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"

221b Baker Street

Well, I can't tell you Shawn's real address, but he has a new apartment! Once we're married in the fall, it will be ours to share, but he gets to be there first over the summer.

I've been able to bring some of my hope chest items to add to the collection of things Shawn had, and or purchased for his new home, so its fun to see them in their proper place, instead of all packed away. Do you remember those canisters from this post? It's been 4 years since I've bought them, so it's pretty exciting to finally have a place to use them. 

DIY gonna try :P

From the rising of the sun...

...Til the time that it goes down, the name of the LORD shall be praised!

Psalm 113:3

HAPPY MUSIC!

What does a 60's Psychedelic Rock song, a 70's Pop song, and a 70's Country song all have in common?

Well for one, they're all songs I've grown up with and love. 

And two, these particular songs- despite each having a different story, genre, style, and rhythm- all had similar lyrics and themes. At least I think they do. 

And I think they're better together. 😊

So, here's a jam I created, I was really just messing around. It's all rather improvised and crazy - but very very fun to make and I hope you like it as much as I do!

 I'd love to see how many songs you can identify in this bundle of fun!

With my trusty ukulele, microphone, and Garageband this was invented. 😊

Not a Porcupine

For my mom's birthday, we got her a weeping redbud tree. That's not a picture of the one we got her, just an example. Maybe someday Mom's will get that big and pretty. :)

Becca and I had fun using the code word for Mom's gift, and she was very excited when we showed it to her yesterday. Shawn got it planted in our front yard, and we're excited to see how it does.

I bought it in NE, which is growing zone 5, but my family lives in zone 4.... hopefully it will weather through the winter.

Bethany Cake :)

Serendipity!

(Happy accident) 

Doesn't this look cool!? 

Totally accident. 

Beth was making Mom's birthday cake. 

(Happy Early Birthday Mom!) 

Thank You Jesus

No, I didn't intentionally try to copy Becca's beautiful silhouette photo from yesterday, (my photo is nowhere close :) ) I just couldn't take a direct photo of this thing, cause it's a surprise.

Shhhhhhhhhhh!

One of the gals I've been working with here at camp, Mary Ann, is such a good example of just talking to God throughout the day.

Well, today we were out grocery shopping for camp, there was a place I needed to stop to get above mentioned thing. Let's call it a porcupine just for the fun of it.

So, this place had a couple porcupines, but they were quite expensive, and none of them would have fit in my car. A clerk called another store, but they didn't have any... I thought I'd just have to wait and look some places closer to home, but Mary Ann thought of another place to look. 

While we were driving there, she said a quick prayer out loud, asking God to help me find what I was looking for.

I thought this place would be kind of a long shot for porcupines, but they had some!!! They were less then half the price, and they were smaller too, so I could fit one in my car!!!

Praise God!

A certain someone will be very excited to receive this porcupine tomorrow. :) 

Wishes

Just as the last light was fading I got outside in time to take this picture. The dandelion became the perfect subject of the shot and of my thoughts of late. 

Wishes. 

Fix Your Eyes on Jesus

Shawn and I were joking this weekend- 

"Freetime? What's that?"

When camp gets underway, life will be crazy for a while.

If I think about it too much, it's a little overwhelming.

But I know "it will be ok",  as Shawn told me last night.

It will be a busy season, but God will get us through.

I just need to keep my eyes fixed on Him.

It will also be a season filled with fun adventures, and learning, and growing, just as all of life is.

One of my favorite Charlotte Bronte quotes is this:

"I try to avoid looking forward or backward, and try to keep looking upward."

Cat :P

Busy day :) 

Here's my cat. 

Sad Day

Have you ever been a mood where nothing was particularly wrong, but you just kinda felt like you wanted to cry?

But you don't, cause, you know, that would be weird to cry for no reason.

Well, I was in that mood last night, driving back to camp after spending the weekend with Shawn and  his family. I also got to visit with my family over FaceTime that afternoon, and tell my mom happy mother's day, so maybe it was mixture of missing Shawn and feeling a little homesick.

But I was having a good drive. I was singing praise songs and hymns, and talking to God about stuff, you know, just driving along.

As I got to the top of a hill, I could see something in the middle of my lane.

In the instant it took me to realize it was a big, beautiful owl, just standing there, minding it's own business, it turned to look towards me, or more precisely, at my blinding headlights, and....

CLUNK!!!

My brain:

"I just hit an owl!"

"OH MY GOODNESS! THAT IS AWFUL!"

"I probably killed the poor thing!!!"

"That is a very good reason to cry"

Yes, I cried most of the way back to camp, I'm not ashamed to admit it.

I love owls. A lot.

I was fine, my car was fine, but I'm sure the owl was not fine.

The dumb thing should have known better then to sit in the middle of the road.

Maybe I should have stopped and tried to find it, but it was dark, and I was rather too traumatized to think about that, so I kept driving.

God kept me safe, it could have been a deer.

But it was still very, very, very, very sad.

the end.

Springtime sunshine!

 

 

I love the evening light, when everything looks dreamy and whimsical.

It makes last minute photos look a lot more put together. 😏

The Door in the Wall

(some of you may recognize that as a book title, but that book has nothing to do with this post) :)

A peaceful morning at camp....until the work crew comes for the day.

See that door? It was just a wall yesterday morning. Well, the frame had been built when the building was, but until now, it's been hidden in the wall. This is the staff building at camp, by the way. The upstairs is the director's apartment, and I've been staying in the lower level.

But, when the balcony is finished, they're going to switch that door out for one with a window, which will bring some much needed light into the living space up there.

It's pretty exciting to see progress being made here at camp, even in the small things like sorting through seemingly endless cans of fruits and veggies and getting the pantry organized. :)

(that was my afternoon yesterday)

Great Gray Owl Nest powered by EXPLORE.org

Not a photo, but super cool :) 

I have this on the kitchen computer right now. I'd forgotten how cool live cams are!

Rainy Day Job

Today was a good day for staying inside, so I was sent out to do some painting in this cabin. It's a new addition to the other property used by camp, and will be a neat little getaway when it's finished. 

My shoulders and arms got a good workout from painting that ceiling. :)

Birdhouses and Blossoms

A pair of birdhouses we decorated. Mom wood-burned the designs and I painted them.

Also, our cherry tree has started to bloom!

"I'm so blue"

This post is about yesterday, but I took the picture today, so it counts, right?

Shawn gave up a Sunday afternoon to come to camp and work on some of the picnic tables here. A few of the seats were really pretty rotten, so he built new ones. We were repainting another table too, so we only had time to paint the new seats before we started running out of daylight. 

Our hands (and parts of arms, shoulders, and legs) managed to get blue paint on them, bringing to Shawn's mind a certain Veggie Tales song. :P

Only two weeks before things start happening at camp, so prayers would be appreciated! There's still a lot of prep to do, and places to fill for summer staff.

Answered Prayer!

Yes, fudge bars. 

Yes I prayed for fudge bars. 

Today was crazy, really was. Nothing terribly bad, just a lot of crazy. 

I could tell you all about the seven field trips that were at the museum today, and the events that followed... but that is a very long story. 

So, we'll fast forward the ride home. 

I told myself, this morning, that I was going to buy fudge bars, and I actually remembered that by the end of the day! So, I pulled into the parking lot of our Dollar General. Got out, and then thought to check to see how much money I had.... two dollar bills and a unknown amount in the coin purse.

Well, hope that'll be enough. 

Turns out they didn't even have fudge bars - and the ice cream they did have was closer to 4 bucks. 

So, on to the trusty grocery store. 

On the way I said something along the lines of "Dear God, this is pretty stupid, but I really was hoping to get fudge bars. Please, I'd love it if there are some at the store, and that I'd have enough money for them. Thank you that fudge bars exist, they're really good."

And God answers prayer! 

So, it was just really really nice to know that God gives us so much - even the little silly wishes we have.

I thought that was pretty nice.  😊

Just thinking....

Foxes!

I've been working on this baby blanket. 

It's cute :) 

Got the pattern from Etsy