In the Storm

currently | august.

 

experiencing lots of pain recently when I thought I was on the road to remission

finding ourselves entrenched in the world of college, yet still high school; meeting some difficult hurdles head on - and some not so much.

challenging periods of 'oh boy! what have we gotten ourselves into.'

realizing I was making an album for the boys Eagle projects and their scout life harder than it has to be

formulating a plan for both albums and super excited now that I can envision the results

needing some good, long, uninterrupted-by-pain sleep.

treasuring up the Word of God. Spending hours at a time studying and meditating on even just one verse is amazing. Currently, John 15:13.

filling a notebook, page after page of notes, on just that - John 15:13.

looking forward to date night. It's an expectant feeling of hope and joy.

trying new recipes is fun. Especially when recipes, like a loaded baked potato salad, turns out tasty and is noted as a 'keeper'.

hoping to watch the War Room in theaters with our small group.

reading a new author, Brad Taylor and a new series. Hoping I'll enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed Vince Flynn's series on Mitch Rapp. Currently, reading time only happens at work during lulls in weather.

sending out invitations for John and Jarrod's Eagle Scout Court of Honor. They turned out beautifully if I do say so myself.

meeting with the caterer for - yep - John and Jarrod's Eagle Scout Court of Honor. She authorized me to purchase everything and step back and let her work it out. Oh, the freedom!

checking items off my to-do list, but adding more almost as fast.

watching seasons of Bones and the crazy, but interesting, Revolution on Netflix.

wondering if I'm ever going to be able to walk for distance again, and when, for that matter, will I be able to swim again

 

 

 

 

 

 

stories 2015 | build.

The brilliant Ali Edwards developed Story Kits. Each month is a new story kit theme. This month it is BUILD. Perfect timing as we are entrenched in Eagle Scout Court of Honor details and plans. Invitations, guest lists, ceremony specifics, menu, Eagle Scout table memorabilia...etcetera...etcetera.

I scraplifted the left side of one of Ali's kit examples for the left side of this 8.5 x 11, 2-page layout and added a right side of 'pieces' of Jarrod's Eagle project. I like it!

All of the embellishments on both pages are from Ali's Build Story Kit. She makes scrapbooking easy.

small group begins soon.

Butterfinger Delight

Small group begins again soon. Jeff and I host a small group, or home group, in our home on Sunday evenings. We celebrate life together. We laugh. We chat. We study the Word of God. We pray. Together. There are 15 of us who have been meeting regularly for quite a few years. Jeff is the leader, or facilitator of the group and I am the hostess - sort of.

I most often make a dessert or snack for the group. I have been pinning quite a collection of potential desserts to share with small group. They have ultimately become guinea pigs, so to speak as I try new recipe after recipe, some of which have become deliciously sinful favorites. Am I really supposed to serve up sinfully delightful recipes to my small group?

Anyways, first up in the "I am dying to make this dessert" collection is the Butterfinger Delight (above).

Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake

This Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake looks insanely moist and delicious. The combination of lemon and blueberry are two of my most favorite fruits that pair so well together. Come on pound cake! You just can't go wrong.

Country Apple Fritter Bread

I love apple fritters. If I get anything to eat at our church's coffee bar it is those sugary, moist apple fritters. Small pieces of apples filling every inch of this bread sounds just yummy. Served warm. With butter.

Just kiddin'.

Reeses Peanut Butter Pie

The Slow Roasted Italian has killer recipes. I've tried many of her gifted delights. I am really looking forward to this no-bake Reese's Peanut Butter Pie. Reese's peanut butter cups are one of the few candies with chocolate that I like so when I saw this I thought, wow! I wonder if small group would like that. That's how I always think of dessert. Would small group like this?

Nutella Cheesecake

I love Nutella. I know. How is that possible when I don't even like chocolate? But, I realized that Nutella really isn't chocolate, although it has chocolate properties with that hint of cocoa but mostly it's just hazelnut. Looking forward to this one too!

And last but not least,

Snickerdoodle Cobbler

Oh my, snickerdoodles! Such a wonderful old home recipe; a favorite from growing up plus cobble! Yummy! Great recipe to take us into fall.

And that's all folks! These will get us through mid-to-late October. Then, I'll have to find some more favorites!

52 Gratitudes 2015 | 32

stories 2015 | fourth of july.

Super simple page with amazing photos + a story. The same as other years. And different. It definitely wasn't the typical 4th of July for us as we were bombarded with some hellacious thunderstorms late afternoon and into the evening of the fourth. It was questionable we were even going to see a break in time for fireworks but,

We decided to brave the torrential downpours and dressed in rain gear for the occasion. We found parking easily, duh! Maybe, because there wasn't anyone on River Street. Keeping to our tradition we set up chairs and saved room (read: laughter here) for our friends to arrive. We were meeting up with some friends who needed the interaction and even though it was still raining light it was a good time. They have five kids and with our boys there for the companionship they were all good kids, waiting patiently for the fireworks.

Not surprising, God showed up. The rain and the storms cleared, the lower clouds moved east and the fireworks began.

stories 2015 | from where I stand.

This is a 6 x 12 page. I have some templates from various designers for this size format and now that I put one together with a nice dose of journal my plan is to make more of these. Tell the stories behind those photos that may not necessarily divulge the story just so.

FROM WHERE I STAND each weekday morning I can look out over the expanse to the east, in that first weather observation of the day and receive a peek at the sky as the sun is rising before 6am far to the east. By the time I take my second weather observation FROM WHERE I STAND the sun has broke through the horizon and I am offered my first look at the eastern sunrise. Quite simply, beautiful!

FROM WHERE I STAND no matter how bad my pain is in my low back, hip, and down my right leg these skies that greet me each morning FROM WHERE I STAND make me smile. I never take them for granted. As I've taught my meteorology students over these past few years to 'look up' every time they walk outside, I have too. I have to. For my sanity, really. To find joy. To see God at work.

Because FROM WHERE I STAND life can be so difficult, my heart cannot bear up under the pain. So, I look up and there He is! In every painted sky. Reminding me that He will never leave me, nor forsake me!

stories 2015 | battle ball.

How fun is this! Battle Ball was a first time experience for Jeff, John and Jarrod and they had a blast!

The Savannah Christian's Children's Ministry, the Elevate team invited all its volunteers out for an evening of fun, fellowship, a picnic and Battle Ball at Forsythe Park in downtown Savannah one evening in late July. We had never experienced Battle Ball and while John and Jarrod were hesitant at first, and held back for a little while, Jeff was not and jumped right in to the action.

We brought a picnic dinner of fried chicken, chips and fresh peaches for dessert. After we ate our scrumptious fare, Jeff plunged into the wild, crazy, tiring, and sweaty action of Battle Ball. He had a blast! Our neighbors, the Cranes, were there so Jeff had an ongoing battle with Davis before John got into the action. No question John was the biggest battle ball challenger on the field and all the kids were a riot brushing against him and with a little tap John would send the kids' balls rollin' over sometimes a couple times with the kids getting back up and coming back for more. It was a hoot to watch from the sidelines.

Finally, Jarrod got into the action and he and John tag teamed against their dad. Although Jeff put up a tough fight, two 260 pound guys against one 220 pound guy is no match - they sent him rolling. Oooh! POW! BAM!...and I'm roaring on the sidelines.

 

stories 2015 | wipeout.

stories 2015  |  wipeout.

Day 4 of our memorable whitewater rafting and kayaking trip on the waters of the Natahala River falls in duckies. It was the last challenge of the day. We had the river path laid out that we would take over the falls.  Unexpectedly, a canoe pulled out in the path of our duckie causing us to veer off course to preclude t-boning the canoe. This in turn begot us missing our projected path and hitting the falls at the worst location, a dip in the river derived by a high rock, backdrafted the water allowing a suction hole.

This propelled our duckie into a 90 degree fold and ejected us off our duckies, head first into the freezing waters of the rushing, raging river's falls smacking us against the rocks.

At that point Jarrod lost his good and faithful water bottle and both Jarrod and Jeff's pride and buttocks were bruised. Once we got back in the duckie we were done for. We got our duckie to the raft parking and called it good for the day.

(by the way: these are the words of Jarrod.)

stories 2015 | roots.

roots.

Saturday's were all about cartoons when I was growing up, even into high school until I got my first job (working in a popular local card and gift shop). On Saturday's we would have to clean the house, which included dusting the living room furniture. With cartoons playing 'in the background' I can remember taking quite a long time getting the furniture dusted then quickly vacuuming during the commercials. I also remember my dad coming home from working a shorter day on Saturdays and him not being too happy that we'd not gotten everything done around the house -- typical kid -- taking as much time as they can to do something else. In my case, watch Saturday morning cartoons. As I look at my kids over the years, they've inherited the same, or at least similar attitudes towards housework, although I don't let them watch television until the work is done. (But, now that I think about it. When John and Jarrod are doing dishes they can be found chatting or listening to music more often than not, taking as much time to get dishes done so they too can do something else. Nuts!)

My favorite Saturday morning cartoons were definitely Superfriends and all the cast and characters of Bugs Bunny and Friends, from the Road Runner, Sylvester and Tweetie, to Peppi Le Pew and Elmer Fudd - all the Looney Toons. Frankly, I still love all the old Saturday morning cartoons and wish School House Rock was the same today as it was in the yesterday's of the 70's.

august twenty-fifteen menu.

Typical month with several new recipes on tap, like White Castle Sliders, Garlic Parmesan Yellow Squash Chips, Barbacoa Tacos, and a couple others. Plus, some all-time favorites and new favorites, like Parmesan Meatballs with Spaghetti or Shrimp Scampi with Parmesan Garlic Mashed Potatoes- divine!

July was a month of very few date nights because we were so busy with summer activities - all good, but man, I miss our dates, which are back on the schedule for August.