Haiti

Here's a video my friend, Ben Welstead put together from a recent trip to Haiti. It's incredibly beautiful and should be shared with many hearts. Thank God for willing servants and compassionate hearts.

Projects!!

I never put up photos of our basement bathroom. This little half bath is off of the family room with the fireplace. When we moved in, the countertop was green, the floor was a linoleum white with green diamonds, and she had an angel boarder. NOT. OUR. STYLE. Here you can see some before/after shots. I think we've made a good improvement. :)

Before:

After (Clearly):

 

Here’s the old floor with newly painted walls and countertop:

New laminate wood floor. And a soft fluffy rug…

 

New shelf and things.  :)

 

We also want to give a shout-out to Papa Eigsti for all his help with the floor. And for Mama Eigsti helping me run to Home Depot for all the man needs. :)  We really appreciate your help!!!

And I hear the voice of many angels sing...

This summer has NOT turned out to be what I expected. I've found that too much time by myself is not good for me. I become restless. I fail more. I stop digging deeper. I forget to get together with friends. My soul sort of shrivels...and I become an uglier version of me. This is not a "woe-is-me" post. I'm just saying. Heather + lots of time alone = no good.

I'm not created to be by myself. I'm not created to have loads of time on my hands. When life is busy, I'm incredibly productive, organized, and I feel a heck of a lot better about myself.

This summer I have not run. Well, Charlie and I ran ONCE last week....and he tripped me a handful of times. Perhaps that's why we haven't been back out with the Sauconys. :)

The last few messages at church have really hit home for both Nate and I. They've been on worship, affliction, and the vengeance of God. To write a fraction of the movement of my heart on these topics would take hours. (And Nate's parents are on the way over, so I haven't got the time)- However, I can share a tiny bit. I grew up in a very conservative Jesus-loving church. But worship when I was young consisted of pews, hymnals, a pipe organ and verse after verse after verse. The words to these songs hadn't meant much to me until just recently. The idea that these old hymns could speak so loudly to my heart; to my life AT. THIS. VERY. MOMENT, even though they were written hundreds of years ago; that what I'm going through can be expected; that there will be disappointments; that not everyone will have similar convictions; that friends will disappoint and life will seem lonely at times; people will make bad choices; we WILL be persecuted; "Christian" friends will shock me; "secular" friends will shock me.....all these things, I hadn't really considered.

In short, I've found a new freedom in worship. And I'm pretty stinkin' excited about it! :)

They exist!!!!

Last week Nate heard lots of buzz at work about the "NEW COCONUT M&M'S!!!" For days we were on a search to find them. Hy-Vee, Super Saver, Target, Wal-Mart....nothing.

Then on Saturday, we stopped into a ghetto Walgreens and THERE THEY WERE!!!! They're pretty good. Nate liked them a lot. I liked them. I'd eat them again- but they're not as good as the Dark Chocolate Peanut M&Ms.




We had a really good weekend. Nate and I are finding in our first year of marriage that it's easy to get so wrapped up in home projects that we forget to spend time together- just the two of us- no projects. This weekend we didn't work on anything. We went to our friend, Mike's on Friday night for pizza and the movie, "Grand Torrino", which is a must-see. We shopped leisurely Saturday afternoon, enjoyed a fantastic service at Berean Saturday night, and had our slow Sunday morning with coffee, the newspaper, PJs, and french toast. We ended the weekend with "Big Brother" and the season finale of "America's Next Top Chef", and found ourselves under the moonlit sky on the deck last night with Charlie romping about in the yard. Life is good.