Technical difficulties

Whew! Hello Blog World!

Due to technical difficulties I have had trouble getting on here and posting for the last couple weeks. I'm still experiencing some issues uploading pictures from our camera, but hopefully that will work itself out soon. I try not to get too involved in these problems because chances are that I will worsen them. Only days after we moved into our new house in Suffolk, Dad had just finished setting up our cable when I flipped a switch and turned the whole TV/Wii/DVD player completely off. I have a propensity for ruining all things electronic.

Anyway, things have been getting busier and busier around here. The year always seems to pick up in mid-November and doesn't slow down again until June or July. But this is the best part of the year, in my opinion, because you have the busyness of preparation for speech and debate, etc, in addition to the fun of the holidays.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving. Jordan brought home a sweet friend, Liberty, for the break and my mom's mom, Grandma Pat, came up to spend it with us. We enjoyed a laid back time with lots of delicious food, a fun photo shoot, and, of course, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

I'm especially thankful that God has been providing odd jobs for me during this time of year. I very much enjoy Christmas shopping for everybody's gifts, but it's difficult as I'm trying to save money for college stuff. I have wonderful parents who are willing to put me through college, praise the Lord, but I still need to buy books, things for my room, and other essentials, so money gets a bit tight. Anyway, God has been especially faithful to provide *interesting* jobs for me lately, such as helping out at a huge birthday bash, baking cakes for a cake auction, and plenty of babysitting.

Hope you all experience the joy of our Risen King during this special holiday season and throughout the New Year!

~Hannah Grace

A dessert hybrid

Last week I expanded my horizons from cupcakes to a cheesecake. Pumpkin-Pecan Cheesecake, to be exact. We subscribe to the Southern Living magazine, and when I saw a picture of this cake on the front of this month's issue, I knew I would have to make it. And, yes, this is actually a picture of the one I made! The cheesecake itself had some rather large cracks on the surface, but you cover the whole thing in this yummy praline, so nobody will ever know...well, now you know I guess, but nobody else knows!

My main note here would be to plan ahead- this recipe is NOT HARD. But it is time-consuming, so make sure you read the entire recipe, gather all the ingredients, and set aside a large block of time for cooking, as well as 8-24 hours for chilling. I can tell you with great confidence that it is worth the time to make this dessert. So yummy!

I'm just going to post a link to the main recipe here: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/pumpkin-pecan-cheesecake-50400000117060/. I would definitely advise you to try this one out, especially if you are heading to any kind of a fall or Thanksgiving social gathering. It's fairly easy, quite lovely, and downright delicious.

In other news, that college application that I supposedly sent in two weeks ago isn't entirely submitted yet after all. There was a mix-up with one of my "family friend references" and the poor lady never received the reference to her email, so long story short, it's going to be a couple more weeks before I hear back from Appalachian Bible College. Yuck. I hate waiting! But hopefully it won't be too long...

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to Jordan's fall break this weekend! Mom is heading up to Patrick Henry tomorrow to bring her home and she'll stay until Tuesday. Hooray!

~Hannah Grace

Decisions, decisions

Last night I sent in my first college application. Yeah...I couldn't believe it either. For so many years I have looked at and thought of college as being practically another country or culture. I suppose when Jordan started attending PHC it seemed a bit less foreign. But I still have never been able to imagine myself in college.

Anyway, it started me thinking about all the decisions students my age have to make and how much of an impact those decisions will have upon our lives. I mean, simply choosing what college to go to is a huge decision. Thankfully, I was able to narrow down my list significantly and Appalachian Bible College is the only school I'm really interested in. But it wasn't always that way. And now trying to decide what to study once I'm actually there- whew! It's on my mind almost all the time- every little thing I think or do seems like it should ultimately affect that decision.

In the midst of all this decision-making, however, I am reminded of the fact that no matter what school I go to, who I am roommates with, what I major in, whatever I end up doing with my life, God has a plan. He has a specially-designed plan just for my life! It's so unfathomable to think that He has thought out the futures of each and every person and knows exactly how each decision will affect their lives...

One of my all-time favorite quotes is this from Joni Eareckson Tada, someone who would have every reason to doubt God's sovereignty in her life. She said, "Nothing is a surprise to God; nothing is a setback to His plans; nothing can thwart His purposes and nothing is beyond His control."

~Hannah Grace

Ever wondered what the state cookie of MA is? Well, you've come to the right place...

Tonight I am baking one of the all-time classics and have decided that they definitely deserve a blog post. So, Chocolate Chip Cookies it is! Nearly everyone has eaten these cookies and I have found that most people have their own unique recipe for them, thus, I will not be sharing a recipe here. However, I thought it might be interesting to simply Google "chocolate chip cookies" and see what facts I could find. For example, did you know that the chocolate chip cookie...

1) Was invented by accident...

2) Is the Official State Cookie of Massachusetts...

3) Has three chains devoted entirely to its baking...

4)Is said to be invented by a woman who sold the recipe to Nestle in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate chips...

5) Annnd, it makes up 25% of all cookies baked in the United States!

For a bit of personal trivia, you may be interested in knowing that I categorically burn the last tray of chocolate chip cookies. Also, what I love most about these cookies (besides their chocolatey goodness) is that every time you bake them they turn out just a bit different. Sometimes chewy, sometimes crispy, every once in awhile they're extra gooey! You're always guaranteed something classic and delicious, but fun and exciting at the same time.

Anyway, I cannot decide how to wrap this up, so ponder this question: what is the plural word for "platypus"? (do not cheat and look this up in a dictionary.)

~Hannah Grace

Mom's special birthday present : )

September 25th, 1994, Mom was enjoying her birthday by having lunch with a friend. A day later at 12:56 PM, I was born. So, yes, I was Mom's special birthday present.

Mom and I had lovely birthdays earlier this week on Sunday and Monday, respectively. As is tradition, the night before Mom's birthday I carefully set three different alarm clocks to be absolutely sure that I would wake up early enough to cook Mom's breakfast-in-bed. This year I decided to be slightly adventurous and made apple-filled crepes with lots of powdered sugar.

Deciding to outdo me, Mom cooked a beautiful breakfast for me on Monday~ Caramel Pecan French Toast. Oh. My. Word. It was one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten. Monday evening Dad had to take the boys to a Boy Scout award ceremony. Usually I try to go to these, but Mom didn't want to put me through it on my birthday, sooo, she and I went out for dinner and a movie. Noah and Andrew were the sweetest they could possibly be and gave us an Olive Garden gift card for our birthdays, so that's where we went. We both love Italian and had a wonderful time.

Only 361 days till my next birthday.

~Hannah Grace

Chocolate Chip Trifle

Okay, so I really think that this recipe should be called Chocolate Chip Cookie Trifle, since that's the main ingredient; but, I didn't invent the recipe, so I guess we'll have to go with its true title.

A few years ago, back when we lived in North Carolina, we attended a church with lots of big, homeschooling families. Every Sunday night after some singing and a service, we had a little fellowship potluck dinner. It was loads of fun and gave me plenty of opportunity to try out fun dessert recipes. I especially loved making trifles.

It was exciting to make a new trifle recipe after nearly six years. Here is the finished result!

Okay, the great thing about this recipe is that there are very few ingredients. And you can make them even fewer by purchasing a roll of Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.

2 packages of instant vanilla pudding mix (about 8 oz. total)

2 cups of milk

2 tubs of Cool Whip (16 oz. total)

Fresh strawberries, sliced (16 0z.)

1 roll of Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (or make your own :-)

Begin by dividing the cookie dough into roughly sixteen cookies. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-9 minutes (this will vary, depending on your oven).

While the cookies are baking, combine vanilla pudding and milk, whisking for 2 minutes. Fold in the Cool Whip.

After allowing the cookies to cool, crumble eight of them. Place 3/4 of the crumbs on the bottom of your trifle dish. Next, layer 1/3 of the pudding mix. Add 3/4 of the sliced strawberries. Carefully position the remaining cookies around the edge of the trifle dish, placing them face outward. Add the rest of the pudding. Garnish with remaining cookie crumbs and strawberries.

This dessert is easy to make, but will look like you spent hours working on it! Enjoy making it beautiful.

My geeky little brother

Just kidding. I don't actually have a geeky little brother.

However, Andrew recently went to a normal eye doctor checkup the other day and came home with a prescription for glasses. We have never had a clue that Andrew has any kind of eye problem. Thankfully, it's not serious; he simply has an astigmatism in one of his eyes. But when the eye doctor started trying different lenses on him, he immediately realized how much he's been missing out on! He came home telling us how wonderful it was to see in "hi-definition"!

So, here's my adorable little brother in his brand-new, not-geeky-looking glasses.

In other news, Noah came down with a little stomach virus today. Andrew had it the other day, but after a couple days went by, we were hoping everyone was out of the danger zone. Obviously not. So, just praying that Noah gets better soon and that no one else catches it!

I wanted to share quickly something neat that has been happening to me lately. For the past couple months, my daily Bible reading has been somewhat dry. I have found my mind wandering easily and have had difficulty paying attention to the words. Just in the last two or three weeks, though, God has laid an intense desire on my heart to be in Scripture. Instead of only picking my Bible up at the end of the day before I go to bed, I have been going to it four or five times throughout the day- in the morning, during breaks from school, every time I can grab fifteen or twenty minutes to sit down and read. This is totally something from God and I am extremely blessed every time I read.

Finally, I'll be making a brief detour from my cupcake posts soon to share with you my experience with Chocolate Chip Trifle. I am making it for our first Carrollton Baptist Church picnic this Sunday. We'll see how it turns out!

~Hannah Grace

Through the flames

There's an ancient legend about a bird called the phoenix. It is said that the phoenix could live for up to 1,000 years and would then ignite into flames. The first time I was in the middle of reading this story, I though it was terribly sad. But as it turned out, I simply didn't have the whole picture. You see, as I read on, I found that it was only through these flames, that hope- in the form of a beautiful, young phoenix- could be born.

Ten years ago today, our nation erupted into flames, in much the same way as that bird. The attacks that took place on September 11, 2001, represent one of the greatest tragedies that have ever taken place in the United States.

But where the terrorists would have had us tear apart, we came together. Where they would have had us lose all hope, we gained it in the face of terror. Yes, we were and still are devastated. Yes, months went by before my mom felt safe enough to even go to a mall. But, no, our nation was not destroyed by the horror of that day.

Because, at the end of the day, it's all in your perspective. God drew us all together in the aftermath of that calamity. While it would be impossible and downright wrong to make 9/11 into any less of a tragedy than it was, hope does arise from the ashes. And sometimes it is only through the flames that something beautiful can take form.

Hope from ashes

There's an ancient legend about a bird called the phoenix. It is said that the phoenix could live for up to 1,000 years and would then ignite into flames. The first time I was in the middle of reading this story, I though it was terribly sad. But as it turned out, I simply didn't have the whole picture. You see, as I read on, I found that it was only through these flames, that hope- in the form of a beautiful, young phoenix- could be born.

Ten years ago today, our nation erupted into flames, in much the same way as that bird. The attacks that took place on September 11, 2001, represent one of the greatest tragedies that have ever taken place in the United States.

But where the terrorists would have had us tear apart, we came together. Where they would have had us lose all hope, we gained it in the face of terror. Yes, we were and still are devastated. Yes, months went by before my mom felt safe enough to even go to a mall. But, no, our nation was not destroyed by the horror of that day.

Because, at the end of the day, it's all in your perspective. God drew us all together in the aftermath of that calamity. While it would be impossible and downright wrong to make 9/11 into any less of a tragedy than it was, hope does arise from the ashes. And sometimes it is only through the flames that something beautiful can take form.

Jelly Donut Cupcakes are so healthy! Or not...

Dad is out to sea again, Jordan is back at college, and Mom and the boys went to a Scouts meeting this evening, so I finally had a chance to make Jelly Donut Cupcakes!

Now, I feel it may be necessary to intervene here and mention that we are not all turning into round little balls of blubber from all of the cupcake-eating. One of my favorite things about trying these different recipes is that there's always plenty to share! So, the boys and I have enjoyed delivering cupcakes to several of our neighbors. Of course, we always taste them first, just to make sure they're okay ;-)

Anyway, back to Jelly Donut Cupcakes. Here is the finished product!

And the recipe:

1 cup sweet butter (2 sticks) *I just use normal, unsalted butter

1 cup superfine sugar

2 cups self-rising flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. vanilla extract

4 eggs

1/2 cup raspberry jelly or jam *We could only find preserves, and that worked out fine

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line or grease 18 muffin cups. Combine all ingredients except raspberry filling in electric mixer. Mix for 2-3 minutes. Fill muffin cups about 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden-brown. Remove from oven and cool for five minutes. Take the muffins out of cups and cool on wire racks.

Meanwhile, you have a couple of options.

Option #1: Make your own frosting. The recipe included this frosting recipe-

1 cup cream cheese

1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Slowly beat the cream cheese and confectioners' sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until creamy and soft. Add the lemon juice and vanilla, and beat briskly until well-combined.

Option #2: This is the path I took. Buy creamy vanilla frosting and read a book while the cupcakes cool.

When cool, slice the top off each cupcake, hollow out a small hole with a teaspoon and fill with the jelly. Replace the top. Spread the frosting onto cupcakes.

For a little extra color, I put a dab of raspberry filling on top of each cupcake. I also think it would have been really fun to put a nice, fresh raspberry on top of each one; whatever you want to try.

Enjoy these extra-sweet, extra-yummy donut cupcakes!

~Hannah Grace

A doozy of a storm

I very much intended to post about Hurricane Irene either while or directly after it had taken place. That obviously didn't happen. After nearly 24 hours of torrential rain and wind, Irene left our house, taking the electricity with her. Actually the electricity left about ten hours into the storm. We went without air-conditioning, lights, TV, phone, and computer for 51 hours. Thankfully, Mom was able to use her iPhone and the roads weren't bad so we were able to get out for some much-needed cooling off (after the actual storm was gone, the sun came out, and our house got quite hot without the usual AC!)

I was able to take some pictures. They didn't come out great, but will give you an idea of what the storm was like and what we spent our time doing during it.

Lots of rain...

Candlelight dinners :)

And more rain...

We actually played every.last.one. of these games.

There you have it! I took a few more pictures, but they are all pretty blurry.

On a more serious note, keep everyone still experiencing the after-effects of the storm in your prayers. There are still power-outages up and down the East Coast, irreparable damage to homes, and lives that were lost due to the storm.

Oh! And I haven't forgotten about the cupcakes. I promise. We're buying the ingredients today, but I may not be able to make them until next week. Jordan's coming home this weekend for her first visit (yay!) and plans to bake cookies to take back with her for friends, so I may not have access to the kitchen. For now, I leave you with this link: http://www.joyofbaking.com/VanillaCupcakes.html and encourage you to try a new cupcake recipe yourself this week!

~Hannah Grace

Battening down the hatches!

Hm. The state of Virginia is quite the magnet for natural disasters. In the past couple weeks we've had a swamp fire, an earthquake, and now Hurricane Irene is headed our way. It's only supposed to be a category 1 or 2 by the time it reaches us, but we've made plenty of preparations anyway.

First of all: we clipped all of our lovely roses off the rose bushes since the bushes will probably be destroyed in the storm.

Next: our patio furniture had to come in. Thought it looked kind of funny sitting in the middle of the kitchen/living room area.

Thirdly: apparently, garages in this neighborhood flood after just a couple inches of rain, so we brought in quite a few boxes of books and Christmas decorations. It feels as though we just moved in again!

Finally: we've been cooking up a storm (pun unintended). In case the power goes out and we can't cook, we want to have plenty of prepared food ready, including hard-boiled eggs, banana bread, and bread pudding. Bread pudding was a new venture for us, so I decided to post the picture and recipe from that in place of my normal cupcake post. (Don't worry though; I'll be back with Jelly Donut Cupcakes soon!)

The best part about bread pudding is that you can use ANY kind of bread- white, wheat, hot dog buns, whatever you have in the pantry. Here's the recipe I used. Oh, and it's good with either chocolate chips or raisins or both! We did half of each.

Whisk together:

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 1/2 cups milk

3 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 tablespoons margarine

Tear one loaf of bread into a greased 9x13 pan. Cover with pudding mixture and allow to settle for ten minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

Anyway, I should get back to buckling down for the hurricane.

~Hannah Grace

Birthdays, earthquakes, and cupcakes. OH MY!

A couple days ago, August 21st, we celebrated Andrew's tenth birthday.

As he is the baby of the family it was a pretty big deal to see him go

into double digits! Even though Dad and Jordan

were gone, I think we were able to make it a special day for him. We started by opening presents (at the crack of dawn I might add). He requested Softies donuts for breakfast, so that's what we ate. After we got home from church, he and his friends from the neighborhood played with some of his new toys; next, was a scavanger hunt in our house and then cupcakes. We ate his favorite for dinner- hot dogs with acini de pepi (a pasta/fruit salad).

We planned to go to a water park today for further celebration, but there ended up being an earthquake just a little while before we were going to leave. Yes, that's right: an EARTHQUAKE. It was really weird. Having lived on the East Coast all my life, I had never felt anything like it. 5.8 magnitude and all that. There haven't been any aftershocks though, and the quake itself was nearly six hours ago now. So, hopefully, we'll make it to the water park on another day soon.

Anyway, our baby boy is a big boy now. So, even though this is a little late, HAPPY TENTH BIRTHDAY, ANDREW!!!

Oh! almost forgot. I just had to share a picture of yet another cupcake venture. My mom actually made these simply from a cupcake mix, but I decorated them, so I think it's fair to count this in my cupcake-journal.

Get it? "10" cause he turned ten? Hehe. I obviously need to go get some sleep, so I'll sign out now.

~Hannah Grace

Cupcake Venture #2

I made another cupcake recipe today to take over to some neighbors and came out with a product that looked more like a muffin than a cupcake. Picture:

And recipe:

Applesauce & Cinnamon Cupcakes

1/2 cup sweet butter, softened

1/2 cup, plus 1 tbsp. superfine sugar

1 cup self-rising flour *

2 eggs

3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

3/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional; I left them out)

1/2 cup golden raisins (optional; I also left these out)

1 small red eating apple, thinly sliced

2 tbsp. granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan. Place the butter, sugar, flour, and eggs in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth and pale, about 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the applesauce, cinnamon, pecans, and raisins.

Spoon the batter into the cups. Lay the apple slices on top (*note: lay them very lightly on top. I pressed mine in a little with the first batch and they sank to the middle of the muffin while baking). Sprinkle with a little granulated sugar.

Bake for 25 minutes. Remove pan from oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then remove the cupcakes and cool on a rack. Serve warm.

Serve in an airtight container for up to 3 days, or freeze up to 3 months.

*Here's a quick and easy substitute recipe if you don't have any self-rising flour in your pantry. Simply add 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder and 1/2 tsp of salt to every 1 cup of all-purpose flour.

Holding down the fort

In an interesting turn of events, our van ended up going in for repairs the day before we were supposed to drive Jordan to college (Monday). So, Mom took Jordan and the boys and I are staying home alone. It's been pretty easy so far, although I have never stayed alone at night before. But one night is down, just one to go! I'm looking forward to having Mom back.

This has actually proved as a very nice distraction. Taking care of two younger brothers, a dog, a cat, and a parakeet is a full-time job, so I haven't had much time to sit around and be sad about Jordan leaving. I was able to chat with her last night on the computer which was nice. It's just strange to think she won't be coming home with Mom tomorrow.

I have had time to plenty of cooking and baking, which is fun. Yesterday morning for a treat for the boys I made beignets. It was my first time, but they turned out pretty well. The only tricky part was getting the oil to just the right temperature. For dinner I made taco salad. Easy and yummy. This morning I'm working on blueberry muffins and I'm not sure what we'll do for dinner yet.

All in all, it's been fun playing "mom", but I look forward to having MY mom back tomorrow afternoon :-)

~Hannah Grace

Disclaimer: this is not a healthy recipe...

One thing that almost anybody who knows anything about me is that I love both cooking and baking. Last Christmas my Grandma Trip gave me this huge cookbook of cupcake recipes. I am guilty to admit that my mom pointed out the other day that I had hardly even cracked the book open, no less ever tried one of the recipes. So, tonight I made my first in (hopefully) a series of ventures into the world of cupcake-baking. I am pleased to say that the cupcakes turned out rather marvelously. I started with just about the simplest recipe in the book: Chocolate Mud Cupcakes. Here is a picture:

The picture doesn't show it well, but there was this gorgeous fountain of chocolate "mud" right in the center of the cupcake.

And here is the recipe!

1 cup (7 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips

1 1/3 cups (2 1/2 sticks) sweet butter

5 eggs

2/3 cup superfine sugar*

3/4 cup self-rising flour

2 tbsp. Duth-process cocoa powder, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Place 12 paper baking cups in a muffin pan (I just used Baker's Spray)

In a double boiler, or a medium bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter together, stirring well. Leave to cool a little.

Beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl until pale and thick. Fold the flour into the egg mixture and then stir in the melted chocolate and butter until well blended.

Spoon the mixture into the cups and bake for 20 minutes. The cupcakes will be soft and gooey in texture and appearance. Remove pan from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then remove the cupcakes from pan. Serve swiftly, dusted with cocoa powder (*I would recommend a little scoop of vanilla ice cream)

Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

*Superfine sugar: I made my own by just throwing normal granulated sugar into our food processor and pulsing it for a couple of minutes.

Best sister ever.

Jordan came home from a shopping trip today with all the right ingredients for me to start working on an Illustrated Oratory. I have been wanting to do one of these speeches for the past three years, but haven't been able to get up the gumption necessary, as they require quite a few purchases and just a lot of hard work. I think this will put the right pressure on me to get to work! In 2008-2009, I helped Jordan out with her IO (then Expository) all about Starbucks. The year after, I helped Noah prepare his IO on the Rubik's Cube (although I never could solve the Cube :-). Anyway, I'm extremely excited to start working on my own speech.

Now I just need to figure out what to write about...

~Hannah Grace

9 1/2 hours of fun

After living only forty-five minutes from Busch Gardens for almost two months now, today my family finally spent a long, fun day there. We were blessed to be able to participate in the Here's to the Heros program which allow members of the military and four of their dependents or friends to enter the park for free, so we only ended up having to pay for my youngest brother.

The day included everything a good amusement park should: fun and thrilling rides, exciting music- some of it live- and, of course, cotton candy. Haha! We all had a blast.

It also felt somewhat symbolic. With Dad only just returning home yesterday from a week out to sea, and preparing to leave again tomorrow for the rest of the month, as well as Jordan packing up for college in just nine days, it was both lovely and sad to have one last fun family time together. Everything these days seems to go back to the fact that we are moving into a new and extremely foreign season of life.

Anyway, enough of the melodramatic musings! It really was an excellent day and I simply can't wait to go back. Now I need to go floss this cotton candy out of my teeth...

~Hannah Grace

Miss you already, Anna!

"Hannah, do you want to do a duo on The Phantom Tollbooth?"

"I don't know... Sure!"

And with these words, a friendship was started between myself and the lovely Anna Cantor. In 2009, Anna and I competed in NCFCA with a duo interpretive speech on The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. With many practices, performances, and lots of fun, we ended up becoming wonderful friends. Anna's family moved to Connecticut last year, so in July I boarded a train and visited for a fun-filled week. This summer it was Anna's turn to visit me, so this past Sunday she flew up and stayed with us up until this morning. We had five fun days together, visiting Williamsburg & Jamestown, exploring the Norfolk Zoo, shopping, hanging out at the beach, and spending time in an adorable tea shop in Smithfield. I think my favorite adventure was going to tea with Anna and Jordan.

It was sad to say goodbye this morning, but I'm sure I'll see Anna again soon. Hey, next summer it's my turn to visit!

~Hannah Grace

Reunion

About five years ago my family moved from North Carolina to Maryland, leaving behind one of the most wonderful churches we have ever attended. It wasn't a great church just because of the beautiful music or the excellent preaching. It was the church that it was because of the people and the fellowship they/we shared.

Over the past five years, we have kept up fairly well with some of our friends from that church, but last night we were able to have a really lovely reunion with two of our favorite families, the Selfs and the Brennans.

At the end of the evening, it was sad to say goodbye to everyone AGAIN, but I'm certain that we'll see Amy, Katy, John, Lizzie, Christine, Randy, Mike, Jessie, Steven, Trey, and little Josh again, along with the rest of our NC church family. Praise God for happy reunions! I look forward to the one that all brothers and sisters in Christ will share one day.

~Hannah Grace

A few more pictures...

It's the little things

I'm convinced that God is trying to teach me how important even the little things are to Him. It feels as if half the time I think God doesn't notice the things I do, and the other half of the time I believe the world and God's plans revolve completely around me.

It took watching a couple videos of Louie Giglio speaking during Chris Tomlin's How Great is our God tour, to show me exactly how small I am in God's spectrum. Here's a link to the first part of one of the videos on YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCIyBxPBJXw.

But on the other hand, even though God is enormous and has created an incredible, vast universe for us, it's important to remember that He does see each one of us and keeps an eye on every little thing happening to us. I was reminded of that this morning...

We decided that today would be a good day to go pick blueberries and blackberries at a farm out in VA Beach. It's a bit of a drive from our house, about an hour, so when we got out there and realized that this place is closed on Thursdays, we were more than a little disappointed. However, we had seen a sign for another farm a little way down the road, so we decided to check it out. We weren't thrilled with what we saw. All of the plants in view seemed like they were definitely "in retirement" and when we asked the person in charge what the deal was, he said that there were blackberries, but that they were not plentiful at all. We went to see the bushes anyway, hoping to gather a few. When we reached the blackberry portion of the farm, we found the bushes absolutely covered with plump, juicy berries.

God does care. Even about the little things. And if He cares that much about giving us small joys like blackberries to pick, how much more must He care about the big things in life?

We serve a great God. But in His greatness, He chooses to stoop to earth in order to give us pleasures, both big and small. So today I choose to thank God for the little things.

~Hannah Grace

27 Days

27 days. I feel like we're in the midst of a slightly morbid countdown as my sister, Jordan, prepares to leave for college. As the oldest child not only in our immediate family, but on both sides of my parents' families, it's a pretty big step to have Jordan getting ready to go.

Jordan and I have always done everything together. We learned to play the piano together around age six, our mom taught us to cook when we were 10, we took violin lessons together for three years, we took the plunge into speech and debate back in 2007, we've been shopping together probably hundreds of times, played with beanie babies when we were little...the list goes on and on. It feels incredibly strange to have her getting ready to go do something without me.

I know she's excited~ this makes me happy and sad at the same time. I truly want to her to have a wonderful time, to make lots of friends, and of course, to learn; but at the same time, I want her to remember all of the times we've spent together, I don't want our relationship to change.

Praying that God will give me the absolute strength and courage I need to get through the next month and the weeks after that, missing her and rejoicing in her success at college. For now, my prayer is that God will help me to enjoy every minute we have left together and not to spend it arguing over unimportant things.

~Hannah Grace