a cozy fire to keep you warm

A Thursday evening spent at home by the fire, tending to my dear husband who caught my cold and is feeling under the weather. Hope you had a cozy evening surrounded by those you love.

Don't forget, there's still time to leave a comment on the Glitz Blog Hop post for a chance to win the Color Me Happy line.

“There are two kinds of fires. the Bad Fire and the Good Fire. And the paradox is that the Good Fire is made of bad things, of things that we do not want; but the Bad Fire is made of good things, of things that we do want.” 

–G.K. Chesterton, The Wrong Incendiary, A Miscellany of Men

thankful

I often think about the things my parents passed onto the girls, the little unseen gifts in hobbies, habits, memories and the like. Knitting was one of the little blessings mom left with the girls. She took the time to teach them, and to pass on the love of a hobby. Just a little something I am thankful for today.

We ordered some stand-outs from WHCC the other day for our living room wall. They arrived yesterday afternoon and we set to arranging them last night, with this as the final result. 

“It is the main earthly business of a human being to make his home, and the immediate surroundings of his home, as symbolic and significant to his own imagination as he can.” 

–G.K. Chesterton, The Coloured Lands

rest, relaxation & reading

A little rest and relaxation 

after an emotional roller coaster kind of day.

The highest use of the great masters of literature is not literary; it is apart from their superb style and even from their emotional inspiration.  The first use of good literature is that it prevents a man from being merely modern.  To be merely modern is to condemn oneself to an ultimate narrowness; just as to spend one’s last earthly money on the newest hat is to condemn oneself to the old-fashioned.  The road of the ancient centuries is strewn with dead moderns. Literature, classic and enduring literature, does its best work in reminding us perpetually of the whole round of truth and balancing other and older ideas against the ideas to which we might for a moment be prone.  -G.K. Chesterton 

 

 

Let ot Snow!

Our snow finally arrived Tuesday in the wee hours of morning. The girls woke up to no school and the loads of snow they had been praying for. We spent a good chunk of the day sledding down our big hill over and over. Needless to say they slept pretty well after their adventures in the wide world of stark and gorgeous white.

Torrey unaware that she's about to get pelted by an incoming snowball.

The happy sledders

Going down our big hill.

Going up our big hill

Is it odd that both my girls are still posing while using a friend as a human shield?

Chesterton Quote of the Day

"...White is a color. It is not a mere absence of color, it is a shining and affirmative thing: as fierce as red, as definite as black. When (so to speak) your pencil grows red hot, it draws roses; and when it grows white hot, it draws stars. And one of the two or three defiant verities of the best religious morality - of real Christianity, for example - is exactly this same thing. The chief assertion of religious morality is that white is a color. Virtue is not the absence of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate thing, like pain or a particular smell. Mercy does not mean not being cruel or sparing people revenge or punishment: it means a plain and positive thing like the sun which on has either seen or not seen, Chasitity does not mean abstention from sexual wrong; it means something flaming like Joan of Arc. In a word, God paints in many coulors, but He never paints so gorgeously - I had almost said gaudily - as when He paints in white." 

 -G.K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles

Home Sweet Home

i hope you're ready for some gushing about just how thankful and grateful i am to have my handsome husband back home. i know i am!

three weeks ago today, stan's plane touched down and he was home... finally home, and we'd made it through deployment number six. it is one crazy life, filled with blessings and hardships all its own. but then, no life is immune to hardship any more than it is immune to blessing. so i am ever grateful for this life i have. and especially grateful for my big brawny man being back home!

i already posted these pictures, but they were my choices for my 365 project, so decided to post them again. there is nothing quite as exhilarating as a homecoming... complete with tears and overwhelming joy. stan's plane pulled right up to the hanger, and the girls and i ran for it. (i was a little behind with the camera, for the pictures and for letting the girls get that first piece of daddy.) boy did those girls need some good strong daddy-lovin'. there is just something about a dad's love that little in the world can replace. 

we headed home along country roads "littered" with "welcome home stan" signs & "dad you rock" signs. (thank you eric & rob for your help getting them all up and down for us!) when we drove onto camano there was the first big 4'x8' banner.  (thank you action potential chiropractic for letting me borrow a section of your lawn... and THANK YOU cascade lumber for the steaks! you guys are a true blessing to our family!) then, of course, we pulled into our house strewn with flags and banners reminding our sweet hero just how much we appreciate all he gives up for us.

one of the things the girls look forward to most is a hearty dad-cooked breakfast when he gets home. bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, pancakes... the works! when he's home, stan always cooks breakfast on saturday mornings for the family. it's one of those little moments of family tradition that stick with you for a lifetime. (emma even made stan a welcome home card with a picture she drew of him cooking breakfast.) ah, the sweet normal-ness of home!

lucky for us stan got a full four days off when he got home this time! of all of our homecomings this was the longest bit he's had off after a deployment. we had all of our meals together, walked the beach, had picnics, snuggled on the couch, had pillow fights and laughed until we were all in tears.

then back to school for the girls to finish out the last week. as a right of passage for the 4th grades, they get to build rockets out of 2L bottles and have them launched across the school yard. torrey and i had worked on her rocket, and were just hoping that it wouldn't flop. (our aviation man wasn't available yet!) it didn't go the farthest, but it made a very decent showing for itself! hurray for the internet. :) this was one of the most fun school activities i've watched... ever!

i found this super cute skirt made from a vintage table cloth at this cute little store in snohomish... and it was according to emma, "just my style."

at last... the last day of school!!!

so now i'm getting a little distracted while i try to get this blog post up... so i think i'm just going to do quick notes and get it up... then if i'm motivated i'll update it more. (mostly because torrey is standing right behind my head planning out her birthday party on friday.) so here goes... we had stan's big welcome home party with loads of yummy smoked ribs (thank you eric... again) and lots of friends to share the day. there are more pictures here.

father's day!

day at the new community park 
love that everyone worked together to raise the money and to build the park. how cool is that.

more daddy/daughter navy sweetness here

the mock theme song of our house is the song little girls from the movie annie. "lucky me. lucky me, look at what i'm dripping with... little girls" i'm pretty sure this guy isn't complaining. :)

emma started vision therapy this past week to help with focus and tracking. it always amazes me the things that these clever groups of people find to help people! we're already been able to see some of the areas of struggle, and can see buds of improvement... and definitely in emma's confidence, and it's only been one week! yahoo. i'm sure we'll have updates along the way of how it's all going.

we went on our first camping trip of the season this past weekend, and on a dry run for our big camping trip through several national parks starting next week. we camped in our favorite close-to-home spot... camano island state park. ahhhhhh, i love that place. one of the bits of fun we love about the state park is that my parents come out and have dinner with us. at least one night we always have marinated flank steak for dinner... and i'm pretty sure they've rarely missed an opportunity to join us. seriously, with a grum & pa (grandma & grandpa) this fun, how could you not want them to join you every second possible!

i'd intended to write so much more, to thank everyone for the deployment & homecoming prayers, to be clever and witty, to be much more caught up with posting along this homecoming season. but alas, i've been true to my slightly behind self. but i would like to say thank you from the depths of my heart for all of your prayers, encouragement and love through this past deployment (and those that came before it)... i thank God each day for this blessed life.

now off to the grocery store with torrey to pick up the party goods for friday! :)

xo. noel joy

home at last

just a quickie post with a couple of homecoming pictures... it was perfect & nothing can quite describe the overwhelming joy of a homecoming. there are a bunch more pictures here.