Saturday Afternoon Daybook ;)

Date... August 20th. :)

Starting time... 1:46

Mood... kind of...busy and rushed? ;P

Outside my window... the baby boy balloons fluttering on the mailbox. :D

I'm thinking... How I want to see all my good friends really soon! I hope I get accepted to Daughters of Destiny....:-\ Haven't received the confirmation email yet...I'm kinda getting nervous. And I want my Gentleman home and can't wait till tomorrow to see him! :) How Levi is growing up *so* fast! He's getting chubbier and is interacting with us alot more!

I'm currently reading... "Captivated" by John and Stasi Eldredge (highly recommend this one to any young lady probably 16 and up. :) and "A Tale of Two Cities". (yes. I'm still crawling through this one. :P)


I'm listening to... "Tomorrow" from Annie! :D and Levi crying.

I'm wearing... my jeans skirt and my distressed looking patriotic t-shirt. :)

I'm looking forward to... Tomorrow! And Monday! And choir starting sometime soonish! And the FALL!!!!

I'm hoping... That my maybe, maybe, I can go with Dad to pick up Daniel tomorrow, that all of us girls will be able to go to camp, that I'll be able to get together with all my bests! :D

Yesterday, I... Worked with Dad mowing lawns, then came home to market prep, baking, and all that is involved with that.


I'm hungry for... Lunch soon enough....something good. Oh! and cheesecake!


The song stuck inside my head is... Had been "Hold Me" by Jamie Grace....now I don't really have one...unless it would be "Loathing" from Wicked! :D

I love... Cooperative siblings! Fun conversations late at night with either siblings or friends. And Broadway! And nice cameras that take wonderful pictures. :P


I loathe... Uncooperative people, cameras that are kind of on the fritz (and don't have lens caps anyhow), and The Original Broadway version of "Tradition" from Fiddler on the Roof! It sounds confusing, loud, and like they're singing in different keys! X(

This week, my goal is... To not let gardening and farm-life stress me out, by being in the Lord every morning. :)
Oh. and to figure out why I'm not sleeping well. :\

Did I meet last week's goal?... Didn't do this last week

Ending time... 2:35 (that's what comes from trying to fit a blog post in between cleaning projects. :P)

(All photos courtesy of Weheartit and Google images.)
and yes. I noticed I'm totally disregarding the advice of Miss Inkpen throughout this post. ;)

-Sarah

Glorying in Femininity

"You are worthy, O Lord,

To receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things,
And by Your will they exist and were created."
Rev. 4:11

"Feminists are dedicated to the proposition that the difference between men and women is a matter of mere biology. The rest of us recognize a far deeper reality, one that meets us on an altogether different plane from mere anatomical distinctions. It is unfathomable and indefinable, yet men and women have tried ceaselessly to fathom and define it. It is unavoidable and undeniable, yet in the past couple of decades earnest and high-sounding efforts have been made in the name of decency, equality, and fairness, at least to avoid it and, whenever possible, to deny it. I refer, of course, to femininity-a reality of God’s design and God’s making, His gift to me and to every woman-and, in a very different way, His gift to men as well. If we really understood what femininity is all about, perhaps the question of roles would take care of itself." ~Elisabeth Elliot

I've been thinking quite a bit recently about how glad I am I'm a young woman. When I was eight or nine, I was indifferent on the subject. I did not wish I had been born a boy like some of my tom-boy friends, but I wasn't particularly attached to having been born a girl. Whatever God had made me was what I was. I didn't think about questioning it. At that point there was little that differentiated my life from my brother's. We lived in the same house, watched the same movies, played the same games, did all the same things together...I didn't have quite so many sisters, and thus not quite so many tea-parties.

But as I have grown, I've come to rejoice in my femininity. First, as I was 11, 12, 13 it was the delight in pretty things...only a woman could go into raptures over the beauty of a flower, or an adorable baby, or a new way of dressing one's hair. A man might notice such things, but he does not, as a general rule, go into raptures.

A few more years and I was fifteen and sixteen, and beginning to notice differences in the things I could do versus what my brother could. Boys, however hard they try, can not quiet babies quite so efficiently as a young lady. Daniel went to work with Dad every day. I could stay at home baking, sewing, and putting all the gentle touches on our life that only a woman can devise and enact.A few more years and you have me now at nineteen, a young woman who is delighted to be just that: A woman. I can honestly say I do not envy the men's lot. At times I might think it's rather hard to have to wait for my Prince Charming to find me. "The men can just pick who they will and get married when they choose!" ;)
But as I've "aged", I've grown a little wiser and have found, to my surprise (though I don't know why) that the young men have a much harder time of it than we girls. They have to make a huge decision in these years we are spending in gentle, pleasant pursuits. They have to choose a career that will support you and an entire family, (many of these young men looking at a rather large family in the future) train for that career, and make enough money to really be a man.
When I compare that vast, foreboding task with my prettyisms here at home, I cling to my femininity and thank God that He saw fit to make me a woman.

I like dressing in cute, pretty, feminine clothes.

I like holding my handsome little Levi and knowing that someday, perhaps not too far off, the baby in my arms will be my own, connected to me in a beautifully mysterious way.

I like going out in public and letting men open doors for me while I thoroughly enjoy myself.

I like the role I will play in my future home. Helpmeet. Isn't that a simply wonderful job?

Perhaps it is my personality, but I can't wait to be a helper, a servant, and a queen to my husband. I am a bit shy, really, but I love to be in close contact with the people out in the front of things. That's why I can't wait to be the supporting love behind my man. To make him succeed, while keeping in the background. Vitally important to his success, and glorying in my role.

I'm privileged to be a woman. I love it. I love everything connected to being a woman, and I delight in my femininity. Why on earth would I trade this sweet existence for being a career-oriented feminist vying with the men to scratch out a living in the wide wide world?
No thanks. :) ~Rachel
p.s. all photos courtesy of google images and weheartit.com (And yes, I am on a fifties kick recently. ;)

You Know You're From A Large Family If:

There is something so terribly cute about this picture...plus, I love Cheez-its. :) But anyway, this picture is entirely random and has nothing to do with the post...unless you pretend the hamster is shocked at what I'm about to reveal. ;)

You know you're from a large family if:

-There are pictures of your family in matching outfits
-You write your name on the bottom of your socks
-You go to the bathroom just to get some "alone time"
-You never say "I'm bored"
-You have valuable negotiating skills and have honed them from a very young age
-You know that just because someone says your sibling's name, it doesn't mean they're not talking to you
-You find creative ways to hide things you want to keep for yourself
-You've seen your mother walking laps around your property so she can get a few minutes of peace & quiet
-You shake your head in disbelief when you hear someone say they've never changed a diaper
-One sibling is getting on your nerves it's okay because you can just go hang out with a different one
-Strangers think that big sister is actually mom
-If you want some ice cream, you don't wait around to get some, because tomorrow it will be gone
-You wouldn't trade the fact that you have the opportunity to make a bunch of best friends that are stuck with you for life!
-You can make a pb & j sandwich in 10 seconds flat
-You go somewhere with another family, and people think it's a youth group - Note: or if you go anywhere period!
-Whenever your family goes out to eat the waiters always have to put tables together for you and when they do it is always in the back corner of the restaurant so as to keep your stereotypically rude family away from their other customers
-People continually comment that you could have a whole basketball team, or even better a baseball team
-Your mom is trying to say someone's name and she's already gone through 6 sibs' names, she probably is trying to remember yours
-You don’t have a picture of your whole family because every time you get one taken another kid shows up
-You run out of the room when your parents look at you and say someone elses name because you know it means you will have to do a job when they remember your name
-You are proficient in cleaning up broken glass and ceramic and you can tell from the sound it made when it crashed whether the item dropped is fine, cracked, or broken
-You can hear a cry and tell whether the child is hurt, angry, sad or throwing a temper tantrum within 3 seconds
-You're walking around a store with little siblings and people assume they're your kids

-People compliment your parents on "how well behaved their children are...just didn't expect that with such a large group"
-You know what the "thirty second rule" is and it's importance
-You can't eat at McDonalds without breaking a fifty dollar bill
-Your family can't fit in a mini-van

-Instead of learning from your own mistakes, you learn from your siblings'
-You are the shyest person in the world, but the loudest in your family
-Other people "don't understand how your mom does it"

-Your family has paid enough overdue fines to fund the building of a new library
-Picky eaters are not tolerated because mom simply does not have the time to prepare different foods for one child
-You go looking to purchase a new appliance and the capacity is the only feature that really matters
-Everything under the sun is discussed for an hour straight around the dinner table because everyone has to put their two bits in
-You go off to college prepared to savor your independence and get so lonely for your siblings that you have to come home Note: This happens at the grocery store too!
-Your brother leans over your shoulder and corrects your grammar and spelling while you type on this site. (grrr!)
-You smile when people ask how many kids you have because you know when you answer they will repeat the number even more loudly to help themselves hear it
-You can proudly declare you are doing your part to curb human depopulation
-You go to get your picture made and the first thing the photographer says is "no, seriously"
-The invention of the wide-angled lense made your family portrait possible.
-Your mom at one point purchased different colored hangers so she could easily sort the hang-up laundy but eventually had to stop because Wal-Mart only had seven different colors to choose from
-Getting from one side of your living room to the other requires skillfully making it through an obstacle course of toys, coloring books (plus the spilled crayons), school books, extra chairs dragged in from other rooms, and small children
-You've been asked over and over if you're Mormon, Catholic or homeschooled
-You take your driver's license test in a 15 passenger van
-You move away from home, and every time you cook a meal it takes you a week to finish the leftovers
-People are constantly asking you if you are a daycare provider
-You think it is normal to grocery shop at Sam's Club

-It takes a full day to change everyone's wardrobe from one season to the next and process all of the hand-me-downs
-You have your own "reserved" pew at church every Sunday
-You shared a room with no less than three people for most of your childhood
-Massive lego wars were an unforgettable part of growing up
-You don't have to go online to get a good six-man table of poker going
-You have to squeeze four people in a row of seats in your van that was only designed to hold three
-You have brothers on four different sports teams at the same time
-Your dad won't buy a snowblower because he knows he has an unlimited supply of expendable labor to shovel the driveway instead
-You're 28 and you still have a few siblings under 6th grade
-You're closer in age to your mother than you are to your youngest brother

Need I say more? All of this is so funnily, painfully, laughing-so-hard-I've-got-a-side-stitch-true! :P By the way. I didn't make these up, they came in an email sent to Sarah. :) ~Rachel

Whether the weather is cold, or whether the weather is not...

Mmmm....I can't wait for the autumn and winter! The present break from the heat belies the fact that despite the best of August's scorching temperatures, the fall will come before too long...I can't wait for the time for rambles in the quiet woods...

Visiting the Maidenhair Mirror....

Seeing the ethereal blue of the sky uncrowded by leaves...

Look! I really think that's frost! FROST? Yes, summer. Frost is coming, and I'm waiting with open arms... :)

Benjamin and Sarah accompanied me this trip into the woods. :)
I cannot take credit for any of these pictures. I believe they are all Sarah's. :)

The haunting beauty of the Maidenhair Mirror is unrivalled. :) See the dark moss on the bottoms of the trunks?
That's where the water comes up in the wet season. :) And all that brush around the edge? In the summertime (I haven't had time to visit it this summer. :[ ) That's all waist-high maiden-hair ferns! :)

Me and Benjamin in a "friendship tree" :) *smiles at Abigail Taylor*

Pine trees! Gotta love our Virginian woods. We just can't get rid of them. :P

Doth my eyes deceive me, or is that the White Tree of Gondor? ;)
No, it's just one of the prettiest fields on our road. :)

And another view of the same field... I like to think it looks rather BBC-ish...I wish I could show you a full view of it all.
It's rather one of my favorite walking spots.

So there you have it: My longing for the cold weather presented in only a few pictures. It might be unseasonable, but summer has had her reign. I'm looking forward to cute jackets and skirts with boots, pumpkin bread and hot cups of tea. Oh yes. It's coming.
~Rachel

Cuteness! :)

Levi is one week old today!! :) In these 7 days, he has showed us his "Mr. Darcy smile" dozen of times (we hope to capture a picture of that soon), has gotten his big-boy belly button ;), and has started cooing at his sisters. :) We've also discovered a ravishingly deep dimple in his right cheek. The other day I, Sarah, took him upstairs and did a little photo-shoot. He behaved rather nicely, and only got upset once! :D Here are some of the pictures:

Ain't he handsome? ;) Have a great week!
-Sarah