i don't know who these kids are, but this might be the cutest halloween costumes ever

love.

http://www.typomaps.net/

Acres of Hope

He will allure her

He will pursue her

And call her out

To wilderness with flowers in His hand

She is responding

Beat up and hurting

Deserving death

But offerings of life are found instead

Here in the valley

Walk close beside me

Don’t look back

For love is growing vineyards up ahead

You have called me master

And though you’re in the dark here

Call me friend

And call me lover and marry me for good

She will sing

She will sing

Oh, to You

She will sing as in the days of youth

As You lead her away

To valleys low

To acres of hope

Acres of hope

How the story ends is

Love and tenderness in Him

Not safe, but worth it

So the valley’s up ahead

Or the ones we live

We’ll sing together...

-S. Bernard

“Lord, sustain me in the valley. Give me ears to hear Your sweet tender voice and lead me in to acres of hope in this dry and weary land.... Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. ‘In that day,’ declares the LORD,’you will call me 'my husband'; you will no longer call me 'my master. (Hosea 2:14-16)

A woman has twins, and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named 'Amal.' The other goes to a family in Spain, they name him Juan'. Years later; Juan sends a picture of himself to his mum. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wished she also had a picture of Amal. Her husband responds, ''But they are twins. If you've seen Juan, you've seen Amal.''

"Love is life.

All, everything that I understand,

I understand only because I love.

Everything is, everything exists,

only because I love.

Everything is united by it alone."

-Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

France

I find myself more and more enamored with France.

I think that should be at the top of the list of places to visit once we're settled in Europe.

It's so cute.

I wish I spoke French.

Probably I need to learn Spanish first though...

Carcassonne, France

Britanny, France

Alsace, France

Paris, France

Love Actually

“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around.”

we had a sister {+jill} night last night.

Bobbi made dinner.

we watched Love Actually.

it was fantastic

Hipster Potter

ummm....

WHERE IS THIS?

I MUST GO HERE!

Fix You

This is one of my very favorite Coldplay songs.

Sometimes I listen to it on repeat.

Chris Martin wrote this for [his wife] Gwyneth Paltrow after her father died.

what you did there...

June Cleaver

Barbara Billingsly passed away today.

Isn't she lovely?

obligitory

there will be a lot of this happening today.

yet another reason why i love the Hamms...

and i quote:

"Charity Hamm Should've gotten pulled over for drumming while driving......no not dashboard drummer....literally playing my Yamaha stage custom in my car while driving it to my new house.......whaaat? it sounded cool ok?"

i do love this middletard.

Husker Party

fall football party. lovely.

Patti cooking. of course.

this kid.

jayme is... not pleased...i guess?

"i was not playing solitare!!"

beth doing what beth does best... taking pictures with her phone

BHC being....BHC...

don't kid yourself, we wore coordinating outfits.

{not on purpose}

go huskers.

Mr. and Mrs. Ong

oh yes, i did use my pink pocket knife on Larisa's dress.

Jazzy and her RoRo

apple orchard

a few weeks ago we went to the apple orchard in Nebraska City.

we had a lovely time and oh my goodness, i love apples so much.

"This exile is just like the days of Noah for me:
I promised then that the waters of Noah
would never again flood the earth.
I'm promising now no more anger,
no more dressing you down.
For even if the mountains walk away
and the hills fall to pieces,
My love won't walk away from you,
my covenant commitment of peace won't fall apart."
The God who has compassion on you says so.

Afflicted city, storm-battered, unpitied:
I'm about to rebuild you with stones of turquoise...

Isaiah 54:9-11

so much cuteness

tiny

right before i moved out, beth and i had tiny glasses of wine. because, why not?

harvest

i love harvest.

it feels like there are essential things about life in the Midwest that haven't been lost by technology. farmers still work really hard. they are still at the mercy of the weather. it's still God who does the growing. and then at this magical time of year, they harvest their crops.

i like watching the combines.

i know all about "mombines" thanks to Hudson.

...which might be part of the reason why i like them.

yesterday morning

i had eggs and toast for breakfast.

eggs from my mom's chickens.

and homemade oatmeal wheat bread.

yep, this is where i live.

this day

I shared awhile back that I'm neck deep in a season of rough waters. And yesterday, I woke up sad. There were a lot of tears for some known, and some unknown reasons. It was just one of those days. One of those days when I'm really thankful for a boyfriend who will just hold my hand and let me cry. One of those days I'm thankful for a mom who eat popcorn with me at 10:30 at night, and stop whatever she's doing to talk. One of those days that feels like a battle.

But today was a new day. A gorgeous day. I was walking downtown with a light heart and felt such delight in the warm sun and a cookie and a used bookstore. It was a perfect moment, a tangible love letter from God, as if to say "Ashley, I gave you today. Another day to try again. Enjoy THIS day. Enjoy the good things I have given you today. Don't worry about your tomorrow, or even your yesterday. I am more than capable to handle your future and your heart. So let Me...and today, just rest."

weekends

I just stole this from Bethany Sue.... but too fun not to pass along!

Did you know?? Enjoy your lovely October weekends.