Pages

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Bloom Where You Are Planted


The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the moldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the moldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.






Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.







"The Rainy Day" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


Has life ever felt like "It rains, and the wind is never weary"?
Sometimes life is tough, and you don't like the circumstances you are in. But even in the worst circumstances, God has given you the power to bloom no matter where you are planted.

We have a few rose bushes outside. By November they've been done blooming for quite some time. It's just too cold. But there is one stubborn little bush that refuses to give up.

It's amazing! The day was cold and dreary,
but this one little bush still brought beauty where it's been planted.





God has put you in a particular place. No matter what you're going through, you can still bloom. No matter where you have been planted, you can still blossom into the flower that
God intended for you to be.


Trust the Lord to calm the storms in your life in His timing. Just keep doing what He has for you to do, and let Him take care of the rest!







"Behind the clouds is the sun still shining"!
Even though you can't see Him, God is always there.

Friday, November 3, 2017

And Then They Were One

On Saturday, October 28, 2017, two people became one.

Two people exchanged vows and started a life together. 














Nathan Lee Byler
&
Jacquelyn Brooke Webb

Mr. & Mrs. Nathan Byler

Indeed, we have added another person to our clan!
Now, Jacquelyn's not as nutty as the rest of us. In fact, she might just manage to keep Nate's head screwed on tight. Love you Nate! :D





















The wedding was beautiful! A men's group sang "Almighty, Unchangeable God." Here's a link to the song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPZrLunuXCA
Look it up, people. This song is so gorgeous!

We are so excited to welcome Jacquelyn to the family!
Love you two!!!!


P.S.  For those of you who were marveling at the loveliness of my pictures, I didn't take them. :D To be honest I didn't take a single picture that day. I thought about it, but I knew I could get my hands on some pictures later and I didn't want to be viewing the day through a lens. So thank the wedding photographer for the beauty you see! :P

Friday, August 18, 2017

Projects #2

 My project for this week has been the guest room. Nate got his own place, and we moved Daniel to Nate's old room so we could have a guest room again. Of course I wanted to decorate the room, but I didn't want to spend a whole lot of money and I didn't want to take a whole lot of time either.

So I painted a mural.
Yep, that's what I said. I had thought about trying a mural in my room, but I'm done decorating in there now. But here was my chance, and I snatched it. :P

I sketched the mountains on the wall first. 

 Then I started painting...

...and painting... 

...and painting... 

...and finished painting!


The finished product.

What do you think?
I used mainly one color, that dark blue on the bottom. After I finished one mountain, I added some light gray or cream paint to my blue and did the next mountain up. Add some more cream and do the next mountain, and so on.
It was a lot of fun to do!

Camp Deer Lake ~ 2017

Last week Lighthouse and Calvary got together for camp. We did this last year as well, though only for three days, and it was awesome then too! This year we did it for a week. We had nineteen campers and just as many counselors. The speaker was Evangelist Terry Danford. Three souls were saved and many more made decisions. The week was centered around the book of 1st Timothy. Five campers memorized the entire book, and many more said parts of it. There was Bible quizzing every night over 1st Timothy, and the preaching each day was from it. 

The theme was Construction. We had two teams, the Builders and the Contractors; our goal was to build a wall on the southern border. By saying verses and winning games, we earned money to purchase supplies to build the wall.



Our "Big Beautiful Door"

















First morning


We had team activities every day.











Jenga


The "Builders" won the week

The "Contractors." I'm third from the right.


We all had a blast!

Stay tuned for "Projects #2"! :)

Friday, August 11, 2017

Applesauce

Last Monday we picked apples at a friend's house, so the following Wednesday we made applesauce. The total process takes about all day with as much as we make.
This is only about two thirds of the apples. I didn't get a picture of all of it together.
Mia's helping cut apples
So we quarter them and cut out any bad spots...
...then they go in these pots with some water to cook until soft.
From the pots the apples are dumped into this Squeezo that Melinda is using. This thing is awesome because it takes quartered apples and separates the cores and peels while squeezing out the sauce.
Then we jar the applesauce and can the jars...
...and the result is fresh hot applesauce that will last through the winter. I think we did around sixty eight quarts this year.


Well, that's all for now. I hope to get a post about Camp out soon if not tonight so stay tuned! ;)

Projects

If you remember, in the last post, I promised an news flash on the latest project at our house. And here is the delivery, if a bit later than some of you thought. :P The latest project is our deck.


Before
Before
We already had a deck, but it was quite literally becoming a hazard. The floorboards were getting... holey! :D

Also, that side of the house faces the west, which means the afternoon sun hits the brick there for hours. In the summer time, the dining room and kitchen (which are on that side) get several degrees hotter in the afternoon than the rest of the house because of the sun on that side and the deck has no roof to shield the house.

Hence the project.
We needed to replace the floorboards anyway, so while we were tearing things apart, we decided to do it right and put a roof on too.

Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures of the process. But here goes.







Dad putting the pickets on

All of this happened over several weeks because the guys worked on it when they didn't have something else they were supposed to be doing. But that's the joys of having contractors as family! You can get them to work on your house for free! You just have to buy materials... :D
















Finished with pickets
Ceiling





All that is left to do is stain it and build the furniture. And yes, I said build the furniture. We have big plans for this deck and it's going to look so pretty when it's done!
I'm so excited!! :D



Okay, enough of that. I think I'm going to attempt doing three posts today. Not promising anything but I'm going to try. So much has happened since the last post. Until next time! ...which is literally like....a few minutes.... :P