When It Rains, It Pours

Heylo everyone! :) I am sorry we haven't been posting quite so often as we maybe should. But we have been having an flabbergastingly crazy summer. Essentially, we have had an extra amount of people traveling than usual, (mostly Daniel) which makes a bit more work than usual, (or at least, a bit heavier distribution of the normal work) which makes time a bit more crunched, which for some reason, attracts visitors by the droves! ;) I am not kidding! We have had so much company this summer! (And I love it all!) I think we can, in imitation of the American Indians or something, name our summer: The Summer Of The New-Yorkers. Really. I do believe that we have had.....3 or 4 seperate groups of people from NY come down to stay with us, and then, several other groups of friends! I love company, and it seems that part of the reason the Lord has blessed us with a large house, is to host it all! :) Doubling our family size for 3 months certainly put us in good shape to be able to host 6 or 7 more people without batting an eye! :D It is so funny! Prior to moving out to this house and land, we never hosted anybody for more than a day or two, and that very rarely. Our house was just way to small! But apparently God has plans for us to broaden our "hosting-horizons" and the past two or three years have been absolutely chock-full of ministry in that way! We love it, because we love people! :) So anyway, I hope I have made my excuses in a convincing manner? ;) Sarah, Leah, Anna, and I are off to a 6-hour watercolor class, and then we have company coming this afternoon and staying till Tues. or so. (We cleaned yesterday! Yay!) Well, I must fly! :) -Rachel

"Feeling Peachy" ;)

Okay. So here is my latest painting! :) What do you think of it? I took the idea from a line in a poem that I have always loved: "...and the peaches stole the blushes from the girls that shook them down..." It comes from "Cobbler Keezar's Vision" by John Greenleaf Whittier. Anyway, this is what I did this morning! :) Tell me what you think of it! -Rachel

Blocked For Glamour? Maybe After All! ;)

Recently, a friend of ours set up a website for her wedding. But Morgan Wilson told me on Sunday, that their computer blocked it for "glamour"! :P I found that so funny, and then thought, wow! I wonder if I'll ever qualify for a "glamour blockade"? ;)
Last night I was reading the latest issue of the Above Rubies magazine. As I do every time, I skim the articles, and then study the pictures of the families, seeing how many kids they have, what their ages are, how many girls, etc. And then I read about the young women who are being "Above Rubies helpers". These young women come to stay at Mrs. Nancy Campbell's home, and help with the ministry and magazine. Many of them are near my age. And it set me to thinking about two things. The first thought that entered my head was, "Oh wow. That would be really cool, to do something like that." And it does seem so....grand to be a Christian young woman and be an intern in some ministry like that, or do a missions trip for several months, or something equally interesting.
And then the second thought entered. "But you know, your life could sound like that." and was closely followed by, "Some girls are chosen to do the "glamorous" things!"
Often times, we young ladies spend too much time gazing pensively over the fence to the green grass on the other side. We see some girls in the certainly intriguing position of office helper to a well-known ministry, or some other such thing, and we begin to devalue the place God has prepared for us right now. I will admit, that as a young lady, telling someone: "I worked in the Above Rubies ministry the past 3 months" sounds a whole lot more....amazing than: "I spent my summer working in our home, working in our garden, and in our family business." And yet...is it so much more valuable? I beg leave to say that if your heart is right, it doesn't matter what you are doing- to Jesus, you will be an amazing success! Too many times I know I am guilty of understating the ministry the Lord has portioned for me, in lieu of wishing I was "one of those girls". Really, if I stopped and described my family as the intricate workplace it is, I'd be truly surprised. So here it goes: "I have spent my summer working in our family business as the office manager, learning to make my own clothes, preserving the harvest from the garden for the winter, hosting multiple families in our home, hosting church every Sunday, finishing my remaining school-work, editing a book I am hoping to publish very soon, and ministering in many other ways." That all is honest-to-goodness truth. The same summer I so blankly described before. When presented this way, suddenly my life appears almost as glamorous as those young ladies in the homeschool magazines! This may not sound quite so dainty as you may like to hear, but in speaking of the season the Lord has placed us each in, we can say with the assistant coach in "Facing the Giants", "It don't have to be perfect. It don't have to look pretty. It can look like a dyin' duck!"
But as long as our heart is in it, and our minds are focused on Christ, I have a feeling the glamour will no longer matter. So next time anyone asks you how you have spent your summer, try thinking of your life in Jesus' eyes, and I am certain you're description will sound amazing to your own ears as well as their's. :) -Rachel

Some Pictures!:)

So.....I thought I'd do an update:
Saturday was Leah's 13th Birthday Ceremony!:) We were preparing for it all week. Cleaning, making cakes, doing presents, decorating cakes, going to florists, making several grocery outings, etc. Rachel and I (with instruction by Aunt Christy) decorated the cakes! We got to do basket-weaving with the icing and use flowers whatever way we wanted! Here's a picture of the finished product:

Aren't they pretty! We're very proud of the way they turned out.:) "As is tradition" (in our family;) Dad made Leah a hopechest! It looks beautiful!

Here are some random-ish pictures: (the reason I'm posting all these pictures is because I got a new camera for my birthday!!:)

My Icecream cake!:) The magnet for the film-tour van!;) ^

Here's cute little Gracie doing a "curtsey" :)

Alright! I'd better go! Hope you enjoyed the pictures. :)

-Sarah

Answers Are Finally In! :)

Hey Guys! Here are the answers to the Period Drama Movie Quote Quiz Rachie did.

#1"She won't even allow me to reapply the blacking to her hair! There is a great grey streak going right down her centre part!" Miss Pole from Cranford
People who got it right: Abigail

#2 "She seems to expwess herself vewy fwankly, Clare!" -Lady Cumner from Wives and Daughters
People who got it right: Abigial

#3 "I made money overnight? How very clever of me!" - Ms. Margaret Hale from North and South
People who got this right: Abigail

#4 "Roger Riderhood. Sometimes known as "Rogue" Riderhood. But that's a friendly name used by thems that don't know me well."- Riderhood in Our Mutual Friend
Nobody got that right!

#5 "...I encourage him in that, too."- Charlotte in Pride and Prejudice
People who got it right: Jo March and Abigail

#6 "What care I for a cold, when there is such a man?!" -Marianne Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility
People who got it right: Abigail, Jo March, Always Narnian, and Leanna!:)

#7 "I abhor the notion of being over-trimmed!" -Mrs. Elton from Emma 2009 version
People who got it right: Abigail

#8 "She says that Colonel Wallace says, that Mr. Elliott says"--"That's enough!!" -Ann and the widow lady in Persuasion
People who got it right: NOBODY!

#9 "Do you think he could be a captive like Smee in Nicholas Nickleby?" - Jo in Little Women
People who got it right: Abigial, Always Narnian, Shi of Narnia, and Leanna

#10 "People's ideals change sometimes." -Diana from Anne of Avonlea
People who got this right: Abigail, Jo March, Always Narnian, Shi of Narnia, and Leanna.:)

Okay! So the winner of this contest is:::::::::: ABIGAIL!!
Congratulations, and good job to everybody else, as well! :) Ya'll give yourselves a pat on the back! Thanks for entering.
-Sarah