Setting In Motion

Is it me or do the days just gallop by? When I was a kid, every summer I used to make a calendar to mark off the days until school started. Yes, I was one of those kids! Now? I still mark off the calendar, but that's only because the days literally fly by. Last year at this time, Nat and I were getting ready for our Thailand trip. Actually all last year it felt like we were getting ready for one trip or another. :D

This year? This year we are in the beginning stages of planning for deputation. I say we, but really I mean my husband. Nat's already made our prayer card, booked a ticket to fly to a conference in Texas in March, and has been on the phone with pastors scheduling meetings. We have 3 meetings in March (plus the Texas conference) and then we'll take a break to go to Park Meadows Baptist Church for a student competition for a week. That is always a fun time! We enjoy being with our teens and the bus ride isn't too bad either. :) Of course, remind me of that when I'm actually on the bus!

We're tentatively planning on being in Missouri and Texas in April and May. And that's about as far as we've planned!

The Lord did provide a deputation vehicle for us:

('99 Toyota Camry)

We are very pleased with it, even if it's not your traditional van/trailer/RV that most missionaries get. :) Lord willing, this car will see us through many miles (safely!) and be a sound, reliable car.

We are thrilled to be getting the wheels set in motion for deputation. My husband will be preaching and presenting at our home church towards the end of February, which is our official start. We're looking forward to what the Lord has in store for us this year!

Merry Christmas!

From Christmas lights (Koziars)....

... to more Christmas lights (our little tree)!

We had a wonderful day today! Church this morning (fantastic), a quiet afternoon preparing the turkey, side dishes, unwrapping presents, and taking a walk, and then having some family over tonight.

The fun will continue tomorrow night with more family coming over (we can't help but squeeze in as many people as possible into our apartment:D), and then we'll be heading up to New York later this week for a funeral on Nat's side of the family. Our original plans were to leave tomorrow morning for a 11-day trip to Tennessee and Texas, but our plans changed. Instead, we'll get some extra time in with extended family and postpone our southern trip until April.

I hope you all had a precious day as well as we rejoice in celebrating the birth of our dear Savior!

The Days (Months?) Just Slip By...

According to my blog, apparently November just didn't happen. At all. :)

Thankfully it did... since it was the month of Thanksgiving! Nat and I have a lot to be thankful for; but then again, doesn't everybody? I recently said to Nat, "I am really content with my life." As soon as I said that I thought to myself, "Wonder what storm is coming up in my life." Yes, a storm came but that doesn't change the fact that God is still in control. And I'm thankful for that...

A few changes have been happening in our lives... like a new baby. As in baby nephew:). This little guy is #12, making the count 3 nieces and 9 nephews. Unfortunately I have begun the habit of looking at a kid and calling him/her by a cousin's name. Twelve is a lot to keep in line:).

Because #12 made his debut the other day, I get to watch his two older siblings for the next several days while his mommy recovers from having him. This is going to be fun and will include adventures like Bounce U, hide-n-seek, and PB&J sandwiches. :)

I recently started working in my church's office again... after a three year break. It was kind of a yay:)/sad:( time because I love working in the office, but it meant leaving the bakery. :( If I ever figure out how to be in two places at once, I'll let you know. I greatly enjoyed working at the bakery for the past two years, but that season came to a close.

I know that my time in the office will be short-lived as well but that's for a great reason: deputation is just around the corner! We have been waiting and praying for a long time and we're thrilled to be getting in position. We're hoping to have some local meetings in the early part of 2012, and then head out full-time in April. Just one step closer to Thailand!

Before we start 2012, we need to finish 2011, which includes a fantastic road trip to the Lone Star State! I love my in-laws (good thing, huh?!) and we're fixin' to spend some time down there practicing our "ya'lls" and "howdys":). I have a feeling my accent is going to be a dead give-away!

Whining.

Our next door neighbor has a dog. Actually, she has a few dogs. Currently one of them is whining which is detestable in a child, but downright annoying in a dog! The whining from the dog next door reminds me of when we were in Africa and of the puppy that lived next door to the missionary and yapped all. day. long. (Incidentally, I just found out the other week that the little puppy in Africa died when it was bit by a poisonous snake. Sad ending.)

Whining. If I can't stand it when a child or animal whines, why do I think it's ok to do it to God, my husband, friends, and so on?

My pastor preached an excellent message on Sunday evening about praise. He used Paul and Silas as his reference point and was pretty dramatic in describing all the horrible things about their situation. A dark, dingy dungeon. Whipped back, feet in the stocks, no snuggle blankets or fuzzy socks (ok, I added those last two in there:D). Pure torture.

Yet Paul and Silas decided to praise God. There was plenty of room for a pity party and some whining. "Oh woe is me!" would also fit, but the choice Paul and Silas made is permanently recorded as praise and prayer.

Wow.

Whining. Leave it with the next door neighbor's dog and praise the Lord!

Come On In!

Nat and I have been married for roughly 15 months, and although the promises were many, I never actually showed my blog readers around our humble home... well that needs to change. :)

We've really enjoyed making our cozy apartment into our home, especially because we know it's not going to last forever. In fact, it's not even going to last more than a couple of years! We can't take our stuff with us to Thailand, so we were determined to do the best with what we had and just enjoy today. Lord willing, someday we will own our own home, but for now we get to enjoy this apartment!

Ok, let's start in the kitchen, shall we? The kitchen is my favorite room (like I have a bunch of rooms to choose from!) and I love making things for Nat since he loves to eat! We also enjoy having people over, which becomes a bit of a challenge when our expectations exceed our space. :) The most we've had was 20 people for a New Year's Day party, which was really fun!

People always ask where the garbage can is and usually can't believe it's tucked away in the corner with the apple label disguising its real purpose!

In case you can't tell, we really like the country theme! We've enjoyed picking up things one at a time for our home and pulling the theme together.

Ok, I'll admit it. The buffet is my favorite piece in the whole kitchen! That's my pantry as well as a really cute decorative piece. :) When we got married, my sister-in-law gave us the towel on the oven which says our names and that we were "established" July 10, 2010. Cute idea!

Now we move into the living room. I love the spaciousness of this room and the fact we can extend the kitchen table into the living room when we have company over. Last Thanksgiving Eve we had my family over which made for a sit-down dinner of 14. It worked!

The coffee table, the trash bin, and kitchen buffet were all hand-made locally. We have really enjoyed using them!

Now don't laugh, but yes we have had our snowmen pictures up since last year! We liked them too much and couldn't find seasonal replacement pictures for them (and didn't want the wall to be bare!) so we just left them there... and now they're just about back in season. ;)

Our little entry way:).

Bathroom... any explanation necessary? :)

We love our bedroom! It is huge (as you'll see) and works nicely as a bedroom and office.

God's been good to us! We're grateful for a place to stay and for the opportunity to use our apartment for God's glory. Stop on by anytime... :D

Video Clip:).

Recently several different people in my church have had their testimony recorded and so my turn came on Wednesday. Nat and I went with a friend to a local park to record. I was so grateful it only took one try and it was under the time allotted:).

Monday Blessings...

#1 ~ I went to the laundromat this morning and noticed two dryers had 13 minutes still left on them! Not quite a big deal to most, but that was one less dollar I had to spend on drying our big bath towels and hubby's jeans:).

#2 ~ Bottom Dollar and Weis were running some amazing deals this week! You can't beat a $10 off of $20 coupon, nor a host of other coupons that came in the paper on Saturday. (Yeah, Sunday's paper now comes on Saturday... hmmm:D). I enjoyed seeing at the bottom of one of the receipts 80% total savings. Yay! Coupons really are worth cutting; they save a lot of $$$!

#3 ~ My husband was asked to drive the girls' volleyball team to their game today (1.5 hours away) and so I got to go along and enjoy the game too:). On the way home I had a wonderful chat with one of the ladies in my church which really encouraged me. God is so good!

How are you doing today? Any recent blessings?

:)

Happy Fall!

My candles are burning, there's cooler weather outside, yummy pies in the fridge for later with friends... and a delinquent blogger finally blogging. Yeah, that would be me. :)

A friend recently asked me about my blog (with the subtle hint of hey, are you going to blog again in your lifetime?!?) and I realized that my blog has been neglected because of an answer to prayer. Wow, that sounds like I don't like blogging, but I do! About a month ago I began to ask the Lord to fill my time because I was fast slipping into the boredom stage. Working one day a week, no children to take care of, and a small apartment to maintain wasn't quite filling all those hours in a week. :).

The Lord really answered that prayer as opportunities began exploding out of everywhere (so it seemed) and like I told a friend this morning, I feel like I'm on a roller coaster!

So the one thing that did get neglected is this poor blog of mine. Oops.

~~~~~~~~

I'm attempting to stretch myself in a few areas, including learning new things. Nat and I are eventually heading back to Thailand, so I've tried to start learning Thai. My friend Pookie would probably fall over laughing at my pathetic attempts at writing the Thai alphabet, but I needed to start somewhere!

I also started piano lessons, which is a b-i-g stretch for me! I played the cello for four years in middle school, but that was a looong time ago. Thankfully I have a really nice teacher... so now it's practice, practice, practice!

Recently I've been trying lots of new recipes, thanks to Taste of Home! I really missed cooking while in Africa, so now I'm making up for it. :) Last night I made an apple pie from a recent ToH magazine, but tweaked it a bit. One of the ladies at church gave my husband and I a bag of organic apples so into the pie they went! Mmm, mmm.

So that's life in a nutshell. Our days are busy and long, and we're tired at the end of each day, but it's a good tired:).

And now it's time to get ready for the Christmas cantata practice. Nat and I have some lines to memorize. :)

Reflection.

As I was walking home from church last evening, two of my neighbors were walking just ahead of me, chatting and laughing. I glanced over to the parking lot and saw small clusters of people talking ("dark and dreary night" is an apt description for last night!), parents getting their children into cars, and people driving away to home.

I thought about the message my pastor had just preached on holiness and the priority of having God's desires first. At the end of the service we also watched a quick video from one of our missionaries overseas and then heard a bunch of prayer updates on missionaries, Bible Studies, and those with health problems.

I had a chance to catch up with a friend who had been traveling out west and then came back just in time to start school again. Little snippets of conversation here and there, waving across the foyer to a friend, and hearing about the flooding some friends are having in their basement from all this rain.

As I walked home, I reflected on my church and just how much I love LVBC! My dearest friends are at this church. I really consider my church family as my family. As a church we have weathered storms, and I'm not just talking about all the rain we've been getting:). I love the camaraderie with my church family. I always look around the auditorium during the offering and just see who's there and who's missing. I love to see people I love serving the Lord - what a joy!

God's been so good to me and I am so grateful for Lehigh Valley Baptist Church. :)

Sweet Seasons.

Summer is coming to a close.

We joined some friends in playing volleyball this evening, but I know summer is just about done because we could only play until 8:10. That included straining our eyes to see the ball fly through the air and counting every ball that went over our heads as out.

Yep, summer is ending.

After church was over last night, I walked home (in the dark of course) and felt the slight chill in the air. We don't run our air conditioners anymore; just open windows and the occasional fan. I have lived in Pennsylvania my entire life so I know that we'll get one more hot spell before summer slips away for good.

I enjoy the fact that here in Pennsylvania, we actually get all four seasons. Just about the time I tire of the current season, the winds of change blow. I'm not tired of summer yet, but the kids are back in school, the fair is going on this week, the weather is changing - it's time to move on.

Besides, autumn brings joys of its own: sweaters, candles, tree leaves changing colors, and hot apple cider. Mmm, mmm!

Ecclesiastes 3:1 ~

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven."