{new} years that ask and answer

This year.

This year has stretched and challenged me. 

This long hard year has grown me and it has shattered me. 

I am broken and I am better. I am braver and lonelier. I am face down in prayer and I am stretched high in worship. I am questioning and yet I am answered. 

The year ahead is looming now, full of unanswered questions and frightening realities. It is pressing in with whys and hows and wheres and whens. 

And yet, in the quietest moments, there is peace.

In the tiniest answers, there is hope.

In the hardest questions, the deepest pain,the most frightening moments of desperate longing and aching and fear, I am answered by the still small voice of the One who knows my pain. 

In His presence I am healed. In His Spirit I am comforted, encouraged, renewed. 

In the year ahead I will continue to break. And I will continue to heal. I will continue to seek and someday, somehow I will find. This year will answer, or the one after that. And little by little the questions will fade, and little by little new ones will arise to take their place. 

Year by year by year, questions and answers unending.

"But I will hope continually, and will praise You yet more and more."

Psalm 71:14

Here's to a new year. May its questions and answers draw you ever closer to hope.

Images via: {soliloquy}, pinterest

Merry {weekend before} Christmas!

Have a truly stupendous Christmas holiday! 

Images via: john lewis, 100 layer cake, pinterest, common ground

{christmas-time}

This weekend it is definitely, officially Christmas time! We're finally getting around to finding (and decorating) the perfect tree and going to our first holiday party of the season!

The weather has decided to warm up a bit, which doesn't sound very Christmas-y but will allow us to finally put some lights up on the house! 

I've been getting in the spirit by crafting and wrapping and lighting candles every night. And by eating way too many mint m&ms and buying holiday throw pillows and ribbons. And singing carols all day long. 

Oh, and we've also been frantically remodeling the guest bathroom in one last mad effort to get it done before the holiday company is upon us!
I hope your weekend is full to the brim with Christmas time cheer!

Images via: stay rustic, serendipitous wanderings, chrysta

{day-dreams}

Some days were just made for day-dreams. Every one of these photographs catapults me into thoughts of adventure and romance. Every one tells a story of long lost hopes and treasures found. Every image is packed with imagination as my fancy takes flight on gossamer wings. If we must have Mondays, let them be filled with day-dreams, please!

Images via: fbcdn, flickr, milly and her..., modern hepburn, a1 pictures

{just another wednesday}

This week has brought us an icy, frozen storm! With temperatures reaching 10 below, we're huddling up inside with coffee. I am feeling incredibly blessed because we manged to get our heater fixed just hours before the temperatures dropped! As long as it's toasty inside I am enthralled with the magic of the falling snow and frozen temps! 

This week is also bringing a visit from my youngest nephew (oh, and his parents, too) and also a lot of re-organizing and re-arranging of furniture! Gotta make room for the Christmas tree! I'm also working a lot trying to catch up from my time off last week and finally getting around to hanging some pictures and painting a few rooms!

How is it that the busier I get, the more I feel I can take on and accomplish? It's some weirdly inverse time relationship that I can't quite seem to figure out, but I'm willing to enjoy the bursts of energy and feelings of accomplishment while they last! I think part of it is just the joy of this season gives me more hustle and bustle than usual! 

If you need me, I'll be guzzling hot coffee topped with whipped cream and merrily sweeping the floor in preparation for pulling out all the holiday stops! 

Have a happy Wednesday!

Images via: casa vogue, haute look, loubis and champagne

{december}

Welcome, December! May you be white and sparkling and full of family, feasts, and flurries galore!

Images via: wasabi sabi, voyeur chic, for emma, moglio 

{give thanks}

I am thankful for this season, for both the joys and the pains, the delights and the sorrows, the summery days and the wintry nights, the friendships and struggles and bonds forged with fire. I am thankful that through all the darkness there is beauty and light, that through suffering God shows His character, that through my weakness, over and over again He proves unfaltering and unfailing in love and compassion. I am so thankful for faithful friends and uplifting family and for a partner perfectly suited to all my needs. I give thanks for you, too, my internet friends both near and far who faithfully uplift me with your kind comments and thoughts and prayers. Have a happy, blessed Thanksgiving!

Images via: chocoladesigns, 1001 gardens, a little bit etc,

{abide with me}

It's a dark and cloudy Wednesday afternoon. We're expecting snow tomorrow and I'm planning to start up a roaring fire tonight. I have pumpkin pies to bake and loads and loads of laundry to do. 

As Fall teeters on the brink of Winter and we teeter on the brink of the holiday season I am swirling with ideas and possibilities for gifts and crafts and recipes and decor. I am plotting and planning away, trying to force myself to wait until after Thanksgiving to start truly embracing Christmas. Clinging somewhat idly to the last few crunching leaves and sunny afternoons. Embracing traditions and hearty stews and the last calm before the busy seasonal storm. 

Enjoy this waning Wednesday!

Images via: elfsacks, indoors/outdoors, of hearth and home, splendid sass

{weekend, again}

Hey, I guess I'm here for my weekly post. I don't know what happened to daily posting, but it appears I need a break from that for a while. 

Our coffee pot broke this week. And there is a specific feature that Phillip wants that apparently only comes in ridiculously expensive pots. So we're still searching for the right one. I'm drinking tea from my favorite little blue teapot instead. (Who helped me pack my last house? I'm currently missing the lid to this teapot. If you've seen my little blue lid, please report.)

What coffee pot do you have or recommend? And does it cost less than $100?

Images via: littlekay, social survivor, here, tumblr

{young, fast, pretty}

Perhaps this new motto is a little cocky? But sometimes I just need a little extra sass. 

I'm starting a new job next week and it is truly a dream come true. I'll be working part time for my church as a youth administrator, doing things I love with people I love to help kids I love. I seriously can't tell you  how excited I am about that. Also, this will be the second job I've started in about two weeks. The other one is a little less of a dream-job but a great challenge and I can do it from home.  

When things happen, they happen fast!

I'm a bit overwhelmed by the rapid pace at which everything is progressing and changing. On the job front, on the military front, on the house front. I'll hopefully be able to update you on a few of those things soon. 

But for now, I'm trying to focus on the amazing new opportunities. And to remind myself when I feel overwhelmed that I am young, I'm fast, I'm pretty, I have Jesus, and I can't possibly be beaten!

Have a sassy first November weekend!

Images via: quoteswords, the universe...,skonahem