Fell off the blogging wagon again...

Where DOES the time go? :-)

Anyway, I just wanted to wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving next week...we are driving up to Oregon on Saturday and are excited to see family and friends. I can't wait to spend the week at my sister's house, hanging out with her and my nephews and niece! Praying for safe travels, as there will most likely be stormy weather on our drive up (once we reach the Northwest), and most likely snow in the mountain passes. After having been spoiled with sunshine here in California recently, I am not really looking forward to all the cold, wet, windy weather next week...but it will be worth it to spend time with my family!

And I know that most of you have already heard our news, but I am so blessed and thankful that we are expecting our first baby! I will be 15 weeks along on Sunday...over the past few years there have been three family Thanksgiving gatherings where my sister was the one pregnant, and now it's going to be me...surreal! Praising God for the blessing of new life this Thanksgiving...it's a miracle, for sure! And His timing is absolutely perfect!

Praying you all find many reasons to be thankful this year as well!

Miniature...

I bought a basket of cherry tomatoes yesterday, and when I got home I discovered the smallest cherry tomato I've ever seen. Isn't it cute? A perfect little miniature tomato. I just wanted to share! :-)


Next to a regular tomato and a regular-sized cherry tomato for comparison:

Summer Fun!

For those of you not on Facebook, I just published an album of some pictures from our summer. You can view it by clicking here, even if you're not a Facebook member!

It feels like this summer has gone by so quickly...of course, being in Sacramento we'll still get "summery" weather well into October, most likely! But soon, we'll be able to break out the sweaters and start lighting fires in our fireplace again. That will be nice!

I hope you all had a wonderful summer as well! Enjoy the soon-coming change of seasons as we head into the fall!

How do 7 months go by so quickly?

Back on January 7th I said, "So maybe one of my goals this year should be blogging more often!"

Um...yeah. In hindsight, the word "maybe" in that sentence obviously carried the most weight!

I follow a few other blogs that are just, well, amazing. And these bloggers post often, if not daily, with deep spiritual insights or great recipes and nutritional information, or beautiful photos. And I get a bit intimidated and feel like it would be too much work to even attempt to create an interesting blog, and then I just end up not blogging anything at all! But then I have to ask myself...why do I think my blog needs to compare with the blogs of others? I'm me, and they're them, and we have different lives and different voices. My blog can be whatever I want it to be! That's kind of fun, when you think about it. Such possibility! Such potential! And I guess that means I have the right to take a 7-month hiatus from blogging if I feel like it. So I won't apologize for the break...but I will say that I feel a renewed spark of interest in blogging, and have some ideas for this little corner of the Internet that I call my own. And if you want to check back from time to time, hopefully you will not be disappointed! :-)

Happy New Year!

So maybe one of my goals this year should be blogging more often! :-)

I'm excited about this new year, hoping it will be better in many ways than 2008 was. Not that this last year was bad, but it was just so...busy, what with planning and preparing to move, all the decisions about the house, actually moving, having a lot of out-of-town guests, hosting events, getting settled and buying furniture and decorating and, and, and... In the midst of all the activity, a lot of important things kind of got lost in the shuffle, like being more intentional in my relationships -- my relationship with God, my relationships with family and friends. I want to be more intentional this year...to not just let life swirl around me!

I want to learn to like exercising, because I am WAY too sedentary. I won a free six-month membership to the health club my church owns, and as a part of membership you get three free sessions with a personal trainer. So I met Andrea this week and she is going to help me figure out a good workout routine tailored to my fitness level and goals. I'm glad, because I don't seem to have the motivation to design an exercise program on my own!

Most of all, I really want to have a deeper hunger and thirst for God's Word and for communion with Him...I want my prayer life to become more vibrant! I have so much "head knowledge" about the Bible and prayer floating around in my mind...I need to grab a hold of it and pin it down in my heart, so it becomes part of the fabric of my daily life. I want to live out what I know. I want to start running purposefully in the race again, instead of just skipping along staring at the flowers on the side of the track.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."

~ Hebrews 12:1-2 (ESV)

There are so many other goals that I could name for this year, but that's the most important...throwing off the sins and weights and distractions that slow me down and instead choosing to run this race of the Christian life with endurance, living by the Spirit and daily coming to Christ to let Him fill and lead me. May 2009 be a year of great spiritual growth for all of us!