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Late nights & baking

Twas the night before Thanksgiving and all through the houses.... Frantic preparations were still being completed.
Ok. So it doesn't exactly rhyme. At all.
But you cannot tell me I am The ONLY one who is still awake, with eyelids propped open, waiting for this last something or another (in my case, dinner rolls) to finish cooking/baking/being ready. Because of course you can't just wait til tomorrow to do it because the turkey will be occupying the oven & other 'last minute' foods that really do have to be last minute, will be hogging all the counter space & dishes.
So here I am sitting at the computer in an attempt to stay awake long enough to finish tonight.
Meanwhile my darling hubby heads off to bed to catch some shut-eye, (he hasn't been feeling well today so I can't blame him,) and I get the couch with the alarm set for when I need to yet again punch down the dough & wait another hour for it to rise so I can punch it back down again :P
All for the name of a feast of food.
Oh for the love of Americans & their obsession with stuffing themselves.
On the more serious note,
This coming day IS in remembrance of a time when our forebearers didn't have enough food.
I guess.... if you care to put it into prespective like that, waiting til 2 in the morning to go to sleep because you're preparing to celebrate the blessings of food, home & family, is a little more tolerable.
Right?

They're finally getting married!

Yep. My most amazingly wonderful best friend has finally got a ring on her left hand finger that isn't a CTR ring. And people can stop doing secondlooks to make sure.
I'm SUPERBLY happy for her :D and for me. Because instead of being 9+ hours away, she'll be only a few minutes. And that means the world to me. I've missed her so horribly much. Now if I can just be patient enough to wait through the time where they disappear off the face of the earth like every good young married couple do..... haha :)
She's marrying an awesome guy. Super friendly- outgoing, talkative, not shy. Everything she isn't. Well, I should just say, everything she isn't around strangers. He'll be so good for her. And he's totally head-over-heels for her.
Don't you just love Love? :D

Car troubles

Someday..... we will again have a vehicle that doesn't require repairs every few hundred miles. Someday.
Until then, we will drive around vehicles that have windows that can't roll up or down, vehicles that the milage meter doesn't work, there is no stereo in, & no hazard lights button. Vehicles that have the clutch go out on them, vehicles that lose their timing belts because the tensioner seized up, vehicles that don't have much for power steering, etc etc.
At least we have something to get around in.

Family Photo Shoot

Happened yesterday. Something LONG overdue. The last family photo we had taken without someone in a wedding dress was two (technically four though) children ago. My little brother who is now 4 was the baby at 6 months old. We've added two girls, and two boys (through marriage) to the family and in those past four years, we've all done a lot of growing up.
My 'little' brothers aren't so little anymore... pretty sure they might pass me up in height before they finish growing, and they definitely have more manly looks to them.
My middle sister- is coming to her own womanhood & will be dropdead GORGEOUS when she gets there. Not that she isn't already.
And the little boys are so adorable. They didn't have the opportunity of a million shots of them all growing up, like us older kids did. And I think that's one of the reasons I really came to want this photo shoot to come off well.
Because each of these wonderful siblings of mine, have an amazing personality, a kind of beauty that comes only from the sweetness & love they live with every day. And I want them to SEE that when they grow older.
It makes me tear up, because this, my Family, are what makes my life worth living. The love and meaning they have distilled upon me, implanted in me, is so incredible.
Sam was AMAZING about it all. He got to watch me stress about planning it all & came along for the ride & to give support. Which he did, wonderfully. He did great at keeping the kids all together & helping out.
I'll let you in on a secret. He really doesn't like photo shoots. Never really has. His family takes a lot of formal family pictures, and from what he's said, they result in a lot of headache and crying of children. Which is totally understandable for as large a family as he has.
But still leaves him not exactly jumping for joy about the prospect of another photo shoot. He always says he doesn't understand why pictures are such a big thing, that if we're always behind the lense watching, we're not living. I can see his point, but I think he doesn't quite get the amazing clarity you can find behind the lense of a camera. The way LIFE falls into place, something you couldn't have done alone, needed help changing perspectives.
That, is why I love photography.

Have You Done Any Good in the World Today?

Today is Saturday. It's a chilly, rainy-looking day & I am off to go help my sister paint her house :)
Later my mother & siblings will be coming over to help finish harvesting all the grapes still left on the vines next to my house. It'll be a good day & I just wanted to share with you a little of that greatfulness & gratefulness. I wish you all the best too!

Home Alone

And loving it!
Can't tell you how rare an occasion this is. To have EVERYONE out of the house? It's very odd. But I'm too happy about it to care about the weirdness of it :)
I've been thinking lately, about how once you're married, there is a very fine balance between joining with this person you absolutely adore & creating a life together, becoming as one, and retaining your sense of self. You need both, very much so. I just find as time goes on, I'll be sitting there & realize that my handsome & loving husband does so much talking, sometimes it's hard for me to get a word in edge-wise. Ironic no?
Isn't the girl supposed to be the noisy one?
Well I'm not nearly as talkative as I listen. Why? Because I know the value in having someone listen to you. I understand that, so I do my best to be that person for people. Not that I don't like to gab people's ears off, because I can & will do from time to time- I just realize it's not always about Me, and for the most part, other people don't feel listened to enough. Which, I have discovered by reading The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine, (interesting book, it sheds a lot of light on how hormones majorly affect women,) that women need to feel included & connected to. (Duh, I could have told you that) But how do they express it? I'd definitely recommend the book, just know to take it with a grain of salt or two.
Back to what I was originally getting at. Sometimes- not very often, but it does happen- I feel swallowed up, shut up, or muted. Not that said husband is actively doing anything to 'make me feel that way' I say that because honestly he's not, he's being himself, his loving, caring, normal, human, self.
And also no one can 'make me feel' any way I don't allow them to.
Sometimes I let myself start to get lost. Now, I suppose I could use the quote "Lose yourself in Christ & you will find yourself" but I don't think God ever meant we were supposed to lose our opinions, loves, thoughts & feelings. That would be called dead. We were sent to this earth to LIVE.
This is my life, my person, and my choices. I choose to live. I chose & am choosing to live a life of love, gratitude, & service, even if it is only in small ways.
'Life' has a way of getting in the way & helping us forget what we really know & choose. Getting us to think we need to be busier than is healthy, do more than is physically possible, and stretch until we are emotionally exhausted. That is not me though.
So, it's at moments like these, when the house is quiet but for the noises I choose to allow into my life, that I rejoice in the chance I have to remind myself, who I am.