Monday, August 24, 2015

purple mountain majesties



Perhaps I am a cheap date.  Perhaps I need only be tempted by a package of Sour Patch Kids candy and some pretzels to agree to an adventure.  Perhaps I would have gone anyway.
 
Whatever which way, Sunday evening found us at the coldest, windiest beach on our island.  He was fishing, I was taking pictures and eating candy.  Thankfully, someone had built a really great driftwood shelter that I sought solace in when the wind proved to be just too cold.
 
But the sunset was gorgeous.  And the Olympic mountains sang with purple mountains majesties.

 

 
 
After catching the first fish and gutting it, this friend showed up, hoping for his share....






We live in such a beautiful place.  I really can't get enough of it.  And I don't mean it as bragging, it is just fact. 
 
We have a big beautiful sky and too many beaches to count.  And on any Sunday evening we can just get outside and enjoy a sunset like this, and catch delicious salmon, and take glorious pictures, and eat Sour Patch Kids.  Well, you can probably do that last one almost anywhere.



See what I mean about the sky?!?






The catch: two pink salmon.




Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.  Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. 
 
Lamentations 3:40-41

Sunday, August 23, 2015

but it is beautiful

I wander my garden on a daily basis.  Sometimes multiple times a day.  Sometimes at night under the light of the moon.  I'm infatuated.
 
It is such a pleasure to have this little patch of earth that I truly feel I can call "mine".  It's not huge.  It's not tidy.  It's full of unexpected things.  Not everything has worked.  But it is beautiful.  And I guess that is how my life is too.  Isn't that a profound thought!?  I'm learning life lessons from my little garden.
 



Tomatoes!



The leaf of the sunflower captures the sun just right.


 
Delicate tomato blossoms
 

 
 



Football practice started this week.  Blake has been doing some weight training and conditioning with the team all summer but the real deal was this week.  High school football.  Oh boy.  Just two and a half more weeks till the first day of school!

Austin has started practicing precision rifle which brings with it a higher level of competition.  He gets to shoot a more expensive rifle and is required to wear heavy leather pants and jacket, and boots for stability.  He's only been practicing precision for a month and has already beat his personal best.  His goal for the year is to make it to Nationals again.

The following are not my flowers.  I took these pictures on an excursion we went on last week and I just thought they were so pretty....





As the air takes on a certain crispness and the light fades more quickly each evening, I prepare for the shift, the certain changes that Autumn will bring.  Our schedules will change, our focuses will change, the demands will change, and whatever decides it's going to go and change without letting me know will most certainly change.  And because of that fact I am all the more thankful that the Lord hears my prayers.

My sister will have surgery tomorrow.  And a biopsy.  And I pray.  I will be flying down to help her in her recovery.  To cook food.  To hang out with my nephew.  To tell jokes or to not.  And still I pray.  I pray that the surgery will be fully successful and as routine as possible.  I pray that cancer will not be a thing we even have to worry about.  I pray for a speedy recovery.  I pray that I would be some sort of comfort.  Even, I pray for my own little family as I'm away.

Life:   It's not tidy.  It's full of unexpected things.  Not everything has worked.  But it is beautiful.

It is beautiful.


 

Thursday, August 6, 2015

rustica

We have one vehicle.  I'm thankful for it.  It's paid off.

We share that one vehicle between the four of us.  And the four of us, we all have different schedules.  And there is weight lifting with the football team, and rifle practice with the club, and yoga class, and fishing, and out with friends, and picking up someone else's work shift, and errands to run, and everybody works and someone even has two jobs.

It's a wee bit of a challenge sometimes.

This week our one vehicle broke down.

I'm thankful for our one vehicle.  I'm also thankful that we live in town and we all have bicycles.

While our vehicle was broke down we celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary.  It was like no other!  We rode our bikes downtown and ate at a little Italian joint called Rustica.  We ordered three different appetizers to share between the two of us and called that our meal.

Scallops with pesto and a smear of some fancy creamy sauce that was delicious.


 
 
Bruschetta with goat cheese, pork tenderloin, and fabulous onions with a balsamic drizzle.  This was our favorite!



Local Penn Cove mussels in a tomato-yellow pepper-garlic broth.  Very tasty.


After dinner at Rustica we rode our bikes down to the waterfront, spied jellyfish in the water, rode on the boardwalk, and back through town to Baskin Robbins where we each got a double scoop ice cream in a waffle cone.

And our vehicle?  My clever and determined husband called around to some mechanics, did some online research, and called parts stores.  What would have been close to $1200 to have done at a repair shop cost us just a couple hundred dollars for Aaron to do in our driveway.  He'd never fixed a transmission problem before but he did it.  I'm pretty proud.

Saturday, August 1, 2015

a study of sunflowers

 
 
So sweet! Love this "You Are My Sunshine" artwork.
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
Helianthus, the sunflower
 
helios = sun
anthos = flower
 
 
 
This rust colored beauty has captured my attention.  I've never seen a flower this color.  I love the way it shimmers in the sunlight.
 
 



 

 
 





 
 
 
 
This is my garden (the neighbor's house in the background).  The entire fence is lined with sunflowers.  When standing in the garden, one must duck and veer to avoid the bees that adore the plentiful pollen of the flowers.  The bees are so preoccupied that they've not bothered with me.  The mosquitoes, on the other hand...

 
 
 
Do This - Cute way to write out a favorite quote -- glob of watercolor behind it and frame! Cheap DIY art