This is My Father's World Music Video

On Tuesday of last week we had a beautiful sunny day (following quite a number that were rainy and cool) and Jonathan said it was time to go shoot a music video. Filming is something that he is really into and he had wanted to us to work on a song to record. I had chosen "This is My Father's World" as I love the words and the tune. Aaron unfortunately wasn't very fond of it (too slow!) and that shows a bit in the video. We had recorded the audio of the song a couple weeks prior and then added the video last week. I hope you enjoy it.

Here are some behind the scenes pictures....

 Our friend Will came to help with the filming. He is from our homeschool group and he and Jonathan have done quite a lot of filming together and really enjoy it.

 We needed to know our positions just right, to get the lighting just so and so many other details.

 So many things go into filming that I have never thought about when you see movies/ ads/ whatever by others but when you do it yourself you surely find out!

 It was still a bit chilly but Megan thought bare feet would be the best look.

 We filmed in my parents pasture so while Aaron had some downtime he went and found one of their old bikes and had fun figuring out a mountain bike course.

They have a pipeline in their pasture so it makes for a nice open space. It is lovely!

Fabulous Fall

 I love that God created different seasons for us to enjoy and I am particularly fond of Fall. I love the bright, sunny, blue sky days but I also love those rainy and cool days and even the bits of snow (which we did experience this last week) that make me enjoy the coziness of home - sitting by the fireplace, working on a sewing project or doing some baking. The colors of fall are so fun as well. I thought I would share some pictures of what Fall is looking like around here....

I have developed a new recipe for Apple, Rhubarb, Strawberry (those we froze earlier in the year and I am pulling out to use now) Jam that has turned out wonderfully both times I made it.

 Field corn from our garden drying on the wall while decorating our dining room.

 The dehydrator has done a lot of humming this season while drying us a nice supply of apples. They are yummy! Last year I bought an Excalibur dehydrator as the old one was literally falling apart. I am loving the new one!

 Candle making! It all started with Megan making a doll (that needed to be waxed) and ended up with this. So fun! It will also be fun to use them.

 A fall mantle! I was able to rescue the marigolds from the garden after we had gotten snow on Friday. I was so happy that they were still okay. We didn't get any frost until Friday which is amazingly late.

 Orange roses - leftover from a wedding. I am loving them.

 Since the garden outside is going "to bed" I decided to bring some of it inside - to our bedroom. I like it!

 Roasted fall veggies!

 This past weekend's bridal bouquet. With acorns! :-)

I hope you are having a lovely fall!

Life as Mom - the 2019 addition

This evening at supper we were visiting (I love the opportunities that we have to sit down and visit and eat together almost every morning and night!) and were trying to remember the details of a story when Megan was quite young - I hadn't written about it in her baby book but then I remembered that I could check my blog, I shared many stories on here. I just found a brief mention of that story but I did have fun going down memory lane and reading a bunch of old posts. 

I found this one from 11 years ago called "Life as Mom", I thought it would be fun to do a new up to date version. I still feel just as blessed as ever to get to be a Mom. Here is some tidbits of that last week or so......

 -Enjoying seeing Jonathan lead as we and a group of teenagers went through a challenge course together.
-Working together with all of my kids still living at home to accomplish the tasks on the challenge course along with many of their friends. Pushing ourselves to our physical limit and getting the tasks done together.

 -Watching Megan push herself beyond her comfort zone to develop relationships with others. Today she reached out to be a friend to one of my new piano students. That isn't always very easy for her and I was proud of her.

-Aaron willingly going with me to help out with the pig butchering and getting right in there and helping.

-Singing together with my kids. I love it! We miss Mara from our daily singing but have had the fun addition of my Mother-in-law Sharyl quite a bit lately.

 - Aaron reaching out to a new boy that came to church and inviting him to Wednesday Bible study (and he came too!).

-Jonathan really working to get to know a new boy in our homeschool co-op and trying to make him feel involved and welcome.

 -Having competent helpers in the kitchen.

-Getting to visit with Mara regularly on the phone.
- Watching Mara and Thomas work on reaching out and encouraging others.
-Watching Jonathan do a presentation at Rotary with confidence. It was especially meaningful to me as he was doing it alone after planning to do it with some other teens who had backed out. Also he didn't really want to do it but he did do it and did it well. They had sponsored him and others and sent them to RYLA a Rotary camp for a week this summer. He really enjoyed it the camp. Today's talk was to tell them about it.
-Working together with Aaron and Megan at Theater as we participate in doing the show "Annie" (a Broadway musical). This leads to a lot of singing together which is pretty fun.
-Watching Aaron get better and better at Mountain Biking and jump building.
-Watching Jonathan get better and better at video shooting and editing. (Stay tuned for a new music video that he has us scheduled to shoot tomorrow morning.)
-Watching Megan make a pretty cool new dress for herself - without a pattern just copying from one of the dresses that one of her porcelain doll's was wearing. She has been amazing me with her sewing skills lately. I really need to get some pictures!
-Hearing reports of Mara and Thomas living on their own and running their own home just fine. I wish I could be around to check it out in person but it sounds like they are doing great and that makes my heart happy.
- Aaron getting 100% on his spelling test today. That is a milestone for him and it is so lovely to see his progress.
-My kids working so efficiently and effectively to get their school work done each day. This stage of having kids in 8th, 10th and 12th grade is certainly much easier than it was 11 years ago.

  Life certainly changes as the years pass but it is still sometimes challenging and always very blessed. I am so thankful for the grace that God lavishes on us and the strength He provides!