Random bits of recent life.

Luke and I going hunting in a little corner of our woods.

Brothers!

More brothers! and a dog...

Cute little Star. In the top of the picture you can see Eric's first deer that he and I gutted. That was the only picture of it that wasn't too uhh, graphic.

An Amazing Concert!

Friday night, December 5th we had the opportunity to go to an Andrew Peterson concert. We have been looking foreward to it for a while, and it was definately worth the drive down to Richmond.
The concert was part of his Behold the Lamb of God Tour: The True Tall Tale of the Coming of Christ. Andrew Peterson is a Christian singer/songwriter that my whole family loves to listen to, and Behold the Lamb of God is one of our favorite CDs by him. There is a group of artists(here and here) that Andrew Peterson is apart of, and Eric and I enjoy several other singer/songwriters in that group.

On this tour, Andrew Peterson brings several of these friends, and several others. So the concert tonight was filled with most of my favorite Christian artists. It was amazing. For the first half of the concert they took turns, each person playing his own songs with his own style. My favorites: Jill Phillip's songs (she is one of my favorite artists) were wonderful and I bought her new album. Her music is a little bit more folk/rock genra, and I love her voice and the way she uses the guitar. Andy Gullahorn (Jill's husband) played two of his songs, Desperate Man and Roast Beef. I especially him because he is an exeptional songwriter and his music is just guitar and voice most of the time, and the guitar style is different, more rthmic, but it sounds beautiful. Another of my top favorits was Bebo Norman. I've just recently gotten some of his music, but I love his style of guitar and his songs are always deep and well written. And I really like his voice too. Ben Shive sung one of the songs from his new album. Being a pianist ;) I really appriciate the lyrical way he plays piano. Also, Pierce Pettis and Andrew Osenga play some of their songs.

After intermission was the Christmas part of the concert. They all sang together the Christmas songs by Andrew Peterson. This is not your ordinary Christmas music thought. It tells a story. A true story. About the Savior of the World.
In Andrew's words: "…What I wrote is a concert that tells a story. There’s no speaking--only songs, some of which are intimate, some epic, some humorous, all with a purpose, which is to convey the true tall tale of the coming of God into the world. What makes this bunch of songs unique is that I wanted to remind (or teach) the audience that the story of Christmas doesn’t begin with the birth of Jesus. Many people tend to forget or have never even learned that the entire Bible is about Jesus, not just the New Testament. So the musical begins with Moses and the symbolic story of the Passover (Passover Us) and works its way through the kings and the prophets with their many prophecies about the coming Messiah (So Long, Moses) to the awful four hundred years of silence before God told Mary she’d be having a baby (Deliver Us). After the song called Matthew's Begats, which lists the genealogy of Jesus, the story picks up in more familiar territory with Mary and Joseph and the actual birth (It Came To Pass, Labor of Love). The final song is called Behold, the Lamb of God, which ties together the Passover and the beauty and scope of the story…”

Even after listening to this album many many times, it never seems to get old. And it was so amazing, so uplifting, listening and watching these wonderful people sing it. They were so humble, and God's love was so evedent it the evening, throught their songs, and their storys. The end of the concert was different, but it showed their humility. Instead of staying on the stage after the last song, they led the audience in two Christmas hymns, then while we were still singing they walked off. It was so peaceful, and left the attention on Christ. It was so incredible.

I thoroughly enjoyed this concert, and if you are looking for a good Christmas CD, check out Behold the Lamb of God. You can get it here. https://store.rabbitroom.com/index.aspx

Applesauce!

 

 

 

 

Timothy's birthday

Timothy celebrated his 7th birthday Monday. It's hard to believe that it's been seven years--time must fly. He is such fun to be around and a wonderful brother. We celebrated it North Carolina while we were there to be with all the relatives. We had quite a fun time, especially Timothy. :)

 

 

 

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving. We traveled to western north Carolina to visit mom's family. The farmhouse where we have it every year is where my grandfather and his many siblings grew up.

The farm and boys. 

Me, Eric and cousin Laura. 

The whole family. We had a great time visiting them. 

Picture update!

 

Our new kitties! We got them from our old neighbor. They are sisters.

 

This is Pumpkin.

 

This is Star. Timothy loves them to pieces!

 

The P's came for the weekend. (Ashley and her family)

 

Luke's first kill.

 

The rec room and weight rooms. The big, closest part is the rec room, the narrow part is the weight room. Its perfect for indoor soccer. =)

 

The beautiful treeline across our pasture.

 

Unpacking furniture. No idea why I have that expression.

 

That looks familiar!

Finally...a post!

Well, we have had an exciting two weeks in our new house. We have spent lots of time painting and going to Home Depot to pick out and buy paint. We were spoiled having it 5 minutes away; now its over 20 so we have to plan our trips carefully! The wood floors are postponed until next summer. We decided it was too much to paint and do floors all while we are trying to move in.

This weekend we got the last of our stuff which was stored in Richmond. Eric, Dad and I had to go down Friday night for an event and we rented a truck and drove it back Saturday with all our stuff from the stationary storage units Everything looks so small in our big house! It is quite strange. And we hardly have any furniture for the basement, but my sewing room is starting to fill up!

We got the school room set up today, and I think we are going to try to start back tomorrow, after a 2 week break!

It is so peaceful and quiet out here. The nearest house is up on the main road, not quite 1/4 mile. When we look out the window, we can see our pasture, and our neighbor's across the road. Further away are the woods all around. In one direction you can see through the bare woods into the white fenced pastures of the massive horse farm behind us. Two weeks ago the leaves were peak and gorgeous! They are mostly gone now though, but that means winter! We are hoping for more snow since we are further north!

Eric and Luke have been squirrel hunting twice, and the first time they each got one, although Eric couldn't find his after looking for it for 45 minutes. We had Luke's for dinner. They shot another one today, but I'm not sure which one of them got it. They are really excited about deer season coming up and Eric is sure he is going to get a big buck this season! We'll see.

We are going to a primitive cabin this weekend for Mom's birthday, so check back for pictures from that, and I will try to get photos of our last two weeks up.

Of Friends and Bluegrass

Last Wednesday, we traveled to Newport News to visit a family we have known for a while. We had a great time renewing old frendships while playing football, Dutch Blitz, rubberband fights, and Bluegrass! It was great to have the extra players to jam with. Susannah was on auto harp, Stephen played his cello some, and Peter played his cello as a bass. Mom took this video, and I don't think any of us knew she was recording, otherwise, some people would not have played...=D !

So, I'm faking fiddle on my viola, Eric is playing the guitar, Susannah is on the auto harp, Peter is plucking on his cello, and Luke is pickin' away on his banjo. Luke has only played a year and a half, but he has really taken off on the banjo!

Move-in In Sight!

 

This is the lovely 'Barn' we have been staying in. It has been amazing provision!

We found out this week that we are going to close on Monday, 3 days ahead of schedule! We are very excited about that! We have managed well over these past 6 weeks with the help of God's people who have been such a blessing to us. We are all very happy, though, that the time has finally come to move into our new home, but we have many fond memories of our weeks of sojourning. It has been a good lesson the we are not permanent dwellers on this earth, we are just sojourners, heading to a much better place.

Update

Our new house is continuing to go through. We had the inspection yesterday, which went well. The inspector found a few small things, which were mostly inconsequential. We are very excited about this!

Our realtor is trying to get everything done quickly so we can close on Oct. 30. The original date was Nov. 3, but the bank has agreed to the earlier date as long as everything gets done. We are hoping the October date works out, because that is a Thursday, and Nov. 4would be the beginning of a week so we would not have a weekend to move in. We are planning to paint the first floor, rip up carpet on the first floor, and install wood floors that match the rest of the first floor that weekend, and Dad would be there to work on the weekend. Otherwise, the flooring is up to Eric and I, which would be fun. =D

On our way home from North Carolina last Thursday, we stayed in Durham that night to watch another one of Laura's soccer games. It was a good game, but unfortunately, Wake Forest lost. =(

We made it to town Friday and went to our next dwelling, a guest house/barn in a family's backyard. It has been wonderful provision. It is smaller than all seven of us have ever lived in before, excepting tents and cabins, but those were just for a few days, so we are all trying not to step on each other's toes!

We have been able this week to help some friends of ours who are building their own house this week. We have been wanting to for a very long time, and now we are able and living close to them, so we have had a lot of fun at their house. Pictures may follow...

We don't have Internet access where we are living, so I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while.
I'll try to post whenever we have news...maybe. It just depends on where we are and if we have Internet, so check back!

We Have a House!

After over a week or negotiation, the bank finally accepted our offer! Yay!! Now we can proceed with all the legal details and head toward the closing on November 3rd. It feels good to know that we will soon have a place to settle in.

Soccer and a Place to Stay

Once again the Lord has provided us with a place to stay. This weekend, we left Richmond and headed down to North Carolina to see our cousin, Laura, play for the Wake Forest women's soccer team. We were able to enjoy a men's soccer game Saturday, and the women's game Sunday. We went from the soccer games to stay with Mom's sister and her family in western North Carolina for this week, while Dad is staying with a coworker this week.
After this week, a family we know in Richmond offered us the use of their guesthouse for as long as we need it! This is amazing provision and we are going to stay there until we move into a house.



Laura with a save!

Eric, Anna, Isaac, Sarah (cousin), Isaac, and Timothy watching the game.

A Beach Trip

Some Friends of ours from DC, Tommy, Mary, Teddy, and Emily, invited us to come with them to their beach house in Duck, NC (the Outer Banks) this weekend. Since we don't have our own house to work on, nor other big projects going on, we, and a friend of mine, Mary, decided to go.



We have had a fun and relaxing time here together. The weather has been perfect, not too cool, not too hot. The water was cold at first, but we got use to it easily. Unfortunately, the water was very rough from Hurricane Kyle out in the Atlantic, so the "No Swimming" flags were out. We could go into the water about 10 feet. We got knocked over by huge waves, then suddenly the water would get sucked out for the next big wave, sometimes almost pulling us with it, or we were were uncomfortably sitting on the sand in about 8 inches of water until the next wave came. It was a very different ocean than I have ever swam in before. We had fun playing Ultimate Frisbee on the beach, too.



Tomorrow we are leaving early to go by Kitty Hawk and the Wright Brothers Museam, then heading home to make it to Eric's soccer game and my orchestra rehearsal.

It has been a great weekend, especially visiting with old friends.

Kids enjoying the beach.

A sand crab the boys found.

Everyone enjoying the water.

Luke enjoyed his first time on the skimboard. He took to it very well, but the waves overpowered him a few times. Note how small the wave is that the skim board is in compared with how high Luke went. Yeah, those waves were really strong.

Teddy and Timothy braving the seas together while Eric stands by and Luke is doing something, I'm not sure what.

Mom waiting for the sunrise.

Finally, what they were waiting for appeared.

Group shot.

House Photos

Here are pictures of the house we are making an offer on.


The house and yard.

The barn.

The backyard and fences.