Today I bade farewell to my friend Meg as she headed off to Europe for the summer. I was sad to see her go, I know she will have a marvelous time:-) but I have gotten used to having her around for the last several months. We have been spending a lot of time together planning our wedding photography business. So far we may have three weddings lined up for the summer, but only one definite. (Hopefully we will be more busy in the fall when Meg comes back.)

Life here at the Eco-village has been in full eco-spring mode. A couple weekends ago we had the Rain Barrel festival put on by Sustainable Berea. I got to help paint one of the rain barrels that was going to be put up for auction; along with the rest of the Chaplains that I work with:-) it was a lot of fun. We did our painting in an old abandoned house on property owned by our boss the college chaplain, Loretta.During the rain barrel festival Cali and I had a booth where we tried to sell baby slings and jewelry, (we sold lots of jewelry but only one baby sling.:-) and Kyle and Caleb had a both with woodworking.

Living here it seems like our awareness of current issues in the world have been heightened....this can be quite exhausting!

Sustainability is a catchy word around Berea; a lot of people have gardens, re-use their sink water, only flush their toilet once a day (yes, really!) I think sometimes Christians are afraid to show too much concern for our environment because of the whole "mother earth" type mentality that is often associated with such concern. Sometimes I wonder though if maybe we show too little concern, we are afterall supposed to be good stewards and cartakers of this earth that God has loaned to us.

Fair Trade is also a huge catch phrase around here. This is something I am more concerned about, some companies take advantage of farmers in the third world, as well as factory workers. They do not pay a living wage, but since the workers need some sort of money they have no other option but to work for meager wages and in unsanitary conditions, sometimes resulting in disease or cancer. This is especially a concern in coffee and tea industries, as well as sugar and clothing.

So, I have started to buy fair trade certified coffee, it is a little more expensive (appropriately) so we have had to drink a little less coffee. (which is good for us.)

A lot of my neighbors are really aware, and don't buy a lot of things if they aren't grown locally, or from certain companies that are known for mistreating their employees, or hiring undocumented employees that can't fight back when they are mistreated. They also won't shop at Wal-Mart for this reason because of how they handle their factories overseas.

It may be exhausting, but maybe this is something we should all look into a little more and be more aware of where our money is going. Maybe this is the essence of good stewardship, rather than getting the cheapest best "deal" possible.

okay, that is my two cents for the day.

:-) here are some pictures for fun....

Staci and Noah and I went out for coffee, and got stuck in the rain.....Noah thought the rain was amazing!

Check out my Slide Show!

3 years!

As I walked around in the 80 degree weather today I could hardly believe it was our 3rd anniversary! (remembering the frigid temperatures of three years ago, along with the ice, snow and wind!)

Time seems to be speeding up, and we are surprised by how fast it goes!

we spent our day going about our schedules, the house isn't clean:-( I had to go to a conflict resolution seminar that lasted until 8:30 tonight, and Noah has an eye infection....hardly anniversary material! But to our surprise walking back from the seminar we ran into our friends Matt and Meg outside in their garden, when we asked what they were up to they said "waiting to watch Noah so you guys can go out for your anniversary!" so we did:-) we drove to richmond and feasted on chocolate cake and finger foods at O'Charlies. It was quite lovely, we were able to remember different random things that happend on our wedding day, emotions that we had etc. It was a nice surpise.
This weekend Staci and Kyle are coming down for the "Rain Barrel Festival." I helped paint a rain barrel with the other student chaplains, which was fun. Kyle and Caleb, and Cali and I are going to have boothes with various things for sale. Caleb wants to finish up some bowls for the project. He has a new design that is really intriquing, it involves turning a sqare piece of wood and letting the edges curve down to create a stand. I will have to post a picture. :-)

Portrait Session

Our neighbor (Meg who Rachel has been cooking meals with) works at Portrait Innovations. She took some pictures of Noah for us last night. :-) hope you like them as much as we do!

Six Months!

Well, Noah is six months old now, and can do all the classic baby stuff.... crawl, roll around, sit up, play the drum, lift weights, and mamba dance!

As I write he is playing with the drum and Caleb's barbell at the same time. He is an immense joy:-) and we can't imagine our lives without him.

The weather has gotten nice again after some snow.... so we have been out and about, playing on the swings and crawling around in the grass.

Caleb took his boat out for a ride a week or so ago, and I know he is anxious to take Noah as soon as we can find him a baby life jacket.

Last night we went on a spur of the moment date in Lexington (very spur of the moment, we weren't expecting to go out, so we were in our leisurely Friday night sweats!) it was fun. Went to the dollar theater and saw the movie "Water Horse" about a little boy who finds a baby lochness monster. It was really good actually.....and Noah just thought the creature was the greatest thing. The whole theater was quiet except for Noah who kept on laughing his big belly laughs! We then went out for a hamburger, and Noah sat in his big boy high chair, we got him some apple sauce, which he liked (sort of.) we haven't been giving him much in the way of solids, I am afraid he is going to be rather picky.

For the past few weeks I have been getting together with a friend of mine, ( Meg, used to be a missionary midwife in the Phillipines) and cooking meals for the week. We each make three (times two) and then we have six meals of a very interesting variety to have throughout the week. This is interesting and fun, we have had very different meals lately, like lentil curry and adobo (a phillipino dish).

Almost 6 Months!

This little guy with Daddy is my friend Tobiah, he was born a little early so he was and still is really tiny!

I really like my bouncer seat, but I am getting too big for it. I also really like my toes!

Mom says that I will be walking before I crawl...... which apparently some child book writer somewhere says isn't good.... I would much rather be on my feet than on my knees at this point though, so they will have to deal with it.

Well five and a half months have gone by since Noah took his first breath, it is hard to believe. Right now as I type he is busy trying to eat all of his toys at the same time. He is such a cheerful baby, he has been such an amazing blessing to our lives. He always has an fantastic way of lifting our spirits with his bright eyes and silly grin. You'll have to come around more often so you can be encouraged by him too!

Noah and I are taking it easy this semester, I am just taking two classes so that I can be home with him most of the time. (He is getting a little too distracting to take to class, he will take over the whole class with his chatty nature.) I have a class in child bearing customs from around the world (really interesting!) and a lab course in ceramics (really fun and messy). Caleb has a really full load with four classes. Three days a week he is in class for about 7 hours! It is hard for him to get his labor in in between all these classes, but we were really blessed that it worked out for him to spend time with Noah while I am in my ceramics class.

During my other class Noah spends time with our newest little neighbor Tobiah (1 month!) who less than a third of his size! Noah is intriqued by this new little person, it is really interesting to watch Noah's reaction to the baby.

January was a busy month for us. Caleb built a 15 foot Kayak, which was hanging in our living room for a little while until Rachel complained about the smell of the liquid fiberglass:-( so now it is outside on the back porch to air out. It is really pretty, (says the wife!).

During January on the weeknights we had people in our home every evening for several hours. We read through the New Testament outloud during this time (well, actually only an hour each night, the rest of the time we drank coffee and played settlers or other such business.) That was a really neat experience, to hear so much Scripture read at once, and in sequence. One night we read through Galations, Ephesians and Phillipians all together.

Noah is growing altogether too fast, he is getting so big, and long (much to our surpise, we will see if this trend continues!) he looks like a little person, not so much like a baby. He is getting around a lot by rolling, and scooting, and has recently discovered that there is not much more entertaining than his feet!