oh hi strangers. here's some grassy pictures for ya...

so, june 5 i sat out on the front lawn and read. i do believe this was the day that i was reading james 2.

where's your favorite place to read?
mine are......the front lawn, in bed, on the back yard swing.....
i'm quite tempted to blog the next day's pictures in the folder: a thursday of swing dancing, obviously; but dinner with a blueberry muffin first.
a beautiful evening, right? heck yes. ;)

steadfast.

in which the grand gestures of love look a bit different these days.
[the above is a post by sarah, at emerging mummy. iloveit.]

....faded from those far off dreams of europe and urban lofts and fill-in-the-blank greatness, and more vivid and present in the absolute loveliness of this worthy moment full of the steadfast. the hard and the beautiful.

God.

love.

time.
...because time is always there; it's steadfast, also.

olafur arnolds music. ♥

We dream no longer of urban lofts on busy streets. We don't even dream of being important. We find ourselves learning to let go. We don't dream of overseas adventures often nor do we dream of fame and fortune. Being busy seems rather overrated.
We dream of old farmhouses surrounded by trees that have a tire swing. We dream of gardens and family homesteads. We dream of big family with happy chaos and barefoot summers. We dream of roots going down, growing old together. We dream of a simple and slower life together, close to each other all of our days.

[this was a draft from a few months ago that i decided to publish. weirdly enough, blogger let me upload a picture?! i have yet to officially check out my options and buy something, because this week has been crazy busy but good.  same for next week, so it might be july before i post next:P heh. have a grand june!]

sap and sun and shadows and perfect weather. lol.

have i said lately how much i love the taste of coffee?
and the color of the sky no matter what season it is.
and the feeling of being able to sit under the shade of a mature maple on the most perfect day of the week so far.
my leather amplified bible in front of me on the grass, open to the book of james.
sunshine. layers and branches full of leaves glowing with it.
and the feel of getting up from grass you thought was dry, that feeling of everything being damp. lol.
like childhood. i don't sit on the grass very much anymore.
bugs. chairs are better. the ground is . . . not as convenient.
just . . . i don't do it much.
but ah, the feeling of this afternoon . . .
crazy beautiful weather, the gift of coffee ;), a breeze whispering over pages [like james 2], and laughing over all sorts of random stuff that comes up when i'm talking to justin on the phone. discussing some verses that stunned me. like this one. and why or why not people talk about it, preach on it.
i rambled about something odd that if i told it to anyone else, they would give me that look. the one that says heh, beka....you're crazy. just kiiiiinda weird....
and i am.
but i'm just thankful that some people [ahem, very few, very rare] accept and even appreciate --gasp! even love?-- the fact that i am . . . me. 
i just feel so lucky it's him.
some days really suck to be long distance. actually, all days do. and as time goes on and we get closer, talk about and open up about different stuff and dream all over the place with hopes and logic combined, it really hurts some days to be apart. to have only the phone and sometimes, once in a while, skype to connect us between the one weekend a month-ish that works out to see each other in person.
[take yesterday for example. a perfectly good day. everything was going great. no huge drama or anything. but inside? inside i could. not. stop. missing. him. i'm not usually so melancholy at every turn as i was yesterday. so.....i'm super thankful for today. a lot more free, positive mood. still miss him, but it's not horrible at the moment. lol.]

then again . . . there are some days, you're just so thankful for the utter blessing of someone who truly loves you, and takes you on your good, bad, weird, freak-out, lazy, fantastic, and horrible days. and vice versa. [obviously, i'm no where near perfect:P]
and that's when you find yourself laughing at jokes and teases as you ignore the fact that there are bugs in the grass all around you and there are a lot of things yet to fall into place in this time before that blessed day, but still . . . you just know that it'll all be perfectly wonderful in the end. [reminds me of that joy set before you scripture. so much hope, even though we may go through so many trials on the way to it!]
really tough at times, but then that's life.
and the tough times will be okay because we'll be together and God is always with us. and He knows all that's in store. how we're going to draw closer to Him through it all, as our lives are washed with His grace.
through the valleys and the storms.
through dashed hopes and fulfilled hopes.
through conflict and peace and every.single.bit.of.it.

 ~~~

wow. a post without pictures.
yes. i survived and posted without pictures.
so.....here we go. i need to figure out what i want to do about that storage issue. thanks to all you who put in their two cents of how you do it! :)

so, it's been a while . . .

and i finally decided to come in here and write a few words, post a couple pictures.
it's a relaxing monday afternoon, and the younger sisters are watching prada to nada.
life's been interesting and good and everything.
thursday to tuesday, over memorial day weekend, rach and i went down to spend those days with justin and his family.

an excerpt from thursday.

friday afternoon, aunt pj making baby cate laugh; eating tacos with the old married lady who's been my best friend since we were about 10. :)

saturday, playing piano...

and heading off to take engagement pictures with pj [amazing talented best friend that she is; so blessed to know all of them!] and all the siblings.
and...of course just now, google and everybody would decide to gang up on me and tell me that my gigs of storage for pictures to blog is all used up. oh my.
dangit. perfect timing, internet corporations..... sigh:P
well, if you've friended me on facebook or vice versa, you've probably already seen the album. so....it's all good. until i decide to start blogging again and need to do something about my storage issue. sheesh:P


the week since we got back has been a whirlwind of church on wednesday night;

swing dancing till late on thursday night; 
coffee and an antique store and lunch and conversation with heath and steph, anna and i on friday;

watched the film the hunt for red october that night with dad and a few siblings;

tired little munchkins still in their jammies. :)

saturday morning, babysat eliyah, zechariah, and danny boy on saturday with lyd's help;
took a nap that afternoon and it failed;
church sunday, and another nap that afternoon that failed;

also . . . in the latest news . . .
i slept in this morning and have been randomly researching wedding cake ideas and stuff like that.
oh, and this article [by a practical wedding] on advice for the wedding planning phase is grand.
no, no date set yet. calm down. ;) still a few things we're waiting on to fall into place....
God is so good, though, and we can see Him bringing things together as we trust Him with it all.

have a grand monday afternoon [watch out; there was a little bit of sarcasm in that.], and i shall see you around!
hah....

p.s. for all you bloggers who post tons of pictures, what do you for storage issues in google/blogger/etc??