Spring!

Apple blossoms at Mount Pisgah, Eugene, Oregon

Spring is just starting out here in Dallas. A few flowers are blooming, and the grass is thinking about greening up.

Teach me your ways

(Schoolhouse at Chippewa Nature Center)

Psalm 86:11
(NIV)

Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.

Muted

(Somewhere in Turkey...)

Deadly flora

We stopped at Darlingtonia Botanical Wayside a few years ago on a trip to the Oregon coast. It is filled with Darlingtonia californica (pitcher plants). They're quite pretty for such bloodthirsty plants.

Rest stop

(Rest stop, somewhere in Texas)

You know you're on a great road trip when even the rest stops have really excellent views. (Perhaps this was to make up for the part of the trip where we drove across the past-the-middle-of-nowhere that is west Texas.)

Outdoor happiness

(Sedona, Arizona)

Ben and Matthew are either enjoying the tremendous views on our hike or laughing about something hilarious someone just said. Either way, good times!

Retrospective

(Rebecca in Bahrain, spring 2008)

Sedona

(Sedona, Arizona)

Benjamin and I had the chance to spend an amazing day with a college friend and his family on our way to Texas. We hiked in Sedona, which is beautiful. Now we've arrived in Texas and are looking forward (sort of) to beginning the Great Job Hunt!

Sand

(Sandcastle on the Mediterranean, Bodrum, Turkey)

Matthew 7:24-27
(NIV)

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

Antiquity

(Victory column, Istanbul, Turkey)

Friday prayer

(Students at MKS's Bahrain National Day celebration)

We're keeping our Bahraini friends in our thoughts and prayers as the protests continue.

Montage

I have always thought that if I could have any super power, I would pick montage. Want to become an amazing ninja? Thirty second montage of trying to lift small rocks, running arduously, and being exhorted by a ninja master, and presto! Brilliant ninja skills. Need to find the cure to cancer? Shots of looking concerned, staring at stacks of paper, writing equations, drinking coffee. Add some inspirational music, and forty-five seconds later, success!

Unfortunately, I haven't managed to acquire this skill yet, so instead of montaging our way to Texas, Benjamin and I are in the middle of actually driving the distance. Perhaps a montage of past road trips would help? Let's give it a shot... You'll have to hum your own inspirational music, though.

Great Britain road trip adventure, summer 2007

Benjamin was really nice and drove for this one, so I had lots of time to take silly pictures in the passenger seat!

Bahrain, spring 2008

We road tripped to see the Sheikh Hamad Causeway and various forts around the island when Rebecca came to visit. As you can tell from the photo, we take these things seriously.
Photo: Kate Moore.

Germany, summer 2008
We got to see Germany with Ben's grandpa, who used to live there, which was awesome. This is Benjamin's "Just how many pictures are you going to take, woman?" expression.

Yellowstone/Grand Tetons, fall 2008
Our previous massive road trip of moving from Michigan to Oregon. Somehow I only managed to take pictures when we were in Yellowstone National Park.

Sahalie Falls in Oregon, summer 2009

Oregon coast at Florence, fall 2010

Phew, are we there yet?

Moving day

(Ruins in Turkey)

Today we are starting out on our move to Dallas. This will be our third move since we married. First Bahrain, then Oregon. Now Texas. We are both very much looking forward to moving near family and the prospect of better jobs. At the same time, we're very much going to miss the friends we've made here.

In honor of moving, a poem from some time ago:

Traveler
the path wound on from here
beckoning to all who came after.
there was much behind,
and much more before,
drawing and spurring the traveler on.

once again with broad hat and a sigh,
taking up staff and knapsack,
time to continue on the ever new yet familiar path.
for there is much behind
and much more before…

Antithesis

This picture is simple, calm, and uncomplicated--unlike packing for a major move and trying to sell most of our belongings on Craigslist at the same time. Tomorrow is the big day!

Seeing stars

...and hearts! To celebrate Valentines Day, I made heart and star shaped doughnuts.

Fragile

(Ancient clay pots, Turkey)

2 Corinthians 4:6-7
(NIV)

For God, who said, "Let light shine out of the darkness,"

made his light shine in our hearts
to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
But we have this treasure in jars of clay
to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

A future and a hope

Yesterday night was our last time at Street Ministry. Of everything we are leaving in Eugene, we'll miss this the most. We have made amazing friends and been weekly reminded of God's grace and goodness. The people there, both volunteers and street people, have blessed us beyond measure every week. Even though we are saying goodbye for now, the joy of leaving Christian friends is knowing we will see them again!

Spring dandelion

Everywhere and joyous,
Golden humor springing up,
An individual among the masses.
Blooming stubborn-brilliant
Amid the groomed flowers:
Harbinger of summer frolics.

Back in the day

(Mural in downtown Springfield, Oregon)

Downtown Springfield has a lot of murals on the walls of various building to pep things up a bit. I think this one is particularly fun!

Resuscitated

In 2005, I had a chance to go to Turkey with a number of people from Hillsdale. It was an amazing trip in many ways, and I took an enormous number of pictures along the way. Unfortunately, I took all of those pictures with film camera, and didn't have digital copies made along with the prints when I developed the film. All of my Turkey pictures have thus languished in several boxes, instead of being in a convenient folder on my computer, where I could look at them frequently.

Just the other day, though, I found a company that scans negatives very inexpensively, so I took over a ridiculously large stack of negatives, and presto! Now I can look through pictures from the trip on my computer. Hurray!

A study in violets

On Monday, I planned to head downtown to drop of library books and run a few other errands. Walking out the door, though, I discovered that it was raining a bit. Not feeling like walking in the rain, I almost put everything off until tomorrow. I'm so glad I didn't! Along a fence, I discovered a colony of violets. They were a little battered, but still very pretty.

Vistas

(Yellowstone National Park)

Sometimes you just need to look at wide open spaces for a bit.

In the beginning

(Scripture in stained glass in Oxford, England.)

...was the Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God.

John 1:1

Saturday ritual

My resolution for 2009 was to start a coffee habit. Prompted by a ridiculous number of runs to Starbucks, I went out and acquired a coffee grinder and French press, intending to make coffee every morning and to preempt the coffee shop visits. As with all good New Year's resolutions, this instead completely stopped my coffee drinking in its tracks, and all of my shiny new coffee accouterments languished.

Since starting teaching in the fall, however, I have rediscovered Saturday mornings as a time to relax and enjoy a slower start to the day. Now, coffee has now become an essential part of this Saturday morning ritual. I look forward to it all week!

Strife

(Mural on a temple wall in Luxor, Egypt: conflict is nothing new...)

When we were in Egypt a few years ago, one of our guides asked us, since we were Americans, if we were Christians. We said that we were. "So am I," he responded. "Please pray for the Christians in Egypt. It is very hard and there is a lot of persecution here." As I read about the current conflict in Egypt, I pray that God will use this to further His glory and protect His people there!

Waterfalls

...are beautiful.

(Oregon)

Light and shadow

(Students' table, Oxford, England)

"Oh look, another picture of a plant," remarked Benjamin the other day, while reading my blog. I like plants. I see a lot of them on my walks and compulsively take pictures of them. Today, however, in honor of my husband, I am posting a picture that does not contain a single plant. Ta-da!

Blue, black, and white

(Springfield, Oregon)

Dew

An unusually heavy fog a few days ago left dew everywhere.