this is the stuff of life.

no, this is not exactly a food journal blog, but i'm eating this wonderful red leaf lettuce with raspberry vinaigrette (not homemade, no;) and walnuts.
and blogging for the first time in two days. last night i didn't because i needed to shut this thing down and get some sleep.
which...you only get to close to the concept when you're reading a book like green. ;)

yay! you get webcam pictures today! hah. just showing off my bandaids for you all.
since my sd card filled up the rest of the way the other day, and i haven't gotten to wallyworld to get a nice 4gb for $13 yet..... i'm not taking pictures lately.
boohoo, right?
well, leaves more time for reading. or something.

on another note, raise your hand, whoever likes getting cut by plates breaking while you're washing dishes.
the middle finger of my left hand, and the pinky finger also, got sliced today.
i was innocently washing dishes, stacking plates strategically on top of cups and bowls, nearing the end of cleaning the kitchen this morning. then, one slipped. didn't like the place where i put it. all the other 4 followed it, and next thing i know after the loud noise, i feel the sting of pain and see blood making its way out of the better/deeper angle slice in my middle finger.
oh joy.
so after a while, rinsing it in cold, purified drinking water, i got some bandaids out.
ya for bandaids.
i'm not a fan of wounds, though.
and re-typing a word 3 times to get it right with a big bandaid inhibiting the proper spelling in a blog post.
heh.
:)

i also woke up with a frog's voice instead of my own.
when we walked to the coffee shop in town with john and karen (great book-etc friends who used to go to our church:) later this morning, i had the pleasure of talking books with everyone...and listening half the time because i sounded horrible.

hahah.
books? mainly ted dekker and the thoene writers. :)

last night, heather came for the afternoon/dinner with ry and kay--a couple of her younger siblings...steph was home, sick:( we missed her a lot. nothing's ever the same without one person. sheesh. :\
anna, heath, and i took a walk. yesterday was beautiful, today was, also, until about an hour ago. wind tends to help clouds move.....and they've moved over the sun for us. oh well. 1 1/2 days was splendid, i tell you. splendid!!
we discussed the latest chapter in the liz study. it was lot's wife, turned into a pillar of salt. how much of a hold do your material possessions have on your life? in the end it's all going to be basically worthless.
inbetween discussing that, we laughed and probably even set a record for laughing in one night of them being here. almost set a record.

so....monday, we're going to meet halfway at a destination point and bring jen and pj home with us!
then, thursday, we're doing the same thing to take them home. fun stuff, i tell ya.
i can't wait.
last time we saw them, jen was getting married. this time she's pregnant. ahhh! exciting.

well, it looks like rain.
i always say, after a beautiful day or two, there's nothing more romantic than an afternoon rainfall.
[definitely just made that up. but with the civil wars playing in the background? come on. what isn't good about that?]
maybe i'll paint today.

artistic endeavors: e.e. cummings and a flower.

this is the one i listed last night on my newly-opened etsy.
and am i the only one thinking, what a freakin' simple title? boring? yeah. oh well.

oh boy. i went to bed at midnight. woke at 8. made lunch before 11am. (broccoli; homemade vegan cream of mushroom soup; quick brown rice.) brewed half a pot of coffee for me and dad. had lunch with the fam. finished the current chapter in the liz curtis higgs study. read a chapter or two of green. took a nap from 1:30-4.
you read that right.
the first nap in weeks.

i slept so good that when i woke, i couldn't remember if it was night, afternoon, or morning. and i had dreamed a strange dream of hanna and i taking a trip over the small reach of ocean to japan on floaties. these kinds. all the while, i remember thinking ohmygosh; what about the radiation; oh well, we must be in a safe place if hanna's coming here...
we then were held hostage, basically, once we went into a certain building. nasty man watching the security camera beneath a stairwell wouldn't let us go out the door. not the best dream ever. mom, anna, and lyd came to rescue us, and finally we were out of there...and there was where my dream stopped.

i'm so thankful that weird freaky dreams don't follow you to real life.
*shudder*

this was april 18. that was a day we woke up to an inch or so of snow.
shocker.
but at least it happened to be a day that turned out well for painting. :)

this is one lady i just found a few weeks ago....i love her style. earthy. bohemian. etcetera. my little loves.

mmmmm.....

with the weather we've all had lately [though ours is just normal-soggy-cloudy type, not the super swirly dangerous kind], i feel that we should make a print of this above picture or something. hang it as huge as we can on our living room wall. or bedroom wall, so we can wake up to such pretty flowers.
dang.
i need to plant a garden full of daisies someday at my house.

11:03
whew. the night took a turn for the worse with sibling drama.
almost all fixed now. 10 minutes can do a lot.

i loved keeping that last line blank for the longest time.
how many family members came up, tried to guess what the word was?
hmm:)

i'm so excited for sarah and kyle with their new baby charlotte. not to mention i love the name they chose:)

by the way, i have no idea what that splotch is right there to the bottom of the top leaf. maybe a drop of coffee? no idea! all i know is, i wiped it away with a damp cloth and it was gone.

just found this dwell in the season blog. looks inspiring.
aaaaaaand.....i'm out of words.
must be that nap and freaky dream that scared all the word count out of me. :P
hah.

For I, the LORD your God,
   hold your right hand;
it is I who say to you, "Fear not,
   I am the one who helps you."
[Isaiah 41:13]

a thrift store ramble.

i'm going to write about the thrift/junk shop we went into on saturday; mom, anna and i.
i have pictures.

{because i'm a blogger,} i take the liberty of keeping my nikon around my neck. it's the most awesome necklace. gets heavy, but it's worth it. 
;)

one last thing i have to say is, if anyone takes me shopping, they need to make sure i've had an espresso-laden drink first. i get so sleepy when we're walking around in stores, especially kohls, for more than 10 minutes... if you want good company, you need an awake person. i get tired and grumpy. but with espresso? i'm a brand new person. sadly, the espresso started to wear off near the end there. i take an ax to anybody's indecisiveness in the most effective way possible. i'm just so good at it. hah.
so, yeah, that was my long word of warning. :)

i said toodles to my reflection before we stepped into the madhouse.
as i cue you to play a game of find beka [reminisce to find waldo;] . . . let me just say that i posted my first canvas in my etsy shop.
i. am. psyched.
it's one i haven't posted on here yet. :) an e.e. cummings quote! and the design was from my head. thanking God i can branch out from just inspiration by rodney white and all that. hah.

i almost got hives stepping in this place, but they seemed to have some good deals; dvd's in great condition for under $5...a set of the LOTR books, hardcover and in their series box, for $20.

 er......my ocd tendencies were striving beneath the surface. like a match beneath a down-turned bottle.

one of the freakiest parts of that place.
talk about...junk pile? the shades of color those rugs are in weren't even that attractive.

one of the best places in that store. 3 of my favorite films. :)

tea cups. i like tea cups. don't own any... yet... but i like 'em.

totally had me thinking of lisa samson's retired cuppa shop. sniff sniff.
the place i didn't get to visit. it lived and died before i got to set foot inside the door. 

another one of my favorite places in that shop.
good ol' vintage stuff...and oh, look there! johnny dear!
;)
put coffee on the same shelf, and you've got a wonderful picture.

just like heaven. one of the movies we bought:) it's a darling one. 

arranged. one of anna's favorites... sadly, i've yet to see anything but the ending. i need to remedy that. it's very recommended.

uh yeah. more, more, more. mostly junk. that's what i saw. classical music for people who hate classical music? i saw a book with cassette tapes in it by that title.

alrighty..... i know you all are dying to run to your hair-do-er to get this done to you.
yeah. it used to be cool, didn't it? or is it still? because if i'm going for a not-so-normal-flat look, i want all over waves or curls. if that be the case.
before i took the picture, i stared at it (mom and anna were dealing with the old man who runs the place) and noticed the formation of her hair and how it was cut, and the curls....and then i smiled. i thought of you guys. er, ladies. whoever you are reading this in the next 24 hours or 24 days.

just writing that last sentence made me think of the really good movie the last three days.
it's just the hugest bonus ever that russell crowe is in it... ya know?
mhmmm:)
is anyone else with me?
wow. this song. i love her voice. 

just listening to kim's rendition of how he loves.
i'm going to put my head on my pillow before midnight.
i hope. unless someone, a certain sister, stops me along the way to talk for a bit...

lists. and the ramblings about them.

because my sd card is full [takes maybe 3 weeks-ish to fill up a 4gb for $12] i only have 3 pictures today so far.
it's 2pm.
gosh it's fun being productive.
organizing.
even if it's not necessarily my personal stuff that needs the work, but rather house stuff that belongs to anyone in the fam.
that's what i did. in a few areas. nothing like a more organized space. it lets you breathe. lets you think.
just a little bit more.
before that, i even made a list.
i'm going to try to grow into a bit more of a list-maker-do-er person...since i wasn't born that way.
i see in other people's lives that it's quite beneficial.
;)
what kind are you?
list-maker, or spontaneous?

i started reading this book by roger rosenblatt today while drinking my coffee.
it's called unless it moves the human heart; the craft and art of writing.
um, yes. you read that right.
i started another book. *rolls eyes* i really need to stop doing that. but thank goodness it's a smaller sort of book --the size of which i could imagine myself writing someday-- and i finished this little mommy stayed home last night. 
the ending was really good. i was just so thankful that everything that mattered got ironed out. people confessed; people made up; people realized where they screwed up and turned back from it. started over.
so.......at least i finished one book;)

this was from yesterday.
back to why i need to make lists and do them.
apparently, a lot more gets done if you do make lists, and you end up feeling like a better person --as long as you don't run other people over in your ambitions; remember the fruits of the spirit;) and the do unto others-- so.... remember that wingback chair, last september? well, i finally got some cording for the cording stuff. that was a circle of a sentence, on purpose.
redundant. i like doing it once in a while.

i got cording when i bought the elastic and ribbon for those skirts i'm making. hah.

so, this was my 'last-night' ^^ got spit up on three times by the cute girl twin. the little boy is such a ham. adorable, i say. :)

we went outside at first.korah wasn't home from dance class yet...
so, for an hour i played kickball outside with rach, lyd, and the two older boys in the family. [christopher and jonah.] my legs are feeling it today. running up and down stairs {i don't walk them} gets really fun. burn, baby, burn.

also, something really super random: last night when we went home, i saw that dad purchased a new bottle of raspberry vinaigrette. different brand. can't wait to try it out. obviously, the picture was taken because yesterday the fridge got cleaned. ;) my excitement over the clean fridge + vinaigrette was hardly containable. heh.

another random thing: lately i've been controlling myself on the coffee. since we're on our last 2lb bag of coffee to last another week (it's around halfway gone), i have probably 3 cups...and after that, i make this stuff called caffix. it's not even an instant coffee. it's barley stuff. i mix it with enough water that it's like a cup of black coffee, then a bit of milk....and a teaspoon or two worth of ovaltine to balance out the strange sort of coffee taste.
no side effects [like overdosing on caffeine]. but something yummy.
. . .it's one of those peaceful, cloudy, probably-will-rain days. tonight is the first official softball practice for our church league [small, made up of men at church plus friends we invite] if it doesn't start pouring before then.
and afterwards, probably panera bread for a super late celebration of anna's birthday. life was so darn busy at the end of march.
just a note: i can't wait to write about the thrift store mom, anna and i went into on saturday.
haha.

link love, shauna niequist, and cuddly boys:)

i love how brant wrote this: what if we all disagree on stuff?
and when disagreement leads to disunity.

i'm kind of reallyreally liking shauna niequist's writing. i found this video yesterday on the yt and loved what i've seen so far (made it halfway through before pausing it and finishing something else...er...bad habit.)
a paraphrase/memory quote of something she said:

{younger} people tend to think pain is bad, success is good. 

brokenness....it's one of those places where God does the most in us.

since i get to go watch those twins and the rest of the kids again tonight while anna's in birth class for doulahood, i'm going to try to post this before 3 or 4pm....

i have more link love.
can you believe it?
i struck it rich last night, saved my tabs in firefox, and went to bed around 12.

first of all, i was browsing around a deeper story.
that is a beautiful place. i tell you.
and from there i scrolled down and clicked on the story tellers....
they've added more since i first discovered them.

imperfect prose. i am in love with that lady's header.

the life artist.
i love her post on watching the passion: wherein a blog sometimes looks like a journal of ramblings...

haleykc. out of the overflow of her heart, her mouth speaks.

No. 17 cherry tree lane.

tout-est-des-roses.

sarah markley: the best days of my life.
i love her header, too. :) i can't wait to check her blog out. on a day when have an empty afternoon. heh heh.

tamara out loud. her blog looks quite promising. very honest.....very i'm-searching-for-a-word-for-it. i'm going to read her post: random crap i learned while trying unsuccessfully to be good.

a song to listen to: shadowfeet: brooke fraser. yt won't let me embed it, so you get the name only today.

good news: i was painting today.

other good news: one of ben's c28 hoodies was lying about, and it is so darn comfy.

danny said he was cold, so we cuddled up in the hoodie while lyd tried her hand at kitchen photography. ;)
i love the above shot. she captured it so well, and the sunlight was beautiful.

i'm quite proud of her for the photos she got, what can i say? :)

seriously one of my favorites. it's just so quirky:)

lyddie and a bible study she wanted to start when us older ones were starting ours.
little sisters are copycats, it's true. it's a fact. but thankfully sometimes copycatting can be cute, and even beneficial. ;)

if you didn't push play on that shauna niequist video, or you pushed play and didn't make it past 2 minutes or something like that, read this quote and go listen to that video, all the way through.
it's worth the 25 minutes. wow, yes. believe me. it's making me tear up right now; 23 minutes.
it tugs at your heart with the truth.

sidenote: while googling shauna niequist quotes, i stumbled upon this post in a livejournal.
sidenote #2: i added a bit of explanation to the pictures on my tired, nearly wordless easter post.


so this is the work i'm doing now, and the work i invite you into: when life is sweet, say thank you and celebrate. and when life is bitter, say thank you and grow.
[Shauna Niequist: Bittersweet]