Farm Fresh

We have friends who raise chickens and we buy their delicious fresh eggs each week. Since they are a whole lot prettier than store-bought eggs I just had to take a picture. 

Spring!

 Personally, I think spring is the most beautiful time of the year. Five minutes from our house we have some lovely gardens that are in full bloom at the moment. We walked around the gardens yesterday afternoon, drinking in the sunshine and floral beauty.

The gardens are right on the water

Unsuspecting picture

As the main photographer of the family, I don't have a lot of pictures of yourself. I tried to remedy that by having my mom take lots of pictures of me yesterday. Even though I tried lots of poses, I liked this one best, the one my mom took of me unexpectedly.

Spring Cleaning

 Many people greatly dislike spring cleaning but I must say I quite enjoy it. I love organizing and seeing a disastrous mess come clean. Today, as a family we organized our attic which had not been touched in almost 11 years. As you can see, it needed some help!

Before..

...and after!! 

Personally, I think it looks a whole lot better. And because there were six of us working it only took 2 hours.

We also found some interesting things like a turtle shell and our great grandmother's trophy for having the best garden in the neighborhood (on the outback of Australia).

This is some of what we threw away, mostly empty boxes. 

Signs of Spring

Here are some signs of spring that have sprung up around our home

Pollen

Falling leaves

 We have a lot of live oaks and they lose their leaves in the spring instead of the fall

New life in our garden

The dog starts shedding...

And my favorite part...all the beautiful flowers. 

Missionary Lives

These collages seem to be popping everywhere for moms, students, doctors, and everything in between. I found this one of missionary wives quite funny. 

I especially appreciated the "what nationals think we do." This is one of the biggest challenges of being a missionary. Should they live just like those around them, or use their resources to build a comfortable house because labor and supplies are so cheap? Nobody seems to know the answer. 

And in regards to the "what the secular world thinks we do," if you ever ask a missionary what they do they will generally not say, "I am sharing God's love with the people of ____." In my experience, missionaries always have a job such as a pilot, doctor, translator, electrician, etc. in which they show Christ's love through their actions.

"What my friends think we do." This one cracked me up because it's both true and false. When you are living in a Third World country you become more like the culture whether you intend to or not. It's not until you compare yourself to Americans (or whatever your home country is) that you realize how you've changed. So while we may not eat tarantulas, some of the things that seem normal, actually aren't.

The "what supporters think we do," strikes me as fairly accurate. Compared to our modern American homes, missionaries do live in dirty, not very nice houses. But when compared to the typical mud hut down the road, the missionary's  house suddenly seems like a beautiful home.