Flying over Philadephia

I just had to share this awesome picture that my husband, the Pilot took last night.

It doesn't get much better than that, right?

I am glad to have him home though! The last few days he's been back and forth all over the east coast and I'm so happy that he gets to do what he loves.

I'm heading out to the Pumpkin Patch with my 1st grader for a field trip, should be fun! After being sick for two + weeks, I finally went to the doctor yesterday. I have no idea why I waited so long. I have Asthmatic Bronchitis and am on antibiotics and prednisone so here's hoping I won't be too crazy today on the field trip! 

Have a great weekend you all!

"Orange and Blue"

Oh, and please watch this for me!! It will make you smile, I promise!

Quick Pillow Project

Old wool skirt from Goodwill,

now, a fun check pillow.

I also buy down pillows from Goodwill, for a fraction of the price of a down pillow insert.

This project really took about 15 minutes start to finish. I just whip-stitched the end seam because I wanted it to be a fast project. Now to find something similar in orange or brown plaid!

Dream Big

This post is inspired by this excerpt from the book, 'Becoming Myself' by Stasi Eldredge. 

I am digging in to this book and learning so much!

"Most Americans (80 percent) say they don’t have any dreams, and we can imagine why. Life can suck the dreaming right out of you. The living God wants to pour those dreams back in. Sixteen percent of Americans say they do have dreams, but they don’t write them down. Four percent have dreams and desires, and write them down, but less than 1 percent review and update them on a regular basis.
It is the people who allow themselves to dream, who own their dreams, who write them down and look at them periodically, whose life dreams are coming true.
It’s good to dream. We can’t out-give God. We can’t out-love him, and we can’t out-dream him. Give yourself permission to dream big! Dream deep. Dream wide.
Because the thing about dreams is, dreams come true…
Awakening and owning the dreams that God has placed in our hearts isn’t about getting stuff or attaining something. It’s about embracing who we are and who he has created us to be. In him. He is our dream come true, and the one true love of our life. But we can’t love him with our whole hearts when our hearts are asleep. To love Jesus means to risk coming awake, to risk wanting and desiring."

~Becoming Myself  Stasi Eldredge

We get hurt in this life, all of us do, and we close up, shut down, distance ourselves from our dreams and desires - sometimes without even realizing it. As a young adult, I convinced myself that I was an even keeled, un-emotional person. I was happy to let things slide off my back, no drama!

(And then I fell, and I mean fell in love...but that's another story :) So I found that when I opened my heart again, I was also open to pain. I've spent a lot of my life opening up and then shutting down.

 But even though it feels more safe to keep our heart at arms length this is not how our Heavenly Father intended for us to live. 

God has been slowly but surely peeling back layers in my life and guess what, it is painful and messy and scary. But it is also beautiful and real and so rich! I am learning to dream and wonder at all the beauty on this earth, and be thankful.

So I'm making an incomplete list of dreams. Because, who knows, right?!

If you want, let me know what a few of yours are too. This will be fun!

My Life Dreams

To learn to paint. (I want to be able to put on paper some of the beauty that I see around me - old houses, flowers, blue skies with puffy white clouds)

Visit Ireland. (I want to see all that green up close)

Open a little shop.

Sing like Eva Cassidy.

Buy houses, renovate and resell. (Big dream)

Travel more.

To have a wonderful, handsome husband. (Got that!)

Beautiful children. (Got them!)

To be happy. (Yes, I'm learning)

To build an herb garden using old bricks.

To be beautiful, graceful, wise - inside and out.

I'll add to this list as I think of more.  I'm not going to say that some of these dreams are impossible - that's not the point! 

And some of these dreams started when I was young and have been realized. I love that!

It's Friday!!!

I had caffeinated coffee this morning so I'm all hyped up and using lots of exclamation points!!

Here are some photos to start your weekend off right. (Your welcome, of course!)

My awesome husband got me a new 50mm lens and it's amazing!! I can dial the aperture down to 1.8 which gives me all those deliciously blurry backgrounds!

He was sitting on my lap, I took it pointing straight down. I love his freckles! And he is too old to be sucking his thumb but I want this memory. (Because, like it or not, this is how we see him most.)

The Harvest Moon at Carter's Mountain Orchard. (Well, technically it was the night after the harvest moon but I'm saying close enough.)

Wishing you all a blessed weekend! 

Love to all!!!

Knitting's waiting...

I must get my chores done so I can start on this pile of yarn. Every fall with the change to cool weather I fall in love with knitting all over again. And none too soon this year, I have two little nephews on the way in October. Two of my California SILs are expecting boys and I'm really going to have to put in some knitting hours here!

So, do you have any seasonal hobbies/addictions?

Ironstone

Found at a little sale this morning. It is huge! Maybe 15" across. Love it!

I can see it filled with little pumpkins for fall. Or maybe a boxwood ball like Miss Mustard Seed's. 

I also found these little bells, now I want some goats...

We've come down with sore throats and fevers here at Cass House :(  It's a BEAUTIFUL weekend - oh well, there will be more!