The Royal Wedding

"We are gathered here today in the sight of God and in the face of this congregation to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony, which is an honorable estate instituted of God Himself signifying unto us the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and His church..."

I woke my girls up just in time to "attend" the Royal Wedding with me this morning. We had a fabulous view from our living room sofas :) The following video captures some of my personal favorite aspects of the ceremony:

- Reading from Romans 12 (3:45 into the video). Such a beautiful passage in God's Word. Imagine what a different place the world would be if we all lived accordingly. Following are excerpts from the NIV translation. 

Romans 12

A Living Sacrifice

1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. ...

Love in Action

9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 

- The message shared after the exchange of vows. (9 minutes into the video)  was spoken so eloquently and communicated so effectively. Following is a favorite excerpt/quote: 

"Marriage should transform - as husband and wife make one another their work of art."

- And I was so moved by the simple yet profound and incredibly beautiful prayer (18 minutes into the video). I was every bit as impressed by what it says as I was by the fact the the bride & groom wrote it together. 

God our Father,

We thank You for our families, for the love that we share and for the joy of our marriage. In the busyness of each day keep our eyes fixed on what is real and important in life and help us to be generous with our time and love and energy. Strengthened by our union, help us serve and comfort those who suffer. We ask this in the spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen

Seventeen

Just posting a photo recap here of Playmaker's 17th Birthday :)

What fun we had celebrating!  

Started the day off w/ a few little presents for her to open first thing in the morning..

cosmetics,  gum &

 &

International French Vanilla Cafe

which us girls enjoyed together

once the princess fiiinnnnaaaallly woke up! :) 

Sissy worked hard trying to make a very special/delicate cake that the birthday girl had requested ...

but unfortunately ... it totally flopped :(

Tho' you wouldn't know it judging by the final product :)

See that middle layer?? 

THAT was supposed to be a light/fluffy cake that could be cut into THREE layers! 

I think the error occurred somewhere in the whipping & folding in of the eggs. 

Oh well...

when all else fails, 

IMPROVISE! 

That's what we did!

We just made another cake (chocolate box mix).

Cut it in half

& sandwiched the first one in between the layers 

before adding the final/personal touch!

That being a miniature "Tangled" doll 

(it's one of Princess Playmaker's faVoRite movies!)

  - and -

 in the end

all was good!

Quite tasty actually

 & super cute :) 

The next day we continued the celebration by taking the train into Boston

to see none other than

We've long been wanting to see this show for ourselves
and so decided to combine our ongoing 25th Anniversary Celebration
with Playmaker's B-day and take the whole family & Playmaker's boyfriend. 

Playmaker had been SOOOO excited for this day!!

We had seats in the Pancho section ... & I, for one, was grateful for mine!  

What a riot!

For a sneak peak at this very high energy show,
 check this out: 

Playmaker was so touched by one Blue Man in particular..

that in the end 

when all was said & done

she was left feeling  ...

- well - 

r--a--t--h--e--r .... 

blue ;-) 

Miscellaney

Just poppin' in to catch up here  a bit w/ some of what's been happenin at my end. Nothing too exciting really....but since this blog serves as a journal of sorts, I feel compelled to make an effort to catch up before I get too far behind :)

- Just before leaving for St. John my husband learned of a potential job opportunity in NY & while we were away he learned that his company laid off several people - tho' thankfully my husband wasn't among them.  Long story short, after we got home we visited NY & gave the job there some careful consideration.  We've moved a lot over the years and have lived here longer than anywhere else so it seems bc of that "rhythm" we've been in for so long, we all feel kinda overdue for a major move and we were excited about the prospect of moving to NY ... but when we visited there, for whatever reason, it just didn't feel right for right now -- so we've decided to stay put at least for little while longer.

- Strike turned 14!

We celebrated luau style w/ family, friends, food & fun....badminton, night-time/light-up frisbee at the school down the road and wound down & warmed up around the fire pit.  She put her b-day $$ toward a brand new guitar and is teaching herself how to play w/ some help from a friend and you-tube. Playmaker & her boyfriend made her cake from scratch (the neck is chocolate cupcakes from a box mix) and Playmaker carved out & decorated it the next day.  Pretty cute & clever, huh?!

- There are sure signs showing up to indicate that indeed spring has sprung here in New England. Green grass! Blossoms on trees. It's freezing cold one day & warm the next and rain off and on. After spring cleaning I took a BIG load of stuff to the Salvation Army - felt SO good to clear/clean out. And - I planted some summer bulbs -- Light green gladiolas and deep purple lilies.

- We enjoyed an interesting visitor yesterday.... I'm thinking it's a hawk or a falcon of some sort. Maybe some birder out there will see it & know for sure?? Looks like it was feasting on some unsuspecting critter here.

- A friend from church is allowing us to sorta "share-crop" on a parcel of his land this summer. I'm SO excited about the prospect of having a REAL vegetable garden!!

- I recently read this first book in the Mark of the Lion Trilogy ...

...and am now reading the 2nd book:

It's an incredible story (you can click on the pics above to learn more if interested) set in Ancient Rome and I'm amazed how much I'm learning about Ancient History from a fiction book and struck by numerous parallels/similarities between Rome just before its fall and America today.

Last but not least, Playmaker is turning 17 this week! To celebrate her birthday and our ongoing 25th Anniversary celebration we're taking the train into Boston to see Blue Man group!

and we've got tickets in the Pancho section! - Yikes!

That's all for now, folks.  It's good to be back. 

SpRiNg FeVeR!

It started when we re-arranged some furniture & I cleaned & organized my office/the corner of my world. In no time at all I found myself working my way quite systematically around the house cleaning/clearing out corners, closets and cabinets...and enjoying it! You know it's a rather severe case of SpRiNg FeVeR when once a job is done, you wanna open the fridge or a closet just to look inside and admire it!   Ohhh...I can only hope it's contagious - and that my girls catch it! If you could see their rooms at the moment, you'd understand. There's more to do - but today is a rather warm & rainy day ... perfect for reading by the window -  and I'm way behind in reading the book that needs to be finished for our book group discussion on Friday night - soooo - I'm gonna take a break of sorts & spend much of the day alternating between reading and doing laundry.   It's supposed to be in the 60's next week!  Hopefully by then the laundry pile will have reduced in size from mountain to molehill and I'll have cleaned to my heart's content and finished my book so I'll have nothing better to do than to go outside and .... pLaY! 

Do you believe in miracles?

“There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.”

- Albert Einstein - 

via

Snow Day!

I woke my girls up early this April Fools morning to tell them it was a snow day -- And the best part was .... it's no joke! Don't get me wrong. I'm not thrilled about having a snowstorm in April - but the silver lining on the storm cloud above us is that our family gets to enjoy an unplanned long weekend together. Even Daddy called in to take the day off.

I snapped a pic of our fence.  It's an optical illusion of sorts. When I looked out, at first figured I was looking thru' the fence to our neighbors hill on the other side ... but - in reality, the snow is so heavy that it has actually filled the in the chain links.  Really strange. I don't ever remember seeing this phenomenon before.