A Tree of Great Sentiment

Last week during Gemma's birthday party, John went out to the garden bed and chopped down our Christmas tree.  :)

It was the neighbor to the tree we chopped down two years ago. At that time, it was only waist-high.  Now, it stands probably close to eight feet high in our living room!  I can only imagine how it would have looked if we'd left it growing.  (It does seem odd to plant such a tree in a raised bed amid small bushes!)

So, once again, we have a happily real (and free!) Christmas tree in our living room.  With Gemma's birth last year, I didn't decorate at all.  The church sent poinsettias which I lovingly gazed upon while nursing my newborn, and we traveled to New York for Christmas itself.  

This tree is unabashedly wild.  :)  Somewhat bare and scrawny, it is nevertheless no longer the first Christmas tree of a couple of newlyweds.  Then, we merely stuck our tree in a flower pot of dirt and dangled it with decorated cookies, but this year I actually bought a tree stand at Target.  It is so scrawny that only the innermost branches are strong enough to hold our growing collection of ornaments!  So many people love us . . . Gemma has at least three ornaments of her own already, and we have about as many couple/family ornaments joining the gorgeous Lenox and Wedgewood pieces my Mom-in-law has divded up among her daughters-in-law.

 This one will always be one of my favorites, though, because John gave it to me at that first Christmas.  The person in the mall who sold it even put our intials on the snowman and woman's mittens.  :)

And there are a few of those cookie ornaments which I coated with nail polish and saved. The most precious is this little heart, on which I piped "Our Baby," only a couple of days after we learned that our first baby was lost.

There's the upstairs tree, too.  It's a little tree I bought at a garage sale during my college years.  It has traveled through life with me from dorm room to teacher's desk to the sewing machine in the window of our first home, and it makes me happy.

So, these are our trees this year . . . both capitalizing on sentiment, like sentimental me.  :)

Gemma's Birthday, Part 2!

 

It's fair to say that Gemma liked her birthday cupcake!  

By the end of it all, she had blackberry juice all over her outfit.  I'm so glad that boiling water took it right out! 

 She also liked using her old-fashioned high chair for the first time, although the tray didn't last long.

She was a little more interested in the wrapping paper than the presents themselves . . . until she finally got them open.  She honestly did open about two of those presents all by herself, but we a more experienced little friend help with the others, for the sake of time.  We sent our friends home with felt bird ornaments from Michael's for their Christmas trees.  :)

Birthday Party #1!

Yesterday was Pearl Harbor Day, which meant that our little one was turning 1!  Though we plan to have a party with all the grandparents closer to Christmas, a week ago, we decided to throw together a little party on her actual birthday, and I'm so glad that we did. 

I started by taking some pictures of Gemma outside and designing an invitation to e-mail to her little friends. 

With some input, we planned a simple lunch menu of potato soup, almond-butter sandwiches cut into Christmas tree shapes, carrot sticks for the big people and fruit purees for the little people, hot cranberry cider (from Trader Joe's) . . .

 . . . And, of course, cupcakes! 

 I wanted to be a little healthy, so I made carrot cupcakes (from the Moosewood Cookbook) and topped each one with cream cheese frosting and a blackberry. 

If you squint, you can see the candle impaled through the blackberry in the cupcake on the right!

We also decorated a little bit.  :)

 

Grammy Reid found Gemma this perfect little bib second-hand somewhere!

The birthday girl herself was all ready in her tutu leggings, a top from Aunt Heidi, and pigtails.  :)

 Let the party begin!  More tomorrow!

On Making Things

When my mother and I were talking on the phone recently about the things we had made, we discovered something that I must have inherited from her, either by nature or nurture.  :)  We are both arguably at our happiest when we are making things, especially when we're making something new.  She had just made tiramisu and a new, different kind of soap.  I had just made wreaths and this little nest.  :)

We have lots of bridal and baby showers at our large-ish church, and for our most recent baby shower, I volunteered to bring the corsage. When the coordinator asked if I could make something, I was excited . . . and started pinning ideas . . .

 

Source: whimsicalways.blogspot.com via Gretchen on Pinterest

This was my favorite of the DIY corsages I found, and so, walking around Michael's with a web page on my iPhone opened up to the very helpful instructions, I picked up the necessary materials.

Only, I couldn't find the right size egg, so I ended up sketching an egg shape on a piece of felt, putting a running stitch around the edge, pulling it tight and stuffing it with three cotton balls.  I also added some silk violets. 

Isn't it sweet?  And I think the expecting mom liked it to, because she was still wearing it on her jacket at church the next day . . . :)

O, the Holly and the Rosemary

Thanksgiving came and went without me expressing publicly my gratitude for many other things . . . our home, our church family, our Savior, and my arms, to name a few.  I probably would have never thought to thank God for the use of my hands until this year. 

But now it's December!  It's time to put away the few autumnal decorations (which I never shared with you!) and decorate for Christmas!

Years ago, I remember admiring a little hand-twisted wreath in the window of one of my great aunt's apartments.  This year, I wanted to hang wreaths in all four of our dining room windows.  :)

So, when we were in NY for Thanksgiving, my dad cut down a big piece of grape vine, and, with Gemma on my back, I started twisting.  The first couple of trials failed, but the next four were satisfactory.  :)

And then, when we got home, I gave our holly bushes a hair cut . . . and our rosemary a haircut . . .

 . . . And with some time, and a bit of ribbon leftover from our wedding, we had four beautiful wreaths to hang in the window!

 I love them.  I love the old-fashioned feel our dining room has.  I love that they were free and that they're made of real materials.  I love that they represent the swamps and forests of my former home and our current home on Cottage Lane.  :)

There were enough leftover holly trimmings to make a little Christmas centerpiece from a crystal bowl full of oranges . . .

 . . . and to spruce up the mantel for Christmas . . .

Soon comes the tree . . . :)

Thankful for my Sweetie

When I was little, I wanted to marry someone who was strong enough to pick me up.  :)  My sister wisely pointed out that she wanted to marry a Christian, and she could just make her husband lift weights.  To this, I replied that I could just make my husband become a Christian!  

Thank you, Lord, for delivering me from the folly of my youth . . .

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen."
Ephesians 3:20-21

God gave me to John and John to me, and I can do nothing but praise Him for this.  John's personality is exactly complementary to mine. 

I'm thankful that he's smarter than me.  I'm thankful that he is so faithful.  I'm thankful that he's so very wise.  I'm thankful that he can pick me up.  

I'm thankful that he is an excellent daddy. 

 I don't want to know what my life would be like without John in it.  He is the greatest earthly gift I could ever receive without a doubt.  Thank you, Father.  And would it not please You to bless my friends and family as You have so abundantly blessed me?

Thankful for our Little One

Giving thanks is about saying even the things that go without saying, I think.  Our lives were turned upside-down in a good way almost a year ago now by the birth of our little one, and we are beyond grateful for her.

Personally, I'm full of thanksgiving for how beautifully her birth went (story here and here). Anticipating labor was a real anxiety for me, but God showed us how needless my fears were. 

Now, she is over eleven months old, and they have been eleven months filled with joy.  As she gets older and her budding intellect begins to reveal itself, my heart is also filled with a deep sense of stewardship.  We know that this precious child is ours for a time only, that her life comes from, belongs to, and will be directed by God our Father.  And yet, humanly speaking, the decisions we make and the actions we take will tremendously shape her character in the coming years. 

Since it's been quite a while since the last update, perhaps you'd like to hear what she's been doing lately!

• There have been some big changes!  Gemma no longer uses a pacifier (not planned by us) and now sleeps through the night (not without some tears, but thankfully it only lasted one night).  And, yes, those two things are related . . . 
• Army crawling is still her preferred method of motion, though she's also started climbing!
• She's still not pulling herself up to a stand, but she does love it when we stand her up holding onto a piece of furniture.  She'll play with whatever is nearby and practice standing for several minutes!
• What Gemma lacks in gross motor skills, she makes up for in talking!  She's been our little babbler for months, but now she also consistently says, "Buh buh!" for "Bye bye!"  She also knows who "Da da" and "Ma ma" are, and often tries to mimic my words when I'm talking to her.
• She loves to play in the laundry and, in general, take things out of whatever they are in!
• She also loves "reading."  A board book with lots of pictures will keep her busy for a while (it kept her busy for an hour in the car once!).  She flips and flips and "reads" aloud ("oooooh").
• And of course, there are lots of adorable things she does like clapping her hands, wrinkling her nose, and shaking her head!  Sometimes it seems to mean "no," and sometimes we're not sure!  
• When she hit ten months, she suddenly became more interested in food, but she's still very attached to nursing, which makes me profoundly glad.  Some of her favorite finger-foods are Cheerios and beans (black, kidney, it matters not!).

We took Gemma to a bonfire recently, and she looooved it!  She wanted to get in!

There were several more pictures I wanted to share, but for some reason blogger won't let me keep vertically-aligned pictures vertical today.  Perhaps John can help.  What a great guy . . . I'm so thankful for him . . . but I'm getting ahead of myself.  ;-)

Fall-ish Ramblings

It's autumn, and I'm so glad. We don't celebrate Halloween here; my reasoning can be reduced to 2 Corinthians 6:14 "What fellowship has light with darkness?"  I acknowledge that many Christians do not feel the need to offer up Halloween for the sake of Christ.  That's one of those things we all have to decide for ourselves, I suppose.  But we're content to buy discounted candy on the first of November and give Gemma other opportunities to play dress-up in the future.

We recently had the joy of visiting the Biltmore Estate with friends, and all the pictures in this post are from that day.  John took all except the one he is in, and got some neat shots if I do say so myself!  

The colors.  Ahhh.  We were privileged to get our first dose in New York where the colors peak earlier in the season, and now the trees on Cottage Lane are taking their turns at the melody in the beautiful symphony of autumn.  I love how, shortly after a rain when the sky is still grey, the yellows, greens and golds are especially vibrant against the dark, mossy trunks.  I have in my mind that very view layered upon a plum-colored house with evergreens in the background . . . Oh, I could almost inhale and respirate upon the beauty instead of on oxygen.

Then came my sister's birthday on the 7th, and now it is the 15th . . . where is the month going?  It was thrilling to be at Trader Joe's recently and to see all the autumn foods in stock.  There was even a man wandering the store and handing out chocolates!  I bought a bottle of cranberry spiced cider and remembered the joys of hosting our own Thanksgiving dinner last year.  The only reason we did not travel to be with family was that I was 39 weeks pregnant, but I loved hosting our own special meal . . . even though our friends brought half of it and the turkey wasn't done until 4 p.m. . . . how the memories rush back . . . We finished the evening by watching Harvey. 

This is the first November of our married life that I have not been pregnant.

Do you know that I once worked at a pumpkin farm?  It was the first autumn after I'd graduated from college, when I was taking evening grad school classes and waiting for the subbing calls to start coming.  They were days of layering on the rain clothes and carrying big clippers, and prying heavy, mud-laden boots off wool-socked feet in the farmers' house at lunch time.  Our boss's wife would make us hot dogs or grilled cheese and we would sit for that half-hour in their farmhouse dining room before returning to the fields or the pumpkin washing machine.  My coworkers called each other Hispanic names for fun, because we felt like migrant workers.  It was a brief season, but it was good.

Our pumpkin for the year is on my kitchen table.  It's another Cinderella pumpkin, and Mom and I bought it from a farm stand in New York.  I'm enjoying it a bit longer before cooking it, but I have bought canned pumpkin to make pumpkin muffins, crumble cake, and a pecan-eggnog-pumpkin pie in recent weeks.  I just couldn't wait.  :)

Now, with Thanksgiving upon us again, I want to actually write some "thankful" posts.  But we will start tomorrow, I think . . .

Because He First Loved Us

November is adoption month.

We Love Because from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

Pastor Andy preached on adoption last Sunday evening, and we saw two videos at church last night.  This was one of them.  (The other I couldn't find.)

Three couples we're friends with have also recently become licensed to be foster parents.  Three.

It got me thinking.

What keeps us from considering adoption?

To be honest, I braced myself for the sermon on Sunday night.  I didn't want numbing statistics and the hollow eyes of starving African children to leave me with a pit of guilt I could do nothing about. 

Adoption is for the infertile couples.  The wealthy.  The independent.  The super-spiritual.  Right?

But the excuses started becoming rather thin.  We have energy and time.  We have been financially blessed.  We have been utterly loved.

I wish I could have found that second video to share, because the faces that gripped me the most personally were the faces like these.  I didn't even know there were organizations that specialized in adoption for children with Down's Syndrome. 


So, we're thinking, talking, praying.  We don't feel ready to take on teenagers when our only parenting experience is with an 11 month old, but we have time.  Only let not the "time" lessen our heart's love for the orphan, Father, when You have so abundantly loved us . . .

"O" is for Overalls

  . . . and "o" is for orange-colored mums . . .

 . . . and "o" is for oatmeal bread . . . 

 

 . . . and "o" is for our overtired baby, who likes to take one half hour nap a day lately . . . 

 . . . but of course we still love her lots!

Gemma's *Fifth* Wedding!

Recently, we drove back to my Alma Mater for yet another wedding of a dear friend from my college days.  <3

This wedding was actually in the lovely Neo-Gothic chapel on campus.  I was thrilled that Gemma was there to experience all the beauty!

 

And beautiful it was!   The bridesmaids glided elegantly down the aisle in gorgeous up-dos and floor-length chiffon gowns, echoing the blue in the stained glass windows.  A couple of them, the bride, and a few other guests had been friends since freshman year, and it was sweet to see them again. 

 

The bride looked absolutely majestic as she entered the chapel on her father's arm, the pipe organ triumphantly sounding traditional wedding music.  

  

The butter was pretty . . . 

 

John found another engineer to talk to, and they even matched . . . 

 

And, all in all, we had a lovely time! 

 Congratulations, Sarah and Chris! 

On the Law and Me

Often, I've noticed the different spiritual influences in my life coming together in chorus on the same themes.  Only God can make that happen, obviously!  And that fact gives me reason to pause and consider those themes seriously. 

The theme recently has been the importance of God's law for the Christian.   It's one of those things that I struggle with, even though I probably shouldn't.  But Christians regard the Law differently and apply the Law differently.  Amidst all the differences, lately I was finding myself somewhat confused.

Then, Sunday night, Pastor Fortner said (and I quote as well as I can remember), "I want you to remember that Jesus died for you in order to align your heart with His." 


It isn't just about being saved, becoming joyful, and sharing the good news with others.  It's about becoming holy as Jesus was holy.  And it has to be in that order. 

Jesus kept the Law (i.e. Ten Commandments) perfectly while He was on our earth.  If we want to please Him, we will try to be like Him, yes?


And then we sang, "Love so amazing, so divine,/ Demands my soul, my life, my all."

My soul.  He died to save me.  My soul is His!

My life.  This can't just be talking about long-term missions, because not everyone is called to that.  How can I know what it means to live my life for Him?  

• "How can a young man keep his way pure ? By keeping it according to Your word."  (Psalm 119:9)
• "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." (John 14:15)
• "O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day."  (Psalm 119:97)

 My all.  My soul and my life . . . isn't that all I have?  If I offer these with my whole heart, following after Jesus eagerly, then He has my all!



 ". . .Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.."  Titus 2:14

Pig Tails

Our little one can wear . . . 

pig tails!

Next time, we will probably use elastic bands, though.  They didn't stay in for very long.  ;)