gone and back

there and gone already...


we spent the good part of july with wonderful friends in the alaskan bush


love that top photo with the shadow of our little plane on the tundra


took all photos with my iPhone...left my rebel at home (!) since we have to travel very light on these trips



and this one makes my heart swell everytime...


my men (and a young friend watching) walking the long path to the plane


we were leaving the first village and heading to the second


we've gone to this first village the last 3 years...meeting up with another family (native alaskans) to provide Bible School and basketball programming


it was our church's 10th year in the second village...elders got up during to church to sing us some of the first hymns they learned in English when they were children.  gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.  what an HONOR.  Jesus was so right...it's all about building relationships and trust with people...whether it's next door or far away.


what beautiful friendships God has given us!


 In other news, Shannon over at Vintage Restyled featured our home on her blog! I can't tell you how blessed I was by her invitation to share. Thanks, Shannon!

 

now home, we're all taking our antibiotics to get over respiratory junk


{we did go from 103 degrees to 40 overnight}


doing laundry...playing with the dogs...catching up with the neighbors


grateful for it all

western union

so americana

the union last fall of lauren bush (granddaughter & niece of presidents bush)

and david lauren (son of ralph lauren) 

i know i'm late to the ball

not sure how i missed such a beautiful event

these photos just sing "america" though

and like many americans who help others...lauren is also the mind behind feed

{a line i've loved since seeing it at PB long ago-you can buy this at nordstrom right now}

and even though this post is about a union...

it is independence day here in the land of spacious skies


and amber waves of grain


happy independence day, america!

*all photos google image

summer lovin'

this has to be my new all-time favorite picture of me and my little chickadees

and something about black and white just speaks to me...

do you know what i mean?

but then i look at the living, popping color 

and love that, too

mostly i'm happy for cameras which capture life

hold it by it's squirming, moving-at-warp-speed tail

and before releasing

give you a souvenir of sorts

a remembrance

CLICK

it's a beautiful sound

of paint and dogs

well, hello there!

i've been away so long that uploading pictures stumped me for a moment

last day of school 'round these parts today and we've been studying, project-ing, and winding down

college girl is home and none of us can fathom her freshman year is over

spring baseball has ended and summer ball has begun

as for me, i've been doing the usual mom stuff plus painting furniture and doing some work through my decorating business {ROOST}

the secretary above used to be a blue-green color with a fruit basket painted on the front

i sure am loving annie sloan chalk paint...

and speaking of loving...although i am not necessarily a dog lover

i am beginning to fall for this little girly named missy

the neighbor i had been helping for the past few years passed away and we inherited many things including little miss

i tried to give her away (she was never house trained!) but the nurse who agreed to adopt her (with my neighbor's blessing) had a husband who returned missy less than 24 hours later...(yes, she was that bad)

well, lo and behold...missy is learning quickly, beginning to get along with our dog, and winning us over left and right 

{i'll do another post sometime about all the smart tricks she knows}

life is good....

health, family, friends, and sunshine

furry surprises that end up being little joybearers

and a clean (and newly painted!) kitchen table

doesn't get much better than this

xoxo

ready to smile?

last night we closed our spring baseball chapter

our high school sophomore made us proud

his playing...his maturity...his level head...his perspective

he traveled to georgia with his teammates over spring break

and we heard they sang along to the radio a lot

i can picture them acting like these harvard boys

i'm so glad God made boys!

ubuntu

we tend to be an individualistic culture (me)

clearly, these african kids live in a collectivistic culture (us)

beauty full

An anthropologist proposed a game to African tribe kids. He put a basket full of fruit near a tree and told them that whoever got there first won the sweet fruits. When he told them to run they all took each others hands and ran together, then sat together enjoying their treats. When he asked them why they had run like that as one could have had all the fruits for himself they said: UBUNTU, how can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?

UBUNTU in the Xhosa culture means: "I am because we are"

by irlan gampamole

risen

photo: sharon moses

happy easter

xoxo