• Cameras. I highly recommend a digital camera, since you’ll most likely be deleting lots of your pictures.

• Good friends (very important: don’t forget these!)

• Silliness. Lots of it!

Instructions:

• Find the person(s) in your group who is the least photogenic (abhors having his picture taken).

• Spy on him/her

• Be sneaky, and gang up on your victim

• Don’t be discouraged if your best pictures turn out like this:

Happy Camera Fighting everyone!

-Kasie

Our garden is doing superb! The picture above is just a small bit of what we harvest everyday, and certainly only a sample of the amount of blackberries we get! (we have a LOT of blackberries) Sometimes Dad will be picking outside for hours, and return with a huge mixing bowl full of berries! We’ve begun freezing and canning – especially with our beans. We have so many beans (and starting to get that way with cucumbers and squash).

It’s so cool to prepare a meal with vegetables we grew from our own garden!

Anybody else do a garden this year?

-Kasie

P.S. [to give you an idea of how much veggies we get] Last week was the first time we had to buy lettuce from the grocery store in about two straight months! That’s saying a lot, because if you know our family, you know what ridiculous amounts of lettuce we go through!

There is much that could be said about Calvin – his life, his theology, and his enduring legacy (which we benefit from today). Calvin was arguably the most influential man of his millennium! And his doctrines of God’s sovereignty, human depravity, and Grace STILL edify and instruct Christians.

I recently bought Calvin’s definitive work, “Institutes of the Christian Religion”, and have found it very good! The pages are loaded with meat, and packed full of scripture.

Sola Scriptura! (By Scripture alone)
Sola Fide! (By Faith alone)
Sola Gratia! (By Grace alone)
Solo Christo! (Through Christ alone)
Soli Deo Gloria! (Glory to God alone)

On a lighter note our other cat, Boromir is doing fine (he probably doesn’t realize even what happened to his brother).

-NatetheGreat

Right now he’s curled up underneath the porch in the back resting. The swelling has gone down in his leg, and I was able to convince him to eat some canned cat food Mom bought at the store. We’re going to make him an herbal wrap for his leg.

Poor baby! Faramir’s such a sweetie, even when he’s in pain (still lets me pet him all over). I hope he gets better soon!

-Kasie

On the steps of our county courthouse, The Willi played patriotic music, and Walter gave a speech. The paper even did a huge write-up about it!

Here are some videos for those of you who weren’t able to attend! (Those receiving these updates via email need to click to our website in order to view the videos).

Reformation 500 Treasure Hunt in Boston

Gah! I don’t know whether to scream, cry, or just smile. Being out of the action is insanely frustrating! Anybody else feeling this way?

Sigh…. I’m OK. God has us where we are for a reason. After all, we wouldn’t be able to participate in tomorrow’s rally if we were in Boston!

God is good. But I must…. stop….. wanting…… to be……. someplace……. else…..

- Walter

[pictures from Doug Phillip's blog]

They come when I whistle now, and Violet is gaining weight! I think she and Sully are very happy here.

-Kasie

I know, I know. I’m a whole day late with this post, but at least I have a good reason! Saturdays are always our house cleaning days, plus Angie fell sick, and I had a wedding to play piano for. By the time I put on my dress and loaded the car with my instrument, there was no time to think of a fashion post.

But anyway, the wedding went very well indeed – the ceremony was so sweet! I didn’t ruin it, so that’s a good thing. And all the duets and music pieces we/I did were pretty much seamless (yay! thank you Lord!)

Here’s what I wore for the occasion:

~a picture Nate quickly snapped for me when we came home

What I’m wearing:

Dress: my toille dress! Some of you may recognize it from the dress I wore last week, and it is the same pattern – just different fabric. I was originally thinking of wearing more fancy attire, but actually most of the guests at the wedding arrived dressed on the casual side, so I fit right in.

Other: By the time Nate took this picture I was tired, and ready to plop on the couch and watch National Treasure 2 with him, so I had already taken off my sandels and most of my jewelry. Though you can’t see them, I did wear the necklace from Day 2 of the fashion week, and a silver bracelet band with my name on it.

My whole family couldn’t go to the wedding with me, so Walter acted as my escort, and was looking very handsome indeed! I love his cravat.

He also acted as soundman, sort of at the last minute.

And here’s a shot of the wedding party;

Now, don’t you think this is a good excuse for not being able to post yesterday?

Have a great Sunday!

-Kasie

I love this outfit! It’s new, it’s totally my style, it’s comfortable and very summery.

What I’m wearing:

Skirt: no label. I found this beauty at a consignment shop next to the dressmakers’, and bought it for 8$! I love the feel and flow of this skirt. Once again, its original size is too large for me, but a few discreet safety pins fix that problem.

Shirt: black sports tee from Walmart – 3$. (isn’t it awesome when you find sales like that?)

Accessories/Jewelry: black cord necklace with key charm, made by me. I’m also wearing another one of my beloved headscarves, done in a fashion I like to call the “Marianne Dashwood style”. If you’re familiar with the new mini series Sense and Sensibility from Masterpiece Theater, you’ll know what I’m talking about!

Sunglasses: See day 1.

No shoes – bare feet are better! Seriously, if our land wasn’t covered in prickers and prickly pear, I would go outside barefoot all the time!

Ta, ta!

-Kasie