spring lovelies

i finally got some fresh flowers into my house, rid my kitchen of dirty dishes, did some spring cleaning, and gave our bedroom an organizational and aesthetic overhaul. joe has been frustrated with the version of bedding we had, especially the duvet cover, which was bigger than the duvet itself and left room for all kinds of twisting and slouching, and every kind of imbalance. we also have been missing a mattress pad since we bought our california king three years ago. rough, i know. and, at the risk of sounding opinionated, joe requested that we go white. completely agreeing with him, i set out on a mission to find suitable replacements, and not spend our life savings. so let me tell you, i LOVE Ross for bedding purchases!! here's what i found (prices and quality rivaled our favorite store, IKEA, and i didn't have to drive an hour to get there! keep in mind these are all for cal king!):

mattress pad - $12.99

down-alternative comforter - $34

white sateen-striped 620 thread count sheet set - $32

i didn't find a duvet cover at Ross, so i proceeded to drive all over santa cruz and scotts valley looking for a well-priced gem - and found nothing. discouraged that i now had every piece of a fresh bed minus the duvet cover, i determined to go online to see what i could find. and, praise the Lord, i found a king white duvet cover at Overstock.com for $30! and, it's on it's way to my front door as we speak. a few white curtains for the closet went up in addition to the rest of the whiteness, and the bedroom came together just in time to suprise the man when he came home. white just makes it so refreshing, and in a dark room, it really helps to cheer things up.

our new comforter, without the on-its-way duvet. the room doesn't look dark here, but i snapped this shot during the ten minutes of daily sunshine these walls see. :) i also got permission a couple months ago to paint the bedroom a sweet yellow. that was an adventure, but it really helped to friendly up the space!

these white curtains replaced the dark green ones i made for the closet last year. $15 at Cost Plus

another spring lovely ;)

easter funnies

our celebration of Christ's resurrection:

joe desperately wanted (and needed) a haircut. so, lying in bed at 7 am, i hear the buzzer working diligently in the bathroom. compelled out of bed by the sound of ill progress, i found his head halfway started but with major issues. so, an hour was spent to clean up the shape, clean up the divets, and clean up the bathroom.

breakfast helped to get us into the proper resurrection spirit, along with a little Bach cantata for Easter morning. we feasted on homemade blueberry sour cream coffee cake and bacon, and then proceeded to forget the hour by engaging in a hearty conversation on proper formatting of responsive readings.

by this time, the au gratin potatoes had been forgotten to be placed in the oven, and an "oh, the potatoes!" exclamation came from joe's mouth as he placed his last supporting beam to the arguments aforementioned. this threw us into a "wow, look at the clock!" mode, and the prized potatoes were driven to joe's parents' home for the awaiting feast, spilling cream and melted greyere all over the seat as they went. joe returned broken hearted that not only had his potatoes not been baked and bubbling yet, but now his car reeked of dairy and we were 20 minutes late to church. i strongly suggested that we laugh it off, as God was obviously wanting to play.

pride held in check, we arrived at church to find the sanctuary packed to the gills. not having anticipated the crowd (based on the assumption that a good number of folks would be out of town), i had printed at least 30 bulletins too few for this glorious sunday. a number of other secretarial errors found me uncomfortably distracted, until i heard our pastor's voice rise loudly above the crowd as he proclaimed the risen Lord! that's right, some perspective please. joe and i breathed out the morning's mess and sang the doxology with hands raised.

we had a lovely easter dinner at mil and dil's house (mom-in-law, dad-in-law) with thirteen of us around a long table, and a fire crackling contentedly right behind my seat. those pesky potatoes turned out divine and worked perfectly beside the honeyed ham. we laughed and talked and ate and were very blessed.

however, i ate way too much and have been paying for it ever since. (never go on a two-week cleanse right before the most joyous holiday of the Christian faith!). and joe, while happily consuming seconds of everything, had little clue that his body was fighting a losing war against a flu bug. needless to say, this past week hasn't been the healthiest week ever, and our resurrection sunday wasn't exactly what we had in mind. but how grateful we are that the Lord isn't hindered by human flesh (ours or His) and arose despite it all!

my coffee cake

super fun kiddos playing blokus

the potatoes

ghassan and atour shehadeh

chris and tana rhodes

granma, with tom and jaymie bernard

tirimasu

us, both looking and feeling wiped out

all things must live again...even blogging

joe and jen have been disgustingly negligent in posting. it's been 33 days since we last posted anything. it feels like an inordinantly long time. have you been feeling the void? we're so sorry. really. no, really. but i must say, it has been rather freeing, and probably healthy, to take a break from life in 0's and 1's, and just live it in three dimensions.

living it in three dimensions these past few months has meant for us both a lot of get-up-and-go and some major laying low. i have been ill with a laundry list of various and sundry things (such as common cold, medical tests, antibiotics), the most notable (and laughable) of which was a perceived bladder infection that turned out to be none other than the need for a good few trips to the chiropracter (and counting!). having now been very gratefully relieved of my most painful symptoms (and having used up 2 months of house-savings! :( ), i am feeling more myself again. it has been a good reminder to not take health for granted.

speaking of health, joe, at the moment, is sick in bed. (i gave him my sickies, poor guy. but, in sickness and in health, right? i am very, very, very grateful to the Lord that it is fever and cough rather than anything tummy related). but, before he hit the bed hard and found good enough reason to watch Bullet, he has been going non-stop in his new position at work. for, as of february, he has become the Director of Operations for the Lulu Carpenters/Coffee Cat dynasty (well, not quite a dynasty...just three stores as of yet). the Lord has been very kind to us in this new transition, and joe finds himself adjusting to his new duties without the mental/emotional/physical crash-and-burn he experienced two years ago. we are very thankful. and what a provision this just-to-make-ends-meet job has become! the Lord definitely likes to surprise and bless.

so, most of these life events these past few months haven't exactly been picture-worthy, or even word-worthy, except that now we can tell of the Lord's lovingkindness and faithfulness to us throughout it all.

and now, since Christ has arisen, and the earth is waking to a new year under His good kingly hand, let me now move on to some joyousness.

it is definitely spring here - lovely, perfect weather, buds and flowers, freshly mowed grass, clear blue skies, afternoon sprinkles, and leafy greenness everwhere. we live in a particularly beautiful neighborhood, on a particularly beautiful plot of land, in a particularly beautiful home. our landlady, judy, is an overwhelmingly good example of honoring the Lord with one's belongings. thus, she keeps a most divine, but not conceited, home and garden. we have a crepe myrtle tree outside our kitchen window that is just now presenting its luscious little leaf buds. we have an ancient oak tree sprawling its wide branches out over the house in awesome fashion. and we have a tall and lanky (i.e. swedish) birch tree at the corner, beckoning friends and strangers to come, sit, and take their fill of all that a birch tree at the corner has to offer. and sprinkled among these trees are winding brick paths and stone walks and flowers of every pink hue and cool ferns and fresh rosemary.

at my front door, you will find my one horticultural pride and joy - a pot of flowering bulbs. flowering bulbs. note here that they are blooming, which means i didn't kill them. not wanting this accomplishment to be overlooked, nay, disbelieved, i documented it digitally. now you can all pat me on my back and tell me to get over it. :)

as you walk through our front door, you will find very little else that is springy. the red pillows still sit on my white couch looking wintry, the combination of quilts and microfleece blankets still lie in wait for use near furniture worthy of curling up into, there are no fresh cut flowers on my table but rather a candle awaiting to show its singular light, and boxes of kleenex aren't the only evidence that the bug's been here. it's funny how these things feel all at once very wrong when spring arrives. i think that's partly the catylist for "spring cleaning." no more winter, no more dark, no more death - we want life! let's sweep it all away and start fresh. just another proof of life in Christ. thank you, Lord!

my bloomin' pot!

spring loveliness in our yard

oh yes, and flowers aren't the only things springing to life. our second bedroom is finally becoming less of a dungeon and more of a living space. maybe by this summer we'll have an extra room to inch out into. it could be a guest room for non-swedish guests.