Esme.

This beautiful little girl came into the world this morning, and we're all pretty thrilled! Esme Gabrielle Rodgers. She was born three weeks early and she's a tiny thing at just six-and-a-half pounds, but she's healthy and making Stef and Ethan as happy as can be!

Also, Josh and Suzi announced the upcoming arrival of baby #six in June! That will mean thirteen siblings and nieces and nephews under ten years old, so you can imagine the fun we'll have!

We're so very, very blessed.

 

wonder & shades of brown

"I have believed the lie that wonder is something that is given to me by someone else.

That it is fire and flurry, the crashing of might and might, the explosion of flame.
Dazzle and daring and the fluorescent spectacular.

But the truth is that none of this is wonder. Not really. There is nothing passive about true wonder.
It is not dependent on bigness or limited by smallness;
it is not the response to entertainment or to spectacle.

Wonder is a choice. It comes only when I choose to stay.

It’s that thing that happens when doubt and astonishment and mystery converge.
It happens when I stand in one place long enough.
When I stare out at the broken cattails or the winter-bare branches
or a dew drop until it stops being about me. Starts being about the branch.
And then about more than the branch. And then about God.

And it doesn’t always feel like epiphany or the climax of a hit movie.
Sometimes it comes and goes so quickly that you almost can’t believe that it was there.

But in that moment, something in your heart reaches towards God.
And for a small span of space, you believe Him to be all he says he is,
and you know it is enough…and this is the true heart of worship."
deeper story || the daily work of wonder

Each new day seems to rush by us in a dizzying blur. I was recently convinced that summer was still beginning, only to notice frost on the ground and the trees entirely bared of leaves. Autumn came and left again before I had the chance to blink an eye. The oh-too-familiar signs of winter are already rapidly approaching, and there's snow in the air, Thanksgiving menus being planned, and Christmas secrets in the making. I'm pretty sure we must have skipped October completely.

In a way, there's so much to look forward to about the coming of colder months ahead and all the cosiness that they bring. There's a sense of wonder that comes with the slowing-down and the togetherness of the season, the depth of tradition, and being surrounded by enough simplicity to notice beauty in wonderfully trivial, ordinary, fleeting moments. Like cinnamon rolls on a chilly morning, the first snowfall, sunlight streaming through frosted windowpanes, and being bundled in oversized scarves. There's beauty and wonder in that, and it leaves so much to look forward to.

[And by the way, just in case you're wondering how I could possibly not take any pictures the last few months...
well, I did. They just happened to all be on my phone.
And in an effort to clean up my phone, I imported all my 3,000+ photos to my computer,
and then deleted them from my phone. The end.
They are no where to be found.
Silly iPhones.]

these are that day

“And how could we endure to live and let time pass

if we were always crying for one day or one year to come back

--if we did not know that every day in a life

fills the whole life with expectation and memory

and that these are that day?” 
|| C.S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet

Enjoying the last of our carefree summer days. Harvesting the garden. Preparing to begin a new school year. Sewing...lots of sewing! Celebrating birthdays. We often wonder when time will stand still long enough for us to soak it all in...every experience and emotion and memory. We are so very blessed.

pretty details

These past couple of weeks we've had weddings on the brain. Attending, sewing dresses, planning, baking cookies, diy projects, ordering shoes, photographing, booking tickets, admiring details... And in a greater effort to be more present in the moment, my poor camera has been sitting and collecting a layer of dust on top of my dresser. Whenever I've picked it up and blown the dust away, I've been mostly focusing on making imperfect short films of those precious, ordinary moments in my life with my family. Celebrating the everyday.

these are my favorites

We had a family reunion at a local county park this last weekend. The 89th annual Nelson-Ritchie reunion. It's always so good to visit with family [some whom we only see once or twice a year]. During a lull sometime in the day, I took the kiddos down to the water's edge. The wildflowers were so beautiful down there. Us older kids used to go swimming in that little lake almost every single day during the summers when we were growing up. We have so many good memories in that water...

And those kids are my very favorites.

view from our windows this morning.

"Behold, I go forward, but he is not there,

and backward, but I do not perceive him:

on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him;

he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him.

But he knows the way that I take;

when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.

My foot has held fast to his steps;

I have kept his way and have not turned aside.

I have not departed from the commandment of his lips;

I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.

But he is unchangeable, and who can turn him back?

What he desires, that he does.

For he will complete what he appoints for me,

and many such things are in his mind."

// Job 23:8-14, esv

This video.

This pie.

This project.

This craft.

Another afternoon at Presque Isle

Earlier this week we were able to spend a perfect afternoon at the lake...the water was warm, the sand wasn't blisteringly hot, and the humidity was low enough that we didn't even notice it. :) We know that we probably won't make it up to the Peninsula too many more times this summer, so we're trying to make the most of every opportunity we can to enjoy the sand and water and kites in the sky. :)