What I'm enjoying this Christmas

I'm sorry to say it, but this is probably going to be the last post that I do in 2012.  ...Gonna catch up on some quality family time for the rest of the month, if you know what I mean :)

BUT!  I do intend to leave the year with a longer-than-usual blog post.  

~

Let me just start out by saying how much I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to Christmas music on Pandora  

There is nothing quite like Bing Crosby singing 'Winter Wonder Land', or Nat King Cole with 'The Christmas Song'.  

I've enjoyed the cozy fires down in the cold basement while watching Christmas movies with the fam (favorites being Polar Express, Rudolph, Narnia, It's a Wonderful Life, and all of the other awesome Christmas movie classics)

It was a total blast Christmas Caroling with some of the kids in our church...you could tell that it really touched a lot of the people who we sang to.

...

Aaakkk!  I can't concentrate on what I'm writing because of the 'Mr. Grinch' song that is playing in the background! ...oh well, I love the song ...hang on a sec, I'm going to finish listening really quickly... :D

~

Ok, I'm back.  Speaking of more music, listening to Michael Bublé's Christmas CD early this morning on my way up to Boone was so nice.  
{Although ...while his Christmas CD is super, I can't speak for the rest of his albums :) }

I had to take a test up at Appalachian State this morning...not the most fun way to spend a Friday in December, but hey!  At least it's over now...and I passed!!!  Yeah!!

Thankfully Caelen was up there taking one at the same time as me (...she passed as well)

Soo happy  :)

The trip up is always a treat just because you get to pass about 10 different Christmas tree farms on the way.   

{getting a decent looking picture out of the window of a fast moving car is kinda difficult..}

It's been so fun seeing Calcium Bicarbonate (our dog...with the ultimate dog name) grow great with pup ;)  Any day now she's gonna have little Christmas puppies!!!

I tried out this cool DIY Christmas decoration project to put on my dresser - so cute!! 

*Just glue miniature Christmas trees to the lid of a clear mason jar (you can the mini trees at craft stores...I stole mine from our miniature Christmas village :)

*Then sprinkle large salt crystals or sugar onto the lid, and screw it onto the jar

Cute, huh?

Cracking up at this Christmas song . . . Nate and I sung it at a talent show one year...very memorable talent show...  :P

Alright, alright . . . I better go now.  Time to finish decorating the Christmas tree... {I just secretly put the first red ball up...it's always a contest between us kids to see who will put the first ornament on the tree :P }

{I won}

Merry Christmas everybody!  I'll see ya next year!

12.12.12

Hey!  Do you know what day it is???  

12.12.12 !!!

Never again will this date role around again in history!  ... {well, I guess you could say that about pretty much any day of the week, but... }

We're makin history people!  :)  

It's neat to think that every moment that I'm living is just a piece of history that can either be remembered forever, or completely forgotten.  

I wanna do something that will leave a lasting impression!

 I have a whole lifetime to make history! ...now whether that lifetime is 5 more days or 70 more years, i'll never know, but I do know that I have a responsibility to use the time that I have right now, - wisely!
...and so do you...

"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him"                                                                                           ~John Piper

New Header

It was about time to say goodbye to the orange look, so I tried my hand at designing a new header for my blog ... let me know which one you like better!  ;)

{Before}

{After}

Insight on the World Today . . . A letter

A friend shared this letter with me this morning, and I thought that it was very insightful ... and very true.  Just thought I would return the favor and share it with all of you guys:

Take a second to read this:

Apparently the White House referred to Christmas Trees as “Holiday Trees” for the first time this year which prompted CBS presenter, Ben Stein, to present this piece which I would like to share with you. I think it applies just as much to many countries as it does to America . . .

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejewelled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, “Merry Christmas” to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a crib, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her: “How could God let something like this happen?” (regarding Hurricane Katrina). Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said: “I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?”

In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbour as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said okay.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

"Leftover" Burritos and a late happy Thanksgiving!

Well, I got up the nerve to make some more tortillas this afternoon, and they actually turned out to be pretty good (I tried a new recipe :) and I went down on my time!!!  Instead of 3 hours, it only took me 30 minutes! I figured out the trick...don't use a wooden rolling pin to role them out.  Also, I figured that if I really wanted to learn how to make them, I'd have to fish around for different recipes, and then practice, practice, practice.
...yet another thing I found helpful this go around - don't make tortillas for Lunch (until you are good at it that is,) ...much better to make them in your free time when you're not starving :D
Anyways, I did make the tortillas for Lunch today and ended up eating at 2:30 (better than 3:00 I guess), but that was just because I was making a "leftover" burrito.

{picture from google}

For me, the basic components of a good burrito are:
Some kind of meat (I like chicken or hamburger the best)
Cheese
Onions
Beans and/or rice (if I have them, which I usually don't)
Some sort of sauce or salsa.
I haven't been able to find a good recipe for sauce online yet, so I'm in the process of coming up with one myself.  I'll post it if I can figure one out.  Otherwise, I just use salsa instead of sauce.
We usually don't have anything fancy in the fridge for most lunches, and eating a plain old ham 'n' cheese or PBnJ is almost a crime, so I decided to cram anything I could find into a tortilla to make a burrito.

We had turkey from last night's supper (I try to avoid turkey as much as I can, but this time it turned out ...not so bad... with LOTS of seasoning), so I heated some of that, onions, cilantro, taco seasoning and salsa in a skillet.
Then I spread some sour cream and more salsa on a large tortilla, put my turkey skillet stuff on top of that, and made a thick cheese sauce out of cheese, sour cream, butter and milk to pour over it all . . . . Wrapped my bundle of joy up and cooked it on a griddle until both sides were golden brown.  Um, um good stuffs!
...Really though, you can throw just about anything into a tortilla and it will come out delicious :)
Happy experimenting, and hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving this past week!

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I was just thinking about all of the things that I have to be thankful for -but mainly for grace.  Without the grace of Jesus Christ, where would I be right now?  what kinds of things would I be all caught up in that have absolutely no value in the end? ... I wonder ....
Because of his grace, I can fully understand what it is to be truly thankful for anything and everything that I've received.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!  {a bit late}

{Picture from google}

When I clicked "log in" to blogger, I had absolutely no idea what to write about, but I just knew that I had to write something....well, I still don't know what I'm going to write about, but I'm sure there are plenty of topics to choose from....say...Oh!  Did you know they are already playing Christmas music on the radio???  (I personally think that it is still too early...but, whatever) Just going into Walmart gives me a wave of nostalgia, but I keep pounding into my head, "wait until after Thanksgiving".... it's not working...

~

Ok...this picture might give some people nightmares for 6 months, but I've found that if you don't put at least one picture in your blog post, most people just skip over the whole post entirely, so...I thought this pict was enough to make people at least somewhat curious about clicking it  :D

{Don't worry, this isn't a real picture}

~

The other day, I was talking with a friend about her many speeches that she had to perform the next day, and she couldn't think of another word for "a whole bunch of something", so I interjected, "A retina of speeches?"...she just looked at me kind of weirdly and then started to laugh .....
Later that night (after much puzzling over), I sat up in bed and laughed at myself..."Plethora!" ....  I had meant to say, "you had a whole plethora of speeches", but instead I said, "you have a whole retina..." ...anyways... I tend to do that a lot more than I used to for some reason...

{ :D  } 

~

Resolution and Rebelution

Wow!  Its gettin more chilly every morning . . . I lOVE it!  :)  

Ok, I don't have enough time this morning to post anything creative, but I did want to share a "resolution" that I made this morning . . . I say "resolution", because I don't know how well it will fit in with this weather . . .  but . . . anyways...
Everybody knows how this goes... you have a whole bunch of clothes, but most of them stay in the bottom of your drawer, or on the last hanger in your closet all year round, so what I'm going to try to do, is wear everything that I own . . . ok, wait!  That sounds weird . . . Not in one chunk you understand, but over an extensive period of time until just about everything has been worn, and I can root out the clothes that I want to keep, and the ones that I don't.  The only thing is, now that I am pulling out my "Winter box", I'm finding that most of my warm stuff is probably hanging on a rack in Goodwill right now . . . I have a feeling that I am going to freeze in all of my short-sleeves as I'm going through the clothes . . . Its time to go shopping . . .

Another thing that I've been really inspired by lately, is the Rebelution: A teenage rebellion against low expectations . . . I don't have the time to dive in deep about this, but here is the website, please check it out.  Hopefully it will inspire you to DO HARD THINGS to impact the world, and use the lives that we were graciously given - wisely!

~Hannah

Do you want to know the story of my blogging life?  (you probably already know it)

Blog

Feel good that I just updated my blog

Wait a week.....or two.....or three....

Life

Blog about random things that have happened in that interval

etc..

Oh no, don't worry!  Nobody is getting jipped here!  My journal is just as random and jumbled up as my blog...I just can't seem to find a good way to tie everything into a nice, perfectly synchronized post.  It is so much easier to write in spurts and pictures!  That is why I am going to start to read  through a website that should inspire me to become more consistent in blogging. (I'll tell you the name of the website after I've browsed through it a bit more ;)

~ 

But it's just little things that are on my mind tonight, like:

~

Did you know that you can wash off speckles from a speckled egg???  No, I'm serious!  Those speckled eggs are all frauds!  They really don't have any spots at all underneath!!!

I hate it when my camera tells me that I've only got 5 pictures left, and then actually ends up taking about 10 more! . . . it's very misleading . . .

~

My rabbit had 8 babies and only 3 survived :( 

I came up with the very original name of Rigamortis for one of the babies, who seemed very stiff at the time. Sadly neither he, nor his brother, "Rig II" made it for very long.  I decided to stop naming them that after the second one died.   

{if you don't know what Rigamortis means, then here is the definition}...

{Bad picture, but it was raining that day, and my camera lied to me and said that I only had 1 picture left, so I only got this one shot of all 8 rabbits in the nest}

{pictures of the babies at 2 weeks, on Bloom}

~

This afternoon, I found out that if I don't want to eat another sandwich for lunch, and decide to make tortillas instead . . . . I'd be better off to just stick with the sandwich.  Those tortillas just about killed me!  I spent literally 2 hours trying to make those things, and for what?  Some irregularly shaped, square pieces of hard tack!!!  

Ben tried to "boost my spirits" by saying that they tasted really good, they just took way too long to make.   :)

~

I've realized that doing everything with excellence, even means to wash those extra dishes on the counter that I didn't see an hour ago when I started washing the massive pile up.  Although I feel like saying, "I've already done all of these dishes and enough is enough!", I found that it really feels good (besides its being the right thing to do :) to go the extra mile and get it all done.  

~

Recent stats have shown that Autumn is (hands-down) the best season of the year.

{no biased person was present when this statistic was made}

~

I feel better now.  I've done my good deed for the day.

I've come back to life in the blogging world and just graced it with some more ramblings...I'm sure it needed that... :)

~Hannah

Glad to be back

Hey Ya'll!

So glad to be back home, even though we did have a very nice (rainy) vacation at the beach.

Forgive the southern salutation . . . but if you hang out with wonderful southern extended family for a week, you are bound to pick up the lingo in some form or fashion :D  (I love it!  They are awesome ;)

I would have taken pictures . . . but . . . I accidentally left my other memory card at home with my smaller camera, so I was left with only 8 pictures to take (choose wisely doesn't even begin to describe my feelings about those 8 pictures) . . . in fact, I was so careful and selective about which pictures I should take, that I only took about 3.

I tend to do that though - whenever I have something that is precious to me, I like to save it up until just the right time . . . the only problem is, I can never find the exact right time, and opportunities are so often missed.

Huh .... that could be an awesome object lesson.

Instead of always looking for the perfect time (or when I feel like I know all of the right answers) to engage, challenge, or talk to someone about Christ, I should always be willing to get into that uncomfortable conversation . . . even if it is kind of awkward at the time.

Been a bit thoughtful this evening . . . can you tell???  :)

Have a good one everybody - especially now that school is starting back up.  I've signed up for College Plus this year, so we'll see how it goes.  Definitely promises to be a busy semester though :)

~Hannah

Pssst...thanks Lancaster fam for joining us on our vacation this past week!

Haiti 2012

I feel that I owe an apology to all of my patient relatives who have been anxiously awaiting this post.  Sorry guys . . . I know this is long over due.  

For those who don't know, (or haven't read my previous posts :) Dad took Caelen to Haiti on missions work for her "senior trip".  

Caelen will even admit that she wasn't really looking forward to going, but in the end, it turned out to be the best thing possible.  Now she is scrimping and saving up to go again.  Doing missions work can do that to you I guess :)

Caelen and Dad flew out of TN on the sixth of July (a Friday) and arrived back home on Saturday . . . just in time to eat homemade ice cream for Nate bud's birthday.  

As soon as they stepped out of the car back in Marion NC, they were absolutely bombarded and interrogated until we got the whole story out of them:  

In a brief . . . {very brief} . . . this is what they said:

After stepping off of the (tiny and very rickety) blue plane into the town of Jeremy, their team was pounced on by a whole bunch of Haitian people trying to sell their goods and be paid for helping them out with their luggage.  If your luggage was handled at all by one of these people, you had to pay them for their services.

Once they had finished all of the airport rigmarole, the team headed down the house where they were going to be staying all week . . . it was pretty nice from what I saw of the pictures.  :)

While they were in Haiti, the team did a whole lot of Vacation Bible School for the local kids and for one of the orphanages in Jeremy.  A really neat opportunity!  Caelen said that they watched "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" with the kids one night, and they all cheered and clapped whenever Aslan came onto the screen.  That is how they feel about God.

Dad was explaining that as soon as they arrived at the orphanage, each team member was "adopted" by the kids there.  Caelen had a posse of 6 kids following her around everywhere.  Jessica (age 12), Rosetania (12), Loveson (10), Josephe (10), Shilanchi (7), Elsia (5).

Dad had 4 kids in his posse: Island (13), Makeson (11), Edno (8), Sonson (7).
Apparently, most of them were very sweet and loving kids.  


Apart from some "Haitian Sensation" (a sickness that involves nausea, fever, fatigue, headache...and the like)
nobody got too sick, although you had to be extremely cautious about the water there.  You had to keep your eyes and mouth tightly shut during showers and couldn't even use the water for brushing your teeth.  


Here is a slideshow of some of the pictures that Caelen took while they were there. 

Sometimes I think that we can forget about the different countries that are in need, both physically and spiritually.  Sometimes we get so caught up in our own comfort, our own difficulties, and our own lives, that we forget to pray for those who don't even have half of what we have.  Sometimes, I think that we take a whole lot of things too much for granted . . . . Fresh water, clean homes, loving families, enough food to eat . . . you name it!
America needs to become more grateful.  I need to become more grateful.

Continue to keep Haiti in your prayers.  

A "Hodge-Podge" of Randoms

Have you ever done this? - Written a hodge-podge of things in your journal just to catch yourself up on everything that you've done in the last couple of days?? . . . I find myself doing it all the time!!

7.11.12 - (10:24 pm)

Caelen and Dad are in Haiti; Mom got back from CO on Monday, (today is Wednesday) and Nathan is turning 15 on Saturday.  

I finished "Bonhoeffer - Pastor, Martyr, Spy" on Tuesday, and checked out "The Count of Monte Cristo" from the library this evening. 

We ate stir fry for supper, and worked in the rain today.  

Ben has a cold, and I have been giving him warm water with 2 drops of Wintergreen, 2 drops of Eucalyptus Radiata, and 5 drops of Lemon Young Living Essential Oils to gargle to help soothe his throat.  It works like magic!!  :)

I made Homemade Ice Cream in 10 minutes yesterday, and it turned out to be DELICIOUS!!!

I got my mocha brown Lenovo IdeaPad laptop last week, and love it with all of my <3

Am memorizing 2 verses on Kindness for this week - 1 Thessalonians 5:15 & 2 Timothy 2:24.  {Why does memorizing things come so difficultly for me??}

It has been a regular rain forest here lately, and OH!!!  I forgot to mention!!  . . . I (finally) got my permit the other week!!!   YAY!!!

Yours ever, but not always so faithfully,

Hannah

Graduation Celebration - Caelen

Ok, I must admit that at first I was kind of nervous about Caelen's graduation, but it ended up being fantastic. . . although it did make me kind of antsy when the rain clouds rolled in and we got a thorough drenching fifteen minutes before all of the guests were supposed to arrive.  God knew exactly what he was doing though, and everything cooled off right before the party got started :D

I am so proud of the young lady that Caelen has become.  It took a lot of nerve for her to get up in front of a hundred people and give her speech, but she did it (very well, I might add), and made us all proud.  

I thought this was neat - Men from each phase of Caelen's life got up to challenge and encourage her to be bold and courageous in this new page of her life.  

 . . . And then Caelen had to give a brief speech on what she planned to do now that her high school education was over. . . although she was extremely nervous, it was fantabulous!  :)

God blessed me with a beautiful sister (both inside and out) that I am so thankful for.
{for more photos from the graduation, visit my photography blog: Bloom Photography}

Easy and Quick Blueberries/Blackberries Muffins Recipe

It's one of those rainy, wet days when your dog is looking pitifully at you, on the other side of the door, 

when you feel like curling up with a book in a cozy little nook somewhere, 

and waking your little bro up to go pick blackberries in the pouring rain way out in the pasture . . . 

one of those kind of days, you know???

~ ~ ~

With all of these soggy blackberries that Ben and I collected, I have decided to make my favorite muffin recipe this morning.  It is from a Kid's Recipe Book that Caelen got when she turned 10, but I guess that's why I like this recipe so much . . . because it is simple and tastes SO GOOD!!!  =D

Recipe for blueberry/blackberry muffins:

Ingredients:

1/2 stick (1 stick) butter

2 cups all-purpose flour (I use 1 cup white, and 1 cup wholewheat just to make it more healthy)

1/2 cup sugar

1 Tbl baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1 egg

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup blueberries (of course, I used blackberries, and the muffins were great!)

Directions:

1.  Put butter in the microwave until completely melted.  Set aside.

2.  Preheat oven to 375 F and put paper liners into 12 muffin cups (or you can spray down the muffin pan with non-stick spray)

3.  In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Mix well.

4.  In a small mixing bowl, combine the milk, egg, and vanilla.  Using the same fork, beat until well blended. 

5.  Add the milk mixture, melted butter, and blueberries (or blackberries) into the flour mixture.  Using a spatula, stir gently until the ingredients are just blended.  

6.  Spoon equal amounts of the batter into the muffin cups.  

7.  Bake the muffins until they are golden and have risen nicely, 18-20 minutes.  Remove from oven and place it on the cooling rack.

Makes 12 muffins.

Enjoy!

7 years to the day

7 years ago, Mom and Dad went all the way to Russia to pick you up.  

7 years ago, your siblings were waiting anxiously at the airport for their little brother to come home.

7 years ago, I got to proudly walk you into church for the first time to show you off to all of my friends.

7 years ago, Mom was trying to teach you English, and you wouldn't stop saying 'bidetos' and 'myettos' for potatoes and tomatoes . . . (cracked us all up)

7 years ago, we were all put in quarantine for months until the doctors could figure out what kind of 'sickness' you had (it turned out to be not so bad after all)

Before the beginning of time, God knew exactly what family he would be putting you in, at the exact time, at the exact place =)

7 years ago, you were a HUGE blessing, and nothing has changed since.

I love you Andrei Vitaliavitch Bogdanov Edmondson (AKA Ben)

(3 years old in Russia)

(4 years old in America)

(Now) (10 years old)

(This Morning)

Trying my hand at grad pictures

If you have visited Bloom any time recently, then you will have noticed the utter lack of portraits or really any pictures of people on there.  Mostly, I think my "photography comfort zone" is in the landscape and random if you know what I mean ... but it just so happened that one early morning (really early) Caelen decided that she wanted to graduate . . . and then of course, she got it into her head that she might need some grad pictures . . . and then she thought,
"U...Hannah....Could you  . . .  "

Of course I loved the chance to go out and take some more pictures, but like I've said...people pictures are not my expertise :)

Thankfully, they turned out alright.  Tell me what you think, and PLEASE give me some pointers all of you 'perfect picture bloggers' out there....yes, I know you are out there somewhere because I sometimes look at the pictures on your blogs and break the tenth commandment (thou shalt not covet - Exodus 20:17)

My next post really should be on contentment...

{My Beautiful Sister ~ Caelen}

{Isn't she gorgeousness?} 

In this one, she is holding our new mutt pup, Calcium Bicarbonate . . . yup, we actually named our dog the chemical name for chalk...at least I think Calcium Bicarbonate is chalk...

A tad bit behind . . .

Uggg...you know those days when you look at all of that stuff that you have gotten behind on and think; how in the world am I EVER going to get it done??? 

Unfortunately, that is where I am stuck at the moment . . . Chemistry, Geometry, History . . . it's all piled up over Spring Break and this (awesome) Easter weekend.  Somehow I've got to find a way to wrap everything up before the end of May...which doesn't give me a whole lot of time, but it was good to be reminded this morning in my devotions that:

"The Lord does not let the righteous go hungry..."

and

"Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth."

~Prov 10:3-4

Even when I'm feeling a bit ok, really behind in what I'm trying to get done, God always makes perfectly sure that all of my needs are supplied for. . . but just so I don't take that cue and run with it, he also adds in a caution not to sit back and relax...waiting around for him to bless me; he has called me to be diligent and hard working.

So... yep, I do have a whole bunch that I need to catch up on, and yes...I am still feeling kind of behind, but it is encouraging to know that it can be done as long as I go at it with "diligent hands" and he will supply me with the grace {and energy} to do it.  :)  

 ~

{Oh yes, I thought that I would show you my little Easter surprise that I got this past week}

{forgive the bad pictures, they are the only ones I could get . . . my camera ran out of batteries before I could take any better ones}

{I'll be sure to get more as soon as I'm recharged :) }

Father Daughter Retreat 2012

Sad!  This post is a little late . . . ok, a lot late, but hey, at least I'm getting it in at all  :).  Things have been extremely, no insanely busy around here as we get ready to take our Spring Break (yeah!) and travel for Apologia , working conferences (which will keep up very busy for a long time)  

Anyways, about the Father Daughter . . . 

Beautiful - check

Good talk with Dad at breakfast - double check

Inspiring - check²

{The outdoor games were canceled this year because of the rain, so we got to see the butterflies :) }

{Met some friends}

{Inspiring Conferences -}

 It was SUPER convicting to hear again about the importance of the relationship of brothers and sisters from Anna Sofia and Elizabeth Botkin}

 {The High Tea is always a highlight}

{So Dainty ...}

{Walks with Dad}

{Flowers}

Of course, if you are going to be staying at the Callaway Gardens, you are going to see and have to take TONS of pictures of flowers...

It was super good to go this year . . . very relaxing and refreshing I must say.  I encourage all girls of any age and background to make it out at least once with their dads while this sweet time of girlhood is still here.  It is sooo worth it!  :)

In Christ Alone,

Hannah Girl