Cedar is still a champion of cute. He’s started eating a bit of proper food, which brings all kinds of excitement. So far, he’s had sweet potato and avocado, along with the cereals. He’ll get banana tomorrow. He’s taken to everything just fine. Still has some work to do on keeping it in his mouth, but he seems to like it all well enough. And he gets really excited when he sees his bowl put in front of him. He’s done with his shots until he turns one. And he’s just gone up another size in clothes. He’s still a charmer and gets all kinds of coos from strangers.

I do have some fun sewing projects to work on these days. I’m doing a trade with a friend and artist living in Rostrevor. Stephanie is a graphic designer and also does really lovely drawing/watercolor. She’s making me a set of letters spelling “cedar” and I’m making her a laptop bag. I’ve properly worked out a design and I think it’s going to be really cool. I’ve got my sights set on making a few detailed, special things and seeing if a shop in town will carry them. I’m not sure what to expect there, but it’s worth a shot, right?

Mark and I just recently discovered an open mic night at one of the pubs in town. A friend stayed here with Cedar after church 2 weeks ago so we could go check it out. There were some pretty good musicians and we’re going to try to work up a couple of crowd-pleasing covers for a week and a half’s time. We aren’t sure yet if we can get a keyboard set up there or not. That will affect the song choice, but we’ll have a go at it either way. Any great suggestions for us?

My nose is alerting me that someone needs a little attention here. Maybe I’ll take some pictures of the laptop bag as it’s coming along. I’m pretty excited about that, as you can tell. Until then, my friends…

p.s. here are those videos I was talking about in the last post:

laughter is the best medicine

the jumper

Our newest, cutest addition is growing so quickly!

* just hanging out

He’s splashing in baths, playing with syllables, rolling over and really wanting to crawl. He’s finally settled into sleeping through the night again. He’s eating rice and porridge along with his milk. Does lots of laughing, especially with his Dad. And is generally AWESOME. We couldn’t have asked for a more spectacular boy. The more we get to see his personality, the more we like him and are glad he’s part of our family!

* all dressed up

I haven’t been doing lots of sewing, but I did put this little “tie” on a onesie for Cedar J. I possibly get a little too excited about it when he has it on, too. Oh, well!

* jump, jump

Probably the best 25 pounds we’ve spent has been on this jumper-thingy. Cedar loves it and we love how well he sleeps after all that jumping!

We had a visit from an old friend about 2 weeks ago, which was both seriously fun and really encouraging. Dan and Mark were close friends in college (and I’m good friends with Dan’s sister, Shelley). We made pizza, took in local sights, ate fish and chips (3 times), spent a day in Belfast, recorded music, made strange noises with our voices, watched Phantom of the Opera, worshiped, and generally had a wonderful time. We went to the Crown Bar in Belfast for lunch (they have the best steak & guinness pie ever, apparently) and finally got to sit in a snug!

* we love Dan

Bible study and house dinners have been a bit slow since we returned, so we’re re-evaluating how we’re going about trying to accomplish our goals here. It’s a bit discouraging to remember all that momentum last fall and see none of it left at all. But we’re still sure there are people here for us to love and introduce to Jesus. And we know that God is moving in our little family and all around us, too. Pray that we’d have wisdom and eyes to see the real needs of people here. We don’t want to spin our tires – we want to work hard where it will be effective!

We’re looking forward to some visits from family in the coming months, too. We’re quite aware now of the sacrifice of not living close to family! We’ve also got a niece or nephew joining us (not locally) in a few short months. Exciting times!

We’ve got some great videos of Cedar, but can’t seem to get them up here today. So there’s something to look forward to. Have a wonderful day!

Ange

Not as grand as his first view of it, I’m sure. But I love that it looks like the little rainbows you get all over a room when you have a prism in the window. I felt, looking at it, just like I did as a kid trying to catch those rainbows. Good for the soul, if you ask me.

This weekend was the Festival of Flight here in Newcastle. Mark met friends in town among a throng of thousands and thousands of people to watch the Red Arrows acrobatic pilots (I have no idea what the right term is, here). I wasn’t up for that much walking (after a bit too much physical activity last week that has left me bent-over when I try to stand – oops!), but watched the show from the sewing room upstairs and snapped these pics.

I was bummed to miss watching the show from the beach (or just across the road). The atmosphere in Newcastle is always so fun with loads of people in for a visit. Oh, well…

We’re getting the house ready tonight for Mark’s folks coming tomorrow. Can you say “excited”? That’s what we are! We don’t have any big plans, but I’m sure the 10 days we get together will be packed with goodness. They’ll probably introduce us to some new things here, too. You’d think we’d be the only ones doing that after living here for 2 years, but these 2 always have something great up their sleeves!

I’m still growing, which is to be expected, but still kind of shocking. I put on pyjama pants today that a friend loaned me. The first time I tried them on they just fell off. And today, they fit. It’s strange, and I love it. And there’s the pregnancy update for today.

Hope you all have a beautiful Monday!

I’ve also been spending a good amount of time nesting, which is about the best thing ever. Have I mentioned that I’m loving getting ready to meet Beaker? I thought so… Well, my mom’s making a beautiful proper quilt, so I thought I’d make a little crib quilt. What do you think? Does it work for a boy or girl?

Mark and I got some wonderful news today, as well. We’re one big step closer to getting our visa renewed. (I’m happy to go into details if you email and ask, but I don’t want to do all the long-winded explaining here.) After a few months of trying to get things moving, both on our and our sponsors’ parts, things are in motion. So we’re celebrating!

Mark’s parents are going to be here for a visit next week. We’re really looking forward to getting some good time with them. His dad has been in Jordan working on an archaeological dig and I’m sure we’re going to get some amazing stories.

Hope you’re all having a wonderful week! What are you spending your “last” days of summer doing?

The weather got pretty wet soon after the 4th. But until last evening stayed pretty warm. There’s been some of the nasty, super-wet drizzle and some lovely, romantic rain. It’s beautiful and green outside, so who can complain?

We’ve had a fairly quiet week. A few evenings at home in a row, which has been a nice break. I’ve been working on settling into the house and making it “us”, as well as working on some things for Beaker (our son or daughter to be, if you haven’t heard the nickname yet). I’m loving getting more attached to this creature taking over my belly. It’s not uncommon for Beaker to kick my hand when I press on my belly, which makes me giggle and get wide-eyed every time. Here’s a pic, albeit a crooked one, of my growing belly.

I’m going to get back to the quilt now that my fingers have had a little break. We’ll write soon explaining it all, but pray for us as we have a rather big meeting next Thursday evening about partnering with the Methodists here and our visa renewal. We’ll let you know more soon!

It was also exciting to see God’s provision in their lives – the large new house he’s supplied for their ministry of hospitality plus the gift of kitchen basics.

Mark is very disciplined in working his job on the computer every afternoon. I think it would be hard with people around who are doing fun things. Ange and I did ‘projects’ – made a diaper bag, jewelry, meals and such. Lloyd walked and walked every day. He always power walked up that last steep stretch to Ange’s house. After hearing more and more daring tales of where he wandered around the mountains, we got so we were afraid to let him out of the house by himself!  Finally, on our last day, Lloyd and Mark climbed to the top of Slieve Donnard, the highest mountain in N. Ireland.

We travelled to Cork over Memorial Day weekend and played the tourist role for a bit. Happened on a festival of sea chanties in Waterford. A night at Waterford Castle was so cool. Check out hotels.com for great rates.

Some observations: Mark is amazing on the bodhran (drum); 10 pm is hardly even dusk, but between 10:15 & 10:30, it gets dark for about 5 hours; even on sunny days it’s rarely very warm; it costs $80 to fill the car with gas; Mark is an excellent Bible teacher; Ireland is too far away.

Mark and I decided to call it a snow day as church was canceled (lots of old folks and snow/ice don’t mix well here) and we weren’t needed anywhere else. We spent the day in jammies (or what we wear in their stead) just taking it slow.

good morning, cutie

The only thing that would have made it better is a new puzzle to work on. Oh well. We had an enjoyable enough day.

there's another mountain behind that thick cloud

And while we’re on pretty mountains, here’s one not too long before sunset.

We’ve been meeting on Thursday nights for church in our house for about 6 weeks now. We’re having such a good time with it, too. Last week I took a couple of pics, though most of them turned out blurry. But I’ve got one I can show you.

they were having fun, honest!

The first few weeks we jumped around different scriptures but now we’re on with the rest of the MAC group. It’s been so encouraging to us and everyone else seems to really enjoy it, too. We’re meeting tomorrow night to talk about how we’re going to move forward organizationally as a church plant. So if you think of it, please pray for us. We need all kinds of insight and sensitivity to where God’s directing us. We’ll let you know how things move along.

It seems like this month’s theme is “take courage”. God’s been doing some mighty things in us and is gently reminding us of the real need for us to live fully in our identities as sons and daughters of the king. Friends were over this morning to pray with us about tomorrow night and we got the same sense in our time together. Take courage. Encourage yourself in the Lord. We don’t have to pretend to be royalty – we are. And we get to welcome everyone we meet into the peace and abundance of the kingdom we’re part of. How amazing is that?! Pray that we would.

Thanks for coming back. We’ll talk again soon.

the town at the foot of the mountain

beautiful buds

the gnarly tree in the plot next door

a bush full of bright berries

sweet bird

I wish I could have gotten a recording of the bird songs to post as well.  I just stood outside watching my breath and listening to the chirping.  Thanks, God.