wordless wednesday {halloween}

  

 

 

 

 

 
A good time was had by all!

Happy Wednesday!

a tricky holiday

Oh, Halloween. It's such a tricky holiday, isn't it? Here are my thoughts on Halloween. You can take'em or leave'em.

I didn't really do Halloween as a kid. My parents were influenced, at the time, by the church's stance of it being totally evil and that it wasn't something we should participate in (they have since told me this is something they would think through differently now). Anyways, I didn't grow up doing it every year, and I can only remember a few years when I actually did dress up. What I mostly remember is turning the lights off and going upstairs to watch a movie so that we didn't have to answer the door every time someone knocked. Patrick's family grew up trick-or-treating every year. And now that we have kids, Patrick and I have come to these conclusions about why we celebrate Halloween:

• Let's use it as an opportunity to redeem the holiday by being salt and light and not withdrawing from the culture.
• We don't want to give our kids a false sense of sin; Sin isn't necessarily about what we see and do as much as who we are.
• Let's meet our neighbors instead of hiding in our homes. And let's give them high fives for the costumes that they come up with. ;)
• Let's remember that Christ has won and that we shouldn't be afraid.
• Instead we should use it as an opportunity to mock the devil, because he knows the truth and as Martin Luther said, “The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him for he cannot bear scorn.” 
• In 2011 it seems to be more about dressing up and getting candy. As adults, let's not use this as an excuse to be immature and dress up in sexy costumes, engage in gluttony by eating all the candy we want and go to haunted houses just to feel alive. 
• Instead, let's teach our children that Christ has overcome the Enemy, to use their imaginations for His glory, and that this is an opportunity to engage in our community and share the good news of the gospel.
  

"What if we ran Halloween through the grid of the gospel and pondered whether there might be a third path beyond naïveté and retreat? What if we took the perspective that all of life, Halloween included, is an opportunity for gospel advance? What if we saw Halloween not as a retreat but as a kind of gospel trick—an occasion to extend Christ’s cause on precisely the night when Satan may feel his strongest?" Read more here.

 
Here are some good articles that I have found helpful.

• Sent into the Harvest: Halloween on Mission
• What Christians Should Know About Halloween
• Tim Challies: My Halloween Theory

What are your thoughts? Do you celebrate Halloween? Why or why not?





 
 

10 years and still having fun

We packed up, I took Saige to school and told her good-bye, my mom came over to the house, we told all of them good-bye and we left. Just like that. It was so strange to drive away from the house knowing I wouldn't see them for a week. But it was also so exhilarating. The open road with nothing but XM satellite (mainly NPR), coffee and an iPad to direct our path. I was absolutely giddy. 

My husband and I love road trips. When we were first married we took a road trip (big or small) every 4 months. And on our last one we went to California when I was 2 months pregnant with Saige. So when we started talking about our anniversary trip, we started dreaming about the open road. And thankfully Patrick likes to drive. I like it, but I get what I call carcilepsy. Literally. Whether I am driving or not, I will get so drowsy, that I can't shake it. It's not all the time, just usually in the afternoons but I obviously can't drive for very long.

Here is a run down of our trip.

Drove to Pensacola, Florida, stayed the night in a hotel on Priceline for $45. Got up the next morning, found some coffee and drove to Savannah, GA. 

And oh my, Savannah is gorgeous. And so interesting. To me it had a small town feel, with some really great old buildings and lots of yummy food. I mean, Paula Dean's The Lady and Sons restaurant is there, so you know it's good. Although we didn't eat there, we ended up eating at the Olde Pink House, which was our most luxurious evening out of the whole trip.  It was built in 1771 and apparently it's pink because the red brick bled over time and dyed the white plaster that covers it. Pretty interesting, huh?

 

After Savannah, we headed to Charleston. When we got there we took a walking tour of the city. I love history. I minored in it college, so this city was

VERY interesting to me. And we couldn't have had a better tour guide in terms of getting a feel for the city where bloodlines are so important. She was such a character and actually reminded me a lot of Hilly from The Help. Strong, Southern, extremely proud of her town and her heritage, and honestly a bit racist. She was very defensive of anyone painting Charleston in a bad light and I almost got the sense that the rest of America owes Charleston for their efforts in business, culture of course the Civil War. It was an interesting tour to say the least.

From there we headed to Folly Beach, SC. And what a gem. A laid back surfing town with great food and a great atmosphere. I wish we would have planned to stay there longer, honestly. Below is our picture from our hotel room. We also found a great restaurant called Taco Boy, which was like Californian Mexican food. Fish style tacos but with like 10 different spins on it. I got a tempura shrimp taco with remoulade sauce and oh wow, was it good! Folly Beach is somewhere I would definitely visit again.

In the morning, our goal was to get near Asheville, NC. But this was the day we set aside for picking. You know, antique picking. We are total nerds. Our new favorite shows are American Pickers and Picker Sisters. Have you seen either of these shows? American Pickers is just fun, but I am totally inspired by Picker Sisters.

Well, Patrick thought it would be a good idea to take back roads to Greenville in the off chance that we would see something. I am not exactly sure what we were looking for. Treasures along the side of the road that said, FREE, maybe? I kept thinking that we needed to go up to a door and knock and ask if we could look in their sheds and barns. Patrick said, "Sure, if you want to get shot." So we just kept driving. 

And as I was literally laying my seat back, getting ready to take a nap, carcilepsy strikes again, I saw a huge building with the word Auction on the side. I yelled for Patrick to stop and pull in. 

 

He said he didn't even notice it and just thought it was a convenience store. Well he was partly right. They did have grocery store items, but they also had a warehouse with things for sale. Come to find out later, they hadn't been having auctions due to the heat and were more than willing to move stuff out. So we asked if we could take a look. After I got out of the restroom, Patrick told me that I was going to die when I walked in. And he was just about right...

And with that, I am going to end this post and finish it up with a Part 2.

I'll leave you with one gem that we acquired though . . .

1920's choir chairs

Stay tuned for part 2...

Happy Monday, y'all!

back in the saddle

Over two weeks. I do believe this has been the longest hiatus I have taken from the blog in almost a year. I am not sure why I haven't wanted to blog, maybe it's because I have had a hard time knowing where to begin. 

But first things first, Happy Columbus Day. Here's a card from me to you.

The big 10 year anniversary Road Trip was perfect in every way, and I have wanted to write about that, but feel a bit overwhelmed at the prospect. We saw a lot, we did a lot and meant some really interesting people. I have some funny stories that I want to share, so I am slowing getting it in writing. The trip ended up being a pickers trip as well and I can't wait to share with you some of the fantastic pieces we found.

I am reading several good books and am wanting to blog through one in particular, Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids With the Love of Jesus. I had it in my Amazon shopping cart to buy, when I got an email from my friend Kara over at The Chuppies, that I had actually won it in a giveaway. I was stoked and so thankful for the timing! It has been so good and so challenging and I am reading through it slowly because I want the truth of what they say to sink in down deep. 

I have Reed's second birthday party pics still to put on here because goodness knows they're not going in a scrapbook anytime soon... or ever. Here is one of him and I before the festivities began.

I kept Saige out of school when we got back on Monday and we took a trip to a farm with some friends and celebrated Fall the right way - feeding cows, riding ponies, jumping in bails of hay and coming home with sneezing, runny noses and watery eyes. Oh, the joys of hay and the fall season. The cooler weather has made it bearable

And lastly, it rained yesterday. Big buckets of God's blessing poured down from the sky and soaked our parched, dry, pathetic Texas land. It was glorious! And the girls enjoyed it to the fullest. We still had church to go that evening, but it was definitely worth celebrating. Amen?

I am glad to be home. Home with the ones I love. And as cliche as it sounds I think I'm back in the saddle again.

Happy Monday!

 

HaLLoWeEn

All 7 cousins!

Halloween at our house as been talked about pretty much since last year.  It was obviously associated with candy and it would come up in conversation because it is right before a certain Tinkerbell's birthday.  Saige likes to have everything in order and she always likes to list whose birthday is next.  Anyways, Halloween always seemed to come up so naturally they were excited about it this year.  Saige loves Cinderella but she also wanted to be a butterfly so she dressed up as Cinderella Fairy Princess.  Tinkerbell was partially chosen by me because of Meadow's short dirty blonde hair, I thought she would be adorable and well, she was.  :)  And check out, Steven!  Isn't his alien costume from Toy Story awesome?!  He was the most adorable alien I have ever seen.

Reed was a pumpkin for frugal reasons (it was Steven's old costume) and I wasn't too excited about it because I thought he would hate the hat and want to take it off the whole night.  But BOY was I wrong!  That kid kept that costume, hat and all, on the entire time and was such a joy!  He seriously melts my heart.

 Saige showed cousin Cadence the ropes

The family, minus Mommy of course!  :)  Meadow walked around with her bag like that pretty much the whole time.

My pumpkin enjoying the ride

 

Love this last shot.  Look at those puppy dog eyes.  I mean seriously, people, you've got a heart of ice if you can't look into the eyes and it not melt.  :)

PuMpKin pAtcH

We took the kids to a local Fall Festival to play silly carnival games and pick out pumpkins.  It was beautiful weather and everyone had a great time.  At one of the games, there was a older woman volunteering to help with the kids.  She was so complementary of the kids and was impressed that we were teaching them to say "thank you."  It was a little surprising that it seemed unusual enough to complement.  I guess common curtesy isn't so common anymore.  She also talked about how kids are, for the most part, fun and to enjoy them because they grow up fast.  I always welcome that sort of advice and encouragement, because it is good perspective and a good reminder.  After the festival, we went to a park to have a picnic lunch.   And then after naps, we carved pumpkins.  This is the first year we did it and the girls weren't too sure what we were doing.  But Saige got right in there and wanted to help scoop all the seeds out - I was very proud of her.  All in all, I think it was a good day!