Musical Friends

Last Friday and Saturday our family enjoyed two musical events performed by two of our friends at their senior recitals. The first one on Friday was for Lindy Wagner, a young lady from our church who plays the violin excellently. The program was beautiful as she played pieces with her mother accompanying on piano and also flute, her brother on Classical guitar and her old teacher of ten years on violin. As Lindy moves on to pursue a higher education with this instrument we pray that God would use her to bless others and bring Him glory!

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Saturday's event was for our new friend and neighbor Daniel Bryson. God has truly given this young man a gift as a pianist and we greatly enjoyed being a part of and witnessing his graduation ceremony and recital performance.

Pomp and Circumstance was played by Daniel's sister as he entered.

Encouraged by friends and family

Presented with diploma

What a blessing it was to be able to see these two young people use the gifts God has given them for His glory! May He continue to bless and guide them into the future and show them the paths He has for them!

Little Blue Storm Cloud

Almost two weeks ago on a very blustery day, as the winds blew across the field and through the branches of our willow tree, they sent down a little gift in the form of a baby blue jay. Though we tried to give it back, the parents would not reclaim it so we kept it and after doing some research, started feeding it worms and oatmeal. Also some of our friends have raised blue jays before and were able to give us some tips on what to feed it. To our great delight we were taking care of a Blue Jay! Of all the birds that Faith has rescued and helped restore to the wild she has never raised a young one, let alone a Blue jay! What a gift from the Creator!

It has been very interesting over the past couple weeks watching this bird grow, practically over night, and see him (or her, you can never tell) turn into one of those beautiful birds.

Even now Little Blue Storm Cloud (that is what Josiah named it, but we just call it Stormy) is quickly filling out his feathers and perfecting his trademark Blue jay call.

Sweet little guy

"Feed me!"

With his solid friend

In the Garden

Stormy here with his buddies! Don't you just love the hairdo on the last guy! =)

We wait to see what God's timing is for our releasing this bird and though we will miss the pleasure and excitement of raising a 'wild' creature the appreciation for God glorious Creation has been broadened for sure!

The first ever Lily Springs Tea Party!

Last Wednesday, in our back yard under the willow tree, we held our first ever Lily Springs tea party with our dear friends, the Bryson ladies! For those of you who do not know, Lily Springs is what we now call our little homestead here because of all the lilies that were planted all over the property and also because there is a spring running through our back acre. Some of the lilies have already started to bloom and I hope to share some pictures of our "mascots" soon! =)

Well to make this short because of time and also because I have so much to put on the blog right now and am very behind, I will not give the detailed account of this lovely day. But I hope you enjoy the images and who knows, maybe some day some of "you" will be invited to a Lily Spring Tea Party! Enjoy!

Here are a few of our lilies with a hasta leaf set at the center of the tables.

We had some old fashion "tea" games planned but because of the heat did not play too long. 'Graces' was one of the enjoyed activities and with much practice a few of us were finally able to master the art of ring throwing!

A small round table set with a white clothe and sprinkled with dry rose petals hosted our tea time delicacies! Mini banana muffins, strawberry glace', chocolate delights and an array of apples and cheese and grapes. Simply scrumptious!

Also to drink we had ice tea and lemonade.

After our 'tea' we had a little devotional lesson time as we read from the book Beautiful Girlhood. We read about all the different oils that we need in life as daughters of Christ and how we are to use them in our everyday lives for the glory of God.

We learned about the oils of kindness, politeness, kind thoughts, patience, thoughtfulness and consideration.

What a blessed afternoon we had in fellowship with sisters in Christ and as mothers and daughters spending time together and learning valuable lessons! May God be praised!

Berries Galore!

Tuesday afternoon us ladies and Josiah and Mrs. Eddy and Theresa headed out to go berry picking together! Strawberries were on the menu and we were able to find a huge farm/orchard that had a great price and huge selection of the fruit! Though the sun was blazing down, we made quick work of it and came home with over 45 lbs of berries!

[sorry the images are grainy. I forgot to check my ISO speed and later found it on the wrong setting! Oh well.]

There was the hunt for the largest berries and though all were close Christianna found a pretty big one! Of course that size was just to big to keep so in the mouth it went! =)

Yumm! Juicy warm berries!

The Eddys with their 14 pounds!

By the end of our picking we had three heaping boxes of strawberries, a few spots on our clothes(and faces) we hoped to get out and more than a few berries in our bellies!

Later in the day Faith got going on making jam. Simply scrumptious!

Deliciousness personified!

Going on a Turtle Hunt!

What fun it is to have our friends the Brysons so close by! The other evening Josiah enjoyed spending time with his friends as they rowed around their pond searching for frogs and turtles. They came up successful with two turtle catches!

Picnic with Friends

Last Saturday night we were invited to a picnic at our friends the Ervin's place. We enjoyed the lovely evening making new friends and fellowshiping with some that we had not seen in a while! Delicious food and fun games and enjoyed conversations had by all! The intent of the event was for us like minded families to fellowship together with our common bond in Jesus Christ and our focus to raising godly families for His glory!

Dinner on the lawn

I feel bad that I didn't get any pictures of our hosts the Ervins but here are some of dad and mom talking with Mr. and Mrs. Bennett.

The boys enjoyed some racing later in the evening.

John racing Destiny. The little guy was so cute, and when John purposely slipped and fell Destiny almost lost laughing so hard!

It was a great night over all and as darkness fell we met around the campfire and sang songs.

The smoke from the fire got in the way of the flash in this picture.

Thank you Ervin family for your wonderful hospitality and friendship! May God richly bless you!

Butterflies in the garden

The other day Christianna and I spotted these little beauties in the garden.






Just trying to get pictures was fun enough but when I realized I could get that close with the camera I thought I'd see if I could get this swallow tail to sit on my finger! Holding my breath I reached down and it delightfully stepped onto my finger!


This 'red spotted purple' was a little evasive but quite the beauty to see! Christianna finally was able to get it onto her hand but by the time I got the camera out again it flew off.

Amazing creations of our great King!