Three/Four: Pardon Me Please

Dear Mom and Mica,

I'm very sorry there was no picture yesterday.

It was just one of those pictureless days that you shouldn't have when you are doing a "Photo of the Day" blog series. No real excuse.

But here is one of my favorite Norman prints, and no it does not represent yesterday in any way.

Caro and I spent the day cleaning, helping her with the dreaded algebra, and making meatloaf which didn't taste as good as Mom's. Ah well, one of the disadvantages of not being Mom, nothing tastes quite like hers.

I hope you like the way I re-arranged the room for the Superbowl; do you think they know that people re-arrange the furniture in their living room to make room for the telly for the day?

Love,

Elena

p.s.

Mica, I am wearing your purple long-sleeve shirt today. I'll wash it before returing it.

Two: Bye, Bye Bermiliad

Dear Mom and Mica,

Dad, Caro,and I are getting on quite well, especially since we were able to unlock the back door this morning (Thank you Mrs. Beach!)

I took out all of the dead plants and sticks in the front; it made me feel quite the "Safari Jane" in my jeans, dragging a great branch to the back. The weather was perfect.

Tomorrow we are planning/hoping to have our study someplace cold...with stones...get my drift? Dad and Caro are hoping that the cake shake is gluten-free (Never mind the "CAKE" part of it); I'm fine with Sweet Cream and strawberries :)

E called me today and now I'm very excited for next weekend, but I'll talk to you later about that.

Love,

Elena

p.s.

Dead plants smell absolutely "bisgusting", but crisp, fresh air is the remedy.

One: Lunch

Dear Mom and Mica,

Here is our humble salad with homemade dressings (yum!).

Through a series of events Dad was able to stay home for the day and we were able to have lunch together! I was suprised by how many dishes three people don't accumulate :)

I hope you are having perfectly delectable food at Tita's and that your time is sweet.

We miss you.

Love,

Elena

p.s.

I organized my closet today! I'll post a picture of my new and improved closet tomorrow.

While I was doing it I listened to a few of the messages from the SOS conference--very good!

Things to Do

Well, as it turns out, my Mom and Mica will be abandoning---I mean deserting---ahem.

Tomorrow my Mom and Mica will be going to Austin for the rest of the week; my grandpa has an appointment that he wanted my Mom to attend with him and Mica is going to accompany her, hug and kiss Tita, carry the three Stickies (Sophie, Mia, and Dom) like a donkey, and hang out with The Lovely Nicole. I must say that I feel a bit sad to be left behind; I'd love to smother the Stickies with kisses and spend time with Tita (sniff), but I'm sure Caro, Dad, and I will amuse and occupy ourselves very well :).

Here is my list for the week:

::Remove weeds and dead plants from our "flower" garden. I think our neighbors have looked at our wilted Bermiliads long enough.

::Organize and condense my closet to make room for a craft area; if I can waltz in there I may as well make room to create and store my craft things also.

::Create a "Photo of the Day" series while they are gone. I love the Nie and You blog that Nie Nie created and thought it would be a fun project for Caro and I, so stay tuned!

::Complete the new, gluten-free recipes for dinner! Our family has started this two-month gluten-free diet and we are having lots of fun trying recipes and discovering new favorites (Like the yummy plum-vinegar! Thank you Hood family!). Hopefully there will be pictures as well :)

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Picture Credit

Spurgeon Quote

"Many might have failed beneath the bitterness of their trial

had they not found a friend."

~Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Seventeen things I'm thankful for...

1. The amazing, saving grace of God

2. My family

3. My church

4. The Webb family

5. The Neal family

6. Friends who encourage and exhort

7. My dad, who has faithfully trained us in the fear and admonition of the Lord. If only I could express in words how thankful I am for my dad!

8. Music (especially my violin)

9. Cold days... well, as cold as it gets in Houston.

10. Learning about natural medicine

11. Books

12. the Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards

13. A three month movie/TV fast (more about that later)

14. The joy and blessing of children

15. Trials

16. The many blessings of hospitality

17. A kind friend who reminds me to blog :).

In Christ,

Micaela

Coming out of hiding...

I realized last week how much we haven't posted in December but I decided not to do anything about it until now :). Probably the best way to briefly sum up what we did is with pictures. The newest are at the top. Enjoy! I will post later with more words than pictures :).

John and Elena.

Hope, Luke, and I the day the Neals left... very sad day :(.

We celebrated mom's birthday by surprising her (again)! We had some of her closest friends over for coffee and biscotti.

Lunchtime with the Neals!

We had the Vaughns and Hoods over for Christmas dinner.

John had his fifth birthday while at our house. We had mac n cheese with hot dogs on the side for dinner... his request.

I had my first violin recital... it went well :).

We were privileged to have the Neals stay with for a bit. This is Faith, or Elisabeth... as she insisted we call her when playing dress-ups.

And I got my haircut the day after my birthday by Ms. Amy. I love it!

We celebrated my birthday with the Webbs, who were the best birthday presents!

Elena enjoyed a weeks vacation with the Bauchams in Florida.

We Christmas carolled in our neighborhood with friends from church and then we all met back at our house for refreshments and fun :).

In Austin with Dominic.

A Few thoughts On: Consolation

A few nights ago during family worship, we read Psalm 94, and this small section stood out to me:

"If the Lord had not been my help,

my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.

When I thought, 'my foot slips,'

your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.

When the cares of my heart are many,

your consolations cheer my soul."

And as I thought more about it, I realized how often I don't practice this.

Generally, when I feel anxious or nervous about something, I tend to read a magazine, garden, or really do anything to get my mind off of that certain thing.

Right now it is taking the driving test to get my license. But it could be anything.

Actually, I get pretty nervous when taking any test.

You can put me in front of the whole world and I won't feel anything but excitement.

Tell me to socialize with a stranger and I'm off learning their life story.

But ask me to go to the creepy DPS office, and I feel the butterflies the minute I walk outside.

This past week, my parents and I have been driving down to the office nearly everyday to try and get my license, and nearly everyday the line is ten people out the door. Obviously I'm not that worried about getting it done :) Each time we drive there I have to mentally calm myself down and concentrate on the yummy LaraBar I put in my purse as an incentive for passing.

Is that silly?

However, after reading that section, particularly:

When the cares of my heart are many,

your consolations cheer my soul.

Instead of trying to forget or push something to the back of my mind, I ought to be going to the Lord in prayer.

And not only for the "weighty" matters, but also the seemingly trivial ones...like getting taking a driving test.

Now I can't say that I practice this all of the time now, but thankfully the Lord is always sanctifying me. My prayer now is that He would bring me into different testing circumstances so that I might be able to be consoled by Him. Which really is so much better than reading a book or trying to forget.

"There is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still."

~Corrie Ten Boom