By
Lena on November 17th, 2009
Posted in General | 6 Comments »
You know how you never use an oven mitt with a lid that is on a stove-top pan? Because, the lid isn’t hot and everything?
Well,
Lydia was making dinner tonight and she had one of those pans with a lid on it that you usually put on the stove in the oven. So she took it out of the oven with mitts and put it on the stove. However, she obviously forgot that it was hot because ten seconds later she had her hand under cold water because she had burned herself trying to take the lid off without the mitt. That was bad enough. But she tossed me the mitt so I could take care of the pan, which I did.
Five seconds later I joined her at the faucet because I’d forgotten the lid was hot and tried picking it up with my bare hand.
By
Lena on October 31st, 2009
Posted in General | 3 Comments »
Happy 16th, Birthday my darling sis! I love you so much and I’ve been truly blessed over the years by our friendship: We’ve shared the best of times with a few worst ones thrown in. Despite our differences in personality and other things, we’ve always gotten along and, out of all my peers, you are still my closest, my favorite, and my best friend. You still are the only one who can make me let go of my “dignity” enough to do things that aren’t “proper” – and I love that about you. Your exuberance over life and your determination to enjoy it and try new things has been infectious! I love the fact that we always have fun together; that we understand what the other one is thinking; that you are always ready to listen to what I have to say; that you build me up and encourage me to go farther; and that you are always prepared to help me if I ask you! I have few, if any, regrets over our friendship in the past 16 years, because we’ve always ‘clicked’ so well that our disagreements never lasted long.
You have not only been gifted by many talents, but you have taken those and pushed forward and excelled. Your diligence has paid off so much in the formation of excellent habits and I know it will continue to pay off in your life.
You have filled your life with good, biblical and right things and it is so much of a joy to see you grow daily in your walk with God. You are truly becoming a Proverbs 31 woman, and, I have no doubt, one day your future 20+ children will rise up and call you blessed!
My life is filled with memories of the times we’ve spent together, mostly little things but things that will always stick in my mind because we had so much fun together doing them:
~when we were little and Dad told us to clean our room: which was so messy you literally couldn’t see the floor. We got it clean, however, in about 15 minutes. We stuffed everything under our bed and called Dad in for inspection. We thought we were so smart about it all! Several hours later, our room was finally clean.
~playing in our room on summer days with stuffed animals and jump ropes – when we were supposed to be in bed – but hey! we stayed “in bed”, although I still remember and laugh over “the bolt of Tash falls from above”.
~going to the beach and taking long walks with you, playing in our room with pillows, watching movies and making ridiculous comments, dancing in the sand.
~taking “5 minute breaks” in Saturday chores to play a quick game of double solitare or manacala.
~cooking in the kitchen on Saturday mornings while dancing to Bluegrass music; learning how to ball-room dance with you; playing ultimate frisbee together; “snowboarding” down our hill (if at all possible, we’ll do actual snowboarding this year.. on a real hill!)
~our study sessions for Gileskirk and Greek, where we egged each other on with comments on how we’ve got to study because so-and-so said this… and which usually involved more laughter than study.
~our spontaneous late night talks about everyone and everything, the jokes we share together.. and always will because no one else would get them or think them funny.
~all the surprises, parties, crazy ideas and fun things we’ve planned together and executed – some more successfully than others.
~all our long walks and hikes together: talking about this and that.
and so many more that they are almost uncountable…
May the coming years of your life be blessed, full of love for people, abounding grace, and the joy and peace of Christ!
I love you, Lydia!
By
Lena on October 13th, 2009
Posted in General | No Comments »
The person who said this needs to rethink their statement:
“I’m not a follower of anyone or anything! I’m a thinker. I make up my own mind.”
By
Lena on October 8th, 2009
Posted in General | No Comments »
Ephesians 2: 1 – 10
1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenlyplaces in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
By
Lena on September 12th, 2009
Posted in General | 1 Comment »
Saw these tonight on a blog I read and thought I’d post them here. They’re funny if uh, a little cynical.
Law of Probability: The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.
Law of Random Numbers: If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal and someone always answers.
Law of Close Encounters: The probability of meeting someone you know increases dramatically when you are with someone you don’t want to be seen with.
Law of the Alibi: If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tire, the very next morning you will have a flat tire.
Law of Results: When you try to prove to someone that a machine won’t work, it will.
Law of Shopping: If the shoe fits, it’s ugly.
Law of Marketing: As soon as you find a product you like, they will stop making it.”
Galena
By
Lena on August 31st, 2009
Posted in General | No Comments »
The Macks introduced us to a coffee shop while they were visiting here, so today Greta, Pete and I headed down there on a date.
Greta and Peter as we started out.
“The” Dune. We didn’t climb it today: far too windy.
They decided on Mango-Strawberry smoothies and a cinnamon-pastry to split. I wasn’t hungry so I mainly took pictures instead.
Peter: Greta’s and my protector on our walk.
Greta sipping her smoothie.
When you’re the person holding the camera – you don’t get too many shots of yourself: especially when you have a lense that prohibits self-photography. So instead, here’s a photo Lydia was kind enough to take of me when we were up on the Cape.
By
Lena on August 29th, 2009
Posted in General | No Comments »
Lydia and Anya already posted a number of photos, but here are a few more. Unfortunately I’ve run out of room on my Picasa account so now I have to figure out another way to get photos online.
Most of you probably aren’t aware of this (we’ve kept it secret for quite some time) but Lydia, inspired by all the men and women of the past, has been trying to fly for quite some time. She’s actually making progress as the below photos testify:
As for me, I’ll stick with running:
We had the Macks over one day and Talitha taught Lydia how to do front hand-springs down our “big” dune.
On Tuesday and Wednesday we went down to Cape Lookout where WPC was holding their family camp. We had a great time!
Getting ready for a game of volleyball.
Trying to get warm again after playing in the (cold) ocean. Brrr… It was fun though – and I’m going out today if it clears up.
Jessica K.
Katrina B.
Mom and Iona.
The sunset Wednesday night.
And to finish off – here’s a few misc. photos from the past week:
Pete.
Most of us – all looking a little weird.
Pete again.
Karl, Lydia, and Greta.
Greta.
By
Lena on July 31st, 2009
Posted in General | 3 Comments »
Okay…
a couple of days ago our oven broke – lock, stock and barrel. (well, the stove-top works, if we’re brave enough to use it when the rest of the appliance is faulty)
and last night our freezer stopped working. Uh-oh. Result: bunch of stuff gone over to a friend’s house to put in their freezer; 6 pies over to a friend’s house to cook in their oven (made with thawed berries); everything that doesn’t *have* to be in a freezer taken out and scattered randomly stacked neatly in our kitchen; inside freezer stuffed to bursting with everything that will fit from the other freezer; and a cooler full of things that needs to either be eaten in the next few days or thrown away. Oh yes, and during this time I found out our blender was broken.
Anyway, we eventually got the kitchen spot-less and I’m thankful we ended up saving most of the food and that we have a new freezer and stove ordered, which will arrive sometime next week. In the meantime we’ll be eating a lot of vegetables, meat, and blueberry pie.
Oh – and I’m very, very thankful that we aren’t supposed to bring the main dish to our macro group on Sunday.
By
Lena on July 18th, 2009
Posted in General | 4 Comments »
Yep. They’re skinning a goat – and I know it looks like we hanged her but what really happened is that around 4 o’clock this afternoon our herd queen decided to kick the bucket and die (probably a combination of milk fever and the heat) – despite Lydia’s attempts to save her.
Not wanting to let the opportunity of learning out to skin slip by, Lydia set to work (Apparently, she has plans of curing the hide for a rug in our room and mounting the head above her desk – I think she should make herself some Sunday clothes and create a new fashion trend).
Anyway, after a trip to the store to get a sharp knife, they went out there and started hacking away. The pictures are from about 45 minutes into the process – so it looks like it’s going to take them awhile.
BTW: She (the goat) left two kids which we are now going to have to dispatch – apparently Karl wants to skin those also.
Edit (after Lydia’s comment): Just in case anyone was wondering, I am sorry that the goat died – although it’s more because it made Lydia sad/sorry than because I was attached to Jezebel.
