My Husband...

...spoiled me...

surprised me...

...gifted me...

with the best possible things! A new Viking hand mixer (I mix everything by hand now!) and a belgian waffle maker! It's like Christmas... in September. I love them, and I love him. It's wonderful!

Love in Him,

Taiya

Summer

 I don't want to bore you (or myself when I read back over this), so I do have some photos, but I am going to be having a lot of text, I think.

It's been an... illuminating summer, I guess. I've stayed away from blogging itself because I just have had a lot to pray about and work on. A *lot. Obviously, as a simple human and not Christ himself, that will be a lifelong endeavor. I'm fine with that, though. :) 

I can't believe it's almost time for school! I've tried to be really intentional about enjoying our summer, though, and I really have. :) We've not gone a lot of places, but we've had such a full summer. The last month has gone by in a blur of childcare, canning, and gardening, but in a good way. We seem to have plenty of time for everything we want to do, and no time for cleaning. ha! That hasn't even stressed me out, though. I get so caught up in the little irritations that I lose that time to relax when I am doing other things with the family. So I've been very intentionally praying about it, letting it go, and moving on. It's caused such deeper relaxation, this realization that it doesn't matter. Not just *knowing it doesn't matter, because, hello, I know that in my head, but actually *understanding it. Obviously it doesn't happen all the time, it's a process, but we've just had a great summer around here. :)

I've been piling stuff up, getting ready for School for Little Missy. We're going to have so much fun! 

I love the way school supplies look all fresh and clean. Oh, wait... scratch the 'clean' part. :)

My sweet Little Missy.

Sweet Eeq. Love them both so much! 

 What I've been canning! It's been a lot of slicing, dicing and chunking!

Pretty much the one crafty thing I did all summer. ha! I saw one of these chunky bracelets somewhere so I bought a couple of charms and a bracelet, then just put on a bunch of random stuff that I had in my craft supplies. The feather looking teal beads came off of a pair of earrings that my grandma sent me. They weren't my style to wear, but I love how they look!

I have peaches, tomatoes, and green peppers to process today, so I am off to get working!

Love in Him,

Taiya

Yum!

A friend showed me this link. You're welcome.

Love in Him,

Taiya

I Got An App For That

who knew they had an app for blogger? I just found out! Awesome!

Well now...

  I can't seem to keep up here. :) It's summer so we're busy. Also, we just had a fun round of ear infections and strep throat the last 2 weeks. Just for giggles. 

  I've been working in the garden, working in the house, picking fruit, processing fruit and all-out enjoying this beautiful weather! The girls and I have been doing a lot of playing outside, lately. We are absolutely having the best weather this summer! It's been warm, but not too hot most days and just nice out. I bought a slip n slide, which they like sitting on and getting wet. :) I got it for some friend's kids who were coming over for a couple of days, but my kids like to walk on it and sit on their butts and get water on themselves. Cheap entertainment. 

We have two kittens right at the moment. Jack and Spike. Spike will be going to my mom's house, but Jack is sweet and a keeper! He loves the kids and is really just a lovey sweet baby. I will post some photos soon of stuff, since it's way more interesting than my rambling!

We are going to be in a yard sale tomorrow so I am working, working, working on packing stuff up for that. More later, I think. ha

 Love in Him,

Taiya

 

Intervention

Much to the detriment of... well.. anyone who has a cell phone that accepts photos, and, well...  all of my facebook friends... someone gave me a smart phone with a camera on it. I am sure all smart phones have cameras, but, um.. well.. it needs to be said. I can.not. stop. taking. pictures. And possibly sending them to everyone I know, and facebook. Maybe. Just a little. 

Here are 5 of the photos I took... yesterday. Yep. Yesterday. 

 I am 

fairly certain

that my friends and family

will start calling for an intervention

very soon. 

Love in Him,

Taiya

Catch Up

I'm going to attempt to play catch up here. I've been really busy lately with this and that, so I really haven't time for blogging. I've barely had time for sleeping. Which seems odd, since I don't *do a lot, but somehow, I do actually do a lot. 

I'll just post some photos for now, and try to come back for a wordier (but not novel-like) post.

This is sweet Eeq in the Birthday Dress that Grandma. 

This is my 1-year-old, (Yes, ONE year old) Eeq. How did she grow so fast? How I love her! How could I not?

I made 2 cakes for Eeq's bday. One worked. One didn't. 

Birthday BBQ

 My awesome drink thingy!

A smile for Grandma. :) 

She had this "Why are you watching me eat!" look on her face the whole time she was eating her cake.

Blessings, Abundance

I am taking John 10:10 The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows) to heart, and it's made a world of difference. The more I acknowledge my blessings and wonders in the world, the more I am enjoying the full life that I have in Christ. Man, was I missing out. It's so easy to focus on the little things, the bad things, but the more that I open up thankfulness, acknowledge little wonders, the more I am enjoying the full life that I have been given! I'm not going to let the thief steal what is mine anymore. :)

  I love my girls, our activities, smiles, wind blowing, and sun shining. :) We are so blessed. Just yesterday my dad picked up a huge window a/c unit for us for free! I have to admit that I wasn't looking forward to a summer of no a/c downstairs in our room, since we moved our bedroom down here. However, the Lord provided (James 1:17- Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father), once again, and now we will be able to stay cool, or at least not be roasting all summer! We have 2 small window units for the upstairs bedrooms (one of which used to be ours, but won't fit in our new bedroom window), so the girls are already covered. It'll be so nice to be able to walk freely from room to room without melting this summer! 

 It's a little chilly and overcast today, but WONDERFUL! We had one 90* day a few days ago and I am so over that. ha

We've been super busy around her- scurrying around cleaning, baking, visiting, and so on. We had our last small group/bible study on wednesday and I made a cake that i didn't actually get any photos of. It was white cake with raspberry buttercream and a chocolate glaze. It was rich, and not quite what I wanted, but good nonetheless. :) We had a good time chatting and playing, and I'm looking forward to the fall small group schedule to start! My sweet Eeq turns one on Sunday! How is that even possible? We are having a BBQ so I've been cleaning and organizing like crazy to make up for the week's worth of no cleaning, and massive mess-making last week. It's looking pretty clean around here, just little stuff to get to- always a good feeling! 

I have a whole slew of photos from back a couple of weeks ago to now that I hadn't put on the computer, so... you know.. here they are:

We put up the tent that we last used on our honeymoon 6 years ago. :) It still had out-west dirt in it, which made me smile.

One of our garden boxes, mammoth sugar snap peas, scallions, and 2 rows of radishes.

When we bought our house 3 years ago there was a huge pile of branches and junk behind this barn. At least halfway up the barn. We finally got it all cleaned, roto-tilled and raked. :) Now we just need to clean up that junk, and get the barn all the way down.

This bush didn't come back last year (I planted it the year before), so I left in to see what would happen and it came back all the way this year!

Yuummmmmmmo.

Pickled Asparagus with Mustard Seed. Little Missy's new favorite munchie!

At a Memorial Day parade, having fun with friends.

Peppers and Onions for Turkey Pasta Salad- I thought it was beautiful.

Sweet Sisters.

Love in Him,

Taiya

Man, I've Been Busy!

Thought I'd use straight up honesty in my title today. I could also use, 'I am about to pass out-exhausted'. :D My hubs had vacation last week and we went nonstop. I wish I had photos, but I don't even know where my camera is, to tell you the truth. Also? I don't think I actually took that many photos. I spent my time *enjoying the moments (every. single. one.) and didn't take many photos at all. I went to a women's conference Thursday night until Friday  at midnight, basically. Then Saturday we woke up, packed and went camping with a friend of ours up north. Then we went to church with them, ate lunch, and drove about 40 minutes to visit *another friend. By the time we got home it was bedtime. Then we went to parades, ate, mowed the lawn (hubby did that, I napped) went grocery shopping for the week, went to *our church, finished our shopping and went home... to sleep. Again. And now he is back at work, and we are all ready to nap for a few weeks! 

We really did have a great week. If I could remember what we did at the beginning of the week I'd happily talk about it, but, well, that eludes me. Ooh- actually- we mowed, planted, mowed, played outside, planted,  visited with friends, mowed some more, and a lot of other stuff. :) 

I did get a few minutes to make a Nook cover for a friend of mine. I didn't get a good photo because I used Photo Booth on my computer with the iSite, but you know.. it's a photo. Ignore the trashed and torn house!  That is my to-do list this week. Eeq's first birthday party is Sunday and we want the house cleaned! This started as a pillow, but I wasn't really feeling it so I just kept it and it was big enough to make 2 of these covers, so I am going to get working on the next one and give it to a different friend with a nook.

Also? I am on a carpenter ant killing crusade. When it gets rainy and wet here we get invaded. We don't have them all of the time, so we aren't infested. They just come when it is wet and drive me *BATTY* then it gets dry and they are gone. This is a loooonnngggg wet season, though, so it's driving me extra batty this year. :) It will help when I get my house cleaned from this vacation. I can't believe on one weeks worth of being here, but not inside doing my normal cleaning, does to my house! It got so cluttered, messy, and dirty in 10 short days! 

At the women's conference I went to we had Lisa Bevere as a guest speaker. Man, is she awesome! Our pastor is Pastor Beth Jones, and I already loved her, but I am adding Lisa Bevere in there. The whole conference was amazing, and so full of God's presence! Pastor Beth has a way of speaking that makes it so easy to see what she means. She just lays it out, talks it out and a lightbulb goes off. I bought Lisa's new book: Lioness Arriving and the workbook to go with it. I *love it. I'm only a few chapters into the book, but I really recommend it. 

Well, I am off to do some of that cleaning, cooking, and getting some kids down for naptime!

Love in Him,

Taiya

6 Years

I have been married for 6 years tomorrow! If i just think 

"6 years?" I can't imagine where it's gone. If I think, really think about the 6 years? I can see every single minute of it, and how we reached 6 years! It's been such a full 6 years. We have had so much in our married life. I haven't always acknowledged it, I haven't always been thankful for it, I haven't always seen it. The fullness, the beauty, the more, that has been my life, our life, the last 6 years, but when I sit and think about it, when I open my heart and see it, feel it, breathe it... I know such fullness, such happiness of heart, such lightness of spirit. We have a great life, we have a great marriage, and I? I have a great, amazing, wonderful husband. I know that I forget that when I am irritated, grumpy, upset, but it's the truth. No matter the little things that cause me to grump, there is nothing, nothing I could possibly change about this man, about our life, our blessed, amazing, wonderful, perfect-for-us, life! Thank you, Jesus, for this gift, of husband, of marriage, of family. Thank you for this blessed life of mine.

Love in Him,

Taiya

May 17, 2011

We've been busy on and off here. Today I took a colossal nap with the girls, cleaned, visited with a friend, cooked, and so on. 

I'm trying to figure out the balance between working out (I'm down 16 pounds!), bible study, playtime, cleaning, cooking, and so on. I don't have it down yet. I think I'm going to start getting up earlier in the morning, before the girls, to buy myself some extra time for at least part of it. :)

We have been doing a John Bevere series with small group, called Extraordinary that I am loving. We have also been going through all of the verses that are "in him". On top of that I am just looking up verses that I feel led to read, and this is one of them.  I *love it. I am going to make something and put it up in Little Missy's room. I haven't decided if it is going to be a pillow, wall decoration or quote on the wall. It's simply a beautiful promise from a loving Father.

(click the photo to see it larger)

Love in Him,

Taiya

Whew!

I am sooo sleepy! We went to the zoo today for about 5 hours, then I went and helped my parents with some push mowing. I am *beat! I also barely took any photos at the zoo, because I was busy enjoying it. :) I am also? Starving! Off to get some leftover chicken fajita heated up. Long, wonderful day!

Love in Him,

Taiya

Just Thinkin'

I am much sleepy at the moment. My glasses are getting me down a little, but I can't exactly pinpoint why. They shouldn't, I do know that much. I can see, I can afford glasses, I don't have a debilitating eye-problem that is going to lead me into blindness. My life isn't worse off because of my glasses. Still, though. Something I need to work on. Had a busy weekend. Lots of rain and chill, but I'm not going to bum about that because summer and 100* will be here before I know it. Girls were whiny, grumpy, defiant today. I need to work on my attitude, because I let it get me down too much, and I lose patience. I need to work on that, my reaction, my unconditional patience and support. Praying, ever-praying. I will grow in the Lord, he will work in me. I will be patient, loving, kind, gentle with the kids, in all things, including discipline. I won't be hard, harsh, impatient, grumpy, or anything else. I won't let it bum me out. I won't let it get me down. I'll be strong in the Lord, and I'll hold tight to his word, his abundant grace, his abundant love. He has set me free, he will set me free. I'm so tired. We have a big day tomorrow. I need to get up and pack lunches, dry clothes, clean house, make cookies, play, relax, enjoy, exercise, love. Off to bed I go, morning will be here soon. A fresh new day for me to revel in. To enjoy. 

Love in Him,

Taiya

Yesterday's Fun and Crafts

I made a case for my Kindle at some point over the last week. I didn't want it damaged, and I didn't want to spend $30 on a drab case. :) So I made this one. I am very pleased with the way it turned out! Behind it is the flower that my hubby brought home and surprised me with on Tuesday! So sweet and happy!

Yesterday my mom and I took the girls to South Haven. :) We had lots of fun! We stopped at my mom's house to pick her up, and she had this beautiful tree in her yard! Every year it is pretty, but this year it went all out!

My jumperoo girl!

This has to be one of the ugliest houses I have ever seen. It's right on the harbor just a few steps off of the beach. If you have that kind of money, why make it ugly?!

 I *love those cheeks!

This is one of those $20 cheapy Disney tables that comes with 2 folding chairs. We've had it since Christmas 2009, and Little Missy finally ripped a hole in the plastic cover. So I ripped off the cover...

...and replaced it with a piece of pretty batik fabric! This is a pretty crappy picture, but it is overcast and my kitchen has no light to see by. 

It's asparagus season! I pickled some this morning. Can't wait to try it! It looks so pretty in jars that I just want to decorate with it, though.

Granola. No sooner do I make it then it is gone! I made it with peach puree instead of apple this time and I liked it much better.

Off to get lunch for the fam!

Love in Him,

Taiya