And I Quote...

Hudson Taylor:

“Unless there is an element of risk in our exploits for God, there is no need for faith.”

Mathmatics

A rare, child free summer afternoon + 

some dingy old pillows +

inexpensive remnants fabric +

two thrift store doilies =

fun new pillows for the living room!

Accidental Jelly

The other day I made blackberry jelly, but not on purpose.

I was trying to make blackberry pancake syrup. It wasn't thickening, so I added some more sugar.

 I cooked it some more, and it still didn't thicken. More sugar, more cooking.

Finally I gave up, put it in jars and hoped for the best. A little while later when I checked to see if the jars had sealed properly, I discovered that my pancake syrup was a dismal failure, but I had succeeded in making jelly.

 I hope it tastes okay, you know, since it was an accident!

An unrelated side note:

While my pictures are very sharp in my editing program, they look out of focus when I upload them to my blog. I've never had this problem until recently. Is it just my computer, or do they look a bit blurry to you too? Any ideas on how to fix it? I haven't changed the way I'm doing anything.

You Capture: Fruit

Beach!

I really don't

have anything to say

about these pictures

except that,

well,

we went to the

BEACH!

And I Quote...

"One of the most powerful apologetics of the gospel is when a group of people love one another live in unity with one another in the midst of a dark and depraved world and they don't think that they have to remove themselves from the world to be sanctified because they believe the gospel is powerful enough to sanctify them in the middle of a broken world."
-Jeff Vanderstelt

When You Come

It's not often that I find music that I enjoy enough to share here on the blog, but I'm really loving Gungor lately. I find myself listening to them daily.  Aside from the creative musical style, the thing that I like is their thought provoking lyrics. I love especially this song by Lisa Gungor. It's beautiful.

Vignettes of a Redwood Forest

One of the things we did on vacation was camp in a redwood forest in Northern California. It was amazingly beautiful, I couldn't believe we got to camp in such a gorgeous, pristine looking forest. It looked like a fairy land!

Everything was so lush and green. As a native Southern Californian, where everything is pretty dry, that really stood out to me. It's amazing that one end of my state is desert like and the other is practically a rain forest!

 How do you take pictures of a redwood forest? The trees are the tallest in the world, and as I don't have a wide angle lens, I went with vignettes:

Everything smelled of pine needles,

 green leaves everywhere you looked,

clover carpeted much of the ground,

ferns grew everywhere,

moss covered massive tree trunks,

springing vines,

tiny daisy patches

and yellow flowers really stood out amidst the greenery.

Banana slugs make their home in redwood forests, 

as do many variety of fungi.

 And of course...

there are the trees themselves.

"Let the trees of the forest rustle with praise before the Lord, for He is coming!"

Psalm 96:11-12

You Capture: Trees and Flowers

Flowered

I just never seem to get tired

of taking pictures of my cultivated wild flowers

that aren't really wild

since I intentionally planted and water them.

I think it's just about my favorite

part of summer!

And I Quote...

C.H. Spurgeon:

"The passion-flower yields us the best perfume, the tree of the cross bleeds the most healing balm. Like in this case cures like, for there is no remedy for sorrow beneath the sun like the sorrows of Immanuel. As Aaron’s rod swallowed up all the other rods, so the griefs of Jesus make our griefs disappear."

Quirks and Confessions: Part Eight, Alternately Titled: Camping, Eh...

1. I'm not really a fan of camping. It's only okay. I MUCH prefer hotels or condos

2. However, my budget MUCH prefers camping.

3. Oregon has way nicer campgrounds than Southern California.

4. Northern California has way nicer campgrounds than Southern California

5. I don't really don't like camping in Southern California.

6. I will be camping in Southern California this weekend.

7. Things I like best about camping are s'mores and waking up to bird songs every morning. Oh, and the smell of bacon cooking.

8. The things I hate most about camping are the dirt, the smoke, the dirt, the bugs, and the dirt.

9. Coincidentally, after ten days of vacation, I only came home with three bug bites, not smelling of smoke, and not too dirty.

10. Therefore, this trip really wasn't too bad.

Summertime

Summer is golden, glowing light, and tall grasses blowing in the wind.

 Summer is family road trips.

Summer is trips to the beach,

and time at the pool.

Summer is camping in a tent,

and staying up past your bed time to cook over a fire.

Summer is a sweet, cold drink on a hot day.

Summer is a farmer's market full of fresh veggies

 and fresh flowers.

"To everything there is a season..." Ecclesiastes 3:1

You Capture: Summertime