Star Crossed Lovers

All morning I've been watching this little sparrow and robin together. At first I thought that the sparrow was following the robin for the worms the robin would catch and maybe drop. Talking to my neighbor she told me that they have had a little romance going on all last week. After she told me that I saw the whole relationship with new eyes. Take a peak and see what I mean. (You might want to enlarge the pictures to see more details.)

"I'll take care of you, Sweet Wings and find a worm."

"Yep, you and me togther, that's the way its got to be."

"I will follow you wherever you may go."

Enjoying a Spring Romance,

Naomi

Disarray and Life In Between Part 1

This post is going to be a little bit of catching up,

which is something I could do on lots and

lots of stuff. Thank you for all the well-wishes on

my history test. It went really, really well. I am

now studying for my last test and then SUMMER

BREAK. Yipee!!!!



One morning while we were in the middle of our first big melt (not that we get that much snow, but this year it all stuck around until the middle to end of January) I was in the shower thinking about my first real day of class when I felt IT. A drip of icy cold water fell on my head. I looked up and our ceiling was leaking cold, cold water on me.



When I rushed to call Terran, who was having a vacation weekend working with his dad logging,

a gush of water flowed from our office ceiling on to our printer.

This was the untimely beginning of our disarray and the fun that followed. We called someone after the weekend was over to come out and look at our house, scheduling them to fix it a few weeks later.

We couldn't use our office or our bathroom in the time that followed. I never knew how spoiled I was having a bathroom in our bedroom until it wasn't there. An en suite has become the standard for any house that we own.

Our office was completely empty for the time that followed, delaying taxes, and everything else that one uses an office for. One good thing is that I file in piles of paper and those were quite easy to transport to a different room.

Thankfully all things must come to an end and our house work ended on a beautiful, sunny day in March the middle of at the end of my spring break.

Silver Linings....

1. The men that worked on the house were careful of our things and not one cuss word the whole two weeks.

2. Terran was able to come home and break up the ice that was melting into our house. I have to add to this one, that I was able to get back off the roof by myself when I was trying to fix things on my own. A very BIG deal!

3. Our neighbors through their $10,000 worth of water damage were able to give us the name of a good company.

4. That we had a savings account to pay for this, because our insurance wouldn't have covered it, since it was in two different areas of the house.

5. That our water damage wasn't $10,000 worth.

6. A couple spots looked better after they were through, than when the orginal work was done.

Loving my bathroom,

Naomi

What Have You Been Up To?

Lots and lots of things seem to be begging for attention right now and I would have a list as long as my arm if I were to answer my own question. I actually think the list would be longer than my arm, because it's not very long.

I am slowly working on a little life update, but have not finished it. I have had feelings of great shame when I think how long it's been since I've posted, especially since my Pastor told me to get busy and post. I decided to just do it and post.

The above photo shows what has been taking up a lot of my time the last little while and a great majority of it this last week. I have a history essay exam on Friday and have my work cut out for me. My last essay was on Ancient Greece and it was alive for me, thus it stayed in my memory for the test. This time it's on the Roman Republic, Roman Empire, and early Europe and I'm struggling. I don't know why, but it's not alive for me the way Greece was and it's taking a lot of extra effort to pound all the places and people into my mind. One consolation is that I LOVE this class and think in the end with a lot of mental elbow grease it'll come out ok.

Hitting the books again,

Naomi

A Life of Thankfulness and Love

When the new year was upon us I decided I wanted this year to be one of conscious thankfulness. So often we miss little things and some big things to be thankful for, especially when life is busy or difficult. I didn't know the challenges that were coming when I decided this and the last little while has been a bit difficult. I have had to make a real conscious effort to be thankful in some moments.

I thought today as we celebrate love and our loved ones that I would share some of the things I have to be thankful in my life.

My husband, this man adds a great dimension of joy to my life

My nieces and nephews, who are very sweet.

Can't forget the wonderful four legged buddies that add a lot of laughter and cuteness to the days.

Lord, let me breathe deeply of the life You have given. May all the lovely blessings you have given me allow me to see Your love a little more clearly. I also ask that the trials and hard days teach me to rest in Your steadfast shelter. Let me not become blind to what You are teaching and desiring to do in the hard palces. Thank you for Your everlasting faithfulness. I am so grateful that You called me out of the darkeness by name.

Naomi

Hunting

Both Terran and I have always had some kind of hunting in our lives. For me it was trying to explain beaver carcasses in our garage to my friends from my Dad trapping during my early years, and watching him skin grouse from shooting trips later on.
Terran had a completely different experience. His Dad was a hunting guide during Terran's early years with his Mom cooking for the camp. Later on he would walk out his back door to get deer on their property, and enjoyed long trips with his Dad for sheep and elk.
During our second year of marriage we went on our first hunting trip together. It was cold, long, and successful with us getting a cow elk our last day, since then we have gone some years and not others. Some successful and others not depending on the time of year and our hunting luck. This past fall was a successful trip.

This is my view on most of our trips (quite a good one of you ask me). I follow the Master Hunter carrying our supplies and trying to staunch the flow of the 20,000 plus words I speak on a daily basis as a woman. Yep, hunting is hard work for a girl!!

After walking quite a while we see wild life. Not what we are after, but wild life all the same. Look closely, it's hard to spot.

We keep looking, being diligent to walk miles and miles over the three days it took us this season to find the elk we were looking for.

WARNING - WARNING - WARNING

If you are hemophobic, doraphobic, belong to PETA, marched to save the whales, wear a t-shirt claiming the spotted owl is your cousin, or cried when Bambi's mom was killed please do not scroll down.

After our fruitless days of hunting we finally got a cow elk and worked together to get her skinned and ready to go to the butchers.

After moving all 322 lbs of our cow in only two trips using our special sled we were ready to eat.

Elk it's what's for dinner.

Proud to wear orange,

Naomi

The Originals

Here are the two photos I posted last time. Now you can see the difference between the photoshopped and the originals.

I think this one of my sweet, niece Kaitlyn in much better with all it's colors. I like her cute pink shirt and her dark hair... all the colors capture her personality.

This photos can go either way. The color is nice, while the black and white draws your attention to the leaves. Terran did a great job with this picture.

Naomi

More Pictures

We are learning some pictures don't work with photoshop...

And some photos are all the better with it.

Naomi

Thoughts For Today

"The mouth of the righteous is a well of life,
But violence covers the mouth of the wicked."

Proverbs 10:11



"A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day."

Emily Dickinson

Our Pet Panda

Merry Christmas

Wishing you the most wonderful Christmas. May it be full of love and wonder at the gift of Christ.

Naomi

for you mama

Christmas Cookies

I LOVE CHRISTMAS BAKING!




Even the mess isn't the end of the world, because the end results are worth it. And after how messy everything gets my kitchen feels super clean after the clean up is done.








I include a couple childhood favorites from when we were small. I have a recipe that my great-grandma always made. Terran's family always has these cherry cookies that are waiting for their chocolate sauce. They never last long.




Along with the old; one has to have something new.... White Chocolate Raspberry Cookies are one of this years newbies.










My lovable, huggable, kissable sugar cookie decorator; he does fabulous work















And when the end comes I'm so glad that this only happens once a year. I made 10 types of cookies this season and ended up with 42 dozen cookies that are guaranteed to cling to your hips and enlarge your .... um .... heart.

Thanks for all the comments about the butterfly photo. I hope to post more photo shop stuff in the future. We'll see what T. & I come up with. :)

Naomi

PS. We give almost all the cookies away, I don't want you to think that we are little piggies.

The Butterfly and The Camera

Playing with photoshop, which is fun and unique.

OR

The original full of color and life.

I can't decide which one I like better. Can you?

Naomi

Thanksgiving Flop

I love cooking!! Usually what I try turns out ok, not always great, but pretty good. We are celebrating Thanksgiving Friday (tomorrow) with Terran's family, so today T & I went hiking, had yummy pork tenderloin for dinner, and I worked on a cake I asked to bring to our dinner.

I have been drooling over this cake since I saw it on the cover on Bon Appetit Magazine. It definitely is a cake that needs to be shared. What better occasion than a family dinner? None that I can think of until I made the cake. It's a good thing that someone else is bringing pies.

Here's what has been tempting me all month. It's a devil's food cake with chocolate ganache filling and white chocolate peppermint cream in the center. The outer frosting is marshmallow peppermint. It sounds sooo yummy to me. I know it's a bit of a Christmas cake, but Christmas is already such a sweet holiday and I really wanted to enjoy this.

This is my cake!!! Please don't laugh, because I might hear you and start crying.

I have no idea what happened. The whole cake fell apart and frosting billowed out of it.

The first idea was to cover it with the marshmellow frosting and call it good. It would take a lot of frosting to fix this and even then....?

Finally out of desperation I just tore the whole thing apart and...

made a trifle. Lets hope it tastes good. :)

Picking up the pieces,

Naomi

Monday Doings

Monday is always a busy day. It usually means lots of cooking, catching up from the weekend, and getting the week started. Here is what it took to get this week going.

Made applesauce for the first time ever today. It came out tasting wonderful, but really smooth. It's like eating apple pudding creamy, silky, and truthfully a little odd. Next time....

Made our favorite Beef Stroganoff. The best thing about this recipe is the taste and then how easy it is. Gotta love easy.

Walked the dogs farther than a mile for the first time in two weeks. It's so nice to be feeling better.

Asked my cousin for her address, so that I can mail the baby gift I've had for her since May. I thought I should get it to her before she has grandchildren.

Ate left over Chinese food and loved it.

Started thinking about Christmas baking. It's never too early to think about cookies and cakes. yum

Washed four loads of laundry and will put away six. Don't ask where the other two loads came from.

Here's to hoping that this small jumbled summery of my day wasn't too boring.

Naomi

A Little Cheer

I have been sick the last week. Yesterday was my first day waking without a fever and headache, which was marvelous. I actually got up and put some dishes in the dishwasher. My sweet Mom decided that I needed a little cheer. She sent these beautiful blooms to brighten my day and they really did.

Thanks Mom, you really blessed me. The house smells so fresh with the flowers too. It's nice to have something bright and beautiful to look at. I love you and your thoughtfulness!!!

Love, Naomi