Wishing you a joyous New Year in 2011!

Click on the icon to view the e-card!

Celebrating 25 years of marriage!

25 years ago at 5 o'clock in the evening, God blessed my life with the most wonderful husband... A man of great character, unending patience, great faithfulness; who makes me laugh, who comforts me in sadness, who reminds me every day how "lucky" he is and makes me feel so beautiful! I love you, Blaine Harris and I would say, YES, all over again.

Rejoice, rejoice and again, I say, Rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say REJOICE! I am so thankful for God's love, grace and faithfulness in our lives. Without Him, we may not have been celebrating today. He is the glue that has held us together in the worst of times and the source of our great joy in the best of times! His love endures forever and we pray for His continual blessing upon our love for each other, as we allow it to flow in and through our lives.

And God willing, here's to 25 more adventure-filled years together...

12 Days of gluten-free Christmas cookies!

So excited that I found the 12 days of gluten-free Christmas cookies! I will continue adding each day's link to this post until all twelve recipes are posted here. I'm looking forward to trying these recipes in our kitchen. I know that Nicholas will love them and you will too!

Click on each day's picture for a link to the publishing blog for the recipe. These ladies are wonderfully talented in the kitchen and it's such a blessing to have them share with all of us!

Day 1: Simply Sugar & Gluten Free's Pistachio Cranberry Biscotti

Day 2: Adventures of a Gluten-Free Mom's Fudge

Day 3: Gluten Free Life with Jen's Chocolate Peppermint Wafer Cookie

Day 4: The Mommy Bowl's Peanut Butter Peck Cookies

Day 5: She Let Them Eat Cake's Gingerbread Cookies

Day 6: Cook It Allergy Free's GF Maple Spice Cookies

Day 7: Adventures of a Gluten-Free Mom's Cut Out Sugar Cookies

Day 8: Simple Sugar & Gluten-Free's Carob Dipped Pecan Shortbread Cookies

Day 9: Gluten Free Life with Jen's Chocolate Cherry Coconut Oat Cookies

Day 10: Cook It Allergy Free's Cinnamon Icebox Shortbread Cookies

Day 11: The Mommy Bowl's Chocolate Snowballs

Day 12: She Let Them Eat Cake's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

**5/18/2011 Can't remember if every recipe is dairy-free, but adapting should be easy...

A heart filled with thanksgiving!

Most of All

Thanksgiving Day brings to mind
the blessings in our lives
that usually go unnoticed:
a home that surrounds us
with comfort and protection;
delicious food, for pleasure
in both eating and sharing;
clothes to snuggle up in,
books and good entertainment
to expand our minds;
and freedom to worship our God.
Most of all we are thankful
for our family and friends,
those treasured people
who make our lives extra special.
You are part of that cherished group.
On Thanksgiving, (and every day)
we appreciate you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Painting progress - Sunday...

You can see the paint color compared to the primer. This makes me happy!

So weird, but I love him that way.

Doing a great job!

Coco is not happy that we are still painting.

Blue skies and sunshine seen through the skylight.

The worst section of the ceiling painting area. Of course, it got saved for last...

It's no wonder my neck hurts.
Getting this painted FIRST tomorrow...

Painting progress

I could not have done this without Blaine's help today...

Was great to see the immediate change in the paint color ~ even with the primer.

Yes, I normally paint in my bare feet (and I prefer gardening that way too)...

So much brighter and that's just the primer.
Praying for good coverage with the paint tomorrow ~ just 2 coats, please!

A funky picture of our skylight. Earlier today it looked like 'snow' as I looked up.

Painting project frustrations

There are some days when you wonder if you really should tackle that painting project on your "to do" list...

The very dark blue ceiling in our bedroom...
(made a brighter blue with the flash of the camera)

A more realistic view of the ceiling with the natural lighting.

Spent over an hour trying to tape a painting line ~ which then decided not to stick to the walls...

Trying again with blue tape plus the plastic to protect the walls from paint splatter

However, even the blue tape wouldn't stick to some areas of the wall...
I hope it's still up in the morning!

Light and Bright!

Progress is much slower in the kitchen "paint" makeover, but I'm finally to the last details... So much brighter. I didn't realize how dark the kitchen was. It's a really happy and peaceful place now!

The color is vanilla custard ~ a warm, light yellow which is not really reflected in the pictures...

Before

Before

Blaine and I have scrubbed everything and it looks so wonderful! However, it's so clean we don't want to make it messy right now... Looking forward to holiday baking and just spending time in the kitchen. Amazing what a change in paint color can do! Now, to paint our bedroom ceiling and then the laundry room. Hoping to be done in one week.

Painting the kitchen...

creates chaos for daily life! Hoping to have the kitchen painted and scrubbed down from ceiling to floor and returned to order in 2 days...

The Laundry room is overflowing with paint and supplies!

The kitchen table is home to all the small appliances and what-nots.

With the refrigerator and oven pulled out of their cubbies ~ our small kitchen feels even smaller...

It's like walking through a maze.

A nudge here and a little shove there and we still have a functioning kitchen.

Hot water pot and the coffee grinder are out temporarily to get the day started...

Such an inconvenience, but I am SO thankful for God's provision of this house and the ability to make it our home. He is so good!