In my garden...

Gemma found an inch worm in the peppers.

Tomatoes are coming out our ears. We've been eating lots of them and I dried a bunch of Romas yesterday. Soon I'll start canning.

We can hardly keep up with picking all of the ripe produce.

Gemma pretends to help, but mostly doesn't.

Okay, so we didn't grow this bread in the garden! Matt made it, but we did grow the rosemary.

There's a lot going on in my garden!

You Capture: Outside

We spent

a bit of time

at the park

last evening

around sunset

and the summer light

was magic.

You Capture: Outside

A 24 Carat Life

"I will...thoroughly purge away your dross, and take away your alloy...afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city." Isaiah 1:25:b,26b

The refining process of gold and other precious metals is pretty interesting. Gold is never found as completely pure, it always has other metals or minerals mixed in with it when comes from a mine. To remove those impurities it is heated up at extreme temperatures. As it melts, the elements that are not gold rise to the surface and are skimmed away. This is repeated several times until all of the impurities, or dross as it is called, are removed, leaving 24 carat gold behind.

This is what the Lord does in the lives of those who choose to follow Him; He cleans out our impurities. He deals with our sin, like dross rises to the surface of a precious metal with heat so it can be skimmed away, He uses circumstances in our lives to point out the sinful tendencies in us, making them rise to the surface. When that happens, it forces us to see what's wrong in our lives and remove it.

Sometimes it seems like all of the uncleanness is gone. I feel like I've overcome a certain sin, or at least have it under control, and then it pops back up to the surface again, as bad as ever. It gets discouraging. I think, "Lord, we've been dealing with this for so long, I thought I was done with it!", but that's refining, I suppose. It's repeated until every last little bit of impurity is gone.

It's not a pleasant process. I hate it when things heat up and I hate seeing my sin. It makes me sick to think that I'm capable of such ugliness when I thought it was behind me.

Yet it's a beautiful process too. With each purging session I'm a little more like the faithful and righteous city that I'm indented to be. Each day I deal with the ugliness of my sin instead of just letting it float at the surface I become a little more like Jesus, and ultimately, that's what I want.

"He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." Philippians 1:6

Back 2 School Cool

Gemma started second grade today and loved it. I'm so proud of my big girl! (And happy to have some time to myself again)

If you are interested, I wrote more about her first day of second grade on the separate blog I keep about Gemma: CLICK HERE

You Capture: In the Kitchen

Technically, I didn't take these pictures in the kitchen.

I took them in the dining room

because there isn't much natural light in my kitchen.

But my kitchen is full of these delicious fruits, compliments of my garden.

I think I'll make a salad.

You Capture: In the Kitchen

Vacation Photos: Minarets, Devil's Post Pile, Mono Lake

The Minarets at sunset. These are just the shots featuring people. We have some beautiful ones featuring the mountains that I'll share later.

Devil's Post Pile is amazing! These aren't the best pictures of it because the sun was right over head. You can climb to the top to see the tops of the columns. With my asthma it was a pretty difficult climb for me to get up there but I made it. I just love the way the top of it looks. You can see in the picture in the lower right corner that the tops of the columns look like tiles.

Mono Lake is really interesting. Tufas, seen in the bottom picture, form when fresh water bubbles up from underground into the alkaline lake water. It's more than twice as salty than the ocean.

You Capture: Every Day Things

I have a confession to make. This has not been a part of my everyday life lately. It seems like it happens every summer, at least every summer since Gemma started school three years ago. Not having her in school puts a kink in my regular routine. Not that it's a bad kink!

We still have a regular routine in the summer, it's just a little more relaxed. We're still busy in the summer, but not necessarily busier. During the school year, I have a lot of time to myself; I use it for errands, housework, creating, and studying God's Word. During the summer, Gemma is pretty much always with me, and she's chatty.It seems like every time I sit down with my Bible (or a book or to blog, or make something...) I feel a little tap on my shoulder or hear a little voice saying, "Mom..." My blog has probably been a reflection of that.

Don't get me wrong, this summer has been great! Last summer Gemma was having a really hard time with a lot of things, and it really wasn't fun, but this year we've been having a lot of fun together. I love my daughter dearly and I'd go through a hundred rough summers with her if need be. I'm thankful for this good season that we've had, but I'm ready for the next one, and I'm not talking about fall, per se.

I need a season where I can really dive into the Bible. I need God's Word in my life so badly. A friend and I were talking the other day about Bibles. She's had hers for twenty plus years, I've had mine for sixteen. It's looking pretty beat up, but I love it. Some people use a beat up Bible as a trophy. The thinking goes, "Look how spiritual I am because I've used my Bible so much it's wearing out." That's not so with me. My Bible is beat up and falling apart not because I'm so holy, but because I'm so unholy. I need Jesus so much, I need His Word to show me how to live because I don't know how, to give me strength because I am weak, to give me wisdom because I don't know anything.

Here's to a new season of making God's Word an everyday thing again. 

 You Capture: Everyday Things

Vacation Photos: Bodie

Last week we went to the Mammoth Lakes area of the Eastern Sierra Nevadas to vacation with family. It's one of the most beautiful places in California, in my opinion! There are so many gorgeous photo opportunities, mountains, lakes, meadows, skies, cute kids... The problem with vacation pictures is deciding which ones share, we took so many! I'll have share in several different posts. As always, I took some of these pictures and Matt took some. He edited some and I did some. We work as a team when it comes to photography.

Often times I feel compelled to share pictures chronilogically, but this time I'm going to start with my favorites. Bodie was definitely my favorite! (Here's some more pictures/info from a previous trip to Bodie) The shot from this post was taken in Bodie. It's a reflection of the hills in and old store front window. Window were fun to play with.

Bodie is an abandoned gold mining town that has been left to the elements. It is now a state park.

 Most of the buildings are falling apart, especially the ones with wooden roofs. They look a lot like skeletons.

Some of the buildings,such as the school which you can see in the bottom left and center of this collage, are better preserved due to tin roofs. I think the state tries to maintain some of the more interesting ones.

 You can go inside some of the buildings, and others you can peek into windows. Some still have glass.

 There is rusted junk everywhere. In this collage there is old mining equipment, mattress springs hung up, and the inside of a piano.

These are a few of the textures of building materials.

This was not the first time we've been to the Eastern Sierra Nevadas, maybe the 5th? Anyway, if you want to see more pictures from my trips there, click on the links. It was kind of fun seeing how Matt and my photography skills have improved. Here,  here,  here, and here.

Outdated

I've been blogging here on Life...and All That Comes With It  for more than two years now. I've accrued over 250 posts. Wow, I guess I have a lot to share! Anyway, I've had the same look for the whole time and it felt a little outdated to me, so it was time for a little bloggy make-over. If you follow me in a reader, click over and check it out!