sunrise, sunrise... celebrating 13 years with my beloved

On the day of our 13th wedding anniversary something extraordinary happened! Shane was actually able to take the day off and celebrate with me for the first time in more than 10 years! Usually he's working football doubles in mid-August which means 16 hour workdays for him. This year it worked out for him to take the day off and his wonderful dad and stepmom blessed us with tickets to an outdoor Norah Jones concert in Bend, dinner out and babysitting! It was our first real date in almost a year. We had a great dinner at Greg's Grill in the Old Mill district in Bend, enjoyed reserved seats for the concert with fabulous weather and great local wine and ice cream for dessert before heading back to Shane's dad's house. Our kids did great and although it was hard for me to leave Silas, spending time with Shane alone was worth it.

mt. angel octoberfest 2012

blessed by bible bee

This summer our family participated in a 12 week family study of the book of 2 Timothy. We spent an hour in in-depth study of this book of the bible every single weekday of the summer and wow, how blessed we were by it. The girls each had their own study books and together we studied these four chapters so much that Annah can recite the first two chapters of 2 Timothy by heart. We learned what it means to be a man of God instead of a man of self, how to stand up for Christ when being persecuted amoung other things and we were all so encouraged in our faith walk plus the family bonding that happened as we did this together was so special.

As if the 1 hour daily study wasn't enough the girls also memorized almost 300 verses, yes 300! over the course of the summer. Together we memorized 3-4 bible passages (between 1 and 10 verses per passage) each week during Bible Bee. On Thursday evenings we got together with our local Bible Bee Hive club in McMinville and played games, recited scripture for prizes and did fun crafts to reinforce what we were learning. Our weekly Bible Bee evenings were the absolute highlight of the summer for our family. The girls loved it and Shane and I were blown away and challenged by their diligence in memorizing so much scripture. We memorized it to music with a special CD we bought from the National Bible Bee office which helped a lot.

On August 24th the girls participated in the Bible Bee Contest, a very serious and intense contest including a 1 hour written exam and a 20 minute oral drill to test their comprehension and memorization of the verses. The top qualifiers from this contest now go on to the National Bible Bee competition in Tennessee this fall. Although the girls didn't qualify for nationals they did such a great job and the Bible Bee contest day was such a big day for them. The real prize anyway wasn't going to nationals or winning trophies, but hiding God's word in their heart. And not only did the girls gain that, but Shane and I also grew in our knowledge of our Lord and so did a certain little 5 year old foster child in our home who memorized close to 100 verses herself. She no longer lives with us but I pray that the seeds that were planted in her heart through Bible Bee will take root, grow and glorify the Lord no matter where her life takes her.

a day with the aunties

food carts and farmers' markets; a Saturday in Silverton

gleaning blueberries

another harvest

These August days are long and busy with the boiling canning pot going every day and my outdoor canning kitchen working overtime. The Lord has blessed us with abundance in our own garden and lots of local produce this season. In addition to canning our own garden surplus we've been busy picking from local farms and also lots of wild berries. Our food budget is way down this month as so much of what we're eating we've grown or raised ourselves. Just yesterday I embarrassed myself (and my kids!) by gleaning apples from a tree on public common ground in my friend's posh Portland neighborhood. Many apples were already rotting on the ground and apparently no one in that neighborhood cared much about picking or canning the tart apples. This morning while light rain fell outside the girls and I cooked those apples slowly over the stove top until they melted into a thick, delicious apple butter. Lunch was hot apple butter spread thick on homemade cinnamon raisin bread with scrambled eggs fresh from the coop out back. A few yellow pear tomatoes picked by West rounded out the meal. For me days spent like this and meals built from what we've grown or made ourselves is what makes life fulfilling, blissful and sweet.

A few weeks ago we signed up with Salem Harvest a great local organization that organizes harvests or "gleanings" of local farms that have a surplus of crops once the farmers are through harvesting. Volunteers from the organization like us come in a pick the leftover crops and get to keep half (for free!) and donate the other half to the local food share. It's a win-win and because we are in the valley where farms are everywhere there are harvest going almost everyday this month. Blueberries, plums, apples, cherries, and on it goes. Tonight we joined an apple harvest on a beautiful piece of land outside West Salem. While the sun set over the hills we laughed with fellow harvesters, the kids ran through the corn fields and Shane and I picked buckets and buckets of apples, about 200 pounds worth. Tomorrow I'll begin the process of making applesauce, apple pie filling, dried apples and more apple butter. I can hardly wait!