30 Day Challenge

I'm going to start blogging the 30 Day Challenge, which means every day or so for thirty days I post a picture of something different that I like, I enjoy doing, or inspires me. The first picture was supposed to be a recent one of me, but I put one in the last post, so let me skip to day two: a picture of the person I have been closest to the longest. Well, I have been close to a couple of people for over fourteen years, but here is one of my mom and me. This picture was taken a year and a half ago, after our third 5K together. (Hence the numbers and matching shirts) This was the race that damaged my knee, and this picture was taken after the race, so I was in a bit of pain when this was snapped. It was a fun day, though!

A Picture and a Poem

Here's the picture I was going to post last week but couldn't. For those of you who know me well, this is a rare occurrence. I don't like having my picture taken, but I realized the most recent one I have of me is from last fall. Hence the rare post of a picture of myself.
I wrote this poem a couple of weeks ago for a poetry contest, and thought I'd share it.

Life's Colors

What color is life?

Let me show you

that through all the strife

you can see the blue

Blue for the sky, blue for the rain

Blue for everything that you gain

Life's color? Yellow

for the parts of being alive

that seem mellow

Making you not strive

as hard as before

until all else walks out the door

Pink is for the joy

in living on this earth

To sit still and enjoy

the wonders of this turf

Yes, life's color is pink

no need to think

What color is for

life's adventures

which are never a bore

in fact they're a quencher

going straight, not in a circle

the color for this is purple

And the color for the things unseen?

The things that whisper

in the wind? Green

Like a gentle and familiar sister

You know it's there

everywhere

There are many more colors of living

that I have no time to list

If you can be forgiving

I will leave you with this

If you can see through the grey

life's rainbow will stay

Acquire the Fire

My brother, Eli, and I had the opportunity last weekend to go to Acquire the Fire with the Eatonville youth group. It was an amazing trip! God was really moving at the conference. There was great music from bands like Leeland, Jimmy Needham, and the School of Worship. Cool skits followed up on what the speaker was saying. It was all in all an awesome weekend!
I had a picture to go along with this post, but I can't find the cord to get it from the camera to the computer, so I will post it next time. Here's a cute picture of my sister instead.

Pictures

Here are some pictures I took of Faith and her friend, Emma. Enjoy!





My brother and I have the opportunity to go to Acquire the Fire this weekend. If you don't know what that is, here is the link. We were able to raise almost all the money we needed to go, and hope to have an amazing time. I'll post on that next week.

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Mount Rainier

I promised you a post about Mount Rainier, so here it is. My family went sledding on Mount Rainier last Saturday-not down the mountain, in the small area designated for sledding. This was only my second time up the mountain, because I didn't go when my ACL was damaged. It was also my first time out of the car on Mount Rainier.
We started driving towards the mountain, and it was a nice, sunny day somewhere in the fifties. (For those of you who do not live in Washington, these days are rare) As we got closer, we started to notice small patches of snow on the ground. After we got into the Mount Rainier park, it was considerably chillier and most of the ground was covered in snow. The park has a beautiful blend of fir trees and sequoias, and ferns scattered on the ground. Moss grows up the trees and dangles from them, adding a splash of color to the seemingly endless red trunks. As we got higher up the mountain, more and more snow was piled up beside the road from when they had plowed. Then, suddenly the walls of snow were taller than our van, and we couldn't see over them to look at the trees. Faith and Lydia were excited about it, but I must admit I wasn't looking forward to being almost waist deep in snow. Didn't we leave the snow in Ohio?
It really is beautiful on the mountain, though. The drifts of snow were spotless, no footprints or grass anywhere. Here and there the huge sequoias stand, mightily withstanding the glittering, freezing snow. It's amazing what God's creation can look like without being tampered by man!

I Have A Job

Well, sort of. I was looking for a job in February, and applied at a few places in town. Most of the shops and restaurants in Eatonville aren't hiring through the winter months, but since it's a tourist town, many of them will hire in the summer. My "sort of" job is at the food co-op here in Eatonville. It's volunteer work, so I don't get paid, but it will look really good on an application. I stock shelves when orders come in, and I'm also learning the register. This will really help me out when I start applying for jobs again this summer.
We've had some guests this past week- my grandma and her friend came and visited. They were able to see the kind of ministry we do in Tacoma, and also check out the airfield. My grandma was especially interested in a program my church does called Living Free. Basically it's a six week class teaching about strongholds, prayer, and how to live free in the Lord. One of the churches in Ohio that supports us (and also the one my grandma attends) wants to use the curriculum to help their community.
I'm going sledding on Mount Rainier tomorrow, hope to post on that soon!

A birthday

The birthday girl

Her cake, which was originally going to be turquoise with her name on it, but we didn't have enough frosting due to a small misunderstanding, so on went the flowers

They had a lot of fun with bubbles

Faith unwrapped a chair :)

and a cute skirt from Mamaw

And ladybug rain gear from me (you know, since we live in the state of rain)

Sorry it's taken me so long to post this. We've had sick people for the last week. We're all feeling much better, though!