{b&w}

{woodland baubles; £25.00}

{via}

I'm always looking for new ways to use color, especially when it comes to Christmas. I'm not a fan of the typical red and green, which is impossible to avoid in some cases (NOT going to have a white Christmas tree). You can imagine my excitement when I got the latest catalog from Niki Jones and the featured colors were black and white! I'm thinking about doing some black and white with pops of color to add some variety. Would you use black and white to decorate for Christmas or are you too traditional for that?

Celebrating Eastertide in Moscow

Trinity is having an Easter banquet in May to encourage us to not constrain Easter to a single Sunday in April, but to celebrate it for an entire season, as we do Christmas. I think this is such a great idea! If we see the birth of Christ as so great and worth celebrating, how much more should we celebrate his conquering death?

A bit of everything

Last week was fantastic. Gregg was here all week, and it was so good to spend time with him. I can't wait for him to move out here in a few years! It is such a wonderful thing to grow up with someone, then be away for a time and realize at your reuniting that you have both become adults without realizing it. It's scary, but it's great.

I've really enjoyed my scripture reading for the past week. I decided to make just reading the New Testament my goal for now, then move on to the rest. I would typically start with Matthew and proceed book by book to Revelation, but I've found that I analyze and understand things better when I don't read all 4 gospels in a row. In light of that, I decided to read the first 8 books in this order: Matthew, Acts, Mark, Romans, Luke, 1 Corinthians, John, 2 Corinthians. I've read Matthew and Acts, and am halfway through Mark at the moment. I'm so glad I decided to do it this way, because the break between gospels helps hold my attention.

I remember not liking Acts when I was young. I'm not sure why, but it just wasn't my favorite. Having read it again, though, I absolutely love it. I would give so much to spend even a few moments listening to Paul speak in person. Re-reading the book was a fantastic reminder of what an amazing man Paul was, and how much he gave for the sake of the gospel. His devotion makes me feel like I'm doing nothing to further the kingdom, but then I remember that we each have our calling, and traveling all over Europe spreading the gospel isn't mine right now. Mine is to minister to my husband, my family, and my community, and let the gospel shine through the way I treat them.

I'm looking for a good Couples bible study to do with Bran and haven't come across any I'm in love with yet... if you have any ideas, let me know!

Bran and I were talking the other day, and neither of us can figure out where the time has gone since we got married. We can't believe that we will have been married a year in 2 months! The craziness of moving, renovating the house, living with siblings, working full time, etc., has made time fly. Something I really wanted to do in our first year was start lots of traditions, but the fast pace made that difficult. We did establish a few, though, like having Shrimp Bisque on Christmas Eve, having house dinner once a week, etc.

I decided that I want to make some traditions of my own, that are just for me. I started today, and decided that on March 1st of every year I'm going to buy potted plants for the house. I love plants, and haven't successfully kept one alive yet, but I'm determined. So on March 1st of every year I'm either going to add to my beautiful, flourishing collection of plants, or start over.

National Lampoon's Christmas at the Antkowiaks

Bran and I will be having Christmas by ourselves in Moscow, then we're flying to Maryland on the 28th to see our families. Because we're having our first Christmas with just the two of us, Mom and I have been talking about family traditions and how much fun it is to make your own.

Well, today we had something happen which makes me pray that we don't have a National Lampoon's Christmas.

It all started yesterday afternoon when Jen, Rachel and I came home from Bucers. We walked in the front door, and Tyler immediately says "Don't freak out. There is a squirrel in the fire place, but I've got it under control." So, being the adventurous girls that we are, we all went over to look at the squirrel. So Ty moved the magazine rack (he had put it in front of the fireplace to make sure the squirrel didn't get out - part of his "under control" scheme), and there was nothing there! Ty immediately assured the girls that the squirrel must have climbed back out the chimney (which isn't possible, I'm pretty sure). As soon as the girls were downstairs, he looked at me with a flash of fear in his eyes and said "It must be in the house. Oh crap." And then he went and got a plate with peanut butter on it and put it on the floor. I'm not sure what that was supposed to do.

The night went on, I went to work and came home, and no one had seen any signs of the squirrel, so, I thought, maybe it did somehow get out.

Then, this morning, we all left at 4am to take Ty, Kenny, and some other folks to the airport. When we got home, I was the first one to go inside, and as soon as I opened the door, I saw something shoot across the living room floor and behind the couch. "Good thing Ty had the squirrel under control" I thought. It was about 8:30 and Bran had to work at 9, so we spent the next half hour trying to corner it and force it out the front door, get it with the broom and throw it out the front door, etc., until it finally decided that it liked our artificial christmas tree and refused to be shaken from its branches. At this point Bran was really needing to be leaving for work, and I was tired from the early morning, so he got his BB gun and proceeded to shoot it several times without getting it out. This is amazing, since it was at point-blank range, and Bran is an amazing shot from super far away (as in, he was the best when we all went to the mountain in Oregon and shot clay pigeons with shotguns). So he decided it was time to bring out the big guns. I'm not sure what the other gun was, but he pumped it a lot, which made me concerned for our walls, and then shot the squirrel a bunch more until it fell out of the tree onto my cute silver tree skirt.

A little blood got on the skirt, so Bran threw it in the washer for me. He reassured me, saying "if it doesn't come out clean, we're still keeping it - this will make a great conversation starter."


The confrontation with the squirrel was much like this:
*caution - there's some language.