How Are You Going?

I love that, here, on the other side of the world everything is just the same and yet vastly different. There are people, cars, grocery stores, malls, trees, animals . . . but each one of these things is so different from home.  I love that God has given us the chance to experience a new culture and explore a whole new place. And we've also met some amazing people! And our little man doesn't stop growing, either! So hard to believe he'll be a year old next month.

Litte Man is almost walking! It won't be long. His first steps will be Australian! :)

I've been trying to keep track of some of the Australian words and sayings since we arrived.  Here is a list so far! :) 

• how are you going? (how are you doing?)
• how did you go? (how did you do?)
• pram (stroller)
• supermarket (grocery store)
• cuppa (cup of coffee) *they have the best coffee EVERYWHERE! :) Seriously have to keep myself from getting some each time we go out.
• footie (rugby)
• dummy (pacifier)
• bin (trash can)
• trading hours (store hours)
• bub (baby)
• nappy (diaper)
• cheers (thank you, enjoy)
• no worries (you're welcome)
• when you say thank you for something, their response is "it's alright" 
• creche (nursery, for babies)
• shops (stores)

I'll add more if I think of some! :) 

Blessings!

We're so thankful for weekends and the chance to explore together. We are at the Canberra annual Floriade Festival here.

Headin' Down Under

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Well, I've been waiting until we had a departure date to share, but we will be leaving for Australia come next Wednesday! Abe has a work trip that is taking us to Canberra, Australia for 3 months.  For a while we thought it would just be 6 weeks, but based on our last information it will be longer.  We don't know a whole lot right now, but here is what I do know:

• traveling to Australia will be like traveling into the future - it is a 14 hour time difference ahead of where we are in Virginia
• we will most likely be connecting through Los Angeles and Sydney before finally arriving in Canberra
• Canberra is the capital of Australia and about a 2 hour drive southwest of Sydney (or a one hour flight)
• locals pronounce Canberra "can-bra"
• where we are staying is still up in the air, but we will likely be at a hotel near Abe's office

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We are very excited and nervous for this grand adventure! I am most nervous about our 9 month old sleeping on the airplane and not crying the whole time.  And I'm also nervous about driving on the left side of the road. But I am seriously stoked about learning an australian accent and meeting new people on the other side of the world.  

We feel so blessed to be able to undertake this adventure and God has orchestrated so much to enable us to go.  I worked hard to keep my excitement from growing too much in the likely scenario that this trip would not happen.  But at every obstacle - an expedited passport for Evan, visas for all three of us, funds for traveling, working everything out with our schedule - God has provided! We are excited about what God has in store for us "down under" and how he will use these new experiences to shape us :) 

We would appreciate your prayers for a safe journey and for a happy baby as we leave next week! I'll try to post our adventures on here as we go along.  Blessings!

Evan at 9 Months

Already 9 months have gone by since I got to hold our little boy for the first time.  His little newborn face is forever etched in my memory, but I just LOVE getting to see him grow, learn, and discover new things every month.  Some months seem like definite growing and changing months, and this past one has been one.  It feels like the past four weeks have gone by sooooo slowly and I realized its probably because Evan has been changing so very much.

In the last month he has learned to scoot and then crawl, to pull himself up to standing, to "cruise" a little along furniture, to stand unassisted, to eat more finger foods, dropped his late afternoon nap altogether, and to recognize his name.  Though he isn't walking yet, I feel like it won't be long! We had a couple weeks where everyday we had at least one new bruise on his little head from falling or slipping.  He's a little steadier on his feet and bruises are farther between, but I'm sure that walking will bring more!

His 9 month check up is this coming week and I'm curious to see where he falls in his percentiles.  In his first 6 months he was outgrowing clothes every month, but his growing has certainly plateaued since then.  He's actually a nine month old wearing nine month clothing now :)

I've been having fun breaking out my SLR camera this last month in an effort to hone my skills, and Evan and Abe have been my chief subjects.  So I thought I'd share some of what we've been up to picture wise. Hope you enjoy!

That's what the promise is for . . .

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Andrew Peterson, a singer and songwriter, visited our church in Colorado off and on during my years growing up there. I thought it was so neat when I found him on Spotify and caught up on all his music I haven't heard in years.  A new song really caught my attention, however, called "Dancing in the Minefields."  Its lyrics having been playing over in my head these last few days. In a world that views marriage as temporary and promises as contingent on one's feelings, this song's message was a refreshing and encouraging reminder of the sacredness of marriage. 

Andrew Peterson's message says that marriage will be tough - you'll go through storms and minefields - but that 's the reason why you promised each other "until death do you part." Why do we publicly commit to love, honor, and cherish each other if not to have each other's solemn promise to do just that? Wedding vows are there to state that life holds many beautiful joys to share, but also many hardships.  You vow to weather those hardships together. That's what the promise is for. 

And when the promises you made to each other seem like they might not be enough, God says His grace is sufficient for us (2 Corinthians 12:9) and that He has granted to us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). God never goes back on His promises and He promises to help us keep ours.  He is always faithful to provide us the grace we need to overcome the temptation to go back on the vows once made to each other on a wedding day. 

And even more amazingly, God uses both the easy and hard times of marriage to help shape us to be more like Him. Marriage is truly a most beautiful vessel of learning faithfulness, perseverance, patience, trust, and (its seems most of all) selflessness. Though it might be hard to be thankful for the storms and minefields you'll encounter in marriage, by God's grace you can persevere through them. And when you have weathered the storm you can look back on an old you and praise God for the gift of a marriage more closely tied to Him. 

I hope you, too, can be encouraged by Andrew Peterson's song. I love his music video, but I would encourage you to also simply read the lyrics. What a powerful thing God's grace is to save us from ourselves and to enable us to love like He loves us. 

"Dancing in the Minefields" by Andrew Peterson

Well I was 19, you were 21
The year we got engaged
Everyone said we were much too young
But we did it anyway
We got the rings for 40 each from a pawnshop down the road
We said our vows and took the leap now 15 years ago.

We went dancing in the minefields
We went sailing in the storms
And it was harder than we dreamed
But I believe thats what the promise is for

Well "I do" are the two most famous last words
The beginning of the end
But to lose your life for another I've heard is a good place to begin
'Cause the only way to find your life is to lay your own life down
And I believe it's an easy price for the life that we have found

So when I lose my way, find me
When I lose loves chains, bind me
At the end of all my faith to the end of all my days
When I forget my name, remind me

'Cause we bear the light of the Son of Man
So there's nothing left to fear
So I'll walk with you through the shadow lands
Til the shadows disappear
'Cause He promised not leave us 
And His promises are true
So in the face of this chaos baby,
I can dance with you

So lets go dancing in the minefields
Lets go sailing in the storms
Oh, lets go dancing in the minefields
And kicking down the doors
Oh, lets go dancing in the minefields
And sailing in the storms
Oh, this is harder than we dreamed
But that's what the promise is for
That's what the promise is for

DIY Lamp Re-do

Every once in a while I look at something in our house and think, "surely I can change that and make it look better." And every time I pass that object in the house, I think of it again.  One such object in our house is a brown, masculine looking lamp we have had since we got married a few years ago.  It was thrifted and I loved it in our first apartment.  All the walls were light and the brown and wicker of the lamp went well with our furniture and decor.

After moving to our rental house, most of the walls were already painted and the rooms were generally darker because we now only have two sides of the house that have windows. So in an effort to lighten things up, I have been exchanging many of our once darker accessories for lighter ones or painting them to lighten our space.  This lamp was one of the darker spots in our living room.  I've seen different tutorials on other blogs on how to recover a lamp shade, and it seemed simple enough.

In my zeal to get started one Saturday morning, I neglected to take a good shot of the lamp before I got started.  I went through some of our pictures of our old apartments to see if there was a good shot of it. Below is a picture of our first apartment together.  There was no good shot of the lamp, but at least you can see what I mean by being dark and masculine looking.  The lamp in question is actually the one on the fireplace mantel.  Its interesting to see how many other objects in this picture have since been changed or been repurposed. 

And here is a shot of our second apartment with the lamp on. Please excuse our mess :) I think I was in the midst of unpacking/redecorating after moving.

Though I loved the lamp for our first two homes together, it was ready for a makeover.  So I started off by taking it apart. Well, my wonderful hubby took it apart for me when I couldn't figure it out :)  My plan was to spray paint the dark metal parts of the lamp a silver, and recover the lamp shade in a brighter, cleaner looking fabric.

The lamp base had leather-like strips that easily came off with a little tugging.  I decided they were what was really making the lamp look masculine so those went the way of the week-old leftovers. I covered what I didn't want spray painted with plastic and masking tape.

I went out back and spray painted and left the pieces to dry in the sun.  Meanwhile, to create a template for the new cover, I used the lamp shade and traced a good 2 inches out from the actual lamp with pencil.  I outlined my trace in photoshop to help you see it :) 

Once cut out, I took to the task of taking the fabric off of the lamp shade. It mostly came off with a seam ripper, but some brute force was necessary.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that the lamp had a separately attached liner that I was able to keep intact. Score! 

I started with the top of the lamp shade and began hot gluing the new fabric to the rim of the shade. To help keep it in place while it dried (and not scald my fingers) I used binder clips (or so my husband calls them).  

 And last, but not least, I put the whole thing back together - my favorite part! 

 I didn't have any white spray paint, but one of these days I'll get around to spray painting the base wicker portion white.  In the mean time, I feel like it looks loads lighter and much less masculine.  I had hoped to give the wicker a bleached look, but when I tried bleach on it, nothing took.  Any suggestions would be most welcome! Have you redone something in your home? Did it turn out like expected? 

DIY - Chevron Canvases

I LOVE looking through Pinterest and finding all kinds of projects I could do at home.  In fact, I like looking at the different projects so much that I find I rarely actually do a project.  Every once in a while I'll make the time to put one together, though.  I was inspired by this canvas that I found through Pinterest.

There is a spot above our kitchen sink in our little rental town home that has desperately needed something to help bring it some color and dimension.  I've been thinking about doing a couple small canvases there for a long time and thought that a simple chevron pattern would be fun.  

Finding an hour to sit and paint, however, is difficult with an almost-six month old.  Even when he is napping, the house is beckoning to be cleaned, laundered, organized, and de-cluttered.  But on this day I decided that the dishes could wait and I would do some painting instead. 

While Evan napped, I completed this little project in about an hour. All I used was a few different bottles of acrylic paint, a small painting sponge, painters tape, a small paintbrush, and two small canvases.  In this case they are 12 in x 12 in.  

 I started by creating a light edging to the canvases to help center them and add a little interest.  I used some gray paint and lightly dabbed the color on using a sponge. Then I used my painters tape to create a chevron pattern and painted the stripes yellow.  I thought the yellow would give a nice pop against the blue that is in our kitchen.

I can be really impatient when it comes to waiting for paint to dry (who really can patiently wait for paint to dry when you're working on a project!).  So I let these canvases dry no more than 10 minutes before I was peeling off the paint and examining the finished product.  Here they are hung above the sink:

Sorry the picture's a little grainy - took this a little late in the day.  I can't decide if the yellow is a little too bright and I'm thinking I might do a light "white wash" over the entire canvases to help tone them down a bit. For now, though, I'll let them be and see if the brightness grows on me :)

Have you done any chevron patterns in your home? I find chevron patterns all over Pinterest in various projects and ideas. I saw one done on a pillow and another on a quilt - both look like fun, too! If only I was better at sewing :)

Beginnings Always Start With Cookies

So I'll admit it, I'm really bad at keeping up with blogs.  I tried it two years ago after getting married and failed miserably after just two posts.  I honestly never thought about posting and my pictures and ideas fell to the wayside. In the last few weeks that has changed, however, as I have watched my wonderful husband begin his own writing blog.  He has been so inspiring in his pursuit of growing as a writer and sharing his passion that I caught his bug.  You should check out his blog and the amazing things he has already written and leave him a comment - he'll love it! 

I'm not an amazing writer like my husband, but I enjoy sharing experiences, pictures (especially those!), and adventures on my new journey of mommyhood.  My beautiful, growing baby boy captured my heart long before I ever saw his face, but its every single day since meeting him that my heart as grown more and more in love with one of the greatest gifts God has ever given me.  As I type my 5 month old baby boy is sawing some Z's through the baby monitor - how grateful I am for a sleeping baby! Words cannot express how much I love this little man and, to be honest, I can't help but share a million pictures of him. So you will see lot of him on here!

Baby Evan started his own journey of solid foods this month.  After two weeks of trying rice cereal on for size, we decided to try some avocado.  He just wasn't sure what to think of it.

We'll keep trying and see how does in the coming weeks - I'm thinking sweet potato is next. So anyway, now you're probably wondering why the title of this blog has anything to do with cookies. Way to be patient! Because there was no way my little man was going to eat a whole avocado, let alone more than a teaspoon or two.  And I didn't want it to spoil in the mean time, and having gone off dairy for the mean time (to see if it will help settle little man's stomach - more on that another time), I decided to try avocado as a substitute for butter in some yummy cookies - banana oatmeal cookies.

They are amazingly simple to make and delicious to boot! You can find the recipe here. Though her recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of butter, you can substitute mashed avocado 1:1 for the butter.  So that's exactly what I did.  I was a little worried when the batter was fairly bright green at first, but after stirring in the oats and nuts, you'd never know there was anything green about these cookies.

In the oven they went at 350 degrees for 10 minutes and the whole placed smelled like banana bread - delicious.  I barely let them cool before I dug in.  I'm pretty sure there are about half of them left even after baking them only this afternoon.  Seriously yummy! They were dairy free, low fat, and smelled divine coming out of the oven.

Do you ever cook with baking substitutes?  I was amazed how many different ways you can substitute various ingredients out to make recipes lower fat and healthier.  Apple sauce is one of my favorites, and I'm excited to experiment with avocado in the future to see what else I can come with.

So there you have it - grammatically correct or not - here's to a good beginning and to hopefully many more simple life adventures to share.  

God bless!