Filled With Joy

We are reading Philippians in our little bible study group and I'm enjoying getting into the word again, I have been away from it for too long.  I am so blessed and encouraged by this group of friends I have.  Philippians is such a cool letter.  It is good to be reminded of the joy in Christ.  And it's interesting to remember that it's written by Paul while he is in jail, yet he is so filled with joy.  The key to the joy is being filled with Christ and his spirit.  I want to try to capture the joy and record it by taking pictures this month.  I think I'll start a flickr page and link to it on here.  One thing that I want to do that is different than what I normally do with pictures is to take more of a mix of pictures.  I want some pictures to be the beautiful and pretty things, but I also want to capture the mundane, or the chores, or maybe pictures of people serving.  I want a little mix of everything.  The blog world is a place of pretty inspiration, but sometimes it's a little too sickeningly perfect if you ask me.  It can make you start feeling like everyone else has a better life.  I know this isn't true, and I know blogs are just a little slice of life, and I know it's not good to compare, but it is hard when you see amazing pictures and fun things all the time online.  I just need to remember to fill my mind with His words rather than the worlds.  Philippians 2:3-7 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.  Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus...but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant..."  Finding joy in serving others, in lowering yourself and helping others, it's not something we see or hear everyday, but it is true.  There is joy to be found in Him.  I need this reminder.  I have been so encouraged and filled with the Spirit by these words.  I want to post mundane pictures saying- I am content.  Seriously, what's so wrong with contentment, not everything needs to be fabulous all the time.  I think it's hard to live in our society because we're disillusioned to think we ought to live a fun life all the time.  I love Phil 4:4-11  It speaks of rejoicing to God, to pray, be thankful, dwell on what is lovely, good, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you...for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am."  Ok, so I'm majorly paraphrasing there but it is a beautiful section of the bible, one of my favorites.

Luna's whole outfit is from the thrift store.  Except for the scarf, my sister in law made that, and the shoes are from her grandma.

 I am reminded of the book One Thousand Gifts.  The book chronicles the story of Ann Voskamp recording a list of gifts she is thankful to God for.  The habit is to be mindful and thankful to God.  I love Christmas- love it, but I do hate that thanksgiving gets completely looked over.  If you ask me, we Americans have it pretty good.  We're pretty rich and spoiled by many nice things.  So I want to take the time to slow down, rejoice, recognize and thank God for it all this year.  I'm joining in with many others to list some things I'm grateful for.

Here goes:
I'm thankful for
changing seasons.  I love the crisp smell of leaves at autumn, and the sound of them crunching beneath my feet.  I love the vibrant colors of fall.  The rich oranges, yellows and red.  I had fun playing with Luna in the leaves.  Fall is my favorite time of year.  I used to spend hours outside playing in the leaves, raking them into houses.  I hope Luna enjoys it too!  She kills me with her cuteness, kills me- I love these pictures.  I'm so thankful for a camera to capture her.

I'm rejoicing that the sun is shining.  I love seeing the sun

I'm thankful to have heat in my house.

I'm thankful I have dishes to eat off of- dishes that get dirty every day.  And I am thankful I can just turn a knob and fill my sink with water to wash them.  After our summer of hauling water and only having 2 jugs at one time, I am so thankful for running water.  I know that people in other parts of the world go to great lengths to get water.

I'm thankful for good friends who encourage me

I'm thankful for health.  I am so thankful we don't have any major health issues.  That is so awesome.

I'm thankful for fresh flowers that were cheap from Trader Joes.  They make me happy when I see them.  I love gerber daisies, they're my fave. and I love that the roses came with eucalyptus.

I could go on and on.

What I Wore

I stole the sweater from my mom years ago.  My dad bought it for my mom when she was my age.

The jacket is from Fringe and Fray, my favorite clothing store in Spokane.  I had store credit so I got it for free!  It was only $18 bucks though, they have such awesome stuff for great prices!  The shoes are Minnetonka Moccasins, funny story- I ordered them online while I was in labor. Sam thought I was crazy, while he was rushing around packing last minute items in our bag, I was filling my shopping basket at midnight entering in credit card info. in between contractions!

My mom knit the scarf for me.  The basket was bought at Hansen's last year.  I love it and use it all the time!

Man, as I look closer I keep seeing things people made for me.  I have a crafty family!  My dad made me that silver ring on my ring finger from an old spoon.  The other ring I got at a boutique in Colorado.

This blanket was made by my grandma for my brother.  I'll have to get another picture of it one day, it's awesome.  The yellow sweater she is wearing was made for my oldest brother- yep that was before ultrasounds revealing the sex, it's a pretty girly sweater if you ask me.

My mom crocheted this adorable little hat for miss luna bug.

I'm eager to try some new things out with my hair.  I have gobs of it, so I figure I should do more than just a plain pony tail, or leave it down and boring.  Pinterest has my wheels turning for new ideas. I tried out this hairstyle.  I don't know, I kinda liked how it turned out- but I also think I look like a cross between a German masseuse named Helga and Princess Lei, nevertheless I tried something new!

 I'm toying with the idea of posting some daily outfits.  I'm nervous to do this because I am the last person on earth to look at for style cues or inspiration on what to wear.  I have been inspired by Rachel and Rubyellen's Vintage Here, Vintage There feature and have been wanting to try it for a while.  I love dressing my little girl up in fun things, mixing old sweaters with cute little jeans.  So I thought I'd share my clothing and thrift store scores with you.  I think this will also be a good way to share all the handcrafted love that we've received.  It will also get me wearing more than the same 3 outfits all the time!  I'd love it if you comment, or link up with your own clothing post.  You can be honest, and I hope you will (I'm thinking my little sis especially- she has better fashion sense than me and she's truthful)  I think this means I'm getting old enough to not care if I have some weird outfits going on, it's my style and it works for me.  I think you can make anything work if you like it and wear it with confidence.

Happy Halloween

 While we were out in Denver for my friend's wedding she surprised us with this gnome outfit.  And the Everyone Poops book and the little knit shawl.

 I think this is her halloween outfit, I need to still make sure it fits and make it a little more girly by adding some pink and flowers.

 Here are two silly ones, this could pass for halloween too.  It cracks me up!

Glacier Park

 I didn't realize till I saw these how much I'm looking like a hippie again.  Yeah, the hair is so bad- it's to the point that I may have to trim it before I go to get it cut, just because I'm so embarrassed by how bad my split ends are!  I'm thinking about bangs.

Yes, that flat section is the road back there, no shoulder whatsoever one slip and you would be off the road flipping over the cliff.  I would cringe every time a car would pass by in the other direction, I always felt like I was going to hit the car!

We went to Glacier National Park over Labor Day weekend.  We left Sunday at 1 pm and stayed overnight.  We had been wanting to go and it isn't that far away, maybe a 5 hour drive.  It is gorgeous and it's a huge park.  We stayed at a dumpy hotel- it would have been more fun to camp, but we didn't have our act together.  We bought an annual pass, so we will be back and next time we plan on taking the van and camping.  The trip was mainly spent in the car driving.  I did most of the driving.  The first picture proves Luna was with us, she slept for most of the trip!  We drove the going to the sun road, it is an amazing road, very steep and narrow- it was a white knuckle drive for sure.  It was good to get away- as our life was so crazy then.  Being outside in gorgeous surroundings always puts me back in a good mood.

Apple Picking

It's that time of year, or almost past that time of year.  We had a late summer, so I was late in picking apples.  Greenbluff is my favorite place to visit.  I look forward to going to Hansen's Orchard and picking apples every year.  Sam has to go away for work this weekend, so he got off early today and we had a lovely afternoon.  We had lunch at the Alpine Bistro on Monroe Street.  I had a yummy chicken pot pie.  It was so nice to see my husband in the middle of the day for once!  He has been working a lot lately, and we have been busy getting things done around our house, so we haven't spent much time doing fun things.  It is so rejuvenating!

This fall has been sunny and gorgeous, but today got a little nippy.  Nothing to complain about, but chilly-yes.

Our Little Luna bug had so much fun today.  She was just giggling away.  The cold weather didn't bother her one bit!  I think she must be the happiest baby on the planet!  The trees were the perfect stroller height, those apples were on there tight, it took some work, but she got them and she knew what to do with them right away.  She wasted no time in shoving them straight in her mouth!

On Faith

Hmm, what to write, what to write?  Well life has been a little hard lately.  We haven't been able to live in the house that we bought a few months ago.  I have been spending time reading books and having chats with lawyers.  I do know that God is here and I have faith in Him.  It's not always easy when things aren't going your way.  I have been stressing, but everytime I start to feel sorry for myself I say a little prayer and ask for strength and comfort.  Sure, I complain and am stressed out and I don't really know why this has to be happening to us, but I do know that I have been met with the strength I need from God.  It's not like the stress of dealing with our problems goes away.  I still have to research it all and deal with this, but it has been more bearable.  I think I've only shed tears once, which is pretty remarkable for me.  Having a little dialog with God before I want to feel sorry for myself has been so good.  I still worry more than I should, I should trust more.  At least I know now that the more I trust the more at peace I feel.  I do know that in a few months we will be past this.  We will learn a lot and be much stronger.  One more chapter for the book of Becca and Sam's crazy adventure.  It seems that doing a conventional thing such as buy a house is a little more complicated for us.  I have been able to laugh at it all!  I do know that things could be so much worse.  We are all healthy and that is so good.  We aren't dying of starvation, we are safe.  Our life isn't going as we would have planned, but that's ok.  Hmm, sorry I can't really share more than that on here.  But I wouldn't be able to do a post showing that life is pretty and sweet right now.  In some ways it is, but behind the scenes we are dealing with a lot.  I am taking it one day at a time, and asking for patience.  Because the patience is starting to wear out.  Sam has been really swamped at work on top of this.  I do think our past experiences have made us more prepared for this.  And as Sam would say, we will definitely appreciate our house much more after all of this!