What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

I tried a new filming angle - which involved moving the sewing machine that doubles as my record player table.... :) 

With our immediate family changing this year, Christmas plans are going to need a little revamping.
But this year we're planning on having our Christmas with Shawn and Beth at New Years.

New Year's... are we really getting so close?

Devoted to You

Photo Credit: Connie Beacom Photography

Seems fitting to share some wedding pictures on our two month anniversary. :) 

(it was actually Thursday, I didn't get the post up in time) :P

How Many Kings ( Clever Bunnies )

I got to visit Beth and Shawn over the weekend. 

 Beth and I played Christmas music at coffee house Saturday night. 

This was one of the songs we played. 

Doesn't their apartment look cute and cozy?

It looks so much more homey now that Beth has moved in. 😊

This the first song since Easter that we've recorded together!!!!

( that's crazy ) 

In general, as you might have assumed, we can't do that as much as we used to. So there's been a lot more solos posted lately, but it's so nice to sing together again. 

Christmas time is busy, so, this is short. But at our home we've been blasting Christmas music and planing Christmas get-togethers and decorating and things. It's been fun!

"I like it! I like it!"

Just popping in to share a few favorites of late. 

Listening to:


(I can seriously listen to it on repeat and not get tired of it)

Jam jam jam :)

Right after I recorded this - our friend Emma came over. 

We jammed. 😀
It was fun. 😝

Back to (photography) Basics :)

Hello! hello! 

It's been a while, again.

Not sure if we'll get back to more of a reasonable posting schedule any time soon... life is busy. 

Beth is still newly married, and I've been occupied with a number of different things lately. 

One of which is going through an online course on the basics of Photography. 

I found this offered at the blog Sixth Bloom , they also have super helpful blog posts on photography too. 

Silly Love Songs

I haven't played my ukulele as much as I've liked lately, but I'm trying to get back to that. 

Here are a few songs I've been learning to play - they all happen to be love songs.
These are just for fun, and none of these are polished recordings. I have a knack of wanting record new songs I've just learned... should reconsider that. 😏

"Reader, I married him"

The old saying goes, "Happy the bride the sun shines on", and while there was a lack of sunshine on October 14th, there was plenty of happiness. :) 

Parabo Press

Hey everyone! 

I don't usually advertise, but I got my order in the mail today and loved it!

So, have you ever checked out Parabo Press? 

Album Cover Photo Shoot!

Let's go take some pictures for the album cover of the vinyl record I'm gonna order. 

Beth, lay on the ground. 

Bridal Shower || Decorations

We had a lot of fun with the decorations. 

The paper topiary was a Pinterest inspiration that actually turned out pretty great! Mom and Beth teamed up for that. 

Butterflies!!!

And a bumble bee :) 

I feel like I now have a photo of every angle of a monarch butterfly!!! Yes, there are a ton of pictures in this post- they're all sooooooooo fun!

Oh, and yes the pictures overhang the page, but I wanted them as big as possible. I'd recommend clicking on one to make it full screen then go through like a slideshow. 

Bridal Shower || Food!

We had one :P

And it was nice. 

Here's where a lot of the ideas came from :)

We had some great food and decorations and games and guests! :) I had a lot of preparation pictures - but on the day of the shower I didn't take any pictures. Too busy :)

I'll share the recipes in today's post

Labor Day Adventures

 Yesterday we went hiking. The weather was beautiful, the scenery was lovely....

Monarch Museum 2.0

 Thursday marked the change of the first chrysalis, as the scales began changing to the vibrant Monarch pattern of orange, black, and white.

See you in September

One of the kids gave all the staff a jar of candy on his last day!

Staff shirt I designed and we got screen printed for free as a generous gift!
Journal, gift from the director - she picked designs that fit each staff member's personality 😊

Wow wow wow wow! 

The summer has flown by!

Monarch Museum

We have three jars atop our piano at the moment.

This past Friday when Mom placed them up there, they held three monarch caterpillars.

By Sunday morning the first changed into it's chrysalis, and today the second one followed.

You Are My Sunshine

Hiya! Becca here!

Ok, on Monday I didn't have to work until 2:00. My six year old cousin has been staying with us this week, and one of the things I told her we could do is play with my microphone.
I was thinking it'd would be a time consuming activity :P
I know I've had fun recording and playing with programs like garageband ever since I was a kid.

She did some silly things - like recording ten tracks of herself singing the chorus of "Lollipop" with like, a bunch of extra lollies. 😛

I wanted to try to do one "good" one to be able to show Memere, and her parents,
and this is what we got! So happy! :)

For the second time, she sang by herself and I recorded a harmony track afterwards. While I was recording the harmony, she jumped in "how much I love you" with a high harmony!! That surprised me! You can hear it kind of faintly in the recording. I don't know if she could've done it again. Trying to sing a harmony with her usually threw her off. 😏

After the recording, I got the idea for the video. We scrambled to find crayons and were taking about what pictures to draw ( mostly her ideas ) and drawing those pictures and taking pictures of those pictures -
then I had to go to work.

I put it all together when I got back that night.

Hope you like it! We had fun making it! 😊

Mission: Mismatched made...I need another m word...

Magnificent? 

that sounds a little boastful :)

Masterpiece?

Mystery?

Marvel?

I give up. :)

While staying at Shawn's parents house this week, I had the opportunity to do an upholstery project for someone who goes to their church. I guess a few people gave the gal my name when she was looking for someone to reupholster a pair of chairs she had.

New York, New York

"It's Not Over Yet"

Here is a random picture of a newly shed cicada. The campers named it Jordan. :)

Our assistant director at camp this week, who's name was Shawn (but he wasn't my Shawn :) ), was in charge of keeping things on schedule and ringing the bell to let the kids know when different things were supposed to start.

I hadn't really wanted my Shawn to come along to camp this past Sunday, because it had been a busy weekend, and I wanted him to have some time to rest before jumping into another week of work. But he asked me to check and see if there was any projects that needed to be done at camp, and there was,  so he came. :)

While kids were registering and settling in, the other Shawn came up to us and asked if we knew of anywhere he could get a watch, because he didn't have one with him, but keeping track of the time was a big part of his job.

So Far, So Great!

This song is probably the kid's favorite at School's Out.

It was one of the songs I taught them on my first week, with motions too - and the next day two of the girls were trying to sing it and asked me to help them with the words. That was so neat!

Camp Wahooooo!

Happy Independence Day!

Fly Creek

giant "rocking chair" that didn't rock. 

Rejoice!

I survived teen camp and learned a new song.

7 At 6

It's been different living in NY vs my life back home. 

One of the many changes, is that at 6:00 a.m. my Mémêre and a friend of hers walk seven miles around her town. 

I've been tagging along. 😊

Teapot Troubles...

One project I have to work on this summer is planing Bethany's Bridal shower! 

Fun fun :) 

Along with the decorations and food and other fun things to be found on Pinterest, I needed to figure out the invitations. 

Then I found this beauty. 

So darling! So classy! 

Not perfectly "Beth" though, but it was a great start. 

Also it's currently unavailable on it's Etsy page. 

So what's a clever bunny to do? 😏

Upgrade

So long, my (somewhat) faithful little tracphone. 

You were a practical, sturdy, cheap (until I had someone who wanted to text me everyday) phone, and despite randomly dropping calls, not letting me set up voice mail, and randomly calling people when you were in my pocket, you did what you were supposed to.

Shawn:"pull your phone out of your pocket, you've called me three times"

Me:"I'm sorry!"

I shall miss your size and simplicity, but I'll remember you fondly.


So long!

Rainy Day Play :)

Put this song together this morning - it's been raining here and it seemed to fit.
It's a little funny having more then one voice on the video, but I was having fun with adding harmony on Garageband and still wanted to keep the video simple.

Hope you enjoy it!

The light of the Gospel

Fireflies are just starting to come out tonight. Or maybe I'm just starting to notice them. :)

They're one of my favorite parts of camp- seeing all their tiny lights blinking out in the field.

While we're on the subject of light....

"For it is the God who commanded light to shine out in the darkness, who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." 

2 Corinthians 4:6

Hey, I learned how to use a can of tuna to explain a biblical principle today, so going from fireflies to this verse was pretty easy. :)  Just one of the cool skills you get from coming to staff training. 

Roses and Jubilee.

Roses, fresh cut from Memere's garden. 

Jubilee is my ukulele's name. 

And the binder and notebook are cluttering up the picture a bit, but I had them out for work stuff. 😏

Omaha, NE

I was there today.

Got to meet with some cool people for staff training.

Also got to try bee pollen ice-cream, which wasn't quite as good as another crazy flavor called Good Morning Dawn Patrol, which had fruit loops, oreos, and granola in it.

If you're ever in Omaha, go to Ted and Wally's Ice-cream. :)

It looks like I'm not in the Midwest anymore....

Hello!

(Becca here) 

There have been a few big changes I hadn't mentioned on the blog yet.

Running On Empty

Don't worry, I was parked at a gas station when I took this picture, and I made it there safely.

The fuel gauge pretty well represents my energy level after this week, but I have a weekend to recharge before the next week of camp- staff training, starts.

Butterscotch

Once upon a time... there was a rocking horse, who had two enormous googly eyes.

And a little crack in his neck.... but that shouldn't be a big deal...

Eternal Purposes

"Therefore, we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

It's not fun to be tired, worn out, discouraged because kids aren't listening, distracted by a headache.

I know that's not exactly the same as "perishing", but I could kind of relate. :)

If focus is on ourselves, it can make us quick to snap at people, (sorry Shawn), and not put our best effort into what we're doing.

That was my day, but after reading the forth chapter of second Corinthians, it helped put my focus where it should be. 

Doing this VBS this week isn't for me, or for my team, or for Camp Assurance- it's to reach these kids, who maybe have never heard the gospel before, with Christ's love. It has eternal purposes, far greater then how we might "feel". So it should be worth it to go through a little suffering, knowing that it's not the temporary things that are important, but the things that last for eternity.

Photo credit: Shawn :)

Sun Tea

This is the newest favorite tea in our house ( we go through phases ) 

It makes wonderful sun tea!

With it being in the 80s and sunny, it's been perfect weather for making sun tea!

"Adventure is out there!"

My car got a little muddy today.

On our way back from the town we did VBS in this morning, we were just about to camp and we looked ahead to see a train across the road of our last turn. Not only that, but the train was stopped.

We weren't in a big rush, but we didn't want to just sit there waiting for a train we didn't know how long would be there.

So, we decided to find an alternate route to camp. :)

We knew there had to be some gravel roads, so I kept driving, and soon we found a road to turn down.

After a little ways, it split off two ways, and the road going our direction was minimum maintenance. It looked alright though.

There was a semi truck on it, backing up, but I drove around it, and we continued on our adventure.

This little dirt road went up and down over some hills, but when we reached the lowest part, we saw why the semi had backed up.....

It was muddy, and someone had driven through, leaving a trail of deep ruts through the mud, something the semi must not have wanted to venture through.

What should we do?

Turn around?

Go for it?

We went for it.

Dennis, our team leader, prayed as I started driving again, and gave me the encouragement of "What's the worst that can happen? We can all get out and push if we have to."

Thankfully, we didn't have to. God got us through, even though there was a couple times my wheels were spinning a little.

Back on dry road, we made it back to camp to see that the train was still sitting there, so our out of the way trek was not in vain. :)

It's always fun to have a little adventure. 

Those Rosie Roses!

  

Guess who just bought these gorgeous climbing roses?

( Becca did! ) 

With such lovely fragrant apricot hued blooms, and winter hardy to -40 F; I am one very happy customer.

 Joined mom on a last minute trip into town, and while browsing through greenhouse - came upon this darling. It just had to come home with me.  😍

( Roses are my one weakness ) 

And freshly watered roses just are so photogenic. 😏

Last Day of the First Week

VBS, where Camp Assurance goes out into the surrounding towns and puts on bible clubs in the park, is just finishing up today.

My team had the farthest to drive- nearly and hour and a half to the first town, but they've been troopers. We've had a lot of fun together, and it's been a really good week.

There's a rather funny typo in the Missionary story.

We've decided a hippop3otmus could mean a three headed hippo. :P

Pretty Kitty :)

John 3:16

For

God

so

loved

the 

world

that 

He

gave

His

one 

and

only

Son,

that 

whoever

believes

in

Him

shall

not

perish

but

have

eternal 

life.

today's memory verse for VBS

Late o clock :P

Yep - this sheet is all I had planned. We managed to fill 2+ hours with (mostly) focused discussion and study!😀 

Bible Study happened tonight! As it happens every last Tuesday of the month. 

It went well, and I managed to fill our time - and more - despite my lack of preparation. 

I am constantly amazed at God's living word. Even though I didn't plan all I was going to say, simply have my verse references and a general lesson theme - God speaks through His word!

Praise the Lord!

( I don't recommend being unprepared. But tonight I was more unscripted then usual. Even so, we got to talk about a lot of important things I couldn't have planned.... So, yeah. Get in God's Word!!!)  

Happy Memorial Day!

Photo credit goes to Shawn :)

(and to Shawn's mom) :)

"Cool and Green and Shady"