Photo a Day // April // Week 4

O N E | Annie (Hank's oldest niece) with the bottle goat on our Easter Sunday walk.

T W O | Working on the bridal shower present for my friend Liz.

T H R E E | Cinnamon Apple muffins.  Super delicious and easy!  Recipe here.

F O U R | Grooving and listening to Pat Boone on my way to town.

F I V E | Jenny's birthday party!  Aren't Jenny and JD adorable wearing their matching shirts? *smile*

S I X | Liz's bridal shower.  I love how Annie and Ruth just had to sit right up there while Liz opened presents. :)

S E V E N | Mitts enjoyed both the soft wool and the sunshine while I was skirting fleeces.

E I G H T | And the girl who that particular fleece belonged to.  Ingrid went to her new home this week.  She's going to live out the rest of her days as a well loved and cared for pasture pet.  That makes me happy.

N I N E | Country drives, warm spring weather, and mirror shots.

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And I can't believe it's May already - Happy May Day, everyone!

And I really can't believe that Hank and I have been officially together for a month now!  April was a supremely happy blur, but it's nice to feel like my feet are almost on the ground again...almost.  My soul craves order and some amount of predictability in my life.  Really, I'm a very boring person. 

But I'm loving this particular change.  It's been so interesting to see how everything around me has changed, and yet hasn't.  How I've changed, and yet haven't.  How the way I look at Hank has changed, and yet hasn't.  He just gets more amazing and wonderful every day.  I can only hope and pray that I make him feel as special as he makes me feel.  I'm so thankful that with everything changing, my heavenly Father never does.  He keeps my life - my world - in balance.  He is my foundation.

It's getting close to a month since I began my training/volunteering at Open Arms, too.  I knew I wanted to be involved with this ministry, but I never knew I'd be so blessed in every area of my life by my fellow volunteers and those I serve.  Sitting and praying with those sweet ladies for morning prayer is such a blessing and quite possibly the best part of my week.  Knowing that the Lord is enabling us to bless others and through that blessing us is so encouraging and edifying!  Loving others as Jesus loves them has always been a struggle for me.  But every morning when I get there, He fills my heart to overflowing with His love.  I feel so unworthy, but He uses me all the same.  It is incredible.  Absolutely incredible.

Besides watching informational DVDs, last week I shadowed Liz while she worked with an Earn While You Learn (EWYL) client, and this week I followed the nurse, Audrey.  I helped her with a PT (pregnancy test), learned how to use a pregnancy wheel (used to estimate how many weeks pregnant someone is and the due date), and shadowed both her and Liz during a walk-in appointment.  By the end of my shift, I was grinning from ear to ear.  I never thought I'd enjoy doing this so much, but I do!  And I praise the Lord for this opportunity!

Goodness, if you made it through everything I had to say, congratulations!

Have a lovely and blessed week, everyone!

That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;  Philippians 2:15

What's going on in your life?  Big stuff, little stuff...I want to know!

Miscellany

Hello there, peoples! *smile*  I haven't done a Miscellany post for a while, so get ready...

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There's a chance that Pastor Saeed Abedini could be granted clemency and released from prison!  Sign the petition and find out more at the BeHeard Project!

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The second video in the YouTube series The Monaco Files filmed, created, and edited by my talented bro and his production crew!

Follow their YouTube channel and stay tuned to see what Jack and Jason will be trying next!

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This week at Bible study, I invented the Hymnal Game.  The object of the game is to carry on a conversation using only the titles of hymns.  Try it sometime.  The results are hilarious and awesome!  For about 5 minutes, everyone at the study were looking through the index and shouting out titles while laughing until we couldn't breath. *grin*

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We watched Monsters University finally.  I was prepared for it to be good, but I wasn't prepared for it to be every bit as good as everyone said it was!  And it was!!  Little Mike was completely adorable, and Art made me laugh so hard.  Definitely a win, in my book.

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Well, we have snow again.  The first big snow of the year, finally!  We usually have over a foot of snow on the ground from just after Thanksgiving until sometime between March and the end of April.  So it was highly unusual to have no snow all through January.  But we have it now!

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Wednesday morning, I drove downtown to attend a volunteer orientation at the Open Arms Real Choices clinic.  It was snowing like crazy, the roads were bad, everyone was going about 35 mph on the highway, and I was so scared that my legs were shaking.  But, I made it, found the clinic, and was only 20 minutes late.  *grin*  I am so, SO excited about volunteering at Open Arms!  I've known that it was something the Lord wanted me to do for about 4 years now, but everything was so crazy at home that I couldn't until now.  Now, I just need to finish filling out the volunteer application, get some references, turn them in, have my interview, and start training.  So EXCITED!!!  You'll definitely be hearing more about this in the future!

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I've been so encouraged by this song lately.  The Lord does some of His most powerful and effective work in our lives when we've come to the point of giving up.  When we are weak, He is strong.

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What have you been doing this week?  I want to know!