in gratitude

For all the teaching in my life...in particular, within a tree house in miniature.

one small step

Adoption has always been something on my heart- something that I've always known would be a part of my life since I first started thinking about about what my life might look like when I 'grew up.'  I suppose I'm finally beginning to feel like a grown-up because we're now beginning the process of opening our home to a child in need in the coming year.  It's a slow process, as we're staying local, San Diego County, and it's a process full of paperwork and hoops to jump through.  Nate is excited at the idea of a sibling, Jed and I are excited at the prospect of growing our family. 

As I said in my post yesterday, there have been a variety of shifts lately and the film below (and the book it's about) is one of those shifts.  The book didn't just 'shift' me, it grabbed hold of my heart, shook it and declared that I take notice.  I can't even remember how I heard about the book or what inspired me to buy it, but I did and I couldn't put it down.  And the message I got loud and clear is that I need to remember, every single day, what I am here for.  Not to tend to my own and purpose will but to love my neighbor and to open my heart to those that I am in a position to help.  At this point, I am a mother, with an ability and passion to care for others that might need some mothering. 

So, each day we will fill out a new paper, go to another class and learn one more thing to help us on this journey.  One small step each day in better serving our purpose here on earth. 



Here's more information about Katie's amazing ministry: Amazima Ministries

a shift

I almost didn't write this post because, quite honestly, I wasn't quite sure what I was going to write about.  You see for the past couple weeks I've been feeling something shifting within me.  I will come to write a post and I'll be stuck.  I'll begin to type and then I'll erase the letters on the screen and start again.  It's genuinely hard to put into words what I'm feeling, it's not even an actual feeling that I can identify.  The only way to actually put it'into any kind of terms is I feel God shifting my life: shifting my priorities, shifting my thoughts, shifting my reactions, shifting my view of the world as I've known it.  And the reason this seems so hard to articulate is because it's subtle this work that God is doing.  It's not an earthquake-sized event that shakes who I am and what I know.  It's a feeling of anticipation of the path that our family is walking and the different opportunities that are presenting themselves.  It's a true celebration of the fact that as I am slowly learning to release this life as mine and so much more peace and clarity and opportunities are presenting themselves.  It's a shift in my perception of the world and my place in it.  It's a shift of my priorities and where I let my mind wander throughout the day.  It's a shift of that is so small it's monumental at the same time.  It is truly the mustard seed that can move mountains, as one incredibly wise man said.  And I look forward to sharing this path with you as it presents itself.

music monday

The treasure hunt is why I love the video, the music speaks for itself- The Honey Trees:

in gratitude

For beautiful storytellers that we find online who become the perfect background for completing   projects.

so random

Dwelling on the unimportant, stressing on the unintended, and freaking over the unknown, Jennifer, simply doesn't work... and are a bit like lighting a match in a dark room to make sure no one accidentally sprinkled any gunpowder on your bicycle, kept under the stairs, near the back porch, in January.

Actually, some of that wasn't really important, but hopefully it distracted from any stigma you may have attached to freaking over the unknown.  
 

There are so many random ways to fill your inbox these days- mostly in the form of 'daily deals' that you don't really need.  I came across this website(http://www.tut.com/resources/notes/about) 6 months ago and it is genuinely one of my favorite things to read 5 mornings a week.  I saved the one above from the beginning of the year and I realized that this idea of "freaking over the unknown" is definitely something I can work on this year.  To stop thinking about the what-ifs, considering how others may react, or not, and just get on with living my own life.  A work in progress. 

babies

We have had oh so many troubles with our fish tank recently.  I fear it's one of those cases of "what you pay attention to grows" as it seems the more we pay attention to our fish tank and work to 'fix' whatever's wrong with it, the worse off we are.  I've had fish tanks for years in my classrooms, all in some form of neglect or another.  Every week or so I'd remember to feed them, when I couldn't see the fish anymore I knew it was time to clean it, etc., but all of my fish survived. Yet, once I brought my fish tank home, I can't seem to keep the fish alive.  We've killed embarrassingly large numbers of fish in the past year.  We've had our water tested, bought the most hardy ones (read: cheapest), found out what days the fish were 'new' at the pet store, and on and on. 

Last week we decided yet, again, to give it a go and picked up two mickey mouse platys.  Super cute fish.  We've had them before and when we had chosen the originals months ago, Nate was super excited because the info card at the pet store read "may reproduce and have babies."  The kid was sold on that alone.  So, needless to say, when our first pair died, he wasn't necessarily sad that they were gone, just that they hadn't had babies yet. 

Well, like I said, we picked up a pair last week, mainly to get the biological processes going in our fish tank again and also to see if these two might make it.  We woke up the next morning, I sat down to breakfast and heard Nate exclaim, "They had babies!" I looked into the tank and there they were, babies- little miniatures of the big fish we had swimming around.  We only saw one or two but as the morning wore on our eyes got better at spotting them and I've now counted at least 7.  Nate had to go to school and we had a talk that sometimes the bigger fish might eat the smaller fish (Nate seems to handle animal death/predation remarkably well) so there may not be many (or any) babies when we get back. 

But here we are, a week later and they're still in there!  And growing just a bit bigger each day.  Unfortunately, one of the bigger fish already died but we've still go the one big one and can't wait to see what happens with all these babies.  As you can tell from the photos, not only are they adorably small, they're nearly impossible to take a picture of in the tank as well. 

So here we are, growing a boy, food, chickens and now fish.  Fingers crossed and hope for the best.

(this one is the full sized version)