saturday-ish happenings

Saturday, December eighth, two-thousand and twelve.

a graduation to be remembered.

There was amazing worship time, 

 wonderfully caring people,

(uncle david)

 encouragement from scripture,

me, daniel, and justin w.

a prayer of sorts, 

 the graduates' so-called "speeches", 

a presentation of the diplomas, 

(aunt christy and matthew)

dad and me. :)

more beautiful and loving people,

a pinterest-worthy cake that was A+ 100% from the look all the way down to the taste,

a secret creative venture of the moms,

music, laughter, and chit-chat by the bonfire,

and so so much more. 

It was a marking point. A celebration of work well done. A testimony of God's faithfulness.

A time to look back on and be blessed by.  For me, it was more than a giddy throwing up of hands and yelling "IT'S OVER!!!" (though it was in there. ;) There was just so very much loving, serving, and caring that you couldn't ignore it, even if you'd tried. I am so thankful to the Lord for giving Matthew and I this huge show of His hand in our lives so far. 

I thank each one of our friends and family who have made us who we are today, and who are committed to lifting us up in prayer and challenging us in the our walk with Him.

i'm edumicated now! WOOOOHOOOO!!!!  ;)

Rachel's graduation post has a few more pictures and is entertaining as well. :) Thanks to all of you for the well-wishes, and I'd just wanted to make sure you got some update on how the ceremony went.

{{{all photos courtesy of Katie W. and Cherie R.}}}

{{all the kingdom lights shined just for me and you...}}

Matthew and I are graduating later on today....looking back on all 12 grades we've gone through together, this song came to mind, so without further ado, "HAIL THE CONQUERING GRADUATES!!!"! ;)

 

I said remember this moment, in the back of my mind

The time we stood with our shaking hands

The crowds in the stands went wild

We were the Kings and the Queens

And they read off our names

The night you danced like you knew our lives

Would never be the same

You held your head like a hero
On a history book page
It was the end of a decade
But the start of an age

                                 

Long live the walls we crashed through

All the kingdom lights shined just for me and you

I was screaming long live all the magic we made

And bring on all the pretenders

One day, we will be remembered

I said remember this feeling

I passed the pictures around

Of all the years that we stood there

On the side-lines wishing for right now

We are the Kings and the Queens

You traded your baseball cap for a crown

When they gave us our trophies

And we held them up for our town

And the cynics were outraged

Screaming "this is absurd"

Cause for a moment a band of thieves

In ripped up jeans got to rule the world

Long live the walls we crashed through

All the kingdom lights shined just for me and you

I was screaming long live all the magic we made

And bring on all the pretenders

I'm not afraid

Long live all the mountains we moved

I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you

I was screaming long live that look on your face

And bring on all the pretenders

One day, we will be remembered

Hold on to spinning around

Confetti falls to the ground

May these memories break our fall

Will you take a moment, promise me this

That you'll stand by me forever

But if God forbid fate should step in

And force us into a goodbye

If you have children some day

When they point to the pictures

Please tell them my name

Tell them how the crowds went wild

Tell them how I hope they shine

Long live the walls we crashed through

I had the time of my life, with you

Long, long live the walls we crashed through

All the kingdom lights shined just for me and you

I was screaming long live all the magic we made

And bring on all the pretenders

I'm not afraid

Singing, long live all the mountains we moved

I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you

And long, long live that look on your face

And bring on all the pretenders

One day, we will be remembered

class of 2012.

Speechifying :)

I am sorry we have not been posting very often. The truth is, we've been super busy this week getting ready for my graduation because my party is on Saturday! :)
I have written my speech and am now reading it over and over. I *do* get to read it, rather than memorize and recite it, so that is a relief. :) But I want to read it with personality, hopefully. :P
I don't know if this happens to other people, but mentally I am not nervous, but in the moment my body responds nervously. I get really hot all of a sudden and then my mouth wobbles so that it takes all my concentration to keep a steady smile. :P Not so fun. :D
But anyway, I'm less nervous right now that I'd have anticipated I'd be less than 48 hours till The Moment. :D
I have been amusing myself by thinking of inserting famous movie quotes about speeches into my own speech. (Though I'm not going to do that for real)

Take Mr. Knightley, for example. "You know I cannot make speeches. Perhaps if I felt less I could talk about it more."

Or Bilbo's unforgettable 111th birthday speech! :)

Bilbo: "My dear Bagginses and Boffins, Tooks and Brandybucks, Grubbs, Chubbs, Hornblowers, Bolgers, Bracegirdles and Proudfoots." [cheers]

Old Proudfoot Hobbit: "Proudfeet!"

:) But in all seriousness, my speech will be given probably by 4:30 p.m. on Saturday. I'd appreciate your prayers for my nerves! :) ~Rachel

In Which I Speechify.

So I'm graduating July 16th and I have to give a speech. The writing of the speech does not worry me...it's the delivery that worries me. Of course, my dear friends remind me that it is only what God thinks of me that matters. That is a comfort, but my jittery feeling is by no means entirely squelched yet. I wish I could faint on command.....d'you think it'd work if I simply look at my dear Abigail and say, in woeful, Anne Shirleyian tones,

"I think I can be rendered unconscious." And then flop over? No? Rats.

I am putting the final touches on my speech before my wisdom teeth surgery in....2 DAYS!!!!!

Somehow, it feels terribly like writing a will before going to the guillotine. *sigh* The one nervousing feeling almost (but not thoroughly) wipes out the other. :P

Anyway. I was looking up public speaking tips and the ones that helped most, I've put below in order to remind myself and you if you're ever faced with this shocking predicament of having to speak in front of, perhaps, nearly 200 people! O.o

1. PRACTICE!!! You do not want to wait until you are five minutes from The Time and then start reminding yourself of what you've written

2. Be familiar enough with the speech that you do not have to read it as if it's a script. (I may cheat on this, and not do notes, but have my whole speech written out just in case my memory fails me. :)

3. If you're too nervous simply visualize your triumphant feeling at the end of the speech and try to calm yourself down by pretending it's already over. ;)

4. Release your nerves by having doing jumping jacks, jogging around for a second, or otherwise getting out energy. Then, depend on the rest of the nervous energy to get you through

5. Smile, no matter what. Even if something terrible happens, keep smiling, and, if possible, incorporate it into the speech to make everyone laugh. :P (Kinda embarrassing, wot?)

There you have it! :) Wish me happy speechifying! ;) ~Rachel

Just In Case You Wondered....

WE'RE ALIVE!!!!!

I know it has been far too long since we've done a blog post! But I do have good reasons, if you'd like to hear some excuses:

#1. A market-garden leaves pinched time for blogging
#2. Blogger has been acting up--I had a post all set with pictures and everything, but it posted it funny and I had to take it off. It wouldn't work no matter what! :P
#3. Nasty little voles are eating our potatoes
#4. It's been rather hot--very counter-productive to inspiration. :D

So that's my sorry little apology. Let's be friends now, okay? ;) Wow! So I realized that it's been a long time since we've posted about ourselves. So you all must be wondering, "What on earth have they been up to? Rachel never even posted the second part of her farm blog posts, and no hair tutorials have come up." Or else you've ceased wondering about us and have taken us off your sidebar. Please put us back. We're sorry. ;)
*ANY*way. I first off wanted to share the very exciting news with you that we have launched the website for Taste and See Family Farm! It all feels so official and tidy now! Thanks Matthew and Uncle David! :) Go check it out! It's really cool! :) *Exciting!*
I won't go into details right now, but as far as our day-to-day life goes, we've been rather "Nose to the grindstone" on account of the garden popping and having deadlines for co-ops and farmers markets and everything else! :) Extremely busy--I'd appreciate your prayers for Mama, because as tired as we are at the end of the day, she's ten times more so since she's eight months pregnant! We are trying to spare her the heaviest work, but she's still working harder than most women at this point in their pregnancies! Baby will have a good work ethic from the start, I guess! :D I talked about our schedule a little bit in the Large Family Logistics post awhile back...

But enough about the garden. At nearly 10 p.m. we've all payed our dues for the day! Benji and I were harvesting a huge laundry basket full of potatoes for the market today and were dismayed to find we had to throw out 30 of the hugest ones because voles had gotten to them. I think it's time for an outside cat--what say you? :P

On a lighter note, Gracie said something really funny the other day:
I was in the other room and heard her calling me.

*Grace*: "Raaachel!"
*Me*: "Yeah?"
*Grace*: "Guess who I'm gonna marry--him!" *points to a picture of Michael W. Smith on a flier*
*Me*: "Why would you want to marry him?"
*Grace, with a charming smile*: "Because he's handsome and he doesn't smell like tuna-fish."

Randomness is hilarious. Especially when it comes from a 4 year-old. :D
Also, my graduation is set for July 16th and I am informed I have to give a speech.
Me....and a speech...
Me...in front of 200+ people.....
*dies of embarassment* So could ya'll pray for peace of mind for me? I think I'll faint. I'm planning on it. And Abigail promises she'll drag me over the the rain barrel and dunk me in to revive me, and then I can go on and read my speech anyway. What a good friend. ;)
So.....hope this caught you guys up on everything going on! Have a great night! :) <3 ~Rachel

P.S. Blogger is still acting up and won't let me upload pictures! Or let me off of italic after I've pushed it... >:[ Anybody have any advice on this? :/

Daniel's Graduation

Hey Everybody! First I wanted to thank Miss Zara and Melissa Ozee for joining our blog! Yay! Now if we can only get one more person we will be at 20! (I strongly dislike odd numbers! :)
Okay! Thanks to all you guys for coming! It was so much fun to host a big function like that in this house! We've always felt that God means to use this big house for ministry, and fellowship with other believers! It is so neat that we also have the opportunity this winter to host church here every week! Anyway! So thanks to all the serving people like Morgan, Katie, Maddie, and several others who wish to remain nameless! Thanks Alaina for watching kids while we got things ready! And thanks to Aunt Christy, Mrs. Mickey, and Mrs. Alison for setting up food and decorating and all that! Also to everyone who washed dishes and cleaned up so we didn't have to do that! And to the Wrights who generously cleaned up the study which was covered a foot deep in board games that the little kids had pulled off the shelves! :) Oh! and Mr. Jack for lending us the tent! We don't have any pictures yet since we asked other people to take photos for us since our camera is so bad, but hopefully soon Daniel will post some on his blog or something. First off we greeted everyone, and then went into the tent for the ceremony. It was COLD out there! And the wind really kicked up and almost blew the tent down! But besides the leg of my chair sinking deep into the mud beneath, there were no mishaps! After the ceremony, we all went inside and ate a delicious dinner! (And the rest of the macaroni had turned out nicely) Mrs. Mickey had been really smart and divided dinner and desserts into three courses. So we had dinner, and then desserts, and then after the hayride, we had a third course with all the "fancy" food like buck-eyes, shrimp, cordial cherries, crackers and cheese, 7-layer dip and chips, and punch! (Though we did have to do an i.d. check to make sure everyone was 21.) (just kidding by the way! :)
Now Sarah is going to write!
Alrighty!
So as Rachel explained, all that happened and then we went out by the bonfire and sang Christmas carols. A few people had brought out guitars so that was nice. After that Dad got together a hay ride (which was last minute because we didn't know what the weather would be like) with hay from inside the tent so it was all dry. That was really fun and thankfully Dad decided to go along the road and not the field, so we didn't have the risk of getting stuck!
Oliver and Hannah Wilson were having a video footage war the whole evening trying to video tape eachother (No clue why.) Anyway when we finally got inside the 3rd course was out so that warmed us all up. We talked for awhile and by around 11:00 or so, the "crowd" was dwindling. (there were like 165 people-some of the families that had RSVP'd didn't show up) We got a game of catch-phrase organized, and played one round of that. Around 12:30 the last guests left and I mentioned to Rachel that church was in 10 hours, AT OUR HOUSE! But, several of the ladies and the Wrights had cleaned up really nicely so we all sat around and watched Daniel open cards and gifts. We got to bed at around 1:30 (after looking through our stores of left-overs:) and woke up around 9:00 to scramble around finishing cleaning up, and eating breakfast, and setting up for church by 10:00. It was Alot Of Fun, thanks everybody for celebrating with our family!

The Wery Last Day! :)

Hi Everybody! This is the last day before Daniel's graduation! Yay! We stayed up too late last night for several reasons, and so it was after midnight and we were thinking of going to bed. Then I said, "Daniel's graduation is tomorrow!" I made Mama and Sarah groan at the thought. We have lots to do: finish decorating, take the food we already made out of the freezer so it can thaw, ice sugar cookies, string lights up, plate food, set the big tent back up and put sides on it, finalize our outfits and make sure we all have something to wear, put the big wreath on the front of the house, keep on picking up the Christmas trees on the porch that keep falling down from the wind, and the list goes on.
But it's really exciting! We cleaned all day yesterday while Mama and Anna were shopping. I think we got through a whole dry-erase board full of tasks! Our house was so bad before (since we have been cooking and decorating and planning all week) that it finally took a whole day to be respectable! And all over the office stacked in stacks under and on top of other stacks are sheets of yellow legal pad paper that Mama calls her "brain". (Which to date she has just lost half of- the most important half) Well, Daniel is waiting to cram in his advent post, (which he has done a great job on) and I must go help Mama now! Oh! Mrs. Mickey and the same Wrights that help the Wilsons are coming to help us along with Mr. Jack who owns the said tent. Oh- Sarah wants to write something!
Hi, I was just going to tag something on to what Rachel was writing about. As most of you know Daniel's graduation is a pretty big deal and we invited I think about 200 people or so! It's really cool because a lot of our friends from way back are going to be able to make it out here-they haven't seen our house or even Gracie before! So anyways, I think tomorrow will be busy, but Really Fun! So I guess we'll see most of ya'll tomorrow!!
-Sarah

A Lament

This is a lament.

The house was lovely,

The tree was nice,

There were no crumbs left

For the wand'ring mice,

The lights were strung

And the fat punch-bowl

was borrowed,

We stuffed the freezer full

Of things to eat

For Saturday

The family was vexed

When they heard Rachel say,

"I haven't a blasted thing to wear"

She scrabbled through a pile

Of clothes and tore her brownish hair.

Moaning all the while.

And Mama raised her eyes to the roof

And Sarah sat and sighed,

For she hadn't anything either then,

And together they both cried:

"We'll have to wear a gown of rags

We'll have to wear green shoes!

We'll have to wear a baseball cap!

For we haven't a choice to choose!"

This is my lament, for after searching through my clothes I have found that I have a skirt, but no top, (unless I want to wear purple which is very unfestive) and shoes, but no stockings that haven't a rip in them. Sarah has neither shoes nor an outfit, (though she has just been bequeathed a really pretty shirt of mine) and is in even a worse pickle than I am. You large-family people know how it is. We never can see a week before that we need clothes. No. We wait till two days before a huge party with nearly 200 people before we tell Mama that we don't have anything to wear. It also doesn't help that we never go anywhere fancy, so I only had one good outfit. We don't have time to go to a thriftstore between now and then, and so I believe it shall be the good old purple sweater for me... goodness! I made that sound ugly! I guess I should be grateful for having a pretty sweater made of such soft stuff with pretty beading, but I'm not even sure if that fits me since I bought it several years ago! Oh well! We have these little clothing crises all the time and I always manage to come out on the top of them without anything worse than a purple sweater! I'd say that I'm blessed.