Mom, I want to bake a cake

Those are some sweet words to a mama's ears. 

We are a bit late jumping on the "LOVE FRANCE & HOPE TO GO TO PARIS SOMEDAY" train, but hey we are on that train now! Not really on our way to France. We are definitely still in the dreaming stage. 

We have been doing some French language lessons on our Duolingo app.

We have watched The Kings of Pastry on Netflix. 

I have been reading a little on other people's adventures. I have looked at pictures and dreamed that when I get the chance to go that my pictures would turn out that good! 

So all that to say, is that when you are excited about something, usually 

your kids will be too. In this case, daughter watched The Kings of Pastry with me and than instantly wanted to bake a cake. 

She did so good! She knew she wanted a green border on the bottom and flowers. She designed it herself and I was just a helper if she wanted. The cake looked beautiful and was moist and yummy too. Win-win!! 

Her finished product. She is covered in powdered sugar and happy as can be about it. "Mom. I like being messy with baking." 

I think our next creation will be an apron. 

4/52

As a Mom you are handed things throughout the day and most of the time you have no idea who just handed it to you and why you are holding it for them. This was the case at some point in the last week and I just happened to have my camera on my lap. It was a roll of duct tape. I love how the pictures turned out. Grace was the only one I didn't get a shot of with it around my camera lens.  

She was building some sort of something. Inventing seems to be pretty popular in our home right now. :) 

Sunshine and flowers

I DARE you to put a sheet over yourself and see if your kids won't come join in on the fun. ;) 

This is what I do all day. Ha! Ok, not really. But I am a blessed woman to be able to spend so much time with these tykes. 

Snappy snap

3/52

I knew it wouldn't be long. I am a couple days late in sharing these but they were taken! It has been a great couple of busy and fun days. Not much time for internet meanderings. 

1- Littlest enjoying the outdoors. It felt like Spring one day and middle of winter the next. 

2- Middle brother climbing a fence. Because that is what boys do! 

3- Daughter made herself a hammock. 

4- Oldest son watching a bit of T.V. 

Another week of the wonderful, non extraordinary but none the less, awe inspiring, yay we made it through! To God be the glory! 

1,2,3.... GO!

It's 8:11. I haven't much time. As it is I thought my time this morning would be gone already. Overtime. Things are getting serious. 

I was up before the sunrise. That almost never happens. I liked it. Weird. It was beautiful and my stomach was growling. 

I made another list of random things I want to do. I read my Bible. Ezekiel actually. If you want to read some science fiction, there is it in all it's glory. Crazy stuff I tell ya! God has a BIG imagination. 

There has been toast and tea and 2 cups of water. As I type I think why am I even sharing this. I probably won't post this random assortment of facts and letters. But maybe I might. I am living on the wild side this morning. 

In all reality, I have seen on a couple blogs where they just start writing for 5 minutes and don't really think about what they are writing. They just do it and then stop after 5 minutes. I thought I would give it a go. Seems easy enough. 

I like photos. I wish I had better skills. Especially the editing side of things. I want to travel and take pictures of people all over the world. I want to visit places that need a voice, telling others how much they have gone through and how they could help. I want to see their lives. Their victories and culture. Their battles and defeats. I want to take pictures of people's faces, not smiling at the camera, although if that were how they were truly feeling, that would be alright. But more along that line, how they are truly feeling. No staging. Just people in their raw vulnerability. I want to be more vulnerable. I want to let people in. Tell them my past. Tell them my dreams. Tell them how much love I have to give. I want people to love me too. 

I type a lot of the letter "I", I've noticed. It would be nice to grow in my writing capabilities. It is something I have never thought I was much good at, but I am drawn to it for some odd reason also. Maybe because I want to conquer it. I was teased for the words I would mix up when I was younger and as I am 30 now and looking at life in new ways, examining some things, I see that I am self-conscience with my words still. I want to work on my vocabulary and speech so that I can not be so self-conscience, but have confidence in what I am trying to get across to someone. There is a group called the Toast Master's club. They work on public speaking. I think I may look into joining. 

And at that, my time is up. 

New things

I'm two weeks into the pottery class I signed up for. I am loving it! The dirtiness of clay and water slipping through my hands and splattering on the wall is just awesome! The cleanup isn't bad either. I have wanted to take a class for so long and I'm just thrilled to have taken the time out to finally do it. My instructor is so fun. She started in Maine, which is another thing on my list, to visit Maine in the Fall for my birthday. She shows me how and then the rest of the evening is basically quiet with a focused attention on getting that 1 pound clump of goodness to be centered and spun into something imperfectly beautiful, or in the words of my teacher, organic. :) 

Last year Micheal ventured out to do a new thing; scuba diving. This year we are both determined to not be stagnant, but to keep on growing and learning and opening ourselves up to new ideas and adventures, whether that is through a book, experience or hanging out with people that bring about conversation and thoughts that we haven't thought before. 

There is a whole world out there waiting to meet you. Waiting to be discovered! We won't get to it all but but we must be intentional in our daily choices so we can experience at least some of it! 

Weekly photo

2/52

It feels so great to type that number out above. I have successfully kept up with two weeks of picture taking. Hmm. What an accomplished woman I am. 

One of the things I love most about our home is the light that comes through our new and clean and no condensation windows! We make it a habit to round up the family to watch the sunset. Also I find we tend to migrate into the dining room in the afternoon and just lay on the floor, basking in the warmth of the winter sun. It's a good time. 

These weeks are going to go fast. I can tell already. Today it felt a teensy weensy bit like Spring. 

The mountains were calling

In fact they are always calling. Rarely do we listen. We should stop that. 

We stayed in a cabin for Christmas. It was so so lovely to break away and rest. We ate a lot of great food. We trekked around the woods. We had a great time with family. Not nearly as much snow as there usually is but none the less fun. 

The kids and I were reading A Child's History of the World. The chapter on King Nebuchadnezzar and his wife. Her hometown, Media, was full of wild mountains and when she moved to Babylon she became homesick because of all the flatness of her new home. So what did her king and husband do? He built her a mountain full of flowers of course! Right on his palace! Turns out he was crazy evil too, but let's not talk about that right now. 

I miss the ocean sometimes. Man, I just look at pictures and want to transport there immediately. I wish someone would create an ocean in Idaho. ;) 

For now I will take the mountains. 

Snapshots

1/52

It's winter and that means lots of craftiness for our only daughter. 

Chilling out talking about hexbugs. 

Getting dressed. Again.

He got his first taste of cheerios. He likes. 

An attempt to capture my kids on a weekly basis. They grow so fast! 

Bloom where you are planted

Here I am in a small town in Idaho and I LOVE IT! I am so excited about this new year! I feel so at ease with where we are in life. Maybe that is not something I should admit, but I am. There are new challenges for us but that is not to say we aren't enjoying and loving the life we have been given. Could someone just take care of taxes for me though? I mean, come on. I really am intimidated with those numbers this year. Yikes! 

But I feel a sense of comfort coming on that I haven't had in awhile. A fitting. A knowing that we are here for a purpose. God has some REAL patience because we have been here for 3 years and feeling unsettled for most of that time. I'm sure He has known this whole time why we are here! I *could* feel a disappointment from thinking about wasted time, but I know that is just dumb. We have been growing and learning this whole time. Nothing is wasted or in vain when we are in God's hands. And we are. 

I guess it comes down to this last week. The message at church really spoke to Micheal and I and we are on the same page now. It hasn't always been the case in the last couple of years and after the conversation we had last night, I feel so great with where we are and what we are up to as a family. Direction! Intention! 


So the quote "BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED" has come to mind. 

God planted us here and here we are. Roots going deeper. Leaves budding. Maybe even some fruit coming! Woohoo!! 

It's going to be a fabulous year!