Once Upon a Time

Once Upon a Time, originally uploaded by efiw.

21 years ago I met a breathtakingly beautiful voice attached to a dangerously handsome man. He was the most Godly, passionate person I had ever met. His voice attracted me, his heart captured me. I was his even before we became more than friends. 19.25 years ago he asked me to marry him. I was 18, he was 21. No one thought we'd make it even one year, but here we are 19 years, 3 kids and several wrinkles later - still enamoured, still married, still hopelessly devoted.

Father

Father, originally uploaded by efiw.

Today marks 1 year since my Daddy passed away. Tomorrow is my 19th wedding anniversary.
I miss him, much more than I thought I would, a year later. Time heals, but it is a slow healer.

Dearly Beloved...

2 of our favorite people made it legal for them to practice PDA last night. :o) Robin and Nathan are officially one flesh. Man & Wife. Leavin' and Cleavin'.

I was privilaged to be asked to shoot their ceremony. (which I was all calm and cool about while it was happening but am freaking out internally about now.)

I'll post more shots later, but here is one from the rehersal. (I haven't even loaded the 300 wedding shots.)

Pray for them as they fly to the Dominican Rep. for their honeymoon. Pray for the photos to have turned out well and that they'll love what I was able to do. AND - As I have to run Song Show at our worship service in the morn, you can pray for me too!

Blessed Scenes from a Day of Blessings

Our traditional spread of cheeseball and crackers - to tide everyone over until dinner! (Aunt Susan's cheeseball recipe that Cassia makes every year!)

Turkey - one plate of light and one of dark! so moist!! I don't know why I didn't get the rest of the spread.

Sledding!! One of our neighbor girls joined us and couldn't believe ADULTS were sledding too! We had 7 others added to our family and it was a great day! Of course there was cocoa, coffee, and wassail when everyone trudged in half-frozen! Highlight of the day was watching our little 3yr. old Mo sled down -all the way to the bottom - BACKWARDS- with the biggest smile plastered on his face!

Making a gingerbread house with River, Mo and Jen, while the guys watched football.

James rented a movie entitled - A Man Called Peter. I would highly recommend it! It's the story of Peter Marshall senior. It's funny, convicting, and poignant.

Ryan and Don challenged Minda and Tof to a cribbage match - Not a good idea. R&D lost. James and River teamed up against Cassia and Mo in Yatzee.

We built a fire in the stove, ate 4 kinds of pie with homemade whipcream, got dishpan hands, talked, laughed, tickled Mo, and laughed some more.

How was your day of Thanks?

Blessings

I'm about to put the bird in the oven, friends are arriving around 1. Have a blessed thanksgiving everyone!

Cozy Grog

One of our favorite family traditions during the winter ~

Wassail!

Mulling spices

Usually I use a lemon, but I didn't have any, so a Lime it is!

Half of each; sliced thinly...

Pop it all into the Cranberry and Orange juice. Drizzle with honey and cook on low for hours and hours!
SO YUMMY!

The World in Quiet Stillness Lay...

I live in heaven on earth. Isn't it sumptuous?

Bring It On!

Began snowing tonight!! Supposed to snow all night, can't wait to wake up in the morning! Have I ever said how much I LOVE SNOW!?!?!?!

God Fights...

...For those who join Him in the active conquest of His enemies!

James preached today! Last night as he began to make the slides for his sermon on Song Show, everything disappeared! EVERYTHING! He had to make new slides, put them in order, get the backgrounds, and reload them. He finally came to bed around 5:25 AM.

God is so good though. 2 hours of sleep later, James was in the shower and excited to be bringing The Word to the Body! He did an amazing job - I wouldn't have been able to think straight on that much sleep, let alone speak coherently! He has improved since the last time (not that I thought he did anything less than marvelous last time!) ~ and I know as opportunity continues to present itself, he'll continue to improve.

We are going through the book of Joshua as a church and this week was chapter 10. James centered it on the theme indicated by the title of this post. If you'd like to hear it, it should be posted by Tuesday. Scroll clear down to the bottom and click on today's date (Nov. 18, 07) or the sermon titled God Fights!

The path of the just is like the Shining Sun that burns ever brighter unto the Perfect day. Prov.4:18 One more step was taken toward a vision fulfilled today. What an amazing God we serve!

Do I Hear $20? How about $25?!!

Bake Party!!

We had such a fun day! We made 3 cinnamon~maple punkin pies, a pecan, a lemon meringue, 2 pumpkin cheesecakes, a huckleberry, a banana cream, and something else that I can't remember!

Joni pretty much packed her entire kitchen!

Montana huckleberries in a shell ~ soon to be baked to perfection!

Anthony showed up and made his 1st pie ever! He even separated eggs! Here he demonstrates his wicked-sick banana slicing skills!

Tomorrow is the spaghetti feed and pie auction. Pray for them. :o)
My husband is preachin' in the morning and my stomach is in knots. Pray for him (& me!) .
*yawn* I'm so sleepy! Sweet dreams.

Pralinkanot Pie

First one down, only ?? to go...

Although all my pie baking for Thanksgiving is done, we are spending the day with our college girls group making pies to auction off tomorrow after church. Several of them are going to Quito, Ecuador in February and today's pies will be to help them raise the funds for this trip. More Later!

Prep - Work!

We Spent the day making pies!

Hope they taste as good as they look! We'll freeze them until Thanksgiving, but there'll be more tomorrow! We always have apple (Grama Orr's recipe), and My Mom's Pecan (but I make it with Hazelnuts because I'm alergic to Pecans), and someone usually makes a pumpkin.

What kinds of pies do you have at Thanksgiving?

I'm trying a new one this year. Pear-Praline Cranicot is the name on the recipe, but after hearing my little friend's rendition of that name, I may just keep it if we like the pie and it becomes tradition! Enoch called it "Pralinkanot"!

Go FIG-ure!

We have friends. That is such a heart-fluttery feeling! I am constantly amazed that people love us enough to drive 8 hours to see us, but these ones drove 8 hours with 6 kids under the age of 7 to come see us! We were able to spend 4.5 days with "The Figs". Our house rang with laughter, squeals, and the trip-trap of little feet! What a joy this family is. They are raising their kids to love one another, love & honor God, respect authority, and live life fully and it radiates from these little ones.
God answered our prayer for snow so the kids were able to go sledding! We went for adventures in the woods, mid afternoon tramps to the fort and beyond, a FREEZING COLD hike to the lookout - always followed up by a warm fire and hot cocoa!
We had an opportunity to go out as couples while our kids watched theirs. We don't get to do that often and it was a sweet time of fellowship.
I am just so, so thankful for Godly, dear, deep, spirit-filled relationships that endure and grow.

Picturebook - page 2

Minda, Cassia, Judah, Enoch, Eden, Parker, and Maizy Girl

Here's "The Crew" on the hike to the lookout! These kids are HIKERS! I turned around 1/2 way and came home, but they hiked all 4 miles!

Mom, Dad, Josiah and Zion bringing up the tail!

Picturebook - page 1

Enoch & Eden

Parker

Josiah

Zion

After a morning of sleeding it was time for homemade granola bars and Hot Chocolate!!

Wonderland

Walkin' in it...

Cozy Shoebox Exchange

I was one of the participants of this year's shoebox exchange through The Homespun Heart and With All That I've Been Given. The theme was "cozy" :o)
My box arrived today with:
Gingerbread Spice tea
Mints
A candle in a tin
A plaid table runner
The Christmas Carol -book on tape
Some magnetic fall frames and stickers
gift lables and gift card pouches
A set of Mini Clear lights
and some ornaments!

Thank you, Ruth! I have so enjoyed communicating these past few weeks and I hope that we will continue. New friends are a God-given gift.

49 and lovin' it!

Say, "happy birthday!" to the absolute cutest 7 year old (that's 49 in dog years) around!

Beginning Tradition in Montana

We finally made time to wander out into our back yard and take our Traditional Shot for the year. I love this. It's so different than the ones we would take in WA. Do you like in better in color or in B&W??