Boston Skyline Photograph by Elizabeth Thomas Photo I’m really loving living in a city again. I love the busy-ness of a city, the variety of experiences. We explored Chinatown last week and tried some delicious new kinds of food … there was a strange bulbous brown thing on top of one of the dishes that turned out to be some sort of delicious marinated egg. Plus, I finally got to try bubble tea .. in mango, my favorite fruit! Our little girl turned 5 within a few days of arriving in Boston, and her main present from us was that … Read more

We were discussing this verse the other day, and it really struck home. Life is busy, and there are always so many things to capture our attention. And while there is nothing wrong with doing our jobs, fulfilling our responsibilities, or even enjoying the lovely things in this world, if we get so caught up in it that we’re not remembering that this world is not all that there is, then something is wrong. I remember one time hearing someone talk about keeping a proper balance between what is urgent and what is important. Some things are both important and … Read more

For this week’s “Seek the things above” post, I want to pose some questions which I hope will be thought provoking. Why do you believe what you believe? Is it because it is what you’ve always heard? What your culture commonly believes? What your parents taught you? What your preacher, priest or pastor told you? How do you know what they told you is true? Does the Bible tell us we’ll just get a feeling about it – or does the Bible teach us to study his Word to know his will? What about the Bereans? When the apostle Paul … Read more

Six years ago this weekend was when we said “I will”. When we got married, we said “I will” instead of “I do”, because we were committing not only what we agreed to for that day – but for all days to come. I remember when I was a younger, deciding what I was looking for in a spouse. I wanted a man who would love God more than he loved me, but who would love me more than any other woman in the world. No one said marriage would be easy, and it hasn’t always been. There are ups … Read more

I’ve never had a smart phone before – and I really wasn’t trying to get one. I kind of figured it would be a long time until I had a smart phone, and that was fine with me. But when we needed to get new Massachusetts phone numbers, we shopped around and it was actually cheaper to get a data plan for the number of lines we needed – and the smart phones were free! Sweet. And now I get to enjoy the real reason I wanted a smart phone: Instagram. I went on a quick trip up to Maine … Read more

Our trip to Boston was won-der-fulllllllll. I am so looking forward to living there soon, Lord willing! While we were gone we took lots of pictures, naturally, and we also made some travel vlogs while we were driving. I was hoping to post one of those today, but due to technical difficulties with the video, I’m going to have to postpone that one. So instead today, I want to share with you one simple travel tip: go to the library! First off, it can be a good idea to visit the library before you leave and check out some books … Read more

(Sorry for my lack of blog-posts last week … I was in Florida! If I was more organized and had planned ahead more I would have had blog posts pre-written and scheduled to post while I was away. But .. well, that didn’t happen. But the week in FL was awesome – it was a road trip with my extended family, I got see my siblings at college, attend a week of Bible lectures, and see my brother in the Spring musical. WooT!) And now I’ve returned from the 80+ degree weather back to the chilly snowy days of February. … Read more

‣ ‣ ‣  1. Several of you commented on Friday’s post asking “how are you still blogging while moving?” I can’t claim I’m keeping up with everything perfectly – but RememberTheMilk.com has been hugely helpful. I can plug in tasks I need to complete for moving, tasks I have to complete for my shop, and anything else – and it sends me handy email reminders so I don’t forget anything! Super helpful. ‣ ‣ ‣  2. I absolutely love rainy days. The sound of the rain against the windows is just so soothing and lovely. I think Tim is the one who showed me … Read more

These are a simple little roll-up I came up with – they’re not overly sweet. They would make a nice mini-pastry for a special breakfast. Or serve with coffee for a subtly sweet dessert. Take care not to burn the walnuts – they don’t need very long in the pan at all. 1 Pie Crust 1 Tablespoon Butter 2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar Scant 1/8 cup very finely chopped walnuts ¼ cup Raspberry Jam or Preserves (not jelly) ¼ cup Semisweet Chocolate Chips 1- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 2- Roll out pie crust on a cutting board. Spread jam evenly … Read more

This week, for our Adventure-a-Week challenge, our adventure doubles as a craft project as well. I was in a used book store one time and saw a book on “rubbings” and it captured my attention, and we gave it a try for this week’s adventure. So grab your art supplies and head outside! For this week’s activity you will need… – Paper. And plenty of it. I found that I like using very thin paper, personally. I bought a cheap sketchpad and I really liked the texture and thinness of the paper for this project. – Rubbing Materials. There are … Read more