My Favorite Fall Pictures

Even though we've now entered the Christmas season and most of the beautiful fall color has left us, I wanted to share these beautiful pictures.  Look at that face!

He is just too adorable.  Sometimes it's hard to find everything you need for a good picture:  perfect light, beautiful background, willing subject.  I had it all here underneath this maple tree with the sun lowering in the sky.  My subject may have been a little unwilling (it was cold, and he didn't understand why his mommy kept putting him down on the ground), but as he can't crawl yet, he didn't have much choice but to be willing.

If I ever have a house with a big yard, I'm planting maple trees all along the drive.  How beautiful would that be?

 

Daddy's coming home today!

And we're all so excited.  We're about to drive home ourselves.  I'm  glad we made this little trip; it was the perfect way to end our time without KJ.

No Christmas is complete without a visit to the park.  The kids loved it.

The tunnel of lights was always my favorite.

 Precious Girl 

 Dancing Boy

 "It all so magical."

I always say that in my head in Princess Jasmine's voice.

The kids won't get to see KJ tonight since he'll be home late, but I will! And I'm so glad.

For my husband

Ella's 2012 Gymnastics Recital from KJ Pugh on Vimeo.

Dear KJ

Yesterday was a really good and productive day.  I was tired by the end of it, but still...it was good.  

Today has been pretty good, but if I hear James ask, "What do you want me to do?" in a whiney voice one more time...let's just say that's kind of wearisome. 

We took a 30-minute walk around the neighborhood this morning, and he burned off a lot of energy.  He ran for about 10 minutes non-stop, and he was so cute I wanted to record it for you.  He took a little convincing to start running again, though.



In other James news, he wrote his name all by himself today!  I was so proud.

Ella is continuing to study about how flowers grow, and we did a fun project.  

She did a great job labeling all the flower parts, and then we decided to get up close and personal with our second-to-last petunia.

 Stamen and Pollen

I hope it doesn't make us sick.

Ella also had fun examining the flower parts through her magnifying glass.  Afterwards we played some games involving synonyms and adjectives.  Your little first grader is so smart.

A Christmas Present

We're sending a very special gift to Haiti for the week.

This is the man who takes care of us, and my heart felt heavy last night, and I cried thinking of a week without him.

Just think of the time I'm going to have to put in playing video games with James while he's gone!  

And he won't be here to play silly games with Ella that make her laugh echo through the house.  And I get 13-hour days of teaching and training, discipline, bottom-wiping, and cup-fixing.  But it really is okay.  We're on our third trip of the year, and what I've found is that His strength really is perfected in my weakness, and there is much joy to be found in just the three of us.  We may cry and get sad from time to time, and feel a little bit orphaned and widowed in his absence, but this time I feel more than ever the joy and surety that the offering up of him this week is accepted and pleasing to the Lord.

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father

is this:  to visit orphans and widows in their distress,

and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

 - James 1:27 -

In an unexpected turn of events, he's also getting to make this trip with both his mother and father.  I know it will be a special and wonderful time delivering Christmas presents and hugs to Haitian orphans and teaching and encouraging those who care for them.      

Monday's Memories: The Cowper and Newton Museum.

Our first stop in Olney was the Cowper and Newton Museum.  The link will take you to their little bio of William Cowper.  I told KJ I hesitated to give any kind of biographical sketch, lest I add to the errors on the internet.  But oh, so briefly, if you've never heard of him at all, you've heard of his close friend John Newton, author of Amazing Grace.  Cowper was one of England's best poets and hymn writers, but he also battled depression, called melancholia in those days.

Earlier that day I had been meditating on God's providence in the life of John Bunyan, and those kind of thoughts continued thinking about William Cowper.  What if his mother hadn't died when he was just 6-years-old, and his father didn't send him away to boarding school?  That incident, coupled with other things, I think was a source of instability for his mind and emotions.  But maybe I was asking the wrong questions.  Maybe I should have been thankful for the power of the gospel in his life and how it gave him grace to battle the recurring periods of depression.  Just read the words that came from his pen.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,

but trust Him for His grace;

behind a frowning providence

He hides a smiling face.

I think some of my favorite lines now come from the hymn we call Sometimes a Light Surprises.

Though vine nor fig tree neither

Their wonted fruit should bear;

Though all the fields should wither

Nor flocks nor herds be there;

Yet God the same abiding,

His praise shall tune my voice,

For, while in Him confiding,

I cannot but rejoice.

      The front door of the house Cowper

shared with Mary Unwin

The home was very aptly named as you'll see when I show you the garden filled with apple trees.  The steeple you can see through the gate belongs to the church where John Newton pastored.  Cowper and Mrs. Unwin moved to Olney to be with Newton.  The house is now a museum filled with belongings from both Cowper and Newton, including a room dedicated to Newton's history as a slave-trader.

 Jane Austen was a Cowper fan.

 Cowper's Desk

This writing table was given to Newton by William Cowper.  We touched it reverently...not in a weird way, but it's strange to touch a piece of furniture with such history, where John Newton sat and wrote.

 Cowper's Bedroom

 I got lazy with photography and cataloguing all the information they had up by the last days of our trip.  I wish I'd taken a picture of that little card on the wall because I think it told a funny little story about Cowper shaving at this mirror by the window every morning, watching the little town wake up, all the things he observed about his neighbors.  

 Cowper's Writing Desk

This was another piece of furniture belonging to Newton, and this room held several of the implements used on slave-trading ships.

The garden was a really enchanting place.  The previous week I had picked up a copy of Cowper's works printed in 1864.  The front page had a sketch of the garden at Orchard Side, and it looked exactly the same as it did the day we visited.

 The little building where Cowper would sit and write - 

He called it his "poetry factory."

 the apple harvest

From the museum we walked through the bustling Saturday streets of Olney to the church, where a wedding party was happily preparing to leave the church.