Log Cabin Weekend

In our Church, we have a Titus 2 woman who has been super good to a group of us girls in teaching a Bible study on Romans over the Summer which has benefited us all so much!  

This past weekend, our study group went up to one of the girl's families cabin and kind of did a recap on the study, sharing what had impacted us the most, as well as spending time with each other, hiking and so forth :)  

I'm so grateful for this group of fun, but solid people who get together to both enjoy each other and keep one another accountable!

"Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another."

~Provers 27:17

Breakfast - best meal of the day....orange juice, hot chocolate, eggs, Pillsbury Doughboy biscuits, sausage and fruit!  Can you get any better than that?!?

 Sitting on the porch in PJ's to talk until lunch time...

Hiking up to 'the bald' on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina.

In our Bible study, we divided the book into 5 main sections: 

Sin, Salvation, Sanctification, Sovereignty, and Service.  

sooo, this is us on top of a mountain, demonstrating the 5 different sections in Romans:

What can I say?  It was awesome!!!  

:)

Asheville

Brrrrr.....It's just now gotten somewhat chilly here in the mountains - so exciting!!!  

Yesterday I spent most of the day up in Asheville, and while I'd like to say that I shopped long and hard with Mom at Trader Joe's and Target, I've gotta admit that I stayed in the car pretty much the whole time trying to study for yet another CLEP test.  (actually I'm not a big shopper, so I guess I couldn't have said that anyways :P)

But it was fun getting to wear my fuzzy boots for the first time this season, finding an awesome CD for only $5 at a used book/CD store, and seeing a few early Christmas lights that evening on the drive home.

Speaking of Christmas, I absolutely CAN NOT WAIT!  Everything about it just seems to special to me this year for some reason.  

:)

{here is a sneak peak of one of our Christmas card pictures that we'll be sending out sometime this December} 

It's Fall!

It's Fall!!!

{Cooler Weather}

{Scarves}

{Boots}

{Sweatshirts}

{Hikes in the Mountains}

{Fall Festivals}

{Pumpkins}

__________________

ahh....don't ya just LUV it???

Trust

As Christians, we tend to hear the expression "trust in the Lord" a lot, but like the popular saying goes, "familiarity breeds contempt." 

Not that trusting God becomes necessarily contemptible, but often when we are used to hearing something everyday, it sometimes tends to get blown off. 

In my devotions, I've started to explore more about the whole concept of trust, and what the Bible's definition of it is, so I wanted to share something that I found to be really thought-provoking that I came across while I was studying:

Using Job 13:15 - "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face.  Indeed, this will turn out for my deliverance, for no godless man would dare come before him!"

Matthew Henry commentates:

"Trust in God, though He slay us, that is, we must be well pleased with God as a friend even when He seems to come forth as an enemy, we must believe that all shall work for the good to us even when all seems to make against us.  We must proceed and persevere in the way of our duty, though it cost us all that is dear to us in this world, even life itself.  We must depend on the performance of the promise when all ways leading to it are shut up.  We must rejoice in God when we have nothing else to rejoice in, and cleave to him, yea, though we cannot for the present find comfort in Him.  In a dying hour we must derive from Him living comforts; and this is to trust in Him though He slay us."

Actually, someone wrote a song based on that verse....super neat:

~

Had a photoshoot with these two gals.  So much fun!  

:D

Sweet dreams everybodeeeee!

:)

Well, Tuesday is already gone (hey!  life happens...) so I might as well just put a 'Picture of the Week' up just to say that I did something!  :)

But yet again, iPhone pictures (that I didn't even take) will have to suffice.  (It's not the most convenient thing to lug a big ol camera up a mountain....I'm always worried that I might drop it over the cliff or something :P )

We went hiking this past Sunday afternoon with a group of kids from our Church up to Table Rock - nothing like hiking in Fall weather, eh?  :D

~

KC&TO - All I Have is Christ

"All I Have is Christ." 

- This video truly does not need an explanation or description.  It is super, and I hope it moves you just as much as it did me. - 

~~

Dad took Caelen and I out on a mini excursion to work on some retaining walls with him, and you know what I took along for the ride???

Camera + Book

Keep Calm & Tuesday On - Self-Discipline

Oh, how I do so love school!  ....Wait, whaaa?? .... OK, maybe that's not entirely true all the time, but I have loved getting some sort of rhythm back to my life once again.  For my last year of High School, I've slowed down some on my "normal" subjects and have been able to focus more on College Plus and just finishing up last High School requirements like language, math, and writing, which I'm a bit behind on.  

But besides getting back into the groove and learning a bunch academically, God has also been teaching me the importance of self discipline, and I've already started to feel and reap the benefits.  There are at least 5 areas in which I have really been working on for the last three months or so, and they are:

Exercising daily

Getting up by 6:00 every morning

Reading a book a week

 Blogging every Tuesday . . . {well, either Tuesday or Wednesday :P}

and Memorizing Bible verses by topic weekly

Exercising and getting up earlier are pretty much self explanatory - you can guess why I've found those to be so beneficial.  :)

 But reading a book a week, what's up with that???  Well in talking to different people and just some general observation, I've found that the people who read a lot are usually the well-spoken, easy conversationalists because of all the knowledge they've gained from avid reading! . . . and I'm not just talking about one particular genera of books over another, I'm talking about reading in general.  As a wise person once said, 

"Reading Begets Reading" 

{and that is oh, so true!}

Then of course, there's blogging on Tuesdays (and sometimes Wednesdays...)

aaaaanndd.... in order to discipline myself further in this area, I'm going to try to post a picture a week to try to help keep me motivated to TAKE MORE PICTURES!  :D

(We'll see how that goes...)

POW (Picture of the week) :

{In case you are wondering what this is, it's a picture of Bob-da-Log.  My dear brother cut him down and brought him home from work for me to keep in my room - face carved, a name and everything!} 

~

Lastly, memorizing Scripture by topic every week has been one of the best things I've done in a while.  

One day a while back, Dad, half kidding - half serious, asked me, 

"can you quote more lines from a movie than verses in the Bible?" 

I kinda laughed at first, but when I actually thought about it, tons of quotes from different movies immediately came to mind, while I could only think of 2 or 3 Bible verses off the top of my head.  Point Taken.  

But that's not how it's supposed to be!

Thus started my goal to take 1 topic a week (i.e. patience, beauty, unbelief, pride....etc.) and memorize a passage of Scripture based on that so that eventually I would have more verses in my arsenal than anything else. 

~

So anyways - self discipline is definitely not on the easy list of character development, and that is why I don't have any right to brag about anything that I've been able to accomplish lately.  

It is by God's strength alone that anyone is able to discipline themselves to do something that they would not otherwise want to do in the first place.  

Philippians 4:13

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Keep Calm & Tuesday On - Short-Off Mountain

Huh.  It's a funny thing . . . One week we are at the beach soaking up the ocean, and the next we are climbing a mountain.

{Basking in Nature}

{Jumping off of nature}


{Falling off of nature}

Family LUV  :)

Keep Calm and Tuesday On - Beach 2013

I'm back!!!

Ah, the annual beach trip with Dad's family is always such a blast!  It got kinda late for blogging tonight, so rather than post a thousand individual pics, I just made a whole bunch of collages....that'll have to do.  :)

{What are we gunna do with him?}

{Every morning while the sun is rising, all of us kids take a walk on the beach with Dad .... Done it ever since I can remember :)  }