Thomas and Mara's Wedding Film

Jonathan, with help from his friend Will, videoed Mara and Thomas' wedding. After much editing (and Aaron getting rather weary of hearing Mara and Thomas' vows as he fell asleep each night and work up each morning) he got this video done. I think he did a great job and really captured much of the feeling of the wedding. I hope you enjoy it.

Your Money, Your Life, Your Happiness

This really hits home with me. They talked about various things I have been thinking about. One in particular is the idea that limitations don't stop creativity - it can actually feed it instead. I have seen that over and over again. That is why I enjoy challenging myself in many different ways - It forces me to learn and be more creative. I enjoyed this talk and I thought maybe you would too.



  It is another Friday of doing flowers around here and that has been a fun time for me to watch/listen to youtube videos while I work.

Mara and Thomas' wedding - a quick peek

Our eldest, Mara, got married to Thomas on May 18th. I have been wanting to write a post about it but life has been pretty busy since then as we have been working to help my Mother-in-law move, having been preparing for a fun summer program at Church and took a week long trip to Washington DC. Also I don't have that many pictures to share yet as I just have the ones I took on my phone at this point which was not that many. So this will not be the comprehensive post that I enjoy doing but just a little peek at the days activities.

Twig initials that Mara and I made for the wall.

 Their cool "Guestbook". This is with signatures already on it. They signed along branches and it became part of the art work. Thomas was the artist for this.

This guys up front waiting.

 Ken walking Mara down the aisle. A bit of an emotional event for him, I believe.

 Getting ready at our house that morning. Her cousin Margaret (a bridesmaid) was lacing her up. Mara made her dress from linen and I made the bridesmaids and flowergirl's dresses.

It was a rainy day. That made pictures challenging but also pretty. Mara loves rainy days so it was perfect for her.

 Megan and Molly where in charge of the "guestbook" and gifts.

 Our buffet table artistically displayed by Christy with MollyBea helping her.

 I strung up the trees with twine and attached them to the ceiling. I was thankful that they stayed in place throughout the day for me. :-) The wreaths Thomas hung up for me. I had a wonderful time decorating for the wedding and am so thankful for the many, many people that helped out.

 We used many natural elements on the tables. The mayflowers Mara and Thomas and the bridesmaids had gone to the woods to gather.

  It was a beautiful day filled with so many special people. The music was beautiful and the ceremony was lovely. Thomas' dad, Merle officiated and I appreciated the things he shared. Mara and Thomas each shared some personal vows and it was so neat to hear them dedicate their marriage to God.
   It all went quite smoothly and it is crazy to think that Mara is now a married woman, but she is and I think she is enjoying it quite a bit.

Glimpses of Wedding Preparations

 One week until Mara and Thomas' wedding. It is coming up quickly and our house looks like it. There are wedding associated things all over the place. But we are having fun and for that I am so thankful! God has truly blessed us with peace and joy in the midst of a busy time.

   Wedding prep isn't the only thing keeping us busy. Just lately we took a fun trip to go on a super neat field trip (out of town) that I totally have to blog about soon. Today was a bridal shower for Mara in the morning. This evening (another thing I need to blog about) we have a fun new experience with a film premiere for the short film that the highschoolers in our homeschool co-op put together this year. They did a great job. This has really been Jonathan's baby as he loves this sort of thing and he has spend hundreds (Thousands???) of dollars to buy the filming equipment that he needs and he spent hundreds of hours working on it as well. This last week he generally was up until midnight to 3 am and then up again pretty early to get it done on time. Anyway - hopefully more about that later with a link to the film.

Just now I thought I would share a few glimpses of the wedding prep.....

 Handmade lace....

 Wood burning is rather fun.

Items for children's activities

 Collected pussy willows for decorating.

Yesterday my sister-in-law, MollyBea came over and we have a fun time painting some wall decorations together.

 I can't wait to share the finished products soon!!

Birthday 13

 This week we celebrated Megan's 13th birthday. So now all our children are teenagers. And we are so blessed! I was looking forward to these years and I am not being disappointed. Yes there are challenges and I sure loved the little years too but this time period is pretty cool. These children of ours are all so close to stepping out and living life without us (less than a month before Mara gets married) and we are seeing how God is using them and their potential for serving Him in the future and it is pretty exciting!

We did some measuring after I took this picture and found that Mara is 5' 9" (no change lately), Jonathan is 6' 4 1/2", Aaron is 5' 8" and Megan 5' 2". The youngest 3 have all been growing lately and I am guessing especially with the youngest 2 that there will be quite a bit of growing this year. We shall see.

   Megan's birthday is fun. She more than any of the others likes to make it a special event. So months before the birthday arrived she was designing a dress to wear and a cake to make. She drew pictures of dress designs, made a pattern and figured out fabric (from our stash of course - we generally don't buy things when we are making things we use from things we have been given) and then started sewing. I helped a little here and there with advice but it is her project.

She isn't ready to go professional with her dressmaking but she did a pretty good job.

The white fabric came from a duvet cover that we had been given, the dark blue fabric was leftover from a project years ago, the light blue chiffon fabric was leftover from a bridesmaids dress that I made over 10 years ago. The buttons, trims and zippers had been in our stash for a long time. It was lovely for her to put these items to use.

She has been watching tons of cake decorating videos on Youtube and this was her creation for the day. A 3 layer chocolate cake with chocolate pudding, frosting and cream cheese fillings and then mint chocolate chip frosting with chocolate glaze and cream cheese frosting roses. On top is a 3 layer angel food cake (made from scratch).

She set aside the day before her birthday for making it. :-)

 It was pretty rich but quite delicious.

Megan has been wanting a hope chest and that seemed like a good 13th birthday present. So I took a break from the wedding sewing and projects and with Ken's help in cutting the wood (I can use a chop saw fine but the circular saw and table saw scare me a bit) we made her a hope chest.  

 It turned out plenty big and she thinks it is fun to get inside of it.

The boys think that is fun too and they then get on top of it. Silly boys!

 We used wood that came from a tree that we cut down while building our house and then my dad cut it up on his sawmill and with his help we planed the boards later. I used an old leather belt to make handles on the ends. We used screws and hinges that we had on hand.

 My mom gave her some doilies for her hope chest that had been made by my Grandma. Keren and family gave her cake pans and cake decorating things and MollyBea and family gave her a lovely apron so she is getting all sorts of kitcheny things for her hope chest.

 Three of my nephews were over for Megan's birthday and they were the most adorable helpers for getting all the presents unwrapped!

 Megan was pretty excited that because she is now 13 she could get a accounts on Facebook, Gmail and Pinterest.

  Megan thought her birthday was super fun and we had fun with it as well. We are so blessed to have a Megan in our family.

Wedding Planning

This evening we went to supper (in the midst of a snowstorm 😃) at some friends. They are another homeschooling family that we see a lot in the summer as they come to the weekly homeschool baseball as well but not so much in the winter. It was fun to see them.

   They are going to play the music for Mara's wedding so we listened to some songs to make decisions on what would be played. They do an awesome job and I am pretty excited to hear them play at the wedding.

  Wedding projects are coming along nicely. Sewing is in progress, Mara has been taking regular walks in the woods to find odds and ends (like bark, moss and branches) that we can use in the decorating, Dad brought me a bunch of Apple tree branches that he trimmed which I am hoping that I can get to bud for me. I collected some pussy willows and hopefully will get some more. The invitations are basically all out. The cups and napkins ( both paper so they can decompose) and plates (made out of wheatgrass so they are compostable) all came recently. A friend is bringing up cake pans and my sister is researching recipes. Things are coming together. We are so blessed to know so many talented people who happily help out.

  What is going on in your life just now. Are you getting snow as well or has Spring stayed around at your place?