Thursday, October 25, 2012

Retreat

This week, Caleb and I got away for a few nights at a place nearby called Living Springs Ranch.  The couple that runs it has a really neat ministry where they keep up a couple of cottages on their property for pastors and missionaries to get away for times of renewal and refreshment.  Caleb's parents also stayed there in a different cottage.  During the daytime, the four of us met together to pray for our church and ministry there, and also to discuss and plan.  


Such a cute little cottage!





Hot chocolate with whipped cream!
At 35.5 weeks



Sunday, October 7, 2012

Photos of Everyday Life

Recently I was inspired by my friend's post here to take more everyday photos instead of just "staged" photos.  So often, I only take my camera out for big events or trips, not everyday life.  Since one of the main purposes of my blog is to help family and friends stay connected with us despite distance, I decided I should give this everyday photo thing a try.  I'm not literally going to try to take a "photo-a-day", but we'll see where this leads.  For starters, here are a few pictures from our recent everyday life.  My apologies if they are boring to you!

Our front yard has a large flower bed that used to all look like this picture,
filled with rocks, invasive ground covers, tall grass, and  crowded irises.

Over the past year, we've worked on digging up the ground cover while trying to preserve the irises.  Recently, we finally made some noticeable progress by trimming back the irises and transplanting them in spaced out rows, as you can see here.  It doesn't look like much, but believe me, this has been a long work in progress!

A (two-week old) baby bump picture, taken at 31 weeks.
There, hopefully, I've (temporarily) satisfied those who keep asking for more "bump" pictures.

I spent Friday sorting baby clothes and paraphernalia on the living room floor. 

While I organized, Caleb decided to be really adventurous and try out a quite complicated,
gourmet upside-down cake recipe to utilize the red pears he found on sale.  Doesn't it look beautiful??  

The chef  with his baked cake - did I mention he made homemade caramel to use in the recipe?