday and what a beautiful picture of Christ and the Church they were. I know family and friends were helping along the way. It rarely feels like work though 'cause you are spending time with your friends as you work - we just got to spend about 24 hours with some of our dearest friends.




I was thrilled 'cause I was asked to help with fixing the bride's maids' hair. I think I have now really figured out the waterfall braid. It is much easier to do the braid and then curl hair (in my personal opinion). After Elizabeth and Elsie worked on Betsy's hair, I grabbed a picture of her trying on her vale - she was a beautiful bride. :)

 One of my favorite things was the song that Kaytra and Olivia sang - Twila Paris's How Beautiful - they sang beautifully.

Hope you all had a great weekend! Happy Thanksgiving!

Oma's Chocolate Cake

I made the cake

We celebrated Grandma's 82nd birthday today. Grace made delicious diabetic, paleo chocolate cupcakes with caramel frosting. Josh and I made Oma's Chocolate Cake with Caramel frosting.

Josh made the caramel frosting

We decided that the joint effort was a success - but very sweet and very rich - but not too rich. I think almost everyone had two pieces at some point during the day. :)

This was the end product - and the joint effort was a success. 

Who am I?

Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth
Would care to know my name,
Would care to feel my hurt?
Who am I, that the Bright and Morning Star
Would choose to light the way
For my ever wandering heart?

Who am I, that the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love and *help me rise again?
Who am I, that the voice that calmed the sea
Would call out through the rain
And calm the storm in me?

Not because of who I am

But because of what You've done.
Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are.

I am a flower quickly fading,

Here today and gone tomorrow.
A wave tossed in the ocean.
A vapor in the wind.
Still You hear me when I'm calling.
Lord, you catch me when I'm falling.
And You've told me who I am -

I am YOURS.

Life

practicing during construction - beautiful weather :)

Nov. 1st, 2007, Sarah, Ben, Emily, I dawned our black performance apparel. We clambered into the Camry - four folding music stands, a cello, a viola, and two violins - and Mom drove us to The Heathman Lodge. Probably a couple months prior, Dena Conzatti called us to see if we would play background music for the Camas Pregnancy Center Fundraising Banquet. I don't remember
much of it - I was just eleven (I guess I was closer to twelve).

This year, I went as a guest of Ben's along with several others (however, none of us thought to get a group picture till we were in the car on the way home).

I think the most fun part about it was the Cake Auction... I've never bid for anything before (besides E-Bay, but - seriously?). They all looked amazing, but we chose this one to be what we would put our money down on. It was so much fun and a great way to raise money for (now) Pathways Pregnancy Clinic.

I'm thankful for Pathways - I'm thankful that they're there for girls of all ages who need help. I am thankful that the workers and volunteers there love God and desire to serve Him.

Pathways provides various services for women: after abortion counseling, ultrasounds, support groups, and more.

Wednesday - Memorizing and Baking

Bethany and I have been memorization partners this year. We decided that whenever we would get together to say more than one chapter, we would get together and do something fun while at it. Last time, we went to go see Cinderella (in theaters) and then to Jamba. This time, we decided to meet at Pete's and then have a baking day.

After we successfully quoted our verses, we ran to Ross - we were going to a Pregnancy Clinic Banquet the following night and we were told it was formal. (What does formal mean? There's a nice skirt and blouse, a nice dress, a Sunday dress, and then prom-formal.) Just in case it was going to be prom-formal, we wanted to check and see if Ross had anything we would definitely need - it didn't and that's ok 'cause we discovered later that it was Sunday formal... ish... (this will be another blog post. Sometimes I feel like there is nothing to blog about and then I have a weekend full of fun-ness :)

We got back to Bethany's house and began creating - it was then around 10 and we wanted to get a couple of goodies baked so we could send them to some friends. We pulled this off superbly and had the last Pumpkin-Apple Sauce muffins in the oven by noon. After lunch, we packed the goodies (adding the decorative touch of lace duck-tape) and ran to the post office before getting me back to my abode at 2pm. It was a day well spent from the moment of getting out of bed, till the moment of returning there.

It's such a blessing (and ton's of fun) to have friends who sharpen you while you are reciting verses or while baking in the kitchen. :) Who are your friends? Do you come away having given and having received encouragement and blessing (in some form or another)?

Apples Again!

Last year, I was in Russia during Apple Month - the month of October in my family. We get about 1600 lbs of apples and make apple sauce, cider, apple pie filling, Apple Yum-Yums and anything else we can think of. :)

It is also tradition to watch The Apple Dumpling Gang the day we get apples and to make Apple Dumplings (aka, Apple Yum-Yums). Sarah is now back from visiting Kaytch, so we will try to make some cider soon. Fall is rather official now in our house. Rain, wind, leaves, waking up and it still being dark (sometimes I appreciate this, sometimes I DO NOT, but it hasn't happened very often so far this year:) - yes, it has to be my favorite!

Here is what we do for Apple Yum-Yums:

Standard 10-inch pie crust: (Next time, I want to use the King Arthur's Flour pie-crust)
1/2 cup coconut oil
11/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbs cold water
Cut in the coconut oil, flour, and salt with pastry blender. Add water and cut again until pie crust texture.

8 apples
1 1/2 cup brown sugar (plus extra for stuffing)
1/2 water
1/4 cup butter
Fall spices - whatever you'd like. (In other words, make a syrup with Fall spices in it.)

Peel and core the apples. Wrap each with a thin layer of pie-dough.
Drizzle the syrup on and around the apples and then "stuff" brown sugar down the center of them.
Place in the oven at 300 for 30-45 min (pie crust shouldn't be colored) and then bump up the heat to 475 and let bake till golden brown (about 15min).

Those are rough directions - but the general idea. :)

Praise the Lord!

"Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant and praise is beautiful." 

Psalm 147:1

"Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous! For praise from the upright is beautiful!" 

Psalm 33:1

"Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in His mighty firmament! Praise Him for His mighty acts; praise Him according to His excellent greatness! Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; praise Him with the lute and the harp. Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!"

Psalm 150

A Cinderella Party

For my Christmas present, one of my friends gave me a ticket to the new Cinderella movie - it was totally

photo credit

worth waiting for! This was the first of four visits to the movie theater for this specific film... What can I say? I had friends who wanted to go see it and they couldn't come with other friends - I couldn't send them by themselves.

However, Saturday night, we had a party at our house to watch Cinderella. :)

Since it was a Cinderella party, some of us (Sarah, Bethany, Susanna, and I) took one of each of the shoes you currently see and placed them in the music room. Feeling guilty of such a game, we did return them.

A "Brilliant" Summer

It is no longer Summer! Sometimes I don't know what I've done - I don't have a huge clue or a day-to-day schedule, but here are some of the highlights of my summer and not in any particular order - just the order they came to mind. :)

Soccer:
Kaytra, Titus, Josh and I got to play Tuesday nights - in a word, it was "brilliant".

If you're curious, yes, that's a gallon of Gatorade

Texas:
Such a fun time with Grandparents and cousins!

Fair:
Always tons of fun ;)

Cliff Jumping:
This, soccer, Church Camp, and Family Vacation - they are my favorites!

Running:
I ran two... :)

Church Camp:
How do you explain it? :)

Family Vacation:
Wow - totally amazing!!!!

So if you were me, and you had to describe your Summer in a word, what would you say?

Hope you all had a good Summer! Now throw on your sweaters and scarfs, and pull on your boots and gloves. It is officially Autumn!