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...