lately in our lives

We celebrated first wedding anniversary on Monday in a London phonebooth...
in Casablanca eating pita...

in Midtown with James Herriot...

and at a British tea shop in Florence!We sound like world travelers, don't we? :) I didn't notice that before.

A favorite part...falling asleep to the sound of pounding rain on Saturday the 21st. Don't usually get such a treat. The rain is usually quieter.

We also played a little dress up on our actual anniversary day, putting on our wedding clothes again & taking a few pictures of ourselves. I'm thankful Andrew goes along with his wife who still likes to play dress up. :)

Thanksgiving we spent with our Poet family, walking a 3 mile race/run, making homemade lattes, playing Spades & Hearts, and eating delicious food. The rain came down in torrents in the afternoon, making beautiful sounds & bringing a whoosh of chill into the hot kitchen. I was so delighted, I had to take a picture, so here it is, Stonepile Farm on Thanksgiving Day:

I don't want to forget these things

It was one of those walks. The temperature, breeze, leaves lifted, light, & sound all transported me back to South Dakota & washed me with awareness. Reminded me of several walks home in S.D., this walk to work I had this morning. His presence was there & loving me.

This weekend...my friend Laryn & I went to a craft bazaar. We walked into the entry way of the beautiful home hosting the bazaar & women surrounded Laryn, exclaiming over her swollen belly, oohing & ahhing & bestowing glorious, sweet joy, loving words & touches. Laryn was basking in it & I got a taste of it too. How appropriate...reminded me of Elizabeth & Mary in Luke 1. Generosity was shown to me too. I found a gift for my sister Erin's birthday (be watching the mail, soon, Angeldust!) & was given a precious gift myself. It has been over a year that I'd wanted a pretty, simply framed chalkboard to write inspirations on & I found it at the bazaar, more wonderful that I'd imagined it. The price was in my range, if I'd been shopping for myself, but it was given to me as a gift from the lady who made it. What! Generosity was shown to me, more than I deserved or expected.

Afterward, Andrew & I met with a student interested in serving as a Campus Catalyst for his university. (If you want to know what this means, go to www.campusamerica.org to read stories, watch the video & get involved with praying on college campuses.) I was feeling nervous & insecure about what to talk about, how to encourage, really feeling like my role in Campus America was the wrong size for me & I was too small to fit into it. But it was wonderful. Fredrick told us stories & we told him stories & my spirit was refreshed, being reminded of the God Most High who's still actively answering the prayers of His children. Groundless worrying, why do I get stuck so much?

And Sunday...listening to a Damien Rice song, I was distracted, missed the exit I was supposed to take & ended up taking a ten minute detour on my way to a book club. We're reading the book "Captivating" by John & Stasi Eldridge, learning about unveiling beauty this week. That detour that seemed like a waste of time, the song I happened to be listening to, I realized later these happenings were instrumental in teaching me about love. Abandoned, wild, passionate, generous, love. When it's "safe" to give, when circumstances allow, the timing's just right, love is crazy & sometimes makes no sense...

...somewhat like this post.

biographies (and a plug for libraries)

Lately, I've been terribly interested in reading biographies. Yesterday Andrew & I were at the library & I checked out a few books. Among the ones I'm most excited about are:

Ooh, I love American history! Don't know much about Martha Washington, except for her alleged gingerbread cake recipe (thanks mom!), which happens to go great with applesauce. I heard recently that she was perhaps the best First Lady of the U.S., and I want to know why.

Classic Hollywood is another area of interest for me, and, I admit, for me one of the draws of reading biographies happens to be the glossy picture section in the middle. The Grace Kelly book has some beautiful pictures & I especially liked seeing the ones from her years as Princess Grace of Monaco, a part of her life I'm not as familiar with.

Right now Andrew & I are waiting for our "Financial Peace University" class to start. It's a finance class done by Dave Ramsey that our church is doing the curriculum for. It's been a lot of fun, and I'm SO THANKFUL that we've had the opportunity to do it. There's hope, even with student loans & such! Our goal is to be debt free in five years...and how we entertain ourselves is by taking advantage of our public library & check out free DVDs & books! Yes, libraries are a wonder...